The Social History of Art Ammold Haaser, with n itsodution by Jonathan Hartis ‘Volume I~ From Prehistoric Times tothe Middle Ages Volume Il — Renaissance, Mannerism, Bagogue Volume 11 - Rococo, Classicism and Romanticism Volume IV ~ Naturalism, Impressionism, The Film Age THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF ART VOLUME III Rococo, Classicism and Romanticism Arnold Hauser with an introduction by Jonathan Harris R London and New YorkFis pub ao volumes 951 Rowe & Kepan Pape 1 New Fate are, Loon ECAP AEE Tnodctone © 1999 Rowe ‘Tran in olbraton wt the athor by Sky Godman Printed an bos in Gres rin by Allies rsd. Nop ofthis tok ma be pit or "sa or ie nn fom oy con ‘techno ther mean now town or eer oven nding photocopying aod orig or any ‘arma trae reel sc hou emo a ‘ting om he puch rsh Lar Cave Paton Dt _Acatapu condo sok sa fn te Bt Lary ry of Cm Cato Potion Da 0-4 1985-X 0.0) ISBNO-S 19a 4 ol) TSBNO-IS 21386 Niet CONTENTS Lis of illustrations ix General introduetion xi Introduction to volume 11 soi ‘The dissolution of courtly art 1 The end ofthe age of Louis XIV 3 The Rigence 5 The mew weath ofthe bourgeoisie 9 The Voltarian ideal of culture 10 Warteau 13 Pastoral poetry 15 The pastoral in painting 20 ‘The heroic novel and the love novel 23 The psychological novel 25 The triumph ofthe lore motif in lteratre 26 Marisans 27 The concept ofthe rococo 28 Boucher 32 Greuze and Chardin 33 “The new reading public au ‘The English monarchy and the liberal strata of society 34 Parliament 36 ‘The new periodicals and the middle-class reading public 40 Literature nthe service of polities 43 Defoe and Swift 44 ‘The changes inthe condition of Berary life 4S3 ‘The revival and end of patronage 46 Subscription and publishing 48 Pre-romanticisn 50 The Industrial Revolution 52 The new etic of labour $5 The ideology of freedom 55 Individualism 56 Exnotionalisn 57 Moralim 58 The return to nature 60 Richardson 62 Rousseau 68 The stylistic consequence of pubic concerts 76 “The origins of domestic drama n The drama the service of the class struggle 78 The social character ofthe dramatic hero 80 The signfcance ofthe milew bs the domestic drama 82 The problem of tragic guilt 85 Freedom and necessity 88 The tragic and the non-tragie attitude to life 89 Germany and the enlightenment 2 The political immaturity ofthe German bourgeoisie 94 German parielarism 98 The estrangement of the German intligntsia from public ie 98 The metropolis and the free Iterary hfe 102 The aesthetcizing ofthe philosophical worldview 108 The new concept of genius 110 The vtalis’ ofthe ‘Storm and Stress’ 113, Rationalion 114 Herder 115 Goethe and the bowgeosie 117 The idea of world erature 121 conreNts Revolution and art mm Naturals, classciom and the Bowgeosie 123 Baroque classicism 127 Rococo classicism 130 Archaeological lasicism 131 Revolutionary classicism 134 David 136 The art programme of the Revolution 138 ‘The renewal ofthe ceremonial andthe historical picture 140 Artand political propaganda 141 ‘The preparation of romanticism bythe Revolution 143 Napoleon and ar 145 The consoldation of he owsgeoisie as am art public 148 Ar exhibition and the Academy 149 The reform of ert education 151 ‘German and western romanticism 153 The connection of romantilam with Hberalsm amd reaction 153 Historcism 187 The ‘emanatistc philosophy of history 159 Historical matrialion 161 The light fom the present 163 ‘Romantic roms” 168 Romanticin as a middle-class movement 166 The ambivalent relationship ofthe romanties tart 168 The idea ofthe ‘second self” 169 Romanticin asa ‘disease’ 170 The dissolution of form 171 The ‘oceasionaism’ of romanticism 172 ‘The romanticism in Western Europe 173 The Restoration in France 174 The literature ofthe émigrés 177 The romantie cotres 178 The origin ofthe bohime 181 “eane France’ 183 Victor Hugo and Béranger 188conTENTS The sree forthe theatre 187 The poplar ter of the evoaionary epoch 186 Themelodrama 19 pre aa ee ILLUSTRATIONS Enalshromaicom 195 The Byron hero 199 Walter Scott and the ne reading pbc 203 Romantic and natura 206, Delarois and Conse 207 The dislion of cls frm in mie 210 \Werreau: Bmbarkation for Cythera. Paris, Louvre Plate L Notes ais BovcieK: Nude on a Sofa. Munich, Alte Pinakothek Index 2 Photo National Gallery Lt owcttn: The Breakfast. Paris, Louvre. Photo Arch Photogr d Art etd Hist CCuanprs: La Pourvoreuse. Paris, Louvre. Photo Arch Photogr d'Art et J Hist, Gus: The Punished Son. Paris, Louvre. Photo Arch Photogr d'Art et dHist Davi: The Oath ofthe Hora Pais, Louvre. Photo Bulloe wi Coxstante: Study for ‘The Hay Wain’: London, Vitoria ‘and Albert Museum. Photo Vit. and All. Mus Deracnonx: Liberty Leading the People. Pati, Louvre Photo Bulloz| vi Duacnonn: The Death of Sardanapa. Paris, Louvre Photo Arch. Photogr.d'Artet d'His. Count: Phe Stonebreakers Dresden, Gemaeldegalere. Photo Arch. Photog. d'Artet His. vii Dauner: Washerwomian Pats, Louvre Photo Arch Photogt d'Art et Hist, TiiinboRr ROUSSEAL: The Oak Trees. Pars, Louvre Photo The Arts Council of Great Britain vin TrovoN: Oven Going 10 Work. Pris, Louvre. Photo Arch. Photogr.d'Artet d'Hist, aut Bavny: Allegory. Pari, Musée de Luxembourg. Photo Arch, Photoge. d'Art ot d'Hist. vot D.G. Rosser: The Day-Drean. London, Victoria and Albert Museum 2GENERAL INTRODUCTION Jonathan Harris Contexts of reception Arnold Hauser’ The Social Mistory of Ar ist appeared in 195 published in two volumes by Routledge and Keyan Paul. The texts ‘over 50,000 words in length and presents an account ofthe deve ‘opment and meaning of art from is origins inthe Stone Age to the ‘rm Age’ of Hauser’ own time. Since ils publication, Hauser’ history has been reprinted often, testament to its continuing popu larity around the world over nearly a halleentury. From the early 960s the study has been reprinted six times ina four-volume series, ‘most recently in 1995. Inthe period since the Second World War the chscipine of at history has grown and diversified remarkably, both in terms ofthe definition and extent ofits chosen abjets of study, “nd its range of operitive theories and methods of description, analyses and evaluation, Hauser’ account, fom one reading clear in its afilation to Marxist principles of historical and social under standing ~ the centrality of elass and class strug, the social and cultural role of ideologies and the determining influence of modes ‘of economic production on art ~ appeared at a moment when aca demic art history was stl, in Britain at least an élite and narrow concer, limited to. handful of university departments. Though Hauser’ intellectual background was thoroughly soaked in mid European socio-cultural scholarship ofa high order, only relatively ‘small portion of which was associated direlly with Marist of neo. Marxist perspectives, The Sacial History of Art arrived with the Cold ‘War and its reputation quickly and inevitably, sufered within the seneral backlash against political and intellectual Marxism which persisted within mainstream British and American society and ‘ulture until atleast the 1960s and the birth of the so-called New Left. At this juncture its rst moment of reception”, Hauser study,GENERAL INTRODUCTION ‘actually highly conventional in its definition and selection of ate facts deemed worthy of consideration, was liable 10 be attacked and even vilifed because of is declared theoretical and political By the mid-1980s, a later version of Marxism, disseminated pri ‘marly through the development of academic media and cultural Studies programmes, often interwoven with Feminist, structralist, and psychoanalytic themes and perspectives, had gained (and regained) an intellectual respectability in rough and iron propor: tion to the loss o its political significance in western Europe and the USA since the 1930s, Hauser study was Hable to be seen in this second moment of reception as an interesting, if, on the whole, crude, antecedent within the development of a disciplinary specal= jm identified with contemporary academic art and cultural histor- jas and theorists such as Edward Said, Raymond Willams, Piere Bourdieu and TJ. Clark. By the 1980s, however, Hauser’ orthodox choice of objects of stud, along with his unquestioned reliance on the largely unexamined catepory of ‘art’ ~ seen by many adherents of| cultural studies as inherently reactionary ~ meant that, once again, his history could be dismissed, this time primarily onthe grounds of| its both stated and tacit principles of seletion. Yet The Socal His- ‘ory of Art, whatever its uneven critical fortunes and continuing marginal place in most university courses, has remained an item, oF an obstacle, to be read ~ ora least dismissively referred to within the study ofthe history of art. Why should this be the case? ‘There are several diferent, though relate, answers to this ques: tion. The sheer extent and relative detail of reference in Hauser’ study ~ despite the narrowness of selection ~ has commanded a cee- tain amount of respect and atention, No comparable study exist in the English language, though many attempis at a one-volume “hi tory of ar” have been made singe Hauser's magn opus “Most famous of these and certainly beter known, espe the Academy, is Ernst Gombrich’ The Story of Art, which was et ally published just before Hauser’ stud.’ Unlike Hauser, however, ‘Gombyich, probably aware ofthe charge of reckless megalomania Tikely to be levelled at anyone attempting such a task, shrewdly adopted the term story" fr his title which connoted, amongst other things a modest declaration of unreliability. Gombrich admitted, by using the word, that his pithy tale was evidently "made up’, an invention, and therefor, alter a point, not to be trusted Hauser’ pleonastic History, on the other hand, offered no such self: effacement and is seriousness was liable tobe represented, especially inthe Cold Wat, a another dreary facet of doctrinal Marxism pro- ‘leat by one ofits apologists in the Free West. And Hauser’ text [undoubtedly hard-going,unrclieved by regular and frequent sec- tion subdivisions only sparsely (and sometimes apparent arbitra {iy illastrated, and with no specifi references to illustrations in the text In addition to these filings the text itself was translated from German into. English in usually a merely adequate manner by Stanley Goodman, though with Hauser’ collaboration. Long Germinie sentences, piling qualifying sub-clause upon sub-clause, ‘within arguments mounted at usually quite high level of abstraction rake reading The Social History of Art sometimes seem like the xhausting ascent of literary Everest, in painful contrast to what Amounts fo an afternoon skip up Gombrich’s sunny and daisified hillock. I iis the ease that Hauser’ sheer ambition (megalomaniacal or ot) to attempt to write meaningfully on art from the Stone Age to the Film Age almost in itself warrants certain amount of eautious interest, however, and his command of research materials ostensibly indicates a more than superficial understanding of the dozens of folds of study necessarily implicated in such an account, then there is another teason fr taking the history seriously. This isthe issue of the significance of his claim, finally tated clearly only inthe wlimate volume, thatthe entire effort i really directed towards trying to understand ourselves and the present. However, Hauser omitted — and this was a serious ertor~to begin his study wth an introduction ‘hich might have made the intended purpose and value of his work ‘manifest for readers atthe start of thet arduous climb. Though it ‘ight not have been at all evident from his first pages on cave pain ing and paleolithie pottery, Hauser was trying, he says retro spotively, to use history to understand the present, "What else could the point of historical research be”, he asks rhetorically, Although we are faced with new situations, new wags of life and fel as if we ‘were cut of from the past’ ts knowledge of ‘the older works’, and Knowledge of ous alignation from them, which an belp us to find ‘an answer tothe question: How can we, how should one ive inthe present age? (vol. TV: pp. 1-2). One may, relatively productively, simply ‘dip into’ Hauser ~ ina way that one ean not simply exper nce a portion of Mount Everest at will (sa, the atmosphere and Footholds around 20,000 fect) and then return toa temperate and vwel-oxygenated siting room when tired. But reading the whole test, appreciating the historical developments and disjunctions Hauser identifies over the four volumes, ending up with the place of art andculture after the Second World Wat, is really necessary in order for the“ ground” ofthe past to be as clearly visible as possible bet only Aeetingly, obscured by cloud and rain-bursts, fom the vertiginous summit ofthe present. The higher one goes up, or further on, the more there iso see, potentially at last below, or behind. Hauser’s motivation, from this point of view, was truly sanguine, and reflected a belief held by socialists and Marxists around the world after 1945 that revolutions in society would surely fllow those in knowledge brought about by Marxism’ purported science of his: torical materialism. But the development of ani-communism inthe USA, Cold War polities there and in Europe, along with Stalinia tion in the USSR and the Eastern Bloe states, would bring popular disillusionment with traditional notions of socialist revolution and transformation during the 1950s and 1960s, along with oss of faith in the grand vision of history, society and culture exemplified by Hauser scholarly ambitions. Confidence in Marxism’ “scientific status, historical understanding and map of the future dissipated ‘gradually, though continuous, during the postwar decades. Although temporarily enlivened, within French academic theory least, by association with structuraist ideas which themselves ied objective status for a while during the 1960s, or with ‘socialist feminists who attempted to theorize the relations between class and gender identity inthe 1970s, by the mi-1980s Marnism as 4 unitary theoretical system, and socialism as a practical political octrine, was discredited, almost as much by some of its own previous, protagonists as by its long-standing and traditional Though still a thriving specialism in some university arts and socal studies departments, Marxism has been cutoff as effectively from civie culture and polities inthe West as definitively as Hauser claims in his third volume that German idcalist philosophy was in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries The los ofthe intellectual as‘social activist’ paralleled, Hauser argues i fact, the development ‘of modern aestheticsm (art for arts sake’) and the refashioning