Neoclassicism , also spelled Neo-classicism , emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative 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. 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.
147-612: In the history of art, Parisian Atticism is a movement in French painting from 1640 to 1660, when painters working in Paris elaborated a rigorous neo-classical style, seeking sobriety, luminosity and harmony, and referring to the Greco-Roman world. Leading exponents of the style were Eustache Le Sueur , Laurent de La Hyre , and Jacques Stella ; other practitioners include Sébastien Bourdon . This art movement –related article
294-486: A Platonist or Pythagorean, in that such a one would have "the viewpoint of logical simplicity as an indispensable and effective tool of his research." British philosopher Alfred N. Whitehead is often misquoted of uttering the famous saying of "All of Western philosophy is a footnote to Plato." Many recent philosophers have also diverged from what some would describe as ideals characteristic of traditional Platonism. Friedrich Nietzsche notoriously attacked Plato's "idea of
441-402: 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
588-493: A belief in the immortality of the soul, and several dialogues end with long speeches imagining the afterlife . In the Timaeus , Socrates locates the parts of the soul within the human body: Reason is located in the head, spirit in the top third of the torso , and the appetite in the middle third of the torso, down to the navel . Furthermore, Plato evinces a belief in the theory of reincarnation in multiple dialogues (such as
735-400: A descendant of two kings, Codrus and Melanthus . His mother was Perictione , descendant of Solon , a statesman credited with laying the foundations of Athenian democracy . Plato had two brothers, Glaucon and Adeimantus , a sister, Potone , and a half brother, Antiphon. Plato may have travelled to Italy, Sicily , Egypt, and Cyrene . At 40, he founded a school of philosophy,
882-489: A different doctrine with respect to Forms to Plato and Socrates. Aristotle suggests that Socrates' idea of forms can be discovered through investigation of the natural world, unlike Plato's Forms that exist beyond and outside the ordinary range of human understanding. The Socratic problem concerns how to reconcile these various accounts. The precise relationship between Plato and Socrates remains an area of contention among scholars. Although Socrates influenced Plato directly,
1029-534: A direct parallel with the Augustan style of landscape design. The links are clearly seen in the work of Alexander Pope . The best surviving examples of Neoclassical English gardens are Chiswick House , Stowe House and Stourhead . 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
1176-483: A fellow disciple of Plato. A variety of sources have given accounts of Plato's death. One story, based on a mutilated manuscript, suggests Plato died in his bed, whilst a young Thracian girl played the flute to him. Another tradition suggests Plato died at a wedding feast. The account is based on Diogenes Laërtius's reference to an account by Hermippus, a third-century Alexandrian. According to Tertullian , Plato simply died in his sleep. According to Philodemus, Plato
1323-571: A few people were capable or interested in following a reasoned philosophical discourse, but men in general are attracted by stories and tales. Consequently, then, he used the myth to convey the conclusions of the philosophical reasoning. Notable examples include the story of Atlantis , the Myth of Er , and the Allegory of the Cave . When considering the taxonomic definition of mankind , Plato proposed
1470-603: 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
1617-426: A lack of ancient models, Neoclassical sculpture tended to suffer from an excess of them. Although examples of actual Greek sculpture of the " Classical Period " beginning in about 500 BC were then very few; the most highly regarded works were mostly Roman copies. The leading Neoclassical sculptors enjoyed huge reputations in their own day, but are now less regarded, with the exception of Jean-Antoine Houdon , whose work
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#17327799906181764-558: A lightness and grace, where Thorvaldsen is more severe; the difference is exemplified in their respective groups of the Three Graces . 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 . John Flaxman
1911-460: 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 putti , mascarons of Apollo , Hermes and
2058-399: 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
2205-592: 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. If Neoclassical painting suffered from
2352-573: 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
2499-477: A participant in any of the dialogues, and with the exception of the Apology , there is no suggestion that he heard any of the dialogues firsthand. Some dialogues have no narrator but have a pure "dramatic" form, some dialogues are narrated by Socrates himself, who speaks in the first person. The Symposium is narrated by Apollodorus, a Socratic disciple, apparently to Glaucon. Apollodorus assures his listener that he
2646-580: 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. Neoclassicism is a revival of
2793-463: 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
2940-450: 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. 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
3087-540: A substitute model, as Winckelmann recommended. 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". Unlike Carstens' unrealized schemes,
