Neoclassicism!

Neoclassicism

Royal Observatory at Greenwich (1675)-Sir Christopher Wren

the Neoclassical period covers 1660-1785

- it contain a number of sub-periods:

-- The Restoration (1660-1700)

-- The Augustan Age (the Age of Pope) (1700-1745)

-- The Age of Sensibility (the Age of Johnson) (1745-1785)

literary periods are convenient for the sake of scholarship – they are not hard and fast rules

Some important writers:

John Dryden

Alexander Pope

Joseph Addison

Jonathan Swift

Samuel Johnson

Edmund BurkeJonathan Swift 1667-1745 Samuel Johnson 1709-1784

Neoclassicism

"The Neo-classic Period" of English literature spans the 140 years or so after the Restoration.  (1660-1798)

Neoclassic PeriodThe Restoration and Eighteenth Century (1660-1798)

• 1660: Charles II restored to throne.• 1668: The Glorious Revolution.• 1776: The American colonies united for freedom.• 1789: The French Revolution begin.

What is classicism?

Features of Neoclassicism

Neoclassic authors manifested traditionalism and distrusted innovation, in respect for classical writers.

The neoclassic ideal was the craftsman's

ideal: literature should be an "art" which

must be perfected by long study and

practice. The neoclassic writer

strove for correctness, observed "decorum",

and respected "the rules of poetry"

established by classical works.

Ars Poetica

PoetaPoet as a maker

Neoclassicism pursued "art for humanity's sake".  Its primary subject matter was human beings as an integrated part of a society. Poetry (=literature) was held to be an imitation of human life, which is designed to give both instruction and pleasure (dulce et utile) to the people who read it.

A prime aim of poetry was to give new and perfect expression to the general nature and shared values of humanity. Poetry needed to balance the typical

and the familiar with the qualities of novelty, particularity, and invention.

An individual was viewed as a limited being who ought to

undertake accessible goals. Human beings

needed to accept their restricted positions in the natural order, or a

natural hierarchy, which was called Great Chain of Being at that

time.

Alexander Pope(1688-1744)

“True wit is . . . what oft was

thought but ne’er so well expressed.”

Jonathan Swift(1667-1745)

Definition

• Neoclassicism is a literary movement of the 17th and 18th centuries that stressed the importance of using ancient Greek and Roman (the Classical period) literature as a guide for creation and criticism.

• Hence, there is the paradox of the term: “neo,” meaning “new” and classicism, meaning “oldness.”

The Pendulum of Western Literature

• Literature in the Western world can be thought of as swinging back and forth between two artistic ideals: classicism, which stresses following tradition and the rules derived thereof, and anti-classicism (or romanticism), which stresses originality and breaking tradition.

• The Neoclassical period of the 17th and 18th centuries was a particularly strong classical period. It would, in turn, be followed by a particularly strong Romantic period in the latter 18th and early 19th century.

Aesthetics of Identity vs. Aesthetics of Opposition

• This pendulum swing can also be thought in terms of the aesthetics of identity versus the aesthetics of opposition.

• The aesthetics of identity says that we find beauty in the familiar; we like art that is like what we have seen before. Thus, classicism is an aesthetics of identity.

• The aesthetics of opposition says that we find beauty in that which is new and different. That is the creed of the romantic artist.

Basic Characteristics of Neoclassicism

• Imitation of the ancients• Aesthetics of identity• Rules for all art forms• Literature as an art/craft• Importance of reason• Concern about pride• Universal nature of humanity• Perfectability of humanity

1 -- Reverence and Imitation of the Ancients

• The explanation of that paradox can be found in the first important characteristic of neoclassicism.

• Neoclassical writers looked to ancient Greek and Roman writers for inspiration and guidance.

Reverence and Imitation of the Ancients

• They believed that writers should strive to achieve excellence by imitating those great writers of the past, not by trying to be original or innovative.

• Thus, art is rediscovery, reinvention, and imitation.

2 -- Aesthetics of Identity

• Aesthetics is the study of beauty –in this case, beauty in literature.

• There are two conflicting views on aesthetics – the aesthetics of identity and the aesthetics of opposition.

• The aesthetics of identity is when we find beauty in those works of art that are familiar to us, while the aesthetics of opposition is when we find beauty in the new and the different.

Aesthetics of Identity

• By looking back to the ancient world for standards, the neoclassical writer was working within the aesthetics of identity.

