Neoclassicism: outline, order and virtue

1What is an art movement?

An art movement is a group of artists who share ideas and a style for a period of time. Movements are often named later, sometimes by critics who disliked them. Each one grows out of its time, its politics, its science and its technology, and each reacts against the style that came before it. In this unit you will study three movements from Europe, mostly from France, across 200 years: Neoclassicism, Impressionism and Cubism. Knowing them helps you date and read an unfamiliar artwork, understand how art changed, and borrow ideas for your own work.

2Key vocabulary

• Classical: belonging to ancient Greece and Rome.
• Neoclassicism: “new classicism”, a movement from about 1760 to 1830 that took ancient Greek and Roman art as its model.
• Rococo: the light, playful, highly decorated style popular in France before Neoclassicism, full of curves, pastel colours and scenes of leisure.
• Composition: the way the parts of an artwork are arranged.
• Idealised: made more perfect than real life.

3Where it came from

• Archaeology: digging at the buried Roman towns of Herculaneum (from 1738) and Pompeii (from 1748) uncovered wall paintings, statues and whole streets. Europe became fascinated by the ancient world.
• New ideas: the German writer Johann Joachim Winckelmann praised Greek art for its “noble simplicity and quiet grandeur”. Thinkers of the Enlightenment valued reason, duty and good citizenship.
• Politics: in France, artists used stories of Roman heroes to call for courage and sacrifice for one's country. After the French Revolution of 1789, and later under Napoleon, the style became the official look of the new state.

4Features of Neoclassicism

• Subjects from ancient history and myth, usually with a moral lesson: duty, courage, sacrifice, self-control.
• Clear, sharp outlines and careful drawing: line matters more than colour.
• A smooth, polished surface; brushstrokes are hidden.
• Calm, balanced, often symmetrical compositions.
• Figures arranged across a shallow space, like actors on a stage or figures carved on a flat relief.
• Classical settings and costume: columns, arches, helmets, togas.
• Idealised faces and bodies, restrained colour and clear, strong light.

5Artists and works

• Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825), France, the leading Neoclassical painter: Oath of the Horatii (1784, Louvre, Paris), The Death of Socrates (1787, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).
• Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780–1867), France, David's student, famous for flawless line and smooth finish; he said that drawing is the honesty of art. Napoleon I on his Imperial Throne (1806, Musée de l'Armée, Paris).
• Antonio Canova (1757–1822), Italy, the great Neoclassical sculptor, known for gleaming white marble carved as smooth as skin: Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss (1787–1793, Louvre, Paris) and Theseus and the Minotaur (1781–1783, Victoria and Albert Museum, London).
• Angelica Kauffman (1741–1807), born in Switzerland, worked in London and Rome. In 1768 she was one of only two women among the founding members of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi (about 1785, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, USA).

Worked example: reading the Oath of the Horatii

The story comes from early Rome. Rome and the city of Alba Longa agree to settle a war by a fight between three brothers from each side. The painting shows the Roman brothers, the Horatii, swearing to win or die.

1. Describe: three young men stretch out their arms towards three swords held up by their father. On the right, the women of the family sit collapsed in grief, with two small children.
2. Analyse: three arches behind, three groups in front. The men are drawn with straight, tense lines and firm diagonals; the women with soft, drooping curves. Light falls strongly from the left. The figures stand in a shallow space, like a stage, and the paint surface is smooth.
3. Interpret: duty to the country comes before family feeling. The women's grief shows the cost: one sister is engaged to one of the enemy brothers.
4. Place it: the moral subject, sharp outlines, hidden brushwork and balanced, stage-like composition all mark it as Neoclassical. It was first shown in Paris in 1785, four years before the Revolution.

6Look closely

Find the centre of the painting. It is the father's hand holding the swords, framed by the middle arch. Every line in the picture leads your eye to that point.

Angelica Kauffman tells another Roman story of virtue. A visitor shows off her jewels; Cornelia, standing in white, answers by pointing to her children: these are her treasures. Notice the same features as David's painting: a clear moral, classical dress and columns, figures lined up across a shallow space, smooth paint and calm balance. Here, though, the mood is gentle, and the story is about family rather than war.

Practice