Neo-Classicism

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Neo-Classicism Romanticism
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NEOCLASSICAL ARTS
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Influences on Neoclassicism

• Reaction against Rococo
• Philosophies of Enlightenment
• Archaeological discoveries
• Herculaneum/Pompeii
• Greek vases at Naples by Sir Wm Hamilton
• Artistic theory of Johann Winckelmann On the
  Imitation of Greek Works

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Three phases of Neoclassical arts

• Until 1770 Influenced by Renaissance classicism
  more than Greek Roman firsthand i.e., borrowed
  from Palladio
• 1770-1825 More directly classical
• 1825-1850 Late phase. Simultaneous with
  Romanticism

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General Characteristics

• Allusions to classical
• Reason, rules
• Symmetry, order, harmony, unity, clarity
• Restraint, good sense
• Decorum, good taste, correctness

• Society rather than individual
• Human nature rather than natural world
• Urban rather than rural
• Intellectual rather than emotional or spiritual
• Urbane, witty satire

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David

• Style
• Severe
• Drawing(line) more
• important than color
• Clear light and shadow
• Sculptural figures
• geometry important
• Content
• Didactic
• Roman Republic,
• Greek
• Devotion to Duty
• Self Sacrifice

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David, Death of Socrates, 1787
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Davids Death of Marat, 1793
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Ingrés
Portrait of Napoléon on the Imperial Throne. 1806
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Ingrés
Portrait of Napoléon Bonaparte, The First
Council. 1804
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Compare
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Romanticism

• General Features
• Nature (idyllic or awesome, sublime) organic
  unity (music)
• Supernatural, demonic
• exoticism
• ancient (Medieval (not Greek)) - rejection of
  Classicism Renaissance
• folklore and Das Volk (Nationalism)

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Factors leading to Rise of Romanticism

• Proliferation of Protestant denominations
• independence in religion and politics
• egalitarianism
• rise of representative government
• expansion in the new world
• evil of industrialism and urbanization
• significant rise in literacy
• and

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The Romantic Spirit

• Artist as bohemian
• Eternal longing, regret for the lost happiness
  of childhood, and indefinable discontent that
  gnaws at the soul. These were the ingredients of
  the Romantic mood.

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The Misunderstood Genius
To be a genius is to be misunderstood Emerson
The artist out in front, ahead of the audience,
the advanced guard (a military metaphor) the
avant garde
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Neo-Classicism vs Romanticism

• Society
• Reason
• Intellect
• Extroversion, balanced, didactic
• The normative, the social, the citizen.
• Reason and social issues.
• Poets skill and adherence to formal rules and
  traditional procedures.
• Study of Classical Poetic and Dramatic forms.
• Interest in the verifiable, the commonsensical,
  the familiar.

• Nature
• Emotion
• Senses and sensuality
• Introversion, moody, self interrogative
• Genius, Hero, the Exceptional
• Passions and inner struggles
• Artistic Creativity and feeling.
• Folklore, national and ethnic origins.
• Interest in the Medieval, the Exotic, the
  Mysterious, the Occult, the monstrous, the remote.

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There was a move to city for industry and a
corresponding romanticizing of the country.

• Cities were often filled with congestion,
  poverty, and misery.
• Educated men and women expressed a nostalgia for
  rural landscapes.

