The 1700s refers to a period in Italian history and culture which occurred during the 18th century (1700–1799): the ''Settecento''. The Settecento saw the transition from
Late Baroque to
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism was ...
: great artists of this period include
Vanvitelli,
Canaletto and
Canova, as well as the composer
Vivaldi
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist and impresario of Baroque music. Regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, Vivaldi's influence during his lifetime was widespread a ...
and the writer
Goldoni.
Characteristics
The Settecento is a word today commonly used to describe this period Italy.
The first decades of the Settecento saw the ultimate end of the
Renaissance movement in Italy, and the last development of the
Counter Reformation and
Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
era, and also the beginning of the
Italian Enlightenment.
In the 18th century, the political and socio-cultural condition of Italy began to improve, under
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
Joseph II (German: Josef Benedikt Anton Michael Adam; English: ''Joseph Benedict Anthony Michael Adam''; 13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg lands from November 29, 1780 unt ...
, and his successors. These princes were influenced by philosophers, who in their turn felt the influence of a general movement of ideas at large in many parts of Europe, sometimes called
The Enlightenment. All this led to a cultural revival in the 18th century's second half: the Age of Reason and Reform.
Politically Italy suffered mainly because of the crisis of the
Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice ( vec, Repùblega de Venèsia) or Venetian Republic ( vec, Repùblega Vèneta, links=no), traditionally known as La Serenissima ( en, Most Serene Republic of Venice, italics=yes; vec, Serenìsima Repùblega de Venèsia, ...
, but in the last years of Settecento
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
brought the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
ideals to Italy and created in 1797 the first unitarian state in the peninsula since the early Middle Ages: the
Cisalpine Republic, that in 1804 became the
Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy
The Kingdom of Italy (1805–1814; it, Regno d'Italia; french: Royaume d'Italie) was a kingdom in Northern Italy (formerly the Italian Republic) in personal union with Napoleon I's French Empire. It was fully influenced by revolutionary Franc ...
.
Architecture
The 18th century saw the capital of Europe's architectural world transferred from
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
to
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
. The Italian
Rococo
Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...
, which flourished in Rome from the 1720s onward, was profoundly influenced by the ideas of
Borromini. The most talented architects active in Rome —
Francesco de Sanctis (
Spanish Steps
The Spanish Steps ( it, Scalinata di Trinità dei Monti) in Rome, Italy, climb a steep slope between the Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinità dei Monti, dominated by the Trinità dei Monti church, at the top.
The monumental stairway ...
, 1723) and
Filippo Raguzzini (Piazza Sant'Ignazio, 1727) — had little influence outside their native country, as did numerous practitioners of the
Sicilian Baroque, including
Giovanni Battista Vaccarini,
Andrea Palma
Andrea Palma (b. Trapani, 1644 or 1664 – d. 1730) was an 18th-century Italian architect, working in the Baroque style. He is credited with being one of the most notable architects of the Sicilian Baroque movement.
His works include the Cat ...
.
Luigi Vanvitelli was among the most prominent architects of Italy during this century, he built the
Palace of Caserta at the request of
Charles VII of Naples
it, Carlo Sebastiano di Borbone e Farnese
, house = Bourbon-Anjou
, father = Philip V of Spain
, mother = Elisabeth Farnese
, birth_date = 20 January 1716
, birth_place = Royal Alcazar of Madrid, Spain
, death_da ...
and worked on many other palaces and buildings like the
Royal Palace of Naples
The Royal Palace of Naples ( it, Palazzo Reale di Napoli, italic=no, nap, Palazzo Riale ‘e Napule) is a palace, museum, and historical tourist destination located in central Naples, southern Italy.
It was one of the four residences near Napl ...
the
Royal Palace of Milan and the
Basilica of Santissima Annunziata Maggiore.
File:Campania Caserta2 tango7174.jpg, Caserta Palace
File:Exterior of the Palazzina di caccia of Stupinigi.jpg, Palazzina di caccia of Stupinigi
File:Mg-k Basilica Superga2.jpg, Basilica of Superga
File:Monza - Villa Reale.jpg, Royal Villa of Monza
File:Nikon (171).JPG, The Trevi fountain in Rome
Sculpture
In the 18th century much sculpture continued on Baroque lines: the
Trevi Fountain was only completed in 1762 after 30 years.
