ENLIGHTENMENT/FOLLY
I. Art and Music
A. Positives
--didactic use of art (Hogarth pictures of Rake's progress)
--use of comedy
(Hogarth pictures, also opera and even
symphonies, e.g. surprise symphony)
--variety of
scenes from everyday life (lover's in gardens),
emphsis on trees/nature
--interest in reviving old forms of Greece and Rome
--emphasis on personalities in portraiture
--first class
work: Mozart, Haydn
B. Negatives
--Rococo pretty frivolous/busy
--neo-classical
maybe too serious: art subordinated to
political purposes/becomes propaganda, justifies
outrageous
acts of revolutionaries. Particularly
true of visual arts
(e.g. David) but also true of music (e.g.
La Marseillaise)
But countering negatives: Goya, Beethoven (whose work moves into
19th century).
II. Science/Medicine
A. Real
beginnings of chemistry (isolagion of hydrogen,
discovery of carbon dioxide, Lavoisier: oxidation,
principle
matter cannot be created or destroyed.
B. Electricity
(lightning as electricity, static electricity
(electric kiss: pretty girl charged/shock
to those attempting
to kiss her nearly broke their teeth.)
C. Pseudo-science:
--metal alloys that can draw disease from the body
--magnetism
Dr. James Graham's
"celestial bed" supported by 40
magnetized pillars/supposedly a cure for
impotence/suplemented by sniffing incense
and watching
erotic dances.
Franz Mesmer: animal magnetism--sent patients into
trances/sometime
cured them.
--physiognomy
(character reflected in outward appearance, gave
testimony at criminal trials: a glance all
one needed to tell
if someone capable of committing crime they
are accused of)
D. Frauds
--Mary Tofts
almost a pension from George II for remarkable
feat of giving birth to rabbits!! Tricked
royal physician!!)
--Johann Beringer
fooled by student's fake fossiles of
spiders, Hebrew characters, finally a fossile
with his own
name on it!!!
--William Ireland
passed off successfully Vortigern and Rowena
as a "Shakespeare" play