Classicism was a scientific, artistic, and cultural movement that occurred in Europe during the Renaissance period (from the 15th century onwards). The name of the movement that marks the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Modern Age, refers to classical Greco-Roman models. The term is used to describe the works of Ancient Greece and Rome or the works that were later inspired by them.
The cultural horizon of the Renaissance was Classical Antiquity. Ancient Greece is considered the cradle of Western thought that directly influenced the culture of the Romans. The return to classical forms was the aesthetic purpose of the Renaissance.
Classicism has its genesis in Italy, in the 15th century, with the emergence of humanist thought. The Middle Ages began in 476 AD with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ended in 1453 AD with the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire. Some historians, however, consider 1492 to be the year of the arrival of the Spanish in America.
The Renaissance occurred between the 14th and 16th centuries, in the transition from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age, in which cultural, artistic, scientific, and political development and the change in European thought were organized, based on the resumption of classical knowledge, developed, and spread by Greeks and Romans.
Historical context of Classicism
Classicism occurred in the 16th century and emerged in Italy along with the Renaissance movement. In Portuguese literature, it begins with the arrival of the Portuguese writer Francisco Sá de Miranda in Portugal, in 1537. Sá de Miranda returned from Italy bringing with him new models sonnets, which were introduced into literature. The sonnet is a fixed poetic form, formed by two quartets (four-line stanzas) and two tercets (three-line stanzas).
Francesco de Sanctis (1817-1883), Italian literary critic, intellectual, writer, historian, philosopher and politician, generally considered the most important specialist in the Italian language of the 19th century, named with the Tuscan expression Dolce stil nuovo (Sweet new style), a group of Italian poets from the second half of the 13th century, made up of Guido Guinizelli, Guido Cavalcanti, Dante Alighieri, Lapo Gianni, Cino da Pistoia, Guianni Alfani and Dino Frescobaldi.
The Middle Ages, a period that lasted ten centuries (5th to 15th), was dominated by religion, whose motto was the dogmas and precepts of the Catholic Church. People who were against or questioned these dogmas were excommunicated, in addition to suffering banishment from society, or in the last resort, death.
Humanism, which emerged from the 15th century, began to question several themes based on the scientism that was emerging in Europe. Many scholars proposed new ways of analyzing the world and life, beyond the divine and anchored in anthropocentrism.
Major transformations and discoveries during Classicism
The great voyages of discovery (15th and 16th centuries) expanded trade routes and connected continents, driven by the search for wealth and maritime domination. |
The Protestant Reformation - initiated by Luther in 1517, challenged the authority of the Catholic Church, fragmenting Christianity and promoting cultural changes. |
The end of the feudal system - with the rise of the bourgeoisie, marked the transition to capitalism, characterized by trade and capital accumulation. |
Scientism - Galileo and Copernicus transformed scientific thought by proposing heliocentrism, placing the Sun at the center of the solar system. Their ideas challenged religious dogmas and established the foundations of scientists, which privileged the experimental method and observation as sources of knowledge. |
The West was leaving behind the medieval social, political, and philosophical order, marked by religion and the Church's control over the feudal system. This rupture was called the Renaissance, in the sense that classical Western culture was reborn. Later, in the French Enlightenment, whose great symbol was the French Revolution of 1789, the monarchy was deposed, and the first republican government was founded.
The French Republic enshrined universal human rights under the motto of freedom, equality, and fraternity. The Enlightenment reflected the transfer of faith, as the supreme value of humanity, to reason. And it was crucial to oppose the Greco-Roman tradition to the Christian one.
While wealth in the Middle Ages was related to land ownership and tradition, the commercial exchanges that were established with mercantilism transformed money into the major source of power. Exchange with civilizations in Asia and Africa, especially with people of Arab origin, opened new horizons for Europeans with the development of mathematics and navigation instruments, such as the astrolabe. Geographical spaces, during the Great Navigations, opened with the discovery of other sea routes that led to the territories of the great American continent.
All of this was possible thanks to the Renaissance. Evading the ideological censorship of the Church, thinkers and scientists developed new theories and inventions: Nicolaus Copernicus proposed the heliocentric model of the Universe, Galileo Galilei discovered the laws that govern the fall of bodies, Johann Gutenberg invented movable types to print books, a task previously delegated to copyist monks.
Classicism inspired by Ancient Greece
Ancient Classicism, both as a style of art and as the first theory of art, was defined by the ancient Greeks, imitated by the Romans, and continued to appear in various forms throughout the centuries.
