Concept
The Course of Empire (paintings)
Overview
The Course of Empire is a series of five paintings created by the English-born American painter Thomas Cole between 1833 and 1836, and now in the collection of the New York Historical. The series depicts the growth and fall of an imaginary city, situated on the lower end of a river valley, near its meeting with a bay of the sea. The valley is identifiable in each of the paintings, in part because of a distinct landmark: a large boulder situated atop a crag overlooking the valley. Some critics believe this is meant to contrast the immutability of the earth with the transience of man.
It is notable in part for reflecting popular American sentiments of the times, when many saw pastoralism as the ideal phase of human civilization, fearing that empire would lead to gluttony and inevitable decay. The theme of cycles is one that Cole returned to frequently, such as in his The Voyage of Life series. The Course of Empire comprises the following works: The Course of Empire – The Savage State; The Arcadian or Pastoral State; The Consummation of Empire; Destruction; and Desolation.
All the paintings are oil on canvas, and all are 39.5 inches by 63.5 inches (100 cm by 161 cm) except The Consummation of Empire which is 51″ by 76″ (130 cm by 193 cm).
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
But if we had to communicate to the observer, for reflection, and in a word, the explanation of their inner nature, it would be best to make use of that Sanscrit formula which occurs so often in the sacred books of the Hindoos, and is called Mahavakya, i.e., the great word: “_Tat twam asi_,” which means, “this living thing art thou.”
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea
States what The Course of Empire is.
On passing from spoken to written language, we come upon several classes of facts, all having similar implications. Written language is connate with Painting and Sculpture; and at first all three are appendages of Architecture, and have a direct connexion with the primary form of all Government—the theocratic. Merely noting by the way the fact that sundry wild races, as for example the Australians and the tribes of…
Herbert Spencer, First Principles
Close in meaning to The Course of Empire; the term itself is not named.
The two chiefs of this gigantic and badly organized body, the German Emperor and the Pope, bishop of Rome, were vested only with a grandeur of opinion; their real power was void: they were nothing more, in fact, than that which they appeared in form. Since Charlemagne, who, in a century of darkness enlightened with his own genius, had had the force to grasp the _débris_ of the empire, uniting them in his hand and…
Antoine Fabre d'Olivet, The golden verses of Pythagoras
Close in meaning to The Course of Empire; the term itself is not named.
Related ideas
- Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
- Decadence
- Archaic Greece
- Geometry
- Native Americans in the United States
- Ancient Rome
- Agriculture
- Colonnade
- Arcadia (utopia)
Place in the tradition
Part of Romanticism.
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