of the artistas estranged outcast, the artistic persona predominant still in is own time, Hauser’ history, from one perspective then, is an ‘count of this transformation or decline, from att as social instru ‘ment of authority and propaganda of one sort ot another ~ the Church, the State ~ into an expensive plaything of the cultured bourgeoisie and philosophical rebus of the academic and critical imofgentsia. Yet Hauser’ time is not our own: though Marxism certainly has lst is political role and intellectual centrality, many GENERAL INTRODUCTION other forms of politics and modes of analyses of social life and story have Become important, both in academia and inthe general polit. Feminist, racial, sexual, regional and ecological concerns, for [atance ae no, singularly oF together, a Yase consclousnes’ that has simply usurped th fundamental and prior place of cass analysis tax) polis i historical and social understanding. Rather, they fhe provoked and reflected @ renewed, though disparate, “kt- libertarianism’ in the West ~ inside and outside the Academy — but have also helped to catalyse a range of art forms, utilizing both ttatonal and new media, that have restored a variety of socal fotivsms fo contemporary culture. Hauser, writing inthe late 1940s, ould not have predicted this development, although he probably oped fori. His own perspective inevitably limited what he could see tnd, from our situation in the late 1990s, his study may seem fxirmely dated. We ae, of course, now further up the mountain than Hauser although, in one sense, the near half-century since the publication of his study is a mere trifle compared with the ten fhousand oF more years of history he tried to encompass ‘Reasons and strategies for reading (On the other hand, the specifis of the moment in which one writes determine absolutely what we can see and why we want tose it. Ten years later, in 1961, Hauser might have produced a very different book, in the light of, say, the critical hegemony achieved by US- based Abstract Expressionist painters (the full-blown abstractions of| whom were claimed to make completely obselete Picasso's still highly mimetic, and in Hausers sense, narrafisic“modernism’), of the txtensive erosion of poplar and ineligentsa faith in Marxism and Soviet socialism (though Hauser is implicitly ertcal of the Soviet state and quietly derisive on the value of socialist realist ar). Read: ing Hause i important and instructive now, then, also because his ‘ext itself has achieved historical significance: it tells us about his ‘values, representative, as they were, ofan influential stratum of lft ‘ing intelletuals active in Britain in the eatly 1980s? On the whole itis also the case tha his account is far less crude, infact far less straghtforvardly ‘Marxist’ altogether, than many have assumed, Reading Hauser may also inform us about the current terrain of the discipline of art history and enable us to register and evaluate, through a process of systematic comparison, the continuities and ruptures inthe postwar development and present configuration of the subject. Reading s usualy, and certainly most valuably, an activeGENERAL INTRODUCTION process: we search for meaning and significance intext because out reading is specifically motivated, and we have a conscious sense of purpose in mind. Far less attentive and productive readings occut ‘when we have litle or no sense of why reading a texts worthwhile. Ia approaching Hauser’s study, due to its length and complexity, readers ~ in addition to sheer stamina ~ require a particulary clear sense oftheir own intentions, as well asa knowledge of which pats ofthe text might be most useful. Ifa reader wishes to find material relevant to, for example, an essay question on ecclesiastical art com- missions in early Renaissance Florence, or onthe changing social status of artists in the French revolutionary period, then iti easy ‘enough to find the appropriate sections. Ths is an entirely valid wse ‘of Hauser’ text and one he probably envisaged. But a careful rea ing ofthe whole study produces, and, arguably, was intended to pro- ‘duce, much more than a simple sum of all the separate historical sections. For the study attempts to show us how what is called ‘art’ ‘began, and how it has become ~ along with Western society —whatit appeared to its author tobe inthe mi-twentieth century. Hauser does not make this understanding easy. The book contains ‘no general overview of its aims and methods, nor any succinct account ofits values and assumptions, nora defence or definition of key concepts (suchas “ar” or syle’), nor of is principles of selec- tion. Inclusion of this kn of introductory material has become part ofthe reflexivity’ of academic theory in the humanities over the past, twenty-five years and constitutes areal advance on the complacency preset in earlier trations of art and cultural history, those dent able both as traditional’ or ‘radical’. Hauser does not indicate ether Whether his study is directed at any particular readership and ‘appears almost completely unse-conscious about the general intel- ligibilty of his arguments, Though any person might benefit fom reading his history, the complenity of his language, assumptions about prior knowledge (particularly Knowledge of visual examples), and discussion of a vast range of issues in economic, social, cultural and intellectual history presumes a readership already highly edu- cated and in agreement with Hauser on basic principles, and involved rather in engaging with his abstract “connective logic’ and manipulation of Marxist analytical tls The tone and rhetoric Hauser deploys may also appear un: attractive, Because doctrinare. Generally he writes, especially in the ‘earlier volumes in an authoritative and declamatory manne, sem ingly with litle or no sense of open investigation, or of any doubt ‘over the credibility of his account, Reflexvity in recent theory has come to value seepicsm and ‘explanatory modesty’ over this kind GF authori certainty. The apparent unassailability of Hausers Srgument in Hige part reflects the character of Marxist history and theory in the late 1940s its proponens stil sure ofits "scentifie” buss philosophically water-tight in its dialectical materialism —and Confident thatthe veracity of its understanding of the world was Somehow confirmed bythe existence of an “actual” socialist society rected ois principles. I transpires that Hause’ certitude, how er ate more apparent than real, and bogin to break down Fondamentally as his account moves through to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries He not only subjects many other theories tnd traditions of cultural analysis to withering critique ~ for instance, the “Hberal concept of the Renaissance, the “ormalist” tnetiod of art historians such as Alois Rigel or Heinrich Woelflin, tr the previously mentioned ‘social escapism’ of German idealism [By the end ofthe fourth volume Hauser historicization of Marxism lise part of which locates tas an item alongside other, specifically hinetenth-centuey symptontatic “ideologies of unmasking”, such as those produced by Nietzsche and Freud ~ suggests that his, and Marxism’, ‘mastery’ of history i tentative, corrgible, and inade- quate in many ways. This sense partly reflects his understated, though serious, qualms expressed inthe final volume over the place of art ad culture in the Soviet Union Hauser’ inclusion of artefacts, or artists, of periods or geo sraphical regions is, necessarily, drastically selective and therefore arrow ~ afer all, how could any history oF at from the Stone Age be otherwise? Yet some attempt to justify or simply to acknowledge this seletion as such would have mitigated the doctrinaire quality to his writing, particulary evident in the fist two volumes which deal with many thousands of years of history in litle over SO0 pages Presumably he included what he felt was most important, though ven this is not said directly and the effet isto ee oo often sf one is being lectured at, rather than being invited to engage in an ‘extended explanation. ‘Fact’ at times, seem to overwhelm his text, land: its reader, particulary” when he includes extensive socio= historical, contextual material at what seem lke relatively arbitrary Points inthe text, or when he lurches, without clear reasons, fom France to Enghind, or from Russia to Germany in his discussion of the late nineteenth century. Certainly a quite orthodox outline tion, Hauser’ text was now, in addition, liable tobe judged reaction= ary, sexist, racist and litt by recently politicized groups responsible for the New Art History's attempted reconstruction ofthe discipline ‘over the past ilteen years or so, Once ain the charges ae, om the yng sustainable, Hauser, because of his mid-century gender, clas, Joitcal and scholarly characteristics and inclinations, manifestly is povconcerned, for istance, with an investigation of the presence or Uucnvs of women as significant or jobbing artists in history, nor ‘Mth the sociological reasons why they did or did not achieve such fostions — perhaps the te most important issues that have pre- PeSupie feminist art historians for many years now: (He does, how Gior incuss several times the place of Women as part ofa changing ‘ble for art, or even, occasionally, as patrons and thet status as Muse! In addition, and interestingly, the question of a presumed ‘elationsip between ‘femininity’ and creativity crops up in his dis- Gission in volume I of the produetion of craft artefacts in ancient Societies where he i quick to refuse any simplistic relationship) Hauser is similarly though again predictably, bling’ to the ques- tions or significances of race of sexual orientation, and of ethnicity tn artic production and reception, all issues core to the ‘subject- postion’ of “ifestyle-oriented politics and theory of many of those Involved with New Aft History in Europe and the US. But this revi- ‘Sonist phase inthe discipline has included not just those represent ing New Let libertarian politics (including some who belive ‘ar is fan intrinsically its designation which shouldbe replaced by study fof those images and artefacts deemed to constitute “popular cul ture), Novel academic techniques of textual or visual analysis — most with French provenances, some claiming to be seiemtifcally Dbiestive abo found an important place, initially a least, in New [Ar History. So-called ‘structualst’ and post-strucuralis’ methods and philosophies would make mince-meat of Hauser’s Marxism, convicting it endlessly of such analytic eruities as ‘elections’ ‘nechanisic reduction’ and “teleological projection’. However reviled post-structuralist, academic Marxism itself can play this fume as well as not beter than) the followers of Foucault, Lacan tnd. Derrida, finding Hauser's concepts, analyses and values stranded in the erudities of "Second International’ and ‘Third Internationa’ Marxist protocols of ideologues such as Karl Kautsky, Franz Mehling, George Plekhanov and even Georg Lukics” The point, however, is to understand Hauser’ text itself sori cally and to assests sigificanee on this basis. It ean not be claimed — ‘hough neither ean any other single bok for that matter ~ asa viable bass for constructing an entire art-historical method, ofr regener- sing “cultural Marxism’, or anything else. Its overleaping ambition certainly tell us, however, that Hauser nursed a belie that Marxism did possess unique explanatory potential @ set of sureties, and aGENERAL INTRODUCTION luster of values superior to anything else available inthe discipline in 1951. But this confidence becomes systematically and increasingly undermined within his own text and what would now be called Hauser’ ‘auto-deconstructon’ constitutes the book's most interes ing feature. The vast text is heterogeneous, uneven, fragmented composed of many genuine insights and genuine iiocies, full of active and productive revisions and complacent reprodictions; ti hectoring and vituperatively authoritarian, yet also intetropative and prone to dubiets “Hauser, like Marx himself, is sometimes, when it suits, efectively| prepared to declare himself not a Marxist’, Many times, actualy, Uhroughout his text he willeriticize oer for attempting the sane task of correlating art and social development ~ Wilhelm Hausen- stein, for instance, who attempisilictly Hauser believes, to claim an identity between ancient ars geometric style and the “communistic cutlook of the early “agrarian democracies” (vol. I: p. 16). Such fallacious connections Hauser dismisses repeatedly as “equivoc- tion’ the use of ambiguity to avoid or conceal the truth, But his wn corrlations necessaily perform an identical analytic operation: they raw on one set of features claimed to be immanent in am artwork oF group of artworks (or instance, an identifiable ‘socal style") which are then mapped upon, claimed to organically ‘reflect’ and partially ‘constitute’, another set of selected features claimed to be immanent in an identifiable social development, Thoweh Hauser is right 10 condemn simplistic or ‘essentialist correlations that posit necessary And inevitable relations ~ such as that of H. Hoernes-O. Menghin, ‘who contends, in contrast to Hasenstein, thatthe geometric style i feminine in its character (vol. Tp. 19), Hausers own analytic hhouse ~a veritable skyscraper at that is built fundamentally with the same bricks. Reading his text runs the danger of becoming & tzame of deciding whether one happens to “lke or “find pleasing’, the correlation that entertains the author ata particular moment. Is the ‘Socal order of French revolutionary society under Napoleon {ustiiably ‘correated (confirmed) inthe formal and narrative visual ‘order’ ofa painting by David? Are both equally ‘acts about French artand society atthe time? Is the fractured, reversible space and time ‘of film an ‘objective facet ofthe ‘experiential dimension’ to early twentith century modernity? Such claims, ultimately, ean not be either ‘proved”’or “disprove they become a bit ike artworks them selves which we can admire or not, depending on taste. This o $3 actually, that the credibility of Hauser’s account i,t an important degree, a matter of faith” in the end, or commitment to a certain potion ofthe purpose of history and meaning of culture f Maex- al able to command ths flty inthe early 1950 ‘Rion intelectual and popular movements in four of sei ametiion it certain can not recat such support now The Tnplcaons of thin ate mit "fn New Art History atleast in ts manifest political varans nich Doug the ues of women, racy sexual, popular elture Thu eta int some Kind of generally productive relation with AR feasting dcline of art history ~ importantly challnges Ihe ahsenows in Hauser’ teat But although The Soil History WPirccannot ssid not ~be was a the basi for teaching the Shows it sam provide many valuable insights and observations ‘Te may be sed to support the interests of feminists chor once with non-Western ult ao sbi revisions Get as thon of the dining ranks of Marxists til ating hives the lrgdy forgotten within the New Art History toh can sian iterate some of Haters valble work ino thicown stiles But he radial fragmentation ofthe dip: tne’ theoreti base lon withthe los oath in Mars, both tsa suprior intel system, anda «practi means of trans forming apts sects hay an ambiguous Ieacy when comes to asc Hater sti On the one and, definitly an fuvanse fetter scholanhip and ele no longs to main- thin that ‘cla and “vonomex have singularly or most signi ‘sy, dtermined thesia development and vale of ar On the ‘er hand, entemporry art istry balkaniz and no longer nits ony Kind of what Jean-Franois Lyotard famously cle & ntanaete of estimation’ ~an accepted overarching principe thle to unital he theories and methods with putative dipinary ‘tas To bear of ours ther ws never te a he past when ft hsioryexperened pin transparent, golden age of com. Imumity and consensus, Methods of decrption and analysis hve hays Seen Heterogeneous. in large par ectng the intttinal chats o its ore knowlde-pocers whose interest ave Been al curstoral and marketonented(connocri an provenance ‘hunting half eademie and pedagope ste and eiization stud 4) But up unt the mid107e the sujet, arguably, exited 8 ‘ene unity babe on the general stability af the anon of artworks dre worthy of tay. Tht guy broke down in he 1970 and Bsn as mein, Him and popuar-clturl studies burgeond. Hauser tet, in large part marifety Marxist and therfore cada in method was als, a6 note, tadtona, and thereforeGENERAL INTRODUCTION “conservative, in its selection of cultural artefacts. “Cultural Marx {sm in the 1980s was, in contrast highly sceptical of ‘aesthetic value” understood either as defensible analytic eategory or asa datum of human experienee believed to‘guarante’ the canon, and saw both as ‘examples of ideological delusion or “false consciousness. Canons ‘were claimed to be simply duplicitous; partisan preferences mas- ‘querading as neutral and objective categories. Such extreme relat ism over the isue of cultural value was characteristic of parallel forms of structuralis, poststructuralis and reception theory. Rea tivsm of this kind had found no place at all in the writings of Marx ists active before the 1970s and Hauser’ text is full of judgements, asides and reflections which indicate his highly conventional taste and values (often labeled “bourgeos' by the ideologues of academic Cultural Studies, identical or elose to those of eair influential Marsst cities and cultural commentatorsincluding Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, AS. Vasquez, Lukes, and Marx and Engels themselves" Hauser, whatever his delared ‘sociological method’, will repetitively uphold a mysterious phenomenon called the human spirit, reiterate his belie in the inefabiity of quality in art, and ven, by the end of the fourth volume, seem to sometimes replace bis Marxist ‘objectivity’ with a variant of judgemental subjetvism reminiscent of the kinds found in the prose of Marcel Proust, the philosophy of Henri Berason, or the paintings of the Surrealist Tn addition to this reliance on conventional canonical selection, advocacy of the ‘autonomy of the aesthetic’ in att in matters of ‘experience and evaluation, Hauser also often attacks the crudity of ‘others claiming to mobilize Marxist principles and methods. AS we have cea, this is sometimes a eiticism of those exhibiting “essenti Is’ tendences (such as those who Hauser thinks reduce analytic complexity to singe sociological or psychological determinant), oF ‘of those who claim correlations between syle and socio-economic developments based on what he regards as “equivocations’. Though Hauser several times attacks historians suchas Riel or Woelflin for reliance on a ‘formalist’ notion of ‘internal laws" operating in art styles, Hauser himself mobilizes a variant ofthis idea when it seems necessary. For instance, reflecting on the complexity of interp ation involved with assessing broad siyle designations, such as “naturalistic or classics, he remarks ‘The greater the age of an art, of a style, of a genre the longer are the periods of time during which the deselop- ment proceeds aevording to immanent, autonomous avs of GENERAL INTRODUCTION its own, unaffected by disturbances from outside, and the Tonger these more or less autonomous episodes are, the ‘more difficult it is sociologically to intepret the individual, {ements ofthe form-complex in question, (ool. p20) Hauser’s own “equivocation’ here — what does he really mean by Fmmanent or autonomous” exemplifies the nature of his text sa “sbole, which does not preseat a single or unified argument, or a Sublet of concepts and ideas, or a homogeneous sense of value or purpose is semantic openness, in fact, makes it in many ways defini- Tel ‘post-modern’: itis best read as Fragmented, spit, undecided, Its ambitions and claims are unbalanced, unreasonable and unverf able, evidenced in a lurch from a discussion of ten thousand years of {rvin tivo volumes, to the ast two hundred years in another $00 oF 30 pases often at a [evel of rarefied and quite sullocating abstraction. Yer its rhetoric and grand historical sweep, often overblown, at the sae time is quite magisterial. Hauser’ study isan excitedly written history ofthe word, of ideas, of human socal development, a8 well as of art and culture more broadly. From one perspective his sources land selections are narrow and highly partial, yet from another quite extensive and diverse and the treatment belcs his ostensible Marxist ‘method. The text tells us as much about Hauser’s own intellectual And class formation (in allits gender, ethnic and other specificities) as itdoes about art and its history We may read The Social History of Ar, then forall this which it offers, from our own very different moment, which it also throws nto rl Lapsing, or rising, often into the present tense, ashe races through the Stone Age, the Renaissance, the Romantic movement and the dawn of the Film Age, Hauser above all communicates a Sense of utgeney and commitment to understanding the past as a ‘means of knowing about the present. The medium of fil itself, to Which he refers many times in his text ~ often when its use as a ‘comparison seems virtually historically meaningless ~ indicates his tacitement precisely with the dynamism of the present, signified in film, and parly explains the teleology” or sense of ‘necessary devel ‘opment’ which permeates his narrative, For Hauser the past ~in a, in social organization and change generally ~ has "made the present what iis, made us what we are Ione exhaustedly closes The Socal History of with this insight, which we may then decide to qualify 8 much as Hauser himself does, then reading of his aecount has Surely been worthwhileGENERAL INTRODUCTION Notes he Story of Art (London: Phaidon, 1950) See Gonbichis review of| fuser sty, The Social History of Ata Erst Gombrch, Meda Hons ona Hobby Horse and Other Exsoys (London: Phanon, 1963) pp {6°54 This are wus originally publish in The Ar Balin, Match ‘See Emsto Laclau and Chantal Mou, Hegemony and Socialis Strat ‘249: Towards Racal Demscratc Poti (London. Vero, 1985) an Stankey Aronowitz, The Criss i Hictorical Motrin: Chass Pais ‘an Calure in Marsist Theory (New York: Praeger, 198), 23 See Tom Stel, The Bmergnce of Cultural Sader 1945-1985: Cull Poles Aut Education and he Brgish Quen Londo: Lawrence ‘Wishart, 19), 4 See Tidvard Said, Oviewalioe: Western Conceptions of the Orient (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 191), Martin Bers Black Athena The Afroasane Roos of Clascal Clean (London: Vintage, 1981) and vant Sai, Chit and Imperiaiom (London: Chatto & Windus, 193). 5 Soo Foe Feri Ar History ands Method: 4 Cia Anholegy (Low: on: Phadon, 1998) and Marcia Poiton, History af Art Stent “andook (London and Now York: Routledge. 193), Modern Art and Modernism: Manet to Pollock (Milton Keynes: Tat (Open University, 1983, Thirteen course books and assisted materiale Se. inconrast however Huusers Manneran: The Ci of the Rena Sance andthe Orig of Moder Art (London and New York: Routes ‘ER Pak 1969), See Rovika Parker and Griselda Pollock, Old Misesex: Women, Ar Aad ldelogy (London: Pandora, 1987 and Griselda Pollok, Vision and Diference: Femininity, Feminism andthe Histories oft (Londn and ‘New York: Routed, 1988) 9 See Raymond Willams, Marcsm and Lierotre (Oxfor: Oxfords Univers Press 1977), 10 See ALL Rees and F Borla (eds), The New Art History (London: Camden Press. 1986), 11 SceRoper Tayo. At An Enemy the Pople Brighton: Harvest, 1978). INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME III Jonathan Harris ‘Contents, concepts, principles and problems ‘This the third book of Arnold Hause’ four-volume series The Socal History of Art deals with the period in Western art betwen the seven- teenth and easy nineteenth centuries. Though the book's subsile "Rocooo, Classicism and Romanticism’ appearsto oflerasthe basis of its subject matter the orthodox ar-histoical narrative of abstract silistie sequence, Hauser’s analysis actualy starts from the premise that "syle" and "society" constitute a unified, though complex and somtimes opaque, whole, “Romanticism” has long been understood {asa term nol just applicable to kindof painting or poem, or even a Feeling or sensibly Itencompasses an entre intellectual culture and ven, beyond that, the tensions, shifts and transformations of all society inthe development of the modern industrial world. Hauser temps to provide not just a Marxist perspective on Romanticism ‘thus conceived, but to show thatthe preeding terms in his subtitle ‘may also productively be read as eyphers for broad cultural and societal change in the period before the French revolution. Though his account deals with the visual arts in detail, he also discusses a wide range of other artiste forms, neluding drama, poetry, the novel fand music. A Turther section is devoted to developments in philo- Sophy inthis perio, with a particular emphasis on German idealism. ‘One of Hauser’ central claims i this volume is that “aesthetiism” and ‘social dsintrestedness' increasingly came to shape the deve- ‘opment of art and intellectual production generally inthis period, an ‘oulcome brought about by the widespread dislocation, o alienation, of artists and intellectuals in the post-medieval workd. No longet chietly working as propagandists forthe Church or State, tir n= found “freedom, born inthe Renaissance, engenders a subjectivism sill characteristic of art in Hause’ own time of writing (1951). ThisINTRODUCTION To VOLUME 11 tendency to ‘social escapism’, Hauser believes, is particularly active in German culture and philosophy, and he holds it party, but importantly, responsible forthe growth in rationalism’ there that ‘sw, as its culmination, the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party inthe 1930s In contrast to his discussion of the situation in Germany, however, Hauser also includes an important section on “The New ‘Reading Publi’, mainly in England, showing how, in a diferent economic, soci and political context, art and ideas developed in close relationship with that country’s limited but expanding cultural ‘democracy, ‘Though Hauser’ analysis, given this range of coverage is highly ambitious, and partly explains why he calls his study @ work of “social history” ~ a qualification intended to suggest an elevation above, and presumably an improvement upon, ‘mere’ history ~ he does not make the understanding of his arguments easy for the reader. Typical ofthe entre series, in fat is level of abstraction in liscussion sometimes hard to follow: In addition to thi, the exegesis isnot accompanied by extensive, or detailed, illustration. Though ‘vcasionally Hauser refers specially to a painting or sculpture, there sno diect reference to any pictures bound withthe text, and, ‘because of this, the attentive reader must fick back and forwards from Hauser’ argument to the illustrations in order to attempt to larity the author’ claims and observations. Hauser’s style, parly enforced by the enormous range of developments he secks 10 includ, is sweeping and sometimes rather doctrinaie, prone to gen- ‘eralizaion and the non-definition of some absolutely core concepts * Classicism’, fr instance, perhaps one of the most used (and over- used) words in the arthistorical lexicon, does not revvive a thorough theoretical examination, though he shows how some of its particular historical meanings were elaborated in die social, national and cultural moments in the period up tothe “July revolution in France in 1830, Hauser’ discussion of poetry, the novel, drama and musie prob- ably could never have received entirely adequate illustration in such a ‘omventional format, but his account still demandingly assumes that the reader is familiar with a very wide range of examples in a number of languages Hauser'serditions certainly impressive, but it can also feo! quite oppressive because most readers are very unlikely to have an equal grasp of the fields of knowledge the author quite nonchalantly brings together. The purpose of thie introduction, then, is to suggest a path through the text and signposts along the way to major themes, claims and problems. It does not, however, INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME 111 vide « comprehensive synopsis of Hauser's narrative. Rather Pre a et of contexts ~ historical, political, intellectual ~ for inter ing is shape and assessing its val, for Hause’ text ke that of| lc artworks he diseuses, isan artefact produced ina particular time fd place and for specific reasons Hauser’ social History of artis ostensibly, Marxist in prineple and method, though he states clearly, on numerous occasions throughout the series, that aesthetic judgement have, apparently, no {elation tothe kinds of sociological and socal-historical questions find protocols that actually occupy him most of the time (8, for ample, vol He pp. 45 and 149). The “aesthetic autonomy” of at Hauser claims, was established in the ‘igh’ Renaissance, and the fresdom of at from iological control by the Church or the State {Contributes towards its characteristic subjetivism, stil the condition ‘timodern art in the mid-twentith century. Though he accepts, and Confirms without qualification, art history’s eanon of great artists find artworks, his understanding of