3 -- Rules for Art

• Neoclassical writers believed there were rules for all forms of art.

• These rules were derived by looking at the texts from the ancient world.

Rules for Art

• For example, in France in 1635, Cardinal Richelieu established the Academie Francaise to establish rules for the use of the French language and to preserve the “purity” of the language.

• The Academy is still a powerful organization in France.

4 -- Literature as “Art”

• Neoclassical writers tended to view literature as something “artificial” or “artificed,” something created by craft and study.

• Thus, craft and study are more important than talent or genius.

5 -- Importance of Reason

• The most important human faculty was reason.

• Reason was the spark of the divine within human beings.

• The path to knowledge and virtue was through the exercise of reason.

Importance of Reason

• For example, one of the important religious movements of the Neoclassical age was the Deist movement.

• Deism is a completely rational form of Christianity.

Deism

• Traced from Lord Herbert’s De Veritate in 1624, Deists believed:– Nature is the inherent order of the universe (The

Great Chain of Being).– God is the clockmaker who built this perfect

universe to work according to certain immutable laws.

– God does not perform miracles and did not tinker with the watch after its creation.

– The Bible is a great moral authority, but all irrational aspects within it (such as miracles and the divinity of Christ) are superstitions.

– Reason guides men to virtue

6 -- Concern About Pride

• The greatest bane to reason and the greatest danger to humanity is pride.

• All sins, in some fashion or another, are sins of pride.

7 -- Universality

• People are the same, no matter what country or age in which they live.

8 -- Perfectabilty

• Perfection (artistic, personal, social) is possible through the proper use of reason.

Neoclassicism –

the period is bounded by the “Restoration” of Charles II as the British monarch and (roughly) the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 (the beginning of the Romantic Period)

some features of the period (at least its early years) include:

strong interest in tradition (thus the “neo,” meaning new)- distrust of radical innovation

great respect for classical writers (those of Ancient Greece and Rome) => the idea of “enduring literary models”

literature was one of the arts – as an “art” it required the practice and study of a set of skills and the involvement of the artist in the forms and styles of the “classical” era (contrast this to the Romantic ideal of the lone poet, the “natural,” solitary genius....)

the Roman poet Horace produced his Ars Poetica (first century B.C.) - consisting of nearly 30 guiding maxims for aspiring poets

text (Ars Poetica) within text (commentary by Cristoforo Landino, Florence, 1482) within text (annotations by Tasso)

“HOMER is universally allow'd to have had the greatest Invention of any Writer whatever.”

Alexander Pope (1688-1744), Preface to his Translation of Homer's Iliad (1715)“As in the most regular Gardens, however Art may carry the greatest Appearance, there is not a Plant or Flower but is the Gift of Nature. The first can only reduce the Beauties of the latter into a more obvious Figure, which the common Eye may better take in, and is therefore more entertain'd with.”

“... Our Author's Work is a wild Paradise , where if we cannot see all the Beauties so distinctly as in an order'd Garden, it is only because the Number of them is infinitely greater.”

a formal English garden

Pope

-Neoclassicism continued

outside of “natural geniuses” like Shakespeare and Homer, artists strove for correctness, or decorum

the “rules” of poetry were largely governed by genre: like epic, tragedy, comedy, pastoral – derived, or “learned,” from Classical authors

humanity was taken to be the proper subject for poetry (particularly humans in their social arrangements, as opposed to the individual contemplating his or her own psyche or relationship with natural world)

poetry was held to be an “imitation” of reality/nature/humanity: “a mirror held up to nature” – though it was artifice that ordered and organized the materials that nature provided so as to reveal its “genius” and its Beauty

M.H. Abrams discussed the movement from the neoclassical conception of art and the artist to the Romantic conception of art and the artist through the metaphors of the mirror (neoclassical) and the lamp (Romantic)

Neoclassicism continued

- art should both “instruct and delight” - a classical ideal picked up by many authors, including Sir Philip Sidney (in his “A Defence of Poesie”) and John Dryden (in his “Essay of Dramatic Poesie”)

- neoclassical “humanism” addressed itself to what “mankind” had as universally in common

(a problematic ideal on many levels, including its sexism and eurocentrism)

- the ideal of balance, of accessible goals (the contrary to prideful hubris), and of natural hierarchy as symbolized by The Great Chain of Being

- Pope would write that “The bliss of man....is not to think or act beyond mankind.”

