Romanticism

• Covers literature, painting, music, architecture, criticism, etc.

• Rejection of the precepts of order, calm, harmony, balance, idealization and rationality (Classicism)

• Reaction against the Enlightenment and physical materialism

Romanticism Emphasized

• the Individual • the Subjective • the Irrational • the Imaginative • the Personal • the Emotional• The Visonary• The Transcendental

• Deepened appreciation of nature

• Exaltation of emotion over reason

• Senses over intellect• Examintion of human

moods• Preoccupation with the

genius and ther hero

Romanticism

• Highly Influenced by Rousseau

• Starts in Germany with Goethe

• The Science of Light tells us nothing of the beauty of light

• Work for the sheer intrinsic value of it

• Emmanuel Kant – Science had left a philosphy that ws too mechanical and indifferent to the human condition

Introduction to RomanticismHenry Fuseli, The Nightmare, 1781• Girl: virginal white• Horse: peeks from behind curtain• Incubus: brown, cannot be seen by the girl even if her eyes

were open, sits on her chest• She feels the suffocation of the incubus• Sexual overtones• Curtain: dark and theatrically red• Nightmare conveys what is felt, not what is seen, by the

dreamer• Mirror reflects nothing• Mara: in Norse mythology a spirit who comes in the night

and suffocates sleepers, stealing their breath away• Contemporary scene, not mythological: contemporary

furnishings• Germanic violence and Italian Mannerism

Introduction to Romanticism

Blake, Ancient of Days, 1794

• From Europe, A Prophecy

• A sun, or a shield covering a sun, rays from behind

• Strong lateral wind

• Black abyss

• Compass: makes order out of chaos

• Influence of Italian Mannerism

• Figure’s name is Urizen: play on “Your Reason”

Giaovanni Battista Piranesi, Prisons #14, 1746 - 1761

• Many ambiguities: where do the vaults end? The staircases lead? The balconies go to?

• Who are the wretched who wander up and down the stairs?

• By whose authority are they in prison? For what reason?

• Haunting, frightening, mysterious quality

• Monumental compositions• Zigzag of contrasting diagonals• Deeply enclosed structures• Sketchy and mysterious figures• Darkly inked engraving• Spikes emerge ominously from lower

left corner

Romanticism in France

Jean Gros, Napoleon at the Pesthouse of Jaffa, 1804

• Event that took place March 11, 1799• Violent outbreak of bubonic plague in

Napoleon’s army in the Middle East• Painted to respond to negative publicity

Napoleon earned when he ordered the poisoning of prisoners whom he could not afford to house nor feed

• Acting out his legend as a divinity he enters the pesthouse to calm the panic by demonstrating he is not afraid

• Comforting them, touching them, in a reference to the Doubting Thomas of the Bible

• Napoleon as Christ with the miraculous powers to heal

• Sacred tradition of the healing king• Napoleon’s touching of the sick man was

to disprove that the disease was contagious and incurable

• Semi-nudity of figures• Cf. Oath of the Horatii• Architectural framework sets the scene• Gothic arches• Young doctor, himself stricken with

plague, holds the body of a dying man in his lap at lower right

• Napoleon’s trim figure is bordered by the naked flesh of two monumental plague-stricken men

• Napoleon’s men hide their noses from the stink of decaying flesh

Romanticism in France

Gericault, The Raft of the Medusa, 1818• Government ship bound for Senegal

wrecked in 1816• Life boats accommodated the

wealthy, 149 other passengers were deserted by the captain, placed in a raft 65 by 35 and cut loose in the Atlantic

• Only 15 survived• Géricault made scale model of raft in

his studio, interviewed and painted survivors

• Concentration on moment of rescue• Use of foreshortening• Pyramid structure• Heroic musculature

• Delacroix upside-down in foreground• Monochromatic• Concentric zones: outer margin of green

water and blue sky frames the brown mass of raft which, in turn, holds the grayish figures

• Appears in twilight, warm diffuse glow of the morning sun

• Foreground: weight of corpses and massive mourners

• Middle ground: figures lifting and holding

• Ascent: climax of the painting at the intersection of the diagonals

• Painting dips down into our own space• References to Michelangelo

Romanticism in France

Gericault, Insane Woman

• Insightful portrait of the insane

• Artist’s own fragile mental health

• History of insanity in his family

• Suffered a mental disorder in October 1819

• Painted 10 paintings of lunatics, 5 survive

Romanticism in France

Eugene Delacroix, Death of Sardanapalus, 1827• Inspired by a tragic drama by Byron, published in 1821• The satrap, on his bed of state, surrounded by a funeral pyre• Faced with defeat, he destroys all so that nothing will survive for the victors• Eunuchs, wives, concubines, pages, dogs, horses killed before his eyes• Pandemonium of passions• Whirling mixture of human and animal forms• King: cf. Etruscan Sarcophagus from Cerveteri• Vignette: an empty central part of the painting, clear in center and objects

scattered toward edges• Tempestuous, crowded• Rubenesque women• Triangular composition

Romanticism in FranceDelacroix, Liberty Leading the People• July Revolution of 1830• Anecdote that Delacroix had witnessed

a young girl who saw the nude corpse of her brother who had been shot by the Swiss Guards; she took up arms and killed nine Royalist troops before she was shot

• Unity of structure• Dead man seems to have been dead

eight days ago, critics said• Liberty: face similar to an ignudi on the

Sistine Ceiling• Frieze-like arrangement of the

background

• Pyramid structure rises up and triangular grouping comes toward us

• French tri-color atop Notre Dame

• Cf. Venus de Milo• Figure with the cocked hat in

the background symbolizes the role of the students from the Ecole Polytechnique for their role in helping the uprising

