I.

Introduction

Neo-Classical Style, a style in art, architecture, and the decorative arts that flourished in Europe and North America from about 1750 to the early 1800s, marked by the emulation of Graeco-Roman forms. More than just an antique revival, Neo-Classicism was linked to contemporary political events. Neo-Classical artists at first sought to replace the sensuality and what they viewed as the triviality of the Rococo style with a style that was logical, solemn in tone, and moralizing in character. When revolutionary movements established republics in France and America, the new republican governments adopted Neo-Classicism as the style for their official art, by virtue of its association with the democracy of ancient Greece and republican Rome. Later, as Napoleon I rose to power in France, the style was modified to serve his propagandistic needs. With the rise of the Romantic movement (see Romanticism), a preference for personal expression replaced an art based upon fixed, ideal values.