Editing Eclecticism in art

{{short description|Art style combining multiple styles in a work}}
{{For|the 19th-century art movement known as eclecticism|academic art}}
'''Eclecticism''' is a kind of mixed style in the [[fine arts]]: "the borrowing of a variety of [[Art movement|style]]s from different sources and combining them" {{harv|Hume|1998|loc=5}}. Significantly, Eclecticism hardly ever constituted a specific style in [[art]]: it is characterized by the fact that it was not a particular style. In general, the term describes the combination in a single work of a variety of influences—mainly of elements from different historical styles in [[architecture]], [[painting]], and the [[graphic arts|graphic]] and [[decorative arts]]. In [[music]] the term used may be either [[Eclecticism in music|eclecticism]] or [[polystylism]].

==In the visual arts==
The term '''eclectic''' was first used by [[Johann Joachim Winckelmann]] to characterize the art of the [[The Carracci|Carracci]], who incorporated in their paintings elements from the [[Renaissance art|Renaissance]] and [[Art in ancient Greece#Classical|classic]]al traditions. Indeed, [[Agostino Carracci|Agostino]], [[Annibale Carracci|Annibale]] and [[Lodovico Carracci]] had tried to combine in their art [[Michelangelo]]'s line, [[Titian]]'s [[color]], [[Antonio da Correggio|Correggio]]'s [[chiaroscuro]], and [[Raffaello Santi|Raphael]]'s [[symmetry]] and [[wiktionary:grace|grace]].

In the 18th century, [[Sir Joshua Reynolds]], head of the [[Royal Academy of Arts]] in [[London]], was one of the most influential advocates of eclecticism. In the sixth of his famous academical ''Discourses'' (1774), he wrote that the painter may use the work of the ancients as a "magazine of common property, always open to the public, whence every man has a right to take what materials he pleases" {{harv|Reynolds|1775|loc=26}}.

==Western architecture==
{{See also|Victorian architecture|Revivalism (architecture)}}
Early examples of eclectic architecture were built in the [[Kingdom of the Two Sicilies]], particularly in the [[Palazzina Cinese]] in [[Palermo]].{{citation needed|date=March 2016}}.
[[File:Palazzina cinese - esterni 01.jpg|thumb|[[Palazzina Cinese]] in [[Palermo]]|alt=Palazzina cinese 0004.JPG]]

Eclecticism "was an important concept in Western architecture during the mid- and late 19th century, and it reappeared in a new guise in the latter part of the 20th century" {{harv|Muthesius|n.d.}}.

==Sources==
* {{citation|last=Hume|first=Helen D.|year=1998|title=The Art Teacher's Book of Lists|location=San Francisco|publisher=Jossey-Bass|isbn=0-7879-7424-2}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Muthesius|n.d.}}|reference=Muthesius, Stefan. (n.d.) "Eclecticism". ''Grove Art Online''. Oxford Art Online. (subscription access) (accessed 19 September 2008)}}
* {{citation|last=Reynolds|first=Joshua|year=1775|title=A Discourse, Delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy, on the Distribution of the Prizes, Dec. the 10th, 1774|location=London|publisher=T. Davies}}

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[[Category:Visual arts genres]]
[[Category:Architectural styles]]