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#17327799906183234-419: A tripartite class structure corresponding to the appetite/spirit/reason structure of the individual soul. The appetite/spirit/reason are analogous to the castes of society. According to Socrates, a state made up of different kinds of souls will, overall, decline from an aristocracy (rule by the best) to a timocracy (rule by the honourable), then to an oligarchy (rule by the few), then to a democracy (rule by
3381-417: A variety of neo-Renaissance, Palladian and modernized, yet recognizably classical schools. They were led by architects born in the 1870s, who reached creative peak before World War I, like Ivan Fomin , Vladimir Shchuko and Ivan Zholtovsky . When the economy recovered in the 1920s, these architects and their followers continued working in primarily modernist environment; some (Zholtovsky) strictly followed
3528-414: A white background or a coloured one). Motifs were placed geometrically. The walls were covered in stuccos , wallpaper fabrics. Fireplace mantels were made of white marble, having caryatids at their corners, or other elements: obelisks , sphinxes , winged lions, and so on. Bronze objects were placed on their tops, including mantel clocks . The doors consisted of simple rectangular panels, decorated with
3675-431: Is a nickname . According to Diogenes Laërtius, writing hundreds of years after Plato's death, his birth name was Aristocles ( Ἀριστοκλῆς ), meaning 'best reputation'. "Platon" sounds like "Platus" or "Platos", meaning "broad", and according to Diogenes' sources, Plato gained his nickname either from his wrestling coach, Ariston of Argos, who dubbed him "broad" on account of his chest and shoulders, or he gained it from
3822-551: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Neoclassicism European Neoclassicism in the visual arts began c. 1760 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 Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece , and drawn directly from 16th-century Renaissance Classicism . Each "neo"-classicism movement selects some models among
3969-815: Is already implicitly known, or at exposing the contradictions and muddles of an opponent's position." Karl Popper , on the other hand, claims that dialectic is the art of intuition for "visualising the divine originals, the Forms or Ideas, of unveiling the Great Mystery behind the common man's everyday world of appearances". During the early Renaissance, the Greek language and, along with it, Plato's texts were reintroduced to Western Europe by Byzantine scholars. Some 250 known manuscripts of Plato survive. In September or October 1484 Filippo Valori and Francesco Berlinghieri printed 1025 copies of Ficino's translation, using
4116-482: Is also referenced by Jewish philosopher and Talmudic scholar Maimonides in his The Guide for the Perplexed . The works of Plato were again revived at the times of Islamic Golden ages with other Greek contents through their translation from Greek to Arabic. Neoplatonism was revived from its founding father, Plotinus. Neoplatonism, a philosophical current that permeated Islamic scholarship, accentuated one facet of
4263-502: Is by no means universally accepted, though Plato's works are still often characterized as falling at least roughly into three groups stylistically. Plato's unwritten doctrines are, according to some ancient sources, the most fundamental metaphysical teaching of Plato, which he disclosed only orally, and some say only to his most trusted fellows, and which he may have kept secret from the public, although many modern scholars doubt these claims. A reason for not revealing it to everyone
4410-475: 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
4557-495: 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
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4704-576: 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. It is hard to recapture the radical and exciting nature of early Neoclassical painting for contemporary audiences; it now strikes even those writers favourably inclined to it as "insipid" and "almost entirely uninteresting to us"—some of Kenneth Clark 's comments on Anton Raphael Mengs ' ambitious Parnassus at
4851-502: Is partially discussed in Phaedrus where Plato criticizes the written transmission of knowledge as faulty, favouring instead the spoken logos : "he who has knowledge of the just and the good and beautiful ... will not, when in earnest, write them in ink, sowing them through a pen with words, which cannot defend themselves by argument and cannot teach the truth effectually." It is, however, said that Plato once disclosed this knowledge to
4998-412: Is recounting the story, which took place when he himself was an infant, not from his own memory, but as remembered by Aristodemus, who told him the story years ago. The Theaetetus is also a peculiar case: a dialogue in dramatic form embedded within another dialogue in dramatic form. Some scholars take this as an indication that Plato had by this date wearied of the narrated form. In most of the dialogues,
5145-432: 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 In 1905–1914 Russian architecture passed through a brief but influential period of Neoclassical revival ; the trend began with recreation of Empire style of Alexandrine period and quickly expanded into
5292-482: Is virtue. In the Republic , Plato poses the question, "What is justice?" and by examining both individual justice and the justice that informs societies, Plato is able not only to inform metaphysics, but also ethics and politics with the question: "What is the basis of moral and social obligation?" Plato's well-known answer rests upon the fundamental responsibility to seek wisdom, wisdom which leads to an understanding of
5439-535: The Gorgias and his ambivalence toward rhetoric expressed in the Phaedrus . But other contemporary researchers contest the idea that Plato despised rhetoric and instead view his dialogues as a dramatization of complex rhetorical principles. Plato made abundant use of mythological narratives in his own work; It is generally agreed that the main purpose for Plato in using myths was didactic. He considered that only
