ARTS

• The Neoclassical art movement began in the mid-1700s.
• Its height happened at the same time with the 18th century Enlightenment era and continued into the early 19th century.
• Neoclassicism, also known as the classical revival, literally means “New Classicism”:
• neos in Greek means “new,” classicus is “first class” in Latin and ismos means “doctrine” in Greek.
• Originally from Rome, this art movement became popular in France as French and European students discovered Greco-Roman ideals from their training in Rome, also known as the Great Tour.
• Neoclassical art movement was widely accepted and popularized by French artists as France was the center of European culture and art at that time.
• Neoclassical art movement beginning was part of the reawakening of interest in classical thought. This style played a significant role in the French and American Revolution.
• Neoclassical painting and sculpture began to decline with the rise of the Romantic art style. These two art styles existed together during the early 1800s.
• Neoclassicism art movement came to an end by the 1850s and was opposed by modern art movements: Realism, Naturalism, and Impressionism.
• The neoclassical art style was evident in Western paintings, sculpture, literature, architecture, and music. However, it was more prominent in architecture, paintings, and sculpture. This style was fully embraced by both European and American artists.
• Neoclassical art style can be identified by the use of straight lines, minimal use of color, simplicity of form, and its conformity to the classical values and techniques. It was a reaction to the frivolous decorations of Rococo and ostentatious art of Baroque style. It was considered as the direct opposite of Rococo, as this particular art style uses asymmetry, bright colors, and ornamentatioN
• Neoclassical art was aimed at the masses who were fighting against aristocrats and their extravagances. Its subjects had the moral character as its purpose is to inspire values.
• Antonio Canova, an Italian artist, was one of the leading Neoclassical sculptors. He was famous for his marble sculptures which rendered nude flesh. He was hailed as “the supreme minister of beauty” and “a unique and truly divine man” by peers. He became famous for his work Apollo Crowning Himself (1781).
• Jean-Antoine Houdon, a French bust sculptor, was best known for his works of contemporary political and cultural figures of the French Enlightenment: Napoleon Bonaparte, Voltaire and even George Washington. His works were influenced by Classical masters like Michelangelo. He often sculpted from life or by directly creating molds using model’s faces.
• Jacques-Louis David, a French political artist, was acclaimed as the greatest French painter since Poussin when his painting Oath of the Horatii (1784) was exhibited at the 1785 Salon. His work became the “cornerstone of Neoclassicism” and was widely influential to subsequent generations of artists.
• Mengs was hailed as “the greatest painter” during his time. He also influenced a number of notable artists that lead to the development of Neoclassicism in Britain.
• This includes Benjamin West, Angelica Kauffman, John Flaxman, and Gavin Hamilton. Jacques-Louis David was also influenced by Mengs, which led to the later period of the art movement that centered in France.
• Johann Joachim Winckelmann, a German art historian and archeologist, lived most of his life in Rome. His book, Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture (1750), helped in developing the aesthetic and theory of Neoclassicism.
• Wickelmann said that art should advance toward "noble simplicity and calm grandeur." He strongly believed that "the one way for us to become great, perhaps inimitable, is by imitating the ancients."
• Wickelmann visited the excavations in the ruined city of Herculaneum in 1978. With the discovery of its well-preserved evidence of everyday life, sculptures, and frescoes, he published the archeological finds in his work, Letter about the Discoveries at Herculaneum (1762).
• Nicholas Poussin’s works on mythological and historical scenes influenced Neoclassicism. His compositions emphasized clarity and logic, and his figurative treatments favored strong lines. He became famous for his painting, The Death of Germanicus (1627), which then inspired Jacques-Louis David.
• Claude Lorrain painted A Landscape with Apollo Guarding the Herds of Admetus and Mercury Stealing Them in 1645. His subjects were mainly from mythological or Biblical scenes. His works showed an orderly harmony which fascinated the Neoclassical artists as they believed that art should express ideal morals
• Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain were both French Baroque artists and were both primary influencers of Neoclassicism, whose paintings were regarded as classic archetypes. Their paintings appealed to Neoclassical artists as their works showed a classical approach.
• The French Royal Academy of the Arts in 1669 established a hierarchy of painting. This was adopted by Neoclassicism. This was used to evaluate submitted works and influenced the monetary value of these works for art collectors and enthusiasts.
• Romantic art style began as a reaction to Neoclassicism, a movement that was established first in Great Britain, France, and Germany before it spread throughout Europe by the late 18th century. Many artists used both styles in their art
• In Germany, a group of young artists was inspired to look within themselves and focus on emotions.
• They longed for the time when men lived in touch with their feelings - the time of the Medieval era.
• The Brotherhood of Pre-Raphaelites created four guiding principles that also hold true for a great many other creators of Romantic art. Romantic artists should be able:

  1. to have genuine ideas to express;
  2. to study nature attentively;
  3. to sympathize with what is direct, serious and heartfelt in previous art; and
  4. to produce thoroughly good pictures and statues.
• Romanticism a deepened admiration of the beauty of nature
• Romanticism is a glorification of emotion over reason, and the senses over intellect
• Romanticism is an obsession with the genius, the hero, and the exceptional figure, and a focus on his passions and frailty
• romanticism

  ~a view of the artist as a supremely individual creator

  ~attention to imagination as access to metaphysical experience and truth

  ~ a driven interest in folk culture, national and ethnic cultural origins, and the medieval era

  ~ an affinity for the exotic, the remote, the mysterious, the weird, the occult, the monstrous, the diseased, and even the satanic
• romanticism - introspection and a heightened exploration of the multi-faceted characteristics of humans
• Romanticism was all about emotion and passion. Logic and reason were avoided, and instead, the focus was on the irrational and the supernatural.
• “Voice from within,” a famous expression and basis for Romantic art, was coined by the artist Caspar David Friedrich. One of his famous paintings was the Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog (1817).
• Romantic artists preferred landscape painting. They believed that nature symbolized freedom and was the mirror of the soul.
• Subject matters were of solitary figures gazing into the distance while standing on the countryside, with motifs of dead trees and lush ruins. These painting motifs were called Vanitas and were similar to Baroque paintings. Treatment of light, with pitch-dark effects of light and shade, was used in Romantic paintings - a characteristic borrowed from Baroque art.
• The known leader of the Romantic art movement in Spain was Francisco de Goya
• Francisco de Goya created works of irrationality, imagination, fantasy, and terror. He became the official painter of the Spanish Royal court in 1789. But in 1793, he fell ill, which left him deaf, and he withdrew from the public.
• During Goya's recovery, he created 14 small tin paintings, known as Fantasy and Invention. This changed his art style completely as he depicted the world of fantasy and nightmare in a bold style.