1. Age of Enlightenment 1
Running head: Age of Enlightenment
Figure 1: Artist: Alaric. S, God vs. Science, Retrieved November 2, 2008 from http://science.qj.net/God-vs-Einstein-
The-War-Between-Religion-and-Science/pg/49/aid/65202
Age of Enlightenment, and the Advancement of Art
Phase #4, Assignment #8, Individual Project #4
Author: TSgt Loren Karl-Robinson Schwappach
Prepared for: Colorado Technical University
HUM140-0804A-08 Art Appreciation
Prepared for Professor: Tammy Starzyk
Completed on: 4 November, 2008

2. Age of Enlightenment 2
Abstract
Throughout mans history there have been monumental breakthroughs in thought that
have radically accelerated and/or decelerated mans movement into the modern world. The dark
ages were a repressive time for humanity and with its eventual demise the Age of Enlightenment
was breathed into existence, spurring revolutionary ideas, fueled by discoveries in science and
boosted by free thinking philosophers. The Age of Enlightenment brought many amazing
changes to our world; among these was the idea that man could achieve anything through reason.
This paper will give a brief history of the Age of Enlightenment. It will introduce a few of the
great figures that defined the era. It will discuss the changes that ensued in the development and
interpretation of art in the era, and it will illustrate the controversial ideologies that forever
changed how man viewed himself within the world.

3. Age of Enlightenment 3
The Age of Enlightenment also known by historians as the Age of Reason is a term used
to describe the movements in art, science, philosophy, and literature throughout Europe and the
America’s during the 18th century. Philosophers, writers, and artisans of the age believed they
were emerging from centuries of darkness into an enlightened era of reasoning. The ultimate end
of this period was an improved understanding of the natural world and humankind’s place with
in it, based wholly on human reasoning and without the hindrance of religious beliefs. This
enlightened age was made possible through the efforts of philosophers like Thomas Hobbes,
Immanuel Kant and John Locke as well as breakthroughs in science and reasoning by Nicolaus
Copernicus, Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton. (Age of Enlightenment, n.d.)
With Isaac Newton’s discovery of the cosmic law of universal gravitation, enlightened
thinkers believed the power of human reasoning could unlock all of the secrets, the mechanics of
the universe, and eventually the mysteries of God and human existence. Enlightened thinkers
placed great faith in the discovery of truth through the observation of nature, rather than through
the study of accepted authorities such as the Bible and works of ancient philosophers. These
revolutionary ideas were in contradiction to the influential medieval theologies which held that
true knowledge could only be obtained through faith and direct obedience to God. (Age of
Enlightenment, n.d.)
Following the philosophy of John Locke, enlightened writers believed that knowledge
was not inherent or divine, but came from sense experience and observation controlled by sound
reasoning. The free thinking enlightened saw the church as a force which had enslaved human
thought through fear and oppression. While most enlightened thinkers and artisans did not
renounce their faith, nothing was attacked with more ferocity than the aristocratic church. The
enlightenment was the battleground where the conflict between religion and free thought was

4. Age of Enlightenment 4
settled through the art of human reasoning. The German philosopher Immanuel Kant said it best
and set the motto for this enlightened era when he said, “Dare to know.” (Age of Enlightenment,
n.d.)
Main figures of the enlightenment included Descartes, Pascal, Bayle, Montesquieu,
Voltaire, Diderot and Rousseau. According to Voltaire the growing allure to enlightened
thinking followed seven precepts, the autonomy of reason, perfectibility and progress, the
confidence in the ability to discover causality, governing principles, assault on authority,
cosmopolitan solidarity, and disgust with nationalism. These radical ideologies spread
throughout Europe and the Americas and is exemplified thought literature of the time. The
American Declaration of Independence is but one great example. (Rempel G., n.d.)
Of Voltaire's precepts, specifically the disgust with nationalism and the assault on
authority, Voltaire identifies a growing hatred for large governmental and religious systems
among the populace. This hatred of nationalism was partially set because the 1750s introduced a
large reading public into societies. These educated publics learned to question the power of
authorities while leaning towards personal reasoning and experience. (Rempel G., n.d.)
The diversity of artistic works created during this period do not easily fit into strict
classifications, yet art historians have drawn a few broad categorizations of styles of the period.
At the opening of the 1800 century baroque styles of art was still popular. Baroque art used
exaggerated motions and intense details in repeating patterns to communicate religious themes in
direct and emotional involvements. The baroque style was highly sought and controlled by the
church, and as such was supplanted by rococo and eventually neoclassicism as a direct result of
the enlightenment. Rococo style, paintings were very controversial at the time and emphasized
an airy grace with refined pleasures, using warm pastel colors, elegant ornamentation, and shell

