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Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1828)

Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1828) was the premiere French sculptor of the Enlightenment period. He was able to incorporate the new ideas of the Enlightenment into his art, thereby reflecting the period and culture of the Enlightenment, a period when reason was seen as the road to truth and progress. The work of art under consideration here is HoudonÆs 1789 marble bust of Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson, the third President of the new republic of the United States, was an early American hero whose vision expressed much of the philosophy of the Enlightenment period, a time of revolutionary political and social change in France and America. In America, the Enlightenment was represented by the political concepts of the American Revolution and the precepts of leaders like Jefferson. Houdon was ôsympathetic to the principles of freedom and equality that lay behind the American Revolution.ö HoudonÆs depiction of American Forefathers established their likeness for prosperity (Getty exhibition). The Enlightenment era was one of thought and philosophy, and also of optimism. The new age ôstressed freedoms and rights and reforms in government to bring about these new values. The Enlightenment was a period in which the great thinkers believed that humanity, through the employment of reason, was truly gaining mastery over the worldö (Enlightenment/Overview).

Born in Versailles, HoudonÆs style was formed in the classicistic period of the 18th Century. His art ôwas greatly admired by the philosophers who provided the intellectual basis of the Revolution, many of whom he portrayed with phenomenal accuracyö (Hartt 311). His personal philosophy is expressed in his statement that his artistic purpose was ôto present with all the realism of form and to render almost immortal the image of the men who have contributed the most to the glory or the happiness of their countryö (Hartt 312).

HoudonÆs bust of Jefferson captures the essence of ...

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Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1828). (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 13:55, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1709104.html