The Art of the Enlightenment

Art Historian Dr Matthew Whyte offers a new lecture series, which takes the audience on an art-filled journey through the often beautiful, sometimes scandalous, and always fascinating moments in the development of Western civilisation.

1,300 years after the fall of the Roman Empire, and more than 2,000 years since the Golden Age of Ancient Greece, the visual forms of the Classical world found a renewed and direct relevance in a new intellectual context – the Enlightenment. In the most vigorous Classical revival since the Renaissance, and indeed in an even more direct manner, Europe saw a resurgence of interest in the art of Ancient Greece and Rome which changed the visual fabric of the world – from the Court House in Cork to the White House in Washington DC, we continue to see the impact of this time. Far from merely an aesthetic interest, though, Enlightenment thinkers adopted the Classical Ideal as a solution to the myriad problems the Enlightenment sought to address. The separation of Church and State, the dissolution of the antiquated concept of monarchy, and the oppressive class structures woven throughout civilisation were just some of the issues which Enlightenment thinkers challenged. From the French Revolution to the Act of Union in Ireland, visual art and Neoclassicism famously became a vehicle for ideological resistance, propaganda, and beauty which sought to bring a vision of the ideal society to life.