HISTORY OF ART

MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF ART, KUALA LUMPUR

ART HISTORY

(FAS1142)

18TH CENTURY:
NEOCLASSICAL STYLE

PREPARED BY: 2022/0504/FAE2
2022/0505/FAE2
Adam Bin Badruddin Syah 2022/0500/FAE2
Balqis Batrisyia Binti Mohd Sazali
Christina Chew Lee

PREPARED FOR:
MR MUHAMMAD ZAMIR BIN AHMAD TERMIZI

5th July 2022

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Table of content

Introduction ......................................................................... 1
18TH Century..................................................................2 - 3
Meaning of Neoclassical .................................................... 4

Characteristics of Neoclassical:..................................................................................... 4

Neoclassical Art .............................................................5 - 8
Sculpture.......................................................................9 - 10

Neoclassical Artist Sculpture ....................................................................................... 11

Painting .......................................................................12 - 13

Neoclassical Painter ............................................................................................. 14 - 15

Neoclassical Architecture .........................................16 - 18

Elements of Neoclassical Architecture ........................................................................ 19
Types of Neoclassical Architecture ............................................................................. 20
Neoclassical Architect ................................................................................................. 21

Conclusion…………………………………………………….22
References......................................................................... 23

Introduction

The value of this research is to better understand the roots and beginnings of neoclassical
art. This particular art movement plays a pivotal role in the modernization of western art
and the emergence of neoclassicism sparked various other sub-movements during the
18th century. The research does not only look towards the aspect of one art form such as
painting but also other forms of visual art such as, architecture, sculpture, ceramics,
design, crafts and architecture.
The research studies the analytical aspects of the artworks and who the artists and
designers were at the time. The art movement of neoclassicism had other competitors
during the 18th century as movements such as Rococo and Baroque which emerged
during the mid-18th century. It is important to understand the lasting effects that the
movement had towards neoclassicism and how it helped influence the changes of style.

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18TH Century

As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that
lasted from 1701 through 1800 in the Gregorian calendar. It is from January 1, 1701 to
December 31, 1800. The period is also known as the "century of lights" or the "century of
reason". By this, it can tell that several idiosyncrasies were changed from being accepted
as the norm, ranging from European politics, philosophy, communications, and science
experience a total upheaval throughout the termed “long 18th century” (1688-1815).

This Age of Reason, also called as enlightenment gave birth to a sophisticated stream of
thought, from thinkers in Britain to France and even throughout Europe. These thinkers
began to question the traditional normalcy they were born into and had adopted through
their lives. These thinkers felt the efficacy of rational thinking, logic and knew that their
lives and reality overall were never going to be the same. They discovered that their lives
as humans and others live, in all its vicissitude, can be enhanced through rational thinking.

In an essay called, ‘What Is Enlightenment?’ (1784), Immanuel Kant, the German
philosopher summarized the era’s dominance succinctly, as the: ‘Dare to know! Have
courage to use your own reason!’ era. Not only Immanuel Kant’s essay came to thrive, but
also an influx of other essays. This era shows the evolution of literature. Also, it gave life
to numerous essays, inventions, books, laws, scientific discoveries, revolutions, and wars.
The major revolutions, the American and French Revolutions, were influenced by the 18th
century.

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Just like childbirth, a mother goes through all the birth pangs in lieu of the joy she gets to
carry through life. The 18th century is symbolic of this because all the rationale behind the
chaos finally gave birth to the 19th-century, called The Romantic Era or Romanticism.

What is Enlightenment? Essay by Immanuel Kant
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Meaning of Neoclassical

Neoclassicism arose during the Enlightenment in 18th century Europe as a direct
response to the overly lavish, decorative characteristics of Baroque and Rococo art. The
art form began as a fad in Europe as a resurgence of travel and discovery took place in
18th century Rome, leading to the uncovering of countless artworks from the ancient
world. Artists were inspired by the style of ancient Greek and Roman art, also known as
'Classical' art, and began to mix Classical techniques with the popular techniques of the
Renaissance, creating a new and exciting art form: Neoclassicism.
Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the
decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration
from the art and culture of classical antiquity. The prefix neo means modern or new and
the root word classic represents the ancient Greek and Roman style.

