In the arts, an aesthetic school appearing in various epochs which is based on the art of Greek and Roman antiquity.
The schools of architecture in the 17th and 18th centuries, for example, which showed a preference for less decoration and clearer lines and emphasised temple motifs, etc. are referred to as Baroque classicism.
Classicism in the narrower sense refers to the Romantic classicism of the late 18th and early 19th centuries (as part of Romantic (see) Historicism ), whereas later classicist movements are often called Neoclassicism.
Such trends existed within strict historicism, Jugendstil, and in the first half of the 20th century (J. Hoffmann , A. Loos ).
Many Romantic works contain classicist elements; in their most marked form these are to be found in architecture (L. Montoyer, C. de Moreau) and sculpture (F. A. (see) Zauner , L. Kiesling).
Terms describing subsidiary concepts that were coined for French classicism, such as Empire, are sometimes used in an explanatory way for Austrian arts, in particular for interior decoration and industrial arts.
Due to its representative style, classicism traditionally corresponds to authoritarian political structures (such as National Socialism), although this is not a general rule.
Theophil Hansen chose the new Hellenistic style for the parliament building in Vienna as being symbolic of the Greeks' democratic ideal of a state.
The so-called revolutionary classicism in 18th -century architecture, which is characterised by a preference for smooth, stereometric, massive forms, as seen particularly in the works of Isidor (see) Canevale , actually has little to do with classicism as such.
Photo Paris Pantheon.