Cuento: Madrid 1808, 2 de mayo

Capricho nº 43, El sueño de la razón produce monstruos

Autor: Francisco de Goya y Lucientes

Fecha: 1793-1796

Museo: Museo del Grabado de Goya

Material: Grabado

Goya es el mejor grabador de la historia del arte español. A través de sus estampas, especialmente con los Caprichos, realizará una interesante crítica a la sociedad española de la Ilustración. La serie de los Caprichos consta de 80 grabados realizados entre 1793 y 1796, poniéndose a la venta el 6 de febrero de 1799. Fueron ejecutados empleando aguafuerte y aguatinta pero la importancia de esta obra no está en la realización, sino en el contenido de sus imágenes, consideradas peligrosas para la época por su sarcasmo. Toda la sociedad es criticada por el artista: la educación, la religión, la nobleza, la prostitución y un largo etcétera, por lo que intervino la Inquisición. Para evitar problemas con el Santo Oficio, Goya regaló las planchas y los ejemplares sin vender a Carlos IV a cambio de una pensión para su hijo Javier. 

El Capricho más famoso es el grabado que lleva la leyenda: " El sueño de la razón produce monstruos"

"El sueño de la razón produce monstruos", iba a presidir la serie en un principio, desplazándose al número 43 en la edición definitiva. El pintor cae rendido sobre su mesa de trabajo, rodeándole una serie de animales: aves nocturnas, murciélagos y búhos y de un gran gato, en aquel momento símbolos frecuentes de la estupidez y de la ignorancia, cuando no del diablo. Se suma un lince, animal famoso por su aguda visión. Todos ellos representan sus propios monstruos y fantasmas. Con esta imagen quería indicarnos cómo la razón libera sus fantasmas durante el sueño, a través del subconsciente. También podría aludir al deseo del artista por desenmascarar todos los monstruos de la sociedad a través de sus estampas, destacando así el poder de la razón sobre las tinieblas de la ignorancia, filosofía característica del pensamiento ilustrado.

La palabra sueño tiene dos significados: "dormir y soñar," lo que permite, que la frase se interprete de dos maneras distintas. Si significa "dormir", entendemos que cuando la razón se queda dormida, los monstruos nocturnos asoman la cabeza y por lo tanto es preferible despertarse para apartarlos. Si la palabra sueños significa "soñar", entonces, es la propia razón la que produce esos monstruos cuando funciona por la noche. La razón, por tanto, produce ideas claras, pero también pesadillas. La razón está ausente cuando duerme porque se dedica a soñar.

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851)

Early Years:
In Turner's early paintings he did dramatic, Romantic subjects by emphasizing luminosity, and atmosphere. One can observe a more precise attention paid to architectural and natural details in his early years, as compared to his later years.

Warkworth Castle, Northumberland - Thunderstorm Approaching at Sunset

During this time, he played with all the styles of landscape composition including historical, architectural, mountainous, pastoral and marine. His series of 71 etchings, inspired from his existing paintings and watercolors, show all of these styles (1807-1819).

Middle Years:
His painting became more luminous and atmospheric. He began to focus more on color than the real details. St. Mawes at the Pilchard Season, is an example.

Frosty morning (1813) is based on the effects of light.

St. Mawes at the Pilchard (1812)

Advanced Years:
Still, he give less and less attention to detail, while his canvas now begin to get movement. His Norham Castle,is as mere color touch.

Norham Castle

Some of his more famous later paintings, he uses the theme of modern technology.  He moves away from marine matter, his own age represented as an old ship replaced by a steamboat, and focuses now on the railway in Rain, Steam, and Speed-the Great Western Railway (1844). This is a prime example of how Turner focused mainly on colors and the idea of fluidity through his colors. 

The Fifhting Temeraire

 "When Rothko saw an exhibition of Turners at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1966, he joked, 'This guy Turner, he learnt a lot from me.'"

 Mark Rothko (1903-1970)

Rothko's art had emotional content that he represented through a range of styles that evolved from figurative to abstract. Rothko's early figurative work - including landscapes, still lifes, figure studies, and portraits - demonstrated an ability to blend Expressionism and Surrealism. His search for new forms of expression led to his Color Field paintings, which employed shimmering color to convey a sense of spirituality.

 




















 "If you are only moved by color relationships, you are missing the point. I am interested in expressing the big emotions - tragedy, ecstasy, doom."- Rothko.



If you want to learn more about Rothko and Turner, click here:
http://www.borsheimarts.com/news/2011_03_Art-vs-Science_Turner-Rothko.htm
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=am0bsz5NPioo

Rain, Steam, and Speed - Joseph Mallord William Turner

Author: Joseph M. William Turner

Date: 1844

Museum: National Gallery of London

Characteristics: 122 x 91 cm.

Style: Romanticism

Material: oil on canvas

Rain, Steam, and Speed – The Great Western Railway is a painting made by one of the bests romantic artists, Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851).

The paint stand out because of the perfect use of light. This work of art was made in oil on canvas.