Classical periods
The 5th and 4th centuries BC in Greece, with writers such as Aristotle and Sophocles. |
The first century BC and first century AD in Rome, with writers such as Cicero and Virgil. |
In French drama of the late 17th century. |
In the 18th century, especially in France during the Enlightenment, with writers such as Voltaire and Condorcet. |
The superiority of balance and rationality over impulse and emotion is affirmed by Classicism. It aspires to formal precision, declares order, and avoids ambiguity, flights of imagination or lack of resolution. It also confirms the importance of totality and unity as the work of art is coherent without extraneous elements or open conclusions.
Both ancient Greek and ancient Roman writers emphasized restraint and narrow aim, reason reflected in theme and structure, and a unity of purpose and outline. In his Poetics, Aristotle emphasized the unities of time, place, and action. Perhaps basing his theory of drama on the plays of Sophocles, He also stated that the action of a place must occur within 24 hours, with all events occurring in one location, and each event causing the next.
Following these restrictions would produce a pleasingly cohesive drama. The ancients believed that art was a vehicle for communicating the reason and intelligence that permeate the world and human affairs when people act rationally and according to moral precepts.
Important ancient Greek and Roman literary works
Poetics, by Aristotle - analyzes tragedy and epic, highlighting imitation, catharsis, and verisimilitude. It defines tragedy as elevated, with a central and cohesive plot, essential to evoke emotions and reflection, uniting character, thought and spectacle. |
Iliad, by Homer - narrates the Trojan War, highlighting the wrath of Achilles and its impacts. It explores honor, heroism, and destiny, mixing gods and humans in an epic about war, loss, and redemption. |
Odyssey, by Homer - portrays Odysseus' journey to return to Ithaca after the Trojan War. It mixes adventures, dangers, and mythology, highlighting cunning, perseverance, and the desire to reunite with family and home. |
Medea, by Euripides - narrates Medea's tragic revenge against Jason, who betrayed her by seeking another marriage. Exploring passion, betrayal and justice, the play highlights the destructive power of suffering and rejection. |
Antigone, by Sophocles - addresses the clash between divine law and human law. Antigone defies Creon by burying her brother, facing tragedy for her courage. The play explores duty, morality, power, and the consequences of disobedience. |
Satyricon, by Petronius - Roman satire that narrates the adventures of Encolpius and his companions in a world of excess, corruption, and decadence. With humor and irony, the work criticizes the customs and values of the time. |
Metamorphoses, by Ovid - epic work that compiles myths and legends from Greek and Roman mythology, exploring physical and emotional transformations. Through stories of gods, heroes, and mortals, it reveals themes such as love, revenge, and destiny. |
Classicism in literature during Humanism
Literary Classicism began during Humanism in Europe, a time that glorified reason and intellectualism. In the 16th century, there was the rediscovery of Aristotle's Poetics (4th century BC) by Giorgio Valla, Francesco Robortello, Ludovico Castelvetro, and other Italian humanists.
Also called Renaissance literature, Classicism consciously imitated the forms and themes of classical antiquity, especially its mythological tradition. In it, there was a loss of importance of Christian religious imagery, whose theme focused on classical epic feats and the representation of the feelings and concerns of Humanism.
The main assumption was that ancient authors had already achieved perfection. Thus, the basic task of the modern author was to imitate them: the imitation of nature and the imitation of the ancients were the same thing.
Greco-Roman forms used in Classicism
Epic poetry - a literary genre that narrates great heroic deeds, often involving gods and myths. It is characterized by its grandiose language and extensive structure, celebrating virtues such as courage, honor, and health. |
Eclogue - a pastoral poetic genre that exalts nature and country life. Usually written in lyrical verse, it involves dialogues between shepherds or bucolic scenes, celebrating the harmony between man and nature. |
Idyll - a short, lyrical poem that depicts bucolic scenes and moments of tranquility, often involving shepherds and nature. Its focus is on the idealization of the simple life and the harmony between man and nature. |
Ode - a lyrical poem that expresses intense feelings, such as admiration, praise, or celebration. Usually written in formal and structured verses, the addresses elevated themes, such as nature, art, virtue, or history. |
Elegy - a lyrical poem that expresses feelings of pain, lamentation, or loss, often related to death. It is characterized by its melancholic and reflective tone, addressing themes such as suffering, the transience of life and longing. |
Satire - a literary genre that criticizes, ridicules, or exposes vices, defects or negative aspects of society, politics, behaviors, or institutions. It uses humor, irony, and exaggeration to provoke reflection and promote change. |
Tragedy - a theatrical genre that addresses serious and profound themes, usually involving noble or heroic characters. It explores moral conflicts, inevitable destinies, and suffering, with the aim of provoking catharsis in the audience through emotion and reflection. |
Comedy - a theatrical genre that aims to entertain and amuse, usually addressing everyday situations with humor, exaggeration, and social criticism. Its characters face trivial conflicts, and the outcome is typically happy or comforting. |
Dramatic works, for example, were inspired by Greek experts such as Aeschylus and Sophocles. They sought to embody the three Aristotelian unities: a single plot, a unique location, and a compressed time span. On the other hand, in addition to Aristotle's theory of poetry and his classification of genres, the principles of the Roman poet Horace dominated the classicist view of literature.
