Romanticism

Romanticism has very little to do with things popularly thought of as “romantic,” although love may occasionally be the subject of Romantic art. Rather, it was an international artistic and philosophical movement originating in Europe toward the end of the 18th century that redefined the fundamental ways in which people in Western cultures thought about themselves and about their world. In most areas the movement was at its peak in the approximate period from 1800 CE to 1840 CE. Romanticism reached beyond the rational and Classicist ideal models to elevate a revived medievalism. So, while Romanticism was the first major stylistic development in nineteenth-century art, the word “Romanticism” was not developed to describe the visual arts but was first used in relation to new literary and musical schools in the beginning of the nineteenth century. Art came under this heading only later.

Romanticism tended to see the individual at the center of all life, and it placed the individual, therefore, at the center of art, making it valuable as an expression of unique feelings and particular attitudes (the expressive theory of criticism) and valuing its fidelity in portraying experiences, however fragmentary and incomplete, more than it valued adherence to completeness, unity, or the demands of genre.
Think of the Romantic musical compositions of the early nineteenth century. Romantic music expressed the powerful drama of human emotion: anger and passion, but also quiet passages of pleasure and joy. So too, the French painter Eugene Delacroix and the Spanish artist Francisco Goya broke with the cool, cerebral idealism of David and Ingres’ Neo-Classicism. They sought instead to respond to the cataclysmic upheavals that characterized their era with line, color, and brushwork that was more physically direct, more emotionally expressive.

Although romanticism tended at times to regard nature as alien, it more often saw in nature a revelation of Truth, the “living garment of God,” and a more suitable subject for art than those aspects of the world sullied by artifice. Romanticism sought to find the Absolute, the Ideal, by transcending the actual, whereas realism found its values in the actual and naturalism in the scientific laws the undergird the actual.

Its central tenet was the idea that there were great, sometimes terrible, and literally “awesome” forces in the universe that exceeded humankind’s rational ability to understand. Instead, all that a human being could do was attempt to pay tribute to those forces – nature, the spirit or soul, the spirit of a people or culture, or even death – through thought and the arts.
The central themes of romantic art were, first, a profound reverence for nature. To romantics, nature was a vast, overwhelming presence, against which humankind’s activities were ultimately insignificant.

At the same time, romantics celebrated the organic connection between humanity and nature. They very often identified peasants as being the people who were “closest” to nature. In turn, it was the job of the artist (whether a writer, painter, or musician) to somehow gesture at the profound truths of nature and the human spirit. A “true” artist was someone who possessed the real spark of creative genius, something that could not be predicted or duplicated through training or education. The point of art was to let that genius emanate from the work of art, and the result should be a profound emotional experience for the viewer or listener.

Consider the painting below by Antoine-Jean Gros. Gros pictures anticipates the characteristics of Romanticism in several ways. First of all, the exotic setting (the scene takes place in a Muslim Mosque) evokes a mysterious mood that contrasts with the clarity and simplicity of Neoclassicism. The lighting also creates a mysterious atmosphere, with its mood-enhancing shadows, and dramatic spotlight effects. There is also a morbid fascination with the dead and dying victims that goes against Neoclassicism’s emphasis on virtue and nobility. And finally, there is the style: in contrast to David’s polished finish, crisp outlines, and balanced compositions, Gros’ work breaks with all of these cardinal rules of Neoclassicism. All of this anticipated the new, revolutionary style of Romanticism, that became a leading force in the 19th century.