Compose styles
Rather than blending styles toward a middle, this gives them roles. The first one carries the structure, the next comes in as the accent, and anything after that shows up in a single detail. Where they fight each other, it says so before you start.
How to divide the work
- Composition
- Follow Neoclassicism: Let the horizontal work hard and place elements symmetrically
- Type
- Set in Neoclassicism's manner (Inscriptional capitals, letterspaced wide), and let Renaissance's lettering (Set Roman capitals in the proportions of inscriptions) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Neoclassicism's material (The white of stone and plaster, with gold kept to key points); bring in exactly one thing from Renaissance (Move from tempera to oil and build up transparent layers).
- Colour
- Build on #d0d4d0, #bc4e2f, #11171b and admit one accent from #ebdfba, #8daee1, #2f2420.
Where they fight
- Neoclassicism and Renaissance both belong to Historical Styles, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
- Neoclassicism and Renaissance stand roughly 410 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle.
Caution
- Neoclassicism Do not mistake simplicity for dullness. Hard contour and tense composition are both required at once.
- Renaissance Pasting on columns and symmetry gives you stage scenery. Decide one basis for the proportions and carry it through the whole.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Neoclassicism (style, 1760s–1830s) and their accent from Renaissance (style, 14th–16th century). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Neoclassicism exists for: showing public purpose and discipline by cutting ornament away, or making a scene that borrows historical legitimacy. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Neoclassicism - Hard, clear contour lines - A restrained number of colors - Ancient subjects and dress - Shallow, stage like space Composition: Let the horizontal work hard and place elements symmetrically. Type and lettering: Inscriptional capitals, letterspaced wide. ## Accent comes from Renaissance, used sparingly - One point linear perspective - The classical orders and symmetry - Composition based on the proportions of the body - A clear triangular composition Let one material quality come from it: Move from tempera to oil and build up transparent layers. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #d0d4d0, carry the structure in #bc4e2f and #11171b, and let a single accent come from #8daee1. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: trust, luxury, calm. ## Where they fight - Neoclassicism and Renaissance both belong to Historical Styles, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable. - Neoclassicism and Renaissance stand roughly 410 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle. ## What goes wrong - Neoclassicism: Do not mistake simplicity for dullness. Hard contour and tense composition are both required at once. - Renaissance: Pasting on columns and symmetry gives you stage scenery. Decide one basis for the proportions and carry it through the whole. ## Across the four Keep the roles fixed in all four. Vary the framing, the scale and the arrangement so the set shows what this pairing can do rather than four versions of one picture. ## Constraints - Do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. - Do not reproduce the composition of an existing work. - Produce original compositions in the general period languages described above.
Related entries
- Neoclassicism 1760s–1830s / Style / Historical Styles
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 14th–16th century / Style / Historical Styles
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.
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