stylistic development is, he ‘daims. based upon the explanatory schoma present within the Marxist philosophy of ‘historical materialism. Towards the end of his third volume Hauser makes a valuable attempt to define this The eal meaning of historical materialism, he observes and atte same time, the most important advance of the philosophy of history since the romantic movement, con- Sisls.im the insight that historical developments have their origin not informal principles, ideas and entities, not in substances which unfold and produce in the course of history mere ‘modifications’ of their fundamentally ‘unhistorcal nature, but inthe fact tht historical develop sent represents dialectical process in which every factor i ‘na state of motion and subject to constant change of ‘meaning, in which there is nothing static, nothing timelesly valid, but also nothing one-sdely active, and in which all factors, material and intellectual, economic and ideological, sre bound up together in a state of indssoluble inter- dependence, that iso say, that we are notin the least able to 230 back to aay point in time, where a historically definable situation isnot already the result of this interaction, (ol II: p. 161)! This might epigrammatically be represented as “always historicize, always link!” and important elements of both Hauser’ syle and hisINTRODUCTION TO VOLUME 1 analytic attention are devoted to showing the radical, and inveterate, connectedness of developments in styles of art, ideas, economic, Social and political events and circumstances. His definition of his: torical materialism appears to suggest that ideas and materi phe- nomena are of equ nter-active significance historically ~a view at the traditional Marxist emphasis on the deter- mining tole of ‘economic circumstances’ (however defined) in his tory. In practice, however, though convinced that man is not “the ‘mere function of his environment’ since sucha view ‘deprives man of all autonomy and, therefore, to some extent of responsibility for his actions’ vol. I: pp 84-5), Hauser usally assumes that cultural and intelectual forms and activities in any given society have to be ‘eor- related’ with antecedent socio-economic structures and transform ations though ~ complicatedly ~ with pre-eistent artistic styles and themes as well, whose original meanings have been supersded through re-use in later phases ‘The status of ‘classicism’ is an important casein point. Ans his- tory i always, for Hauser, partly a return to previous visual modes and means, though the meanings generated in the constant reap- propriation of past styles or motifs ae always novel: a process of semantic reconfiguration. “The new classicism” of the eighteenth century, he observes oes not arrive so unheralded as has often been assumed. Ever since the end of the Middle Ages con- ‘ceptions of art had developed between the two poles of a strictly tectonic trend and formal freedom, that i, between an outlook related to classicism and one opposed to it. No ‘change in modern art represents a completely new begin- ning: they all ink up with one of other ofthese two tenden- ies, each of which takes over the lead from the other, but neither of whichis ever entirely supplanted, (vol IT: p. 129) Hauser’ radical historciation of art unfortunately runs the risk ‘of appearing “teleological ~ that is of giving the impression that the clements and features described, of whatever kind, are simply “moments or ‘phases’ the inevitable unfolding ofa process with ts ‘own logic and dynamism. Though this notion of history i virtually ‘the opposite ofthe view that Hauser consciously wishes to convey hoe says several times, for example, that diferent outcomes in art, society and politics ma, and hav, fllowed similar sets of historical INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME 111 Greumstances —‘historicism’, the belief in a necessary end-point in tory, has always characterized much Marxist thinking” Hauser's ‘on political belies find an increasingly clear presence in his third hd fourth volumes and appear equally ant-cleological, conveying sho sense that a socialist future will arrive ke the morning milk on the doorstep. Unlike the romantic, Hauser asserts, the Marxist dia Jestesan grasps that his own time ‘stands midway between the past fd the fulure and represents an indssoluble conflict of static and “Synanve clements' (vol IE p. 154). Hauser, the at historian, how: ter, in looking selfconsciously back at the eighteenth century fiom the mid-wentieth, attempting to asses. the relationship beeen the {0 ers, wil talk “Yeeologicaly” about “the two centue fas before [Watteau'] arrival (Vol IE p. 13), and about the deca dence of aft in_post-revolutionary France’ before romanticism “could be realised (ol I: p. 153, my italics). Reliance on these, and other loaded terms, such as transition’, precursors’ and pioneers’ ~ Standard wsage in rt history similarly tends to imply an evolution fry proces of immanent unfolding, I Hauser’ basic faith inthe Marxist philosophy of history asthe evelopment of class strugele provides his certainty that stye- formation and change are necesary correlates of socio-economic structures he is, nevertheless, prepared t0 signal warnings about the dangers of eruity in the work of showing such connectedness. iawsers thetorical tone thus shifts back and forth from quite authoritative, even rather dictatorial passages, to a much more inter fogative, and eventually implicitly selferitical, introspection. His tack onthe formalist art historian Alois Rieg for maintaining the “romantic view’ that sees the history of art simply asa ‘contiguity and succession of ...sglstic phenomena, thereby personiying his torical frees and hypostasizng ‘artistic intention’ i afterall, not ing more than would be expected of a Marxist (vl. IL: pp. 160-1) But Hauser develops an unease with any form of determinism, ‘social’ or ‘formalist’, observing, for instance, thatthe classification ofthe philosopher Rousseau sociologically “is not easy’. By the ighteenth century, he sas, social relationships ‘are now so compl cated that a writers subjective attitude isnot always an adequate iiterion when it isa question of considering his role in the social process” (vol. IH: p72) Eighteenth-century classicism, similarly he remarks, was sustained by quite diferent and even’antagonistic social groups, those beth ‘eourlyaristocratie” and middle-class, and it ended by developing into “the representative artistic syle of| the revolutionary bourgeoisie’ (vol, IH: p. 123) To take anotherexample, the German ‘storm and stress’ movement, formed in the period between the Enlightenment and Romanticism, is opaque: Sccially and politically parly because ‘itis impossible simply to iden Uity rationalism and ant-rationalism with progress and reaction [because] modern rationalism is not an unequivocal and specific Phenomenon, but, to. some extent, a general characteristic of ‘modern history’ (vol Ip. 114) ‘This dissatisfaction with unequivocal explanation arguably finds its full and final elaboration in Hauser’ fourth, and final, volume on art in te late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in which occurs a {kind of dissipation of his Marxist method, replaced by ~ if anything coherent ~ a variant of the very subjctvism he sees as characteristic of the modern art with which he is attempting to come to terms In his thd volume, however, Hauser makes a statement which ind cates, implicitly, both the interrogative, open and. authentically investigative aspect of his intelligence, but also the danger a too. radical “openness” incurs of slippage into vacuous explanatory. indeterminacy ‘The assumption that men and women are merely socal beings results in just as arbitrary a picture of experience as the view according to which every person is @ unigue and incomparable individual. Both conceptions lead toa tli tion and romanticizing of reality. On the other hand, how ever, there is mo doubt thatthe conception of man Beld in any particular epoch is socially conditioned and that the choige as to whether man is portrayed in the main as an autonomous personality or asthe representative of class ‘depends in every age on the social approach and politcal aims of those who happen to be the upholders of culture (ol Ip. 84) The last insight, of course, would include Hauser's own aims and betokens his acceptance ~ at last i such parentheses as these — of a relativism Marxists had traditionally rejected, But Hauser’ text i genuinely heterogeneous, intone and analysis: split between certain ties and doubts, theoretical orthodoxy and discontent, ideological agreement and apostasy. Class may be central (though questions and. issues of gender and race are almost entirely absent), the "bour- {cose is alays rising’. both within and against Romanticism, for Hauser, in the clichéd Marxist fashion (30 or example, his disus- sion of musie and drama, vol. IL: pp. $0 and 90), and “democracy” INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME IL sithout socialism remains always a mask fr social inequalities, even weefrorresie’eghteenth-pons ot erminglng of th hgh las wi he Wogecs ae Toga moreover rtly at Ue moment Men ‘aT erty mates al fot more sharply than ever teeing threo fy oul elas btween ee nore Seals edt piige, de oily had retained in the evs cntarycalyt fropery gin kom an ad CES fom nani hed coded sudo edie ra to Crown acals Grundren edit 9 god Hate saue because a the steady diminution, tf 100, Srchaing per af money. Te nity we red ian seeecdng mene tole proeryy eben inporerbed vege This os eral more catein the medium and ire vais af the Inde nkty than amongst the high ene Soy wars erick and regedit nfence ibe eight entry. Th dour twee fue ofthe Ea sly remained the en usulfucare of te court Sir the igh sean Sgvie, tho mond rns ite crmyy the gouvernmas’fsts ond ral pensions Almost turer ef io tl budget ed othe Tivol retest {Fhe Comm oat eat wily cae downy under outs XV and ets KUL nites ere agin son mos from the heediary noliy? Dur de htter romaine nt ‘ous a stunk ale sae, wat seria and ‘Rie at supreme danger tthe morc i the hour of pe Teimule a common sand th the mile cognate Cn alteugh the ond rations beeen te oases ed rely slr snc the begining of entrain Bret Sry hay nt ony often tel themsalvs momeed by the tine lunge they had equenty ha common ada 7ROCOCO, CLASSICISM, ROMANTICISM probleme tosolve nd this bd automatically brought them gether, the selationship detested when the nil ‘edie hat the nl cls wa ts most dangerous rl Ty thon on the King had to intervene gain nd agen and econ the jelous nobility for, though he apparently Jom sed bot pres, heh oma constant emerson sc favour ow to oe now tothe ether A token of tis anpeatement towards the nobly i as tobe see, for any inthe fct tat under Lois XV i was slteady much more cult fora commoner to stain «commision inthe army ner Lous XIV Since the Balt of 1781 the middle da hy een ttllyeatuded from the amy. ‘The situation wh Ligh clita pts asain teenth a there was sll a number af Church leaders of plebelan erg such a Bownuet and Flachier, for example in Ue eighteen entry that was hardly any longer the caso. The ively bet the arsoersey andthe bourgesso bacme, on the ane ha ‘more and more ert, but, the other hand, it asumed Sublimated forms of intellectual emulation and crete plicated network of prio relationships in whch erst a epulbion, imitation and rection, respect and resentment, intermingled. The material equality tnd practalsuperoriy the middle elas provoked the nebity to tres the unin their dsent andthe diftrence of tei radon. But withthe increasing similrty of the external conditions of bth casey the host ofthe Inurgeie towards the nobly aso became ‘more intent, So Tong ae they were excluded from cling the stil sale, it never cored to them to compare themes ‘vith the upper easy twas ot wnt the publi ef rng vas given them shat they became relly avere of the eat ‘och injutice ad Bogart regard the pviges ofthe noble {intolerable In a word, the tore the aah lot of sre er, the more ostnately it clang tothe pevleges whi Slllenjoyedand th more ontetatouly it disgayed thomson be ther hand, the more material gods the middle eas suid the more shameful consider the sca disrmination fom which i was suring andl he more exaperatedly fought foe pola aay. DISSOLUTION OF COURTLY ART pec rol of the gees sate bankrupcios ofthe ssteenth ist Te middlas wealth of the Renaiaance bad been ean and was not able to recover during the golden age of srs. and merce when the monard and sates bolts weve dg the big business Not onthe eighteenth onthe worl poly of mercantile giver pad ery introduced id the mil cas, with Ms indiiaa- ‘histo peincpe, come into sow again and alzhough isi ours an indus were able 10 derive considerable thy frages fr thermelves fom the absence of the aritocracy aeredines if, big midlecas capital ist soe during the ce andthe sceeeding period, This régime was in fac the peer rte third estate’ Under Laue XVI the bourgecse of (Betecn régime reached. the senth ofits intellectual and te aa development" Trae, industry, the asks, the ferme the lea profession, Iteratare and ouraalin, that £esy ll the key pons in society, ith the exception ofthe Itating positon in the army the Church and at cour, were {tie foueston, Commercial sctivities developed on an unpre- ‘Sinn sao, ndtiee grew, the barks raped, enormous ‘Site through the bande of the employers and spesstoe. Material needs increased and spread; and-not merely people ike Tener: and texfarmers climbed higher up the sca Inder nd Vied with the nobility im their syle of life but the mide Treon ofthe lourgeisi alo profited from the boom and tok te inrosing prt in cultural ie, The country in which the Fevlution tote out as therefor, by no means economically {chased it wes rater merely a solvent sae witha ich Sli claw. The bourgesse gradually took powession af all the instruments of culare=-t not ony wot the Boks so read then, only printed the pete tab Bought them. Tn the rrclig contary thd sil formed ony comparstively modest ton ofthe ar and reading public, but now it the ealtared Glos por exeallence and becotos the real upholder of eltare. Mon of Volare’ readers already Delong to this clay an Roustes almost exclusively. Croat he greats: at collector ofthe centry, comes from commercial fail, Bergre, the Jett of Fragonard, of ell more humble orgin, Laplace §[ROCOCO, CLASSICISM, ROMANTICISM tho son ofa peasant, and noone knows whose son d’Alembert: ‘The same middle-lass public that reads Voltire's books reads the Latin poets and the French classics of the seventee ‘century and is just as decided about what it rejects as itis in ‘choice ofits reading, It is not much interested in the Gi writers and these now gradually disappear from braves, i despises the Middle Ages, Spain has become a more oF I ‘unknown territory its relationship to Tealy has not yet Aeveloped, and will never become so cordial ae the relat between court society and the Halian Renaissance in the ing two centuries. The gentiltomme has been considered {intellectual representative of the sixtoenth century, the fo Jomme that of the seventeenth, and the ‘cultured? man that i say, the reader of Voltaire that of the eighteonth.!