Neoclassicism

The Enlightenment wanted reason, virtue and the austere ideals of antiquity.

The excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum and the writings of Winckelmann sparked a new fascination with antiquity. Art was to have “noble simplicity and quiet grandeur”, not the playfulness of the Rococo.

Jacques-Louis David painted stern images of duty and sacrifice that became the visual language of the Revolution. Canova and Thorvaldsen produced smooth, idealised marble. Ingres carried the line on into the 19th century.

In Sweden, Neoclassicism became the Gustavian style. Gustav III gathered artists such as Sergel and Masreliez around him, and classical form shaped everything from palaces to chairs.