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Neo-Classical Art and Romanticism
Neoclassicism refers to the arts’ ancient movement that inspired Greece and Rome’s culture and traditional activities. Its art reflects the height of the 18th and 19th-century generation of enlightenment that enjoyed their tour across Europe, collecting antiquities as souvenirs (Riberi, & Mario). Also, neoclassical painting is characterized by various factors such as smooth paint surface, straight lines, minimal colors, exact and depiction of lights that resemble Greece and Romans’ culture. Neoclassical artists and architects also rose to study different art styles that replaced the Rocco and Baroque arts, cultivating vanity, personal issues, and fancy in the society(). Hence, Neoclassical art introduces new perspectives in the classical generation that reflected the immoral deeds of politics and the community. As a result, the French revolution emerged that led to the government’s overthrow at the time.
David Louis was born in august 1748 and was among the first French artists to unite classical thoughts that completely rejected Rocco’s art. His work created influential art that resembles moral clarity with few pictorial flourishes (Stevens, Jamie Alicia). He developed an interest in art in his youth where He joined the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture at the age of 18. Moreover, his work is considered the most famous artist that shows Neoclassical painting’s characteristics. (Stevens, &Jamie Alicia). His work, the “Oath of the Horatii,” painted in 1785 in Paris, gained new momentum as the royal government commissioned the art.
The paint is created in a style that combines dramatic effect and idealized structure (Stevens, & Jamie Alicia). The oath of Horatii is also defined by the dark arcade behind several classical heroic figures that manifest an element of theatre evoking opera’s grandeur.
The painting is based on an actual Roman history where Roman Horatii brothers were to fight with three Curii brothers from Alba for freedom of their states (Stevens, Jamie Alicia). On the left of the paint shows three young masculine soldiers reaching their father to fight for their homeland. The young men are described as brave, selfless, and ready to die for their land. On the other hand, David compares these young men’s bravery with fear, weakness, and emotion from women and children collapsing on each other on the right-hand side (Stevens, Jamie Alicia). David uses juxtaposition to differentiate the two family groups in terms of canvas, male and women roles, and contrasting the heroic, bravery with fearful and uncertainty.
On the other hand, Romanticism is a movement that started in 1700; across Europe based on culture, the movement led to the industrial revolution and affected philosophical perception, music, art, and literature in the 17th century and 18th century, respectively (Oerlemans, Onno 12). Furthermore, Romantic art is based on feelings, emotions of all categories such as religion, mystery, and imagination. Hence the romantic art uses less precise or loosens brushwork that brings out the desired paint that will capture the intended audience (Amstutz, Nina 355). For example, the work of French Painter Eugene Delacroix “Liberty leading the people.”
Eugen Delacroix was born in 1798 in Paris, France, where he developed an interest in art in his youth. He joined Prestigious Ecole Des Beaux-Art in Paris. After his study, he began his work in 1819, where he painted the “Virgin of the Harvest,” followed by other famous paints (Stevens, & Jamie Alicia). However, his paint “Liberty Leading the People” is the most famous. The art shows various scenes; first, the art shows a heap of dead bodies scattered on the ground and a bare-breasted female running as she holds a French flag in her right hand and a rifle in her left hand as she looks in one direction of the side (Allard, Sébastien, et al.). On her left-hand side, the paint shows a young boy holding two pistols while on her right hand, there protrude two men in a black jacket, top hat, tie, and the other in a white shirt. Besides, the background of the paint is coved with smoke that shows the devastating picture of Paris.
Liberty leading the people is based on a real historical story that reflects on the revolution movement on French Monarchy that ended the rule of King Charles X. hence, Delacroix uses the paint in honor and memory of all rebellions who died in the revolutionaries (Kociubińska, Edyta, 46). The paint is also full of symbolism; for instance, France’s national flag with three colors blue, white, and red is repeated in the entire paint. For example, in the tone of smoke and sky and the kneeling figure’s clothes, looking up shows the three colors of the Flag (Kociubińska, Edyta, 46). Moreover, the lady is used as an allegory to symbolize liberty and expansion of the French Republic. Therefore, the paint shows his ability to capture various scenes, including violence, patriotic spirit, and reality.
Works Cited
Riberi, Mario. “Enlightenment and Neoclassicism in La Clemenza di Tito of Mozart: An Historical-Legal Perspective.” Antiquity and Its Reception-Modern Expressions of the Past. IntechOpen, 2020.
History, Art. “Neoclassicism | Boundless Art History.” Courses.Lumenlearning.Com, 2015, https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-arthistory/chapter/neoclassicism/#:~:text=Neoclassicism%20is%20the%20term%20for,into%20the%20early%2019th%20century.
Kociubińska, Edyta. “Eugène Delacroix et ses violons d’Ingres.” Acta Universities Lodziensis. Folia Litteraria Romanica 13 (2018): 45-54.
Allard, Sébastien, et al. Delacroix. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018.
Stevens, Jamie Alicia. “Jacques-Louis David’s Neoclassicism and the Ideals of the Enlightenment.” (2019).
Oerlemans, Onno. “Romanticism and the materiality of nature.” (2020): 1-253.
Amstutz, Nina. “Romanticism and the visual arts.” The German Quarterly 89.3 (2016): 357-360.