# 1 has asserted that one cannot understand the French bourgeois wit font knosving Voltaire, whom he took for hie eternal model; ‘one cannot understand Voltaire, if ane does not see how rooted he isin the middle class not only by heredity but also hie whole outlok, despite his eeignorial demeanour, his friends and his enormous fortane, His sober classicism, his rmunciation of the solution of the great metaphysical prob indeed his mistrust of anyone who even discusses them, his acute aggressive ond yet thoroughly urbane mind, his antl religioty, with its dislike of any kind of mysticiem, bis antic romanticiam, his distaste for everything obscure, unclrified and inexplicable, his self-confidence, bis conviction that every ‘an be grasped, everything solved, everything decided by the. ‘powers of the reason, his wie scepticism, his sensible acceptance fof the nearest and the accessible, his understanding of the “demands of the day’ his ‘mais il faut eultiver notre jordin’ all ‘that is middle-class, profoundly middle-class even if it docs nat exhaust the characteristics of the bourgeoisie, and even if the ‘subjectiviom and sentimentalism, which Rousseau is to proclaim isthe other, perhaps jus as important side ofthe boungeots mind, ‘The great amagonism within the mile elass was a given fact {rom the very beginning, Rousseaw’s later supporters had not yet bbocome a regular reading public, when Voltaire was acquiring his readers, but they wero already an exactly definable setion of 0 DISSOLUTION OF COURTLY ART society ond they merely had to discover their spokesman in Rove French middle class of the eighteenth century is by no meas any amore vniform than was the Tealian middle class of re fitecnth and sixteenth centuries, To be sure, there is nothing. Uniresyonding to the struggle for the control of the guilds, but there Is just as intonse a eonfict between the various economic Jnveess as there was then, Tt is only that the habit has grown, of speaking of the struggle for liberation and the revolution of, fhe ‘third estate’ a8 a homogeneous movement, but, in reality, the unity of the middle class is restricted to its common front fgsinst the aristocracy and against the peasentry and the urban proletariat; within these frontiers itis divided into a positively End negatively privileged section. There is never any mention ja the eighteenth century of the privileges of the middle class, le pretend never to have heard of them, but the privileged esst every reform that would extend their opportunities tothe ower classes. Allthe middle clas wants is a political democracy, and it leaves its fellow-combatants in the larch as soon as the ‘evolution begins to take economic equality seriously. The society tthe time is, therefore, full of contradictions and tensions it ines a royal house which is forced to represent the interests tf the nobility and those ofthe bourgeoisie by turns, and ends by having both against it; an aristocracy which is inimical to both the Crown and the middle lass, and adopt ideas which lead to its own downfalls and, finally, a middle class which brings its revolution to triumphant eonelusion with the help of the lower dlases, but makes a stand against its own alles and onthe side of its former enemies. So long as these elements dominate the intel- Iretual life of the nation in equal proportions, that is, until the mile of the century, art and literature are in a state of transi- tion and are full of contradictory, often scarcely reconcilable tendencies; they waver between tradition and freedom, form alism and spontaneity, ornamentalism and expresion. And even. inthe second half of the century, when liberalism and emotion- alism got the upper hand, the ways only divide more sharply, ‘but the different tendencies remein sde by side. To be sure, they ‘nderg change offen and clas n putea, Which0CocO, CLASSICIS, ROMANTICISM wea a courty-arsoratic syle, becomes the vec ofthe {the progrentve mide cae ‘The Regence i period of extrsordinarily ively intl scsi, wich tony eco the previous cpa bt roative and raves questions which are to eecapy the ol entury. The dilution in art ofthe ‘rand, cercmanal” ioe hand in hand with the dackening of general dtpiney growing lack of ieligioo, the more tarsained and Eonduct of life. Te beg mith the critcsm of the sade seetine, which attempted to represent the Clascal ein tne valle eld, ere, by ime quite in these er a he ocal potia the time interpreted the absolute monarchy. Nothing bet describes the berlin and elativit of the new age than Statement made by Antine Caypel, which no previous di Gf the Academy would have approved, that pining, Ike human things is mbjet tote thangs of fashions The look expressed in these wore makes isl felt everywhere ft profuction; art becomes more haman, more ace, “inassuming-itisnolongerintendedfor dmigods and super Bat for onary mrtly for weaky son peasure el individuals, Teno longer express grandeur ond power but Beauty and grace of fe, and no longer wants to impress overwhelm but to charm and please the fine period of eign of Lolo XV, circles are formed tte court sli whi the ats find new patton, who are often more gener and have more feeling for aretha the monarchy who i already strugling gait material icale ands dominated by Mme de Mntenon. The Dake of Organs the hep ofthe Ring, tu the Duke of Bourgogne, the son ofthe Dauphin, are te leading personas in thw circle. The Inter Regen already turns agent the rts trend favoured by Las XIV an demands more lighter and ity from his ats, more Sensual and more dalete formal language than in ws tthe court Often the same arts wok forthe King and the Deke nd hange thei syle scoring to the prticlar patron a foe ‘ample, Caypl, who decries the place chepel in Versi Inthe correct cour style punts the Indies in the Palas Royal 2 DISSOLUTION OF COURTLY ART sesh ight. decent meh fr Ce eget Ta ee Tn eae es pe ee ca ie an ena ara tra Se ee goat ber te rae Laer ean hn See ee acetpalderomrsy cide Ser ncaa ae aie wea Le a act en reed ae Panne tae oncom ee cae re ee rants ee ee aire tices See ae tee ire roma er? ee hn ce :r 000co, CLASSICI, ROMANTHCISE tye creel st menrtin Satnerceo gr pel tena Sai rete Pp ce snr te hy cet en ens Pree vat mg cto resin a ite ‘Woz pind the life of sot ito whieh he onl nty fom ct he portrayed an eta sos a xeralpnts af anit with his on am ne ed ny fer to « ipa of tes ch wos pabbly ah one merely analogous to his own subjective ie of fendons Bar Sree tes sons fom the elements tis own hey oy tne, fom sketches ofthe tees inthe Luxesibop af ‘tne which he ould snd ceriily aise very oa ‘ype of character of it owny act enchaigly foe favizonment. The pony of ks ars dc tothe ee ‘his relationship tothe wold to te expenion of he Promise and the inadequacy of it the lays pena Of an inespresible los ada unatainale gat te the bs ledge of a lost homeland aad the Uupian foncnene of hapines. In spite of the delight n the senos andthe be the joyful sarender to velit andthe peste the {ing ofthe earth, ehh frm the immediate of i St he pins fll ot melanchay Tall his pots Acris 'seiety menace by the unreliable nies af ests, Bux what ix expeeed hee sl by no mes Rouweanish fling, by no means the yearning forthe sate "ata, bt onthe contary, longing forthe perenne {he tanga and secure joy of Ising nthe te lan convivial f lover and curs af lve, Watens Sacer, ‘mproprinte form for the expeson of his own atte wich isa compound of optim ad pesto aod dam. he predominant clement ofthe te glance slwoysa te champetre and portrays the amioenents oo Fropleleaing the carter fe of Theeran shepherd sel Sheplers with music, dancing end Snging, i bocce Te deseries the peace ofthe trun, the senso scsi from the great worl and the sl orgeng haynes of eee DISSOLUTION OF COURTLY ART however, no longer the ideal of an idyllic, contemplative om ‘has in his mind's eye, but the desi unt te we = oad i oft Hoy of attest Ganon, bay sys mmsunmness and intligence, This ea hy of ie crested mee nurs sof the Roman Empire, who combined the legend of tite ge tthe pera Hen The only nove, tae eed vith the Roman version, is that the bucolic world is om anise wear the stylish costume of the age, and all that Shepley of the pastoral situation are the conversations of the Torers, the natural framework and the remoteness from the life Jere court and the ety. But is even ell that new? Was not the ofthe from the very beginning a fiction, a playful dissiala- re cojuting ih the iyi ae of innocence ad Spy Te conceal hat eer i hs ce octry, that is since the existence of a highly develo cou fe, cnyon hs ever rly weed teed te Neen ee eal nee! Nene aupieett Hein’ poetry has always been ant ideal in which the negative tee caring of neal aay from the gest orl and Sedorgiaot stony eben td et Ione nde port toimagie onan sian Wich et {kpc of Merton fm the eter of eration wht Mung ts alvantage The nrcins of th painted sd pe Fane les were ntensed by atomting torrent hem, {aired and perfumed ar they wer in tgif fresh hel Tet ance past made; and by enincing the carn of wis thd of nature The fin comained Kom the oust ihe qreiin hh sed nne h el e etn every completed and sopissed etre osor! pore en ok tek on an mos winterraptd history rover vo thousand Jens snc i bginngy i Hellen, Wi th econ of te ery Middle Agey when urn and Soci eget brn era a ie rin every canary. Apart rm the thematic mara o the novel of elivalny, there4e probably no oeher subjectsmatter 'ROCOCO, CLASSICISM, ROMANTICISM that has occupied the literature of Western Europe for 40 id maintained itself against the assaults of rationalism sich tenacity. This long and uninterrupted reign shows ‘sentimental’ poetry, in Sehille’s sense of the word, plays incomparably yreater part in the history of literature ‘natve" poetry. Even the idylls of Thooeritus himself owe t existence not, as might he imagined, to genuine routs in na and a direct relationship tothe life of the common people, but a reflective feeling for nature and a romantic conception of ‘common folk, that is, to sentiments which have their origin i yearning forthe remote, the strange and the exotic, The pe ‘and the shepherd are not enthusiastic about their surroundings about their daily work. And interest in the life ofthe simple f is, as we know, tobe sought neither in spatial nor socal proximi tw the peasantry; it does not arise in the folk itself but in hhigher classes, and not in the country but in the big towns and the courts, in the midst of busting Iife and an overcivili surfeted society. Even when Theocritus was writing his idyl the pastoral theme and situation were certainly no longer novelty; it will already have oceurred in the poetry of primitive pastoral peoples, but doubtless without the note sentimentality and complacency, and probably also. with sttempting to describe the outward conditions of the shepherd life realistically. Pastoral scones, although without the lyr touch of the Zdyils, were to be found before Theocritus, at any rate, in the mime. They are a matter ofcourse in the satyr plays and rural scenes are not unknown even to tragedy." But pertoral scenes and pictures of country life are not enough to produve bucolic poetry; the preconditions for thie are, above all, the latent sont of town and enuntry andthe fsting of doar with But Theocritus stil took a delight in simple descriptions of pestora life, whereas his first independent successor, Virgil, no longer takes any pleasure in realistic description, and the pastoral poem acquires with him that allegorical form which marks the bost important turning pont in the history ofthe genre. If the 1postic conception of the pastoral life represented merely an escape from the bustle ofthe world even in earlier times, andthe desine 6 2 ee nash gow menial fart neo fo" “uation itself Becomes a fiction which enables the poet soni ca nh ae NS rdw mes Segue en ed, te ee he a ee ove gg i orgy Ege es ee A a ad ee i ae Gai Moto Res a FE secre cmd he ey i te ened ane ae A EE ee ee caniatael rece tae aan et etn Ag, ed en nf eee ee pr ee area richer erate a Feet a ee ee imme dp ate get es ae mat eeeNOCOCO, CLASSICISM, ROMANTICISM uci motifs ao ceur inthe Taian Renainsnce short Ii they lok the roman tls with which they recon in the Hil sho pasral novel nd the pstorl dure ono rudy undertandable however, fone co {hoe the short sory i middle-clwe ltorture par excellence nich hae # natural tendoney, whereen postr Fepreents courlyaritocatic genre en inline a tan. This roman tendency If redominant theooghone Pastorals of Lareno di Medi, Sacopo Sannaraoy Coy ‘ist, Tass, Guarini snd Marina, and proves at fashion atthe cours ofthe Kalan Renstsanee, whetieg hrence, Nepls, Urbino, Ferrara or Bologna, conforms ta sd the same model. Pastoral potty is evesjhere the nie oust lie and serves the reader asa sample of coury ma Noone any longer takes the shepherd’ life hterlly, the ‘entionality of the shepherds cmtume i obvious Sat se txiginal purpose ofthe genre; the repudiation of over cil lit, tal into the background, curly forms are sees on acount oftheir contsint, but not on account of tae ar Sy and epi, ede a ha with ts refinement and allgery, it ineragng far and near of the immediate an the unusual, fon of ‘mos popular gente of manners and hat i calvated Portela alfectian Sn Spin, the sea land of our ey fd manners. To begin with, the Italian model wich {0 over Earop ang ith courtly modes of Mie, are fl ven heres bt the indvidealty of the county some through and is exprosed inthe combination uf he elmore the noel of chivalry and the pastoral ‘hie Span hyde romantic and bucolic elements then becomes the bridge betwe the Kalin and the French pastoral novel by which the f Serena of he gene donate eginuings of Trench pastoral poetry go back to Mile Ages and int appear inthe tccah cour a complicated, heterogencoue form, dependent on the cou Chivalry As nthe tls a ogc of ela egy {he bucolic station inthe Bench prowess as Wie felilment dream of redemption fro the all to wild and come 18 sso. oF eponEL aa Teifechepherdess, he fels exempt from the commands ofcourtly iin hr elem te ent ie a nd Si ee 5 el tenenlan near ioe tera ey rt edelge fr i lo i fo hi ee a ee ig