Eighteenth Century Art

In some periods of art history we can locate an important geographical focus -- Athens in the 5th century BCE, for example, or Florence in the 15th century. In the early 20th century Paris was the most important Western art center and today New York City is an international art center.

The art of the eighteenth century, however, varied greatly according to nation of origin and decade. Art from England differed dramatically with that of France; art from the first half of the century differed dramatically from that of the last the last quarter century. France had an absolutist monarch with a firmly entrenched aristocracy, whereas England had established a constitutional monarchy with an increasingly prominent middle class. By the end of the century France would be embroiled in revolution, while changes in 18th- and early-19th-century England occurred more gradually and with less violence. Both France and England were extremely patriotic at this time, period, but their artwork expressed their patriotism differently.

Still, by the middle of the 18th century one "international" (that, is western European) style did emerge -- neoclassicism, a style that artists embraced all over Europe. We will focus here primarily on the works of the most famous practitioner of that style, Jacques-Louis David.

	The Palace of Versailles (actually late 17th century, but very influential in the 18th)
	Rococo Art
	English Painting and Graphic Arts
	Neo-Classical Art