Neoclassicism

by Victoria Charles

In the arts, Neoclassicism is a historical tradition or aesthetic attitude based on the art of Greece and Rome in antiquity. The movement started around the 18th-century, age of Enlightenment, and continued into the early 19th-century The general credo associated with the aesthetic attitude of Classicism was that art had to be rational and therefore morally better. Neoclassicists also believed that art should be cerebral, not sensual and therefore characterised by clarity of form, sober colours and shallow space. It was a reaction against both the surviving Baroque and Rococo styles, and a desire to return to the perceived “purity” of the arts of Rome. The important artists of the movement include the sculptors Antonio Canova, Jean-Antoine Houdon and Bertel Thorvaldsen, and the painters J.A.D. Ingres, Jacques-Louis David and Anton Raphael Mengs.

Genres: Art

72 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 9, 2019

About the author

Victoria Charles received her PhD in history of art. She has published extensively on the subject and has regularly contributed to Art Information, an international guide to contemporary art.

Frequently writing articles for specialised journals and magazines, Victoria Charles recently contributed to a collective work, World History of Art.

Reviews

[Tony Foxhoven · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good start = need more though