Classicism In the arts, the principles, historical tradition, aesthetic atti¬ tudes, or style of the art of ancient Greece and Rome. The term may refer either to work produced in antiquity or to later works inspired by those
of antiquity; the term Neoclassicism usually refers to art produced later but inspired by antiquity. More broadly, Classicism refers to the adher¬ ence to virtues regarded as characteristic of Classicism or as universally and enduringly valid, including formal elegance and correctness, simplic¬ ity, dignity, restraint, order, and proportion. Classicism is often opposed to Romanticism. Periods of Classicism in literature, music, and the visual arts have generally coincided.
Classicism and Neoclassicism Art-historical tradition or aesthetic attitudes based on the art of ancient Greece and Rome. “Classicism” refers to the art produced in antiquity or to later art inspired by that of antiq¬ uity; “Neoclassicism” refers to art inspired by that of antiquity and thus is contained within the broader meaning of “Classicism.” Classicism is traditionally characterized by harmony, clarity, restraint, universality, and idealism. In the visual arts, Classicism has generally denoted a preference for line over colour, straight lines over curves, and the general over the particular. The Italian Renaissance was the first period of thorough Clas¬ sicism after antiquity. Neoclassicism became the dominant aesthetic movement in Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, as prac¬ ticed by Antonio Canova and Jacques- Louis David. It bred a reaction in favour of subjective feeling, longing for the sublime, and a taste for the bizarre that came to be termed Romanticism. Recurring alternations between Classical and non-Classical ideals have often characterized West¬ ern aesthetics. See also Classical architecture.
Claude Lorrain Vklod-lo-'ra n \orig. Claude Gellee (b. c. 1600, Cha- magne, France—d. Nov. 23, 1682, Rome) French painter. Born in the duchy of Lorraine, he went to Rome as a youth, and there trained with the landscape and fresco painter Agostino Tassi and encountered the work of Nicolas Poussin. He became known as the master of the ideal land¬ scape, a view of nature more beautiful and harmonious than nature itself; his landscapes and coastal scenes contain architectural fragments and fig¬ ures. His reputation is based particularly on his sensitivity to the tonal values of light and atmosphere. By the 1630s he was well known and successful, with illustrious patrons among the French and Italian aristoc¬ racy. His work influenced the Dutch painters in Rome in the 1630s and ’40s, as well as the entire course of European landscape painting. Some 250 paintings and over 1,000 drawings by him survive.
Claudel Vklo-'delV Camille (-Rosalie) (b. Dec. 8, 1864, Villeneuve- sur-Fere, Fr.—d. Oct. 19, 1943, Montdevergues asylum, Montfavet) French sculptor. She was educated with her brother, Paul Claudel, and by her teens she was a skilled sculptor. In 1881 she moved with her family to Paris and entered the Colarossi Academy. The following year she met the renowned sculptor Auguste Rodin; she is best known today as his stu¬ dent, collaborator, model, and mistress. She contributed whole figures and parts of figures to Rodin’s projects, particularly The Gates of Hell (1880— 1900). Claudel exhibited her own work successfully at the official salons and in galleries, but she also destroyed many pieces. In 1913, still dis¬ traught from her break with Rodin in 1898, she was committed to a men¬ tal institution, and from 1914 until her death she lived in a rest home.
Claudel \klo-'del\, Paul (-Louis-Charles-Marie) (b. Aug. 6, 1868, Villeneuve-sur-Fere, France—d. Feb. 23, 1955, Paris) French poet, play¬ wright, and diplomat. He converted to Catholicism at age 18. His brilliant diplomatic career began in 1892, and he eventually served as ambassa¬ dor to Japan (1921-27) and the U.S. (1927—33). At the same time he pur¬ sued a literary career, expressing in poetry and drama his conception of the grand design of creation. He reached his largest audience through plays such as Break of Noon (1906), The Hostage (1911), Tidings Brought to Mary (1912), and his masterpiece, The Satin Slipper (1929); recurring themes in these works are human and divine love and the search for sal¬ vation. He wrote the librettos for Darius Milhaud’s opera Christopher Columbus (1930) and Arthur Honegger’s oratorio Joan of Arc (1938). His best-known poetic work is the confessional Five Great Odes (1910).
Claudius in full Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Ger- manicus orig. Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus (b. Aug. 1, 10 bc, Lugdunum [Lyon], Gaul— d. Oct. 13, ad 54) Roman emperor (ad 41-54). Nephew of Tiberius, Claudius became emperor unexpectedly after Caligula was murdered. Sickly, clumsy, unattractive, and scholarly, he wrote several histories, none of which survive. He was ruthless toward individual senators and the equites (see eques) and tended to disfavour the upper classes but catered to the freedmen. The invasion of Britain in 43 was part of his general expansion of frontiers; he also annexed Mauret¬ ania in northern Africa, Lycia in Asia Minor, and Thrace, and he made
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Claudius Caecus ► Clayton-Bulwer Treaty I 415
Judaea a province. He encouraged urbanization, spent lavishly on pub¬ lic works, and extended Roman citi¬ zenship throughout the empire.
Having executed his scheming third wife, Valeria Messalina, in 48, he married his niece Agrippina the Younger. She pressured Claudius into naming her son Lucius (later Nero) heir instead of his own son Britannicus. Claudius may have been poisoned by Agrippina.
Claudius Caecus Yse-kosV Appius (fl. 3rd century bc) Roman statesman and legal reformer.
Elected censor, Appius extended the rights of the sons of freedmen and the landless. He completed the Aqua Appia, Rome’s first aqueduct, and started construction of the Appian Way. He was consul in 307, censor a second time in 296, and praetor in 295. By publishing the legis actiones (“methods of legal practice”) and lists of court days, he provided greater public access to the legal system. In his old age he convinced the Senate to drive the Epirite king Pyrrhus from southern Italy.
Claudius I, detail of a bust found near Priverno; in the Vatican Museums.
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Clausewitz Vklau-z9-,vits\, Carl (Philipp Gottlieb) von (b. June 1, 1780, Burg, near Magdeburg,
Prussia—d. Nov. 16, 1831, Breslau,
Silesia) Prussian general and author.
Born to a poor middle-class profes¬ sional family, he joined the Prussian army at age 12 and entered the War College in Berlin in 1801. After serv¬ ing with distinction in the Napoleonic Wars, he became a general and was appointed director of the War College (1818). His major work on strategy,
On War (1832-37), analyzed the workings of military genius by isolat¬ ing the factors that decide success in war. Rather than producing a rigid system of strategy, he emphasized the necessity of a critical approach to strategic problems. He asserted that war is a tool for achieving political aims rather than an end in itself
(“merely the continuation of policy by other means”) and argued that defensive warfare is both militarily and politically the stronger position. He also advocated the concept of total war. Published posthumously. On War had a profound influence on modern military strategy.
Carl von Clausewitz, lithograph by Franz Michelis after an oil painting by Wilhelm Wach, 1830.