Neoclassicism (c. 1660 - 1790)

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Neoclassicism (c. 1660 - 1790)

• Defined by tensions and transitions, all included
  under broader canopy of Neoclassical taste that
  held in high regard classical Greek and Roman
  cultures as high point of European civilization

Temple of Ancient Virtue, by William Kent (1736)
Stowe Landscape Gardens, Buckinghamshire
Brunette Odalisque, by François Boucher (1745)
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1. Culture

• painting and architecture look back to ancients
  and figures from Renaissance who rediscovered art
  and culture of classical world (e.g., Andrea
  Palladio, Renaissance architect)
• principles such as good taste, decorum, symmetry,
  restraint, etc., are advocated in art and
  literature of the period
• painters, after approximately 1640, are more
  heavily focusing on motifs from Greco-Roman
  world, themes from classical epics such as
  achievement, glory, tragedy, military success
  (e.g., Nicolas Poussin)
• genre of pastoral, one of many rediscoveries of
  classical world, is re-emerging as important in
  literature and painting of the time
• satire also becoming important, since allows for
  comical look at principles of Greco-Roman world
  and of modern world (e.g., Alexander Popes Rape
  of the Lock)
• serious French tragedies of earlier part of
  period (e.g., Corneille, Racine) eventually
  eclipsed by lighter, more frivolous, comedic
  works of Rococo

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2. Religion

• throughout the period there is gradual,
  increasing questioning of institutionalized
  religion (e.g., Roman Catholic church in France),
  coupled with greater emphasis on sciences and
  empirical inquiry (e.g., Bacon, Newton, Locke)
• Jesuit Order is suppressed by middle of 18th
  cent. and Spanish Inquisition weakening in
  influence across continent
• Deism emerging as important understanding of
  religion main features are use of reason to
  establish existence of God, rejection of Holy
  Trinity and supernaturalism, emphasis on free
  will and natural revelation, anti-clerical
  attitude, and limiting of Gods function to
  creation (with world functioning according to
  natural laws)
• Deism most influential in French and English
  thinking of the time (e.g., Voltaire, Alexander
  Pope), although influence is felt further and
  later (e.g., Enlightenment, American Revolution)
• mechanistic worldview of Deism overlaps well
  with growing interest in sciences, and French
  philosophes make use of connection

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3. Nature

• understanding of nature in the period influenced
  by classical, pastoral genre (with emphasis on
  Greco-Roman mythology in general sense e.g.,
  nymphs, shepherds)
• Grand Tour (c. 1710 1790) to Paris, Rome,
  Naples, etc., emphasizes value of classical
  culture and ruins in context of pastoral, south
  European scenery gives rise to landscape
  paintings if rural setting and veduta (view)
  paintings if urban setting
• gardens around stately homes receiving greater
  attention and changing through the period as
  extensions of political power into natural world,
  they are ornate, symmetrical, mathematical during
  aristocratic absolutism of 17th cent. (e.g.,
  Louis XIV) and gradually more playful, casual,
  intimate as 18th cent. unfolds (e.g., English
  landscape garden)
• human body, as natural and a part of nature,
  treated in various ways during the period as
  attempt to modernize church during 17th cent.
  (e.g., religious art, Baroque sculpture) and as
  pleasurable, visual diversion separate from
  greater concerns (e.g., Rococo nudes)
• Neoclassical understanding of nature is that it
  is to be tamed, put to use, adapted within a more
  urban and civilized setting

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4. Idea

• late 17th and 18th cents. display several ideas
  under broader canopy of Neoclassical taste some
  of dominant ones include rationalism,
  Enlightenment (i.e., progress and improvement of
  mans condition), empirical thinking, Rococo
  escapism/utopia, and academicism
• one of main influences on entire period is
  perhaps philosopher Pierre Bayle (1647 - 1706),
  whose Historical and Critical Dictionary (c.
  1695) was read for more than a century and
  inspired the later Encyclopedists (e.g., Diderot)
  of mid-18th cent.
• Bayles brand of philosophy comprehensive,
  entertaining counter-views, as he distinguished
  between philosophy and legal discussion (e.g., a
  lawyer only arguing one view)
• his approach gradually resolves opposite views,
  seeking to overcome doubt rather than generate
  it, and can be termed an Academic skepticism
  that does not deny knowledge but rather preserves
  the integrity of ones power of judgement
  (Bayle Stanford)
• such healthy skepticism influences work of many
  18th-cent. thinkers, especially Voltaire

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Links

• Pierre Bayle Stanford Encyclopedia of
  Philosophy
• http//plato.stanford.edu/entries/bayle/
• Enlightenment Stanford Encyclopedia of
  Philosophy
• http//plato.stanford.edu/entries/enlightenment/
• François Boucher, Rococo Painter YouTube
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vfp7Dop66nTE