The Growing Economic Power of the Middle Class in the 1700’s

 Classical Analysis

-The Growing Economic Power of the Middle Class in the 1700's- 

The Classical era drew the interests towards philosophy, rather than the church, aristocrats and the royalty. The always growing intellect and strong interest in science, played a great factor and this whole process was called the Enlightenment. This change helped artists and musicians to aim their creations on the middle-class people, which was in the past strictly reserved for the wealthy population.

In my following Analysis, I will concentrate on paintings from middle class artists for the middle-class population and/or about the middle-class people. Does that not sound awesome? Say middle class one more time and people think we are losing it. 

Back to the relevant topic and my carefully selected artists and some of their amazing creations:  

 

Louis Carrogis Carmontelle

 - The Mozart Family on Tour-

^{Around 1763, Louis Carrogis Carmontelle, created the painting "The Mozart family on tour". He was a French painter and used preferably watercolors as well as pencils for his drawings and created mostly Portraits, but also wrote and directed plays for the opera, and theater. I absolutely love Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and even visited his birthhouse in Salzburg, Austria, which is a big factor why I have chosen this art piece.}

^{Carmotelle grew up in the middle class, as well as Mozart's family. Opposed to the times before, the classical era gave people from the middle-class access to paintings and music and allowed them to execute the arts.}

^{I do like this drawing of the Mozart family, Wolfgang Amadeus, his father Leopold, and his sister Maria Anna Walburga Ignatia, however, it is a little bland for my taste.} 

^{There is not much in the background and the colors are very subtle. It is in the Rococo style, which}  

explains the pastel colors and the details on top of the beams in the upper right corner. This scene shows the Mozart family during a concert in Vienna, Austria and in this show, Wolfgang Amadeus plays the piano, his sister Maria Anna is singing, and the father Leopold plays the violin.  It is cool to see that Wolfgangs feet do not even touch the ground and yet, he is playing in concerts. Of course, we all know what talent he had, but it is awesome to see him in action at this age.

 

 ^{Angelica Kaufmann}

 - Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi, Pointing to her Children as Her Treasures. -

 

Angelica Kauffman painted this piece around 1785 in London and there could not be a better painting to explain the Enlightenment and life of the middle class during this era.

She painted it around 1785 in London and Kauffman was an exceptional person. She was a part of the anti-Rococo rebellion that helps create the Neoclassical style. Therefore, this painting is the best Showpiece for Neoclassical art. 

The lady in red on the right shows off her expensive trinkets, which she got from her husband and asked Cornelia, the mother right next to her, what treasures she possesses. The Mother points towards her children to show her what really matters. The treasures are her children and all she needs. No gold in the world is as important as Children to a mother, no matter what period. 

The colors are still very subtle and light, just like the art during the Rococo era but the details and shading seems to be more present. The clothes look very much roman style, with the tunics, the throws and leather sandals, which was one big factor in the Neoclassical style. 

 

The roman style grew immensely popular after the discovery of the ruins of Herculaneum in 1738 and Pompeii in 1748 and it seemed like people was obsessed with anything from the roman empire.

 

François Boucher

 ^{- Sleeping Shepherd -}

 

Now I take you back to the Rococo era with François Boucher, a French artist who seemed to like painting sleeping subjects. His art piece, the Sleeping Shepherd, shows, surprise, a sleeping shepherd. Clearly a middle to lower class boy and his sheepdog in the grass on a field. His head is resting on a rock, and he seems to have lost his hat. He is holding a recorder in one hand and a water vessel in the other and his dog is resting with him right next to his arm. 

The background is again quite simple and shows clouds and two trees. Not much of the landscape is shown but it rather concentrates on the subjects. Unfortunately, I have not figured out when it was created but I am estimating it to be between 1740 and 1750 and the location was most likely Paris.

Boucher also designed theater costumes and sets as well as tapestry designs but first, he was an exceptional and very valued artist during the Rococo times.

 

- The Interrupted Sleep -

 

 

I have added a second painting from Boucher, as an example of how much he loved painting someone asleep. The title of this one is "The interrupted sleep" in which a shepherd tickles the sleeping lady, to wake her up and literally interrupts her sleep. 

