CLASS NOTES: Soldiers, Chivalry, and Men of Feeling (Sexing the Canvas: Art and Gender)

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Notes on video lecture:

Soldiers, Chivalry, and Men of Feeling

Sexing the Canvas: Art and Gender

Jeanette Hoorn, The University of Melbourne

Notes taken by Edward Tanguay on August 14, 2016 (go to class or lectures)

Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:

head, emaciated, viewer, peasantry, epitome, 18th, animal, cruelty, Hutcheson, sitters, brilliancy, emotional, risk, rural, sensibility, poverty, workers, beast, Descartes, father, trepanned, Ligonier, healed, Bath, living, elegance

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Gainsborough's portrait "Lieutenant General Edward "

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shows relationship between man and

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"it was possible to judge a Gainsborough's portrait as if it were a person"

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we have the sense when confronting one of his paintings that we are confronting someone personally

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e.g. going about their daily business on the streets of , where Gainsborough lived

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imparted the compassion of his subject, human and

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and their ability to express fine feelings

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Gainsborough remarked in a letter to one of his

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he was sorry that his sons had not found favor with the picture

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that they were hoping to see more in the eyes

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but Gainsborough said that instead of brilliancy, he aimed to convey in the eyes tenderness and humanity expressive of goodness

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relationship between animals and humans

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in dog's in particular

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reflects his own attitude to animals

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a highly sensitive individual and a non-conformist

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having been brought up in the low church

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influenced by the sermons that his read in their own church

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Gainsborough took up the church's drive against the to animals in a determined way

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painted in the late century

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Cartesian theory was asserting a strong influence

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was opposed to ' mechanistic views

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believe that animals were also intelligent, beings

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his views were democratic and anti-anthropocentric

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the 18th century gentleman was often represented with his hound

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often though of symbolic of aristocratic masculinity

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painting: Henry Scott, 3rd Duke of Buccleuch

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has both his arms around his loving hound

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the dog sits up straight staring at the

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a man of

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a lively and delicate feeling, a quick sense of the right and wrong in all human actions and other objects considered in every view of morality and taste

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the expression of sensibility

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John Locke, Francis , and Adam Smith

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in poetry, literature, and images

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regarded the moral regulation of society during a period of great change

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when industry, commerce, and the disruption of life threated to upset civil society

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the poor were naturally objects

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Gainsborough represented them in a compassionate way

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Cottage Door in San Marino

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18th century Britain

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had attained a level of and liberty to rival ancient times

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sensibility was a means to express one's moral sense in a cultural refinement

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a hallmark of a person with the natural world

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in Gainsborough's representation of St. George and the Duke of Buccleuch, there is an emotional relationship with their dogs as affectionate companions

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a kind of of refined sensibility

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painting: Richard St George Mansergh - St George

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1780

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playing with contrasts of portraying both a military man who is also a person of sensibility

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in the opening volleys in the battle of Germantown

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St. George was shot in the

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taken from the field, and , leaving him with a hole in the side of his skull

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the wound was covered with a disfiguring silver plate

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habitually covered by Saint George, with a black silk cap and it never

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"he now lives with a considerable part of his head shot away, and though feeble, , and in almost constant pain, his imagination and his virtues have lost nothing of their vigor"

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"his whole deportment, romance, his style of acting, seemed formed by the ideas of "

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was very concerned with the state of on his state

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appalled by the on his state

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published estate of affairs lamenting the state of Irish

Vocabulary:

low church, n. a term of distinction in the Church of England or other Anglican churches initially designed to be pejorative. Those who favored the theology, worship, and hierarchical structure of Anglicanism, such as the episcopate, as the true form of Christianity, began referring to that outlook and its related practices as the high church. In contrast, by the early 18th century, those theologians and politicians who sought more reform in the English church and a greater liberalization of church structure, were called low church. Low church, in an Anglican context, denotes the church's simplicity or Protestant emphasis, and high church denotes an emphasis on ritual or, later, Anglo-Catholicism. ⇒ "Having been brought up in the low church, and no doubt influenced by the sermons that his own father read sometimes in their own church, Gainsborough took up the church's drive against the cruelty to animals in a determined way."

trepanation, n. based on the Greek word "trypanon", literally "borer" or "auger", a surgical intervention in which a hole is drilled or scraped into the human skull. In the Middle Ages, holes were drilled into a person's head who was behaving in what was considered an abnormal way to let out what they believed were evil spirits. Later in the 18th and 19th centuries, trepanation was also a primitive emergency surgery after head wounds to remove shattered bits of bone from a fractured skull and clean out the blood that often pools under the skull after a blow to the head. ⇒ "In the opening volleys in the battle of Germantown, St. George was shot in the head and taken from the field where he was trepanned, leaving him with a hole in the side of his skull. The wound was later hidden with a disfiguring silver plate habitually covered by Saint George with a black silk cap and it never healed. He lived thereafter with a considerable part of his head shot away, and though feeble, emaciated, and in almost constant pain, his imagination and his virtues have nothing of their vigor."

Ideas and Concepts:

Subtlety in 18th century portraits via this morning's Sexing the Canvas class:

"It has been said that it is possible to judge a Gainsborough's portrait as if it were a living person. We have the sense when viewing one of the subjects in his portraits that we are confronting someone personally, as if they were going about their daily business on the streets of Bath, where Gainsborough lived for much of his life.

Gainsborough imparted the compassion of his subject, both human and animal, and their ability to express fine feelings. He once remarked in a letter to one of his sitters that he was sorry that his sons had not found favor with the portrait he had painted, that they were hoping to see more brilliancy in the eyes. But Gainsborough responded that instead of brilliancy, he rather aimed to convey in the eyes tenderness and humanity, expressive of goodness."

What it meant to be a man of sensibility in the 18th century, via tonight's Sexing the Canvas course: "a lively and delicate feeling, a quick sense of the right and wrong in all human actions and other objects considered in every view of morality and taste"