Laocoon and his Sons

What do we mean by classicism in an artistic context? Essentially a collection of rules – supposedly derived from ancient authors or the models of antiquity – which provided prescriptions for subsequent art and architecture. In the case of sculpture, there were remains of classical pieces - usually Roman copies after Greek originals - that Renaissance artists could inspire themselves from. 

Beyond this copying of antique architecture and art, however, there was something less easily definable, but possibly more powerful – a set of assumptions about the wider meanings of classical society and culture for the present.  Classical philosophy, moral values and political assumptions were potentially attractive to humanist-educated patrons, who wished to see these expressed in the art that they commissioned.  In both cases what was attractive was the legitimizing connection, the implied link between the present-day elites and an idealization of Roman republicanism or imperial grandeur and its values of unchallenged authority, order, peace and prosperity. (David Parrott)