Antonio Basoli 1774-1843 | Pittore ed incisore neoclassico

Antonio Basoli è stato un pittore e incisore italiano esponente del neoclassicimo bolognese. Originario di Castel Guelfo, bolognese d'adozione, era figlio di Lelio Andrea e Apollonia Fontana. Fu pittore e decoratore d'interni, incisore e membro dell'Accademia delle Arti di Bologna. La sua formazione si è nutrita dell'interesse onnivoro e costante per le opere dell'arte classica, la letteratura classica e contemporanea, i repertori e le decorazioni, le incisioni di Piranesi. I primi segreti dell'arte li prese da suo padre Lelio Andrea Basoli. Basoli, insieme con i fratelli Luigi e Francesco, operò come scenografo, decoratore, disegnatore di sipari, per vari teatri dell'area bolognese, il Marsigli Rossi, il Comunale e soprattutto il teatro Contavalli (1814); restano ormai poche tracce di queste sue opere, documentate tuttavia dalla ricca produzione di disegni, acquerelli ed incisioni, tra le quali le acquatinte della Collezione di varie scene teatrali, realizzate dal 1821. Gli anni dal 1818 agli anni '20 dell'Ottocento rappresentano gli anni della massima maturità artistica di Basoli in questo settore, con il viaggio a Milano e la visita alla "sala di Sanquirico", ossia lo studio del principale scenografo della Scala di Milano, cui Basoli si ispirò per la scenografia dell'Edipo re al Contavalli nel 1822, la rappresentazione di Semiramide riconosciuta nel 1820 e infine la pittura delle scene e del teatro dei Cavalieri dell'Unione di Santarcangelo di Romagna.

Karl Briullov 1799-1852 | Russian Neoclassicist/Romantic painter

Karl Pavlovich Briullov was born in 1799, the Neoclassical style in Russia was still dominant, but the period of its greatest productivity and popularity was over. Perhaps this influenced Briullov's early distaste for the return to classicism; at any rate, despite his education at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts 1809-1821, Briullov never fully embraced the style taught by the Academy. After distinguishing himself as a promising and imaginative student and finishing his education, he left Russia for Rome. Here he worked until 1835 as a portraitist and genre painter, though his fame as an artist came when he got involved in historical painting. His most famous work, The Last Day of Pompeii 1830-1833, created a sensation in Italy and established Briullov as one of the finest painters of his day. The topic is classical, but his dramatic treatment and generous use of chiaroscuro render it somewhat farther advanced from the neoclassical style. In fact, The Last Day of Pompeii exemplifies many of the characteristics of romanticism as it manifests itself in Russian art, including drama, realism tempered with idealism, increased interest in nature, and a zealous fondness for historical subjects. According to Hamilton, Sir Walter Scott is reported to have looked at the painting for an hour and declared afterwards that it "wasn't a painting, but an epic" Hamilton 363. Although by today's standards we may find the painting somewhat theatrical and lacking in life, it is certainly an important achievement for an artist in the early nineteenth century, and a significant step in the development of historical painting in Russia. Soon after The Last Day of Pompeii, Briullov returned to Russia, where he was joyously received. While teaching at the Academy 1836-1848 he continued his own artistic efforts, but was unable to produce a work comparable to his "masterpiece." His portrait painting, however, was more successful, at least in retrospect. His portrait style combined a neoclassical simplicity with a romantic tendency that fused well, and his penchant for realism was satisfied with an intriguing level of psychological penetration. A transitional figure between Russian neoclassicism and romanticism, Briullov may be considered the first Russian artist of international fame.

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres 1780-1867 | French neoclassicist painter

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres was a french neoclassicist painter. Although he thought of himself as a painter of history in the tradition of Nicolas Poussin and Jacques-Louis David, by the end of his life it was his portraits, both painted and drawn, that were recognized as his greatest legacy. A man profoundly respectful of the past, he assumed the role of a guardian of academic orthodoxy against the ascendant Romantic style represented by his nemesis Eugène Delacroix. His exemplars, as he once explained, were "the great masters which flourished in that century of glorious memory when Raphael set the eternal and incontestable bounds of the sublime in art ... I am thus a conservator of good doctrine, and not an innovator". Nevertheless modern opinion has tended to regard Ingres and the other Neoclassicists of his era as embodying the Romantic spirit of his time, while his expressive distortions of form and space make him an important precursor of modern art.