klassisismen

klassisismen, known in English as neoclassicism, is a Western artistic and architectural movement that drew inspiration from ancient Greece and Rome. It emerged in the mid-18th century and flourished into the early 19th century, spreading from France and Italy to much of Europe and the Americas. It developed as part of the Enlightenment project, emphasizing reason, order, restraint, and moral seriousness, and it arose as a reaction against Baroque and Rococo excess.

In architecture, sculpture, painting, literature, and music, klassismen valued simple geometry, restrained ornament, symmetry, and the use of classical orders. Subjects from antiquity, civic virtue, and moral ideals were common; color palettes tended toward clarity. In painting and sculpture the style favored clear lines and classical subjects. In literature and drama, writers drew on classical models and moral gravitas. In music, composers sought balanced forms and clear architecture, with works by Haydn, Mozart, and later Beethoven illustrating the stylistic principles.

Prominent practitioners include the painter Jacques-Louis David and the sculptor Antonio Canova; architects such as Étienne-Louis Boullée and Karl Friedrich Schinkel are associated with neoclassical design. The movement also influenced British and American architecture, education, and public taste, aided by art-historical scholarship on antiquity.

Legacy: Neoclassicism shaped public buildings, museums, and urban planning, and it defined a standard of beauty based on proportion and restraint. It gradually yielded to Romanticism in the early 19th century, but its formal language remained influential in later revivals and in the broader design vocabulary of modern architecture and art.