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Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism: 1750-1880
Neoclassicism art originated in France during the late eighteenth century in response to the Baroque. The movement’s aim was to restore the ideals of ancient Greek and Roman art, so artists such as David and Canova used classical methods to illustrate the virtues of courage, sacrifice and patriotism.
The neoclassicism art movement came about as a result of the Enlightenment, often referred to as the Age of Reason, when a large number of individuals began to think for themselves, outside of the restrictions imposed by religion and traditional authority. Literary leaders such as Voltaire began to use intellectual wit to mock vice and praise equality, diligence and sincere behaviour. A widespread mistrust of the aristocracy’s irresponsible way of life developed across Europe and further a field, eventually leading to political revolution in France and America under the banner of freedom and democracy.
The moral revolution materialised in the art world through a desire for paintings to instruct the population as they had the Greek and Romans, so that attitudes of morality and virtue could touch people and steer them away from wasteful living. Just as Classical art had focused on serious subjects portrayed in a serious way, so Neoclassicism imitated this style and intent. A famous example of this can be seen in Jacques Louis David’sDeath of Socrates. In this painting, Socrates, surrounded by his followers, is about to drink poisonous hemlock because he was unlawfully condemned to death for his beliefs. Coming two years before the outbreak of the French Revolution, this painting gave the nation a moral lesson in martyrdom and remaining true to oneself in the name of justice.
In addition to selecting a Greek subject from history, David painted the scene in a typically severe classical style, concentrating on figures that bore similarity with famous classical statues, highlighted using Caravaggio’s Tenebrism set against a dark background for dramatic impact. The message of the work helped elevate David to become a leading Neoclassical artist of the French Revolution, painting portraits of its champions and restructuring the art establishment in France.
Our Art on Demand gallery contains the following neoclassical art prints, posters and canvases
Neoclassicism: 1750-1880
Neoclassicism art originated in France during the late eighteenth century in response to the Baroque. The movement’s aim was to restore the ideals of ancient Greek and Roman art, so artists such as David and Canova used classical methods to illustrate the virtues of courage, sacrifice and patriotism.
The neoclassicism art movement came about as a result of the Enlightenment, often referred to as the Age of Reason, when a large number of individuals began to think for themselves, outside of the restrictions imposed by religion and traditional authority. Literary leaders such as Voltaire began to use intellectual wit to mock vice and praise equality, diligence and sincere behaviour. A widespread mistrust of the aristocracy’s irresponsible way of life developed across Europe and further a field, eventually leading to political revolution in France and America under the banner of freedom and democracy.
The moral revolution materialised in the art world through a desire for paintings to instruct the population as they had the Greek and Romans, so that attitudes of morality and virtue could touch people and steer them away from wasteful living. Just as Classical art had focused on serious subjects portrayed in a serious way, so Neoclassicism imitated this style and intent. A famous example of this can be seen in Jacques Louis David’sDeath of Socrates. In this painting, Socrates, surrounded by his followers, is about to drink poisonous hemlock because he was unlawfully condemned to death for his beliefs. Coming two years before the outbreak of the French Revolution, this painting gave the nation a moral lesson in martyrdom and remaining true to oneself in the name of justice.
In addition to selecting a Greek subject from history, David painted the scene in a typically severe classical style, concentrating on figures that bore similarity with famous classical statues, highlighted using Caravaggio’s Tenebrism set against a dark background for dramatic impact. The message of the work helped elevate David to become a leading Neoclassical artist of the French Revolution, painting portraits of its champions and restructuring the art establishment in France.
Our Art on Demand gallery contains the following neoclassical art prints, posters and canvases
Introduction to Neoclassical Literature (1660-1798)
What is important for you to know about the Neoclassical Period is that it was a time when the social order was undergoing great change. The middle class was rising in power and prestige. The creation of new wealth through trade was challenging established hierarchies. And the idea of the "divine right of kings" (that kings were authorized to rule as God's representatives on earth) was losing its hold as the rule of kings became more precarious. In 1649, for example, Charles I, King of England, was beheaded and his throne became the Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell. At the end of the Neoclassical period we see the American and French Revolutions.
There were challenges to religious authority as well. Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans were ousted in England as Charles II regained the throne in 1660. The Restoration of Charles II to the throne led to a new age of bawdiness in theatre, dress, and literature, a reaction to Puritan insistence on plainness and seemliness.
Other important events affecting the period include the Copernican Revolution in the Sixteenth Century (man learns he is not, in fact, the center of the universe, which has enormous ramifications regarding religious belief) and the Cartesian Revolution of the Seventeenth Century (Rene Descartes writes, "I think, therefore I am," which brings into question any attempt to view the world objectively and initiates a new emphasis on subjectivity. Man's only hold on reality becomes a subjective one in that man can't even know if the world outside the individual human psyche actually exists or if the mind just constructs it.
In literature, the "endless flux of event and feeling" which people were experiencing in the midst of such massive social change was reflected in a new emphasis on strict conventions and forms. As a result, the literature of the period may sometimes seem stylized to the modern reader, and not many students will consider this their favorite period of literary history.