Rococo
Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...
style was better suited to smaller works, and arguably found its ideal sculptural form in
early European porcelain, and interior decorative schemes in wood or plaster.
Music
Antonio Vivaldi
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist and impresario of Baroque music. Regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, Vivaldi's influence during his lifetime was widespread a ...
was the most important composer in Italy at the end of the Baroque period. He wrote more than 400 concertos for various instruments, especially for the
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
. The scores of 21 operas, including his first and last, are still intact. His best known work is a series of violin concertos known as
The Four Seasons.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...
was deeply influenced by Vivaldi's concertos and arias (recalled in his ''
St John Passion
The ''Passio secundum Joannem'' or ''St John Passion'' (german: Johannes-Passion, link=no), BWV 245, is a Passion or oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach, the older of the surviving Passions by Bach. It was written during his first year as direc ...
'', ''
St Matthew Passion
The ''St Matthew Passion'' (german: Matthäus-Passion, links=-no), BWV 244, is a '' Passion'', a sacred oratorio written by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1727 for solo voices, double choir and double orchestra, with libretto by Picander. It sets ...
'', and
cantatas
A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir.
The meaning of t ...
). Bach transcribed six of Vivaldi's concerti for solo keyboard, three for organ, and one for four harpsichords, strings, and
basso continuo
Basso continuo parts, almost universal in the Baroque era (1600–1750), provided the harmonic structure of the music by supplying a bassline and a chord progression. The phrase is often shortened to continuo, and the instrumentalists playing th ...
based upon the concerto for four violins, two violas, cello, and basso continuo.
Literature
Carlo Goldoni Carlo is a given name. It is an Italian form of Charles. It can refer to:
*Carlo (name)
*Monte Carlo
*Carlingford, New South Wales, a suburb in north-west Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
*A satirical song written by Dafydd Iwan about Prince Char ...
(1707-1793) was the most important Italian literate of the Settecento. He produced over 150 comedies.
Giambattista Vico and
Lodovico Muratori
Lodovico Antonio Muratori (21 October 1672 – 23 January 1750) was an Italian historian, notable as a leading scholar of his age, and for his discovery of the Muratorian fragment, the earliest known list of New Testament books.
Biography
Born ...
were the most notable Italian historians of this century, while the leading figure of the literary revival in poetry was
Giuseppe Parini
Giuseppe Parini (23 May 1729 – 15 August 1799) was an Italian enlightenment satirist and poet of the neoclassic period.
Biography
Parini (originally spelled Parino) was born in Bosisio (later renamed Bosisio Parini in his honour) in Brianza ...
.
Count
Vittorio Alfieri (1749-1803) was an Italian
dramatist and
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
, considered the "founder of Italian tragedy."
Alfieri is often indicated as one of the precursors of the
Romanticism
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
in Europe.
Philosophy
![Dei delitti e delle pene 1764](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Dei_delitti_e_delle_pene_1764.jpg)
Italy was affected during the Settecento by the "
enlightenment
Enlightenment or enlighten may refer to:
Age of Enlightenment
* Age of Enlightenment, period in Western intellectual history from the late 17th to late 18th century, centered in France but also encompassing (alphabetically by country or culture): ...
", a movement which was a consequence of the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
and changed the road of Italian philosophy.
Followers of the group often met to discuss in private salons and coffeehouses, notably in the cities of
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
,
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
and
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
.
Cities with important universities such as
Padua
Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...
,
Bologna
Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...
and
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
, however, also remained great centres of scholarship and the intellect, with several philosophers such as
Giambattista Vico (1668–1744) (who is widely regarded as being the founder of modern Italian philosophy)
and
Antonio Genovesi
Antonio Genovesi (1 November 171322 September 1769) was an Italian writer on philosophy and political economy.
Biography
Son of Salvatore Genovese, a shoemaker, and Adriana Alfinito of San Mango, Antonio Genovesi was born in Castiglione, near ...
.