5586-732: 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". From about 1800
5733-538: The Laws features Socrates, although many dialogues, including the Timaeus and Statesman , feature him speaking only rarely. Leo Strauss notes that Socrates' reputation for irony casts doubt on whether Plato's Socrates is expressing sincere beliefs. Xenophon 's Memorabilia and Aristophanes 's The Clouds seem to present a somewhat different portrait of Socrates from the one Plato paints. Aristotle attributes
5880-667: The Academy . It was located in Athens, on a plot of land in the Grove of Hecademus or Academus , named after an Attic hero in Greek mythology . The Academy operated until it was destroyed by Sulla in 84 BC. Many philosophers studied at the Academy, the most prominent being Aristotle. According to Diogenes Laërtius , throughout his later life, Plato became entangled with the politics of
6027-656: The Gorgon , swans, lions, the heads of oxen, horses and wild beasts, butterflies, claws, winged chimeras , sphinxes , bucrania , 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, palmettes , cornucopias , beads, amphoras , tripods, imbricated disks, caduceuses of Mercury , vases, helmets, burning torches, winged trumpet players, and ancient musical instruments (tubas, rattles and especially lyres ). Despite their antique derivation,
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6174-632: 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. During the 19th century, the predominant style in Wallachia and Moldavia , later the Kingdom of Romania , was Classicism which lasted for
6321-531: The Meno , Socrates uses a geometrical example to expound Plato's view that knowledge in this latter sense is acquired by recollection. Socrates elicits a fact concerning a geometrical construction from a slave boy, who could not have otherwise known the fact (due to the slave boy's lack of education). The knowledge must be of, Socrates concludes, an eternal, non-perceptible Form. Plato also discusses several aspects of epistemology . In several dialogues, Socrates inverts
6468-452: The Phaedo and Timaeus ). Scholars debate whether he intends the theory to be literally true, however. He uses this idea of reincarnation to introduce the concept that knowledge is a matter of recollection of things acquainted with before one is born, and not of observation or study. Keeping with the theme of admitting his own ignorance, Socrates regularly complains of his forgetfulness. In
6615-665: The Renaissance , George Gemistos Plethon brought Plato's original writings to Florence from Constantinople in the century of its fall. Many of the greatest early modern scientists and artists who broke with Scholasticism , with the support of the Plato-inspired Lorenzo (grandson of Cosimo), saw Plato's philosophy as the basis for progress in the arts and sciences. The 17th century Cambridge Platonists , sought to reconcile Plato's more problematic beliefs, such as metempsychosis and polyamory, with Christianity. By
6762-773: The Scholastic philosophers referred to Aristotle as "the Philosopher". The only Platonic work known to western scholarship was Timaeus , until translations were made after the fall of Constantinople , which occurred during 1453. However, the study of Plato continued in the Byzantine Empire , the Caliphates during the Islamic Golden Age , and Spain during the Golden age of Jewish culture . Plato
6909-494: The Villa Albani , by the artist whom his friend Winckelmann described as "the greatest artist of his own, and perhaps of later times". The drawings, subsequently turned into prints , of John Flaxman used very simple line drawing (thought to be the purest classical medium ) and figures mostly in profile to depict The Odyssey and other subjects, and once "fired the artistic youth of Europe" but are now "neglected", while
7056-729: The etchings 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 Vedute (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". The Swiss-born Henry Fuseli spent most of his career in England, and while his fundamental style
7203-489: The fluting and triglyphs 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, pyramids , figures wearing nemeses , caryatids 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
7350-412: The history paintings of Angelica Kauffman , mainly a portraitist, are described as having "an unctuous softness and tediousness" by Fritz Novotny . Rococo frivolity and Baroque movement had been stripped away but many artists struggled to put anything in their place, and in the absence of ancient examples for history painting, other than the Greek vases used by Flaxman, Raphael tended to be used as
7497-627: The justified true belief definition in the Theaetetus , concluding that justification (or an "account") would require knowledge of difference , meaning that the definition of knowledge is circular . In the Sophist , Statesman , Republic , Timaeus , and the Parmenides , Plato associates knowledge with the apprehension of unchanging Forms and their relationships to one another (which he calls "expertise" in dialectic), including through
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#17327799906187644-457: The metaphysical tradition that strongly influenced Plato and continues today. Heraclitus viewed all things as continuously changing , that one cannot "step into the same river twice" due to the ever-changing waters flowing through it, and all things exist as a contraposition of opposites. According to Diogenes Laërtius, Plato received these ideas through Heraclitus' disciple Cratylus . Parmenides adopted an altogether contrary vision, arguing for
