Neoclassicism
The term neoclassicism (from the Greek νέος néos 'new' and from the Latin classĭcus 'first category& #39;) arose in the 18th century to name the aesthetic movement that came to reflect in the arts the intellectual principles of the Enlightenment, which had been taking place in philosophy since the middle of the XVIII century and had consequently been transmitted to all fields of culture. Although, coinciding with the decline of Napoleon Bonaparte, Neoclassicism was losing followers in favor of Romanticism.
Origins
With the desire to repeat and reflect the traces of the past, expeditions were launched to discover the ancient works in their places of origin. The one that the architect Jérôme Charles Bellicard undertook from France in 1750, led to the publication in 1754 of the Observations sur les antiquités de la ville d'Herculaneum (“Observations on the antiquities of the villa Herculaneum"), an essential reference for the training of French neoclassical artists. In England, the Society of Dilettanti (“Society of Amateurs”) subsidized archaeological campaigns to learn about Greek and Roman ruins. Books such as Le Antichitá di Ercolano (1757-1792) were born from these expeditions, an elaborate publication financed by the King of Naples (later Carlos III of Spain), which served as a source of inspiration for artists despite its poor disclosure.
We must also appreciate the role that Rome played as a meeting place for travelers and artists from all over Europe and even America. In the city the ruins were visited, ideas were exchanged and each one was acquiring a cultural baggage that they would take back to their land of origin. There arose in 1690 the so-called Academy of Arcadia or Arcades of Rome, which with its numerous branches or coloniae throughout Italy and its commitment to the balance of classical models and clarity and simplicity promoted neoclassical aesthetics.
The Roman villa became a pilgrimage center where travelers, critics, artists and scholars came with the intention of illustrating themselves in its classical architecture. Among them was the Prussian Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768), an enthusiastic admirer of Greek culture and a detractor of the French Rococo; his work History of Art in Antiquity (1764) is a systematization of artistic knowledge from antiquity to the Romans.
Giovanni Batista Piranesi (1720-1778) also worked in Rome; in his engravings, such as Antichitá romana (1756) or Invented Prisons (1745-1760), and conveys a different vision of the ruins with images in which the unusual proportions and the contrasts of light and shadow seek to impress the viewer.
The work is loaded with symbolism: the figure in the center represents truth surrounded by a brilliant light (the central symbol of illumination). Two other figures to the right, reason and philosophy, are tearing the veil that covers truth.
The Enlightenment represented the desire of the philosophers of the age of Reason (philosophy) to rationalize all aspects of human life and knowledge. He came to replace the role of religion (as organizer of the existence of man) by a secular ethic that will order human relations from then on and will lead to a scientific concept of truth.
Development
Architecture
Neoclassical architecture is a Western architectural style that produced the neoclassical movement that began in the middle of the centuryXVIII, by a reaction against the baroque style of naturalist ornamentation as well as the result of some classicist traits born in the late baroque. It lasted during the centuryXIX, then coinciding with other trends, such as historicalist architecture and architectural eclecticism. Some historians call Romantic classicism to the neoclassical production of the first half of the centuryXIX, playing with the oxymoron (opposition of terms), as in addition to coinciding with the romanticism, stylistically shared traits with the romantic aesthetic, by adding a certain expressivity and spirit exalted to the simplicity and clarity of the classical grecorromean buildings.
The fundamental factors that influenced the emergence of neoclassical architecture were the same ones that determined the political, social and economic context of the time, in which the Industrial Revolution, the crisis of the Old Regime, the Illustration, encyclopedism, the foundation of the Academies or the illustrated despotism stand out. The Industrial Revolution profoundly changed the form and pace of life in cities and led to further technical-constructive advances and the use of new materials. It was sought to give a more scientific character to the arts, so artists should be more technical than inventors, and imitators more than creators. That scientific spirit led to consider classical art as an art progressive, devoid of meaningless ornaments and longing for the perfection of immutable laws, without relying on the subjective and imperfect impressions of the artist. This new orientation led to the rejection of the latest baroque architecture and the turning of their eyes towards the past to the search for an architectural model of universal validity. Critical movements were born that advocated the need for functionality and the removal of the ornate in the buildings. Francesco Milizia (1725-1798) in Principi di Architettura Civile (1781) extended from Italy the rigorousist conceptions to all of Europe. Meanwhile, in France, Abbé Marc-Antoine Laugier (1713-1769) advocated in his works Essai sur l'Architecture (1752) and Observations sur l'Architecture (1765) the need to create a building in which all parties had an essential and practical function, and in which architectural orders were constructive and not just decorative elements, all to make a true architecture: the one built with logic. The concept of economy related to the functioning of the buildings itself changed some spatial organization schemes and even the relationship between vanos and macizos itself.
