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MOVEMENTS ARTISTS TIMELINES IDEAS BLOG Search

MOVEMENTS, STYLES, AND TENDENCIES NEOCLASSICISM HISTORY AND CONCEPTS

Neoclassicism

Started: 1750
Ended: 1850

TABLE OF CONTENTS "There is but one way for the moderns to become great, and perhaps
Synopsis unequalled; I mean by imitating the ancient...especially the Greek arts."
Key Ideas Johann Joachim Winckelmann
Most Important Art
Beginnings
Concepts, Styles, and Trends
Later Developments
BEGINNINGS
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Resources

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Nicolas
MOVEMENTS Poussin
ARTISTS andTIMELINES
Claude Lorrain
IDEAS BLOG Search
KEY ARTISTS
Neoclassicism adopted the hierarchy of painting that was established by the Fre
Jean-Auguste-
Dominique Ingres Academy of the Arts in 1669. History painting, which included subjects from the
Quick View classical mythology, and history, was ranked as the top category, followed by po
Artist Page
----------------- genre painting, landscapes, and still-lifes. This hierarchy, was used to evaluate w
Jacques Louis submitted for the Salon or for prizes like the illustrious Prix de Rome, and in uen
David nancial value of works for patrons and collectors. The works of Nicolas Poussi
Quick View
Artist Page
Lorrain were revered as the ideal exemplars of history painting, and both artists
----------------- in uences upon Neoclassicism.
William-Adolphe
Bouguereau While Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorraine
Quick View
Artist Page
French Baroque artists who spent most of
----------------- lives in Rome, it was their distinctive emph
Élisabeth Louise classical approach that appealed to Neocla
Vigée Le Brun
Claude, as he is commonly called, painted
Quick View
Artist Page using naturalistic detail and the observatio
----------------- its effects, with gures from mythological o
Jean-Léon Gérôme
scenes, as seen in his A landscape with Ap
Quick View
Artist Page the herds of Admetus and Mercury stealing
----------------- An effect of orderly harmony was conveyed
Arnold Bocklin
Quick View
his works, which appealed to Neoclassicism
Artist Page art should express the ideal virtues.
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More Top Artists

MOVEMENTS ARTISTS TIMELINES IDEASWhile he wasSearch
BLOG also a noted painte
subjects, Nicholas Poussin's myt
historical scenes were his primar
Neoclassicism. His The Death of
(1627) made him famous in his o
in uenced Jacques-Louis David a
Benjamin West whose The Death
Wolfe (1770) draws upon the wo
works of Venetian Renaissance a
in uenced his color palette, Pous
compositions emphasized clarity and logic, and his gurative treatments favore

The Grand Tour

Neoclassicism was inspired by the discovery of ancient Greek and Roman arche
and artifacts that became known throughout Europe in popular illustrated repor
travel expeditions. Scholars such as James Stuart and Nicholas Revett made a
effort to catalog and record the past in works like their Antiquities of Athens (176
see these works rst hand, young European aristocrats on the Grand Tour, a trad
educational rite of passage, traveled to Italy "in search of art, culture, and the roo
civilization," as cultural critic Matt Gross wrote. Rome with its Roman ruins, Rena
works, and recently discovered antiquities became a major stop. Famous artists

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MOVEMENTS ARTISTS were both avid

TIMELINES collectors
IDEAS BLOGand commissioned
Search vario

Johann Joachim Winckelmann

Neoclassicism bega
Johann Joachim W
Thoughts on the Imi
Works in Painting an
(1750) played a lead
establishing the aes
theory of Neoclassic
German, he lived mo
Rome where severa
Catholic o cials be
patrons. Arguing tha
strive toward "noble simplicity and calm grandeur," he advocated, "the one way fo
become great, perhaps inimitable, is by imitating the ancients." The work, which
famous, was widely translated, rst into French, then into English by the artist H
1765.

In 1738, the ruined city of Herculaneum was discovered and excavated, followed
excavation of Pompeii and Paestum in 1748. In the sudden eruption of Mount V
CE the cities had been covered in volcanic ash, so that elements of ancient ever
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sculptures, and many frescoes were preserved. In 1758 Winckelmann visited the

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MOVEMENTS ARTISTS and published the

TIMELINES rst accounts
IDEAS BLOG of Search
the archeological
Letter about the Discoveries at Herculaneum (1762).

