Neo-Classical Art
Neoclassicism and Neoclassicist Painting & Sculpture.
Visual Arts Guide

The Oath of the Horatii (1784) (detail)
by Jacques-Louis David.

Neo-Classical Art Style (c.1750-1815)

The reaction to the decorative Rococo style came in the form of Neo-Classicism, a strict classical style stimulated by the discovery of Roman ruins at Herculaneum and Pompeii (1738-50) and the publication in 1755 of the highly influential book Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works of Art, by the German art historian and scholar Johann Winckelmann.

It was also influenced by the earlier classical history painting of Nicolas Poussin (1593-1665) and the classical settings of Claude Lorrain's (1600-82) landscapes.

The Valpincon Bather (1808) by
Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres.

Neo-Classical paintings were serious, unemotional, and sternly heroic. Neo-classical artists depicted subjects from Classical literature and history, as used in earlier Greek art and Republican Roman art, using sombre colours with occasional brilliant highlights, to convey moral narratives of self-denial and self-sacrifice fully in keeping with the supposed ethical superiority of Antiquity. Its strictness in reaction to the overindulgence of Rococo and the theatricality of the Baroque.

Founders and famous artists of Neo-Classicism include the German portraitist and historical painter Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-79), Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867) the French master of the Academic art style, and the French political artist Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825). Leading Neo-Classical sculptors include Antonio Canova (1757-1822) who sculpted for Popes and Napoleon, the Danish artist Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844) known for his Jason with the Golden Fleece, and Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1828), best known for his portrait busts. In Britain, followers of Neo-Classicism include: Sir Joshua Reynolds, James Barry and Benjamin West.

Thesus and the Minotaur (1781-3)
by Antonio Canova.

Famous Neo-Classical Paintings and Sculptures

Anton Raphael Mengs
The Penitent Mary Magdalene (1752), Gemaldegalerie, Dresden.
The Immaculate Conception (1770-79), Musee du Louvre.
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
La Grande Odalisque (1814), Musee du Louvre.
The Valpincon Bather (1808), Musee du Louvre.
Jacques-Louis David
The Oath of the Horatii (1784), Musee du Louvre.
Death of Marat (1793), Musee d'Art Moderne, Brussels.
Antonio Canova (Sculptor)
Theseus and the Minotaur (1781-83), Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Cupid and Psyche (1796-7), Musee du Louvre.
Bertel Thorvaldsen (Sculptor)
Triumph of Alexander the Great (1810s), Harris Museum, Preston UK.
Jean-Antoine Houdon (Sculptor)
Voltaire (1781), Bibliotheque de la Comedie Francais, Paris.

• For other art movements and periods, see: History of Art.
• For styles of painting and sculpture in Ireland, see: Irish Art

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