Mid-18th Century to Early-19th Century
Neoclassical Art is a severe, unemotional form of art harkening back to the
style of ancient Greece and Rome. Its rigidity was a reaction to the overbred
Rococo
style and the emotional
Baroque
style. The rise of Neoclassical Art was part of a general revival of
classical thought, which was of some importance in the American and French
revolutions. Important Neoclassicists include the sculptors
Antonio Canova,
Bertel Thorvaldsen, and Jean-Antoine Houdon, and painters
Anton Raphael Mengs,
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, and
Jacques-Louis David.
Around 1800,
Romanticism
emerged as a reaction to Neoclassicism. It did not really replace the
Neoclassical style so much as act as a counterbalancing influence, and
many artists were influenced by both styles to some degree.
Neoclassical Art was also a substantial direct influence on 19th-century
Academic Art.