Neoclassical Art Period Romanticism Art Period RIWT Task 1

Swinford, Beth 8/23/2012

Neoclassical Art Period
The Neoclassical art period overlapped with the 18th century Age of Enlightenment and continued into the early 19th century. Neoclassicism left almost no feature of visual culture untouched. This was regardless of the realistic and hypothetical connections to the classical tradition of Western art. Neoclassicism was viewed as a revolutionary denial of the selfindulgence of the baroque. Neoclassicism’s formal stylistic characteristics had a tendency to copy ancient Greco-Roman art with a prominence on poise, self-control, and grandeur of …show more content…

Neoclassicism’s idea for art was common or general human behavior characteristics were better areas of focus than the abnormally unique characteristics of human behavior. Writers and poets gave initial expression to Romantic ideas as a reaction against Neoclassicism (but not necessarily the classicism of Greece and Rome) or against what are variously called the Age of Reason, the Augustan Age, the Enlightenment, or 18th-century materialism (Irwin). Two different fashions of painting were thought of the other as an enemy. Neoclassicism wanted to depict the complete facts of life and Romanticism strived to portray life through visions of the uninhabited and raw feelings that existed post Revolution. A large rift between the two styles led to long and resentful debate but in the end Romanticism arose as the style of this period. JacquesLouis David’s The Oath of the Horatii, 1784 represented what Neoclassicism was and that was an art that could transmit ideas such as equally, integrity, and loyalty. Joseph Mallord William Turner’s Shipwreck, 1805, showcased the movement from Neoclassicism style to the Romanticism with exciting content and a sense of movement that invoked emotion in the viewers. Both paintings are some of the artist’s first pieces and reflect their styles. David’s

patriotic paintings depicted truth and told the facts of his subject. This is