On Neoclassicism
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
Few scholars have mapped the contours of aesthetic history with the elegance and erudition of Mario Praz, and On Neoclassicism stands as one of his most commanding achievements. Originally written in Italian and rendered into English by Angus Davidson, this magisterial work chronicles the Neoclassical movement as a profound cultural phenomenon that swept across Europe in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries — dissecting its visual arts, literature, architecture, and decorative traditions with surgical precision. Praz argues that Neoclassicism was far more than a stylistic reaction against Baroque excess; it was a sweeping re-imagination of the antique world, charged with Romantic longing, political aspiration, and a deep hunger for moral certainty. Drawing on an astonishing breadth of sources — from Greek funerary sculpture to the domestic interiors of Empire-era France — Praz illustrates how the classical ideal permeated every stratum of European culture, reshaping taste and sensibility in ways that still reverberate today. His prose is richly allusive, demanding an engaged reader willing to follow his erudite cross-references across centuries and disciplines. A cornerstone text for students of art history, cultural history, and aesthetics alike, On Neoclassicism leaves one wondering whether our own era, too, is caught in the gravitational pull of an ancient world it can admire but never quite reclaim.
Author: Mario Praz
Format: Paperback
Genre: History of arts
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
Few scholars have mapped the contours of aesthetic history with the elegance and erudition of Mario Praz, and On Neoclassicism stands as one of his most commanding achievements. Originally written in Italian and rendered into English by Angus Davidson, this magisterial work chronicles the Neoclassical movement as a profound cultural phenomenon that swept across Europe in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries — dissecting its visual arts, literature, architecture, and decorative traditions with surgical precision. Praz argues that Neoclassicism was far more than a stylistic reaction against Baroque excess; it was a sweeping re-imagination of the antique world, charged with Romantic longing, political aspiration, and a deep hunger for moral certainty. Drawing on an astonishing breadth of sources — from Greek funerary sculpture to the domestic interiors of Empire-era France — Praz illustrates how the classical ideal permeated every stratum of European culture, reshaping taste and sensibility in ways that still reverberate today. His prose is richly allusive, demanding an engaged reader willing to follow his erudite cross-references across centuries and disciplines. A cornerstone text for students of art history, cultural history, and aesthetics alike, On Neoclassicism leaves one wondering whether our own era, too, is caught in the gravitational pull of an ancient world it can admire but never quite reclaim.