The Arco della Pace by L. Cagnola, completed by Peverelli and Moglia and inaugurated in 1838, Milan.
A cultural and artistic movement that emerged in many European circles from the first half of the 18th century, Neoclassicism followed in chronological order the classical approximations, almost always resolved with returns to 16th-century forms, which spread alongside the first assertions of rationalism in architecture and of veristic naturalism in sculpture and painting, and always preceded in chronological order the openly purist tendencies (v. PURISM) typical of the early decades of the 19th century.
Among the leading Neoclassical architects in Italy were Michelangelo Simonetti, Pietro Camporese the Elder, Raffaello Stern, authors of the architectural complex of the Vatican Museums; A. Niccolini and P. Bianchi, active in Naples; Pollak, L. Cagnola, and L. Canonica, active in Milan; Buonfigliore, working in Turin; A. Selva, in Venice; and P. Nobili, in Trieste. In France, in Paris, following the path already indicated by N. Servandoni and G. Soufflot, the Neoclassical trend was pursued by B. Vignon, author of the Madeleine; Brougniat, who built the Bourse; and Chalgrin, the greatest of them, who erected the Arc de l'Étoile. Other Neoclassical architects include C. N. Ledoux, A. Peyre, C. Percier, and P. Fontaine. Among the Germans, notable figures are K. G. Langhaus, author of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin; K. F. Schinkel; L. von Klenze; and F. Weinbrenner. The leading Neoclassical sculptors were A. Canova (v.) and A. Thorwaldsen (v.). Among painters, the one who best embodied the aspirations of Neoclassicism was the French J. L. David, followed in Italy by A. Appiani, V. Camuccini, F. Giani, and others of lesser renown. — See plate CXIII.