What Style of Art Was Neoclassical Art a Reaction Against?

PAINTING COLOURS
For details of colour pigments
used by Neoclassical painters, see:
Eighteenth Century Color palette.

Development OF VISUAL ART
For the chronology and dates
of primal events in the evolution
of visual arts around the world
see: History of Art Timeline.

ART OF Antiquity
For details of fine art from ancient
Greece and Rome, see:
Greek Sculpture (650-27 BCE)
Classical Greek Painting
Roman Sculpture (20 BCE-120 CE)

Summary

The artistic mode known as "Neoclassicism" (likewise called "classicism")was the predominant move in European art and architecture during the late 18th and early on 19th centuries. It reflected a desire to rekindle the spirit and forms of classical art from aboriginal Hellenic republic and Rome, whose principles of society and reason were entirely in keeping with the European Age of Enlightenment. Neoclassicism was also, in role, a reaction against the ostentation of Baroque fine art and the decadent frivololity of the decorative Rococo school, championed by the French courtroom - and especially Louis XV's mistress, Madame de Pompadour - and also partly stimulated by the discovery of Roman ruins at Herculaneum and Pompeii (1738-50), forth with publication in 1755 of the highly influential book Thoughts on the Fake of Greek Works of Art, by the German fine art historian and scholar Johann Winckelmann (1717-68). All this led to a revival of neoclassical painting, sculpture and architectural design in Rome - an important stopover in the Thou Tour - from where it spread northwards to France, England, Sweden and Russia. America became very enthusiastic about Neoclassical architecture, non least because it lent public buildings an aura of tradition and permanence. Neoclassical painters included Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-79), Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825), Angelica Kauffmann (1741-1807) and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867); while sculptors included Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1828), John Flaxman (1755-1826), Antonio Canova (1757-1822), and Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844). Among the best known exponents of neoclassical architecture were Jules-Hardouin Mansart (1646-1708), Jacques Germain Soufflot (1713-80), Claude Nicolas Ledoux (1736-1806), John Nash (1752-1835), Jean Chalgrin (1739-1811), Carl Gotthard Langhans (1732-1908), Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781-1841), and Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1764-1820).

For examples of interior pattern in France during the neoclassical period, see: French Decorative Art. For fine furnishings nether Louis Xv and Louis Sixteen, see: French Furniture (1640-1792). For architects, artists and craftsmen, delight see: French Designers..

Origins & Scope

The revival of artistic canons from Classical Antiquity was not an overnight event. It congenital on Renaissance art itself, likewise equally the more sober styles of Baroque compages, the mood of Enlightenment, the dissatisfaction with the Rococo, and a new respect for the before classical history painting of Nicolas Poussin (1593-1665), every bit well as the classical settings of Claude Lorrain's (1600-82) landscapes. Furthermore, information technology matured in different countries at different times. Neoclassical architecture actually originated effectually 1640, and continues to this 24-hour interval. Paradoxically, the abundance of ancient classical buildings in Rome meant that the city at the heart of the neoclassicism movement experienced little neoclassical architecture.

In improver, despite appearances, there is no clear dividing line between Neoclassicism and Romanticism. This is considering a revival of interest in Classical Antiquity can easily morph into a nostalgic want for the past.

Neoclassicism - Characteristics

Neoclassical works (paintings and sculptures) were serious, unemotional, and sternly heroic. Neoclassical painters depicted subjects from Classical literature and history, as used in earlier Greek art and Republican Roman art, using sombre colours with occasional vivid highlights, to convey moral narratives of cocky-denial and self-sacrifice fully in keeping with the supposed ethical superiority of Antiquity. Neoclassical sculpture dealt with the same subjects, and was more restrained than the more than theatrical Baroque sculpture, less whimsical than the indulgent Rococo. Neoclassical architecture was more ordered and less grandiose than Baroque, although the dividing line between the two can sometines exist blurred. It bore a close external resemblance to the Greek Orders of architecture, with one obvious exception - there were no domes in ancient Greece. About roofs were flat.

Annotation: For other important historical stylistic trends like Neoclassicism, meet Fine art Movements, Schools (from 100 BCE).

Neoclassical Painters

Founders and famous artists of Neoclassicism include the German portraitist and historical painter Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-79), the Frenchman Joseph-Marie Vien (1716-1809) (who taught J-L David), the Italian portrait painter Pompeo Batoni (1708-87),the Swiss painter Angelica Kauffmann (1741-1807), the French political artist Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825), and his pupils Jean-Germain Drouais (1763-88), Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson (1767-1824), J.A.D. Ingres (1780-1867) the French master of academic fine art, and the American departer Benjamin West (1738-1820). In Britain, celebrated followers of Neoclassicism included: Sir Joshua Reynolds and the Irish virtuoso James Barry.