ep sa oo rts fen ey i gel sceslgtet anlyri deme chek nd cies fm ii ems an rune cae Se Baer ol Seat eee et cect et ee, Guna Dem Se peor ere a in ea hg te cir ene pnt oer iow ge mere he seer eT pe me ene secre cape aefoe oie life: Such mati are, of ease, nt a hardin ih he oa Of the poral agus beryl» depth whieh ne DISSOLUTION OF COURTLY ART sation, which had, in consequence, always a more of lest seal uover symbolicalcharecter. Ta ether words, the gd all to clear purpose an allowed of only one valid potocaion twas immeditaly exhausted, i hept no secret peer resulted, even in a poet like Theocritus, in a rather n= ‘efronisted though extroerdinarily attractive plcture of reality. Gera never overcome the limitations of allegory and Tt re- 1 el sport, lacking in tension and pregoancy. Watteo is ‘Bun co snceed in giving ta symbole! depth, and he does 0, ‘fore ll, by eachading from it all Uhoe features which cannot eT pe eanccived ass simple, dirct reproduction of realty. "Te eighteenth century was bound, by its very nature, to ead rvaisance ofthe pastoral, For Iteraare the formula Wevecome oo narrow, but painting fest had enough fe in or new beginning tobe made. The upper clases were Kving extremely arial soil conditions In which everyday re: Indonhips wore very largely metamorphoved end sublimatods tat they no longer beloved in the deeper purpose ofthese forms, fd merely regarded them as the rales ofthe game. Gallantry tvs one af the rules ofthe game of love, jus asthe pastoral had Tiveys boon a sportive form of erotic ar. Both desired to Keep Jove ate csanee, to dives it of ts directness and pasionateness. Nothing was, therefore, more naturel than that the pastoral fhould reach the zenith of its development in the century of fpllesry. But just asthe costume worn by Wattea’s figures came fashion only aftr the mastor's dou, so the gente of the fle glante’ only found a wider publi in the Inter oe. Lanere, ater and Boucher enjoyed the fruits of the innovation hich they themselves merely trivialized. A his ie, Watteau Himself romsined the painter of comparatively smal ice: the collecor Jlionne and Crozat, the archaeologist and art patron Gaunt Caylus, the at dealer Grsint, were the oly faithful porters of his at He was mentioned but seldom in contemporary Eterticsm and then usually reprovingly. Even Diderot failed to recognte his importanes and rated him lower than Tener. ‘The Academy did not make things difficul for hin, iis true even though, faced with an art sich at his, it held fast to the Uraitional hierarchy ofthe genres nd continued to regard the 21ROCOCO, CLASSICISM, ROMANTICISM “petits genres! with contempt. But it was in no way dogmatic than the educated public in general, which sill formed, in theory at leas, tothe classical doctrine. In all proc ‘questions the atitudo of the Academy was extremely liberal number of its members was unrestricted and admission was nno means dependent on acceptance of its doctrine, Tt was ‘pethaps so indulgent ofits own accord, but, at any rate, itr nized that it was only by adopting such a liberal ati thae could keep itof alive in this period of ferment and renewals ‘Watteau, Fragonard and Chardin became members of Academy without any dificulty, just like all the other fa artists of the century, to whatever school they belonged. To sure, the Academy tll represented the ‘grand got” as much ever, but in practice it was only a small group of ts members kept to this principle. Those artists who enld not count on pu commissions, and had their buyers outside court circles, did ‘worry much about official recognition and cultivated the ‘pti genres’ which although theoretically they did not enjoy im fsteem, were ‘all the more sought after in practice, ‘To 1 belonged the ‘feos galantes’, which were intended from the ve outset for a more liberal cirle than the court, although it wa ‘only for a short time longer that those interested in this kind: Picture represented the artistically most progressive section of Public ‘But painting till kept to erotic subjects for a long literature, above all the novel, as the more mobile and, economic reasons, more popular type of art had already tun its attention to subjects of mare general importance, ‘The li tinism of the century did find its representatives in literature ji (Choderlos de Lacos, Crébillon fls and Restié de la Bretonne it played no decisive part in the work of the other novelist of age. In spite of the audacity of their subjects, Marivan a Prévost never attompt to produce grossly erotic effects, Whil therefore, in painting the connection with the upper elases co tinues unimpaired for the time being, the novel approaches world-view of the middle classes. The transition from the novel of chivalry to the pastoral novel marked the first step in this direction, in which the foregoing of certain medieval-romanesque 2 DISSOLUTION OF coURTLY ANT decent was already exresed. Tho pastoral novel discuss sey roughly ft framonork, problons of rel fi hacriton, tough in fanart dagobe, rea conten cary tm te hora point of Tense ae ie 2 Necturey patting te fare development Th pastoral Fou? go apmeaher modern rela ins fr the eto, sore i ie Ue, hit Icalid™ But the mt Seca fact in sation tothe farther knory of erature sere writes the fet genuine ove anv It gos witheat agit lave aeay cen the ovel err han thi at Jit e'fe unre isto work of eny considerable ow ove ‘thc msn sae. Ont Yom now curds de the ove theme Tete ant remain fr oer tne contre he diving fre in UEtvel swell sn the drama, Sine the bores epic and Mat iterature hn arys been esentaly ove poy nly Sie mont reco pio re there any sig ofa change: Love ‘tthe incr of heroism even i he “Aud ut ladon Sie tnt toeshero in our tem, the iat unlerly the Est Setncls lve of He psn ihe precursor of the Chvaie Dh rien and the acer of Werther “the French por novel ofthe seventeenth century i the Tuer tied age; the sey ich as en exaed in Thr ore rests ie nertons at eds eet aed tied converution ofthe amorous hepers, Bata on 8 oe rscovered andthe mas of enue of Lous XIV evaen it tone arbidony, the reaction ogi he precous noel bea tol th gon ar nnd wi the tacks on rect whieh ff being made by Bolen tnd Mole, Toe psoral novel of Fre © scored by the here tad love novel of Ln Ca Frenbio ond Ml de Sculry «gene mich ck up the oon Tiread of the Amadis novel fhe novel again eas with pore ovety deserter foreign lants end. srange Peps Feros sigan and impresive ches and character terol iy, However; no longer to romantic recess ofthe tore: of chivalry but rater the stern sense of dy of the Urges of Cale, Like the curt drama, a Calrenbde® erie novel stout to Bea schoa of will yower ond magoanin ie the sme ager ee war ao exresed in Nine BNococo, CLASSICISM, ROMANTIGISAT de a Fayette’ Prince de Clive. Here ten the question wag af the conic beroen honour and pasion, and here oo sro wiumphant over lov. Inthe age of here smal, we Cveryherecontrnted by the sane dear analy of all ‘otf the sme rationalise dseton of te puns, the Stern lect of moral ideas. Perhaps there i to be ‘more intimate tat, more perwnal nuance, a moe fspet of the develpeent ofthe felings in Mime def Fy seesionlly, bt even inher work everything seoms to be into the sharp light of comciousnss an anlyia reason lovers never fr a mnoment ind themeles the detente vc ‘oftheir passions they arent incurbly, nt irretrievably To te Rent and Werther and even Des Grieux an Sine But in aditon tail thse bucolic ic and heroic forms, there are certs phenomena even in the seve century which herald the later mialoclas novel, There Ahore all the pzarsque ove, which die fom the fd {ble types mainly inthe everyday vealy fs moti reference forthe lowlands of fe. il Bla athe Di Batear sll belong to thi genre and certain traits een Stendals and Batacs novel are reminicent of the nao of the peareue view of le: Precious novels ane ‘ead for along time in she weventeenth entary, they testa Feud far nto the eighteenth century, bu Sey afe no ly ‘writen afer 16605" The wi arial arctica af spe Foor tra ere mies one Far already gives to his unheroitnrormantic novel hep ‘manner the specie tile Le Roman bowrgens. Thin dep Tomever, juste only bythe mas daa with fo te sill a mere jurtapsiton of episodes chetches und cara ‘form, in eter wordy which fas noting in common i onceirated “dramatic novel of madara times, where the Fevolve aound the fate of © peincpal horace compl absorbing the reader’s interest, eae "i “The novel which, deste ts opulrity, represents an inferie tnd in some respects sll backward fora the seventean Century, booms te lending ierary genre in te eighteen {owt belong nt only the mnt apeant ey ee ba 3 DISSOLUTION OF COURTLY ART sewhich the most important and realy progrosive Terry sew pos The igeeth cea thar ie er pec is an age of pycology, Lage, alae, ey Diderot Rouse, ee blo ool Ber and Mariaut cd witha maa for yee re alan, analy and comments onthe spa a tags irs incon He taken every motte of se cation fx rye couierton, an he never Me oppartay of expong the mcr of is earacters Fi logy of Moan and hs contemporain above lo Peer much richer finer and more dflrenned than was Flv agy of th erenteenth century the characters se ee Fr uli steretyped quay hey ners bce mere ected, ore conraicury and mate the chara deg Seal erate sey le mates somes se se Even Longe ell provider salmon exuively ith ccntrncaresren an to ot Marna end Bure that we have real portraits with indistinct, fleeting con- {andthe grade, toned our ofr ile bios Ifthe ny ondrcin ta separating the modern or he Merson tent rans there, From now ga enol spa ‘ito, scholgeal eal sltunreeling previously es fievepentatn of eter happening aod patel procoaes Simo in concrete setion ft ue that Mavens and Privo sil owe within Ue ations ofthe analyal and Iafonise poycogy ofthe sereteonh cntay ad rally Mind closer to Racine and Ea Mecefoueaul than tothe gest, fevelss f the nineteenth entry: Like the mera od rama of thecal pero, they il elit up the charac, ino thi components and develop them rom fo sere princes ised the otal enter of fein which hey and F's oe uml tho nineteenth comury thatthe doe sop tows nde impesionstc ychelogy taken nd Bere, nee eonnpion of petal probity eee, trich Toke the whole af previ Herts seem ox of dat What crite wr gs modern inthe write of the eightsenth tomar sto dering and humoneinget thet here They fron erie ‘nd bing them Gert uy tere es he Fa[ROCOC, CLASSICISM, ROMANTICISM essential progres of prychologiel naturalism singe the Sion of love inthe work of Racine. Privo already shows overs se of the grestpssions, above all the humnting ‘hain stuation fra tan of bing in lve. Love is nee 2 ner diene, a dingrac ait has dsrbed bythe Ra Torts I gradually develop int the “amourpason of Sten tnd takes onthe pathological features whic are to cheer lore inthe iterate of the inetoenth contary: Marinaux sot yet know the power ofthis love which taco itis {ravenous animal and never leaves goof thom agai but Prost t has already taken pnession ofthe mind, Fhe age nightly lve is over the fight against méalianee Degas degradation of love here serves merely as a soil deer ‘mechanism. Tho soit of medivel feu scey and that of the courtly sce ofthe seventeenth century was threatened by the dangers of loves thy needed no such def fagsnst the exces of prodigl wns, But now when the roti Tetween the sca castes ae cased more and mote freques and not only the not ut ho the bourgecise has to ef 4 privileged onion in sac, the excommunication of thew incalculable love-pssion, which trestone th peevling der, begins, anda Iitertare arses whieh fully Heads to ‘Dame ar emda ant or Gabo filme. Prt sd ‘si the unconscious instrument of the conservatism which Dumas fs ered serves consusy and with conviction TRowsco's exhibinivm is already heralded in Privo ‘Manan Lescaut. Te her of the novel no lenge spare hi inthe los with the description of his ngorous love and en Shows a masochist delight n making coneson ofthe wean Of his charseter. The foudnee for sec “mixtures of small anu greats ofthe contempt and the eimabl’ as Lassi ‘vas to eal thom, with speci reference to Werther i alvalp Shown in Merivaux. The author of the Vie de Marian fe trendy conversant wth the it weakness of even great sul an not only draws hi M. do Clio «nature in whom ata tive and repuhive feature are mined, bat alo desrbes hig herine asa character ho cannot be summed up onthe spas of the moment. Sheisan honest and sincere gil but she is never sd 25 DISSOLUTION OF COURTLY ART antes 110 do oF say anything that might injure he. She coco trumpards and piss them cleverly. Marva ie Jace Beretta an age of trun ad erst. fey ho gives his all apr tothe progress, alas trend mata a tar of famed, he ities Bi phological observations in the old forms of intrigue. The new Fe omer iat lov, wh had revily always sya seonary ein comedy, moves thn Conte of ren and wth te com of hitman trong sa ompltes sump progres in modern Hertarees sent hich i ttabutable tothe fat at now even seri enmedy become more completed and love Hs essa a aiferentiatedsracture tt the come fat es sr ectesare ncaa damage ions and elated watts But the nw character in Marie the lero set above alls tempt tn dense fs figures a ly mined beings eng on impale derived rly fom thie St postin* en juorMlte’e characters are in ove bt Sot Ring in tove never the thome sound whieh ht lye ‘eve san te sacl onion ofr ate ceiiy ‘Shen be never the on of tho tama confi in Ma Siu’ inde amour tds, on the eberha, te wale lor hinges on play with ell sppeeanes, araly one foeton whether te principal chaacerarein fc the terns {Top duguse themuelves tobe orth masters woe Sent they leer ‘Siva ha often Been compared with Watias, an the siilry af Ut and pgunst Sls certainly sggent the imprison, But ey so cntfont uth the same prem of frrcchlngy, for they bot expres themselve,n fall harony trth the oatenions of gond eck, in exomely clad Erm ole min of ho oS meld tape in the remstnces Thro his Hie, Wate ely apprected by only fo ant wellknown Ut Masi ous reputedly fled wh his pay. His contemporaries found Ne tengag compbeaed, fected nd Obure a snmp fliterig Sparling, nimble logue es inerivandages which fra not intended Ss an apprecation, eihough Sae-Deave 7ROCOCO, CLASSICISM, ROMANTICISM asserts, with some justification, that itis no small matter wh the name of a writer becomes a household word, And even if the ease of Watteau, one were to allow the explanation, whieh no explanation, to stand, that he was to great for his age, ‘hat great art ‘goes against human instinct’ that kind of ex tion is in no way applicable to Marivau, who was not a writer. They were both the representatives of an age of tr tion, and were never understood during their