The Young Martyr, a painting by French painter Paul Delaroche, is currently housed in the Musee de Louvre in Paris, France. It was finished in 1855 and was painted during the Romanticism era. Although it is not as famous as the Mona Lisa, it is still a beautifully done oil painting that continues to enchant museum visitors. After the French Revolution in 1789, everything about society in Europe was changing. The French Revolution began to abolish privileged, high class society as people rose up against the authority and monarchy in France. As a result of this political upheaval almost all of Europe was shaken by social changes, revolutions, and wars (“French Revolution”). Artists and artwork began to reflect this new sense of change and nationalism with a movement called Neoclassicism. Neoclassicism is characterized by strong drawing, rationality, and better moral ideology. Artists began to no longer show their brush strokes and paint more about nationalism and patriotism in society. There was also more of a movement to develop strong nations and create national museums, …show more content…
The young girl was supposedly thrown into the Tiber River when she did not deny her faith in front of the Romans. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a martyr as “a person who voluntarily suffers death as the penalty of witnessing to and refusing to renounce a religion” or someone “who sacrifices something of great value and especially life itself for the sake of principle”. Martyrs throughout history were idealized, they were invented lives, and were oftentimes considered a reward deserved in Heaven. It was also often thought that a child who dies as a martyr is a child of innocence and purity. Delaroche expresses this innocence, this purity by how simple the composition is, just as mourning is expressed by the darkness that has invaded the
The values and traditions that women were expected to hold changed extravagantly in the 700 years between the deaths of Lucretia and Perpetua. Through their respective documents, “Rape of Lucretia,” and “The Martyrdom of Saints Perpetua and Felicitas,” we can see the change of ideals in the form of expecting Roman women to do chores and stay at home, while the Roman/Christian women are expected to hold their faith and Christian values dear. Both of them are portrayed in different light, but in the end it is done to argue for a cause. Lucretia is portrayed as a humble individual who holds honor of the family higher than herself. Perpetua is demonstrated as a stubborn individual who won't turn her back on her faith, even for her family.
The new Enlightenment era had on impact on the arts and music and its style. The artwork during this time went from very soft pastel paintings of the rich who wasted their life away doing nothing, to contrast dark paintings of intellectual scenes that encouraged education to the people. The artists of the era started to focus on poverty and peasants yet still painted them with joy. They showed through their art that one did not have to be rich or have nice things to have a fulfilled happy life. There was also a change in the music of the time and its availability because it had to keep up with the changed time.
The Parisians: A Not So Glamorous Lifestyle The text The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan is set in the late 1800's in Paris, France. In the early 1800's, the arts were the heart of European culture and played a large part in defining the European culture in its years to come. With dance as one of the most popular forms of entertainment, it quickly shot to fame and was thoroughly enjoyed, especially in the Romantic Era.
During the 19th century, the church lost its power and its traditional theme and the rapid growth of urbanization and industrialization led to to the birth of “Isms”. Neoclassicism, a revival of Greek and Roman art; a direct reaction to the excessiveness of Baroque and Rococo styles. During the American and French Revolutions, the political atmosphere began to lean towards an Age of Reason and Enlightenment. With admiration for classical Roman and Greek art renewed after excavations of Herculaneum and Pompei, efforts for style to accompany philosophy caused an inevitable return to the "classics"(AML 68). Early works of artists such as Jean August Dominique Ingres and especially Jacques-Louis David encompassed the thematic elements associated with Neoclassicism.
Neoclassicism was a Western European movement that drew inspiration from the “classical” art and culture of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. The Neoclassical movement began in Rome in the middle of the 18th century, but its popularity quickly spread throughout Europe because of European art students desire and interest in the styles of Neoclassical Art. Evident in most of the works during this period, Neoclassical art put a lot of emphasis on clarity, balance, simplicity, and harmony of design. This was easy to see because many paintings during this time showed great character-size proportions, unlike distorted figures we saw during the art period known as Mannerism. Neoclassical art portrays aristocratic life, revealing a world of elegance, wealth, and pleasure.
These higher classes viewed the paintings as glorifying the working class. Having recently come from the French Revolution of 1848, the lower working classes used it as a reminder that the basis of France were built from the labor put in by them. The depicted gleaners made the upper classes feel uneasy. The numbers of people classified as working extremely outnumbered the members of the upper
The Martyrdom of St. Perpetua and Felicity, which is a story about Perpetua’s trial due to her beliefs in Christianity, was written in the year 203 by three different authors, Perpetua, Satururs, and an unknown narrator. Perpetua wrote her part of the story while she was in prison, perhaps to give others the strength to stand up for what they believe in. Perpetua lived in Carthage under the Roman Empire, where the paterfamilias meant everything. The paterfamilias is the father of the household; they have the ability to take away the life of their children which means they have complete control over them. However, in The Martyrdom of St. Perpetua and Felicity, Perpetua disobeys her father.
They started to be more daring in their artistic practices, and wanted to generate anti-war work statements. WW1 was a turning-point, and catalyzed the transformation of the visual arts. The period of late Romanticism, Symbolism and Expression came to an end. The Dada movement, 1st major anti-art movement, appeared, and artists revolted against the prevalent cultures and values, which they believed were the support of the socio-political status quo and the cause of the bloodshed of WWI. They undermined the traditional role of art, which they believe had contributed.