The Great Chain of Being: the divine, universal hierarchy; humans are represented by the male only.   From Didacus Valades, Rhetorica Christiana (1579).  

neoclassicism was “the art that hides art” (a phrase borrowed from Horace)

Vegas

as

neoclassical....?

Visual Arts: Visual Arts: ExamplesExamples

Neoclassical ArtDeath of Marat

Romantic ArtHow are these two pieces of art different?

What words best describe these paintings?

• NeoclassicalNeoclassical

RomanticRomantic

Neoclassical Architecture

Versailles, OrangerieVersailles, Orangerie

FrenchFrench

gardengarden

Jacques-Louis David: Oath of the HoratiiJacques-Louis David: Oath of the Horatii

David: The Sabine WomenDavid: The Sabine Women

Andrea Palladio: La Rotonda, Villa CapraAndrea Palladio: La Rotonda, Villa Capra

La rotondaLa rotonda

Palladian Palladian

windowwindow

Inigo Jones: Queens House (1635)Inigo Jones: Queens House (1635)

Inigo Jones: Wilton House (1640s)Inigo Jones: Wilton House (1640s)

Lord Burlington: Chiswick House (1729)Lord Burlington: Chiswick House (1729)

Radcliffe Camera, Oxford (James Gibbs, 1749)Radcliffe Camera, Oxford (James Gibbs, 1749)

Jean-Baptiste Jean-Baptiste Pigalle:Pigalle:

Voltaire (1770-6)Voltaire (1770-6)

Aubrey Beardsley:Aubrey Beardsley:

Belinda’s Toilette Belinda’s Toilette (1890s)(1890s)

The Battle of The Battle of

the Beaux andthe Beaux and

the Bellesthe Belles

The Cave of The Cave of SpleenSpleen

Henri Fuseli:Henri Fuseli:

The Cave of The Cave of SpleenSpleen

The Rape of the The Rape of the LockLock

Sir Joshua Sir Joshua Reynolds:Reynolds:

Jane, Countess of Jane, Countess of HarringtonHarrington

ThomasThomas

Gainsborough:Gainsborough:

Mr and Mrs Mr and Mrs William HallettWilliam Hallett

William Hogarth: Marriage a la William Hogarth: Marriage a la ModeMode

William Hogarth: The Rake’s William Hogarth: The Rake’s Progress 8Progress 8

William Hogarth: The Beggars’ OperaWilliam Hogarth: The Beggars’ Opera

William William Hogarth: Hogarth:

Gin LaneGin Lane

Illustration to Tom Jones Illustration to Tom Jones (Thwackum and Square)(Thwackum and Square)

Main Tenets of Neoclassicism:

1. These authors exhibited a strong traditionalism, which was often joined to a distrust of radical innovation and was evidenced above all in their great respect for classical writers—i.e., writers of ancient Greece and Rome.

2. Literature was conceived to be primarily an “art”; that is, a set of skills which, though it requires innate talents, must by perfected by long study and practice and consists in the deliberate adaptation of known and tested means to be achieved of foreseen ends upon readers.

3. Human beings were regarded as the primary subject matter of literature. Poetry was held to be an imitation of human life— “a mirror held up to nature.” Poetry is thus designed to yield both instruction and aesthetic pleasure for readers. Not art for art’s sake, but art for humanity’s sake.

4. Both in subject matter and the appeal of art, emphasis was placed on what human beings possess in common—representative characteristics and widely shared experiences, thoughts, feelings, and tastes.

• Pope: “what oft was thought but ne’er so well expressed”

5. The belief that human beings were limited agents who ought to set themselves only accessible goals.

• “Pride goeth before the fall”

• The golden mean/avoidance of extremes

• The Great Chain of Being

• The heroic couplet/traditional and highly restrictive patterns

The Development of Modern English Novels

• The mid-century witnessed the rise and development of a new literary form — modern English novel.

• 　　 Contrary to the traditional romance of aristocrats, modern English novels give a realistic presentation of life of the common English people. This is the most significant phenomenon in the history of the development of English literature in the 18th century. It is a natural product of the Industrial Revolution and a symbol of the growing importance and strength of the English middle class. Among the pioneers of modernist novels were Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne, Tobias George Smollett and Oliver Goldsmith.