classicism -
a movement in literature and art during the 17th and 18th centuries in Europe that favored rationality and restraint and strict forms; "classicism often derived its models from the ancient Greeks and Romans"
arts,
humanistic discipline,
humanities,
liberal arts studies intended to provide general knowledge and intellectual skills (rather than occupational or professional skills); "the college of arts and sciences"
artistic style,
idiom the style of a particular artist or school or movement; "an imaginative orchestral idiom"
Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for classical antiquity, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. The art of classicism typically seeks to be formal and restrained: of the Discobolus Sir Kenneth Clark observed, "if we object to his restraint and compression we are simply objecting to the classicism of classic art. A violent emphasis or a sudden acceleration of rhythmic movement would have destroyed those qualities of balance and completeness through which it retained until the present century its position of authority in the restricted repertoire of visual images.
