V.

Sculpture

Because sculpture in Europe had been profoundly influenced by Classical forms since the Renaissance, Neo-Classical principles had a less revolutionary impact on it than on the other arts. In general, Neo-Classical sculptors tended to avoid the dramatic twisting poses and the coloured marble characteristic of late Baroque or Rococo sculpture, preferring crisp contours, a noble stillness, and idealized forms carved from white marble.

The earliest Neo-Classical sculpture was produced by artists in direct contact with Winckelmann's circle in Rome. Among them were sculptors such as John Tobias Sergel, who on his return to his native Sweden carried the new style to northern Europe, and the Englishmen Thomas Banks and Joseph Nollekens, who introduced the style to their homeland. The dominant figure in the history of Neo-Classical sculpture, however, was the Italian Antonio Canova, who became a member of the Rome circle in 1780. Abandoning his earlier Baroque manner, he sought to capture in the Neo-Classical style the severity and ideal purity of ancient art. Theseus and the Dead Minotaur (1781-1782) portrays the calm of victory rather than active conflict; this was Canova's first work in the new style, and it brought him immediate fame.

After Canova's death, the Danish artist Bertel Thorvaldsen inherited his position as Europe's leading sculptor. His many international commissions help sustain strict Neo-Classicism as the dominant mode in sculpture until the mid-19th century. The style was carried to the United States by one of his friends, Horatio Greenough, and was continued by Hiram Powers, an American long resident in Italy, sculptor of the celebrated Greek Slave (1843), of which many replicas were made.