Romanticism?

EWW. NO!

Caspar David Friedrich Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog What artistic characteristics do you notice about this painting?

Romanticism Context Context The Visual Arts The Visual Arts Music Music Literature Literature

Enlightenment/Neoclassical/Age of Reason Ideas Reason Universal Truths Natural Order Academics Classical (Think Epics!)

Romantic Ideas Love of Nature Idealization of Rural Living Faith in Common People Emphasis on Freedom and Individualism Spontaneity, intuition, feeling, imagination, wonder - Rejection of organized religion, tradition

From Enlightenment to Romanticism French Revolution French Revolution Industrial Revolution Revolutions & Rise of Nationalism

From Enlightenment to Romanticism Romanticism as a reaction to:  The Age of Reason  The Industrial Revolution  The French Revolution Descartes: “Cogito, ergo sum” (I think, therefore I exist.) Rousseau: “Exister, pour nous, c’est sentir” (For us, to exist is to feel.)

Romanticism & The Industrial Revolution What might be some negative effects of The Industrial Revolution?

- French emotional reaction - Middle class dominance - Underclass causes adopted - Frustration of common people from lack of political and economic agency Out of this revolution comes… Freedom Nationalism Individualism Romanticism & The French Revolution

Visual Arts: Examples Neoclassical Art Death of Marat Romantic Art How are these two pieces of art different? What words best describe these paintings?

Neoclassical Neoclassical Romantic Romantic

What style is this? How does Nature appear in this painting?

Bottom Right Detail JM Turner The Slave Ship

What does this painting say about individualism and the common man?

This painting depicts an 1808 shooting at Montana del Principe Pio. Can you tell Goya’s reaction to the event? What features indicate his reaction?

Breaking from Neoclassical Art "If you want to do art you must first study the rules, second study the great masters, third forget the rules, because genius begins where trite rules end.” - Sir Joshua Reynolds ( ) ( )

What rules does Reynolds break in this painting?

Visual Arts: Summary  Earlier art (neoclassical art) was rigid, severe, and unemotional.  Follows strict classical rules from ancient Greece and Rome.  Romantic art was emotional, deeply-felt, individualistic, and exotic. It has been described as a reaction to earlier styles (neoclassical art). Conveyed personal feeling of Conveyed personal feeling of artist. artist. Glorified the common man. Glorified the common man. Depicted the exotic (subjects). Depicted the exotic (subjects). Landscapes/Nature became Landscapes/Nature became important. important.

Romantic Literature  The publication of Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge in 1798 is considered the beginning of literary Romanticism. Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge Byron, Shelley, Keats Byron, Shelley, Keats The Gothic Novel… Frankenstein The Gothic Novel… Frankenstein

“[Romanticism] must have come on like punk rock to a public groaning under the weight of over-cooked Augustinisms.” Augustinisms = classical, religious commentary from Augustine. How can Romanticism be seen as a rebellion against The System, The Man, The Accepted? “They said, we'd be artistically free When we signed that bit of paper.” -The Clash

Relationship with Nature “Are not the mountains, waves, and skies, a part Of me and my soul, as I of them?” - Byron “[A mountain is] the type of a majestic intellect,... There I beheld the emblem of a giant mind that feeds upon infinity.” - Wordsworth What is the relationship between Romantic Artists and nature? Romantic Literature

What is the sublime? Often associated with huge, overpowering natural phenomena like mountains, waterfalls, turbulent seas, and thunderstorms, the “delightful terror” inspired by sublime visions was supposed both to remind viewers of their own insignificance in the face of nature and divinity and to inspire them with a sense of transcendence.

How did the sublime relate to the beautiful? Mere beauty was thought by the Romantics to be inferior to the concept of the “sublime.” The British writer and statesman Edmund Burke, who was interested in categorizing aesthetic responses, identified beauty with delicacy and harmony, and he identified the sublime with vastness, obscurity, and a capacity to inspire terror.

The Falls of the Rhine at Schaffhausen, Turner Philippe Jacques De Loutherbourg

Defining Romanticism  Romanticism refers to a movement in art, literature, and music during the 19 th century.  Romanticism is broadly characterized by:  Imagination  Emotion  Inspiration  Individuality

Imagination  Imagination was emphasized over “reason.”  This was a backlash against the rationalism characterized by the Neoclassical “Age of Reason.”  Imagination was considered necessary for creating all art.  British writer Samuel Taylor Coleridge called it “intellectual intuition.”

Emotion  Romantics placed value on feeling and instincts over reason.  Emotions were important in Romantic art.  British Romantic William Wordsworth described poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.”

Inspiration  The Romantic artist, musician, or writer, is an “inspired creator” rather than a “technical master.”  Romantic writers were “going with the flow,” or being spontaneous, rather than “getting it precise” like Milton, Pope, John Donne.

Individuality  Romantics celebrated the individual.  Triumph of common man in French Revolution.  Women’s Rights and Abolitionism were taking root as major movements.  Walt Whitman, an American Romantic writer, wrote a lengthy poem entitled “Song of Myself”; it begins, “I celebrate myself…”