Editing Neoclassicism (section)

==History==
Neoclassicism is a revival of the many styles and spirit of classic antiquity inspired directly from the classical period,<ref name=Irwin>{{cite book| title=Neoclassicism A&I (Art and Ideas)| last=Irwin| first=David G.| publisher=Phaidon Press| year=1997| isbn=978-0-7148-3369-9| url-access=registration| url=https://archive.org/details/neoclassicism0000irwi}}</ref> which coincided and reflected the developments in [[philosophy]] and other areas of the Age of  Enlightenment, and was initially a reaction against the excesses of the preceding [[Rococo]] style.<ref>Honour, 17–25; Novotny, 21</ref> While the movement is often described as the opposed counterpart of [[Romanticism]], this is a great over-simplification that tends not to be sustainable when specific artists or works are considered. The case of the supposed main champion of late Neoclassicism, [[Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres|Ingres]], demonstrates this especially well.<ref>A recurring theme in Clark: 19–23, 58–62, 69, 97–98 (on Ingres); Honour, 187–190; Novotny, 86–87</ref> The revival can be traced to the establishment of formal [[archaeology]].<ref name=Lingo>{{cite book |title = François Duquesnoy and the Greek ideal| last=Lingo| first=Estelle Cecile| publisher = Yale University Press; First Edition|year = 2007| pages = [https://books.google.com/books?id=Wlq67ikF0OEC&dq=Winckelmann+Neoclassicism&pg=PA161 161]| isbn=978-0-300-12483-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title = Classical Savannah: fine & decorative arts, 1800-1840| last=Talbott | first=Page| publisher = University of Georgia Press |year = 1995| pages = 6| isbn=978-0-8203-1793-9 }}</ref>

The Italian archaeologist and art theorist [[Giovanni Pietro Bellori]] is considered the forerunner of Neoclassicism. In 1664 he delivered a lecture on the ‘Ideal’ in art at the [[Accademia di San Luca]], Rome, which became the seminal statement of idealist art theory.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia
|last         = Langdon
|first        = H.
|date         = 2001
|title        = Bellori, Giovanni Pietro
|url          = https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198662037.001.0001/acref-9780198662037-e-238
|encyclopedia = The Oxford Companion to Western Art
|location     = Oxford
|publisher    = Oxford University Press
|access-date  = 10 May 2025
}}</ref> Bellori's lecture had a decisive influence on European academic theory and later became the theoretical basis of the Neoclassicism preached by Winckelmann.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last = Chilvers|first = I.|date = |title = Bellori, Giovanni Pietro|url = https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191782763.001.0001/acref-9780191782763-e-244|encyclopedia = The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists|location = Oxford|publisher = Oxford University Press|access-date = 10 May 2025}}</ref>

[[File:Johann Joachim Winckelmann (Anton von Maron 1768).jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Johann Joachim Winckelmann]], often called "the father of archaeology"<ref>{{cite book |title = Culture and values: a survey of the humanities| last=Cunningham, Reich| first= Lawrence S., John J. | publisher = Wadsworth Publishing; 7 edition|year = 2009| pages = 104 | isbn=978-0-495-56877-3}}</ref>]]

The writings of [[Johann Joachim Winckelmann]] were important in shaping this movement in both architecture and the visual arts. His books ''Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture'' (1750) and ''Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums'' ("History of Ancient Art", 1764) were the first to distinguish sharply between Ancient Greek and Roman art, and define periods within Greek art, tracing a trajectory from growth to maturity and then imitation or decadence that continues to have influence to the present day. Winckelmann believed that art should aim at "noble simplicity and calm grandeur",<ref>Honour, 57–62, 61 quoted</ref> and praised the idealism of Greek art, in which he said we find "not only nature at its most beautiful but also something beyond nature, namely certain ideal forms of its beauty, which, as an ancient interpreter of [[Plato]] teaches us, come from images created by the mind alone". The theory was very far from new in Western art, but his emphasis on close copying of Greek models was: "The only way for us to become great or if this be possible, inimitable, is to imitate the ancients".<ref>Both quotes from the first pages of "Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture"</ref>

