Neoclassicism

NEOCLASSICISM

NEOCLASSICISM. One of the last truly international European aesthetic movements, neoclassicism left virtually no aspect of visual culture untouched. Despite its practical and theoretical connections to the classical tradition of Western art, neoclassicism was perceived by eighteenth-century critics as a revolutionary rejection of the decadence of the baroque that had held sway since the early seventeenth century. In addition to its formal stylistic characteristics, which include a propensity toward the emulation of ancient Greco-Roman art and an emphasis on dignity, restraint, and grandeur of scale, neoclassical art was often endowed with an ideological imperative. Seeking to reform society from above, many neoclassicists enlisted ancient virtue, morality, and ethics as antidotes to what they considered to be the frivolity, licentiousness, and sybaritic luxury of eighteenth-century elites. This reforming spirit was especially notable in France, where progressive artists embraced classical subjects that taught lessons in morality. The most important example in painting is Jacques-Louis David's Oath of the Horatii (1784). Visualizing La Font de Saint-Yenne's 1749 dictum, neoclassicism helped to redefined art's role in society as an agency that "made virtue attractive and vice odious."

As an artistic phenomenon, neoclassicism's impact may be seen in an astonishing variety of objects, from teaspoons and wallpaper to ecclesiastical architecture and equestrian monuments. Its earliest stirrings may be traced to the 1740s. Neoclassicism was given considerable impetus by the keen interest in archaeological excavation spurred by the discovery of the ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii; regular excavations at Herculaneum began in 1738 and at Pompeii in 1748. Major excavations on the Palatine Hill in Rome, at Ostia and at Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli captured the imagination of Europe. Ancient sites in Spain, France, England, and elsewhere also received increased scrutiny. Such excavations created a mania for antique artifacts that led to numerous publications of the often spectacular finds. These books usually had engraved illustrations that did much to inspire artists, who quickly created both public and domestic spaces decorated by classically inspired art. Robert Adam's country house interiors, such as the great vestibule at Syon House, are important examples of neoclassicism's impact on the decorative arts and architecture inspired by neoclassical motifs. Josiah Wedgwood's ceramic works, fired at his factory in the English Midlands, reveal the ubiquity of the neoclassical aesthetic in both decorative and utilitarian objects.

Neoclassicism's epicenter was unquestionably Rome. As the artistic entrepôt of Europe and primary museum of the Western tradition, the city's privileged position as an international capital built on the decaying fabric of antiquity's greatest urban center gave Rome a unique luster. Enlightened papal policies led to the creation of Europe's first public museums, the Capitoline and the Pio-Clementino, which prominently featured canonical antiquities such as the Apollo Belvedere, the Capitoline Venus, and the Laocoön. These ancient marble sculptures were considered ideal exemplars of beauty and truth and inspired emulation by such artists as Antonio Canova, John Flaxman, and Bertel Thorvaldsen, among others. Indeed, Canova's Theseus and the Dead Minotaur of 1781–1783 is unimaginable without considering the artist's assiduous study of Greco-Roman sculptures preserved in Rome's museums and aristocratic collections.

The central aesthetic debates of neoclassicism also centered on Rome. Johann Joachim Winckelmann, a Prussian scholar and aesthete who served as librarian to Cardinal Alessandro Albani, gave a rationalist underpinning to developing neoclassicism with the 1764 publication of Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums (History of ancient art). Quickly translated into most European languages, Winckelmann's book had an unprecedented impact on ideas about art and its relationship to society. It also posed questions about the fundamental differences between ancient Greek and Roman art, resolved in favor of the former. Winckelmann viewed the development of antique art as cyclical, from perfection in classical Athens to the bombastic decadence of the Roman Empire. His view was supported by Cardinal Albani's favorite artist Anton Raphael Mengs, who painted Parnassus in 1761 to adorn the ceiling of the grand salon of Albani's chic new villa on the Via Salaria, completed in 1760 by the architect Carlo Marchionni. This fresco is the first fully developed essay in neoclassical painting. The Villa Albani's collection of ancient sculpture was the finest private collection in existence, and the villa became a major attraction for visitors who helped to spread neoclassical ideas.

Albani, Mengs, and Winckelmann as champions of the Greeks did not go unchallenged. The leading exponent of the superiority of Roman art was the Venetian architect and engraver Giambattista Piranesi. Through myriad publications, above all Della magnificenza ed architettura de' Romani (On the magnificence and architecture of the Romans) of 1761, Piranesi consistently championed the grandeur of scale and fantasy of invention of ancient Roman artists and architects, whom he believed had perfected the simplicity and nobility of form achieved by the Greeks. The Greeks-versus-Romans polemic was one of the major intellectual debates of mid-eighteenth-century Europe. Piranesi's publications also had a profound impact on foreigners because of their wide distribution. Visitors were often disappointed because the scale of both ancient ruins and modern buildings was much smaller than Piranesi's prints had led them to imagine.

The grand tour, that elite practice of transalpine travelers venturing to Italy to study the remains of antiquity and the canonical works of both ancient and modern art, was also a crucial factor in the development and dissemination of neoclassicism. Rich tourists created a thriving market for antiquities and created an industry based on the production of pastiched statues and outright fakes of everything from paintings to cameos. A casual visit to almost any British country house will reveal the extent of the collecting mania for all things ancient. The tour promoted the notion of an upper-class, cosmopolitan culture based on the primacy of the classical tradition and helped to create a republic of letters that gave Europe an unprecedented degree of intellectual and aesthetic unity.

While obviously retrospective in nature, by the last years of the century neoclassicism had also attained a utopian thrust that was exploited in the interest of political, social, economic, and spiritual reform. The antique panacea was offered to an ailing Europe for such perceived ills as obscurantism, religious fanaticism, superstition, and social inequality. It was the rationalist basis of neoclassicism that so appealed to progressive Enlightenment thought and that led proponents of the French Revolution to embrace it for regimist purposes. Later, Napoleon co-opted the Roman Empire as both a precedent for and a justification of his own. The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel (1806–1807) in Paris, executed by Charles Percier to celebrate French victories at Austerlitz and Jena, was based on the precedent of Rome's Arch of Constantine. The fact that both Jacobins and Bonapartists could claim the same cultural and political inheritance is vivid testimony to neoclassicism's pervasiveness and flexibility.

By 1830 neoclassicism had evolved from a progressive style extolling ancient virtue and aesthetic reform while opposing luxury and decorative self-indulgence to become the chief expression of modern empire and military dictatorship. Increasingly identified with an academic pedagogy that many younger Romantic artists considered stifling and outdated, neoclassicism also was associated with conservatism and aristocratic privilege, principles it had challenged and partly overcome in its early phases. Neoclassicism's afterlife has included its adoption by both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. It continues to be a rich source of forms and motifs for postmodern artists, architects, and designers.

See also Canova, Antonio ; Classicism ; David, Jacques-Louis ; Mengs, Anton Raphael ; Piranesi, Giovanni Battista ; Renaissance ; Republic of Letters ; Winckelmann, Johann Joachim .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Honour, Hugh. Neo-classicism. Rev. ed. Harmondsworth, U.K., 1991.

Irwin, David. Neoclassicism. London, 1997.

Praz, Mario. On Neoclassicism. Translated by Angus Davidson. Evanston, Ill., 1969.

Christopher M. S. Johns