Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David
This period may be seen as one in which art recaptures Greco-Roman grace and grandeur. Neoclassical art, also called Neoclassicism and Classicism, a widespread and influential movement in painting and the other visual arts that began in the 1760s, reached its height in the 1780s and ’90s, and lasted until the 1840s and ’50s. Neoclassicism in the arts is an aesthetic attitude based on the art of Greece and Rome in antiquity, which invokes harmony, clarity, restraint, universality, and idealism.
Neoclassical painting is characterized by the use of straight lines, a smooth paint surface, the depiction of light, a minimal use of color, and the clear, crisp definition of forms.
The 10 greatest painters of the Neoclassical period were:
The 10 greatest paintings of the Neoclassical period were: