Neoclassicism or “New Classicism”

Part One

Neoclassicism

• 1660-late 1700’s in England, but the movement started earlier and occurred throughout Europe

• 1660 return of the Stuart line to the throne with Charles II after Puritans were overthrown from their 1648 takeover of the English government

• Reaction against the Renaissance• Back to the classics of the Greeks and Romans• Age of Reason – 17th Century• Age of Enlightenment – 18th Century

• Charles II restored to the throne (Stuart line) in 1660

• The Church of England restored from Puritan takeover

• Laws passed instituting the Book of Common Prayer and other pro-Anglican laws

Overview of Political/Religious History for this Period (Just for Historical Context)

• James II inherits the throne

• James tries to reinstate Roman Catholicism

• Protestant William of Orange and his wife Mary take over the throne in the Glorious Revolution

• James, his wife, and their son escape to France, to the Catholic court of Louis XIV

• Two attempts to regain the English throne

• Queen Anne is the last Stuart monarch

• German-born George I of Hanover rules after her death

• King George III is king when the colonists declare independence

Philosophical, Religious, Artistic, Scientific, and Literary

Contexts

The Classical Writers Rediscovered

•Homer•Virgil•Ovid•Sophocles

Key Ideas/Contributions

• tabula rasa : the idea that humans start life with a “blank slate” in the mind, with no “pre-knowledge” ~John Locke

• Laws of gravity ~Isaac Newton

• Great Chain of Being: Man is just below angels and above nature ~Classical belief of classification and hierarchy

Deism

• Bible is not the inspired word of God

• God is like a clockmaker who created the world and then left men to rule themselves

• Religion based on reason and the study of nature

• Machinery set in motion

Key Ideas (continued)

• Decorum: the subject of art and writing should be appropriate, as should be the structure

• A story/play must have a beginning a middle, and an end ~ Aristotle (Ancient Greece)

RenaissanceNo limits on what man can

do

Intense emotions

NeoclassicismMan is limited and imperfect

Restrained emotion

Prized order

Art is work and suited for the wealthy

Traits of Neoclassicism: symmetry, economy, logic, utility, controlled emotion

Forms of Writing

• Essay• Letter• Epistle• Satire• Parody• Moral instruction

Play of mind: polite, urbane, witty language and humor

WritersAlexander PopeJohn MiltonJohn BunyanDaniel DefoeJonathan SwiftThomas GrayJohn DrydenSamuel JohnsonWilliam CowperVoltaireJean Jacques Rousseau

ArtistsJacques-Louis DavidBenjamin WestAntonio CanovaJean-Antoine HoudonJohn Flaxman

ComposersWolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Joseph Haydn