Neoclassicism

Neoclassicism is a particularly pure form of classicism, the wider term for art that refers back to the style of ancient Greece or Rome. It took shape from about 1750. Two things set the 18th-century revival going: the unearthing of the Roman town of Pompeii, and an enormously influential account of ancient art that the German scholar Winckelmann published in 1764. Excavations around the Mediterranean and the Near East fed it too, and artists copied Greek and Roman shapes and motifs. It is also read as a reply to the lavishness of Rococo; its works tend to be linear, symmetrical and sometimes stern. David and Ingres among painters, and Canova among sculptors, are named as its representatives. Romanticism later pushed back against its formality. The name is also used for trends in literature and music in the 20th century; this card is about the art of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Trace the outlines: are the figures sharply drawn and set in a balanced arrangement? Then look for anything that refers to ancient Greece or Rome, such as clothes, poses, columns or a story.

• Rococo ロココ→Neoclassicism is also read as a reply to Rococo's lavishness.
• Romanticism ロマン主義→Romanticism later pushed back against Neoclassical formality.