Art History 101: The Rococo Period and the Neo-Classical Movement: 18th-Century Art

In eighteenth century Europe, France becomes the cultural and literal battlefield upon which the forces of tradition and progressivism clash with one another. Such conflicts will be seen in the rise of the neoclassical movement in reaction against the Late Baroque style of the Rococo period, paralleling the opposition of political reformers to the ancien régime. Non-French perspectives, including those of artists in Britain and colonial America, will also be explored.