Neoclassicism
Speaking and thinking in English, "neoclassicism" in each art implies a particular canon of "classic" models. We recognize them, even if we struggle against their power: Vergil, Raphael, Haydn. Other cultures have other canons of classics, however, and a recurring strain of neoclassicism appears to be a natural expression of a culture at a certain moment in its career, a culture that is highly self-aware, that is also confident of its own high mainstream tradition, but at the same time feels the need to regain something that has slipped away: Apollonius of Rhodes is a neo-classic writer; Ming ceramics pay homage to Sung celadon porcelains; Italian 15th century humanists learn to write a "Roman" hand we call italic (which happens to be Carolingian, but no matter); Neo-Babylonian culture is a neoclassical revival, and in Persia the "classic" religion of Zoroaster is revived after centuries, to "re-Persianize" a culture that had fallen away from its own classic Achaemenean past.
| Table of contents |
|
2 Neoclassicism in music 3 Literary neoclassicism |
Neoclassicism in architecture and the visual arts
In the visual arts, neoclassicism began after ca 1765, as a reaction both against the surviving Baroque and the Rococo, and a desire to return to perceived "purity" of the arts of Rome and to a less specific idea of the arts of Ancient Greece (where almost no western artist had actually been) and to a lesser extent to the examples of Renaissance Classicism of the 16th century.
There is an anti-Rococo strain that can be detected in some European architecture of the earlier 18th century, most vividly represented in the Palladian architecture of Georgian Britain and Ireland, but also recognizable in a classicizing vein of architecture in Berlin. It is a robust architecture of self-restraint, academically selective now of "the best" Roman models.
Neoclassicism first gained influence in England and France through a generation of French art students trained in Rome, and the influential writings of Johann Joachim Winkelmann and was quickly adopted in progressive circles in Sweden. At first, classicizing decor was grafted onto familiar European forms, but a second wave, more severe, more studied (through engravings) more consciously archaeological, is associated with the height of the Napoleonic Empire. The first phase of neoclassicism in France is expressed in the Louis XVI style, the second phase in the styles we call "Directoire" or "Empire." Jacques-Louis David's paintings, sculpture by the Italian Antonio Canova, the Englishman John Flaxman, the Dane Bertel Thorwaldsen; Empire furniture in Paris, London, New York, Berlin; Biedermeyer furniture in Austria; Wedgwood's bas-reliefs, the Scots architect John Cameron's palatial interiors for the German-born Catherine II the Great in Russian St. Petersburg: the style was international.
Indoors, neoclassicism made a discovery of the genuine classic interior, inspired by the rediscoveries at Pompeii and Herculaneum, which had started in the late 1740s, but only achieved a wide audience in the 1760s with the first luxurious volumes of tightly-controlled distribution of Le Antichità di Ercolano. The antiquities of Herculaneum showed that even the most classicizing interiors of the Baroque, or the most "Roman" rooms of William Kent were based on basilicas and exterior architecture turned inside out: pedimented window frames turned into gilded mirrors, fireplaces topped with temple fronts, now all quite bombastic and absurd. The new interiors sought to recreate a genuinely Roman interior vocabulary, employing flatter, lighter motifs, sculpted in low frieze-like relief or painted in monotones en camaïeu like cameos, isolated medallions or vases or other motifs, suspended on swags of laurel or ribbon, and slender arabesques against backgrounds, perhaps of "Pompeiian red." The style in France was initially a Parisian style, the "goût Grèc." Only when the plump young king acceded to the throne in 1771 did his fashion-loving Queen bring the "Louis XVI" style to court.
Neoclassicism continued to be a major force in art through the 19th century, a constant antithesis to Romanticism or Gothic revivals, and beyond, although from the late 19th century on has often been considered anti-modern or even reactionary in some art circles. In American architecture, neoclassicism's last form was in Beaux-Arts architecture, and its last large public projects were the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. (highly criticised at the time), and the American Museum of Natural History's Roosevelt memorial. These were white elephants as they were built. But conservative modernist architects like Charles Perret in France kept the rhythms and spacing of columnar architecture even in factories, and neoclassic themes can even be detected in the Smith Tower, Seattle.
Neoclassicism in music
In music, neoclassicism was a 20th century development, particularly popular in the period between the two World Wars, in which composers drew inspiration from music of the 18th century, though some of the inspiring canon was drawn as much from the Baroque period as the Classical - for this reason, music which draws influence specifically from the Baroque is sometimes termed neo-baroque.
Neoclassicism can be seen as a reaction to the prevailing trend of 19th century Romanticism to sacrifice internal balance and order in favour of more overtly emotional writing. Neoclassicism makes a return to balanced forms and often emotional restraint, as well as 18th century compositional processes and techniques. However, in the use of modern instrumental resources such as the full orchestra, which had greatly expanded since the 18th century, and advanced harmony, neoclassical works are distinctly 20th century.
Igor Stravinsky composed some of the best known neoclassical works— in his ballet Pulcinella, for example, he used themes which he believed to be by Giovanni Pergolesi (it later transpired that many of them were not, though they were by contemporaries). Paul Hindemith was another neoclassicist, as was Bohuslav Martinu, who revived the Baroque concerto grosso form.
List of neoclassicistic pieces
Literary neoclassicism
The arts do not always march in step, and "Neoclassicism" in English literature is associated with the "Augustan" writers of the early 18th century, all the heirs of John Dryden and Milton. The giant among their inspiring Latin classics was Virgil. Major writers of the period have included Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope. The ensuing period of "Romantic" writers had its origins at the height of neoclassicism in the visual arts, about 1800.
(text needed)