Illustration argued that the unhappiness of man was due to ignorance and irrationality, and therefore the way to happiness was to bring the light of reason through education. Although the first academies for the study of the arts had emerged in Italy already in the centuryXVIfounded in the centuryXVIII they were already illustrated and served as transmitters of ideas contrary to the baroque and in favor of neoclassicism and the various classic and Renaissance treaties of the Three noble artsas well as those works of a technical and scientific nature that rationalized their practice and execution. At that time art begins to suffer the consequences of a free criticism, founded on ethical principles. Architecture could be analyzed as a branch of social and moral art L'Encyclopédie He attributed the ability to influence the thought and customs of men. Thus, buildings that improved human life such as hospitals, libraries, museums, theatres, parks, etc., that was thought of as monumental. The architects of the centuryXVIII They turned to reject the intense religiosity of the previous aesthetics and the lujuriating exaggeration of the baroque, seeking a more rational and objective spatial and formal synthesis, but they still had no clear idea of how to apply the new constructive and structural technologies in a new architecture. Neoclassicism did not, in fact, pretend a new style different from the classic Renaissance art and was more a reinterpretation of the classic formal repertoire and less an experimentation of these forms, having as a big difference the application of new technologies: in this period, ancient materials such as stone and wood gradually became replaced by concrete, and later by the reinforced concrete and metal.
Encyclopedism, the pioneering spirit of the French Revolution, also brought with it a romantic conception of Ancient Greece. In the architecture the required formation implied the knowledge of the ancient sources such as Vitrubio, Palladio, Vignola; so it was made use of the formal repertoires of the Greek and Roman architectures (and even of Egypt and Asia Minor). All architects departed from common assumptions: rationality in the constructions and the return to the past. Although approaches differed.
The Greek-Roman models led to a monumental architecture that frequently reproduced the classic temple to give a new sense in civil society. The profile of the Athens Propiles served the German Carl Gotthard Langhans to design his Brandenburg gate in Berlin (1789-1791), a very repeated type attesting to the entrance to the Downing College of Cambridge (1806) work of the English William Wilkins or the later Gliptoteca of Munich by Leo von Klenze. Also English James Stuart (1713-1788), an archaeologist architect who has been called the Athenian, in his monument to Lyscrates in Staffordshire, he reproduced the coragic monument of Liscrates in Athens. The Adam brothers spread throughout England a decorative model for interiors with themes drawn from archaeology; one of their most representative works is Osterley Park, with a remarkable Etruscan stay and a classic hall entrance (1775-1780). Italy preferred to recreate its old models well advanced in the centuryXVIII and at the beginning of the centuryXIX. The model of the Agrippa Pantheon in Rome is repeated in a large number of temples, such as that of the Great Mother of Dio in Turin and St.Francis of Paula in Naples, both completed in 1831, which reproduce the octopian porch and the cylindrical volume of the Pantheon.
Other architects, the so-called utopians, revolutionaries or visionaries, raised buildings based on geometric forms. They did not despise the heritage of the classic past and, although they respected the norms of symmetry and monumentality, their buildings were sometimes the result of the capricious combination of geometric forms. Étienne-Louis Boullée (1728-1799) and Claude-Nicolas Ledoux (1736-1806) led this position; among the large number of unbuilt projects it is worth mentioning the cenotaph for Isaac Newton, conceived by Boullée as a sphere, representation of the ideal model, raised on a circular basis that had to cover the sarcophagus of the scientist. Ledoux left buildings built, among them a part of the utopian industrial city of the Salinas de Arc-et-Senans, of circular plant in the Franc County or the set of the Villette in Paris.
Between both groups there is a third option, that of the picturesque architecture, from the creation of English gardens in the centuryXVIII, naturally ordered away from the geometry of the French garden; the combination of nature is valued with the architectural, the inclusion in the natural landscape of buildings reminiscent of the Chinese, Indian or medieval buildings. That game of whimsical forms and the use of light sought to stir sensations in the viewer. Horace Walpole (1717-1797) built the Strawberry Hill House (1753-1756) on the outskirts of London, a gothic fantasy from which his author said he had inspired him to write The Castle of Otranto, a Gothic novel, expression of the inspiring effect of architecture. Also William Chambers (1723-1796) created a picturesque ensemble in the Kew Gardens (London) (1757-1763) with the inclusion of a Chinese pagoda reflecting its knowledge of the oriental architectures.
Neoclassicism was also very important in the planning of the city, the ancient Romans had planned a consolidated scheme of urban direction for defense and civil comfort but the origin of this scheme goes back to even older civilizations. In its most basic aspect, the street system of the grid, a central forum with all the services of the city, two main boulevards slightly wider and the diagonal street were characteristics of the very clear and orderly Roman design. The old facades and building designs were focused on these city design patterns and intended to function in proportion to the importance of public buildings.