The biggest differences between the Neoclassical assumptions about reality and those common to our age include
Writers of the period often turned to the classical past for stability and the order they craved, both of which were threatened.
With all of these ideas, it is important to remember that we're only talking about a very narrow segment of society (mostly the upper-class who are literate or whose lives were recorded in some way). We are also talking primarily about a relatively small portion of the world, mostly England and France.
Important works of literature of the time (including Moliere's Tartuffe) used marriage as a trope for social obligations and social contracts. There was strong presumption that individuals would marry within their social class in order to form alliances and provide a stable framework for the passing down of wealth.
In religion, there was a search for natural law, for something beyond kings and individual subjective experience in an attempt to stabilize existence. Deism emerged as a dominant religious philosophy of the period, emphasizing ideas about God as the Great Planner or Watchmaker who assembles the universe, winds it up, and then leaves it ticking away on its own without interfering in its day-to-day operations. The ideas of an impersonal God and a logical universe are central to Deism. Many of the early founders of the United States, including Thomas Jefferson, were deists. Deists tend to equate morality itself with reason and logic.
What is important for you to know about the Neoclassical Period is that it was a time when the social order was undergoing great change. The middle class was rising in power and prestige. The creation of new wealth through trade was challenging established hierarchies. And the idea of the "divine right of kings" (that kings were authorized to rule as God's representatives on earth) was losing its hold as the rule of kings became more precarious. In 1649, for example, Charles I, King of England, was beheaded and his throne became the Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell. At the end of the Neoclassical period we see the American and French Revolutions.
There were challenges to religious authority as well. Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans were ousted in England as Charles II regained the throne in 1660. The Restoration of Charles II to the throne led to a new age of bawdiness in theatre, dress, and literature, a reaction to Puritan insistence on plainness and seemliness.
Other important events affecting the period include the Copernican Revolution in the Sixteenth Century (man learns he is not, in fact, the center of the universe, which has enormous ramifications regarding religious belief) and the Cartesian Revolution of the Seventeenth Century (Rene Descartes writes, "I think, therefore I am," which brings into question any attempt to view the world objectively and initiates a new emphasis on subjectivity. Man's only hold on reality becomes a subjective one in that man can't even know if the world outside the individual human psyche actually exists or if the mind just constructs it.
In literature, the "endless flux of event and feeling" which people were experiencing in the midst of such massive social change was reflected in a new emphasis on strict conventions and forms. As a result, the literature of the period may sometimes seem stylized to the modern reader, and not many students will consider this their favorite period of literary history.
The biggest differences between the Neoclassical assumptions about reality and those common to our age include
- to Neoclassical minds, natural passions aren't necessarily good; natural passions must be subordinated to social needs and strictly controlled.
- social needs are more important to Neoclassical society than individual needs. This conflicts with our modern preoccupation with the individual--in our time, the needs of the individual tend to be considered the most important, but this wasn't true in the Neoclassical period.
- Neoclassical thinkers believed that man could find meaning in order itself--in the order of nature, social hierarchies, government, religion, even in the order within literary forms.
Writers of the period often turned to the classical past for stability and the order they craved, both of which were threatened.
With all of these ideas, it is important to remember that we're only talking about a very narrow segment of society (mostly the upper-class who are literate or whose lives were recorded in some way). We are also talking primarily about a relatively small portion of the world, mostly England and France.
Important works of literature of the time (including Moliere's Tartuffe) used marriage as a trope for social obligations and social contracts. There was strong presumption that individuals would marry within their social class in order to form alliances and provide a stable framework for the passing down of wealth.
In religion, there was a search for natural law, for something beyond kings and individual subjective experience in an attempt to stabilize existence. Deism emerged as a dominant religious philosophy of the period, emphasizing ideas about God as the Great Planner or Watchmaker who assembles the universe, winds it up, and then leaves it ticking away on its own without interfering in its day-to-day operations. The ideas of an impersonal God and a logical universe are central to Deism. Many of the early founders of the United States, including Thomas Jefferson, were deists. Deists tend to equate morality itself with reason and logic.
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The eighteenth century in Europe is often called a time of Enlightenment
The eighteenth century in Europe is often called a time of Enlightenment. The ideas of the Enlightenment prepared the way for the rapid "progress" of the following century. In the various branches of the arts, new ideas were developing, interacting with each other, and shaping the culture and artistic heritage of Europe. It was at this time, and particularly during the reign of Peter the Great that Russia began to participate in the secular artistic world of the West. Having a different artistic past than Europe and traditionally valuing a different approach to art, the Russian artists needed a period of adjustment to become acclimated to Enlightenment styles and techniques. A short description of the important movements of the time, particularly of Neoclassicism, will provide an insight into the background against which eighteenth-century Russian art should be seen.