5. Age of Enlightenment 5
like curves. Rococo paintings crossed the boundaries of Baroque style in emphasizing the
relying belief in personal and pleasurable experience and reasoning against the time held systems
of church and government. Some rococo style paintings illustrated delicate jewelries, artful
dances, and beautiful women often painted in the nude. This change of pace in art was a direct
reflection to the change in culture brought on by the enlightenments renewed philosophy of
thought. (The Enlightenment, n.d.)
The age of enlightenment was deeply accelerated by the citizenries' new found interests
in reason, empiricism (the philosophical theory that knowledge arises from experience, a
theology often utilized in rococo style paintings) and the classics (the art of ancient Greece and
Rome, spurring neoclassicism) . Since the job of an artist was to create vivid imitations of
nature, reason and empiricism dictated that this process should be refined through an intellectual
grasp of the processes used in producing the classics. The works of the ancients were seen as
examples of the most beautiful elements in nature. (The Enlightenment, n.d.)
In response to the age of reason and a new found interest in the classics, neoclassical art
appeared in France in the late 1780s. Neoclassicism was a stiff, harsh, unemotional alternative in
contrast to the serene, happy, warm, and delicious rococo style and quickly replaced the rococo
style in popularity throughout Europe. Neoclassical art gave credit to the grandeur of ancient
Greece and Roman artwork through the process of classical composition. The neoclassical artist
used sharp colors, logical patterns, and strict moral themes to capture the observers’
imaginations. Neoclassicism attempted to not only borrow from the antique, but also an
emulation of order, unity, proportion and harmony. (Hackett L.,1992)
Neoclassicism used a classical composition emphasizing a clear focus on a central hero,
martyr or saint. The Holy Family in Egypt by Nicolas Poussin (see figure 2, below)

6. Age of Enlightenment 6
demonstrates classical composition with balance, symmetry, broad, unified light effects and a
prominent, hierarchical positioning of the main figures. (The Enlightenment, n.d.)
Figure 2: Artist: Nicolas Poussin, Holy Family in Egypt. Retrieved November 4, 2008 from
http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/fcgi-bin/db2www/descrPage.mac
As the age of enlightenment progressed, the dangers of using a formulaic approach to art
were increasingly recognized as a more naturalistic art gained popularity. In the 1760s the art
critic Diderot insisted artists pay greater attention to nature, as natural reasoning was the
influential force that had brought the era of enlightenment. Academies of art held large classes
on human proportions using nude males in their studies. This built up the idea of empiricism, or
knowledge gained through experience and brought a new flavor to neoclassicism.
The academies of art framed their subjects in fixed complex positions using an
arrangement of ropes, pulleys and blocks as illustrated by Michel-Ange Houasse's a Drawing