Wincke
masterw
Ancient
became
classic,
historia
Haskell
Penny w
"most s
lasting achievement was to produce a thorough, comprehensive and lucid chron
account of all antique art - including that of the Egyptians and Etruscans." He wa
create an orderly vision of art, from beginning to maturity to decline, looking at a
art as integrally connected to the culture itself. The book in uenced noted intelle
his time and in the following centuries, including Lessing, Herder, Goethe, Nietzs
Spengler.

Early Neoclassicism: Anton Raphael Mengs

In uenced by his close friend Winckelmann, Anton Raphael Mengs was an early
Neoclassical painting. The circle of artists that gathered around Mengs and Win
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positioned Rome as the center of the new movement. Mengs noted frescoes, de

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MOVEMENTS ARTISTS TIMELINES IDEAS mythological

BLOG Search subjects led
dubbed "the greatest pain
day." He in uenced a num
artists, who were to lead
subsequent developmen
Neoclassicism in Britain,
Benjamin West, Angelica
John Flaxman, and Gavin
also in uenced Jacques-Louis David, who led the later period of Neoclassicism
France, as the two artists met during David's Prix de Rome stay from 1775-1780

The Enlightenment

Neoclassicism developed with the Enlightenment, a political and philosophical m

primarily valued science, reason, and exploration. Also called "The Age of Reaso
Enlightenment was informed by the skepticism of the noted philosopher René D
the political philosophy of John Locke as the absolutes of the monarchy and rel
were fundamentally questioned, and the ideals of individual liberty, religious tole
constitutional governments were advanced. The French Encyclopédie (Encyclop
1772), representing a compendium of Enlightenment thought and the most sign
publication of the century, had an international in uence. Denis Diderot, also kno
founder of the discipline of art history, who edited the work, said its purpose was
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service to you.As historian
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our site, you agreeDonato wrote,
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MOVEMENTS ARTISTS potential ofIDEAS

TIMELINES reason and
BLOGuni ed knowledge to em
Search
will and ...to shape the social issues." Adopting th
Neoclassical artists felt art could civilize, reform,
transform society, as society itself was being tra
the rising forces of the Industrial Revolution, driv
scienti c discovery and invention.

Benjamin West and Joseph Wright o

In
N
o
W
o
to
c
m
e
m
and Enlightenment rationality. Other artists such as Joseph Wright of Derby crea
informed by scienti c invention as seen in his An Experiment on a Bird in the Air
or Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery (1766). Rather than mythological subjects

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General WolfeARTISTS
MOVEMENTS (1770), in which he challenged
TIMELINES the academic
IDEAS BLOG standards,
Search refusing t
depict the soldiers in Roman togas as not based on reason or observation.

The Apex of Neoclassicism: Jacques-Louis David

The later period of Neoclassicism

France, emphasized strong line, a
classical settings lit with an arti
simpli ed elements to convey mo
Shown at the 1785 Paris Salon, J
David's Oath of the Horatii (1784)
the new direction in Neoclassica
made him the leader of the move
artist completed the painting wh
Rome, where he associated with
subsequently, visited the ruins at Herculaneum, an experience that he compared
cataracts surgically removed. Although Oath of the Horatii (1784), appealed to K
whose government had commissioned it, with its emphasis on loyalty, the paint
subsequently identi ed with the revolutionary movement in France. The French
was a period of far-reaching political and social upheaval that overthrew the mo
established a republic and culminated as a dictatorship under Napoleon inspired
new liberalist ideas. The Jacobins, a highly in uential political club of the time, a
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ourseen in agree
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cookies. GOTDI

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in uence wasARTISTS
MOVEMENTS so great that TIMELINES
the later periodIDEAS
of Neoclassicism
BLOG was dubbed "the A
Search
as he personally trained artists including Anne Louis Girodet-Trioson, François G
Jean Gros, and Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres.

CONCEPTS, STYLES, AND TRENDS

Architecture

In uenced by Venetian Renaissa

Andrea Palladio's designs and inf
archeological discoveries at Herc
Winckelmann's theories, Neoclas
architecture began in the mid-17
spread throughout Europe. The e
found in the designs of public bu
notable residences, and urban pla
employed a grid design taken fro
Roman examples. Ancient Roma
them even older civilizations, had
consolidated scheme for city planning for defense and civil convenience purpos
basic design, the plan emphasized a squared system of streets with a central fo
services. However, regional variations developed in the early 1800s, as the Britis
Greek Revival style, and the French to the Empire style developed during theGOT
reigI
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Bonaparte. Both
MOVEMENTS styles wereTIMELINES
ARTISTS connected toIDEAS
a sense of national
BLOG identity, encourag
Search
political environment of the time.