Many of these urban planning patterns found their way in the first modern planned cities of the centuryXVIII. The classic examples are reflected in Karlsruhe and Washington, DC. But this does not mean that all planned cities and neighborhoods are designed around neoclassical principles. Contrary models can be seen in the modernist designs exemplified by Brasilia, the Garden City movement, levittowns and the new urbanism.
Bourbon Palace (1722-1728) (now National Assembly), Paris
Facade to the courtyard of Somerset House (1776-1796), London
Brandenburg Gate (1789-1791), by Carl Gotthard Langhans, Berlin
Museo del Prado (1785-1819) in Madrid, work of Juan de Villanueva
Kazan Cathedral (1801-1811), Andréi Voronijin, St. Petersburg
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Sculpture
- Also in the neoclassical sculpture weighed the memory of the past, very present if we consider the great number of pieces that the excavations were bringing to light, in addition to the collections that had been formed throughout the centuries.
Neoclassical sculptures were made in most cases in white marble, without polychrome, since that is how ancient sculptures were thought to be, prevailing in them the noble simplicity and serene beauty that Winckelmann had found in Greek statuary. The theories of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781) had gone along the same lines. In his book Laocoon, or on the limits of painting and poetry (1766) he had tried to establish a law universal aesthetics that could guide artists; His conceptions of moderation in expressions and in the expression of feelings are rules that the neoclassical model will adopt.
Thus, the sculptors of the late 18th century and early XIX, they will create works in which a simplicity and purity of lines will prevail that will separate them from the curvilinear taste of the Baroque. In all of them the nude has a notable presence, as a desire to surround the works with a certain timelessness. Greek and Roman models, themes taken from classical mythology, and allegories about civic virtues filled the reliefs of buildings, the pediments of porticoes, and monuments, such as triumphal arches or commemorative columns.
The portrait also occupied an important place in neoclassical sculpture; Antonio Canova (1757-1822) represented Napoleon as Mars (1810, Milan) and his sister Paulina as Venus Victrix (1807, Rome) thus taking the models of the classical gods. However, others preferred an idealized but at the same time realistic portrait that captured the feelings of the sitter, such as Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1828) with his elderly Voltaire (Hermitage Museum) or the beautiful bust of Empress Josephine (1806, Château de Malmaison) by Joseph Chinard (1756-1813).
Antonio Canova (1757-1822) and Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844) summarize the different trends in neoclassical sculpture. While Canova came to Classicism from a Baroque background and configured a style of great rational simplicity, the Danish Thorvaldsen followed Winckelmann's theories more directly until he achieved a deliberately distant and cold style that owed much to Greek statuary. His Jason or Mars and Love reflect this fidelity to the Greek model.
Painting
The painters, among whom Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) stood out, reproduced the main events of the revolution and exalted Roman myths, which were identified with the values of the revolution. Structural clarity and the predominance of drawing over color are some of the main formal characteristics of neoclassical painting. Works such as the Oath of the Horatii, for example, pose a precise space in which the characters are placed in the foreground. Although Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867) was not a neoclassical painter, he has works —such as The Fountain— that represent this artistic movement.
Music
According to current musicology, the term "classical music" refers only to the so-called music of Classicism (1750-1827) approx., coinciding with the neoclassical period, inspired by the Greco-Roman aesthetic canons of balance in form and moderation in dynamics and harmony.
Commonly called "classical music" the type of music that is opposed to popular and folk music. This can be verified in the media, in popular music magazines and in the brochures that accompany academic music CDs. To define that type of music that is related to studies in conservatories and universities, musicologists prefer the term "academic music" or "cultured music".
As the ancient Greeks and Romans could not invent ways to preserve music (using graphic supports such as sheet music or sound supports such as recorders), Neoclassicism of the centuries XVIII and XIX as a revival of classical Greco-Roman arts (architecture, sculpture, painting) it did not reach the music. In any case, the musicians of the late XVIII century, undoubtedly influenced by the art and ideology of the time, tried to generate a style of music inspired by Greco-Roman aesthetic canons:
- Notable mastery of form,
- Moderation in the use of technical artifices (in the baroque the counterpoint and harmony had reached a point that the public considered extravagant),
- Suma reserves in emotional expression.
After the First World War, several composers (such as Igor Stravinski and Paul Hindemith) made compositions where a return to the canons of Classicism of the Vienna school (of Haydn and Mozart) was noted, although with a much more dissonant harmony and irregular rhythms. That musical movement was called "neoclassical music".
