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Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative arts and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism was born in Rome, largely due to the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann during the rediscovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Its popularity expanded throughout Europe as a generation of European art students finished their Grand Tour and returned from Italy to their home countries with newly rediscovered Greco-Roman ideals. (2010). 9780199571123, OUP Oxford. ISBN 9780199571123 The main Neoclassical movement coincided with the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment, and continued into the early 19th century, eventually competing with Romanticism. In architecture, the style endured throughout the 19th, 20th, and into the 21st century.
European Neoclassicism in the began in opposition to the then-dominant Rococo style. Rococo architecture emphasizes grace, ornamentation and asymmetry; Neoclassical architecture is based on the principles of simplicity and symmetry, which were seen as virtues of the arts of Roman art and Ancient Greece, and drawn directly from 16th-century Renaissance. Each "neo"-classicism movement selects some models among the range of possible classics that are available to it, and ignores others. Between 1765 and 1830, Neoclassical proponents—writers, speakers, patrons, collectors, artists and sculptors—paid homage to an idea of the artistic generation associated with Phidias, but sculpture examples they actually embraced were more likely to be Roman copies of Hellenistic sculptures. They ignored both Archaic Greek art and the works of late antiquity. The discovery of ancient Palmyra's "Rococo" art through engravings in Robert Wood's The Ruins of Palmyra came as a revelation. With Greece largely unexplored and considered a dangerous territory of the Ottoman Empire, Neoclassicists' appreciation of Greek architecture was predominantly mediated through drawings and which were subtly smoothed and regularized, "corrected" and "restored" monuments of Greece, not always consciously.
The Empire style, a second phase of Neoclassicism in architecture and the decorative arts, had its cultural centre in Paris in the Napoleonic era. Especially in architecture, but also in other fields, Neoclassicism remained a force long after the early 19th century, with periodic waves of revivalism into the 20th and even the 21st centuries, especially in the United States and Russia.
The Italian archaeologist and art theorist Giovanni Pietro Bellori is considered the forerunner of Neoclassicism. In 1664 he delivered a lecture on the ‘Ideal’ in art at the Accademia di San Luca, Rome, which became the seminal statement of idealist art theory. Bellori's lecture had a decisive influence on European academic theory and later became the theoretical basis of the Neoclassicism preached by Winckelmann.
The writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann were important in shaping this movement in both architecture and the visual arts. His books Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture (1750) and Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums ("History of Ancient Art", 1764) were the first to distinguish sharply between Ancient Greek and Roman art, and define periods within Greek art, tracing a trajectory from growth to maturity and then imitation or decadence that continues to have influence to the present day. Winckelmann believed that art should aim at "noble simplicity and calm grandeur",Honour, 57–62, 61 quoted and praised the idealism of Greek art, in which he said we find "not only nature at its most beautiful but also something beyond nature, namely certain ideal forms of its beauty, which, as an ancient interpreter of Plato teaches us, come from images created by the mind alone". The theory was very far from new in Western art, but his emphasis on close copying of Greek models was: "The only way for us to become great or if this be possible, inimitable, is to imitate the ancients".Both quotes from the first pages of "Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture"
The Industrial Revolution saw global transition of human economy towards more efficient and stable manufacturing processes. There was tremendous material advancement and increased prosperity. With the advent of the Grand Tour, a fad of collecting antiquities began that laid the foundations of many great collections spreading a Neoclassical revival throughout Europe. "Neoclassicism" in each art implies a particular canon of a "classical" model.
In English, the term "Neoclassicism" is used primarily of the visual arts; the similar movement in English literature, which began considerably earlier, is called Augustan literature. This, which had been dominant for several decades, was beginning to decline by the time Neoclassicism in the visual arts became fashionable. Though terms differ, the situation in French literature was similar. In music, the period saw the rise of classical music, and "Neoclassicism" is used of 20th-century developments. However, the operas of Christoph Willibald Gluck represented a specifically Neoclassical approach, spelt out in his preface to the published score of Alceste (1769), which aimed to reform opera by removing ornamentation, increasing the role of the chorus in line with Greek tragedy, and using simpler unadorned melodic lines.Honour, 21
The term "Neoclassical" was not invented until the mid-19th century, and at the time the style was described by such terms as "the true style", "reformed" and "revival"; what was regarded as being revived varying considerably. Ancient models were certainly very much involved, but the style could also be regarded as a revival of the Renaissance, and especially in France as a return to the more austere and noble Baroque of the age of Louis XIV, for which a considerable nostalgia had developed as France's dominant military and political position started a serious decline.Honour, 11, 23–25 Ingres's coronation portrait of Napoleon even borrowed from Late Antique and their Carolingian art revival, to the disapproval of critics.
Neoclassicism was strongest in architecture, sculpture and the decorative arts, where classical models in the same medium were relatively numerous and accessible; examples from ancient painting that demonstrated the qualities that Winckelmann's writing found in sculpture were and are lacking. Winckelmann was involved in the dissemination of knowledge of the first large Roman paintings to be discovered, at Pompeii and Herculaneum and, like most contemporaries except for Gavin Hamilton, was unimpressed by them, citing Pliny the Younger's comments on the decline of painting in his period.Honour, 44–46; Novotny, 21
As for painting, Greek painting was utterly lost: Neoclassicist painters imaginatively revived it, partly through bas-relief , and pottery painting, and partly through the examples of painting and decoration of the High Renaissance of Raphael's generation, frescos in Nero's Domus Aurea, Pompeii and Herculaneum, and through renewed admiration of Nicolas Poussin. Much "Neoclassical" painting is more classicizing in subject matter than in anything else. A fierce, but often very badly informed, dispute raged for decades over the relative merits of Greek and Roman art, with Winckelmann and his fellow Hellenists generally being on the winning side.Honour, 43–62
The work of other artists, who could not easily be described as insipid, combined aspects of Romanticism with a generally Neoclassical style, and form part of the history of both movements. The German-Danish painter Asmus Jacob Carstens finished very few of the large mythological works that he planned, leaving mostly drawings and colour studies which often succeed in approaching Winckelmann's prescription of "noble simplicity and calm grandeur".Novotny, 51–54 Unlike Carstens' unrealized schemes, the of Giovanni Battista Piranesi were numerous and profitable, and taken back by those making the Grand Tour to all parts of Europe. His main subject matter was the buildings and ruins of Rome, and he was more stimulated by the ancient than the modern. The somewhat disquieting atmosphere of many of his Veduta (views) becomes dominant in his series of 16 prints of Carceri d'invenzione ("Imaginary Prisons") whose "oppressive cyclopean architecture" conveys "dreams of fear and frustration".Clark, 45–58 (47–48 quoted); Honour, 50–57 The Swiss-born Henry Fuseli spent most of his career in England, and while his fundamental style was based on Neoclassical principles, his subjects and treatment more often reflected the "Gothic" strain of Romanticism, and sought to evoke drama and excitement.
