Art in the 19th Century

Baroque refuses to die

During the 19th century, Baroque just would not die, especially in Spain & Latin America.

People just kept building churches, palaces, and plazas in the Baroque style.

But this was a new Baroque, with even more decoration than before.

You could barely find the door in some doorways or the altar in some altars.

In the world of sculpture, the star was Francisco Salzillo.

He was the bridge linking the Baroque tendencies of the 17th century to the new Rococ and Neo-classical aesthetics.

A new art form was born in 18th century France: rococ, decorative and ornate.

Many intellectuals and artists judged rococ as superficial and frivolous, aristocratic and bourgeois.

Enlightenment ideas, the French Revolution and the discovery of new archeological sites from Antiquity led to the creation of a new style: Neoclassicism.

Neoclassicism was a return to classicism and rationalism

Pure lines, no ornamentation

Neoclassical Architecture
Neoclassical architecture was based on the Greek model: -Doric order -Columns -Sculptural facades

They also used Roman arches and cupolas to create large spaces.

Neoclassical sculpture (in marble, imitating Greek and Roman statues) can be described as so rational that its cold and conventional.

Neoclassical painting dealt with historical terms, heroic scenes, and revolutionary ideas.