France
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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| In the 20th century the Swiss Architect [[Le Corbusier]] designed several buildings in France. More recently French architects have combined both modern and old architectural styles. The [[Louvre Pyramid]] is a good example of modern architecture added to an older building. Certainly the most difficult buildings to integrate within French cities are skyscrapers, as they are visible from afar. France's largest financial district is [[La Defense]], where a significant number of skyscrapers are located. Other massive buildings that are a challenge to integrate into their environment are large bridges; a good example of the way this has been done is the [[Millau Viaduct]]. Some famous modern French architects include [[Jean Nouvel]] or [[Paul Andreu]]. | In the 20th century the Swiss Architect [[Le Corbusier]] designed several buildings in France. More recently French architects have combined both modern and old architectural styles. The [[Louvre Pyramid]] is a good example of modern architecture added to an older building. Certainly the most difficult buildings to integrate within French cities are skyscrapers, as they are visible from afar. France's largest financial district is [[La Defense]], where a significant number of skyscrapers are located. Other massive buildings that are a challenge to integrate into their environment are large bridges; a good example of the way this has been done is the [[Millau Viaduct]]. Some famous modern French architects include [[Jean Nouvel]] or [[Paul Andreu]]. | ||
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| - | == History == | ||
| - | :''[[French history]]'' | ||
| - | === Rome to revolution === | ||
| - | The borders of modern France are approximately the same as those of ancient [[Gaul]], which was inhabited by [[Celt]]ic ''Gauls''. Gaul was conquered for [[Roman Empire|Rome]] by [[Julius Caesar]] in the 1st century BC, and the Gauls eventually adopted [[Romance languages|Roman]] speech ([[Latin]], from which the [[French language]] evolved) and Roman culture. [[History of Christianity|Christianity]] first appeared in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, and became so firmly established by the fourth and fifth centuries that [[St. Jerome]] wrote that Gaul was the only region “free from heresy”. | ||
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| - | In the 4th century AD, Gaul’s eastern frontier along the [[Rhine]] was overrun by [[Germanic peoples|Germanic tribes]], principally the [[Franks]], from whom the ancient name of “Francie” was derived. The modern name “France” derives from the name of the feudal domain of the [[House of Capet|Capetian]] Kings of France around Paris. The Franks were the first tribe among the Germanic conquerors of Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire to convert to [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] Christianity rather than [[Arianism]] (their King [[Clovis I|Clovis]] did so in 498); thus France obtained the title “Eldest daughter of the Church” (''La fille ainée de l’Église''), and the French would adopt this as justification for calling themselves “the Most Christian Kingdom of France”. | ||
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| - | Existence as a separate entity began with the [[Treaty of Verdun]] (843), with the division of [[Charlemagne]]'s [[Carolingian Empire]] into [[East Francia]], [[Middle Francia]] and [[Western Francia]]. Western Francia approximated the area occupied by modern France and was the precursor to modern France. | ||
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| - | The [[Carolingian dynasty]] ruled France until 987, when [[Hugh Capet of France|Hugh Capet]], Duke of France and Count of Paris, was crowned [[King of France]]. His descendants, the [[House of Capet|Direct Capetians]], the [[House of Valois]] and the [[House of Bourbon]], progressively unified the country through a series of wars and dynastic inheritance. The [[Albigensian Crusade]] was launched in 1209 to eliminate the heretical [[Cathars]] of [[Occitania]] (the south of modern-day France). In the end, both the Cathars and the independence of southern France were exterminated. | ||
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| - | In 1066, the Duke of Normandy became King of England, and separated Normandy from France and marked it as English territory. He then increased that territory to cover over half of what France is today, being the North, Centre and West of France. The height of this was around the reign of Henry II in the 1170s. However, after then, territories continued to change but since the Wars of the Roses held England weak, France won back that territory and the last territory England held in France was Calais, but after Henry VIII this was lost to the Spanish Netherlands. | ||
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| - | Charles IV (The Fair) died without heir in 1328. Under the rule adopted in 1316, the crown of France could not pass to a woman, nor could the line of kinfship pass through the female line. This became known as the Salic Law. Accordingly, the crown passed to cousin of Charles, Philip of Valois, rather than passing though the female line to Charles' nephew, Edward, who would soon become Edward III of England. Under the reign of Phillip Valois who was then Philip IV, the French monarchy reached the height of its medieval power. However, Philip's seat on the throne was contested by Edward III of England and in 1337, on the eve of the first wave of the [[Black Death]], England and France went to war in what would become known as the [[Hundred Years' War]]. | ||
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| - | In the most notorious incident during the [[French Wars of Religion]] (1562–98), thousands of [[Huguenots]] were murdered in the [[St. Bartholomew's Day massacre]] of 1572. | ||