Neoclassicism in painting gained a new sense of direction with the sensational success of Jacques-Louis David's Oath of the Horatii at the Paris Salon of 1785. Despite its evocation of republican virtues, this was a commission by the royal government, which David insisted on painting in Rome. David managed to combine an idealist style with drama and forcefulness. The central perspective is perpendicular to the picture plane, made more emphatic by the dim arcade behind, against which the heroic figures are disposed as in a frieze, with a hint of the artificial lighting and staging of opera, and the classical colouring of Nicolas Poussin. David rapidly became the leader of French art, and after the French Revolution became a politician with control of much government patronage in art. He managed to retain his influence in the period, turning to frankly propagandistic works, but had to leave France for exile in Brussels at the Bourbon Restoration.Honour, 34–37; Clark, 21–26; Novotny, 19–22
David's many students included Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, who saw himself as a classicist throughout his long career, despite a mature style that has an equivocal relationship with the main current of Neoclassicism, and many later diversions into Orientalism and the Troubadour style that are hard to distinguish from those of his unabashedly Romantic contemporaries, except by the primacy his works always give to drawing. He exhibited at the Salon for over 60 years, from 1802 into the beginnings of Impressionism, but his style, once formed, changed little.Novotny, 39–47; Clark, 97–145; Honour, 187–190
Mars and Venus, 1804 CE, by Johan Tobias Sergel, Nationalmuseum, Sweden.jpg| Mars and Venus; by Johan Tobias Sergel; 1775; marble; height: 93 cm; Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden (2025). 9780241629031, Dorling Kindersley Limited. ISBN 9780241629031
Mercury Pajou Louvre RF1624.jpg| Mercury or The Trade; by Augustin Pajou; 1780; marble; height: 196 cm; Louvre
SculpturesMuséeFabre27b Houdon Hiver.jpg| The Winter; by Jean-Antoine Houdon; 1783; marble; height: 145 cm; Musée Fabre, Montpellier, France (2025). 9782754112307, Hazan. ISBN 9782754112307
John Flaxman (1755-1826) - Cephalus and Aurora (1789-90) front, Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, Cheshire, June 2013 (9103113142).png| Cephalus and Aurora; by John Flaxman; 1789–1790; probably marble; unknown dimensions; Lady Lever Art Gallery, Merseyside, England
Alte Nationalgalerie-Schadow-Prinzessinnengruppe DSC8124.jpg| The Princesses Louisa and Friderica of Prussia; by Johann Gottfried Schadow; 1795–1797; marble; height: 172 cm; Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany
Paolina Borghese (Canova).jpg| Venus Victrix; by Antonio Canova; 1804–1808; marble; length: 200 cm; Galleria Borghese, Rome (2025). 9782754112307, Hazan. ISBN 9782754112307
File:Juliette Récamier face A par Joseph Chinard.jpg| Bust of Madame Récamier; by Joseph Chinard; 1805 or 1806; marble; 80 x 42 x 30 cm; Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon, France
File:Canova - The Three Graces, between 1813 and 1816, Н.ск-506.jpg| The Three Graces; by Antonio Canova; 1813–1816; marble; height: 1.82 m; Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Ganymede Waters Zeus as an Eagle by Thorvaldsen.jpg| Ganymede and Jupiter; by Bertel Thorvaldsen; 1817; marble; height: 94 cm; Thorvaldsen Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark
Antonio Canova and the Dane Bertel Thorvaldsen were both based in Rome, and as well as portraits produced many ambitious life-size figures and groups; both represented the strongly idealizing tendency in Neoclassical sculpture. Canova has a lightness and grace, where Thorvaldsen is more severe; the difference is exemplified in their respective groups of the Three Graces.Novotny, 379–384 All these, and Flaxman, were still active in the 1820s, and Romanticism was slow to impact sculpture, where versions of Neoclassicism remained the dominant style for most of the 19th century.
An early Neoclassicist in sculpture was the Swede Johan Tobias Sergel.Novotny, 384–385 John Flaxman was also, or mainly, a sculptor, mostly producing severely classical reliefs that are comparable in style to his prints; he also designed and modelled Neoclassical ceramics for Josiah Wedgwood for several years. Johann Gottfried Schadow and his son Rudolph Schadow, one of the few Neoclassical sculptors to die young, were the leading German artists,Novotny, 388–389 with Franz Anton von Zauner in Austria. The late Baroque Austrian sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt turned to Neoclassicism in mid-career, shortly before he appears to have suffered some kind of mental crisis, after which he retired to the country and devoted himself to the highly distinctive "character heads" of bald figures pulling extreme facial expressions.Novotny, 390–392 Like Piranesi's Carceri, these enjoyed a great revival of interest during the age of psychoanalysis in the early 20th century. The Dutch Neoclassical sculptor Mathieu Kessels studied with Thorvaldsen and worked almost exclusively in Rome.
Since prior to the 1830s the United States did not have a sculpture tradition of its own, save in the areas of tombstones, weathervanes and ship figureheads,Gerdts, William H., American Neo-Classic Sculpture: The Marble Resurrection, Viking Press, New York, 1973 p. 11 the European Neoclassical manner was adopted there, and it was to hold sway for decades and is exemplified in the sculptures of Horatio Greenough, Harriet Hosmer, Hiram Powers, Randolph Rogers and William Henry Rinehart.
Neoclassicism first gained influence in Britain and France, through a generation of French art students trained in Rome and influenced by the writings of Winckelmann, and it was quickly adopted by progressive circles in other countries such as Gustavian era, Poland and Russian Empire. At first, classicizing decor was grafted onto familiar European forms, as in the interiors for Catherine the Great's lover, Count Grigory Orlov, designed by an Italian architect with a team of Italian stucco: only the isolated oval medallions like cameos and the bas-relief overdoors hint of Neoclassicism; the furnishings are fully Italian Rococo.
A second Neoclassic wave, more severe, more studied (through the medium of ) and more consciously archaeological, is associated with the height of the Napoleonic Empire. In France, the first phase of Neoclassicism was expressed in the "Louis XVI style", and the second in the styles called "Directoire style" and Empire style. The Rococo style remained popular in Italy until the Napoleonic regimes brought the new archaeological classicism, which was embraced as a political statement by young, progressive, urban Italians with republican leanings.
In the decorative arts, Neoclassicism is exemplified in Empire furniture made in Paris, London, New York, Berlin; in Biedermeier furniture made in Austria; in Karl Friedrich Schinkel's museums in Berlin, Sir John Soane's Bank of England in London and the newly built "United States Capitol" in Washington, D.C.; and in Josiah Wedgwood's and "black basaltes" . The style was international; Scots architect Charles Cameron created palatial Italianate interiors for the German-born Catherine the Great, in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Indoors, Neoclassicism made a discovery of the genuine classic interior, inspired by the rediscoveries at Pompeii and Herculaneum. These had begun in the late 1740s, but only achieved a wide audience in the 1760s,Gontar with the first luxurious volumes of tightly controlled distribution of Le Antichità di Ercolano ( The Antiquities of Herculaneum). The antiquities of Herculaneum showed that even the most classicizing interiors of the Baroque, or the most "Roman" rooms of William Kent were based on basilica and temple exterior architecture turned outside in, hence their often bombastic appearance to modern eyes: window frames turned into gilding mirrors, fireplaces topped with temple fronts. The new interiors sought to recreate an authentically Roman and genuinely interior vocabulary.
Techniques employed in the style included flatter, lighter motifs, sculpted in low frieze-like relief or painted in monotones en camaïeu ("like cameos"), isolated medallions or vases or busts or bucrania or other motifs, suspended on swags of laurel or ribbon, with slender arabesques against backgrounds, perhaps, of "Pompeiian red" or pale tints, or stone colors. The style in France was initially a Parisian style, the Goût grec ("Greek style"), not a court style; when Louis XVI acceded to the throne in 1774, Marie Antoinette, his fashion-loving Queen, brought the Louis XVI style to court. However, there was no real attempt to employ the basic forms of Roman furniture until around the turn of the century, and furniture-makers were more likely to borrow from ancient architecture, just as silversmiths were more likely to take from ancient pottery and stone-carving than metalwork: "Designers and craftsmen ... seem to have taken an almost perverse pleasure in transferring motifs from one medium to another".Honour, 110–111, 110 quoted
From about 1800 a fresh influx of Greek architectural examples, seen through the medium of etchings and engravings, gave a new impetus to Neoclassicism, the Greek Revival. At the same time the Empire style was a more grandiose wave of Neoclassicism in architecture and the decorative arts. Mainly based on Imperial Roman styles, it originated in, and took its name from, the rule of Napoleon in the First French Empire, where it was intended to idealize Napoleon's leadership and the French state. The style corresponds to the more bourgeois Biedermeier style in the German-speaking lands, Federal style in the United States, the Regency style in Britain, and the Napoleon style in Sweden. According to the art historian Hugh Honour "so far from being, as is sometimes supposed, the culmination of the Neoclassical movement, the Empire marks its rapid decline and transformation back once more into a mere antique revival, drained of all the high-minded ideas and force of conviction that had inspired its masterpieces".Honour, 171–184, 171 quoted An earlier phase of the style was called the Adam style in Great Britain.