Although the eighteenth century encompasses various conflicting styles, neoclassical ideas can be best seen in the genres of historical painting, portraiture, and landscape. In part a reaction against baroque and rococo excesses, neoclassicm is associated, in France, with a return to "virtue" and an acceptance of the new ideological demands of the French Revolution. As a supporter of the revolution, and one of the most important neoclassical artists of France, Jacques Louis David linked neoclassical art with the ideas of duty, honor, and patriotism in such works as Oath of the Horatii and The Death of Socrates. The contemporary literary desire for classical form and structure, exemplified by Boileau's Ars Poetica, together with a renewed interest in ancient Rome (spurred on by new archeological discoveries and a publication of Winkelmann's Antiquities of Rome), furthered the influence and impact of neoclassicism.
By using classical examples as models and guides, neoclassical art is characterized by its sense of order, logic, clarity, and to an extent, realism. Duty to a higher cause, such as one's country or its ruler, as well as the sense of decorum and appropriateness are emphasized. These qualities are seen in the increased "naturalism" of landscapes (such as those of Canaletto and Bellotto) and in the fact that classical models inspired the new changes in landscape painting. In portraiture, artists such as Sir Joshua Reynolds attempted to elevate the genre by infusing it with the heroic influences of the "Grand Style." By incorporating the depth of the historical paintings into portraiture, artists sought to make portraits more than simply representations of "likenesses."
In this time of new ideas and social change, symbolism in painting (especially in portraits) became an important means of defining oneself and one's place in a society. During the reigns of Peter the Great, Anne, Elizabeth, and Catherine the Great, love and appreciation of Western art was cultivated and encouraged. Just as the Academies of Art had played an important role in the development and legitimization of styles in France and England (by recognizing artists and supporting certain stylistic trends), the Academy of Fine Arts in Russia took on a similar centralizing role. By sending talented students to study in Europe, employing foreign artists and importing the works of European masters, the Russian rulers were able to insure the penetration of Western aesthetic ideals into the fabric of Russian artistic life. Although some artists simply imitated the Western masters (as did many less original Western artists), artistic representation that transcends simple imitation can be found in the works of Dmitrii Grigorevich Levitskii, Vladimir Lukich Borovikovskii, Ivan Petrovich Argunov, Aleksei Petrovich Antropov, Fedor Stepanovich Rokotov, Ivan Firsov, Ivan Nikitin, Andrei Matveevand others. [B.B.]
The eighteenth century in Europe is often called a time of Enlightenment. The ideas of the Enlightenment prepared the way for the rapid "progress" of the following century. In the various branches of the arts, new ideas were developing, interacting with each other, and shaping the culture and artistic heritage of Europe. It was at this time, and particularly during the reign of Peter the Great that Russia began to participate in the secular artistic world of the West. Having a different artistic past than Europe and traditionally valuing a different approach to art, the Russian artists needed a period of adjustment to become acclimated to Enlightenment styles and techniques. A short description of the important movements of the time, particularly of Neoclassicism, will provide an insight into the background against which eighteenth-century Russian art should be seen.
Although the eighteenth century encompasses various conflicting styles, neoclassical ideas can be best seen in the genres of historical painting, portraiture, and landscape. In part a reaction against baroque and rococo excesses, neoclassicm is associated, in France, with a return to "virtue" and an acceptance of the new ideological demands of the French Revolution. As a supporter of the revolution, and one of the most important neoclassical artists of France, Jacques Louis David linked neoclassical art with the ideas of duty, honor, and patriotism in such works as Oath of the Horatii and The Death of Socrates. The contemporary literary desire for classical form and structure, exemplified by Boileau's Ars Poetica, together with a renewed interest in ancient Rome (spurred on by new archeological discoveries and a publication of Winkelmann's Antiquities of Rome), furthered the influence and impact of neoclassicism.
By using classical examples as models and guides, neoclassical art is characterized by its sense of order, logic, clarity, and to an extent, realism. Duty to a higher cause, such as one's country or its ruler, as well as the sense of decorum and appropriateness are emphasized. These qualities are seen in the increased "naturalism" of landscapes (such as those of Canaletto and Bellotto) and in the fact that classical models inspired the new changes in landscape painting. In portraiture, artists such as Sir Joshua Reynolds attempted to elevate the genre by infusing it with the heroic influences of the "Grand Style." By incorporating the depth of the historical paintings into portraiture, artists sought to make portraits more than simply representations of "likenesses."
In this time of new ideas and social change, symbolism in painting (especially in portraits) became an important means of defining oneself and one's place in a society. During the reigns of Peter the Great, Anne, Elizabeth, and Catherine the Great, love and appreciation of Western art was cultivated and encouraged. Just as the Academies of Art had played an important role in the development and legitimization of styles in France and England (by recognizing artists and supporting certain stylistic trends), the Academy of Fine Arts in Russia took on a similar centralizing role. By sending talented students to study in Europe, employing foreign artists and importing the works of European masters, the Russian rulers were able to insure the penetration of Western aesthetic ideals into the fabric of Russian artistic life. Although some artists simply imitated the Western masters (as did many less original Western artists), artistic representation that transcends simple imitation can be found in the works of Dmitrii Grigorevich Levitskii, Vladimir Lukich Borovikovskii, Ivan Petrovich Argunov, Aleksei Petrovich Antropov, Fedor Stepanovich Rokotov, Ivan Firsov, Ivan Nikitin, Andrei Matveevand others. [B.B.]