Art in the Romantic

Era

David, Napoleon Crossing the Alps, 1800

Aspects of Romanticism in music & art

• The Engaged & Enraged Artist

• Nature

• Supernatural, demonic; dreams & madness

• exoticism

• “ancient” (Medieval –– not Greek)- rejection of Classicism &

Renaissance

Engaged and enraged

• THE ARTIST APART FROM SOCIETY

• THE ARTIST AS SOCIAL CRITIC/REVOLUTIONARY

• THE ARTIST AS GENIUS

ARE WE NOT STILL IN THE ROMANTIC ERA?

Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People, 1830

textp. 334

Goya, Executions of the Third of May, 1808 1814-15

textp. 336

Goya, Disasters of WarBrave Deeds Against the Dead

Etching

Political communication

Nature• peaceful, restorative, an escape;

The Picturesque

• awesome, powerful, horrifying,overwhelming, indifferent to to the fate of humans; The Sublime

• the language of God (edited)

John Constable, The Hay Wain, 1821text

p. 338

Caspar David Friedrich,

The Wanderer Above the Mists,

c. 1817-18

textp. 337

FRIEDRICH, Caspar DavidThe Sea of Ice, c. 1823-25, Oil on canvas, 96.7 x 126.9 cm

J.M.W. Turner, The Slave Ship, 1842 textp. 340

detail,The Slave

Ship

Turner, Joseph Mallord William, Rain, Steam and Speed1844, Oil on canvas, 35 3/4 x 48 in.

textp. 340

detail

Constable

Turner

The Raft of the Medusa by Gericault 1819

Church, Frederic EdwinRainy Season in the Tropics1866, Oil on canvas, 56 1/4 x 84 3/16 in. The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Church, Frederic Edwin, The Icebergs1861, Oil on canvas, 64 1/4 x 112 1/4 in

Bierstadt, AlbertAmong the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California

1868, Oil on canvas, 183 x 305 cm text

p. 341

The Supernatura

l • ghosts, fairies, witches, demons, etc.

• the shadows of the mind – dreams & madness

• reaction to Rationalism? (1st witch scare during the Renaissance) – the escape from Reason

DelacroixMéphistophél

ès dans les airs, 1828

No. 2 from the set of 18 lithographs of Goethe's

Faust

Goya,The Sleep of Reason

Brings Forth Monsters1796-8etching

textp. 345

GoyaKronos devouring his

children

Goya, Witches’ Sabbath, c. 1819-23

textp. 345

Theodore GericaultMad Woman with a Mania of Envy1822-23

Study of the insane

GoyaThe Lunatics

Exoticism• the sexy Other

• psychological/moral justification of imperialism?

• England is exotic to the Italians, Italy exotic to the English!

• a sense of escape?

Delacroix, The Death of Sardanapalus, 1826 p. 333

detail,Sardanapalus

Ingres, Jean Auguste DominiqueLa Grand Odalisque1814Oil on canvas

Jean Auguste Ingres, The Turkish Bath, c1852-63

textp. 344

Portrait of a NegressMarie Guillemine Benoist, 1800

Political comment on the rights of women?

p. 327

John Nash

Royal Pavilion at Brighton 1815-1823 text

p. 343

Revival of past styles

• Gothic & Romanesque revival

• free mixture of stylistic elements

• Gothic verticality & asymmetry

Fonthill Abbey 1823

The most influential collapsed building?aka “Beckford’s folly”

mentioned in textp. 342

Fonthill, painting of the interior by the architect, James Wyatt

Cole, The Architect’s Dream, 1840

Houses of Parliament, London, 1840-65text

p. 343

An English building in India

Aspects of Romanticism in music & art

• The Engaged & Enraged Artist

• Nature

• Supernatural, demonic

• exoticism

• “ancient” (Medieval or folk –– not Greek)

- rejection of Classicism & Renaissance

Goya, Executions of the Third of May, 1808 1814-15

textp. 336

Engaged & enraged: political critique

John Constable, The Hay Wain, 1821text

p. 338

NATURE: The Picturesque

Caspar David Friedrich,

The Wanderer Above the Mists,

c. 1817-18

textp. 337

NATURE: The Sublime

Goya,The Sleep of Reason

Brings Forth Monsters1796-8etching

textp. 345The escape from REASON

John Nash

Royal Pavilion at Brighton 1815-1823

textp. 343

EXOTICISM: another escape from Reason

Houses of Parliament, London, 1840-65text

p. 342

The escape from Reason, Part 3:

REVIVAL OF THE PRE-RENAISSANCE PAST