Neoclassicism continued to be a major force in academic art through the 19th century and beyond—a constant antithesis to Romanticism or —, although from the late 19th century on it had often been considered anti-modern, or even reactionary, in influential critical circles. The centres of several European cities, notably Saint Petersburg and Munich, came to look much like museums of Neoclassical architecture.
Gothic revival architecture (often linked with the Romantic cultural movement), a style originating in the 18th century which grew in popularity throughout the 19th century, contrasted Neoclassicism. Whilst Neoclassicism was characterized by Greek and Roman-influenced styles, geometric lines and order, Gothic revival architecture placed an emphasis on medieval-looking buildings, often made to have a rustic, "romantic" appearance.
Pantheon 1, Paris May 11, 2013.jpg|Panthéon, Paris, by Jacques-Germain Soufflot and Jean-Baptiste Rondelet, 1758–1790
L'Hôtel de la Marine (Paris) (51346237676).jpg|Hôtel de la Marine, Paris, by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, 1761-1770
West facade of Petit Trianon 002.JPG|Façade of the Petit Trianon, Versailles, France, by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, 1764
The Petit Trianon (23935245609).jpg|Staircase of the Petit Trianon, by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, 1764
Salon de Compagnie - Petit Trianon (23935437909).jpg|Interior of the Petit Trianon, by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, 1764
Commode de la comtesse du Barry (Louvre, OA 11293).jpg|Commode of Madame du Barry; by Martin Carlin (attribution); 1772; oak base veneered with pearwood, rosewood and amaranth, soft-paste Sèvres porcelain, bronze gilt, white marble; 87 x 119 cm; Louvre (2025). 9781844848997, Parkstone. ISBN 9781844848997
Hôtel du Châtelet JP2011 façade cour.jpg|Hôtel du Châtelet, Paris, unknown architect, 1776 (2025). 9782707209153, Massin. ISBN 9782707209153
Bordeaux Grand Théâtre R03.jpg|Stairway of the Grand Theater of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France, by Victor Louis, 1777-1780
Jean-henri riesener, angoliera, 1785 ca.jpg|Parisian corner cabinet; by Jean Henri Riesener; 1780–1790; oak, mahogany, marble, and ormolu mounts; 94.3 × 81.3 × 55.9 cm; Art Institute of Chicago, US
Grand vase à fond beau bleu (Louvre, OA 6627) 2 (cropped and fixed angles).jpg|Large vase; 1783; hard porcelain and ormolu; height: 2 m, diameter: 0.90 m; Louvre
Cabinet dore Marie-Antoinette Versailles.jpg|Cabinet Doré of Marie Antoinette at the Palace of Versailles, Versailles, France, by the Rousseau brothers, 1783
Secrétaire à cylindre de Marie-Antoinette (Louvre, OA 5226).jpg|Roll-top desk of Marie-Antoinette; by Jean-Henri Riesener; 1784; oak and pine frame, sycamore, amaranth and rosewood veneer, bronze gilt; 103.6 x 113.4 cm; Louvre (2025). 9781844848997, Parkstone. ISBN 9781844848997
Table à écrire à pupitre de Marie-Antoinette (Louvre, OA 5509).jpg|Writing table of Marie Antoinette; by Adam Weisweiler; 1784; oak, ebony and sycamore veneer, Japanese lacquer, steel, bronze gilt; 73.7 x 81. 2 cm; Louvre
Ewer MET DT236853.jpg|Ewer; 1784–1785; silver; height: 32.9 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
Folding stool (pliant) (one of a pair) MET DP113122.jpg|Folding stool (pliant); 1786; carved and painted beechwood, covered in pink silk; 46.4 × 68.6 × 51.4 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
Pair of vases MET DP168509.jpg|Pair of vases; 1789; hard-paste porcelain, gilt bronze, marble; height (each): 23 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
Armchair (fauteuil) from Louis XVI's Salon des Jeux at Saint Cloud MET DP113960.jpg|Armchair (fauteuil) from Louis XVI's Salon des Jeux at Saint-Cloud; 1788; carved and gilded walnut, gold brocaded silk (not original); overall: 100 × 74.9 × 65.1 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
It marks the transition from Rococo to Classicism. Unlike the Classicism of Louis XIV, which transformed ornaments into symbols, Louis XVI style represents them as realistic and natural as possible, i.e. laurel branches really are laurel branches, roses the same, and so on. One of the main decorative principles is symmetry. In interiors, the colours used are very bright, including white, light grey, bright blue, pink, yellow, very light lilac, and gold. Excesses of ornamentation are avoided. The return to antiquity is synonymous with above all with a return to the straight lines: strict verticals and horizontals were the order of the day. Serpentine ones were no longer tolerated, save for the occasional half circle or oval. Interior decor also honored this taste for rigor, with the result that flat surfaces and right angles returned to fashion. Ornament was used to mediate this severity, but it never interfered with basic lines and always was disposed symmetrically around a central axis. Even so, ébénistes often canted fore-angles to avoid excessive rigidity.
The decorative motifs of Louis XVI style were inspired by Ancient history, the Louis XIV style, and nature. Characteristic elements of the style: a torch crossed with a sheath with arrows, imbricated disks, guilloché, double bow-knots, smoking braziers, linear repetitions of small motifs (rosettes, beads, oves), trophy or floral medallions hanging from a knotted ribbon, acanthus leaves, gadrooning, interlace, meanders, , mascarons, Ancient urns, tripods, perfume burners, dolphins, ram and lion heads, chimeras, and . Greco-Roman architectural motifs are also heavily used: flutings, (fluted and unfluted), fluted balusters (twisted and straight), (engaged column and unengaged, sometimes replaced by caryatid), volute , with (in relief and trompe-l'œil).
