Neo-Classical art, arriving by no
mere coincidence simultaneously alongside a period of national revolutions and
political uprisings, sought to revive the ideals of Ancient Greek and Roman art. The prefix "neo" means
"new"; so you can think of this as "New Classical"
art. It is characterized by balanced
compositions, flowing contour lines, and noble gestures and expressions. Artists looked back to Classical forms to
express courage, sacrifice, and patriotism.
New governments, such as the one in America, took inspiration from older
political models, like those from Ancient Greece and Rome (the idea of a
"senate," for example), and in turn celebrated the re-birth, so to
speak, of those Classical ideals in their art.
French Academies endorsed art based on Greece and Rome, and in fact
Napoleon himself wanted to supersede the Roman Empire. His reign as emperor effectively ended the
Holy Roman Empire which had been governing since the Middle Ages and which was
basically the successive extension of the Ancient Roman Empire itself.
Demonstrating this as clearly as
possible for us is The Apotheosis of Homer, painted in 1827 by
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. (An
"apotheosis" is the elevation or exaltation of a person to the rank
of god). Homer, the great Greek poet,
sits here in the place of honor, enthroned and being crowned by a figure
representing the Nike of Samothrace. The
two women sitting on the steps (wearing orange, on the left, and green, on the
right) are the Iliad and Odyssey.
Contrary to the former French Rococo style, which painted flowery and
soft images, the artist here paints with harsh lines and rigidly geometric
exactness in order to demonstrate the structural precision and symmetry of the
artistic works from Ancient Greece and Rome.
Instead of natural, pastoral landscape scenery we transition back to the
architectural façades of buildings like the Acropolis. To adequately portray the Ancient Greeks'
devotion to symmetry, use of line had to be employed properly, with great
attention to structure and form. For
Ingres, it was the most important element in the painting. Note that the austerely linear geometry lends
greatly to the painting's feeling of gravity and solemnity.
This painting brings to mind
Raphael's School of Athens, which was also Classically inspired. It pictures an impressive assembly of
immortals representing the arts. This
painting, like Raphael's Renaissance masterpiece, is an expansion of the
Renaissance concept of sacra
conversazione (in Italian, "sacred conversation"). A sacra
conversazione was originally the idea behind many religious paintings of
Heaven, where all the saints were pictured together in communion with each
other and with their Lord, but the idea disseminated to more secular artists
who painted great scenes of various important historical figures assembled in
one location, like a party, for discussion and communion. It is a gathering of history's greatest
intellectuals, come together to discuss matters of art, philosophy, and
politics. The figures surrounding Homer
in this painting are other poets, philosophers, and artists including: Phidias,
Virgil, Fra Angelica, Aeschylus, Racine, Molière, Raphael, Dante, and
Shakespeare. The sacra conversazione concept is a fun one, because you can imagine
in your own mind which historical figures you would like to have a conversation
with if you could meet with anybody from the past. Hmm…
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