Literature
The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement that caused the 18th century to be known as the «Age of Enlightenment». The cult of reason promoted by enlightened philosophers led to a rejection of religious dogma, which was considered the origin of intolerance, and a conception of God that went from ruling the world through natural laws to disappearing into atheistic conceptions of the universe. The illustrated ones promoted the investigation of the nature, the scientific-technical development, the education and the general diffusion of all type of knowledge; those were the times of L'Encyclopédie. Art thus became more accessible and less pretentious, and literature was addressed to a broader audience, posing as a social instrument. Literature was characterized by simplicity, clarity and harmony that were intended to convey Enlightenment thought. Art was not accepted for art's sake, but a work had to transmit values that would help human beings to overcome their limitations and also imposed knowledge was rejected and only those that could be known through reason and experience were admitted. The increase in the number of readers, especially among the bourgeoisie, raises the figure of the writer as a professional, and writing as his main or secondary source of livelihood.
France was the first to react against baroque forms, and the three great enlightenment, Voltaire, Montesquieu and Rousseau are among its main exponents. Pierre Bayle, Denis Diderot, Georges Louis Leclerc and Pierre de Marivaux also stood out. In the United Kingdom the adventure novel had a large number of followers, highlighting Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Richardson and Henry Fielding, along with the poets John Dryden and Alexander Pope.
From novels to essays as the genre par excellence that disseminates ideas, and which was characterized by careful and simple language, the presentation of problems in order to analyze them and argue for their solutions, and the collection of topics of interest. Neoclassical literature criticized customs, emphasizing the importance of education, the role of women and the pleasures of life. The Benedictine monk Benito Jerónimo Feijoo, Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos and José Cadalso stood out in Spain.
The poetry was characterized by a reflective and educated poetry and baroque poetry was completely abandoned. This poetry pursues the neoclassical ideal, uniting the beautiful with the useful, and takes advantage of the resources of lyrical poetry (brevity, rhythm and easy memorization) to instruct and reform society.
In this genre, Jovellanos stands out with his essays and his critical and reflective poetry. The fable, stories or poems normally exemplified with animals, where moral teachings are exposed, also gained importance. The fable was characterized by being a composition of a didactic nature, by criticism of vices and personal customs or of society, and by the recurrence of prosopopeia or personification. It is the subgenre that most adapted to the neoclassical precepts: a simple composition in which nature intervenes, and that teaches while having fun. The fabulists Félix María de Samaniego and Tomás de Iriarte stood out in Spain, and the Frenchman Jean de la Fontaine.
In Spain, there was a baroque continuity in poetry, with authors like Diego de Torres and Villarroel, who considered Quevedo his teacher; Gabriel Alvarez de Toledo and Eugenio Gerardo Lobo. The second half of the XVII century already showed a neoclassical poetry, dominated by its admiration for science and philosophical themes, or centered in anacreontic and bucolic themes, and sometimes marked by fabulism. They highlighted Nicolás Fernández de Moratín, author of Art of Whores, prohibited by the Inquisition, which could have inspired Goya's Caprichos; Juan Meléndez Valdés and José Cadalso, from the Salamanca school; the fabulists Iriarte and Samaniego in Madrid; José Marchena, Félix José Reinoso, José María Blanco-White and Alberto Lista stood out in the Sevillian school.
In the last third of the century, the comedy of good customs or neoclassical comedy developed in the theater that was characterized by respect for the three units of classical theater (action, place and time), themes about the daily life of characters middle class, the search for plausibility with facts obtained from reality and the didactic purpose.
There was also a strong Baroque influence on Spanish theatre, especially during the first half of the XVIII century, with authors like Antonio de Zamora or José de Cañizares. The theater in Spain underwent changes such as the official prohibition of representing sacramental plays, the reappearance of the popular taste for the sainete and the transition from the old corrals to the theaters, as suitable venues for the new conception of theatre. At the end of the first third of the century, Spanish playwrights began to follow French models, such as Boileau and Racine, renewing Aristotelian and Horatian aesthetics. The play must be credible, comply with the units of action, space and time, and have a didactic and moral approach. They stood out in the tragedy Nicolás Fernández de Moratín, José Cadalso, Ignacio López de Ayala and Vicente García de la Huerta; In the most popular genre of farce, Antonio de Zamora, the prolific Ramón de la Cruz and Ignacio González del Castillo stood out. The figure of Leandro Fernández de Moratín, creator of what has been called “Moratinian comedy” (La comedia nueva or El café, El sí de las niñas), in which he ridiculed the vices and customs of the time, using the theater as a vehicle to moralize the customs. Followers of this line are also Manuel Bretón de los Herreros and Ventura de la Vega.
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