Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli (1480s)

      But attempts to codify a set of “rules” that would govern this newly conceived Neo-Classicism led to oppressive formulaic strictures and a certain rigidity with regard to artistic conception and creation, as well as the criteria by which the quality of creative output was measured. Theorists like Ludovico Castlevetro (ca. 1505–1571) and Francesco Robertello (1516–1567) translated their interpretations (sometimes misinterpretations) of Aristotle, Horace, and numerous other Classical artists and scholars into a kind of “how-to” manual for Renaissance artists. Their prescriptive musings concentrated on drama, but the aesthetic they championed was applicable to all the arts and emphasized the above-mentioned characteristics that they found indicative of the Classical aesthetic. As Neo-Classicism cemented itself as the monolithic standard by which artistic value would be assessed for the next two centuries, many artists slowly began to feel oppressed by what they felt was an externally imposed set of rules and regulations that stifled their own idiosyncratic styles, instincts, and sensibilities.

      Another monumental event that occurred in the sixteenth century was the Protestant Reformation, sparked by Martin Luther (1483–1546), a German priest and theologian, who in 1517 published his The Ninety-Five Theses, which was a scathing assault on the Roman Catholic Church and some of its more corrupt and suspect practices. The revolution that Luther initiated drove inordinate numbers of Roman Catholics away from the Church toward more reform-minded Protestant ideas.

      This budding movement was greatly aided by the newly minted printing press, which not only allowed literature in support of Reformation ideas to be mass-produced and widely disseminated across the European landscape but also helped to dramatically increase literacy among the lay communities.

      In an effort to combat the mass exodus, the Church convened the Council of Trent (1545–1563), a series of ecumenical meetings of church authorities designed to lead a “Counter-Reformation,” which would both ensure the survival of Roman Catholicism and preserve its centrality in the Christian world.

      One of the main decrees established by the Council of Trent encouraged the Church and its supporters to use art, storytelling, and visual imagery to spread religious themes and Christian doctrine in ways that were more emotionally direct, viscerally thrilling, and sensually arousing. The result was a widening artistic movement (covering painting, sculpture, architecture, theater, dance, music, and literature) that featured a dramatic exuberance, extreme grandeur, detailed ornamentation, and an over-the-top style of presentation that would come to be known as the Baroque.

      The gaudy and untamed quality of the early Baroque period appealed directly to the emotional, spiritual, and primal desires of a largely uneducated populace (pejoratively regarded as a “pious mass”) and was often derided by more refined and well-heeled critics as vulgar and sensationalized. But its popularity was inarguable, tempered only by the restrained and formally ordered character of a competing Neo-Classicism that would reach its zenith of influence in the eighteenth century.

      Ecstasy of Saint Theresa by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1652)

      The dominance of the Neo-Classical sensibility was cemented by the French court, which, despite the movement’s origins in sixteenth-century Italy, became its self-appointed guardian and most aggressive champion. France, under Louis XIV (1638–1715), became the most powerful political, economic, military, and cultural force in Europe. Its centrality in world affairs compelled other European nations to submit to its primacy and/or emulate its most conspicuous features, which included a clearly defined set of aesthetic characteristics deeply rooted in Neo-Classicism.

With regard to drama, French Neo-Classicism demanded a strict adherence to a five-act structure, insisted that violence be kept off the stage, required an unfaltering use of the “alexandrine” (the standard versified line in French poetry) when writing dialogue, a clear separation of the genres (Tragedy, Comedy, and the Pastoral should be pure and distinct from one another), and an extreme reliance on source material from Classical antiquity. The plays also exhibited an unfaltering devotion to the Neo-Classical concept of the unity of time, space, and action, which dictated that (1) the narrative should unfold in one unbroken period of time (preferably 24 hours or less), (2) the narrative should be set in one geographical location, and (3) the narrative should be built upon one, and only one, dramatic action. It should be noted that while Neo-Classical doctrine purported to be a strict and orthodox interpretation of Aristotle and attendant Classical thinkers, Aristotle never articulated any such prescription as the “three unities,” although he did discuss the dramatic efficacy of a play revolving around one unified action.⁵

      Jean Racine (1639–1699), France’s most famous tragedian, wrote 12 celebrated tragedies in the Neo-Classical style, most of which were based upon Classical mythology. Likewise, Moliere (1622–1673), seventeenth-century France’s most beloved comic playwright, also faithfully submitted to Neo-Classical conventions and based his comedies on stock characters and dramatic situations that were first developed in Ancient Greco-Roman Comedy.

      Jean Racine (1639–1699)

Central to any discussion of Aesthetics is the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804). In 1790, Kant published Critique of Judgment, a sweeping examination of the nature and applications of human knowledge

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