Romanticism1800-1840

Rousseau, “Man is born free, but is everywhere in

chains!”

Context of Romanticism:Emerged from a desire to be freeDesire for freedom in: politics; feelings; thought; action; worship; speech; tasteFreedom is the right and property of all.Path to freedom was through imagination, not reasonFreedom functioned through feeling not accepted wisdomOriginated among German literary groups (ironically)

Neoclassicism v. RomanticismReasons FeelingsCalculation IntuitionObjective Nature Subjective emotionsInterest in Classical Interest in Medieval art and literature and sublime

Context of Romanticism cont…

Middle Ages- fantasy; ghoulish, infernal, terrible, nightmarish, grotesque, sadistic, horror“Reason crept into a cave.”Edmund Burke’s study of the Sublime, 1757; feelings of awe mixed with terror, the most intense human emotions caused by fear can often be thrilling.The Fantastic, the occult, the macabre where the soul journeys into dangerous regions of consciousness.

Francisco Goya, Third of May, 1808, oil on canvas, 8’9”X 13’4,” Patron Ferdinand VII

Caprichos Plate 2 “They Swear to be faithful but marry the first man who comes along.”

Caprichos Plate 55 Hasta la Muerte "Until Death"

Caprichos Plate 77Now One, Now AnotherUnos à otros

Francisco Goya, Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, from Los Caprichos (The Caprices) Plate 43, 1798, etching and aquatint.

Francisco Goya, Family of Charles IV, 1800, 9’2” X 11,’ Oil on canvas

Francisco Goya, Saturn Devouring One of His Children, 1819-1823, Detached Fresco mounted on Canvas

Theodore Gericault, Raft of Medusa, 1818-1819, oil on canvas, 16’1”X 23’6”

Theodore Gericault, Insane Woman, 1822-1823, Oil on Canvas

William Blake, God Creating the Universe (Ancient of Days), Frontispiece of Europe: A Prophecy, 1794, metal relief etching, hand colored with watercolor and gouache.

And did those feet in ancient time Walk upon England’s mountains green?And was the holy lamb of God On England’s pleasant Pastures seen?

William Blake“Jerusalem”

On September 3, 1822, Eugene Delacroix’s first journal entry read, "I am carrying out my plan, so often formulated, of keeping a journal. What I most keenly wish is not to forget that I'm writing for myself alone. Thus, I shall always tell the truth, I hope, and thus I shall improve myself."

“Cold exactitude is not art; ingenious artifice, when it pleases or when it expresses, is art itself.” "The eyes of many people are dull or false," Delacroix wrote in the last entry. "They see objects literally, of the exquisite they see nothing." “Of which beauty will you speak? There are many: there are a thousand: there is one for every look, for every spirit, adapted to each taste, to each particular constitution.” “What makes sovereign ugliness are our conventions.” “All painting worth its name, …,must include the idea of color as one of its necessary supports, in the same way that it includes chiaroscuro, proportion, and perspective.”

Eugene Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People, 1830

Eugene Delacroix, Death of Sardanapalus, 1827

Francois Rude, Departure of the Volunteers of 1792, or La Marseillaise, 1833-1836

30 minute Essay Question:

Characterize what is meant by "sublime," and discuss the qualities of the sublime in Theodore Gericault, Raft of Medusa, 1818-1819

Romanticism Landscape painting:19th CenturyIncreased tourism along with the RailroadOften used landscapes as allegories Commented on the spiritual, moral, historical, or philosophical issuesWolfgang van Goethe [nature is] “…the living garment of God.” Expressed the soul unified with nature

Caspar David Friedrich, Abbey in the Oak Forest, 1810

“The artist should not only paint what he sees before him, but also what he sees within him. If he does not see anything within him, he should give up painting what he sees before him.”

John Constable, The Haywain, 1821. “Painting is but another word for feeling.”

Joseph Turner, The Slave Ship (Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhoon Coming On,) 1840

10 minute essay:

Fully identify a landscape painting and explain how it was used as an allegory for politics during Romanticism.