7. Age of Enlightenment 7
Academy (see figure 3, in black and white below). Houasse draws upon the Neoclassical
approach of focusing on a central subject using lighting and a fundamental grasp of anatomy and
proportions. (The Enlightenment, n.d.)
Figure 3: Artist: Michel-Ange Houasse, a Drawing Academy. Retrieved November 4 2008 from
http://www.mimsstudios.com/formerstudents.htm
As artists quested for a more naturalistic style, a new growing appreciation for landscape
art sought to capture the beauty in everyday life, and required more direct observations of the
artists. In landscape art, there was a growing inclination to place greater emphasis on directly
observed sketches of the landscape, allowing for imitation of a greater variety of natural effects.
(The Enlightenment, n.d.)
Enlightenment artists required greater naturalism or realism in art, in both style and
subject. The quest for greater naturalism and reason was seen in France as an antidote to the
redundant, superfluous rococo style. The second half of the enlightenment produced a greater

8. Age of Enlightenment 8
respect for nature and was seen as a moral solution to the corruption of the rococo's aristocratic
patrons. (The Enlightenment, n.d.)
The Triumph of Venus, by François Boucher (see figure 4 below) exemplifies the rococo
styles erotic, sinful pleasures and light hearted tones. While this style has many appealing
factors, like its delicate curves, pastel colors, beautiful women and playful cupids, it became an
abomination to the free thinking moralist culture produced during the later age of enlightenment.
(The Enlightenment, n.d.)
Figure 4: Artist: Francois Boucher: The Triumph of Venus. Retrieved November 4, 2008 from
http://www.reprodart.com/a/boucher-francois/the-triumph-of-venus.html
Enlightened thinkers viewed good art as a process and product of reasoning through the
use of experience, and well established rules derived from the classics. Voltaire drew on this

9. Age of Enlightenment 9
evolutionary outlook towards reason when he stated "I value poetry only insofar as it is the
ornament of reason" (The Enlightenment, n.d.)
Arts of the enlightenment believed there were many beauties in art that seemed to lie
outside the reach of instruction, and yet could easily be reduced using practical principles of
reasoning. Hume, a philosopher of the enlightenment wrote that the imagination of man is
inspired and delighted with whatever is remote and extraordinary, and is running without control
into the most distant parts of space and time in order to avoid the objects which custom has
rendered too familiar to it. In other words man will always seem the extraordinary over the
ordinary. This concept was a minor contradiction to the enlightened thought that the power of
human reasoning could unlock all of the secrets of the universe, for if man can't take logical
control of his reasoning process chaos ensues. Although, says volumes about mankind's ability
to fathom through the unknown. (The Enlightenment, n.d.)
In summary the enlightenment brought great new ideas centered on reason, modernism,
classicism and control. The enlightenment was a spectacular response to the dark oppressive
medieval culture that had imprisoned man through the use of authoritative control. It challenged
humanity to pursue a deeper awareness of the universes natural laws through a deep process of
human reasoning. In painting the age of enlightenment dethroned the baroque style sought by
the aristocratic clergy, and freed the artists to use the seductive and flavorful rococo style, sought
by the free thinking rich, and eventually lead to the refinement and return to a more structured,
moralistic, purpose driven neoclassic style, sought by the educated enlightened. Can mankind
unlock all of the laws an mysteries of the universe through pure human reasoning as illustrated
by Alaric's image of God vs. Science (see title page, figure 1) or will some mysteries of
mankind's origin and future forever be veiled by the divine? I faithfully prefer the later.

10. Age of Enlightenment 10
References
Age of Enlightenment (n.d.). In Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved
November 4, 2008, from http://encarta.msn.com
Rempel G. (n.d.). The Age of the Enlightenment. Retrieved November 2, 2008, from
http://mars.wnec.edu/~grempel/courses/wc2/lectures/enlightenment.html
Stokstad, M. (2007). Art: a brief history (3rd ed.).
Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.
The Enlightenment (n.d.). Retrieved November 2, 2008 from
http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=169873
The Enlightenment (2003), Retrieved November 3, 2008 from
http://www.teacheroz.com/Enlightenment.htm
Lewis, Hackett. (1992). The Age of Enlightenment. Retrieved November 4, 2008, from
http://history-world.org/age_of_enlightenment.htm