Why romanticism developed

Achilles Receiving the Envoys of Agamemnon by Ingres, : Ingres, though firmly committed to Neoclassical values, is seen as expressing the Romantic spirit of the times. Both of these works reflected current events and appealed to public sentiment. Spanish painter Francisco Goya is today generally regarded as the greatest painter of the Romantic period.

However, in many ways he remained wedded to the classicism and realism of his training. He also shared with many of the Romantic painters a more free handling of paint, emphasized in the new prominence of the brushstroke and impasto, which tended to be repressed in neoclassicism under a self-effacing finish.

The Milkmaid of Bordeaux by Goya, ca. Compared to English Romanticism, German Romanticism developed relatively late, and, in the early years, coincided with Weimar Classicism — In contrast to the seriousness of English Romanticism, the German variety of Romanticism notably valued wit, humor, and beauty.

The early German romantics strove to create a new synthesis of art, philosophy, and science, largely by viewing the Middle Ages as a simpler period of integrated culture, however, the German romantics became aware of the tenuousness of the cultural unity they sought. Late-stage German Romanticism emphasized the tension between the daily world and the irrational and supernatural projections of creative genius. Landscape painting in Europe and America greatly increased in prominence during the 18th and particularly the 19th century.

Describe the emergence of landscape painting in France, England, Holland, and the United States during the years of the Enlightenment. Landscape painting depicts natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, in which the main subject is typically a wide view and the elements are arranged into a coherent composition.

During the Dutch Golden Age of painting of the 17th century, this type of painting greatly increased in popularity, and many artists specialized in the genre. In particular, painters of this era were known for developing extremely subtle, realist techniques of depicting light and weather. The popularity of landscape painting in this region, during this time, was in part a reflection of the virtual disappearance of religious art in the Netherlands, which was then a Calvinist society.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, religious painting declined across all of Europe, and the movement of Romanticism spread, both of which provided important historical ingredients for landscape painting to ascend to a more prominent place in art.

In England, landscapes had initially only been painted as the backgrounds for portraits, and typically portrayed the parks or estates of a landowner. This changed as a result of Anthony van Dyck, who, along with other Flemish artists living in England, began a national tradition.

In the 18th century, watercolor painting, mostly of landscapes, became an English speciality. The nation had both a buoyant market for professional works of this variety, and a large number of amateur painters.

Looking wistfully back to the Middle Ages, the Romantic influence led to a Gothic Revival in architecture in the s. Gothic novels increased in popularity, and in art, paintings of various historical periods and exotic places came into vogue. It would be impossible to cover all of the Romantics in such a short space and a disservice to them to attempt it , but representative examples can be given.

Few would argue that it is the best work of the British Romantics, but it is indicative. In this story, a scientist is able to master life, animating an artificially constructed person.

But this "miracle of science," far from a simple story of man mastering nature through reason, ends up having monstrous results. In Germany art, Friedrich Schiller produced plays known for their sense of a German "Volk", or national spirit.

Karl Friedrich Schinckel led the Gothic Revival movement, beginning his first plans for Gothic structures as early as the s. German romantic philosophy was dominated by W. He construed the development of the state as part of a historical process, or "teleology". Its ideals of the creative, subjective powers of the artist fueled avant-garde movements well into the 20 th century. Romanticist practitioners found their voices across all genres, including literature, music, art, and architecture.

Reacting against the sober style of Neoclassicism preferred by most countries' academies, the far reaching international movement valued originality, inspiration, and imagination, thus promoting a variety of styles within the movement. Additionally, in an effort to stem the tide of increasing industrialization, many of the Romanticists emphasized the individual's connection to nature and an idealized past.

Fuseli's strange and macabre painting depicts a ravished woman, draped across a divan with a small, hairy incubus sitting on top of her, staring out menacingly at the viewer. A mysterious black mare with white eyes and flaring nostrils appears behind her, entering the scene through lush, red curtains. We seem to be looking at the effects and the contents of the woman's dream at the same time.

