Neoclassical Era Art

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Neoclassical Era Art
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Neoclassical Era Art

• Moved away from excesses of Baroque Era and
  focused again on Greek and Roman ideals.
• Neo- classical new classics
• Artists to know
• Jaques Louis David
• Thomas Jefferson

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Jacques Louis David Bio

• Attention to detail
• Clean-edge painting, very dramatic
• Focused on great men and women, like Napoleon and
  Socrates
• Realistic but muted colors
• David saw the art of antiquity as surpassing
  anything done in his own age, and he therefore
  chose subjects from the past.
• He has been compared with Michelangelo, the
  painter of the Sistine Chapel. He disdained the
  excesses of the Baroque Era, such as the gilded
  walls, lace, and wigs.
• He preferred substance things over style.

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Oath of the Horatii
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Jacques Louis David

• First painter to use Neoclassical style, with
  painting, Oath of Horatii.
• Oath probably most famous Neoclassical work
• Extolled antique virtues of stoicism, masculinity
  and patriotism.

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Death of Socrates
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Death of Socrates Explained

• You can see Davids style in his Death of
  Socrates.
• Look at the plain costumes, the simple gestures,
  the accurate but not overly bright colors, the
  emphasis on the central character, Socrates, who
  is about to take poison. Notice that the
  character is making a statement to his students
  even at the moment of his death (a true account,
  by the way, according to those who were there),
  showing David's belief in the importance of
  performing great deeds.
• SUMMARY David chose to use simple scenes and
  accurate colors to draw attention to the content,
  which was usually centered around duty, not to
  draw attention to the artist or his style.

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Thomas Jefferson Bio

• Renaissance Man
• Politician second president of the United States
• WriterThe Declaration of Independence
• Scholar Founded the University of Virginia
• Architect.
• Designed buildings, blending qualities from
  several cultures to illustrate that America
  itself was a melting pot of cultures.
• Over the whole structure, Jefferson would create
  a feeling of symmetry, representative of The
  Greeks and Romans who Neoclassicists imitated.
• Fine materials were called for, such as marble,
  hardwood floors with intricate inlay patterns,
  and so forth.
• SUMMARY Thomas Jefferson used structural
  symmetry in his architectural designs, blending
  elements from several cultures into a balanced
  whole.

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Thomas Jeffersons Monticello
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Monticello

• Perfect representation of both a
  Jefferson-designed building and the Neoclassical
  architectural ideals.
• Pillars like the ancient Greeks
• dome like the Islamic cultures
• square walls similar to Romanesque architecture
• high French windows

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Jeffersons Capitol Building