Lovers in Art

French Paintings in the 1800s

 

• European Neoclassicism in the visual arts began c. 1760 in opposition to the decadence of Baroque and Rococo styles.
   

• The austerity and sobriety of Neoclassicism echoed the spirit of the French Revolution.
   

• Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movementsin 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.
   

• The main Neoclassical movement coincided with the 18th century Age of Enlightenment, and continued into the early 19th century, latterly competing with Romanticism.
   

• Each "neo"- classicism selects some models among the range of possible classics that are available to it, and ignores others. They ignored both Archaic Greek art and the works of Late Antiquity.
   

• Greek painting was utterly lost: neoclassicist painters imaginatively revived it.
   

• Much "neoclassical" painting is more classicizing in subject matter than in anything else.