Nyklassicisme

Nyklassicismen opstod dels som reaktion mod den kunstfærdige og mondæne rokoko, og dels som følge af datidens store interesse for antikkens kunst. I 1748 begyndte de store udgravninger ved Pompeji, og efter den franske revolutions udbrud i 1789 opstod et ønske om at genskabe klassisk romerske værdier. Nyklassicismen var tæt forbundet med romantikken, og hovedparten af malerne arbejdede med elementer fra begge retninger.

Nyklassicismen blev domineret af de to store franske malere David og hans elev Ingres, der gjorde nyklassicismen til en revolutionær stil.
Billedhuggeren Canova og de øvrige anført af Bertel Thorvaldsen var ikke nyskabende på samme måde, men fremstod mere som vogtere af de klassiske idealer fra antikken.

New Classicism arose partly as a reaction against the artificial and fashionable Rococo, partly as a consequence of the big interest in the Antique art of that time. In 1748 the many excavations began at Pompeii, and after the French Revolution in 1789 there was a wish to recreate classic Roman values. The New Classicism was closely connected to the Romanticism, and most of the painters worked with elements from both movements.

The New Classicism was dominated by the two big French painters David and his pupil Ingres making the New Classicism a revolutionary style.
The sculptor Canova and the others headed by Bertel Thorvaldsen were not innovative in the same way, but appeared more like guardians of the classical ideals from Antiquity.