Italian Neoclassical and 19th century art
Italian Neoclassical and 19th-century art refers to painting and the plastic arts made in Italy or by Italian artists in the Neoclassical period (late 18th – c. mid-19th centuries) and the 19th century. In the late 18th and 19th centuries, Italy went through a great deal of political, social, economic and cultural changes and reforms, including several foreign invasions, most notably by Napoleon Bonaparte and the Austrians, several revolutions in 1848 and the turbulent Risorgimento, which resulted in the Italian unification and the Kingdom of Italy. Thus, Italian art in the late 18th and throughout the 19th century went through a series of minor and major changes in style.
Just like in other parts of Europe, Italian Neoclassical art was mainly based on the principles of Ancient Roman and Ancient Greek art and architecture, but also by the Italian Renaissance architecture and its basics, such as in the Villa Capra "La Rotonda". Classicism and Neoclassicism in Italian art and architecture developed during the Italian Renaissance, notably in the writings and designs of Leon Battista Alberti and the work of Filippo Brunelleschi. It places emphasis on symmetry, proportion, geometry and the regularity of parts as they are demonstrated in the architecture of Classical antiquity and in particular, the architecture of Ancient Rome, of which many examples remained. Orderly arrangements of columns, pilasters and lintels, as well as the use of semicircular arches, hemispherical domes, niches and aedicules replaced the more complex proportional systems and irregular profiles of medieval buildings. This style quickly spread to other Italian cities and later to the rest of continental Europe.
...
Wikipedia