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Constable
The Hay Wain 1821
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Friedrich
Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, c. 1818
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The Romantic period saw a Gothic revival that
included the imitation of Gothic architecture and
the use of Gothic settings in literary works. 
One striking example of the Gothic revival in
England Fonthill Abbey, begun in 1796, which grew
into an elaborate Gothic fantasy.  The mock
Gothic tower collapsed in 1825, leaving a
Gothic ruin that symbolized to Romantics both
organic growth and decay.  Many such buildings
were erected, that intentionally left towers or
walls unfinished, to give the ghastly appearance
of decay and ruin.
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Power of the unconscious
Where Enlightenment rationalists expected evil to
be defeated by moral diligence, the Romantics
found it to be as mysterious and irrepressible as
the human imagination itself.  The Spanish artist
Francisco Goya provided the most succinct image
of the Romantic fascination with evil and the
macabre.  As the man slumbers at his work-table,
the demons of his imagination are liberated and
rise above him with triumphant energy.  Notice
that many are owls, symbols of wisdom and reason
in the West since the time of the ancient Greeks,
at least.         The enigmatic caption
suggests that behind wakeful reason the
destructive fiends of the human imagination are
lurking.  With such insights, the Romantics
prefigured the discoveries of modern psychology
and ideas about dreams and the power of the
unconscious.
1796-1798
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Fussli, Johann Heinrich (Henry Fuseli) The
Nightmare, 1781
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Gericault
The Raft of the Medusa, 1819
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Delacroix
Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi, 1826
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Delacroix
The Massacre at Chios, 1824
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Goya
The Shootings of May Third 1808, 1814
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Primitivism (noble savage)

• Enlightenment society is good, curbing violent
  impulses

• Romanticism civilization corrupts institutions
  have rippling effects

• The child raised with the greatest possible
  freedom will develop in more admirable ways.
• Youth and infancy are valued above wisdom of old
  age holy wisdom is lost as we age.
• Innocence is more valued than experience.
• Humans are born into innocence, not innately
  depraved.

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Romanticism in Music

• Improved musical instruments
• Industrial advances created a means by which
  cheaper and more responsive musical instruments.
• Addition of valves to brass instruments
• New Instruments
• Saxophone
• Tuba
• New Conservatories of Music

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Use of folklore

• Increased use of folk songs and dances.
• National idiomatic music
• Contributed to new melodic and rhythmic language
  for music.
• Music of the East
• Puccinis Madame Butterfly

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The Musician in Society

• Musical life centered around the concert halls
• Musicians were supported by middle class
• Musicians became stars idolized by the public
• Felix Mendelssohn
• Franz List
• Nicolo Paganini
• Permanent Orchestras were developed
• Musician educators in the academy.

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Beethoven
Model Romantic genius-type Not a servant an
independent creator! Concerts very long a new
audience amateurs left behind Musics Trinity
Bach, Mozart, Beethoven
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Chopin
Famous pianist, but gave only 14 public
performances in his 39-year life!
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Frédéric Chopin
Nocturne in F minor, Opus 55, No. 1 --
introspective mood psychologically probing? --
as if "spontaneous" or improvised (in fact neatly
structured) -- a distant view of folk music (note
the veiled suggestion of dance music), which
relates to the Romantic interest in ethnicity and
Nationalism -- expanding use of chromatic
harmony -- use of dissonance for color
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Richard Wagner
OPERA INNOVATOR The Ring over 18 hours of music
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Aspects of Romanticism in music art

• THE ARTIST APART FROM SOCIETY
• THE ARTIST AS SOCIAL CRITIC/REVOLUTIONARY Bee
  thovens 9th Symphony
• THE ARTIST AS GENIUS/CULTURAL HERO

BEETHOVEN Why bow to social status?
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Aspects of Romanticism in music art

• Nature (idyllic or awesome, sublime) organic
  unity (music) BEETHOVEN SYMPHONY No. 5
• Supernatural Berlioz, WAGNER TRISTAN
• dream world, interior world CHOPIN NOCTURNE
• exoticism Beethoven Symphony No. 9
• ancient (Medieval) WAGNER TRISTAN old Bach
  
• folklore and Das Volk (Nationalism) WAGNER The
  Ring

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ReviewQualities of Romanticism

• Love of Nature
• Idealization of Rural Living
• Faith in Common People
• Emphasis on Freedom and Individualism
• Spontaneity, intuition, feeling, imagination,
  wonder
• Passionate individual religiosity
• Live after death Organic view of the World