Here we can see a railway in a landscape. Turner sow us the latest railway, the GWR (Great Western Railway) which is crossing the Maidenhead bridge, above the Thames river and the railway is going to the East, London direction. The pinter use this new transport as a way to study the movement and the blurred at the painting.

The landscape is not clear, the railway travels throw the tracks going to the spectator. The locomotive capture the steam, the heavy atmosphere is blurred due to the rain and the speed is represent by a small hare that runs in the left side. The skyline divides the painting into two parts: the upper with the sky and the lower is the landscape, broken by the railway.

Some critics told the people to watch the painting before the railway gone out.

It is in the National Gallery of London.

Análisis de "La Libertad Guiando al Pueblo" de Eugène Delacroix

Benjamin Franklin

(1706-1790) He was an American politician, scientific and inventor. He studied the electricity and invented the lightning conductor and other different gadgets. He was honest and efficient, he was an important promoter of the USA independence. Benjamin Franklin was the most loved person in his ages in America and the only one who became famous in Europe. His appearance was very plain, cheerful and he had sense of humour, so all the people loved and respected him.

As a politician: He created the fire brigade of Philadelphia, the public library, the Philosophic American Society and the University of Pensilvania. In 1757 he was sent to London to stand up for the interests of the American colonies. Once, he was a whole day in the House of Commons, answering many questions about the resistance of the colonies besides the English tax law, the one what was really bad to the interest of the Americans colonists. The result was that the Parliament revoked the law and the war was postpone ten years, giving the independents enough time to prepare themselves. Benjamin Franklin leaved London and returned to Philadelphia in 1775 and became being part of the independents. That year he was named the member for Pensilvania in the II Continental Congress, in which the 13 north American colonies decided to form an army to fight against England. Next year, he wrote with Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, the Declaration of Independence (1776). Due to his prestige, he was selected in December of that year, to go on tour in Europe (1776-1785) looking for help to the independence cause. It was very important to achieve the help of France because without it they could lose the fight to achieve the independence. Franklin convinced the French king, Luis XVI, of sending goods to the general Washington secretly and a year later, he was able to get into the war after sign a treaty of friendship. When the war ends and they get he independence, Benjamin Franklin was one who talked to finish the treaty of peace to end the conflict (1783). In 1787, he was one of the person in charge of write the American Constitution.

As a scientific: When he was in France, in 1752, he made the famous experiment of the kite, and he could demonstrate that the clouds wear electricity and the lightnings are discharges of electricity. To do the experiment, he used a kite with a metal wire tied to a silk thread, that must to get charged with energy, gotten by the wire. During the storm he put the hand near a key tired to a silk thread, and he saw sparks flying, so that showed the presence of electricity. Due to this discover, he could invent the lightning conductor and the heater Franklin. He was also a musician.

Benjamin Franklin died in Philadelphia when he was 84 years old. One of the reasons of his longevity was that he knew many things about the health.

The Scientific Revolution

Oliver Cromwell

Nació el 25 de abril de 1599 en Huntingdon.
Entre 1628 y 1629, ejerció como miembro del Parlamento en representación de Huntingdon. En 1640 regresó al Parlamento, momento en que el conflicto entre Carlos I y los puritanos alcanzó su peor fase. En 1642 estalló la guerra civil entre el Parlamento y los partidarios de la monarquía. Reunió un regimiento de caballería, para combatir en favor de la causa parlamentaria.

Fue nombrado lugarteniente general de Edward Montagu, conde de Manchester. En julio de 1644 llevó a las fuerzas parlamentarias a la victoria en la batalla de Marston Moor, lo que le supuso para él y a su regimiento el apodo de Ironsides. En 1645 su dirección volvió a ser decisiva en la batalla de Naseby, un combate que destruyó al ejército real.

Debido a las negociaciones con el rey Carlos I, los vencedores se dividen. Cromwell se pasó a la facción del ejército que defendía la tolerancia religiosa. En Gales reprimió una rebelión y venció a los escoceses en Preston. Autorizó la expulsión de la oposición del Parlamento.

Tras ser proclamada la República el 30 de enero de 1649, y tras la ejecución del rey, inició el sometimiento de Irlanda y Escocia. El 19 de abril de 1653 disolvió el Rump Parliament. Cuando el Parlamento de Barebones que formó después también fracasó, aceptó el Instrumento de Gobierno (diciembre de 1653), una constitución escrita que establecía un Protectorado y le nombraba lord protector, compartiendo poderes soberanos con un nuevo Consejo de Estado de 21 miembros.

En 1657 aceptó la Humilde Petición y Consejo: petición de crear una segunda cámara parlamentaria y potestad de nombrar a su sucesor, pero no aceptó el título de rey. Proporcionó la tolerancia religiosa de grupos no católicos y los judíos expulsados de Inglaterra regresaron en 1655.

Oliver Cromwell murió en Londres el 3 de septiembre de 1658, siendo enterrado en la abadía de Westminster.

Inglaterra pasó de Monarquia Absolutista reinando Carlos I a una República gracias a Oliver Cromwell, pero este quería más poder y produjo otro cambio político, transformando a Inglaterra en Dictadura Militar liderada por Oliver Cromwell.

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