Cole (cont.) -- The Course of Empire series
ģhistorical landscapesī = allegorical scenes set in nature that sought the moral uplift of history painting
Allowed Cole to use his landscape skills toward a sustained meditation on the theme of ģdevelopmentī and moral decay
Appealed to both Jeffersonians (agrarians) who thought they depicted the destruction caused by technology & development, and to Federalists (urban capitalists) who read them as envisioning the fate that correct democracy and commerce could avoid
Reframes the Enlightenment neoclassical ideal in favor of the natural world