Transcript Romanticism Art, Literature and Music Notes  An eighteenth – nineteenth century art, music and literary attitude/style.  The Romantic movement can be described.

Romanticism
Art, Literature and Music
Notes
 An eighteenth – nineteenth century art, music and literary
attitude/style.
 The Romantic movement can be described as a reaction against
Neo-classicism in which the style is full of emotion and beauty
with many individualistic and exotic elements.
 When the word ‘romantic’ became current it originally meant
‘resembling the strange and fanciful character of medieval
romances’
 Romantic thought brought with it primacy of emotion and
imagination over reason.
 Romanticism was concerned with things being exulted. Imaginative or
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extravagant- a free handling of subject matter to emphasise the artist’s
individual attitude, mood or feeling as opposed to strict focus on
classical works of the Greek and Roman Empires. Romantic artists
often use melancholic themes and dramatic tragedy.
Emphasised colour and spirit, as opposed to Neo-Classicalism which
emphasised line and a certain cool detachment- similar to the satire
found in literature.
The sublime is a sense of vastness, and nature’s capacity to inspire
terror came into prominence as subject matter.
Romantic art portrays emotions painted in a bold and dramatic
manner, and there is often an emphasis on the past.
Paintings by famous Romantic artists such as Gericault and Delacroix
are filled with energetic brushstrokes, rich colors, and emotive subject
matters.
 The German landscape painter Caspar David Friedrich
created images of solitary loneliness whereas in Spain,
Francisco Goya conveyed the horrors of war in his
works. This demonstrates the variety in subject matter,
but the emphasis on drama and emotion.
 The Pre-Raphaelite movement succeeded Romanticism,
and Impressionism is firmly rooted in the Romantic
tradition. Other famous Romantic artists include George
Stubbs, William Blake, John Margin, John Constable,
JMW Turner, and Sir Thomas Lawrence.
Romantic Characteristics in Art
Increased Nationalism and exoticism:
 Used to highlight national identity.
 Eg Thomas Gainsborough painted many pictures of royalty,
as did Jacques-Louis David, who was Napoleon's official
artist.
 Nationalism also includes the notion of national spirit
embodied most clearly in the works of John Constable
 Francisco Goya also displayed nationalism in his work The
Third of May, 1808.
 The artist displayed exoticism by painting new and foreign
things, including far away places and odd objects. This idea
is illustrated in the Lion Hunt, by Eugene Delacroix.
More interest in Nature and the Supernatural
 Nature- many artists painted landscapes that usually showed
either nationalism of their country or the exoticism and
adventure of far-away places. The natural world was
considered less a model of perfection and more a source of
mysterious powers.
 Romantic artists painted from many supernatural texts and
stories.
 Supernatural- The romantic period was a time of surging
emotions, and the supernatural represented love (cupids), fear
(demons), and many other characteristics.
Cont.
 Horror of the supernatural- scary creatures as symbols.
Among Goya’s works, Los Caprichos are some of the most
noted, and they have to do with the horrors of the
supernatural (Los Caprichos, 1799, deal with such themes
as the Spanish Inquisition, the abuses of the church and
the nobility, witchcraft, child rearing, etc... The
supernatural part of theses pictures include goblins,
witches, animals acting like human fools and aristocrats,
and many others.
Individuality:
 Classicism, the period before the Romantic age, was quite
different from Romanticism.
 Classicism= objective
 Focus on balance and definite and distinct formal structure
 Romanticism = subjective; Romantic spirit was all about
loosing formal constraints, giving way to artists to show
their individual ideas and emotions
Cont.
 Goya became a pioneer of new artistic tendencies,
which were commonly used in the 19th century.
With the artworks he made in his 60 years of
creating art, Goya represented the reaction
against previous conceptions of art, a new form of
expression.
 Another great artist who showed individuality is
Joseph Mallord William Turner. The power of
individual perception is most evident in his works.
Change in the style of Artists:
 During the 18th century, the rococo style was one of the most
dominant. Through the efforts of Goya and many others, the
Romantic Period showed the change from the decadent and
courtly rococo styles to the vivid, detailed, and passionate
artworks created by Romantic artists.
 The new style explored the human heart, heroism of a
revolutionary age, the emotional aspects of life.
 From Romanticism, rationalism and realism emerged in the
later part of the nineteenth century.
Heroism
 Heroism didn't just mean the supernatural (myths, and
imaginary people); many people, eg. Beethoven, believed
that the common man could be heroes. Eugene Delacroix's
painting, The Lion Hunt, shows the Arabs as the heroes.
The painting shows that the common man can be a hero.
 Jacques-Louis David, who was Napoleon’s official artist,
painted Napoleon in some of his greatest hours.
(Bonaparte Crossing the St. Bernard Pass) David also
painted many of the heroes of Greek mythology, and
Socrates, another hero, in The Death of Socrates.
What do you
think of this?
What was the
artist trying to
convey?
The wanderer above the
sea of fog by Caspar David
Friedrich
A view from Dalesford towards the Pyranees -Eugene von Guérard (1865)
The fighting
Temeraire
tugged to her
last berth to be
broken up, 1838
•The palette (range of colours) emphasises the celebration of nature
• Use of orange yellows contrasting with the blue creates awe inspiring
atmosphere
• Rough background with a highly detailed central object directs our
eyes to the ship and its grandness
•The water has its own grandness, a more subtle beauty
•2 figures close to the
inferno show the power
of the individual
• the scale of smoke
shows how nature
overcomes all
• brutality and beauty
of natural occurrences
Outbreak of the Vesuvius- Johan
Christian Claussen Dahl (1826)
• a highly intense atmosphere
due to dark shades contrasted
with the light flesh tones of
the revolutionary people
• the lighting is very
important in distinguishing
key figures
• Highly detailed
• Unified vertical direction of
guns/ flag post, knife shows
the civil unrest is common to
all
Eugène Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People
1830
John Martin, 1852, The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
• highly dramatic background
• direction of paint strokes gives an otherworldy/supernatural effect
• Biblical allusion/representation
• Red+blue creates mystery and supernatural
• Stark white bolt of lightening pointing to a figure in the midground
• links to the past lost civillisations but celebrating nature’s power and might
An Early Neo-Classical work
“The Hippopotamus Hunt,” oil on canvas by Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1615–16;.jpg