P1240239 Paris VI rue Jacob n46 rwk 2.jpg|Rue Jacob no. 46, Paris, unknown architect, unknown date
Corniquet - horloge à heures duodécimales et décimales.jpg|Astronomical clock; by Philippe-Jacques Corniquet; 1794; gilt bronze and enamel face; unknown dimensions; Musée des Arts décoratifs, Paris
Fan MET DP-314-001.jpg|Fan; by Charles Percier, Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine and Antoine Denis Chaudet; 1797-1799; paper, wood, and bone; 23.5 x 43.8 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)
Salon de madame Récamier - Bergère (Louvre, OA 11385).jpg|Armchair of the salon of Juliette Récamier; attributed to Jacob Frères; 1798; various types of wood; 84.5 x 62.2 x 62 cm; Louvre
Château de Malmaison, France (48029730202).jpg|Empress Joséphine's Bedroom in Château de Malmaison, Rueil-Malmaison, France, by Charles Percier and Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine, 1800-1802
Washstand (athénienne or lavabo) MET DP106594.jpg|Washstand (athénienne or lavabo); 1800–1814; legs, base and shelf of yew wood, ormolu mounts, iron plate beneath shelf; height: 92.4 cm, width: 49.5 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
Palais Bourbon, Paris 7e, NW View 140402 1.jpg|Portico of the Palais Bourbon, Paris, by Bernard Poyet, 1806-1808
Madeleine Paris.jpg|La Madeleine, Paris, by Pierre-Alexandre Vignon, 1807-1842
Pair of green vases, painted by Jean Georget, mounts by Pierre-Philippe Thomire, 1 of 2, Sèvres porcelain, 1809, soft-paste porcelain - Wadsworth Atheneum - Hartford, CT - DSC05493.jpg|Vase; 1809; hard-paste porcelain and gilded bronze handles; height: 74.9 cm, diameter: 35.6 cm; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, US (2025). 9780810993457, Abrams. ISBN 9780810993457
Coin cabinet MET DP103176.jpg|Egyptian Revival coin cabinet; by François-Honoré-Georges Jacob-Desmalter; 1809–1819; mahogany (probably Swietenia mahagoni), with applied and inlaid silver; 90.2 x 50.2 x 37.5 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
Clock Thomire Louvre OA9511.jpg|Clock with Mars and Venus; ; gilded bronze and patina; height: 90 cm; Louvre
Austria-03324 - Cradle of Napoleon's Son (32936041295).jpg|King of Rome's Cradle; by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, Henri Victor Roguier, Jean-Baptiste-Claude Odiot and Pierre-Philippe Thomire; 1811; wood, silver gilt, mother-of-pearl, sheets of copper covered with velvet, silk and tulle, decorated with silver and gold thread; height: 216 cm; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria (2025). 9780810993457, Abrams. ISBN 9780810993457
Carpet MET DP360538.jpg|Carpet; 1814–1830; 309.9 × 246.4 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
Neoclassicism was representative for the new French society that exited the revolution, setting the tone in all life fields, including art. The Jacquard machine was invented during this period (which revolutionised the entire sewing system, manual until then). One of the dominant colours was red, decorated with ormolu. Bright colours were also used, including white, cream, violet, brown, blue, dark red, with little ornaments of gilt bronze. Interior architecture included wood panels decorated with gilt (on a white background or a coloured one). Motifs were placed geometrically. The walls were covered in , wallpaper fabrics. were made of white marble, having at their corners, or other elements: , , winged lions, and so on. Bronze objects were placed on their tops, including mantel clocks. The doors consisted of simple rectangular panels, decorated with a Pompeian-inspired central figure. Empire fabrics are damasks with a blue or brown background, satins with a green, pink or purple background, velvets of the same colors, brooches broached with gold or silver, and cotton fabrics. All of these were used in interiors for curtains, for covering certain furniture, for cushions or upholstery (leather was also used for upholstery).
All Empire ornament is governed by a rigorous spirit of symmetry reminiscent of the Louis XIV style. Generally, the motifs on a piece's right and left sides correspond to one another in every detail; when they do not, the individual motifs themselves are entirely symmetrical in composition: antique heads with identical tresses falling onto each shoulder, frontal figures of Victory with symmetrically arrayed tunics, identical rosettes or swans flanking a lock plate, etc. Like Louis XIV, Napoleon had a set of emblems unmistakably associated with his rule, most notably the eagle, the bee, stars, and the initials I (for Imperator) and N (for Napoleon), which were usually inscribed within an imperial laurel crown. Motifs used include: figures of Victory bearing palm branches, Greek dancers, nude and draped women, figures of antique chariots, winged putto, mascarons of Apollo, Hermes and the Gorgon, swans, lions, the heads of oxen, horses and wild beasts, butterflies, claws, winged chimeras, , Bucranium, sea horses, oak wreaths knotted by thin trailing ribbons, climbing grape vines, poppy rinceaux, rosettes, palm branches, and laurel. There's a lot of Greco-Roman ones: stiff and flat acanthus leaves, , , beads, , tripods, imbricated disks, of Mercury, vases, helmets, burning torches, winged trumpet players, and ancient musical instruments (tubas, rattles and especially ). Despite their antique derivation, the fluting and so prevalent under Louis XVI are abandoned. Egyptian Revival motifs are especially common at the beginning of the period: scarabs, lotus capitals, winged disks, obelisks, , figures wearing , en gaine supported by bare feet and with women Egyptian headdresses.
Neoclassical architecture became widespread as a symbol of wealth and power in Germany, mostly in what was then Prussia. Karl Friedrich Schinkel built many prominent buildings in this style, including the Altes Museum in Berlin. While the city remained dominated by Baroque city planning, his architecture and functional style provided the city with a distinctly neoclassical center.
His Bauakademie is considered one of the forerunners of modern architecture due to its hithertofore relatively streamlined façade of the building
File:Milano - Teatro la Scala.JPG|alt=|La Scala Opera House, Milan, by Giuseppe Piermarini, completed in 1778
File:8859 - Milano - P.za Belgiojoso - Palazzo Belgiojoso - Foto Giovanni Dall'Orto - 14-Apr-2007.jpg|alt=|Palazzo Belgioioso, Milan, by Giuseppe Piermarini, 1781
File:Milano - Villa Reale - facciata sud - 06.jpg|alt=|Villa Belgiojoso Bonaparte, Milan, by Leopoldo Pollack, 1790–1796
File:Napoli 2010 -Piazza del Plebiscito- by-RaBoe 056.jpg|alt=|Piazza del Plebiscito, Naples, unknown architect, 1809–1846
File:Roma Piazza del Popolo due.jpg|alt=|Piazza del Popolo (Rome), redesigned between 1811 and 1822, by Giuseppe Valadier
Education of the Infant Bacchus MET DP150925.jpg|Education of the Infant Bacchus; by Niccolò Amastini; first half 19th century; onyx with gold frame; overall (in setting): 6.5 x 4.8 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Italian Neoclassicism was the earliest manifestation of the general period known as Neoclassicism and lasted more than the other national variants of neoclassicism. It developed in opposition to the Baroque style around and lasted until . Neoclassicism began around the period of the rediscovery of Pompeii and spread all over Europe as a generation of art students returned to their countries from the Grand Tour in Italy with rediscovered Greco-Roman ideals. It first centred in Rome where artists such as Antonio Canova and Jacques-Louis David were active in the second half of the 18th century, before moving to Paris. Painters of Veduta, like Canaletto and Giovanni Paolo Panini, also enjoyed a huge success during the Grand Tour. Neoclassical architecture was inspired by the Renaissance works of Andrea Palladio and saw in Luigi Vanvitelli the main interpreters of the style.
Classicist literature had a great impact on the Risorgimento movement: the main figures of the period include Vittorio Alfieri, Giuseppe Parini, Vincenzo Monti and Ugo Foscolo, Giacomo Leopardi and Alessandro Manzoni (nephew of Cesare Beccaria), who were also influenced by the French Enlightenment and German Romanticism. The virtuoso violinist Paganini and the operas of Rossini, Donnizetti, Vincenzo Bellini and, later, Verdi dominated the scene in Italian classical and romantic music.
The art of Francesco Hayez and especially that of the Macchiaioli represented a break with the classical school, which came to an end as Italy unified (see Italian modern and contemporary art). Neoclassicism was the last Italian-born style, after the Renaissance and Baroque, to spread to all Western Art.