lifetime; this nothing to do with their artistic quality, but was bound up their historical réle as precursors and pioneers, Artists ofthis ki never find an adequate public. Their contemporaries do tunderstand them, the next generation enjoys their artistic i inthe diluted form ofthe epigones, and posterity, whieh sometimes in a more favourable positon to appreciate works, can hardly any longer bridge the historical gap separates thom from the present. Hoth Watteau and Marva were not discovered until the nineteenth century, by seurs whose taste was schooled by impressionism and at ati ‘when their art had beon long since out of date thematically. ‘The rococo isnot a royal art, at was the baroque, but the of an aristocracy and an upper mile clas, Private patrons di place the king and the state in the field of buildig activi “hotels? and “petites maisons' are erected instead of castles places; the intimacy and elegance of boudoirs and cabinets are ferredtocold marbleand heavy bronze; grave and solemn colour brovn and purple, dark blue and gold, are replaced by light p colours, grey and silver, mignonette green and pink. In contrast tw the art of the Régonce, the rococo grins in preciousness a brilliance, playful and eapricioss charts, but also in tender and spirituality; on the one hand, it develops int the society a par excellence, but, on the other, it approscies the mid taste for diminutive forms. It is a highly-skilled decorative ar piquant, delicate, nervous, by which the massive, statuesquey realistically spacious baroque is replaced; but it is eulfiient to think of artists like La Tour or Fragonard, to remember that the facility and the verve of this artis, at the sare time, a tramp ‘of naturalistic observation and representation. Compared with the wild, excited visions of the baroque, with their tamultwoas 8 DISSOLUTION OF COURTLY ART ving ttm omar of rary i eveything yo overly py the rococo seems feeble, petty and trifling, but no verde baroque can wield brash with gester ate and miance than Tiepolo, Piazzetta or Guardi. The rococo really ca .nts the last phase of the development which starts se stars sone he ams reng Fe re cer ae eae tape and og tn the nde Te nn eso he pie ey net el te a a te nao the Reta fly ted ee even the cece ores Se cane nal ecdocare ack rete salen han tein eco Se et een inte mis af he ce re ethingfundamenaly nom, wmeting sbiliely nm th Renae ak beget ae ee de bgng ef cor pom bard i I tk the loner en on by Sead eh a Se tie led os I senate stripe ol esvan roo teat vies bs nepracd w en ts cn Fee ae Rena and of the eels Ba ary a fal gro ol arene eo ct ol perl ton, of ease es soreoiantiy Eeenapeie eerie attend cada, Sacen ed Sear cane res ng tas ar ese a fan tannic wile fe Ren rs tare ness neencoytnanoac ey Sereda alee ar pane mich eco Se Fiamma emen spur The el ue Feeney innein vo be given the ilo Bering, chin eid of oljec ot lj, to rena Set eran sas escts Salt pues tony a ot aedornng te Cosco of at brqee cae nifty ta entrenen e Sa an ee eine selcigue an rane ih es tenerated uaeprertarencica nesta 2ROCOCO, CLASSICISM, ROMANTICISM class art than the formal idiom of the Renaissance end Deroque. The very expressiveness of this instrament Teads to dissolution of the rococo, which is bent, however, by its own ‘of thinking on offering the strongest resistance to irat and sentimentalism, Without this dialectic between more oF automatically developing means and orginal intentions i possible to understand the significance of the rococo; not until ‘comes to see it as the result of a polarity which eoresponds to antagonism of the society of the same perio, and which it the connecting link between the coutly baroque and mi lass pre-romanticism, ean one do justice to its complex nat The epicuresnism of the rococo stands, with its sensual and aestheticism, between the ceremonial style of the rational perfection, eventhough a reality it monly lve oe ‘own pleasre. Under Los AV tho sme nobility profess eda hh ao i hamory with he ota wo vray of life of the rich bourgeois, The dct of Tale ‘No one who did not ive before 1780 haows the swectaca lie givesonean ide ofthe ind fife which thee dees The Snveetnes af af ous, taken s meaning the nes af women; they area in every eicurean cule the popular pastime, Love has lst both it “healt” tmpulstvenea fn its dramatic powionstnesy it has became sphiicady ‘musing, dil, a habit where wed to be a peso, There junta nd tt ete pte tthe eo ecimes the favourite sujet ofthe plastic arts, Whereter oe lols, whether he ese in ate apartment the ate ‘he ston, the pasting in boudoir the engevings i bale ‘ho porcelain groups and ronze gure on mantles, every where one ses naked women, swelng thighs ae Iie, tae Covered breasts, erms and ls folded in embraces, moma wih ‘men and women with women in countes vaio an ele ‘eptions Ny not arbcome shebang {Gree reduce an rte fot merely by puting thee Stes on again, Bethe el of mele ty to a os nee ithas become more quant, more sophisticated. Ta the ae of tie 30 DISSOLUTION OF COURTLY ART erogs, mature and welldeveloped women mere prefered, bors er young gi ofton il elon elven, are pnd. we eo in roo ei art steed fr ek aed ad ress mea of inten the eapacy fr enjoys, Setar ha et it to ee only tobe expec hat ‘hee at ofthe mide cles the aan and rant SHhseid, Céealt and Dears, the more mature, more otal iy of woman comes bak int fashion ag “Tne recon dovloe a sikng form oar pour Par seonil at of beny ts aflected and igh, grace ‘iiinelotion frmal language, rpc every Rind of Sexan- Wikio lis ‘art pour Pet in ome Tope even more ietine end more vpontanoous than tat of the sineteenth ‘trary snc ere programe and no ere derand tt She noted attitude of «volo, fred and piv soy, ich tune to art for please and ret. Te Foren scaly epee the Sal phase in clu of tts in which the Foci of bentyl de wnvesrcted ey, help in Pichon nd artic’ are ynonyrmows, Tn the work of Wate, Rameau and Marva, and oven that of Pagonsr, Charin and Mozart, everything i ‘beaut and melodious, Tetioven, Stendhal and Delazix thie by x0 means ay the cne—art bcos ive combative, and the ferezpecion visser th feral atocure Bi he rors lt the lst univer syle of Western Europe; a syle which tat iy univer recognied and moves vain a generly speak tog uniorm even over the hse of urge, bate alo Unreal athe sue dat ie the common popes fal ged tris and can be accepted hy ther withowt reserve, After the otc her is a sch anon of frm no each nivrally valid trend afar From the nineteenth entry wards the tet teach single artist income so personal that ho has to strggle for his ow means of exrewion tnd can no oger sta ey tae ltions; he regards every pro-etablihed form reer Father than ely Tnpresioa ga eres fy univers region, bt the relation ofthe dividual arto that move Inet is no longer wholly nproblematay and theve i no such thing asa neni formula in he roscn sense. Tn the 3ROCOCO, CLASSICISM, ROMANTICISM ‘second half of the eighteenth century @ revolutionary dl ‘took place; the emergence of the modern mile clas, with f individualism and its passion for originality, put an end to idea of style as something consciously and deliberatcly held ‘common by a cultural community, and gave the idea of inte tual property its current significance Boucher is the most important name in connection with i tho masterly technique whi gives the art of a Fragonard and Guard that quality of Certainty in the execution. He is the individually insigniti representative of an extraordinarily significant artistic com ‘on, and he represents this convention in such a perfect way hhe attains an influence unlike that of any artist sinee Le Bi He is the unrivalled master of the erotic gente, of the genre painting most sought after by the fermisrs genera, then vihes and the more liberal court circles, and the crestor of, amorous mythology which, next to Watteau’s ‘fétes galenter provides the most important subject-matter of rococo painting “He transfers the erotic motifs from painting to the graphic a and the whole of industrial art, and makes a national style out re peinture des seins et des cul’. Naturally, it isnot the whole of the art-minded public i France that sees Boucher as its lade ing painter; there isa cultured middle section of the bourgeois ‘whicl has already been having tssay in literatre fora long time past, and which now goes its own ways in art. Greuze and (Chardin paint their didactic and realist pictures for this publie ‘To be sure, their supporters do not all belong tothe middle classes but also to those who provide the public of Boucher and Fragone ard, Fragonard, for his part, often conforms to the taste whieh the ‘bourgeois’ painters stive to eatisy, and motifs are to be found even in Houcher which are not so far removed from the ‘orld ofthese painters. His ‘Breakfast’ in the Louvre, for example, can be described as @ scone from middle-class, albeit upper middle-class life; itis, at least, already genre painting end no longer the representation of a cereinouy, “The break with the rococo takes place in the second half of the century; the cleft between the art of the upper classes and that of the middle classes is obvious. The plating of Greuze 32 ie einen ey om icy rg the a we eel Tea a ree en al in Fe gk ee ried ae ara! le TN nea Sony among ec obser ee a an a ma en he ee ae sei en ey co te ee eaeROCOCO, CLASSICISM, ROMANTICISM to mate art, the great matc-maker, a choo of virtue, if tondemod Boucher and Vanloo on account of their at thoi empty cay, tought deterity and their Uber them he lays ad in mind the “panishment ofthe tran ‘nore concretely, the introduction ofthe middle cles ite worl of rt inorder to lead itt place inthe sum is {gens the art of the roeae was morely a stag i the of the revolution which was aleady under wok 2. THE NEW READING PUBLIC tlc els height cntary pases rane to easel socially tnd plealy more grea Englnd, The grat timate moves are hee ae Inde ofthe Gntry, but the elghenmene ake ees ‘eine fh oy the rv build up a legend around English Hberalsmre legend nly pry crrrond orally. The doplapment Sf the uphaer f cutue by Engle rere hed is he the decadent othe each al hase ote lang ower and, honey the wghtentheomary nes the soe Engund oth in ple andin the ars und Secs Thee logo the Mngt authority, which in Hance ret deci, beams wares of ower in gland wha me ing lier wit mn uneraandng of te ona ok development nd scapecyfor adsping tenia: tay ready otake over tosen of govrameit Pane {orth npn oft rp pon ot amas aod Wher eeongee. wenpes, sping seas yorted the Tudor in their fight nine the feudal artery {hefiegn fn andthe Ramat Chtcs sansthecomaereaT Indusval mile clay represented in Parana oe ale the ber! bai, ners inthe somone aoe Ofte bourgeois, fecgaznd hat a feh er ee ta own digit Uni tovars the end of te aren ken here aa clos comunity of itrets betwee the mae NEW READING PUBLIC od thee clases. English capitalism as sil in « primitive, a Neaous Hage of Hs development and the merchants gladly aapred te confidential advisers of the Crown in joint piatical perros The parting of the ways took place only when capital- sue gan 10 follow more rationaistic methods and the Crown fam Mier needed the asstance ofthe middle class against the Ripple aritocracy. The Stuarts, encouraged by the example of caPrenel absolutism and believing that they had an ally the ranch Ling, carelesly threw away both the loyalty of the middle Fre and the support of Parliament. They rehabilitated the Sit feudal nobility asa court nobility and laid the foundations ary now period of ascendancy for this clas, to whom they ge bound by stronger feelings and more permanent common Peres than to their predecessors’ comrades in arms in the vite of she middle class and the liberal gentry. Until 1640 the eudal nobility enjoyed considerable privileges and the state not fhly provided for the continuance of the latifundia but tried to (Geute the great landowners ofa share in the profit of capitalistic hnerpises by monopolies and other forms of protectionism. This ‘ery practice, however, was fraught with disastrous consequences [pr the whole system, The economically productive clases were by no means prepared to share their profits with the favourites tf dse Crown and protested against interventionism in the name tf freedom and justice slagans which they continued constantly to use when they themselves had become the beneficiaries of economic prvi "There is, as Tocqueville remarks, almost no pliticl question which is not connected in some sway with the imposition or the ranting of taxes, AE any rate, problems of taxation dominated Fublic Ife in England from the end of the Middle Ages and ircame in the seventeenth century the immediate cause of the revolutionary movements, The same middle class that granted taxes to the Tudors without any fuss, and was ready to bear them in even greater measure in the years of the Civil War, refused themn to Charles I because of his reactionary, ati-middle- ‘lass policy. When James Il, a generation later, called on the ‘council of the City of Landon to protect him against William of Orange, the citizens of London refused him their help and 3%ROCOCO, CLASSICISM, ROMANTICISM preferred to suppl the intruder with the means necessary tess hit ware binning of tat alliance between Le ste cme cae ch gure th capital andthe continsane of the opal hows in England ‘Theremin of fandlom, of which dea sep meson ‘hundred year ltr in France, were already destroyed in Iau inthe period of revolution beoween 1640 and 1600; bat oh counts the Revlon rasa cla struggle, n which Clone tied to capital defended thelr enone ners aga Srolim, pure landed. property and, above ally aginst Ghee The grest comic, which dominates the poli life of seveutecth and eightonth centre, wae waged in Bay ‘tween th Cov and the cure mbiiyy on te one se the canes fatrested in capital, on the othe, but in rea float three dierent, ecnomiily antagonist groupe Against each oer the ig landowner the burgeoi ali Sth the captliiallynided nobly andthe already Complex group of all radesmen, tows labourers and pees But inte ightnenth cntury ti ter atgory wes tot me ‘None much ether ba Parament or ines, ‘The Parliament that met ater 1088 wos by no means ‘representation of the people’ in ou seas ofthe terns was toeatbldh capitan onthe rune of theo feudal dr to matilize the predominance of the economically pred Clements over the parse clases in sympathy wth sla tnd the eels! hierarchy. The Revelation did not resale 4 new ditributon of conomie propery, but treated rights fevedom which fielybeneited the wile nation andthe wh clon word or even if thee rights could at ist be ener ‘nly imperfect, they sige, neverteles, the end of esl royal power and the beginning