Italian society also dramatically changed during the
Italian Enlightenment. The church's power was significantly reduced, and it was a period of great thought and invention, with scientists such as
Alessandro Volta
Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta (, ; 18 February 1745 – 5 March 1827) was an Italian physicist, chemist and lay Catholic who was a pioneer of electricity and power who is credited as the inventor of the electric battery and the ...
and
Luigi Galvani
Luigi Galvani (, also ; ; la, Aloysius Galvanus; 9 September 1737 – 4 December 1798) was an Italian physician, physicist, biologist and philosopher, who studied animal electricity. In 1780, he discovered that the muscles of dead frogs' legs ...
discovering new things and greatly contributing to Western science.
Cesare Beccaria
Cesare Bonesana di Beccaria, Marquis of Gualdrasco and Villareggio (; 15 March 173828 November 1794) was an Italian criminologist, jurist, philosopher, economist and politician, who is widely considered one of the greatest thinkers of the Age ...
was also one of the greatest Italian Enlightenment writers, who was famous for his masterpiece ''Of Crimes and Punishments'' (1764), which was later translated into 22 languages.
In it, Beccaria put forth some of the first modern arguments against the
death penalty
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
. His treatise was also the first full work of
penology, advocating reform of the criminal law system. The book was the first full-scale work to tackle criminal reform and to suggest that criminal justice should conform to rational principles.
As a consequence in Italy, the first pre-unitarian state to abolish the
death penalty
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
was the
Grand Duchy of Tuscany
The Grand Duchy of Tuscany ( it, Granducato di Toscana; la, Magnus Ducatus Etruriae) was an Italian monarchy that existed, with interruptions, from 1569 to 1859, replacing the Republic of Florence. The grand duchy's capital was Florence. In th ...
as of November 30, 1786, under the reign of
Pietro Leopoldo, later Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II. So Tuscany was the first civil state in the world to do away with torture and capital punishment. In 2000, Tuscany's regional authorities instituted an annual holiday on 30 November to commemorate the event. The event is commemorated on this day by 300 cities around the world celebrating
Cities for Life Day
Cities for Life Day is a worldwide festivity that supports the abolition of the death penalty. It is celebrated on November 30 of each year—the day in 1786 that the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, under the reign of Pietro Leopoldo (later Holy Roman ...
.
See also
*
Italian Enlightenment
*
Italian Rococo art
Italy, Italian Rococo art refers to painting and the plastic arts in Italy during the Rococo period, which went from about the early/mid-18th to the late 18th century.
History and background
Italian Rococo was mainly inspired by the rocaille or Fr ...
*
Italian Rococo interior design
Italian Rococo interior design refers to interior decoration (i.e. furniture, frescoing etc.) in Italy during the Rococo period, which went from the early 18th century to around the 1760s.Miller (2005) p. 80
History, background and influences
By ...
*
Cities for Life Day
Cities for Life Day is a worldwide festivity that supports the abolition of the death penalty. It is celebrated on November 30 of each year—the day in 1786 that the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, under the reign of Pietro Leopoldo (later Holy Roman ...
*
Duecento
The 13th century was the century which lasted from January 1, 1201 ( MCCI) through December 31, 1300 ( MCCC) in accordance with the Julian calendar.
The Mongol Empire was founded by Genghis Khan, which stretched from Eastern Asia to Easter ...
– the 13th century in Italian culture
*
Trecento
The Trecento (, also , ; short for , "1300") refers to the 14th century in Italian cultural history.
Period Art
Commonly, the Trecento is considered to be the beginning of the Renaissance in art history. Painters of the Trecento included Giotto ...
– the 14th century in Italian culture
*
Quattrocento – the 15th century in Italian culture
*
Cinquecento
The cultural and artistic events of Italy during the period 1500 to 1599 are collectively referred to as the Cinquecento (, ), from the Italian for the number 500, in turn from , which is Italian for the year 1500. Cinquecento encompasses the s ...
– the 16th century in Italian culture
*
Seicento – the 17th century in Italian culture
*
Ottocento – the 19th century in Italian culture
References
{{Italy topics
18th century in Italy
Cultural history of Italy