Neoclassicism
新古典主義 / 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.
Hard, clear contour lines / A restrained number of colors / Ancient subjects and dress / Shallow, stage like space
Dictionary entry
- Best used for
- Showing public purpose and discipline by cutting ornament away · Making a scene that borrows historical legitimacy
- Type
- Inscriptional capitals, letterspaced wide.
- Composition
- Let the horizontal work hard and place elements symmetrically.
- Material
- The white of stone and plaster, with gold kept to key points.
- Caution
- Do not mistake simplicity for dullness. Hard contour and tense composition are both required at once.
- Further study
- The excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii / Winckelmann's history of ancient art / Its adoption as a state style in revolutionary France