“The most important aspects of classical art,” observed German historian and archaeologist Johann J. Winckelmann, “is its noble simplicity and calm grandeur.” As an archaeologist, Winckelmann became inspired by the ancient artifacts being recovered at the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum. In the late 1700s, the popular stylization in European art was baroque and rococo styles. To critics, these styles were vain and overly ostentatious to be truly considered art. Rococo art, for example, symbolized European aristocracy with its attention on great scale and themes of worldly pleasures. Likewise, baroque art became an institutionalized art because it often portrayed the grandeur and power of the Catholic Church, which supported the style. The new age of painters became disenchanted with this status quo. Occurring concurrent with societal and political shifts in Europe, neoclassical style was born.
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Jacques Louis David
When the name “Napoleon Bonaparte” is mentioned, the visual that immediately pops into minds is one of the former Emperor sitting on a horse, braving the stormy weather, and gesturing his hands forward to symbolize the inevitability and greatness of his conquests. This iconic image was intended by design to become indelibly linked with Napoleon Bonaparte’s accomplishments in life. The painting being alluded to is the famous, Napoleon Crossing the Alps. This picture not only embodies the allure Napoleon himself wanted to convey, but it reflects the spirit and mood of artists in that period too. This portrait was painted by the man often credited for being the most influential French painter during the neoclassical art movement, Jacques-Louis David. David personified the profound shift in societal values through his style of art: From the pre-French Revolution days of Rococo art that espoused frivolity, excess, and wealth toward more romantic, more classical, and moral-driven style of painting.
Tags: the reign of david, what neoclassical characteristic is seen in french artist jacques-louis david's oath of the horatii?, Horatii, propaganda in neoclassical art, Neoclassical ArtContinue reading to THE ARTICLE »