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Art Express

In search of some order

Neoclassical art was inspired by simplicity

Neoclassical art began as a reaction to the frivolity of rococo and the overwrought dramatism of baroque. This was the time of the French and the American Revolutions and in this time of chaos, artists looked for order in the bygone era of the Greeks and the Romans. The art style of ancient Rome and Greece is referred to as classical, and neoclassical was art inspired by Rome and Greece.

The art form was started by French art students inspired by the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann who wrote: "The most eminent characteristic of Greek works is a noble simplicity and sedate grandeur in gesture and expression," and soon spread all over the Continent. The timeline is from the mid-18th Century (1765) to the mid-19th century (1830s).

The works of Raphael, Poussin and Lorraine with their fascination for simplicity and harmony provided the foundation for the neo-classicists. The new science of archaeology also contributed to the interest in antiquity.

Classical forms were used to express ideas of courage, sacrifice and nationalism. Inspiration, novelty, self-expression and inspiration found no place in the neo-classicist way of looking at things. Rather the art favoured perfect control of idiom. So the form gives an impression of rigidity and severity. Perfection was so highly valued, that the art seemed cold and lifeless.

The art form celebrated virtue and simplicity over decadence. Some principles of the French Revolution find their way into the art form — as science and emotion walk hand in hand with antiquity and paganism. Important neo-classicists include among architects Robert Adam and Robert Smirke, sculptors Antonio Canova and Jean-Antoine Houdon and painters Anton Raphael Mengs, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and Jacques-Louis David.

In literature, the Augustans, Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift and Daniel Defoe were referred to as neo-classicists.

Romanticism developed in the 1800s as a reaction to the neoclassic style. It did not replace the neoclassic style rather it was a counterfoil and artists have been inspired by both the styles.

MINI ANTHIKAD-CHHIBBER

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