Neoclassicism vs Renaissance
新古典主義 / ルネサンス
Both sit in Historical Styles, so the question is not what they belong to but how they behave. Both are read here as style. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
Neoclassicism
A movement that turned back to ancient simplicity, prompted by the excavations at Pompeii and reacting against the decorative excess of Rococo. Contours are hard, color is held down, and the subjects preach civic virtue. States of the revolutionary period chose this style as their own face.
Renaissance
A movement that rediscovered ancient proportion and the human body and fixed three dimensions on a flat surface through linear perspective. Mathematics became the common language of painting and architecture, and the norms of the next five hundred years, symmetry, the classical orders and the golden ratio, were established here.
| Neoclassicism | Renaissance | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 1760s–1830s | 14th–16th century |
| Family | Historical Styles | Historical Styles |
| Kind | Style | Style |
| Cues | Hard, clear contour lines / A restrained number of colors / Ancient subjects and dress / Shallow, stage like space | One point linear perspective / The classical orders and symmetry / Composition based on the proportions of the body / A clear triangular composition |
| Best used for | Showing public purpose and discipline by cutting ornament away · Making a scene that borrows historical legitimacy | Showing authority and balance through proportion itself · Building an image whose depth is constructed geometrically |
| Type | Inscriptional capitals, letterspaced wide. | Set Roman capitals in the proportions of inscriptions. |
| Composition | Let the horizontal work hard and place elements symmetrically. | Steady figures and elements on a central axis and a triangle. |
| Material | The white of stone and plaster, with gold kept to key points. | Move from tempera to oil and build up transparent layers. |
| Caution | Do not mistake simplicity for dullness. Hard contour and tense composition are both required at once. | Pasting on columns and symmetry gives you stage scenery. Decide one basis for the proportions and carry it through the whole. |