of « develapment which within tho seed of demcracy. Patient wanted, above all {exert a eonservng nunc, that i to reat condition unde ‘ich the elections would retain dependent on commercially ated landed property andthe commercial etl asocatd Wi 1 The antagoniv between the Whigs and Foie was a conics of secondary nportanee within the comman ene ofthe dae 3 NEW READING PUBLIC seein Paslinment, Whichever of the two partes mas at “erm pala le mas led by the artocrecy hich hed fa sary infaence onthe clacton nd made the mide cla is sea Sven power pel from te Tors fo the Wig 3 pant tha the dination encouregedcomener sa Sd dsnt rather then pore landed opety andthe Gaia Church; pramentary goverment ay however seg roof aigarhy sever The Whigy no wore Bieta Porlunent vithout« monchand without reac “izes than tid the Freee monarchy witout aParament Tarp uty thought Paiament wa Jomourati copay a rardedt merely athe guarantee of te own plot sel cin Crown, Futhermoty Parament retained this at ter theongowt the eghoenth contary. The country wer eet aernately by afew doen Whig and Tory famles ho, Tin thar frst inthe Hose of Cade snd thee younger Trin the Commony menapled the whole of ple! i $Pevthidsofthe Members of ardament wer sin nominated Ti he ros chown by not ine than 160,00 leroy and favo tei vote re sosied copy, ‘he cnr ich Sade the tance dependent inthe fe place on ground rex, feu «predominant plas in Parlament forthe lndcowning {Sve fan the ery ot: Bat in spoof th lined fence fhebuyingot yee snd corruptly Members of Paomen, Jan wialeny inthe eigteenthcntryammdern nani {pal roca of eration trom te sli of medieval At Sy rns tecices enjoyed a porn redone waknowa the yt of Earopey and the socal pvges tere whch Engl were bad on the mere owtershipof land endo! ain Frc, on mystzaltrtsights" made iesero recone the lower cles to the Strmsally re elastic cl dincions “Toe Lnglh nial order of the eighteenth century as oien tet compel wth conditions in Rowe inthe nt pried of he Rep the fay however, tht the onganeton of Roman sry with enator cits apes a pobre este to a cotnin enon athe caer te periamentry cc te moneyed cae and theo in England tn rly be sid to be omarhble in ielfhis wigan EdROCOCO, CLASSICISM, ROMANTICISM Sn fact characteris of proc of quaint has ot yet begun. What gives paicance t tho parallel between England and Rome tmergence ofthe srisacracy asthe clas by which puna ‘s"dominated, and the thoroughly Mud Founda bet the pains andthe capitalists. But the relations bet these ses andthe ple ater diferent in the taco Teistrue tat the Roman authors of the prod mention he just ab veldom as. do the English writers of the igh century but whit the polsurat constantly orupes a sttenton ia Rome, playset no prea alli nglh pa Another peelrity distinguishing Engl from Romana tu not only fom Romi that the obit, which ma fy becomes lnnpverted under tnilar canons, is wealth and remains the wel-tovo cas in Engload Fuling elas inthis uty shows it poe sds nly Alen the bourgeoisie Yo earn and by tel nrg hn ‘ft bt by renouncing of ie owa acd the fizal yiogs ‘which the French srsocraey clings mow firmly of alls France only the por pay tae i England only the re ‘hic does not mean tha the sitsation of the por went ny beter, but the budget semaine balanced andthe mast graceful privilege ofthe nobly appear. In England held by « commercial srsticaey which probably doe Ma fool end think more humanely than the arisberaey ia genta but whieh, dhanks to te busts experience, has more ens of. fan indontands in good time that fs imteret ate eal wit thw ofthe ste The univers erling tendon of the age hich influences everything encopt the dierengy Teemeen rch and por, ase tre rel free in England than ebewhere, and crests for tho fist time modern Seal telaonship bated esentallyon oper. The lak of distance Bevreen the diferent levels the caval hierarchy is guarontend aot only y a seis of intermediary grates but abo by he indeiable nature of th individual cepa themselves The English ‘obity i hereditary nobly bu te te of peer lays pass oly tothe eldest say ther is harly any difereace Tetmeen the younger sos andthe erinary genty. But the 38 NEW READING PUBLIC ‘poundaies dividing the lower nobility from the immeditely etrior classes are also fuid. Originally the gentry was identical in he “quirearchy"; gradually, however, it absorbed not only ‘he local notabiities but also all the elements of society which ae g aiferentiated from the manufacturing classes, the small [atesmen and the ‘poor* by reason of property and culture. lence the concept ofthe gentleman lost all legal significance and ocame indefinite evon with reference toa certain fixed standard Brie, Membership of theruling class was more and moredepond- Shr ou a common cultural level and ideological agreement. That Gxplnins, shore all, why the transition from the aristocratic jren to bourgeois romanticism in England was not bound up ith the kind of violence to cultural values that cccurred in France or Germany. "The cultural levelling process in England is expressod most strikingly in the rise of the now and regular reading public, by ‘which i to be undersiood a comparatively wide circle reading Ghd boying books regularly and thereby assuring a number of ‘writers a livelihood fre from personal obligations. The existence Uf this public is dey frst ofall, to the increasing prominence of the well-to-do middle class, which breaks tho cultural pre= imgatives of the aristocracy and show a lively and ever-growing interes in Kterature. The new upholders of eultare can produce no individual personalities ambitious and rich enough to come forward as patrons on the grand scale, but they are numerous ‘enough to guarantee a sale of books sulcient to provide writers ‘vith a living. The objection to the explanation of the existence ofthis public as Being due to the presence of an economically, tecially nd politically iafluential middle class, and the argument ‘thatthe mile class had already become important in the seven- teenth century and that its cultural function in the eighteenth ‘anno, therefore, be derived simply from the improvement of itesocalporition,¢# are easily refuted. Inthe seventeenth century lantsic culture was limited to the court aristocracy above all because of the puritanical outlook of the middle clas. Circles fonteide the court themselves gave up the function they had faltilled in Elizabethan cultures they had first to regain their place in cultural life, that is, to traverse a road which could ”ROCOCO, CLASSICISM, ROMANTICISM follow on from their fresh economic and social rise only af certain interval. The prosperity ofthe middle elass had tos land become firmly established before it could again become basis of intellectual leadership. Finally, the aristocracy itself 10 adopt certain espets of the bourgens outlook on life, in to form a homogeneous cultural stratum with the middle and in order adequately to strengthen the reading public, ad ‘ould not happen until after it had begun to pertiipate jn busines life of the bourgedisie. ‘The former court aristocracy had not constituted a real ing public itis true that i somehow looked after its writers, it did not regard them as the producers of indispensable only at servants whose service could also be dispensed with certain circumstances. It supported them more for reasons prestige than because of the real value oftheir accomplishene At the end of the seventeenth century the reading of books not yet a very widespread recreation; as far as secular bell Teutres wore concerned, which consisted very largely of fashioned stories of love and marvels, only people of the uy classes with no other ccupetion could be considered potent readers; and learned books were read only by scholars, literary education of women, who were to play such an imy part in the literary life of the following contury, was stil de tive. We know, for example, that Milton's elder daughter en not write at all and that Dryden's wife, who, incidentally, ea from an aristocratic family, had a desperate struggle tm the grammar and spelling of her mother tongue.* The kind of book tht had a wider public in the seventeenth the beginning of the eighteenth century was the edifying Tigious tract; secular fiction formed only an unimport of the total hook-production.«® The turning away of public from devotional books to secular bellesltires, which u about 1720 still dealt mainly with moral subjects and only I began to treat more trivial themes, can, contrary to Shoe assumption, be atuibuted only indiretly to Walpoe'spoitcae ing of the ‘Church and to the free-thinking activities of the Anglican clergy. The liberal policy and secular outlook of the High Church were merely symptoms of the enlightenment, 40 NEW READING PUBLIC sas nt tor wus nthng ore an he aol et ne cata af lo no hw ae ott Ce ee oe lees meta ee Poceant le co eeu kept hin ithe deems at Se ee cai ace Seng a ee si iemot apilcan eal een eine of literature. Without the publicity they received from en ees of Boor ad Rchbe wand ay te PE eh pp cde om, aT a tar of rod Ton uel ip sore eal er tos poe wi Fee ne Te ba tate ma ate read Fle yn roeF th are econ rng aedy a etc raiser cee eee, ee at ate cecttiee tr aed hee acted iy ane koaee ioe herded I ea ldg Os Sie ole oe Ai a, og pe frie ho peels heh eo ee a ni ede a Fee i eatin roc imohan ees tet sete oe eects eee hte aioe BaD ish an ol bee foalameialy, ot asses ae cay aang god ae tae eta yovce an hr ae se ost Te rida ocr city niet k Te st imeatitiniog iad ene ae a hela one ag ee Se Te cy nce pay pel ea ote ee a ee ee Sey il cabernet eed ear susan a he pedals i Se ee sari deve ace eet lgueaod hates cay at Te etree tagth aot at SRE cet be hawt ok sewer ey goalie ot iret puke nisieti one Ware fro te bool creer of roe so See ates tis na a wees ‘4nocoeo, and amateurs who ty to ditingush themeles from ord troras by their catia! eduaton, their fasdios tase {heir playful and complacent wit How these intleual tradually dissppear, how certain quite oftheir mental eq ‘ent bese the sccoptedpreconltin of ierrycalre others come to seer all the more ridiculous, howy above ‘oquetinh wits diplaced by commonsense a formal Spremotonal directness all tht belonge to tho later dovd ert and wo the complete emancipation 6f the middleclas in tertie, Inthe end the tenon between the tw dre eaaes entirely and midlecasltrtare is no longer 0 by anything that could be ealld courtly. That doe not Never, that al tension comes to an end and thet iterate dhominaed bya single, undivided tse, On the contrary, a ‘agonion. develop, tension betreen the herture of tulered dite and that ofthe general ending pu, and of god tase are tobe observed, in which the weekneses of Tight ficion ofa ater age ae szeay dice Stel's Tatler wih begin to appear in 1700, Addison Spectator, by whch ite eplatd wo yar ltr and the ‘weer’ which follow them, fist crete the preconditions ot Tneratre Which bridges the gap between the scholar and tore or ls educated general reader, between the a bet epi an he meter fact bourgas»eratre whl therefore, neither courtly nor relly fopear, and which sam ‘thie sor rani, St mora hanno ad iia, respectability, halfway ben the krightly-ariseratic and teurgedparanial look on he, Tough thes prod svhich with their short pueudoscientficivertaton nd eth quite fran the best nrodacton tthe reading of el the public becomes aeastrned forthe fit time fo the ry txjyment of serous terete; trough the reading boone habit and a necnity fr comparatively wie sections of sce But the perils themuclves are already the podict of development connected withthe alteration in the soil post of the writer. Ater the grows Revolution it no longer court that story find thir patrons; the court hat ceed fxs in the ote and wil never agnn tak up its eal CLASSICISM, ROMANTICISM New READING PUBLIC aur fwcion. The la of cor cre opto of Hera sa ton ovr by th pital prs and the goverment, se ee depentent om pac opin, Under Wim Ti ree yer aided fete the Tore andthe Whigs so An urs have, therfore, to wage ncaa gods Tech Uy ent age the meson of fran The wrestles ae fred der Sere Fant whether thay ike ior nay ice a the frm te agetonthe pont a dnppering ogee nd the res otra ammo ye depend ow eaten pli they have Se io somer of nce pert from pil Propogan. Just aan Addn coe journal eeseting tec oF Sec iterest af the Whig co Delon and Srl ae sso sat il yompleters and Yaeve peal sis even 32 sires s Thode of are pur Tar’ would have had me- Se eaposble andimmort aba fo ther, they had tine et conaine such an idea tal Hobo Crane oa see ha eal Ietractve pup, nt Galfer stoped 22 Tate bth are patel propgada in the rice sente i ns an nothing bt propaga, This proebly nthe Satie that we ae onfonted by 4 mitt erate with Penal pre butt paper Canal of Sif ond i Seeenpraics would have been unthinkable bare the itr. Sitio the feed of the pres and te pbc dicusion of soit questions af the dy. Now forth fist time writes Tega regula! phenomenon king box weapons fhe yens end hiring tem out tothe higher bidder. The fact that they ho longer face a single compact plan ot pes bs oferta te independent for {hy can no chose ther Senploere more or ew i szardanon with theirowm inlinaons'" But ifthe pltiane regard them niyo tht onfederaten thon in mo ese that Based on pu ilsionthomaitonanee of whieh fatter and pros both Sls Non, for te tn gretest public of the age, Deon truly defends is ayn vel conveon, and tsp ate the Inte! in Swifts postoate utterance genie, Te former, 2 ihig. sa ofud opis wberns he ater a goes wth tut sfing for a Tory under Walp i biter poi the 3ROCOGO, CLASSICISM, ROMANTICISM ‘one proclaims a puritanical middle-class philosophy of life fon faith in the world and faith in God, the other exhi sarcastically superior, misanthropic and world-despising at to life. They are the most conspievous literary representat the two political camps into which England is divided. the son of « London butcher and dissenter; the suppressed’ stubborn puritanism of his fathers stil comes through jn writings, He himself suffered at the hands of High-Ch inspired Tory rule. The victory of the Whigs finally ‘ates the expectations of his social compocrs and co-religi and is the optimistic outlook of this middle clas that ies Uhrowgh him for the first time in secular literature, Robi ‘who, thrown back on his own resources, triumphs over the Dorness of nature and ereates prosperity, security, ordery and custom out of nothing, isthe classical representative of dle class. The story of his adventures is one long hymn. praise of the industry, endurance, inventiveness and come Sense which overcomes all difficulties, in a wordy the practi ‘midale

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