07-17-2020, 06:20 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-18-2020, 06:16 PM by Eric the Green.)
Another great awakening moment of civilization that reverberates down to us today should not be entirely forgotten, although it mainly involved intellectual and artistic/aristocratic elites, but also involved an historic and influential revolutionary mass movement for a time as well. If you're following the cycles, this great "social moment" during a second turning featured a line-up among the outer planets almost identical to that seen at the dawn of Gothic art and architecture in The Great Thaw in the 1130s and 40s. This period of circa 1650 was the cyclic climax of the Renaissance era, just as the earlier Romanesque and Gothic one was the climax of the medieval era that began in the early 10th century.
Kenneth Clark even mentions in his chapter "The Great Thaw" embedded above that it's artistic outburst was "similar to the baroque." There's lots to say about this Baroque era, as well as its following Rococo one. Clark himself decided he didn't have time to include all aspects of the Baroque Awakening among his 13 episodes of "Civilization," and instead he inserted some references to it in the following program about the Rococo era, and in its preceding episode about the Catholic Baroque Counter-reformation revival " Grandeur and Obedience ", and significant aspects of this baroque era were described in "The Light of Experience."
These two eras of Baroque (circa 1590-1711) and Rococo (circa 1712-1783) (both ignited as Uranus and Pluto aligned) are capped by two great pieces of music that are keys to experiencing them vividly. The first very-characteristic one from the middle of the Baroque era was actually featured, in part, in Clark's Rococo episode, while ironically the second one from the early Rococo era itself was not, even though it has the same name, and even though this iconic piece by the world's greatest composer (whom he DOES mention, of course) captures the essence not only of its own Rococo era, but of ALL eras of awakening of civilization! I recorded part of this first one myself for you tube, and it's the best version of it on there; but it cries out for more views! More on these two pieces below. Naturally because of these works, I feel even more the need to mention their whole eras here.
In this case in circa 1643 we see Neptune reaching the opposition to Pluto, which was the full moon climax to the cycle begun at the start of the Renaissance during their conjunction of circa 1400. Never in history was the light of a "full moon" in the cycle of civilization so completely revealed by the culture of the time. Uranus follows up with its opposition to Pluto in 1649, and its conjunction to Neptune in the early 1650s. The reverberations from this alignment continue powerfully from there through the 1660s, and its impact dominated our culture at least until the next conjunction and opposition combos of these 3 outer planets the 1890s and 1900s. It also gives a clue to the coming cyclic climax of our own era yet to come in the next century in the 2140s through the 2160s. The Rococo era after the Baroque was sparked by the following Uranus-Pluto conjunction in circa 1711-1712 that was quite similar to the one in the 1960s.
The artistic elements of this "silver age" culmination of civilization in the mid-17th century include the height of baroque church architecture and sculpture by such figures as Bernini and Borromini, which transformed the humanistic structures of the Renaissance into swirling, dynamic and sensual celebrations, as well as Sir Christopher Wren who expanded on the Renaissance style crowned by Michelangelo at St. Peters with the St. Paul cathedral in London, and in India by the climax of Mogul architecture with the greatest architectural jewel of all at the Taj Mahal. All-time great Baroque painters included Rubens, Van Dyke, Hals and Rembrandt (one of the greatest of all). The Dutch masters were made possible by the awakening of democratic self-rule and prosperity through Dutch trade and colonies after its liberation from Spain. Here is Rembrandt's early masterpiece from 1642.
Among these Dutch masters was Jan Vermeer, who highlighted what Clark called "The Light of Experience," and reflected the contemporary "scientific revolution" carried out by pioneer thinker Descartes and culminating in the epic theories of Issac Newton. Holland was the epicenter of this movement at first. Philosophy and mathematics were put into their modern forms by Descartes, and he spearheaded as well the modern removal of religious ideas from science. Following Francis Bacon and Galilleo at the turn of the century, their followers put science on the basis of accurately-observed "experience" and empirical investigation, structured and measured by mathematics. So our rationalist and scientific traditions descend largely from this era, and Clark also mentioned that the descendants of the scientific instruments developed then and displayed at the British Royal Society, " may destroy us ," as we started to discover soon after the next great combo of those planetary alignments that happened around the turn of the 20th century. Not to mention the fact that rising capitalism led from the charming realism created at the mid-17th century to the vulgarity later in the century of a similar kind to that we see can today in Trump Tower, as well as to the disorder of industrial society. As Clark surveys the architecture of Amsterdam here, we hear a typical baroque era fugue played on the harpsichord, and we hear another baroque piece later while he shows Vermeer paintings.
