Epochs · Europe & America
Neoclassicism
c. 1760 – 1830
Tour this roomYour taste…
The excavation of Herculaneum and Pompeii and the writings of Winckelmann turned taste back toward the clarity of Greek and Roman art. Neoclassical painters and sculptors favoured crisp contours, frieze-like compositions and stories of civic virtue and sacrifice, a style that suited the ideals of the American and French revolutions and then the image-making of Napoleon's empire. Canova and Houdon gave it marble form; David and Ingres made it the language of the Paris Salon.
Hallmarks
- Clear contour and smooth finish
- Frieze-like, balanced compositions
- Subjects of virtue and sacrifice
- Direct borrowing from ancient sculpture
Artists here
- Jacques-Louis David · 1748 – 1825
- Antonio Canova · 1757 – 1822
- Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres · 1780 – 1867
