Neo-classicism and Romanticism in Historical Context

Abstract

The simultaneity of Neo-classicism and Romanticism raises issues of definition: definition of these specific style labels, and definition of the epistemological status of style labels in general. If we accept — as I think we ought to — the utility of the distinction between Neo-classicism and Romanticism, we then confront issues of even greater fundamental interest. If we were talking simply about Romanticism we could argue that perhaps English Romanticism and French Romanticism were not really the same, and that where they overlap it was because of the importation into one of elements from the other. But the simultaneity of Neo-classicism and Romanticism provides a complex antithetical pattern which shows up quite distinctively in each of the four cultures of England, France, Germany and Italy, and cannot be argued away simply as coincidence. And for the same developments to manifest themselves simultaneously in all four countries would mean either that socioeconomic conditions in all four countries were essentially similar, or else that artistic developments have no fundamental connection with socio-economic conditions.