 This lecture is entitled Introduction to Neoclassicism, or what is new about classicism? So today's lecture is going to introduce you to this new movement, this new style and art, neoclassicism, which literally breaks down into neo plus classicism which means neoclassicism, which means new classicism. And in this period, towards the end of the 18th century, artists are interested in reviving classicism in really all of its forms. They want to tell classical stories, they want to depict things in a classical style, and they want to evoke the bigger ideas involved and wrapped up with the classical world, the virtues that they saw as being a part of the classical world. And on the screen we have one of the most famous examples of neoclassical painting, and we'll talk about it more in just a second. This is the Oath of the Horatiae. We'll talk about it in just a second, and it's compared to a painting that should be familiar to you from the Rococo. But before we look at these, let's talk about what's going on in the world at this time that kind of lead to this new perspective in not only art, but in the culture more generally. Well first off, we have a couple of things that we talked about when we looked at Art of the Enlightenment era, and first that's one of them. The Enlightenment, which we know by now was this interest in reason, knowledge, and science. Well, this was really, you know, taking more and more hold of the popular imagination as time goes forward. And the other thing we talked about when we looked at Enlightenment art that just again keeps kind of gaining steam was this reaction against the Rococo. So against the Rococo. So those are two things that we've already talked about and were issues in the Enlightenment. But again, they kind of gather steam and play a role in the emergence of this new style. But some other things, we have some political things going on in the world, political things. And you might already have thought of them. They are the American and French revolutions. American and French revolutions. And these were ideas, or these were revolutions that used ideas from the Enlightenment to kind of further their cause. Also, we have kind of a greater awareness of the classical world. Greater awareness. Classicism. And this is two reasons for this. There is the growth in the popularity of the Grand Tour. Grand Tour, which was the sort of educational vacation, if you will, where people went to the most important sites in Europe and sort of the focal point of this was Rome, where you could see the remains of the classical world. So, you know, an educated person of a certain level of society would have definitely gone on a Grand Tour for this sort of educational trip. And the other thing was discoveries of classical antiquity in Italy in the 18th century. Specifically Pompeii and Herculaneum. Herculaneum. Which were two cities completely buried by a volcano. So they were unknown until the 18th century. So this is a lot to look at at once, but that kind of that's the point. There was a lot going on that kind of converged that resulted in a shift in viewpoint, generally, as well as in art. And so this idea of neoclassicism, new classicism, might be kind of misleading because art, as we know, had been imitating the classical world for centuries. We saw the Renaissance, we saw the Baroque. This is not new, but what is new in the neoclassical period is the approach to the classical world. There was more of a scientific reasoned interpretation of the relationship of contemporary people to the classical past. But moreover, neoclassical thinkers and artists were interested in capturing these philosophical ideals that were suggested to them in classical art. Ideals like virtue, truth, liberty, and purity. So now let's take a quick look at this example, which I mentioned is probably the most quintessential example of neoclassical painting. And this is the oath of the Horatiai. And this is a painting by an artist named Jacques-Louis David, and it dates to 1784 to 5. And we have a lecture in the next couple of subunits that discusses this in more detail. So we're not going to go into too much detail, but just I wanted to show you this because I think it's a really good example of what neoclassical art is interested in. It's especially interesting, I think, when you compare it to this Rococo painting by Boucher on the right. So let's see, how does this differ from that? Well, I think you see right away there's not actually very much that these paintings have in common. What they do have in common is that they're both interested in the classical world in some way. You may recall that Boucher is showing us the toilet of Venus here. So this is a classical god, Venus, but really it's Venus kind of in the guise of a contemporary woman. Whereas David shows us a fully classical scene. The setting is classical, the people are dressed in classical dress, and the story is of the Horatiae family. And these are men from the Horatiae family. So this is a story from ancient Rome. So this is a fully classical story. So it's also, you know, this is also typical of neoclassical painting and the approach to the subject, the way it's painted. And I think you can see that the sumptuous softness of Boucher is replaced with sharp, clear lines and more rigid forms. We also have a much more restrained use of colorism. There's hardly any color in here at all. We have a little bit of red, a little bit of blue, but this isn't exactly a colorful painting. Whereas Boucher has these, you know, rich shades of blues and pinks and golds. So that's another interesting thing that neoclassical painting tends to do, along with these sharp, clear lines, a more restrained use of color. Another thing that this painting does that's typical of the neoclassical is it's set in a horizontal way. The emphasis of the painting is horizontal and it's in a really shallow, stage-like space. And that's interesting because that's kind of imitating the form of classical relief sculpture, if you think way back to art you studied from ancient Greece and Rome. So that's another characteristic feature of neoclassical painting. And as you'll see when you study the painting in depth, the subject matter is very much in line with these neoclassical ideals of virtue and that frivolity and eroticism of Boucher is completely replaced with these lofty ideals and heroism. Okay, so now just a couple of, or really one sculpture from the neoclassical period. And this is by an artist named Antonio Canova. Canova. And it is his sculpture of Cupid and Psyche. And the date for this is 1787 to 93. And of course there was a real life for neoclassical sculpture. It wasn't just, neoclassicism wasn't just in painting. It came out in sculpture as well. And I think this example here, which, this comparison, which is Canova's Cupid and Psyche with a actual Cupid and Psyche from the classical world, shows how neoclassicism doesn't completely copy classical art. Rather it kind of uses it for inspiration. So Canova here is borrowing from the classical world. Clearly this was a subject of the classical world. It's a story about two gods from mythology, classical mythology. But he's created here a sculpture with a little bit more emotional sentimentality and certainly a little bit more elegance than you'd expect to see in a sculpture from classical antiquity. And I think you can see when you compare these two, the stylistic differences. There's a more, much more interest in the musculature of the human body in the sculpture on the right and definitely more emotional quality in Canova's sculpture. So clearly this is a reinvention, a new take on classicism. And Canova is harnessing the ideas of the classical world and adapting them for the contemporary world.