Biserica rotunda Letcani 04.JPG|Round church of Saint Demetrius, Lețcani, unknown architect, 1795
Palatul Știrbei, Bucuresti.jpg|Știrbei Palace (Calea Victoriei no. 107), Bucharest, by Michel Sanjouand, 1835; with a new level with added in 1882 by Joseph Hartmann (2025). 9786063310539, Litera. ISBN 9786063310539
The University Building of Bucharest, circa 1869, photo by Franz Duschek.jpg|The old building of the University of Bucharest, designed by Alexandru Orăscu and decorated with sculptures by Karl Storck, 1857–1864, bombarded in April or May 1944 during WW2 and partially destroyed, partially rebuilt during the late 1960s (2025). 9789730070361, ArCuB. ISBN 9789730070361
Ateneo Rumano, Bucarest, Rumanía, 2016-05-29, DD 73.jpg|Romanian Athenaeum on Calea Victoriei, Bucharest, by Albert Galleron, 1886–1895
3-5 Strada Icoanei, Bucharest (24).jpg|Upper part of a tiled stove in the principals' house of the Central Girls' School, Bucharest, unknown designer, 1890
During the 19th century, the predominant style in Wallachia and Moldavia, later the Kingdom of Romania, was Classicism which lasted for a long time, until the 20th century, although it coexisted in some short periods with other styles. Foreign architects and engineers were invited here since the first decade of the 19th century. Most of the architects that built during the beginning of the century were foreigners because Romanians did not have yet the instruction needed for designing buildings that were very different compared to the Romanian tradition. Usually using Classicism, they started building together with Romanian artisans, usually prepared in foreign schools or academies. Romanian architects studied in Western European schools as well. One example is Alexandru Orăscu, one of the representatives of Neoclassicism in Romania.
Classicism manifested both in religious and secular architecture. A good example of secular architecture is the Știrbei Palace on Calea Victoriei (Bucharest), built around the year 1835, after the plans of French architect Michel Sanjouand. It received a new level in 1882, designed by Austrian architect Joseph Hartmann (2025). 9786063310539, Litera. ISBN 9786063310539
In some Ukrainian cities, the rich architectural heritage of the times of the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires has been preserved, reflecting the fact that the Ukrainian ethnic lands for most of history were under control of other states. A vivid example is Teatralna atreet in the city of Kropyvnytskyi, all buildings of which were built in the 19th century in the neoclassical style by invited European architects.Кіровоградська римо-католицька парафія Святого Духа // Місто і люди. Єлисаветград — Кіровоград, 1754—2004. Ілюстрована енциклопедія., Кіровоград: , «Імекс-ЛТД», 2004, стор. 296—297Місто і люди. Єлисаветград — Кіровоград, 1754—2004. Ілюстрована енциклопедія., Кіровоград: , «Імекс-ЛТД», 2004, стор.
Arkhangelskoe Estate Aug2012 buildings 03.jpg|Arkhangelskoye Estate, Krasnogorsky District, Moscow Oblast, by Jacob Guerne, unknown date
With the crackdown on architect's independence and official denial of modernism (1932), demonstrated by the international contest for the Palace of Soviets, Neoclassicism was instantly promoted as one of the choices in Stalinist architecture, although not the only choice. It coexisted with moderately modernist architecture of Boris Iofan, bordering with contemporary Art Deco (Schuko); again, the purest examples of the style were produced by Zholtovsky school that remained an isolated phenomena. The political intervention was a disaster for constructivist leaders yet was sincerely welcomed by architects of the classical schools.
Neoclassicism was an easy choice for the Soviet Union since it did not rely on modern construction technologies (steel frame or reinforced concrete) and could be reproduced in traditional masonry. Thus the designs of Zholtovsky, Fomin and other old masters were easily replicated in remote towns under strict material rationing. Improvement of construction technology after World War II permitted Stalinist architects to venture into skyscraper construction, although stylistically these skyscrapers (including "exported" architecture of Palace of Culture and Science, Warsaw and the Shanghai International Convention Centre) share little with the classical models. Neoclassicism and neo-Renaissance persisted in less demanding residential and office projects until 1955, when Nikita Khrushchev put an end to expensive Stalinist architecture.
Osterley House The Dinning Room (22773780472).jpg|Eating Room, Osterley Park, London, by Robert Adam, 1761
Syon House (33741948060).jpg|Syon House, Middlesex, England, by Robert Adam, 1762
Osterley House, entrance hall.jpg|The Hall, Osterley Park, by Robert Adam, 1767
Carpet MET DP299026.jpg|Carpet; by Robert Adam; 1770–1780; knotted wool; 505.5 x 473.1 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Jasperware plaque by Wedgwood (c. 1776), Harris Museum.JPG| Apotheosis of Virgil; by John Flaxman; 1776; jasperware; diameter: 41 cm; Harris Museum, Preston, Lancashire, UK (2025). 9786060063926, rao. ISBN 9786060063926
Somerset House (42160916102).jpg|Somerset House, London, by William Chambers, 1776-1801
File:Pair of urns and pedestals MET DP-14204-180.jpg|Urn on pedestal; 1780 with latter additions; by Robert Adam; inlaid mahogany; height: 49.8 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
Side table MET DP-14204-045.jpg|Side table with many acanthus leaves and two Bucranium; by Robert Adam; 1780 with later addition; mahogany; overall: 88.6 × 141.3 × 57.1 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
Wedgwood Factory (British) - Covered Urn - 1951.301.2 - Cleveland Museum of Art.jpg|Covered Wedgwood urn; 1800; jasper ware with relief decoration; overall: 19.7 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, US
The Adam style was created by two brothers, Robert Adam and James, who published in 1777 a volume of etchings with interior ornamentation. In the interior decoration made after Robert Adam's drawings, the walls, ceilings, doors, and any other surface, are divided into big panels: rectangular, round, square, with and Greco-Roman motifs at the edges. Ornaments used include , pearls, egg-and-dart bands, medallions, and any other motifs used during the Classical antiquity (especially the Etruscan ones). Decorative fittings such as urn-shaped stone vases, gilded silverware, lamps, and stauettes all have the same source of inspiration, classical antiquity. The Adam style emphasizes refined rectangular mirrors, framed like paintings (in frames with stylised leaves), or with a pediment above them, supporting an urn or a medallion. Another design of Adam mirrors is shaped like a Venetian window, with a big central mirror between two other thinner and longer ones. Another type of mirrors are the oval ones, usually decorated with festoons. The furniture in this style has a similar structure to Louis XVI furniture.
Besides the Adam style, when it comes to decorative arts, England is also known for the ceramic manufacturer Josiah Wedgwood (1730–1795), who established a pottery called Etruria. Wedgwood ware is made of a material called jasperware, a hard and fine-grained type of stoneware. Wedgwood vases are usually decorated with reliefs in two colours, in most cases the figures being white and the background blue.
