ARTH 098. Interpreting the Classical Tradition: Neoclassicism and Romanticism

This course will focus on conceptions of the "Classical" during the artistic and literary movements known as Neoclassicism (1750-1850) and Romanticism (1800-1850). Neoclassicism was a period of new attitudes towards Greco-Roman antiquity that were stimulated by archaeological discoveries extending from Italy and the Mediterranean to Egypt and the Near East. Whereas Neoclassicism interpreted the "Classical" as calm and restrained in feeling and clear and complete in expression, Romanticism subsequently viewed antiquity differently and as characterized by a highly imaginative and subjective approach, emotional intensity, and a dreamlike or visionary quality.

Seminar topics will include: art, architecture, decorative arts and aesthetics, mythology and religion, philosophy, literature, education and the academy, cultural and political debates, archaeology, and translation.

We will consider the works of philosophers and political thinkers such as: Winkelmann, Handel, Gluck, Pope, Shelley, Keats, Byron, Schliemann, Goethe and Hegel.

We will consider the works of artists and architects such as: Jacques-Louis David, Piranesi, Robert Adam, Blake, Angelica Kauffman, Ingres, Hamilton, Benjamin West, Canova, Flaxman, and Nash. 
Eligible for CLST 091, CLST 091A, INTP 091
Humanities.
1 credit.
Spring 2024. Reilly. Ledbetter.
Catalog chapter: Art and Art History: Art History  
Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/art-history


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