Neo-Classicism as a Movement
Key points:

The term Neoclassicism refers to the classical revival in European art, architecture, and
interior design that lasted from the mid-eighteenth to the early nineteenth century.
It is firstly to be seen as a desire to return to the perceived "purity" of the arts of Rome, the
more vague perception ("ideal") of Ancient Greek arts, and, to a lesser extent, 16th century
Renaissance Classicism.
The neoclassical writers and talkers, patrons and collectors, artists and sculptors of 1765 - 1830
paid homage to an idea of the generation of Pheidias, but the sculpture examples they actually
embraced were more likely to be Roman copies of Hellenistic sculptures. They ignored both
Archaic Greek art and the works of Late Antiquity. The Rococo art of ancient Palmyra came as
a revelation, through engravings in Wood's The Ruins of Palmyra. Even Greece was all-butunvisited, a rough backwater of the Ottoman Empire, dangerous to explore, so neoclassicists'
appreciation of Greek architecture was mediated through drawings and engravings, which
subtly smoothed and regularized, "corrected' and "restored" the monuments of Greece, not
always consciously.
As for painting, Greek painting was utterly lost:
neoclassicist painters imaginatively revived it,
partly through bas-relief friezes, mosaics, and
pottery painting and partly through the
examples of painting and decoration of the High
Renaissance of Raphael's generation, frescos in
Nero's Domus Aurea, Pompeii and
Herculaneum and through renewed admiration
of Nicholas Poussin. Much "neoclassical"
painting is more classicizing in subject matter
than in anything else.

This period gave rebirth to the art of ancient Rome and Greece and the Renaissance as
an opposition to the ostentatious Baroque and Rococo art that preceded the
movement.
Although the movement spread throughout Western Europe, France and England were the
countries that used the style most frequently in their arts and architecture, using the classical
elements to express ideas of nationalism, courage, and sacrifice. The movement was inspired
by the discovery of ancient Italian artifacts at the ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii. Also
influential in the development was the cultural studies of German art historian Johann J.
Winckelmann who claimed that the most important elements of classical art were "noble
simplicity and calm grandeur." From about 1800 a fresh influx of Greek architectural examples,
seen through the medium of etchings and engravings, gave a new impetus to neoclassicism that
is called the Greek Revival.

Neoclassicism emphasized rationality and the resurgence of tradition.
Neoclassical artists incorporated classical styles and subjects, including columns, pediments,
friezes, and other ornamental schemes in their work. They were inspired by the work of
Homer and Plutarch and John Flaxmann’s illustrations for the Illiad and Odyssey. Other
classic models included Virgil, Raphael, and Nicholas Poussin among others.
Poussin, Judgement of Solomon, 1649
Neoclassical painters took extra care to depict the costumes, settings, and details of classical
subject matter with as much accuracy as possible. What any "neo"-classicism depends on is a
body of work that has achieved canonic status. These are the "classics." Novelty, improvisation,
self-expression, and blinding inspiration are not neoclassical virtues; neoclassicism does not
seek to re-create art forms from the ground up with each new project. It instead exhibits perfect
control of an idiom. Neoclassicism continued to be a major force in academic art through the
19th century and beyond—a constant antithesis to Romanticism or Gothic revivals— although
from the late 19th century on it had often been considered anti-modern, or even reactionary, in
influential critical circles. Neoclassical Art is a severe and unemotional form of art harkening
back to the grandeur of ancient Greece and Rome. Its rigidity was a reaction to the overbred
Rococo style and the emotional charged Baroque style. The rise of Neoclassical Art was part of
a general revival of interest in classical thought, which was of some importance in the American
and French revolutions.
Baroque painting example

Rococo painting example
Much of the subject matter was derived from classical history and mythology.
In the case of Neo-classicism in France, a prime example is Jacques Louis David whose
paintings often use Greek elements to extol the French Revolution's virtues (state before
family). Neoclassical art emphasized courage, sacrifice, nationalism, and tradition. The
movement started as a rebellion against the rococo style, which symbolised French aristocracy.
After the French Revolution, France became a democracy, putting an end to aristocratic rule.
The new leaders of France wished to model the government on the high virtues and moral
principles of classical Rome. Therefore, neoclassical artists were commissioned to create
paintings and sculptures that depicted inspirational scenes from Roman history. Even
architecture and interior design began to reflect the neoclassical period.

The movement emphasized line quality over color, light, and atmosphere.
Contrasting with the Baroque and the Rococo, Neo-classical paintings are devoid of pastel
colors and haziness; instead, they have sharp colors with Chiaroscuro. The height of
Neoclassicism was displayed in the paintings of Jacques-Louis David and Jean Auguste
Dominique Ingres. David's Oath of the Horatii was painted in Rome and made a splash at the
Paris Salon of 1785. Its central perspective is perpendicular to the picture plane, made more
emphatic by the dim arcade behind, against which the heroic figures are disposed as in a frieze,
with a hint of the artificial lighting and staging of opera, and the classical coloring of Nicholas
Poussin.
NOTE: Around 1800, Romanticism emerged as a reaction against Neoclassicism. It did not
really replace the Neoclassical style so much as act as a counterbalancing influence, and many
artists were influenced by both styles to a certain degree.