Antonio Canova, Cupid and Psyche, 1787 and 1793

HANDOUT Post-Revolutionary Repercussions: Body Politics and the Crisis of Masculinity Sept. 23 On the school of David, the male nude; androgyny as a c...
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HANDOUT Post-Revolutionary Repercussions: Body Politics and the Crisis of Masculinity Sept. 23 On the school of David, the male nude; androgyny as a cultural concept; nationalism and the body; a look across the border: body concepts in Germany; Marianne versus Germania: the Rhine crisis and French-German nationalist hatred. Readings: Honour, Hugh. Neo-Classicism, Style and Civilization. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968, 101-122.* Grimaldo Grisby, Darcy. “Nudity À La Grecque in 1799.” Art Bulletin 1998, no. June (1995): pp. 311-335.* Grewe, Cordula. “The Nationalized Body: Conceptions of the Body and the Nationalist Imaginary in Nineteenth-Century Germany.” Bulletin of the German Historical Institute 26, no. Spring (2000): 175-184.*

Antonio Canova, Cupid and Psyche, 1787 and 1793 •

not AMOR VINCIT OMNIA but CONSCIENTIA VINCIT ARMOREM

double function of Contour: art as memory work Crisis of History Painting: How to relate to past? POSITIVE: the vitalizing, exalting awareness of living in history NEGATIVE: the dreadful feeling of being devoid of history, of being cut off from a living connection with the past. 1



Michel Foucault, The Order of Things

The BODY •

NUDE versus NAKED

Three major aspects 1. Choice of historical moment? 2. Audience? Transcendence?

Question for History Painting at the end of the 18th century: •

Reportage versus heroic idealism



Universalist versus relativist models of culture

Modern secular hero, modern secular saint •

David, Marat, 1793 and The Death of Bara, 1793



Charlotte Corday

Androgyny •

death and desire 2



the German approach to the nude androgynous body: transcending corporeality

Artists: Flaxman Antonio Canova, Cupid and Psyche; Napoleon Asmus Jakob Carstens, Ajax and Tekmessa, 1789, and Priamos asking Achilles for the Corpse of his Dead Son, Hector, 1794 David Benjamin West, Death of General Wolfe, 1770 Anthony van Dyck, Lamentation, 1634 Rembrandt, Deposition, 1634 Lebrun, La Grainte Girodet, Sleep of Endymion, 1793 Pierre-Paul Prud’hon Franz Pforr, Xaverio, 1810-1811 Wilhelm von Schadow, Nude, 1817 Joseph Wintergerst, 1811

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THE FRENCH REVOLUTION: PHASES AND DATES Estates General (3 Orders: Clergy, 300 reps.; Nobility, 300 reps.; "Third Estate," 600 reps.)

May 5, 1789: After bad harvests and costly wars, King Louis XVI is forced to convene this ancient assembly in order to raise taxes. During the election process, voters traditionally draft petitions of grievance (cahiers de doléances) National Assembly, 1789-1791 (3rd Estate declares itself the "Assembly of the Nation," June 17, 1789)

June 29, 1789: Tennis Court Oath. Nat. Assembly resolves not to disband until it has written a constitution. July 14, 1789: Bastille stormed and taken by a Paris mob. July 19-Aug. 3, 1789: Great Fear. Peasants attack noble manors.

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Aug. 4, 1789: Nobles in National Assembly renounce feudal rights; Jacobin Club formed. Aug. 27, 1789: Assembly issues Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. Oct. 5-6, 1789: King Louis brought from Versailles to Tuileries palace in Paris. July 12, 1790: Assembly issues Civil Constitution of the Clergy, requiring elections of clergy, oaths of loyalty to the State, and state confiscation of church properties. June 20-21, 1791: King attempts to flee to Austria, but is caught at Varennes. Aug. 27, 1791: Austria and Prussia call for support of French King ("Declaration of Pillnitz") Sept. 1791: National Assembly issues Constitution; elections are held.

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Legislative Assembly, October 1791-August 1792 (Constitutional Government by elected officials)

Apr. 20, 1792: France declares war on Austria and Prussia. Aug. 10, 1792: Paris mob storms royal palace; Commune seizes Assembly; Legislative Assembly falls. Minister of Justice Danton purges thousands of presumed traitors. Sept. 20, 1792: French army stops Prussians and Austrians at Valmy (Belgium).

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National Convention, Sept. 1792-1795 (elected by universal male suffrage to rewrite constitution)

Sept. 21, 1792: Convention abolishes monarchy and declares France a republic. Oct. 1792: Revolutionary calendar introduced (Sept. 22, 1792 = day 1). Jan. 21, 1793: Convention condemns and executes the King. Feb. 1793: Convention declares war on 1st Coalition of Austria, Prussia, Britain, Holland and Spain. Feb. 1793: Counter-revolutionary revolt in the Vendee begins. March 1793: "Reign of Terror" by Committee of Public Safety (Robespierre) begins. Aug. 23, 1793: Levée en masse (mass mobilization = military draft) instituted. Oct. 16, 1793 Execution of Marie-Antoinette, Queen of France. 7

Fall 1793: price controls, dechristianization, administrative reform Apr. 4, 1794: Danton executed. June 26, 1794: French victory over Austrians at Fleurus (Belgium). July 28, 1794: "Thermidor:" Robespierre executed, end of terror. Feb. 21, 1795: Churches reopened. Aug. 22, 1795: New constitution is adopted, forming the Directory.

Directory, 1795-1799 (New constitution has 2 houses: Council of Ancients and Council of 500)

Oct. 5, 1795: Napoleon's "Whiff of Grapeshot" saves the Directory from a royalist mob. Sept. 4, 1797: Coup d'état removes royalists from Directory. Oct. 17, 1797: French defeat Austrians in northern Italy and make peace. 1798: French capture Switzerland, Rome and Naples; suffer bad defeat in Egypt (Aug. 1). 8

Spring 1799: 2nd Coalition of Austria, Russia, Turkey and Great Britain drive French Army back. Nov. 9, 1799: Napoleon's coup d'état abolishes Directory and establishes Consulate.

Consulate, 1799-1804 (Constitution of 1800 has executive of 3 consuls)

1801-2: Napoleon makes peace with Austria and Britain, Concordat with the pope. 1803: Renewed war with Britain. 1804: Napoleonic Code promulgated.

Empire, 1804-1815 (Napoleon crowns himself emperor)

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1805: 3rd Coalition (Austria, Britain and Russia) moves against France. 1805-09: French victories; "republics" set up throughout Europe, Spain resists. 1812: Napoleon suffers major defeat in Russia (40,000 of 611,000 survive). 1814: Austria, Britain, Prussia and Russia defeat France, Napoleon sent to Elba. Mar. 1815: Napoleon returns to France for "100 days." June 18, 1815: British and Prussians defeat Napoleon at Waterloo; Bourbon dynasty restored; Louis XVIII crowned king.

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