The Cost of Nations and Neoclassicism
Nations are born through great distress. Blooming only after the soil has been saturated with the blood of its own children. The sanctity of such not only breeds a sense of collectivism, but an aura of righteousness. A righteousness eagerly wielded by those of power to expand into greatness; seemingly promised by those whose blood has been spilt. This promise however will never truly be fulfilled, only dangled as a carrot on a stick, leading the newly born nation down the dark path they tried so desperately to escape. Marred by two brutal revolutions, the 1700s also hosted a battle of two opposing artistic styles, mirroring the political landscape of the time. To the revolutionaries, the Rococo art style symbolized all that was wrong with the powers that be at that time, and because of such the pendulum was bound to swing in the opposite direction. Ushering in the era of Neoclassicism. David, Jacques Louis. The Death of Socrates, 1787 The Death of Socrates was created