Throughout this assignment we will be taking a look at how artists during the Romantic period, that took place around the 18th and 19th centuries, choose to react against the approaches and philosophy established by artist during the age of Enlightenment. We will take a look at a few obviously Romantic artworks to help us better our understanding of this fascinating movement.
To understand how Romanticism has rejected, or reacted to, the Enlightenment, we first need to take a look at what artists believed during the Enlightenment era. According to Fred S. Kleiner, the Enlightenment, which took place during the first part of 18th century, brought with it a new way of thinking critically about “the world and the humankind, independently of religion, myth or tradition”(F.S Kleiner,Gardner’s Art through the Ages,2013,pg 727). The educated thinker of this age believed in things like Humanism, Rationalism, and was fascinated by the knowledge that came with the advancements in science. They rarely believed in things that they could not prove or have no evidence of. The Enlightenment artistic movement include the neoclassical artists, who were inspired by Greek and Roman antiquity.
In harsh contrast to these Enlightenment ideals and believes, Romanticism, according to Fred S. Kleiner, “emerged from a desire for freedom – not only political freedom but also freedom of thought, of feeling, of action, of worship, of speech and of taste.”(F.S. Kleiner, Gardner’s, Art through the Ages,2013,pg 762).Some believe that Romanticism had major influences on the world that came after it, and that we are all, every single one of us, still romantics at heart. Romantic ideas are still very much part of our lives today. Their believe that all should ha...
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... http://nineplanets.org/saturn.html. [Accessed 13 May 2014]
• Eeweens.com. 1997.Goya. [online]. Available at: http://eeweems.com/goya/saturn.html. [Accessed 13 May 2014]
• Artble.com. 2014. Wandered above the sea of fog. [online]. Available at: http://www.artble.com/artists/caspar_david_friedrich/paintings/wanderer_above_the_sea_of_fog. [Accessed 13 May 2014]
• Public.wsu.edu. 1998. Romanticism. [online]. Available at: http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/hum_303/romanticism.html. [Accessed 13 May 2014]
• Gallery Intel.2014. JWM Turner. [online]. Available at:
• http://www.galleryintell.com/artex/rain-steam-and-speed-jmw-turner/.[Accessed 13 May 2014]
• Fred S. Kleiner. Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, 14th Edition. 2014. Wadsworth.
• Judith Clark. The Illustrated History of Art.1992. Quantum Publishing.
• Lucinde Hawksley. Essential History of Art. 2000. Parragon.
In short, it can be seen that while there are some basic similarities between Enlightenment and Romantic thinking -- because of the fact that they do explore nature-- their convergence, ideologically, ends there. In fact, it seems that nature’s ability to be so subjective has led to the two ideologies being exact opposites in almost every regard. The Enlightenment focuses on human’s achievement in regard to nature, while Romanticism focuses on the insignificance of humans in comparison to the immensity of nature. It seems that, in the end, the movements of Enlightenment and Romanticism were just what the description entailed – moving. It can then be wholly concluded that the two movements were far more different than alike based on their ideologies and creations.
Romanticism was a period when people encouraged artists freely expressing their emotions and feelings. Art was to be derived from the artist's imagination with little interference from other outside forces. Artists were considered geniuses. To be considered a genius, you were someone who was able to produce art from nothing. This was the key to romanticism. Romantics had a strong connection with nature. They had very little trust with the human world. Having a good connection with nature was a key concept to being mentally and morally healthy. The romanticism period initiated an interest in the supernatural. Looking into the afterlife and what the different religions believe happen.
Romanticism first came about in the 18th century and it was mostly used for art and literature. The actual word “romanticism” was created in Britain in the 1840s. People like Victor Hugo, William Wordsworth, and Percy Bysshe Shelley had big impacts on this style of art. Romanticism is an art in which people express their emotion. Whatever they believed is put into a picture, painting, poem, or book. Romanticism goes deep into a mind. It is very deep thinking and it’s expressing yourself through that deep thinking. Romanticism is the reaction to the Enlightenment and the enlightenment aka the “Age of Reason” took place during the 1700s to 1800s. The enlightenment emphasized being rational and using your mind; on the other hand, romanticism focuses on emotion and imagination. It says don’t just focus on rationality and reason.
For many, saying or hearing the word romanticism evokes numerous stereotypical and prejudged definitions and emotions. The biggest reason this probably happens is because of how closely romanticism sounds like romance. The similarity of the sounds and spelling of the two words can lead to some thinking that the two words mean the same thing or are closely related. Although romanticism and romance do share some similarities in their spelling and pronunciation they couldn’t be more different. In the Merriam Webster Dictionary romance is defined as, “a love story”. The Romantic Period was not necessarily a time of true romance and love stories, although love was written about, but was instead a time of extreme emotion expressed in many different ways. One of the many ways emotion was expressed was through the use of supernatural and gothic literature and a lot of it contained horrific subject matter for the time it was written, making it anything but romantic. Expressions of thought and emotion were shown through horror and the supernatural just as much as emotion was expressed through love and romance. Many of the authors during the Romantic period submitted works, “dealing with the supernatural, the weird, and the horrible” (Britannica Online Encyclopedia). In many ways, gothic tales of horror and suspense defined the Romantic period just as much as any other type of literature at the time.
Romanticism has been described as a “‘Protestantism in the arts and letters’, an ideological shift on the grand scale from conservative to liberal ideas”. (Keenan, 2005) It was a movement into the era of imagination and feelings instead of objective reasoning.
Kreis, Steven. "Lecture 16: The Romantic Era." The History Guide. Web. 18 Aug. 2010. .