What Clark understandingly omits is the highly esteemed "Age of Louis XIV", expressed in the austere palace (now the greatest museum in the world) of The Louvre, and then at Versailles, and most celebrated in the dramas of Racine and Moliere and the painting of Poussin and Lorraine. In his early years the "Sun King" was a great patron of the arts and was much celebrated and esteemed for his wise and enlightened rule. But later, after this climactic full-moon period ended, he descended into imperialist, warrior tyranny. As the prototypal fugure of what was known as the Ancien Regime, he proclaimed that he himself WAS the state; and thus the climax of the orderly and hierarchical royal Saturn meme, just as it was then being expressed in science and art.
Before Louis XIV could take the throne securely, however, he and his ministers had to repress the Fronde rebellion, which echoed the simultaneous much-greater [i]Great Rebellion[i] in England that began in 1643, later celebrated by Marx, which was climaxed by the overthrow and beheading of King Charles I in 1649. Uranus opposing Pluto was the signature of this moment, and of the mass uprising and civil war leading to it, as it would later be of the revolution that overthrew Louis' successor in August 1792 and his beheading in January 1793. But even though the new boss, Oliver Cromwell, was no better than the old, just like Napoleon would be, the British Parliament that took control then was the start of its power later on in the late 1680s fourth turning, an institution which has been imitated in the modern world more than any other form of government all over the world.
Despite the Rebellion and the tyranny of the mid-17th century, and perhaps also inspired by the magnificence of royalty (and still by Christianity), the artists of the time often celebrated the optimistic, expansive energy of the baroque era and its confident reasonable worldview, as it colonized the world and grew in prosperity. Here in the documentary called "The Light of Experience," Kenneth Clark sums up the achievements as well as regrettable modern results of the Baroque era, showing Wren's great British architecture at Greenwich with its baroque ceiling art and some typical ebullient baroque music by Purcell.
Continued in the next post....
Kenneth Clark even mentions in his chapter "The Great Thaw" embedded above that it's artistic outburst was "similar to the baroque." There's lots to say about this Baroque era, as well as its following Rococo one. Clark himself decided he didn't have time to include all aspects of the Baroque Awakening among his 13 episodes of "Civilization," and instead he inserted some references to it in the following program about the Rococo era, and in its preceding episode about the Catholic Baroque Counter-reformation revival " Grandeur and Obedience ", and significant aspects of this baroque era were described in "The Light of Experience."
These two eras of Baroque (circa 1590-1711) and Rococo (circa 1712-1783) (both ignited as Uranus and Pluto aligned) are capped by two great pieces of music that are keys to experiencing them vividly. The first very-characteristic one from the middle of the Baroque era was actually featured, in part, in Clark's Rococo episode, while ironically the second one from the early Rococo era itself was not, even though it has the same name, and even though this iconic piece by the world's greatest composer (whom he DOES mention, of course) captures the essence not only of its own Rococo era, but of ALL eras of awakening of civilization! I recorded part of this first one myself for you tube, and it's the best version of it on there; but it cries out for more views! More on these two pieces below. Naturally because of these works, I feel even more the need to mention their whole eras here.
In this case in circa 1643 we see Neptune reaching the opposition to Pluto, which was the full moon climax to the cycle begun at the start of the Renaissance during their conjunction of circa 1400. Never in history was the light of a "full moon" in the cycle of civilization so completely revealed by the culture of the time. Uranus follows up with its opposition to Pluto in 1649, and its conjunction to Neptune in the early 1650s. The reverberations from this alignment continue powerfully from there through the 1660s, and its impact dominated our culture at least until the next conjunction and opposition combos of these 3 outer planets the 1890s and 1900s. It also gives a clue to the coming cyclic climax of our own era yet to come in the next century in the 2140s through the 2160s. The Rococo era after the Baroque was sparked by the following Uranus-Pluto conjunction in circa 1711-1712 that was quite similar to the one in the 1960s.
