Neoclassicism was an artistic style that emerged in the late 18th century as a reaction against the over-ornamentation of Rococo. Inspired by the clarity and restraint of ancient Greek and Roman art, Neoclassicism emphasized simplicity, order, and rationality. Key figures included the painters Jacques-Louis David and Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres, the sculptor Antonio Canova, and the architects Robert Adam and Robert Smirke. Famous works from this period included David's painting The Oath of the Horatii, Canova's sculpture Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss, and buildings like the Madeleine Church in Paris.

1. NEO-CLASSICISM
(1750-1830 AD)

2. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
• Meaning “New - Classical”
(Gilbert, 1998, Living with Art, 5 Ed, McGraw Hill, pg499)
• Shows Simplicity, Calmness, Reasoning, Clarity and Enlightenment.
(Gilbert, 1998, Living with Art, 5 Ed, McGraw Hill, pg499)
• Neoclassical Art is a severe and unemotional form of art harkening back to
the grandeur of ancient Greece and Rome.
(Adams, 1999, Art Across Time, McGraw Hill, 1st Ed, pg701)
• Its rigidity was a reaction to the overbred Rococo style and the emotional
charged Baroque style.
(artcyclopedia.com/history/neoclassicism.html)

3. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
• It also concerned aesthetics, the acceptance as a model of beauty not to
be found in nature, a mental elaboration of perfection.
(Pischel, 1968, A World History of Art, Golden Press, NY, pg575)
• It concerned taste, hence, the importance assigned to decoration, furniture,
and even the changing fashions of clothes.
(Pischel, 1968, A World History of Art, Golden Press, NY, pg575)
• It is also concerned knowledge, the interest and enthusiasm aroused by
archaeology, with its discoveries of the Greek, Roman, Etruscan and
Egyptian worlds.
(Pischel, 1968, A World History of Art, Golden Press, NY, pg575)

4. FACTORS AND EVENTS
• 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.
(Adams, 1999, Art Across Time, McGraw Hill, pg699)
• During the late 18th and early 19th centuries in Western Europe, several styles
completed for primacy. Paris had become the undisputed center of the
western art world, but Rome was still a significant artistic force.
(Adams, 1999, Art Across Time, McGraw Hill, pg699)

5. FACTORS AND EVENTS
• When the French Baroque and Rococo started to fade, Louis IV had
pronounced classical flavor; from it evolved the neoclassical style, which
was adopted by leaders of the French Revolution.
(Adams, 1999, Art Across Time, McGraw Hill, pg699)
• Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres was a pupil of Jacques Louis David
(Gilbert, 1998, Living with Art, 5 Ed, McGraw Hill, pg499)
• It was strength purity and balance of ideal classicism. It was, however an
idea which could not be a slavish imitation of re-emerging classical antiquity:
it could not be attained directly, nor by making use of the Italian
Renaissance.
(Pischel, 1968, A World History of Art, Golden Press, NY, pg575)

6. INFLUENTIAL PERSONS

7. ARCHITECTS
• Robert Smirke (1780-1867)
• Robert Adam (1728-1792)

8. SCULPTORS
• Antonio Canova (1757-1822)
• Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1828)
• Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844)

9. PAINTERS
• Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1867)
• Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825)
• Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-1779)

10. NEO-CLASSICAL WORKS

11. PAINTINGS
The Oath of Horatii
Jacques-Louis David
Oil on Canvas
11ft x 14ft (3.35 x 4.27 m)

12. PAINTINGS
The Death of Socrates The Death of Marat

13. SCULPTURE
Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss
Artist: Antonio Canova
Medium: Marble
First Version: 1787-1793
Dimension: 155cm x 168cm
(61in x 68in)
Location:
Louvre, Paris; Hermitage
Museum, Saint Petersburg

14. SCULPTURES
Hebe by Canova (1800–1805) Voltaire by Jean-Antoine Houdon, 1778

15. ARCHITECTURE
L'église de la Madeleine

16. ARCHITECTURE
The Cathedral of Vilnius Berlin Altes Museum, Friedrich Thiele, 1830