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Tommaso Gherardini, Classical Relief (detail), 1765, Oil on canvas. Smart Museum of Art, Gift of the Collection of Edward A. and Inge Maser, 2008.23.
Past

Classicisms

February 16 – June 11, 2017

Classicism, as an aesthetic ideal, is often associated with a conventional set of rules founded on supposedly timeless notions such as order, reason, and decorum.

As a result, it can be understood as rigid, outdated, or stodgy. But classicism is actually far from a stable concept—throughout history, it has given rise to more debate than consensus, and at times has been put to use for subversive ends.

Organized by the Smart Museum of Art and informed by an interdisciplinary planning process involving faculty members from across the University of Chicago, Classicisms explodes the idea of classicism as an unchanging ideal. The exhibition features 70 objects spanning diverse genres, eras, and media—paintings, ancient and modern sculpture, cast plaster replicas, and works on paper.

Together with a scholarly catalogue, the exhibition traces classicism’s meanings across the centuries from varying artistic, cultural, and ideological perspectives to reveal a multifaceted concept with a complicated history.

Catalogue

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with essays and other contributions by an interdisciplinary group of fifteen scholars. Now available.

Curator
Larry F. Norman, Frank L. Sulzberger Professor, Romance Languages and Literatures, Theater and Performance Studies, Fundamentals, and the College, University of Chicago; and Anne Leonard, Interim Senior Director of Academic and Curatorial Initiatives and Curator of European Art at the Smart Museum of Art.
Support

Support for this exhibition and its catalogue has been provided by the Smart Museum of Art’s Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Endowment, Mary Smart and the Smart Family Foundation, the Smart’s Pamela and R. Christopher Hoehn-Saric Exhibition Fund, Lorna Ferguson and Terry Clark, the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. Additional support has been provided by the France Chicago Center at the University of Chicago, UChicago Arts Grants, The IFPDA Foundation, and the Museum’s SmartPartners.

Raffaelo Monti, Veiled Lady, c. 1860, Marble. Collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, The Collectors’ Group Fund, 70.60.
Unidentified Artist, North African, probably Carthage, Head of an Emperor or Female Head (An Empress?), c. 4th–5th century, Carved limestone high relief. Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, Gift in memory of John W. McKay, Trail, B.C. Canada, 1979.37.
Jean-Baptiste Regnault, Socrates Tearing Away Alcibiades from the Embrace of Sensuality, 1785, Oil on canvas. Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, Purchase, The Paul and Miriam Kirkley Fund for Acquisitions, 2013.31.
Sébastien Bourdon, Christ Receiving the Children, c. 1655, Oil on canvas. Art Institute of Chicago, Gift of Mrs. Eugene A. Davidson, 1959.57.
Giovanni Battista Piranesi, The So-called Villa of Maecenas, Tivoli, 1763, From the Views of Rome, Etching on laid paper. Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, University Transfer from Max Epstein Archive, Gift of the Carnegie Corporation, 1967.116.162. 
Guglielmo (Wilhelm von) Plüschow, House of Marcus Lucretius, Pompeii, undated, Albumen print Alma-Tadema Collection, Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham, Cat. AT 7988.
Unidentified Artist, Dutch or Italian?, The Judgment of Midas, 17th century, Oil on canvas. Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, Gift of the Collection of Edward A. and Inge Maser, 2008.17.1.
Abraham Bosse, Moyen universel de pratiquer la perspective sur les tableaux ou surfaces irrégulières, ensemble quelques particularitez concernant cet art et celuy de la graveure en taille-douce (Paris: Self-published, 1653), Printed book. Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.
Roman, Imperial period, Aphrodite from Aphrodisias, 2nd century, Carved marble. Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, The F.B. Tarbell Collection, Gift of E.P. Warren, 1902, 1967.115.413.
Auguste Rodin, Small Standing Torso, 1882 (model), Musee Rodin cast 1958, Cast bronze. Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, The Joel Starrels, Jr. Memorial Collection, 1974.213. 

Videos

What is classicism?
Scholars from the University of Chicago on classicism and its many meanings
Presented in the Richard and Mary L. Gray Gallery
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