The about recent phase of neoclassicism - the Classical Revival in modernistic art - emerged between virtually 1900 and 1930, with active participants including Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Fernand Leger (1881-1955) and Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978).

Famous Neoclassical Paintings

• Anton Raphael Mengs
The Penitent Mary Magdalene (1752), Gemaldegalerie, Dresden.
Parnassus (1761) Villa Albani, Rome.
The Immaculate Formulation (1770-79), Musee du Louvre.
• Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
La Grande Odalisque (1814), Louvre.
The Valpincon Bather (1808), Louvre.
Portrait of Madame Moitessier (1844-56) National Gallery, London.
The Turkish Bath (1862) Louvre.
• Jacques-Louis David
Oath of the Horatii (1784), Musee du Louvre.
The Lictors Bringing to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons (1789) Louvre.
Death of Marat (1793), Musees Royaux des Beaux Arts, Brussels.
• Angelica Kauffmann
Self Portrait (1787) Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
• Jean-Germain Drouais
The Dying Athlete (Wounded Warrior) (1785) Louvre.
• Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson
The Burial of Atala (1808) Louvre.
• Pablo Picasso
Two Nudes (1906) Museum of Modernistic Art, New York.
Seated Woman (Picasso) (1920) Musee Picasso, Paris.
Large Bather (1921) Musee de l'Orangerie, Paris.
Two Women Running on the Beach (The Race) (1922) Musee Picasso, Paris.
• Fernand Leger
The Mechanic (1920) National Gallery of Canada.
Three Women (Le Grand Dejeuner) (1921) Museum of Modernistic Art, New York.
Nudes against a Ruddy Background (1923) Kunstmuseum, Basel.
Ii Sisters (1935) Gemaldegalerie SMPK, Berlin.
• Giorgio de Chirico
The Incertitude of the Poet (1913) Tate, London.
Song of Beloved (1914) Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Neoclassical Sculptors

Leading Neoclassical sculptors include Antonio Canova (1757-1822) who sculpted for Popes and Napoleon; the Englishman John Flaxman (1755-1826) who as well designed Jasperware for Wedgwood; the Danish artist Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844) known for his Jason with the Gold Fleece (1802-3, Thorvaldsen Museum, Copenhagen); and Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1828), best known for his portrait busts in marble.

Famous Neoclassical Sculptures

• Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (1736-1783)
Character Head series of 69 portrait busts.
• Jean-Baptiste Pigalle (1714-85)
Voltaire (1770-76) Louvre, Paris.
• Joseph Nollekens (1737-1823)
Venus (1773) J Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
• Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1828)
Voltaire (1781) Bibliotheque de la Comedie Francais, Paris.
• John Flaxman (1755-1826)
Admiral Horatio Nelson (1808) St Paul's Cathedral, London.
• Antonio Canova (1757-1822)
Apollo Crowning Himself (1781) J Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
Theseus and the Minotaur (1781-83), Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Johann Gottfried Schadow (1764-1850)
The Crown Princesses Louise & Friedrike of Prussia (1797) Berlin.
• Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1884)
Jason with the Golden Fleece (1802-3) Thorvaldsen Museum, Copenhagen.
Alexander the Slap-up Entering Babylon (1812) Palazzo del Quirinale, Rome.
Cupid and Psyche (1796-vii), Louvre, Paris.
Perseus and the Caput of Medusa (1797-1801) Vatican Museums, Rome.
• Horatio Greenough (1805-1852)
George Washington (1840) Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Neoclassical Architects

France
Jacques Germain Soufflot (1713-fourscore)
Claude Nicolas Ledoux (1736-1806)
Jean Chalgrin (1739-1811)
Britain
John Nash (1752-1835)
Sir John Sloane (1753-1837)
Sir Robert Smirke (1780-1867)
Frg
Carl Gotthard Langhans (1732-1908)
Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781-1841)
U.s.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
William Thornton (1759-1828)
Benjamin Latrobe (1764-1820)
Charles Bulfinch (1863-1844)

Famous Neoclassical Buildings

- Pantheon, Paris (1756-97) by Jacques Germain Soufflot.
- Rotonde de la Villette, Paris (1786) by Claude Nicolas Ledoux.
- Brandenburg Gate (1789-91) by Carl Gotthard Langhans.
- Banking concern of England, London (1792) by Sir John Sloane.
- US Capitol Building (begun 1793) by Benjamin Henry Latrobe.
- The British Museum, London (begun 1823) by Sir Robert Smirke.
- The Tegel Palace (1821-4) by Karl Friedrich Schinkel.
- Pavlovsk Palace (1781-86), Tsarskoye Selo by Charles Cameron.
- Buckingham Palace, London (1821-35) past John Nash.
- Arc de Triomphe, Paris (1806-36) by Jean Chalgrin.

Works reflecting the style of Neoclassicism tin exist seen in some of the best art museums and sculpture gardens in the world.

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Source: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/neo-classical.htm

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