The authors of literary Classicism followed their aesthetic principles and critical precepts from the Greco-Roman period. They were guided by Aristotle's Poetics, Horace's Poetic Art, and Longinus's on the Sublime, reproducing the Greco-Roman forms: epic, eclogue, elegy, ode, satire, tragedy, and comedy.
Characteristics of Classicism in Literature
The language of classicism is classical, formal, objective, balanced and rational. The authors prioritized cultured language and aesthetic rigor. It was contemporary with Mannerism, and later with Baroque and Rococo, and remained the dominant trend throughout the 19th century. Its key features are:
֎ Appreciation of the ideals of Antiquity and Greco-Roman mythology. Use of literary theory in Aristotle's Poetics. Compressed time. New interest in writing epics. Notion of the Greek ideal of beauty, also guided by proportion and balance of forms. Adoption of textual forms from Classical Antiquity, dramaturgy and the genres of tragedy and comedy, and poetry, in the lyrical and epic genres.
֎ Focuses on poetry and prose over romance. Textual genres do not mix. Lyrical poetry has its own method and characteristics that should not be confused with those of epic poetry, or dramaturgy.
֎ Formal rigor. Each form used in the classic text must follow its own set of rules. Well-ordered structures. Accurate and believable content. Search for balance, proportion, objectivity, and transparency. Mimetic work as a reflection of a nature that follows universal laws, the work as a harmonic concert. Decorum, that is, the style must be adapted to the theme.
֎ Containment of subjectivity, of the impulses of interiority. What counts is the work, not what the author feels or thinks. He must disappear before the work. Value rationality as opposed to sentimentality and the universal over the specific. Valuing common sense and clarity;
֎ Anthropocentrism, the centrality of human existence in relation to the Universe and what makes it up;
֎ Humanism. Work as a conveyor of truths and teachings that allow the human soul to be perfected;
֎ Universalism, rationalism, and scientism.
Neoclassicism, an artistic movement from the late 18th century, emerged as a reaction to the Baroque and revived the art and culture of ancient Greece and Rome. Focused on simplicity, balance, and rationality, it sought clarity in forms and human idealization, reflecting Enlightenment ideals. It impacted architecture, sculpture, painting, and literature, with figures such as Jacques-Louis David and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Classicism, present in the Renaissance, also returned to classical principles, but with a strong influence from Humanism. Neoclassicism was a more rigorous and conscious return to classical forms, promoting reason and simplicity, in contrast to the exuberant Baroque. |
The prose in Classicism
The concept of prose literature is post-antiquity, so there is no explicit classicist tradition in fiction that corresponds to those of drama and poetry. However, since the first novels appeared at a time when classical literature was held in high esteem, novelists consciously adopted many of its characteristics.
Among them they considered Aristotle's insistence on moral courage, Greek playwrights' use of divine intervention, and epic poetry's focus on the hero's journey.
Classicism in Portugal
In Portugal, Classicism comprises the literary period of the 16th century (between 1537 and 1580). Although Classicism took hold in Italy in the mid-13th century, it was only in 1527, with Francisco Sá de Miranda, that the movement began in Portugal. Influenced by the dolce stil nuovo (sweet new style), which he had learned in Italy, Sá de Miranda introduced to literature the genre of the decasyllable sonnet, which would become known as the “new measure”, as opposed to the “old measure” (five or seven metric syllables).
The theme of Neoplatonism was predominant in Portuguese Classicism, a philosophical school that assumed Plato's love philosophy, treating love not from sensuality, but from its philosophical and religious bias. Furthermore, the poets of the period valued above all the great national achievements, the achievements of the Portuguese people, the subject of epic poetry. It can be understood, therefore, that Classicism in Portugal focused on two main themes: love and bravery.
