Historical Dictionary of Neoclassical Art and Architecture

Allison Lee Palmer is associate professor of Renaissance and Baroque Art History at the University of Oklahoma. She received her Ph.D. in Art History from Rutgers University, and her research interest focuses on late medieval and Renaissance Italy.

Author Palmer characterizes neoclassicism as “the revival of classical art and architecture beginning in Europe in the 1750s and lasting until around 1830, with late neoclassicism lingering through the 1870s.” Palmer is associate professor of art history at the University of Oklahoma and author of Historical Dictionary of Architecture (2008), also part of Scarecrow’s Historical Dictionaries of Literature and the Arts series. Following a format similar to other titles in the series, Historical Dictionary of Neoclassical Art and Architecture begins with a 3-page chronology and a 14-page introduction. A 237-page dictionary section is the heart of the book. Entries feature mostly painters, sculptors, architects, and other figures. Assorted entries also address relevant subjects including Biedermeier, French Revolution, Grand Tour, Rococo, Romanticism, and Veduta (“a painted, drawn, or engraved landscape of a specific place”), which has a 2-page entry. Boldface within an entry identifies subjects having their own main entry. See also references are frequent. An extensively subdivided 35-page bibliography (including a bibliographical essay) concludes the book. Recommended for academic and large public libraries.