The British Greek Revival style wa

by the archeological ndings of J
and Nicholas Revett who publish
Antiquities of Athens (1762), and
of several Greek temples in Italy t
easily visited. British Greek Reviv
led by the architects Williams Wi
Robert Smirke, noted for its emphasis on simplicity and its use of Doric columns
architecture in Germany, the United States, and Northern Europe. Carl Gotthard
Brandenburg Gate (1788-1791) in Berlin was a noted example.

As Hugh Honour wrote, the Frenc

"turned to the orid opulence of I
The abstemious severity of Doric
by Corinthian richness and splen
Percier and Pierre Fontaine, both
trained in Rome, were the leading
the style, as seen in their Arc de T
Carousel (1801-1806). The trium
became a noted feature of the st
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France as seen in the Arc de Trio

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l'Étoile (1806-1836)
MOVEMENTS and, internationally,
ARTISTS TIMELINES asIDEAS
seen in the NavraSearch
BLOG Triumphal Arch (18
Saint Petersburg to commemorate the Russian defeat of Napoleon.

Interior Design

Interior design and furnishings in the Empire style we

in uenced by the discoveries at Herculaneum and Po
interiors, meant to impress, employed gilded orname
militaristic motif or motifs evoking ancient Egypt and
civilizations conquered by the Romans, and in the ea
conquered by Napoleon. Both in architecture and des
Empire style became international, as it corresponde
Regency style in England, the Federal style in the Unit
the Biedermeier style in Germany.

Sculpture

The French Jean-Baptiste Pigalle was an early leader of Neoclassical sculpture.

(1744) was acclaimed by Voltaire as comparable to the best Greek sculpture an
reproduced. Pigalle was also a noted teacher, as his student Jean-Antoine Houd
for his portrait busts, subsequently led the movement in France. As the moveme
international, the Italian sculptor Antonio Canova was considered to be the leadi
of Neoclassicism as his works were compared in their beauty and grace to thos
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ancient Greek sculptor Praxiteles. In England, John Flaxman was the most in ue

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MOVEMENTS ARTISTS known not onlyIDEAS

TIMELINES for his BLOG
gures such as his Pastoral A
Search
but his reliefs and his Neoclassical designs for Josia
Wedgwood's Jasperware, an internationally popular

LATER DEVELOPMENTS
Neoclassicism in painting and sculpture began decli
rise of Romanticism, though in the early 1800s the tw
existed in rivalry, as Ingres held to Neoclassicism, by
considered "traditional," and Delacroix emphasized in
sensibility and feeling. By the 1850s Neoclassicism a
movement had come to an end, though academic artists continued to employ c
and subjects throughout most of the 19th century, while opposed and challenge
art movements, such as Realism, Naturalism, and Impressionism.

Nonetheless Ingres' work continued to in uence later artists as he evolved away

Neoclassicism and into Romanticism with his female odalisques and their elong
He impacted Edgar Degas, Auguste Renoir, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso, w
informed by his gurative treatments with their stylistic distortions. David's work
his The Death of Marat (1793), was rediscovered in the mid-19th century, and, su
in uenced Picasso and Edvard Munch, as well as contemporary artists such as
Contemporary artist Cindy Sherman's History Portraits (1988-1990) repurposes
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While Neoclassical
MOVEMENTS architecture
ARTISTS declined by
TIMELINES the midBLOG
IDEAS 1800s, its in uence continu
Search
new movements, such as the American Renaissance movement and Beaux-Arts
Additionally, architects commissioned to create noted public projects continued
style in the 20th century as seen in the Lincoln Memorial (1922) and the America
Natural History's Theodore Roosevelt Memorial (1936). The Soviet Union also fr
employed the style in state architecture, both at home and by exporting it to oth
countries.

MOST IMPORTANT ART

Death of General Wolfe (1770)

Artist: Benjamin West
This painting shows the death of Major-General James Wolfe
Plains of Abraham at the Battle of Quebec in 1759 during the
Years' War, known in the United States as the French and Indi
Wolfe was killed by musket re in the brief battle as he led the
Read More ...

Neoclassicism Artworks in Focus:

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