The artistic elements of this "silver age" culmination of civilization in the mid-17th century include the height of baroque church architecture and sculpture by such figures as Bernini and Borromini, which transformed the humanistic structures of the Renaissance into swirling, dynamic and sensual celebrations, as well as Sir Christopher Wren who expanded on the Renaissance style crowned by Michelangelo at St. Peters with the St. Paul cathedral in London, and in India by the climax of Mogul architecture with the greatest architectural jewel of all at the Taj Mahal. All-time great Baroque painters included Rubens, Van Dyke, Hals and Rembrandt (one of the greatest of all). The Dutch masters were made possible by the awakening of democratic self-rule and prosperity through Dutch trade and colonies after its liberation from Spain. Here is Rembrandt's early masterpiece from 1642.
Among these Dutch masters was Jan Vermeer, who highlighted what Clark called "The Light of Experience," and reflected the contemporary "scientific revolution" carried out by pioneer thinker Descartes and culminating in the epic theories of Issac Newton. Holland was the epicenter of this movement at first. Philosophy and mathematics were put into their modern forms by Descartes, and he spearheaded as well the modern removal of religious ideas from science. Following Francis Bacon and Galilleo at the turn of the century, their followers put science on the basis of accurately-observed "experience" and empirical investigation, structured and measured by mathematics. So our rationalist and scientific traditions descend largely from this era, and Clark also mentioned that the descendants of the scientific instruments developed then and displayed at the British Royal Society, " may destroy us ," as we started to discover soon after the next great combo of those planetary alignments that happened around the turn of the 20th century. Not to mention the fact that rising capitalism led from the charming realism created at the mid-17th century to the vulgarity later in the century of a similar kind to that we see can today in Trump Tower, as well as to the disorder of industrial society. As Clark surveys the architecture of Amsterdam here, we hear a typical baroque era fugue played on the harpsichord, and we hear another baroque piece later while he shows Vermeer paintings.
What Clark understandingly omits is the highly esteemed "Age of Louis XIV", expressed in the austere palace (now the greatest museum in the world) of The Louvre, and then at Versailles, and most celebrated in the dramas of Racine and Moliere and the painting of Poussin and Lorraine. In his early years the "Sun King" was a great patron of the arts and was much celebrated and esteemed for his wise and enlightened rule. But later, after this climactic full-moon period ended, he descended into imperialist, warrior tyranny. As the prototypal fugure of what was known as the Ancien Regime, he proclaimed that he himself WAS the state; and thus the climax of the orderly and hierarchical royal Saturn meme, just as it was then being expressed in science and art.
Before Louis XIV could take the throne securely, however, he and his ministers had to repress the Fronde rebellion, which echoed the simultaneous much-greater [i]Great Rebellion[i] in England that began in 1643, later celebrated by Marx, which was climaxed by the overthrow and beheading of King Charles I in 1649. Uranus opposing Pluto was the signature of this moment, and of the mass uprising and civil war leading to it, as it would later be of the revolution that overthrew Louis' successor in August 1792 and his beheading in January 1793. But even though the new boss, Oliver Cromwell, was no better than the old, just like Napoleon would be, the British Parliament that took control then was the start of its power later on in the late 1680s fourth turning, an institution which has been imitated in the modern world more than any other form of government all over the world.
Despite the Rebellion and the tyranny of the mid-17th century, and perhaps also inspired by the magnificence of royalty (and still by Christianity), the artists of the time often celebrated the optimistic, expansive energy of the baroque era and its confident reasonable worldview, as it colonized the world and grew in prosperity. Here in the documentary called "The Light of Experience," Kenneth Clark sums up the achievements as well as regrettable modern results of the Baroque era, showing Wren's great British architecture at Greenwich with its baroque ceiling art and some typical ebullient baroque music by Purcell.
Continued in the next post....