The Art of the Enlightenment

The age of the Enlightenment marked the start of the transition to the modern world in Europe. The old order, dominated by the nobility and clergy, collapsed. The individual became the focus of science, philosophy and art. As a result, art itself took on a whole new significance: it became an instrument of education and aesthetic instruction. Technological developments and social change accelerated the dissemination of pictures into all areas of public life. New subjects in art opened up new audiences for art. The idea that art can change people and society became the guiding tenet of an entire epoch. This idea continues, to this day, to shape the European perception of art and artists’ perception of themselves. The exhibition depicts the central motifs, ideas and themes in the art of the Enlightenment through an array of masterpieces of painting, sculpture and the graphic arts, as well as through craft objects and scientific instruments on loan from the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen Munich.

Left: Johann Heinrich Füssli: Satan and Death Separated by Sin, 1802, photo: Bruno Hartinger; centre: Julius Caesar Ibbetson: George Biggin’s Ascent in Lunardi’s Balloon, around 1785/1788, photo: Bruno Hartinger; right: Marie-Gabrielle Capet: Studio Scene, 1808, photo: Sibylle Forster

The Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen have contributed 51 paintings and 1 sculpture to the exhibition. Impressive masterpieces, emblematic of 18th and 19th-century painting that best sum up the core ideas and themes of the Enlightenment, were selected from the collections of the three Pinakothek museums, as well as from the Residenzen in Munich and Bamberg. Besides such well-known artists as Bellotto, Füssli, Graff, Raeburn, Robert, Tischbein and Vernet, visitors can also rediscover such painters as Brinckmann, Capet and Desmarées from the rich Munich collections. Outstanding works by Baselitz, Schönebeck and Warhol also throw the spotlight on the impact of Enlightenment ideals on 20th-century art.

Click here for an overview of the works from the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen now on show in Beijing, in our detailed work list (PDF, 43 KB).

Left: Johann Friedrich August Tischbein, Nicolas Châtelain in the Garden, 1791, photo: Sibylle Forster; centre: Claude Joseph Vernet: Shipwreckin the Thunderstorm, 1770, photo: Sibylle Forster; right: Georg Desmarées: The Artist with His Daughter Antonia, around 1760, photo: Nicole Wilhelms

Left: View of the National Museum of China from Tiananmen Square © Gerkan, Marg und Partner, photo: Christian Gahl
Right: View of the entrance hall to the National Museum of China © Gerkan, Marg und Partner, photo: Christian Gahl

Left: View of the introductory room to the exhibition (photo: Frank Barbian)
Right: ‘Court Life’ chapter (photo: Frank Barbian)

Left: ‘Far and Near’ chapter (photo: Frank Barbian)
Right: ‘Shadows’chapter (photo: Frank Barbian)

Left: ‘Shadows’ chapter (photo: Frank Barbian)
Right: Chapteron ‘Emancipation and the Public Sphere’ (photo: Frank Barbian)

Left: Chapteron ‘Emancipation and the Public Sphere’ (photo: Frank Barbian)
Right: Chapter on ‘Emancipation and the Public Sphere’and ‘The Revolution of Art’ (photo: Frank Barbian)

Guided tours through the exhibition (photo: Frank Barbian)

The art education programme accompanying ‘The Art of the Enlightenment’ was devised by the project team from the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen Munich in close cooperation with the National Museum of China. In a two-pronged approach, the programme aims to help the Chinese public comprehend the works on display in their original historical and cultural context and is geared towards showing how the core ideas and themes of the Enlightenment are evident in the exhibits on display.

Various media and formats have been adopted to help the museum open up the artworks so they can be easily appreciated by the general public. These formats have been developed to appeal to both the senses and the mind at once. An introduction to the age of the Enlightenment is conveyed via touch screens, providing information on the most important cultural, scientific and political events of the epoch. An illustrated booklet accompanying the exhibition and detailed wall panels highlight key exhibits in the show. Two media terminals acquaint visitors with important book projects in the Enlightenment, while quotes by important Enlightenment thinkers, authors and artists capture the exhibition’s core ideas.

The art education programme has been enriched by the museum’s accompanying 'interaction programme', which has been drawn up by the Goethe Institut in Beijing, in conjunction with the National Museum of China and with support from the Munich project team. Workshops and thematic tours have been devised for staff, and group training sessions given to the relevant guides. Educational concepts derived from the Enlightenment have been highlighted and discussed; these include: the function of images and books as new media in the transfer of knowledge, the aesthetic experience and self-education of the individual, models for the instruction and rearing of children and new forms of public discourse and the shaping of public opinion. And finally, a ‘visitor lab’, set up immediately outside the exhibition rooms, aims to be a site of hands-on, experimental learning. 

Click here for information on the outreach programme devised by the Goethe-Institut China. 

Illustration of the art education concept © sichtagitation

The Munich work group has also devised an interactive introduction to the age of Enlightenment to accompany ‘The Art of the Enlightenment’. At two media terminals in the National Museum of China, visitors can follow various time-lines to find out more about the key philosophical turning-points and scientific and political events that occurred in 18th-century Europe. The construction of the first battery, the publication of the Encyclopédie and the declaration of universal human rights and the rights of citizens – these are just some of the things that are presented to visitors in a way that is both lively and easy to grasp. Visitors can also explore key events of the 18th century through a glossary and select biographies on prominent individuals. This introduction to the Enlightenment is also available online for the duration of the exhibition.

Click here to start the introduction The Age of Enlightenment – Events that Shaped an Epoch.