7791-435: The "twin pillars of Platonism" as the theory of Forms, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the doctrine of immortality of the soul. In the dialogues Socrates regularly asks for the meaning of a general term (e. g. justice, truth, beauty), and criticizes those who instead give him particular examples, rather than the quality shared by all examples. "Platonism" and its theory of Forms (also known as 'theory of Ideas') denies
7938-464: The 19th century, Plato's reputation was restored, and at least on par with Aristotle's. Plato's influence has been especially strong in mathematics and the sciences. Plato's resurgence further inspired some of the greatest advances in logic since Aristotle, primarily through Gottlob Frege . Albert Einstein suggested that the scientist who takes philosophy seriously would have to avoid systematization and take on many different roles, and possibly appear as
8085-595: 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. 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
8232-571: The 1st century AD: Axiochus , Definitions , Demodocus , Epigrams , Eryxias , Halcyon , On Justice , On Virtue , Sisyphus . No one knows the exact order Plato's dialogues were written in, nor the extent to which some might have been later revised and rewritten. The works are usually grouped into Early (sometimes by some into Transitional ), Middle , and Late period; The following represents one relatively common division amongst developmentalist scholars. Whereas those classified as "early dialogues" often conclude in aporia ,
8379-615: 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". 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 Gothic revivals —, although from
8526-790: The Federal style, has developed completely in the 18th and early 19th centuries, which has flourished being influenced by Britannic taste. Under the impulse of Neoclassicism, architecture, interiors, and furniture have been created. The style, although it has numerous characteristics which differ from state to state, is unitary. The structures of architecture, interiors, and furniture are Classicist, and incorporate Baroque and Rococo influences. The shapes used include rectangles, ovals, and crescents. Stucco or wooden panels on walls and ceilings reproduce Classicist motifs. Furniture tend to be decorated with floral marquetry and bronze or brass inlays (sometimes gilded ). In England, Augustan literature had
8673-755: The Form of the Good. Plato views "The Good" as the supreme Form, somehow existing even "beyond being". In this manner, justice is obtained when knowledge of how to fulfill one's moral and political function in society is put into practice. The dialogues also discuss politics. Some of Plato's most famous doctrines are contained in the Republic as well as in the Laws and the Statesman . Because these opinions are not spoken directly by Plato and vary between dialogues, they cannot be straightforwardly assumed as representing Plato's own views. Socrates asserts that societies have
8820-564: The Forms are the causes of everything else, he [i.e. Plato] supposed that their elements are the elements of all things. Accordingly, the material principle is the Great and Small [i.e. the Dyad], and the essence is the One ( τὸ ἕν ), since the numbers are derived from the Great and Small by participation in the One". "From this account it is clear that he only employed two causes: that of the essence, and
8967-626: The Forms were the truths of geometry , such as the Pythagorean theorem . The theory of Forms is first introduced in the Phaedo dialogue (also known as On the Soul ), wherein Socrates disputes the pluralism of Anaxagoras , then the most popular response to Heraclitus and Parmenides. For Plato, as was characteristic of ancient Greek philosophy, the soul was that which gave life. Plato advocates
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#17327799906189114-403: The Great 's lover, Count Grigory Orlov , designed by an Italian architect with a team of Italian stuccadori : 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 engravings ) and more consciously archaeological, is associated with
9261-542: The Islamic context, Neoplatonism facilitated the integration of Platonic philosophy with mystical Islamic thought, fostering a synthesis of ancient philosophical wisdom and religious insight. Inspired by Plato's Republic, Al-Farabi extended his inquiry beyond mere political theory, proposing an ideal city governed by philosopher-kings . Many of these commentaries on Plato were translated from Arabic into Latin and as such influenced Medieval scholastic philosophers. During
9408-856: 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 , cornucopias , mascarons , Ancient urns, tripods, perfume burners, dolphins, ram and lion heads, chimeras , and gryphons . Greco-Roman architectural motifs are also heavily used: flutings , pilasters (fluted and unfluted), fluted balusters (twisted and straight), columns ( engaged and unengaged, sometimes replaced by caryathids ), volute corbels , triglyphs with guttae (in relief and trompe-l'œil ). Neoclassicism
9555-451: The Qur’anic conception of God—the transcendent—while seemingly neglecting another—the creative. This philosophical tradition, introduced by Al-Farabi and subsequently elaborated upon by figures such as Avicenna , postulated that all phenomena emanated from the divine source. It functioned as a conduit, bridging the transcendental nature of the divine with the tangible reality of creation. In
9702-577: The Revolution, the court portraitist Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun had held a Greek supper where the ladies wore plain white Grecian tunics. 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
