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Dictionary of Art
and Artists

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CHAPTER ONE
NEOCLASSICISM AND ROMANTICISM
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NEOCLASSICISM
PAINTING
SCULPTURE and
ARCHITECTURE-
Part 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10,
11,
12,
13,
14
THE ROMANTIC MOVEMENT
PAINTING
SCULPTURE and
ARCHITECTURE -
Part1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10,
11,
12,
13,
14,
15,
16,
17,
18,
19,
20
PHOTOGRAPHY
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THE ROMANTIC MOVEMENT
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ARCHITECTURE
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Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Baroque
GARNIER.
Meanwhile the stylistic alternatives were continually
increased for architects by other revivals. When, by mid-century, the
Renaissance, and then the Baroque, returned to favor, the revival
movement had come full circle: Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Baroque replaced
the Neoclassical. This final phase of Romantic architecture, which
dominated the years
1850-75 and lingered through
1900, is epitomized in the
Paris Opera (figs. 933, 934,
935),
designed by Charles Garnier
(1825-1898). The Opera was the culmination of
Baron Georges-Eugene Haussmann's plan to modernize Paris under Napoleon
III, for it is the focal point for a series of main avenues that
converge on it from all sides. Although the building was not completed
until after the fall of the Second Empire, the opulence of its
Beaux-Arts style typified the new Paris. The building is a masterpiece
of eclecticism. The fluid curves of the Grand Staircase, for example,
recall the Vestibule of the Laurentian Library (see fig.
655). The massing of the main
entrance is reminiscent of Lescot's Square Court of the Louvre (see fig.
735).
But the paired columns of the facade,
"quoted" from Perrault's East Front of the Louvre (see fig.
814), are combined with a smaller order, in a
fashion suggested by Michelangelo's Palazzo dei Conservatori (see fig.
659). The other entrance
consists of a temple front.
The totality consciously suggests a palace of the arts combined with
a temple of the arts. The theatrical effect projects the festive air of
a crowd gathering before the opening curtain. Its Neo-Baroque quality
derives more from the profusion of sculpture —including
Carpeaux's The Dance (see fig. 922)—
and ornament
than from its architectural vocabulary. The whole building looks
"overdressed," its luxurious vulgarity so naive as to be disarming. It
reflects the taste of the beneficiaries of the Industrial Revolution,
newly rich and powerful, who saw themselves as the heirs of the old
aristocracy. For a comparably extravagant display, we must turn to
Sansovino's Library of St. Mark's (fig.
701),
which celebrates the wealth of Venice. Small
wonder, then, that magnates found the styles predating the French
Revolution more appealing than Neoclassical or Neo-Gothic.
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933. CHARLES GARNIER.
Grand Staircase, the Opera, Paris. 1861-74
934. Plan of the
Opera
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935. The Opera
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Charles Garnier
Charles Garnier, (born Nov. 6, 1825, Paris—died Aug. 3,
1898, Paris), French architect of the Beaux-Arts style,
famed as the creator of the Paris Opera House. He was
admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts in 1842 and was awarded
the Grand Prix de Rome in 1848 to study in Italy.
He won the 1860 competition
for the new Paris Opera House. One of the most famous
buildings of the century, the Opéra (completed 1875) became
a symbol of Second Empire taste, and its eclectic
neo-Baroque style became characteristic of late 19th-century
Beaux-Arts design. Garnier’s command of the sweeping
interiors was equalled by his mastery of balance,
punctuation, and termination of mass and surface.
Garnier also influenced the
style of resort architecture for the wealthy with his small
theatre for the casino of Monte-Carlo (1878), the casino and
baths at Vittel, and the villas he built in Bordighera,
notably his own (1872–73). Among his other works were the
observatory at Nice, an apartment house, and the Hôtel du
Cercle de la Librairie in Paris.
