The Eighteenth Century
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." (Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities). As Dickens noted, the eighteenth century was marked by paradoxes: frivolity and enlightenment, complacency and upheaval, formality and satire.
I. The 18th Century Monarchy in France
A. Louis XIV (r. 1643-1715): the absolute power of the Sun King (note portrait on p. 206) in Versailles
B. Louis XV (r. 1715-1774): back to Paris and the salon (see below)
C. Louis XVI (r. 1774-1793): revolution (see below)
II. The Philosophes
A. Rousseau and the Social Contract (recall Locke)
B. Diderot and the Encyclopedia
C. Deism
III. The Scientific Revolution (continued)
A. Isaac Newton
IV. The Industrial Revolution
A. The steam engine (1769, for mining), the mechanized loom (1787, for textiles); the blast furnace (for iron smelting)
B. The effects of industrialization
C. Factory owner as new absolute monarch
V. The Art of the Aristocracy: Rococo Style in France
A. The hotel and the salon
B. Painting (Watteau, Boucher, Fragonard, Vigee-Lebrun)
C. Southern Germany: Rococo Architecture (Neumann)
D. The Art of Dance and the French Court
VI. The Bourgeois Response
A. Painting (Greuze)
B. The Novel (Fielding, Richardson, Defoe, Austen)
VII. Neoclassical Style
A. Architecture (Gabriel, Jefferson)
B. Painting (David, Kauffmann, West, Copley)
C. Sculpture (Greenough, Houdon)
D. Music (Haydn, Mozart)
1. "Classical" style in music: then and now
VIII. Satire
A. Literature (Swift, Voltaire)
B. Painting (Hogarth, Gainsborough)
IX. Revolution
A. The Estates General
B. The National Assembly
C. The Reign of Terror
D. Napoleon
X. The English Garden: the transition into the "Romantic"
A. Naturally "picturesque," not artificially "sculpted"
B. Henry Hoare's Stourhead: the following links provide some images and details about this English garden
http://www.touruk.co.uk/houses/housewilts_stour.htm
http://www.land-arch.net/feature/feature.htm