Existing comment:
Forging a National Identity:
In the decades following the Revolutionary War (1775-1783), the new United States of America sought to create a new vocabulary of shared national symbols that would transcend regional differences. American citizens eagerly embraced their new flag, the bald eagle as the national bird, allegorical images of "Liberty," and military and civilian portraits of a noble -- or even godlike -- George Washington.
Americans also studied and copied the architecture, art, and decorative arts of ancient Greece and Rome. While European monarchs and emperors used the neoclassical style to evoke associations with the Roman Empire, in the United States the "Grecian" style consciously evoked classical Greece, style of the world's most famous democracy. Neoclassicism conferred an aura of age and dignity upon the new nation, and many Americans believed that the emulation of classical precedents of democratic government, education, and ideal beauty would promote civic virtue, personal morality, and cultural refinement, illustrated in publications that documented ongoing archeological excavations at the ancient Roman cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii in Italy provided artists with historically accurate inspiration for neoclassical styles. American craftsmen rarely copied ancient art exactly, preferring instead to combine decorative elements into new designs for the American marker. The early neoclassical, or Federal, style is characterized by lighter, rectilinear forms, delicate ornament, and a fascination with geometry. The later Greek Revival style is characterized by heavier, curvilinear forms and elaborate carving and gilding.
American artists viewed ancient art while on the Grand Tour and embraced the prevailing taste for historical, biblical, and mythological subjects while studying in the studios of their European counterparts. However, attempts to establish a school of neoclassical history painting in the United States met with resistance from American patrons, who preferred portraits of people like themselves who were making history in the present. |