Neoclassicism: The Intersection of Art, Reason, and Revolution

Neoclassicism: Art, Reason, and Revolution (1750–1815)

Neoclassicism developed between 1750 and 1815, roughly coinciding with the Enlightenment and the first revolutionary wave that ended the Old Regime in much of Europe.

The Enlightenment's Influence on Aesthetics

The Enlightenment championed the light of reason, believing it capable of explaining all things. Therefore, the enlightened defended the power of reason against the superstitions of the Old Regime. This philosophical shift had a very strong impact on artistic creativity; a reasoned conception of beauty caused profound changes in artistic expression.

The Enlightenment, therefore, laid the foundations of contemporary art by granting autonomy to the artwork itself, making it an autonomous and independent reality.

Social Change and the Rise of Civic Art

During the eighteenth century, the bourgeoisie achieved a dominant economic and social role. However, the estate system of the Ancien Régime prevented them from accessing important government positions if they did not belong to the privileged class. This situation fueled the desire of the bourgeoisie—manifested in the French Revolution and the revolutionary waves of the first half of the nineteenth century—to break with the established old system.

Neoclassicism as a Revolutionary Ideal

The revolutionaries adopted Neoclassical art as their own because it was associated with civic and patriotic ideals. Furthermore, the rise of the bourgeoisie led to significant changes in the arts. The bourgeoisie, being critical and intellectual, advocated reason as the only way to explain things. Hence their liking for the return to classicism, whose aesthetic forms could be understood through reason. This desire led artists to resurrect Roman forms from the past.

The Context of Art History

The social context of this time established the criteria that gave meaning to the history of art, understood as the science that explains beautiful objects. Neoclassical Art is an art that arises from the spirit of the Enlightenment and was adopted by the revolutionaries of the late eighteenth century as a civic, patriotic, and rational art, which made it perfectly aligned with Enlightened thought.