Fuseli's ghastly scene was the first of its kind in the midst of The Age of Reason, and Fuseli became something of a transitional figure. While Fuseli held many of the same tenets as the Neoclassicists notice the idealized depiction of the woman , he was intent on exploring the dark recesses of human psychology when most were concerned with scientific exploration of the objective world.

When shown in at London's Royal Academy exhibition, the painting shocked and frightened visitors. Unlike the paintings the public was used to seeing, Fuseli's subject matter was not drawn from history or the bible, nor did it carry any moralizing intent. This new subject matter would have wide-ranging repercussions in the art world. Even though the woman is bathed in a bright light, Fuseli's composition suggests that light is unable to penetrate the darker realms of the human mind.

The relationship between the mare, the incubus, and the woman remains suggestive and not explicit, heightening the terrifying possibilities. Fuseli's combination of horror, sexuality, and death insured the image's notoriety as a defining example of Gothic horror, which inspired such writers as Mary Shelly and Edgar Allan Poe.

The Ancient of Days served as the frontispiece to Blake's book, Europe a Prophecy , which contained 18 engravings. This image depicts Urizen, a mythological figure first created by the poet in to represent the rule of reason and law and influenced by the image of God described in the Book of Proverbs as one who "set a compass upon the face of the earth. Blake combines classical anatomy with a bold and energetic composition to evoke a vision of divine creation.

Blake eschewed traditional Christianity and felt instead that imagination was "the body of God. Europe a Prophecy reflected his disappointment in the French Revolution that he felt had not resulted in true freedom but in a world full of suffering as reflected in England and France in the s. Little known during his lifetime, Blake's works were rediscovered by the Pre-Raphaelites at the end of the 19 th century, and as more artists continued to rediscover him in the 20 th century, he has become one of the most influential of the Romantic artists.

Stephanie Forward explains. Romanticism is notoriously difficult to define and has been interpreted in various ways in different countries. However, it is true to say that it flowered originally against a backdrop of violent revolution during a period of economic, political and social transition. It was a European phenomenon, and had an impact upon many spheres of thought and activity.

Advocating freedom and independence, many artists and philosophers of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries challenged the way people looked at the world, emphasizing the integrity of the individual and refusing to bow to convention. Regarding themselves as intuitive prophets, they rejected the pure rationalism and order of the Enlightenment, maintaining that nature and the healing power of the imagination could enable people to transcend their everyday circumstances.

Creative powers could be used to illuminate and transform the world into a coherent vision, to regenerate mankind spiritually. Given the centrality of the poetic imagination, poets could therefore claim to be interpreters of reality. The Romantics found fresh ways to express themselves: their reverence for nature, in its awesome majesty, was to prove a lasting legacy. Drawing upon the environment for inspiration, they encouraged people to travel, both literally and metaphorically, into new territories.

Their attitudes to life were liberating and made the world seem a place of infinite potential. The ramifications of their approach have continued to have an impact on culture subsequently. Romantics often embraced the macabre, hence the popularity of Gothic novels. There was also keen interest in scientific discoveries and developments. Literature was not the only art form to be affected by Romanticism.

Composers also veered away from the formal clarity of classicism to experiment, striving for deeper emotional depth. Mendelssohn, Schumann, Chopin, Berlioz and Liszt were early pioneers.

They were followed by Verdi, Wagner, Brahms and Tchaikovsky, all of whom produced innovative music, and in the twentieth century Schoenberg, Debussy, Bartok, Mahler, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Puccini and Rachmaninoff continued the Romantic tradition.

Virtuoso conductors and performers attracted attention. In the s Gothic rock inspired trends in fashion and in music. The early years of the decade also witnessed the rise of New Romanticism. Whereas the eighteenth-century Romantics had rebelled against Enlightenment didacticism, the New Romantics emerged to counteract the anarchic austerity of Punk.