EDWARD'S LECTURE NOTES:
More notes at http://tanguay.info/learntracker
C O U R S E
Sexing the Canvas: Art and Gender
Jeanette Hoorn, The University of Melbourne
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C O U R S E L E C T U R E Gainesborough and 18th Century Effeminism Notes taken on June 11, 2016 by Edward Tanguay |
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the culture of sensibility
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began a central part of Thomas Gainesborough's work
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the man of feeling
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embraced by inclined individuals in both the rural and urban spheres in Britain and elsewhere in Europe
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first came to prominence in that late 17th century as the sustenance economies of Europe began to be overtaken by a more robust, commercial economy that allowed for the development of a more orderly society in which a new set of social ideals were paramount
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in Britain, a campaign for the reformation of manners was overtaken by the state and by the church
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in 1689, the new king (William III, ruled 1689-1702) requested the arch bishop and bishop in London to read in churches the statues against immoral behavior such as blasphemy, swearing, perjury, drunkenness and profaning the Sabbath, all essentially vices.
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1692 the Society for the Reformation of Manners
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1702 Queen Anne issued a proclamation for the encouragement of the female virtues
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piety
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the prevention and punishment of profaneness
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immorality
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similar edicts
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1755 George II
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1787 George III
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may have encouraged the development of civic humanism, which encouraged
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public virtue
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liberty
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happiness
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over
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vice
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self-seeking
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corruption
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bring about literacy for all citizens
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those were were literate should teach literacy to those who were not
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cultivation of taste
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ability to view works of art
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the public galleries of the Royal Gallery
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the reformation of manners is linked to the Protestant ethic
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inculcating sobriety, hard work, and concern for those less fortunate
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abolition of cruelty to animals
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capitalism was having a change on society
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more and more people had the means to pursue pleasure, as a result of greater and broader financial stability
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changed manners for both men and women
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the traditional values of manhood bound up with classical and warrior ideals
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citizen soldier was replaced by businessman, the bureaucrat, and the professional
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the term effeminacy came to be used
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economic men were speculative
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the manliness characteristic of ransacking the globe, was in doubt
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"The Blue Boy" (1770), by Thomas Gainsborough
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John Locke and Third Earl of Shaftesbury talked about the new science of psycho perception
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in which the nervous system was recognized as the material basis of perception
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referred to sensation which were connected to the moral senses
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Saftesbury warned against immoderate love and overgreat tenderness
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excessive pity renders us incapable of giving great succor (assistance and support in times of hardship and distress)
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yet he allowed a plausible enthusiasm, a reasonable ecstasy and transport in relation to architecture, paintings and music
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the bond that unites men is more emotional than rational
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yet the new commercial prosperity made men lose their masculinity, and fall into an exaggerated effeminacy
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this was an area that worried the 18th century British citizen
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Carl Friedrich Abel (1723-1787)
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German composer, renowned player of the viola de gamba
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used as an example of a person who pursued and encouraged the cultivation of the senses, and also cultivated reason