• Middle class man with rifle and top hat

• Proletariat with saber

Romanticism in FranceIngres, The Grand Odalisque• Criticized as “three too many vertebrae” and “no muscle, no bone, no life”• Exotic Turkish setting• Sculpturesque style• Raphael inspired head• Cool detachment• Arms are out of proportion with one another• Position of legs structurally impossible• Suppleness of her curves• Elongation: Italian Mannerism, i.e. Parmigianino, Bronzino• Flatness of forms• Cf. Canova, Pauline Borghese as Venushttp://cgfa.dotsrc.org/ingres/p-ingres8.htm

Romanticism in France

Ingres, Apotheosis of Homer

• Composition centered around the enthroned Homer, seated in front of an Ionic temple, crowned by Fame

• On either side are personifications of Iliad (left) and Odyssey (right)

• Inspired by The School of Athens

• Symmetrical, balanced, orderly

• Neoclassical style

http://www.abcgallery.com/I/ingres/ingres52.html

Romanticism in Spain

Goya, The Family of Charles IV, 1800 - 1801• Goya used a mirror asking the sitters to compare their likeness to the

painted likeness• Goya in shadow of painting, a reference of Velázquez’s Maids of

Honor• Magnificent ceremonial costumes seem overplayed• Left group dominated by Prince Ferdinand in blue• Center group dominated by Queen Maria Luisa, who was cruel and

ambitious in life, unfaithful to her husband• Right group dominated by King Carlos IV• Satire? • Background painting on left is of Lot and His Daughters: relationship

to the main painting?

Family of Charles IV, 1800

Romanticism in Spain

Goya, The Third of May 1808• Historical background: French army

occupies Spain, and seizes King and Queen of Spain. The uprising is caused by the abandonment of the Royal Family, held in prison in France

• Uprising in Madrid brutally crushed by the French

• French round up suspects, killing 40-45 outside the city walls

• Christ-like figure in crucifixion pose with stigmata on hands expresses frustration

• French are faceless with robotic movements

• French fire at extremely close range• Emphasis on gory details• Various human emotions displayed• Dark background surrounds church

in distance• Spanish sacrifice for their country

but are unheroic figuresGoya, Saturn Devouring One of His

Children• Sinister blackness, panic stricken

eyes• Voracious mouth• Symbol: monstrous self-destruction

of humans• Symbol: time which destroys its

creations

Goya, Saturn Devouring One of His Children

• Sinister blackness, panic stricken eyes

• Voracious mouth• Symbol: monstrous self-

destruction of humans• Symbol: time which destroys its

creations

Romantic LandscapeConstable, The Hay Wain• Painter of pastoral English scenery• Oneness with nature sought by Romantic poets• Man as a participant in the landscape• Sense of monumentality, rhythm, color, movement• Composed as if accidental• Clouds filled with color and light• Many colors in one: trees many shades of green,

clouds, reflections, etc.• Cottage camouflaged by trees• Legend about the occupant of the cottage: he was 80

and spent only four nights of his life elsewhere. He and the cottage are part of the natural landscape

• Colors and light are flecked and vibrant and tend to obscure details

Romantic LandscapeTurner, The Slave Ship• 1833: slavery ended in Britain, but guilt of slave

trade cannot be erased by an act of Parliament• Slave traders are the sharks• In 1783 an epidemic broke out on a ship, The

Zong• Slaves thrown over board so that the owners could

collect insurance money. Slaves dying of disease were uninsurable

• Shipwrecks a common theme in English painting, 5000 people a year died at sea

• Color reflective of emotional state• Horror of man’s inhumanity to man is stressed• Fast sketchy brushwork• Blood red sunset acts symbolically• Blurred forms

Romantic LandscapeCaspar David Friedrich, Abbey in the Oak Forest• Landscapes as temples• Paintings as altarpieces• Landscape as a representation of the unrepresentable God• Gothic cathedral as Christendom, oaks as the pagan past• Landscape itself elegized as a monument• Row of monks carrying a coffin• Immediate foreground, remote background• Winter: skeletal and chilling• Irregularity of Gothic ruins in step with the adjacent oak

trees• Feeling of melancholy• Divinity inherent in nature• Strong horizontals interrupted by verticals of trees and ruins• Many symbols of death

Romanticism in America

Thomas Cole, The Oxbow, 1836• Founder of the Hudson River School of landscape painting• Painted as reply to Captain Basil Hall’s book Travels in North America,

1829, in which he alleged that America was indifferent to its natural blessings

• Also alleged that American painters were incompetent and could not capture American scenery

• To Cole, America possesses the sublime and the beautiful in its landscape• Wildness of landscape on left compared to the domesticated landscape on

right• Cole is seated with an easel between both landscapes, looking at us• Left: contorted trunk, receding storm, wild mountains, impenetrable

forest• Right: cultivated, orderly, man taming nature, but remaining in harmony

with her• Oxbow as a counterstatement to Hall’s book

Cole, The Oxbow, 1836

Romanticism in America

Frederick Church, Twilight in the Wilderness

• Cole’s only pupil and his successor • Awe-inspiring view of the sun setting

over a majestic landscape• No trace of humanity• Idealistic and comforting view• Affirmation of the divine in nature• Strong horizontals interrupted by

verticals and diagonals• Color used as spectacle• Great detail in leaves of trees and

feathery clouds• Is it a symbol of the oncoming Civil

War?