Neoclassicism was an artistic movement that drew inspiration from classical antiquity, including ancient Greek and Roman art and culture. It emphasized clarity of form, rational thought, and simplicity. Major elements included sculpture, paintings, architecture, and fashion. Neoclassicism coincided with the Enlightenment and was a reaction against the ornate Rococo style. It aimed to express rationality and seriousness through clear and restrained artistic forms.

1. Neo-Classicism:
Neo= New Classicism= Era of logics or age of reasons.
Neoclassicism is the Western Movement in decorative and visual arts. It draws inspiration from the
classical art and culture of ancient Greece and Rome. The prime elements of the movement are:
1. Sculptures
2. Paintings
3. Architecture
4. Fashion
Neoclassicism is a revival of the styles and spirit of classic antiquity inspired directly from the classical
period, which coincided and reflected the developments in philosophy and other areas of the Age of
Enlightenment, and was initially a reaction against the excesses of the preceding Rococo style. While the
movement is often described as the opposed counterpart of Romanticism, this is a great over-
simplification that tends not to be sustainable when specific artists or works are considered. The case of
the supposed main champion of late Neoclassicism, Ingres, demonstrates this especially well. The revival
can be traced to the establishment of formal archaeology.
 Is dated from 1660-1780.
 Also called the “Augustan” period.
 Is a conservative movement believed that humans were fallen?
 Observed a disparity between the past & the present.
 Exulted the past.
 Saw the present as debased.
 Used satire and irony.
Introduction:
The Neoclassicists, such as Jacques-Louis David (pronounced Da-VEED), preferred the well-delineated
form—clear drawing and modeling (shading). Drawing was considered more important than painting. The
Neoclassical surface had to look perfectly smooth—no evidence of brush-strokes should be discernable to
the naked eye.
France was on the brink of its first revolution in 1789, and the Neoclassicists wanted to express a
rationality and seriousness that was fitting for their times. Artists like David supported the rebels through
an art that asked for clear-headed thinking, self-sacrifice to the State (as in Oath of the Horatii) and an
austerity reminiscent of Republican Rome.
Neo-classicism was a child of the Age of Reason (the Enlightenment), when philosophers believed that we
would be able to control our destinies by learning from and following the laws of nature (the United States
was founded on Enlightenment philosophy). Scientific inquiry attracted more attention. Therefore,
Neoclassicism continued the connection to the Classical tradition because it signified moderation and
rational thinking but in a new and more politically-charged spirit (“neo” means “new,” or in the case of
art, an existing style reiterated with a new twist.)
Neoclassicism is characterized by clarity of form, sober colors, shallow space, strong horizontal and
verticals that render that subject matter timeless (instead of temporal as in the dynamic Baroque
works), and Classical subject matter (or classicizing contemporary subject matter).
In English, the term "Neoclassicism" is used primarily of the visual arts; the similar movement in English
literature, which began considerably earlier, is called Augustan literature.

2. This, which had been dominant for several decades, was beginning to decline by the time Neoclassicism
in the visual arts became fashionable. Though terms differ, the situation in French literature was similar.
In music, the period saw the rise of classical music, and "neoclassicism" is used of 20th-century
developments. However, the operas of Christoph Willibald Gluck represented a specifically neoclassical
approach, spelt out in his preface to the published score of Alceste (1769), which aimed to reform opera
by removing ornamentation, increasing the role of the chorus in line with Greek tragedy, and using
simpler unadorned melodic lines.
The term "Neoclassical" was not invented until the mid-19th century, and at the time the style was
described by such terms as "the true style", "reformed" and "revival"; what was regarded as being revived
varying considerably. Ancient models were certainly very much involved, but the style could also be
regarded as a revival of the Renaissance, and especially in France as a return to the more austere and
noble Baroque of the age of Louis XIV, for which a considerable nostalgia had developed as France's
dominant military and political position started a serious decline. Ingres's coronation portrait of Napoleon
even borrowed from Late Antiqueconsular diptychs and their Carolingian revival, to the disapproval of
critics.
Neoclassicism was strongest in architecture, sculpture and the decorative arts, where classical models in
the same medium were relatively numerous and accessible; examples from ancient painting that
demonstrated the qualities that Winckelmann's writing found in sculpture were and are lacking.
Winckelmann was involved in the dissemination of knowledge of the first large Roman paintings to be
discovered, at Pompeii and Herculaneumand, like most contemporaries except for Gavin Hamilton, was
unimpressed by them, citing Pliny the Younger's comments on the decline of painting in his period.
Much "neoclassical" painting is more classicizing in subject matter than in anything else. A fierce, but
often very badly informed, dispute raged for decades over the relative merits of Greek and Roman art,
with Winckelmann and his fellow Hellenists generally the winning side.
Features:
1. Designs on furniture are refined simplicity.
2. Classical detail.
3. Cylindrical legs for tables and chairs, often gilded and painted.
4. Carpets designed to mirror ceiling pattern.
5. Wallpapers printed with classical designs.
Major Ideas:
 Humans are not inherently benevolent or rational.
 Restraint is important.
 True (moral) problems are insoluble.
 Distrust of innovation; reverence for tradition.
 Strong centralized authority is necessary.
 The universe is hierarchical
 Through God’s mercy, individuals may be saved.
 Humanity’s chief concern moral improvement.
 Literature should be moral, not aesthetic.
 Science is unimportant and is deceptive.