Camões, The Most Important Poet in The Portuguese Language
The birthplace of Luís Vaz de Camões (1524/1525-1580) is uncertain: probably Lisbon, probably in 1524 or 1525, but the cities of Coimbra, Santarém and Alenquer also claim to be the place where the poet was born. Of noble origin, he had a solid education and in-depth knowledge of history, geography, and literature.
The Lusiads
Canto I The weapons and the distinguished barons Who from the western shore of Lusia, Through seas never sailed Passed even beyond Taprobana*, And in dangers and wars strove More than human fame promised, And among distant people built A new Kingdom, which they so exalted; |
And the glorious memories Of those Kings who were expanding The faith, the Empire, and the vicious lands Of Africa and Asia, they were devastating, And those who through valiant deeds, Freed themselves from the law of Death, Singing I will spread everywhere, If ingenuity and art help me so much. |
Let the wise Greek and the Trojan fall, The great voyages they made: Let Alexander and Trajan be silent The fame of their victories; For I sing of the illustrious Lusitanian breast, Whom Neptune and Mars obeyed. Let all that the ancient muse sings cease, For another, higher value rises. |
*Taprobana - ancient name given to the island of Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka, in South Asia. |
He started the Theology course at the University of Coimbra, which he abandoned due to leading a life incompatible with religious precepts. A conqueror, Camões had many passions, and his verses were highly regarded by the ladies of the court. He engaged in duels and made enemies, which led him to enlist and embark, as a soldier, for Ceuta, where he fought against the Moors and lost his right eye in combat.
Once free, he embarked for India in 1554 and lived in Macau. He saved himself from a shipwreck in 1556, taking with him the originals of his most famous work, the epic poem Os Lusíadas (The Lusiadas)
Camões is considered the most important Portuguese-language poet and one of the greatest in universal literature. His literary production is multiple and includes both erudite and popular forms, of songs inspired by old medieval songs. His work can be divided into two main axes: lyric and epic poetry.
The lyrics of Camões are composed of love themes, heavily influenced by Neoplatonism, which coexists with sensual themes, always establishing a contradiction. The antitheses of presence-absence, spiritual love-carnal love, life-death, dream-reality are very present in his poems, which makes him an anticipator of the Mannerist movement.
He composed in the so-called “old measure,” linked to popular tradition, and in the “new measure,” the decasyllable poem, the preferred form for exposing complex themes and feelings.
O Lusíadas, the mythical jurney of Vasco da Gama
Camões was well known for his sonnets, but his greatest work was Os Lusíadas (1572), an epic poem of a nationalist nature that exalts the period of the Great Portuguese Navigations. Inspired by Virgílio and Homer by form and theme, Camões also uses Greco-Roman mythology to weave the epic: Bacchus would have turned against the Portuguese, for being the owner of Indian territories, and Venus, for liking the Lusitanian people, would be in your favor. Thus, Vasco da Gama's real journey is mixed with this mythological narrative.
Written in ten songs with eight stanzas each, Os Lusíadas is a work of cultured and elevated language, in keeping with the characteristics of epic poetry. It heroically sings of the Portuguese kings and nobles following the conquest of new territories, also adding other glorious episodes in the history of Portugal. However, it was after Luís de Camões, one of the greatest Portuguese poets and in world literature, that Portuguese literature gained notoriety.
Classicism in Portugal remained until 1580. This is the year of Camões' death and of the Union of Iberian Crowns, an alliance established until 1640 between Spain and Portugal. In Brazil, this literary period became known as Quinhentismo (XVI century – 1500 to 1600).
Main European authors and their works
Spain
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) with his most notable work Don Quixote (1605).
Portugal
Francisco de Sá de Miranda (Coimbra, 1481 – Amares, 1558) - precursor of Portuguese Classicism, was responsible for introducing decasyllable verse in Portugal. He had some poems published in Cancioneiro Geral (1516), an anthological compilation of humanist poetry. He also introduced, in the Portuguese language, the forms of the sextina song and the productions in triplets and octaves, being responsible for the training of Portuguese poets, having a profound influence on the Literature that developed in the period. Moral, philosophical, and political reflection, in addition to loving lyricism, were part of his themes. He also wrote dramaturgical texts and letters in verse form.
Bernardim Ribeiro (1482-1552) - with his novel Menina e Moça (““Girl and Young Woman”, 1554). António Ferreira (1528-1569), with his tragedy A Castro (1587).
In America, authors such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine were influenced by Classicism. Works like Common Sense are good American examples ֎
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