9849-448: 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
9996-595: 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
10143-896: 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 breeched 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
10290-540: The United States did not have a sculpture tradition of its own, save in the areas of tombstones, weathervanes and ship figureheads, 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 . Neoclassical art was traditional and new, historical and modern, conservative and progressive all at
10437-466: 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,
10584-552: The ages. Through Neoplatonism , he also greatly influenced both Christian and Islamic philosophy . In modern times, Alfred North Whitehead famously said: "the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato." There is a traditional story that Plato ( ‹See Tfd› Greek : Πλάτων , Plátōn , from Ancient Greek : πλατύς , romanized : platys , lit. 'broad')
10731-558: The breadth of his eloquence, or his wide forehead. Philodemus , in extracts from the Herculaneum papyri , corroborates the claim that Plato was named for his "broad forehead". Seneca the Younger , writing hundreds of years after Plato's death, writes "His very name was given him because of his broad chest." According to the traditional story, Plato was originally named after his paternal grandfather, supposedly called Aristocles;
10878-499: The building From the second half of the 18th century through the 19th century, Italy went through a great deal of socio-economic changes, several foreign invasions and the turbulent Risorgimento, which resulted in Italian unification in 1861. Thus, Italian art went through a series of minor and major changes in style. Italian Neoclassicism was the earliest manifestation of the general period known as Neoclassicism and lasted more than
11025-486: The causation of good and of evil". The most important aspect of this interpretation of Plato's metaphysics is the continuity between his teaching and the Neoplatonic interpretation of Plotinus or Ficino which has been considered erroneous by many but may in fact have been directly influenced by oral transmission of Plato's doctrine. A modern scholar who recognized the importance of the unwritten doctrine of Plato
11172-491: The character of a writer were attributed to that writer even when the actual author was unknown. The works taken as genuine in antiquity but are now doubted by at least some modern scholars are: Alcibiades I (*), Alcibiades II (‡), Clitophon (*), Epinomis (‡), Letters (*), Hipparchus (‡), Menexenus (*), Minos (‡), Lovers (‡), Theages (‡) The following works were transmitted under Plato's name in antiquity, but were already considered spurious by
11319-420: The city of Syracuse , where he attempted to replace the tyrant Dionysius , with Dionysius's brother-in-law, Dion of Syracuse , whom Plato had recruited as one of his followers, but the tyrant himself turned against Plato. Plato almost faced death, but was sold into slavery. Anniceris , a Cyrenaic philosopher, bought Plato's freedom for twenty minas , and sent him home. Philodemus however states that Plato
11466-612: The classical canon, others (Fomin, Schuko, Ilya Golosov ) developed their own modernized styles. 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,
11613-400: 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. The Adam style was created by two brothers, Adam and James , who published in 1777 a volume of etchings with interior ornamentation. In the interior decoration made after Robert Adam's drawings,
11760-484: The common man's intuition about what is knowable and what is real. Reality is unavailable to those who use their senses. Socrates says that he who sees with his eyes is blind. While most people take the objects of their senses to be real if anything is, Socrates is contemptuous of people who think that something has to be graspable in the hands to be real. In the Theaetetus , he says such people are eu amousoi (εὖ ἄμουσοι), an expression that means literally, "happily without
11907-547: The complete written philosophical work of Plato, based on the first century AD arrangement of Thrasyllus of Mendes . The modern standard complete English edition is the 1997 Hackett Plato: Complete Works , edited by John M. Cooper. Thirty-five dialogues and thirteen letters (the Epistles ) have traditionally been ascribed to Plato, though modern scholarship doubts the authenticity of at least some of these. Jowett mentions in his Appendix to Menexenus, that works which bore
12054-410: The concept of form as distinct from matter, and that the physical world is an imitation of an eternal mathematical world. These ideas were very influential on Heraclitus, Parmenides and Plato. The two philosophers Heraclitus and Parmenides , influenced by earlier pre-Socratic Greek philosophers such as Pythagoras and Xenophanes , departed from mythological explanations for the universe and began
12201-451: The country and devoted himself to the highly distinctive "character heads" of bald figures pulling extreme facial expressions. 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
12348-817: 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 bas reliefs and "black basaltes" vases . The style
12495-545: 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
12642-531: 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 ,
12789-459: The famous Euthyphro dilemma in the dialogue of the same name: "Is the pious ( τὸ ὅσιον ) loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?" ( 10a ) In the Protagoras dialogue it is argued through Socrates that virtue is innate and cannot be learned, that no one does bad on purpose, and to know what is good results in doing what is good; that knowledge
