Neoclassicism is a movement in architecture, design and the arts which emerged in France in the 1740s and became dominant in France between about 1760 to 1830. It emerged as a reaction to the frivolity and excessive ornament of the baroque and rococo styles. In architecture it featured sobriety, straight lines, and forms, such as the pediment and colonnade, based on Ancient Greek and Roman models. In painting it featured heroism and sacrifice in the time of the ancient Romans and Greeks. It began late in the reign of Louis XV, became dominant under Louis XVI, and continued through the French Revolution, the French Directory, and the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte, and the Bourbon Restoration until 1830, when it was gradually replaced as the dominant style by romanticism and eclecticism.
Image: Jacques Louis David, Le Serment des Horaces
Image: Madeleine Paris
Image: François Gérard Portrait de Juliette Récamier, née Bernard (1777 1849) musée Carnavalet
Image: Château de Malmaison Bibliothèque 001
Rococo, less commonly Roccoco, also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, and trompe-l'œil frescoes to create surprise and the illusion of motion and drama. It is often described as the final expression of the Baroque movement.
Image: Ca' rezzonico, salone da ballo, quadrature di pietro visconti e affreschi di g.b. crosato (caduta di febo e 4 continenti), 1753, 02
Image: Charles Cressent, Chest of drawers, c. 1730 at Waddesdon Manor
Image: Kaisersaal Würzburg
Integrated rococo carving, stucco and fresco at Zwiefalten Abbey (1739 – 1745)