3.  The physical universe is amoral.
 Reason should be distrusted.
Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature,
theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient
Greece or Ancient Rome. Neoclassicism was born in Rome in the mid-18th century, but its popularity
spread all over Europe, as a generation of European art students finished their Grand Tour and returned
from Italy to their home countries with newly rediscovered Greco-Roman ideals. The main Neoclassical
movement coincided with the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment, and continued into the early 19th
century, latterly competing with Romanticism. In architecture, the style continued throughout the 19th,
20th and up to the 21st century.
European Neoclassicism in the visual arts began c. 1760 in opposition to the then-
dominant Baroque and Rococo styles. Rococo architecture emphasizes grace, ornamentation and
asymmetry; Neoclassical architecture is based on the principles of simplicity and symmetry, which were
seen as virtues of the arts of Rome and Ancient Greece, and were more immediately drawn from 16th-
century Renaissance Classicism. Each "neo"-classicism selects some models among the range of possible
classics that are available to it, and ignores others. The neoclassical writers and talkers, patrons and
collectors, artists and sculptors of 1765–1830 paid homage to an idea of the generation of Phidias, 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-but-unvisited, 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.
Neoclassicism is a revival of the styles and spirit of classic antiquity inspired directly from the classical
period, which coincided and reflected the developments in philosophy and other areas of the Age of
Enlightenment, and was initially a reaction against the excesses of the preceding Rococo style.
Painting and Printmaking:
It is hard to recapture the radical and exciting nature of early neo-classical painting for contemporary
audiences; it now strikes even those writers favourably inclined to it as "insipid" and "almost entirely
uninteresting to us"—some of Kenneth Clark's comments on Anton Raphael Mengs'
ambitious Parnassus at the Villa Albani, by the artist who his friend Winckelmann described as "the
greatest artist of his own, and perhaps of later times". The drawings, subsequently turned into prints,
of John Flaxman used very simple line drawing (thought to be the purest classical medium) and figures
mostly in profile to depict The Odyssey and other subjects, and once "fired the artistic youth of Europe"
but are now "neglected", while the history paintings of Angelica Kauffman, mainly a portraitist, are
described as having "an unctuous softness and tediousness" by Fritz Novotny.
The work of other artists, who could not easily be described as insipid, combined aspects of Romanticism
with a generally Neoclassical style, and form part of the history of both movements. The German-Danish
painter Asmus Jacob Carstens finished very few of the large mythological works that he planned, leaving
mostly drawings and colour studies which often succeed in approaching Winckelmann's prescription of
"noble simplicity and calm grandeur". Unlike Carstens' unrealized schemes, the etchings of Giovanni
Battista Piranesi were numerous and profitable, and taken back by those making theGrand Tour to all parts
of Europe. His main subject matter was the buildings and ruins of Rome, and he was more stimulated by
the ancient than the modern. The somewhat disquieting atmosphere of many of his Vedute (views)

4. becomes dominant in his series of 16 prints of Carceri d'Invenzione ("Imaginary Prisons") whose
"oppressive cyclopean architecture" conveys "dreams of fear and frustration". The Swiss-born Johann
Heinrich Füssli spent most of his career in England, and while his fundamental style was based on
neoclassical principles, his subjects and treatment more often reflected the "Gothic" strain
of Romanticism, and sought to evoke drama and excitement.Neoclassicism in painting gained a new sense
of direction with the sensational success of Jacques-Louis David's Oath of the Horatii at the Paris Salon of
1785.
Sculpture:
If Neoclassical painting suffered from a lack of ancient models, Neoclassical sculpture tended to suffer
from an excess of them, although examples of actual Greek sculpture of the "classical period" beginning
in about 500 BC were then very few; the most highly regarded works were mostly Roman copies.
The leading Neoclassical sculptors enjoyed huge reputations in their own day, but are now less regarded,
with the exception of Jean-Antoine Houdon, whose work was mainly portraits, very often as busts, which
do not sacrifice a strong impression of the sitter's personality to idealism.
His style became more classical as his long career continued, and represents a rather smooth progression
from Rococo charm to classical dignity. Unlike some Neoclassical sculptors he did not insist on his sitters
wearing Roman dress, or being unclothed. He portrayed most of the great figures of the Enlightenment,
and travelled to America to produce a statue of George Washington, as well as busts of Thomas
Jefferson, Ben Franklinand other luminaries of the new republic.
Antonio Canova and the Dane Bertel Thorvaldsen were both based in Rome, and as well as portraits
produced many ambitious life-size figures and groups; both represented the strongly idealizing tendency
in neoclassical sculpture. Canova has a lightness and grace, where Thorvaldsen is more severe; the
difference is exemplified in their respective groups of the Three Graces. All these, and Flaxman, were still
active in the 1820s, and Romanticism was slow to impact sculpture, where versions of Neoclassicism
remained the dominant style for most of the 19th century.
In music
Neoclassicism in music is a 20th-century movement; in this case it is the classical music of the late 18th
and early 19th century that is being revived, not the music of the ancient world. It was ultimately a
response to German Modernism in the first part of the 20th century. It was an anti-progress, anti-industrial
and anti-innovative musical style. This was inspired by composers claiming that mankind is inherently
"diatonic" and "tonal"; the opposite of ultra-modernist musical influences and compositions at the time.
Composers started to look back to historical musical influences. Although the practice of borrowing
musical styles from the past has not been uncommon throughout musical history, art music's have gone
through periods where musicians used modern techniques coupled with older forms or harmonies to create
new kinds of works. Notable compositional characteristics are, the return to tonality, return to
conventional forms (dance suites, concerti grossi, evident sonata forms, etc.), return to the idea of absolute
music, the use of light musical textures, and the composers conciseness of musical expression. In classical
music, this was most notably perceived between the 1920s and the 1950s. Igor Stravinsky is the best-
known composer using this style; he effectively began the musical revolution with his Bach-like Octet for
Wind Instruments (1923). A particular individual work that represents this style well
is Prokofiev's Classical Symphony No. 1 in D, which is reminiscent of the symphonic style
of Haydn or Mozart. Neoclassical ballet comes from the same period, and aimed to de-clutter the Russian
Imperial style in terms of steps and narrative, while retaining its technical innovations.

