Art in Europe 1700-1830 A History of the Visual Arts in an Era of Unprecedented Urban Economic Growth

Paperback, 320 pp., 66 Colour and 63 BW & Halftones, Bibliography. From the backcover: Hogarth's pugnaciously xenophobic "Gates of Calais", Giambattista Tiepolo's grandiose murals at Wurzburg, Goya's satirical engravings, Los Caprichos, and Canova's chastely classical sculptures could hardly be more different, but all are aspects of the same period. In an era of unprecedented change - rapid urbanization, economic growth, political revolution - artists were in the business of finding new ways of making art, new ways of selling art, and new ways of talking about art. Taking a critical view of such conventional categorizations as the "Rococo", the "Neo-Classical", and the "Romantic", Matthew Craske creates a totally new & vivid picture of 18th and early-19th century art in Europe. He engages with crucial thematic issues such as changes in 'taste' and 'manners' and the impact of enlightenment notions of progress. At the same time he goes well beyond the usual geographical limits of surveys to take in St Petersburg, Copenhagen, Warsaw, and Madrid. The result is a refreshingly holistic survey which sets the art of the period firmly in its social history.