Characteristics of Neoclassical:

● symmetry.
● unemotional telling of events.
● simplicity of line, form, and color.
● balance of straight lines and geometric shapes.
● use of science, mathematics, and natural law.
● non-fantastical view of the surrounding world and events.

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Neoclassical Art

Neoclassical art, also called Neoclassicism and Classicism, a widespread and influential
movement in painting and the other visual arts that began in the 1760s, reached its height
in the 1780s and ’90s, and lasted until the 1840s and ’50s. In painting it generally took the
form of an emphasis on austere linear design in the depiction of Classical themes and
subject matter, using archaeologically correct settings and clothing. Neoclassicism in the
arts is an aesthetic attitude based on the art of Greece and Rome in antiquity, which
invokes harmony, clarity, restraint, universality, and idealism.

In the context of the tradition, Classicism refers either to the art produced in antiquity or to
later be inspired by that of antiquity, while Neoclassicism always refers to the art produced
later but inspired by antiquity. Classicizing artists tend to prefer somewhat more specific
qualities, which include line over colour, straight lines over curves, frontality and closed
compositions over diagonal compositions into deep space, and the general over the
particular.

Neoclassicism arose partly as a reaction against the sensuous and frivolously decorative
Rococo style that had dominated European art from the 1720s on. But an even more
profound stimulus was the new and more scientific interest in Classical antiquity that arose
in the 18th century. Neoclassicism was given great impetus by new archaeological
discoveries, particularly the exploration and excavation of the buried Roman cities of
Herculaneum and Pompeii (the excavations of which began in 1738 and 1748,
respectively).

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Beside, from the second decade of the 18th century on, a number of influential publications
by Bernard de Montfaucon, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, the comte de Caylus, and
antiquarian Robert Wood provided engraved views of Roman monuments and other
antiquities and further quickened interest in the Classical past. The new understanding
distilled from these discoveries and publications in turn enabled European scholars for the
first time to discern separate and distinct chronological periods in Greco Roman art, and
this new sense of a plurality of ancient styles replaced the older, unqualified veneration of
Roman art and encouraged a dawning interest in purely Greek antiquities.
The German scholar Johann Joachim Winckelmann’s writings and sophisticated the
orizings were especially influential in this regard. Winckelmann saw in Greek sculpture “a
noble simplicity and quiet grandeur” and called for artists to imitate Greek art. He claimed
that in doing so such artists would obtain idealized depictions of natural forms that had
been stripped of all transitory and individualistic aspects, and their images would thus
attain a universal and archetypal significance.

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Oath of the Horatii (1784) by Jacques-Louis David

The Neoclassical painter Jacques-Louis David has been considered the pioneer of
Neoclassical painting. David’s Oath of the Horatii was immediately considered hugely
successful by the public and critics and is considered as one of the most famous
Neoclassical paintings from the movement. David’s painting depicted a Roman legend; a
scene about two cities at war, Alba Longa and Rome. Each city chooses three of its men
to send to fight, rather than entire armies being sent to war.

The painting is a portrayal of the Roman Horatii family. The three sons stand in salute with
their arms extended in allegiance towards their father who is holding their swords. Visually,
the swords make up the central point of the image and the convergence of the figures’
hands balances the composition of the painting and further conveys the importance of
solidarity, patriotic sacrifice, duty, and loyalty. The Oath of Horatii shows the quintessential
neoclassical style art with components such as the heroic figures, the subdued colors, the
strong lines, and the central perspective.

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David’s brushstrokes are not visible, especially in comparison to the previous movements
such as the wispy brushstrokes apparent in the Rococo movement. The contrast of the
dark background with the highlighted foreground creates a sense of somber resolve in the
dramatic scene. The painting became a symbol for the French Revolution, where
countrymen accepted and understood their responsibility and duty to their country. David’s
neoclassical period art depicted a story that was morally uplifting, it promoted the
importance of civic duty and reflected the values associated with neoclassical idealism
and the Age of Enlightenment.

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Sculpture

The sculptures during the neoclassical period arose during the latter half of the 1700s and
was a reactionary style that wanted to rid itself of some of the more frivolous design
elements of the preceding Rococo style. The style of sculptures during the neoclassical
period were heavily influenced by the works of ancient Greece and Rome.
Neoclassical sculptures are recognizable due to their embodiment of symmetry. The
sculptures display perfect proportions and balance of composition. There is an overall
sense of harmony of form and it is very apparent that the artists took great pains in creating
works of art that reflected a deep understanding of the human form and anatomy.