Candlestand LACMA M.2006.51.13 (1 of 2).jpg|Candlestand; 1790–1800; mahogany, birch, and various inlays; 107 x 49.21 x 48.9 cm; Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Writing Desk LACMA M.2006.51.24a-b.jpg|Writing desk; 1790–1810; satinwood, mahogany, tulip poplar, and pine; 153.67 x 90.17 x 51.44 cm; Los Angeles County Museum of Art
White House north and south sides.jpg|White House, Washington, D.C., by James Hoban, 1792-1829
US Capitol west side.JPG|Capitol Building, Washington, D.C., 1793–1863, by William Thornton and Thomas Ustick Walter
Armchair LACMA 54.141.2.jpg|Armchair; possibly by Ephraim Haines; 1805–1815; mahogany and cane; height: 84.77 cm, width: 52.07 cm; Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Four-Column Pedestal Card Table with Pineapple Finial LACMA M.2006.51.29.jpg|Four-column pedestal card table with pineapple finial; 1815–1820; mahogany, tulip poplar, and pine woods; 74.93 x 92.71 x 46.67 cm; Los Angeles County Museum of Art
University of Virginia Rotunda 2006.jpg|The Rotunda (University of Virginia), Charlottesville, Virginia, by Thomas Jefferson, 1822-1826
SC State House at evening.jpg|South Carolina State House, Columbia, South Carolina, by John Rudolph Niernsee, 1855
File:Brevard-Rice House.jpg|Brevard-Rice House, Garden District, New Orleans, by James Calrow, 1857 (2025). 9781788401760, Cassel Illustrated. ISBN 9781788401760
Gallery of Fashion, vol. I- April 1, 1794- March 1, 1795 Met DP889224.jpg|Dresses from the Gallery of Fashion, 1794–1802
File:5th Duke of Bedford.png|Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford in a Bedford Crop, by William Grimaldi after John Hoppner, early 19th century, based on a work of 1796–1797
File:Jacques-Louis David Henriette de Verninac 1799.jpg| Madame Raymond de Verninac by Jacques-Louis David, with clothes and chair in Directoire style. "Year 7": that is, 1798–1799
File:Thérésa Cabarrus.JPG|Revolutionary socialite Thérésa Tallien, by Marie-Guillemine Benoist, 1799 File:Jacques-Louis David 016.jpg| Portrait of Madame Récamier, by Jacques-Louis David, 1800 File:Madame Fouler, comtesse de Relingue.jpg|Henriette Victoire Elisabeth d’Avrange, comtesse de Relingue, with a Titus haircut, by Louis-Léopold Boilly, 1810
Boilly-Point-de-Convention-ca1797.jpg| Point de Convention, by Louis-Léopold Boilly, 1801
Le Volant.jpg|Illustration showing women playing badminton, hand-colored etching from the series Le Bon Genre, by François Joseph Bosio, 1801
François Gérard - Madame Récamier - WGA08597.jpg| Portrait of Juliette Récamier, by François Gérard, 1802
Kensington Garden dresses for June, fashion plate from Le Beau Monde, unknown illustrator, 1808.jpg|Kensington Garden dresses for June, fashion plate from Le Beau Monde, 1808
In fashion, Neoclassicism influenced the much greater simplicity of women's dresses, and the long-lasting fashion for white, from well before the French Revolution, but it was not until after it that thorough-going attempts to imitate ancient styles became fashionable in France, at least for women. Classical costumes had long been worn by fashionable ladies posing as some figure from Greek or Roman myth in a portrait (in particular there was a rash of such portraits of the young model Emma, Lady Hamilton from the 1780s), but such costumes were only worn for the portrait sitting and until the Revolutionary period, and perhaps, like other exotic styles, as undress at home. But the styles worn in portraits by Juliette Récamier, Joséphine de Beauharnais, Thérésa Tallien and other Parisian trend-setters were for going-out in public as well. Seeing Mme Tallien at the opera, Talleyrand quipped that: " Il n'est pas possible de s'exposer plus somptueusement!" ("One could not be more sumptuously undressed"). In 1788, just before the Revolution, the court portraitist Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun had held a Greek supper where the ladies wore plain white Grecian tunics.Hunt, 244 Shorter classical hairstyles, where possible with curls, were less controversial and very widely adopted, and hair was now uncovered even outdoors; except for evening dress, bonnets or other coverings had typically been worn even indoors before. Thin Greek-style ribbons or fillets were used to tie or decorate the hair instead.
Very light and loose dresses, usually white and often with shockingly bare arms, rose sheer from the ankle to just below the bodice, where there was a strongly emphasized thin hem or tie round the body, often in a different colour. The shape is now often known as the Empire silhouette although it predates the First French Empire of Napoleon, but his first Empress Joséphine de Beauharnais was influential in spreading it around Europe. A long rectangular shawl or wrap, very often plain red but with a decorated border in portraits, helped in colder weather, and was apparently laid around the midriff when seated—for which sprawling semi-recumbent postures were favoured.Hunt, 244–245 By the start of the 19th century, such styles had spread widely across Europe.
Neoclassical fashion for men was far more problematic, and never really took off other than for hair, where it played an important role in the shorter styles that finally despatched the use of wigs, and then white hair-powder, for younger men. The trouser had been the symbol of the barbarian to the Greeks and Romans, but outside the painter's or, especially, the sculptor's studio, few men were prepared to abandon it. Indeed, the period saw the triumph of the pure trouser, or trousers, over the culotte or knee-breeches of the Ancien Régime. Even when David designed a new French "national costume" at the request of the government during the height of the Revolutionary enthusiasm for changing everything in 1792, it included fairly tight leggings under a coat that stopped above the knee. A high proportion of well-to-do young men spent much of the key period in military service because of the French Revolutionary Wars, and military uniform, which began to emphasize jackets that were short at the front, giving a full view of tight-fitting trousers, was often worn when not on duty, and influenced civilian male styles.
The trouser-problem had been recognised by artists as a barrier to creating contemporary ; like other elements of contemporary dress they were seen as irredeemably ugly and unheroic by many artists and critics. Various stratagems were used to avoid depicting them in modern scenes. In James Dawkins and Robert Wood Discovering the Ruins of Palmyra (1758) by Gavin Hamilton, the two gentleman antiquaries are shown in toga-like Arab robes. In Watson and the Shark (1778) by John Singleton Copley, the main figure could plausibly be shown nude, and the composition is such that of the eight other men shown, only one shows a single breeches leg prominently. However the Americans Copley and Benjamin West led the artists who successfully showed that trousers could be used in heroic scenes, with works like West's The Death of General Wolfe (1770) and Copley's The Death of Major Peirson, 6 January 1781 (1783), although the trouser was still being carefully avoided in The Raft of the Medusa, completed in 1819.
Classically inspired male hairstyles included the Bedford Crop, arguably the precursor of most plain modern male styles, which was invented by the radical politician Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford as a protest against a tax on hair powder; he encouraged his friends to adopt it by betting them they would not. Another influential style (or group of styles) was named by the French "coiffure à la Titus" after Titus Junius Brutus (not in fact the Roman Emperor Titus as often assumed), with hair short and layered but somewhat piled up on the crown, often with restrained quiffs or locks hanging down; variants are familiar from the hair of both Napoleon and George IV of the United Kingdom. The style was supposed to have been introduced by the actor François-Joseph Talma, who upstaged his wigged co-actors when appearing in productions of works such as Voltaire's Brutus (about Lucius Junius Brutus, who orders the execution of his son Titus). In 1799 a Parisian fashion magazine reported that even bald men were adopting Titus wigs,Hunt, 243 and the style was also worn by women, the Journal de Paris reporting in 1802 that "more than half of elegant women were wearing their hair or wig à la Titus.Rifelj, 35
The 17th–18th century dance suite had had a minor revival before World War I but the Neoclassicists were not altogether happy with unmodified diatonicism, and tended to emphasise the bright dissonance of suspensions and ornaments, the angular qualities of 17th-century modal harmony and the energetic lines of countrapuntal part-writing. Ottorino Respighi's Ancient Airs and Dances (1917) led the way for the sort of sound to which the Neoclassicists aspired. Although the practice of borrowing musical styles from the past has not been uncommon throughout musical history, art musics have gone through periods where musicians used modern techniques coupled with older forms or harmonies to create new kinds of works. Notable compositional characteristics are: referencing diatonic tonality, conventional forms (dance suites, concerti grossi, sonata forms, etc.), the idea of absolute music untramelled by descriptive or emotive associations, the use of light musical textures, and a conciseness of musical expression. In classical music, this was most notably perceived between the 1920s and the 1950s. Igor Stravinsky is the best-known composer using this style; he effectively began the musical revolution with his Bach-like Octet for Wind Instruments (1923). A particular individual work that represents this style well is Prokofiev's Classical Symphony No. 1 in D, which is reminiscent of the symphonic style of Haydn or Mozart. Neoclassical ballet as innovated by George Balanchine de-cluttered the Russian Imperial style in terms of costume, steps and narrative, while also introducing technical innovations.
