Classicism

Classicism is a Western art movement that was primarily based on ancient Greek and Roman styles and borrowed heavily from the Renaissance. It favored classical ideals of beauty, reason, formality, balance, harmony and order; it placed emphasis on ideal human proportions. Classicism relied on restraint in the use of color, proportion and scale. It was often represented by figures that were in ideal form, highly detailed and nude. Classicism was a reaction against the Baroque art and its use of color, movement, sensuality and dramatic subject matter. In Classicism, color was often used to represent harmony and order. The central focus of Classicism was on the human body and its proportions. It used elements of architecture, sculpture and painting to represent nature through the human body. Classicism was the dominant art movement in Western civilization up until the Romanticist period. The period of Classicism was marked by the dominance of reason and logic. The artists strived to depict beauty in their paintings without emotion or passion, in order to convey a sense of calm and harmony. Classicist artists wanted to express their own thoughts and capture the fundamental essence of things rather than copying or simply depicting objects as they were observed. The style was formal and precise, but lacked emotion and movement. The fundamental core of the Classicist movement was the belief that art should portray nature in order to educate and improve human beings. In the late 17th century Classicism began spreading from northern Europe, especially France, to every other part of Western Europe.