Classical Ideals Represented in Eighteenth Century Paintings Essay

Classical Ideals Represented in Eighteenth Century Paintings - Essay Example The essay "Classical Ideals Represented in Eighteenth Century Paintings" analyzes Eighteenth Century Paintings and Classical Ideals Represented in them. The classical cultures of Greece and Rome with their well evolved political organization were based on traditions of liberty, civic virtue, morality and sacrifice; and were considered worthy of emulation, during the great political upheavals in Britain. The significance of classical ideals in this era, emphasized neoclassicism during the French and American revolutions. Also, spectacular finds from the excavations of the Roman cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii, buried in 79 CE by the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius, further fuelled public interest in classic art and architecture. Additionally, the scholarly attention of art historians such as Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768) focused on the ancient world and classical antiquity, thus extensively increasing interest in neoclassicism. The reknowned art critic and poet Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) observed that eighteenth century paintings contained â€Å"a form of perfection borrowed from a repertory of classical ideals†. This paper proposes to determine the extent of truth in Charles Baudelaire’s above statement, by studying works of art from the eighteenth century painted by well-known artists of the time: Anton Raphael Mengs, Gavin Hamilton, Angelica Kauffman and Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun. In the intellectual and artistic world of eighteenth century Britain, there was a sense of optimism.