Neoclassicism and Romanticism are two very different styles
of art. To easily understand the similarities and differences we must first
look at a painting of each style.
The first painting is Jacques-Louis
David’s Oath of the Horatii Between the
Hands of Their Father. This painting was done in the neoclassical style
that emerged during the late 1700’s during the beginning of the French
Revolution. The painting was based on a classical drama about three brothers
who were sent to fight against their own cousins in a neighboring town. The
painting shows the three brothers reaching towards the swords in their fathers
raised hands while a group of women are mourning behind him. All the figures
are rendered with extreme care to their proportions and musculature. The
figures are so realistic that it looks as if it was a picture taken at that
moment in time. All the figures reside in the foreground, which is brightly
lit, while in contrast to the foreground the background is very dimly lit and
has no figures residing in it.
There are many characteristics of
Jacques-Louis David’s Oath of the Horatii
Between the Hands of Their Father that make it Neoclassical. The figures in
the painting are very realistic and rendered with perfect proportions in the
same way Greek and Roman statuary were created. David kept all the figures in
the foreground of the painting with little to nothing in the background. The
piece was based on a classical drama and not on current events going on at the
time. All of these characteristics classify David’s painting Oath of the Horatii as Neoclassical in
style.
The second painting is The Raft of the Medusa by Théodore Géricault. This painting is done in the
Romantic style. The subject of this painting is the shipwreck of the frigate
Medusa, which took place in 1816 off the coast of West Africa. While the ship
was sinking all the aristocrats on board took the lifeboats and forced the one
hundred and fifty sailors and soldiers on board to cram themselves on to a
makeshift raft. Eventually the men on the raft started dying and were forced to
eat the dead corpses of their comrades. The painting shows the remaining crew
of the raft just as they are about to be saved by a search vessel. The figures
in this painting are far less detailed than those of David’s Oath of the Horatii and do not look as
if they have been stranded at sea for long. There are figures in both the
foreground and background, some are illuminated and some are hidden by shadow.
The characteristics of Romanticisim
that are shown in The Raft of the Medusa are
as follows. The Raft of the Medusa was
based on an event that happened during the present time that the painting was
created. The figures were not all in the
foreground and some were even partly hidden by shadow. Géricault portrayed his
figures less realistically and with greater emphasis on the emotions that were
felt by the crew. It is because of these characteristics that The Raft of the Medusa by Théodore Géricault is stylistically Romantic.
The differences between Neoclassicism and Romanticism are easy to
understand after viewing these two paintings. The subjects of neoclassical
paintings were mainly based on classical works from the Greeks and Romans,
while Romantic paintings subjects were current events of the time and everyday
people. Neoclassical artists tried to be as exact as possible when it came to
the musculature and proportions of their figures bodies. Romantic artists were
less worried about exact proportions and more concerned with the emotions of
the people in the painting. Neoclassical paintings had all the figures in the
foreground while Romantic paintings had figures in both the foreground and the
background.
For more on the differences between Neoclassicism and Romanticism click this link
Works Cited - Eisenman, Stephen M. Nineteenth Century Art: A Critical History. 4th ed. New York, NY: Thames & Hudson, 2011. Print
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