Difference between Classicism, Neoclassicism and Romanticism?

Dazling · #1 Thursday, December 22, 2011

What is the difference between Classicism, Neoclassicism and Romanticism?

Last Island · #2 Thursday, December 22, 2011

Classicism:
Classicism is aesthetic attitudes and principles based on culture, art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome, and characterized by emphasis on form, simplicity, proportion, and restrained emotion.

Characteristics of Classicism are belief in reason, civilized, modern, sophisticated, interest in urban society, human nature, love, satire, expression of acceptance, moral truth, realism, beleif in good and evil, religion, philosophy, generic obstruction, impersonal objectivity, public themes, formal correctness, idea of order.

Neo-classicism:
Neo-classicism was the trend prevailing during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, characterized by the introduction and widespread use of Greek orders and decorative motifs, the subordination of detail to simple, strongly geometric overall compositions, the presence of light colors or shades, frequent shallowness of relief in ornamental treatment of facades, and the absence of textural effects. The period of Neo-Classicism relies heavily on mimicking Greek art. During the time period, the concept of naturalism was a main concern. Artists especially made great efforts to model the ways in which the ancients portrayed bodies and emotions in their works of art.

Romanticism:
Romanticism emerged as a reaction against Neoclassicism. The Neoclassical age emphasized on reason and logic. The Romantic period wanted to break away from the traditions and conventions that were dear to the Neoclassical age and make way for individuality and experimentation. One of the fundamentals of Romanticism is the belief in the natural goodness of man, the idea that man in a state of nature would behave well but is hindered by civilization.

Characteristics of Romanticism are belief in feelings, imagination, Intuition, Primitive, Medieval, natural modes, rural solitude, aesthetic, spiritual, value of external nature, love for vision, mysteriousness, idea, infinite, myth-making, beauty, truth, faith in progress, belief in man and goodness, individual speculation, revelation, concrete particulars, subjectivity, private themes, individual expressiveness, intensity, curiosity, images, symbols, common language, self-consciousness, romantic Hellenism.

Difference between Classicism and Romanticism

Romanticism emerged as a response to Classicism.

Classicism stressed on reason. Romanticism on imagination.

Classicism follow the three unities of time , place and action. Romanticism only follows the unity of action, but does not follow the unities of time, place.

Romanticism uses simple diction of common men from their everyday life. Classicism uses strict, rigid and logical diction and theme.

Classicists thought of the world as having a rigid and stern structure, the romanticists thought of the world as a place to express their ideas and believes.

Classicism was based on the idea that nature and human nature could be understood by reason and thought. Classicist believed that nature was, a self-contained machine, like a watch, whose laws of operation could be rationally understood. Romanticists viewed nature as mysterious and ever changing. Romantic writes believed that nature is an ever changing living organism, whose laws we will never fully understand.

Classicists thought that it was literature's function to show the everyday values of humanity and the laws of human existence. Their idea was that classicism upheld tradition, often to the point of resisting change, because tradition seemed a reliable testing ground for those laws. As for the Romantics, they wrote about how man has no boundaries and endless possibilities. The Romantics stressed the human potential for social progress and spiritual growth.

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