12936-630: The figures being white and the background blue. On the American continent , architecture and interior decoration have been highly influenced by the styles developed in Europe. The French taste has highly marked its presence in the southern states (after the French Revolution some emigrants have moved here, and in Canada a big part of the population has French origins). The practical spirit and
13083-582: 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", 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
13230-479: 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 history paintings ; 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
13377-544: The good itself" along with many fundamentals of Christian morality, which he interpreted as "Platonism for the masses" in Beyond Good and Evil (1886). Martin Heidegger argued against Plato's alleged obfuscation of Being in his incomplete tome, Being and Time (1927). Karl Popper argued in the first volume of The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945) that Plato's proposal for a " utopian " political regime in
13524-485: 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
13671-596: 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 " and Empire . 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
13818-768: The idea of a changeless, eternal universe and the view that change is an illusion. Plato's most self-critical dialogue is the Parmenides , which features Parmenides and his student Zeno , which criticizes Plato's own metaphysical theories. Plato's Sophist dialogue includes an Eleatic stranger. These ideas about change and permanence, or becoming and Being, influenced Plato in formulating his theory of Forms. In Plato's dialogues, Socrates and his company of disputants had something to say on many subjects, including several aspects of metaphysics . These include religion and science, human nature, love, and sexuality. More than one dialogue contrasts perception and reality , nature and custom, and body and soul. Francis Cornford identified
13965-547: The influence of Pythagoras , or in a broader sense, the Pythagoreans, such as Archytas also appears to have been significant. Aristotle and Cicero both claimed that the philosophy of Plato closely followed the teachings of the Pythagoreans . According to R. M. Hare , this influence consists of three points: Pythagoras held that all things are number, and the cosmos comes from numerical principles. He introduced
14112-475: 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
14259-570: 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 Napoleonic period, turning to frankly propagandistic works, but had to leave France for exile in Brussels at the Bourbon Restoration . David's many students included Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres , who saw himself as a classicist throughout his long career, despite
14406-614: 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 , Bellini and, later, Verdi dominated the scene in Italian classical and romantic music. The art of Francesco Hayez and especially that of
14553-535: The major areas of both theoretical philosophy and practical philosophy , and was the founder of the Platonic Academy , a philosophical school in Athens where Plato taught the doctrines that would later become known as Platonism . Plato's most famous contribution is the theory of forms (or ideas) , which has been interpreted as advancing a solution to what is now known as the problem of universals . He
14700-546: The many styles and spirit of classic antiquity inspired directly from the classical period, which coincided and reflected the developments in philosophy and other areas of the Age of Enlightenment, and was initially a reaction against the excesses of the preceding Rococo style. While the movement is often described as the opposed counterpart of Romanticism , this is a great over-simplification that tends not to be sustainable when specific artists or works are considered. The case of
14847-556: The material cause; for the Forms are the cause of the essence in everything else, and the One is the cause of it in the Forms. He also tells us what the material substrate is of which the Forms are predicated in the case of sensible things, and the One in that of the Forms ;– that it is this the duality (the Dyad, ἡ δυάς ), the Great and Small ( τὸ μέγα καὶ τὸ μικρόν ). Further, he assigned to these two elements respectively
14994-660: The material situation of the Americans at that time gave the interiors a typic atmosphere. All the American furniture, carpets, tableware, ceramic, and silverware, with all the European influences, and sometimes Islamic , Turkish or Asian , were made in conformity with the American norms, taste, and functional requirements. There have existed in the US a period of the Queen Anne style , and an Chippendale one. A style of its own,
15141-481: 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". 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
15288-496: 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: pedimented window frames turned into gilded mirrors, fireplaces topped with temple fronts. The new interiors sought to recreate an authentically Roman and genuinely interior vocabulary. Techniques employed in
15435-405: The muses". In other words, such people are willingly ignorant, living without divine inspiration and access to higher insights about reality. Many have interpreted Plato as stating – even having been the first to write – that knowledge is justified true belief , an influential view that informed future developments in epistemology. Plato also identified problems with
15582-488: The name "Plato" was only used as a nickname; and the philosopher could not have been named "Plato" because that name does not occur previously in his family line. Modern scholarship tends to reject the "Aristocles" story. Plato always called himself Platon . Platon was a fairly common name (31 instances are known from Athens alone), including people named before Plato was born. Robin Waterfield states that Plato