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| - | The monarchy reached its height during the 17th century and the reign of [[Louis XIV of France|Louis XIV]]. At this time France possessed the largest population in Europe and had tremendous influence over European politics, economy, and culture. French became, and remained until the 20th century, the common language of diplomacy in international affairs. Much of the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] occurred in French intellectual circles, and major scientific breakthroughs were achieved by French scientists in the 18th century. In addition, France obtained many overseas possessions in the Americas, Africa and Asia. | ||
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| - | === Monarchy to Republic === | ||
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| - | The monarchy ruled France until the [[French Revolution]]. It did not fall immediately after the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, but endured until the creation of the First Republic in September 1792. [[Louis XVI of France|Louis XVI]] and his wife, [[Marie Antoinette]], were executed (in 1793), along with thousands of other French citizens during the [[Reign of Terror]]. A guerrilla war and [[counterrevolution]], known as the [[Revolt in the Vendée]], cost more than 100,000 lives before it was crushed in 1796. After a series of short-lived governmental schemes, [[Napoleon I of France|Napoleon Bonaparte]] seized control of the Republic in 1799, making himself [[First Consul]], and later [[Emperor]] of what is now known as the [[First French Empire|First Empire]] (1804–1814). In the course of [[Napoleonic Wars|several wars]], his armies conquered most of continental Europe, with members of the [[Bonaparte]] family being appointed as monarchs of newly established kingdoms. About a million Frenchmen died during the Napoleonic wars. | ||
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| - | Following Napoleon's final defeat in 1815 at the [[Battle of Waterloo]], the French monarchy was re-established, but with new constitutional limitations. In 1830, a [[July Revolution|civil uprising]] established the [[constitutional monarchy|constitutional]] [[July Monarchy]], which lasted until 1848. The short-lived [[French Second Republic|Second Republic]] ended in 1852 when [[Napoleon III of France|Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte]] proclaimed the [[Second French Empire|Second Empire]]. Louis-Napoléon was unseated following defeat in the [[Franco-Prussian War|Franco-Prussian war]] of 1870 and his regime was replaced by the [[French Third Republic|Third Republic]]. | ||
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| - | France had [[French colonial empire|colonial possessions]], in various forms, since the beginning of the 17th century until the 1960s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, its [[global Empire|global]] overseas colonial empire was the second largest in the world behind the [[British Empire]]. At its peak, between 1919 and 1939, the second French colonial empire extended over 12,347,000 square kilometres (4,767,000 sq mi) of land. Including [[metropolitan France]], the total area of land under French [[sovereignty]] reached 12,898,000 square kilometres (4,980,000 sq mi) in the 1920s and 1930s, which is 8.6% of the world's land area. | ||
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| - | France was an occupied nation in [[World War I]] and [[World War II]]. The human and material losses in the first war, which left 1.4 million French soldiers dead, exceeded largely those of the second, even though only a minor part of its territory was occupied during World War I. The interbellum phase was marked by a variety of social reforms introduced by the Popular Front government. Following the [[Nazi Germany|German]] ''[[blitzkrieg]]'' campaign in World War II [[metropolitan France]] was divided in an [[German occupation of France during World War II|occupation zone in the north]] and [[Vichy France]], a puppet regime loyal to Germany, in the south. | ||
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| - | The [[French Fourth Republic|Fourth Republic]] was established after World War II and, despite spectacular economic growth (''les [[Trente Glorieuses]]''), it struggled to maintain its political status as a dominant [[Nation-state|nation state]]. France attempted to hold on to its [[colonial empires|colonial empire]], but soon ran into trouble. The half-hearted 1946 attempt at regaining control of [[French Indochina]] resulted in the [[First Indochina War]], which ended in French defeat at the [[Battle of Dien Bien Phu]] in 1954. Only months later, France faced a new, even harsher [[Algerian War|conflict in Algeria]]. | ||
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| - | The debate over whether or not to keep control of [[French Algeria|Algeria]], then home to over one million [[Pied-noir|European settlers]], wracked the country and nearly led to civil war. In 1958, the weak and unstable Fourth Republic gave way to the [[Fifth French Republic|Fifth Republic]], which contained a strengthened Presidency. In the latter role, [[Charles de Gaulle]] managed to keep the country together while taking steps to end the war. The Algerian War was concluded with peace negotiations in 1962 that led to Algerian independence. | ||
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| - | In recent decades, France's reconciliation and cooperation with Germany have proved central to the political and economic integration of the evolving European Union, including the introduction of the euro in January 1999. France has been at the forefront of the European Union member states seeking to exploit the momentum of monetary union to create a more unified and capable European Union political, defence, and security apparatus. The French electorate voted against ratification of the [[Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe|European Constitutional Treaty]] in May 2005, but the successor [[Treaty of Lisbon]] was ratified by Parliament in February 2008. | ||
| == See also == | == See also == | ||
Revision as of 07:23, 27 June 2014
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France is a European country bordered by Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, Andorra, and Spain.
