The Neoclassical
(Enlightenment) Era
(1660-1798)
By Cosette T., Maribel S., Kirsten K.
The New Restraint
~Mystery and obscurity were considered
symptoms of incompetence rather than signs of
grandeur.
~A single plot was developed and was strictly
limited in time and place.
Influence of the Classics
~Writers looked back to the ideals and art forms of classical
times, emphasizing even more than their Renaissance
predecessors the classical ideals of order and rational
control.
~Their respect for the past led them to be conservative
both in art and politics.
~No more than their medieval and Renaissance
predecessors did neoclassical thinkers share our modern
assumption that change means progress.
~They believed that human nature was imperfect.
Assumptions and
Implications
~They assumed that human nature was constant.
~An individual character was valuable for what he or she
revealed of universal human nature.
~Human characteristics were valued over individual
differences.
~Artists tried to express old truths in a newly effective way
opposed to mimicking the original copy.
~They strived to articulate general truth rather than unique
vision,to communicate to others more than to express
themselves.
Age of Reason
~The common sense of society was emphasized
rather than individual imagination.
~Revelation and grace were de-emphasized, and
morality consisted of acting rightly to one’s fellow
beings on this earth.
~It was to be maintained that the government is
was justified not by divine right but by a “social
contract” that was broken if the people’s natural
rights were not respected.
Age of Reason Cont.
~A work of art should be logically organized and
should advocate rational norms.
~A person and their society were judged according
to their conformity or lack of conformity to Reason,
and its ideal.
~They focused on people in their social
context,making this perhaps the world’s greatest
age of comedy and satire.
Major Currents &
Developments
~Literacy was on the rise, and novels and
periodicals were introduced.
~People emphasized studying the English
language.
~Self-examination was important.
-The Pope said, “The proper study of mankind
is man.”
Tenet 1:
Order and linear design as important
ideals
Shift: Freedom in imagination →accuracy and
restraint
● Symmetry in art, unity, proportion
Sound and Sense By: Alexander Pope
In the poem Sound and Sense, Alexander Pope writes about different passions, showing
the symmetry of different forms of art.
“True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learned to dance.
'Tis not enough no harshness gives offense,
The sound must seem an echo to the sense:
Soft is the strain when Zephyr gently blows,
And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows;
But when loud surges lash the sounding shore,
The hoarse, rough verse should like the torrent roar;
When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,
The line too labors, and the words move slow;
Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain,
Flies o'er the unbending corn, and skims along the main.
Hear how Timotheus' varied lays surprise,
And bid alternate passions fall and rise!”
Tenet 2:
Saw man as an imperfect being
Shift: Man is fundamentally good → man is
inherently sinful and has limited potential
● Kept the idea of man as an important
subject of art
Paradise Lost Book XI By :John Milton
In Paradise lost John Milton writes his poem
about how God views man and how man is
imperfect.
“To show thee what shall come in future days
To thee, and to thy offspring: good with bad
Expect to hear; supernal grace contending
With sinfulness of men; thereby to learn
True patience, and to temper joy with fear”
Tenet 3:
Focus on Historical and Mythological
accuracy
Shift: Decorative elaboration → exploration of
the facts and evidence
● Greek and Roman influences
The Hide and the Panther By: John
Dryden
In The Hide and the Panther John Dryden includes
mythological creatures into his poem.
“Was Heroe’s make, half humane, half divine.
Their earthly mold obnoxious was to fate,
Th’ immortal part assum’d immortal state
Of these a slaughtered army lay bloud,
Their native walk; whose vocal bloud arose
And cry’d for pardon on their perjur’d foes;
Their fate was fruitful, and the sanguin seed,
Endu’d with souls, encreas’d the sacred breed.
So Capive Israel multiply’d in chains”
Tenet 4:
The use of wit
Shift: Unique expression → need for
sophistication
● Façade of intellect
Couplets on Wit By: Alexander Pope
In Couplets on Wit Alexander Pope uses wit throughout his poem.
“But our Great Turks in wit must reign alone
And ill can bear a Brother on the Throne.
Wit is like faith by such warm Fools profest
Who to be saved by one, must damn the rest.
Some who grow dull religious strait commence
And gain in morals what they lose in sence.
Wits starve as useless to a Common weal
While Fools have places purely for their Zea.
Now wits gain praise by copying other wits
As one Hog lives on what another sh---.
Wou'd you your writings to some Palates fit
Purged all you verses from the sin of wit
For authors now are so conceited grown
They praise no works but what are like their own. ”
Tenet 5:
Importance of self- reflection
Shift: Diaries, letters, and essays became more
popular
● Power in journalism
“On His Blindness” John Milton
In “On His Blindness” John Milton self reflects on
how he spends his life dealing with his blindness.
“When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodg'd with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide,
"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"”
Tenet 6:
Importance of balance and restraint
Shift: Enjambment and blank verse → endstopped heroic couplet
The Temple of Fame By Alexander
Pope
In the poem The Temple of Fame Alexander Pope writes about the different
balances of the earth.
“A train of phantoms in wild order rose,
And join’d, this intellectual scene compose.
I stood, methought, betwixt earth, seas, and skies,
The whole Creation open to my eyes;
In air self-balanced hung the globe below,
Where mountains rise and circling oceans flow;
Here naked rocks and empty wastes were seen,
There towery cities, and the forests green;
Here sailing ships delight the wand’ring eyes,
There trees and intermingled temples rise:
Now a clear sun the shining scene displays,
The transient landscape now in clouds decays.”
Tenet 7:
A pragmatic view of art
Shift: Emotional response → simply intellectual
views
● Insight on the morals and ideals of men
The Riddle of the World By: Alexander
Pope
In the poem The Riddle of the
World Alexander Pope gives insight
into the morals and views of men.
“Know then thyself, presume not God to scan
The proper study of Mankind is Man.
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A Being darkly wise, and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the Sceptic
side,
With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest;
In doubt to deem himself a God, or Beast;
In doubt his mind and body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;
Whether he thinks to little, or too much;
Chaos of Thought and Passion, all confus'd;
Still by himself, abus'd or disabus'd;
Created half to rise and half to fall;
Great Lord of all things, yet a prey to all,
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd;
Music and Art Examples
Bach- Toccata and Fugue in D
Minor for organ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=ipzR9bhei_o
Bach - Cello Suite No.1 i-Prelude
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=S6yuR8efotI
Jacques-Louis David, Oath of the Horatii, oil on
canvas, 1784 (Musée du Louvre)