Is there a difference between classicism, neoclassicism, and greek revival in architecture?
Classicism A confusing term, most often used as the antithesis of Romanticism and implying an adherence to certain fixed ideals or rules in art, as opposed to freedom of individual expression. For example, in the 19th century J. A. D. Ingres (1780–1867) was often upheld as the champion of Classicism in comparison to the arch-Romantic Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863). Neoclassicism Now understood to describe the classicizing style which evolved in European art of the later 18th and early 19th centuries in reaction to the florid sensuality of the Rococo. It embraced the fine and decorative arts and architecture. The term was actually devised later, in the 1880s, and was originally derogitory, denoting ‘pseudo-classical’, and particularly directed at Jacques-Louis David and his school. Neoclassicism is now seen to have achieved a purity of expression, however, and would have been referred to by its practitioners as the ‘true’ or ‘correct’ style. It was based on the study of antique art, which
