Neo-Classicism

1750-1830 - In the 1700s, archaeological discoveries in Greece and Rome revived interest in the study of classical art and literature. As a result, Neoclassicism became a popular art style, especially in France where the heroic, moral themes in classical history were used to inspire the causes of the French Revolution. Art of this time reflected calm, serious subjects presented with simple lines and a sense of order and purpose. Neoclassic artists used classical forms to express their ideas about courage, sacrifice, and love of country. Some of the better known artists of the Neoclassical style is exemplified in early paintings by Jacques-Louis David , and Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres' entire career. David's Oath of the Horatii was painted in Rome and made a splash at the Paris Salon of 1784. Its central perspective is perpendicular to the picture plane, made more emphatic by the dim arcade behind, against which the heroic figures are disposed as in a frieze, with a hint of the artificial lighting and staging of opera, and the classical coloring of Nicholas Poussin. In sculpture, the most familiar representatives are the Italian Antonio Canova, the Englishman John Flaxman and the Dane Bertel Thorvaldsen. The European neoclassical manner also took hold in the United States, where its prominence peaked somewhat later and is exemplified in the sculptures of William Henry Rinehart (1825-1874).