Neapolitan Fisherboy with a Shell (1861) by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux

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Neoclassical statues ranged in size from true-to-life dimensions to sculptures that have
been sculpted in monumental scale. The tone of the subject matter was always a serious
one, exuding a deeply contemplative mood. Neoclassicism sculptures ranged in topical
subject matter from historical heroes to mythological figures, deities, and famous
contemporary people of the era. Most of the sculptures displayed extremely naturalistic
depictions of the subject, although, some sculptures could display idealized
characteristics.

Mercury Attaching His Talaria (1740) Winter (1787) by Jean-Antoine Houdon
by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle

Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss (1787) by Antonio Canova
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Neoclassical Artist Sculpture

Antonio Canova
Famous for his marble sculptures.

Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss
(1787 - 1793)

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Painting

Neoclassicism as manifested in painting was initially not stylistically distinct from the
French Rococo and other styles that had preceded it. This was partly because, whereas
it was possible for architecture and sculpture to be modeled on prototypes in these media
that had actually survived from Classical antiquity, those few Classical paintings that had
survived were minor or merely ornamental works until, that is, the discoveries made at
Herculaneum and Pompeii. The earliest neoclassical painters were Joseph-Marie Vien,
Anton Raphael Mengs, Pompeo Batoni, Angelica Kauffmann, and Gavin Hamilton, Those
artists were active during the 1750s, ’60s, and ’70s. Each of those painters, though they
may have used poses and figural arrangements from ancient sculptures and vase
paintings, was strongly influenced by preceding stylistic trends.

An important early neoclassical work such as Mengs’s Parnassus (1761) owes much of
its inspiration to 17th century Classicism and to Raphael for both the poses of its figures
and its general composition. Many of the early paintings of the neoclassical artist Benjamin
West derive their compositions from works by Nicolas Poussin, and Kauffmann’s
sentimental subjects dressed in antique garb are basically Rococo in their softened,
decorative prettiness. Mengs’s close association with Winckelmann led to his being
influenced by the ideal beauty that the latter so ardently expounded, but the church and
palace ceilings decorated by Mengs owe more to existing Italian Baroque traditions than
to anything Greek or Roman.

Neoclassical painters attached great importance to depicting the costumes, settings, and
details of their Classical subject matter with as much historical accuracy as possible. This
worked well enough when illustrating an incident found in the pages of Homer, but it raised
the question of whether a modern hero or famous person should be portrayed in Classical
or contemporary dress. This issue was never satisfactorily resolved, except perhaps in
David’s brilliantly evocative portraits of sitters wearing the then fashionable antique garb,
as in his Portrait of Madame Récamier (1800).

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Portrait of Madame Récamier (1800), Jacques-Louis David
Finally, it should be noted that Neoclassicism coexisted throughout much of its later
development with the seemingly obverse and opposite tendency of Romanticism. But, far
from being distinct and separate, these two styles intermingled with each other in complex
ways; many ostensibly neoclassical paintings show Romantic tendencies, and vice versa.
This contradictory situation is strikingly evident in the works of the last great neoclassical
painter, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, who painted sensuous Romantic female nudes
while also turning out precisely linear and rather lifeless historical paintings in the approved
neoclassical mode.

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Neoclassical Painter

Jacques-Louis David
A French artist and neoclassical painter
who was one of the pioneers of Neoclassical art.

Oath of the Horatii (1784)

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Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
A French Neoclassical painter who preferred to incorporate classical elements as
opposed to the Romantic elements that grew in popularity at the beginning of the 19th

century.

Grande Odalisque

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Neoclassical Architecture

An architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement began in the mid-18th
century in Italy and France. Then, it became one of the most prominent architectural styles
in the Western world.

The prevailing styles of architecture in most of Europe for the previous two centuries,
Renaissance architecture and Baroque architecture, already represented partial revivals
of the Classical architecture of ancient Rome and (much less) ancient Greek architecture,
but the Neoclassical movement aimed to strip away the excesses of Late Baroque and
return to a purer and more authentic classical style, adapted to modern purposes.