15729-713: The notable figures of the Enlightenment, and travelled to America to produce a statue of George Washington , as well as busts of Thomas Jefferson , Benjamin Franklin and other founders of the new republic. 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
15876-453: 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 antiquity ,
16023-660: The other hand, if one derives one's account of something by way of the non-sensible Forms, because these Forms are unchanging, so too is the account derived from them. That apprehension of Forms is required for knowledge may be taken to cohere with Plato's theory in the Theaetetus and Meno . Indeed, the apprehension of Forms may be at the base of the account required for justification, in that it offers foundational knowledge which itself needs no account, thereby avoiding an infinite regression . Several dialogues discuss ethics including virtue and vice, pleasure and pain, crime and punishment, and justice and medicine. Socrates presents
16170-538: The other national variants of neoclassicism. It developed in opposition to the Baroque style around c. 1750 and lasted until c. 1850 . 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
16317-547: The people), and finally to tyranny (rule by one person, rule by a tyrant). Several dialogues tackle questions about art, including rhetoric and rhapsody. Socrates says that poetry is inspired by the muses , and is not rational. He speaks approvingly of this, and other forms of divine madness (drunkenness, eroticism, and dreaming) in the Phaedrus , and yet in the Republic wants to outlaw Homer's great poetry, and laughter as well. Scholars often view Plato's philosophy as at odds with rhetoric due to his criticisms of rhetoric in
16464-469: The primary speaker is Socrates, who employs a method of questioning which proceeds by a dialogue form called dialectic. The role of dialectic in Plato's thought is contested but there are two main interpretations: a type of reasoning and a method of intuition. Simon Blackburn adopts the first, saying that Plato's dialectic is "the process of eliciting the truth by means of questions aimed at opening out what
16611-586: The printing press [ it ] at the Dominican convent of San Jacopo di Ripoli [ it ] . The 1578 edition of Plato's complete works published by Henricus Stephanus ( Henri Estienne ) in Geneva also included parallel Latin translation and running commentary by Joannes Serranus ( Jean de Serres ). It was this edition which established standard Stephanus pagination , still in use today. The text of Plato as received today apparently represents
16758-420: The processes of collection and division . More explicitly, Plato himself argues in the Timaeus that knowledge is always proportionate to the realm from which it is gained. In other words, if one derives one's account of something experientially, because the world of sense is in flux, the views therein attained will be mere opinions. Meanwhile, opinions are characterized by a lack of necessity and stability. On
16905-613: The public in his lecture On the Good ( Περὶ τἀγαθοῦ ), in which the Good ( τὸ ἀγαθόν ) is identified with the One (the Unity, τὸ ἕν ), the fundamental ontological principle. The first witness who mentions its existence is Aristotle, who in his Physics writes: "It is true, indeed, that the account he gives there [i.e. in Timaeus ] of the participant is different from what he says in his so-called unwritten teachings ( Ancient Greek : ἄγραφα δόγματα , romanized : agrapha dogmata )." In Metaphysics he writes: "Now since
17052-514: 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
17199-417: 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
17346-695: The reality of the material world, considering it only an image or copy of the real world. According to this theory of Forms, there are these two kinds of things: the apparent world of material objects grasped by the senses, which constantly changes, and an unchanging and unseen world of Forms, grasped by reason ( λογική ). Plato's Forms represent types of things, as well as properties , patterns, and relations , which are referred to as objects. Just as individual tables, chairs, and cars refer to objects in this world, 'tableness', 'chairness', and 'carness', as well as e.g. justice , truth , and beauty refer to objects in another world. One of Plato's most cited examples for
17493-441: 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
17640-473: The same source of inspiration, classical antiquity. The Adam style emphasizes refined rectangular mirrors, framed like paintings (in frames with stylised leafs), 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
17787-455: The same time. 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 Sweden , Poland and Russia . At first, classicizing decor was grafted onto familiar European forms, as in the interiors for Catherine
17934-444: 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
18081-589: The second half of the 18th century, before moving to Paris. Painters of Vedute , 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:
18228-555: 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 pantaloon , over the culotte or knee-breeches of the Ancien Régime . Even when David designed
18375-456: The so-called "middle dialogues" provide more clearly stated positive teachings that are often ascribed to Plato such as the theory of Forms. The remaining dialogues are classified as "late" and are generally agreed to be difficult and challenging pieces of philosophy. It should, however, be kept in mind that many of the positions in the ordering are still highly disputed, and also that the very notion that Plato's dialogues can or should be "ordered"