 This painting is a lot darker than the other one and it was painted in 1750. Even if the subject is simple, the composition on the other hand is complex and is organized around a series of intersecting diagonals. (metmuseum.org) 

 I really love Boucher's style and how his paintings were realistic and showed mostly the worker class, instead of the fancy noble population. This is a big reason, why he is a great example for the Growing Economic Power of the Middle Class, just like the other two artists listed.

 

 

All four of the paintings are beautiful but I would only purchase the Sleeping Shepherd by François Boucher and hang it in my living room, where guests can see it immediately. I think it is cute, realistic, and innocent. The painting of the Mozart family looks better in a museum than my house and the third one is a little too dark in colour for my taste. 

All four art pieces however have one thing in common. They all present subjects from the middle-class population, rather than the wealthy and show, how much this class grew in importance during this time. 

 

^{Once again, I hope you enjoyed reading my blog.} 

^{Thank you,} 

 

^Sylvia 

 

 

Baroque Analysis, Sebastiaen Vrancx

War Scene By Sebastiaen Vrancx

 

 

 

 

The 30 years’ war lasted from 1680 to 1648 which has been started by the Catholic church, as an attempt to renew the Catholic faith by using art as propaganda, to fight the Reformation. During these years, the struggle and horrendous times helped people create those most dramatic art pieces which resulted in the start a new art period, the Baroque.  

"The Thirty Years War turned into a power conflict between Empires when France entered it on the Protestant side. The solidifying of Protestant and Catholic areas created a divide in Artistic Styles." (aielliot Oct 29, 2017)

For my analysis I have chosen a painting from Sebastiaen Vrancx, a Flemish Baroque painter, who was mainly known for his battle scenes and portraits. The chosen art piece is simply called "war scene" and shows a large army train with camp followers at the very end. Most of the followers were women and children who took care of the solders, and from carrying their equipment, to taking care of food, their health and housing, they did it all.

Vrancx was from the Flemish region of Belgium and lived from 1573 to 1647 in the North of the country. The painting was most likely created in Antwerp, but it is unknown where and when exactly. He also created landscapes with mythological and allegorical scenes, scenes with robbers, village scenes and celebrations in cities. He was a gifted figure painter who was regularly invited to paint the staffage in compositions of fellow painters.

I like this painting, because of the simplicity to it and the beautiful colors. Some other Baroque paintings are a little too dramatic for me, but this one tells an important part of history and how things really have been handled, which I honestly did not know before researching this topic. I especially like how real it is and the part where the mom cleans the child's buttocks. I do know this struggle very well and it seems like this mother was way more prepared for this situation than I ever was.

Another scene shows a lady carrying lunch on her belt. It could be not fresher than that and I am sure that she just scooped it up from the side of the path. The overall atmosphere seems to be remarkably busy, and everyone is doing something and carrying items and it seems a little bit chaotic, compared to the solder formation in the front and the background of the picture.  

I would definitely purchase this piece of art and hang it up in our house without the fear of scaring the living daylights out of our children.

Another interesting part are the clouds with the rain in the background and the shading and detail is definitely typical for the Baroque era. The color choice and technique reminds of a Dutch Baroque painting.

 

 I hope you all like this as much as I do and please feel free to leave me comments. I am really interested in what everyone else is thinking about the painting. 

 

Thanks, 

Sylvia

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works cited:

    Dudink, Stefan, and Karen Hagemann. “War and Gender.” Oxford Handbooks Online, 19 Nov. 2020, www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199948710.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199948710-e-37.

    “How Was the Baroque Era Affected by the Thirty Years' War?: Socratic.” Socratic.org, 29 Oct. 2017, socratic.org/questions/how-was-the-baroque-era-affected-by-the-thirty-years-war.

    Korsten, Frans-Willem. A Dutch Republican Baroque, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1515/9789048532056

 

    Parker, Geoffrey. The Thirty Years War. Routledge, 2006.

 

    Ruby, Louisa Wood. “Sebastiaen Vrancx as Illustrator of Virgil's ‘Aeneid.’” Master Drawings, vol. 28, no. 1, 1990, pp. 54–73. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1553955. Accessed 22 June 2021.