5. Famous Painters:
• Jacques-Louis David (30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a highly influential French
painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era.
• Benjamin West, RA (October 10, 1738 – March 11, 1820) was an Anglo-American painter of
historical scenes around and after the time of the American War of Independence.
• Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (29 August 1780 – 14 January 1867) was a French Neoclassical
painter. Although he considered himself to be a painter of history in the tradition of Nicolas
Poussin and Jacques-Louis David, by the end of his life it was Ingres's portraits, both painted and
drawn, that were recognized as his greatest legacy.
• Nicolas Poussin (15 June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was a French painter in the classical style.
His work predominantly features clarity, logic, and order, and favors line over color.
Painting Styles:
There was two famous tyles of painiting are:
1. Historicism refers to artistic styles that draw their inspiration from copying historic styles or
artisans.
2. Genre works, also called genre scenes or genre views, are pictorial representations in any of
various media that represent scenes or events from everyday life, such as markets, domestic
settings, interiors, parties, inn scenes, and street scenes.
Architecture:
The classicism that flourished in the period 1750–1830 is often known as “Neoclassicism,” in order to
distinguish it, perhaps unnecessarily, from the Classical architecture of ancient Rome or of the
Renaissance. The search for intellectual and architectural truth characterized the period. (In the 18th
century, modern classicism was described as the “true style.
• Claude-Nicolas Ledoux (March 21, 1736 – November 18, 1806) was one of the earliest exponents
of French Neoclassical architecture. He used his knowledge of architectural theory to design not
only in domestic architecture but town planning, as a consequence of his visionary plan for the
Ideal City of Chaux, he became known as a utopian.

6. How neoclassicism art got its name? And where did it originate?
Neoclassicism (meaning New Classicism) was born in the mid-1700s, originally in Rome but its
popularity exploded in France, as a generation of French and other European art students finished their
training and returned from Rome to their home countries with newly-rediscovered Greco-Roman
(Classical) ideals. As a testimony of the significant influence the Greeks and Romans had on Western
civilization, interestingly the term itself is a merger of words derived from both ancient languages spoken
by them; neos (Greek for “new”), classicus (Latin for “first class”) and ismos (Greek for “doctrine” or
“ideology”). Neoclassical art style was widely adopted and popularized by French artists, since France
was the centre of culture and art in Europe at that time. The art movement was not limited to painting and
sculpture; it was also manifested in literature, architecture and music, embraced by artists all over Europe
and America. Born on the eve of the Age of Revolution, it reflected the intellectual, social and political
changes of that period and it “became the semiofficial voice of the French Revolution.”
Dressing Style:
Dress: Male display:
A covered-up look dominated male attire from the 17th until the late 18th century, when the Neoclassical movement
led to tighter, more revealing clothes. Skin-colored knee breeches in buckskin became the rage, and waistcoats
shrank, so that from the waist downward the male form was again on show. A naked style affected the army too;
uniforms became skintight, and the male form was displayed.
Dress: Female display:
It was not until the end of the 18th century, when neoclassical taste came to the fore, that the exposure of the female
form was again a major issue. When the English novelist Fanny Burney visited Paris in April 1802, her modest
wardrobe was found too full: “Three petticoats! no one wears more than one! Stays? Everybody has left off even
corsets! Shift-sleeves? Not a soul now wears even that kind of dresses.