18522-457: 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,
18669-577: The supposed main champion of late Neoclassicism, Ingres , demonstrates this especially well. The revival can be traced to the establishment of formal archaeology . 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
18816-492: The term "featherless biped", and later ζῷον πολιτικόν ( zōon politikon ), a "political" or "state-building" animal ( Aristotle 's term, based on Plato's Statesman ). Diogenes the Cynic took issue with the former definition, reportedly producing a recently plucked chicken with the exclamation of "Here is Plato’s man!" (variously translated as "Behold, a man!"; "Here is a human!" etc.). Plato never presents himself as
18963-696: The trouser was still being carefully avoided in The Raft of the Medusa , completed in 1819. Plato Plato ( / ˈ p l eɪ t oʊ / PLAY -toe ; Greek : Πλάτων, Plátōn , born c. 428-423 BC, died 348 BC), was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the written dialogue and dialectic forms. He raised problems for what became all
19110-487: The walls, ceilings, doors, and any other surface, are divided into big panels: rectangular, round, square, with stuccos and Greco-Roman motifs at the edges. Ornaments used include festoons , 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
19257-628: 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 engravings which were subtly smoothed and regularized, "corrected" and "restored" monuments of Greece, not always consciously. The Empire style ,
19404-495: Was Heinrich Gomperz who described it in his speech during the 7th International Congress of Philosophy in 1930. All the sources related to the ἄγραφα δόγματα have been collected by Konrad Gaiser and published as Testimonia Platonica . Plato's thought is often compared with that of his most famous student, Aristotle , whose reputation during the Western Middle Ages so completely eclipsed that of Plato that
19551-590: 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 , one of the few Neoclassical sculptors to die young, were the leading German artists, 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
19698-519: 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
19845-514: Was buried in the garden of his academy in Athens, close to the sacred shrine of the Muses. In 2024, a scroll found at Herculaneum was deciphered, that confirmed some previous theories. The papyrus says that before death Plato "retained enough lucidity to critique the musician for her lack of rhythm", and that he was buried "in his designated garden in the Academy of Athens". Plato never speaks in his own voice in his dialogues ; every dialogue except
19992-538: Was decisively influenced by the pre-Socratic thinkers Pythagoras , Heraclitus , and Parmenides , although much of what is known about them is derived from Plato himself. Along with his teacher Socrates , and Aristotle , his student, Plato is a central figure in the history of Western philosophy . Plato's entire body of work is believed to have survived intact for over 2,400 years—unlike that of nearly all of his contemporaries. Although their popularity has fluctuated, they have consistently been read and studied through
20139-505: 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. 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
20286-633: 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,
20433-684: 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, 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
20580-401: Was mainly portraits, very often as busts, which do not sacrifice a strong impression of the sitter's personality to idealism. His style became more classical as his long career continued, and represents a rather smooth progression from Rococo charm to classical dignity. Unlike some Neoclassical sculptors he did not insist on his sitters wearing Roman dress, or being unclothed. He portrayed most of
20727-484: Was not a nickname, but a perfectly normal name, and "the common practice of naming a son after his grandfather was reserved for the eldest son", not Plato. According to Debra Nails, Plato's grandfather was the Aristocles who was archon in 605/4. Plato was born in Athens or Aegina , between 428 and 423 BC. He was a member of an aristocratic and influential family. His father was Ariston, who may have been
20874-443: 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 masquerade balls until
21021-540: 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. Ingres 's coronation portrait of Napoleon even borrowed from Late Antique consular diptychs and their Carolingian revival, to
21168-518: 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 gilt bronze . 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 reliefs (on
21315-609: Was sold as a slave as early as in 404 BC, when the Spartans conquered Aegina, or, alternatively, in 399 BC, immediately after the death of Socrates. After Dionysius's death, according to Plato's Seventh Letter , Dion requested Plato return to Syracuse to tutor Dionysius II , who seemed to accept Plato's teachings, but eventually became suspicious of their motives, expelling Dion and holding Plato against his will. Eventually Plato left Syracuse and Dion would return to overthrow Dionysius and rule Syracuse, before being usurped by Callippus ,
21462-485: 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
21609-649: Was unimpressed by them, citing Pliny the Younger 's comments on the decline of painting in his period. As for painting, Greek painting was utterly lost: Neoclassicist painters imaginatively revived it, partly through bas-relief friezes , mosaics 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
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