France is the most visited country in the world, receiving over 75 million foreign tourists (including business visitors) annually.
Contents |
Culture
Literature
The earliest French literature dates from the Middle Ages when the area that is modern France did not have a single, uniform language. There were several languages and dialects and each writer used his own spelling and grammar. The author of many French mediaeval texts is unknown, for example Tristan and Iseult and Lancelot and the Holy Grail. Much mediaeval French poetry and literature was inspired by the legends of the Matter of France, such as the The Song of Roland and the various Chansons de geste. The “Roman de Renart”, written in 1175 by Perrout de Saint Cloude tells the story of the mediaeval character Reynard ('the Fox') and is another example of early French writing. The names of some authors from this period are known, for example Chrétien de Troyes and Duke William IX of Aquitaine, who wrote in Occitan.
An important 16th century writer was François Rabelais who influenced modern French vocabulary and metaphor. During the 17th century Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine and Molière's plays, Blaise Pascal and René Descartes's moral and philosophical books deeply influenced the aristocracy leaving an important heritage for the authors of the following decades. Jean de La Fontaine was an important poet from this century. French literature and poetry flourished in the 18th and 19th centuries. The 18th century saw the works of writers, essayists and moralists such as Voltaire, Denis Diderot and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Charles Perrault was a prolific writer of children's stories such as: “Puss in Boots”, “Cinderella”, “Sleeping Beauty” and “Bluebeard”.
At the turn of the 19th century symbolist poetry was an important movement in French literature, with poets such as Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine and Stéphane Mallarmé. The 19th century saw the writing of many French novels of world renown with Victor Hugo (Les Misérables), Alexandre Dumas (The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte-Cristo), and Jules Verne (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea) among the most well-known in France and beyond. Other 19th century fiction writers include Emile Zola, Guy de Maupassant, Théophile Gautier and Stendhal.
The Prix Goncourt is a French literary prize first awarded in 1903. Important writers of the 20th century include Marcel Proust, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Albert Camus, and Jean-Paul Sartre. Antoine de Saint Exupéry wrote Little Prince which has remained popular for decades with children and adults around the world.
Art
The origins of French art were very much influenced by Flemish art and by Italian art at the time of the Renaissance. Jean Fouquet, the most famous medieval French painter, is said to have been the first to travel to Italy and experience the Early Renaissance at first hand. The Renaissance painting School of Fontainebleau was directly inspired by Italian painters such as Primaticcio and Rosso Fiorentino, who both worked in France. Two of the most famous French artists of the time of Baroque era, Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain, lived in Italy.
The 17th century was the period when French painting became prominent and individualized itself through classicism. Louis XIV's prime minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert founded in 1648 the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture to protect these artists, and in 1666 he created the still-active French Academy in Rome to have direct relations with Italian artists.
French artists developed the rococo style in the 18th century, as a more intimate imitation of old baroque style, the works of the court-endorsed artists Antoine Watteau, François Boucher and Jean-Honoré Fragonard being the most representative in the country. The French Revolution brought great changes, as Napoleon favoured artists of neoclassic style such as Jacques-Louis David and the highly influential Académie des Beaux-Arts defined the style known as Academism. At this time France had become a centre of artistic creation, the first half of the 19th century being dominated by two successive movements, at first Romanticism with Théodore Géricault and Eugène Delacroix, and Realism with Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet and Jean-François Millet, a style that eventually evolved into Naturalism.
In the second part of the 19th century, France's influence over painting became even more important, with the development of new styles of painting such as Impressionism and Symbolism. The most famous impressionist painters of the period were Camille Pissarro, Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet and Auguste Renoir. The second generation of impressionist-style painters, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec and Georges Seurat, were also at the avant-garde of artistic evolutions, as well as the fauvist artists Henri Matisse, André Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck.
At the beginning of 20th century, Cubism was developed by Georges Braque and the Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, living in Paris. Other foreign artists also settled and worked in or near Paris, such as Vincent van Gogh, Marc Chagall, Amedeo Modigliani and Wassily Kandinsky.
