Have you ever heard someone describe a work of art as classical, or classicism?
Have you ever thought,
"What exactly does that mean? What kinds of art are you talking about?"
The words "classical" and "classicism" are kind of tricky
because they really can mean tremendously different things
depending on what you're talking about
and what context it's used in.
It means something different depending on if you're talking about music,
or philosophy, or the fine arts.
And even
depending on if you're talking about architecture or sculpture or painting.
So let's try to go through some of this information together,
and hopefully get rid of some of its confusion.
In a general sense, classicism means things like clearness, simplicity,
elegance and symmetry.
In some contexts it could also mean formal, restrained,
and a strict adherence to academic ideals and rules.
This is because the term is almost always used to refer to artworks
that follow the traditions and artistic styles of ancient Greece and Rome,
which were civilizations that at one point developed very formal academic principles.
It is, of course, a very Eurocentric term, to refer to Greek and Roman traditions
as
when it comes to art and architecture and aesthetics,
but the discussion of Eurocentrism in art can really be an entire episode,
or even a series of discussions on its own,
so for now we'll just accept the common usage of the term,
just in order to ease our understanding.
There are about three general, distinct periods for us to distinguish.
The first is the age of classical antiquity.
This is, essentially, the original age of classicism
that took place in the ancient Greco-Roman world.
The next term is classicism, also sometimes known as classical revival,
which is, in fact, a revival of the Greco-Roman traditions.
And this took place roughly around the 15th to 16th centuries.
The next term is neoclassicism,
which basically is another revival of that revival.
This took place in about the 18th to 19th centuries and spread to a much larger region.
So let's start by talking about classical antiquity.
So the age of classical antiquity is essentially this huge span of time and space
that covers roughly from the 4th and 5th century BCE in Ancient Greece
to around the time of the fall of the Western Roman Empire,
roughly around 4th to 5th century CE.
Now I know what you're probably thinking: this is crazy, that we're categorizing
almost a thousand years of European history in one umbrella art history term.
It's basically just the limitations of understanding history.
The farther back we go, the less information we have,
and basically more things just have to be clumped together in larger spans of time.
So starting roughly in the 5th century BCE,
the Ancient Greeks started to become very fascinated with the human body,
and they began to really portray them,
or really have an interest in portraying them,
in lifelike, or the most lifelike and most naturalistic ways.
If you're not sure what I mean by naturalistic,
I would suggest you watch this episode.
Mind you, in this episode I actually use the term "neoclassical" incorrectly,
which is one of the reasons why I started researching this episode.
At one point, artists in Ancient Greece also started to portray the human body
in what they believed to be the most ideally beautiful way.
This meant things like proportional anatomy,
and perfect ratios between body parts.
That's why a lot of their sculptures depicted the human body in nude.
Fun fact: maleness, or being a man, was also ideally beautiful
in the minds of a lot of Ancient Greeks.
But this is the time of Ancient Greece, so let's not act like we're surprised.
Classical antiquity also had many rules surrounding architecture.
Again, it's very extensive, so we don't really have time to get into specifics today,
but in general they're grouped into these guidelines called orders
that dictate styles and proportion. And essentially they're based on
the writings of famous Roman architect/engineer Vitruvius,
who published the famous
Before you guys start sending me messages, I know there are of course a lot of differences
between the earlier Greek architectural practices and the later Roman traditions,
but again, that's just a story for another time.
Man, there are a lot of stories for another time in this episode.
And on that note, you're gonna have to wait until the next episode
to find out about the age of classicism and classical revival,
and you're gonna have to wait until the next,
to find out about neoclassicism.
So, in the meantime, until then,
why not subscribe so you don't miss those episodes?
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