NEOCLASSICAL ART

1750 - 1850

A new era of simplicity and grace replaced the gilded ornamentation of Rococo. Political upheaval throughout Europe gave artists dramatic new subjects which they often expressed against a simple background.

As in all human history, the pendulum swings in the history of art. The Greek and Roman artists revered realism, as did those of the Renaissance. Now, after two centuries of over-the-top ornamentation and frivolity, artists began to favor simplicity. Neoclassical Art developed as a reaction to the highly decorative Rococo (think King Louis XIV) style, typically celebrating simplicity and grace. In a time of political revolutions in America and France, reason replaced faith as the moving force behind art. Where Caravaggio had once painted saints, and Fragonard aristocrats on swings, Jacques-Louis David now painted the French revolutionary, Jean-Paul Marat, as he lay dead in his bath. However, perhaps the most lasting image of this period was Ingres’ Odalisque, the harem slave looking suggestively over her shoulder appeared in countless saloons and billiard rooms throughout America.