Lecture 39: Neoclassicism and the Birth of Romanticism

Neoclassicism and the Birth of Romanticism .................................

Lecture 39

As the 18th century approached its last quarter, it evolved in ways that

were unforeseen, though predictable enough in hindsight. Having

begun with the fading glory of Versailles, it ripened into the insouciant,

self-indulgent era of Louis XV and the Rococo. Acquiring a moralizing

air in the 1760s, it suddenly veered into a severe mode in the 1770s

and 1780s.

T

he style accompanying this shift was called Neoclassicism and

is easy to characterize. There is an emphasis on line, especially

contour, and strong design. Color is important but localized and

contained. Beginning in 1748 with archeological discoveries at Pompeii and

Herculaneum, there was a renewed emphasis on ancient art and Renaissance

Classicism. This was furthered by the inÀ uence of the French Academy

in Rome, where many of the leading artists studied. At just this juncture,

the American Revolution burst onto the European consciousness, igniting

long-suppressed anger over social and political injustices and propelling

European liberal thought in the same direction. As America sought support

in Europe, it sent one of its most famous citizens as minister to France,

Benjamin Franklin.

We see a bust of Franklin (1779) by Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741–1828).

This splendid marble bust is the work of the greatest living sculptor of the

day, whose own political persuasion made him the sculptor of a handful of

American revolutionary leaders, as well as French heroes of their subsequent

revolution. Houdon carved the bust apparently without even having the

opportunity of a formal portrait sitting. There are replicas of the portrait, but

this one is the most sensitive and the most nuanced in descriptive detail.

We now turn to Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825), the greatest painter of the

Neoclassical style. David’s natural gifts and scrupulous rendering of reality

would have been suf¿ cient to secure his reputation, but he was also involved

with important political events of his lifetime, and thus, his paintings are