The [[Industrial Revolution]] saw global transition of human economy towards more efficient and stable manufacturing processes.<ref>{{cite web |title=Industrial History of European Countries |url=https://www.erih.net/how-it-started/industrial-history-of-european-countries |access-date=2 June 2021 |website=European Route of Industrial Heritage |publisher=Council of Europe}}</ref> There was tremendous material advancement and increased prosperity.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=North |first1=Douglass C. |last2=Thomas |first2=Robert Paul |date=May 1977 |title=The First Economic Revolution | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2595144 |journal=The Economic History Review |volume=30 | issue=2 |pages=229–230 |doi=10.2307/2595144 |access-date=6 June 2022 |publisher=Wiley on behalf of the Economic History Society |jstor=2595144 |url-access=registration}}</ref> With the advent of the [[Grand Tour]], a fad of collecting [[antiquities]] began that laid the foundations of many great collections spreading a Neoclassical revival throughout Europe.<ref>{{cite book |title = In Pursuit of Ancient Pasts: A History of Classical Archaeology in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries| last= Dyson| first=Stephen L.| publisher = Yale University Press |year = 2006| pages = xii | isbn=978-0-300-11097-5}}</ref> "Neoclassicism" in each art implies a particular canon of a "classical" model.

In English, the term "Neoclassicism" is used primarily of the visual arts; the similar movement in [[English literature]], which began considerably earlier, is called [[Augustan literature]]. This, which had been dominant for several decades, was beginning to decline by the time Neoclassicism in the visual arts became fashionable. Though terms differ, the situation in [[French literature]] was similar. In music, the period saw the rise of [[classical music]], and "Neoclassicism" is used of [[Neoclassicism (music)|20th-century developments]]. However, the operas of [[Christoph Willibald Gluck]] represented a specifically Neoclassical approach, spelt out in his preface to the published score of ''[[Alceste (Gluck)|Alceste]]'' (1769), which aimed to reform opera by removing [[ornamentation (music)|ornamentation]], increasing the role of the chorus in line with [[Greek tragedy]], and using simpler unadorned melodic lines.<ref>Honour, 21</ref>

The term "Neoclassical" was not invented until the mid-19th century, and at the time the style was described by such terms as "the true style", "reformed" and "revival"; what was regarded as being revived varying considerably. Ancient models were certainly very much involved, but the style could also be regarded as a revival of the Renaissance, and especially in France as a return to the more austere and noble [[Baroque]] of the age of [[Louis XIV]], for which a considerable [[nostalgia]] had developed as France's dominant military and political position started a serious decline.<ref>Honour, 11, 23–25</ref> [[Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres|Ingres]]'s [[Napoleon I on His Imperial Throne|coronation portrait of Napoleon]] even borrowed from Late Antique [[consular diptych]]s and their [[Carolingian art|Carolingian]] revival, to the disapproval of critics.

Neoclassicism was strongest in [[Neoclassical architecture|architecture]], [[sculpture]] and the [[decorative arts]], where classical models in the same medium were relatively numerous and accessible; examples from ancient painting that demonstrated the qualities that Winckelmann's writing found in sculpture were and are lacking. Winckelmann was involved in the dissemination of knowledge of the first large Roman paintings to be discovered, at [[Pompeii]] and [[Herculaneum]] and, like most contemporaries except for [[Gavin Hamilton (artist)|Gavin Hamilton]], was unimpressed by them, citing [[Pliny the Younger]]'s comments on the decline of painting in his period.<ref>Honour, 44–46; Novotny, 21</ref>

As for painting, Greek painting was utterly lost: Neoclassicist painters imaginatively revived it, partly through [[bas-relief]] [[frieze]]s, [[mosaic]]s and pottery painting, and partly through the examples of painting and decoration of the [[High Renaissance]] of [[Raphael]]'s generation, frescos in [[Nero]]'s ''[[Domus Aurea]]'', Pompeii and Herculaneum, and through renewed admiration of [[Nicolas Poussin]]. Much "Neoclassical" painting is more classicizing in subject matter than in anything else. A fierce, but often very badly informed, dispute raged for decades over the relative merits of Greek and Roman art, with Winckelmann and his fellow Hellenists generally being on the winning side.<ref>Honour, 43–62</ref>