Many museums in France are entirely or partly devoted to sculptures and painting works. A huge collection of old masterpieces created before or during the 18th century are displayed in the state-owned Musée du Louvre, such as Mona Lisa, also known as La Joconde. While the Louvre Palace has been for a long time a museum, the Musée d'Orsay was inaugurated in 1986 in the old railway station Gare d'Orsay, in a major reorganization of national art collections, to gather French paintings from the second part of the 19th century (mainly Impressionism and Fauvism movements).
Modern works are presented in the Musée National d'Art Moderne, which moved in 1976 to the Centre Georges Pompidou. These three state-owned museums welcome close to 17 million people a year. Other national museums hosting paintings include the Grand Palais (1.3 million visitors in 2008), but there are also many museums owned by cities, the most visited being the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (0.8 million entries in 2008), which hosts contemporary works.
Outside Paris, all the large cities have a Museum of Fine Arts with a section dedicated to European and French painting. Some of the finest collections are in Lyon, Lille, Rouen, Dijon, Rennes and Grenoble.
Architecture
There is, technically speaking, no architecture named French Architecture, although that has not always been true. Gothic Architecture's old name was French Architecture (or Opus Francigenum). The term “Gothic” appeared later as a stylistic insult and was widely adopted. Northern France is the home of some of the most important Gothic cathedrals and basilicas, the first of these being the Saint Denis Basilica (used as the royal necropolis); other important French Gothic cathedrals are Notre-Dame de Chartres and Notre-Dame d'Amiens. The kings were crowned in another important Gothic church: Notre-Dame de Reims. Aside from churches, Gothic Architecture had been used for many religious palaces, the most important one being the Palais des Papes in Avignon.
During the Middle Ages, fortified castles were built by feudal nobles to mark their powers against their rivals. When King Philip II took Rouen from King John, for example, he demolished the ducal castle to build a bigger one. Fortified cities were also common, unfortunately most French castles did not survive the passage of time. This is why Richard the Lionheart's Château-Gaillard was demolished, as well as the Château de Lusignan. Some important French castles that survived are Chinon, Château d'Angers, the massive Château de Vincennes and the so called Cathar castles.
Before the appearance of this architecture France had been using Romanesque architecture like most of Western Europe (with the exception of the Iberian Peninsula, which used Mooresque architecture). Some of the greatest examples of Romanesque churches in France are the Saint Sernin Basilica in Toulouse and the remains of the Cluniac Abbey (largely destroyed during the Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars).
The end of the Hundred Years' War marked an important stage in the evolution of French architecture. It was the time of the French Renaissance and several artists from Italy and Spain were invited to the French court; many residential palaces, Italian-inspired, were built, mainly in the Loire Valley. Such residential castles were the Château de Chambord, the Château de Chenonceau, or the Château d'Amboise. Following the renaissance and the end of the Middle Ages, Baroque Architecture replaced the gothic one. However, in France, baroque architecture found a greater success in the secular domain than in the religious one. In the secular domain the Palace of Versailles has many baroque features. Jules Hardouin Mansart can be said to be the most influential French architect of the baroque style, with his very famous baroque dome of Les Invalides. Some of the most impressive provincial baroque architecture is found in places that were not yet French such as the Place Stanislas in Nancy. On the military architectural side Vauban designed some of the most efficient fortresses of Europe and became a very influential military architect.
After the Revolution the Republicans favoured Neoclassicism although neoclassicism was introduced in France prior to the revolution with such building as the Parisian Pantheon or the Capitole de Toulouse. Built during the French Empire the Arc de Triomphe and Sainte Marie-Madeleine represent this trend the best.
Under Napoleon III a new wave of urbanism and architecture was given birth. If some very extravagant buildings such as the neo-baroque Palais Garnier were built, the urban planning of the time was very organised and rigorous. For example Baron Haussmann rebuilt Paris. The architecture associated to this era is named Second Empire in the English speaking world, the term being taken from the Second French Empire. These times also saw a strong Gothic-Revival trend across Europe, in France the associated architect was Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. In the late 19th century Gustave Eiffel designed many bridges (like the Garabit viaduct) and remains one of the most influential bridge designer of his time, although he is best remembered for the Eiffel Tower.
In the 20th century the Swiss Architect Le Corbusier designed several buildings in France. More recently French architects have combined both modern and old architectural styles. The Louvre Pyramid is a good example of modern architecture added to an older building. Certainly the most difficult buildings to integrate within French cities are skyscrapers, as they are visible from afar. France's largest financial district is La Defense, where a significant number of skyscrapers are located. Other massive buildings that are a challenge to integrate into their environment are large bridges; a good example of the way this has been done is the Millau Viaduct. Some famous modern French architects include Jean Nouvel or Paul Andreu.
See also
- French art
- French culture
- History of France
- French censorship
- Venus in France
- French literature
- French philosophy
- Francophilia
- Stereotypes of French people