Paris Palais Garnier 2010-04-06 16.55.07.jpg|Beaux-Arts - Exterior of the Palais Garnier, Paris, by Charles Garnier, 1860–1875
Opera Garnier Grand Escalier.jpg|Beaux-Arts - Grand stairs of the Palais Garnier, by Charles Garnier, 1860–1875
Image-Grand central Station Outside Night 2.jpg|Beaux-Arts - Grand Central Terminal, New York City, by Reed and Stem and Warren and Wetmore, 1903
29 avenue Bugeaud Paris.jpg|Beaux-Arts - Hôtel Roxoroid de Belfort, Paris, 1911, by André Arfvidson
File:National-Gallery-of-Art-West-Building-John-Russell-Pope-National-Mall-Washington-DC-04-2014.jpg|Late Neoclassical - The West building of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., US, by John Russell Pope, 1941
Pablo Picasso experimented with classicizing motifs in the years immediately following World War I. (2025). 9789731872032, SIMETRIA. ISBN 9789731872032
In American architecture, Neoclassicism was one expression of the American Renaissance movement, ca. 1890–1917; its last manifestation was in Beaux-Arts architecture, and its final large public projects were the Lincoln Memorial (highly criticized at the time), the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (also heavily criticized by the architectural community as being backward thinking and old fashioned in its design), and the American Museum of Natural History's Roosevelt Memorial. These were considered stylistic anachronisms when they were finished. In the British Raj, Sir Edwin Lutyens' monumental city planning for New Delhi marks the sunset of Neoclassicism. World War II was to shatter most longing for (and imitation of) a mythical time.
There was an entire 20th-century movement in the non-visual arts which was also called Neoclassicism. It encompassed at least music, philosophy and literature. It was between the end of World War I and the end of World War II. (For information on the musical aspects, see 20th-century classical music and Neoclassicism in music. For information on the philosophical aspects, see Great Books.)
This literary Neoclassical movement rejected the extreme romanticism of (for example) Dada, in favour of restraint, religion (specifically Christianity) and a reactionary political program. Although the foundations for this movement in English literature were laid by T. E. Hulme, the most famous Neoclassicists were T. S. Eliot and Wyndham Lewis. In Russia, the movement crystallized as early as 1910 under the name of Acmeism, with Anna Akhmatova and Osip Mandelshtam as the leading representatives.
Clément mère, comodino, francia 1910 ca. 01.JPG|Chest of drawers, a highly simplified reinterpretation of the Louis XVI style; by Clément Mère; 1910; maple, ebony, leather and ivory; 87.5 x 96 x 37 cm; Musée d'Orsay, Paris
File:Art Deco dressing table (1919-20).jpg|Dressing table and chair, a reinterpretation of the Louis XVI style; by Paul Follot; 1919; marble and encrusted, lacquered, and gilded wood; unknown dimensions; Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris
FIle:The Gulbenkian Museum (40658606370).jpg| Hommage à Jean Goujon; by Alfred Janniot; 1919–1924; limestone partially coloured; 220 x 235 x 129 cm; Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, Portugal
File:Plate from the collection of projects Architectures by Louis Süe and André Mare, 1921, prefaced by Paul Valéry's text Eupalions ou l'architecte.jpg|Plate with design for an interior from the collection of projects Architectures, by Louis Süe and André Mare, 1921
File:Boudoir from the Hôtel du Collectionneur, at the 1925 Paris Exhibition, by Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann.jpg|Boudoir from the Hôtel du Collectionneur, a highly simplified reinterpretation of the Louis XVI style, at the 1925 Paris Exhibition, by Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann
File:1925 unlicensed copy of Madeleine Vionnet’s “Little Horses” dress.jpg|"Little Horses" dress; by Madeleine Vionnet; 1925; rayon crepe, black and gold seed beads; Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York
File:Palais de Tokyo, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.jpg|Palais de Tokyo, Paris, by André Aubert and Marcel Dastugue, 1937
File:Beograd - Ambasada Francuske u Srbiji (31092842098).jpg|Embassy of France, Belgrade, Serbia, by Roger-Henri Expert with Josif Najman as assistant, designed in 1926, built in 1939 (2025). 9789731872032, SIMETRIA. ISBN 9789731872032
File:Photo (50 sur 102).jpg|Château de Sept-Saulx, Grand Est, a highly simplified reinterpretation of the Louis XVI style, France, by Louis Süe, 1928-1929 (2025). 9789731872032, SIMETRIA. ISBN 9789731872032
File:Daily Telegraph Building (24438959395).jpg|Daily Telegraph Building, London, by Charles Ernest Elcock, after consulting with Thomas S. Tait, 1928
File:Design for Severance Hall grand foyer - Walker and Weeks (39638807102).jpg|Design for Severance Hall grand foyer of the Severance Hall, Cleveland, US, by Walker and Weeks, 1930
File:73 Bulevardul Dacia, Bucharest (01).jpg|Dumitru Săvulescu House (Bulevardul Dacia no. 73), Bucharest, Romania, by Gheorghe Negoescu, 1933 (2025). 9789731872308, SIMETRIA. ISBN 9789731872308
File:Grave of the colonel Paul Străjescu Family in the Bellu Cemetery in Bucharest, Romania (04).jpg|Grave of the Străjescu Family, Bellu Cemetery, Bucharest, by George Cristinel, 1934
File:53 avenue Foch Paris.jpg|Avenue Foch no. 53, Paris, by Charles Abella, 1939
The oscillation of Art Deco between the use of historic elements, shapes and proportions, and the appetite for 'new', for Modernism, is the result of multiple factors. One of them is eclecticism. The complexity and heterogeneity of Art Deco is largely due to the eclectic spirit. Stylized elements from repertoire of Beaux-Arts, Neoclassicism, or of cultures distant in time and space (Ancient Egypt, Pre-Columbian Americas, or Sub-Saharian African art) are put together with references to Modernist avant-guard artists of the early 20th century (Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani or Constantin Brâncuși). The Art Deco phenomenon owes to academic eclecticism and Neoclassicism mainly the existence of a specific architecture. Without the contribution of the Beaux-Arts trained architects, Art Deco architecture would have remained, with the exception of residential buildings, a collection of decorative objects magnified to an urban scale, like the pavilions of the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts from 1925, controversial at their time. Another reason for the swinging between historical elements and modernism was consumer culture. Objects and buildings in the puritan International style, devoid of any ornamentation or citation of the past, were too radical for the general public. In interwar France and England, the spirit of the public and much architectural criticism could not conceive a style totally deprived of ornament, like the International style.
The use of historic styles as sources of inspiration for Art Deco starts as far back as the years before WW1, through the efforts of decorators like Maurice Dufrêne, Paul Follot, Paul Iribe, André Groult, Léon Jallot or Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, who relate to the prestigious French artistic and handicraft tradition of the late 18th and early 19th centuries (the Louis XVI, Directoire and Louis Philippe), and who want to bring a new approach to these styles. The neo-Louis XVI style was really popular in France and Romania in the years before WW1, around 1910, and it heavily influenced multiple early Art Deco designs and buildings. A good example of this is the Château de Sept-Saulx in Grand Est, France, by Louis Süe, 1928–1929. (2025). 9789731872032, SIMETRIA. ISBN 9789731872032
In Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, Romania under the rule of Carol II and the Soviet Union, during the 1920s and 1930s, totalitarian regimes chose Neoclassicism for state buildings and art. Architecture was central to totalitarian regimes' expression of their permanence (despite their obvious novelty). The way totalitarian regimes drew from Classicism took many forms. When it comes to state buildings in Italy and Romania, architects attempted to fuse a modern sensibility with abstract classical forms. Two good examples of this are the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana in Rome, and the University Rectorate and Law Faculty Building in Bucharest (Bulevardul Mihail Kogălniceanu no. 36–46). In contrast, the Classicism of the Soviet Union, known as Socialist Realism, was bombastic, overloaded with ornaments and architectural sculptures, as an attempt to be in contrast with the simplicity of 'Capitalist' or 'bourgeois' styles like Art Deco or Modernism. The Lomonosov University in Moscow is a good example of this. Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader that succeeded Stalin, did not like this pompous Socialist Realist architecture from the reign of his predecessor. Because of the low speed and cost of these Neoclassical buildings, he stated that 'they spent people's money on beauty that no one needs, instead of building simpler, but more'.