For the Paris Exposition of
1889 he conceived the Exposition des Habitations Humaines,
which became the subject of his book L’Habitation humaine
(with A. Ammann, 1892). He also published, in 1871, Le
Théâtre and, in 1876–81, Le Nouvel Opéra de Paris, a
monumental description and defense of his work.
Encyclopædia
Britannica
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DECORATIVE ARTS
THE EMPIRE STYLE.
The decorative arts followed much the same course
as architecture during the Romantic era, but they were, if anything,
more eclectic still. The revival sparked by the discoveries at Pompeii
and Herculaneum reached its climax during
the early nineteenth century with the Empire style, that late form of
Neoclassicism which spread throughout Europe in the wake of Napoleon's
conquests. As the term suggests, the style drew heavily on Roman art,
which associated Napoleon with the Caesars by borrowing imperial
attributes. Initially Roman prototypes had been copied more or less
faithfully, but such imitations are among the least interesting products
of Neoclassicism. Far more significant are the free adaptations of these
sources to glorify the Bonapartes. These often incorporate Egyptian
motifs to commemorate Napoleon's invasion in 1798
which opened
up the Middle East.
PERCIER AND FONTAINE.
We have already caught a glimpse of the Empire
style in the bed of Canova's Pauline Borghese as Venus (fig.
917).
We see it at its fullest in the Chateau de Malmaison,
Napoleon's private residence near Paris, which was remodeled after
1798 by the architects
Charles Percier (1764-1838)
and Pierre-Francois Fontaine
(1762-1853). They were also entrusted with its
furnishings, and their book on interior decoration, printed in
1812, set the standard for the
Empire style. The bedroom of Napoleon's wife, Josephine, reveals her
taste for the ostentatious, which was so characteristic of the Empire
style as a whole (fig. 936).
Thus its lavish splendor tells us a great deal about the
First Empire and its ambitions. The decor here serves the same propagandistic
purpose as at Versailles (see fig. 817),
for this is a state bedroom. (She usually slept in an
ordinary one nearby.) Although ordered previously, the remarkable bed—made
by Francois-Honore Jacob-Desmalter (1770-1841),
the preeminent furniture manufacturer under
Napoleon, after a design by Percier and Fontaine—became
the centerpiece of a total redecoration in 1810
that continues to proclaim Josephine as empress
after their marriage was annulled earlier that year. It incorporates swans and cornucopias, standard Napoleonic devices, with
a traditional canopy that evokes a military tent surmounted by an
imperial eagle. Nearby is a tripod wash-stand, with basin and jug, based
on Pompeiian examples. Like everything else about the bedroom, it
adheres to archaeological fact in details. Yet nothing in antiquity
looked like this, and the effect is surprisingly close to the style of
Louis XVI on the eve of the French Revolution.

936. ERANCOIS-HONORE JACOB-DESMALTER
(after a design by CHARLES PERCIER and PIERRE-FRANCOIS FONTAINE).
Bedroom of Empress Josephine Bonaparte,
ñ. 1810.
Chateau de Malmaison, Rueil-Malmaison
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION.
The rise of the Industrial Revolution led
to the debasement of the decorative arts as everything from porcelain
and silverware to drapery and furniture became mass-produced to meet the
needs of the rapidly expanding middle class. Despite attempts to
preserve the craftsmanship of the past, the machine won out after the
Revolution of 1848. This
was accompanied by a corresponding decline in the standards of design,
which catered to the largest possible clientele. During the Restoration
and Second Empire, the decorative arts were intended to evoke the
earlier glory of France through indiscriminate imitation. There were
even revivals of revival styles! By 1840
furnishings began to disappear in a welter of eclectic
bric-a-brac that provided an opulent setting for the new captains of
industry. In consequence, only rarely did the decorative arts manage to
rise above the pedestrian. Among the few exceptions are the enormous
torcheres for the Grand Staircase of the Paris Opera (see fig.
933) by the gifted
sculptor Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse
(1824-1887). In the end, however, the only thing
that could reverse the trend was another revolution in the decorative
arts: the Arts and Crafts Movement.
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