Romanticism was an artistic and literary movement that began in the late 18th century Europe that stressed the individual’s expression of emotion and imagination, glorification of the past and nature, and departure from forms of classicism. The movement emerged as a reaction against the ideas
The Romantic period was an expressive and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century and peaked in the 1800s-1850s. This movement was defined and given depth by an expulsion of all ideals set by the society of the particular time, in the sense that the Romantics sought something deeper, something greater than the simplistic and structured world that they lived in. They drew their inspiration from that around them. Their surroundings, especially nature and the very fabric of their minds, their imagination. This expulsion of the complexity of the simple human life their world had organised and maintained resulted in a unique revolution in history. Eradication of materialism, organisation and society and
When many hear “Romanticism” they think of love, but Romanticism isn’t mainly about love. Yes, it may have some love, but it’s also about reasoning, nature, imaginations, and individualism. Like American Romanticism, that occurred from 1830 – 1865. It was actually caused by Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper. For Americans, “it was a time of excitement over human possibilities, and of individual ego. American writers didn’t know what “America” could possibly mean in terms of literature, which was American and not British. It questioned their identity and place in society, creatively” (Woodlief). It was characterized by an interest in nature, and the significance of the individual’s expression on emotion and imagination; good literature should have heart, not rules. Some of the most famous authors who wrote during American Romanticism were Nathaniel Hawthorne, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. American Romanticism is important because it was the “historical period of literature in which modern readers most began to see their selves and their own conflicts and desires”. Romanticism was a literary revolution.
Of all the movements in European art, Romanticism has by far the most difficult origins to pinpoint due to the broadness of its beginnings, artistic expressions, and time frame. Inspired by “nature, an awareness of the past, a religious spirit, and an artistic ideal” (Barron’s 6), Romanticism is one of the most significant influences on European culture. By looking at modern paintings, we can see the influence Romanticism has had throughout the generations. With Romanticism, artists have been able to take painting to different levels. The paintings are so profound that they allow the viewer to learn, develop, and acknowledge new aspects of life. The beginning of the Romantic era marked the birth of creative activities and aesthetic behaviors. Romanticism allows an artist to be creative, original, and authentic. Romantics view the world as more prejudiced and less balanced than others, including Neo-Classicists. What sets Romanticism apart from Neo-Classicism is the standards for Romantic artists were based on their own responsiveness while Neo-Classical artists aimed on portraying the orthodox values.
Despite its name, the Romantic literary period has little to nothing to do with love and romance that often comes with love; instead it focuses on the expression of feelings and imagination. Romanticism originally started in Europe, first seen in Germany in the eighteenth century, and began influencing American writers in the 1800s. The movement lasts for sixty years and is a rejection of a rationalist period of logic and reason. Gary Arpin, author of multiple selections in Elements of Literature: Fifth Course, Literature of The United States, presents the idea that, “To the Romantic sensibility, the imagination, spontaneity, individual feelings and wild nature were of greater value than reason, logic, planning and cultivation” (143). The Romantic author rejects logic and writes wild, spontaneous stories and poems inspired by myths, folk tales, and even the supernatural. Not only do the Romantics reject logic and reasoning, they praise innocence, youthfulness and creativity as well as the beauty and refuge that they so often find in nature.
Nature’s beauty can be seen all around us and has been and will always be there for us to appreciate; yet the way we experience and interpret nature is ever changing. The Romantic Era was a literary movement that gave a new attitude towards nature that was unique and spiritual. The Romantic movement, beginning around 1798, and carrying on well into the mid 1800s, expanded into almost every corner of Europe, into the United States, and Latin America. The ideology of the romantic era, of being completely humanistic, was the opposite of the new ideas of logic and reason of the Enlightenment.
To understand how Romanticism changed the way society thought, you must first understand the meanings and reason behind the movement. The Romantic Movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries was described as a movement in the history of culture, an aesthetic style, and an attitude of mind. (Fiero) Romanticism provided expression of their thoughts and ideas toward their own societies, which was in effect predominantly in Europe and in the United States. The movement was a reaction to the Enlightenment which provided strict ideology and rationalism. The Church had much to do with the Enlightenment seeing as if religion and the importance of God were incorporated into most aspects of their culture. Thus, Romanticism was a response to the Enlightenment Movement and their religious ideology.
Romanticism was a reaction to the Enlightenment as a cultural movement, an aesthetic style, and an attitude of mind (210). Culturally, Romanticism freed people from the limitations and rules of the Enlightenment. The music of the Enlightenment was orderly and restrained, while the music of the Romantic period was emotional. As an aesthetic style, Romanticism was very imaginative while the art of the Enlightenment was realistic and ornate. The Romanticism as an attitude of mind was characterized by transcendental idealism, where experience was obtained through the gathering and processing of information. The idealism of the Enlightenment defined experience as something that was just gathered.
... It was all about progress, political correctness and it was very controlling in the area of how people lived their lives concerning many matters. By embracing the ordinary and unknown of human existence, the romantics overthrew the limitations that were seen in the Enlightenment. Defining Romanticism is not easy as there was not a particular dominate set of beliefs nor were the styles in literature and art the same. It was a time to be yourself, to let out whatever type of personality that was within. The modern world has Romanticism to thank for much of the way we live today concerning ideas, values, love, dreams and beliefs. It’s worthwhile to mention that both era’s consisted of varieties of thought, much like it is today. We are better off today because of men like Isaac Newton during the Enlightenment and for the Romantics teaching us how to be free thinkers.