Klassizismus

Klassizismus, or Neoclassicism, is a European artistic and architectural movement that sought to revive the forms and ideals of classical antiquity. It emerged in the mid-18th century and persisted into the early 19th century, with influential centers in Germany, Austria, France, and Italy. The movement drew on Johann Joachim Winckelmann’s writings on ancient art and on Enlightenment ideals of reason, clarity, and civic virtue as a counterpoint to Baroque and Rococo excess.

Stylistically, Klassizismus emphasizes simplicity, proportion, restraint, and moral seriousness. Artists and architects strove for clarity of line, balanced compositions, and a refined, limited ornament. Subjects often referenced antiquity—heroes, myths, and public virtue—rather than contemporary frivolity. Architectural forms favored the classical orders, symmetry, shallow relief, and pediments, producing orderly, timeless facades and interior spaces designed for public institutions, museums, theaters, and government buildings.

In the visual arts, painters and sculptors looked to ancient sculpture and Greco-Roman painting for models. Prominent figures include German-born Anton Raphael Mengs, who helped propagate neoclassical ideals in Dresden and Rome, and, more broadly, the influence of French painter Jacques-Louis David and Italian sculptor Antonio Canova. In German-speaking lands, architecture saw contributions from Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Leo von Klenze. In literature, Goethe and Schiller incorporated classical forms and themes into drama and poetry, aligning with the movement’s ideals.

Klassizismus represented an aesthetics aligned with Enlightenment values and contrasted with Baroque and Rococo. Its influence waned in the 1820s and 1830s as Romanticism and nationalism rose to prominence, though its methods and ideals persisted as a reference in public architecture, pedagogy, and later neoclassical revivals throughout the 19th century.