• What is classicism?
• Historical context of classicism
• Characteristics of classicism
• Style and themes of classicism
• Representatives of classicism
• Classicism and neoclassicism
• Classicism in Mexico

We explain what classicism is, its historical context, style and other characteristics. Also, your most important representatives.

Classicism took up the classic values ​​of unity, simplicity and rationality.

What is classicism?

Classicism is a cultural, aesthetic and intellectual movement, which took place in the Modern age of the West (from the 17th to the 18th century) and which consisted in the desire to recover or return to the philosophical and artistic patterns of classical antiquity.

Classicism affected practically all artistic fields, from the literature and the music until visual arts and decorative. It was the dominant trend during the 18th and 19th centuries, when it was openly opposed by the romantic move.

Its incorporation into the academies gave rise to academicism, and had a period of renewal known as neoclassicism.

Although, as its name indicates, this movement proposed a return to the classical world (Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome), in reality classicism continued the line drawn by cultural movements that emerged in Baja Middle Ages and the Renaissance, How was the humanism. In fact, there is a phase of the Renaissance that goes by the same name.

Historical context of classicism

Classicism was born in the context of new modern ideas.

Classicism arises at a time when the West leaves behind the social, political and philosophical order of the Middle Ages, marked by the religion and the Church's control over the system feudal. This rupture was called the Renaissance, in the sense that Western classical culture was reborn.

Classicism emerged influenced by the ideas of the Renaissance and also shares an era with the Illustration French, whose great symbol was the French Revolution 1789. In it the monarchy of the French aristocracy was deposed and the first government republican.

The republic consecrated the universal human rights under the slogan of "Liberty, equality and fraternity ”. The Enlightenment reflects the shift of faith as value supreme of the humanity for the reason. For this, it was crucial to oppose the tradition Greco-Roman to Christianity.

Characteristics of classicism

Classicism was characterized by the following:

• He proposed to return to the aesthetic and philosophical values ​​of classical antiquity: simplicity, unity, sobriety, rationality, harmony and mimesis (imitation of the reality).
• He had important demonstrations in the different Arts: music, literature, sculpture, painting, architecture, etc.
• He aspired to a universal, idealistic, harmonious, clear and sober model of art, in which the proportions, and balance.
• Classicism was contemporary with Mannerism, and later with baroque and Rococo, and it remained the dominant trend throughout the 19th century.

Style and themes of classicism

Classicism privileged Greco-Roman mythological themes.

Classicism favored the return of Greco-Roman motifs, stories, scenes and ideals, especially from their tradition mythological. This implies the loss of importance of the Christian religious imaginary. Instead, the theme focused on classic epic deeds and the representation of the feelings and concerns of humanism.

On the other hand, classicism introduced specific characteristics in each art form:

• In the music. There was an evolution of the classical orchestra, with strings, horns and percussion, and a growth of the comic opera. Classical music was elegant, restrained, refined and balanced, based on the simplicity of harmonies and melodies, orderly, regular, and endowed with enormous talents that are still considered among the greatest musical authors in the West.
• In the paint. As we have said, the return of Greco-Roman mythological motifs was favored, which were recreated gracefully, without brusqueness, by means of successive shots, without violent contrasts or attitudes exaggerated, rather typical of Mannerism and Baroque. Sober paintings were made in which the figures occupy the center of the composition.
• In sculpture. The harmony of the human body was recovered as a basic principle of sculptural execution, as well as sobriety, delicate forms and symmetry. In this the expression of feelings took place, although not in the exaggerated way typical of the baroque.
• In architecture. The balance between the base and the height was pursued, moving away from the structures pointed medieval gothic and preferring the horizontal, the unitary. Good examples of this are the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, or the Prado Museum in Madrid.
• In the literature. Classicism began to triumph at the end of the 16th century, and a clear example of this is the essay Poetics by the Frenchman Nicolás Boileau (1636-1711), whose title already reveals the links with Aristotle and his Poetika classical. This text advocated a literature that reaches the emotions through the language of the intellect. This resulted in the predominance of Aristotelian forms in the dramaturgy, of verse Alexandrine in poetry, and the recovery of some classical forms such as fable, the eclogue and the elegy.

Representatives of classicism

Mozart was the great master of classicism.

Some of the highest representatives of classicism in the different arts were:

• Joseph Haydn (1732-1809). Austrian composer, considered the father of the quartet and the string symphony, is believed to have become a mentor and friend of Mozart, as well as a teacher of Beethoven.
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791). Austrian composer and pianist had by the great musical teacher of classicism. He is one of the most brilliant musicians in all of the history, whose work crosses several musical genres and encompasses more than six hundred creations. His influence on later musicians of the stature of Beethoven already speaks volumes about his talent.
• Alexander Pope (1688-1744). English poet highly noted for his translations of Homer and his editions of Shakespeare, as well as his satirical poetry. He is considered one of the greatest exponents of the letters of the 18th century in his country, and he cultivated in his work Latin, the elegy and the rehearsal.
• Molière (1622-1673). Named Jean Baptiste Pequelin, he was a French playwright, actor and poet, considered among the highest exponents of the French language and of world literature. He is considered the father of French Comedy, and his work was irreverent and critical of the pretentiousness of the bourgeoisie.
• Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665). French painter, one of the most famous of classicism, he spent most of his life painting in Rome, until he returned to France to be a court painter. It was a dominant inspiration in 20th century painters such as Jacques Louis David and Paul Cezanne.
• Richard Boyle (1694-1753). English architect known as "The Apollo of the Arts", he was also the Earl of Burlington and Earl of Cork. His work was part of Palladianism (that is, he was a follower of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio) and encompasses a wide range of public buildings in England.

Classicism and neoclassicism

Neoclassicism, as its name suggests, was a movement for the renewal of classicism, which emerged in the 18th century, within the enlightened thought.

He sought to incorporate into art the philosophical precepts of the Enlightenment, such as the rationalization of all vital aspects and ethics secular. However, coinciding with the decline of Bonapartism, neoclassicism gradually lost strength in favor of the romantic movement.

Classicism in Mexico

The Cathedral of Mérida reflects classical values.

Classicism coincided with the final years of the Spanish Colony in Latin America, and it manifested itself with force, through the construction of great cathedrals, such as those of Mexico, Puebla, Cuzco, Mérida, Guadalajara and Lima.

The territory of the then Viceroyalty of New Spain occupied an important place in the arrival of this current to the American continent, which urban planning and in most of the cultural activities of the late sixteenth century, a prelude to the colonial style of the seventeenth century.

However, as in Spain, in Latin America The baroque movement vibrated with much more intensity, which the ultra-baroque style produced on these coasts, whose abundance of forms was more conducive to representing the mestizo culture in its formation, than the rigors of classicism.