II.

Genesis of Neo-Classical Art

The Neo-Classical style developed following the excavation in Italy of the ruins of the Roman cities of Herculaneum in 1738 and Pompeii in 1748, the publication of such books as Antiquities of Athens (1762) by the English archaeologists James Stuart and Nicholas Revett, and the arrival of the Elgin Marbles in London in 1806. Extolling the “noble simplicity and calm grandeur” of Graeco-Roman art, the German art historian Johann Winckelmann urged artists to study and “imitate” its timeless, ideal forms. His ideas found enthusiastic reception within the international circle of artists gathered about him in the 1760s in Rome.