The rise of the Neoclassical art of Jacques-Louis David ultimately engendered the realistic reactions of Gustave Courbet and Édouard Manet leading to the multi-faceted figurative art of the 20th century.

The latter is an example of Neoclassical art and imagery, while the former is Oakland's only known example of Egyptian Revival.

Nevertheless, a defining moment for Neoclassicism came during the French Revolution in the late 18th century; in France, Rococo art was replaced with the preferred Neoclassical art, which was seen as more serious than the former movement.

Neoclassical art places an emphasis on order, symmetry and classical simplicity; common themes in Neoclassical art include courage and war, as were commonly explored in ancient Greek and Roman art.

Paintings may favor the visual imagery of the Neoclassical art of the mid-18th to 19th century.

After studying Neoclassical art in Rome under Johann Joachim Winckelmann, he taught at the Brera Academy in Milan from its beginning in 1776 where he worked with the architect Giuseppe Piermarini.

Petersen's sculpture is predominantly Neoclassical and beaux arts in style, and he virulently denounced modernism.

In Renaissance and Neoclassical art, the dissemination of emblem books such as Cesare Ripa's Iconologia (1593 and many further editions) helped standardize the depiction of the Muses in sculpture and painting.

French Neoclassical, Impressionist and post-Impressionist art, including works by Renoir, Monet, Van Gogh and Gauguin, is displayed there in the southeastern corner.

Chief among his antiquarian works must be the profusely illustrated Recueil d'antiquités égyptiennes, étrusques, grècques, romaines et gauloises (6 vols., Paris, 1752-1755), which was mined by the designers of Neoclassical arts for the rest of the century.