The development of archaeology published accurate records of surviving classical
buildings was crucial in the emergence of neoclassical architecture. In many countries
there was an initial wave essentially drawing on Roman architecture, followed, from about
the start of the 19th century, by a second wave of Greek Revival architecture. This followed
increased understanding of Greek survivals. As the 19th century continued, the style
tended to lose its original rather austere purity in variants like the French Empire style.
The term neoclassical is often used very loosely for any building using some of the
classical architectural vocabulary.

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In form, neoclassical architecture emphasizes the wall rather than chiaroscuro and
maintains separate identities to each of its parts. The style is manifested both in its details
as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural
formulae as an outgrowth of some classicizing features of the Late Baroque architectural
tradition. Therefore, the style is defined by symmetry, simple geometry, and social
demands instead of ornament. In the 21st century a version of the style continues,
sometimes called New Classical architecture or New Classicism.

Petit Trianon (Small Trianon)

L'arc de triomphe du Carrousel dans le jardin des Tuileries

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Neoclassical architecture refers to a style of buildings constructed during the revival of
Classical Greek and Roman architecture that began around 1750 and flourished in the
18th and 19th centuries.

Whereas Greek revival architecture utilizes various classical elements, such as columns
with Doric, Ionic, or Corinthian details, neoclassicism is characterized by a more whole
scale revival of entire and often grand-scale classical volumes.

Some of the most famous and easily recognizable institutional and government buildings
in Europe and the United States are neoclassical in style.

Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, Virginia, USA

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Elements of Neoclassical Architecture

Neoclassical buildings are characterized by the use of:

● Grand scale volumes
● Simple geometric forms
● Dramatic columns
● Doric Greek or Roman detailing
● Domed or flat roofs (depending on style)

Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.

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Types of Neoclassical Architecture

Neoclassical architecture has three main variations.

Temple-style buildings emulate the style of ancient temples, such as Paris’ Panthéon,
based on the Pantheon in Rome, and the Greek-inspired British Museum in London.

Palladian buildings are inspired by the villas of 16th century Italian Renaissance architect
Andrea Palladio, who was himself inspired by the buildings of ancient Greece and Rome.
In Britain, architect Robert Adam became famous for his Palladian country houses. In the
United States, the White House and the U.S. Capitol are the most famous Palladian
examples of neoclassical style.

Classical block buildings are rectangular or square in shape, often with flat roofs and
exteriors that display repeating columns or arches to form a classically decorative blocklike
appearance. The Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, built between 1843 and 1850 by French
architect Henri Labrouste, is considered a masterpiece of the form. The Palais Garnier
opera house in Paris, designed by Charles Garnier, is one of the world's most famous
examples of the classical block style.

U.S. Capitol building, Washington, DC

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Neoclassical Architect

Thomas Atkinson (1729 - 1798), English Architect.
20, St Andrew gate, York - the house that Atkinson built for himself.

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Conclusion

After all, the 18th century neoclassical style is distinguished by a great deal of its own
distinctive design and construction which make it valuable in history. Neoclassical
sculpture and architecture are also the 18th century speciality, in addition to the popular
paintings which they have the characteristic of symmetry and while doing research, we
also learn about neoclassical designers and artists. Overall, we gained a great deal of
knowledge about the art of the 18th century, particularly the neoclassical style.

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References

18TH Century:
https://www.scientific-editing.info/blog/18th-century-and-the-rise-of-the-english-
novel/#:~:text=Thanks%20to%20the%20revolution%20of,or%20the%20'Century%20of%
20Reason.

Meaning of Neoclassical :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoclassicismhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoclassicism
https://study.com/learn/lesson/what-is-neoclassicism-characteristics.html
https://www.britannica.com/art/Neoclassicism

Neoclassical Painting :
https://artincontext.org/famous-neoclassical-paintings/

Neoclassical Sculpture :
https://artincontext.org/famous-neoclassical-sculptures/
http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/sculpture/neoclassical.htm

Neoclassical Architecture :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoclassical_architecture
https://www.britannica.com/art/Neoclassical-architecture
https://www.thespruce.com/neoclassical-architecture-4802081

Neoclassical Artists :
https://art-facts.com/famous-neoclassical-artists/

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