In the Soviet Union, Neoclassicism was embraced as a rejection of Art Deco and Modernism, which the Communists saw as being too 'bourgeois' and 'capitalist'. This Communist Neoclassical style is known as Socialist Realism, and it was popular during the reign of Joseph Stalin (1924–1953). In fine art. Generally, it manifested through deeply idealized representations of wiry workers, shown as heroes in collective farms or industrialized cities, political assemblies, achievements of Soviet technology, and through depictions happy children staying around Vladimir Lenin or Stalin. Both subject matter and representation were carefully monitored. Artistic merit was determined by the degree to which a work contributed to the building of socialism. All artists had to join the state-controlled Union of Soviet Artists and produce work in the accepted style. The three guiding principles of Socialist Realism were party loyalty, presentation of correct ideology and accessibility. Realism, more easily understood by the masses, was the style of choice. At the beginning, in the Soviet Union, multiple competing avant-garde movements were present, notably Constructivism. However, as Stalin consolidated his power towards the end of the 1920s, avant-garde art and architecture were suppressed and eventually outlawed and official state styles were established. After Boris Iofan won the competition for the design of the Palace of the Soviets with a stepped classical tower, surmounted by a giant statue of Lenin, architecture soon reverted to pre-Revolutionary styles of art and architecture, untainted by Constructivism's perceived Western influence. (2025). 9780500293225, Thamed & Hudson. ISBN 9780500293225 Although Socialist Realism in architecture ended more or less with the death of Stalin and the rise of Nikita Khrushchev, paintings in this style continued to be produced, especially in countries where there was a strong personality cult of the leader in power, like in the case of Mao Zedong's China, Kim Il Sung's North Korea, or Nicolae Ceaușescu's Romania.
The Nazis suppressed Germany's vibrant avant-garde culture once they gained control of the government in 1933. Albert Speer was set as Adolf Hitler's architectural advisor in 1934, and he tried to create an architecture that would both reflect the perceived unity of the German people and act as backdrop to the Nazis' expressions of power. The Nazis' approach to architecture was riddled with contradictions: while Hitler and Speer's plans for reordering Berlin aspired to imitate imperial Rome, in rural contexts Nazi buildings took inspiration from local vernaculars, trying to channel an 'authentic' German spirit. When it come to fine art, the Nazis created the term 'Degenerate art' for Modern art, a kind of art which to them was 'un-German', 'Jewish' or 'Communist'. The Nazis hated modern art and linked it to 'Cultural Bolshevism', the conspiracy theory that art (or culture broadly) was controlled by a leftist Jewish cabal seeking to destroy the aryan race. Hitler's war on Modern art mostly consisted of an exhibition that tried to discredit Modern artists, called the 'Degenerate Art exhibition' (). This exhibition was displayed next to the Great Exhibition of German Art, which consisted of artworks that the Nazis approved of. This way, the visitors of both exhibitions could compare the art labeled by the regime as 'good' and 'bad'. With a similar attitude, the regime closed in 1931 the Bauhaus, an avant-garde art school in Dessau that was extremely influential post-war. It reopened in Berlin in 1932, but was closed again in 1933.
Compared to Germany and the Soviet Union, in Italy the avant-garde contributed to state architecture. Classical architecture was also an influence, echoing Benito Mussolini's far cruder attempts to create links between his Fascist regime and ancient Rome. Some Italian architects tried to create fusions between Modernism and Classicism, like Marcello Piacentini with the Sapienza University of Rome, or Giuseppe Terragni with Casa del Fascio in Como.
In Romania, towards the late 1930s, influenced by the Autocratic tendency of King Carol II, multiple state buildings were erected. They were Neoclassical, many very similar with what was popular in the same years in Fascist Italy. Examples in Bucharest include the University Rectorate and Law Faculty Building (Bulevardul Mihail Kogălniceanu no. 36–46), the Kretzulescu Apartment Building (Calea Victoriei no. 45), the CFR Building (Bulevardul Dinicu Golescu no. 38) or the Victoria Palace (Piața Victoriei no. 1). The Royal Palace, whose interiors are mostly done in a neo-Adam style, stands out by being more decorated, a little closer to the architecture before World War I.
An early text questioning Modernism was by architect Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966), in which he recommended a revival of the 'presence of the past' in architectural design. He tried to include in his own buildings qualities that he described as 'inclusion, inconsistency, compromise, accommodation, adaptation, superadjacency, equivalence, multiple focus, juxtaposition, or good and bad space.' (2025). 9781529420302, Laurence King. ISBN 9781529420302 Robert Venturi's work reflected the broader counter-cultural mood of the 1960s which saw younger generations begin to question and challenge the political, social and racial realities with which they found themselves confronted. This rejection of Modernism is known as Postmodernism. Robert Venturi parodies Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's well-known maxim 'less is more' with 'less is a bore'. During the 1980s and 1990s, some Postmodern architects found a refuge in a sort of Neo-Neoclassicism. Their use of Classicism was not limited only to ornaments, using more or less proportions and other principles too. Post-Modern Classicism had been variously described by some people as 'camp' or 'kitsch'. An architect who has been remarked through Post-Modern Classicism is Ricardo Bofill. His work includes two housing projects of titanic scale near Paris, known as Les Arcades du Lac from 1975 to 1981, and Les Espaces d'Abraxas from 1978 to 1983. A building that stands out through its revivalism is the J. Paul Getty Museum, in Malibu, California, from 1970 to 1975, inspired by the ancient Roman Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum. The J. Paul Getty Museum is far closer to 19th century Neoclassicism, like the Pompejanum in Aschaffenburg, Germany, than to Post-Modern Classicism of the 1980s. (2025). 9781529420302, Laurence King. ISBN 9781529420302
Entrance of Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace (cropped).jpg|Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London, by John Simpson, 2000-2002 (2025). 9781529420302, Laurence King. ISBN 9781529420302
File:Schermerhorn.jpg|Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Nashville, Tennessee, US, by Earl Swensson Associates, David M. Schwarz Architects, and Hastings Architecture Associates, 2006
Berlin James-Simon-Galerie asv2019-07 img2.jpg|James Simon Gallery, entrance of the Neues Museum, Berlin, by David Chipperfield, 2009–2018
As of the first decade of the 21st century, contemporary Neoclassical architecture is usually classed under the umbrella term of New Classical Architecture. Sometimes it is also referred to as Neo-Historicism or Traditionalism. Also, a number of pieces of postmodern architecture draw inspiration from and include explicit references to Neoclassicism, Antigone District and the National Theatre of Catalonia in Barcelona among them. Postmodern architecture occasionally includes historical elements, like columns, capitals or the tympanum.
For sincere traditional-style architecture that sticks to regional architecture, materials and craftsmanship, the term Traditional Architecture (or vernacular) is mostly used. The Driehaus Architecture Prize is awarded to major contributors in the field of 21st century traditional or classical architecture, and comes with a prize money twice as high as that of the modernist Pritzker Prize. Driehaus Prize for New Classical Architecture at Notre Dame SoA – Together, the $200,000 Driehaus Prize and the $50,000 Reed Award represent the most significant recognition for classicism in the contemporary built environment.; retained March 7, 2014
In the United States, various contemporary public buildings are built in Neoclassical style, with the 2006 Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville being an example.
In Britain, a number of architects are active in the Neoclassical style. Examples of their work include two university libraries: Quinlan Terry's Maitland Robinson Library at Downing College and Robert Adam Architects' Sackler Library.
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