The Age of Pleasure and Enlightenment European art of the eighteenth century increasingly emphasized civility, elegance, comfort, and informality. During the first half of the century, the Rococo style of art and decoration, characterized by lightness, grace, playfulness, and intimacy, spread throughout Europe. Painters turned to lighthearted subjects, including inventive pastoral landscapes, scenic vistas of popular tourist sites, and genre subjects—scenes of everyday life. Mythology became a vehicle for the expression of pleasure rather than a means of revealing hidden truths. Porcelain and silver makers designed exuberant fantasies for use or as pure decoration to complement newly remodeled interiors conducive to entertainment and pleasure. As the century progressed, artists increasingly adopted more serious subject matter, often taken from classical history, and a simpler, less decorative style. This was the Age of Enlightenment, when writers and philosophers came to believe that moral, intellectual, and social reform was possible through the acquisition of knowledge and the power of reason. The Grand Tour, a means of personal enlightenment and an essential element of an upper-class education, was symbolic of this age of reason. The installation highlights the museum’s rich collection of eighteenth-century paintings and decorative arts. It is organized around four themes: Myth and Religion, Patrons and Collectors, Everyday Life, and The Natural World. These themes are common to art from different cultures and eras, and reveal connections among the many ways artists have visually expressed their cultural, spiritual, political, material, and social values. Myth and Religion Mythological and religious stories have been the subject of visual art throughout time. Concurrently, works of art have played a major role in inspiring and supporting spiritual and sacred beliefs, societal values, and personal, political, and institutional ambitions. Giovanni Battista Tiepolo Italian, Venetian, 1696–1770 Susanna and the Elders, c. 1720 Oil on canvas Gift of Mrs. Arthur L. Erlanger, 1954.196 According to the Christian versions of the Book of Daniel, Susanna, a beautiful and pious Jewish woman of Babylon, was secretly admired by two of the city's elders. Sneaking into her garden one day as she bathed, they offered her jewels, and tried to force her to submit to their passions. When she refused, they publicly accused her of having an affair with a young man. Susanna was condemned to death and vindicated only by the intervention of Daniel. This painting depicts the elders surprising Susanna, and offering her gifts in exchange for her favors. Tiepolo, one of the greatest practitioners of the Italian Rococo style, infused a moralistic religious subject with elegance and grace using a fresh color palette, flowing brushwork, and charming garden setting. Michele Rocca Italian, c. 1670–c. 1751 Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise, c. 1730 Oil on canvas Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur L. Erlanger, 1959.249 By the turn of the eighteenth century, Michele Rocca had established himself in Rome as a painter of small cabinet pictures of mythological and religious subjects. Private collectors valued his works for the rich brushwork and luminous palette, as is evident in this representation of Adam and Eve being chased out of the Garden of Eden by an angel with a flaming sword. Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo Italian, Venetian, 1727–1804 The Miracle of Christ Healing the Blind Man, 1752 Oil on canvas The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1952.289 Variants of this subject, Christ healing a blind man by touching his eyes, are recounted in three of the Gospels in the Bible. The miracle has been interpreted as an allegory for the revelation of true faith. Domenico Tiepolo was the gifted son and collaborator of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, the great Venetian painter. Domenico learned his characteristic loose, sketchy brushwork from his father. The construction of the space with the figures ranged across the foreground, the heads lined up on the same level, the exotic costumes and setting, and the thick application of paint, known as impasto, are typical of Domenico's work. Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo Italian, Venetian, 1727–1804 The Last Supper, late 1750s Oil on canvas The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1931.106 In The Last Supper Christ reveals his imminent betrayal, and the announcement is greeted by amazement and disbelief on the part of the disciples. This is an unusual treatment of the subject because Judas, the betrayer, is hidden from view. Although a small painting, the work has a remarkable presence thanks to the bold, calligraphic handling of the figures, the dizzying perspective, and the dramatic conception of the biblical story. Domenico Corvi Italian, Roman, 1721–1803 The Miracle of St. Joseph Calasanz Resuscitating a Child in a Church at Frascati, 1767 Oil on canvas The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1981.24 The Spanish saint, Joseph Calasanz (1558–1648) was canonized in 1767, the same year his followers, known as Scolopians or Piarists, presented this altarpiece to Pope Clement XIII. Devoted to education, especially of the homeless and neglected, Joseph Calasanz went to Rome in 1592, and founded a free school for poor children there five years later. Corvi’s painting encourages the emotional involvement of the observer by presenting the sacred drama in a convincing narrative manner. The saint kneels before an altar adorned with a large picture of the Virgin and Child, and appeals to the Madonna to revive the dead child in his arms, as the mother looks on. A Scolopian father enters the scene with his pupils, their animated gestures and facial expressions injecting energy and emotion into the scene. Carle Van Loo French, 1705–1765 Offering to Cupid, 1761 Oil on canvas The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1979.186 Offering to Cupid reflects the fascination with antiquity—fueled by excavations of ancient sites in Italy—that swept mid-eighteenth-century France, influencing all aspects of culture and fashion. The subject is a contemporary interpretation of an ancient rite, in which a young maiden makes an offering to Cupid, the god of love. The elongated figures and sheer, clinging drapery recall ancient Greek paintings and statues. But the feathery brushstrokes and pastel colors reflect the decorative Rococo style of the eighteenth century, marking Offering to Cupid as a work in which old and new elements combine. Carle Van Loo, the most famous member of a family of painters and artists, was trained in both Paris and Rome, and known for his ability to paint a range of subjects and styles. By the time of his death in 1765, he had been ennobled and appointed Premier Painter to the King, Louis XV. Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée, called Lagrenée the Elder French, 1725–1805 The Invocation of Love, c. 1777 Oil on panel The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1983.1 The Invocation of Love shows a young woman in classical dress beseeching a statue of Cupid, while Cupid himself fans the fire of love. Pictures of Venus and Cupid were much in vogue among members of the aristocracy and upper middle class in the eighteenth century, reflecting an overall preference for Ovid’s amorous divinities rather than Homer’s heroic gods and goddesses. Trained both in Paris and Rome, Lagrenée joined the Académie royal as a history painter in 1755. Five years later, he was appointed First Painter to the Empress of Russia and Director of the Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg. Returning to Paris in 1762, he received many important commissions. Giovanni Battista Crosato Italian, Venetian, c. 1697–1758 Europa and the Bull, c. 1733 Oil on panel The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1963.1 Europa and the Bull is a study for one section of a frieze of panel paintings that illustrate scenes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Here Jupiter, disguised as a bull, comes to the beautiful Europa and entices her away with him to Crete. She eventually bore him children, one of whom was Minos, legendary King of Crete. The frieze was originally placed in the Palazzo Reale, Turin, and is now in the Palazzo Madama, in the same city. Crosato worked in Venice in the 1720s, but moved to the Piedmont area of Italy in the 1730s to participate in the decoration of several major palaces and churches. Attributed to Johan Richter Swedish (active in Venice), 1665–1745 Feast of Santa Maria della Salute, c. 1720 Oil on canvas The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1939.268 Feast of Santa Maria della Salute depicts the Festival of the Presentation of the Virgin, which took place annually in Venice on November 21, when a bridge of boats would be constructed across the Grand Canal, connecting the Church of Santa Maria della Salute with the Church of Santa Maria del Giglio. The Doge and the Elders of Venice would pass in procession across the bridge to celebrate the construction of the Church of the Salute. Conceived in 1630 to pay homage to the Virgin Mary for delivering Venice from the plague that year, it was begun in 1631 and completed fifty years later. This painting has recently been attributed to Johan Richter, a Swedish artist who worked in Venice from at least 1717. Richter, along with Luca Carlevarijs—to whom this painting has also been attributed—was one of the two painters who specialized in views of Venice before Canaletto, whose work is seen in the next gallery. CASE Cupid (L’Amour de Falconet) Sèvres, 1762, base 1777 Perhaps François-Joseph Aloncle (painter, active 1758–81) and Jean-Pierre Boulanger (gilder, active 1754–85) Soft-paste porcelain Gift of J.