Neo-classicism: the end of an epoch
Neo-classicism is a European
phenomenon. The discoveries of Pompeii and Herculanum and the written
works of the German theoretician Winckelmann awoke nostalgia for a golden
age of humanity. Artists like Mengs, Canova, Thorvaldsen, Hamilton and
David popularised an art now liberated from the flourishes of the rococo.
The subjects were henceforth borrowed from Roman history rather than from
mythology. The prevailing ideal was a stoic virility. This explains why
the style was naturally adopted by the leaders of the French Revolution,
with David in the foreground. In 1774, Joseph-Siffrède Duplessis
painted Portrait
du sculpteur Christophe-Gabriel Allegrain. Several years later Ménageot
painted L'Etude
qui veut arrêter le Temps.
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