Richard Ceballos
March 17, 2009
Unit 20-Romanticism
Romanticism
Chapter 20 from page 784-798
Europe around 1800 to 1850
 -Isms become shorter
 Movements don’t mean one style
Goals
 Discuss Romanticism as an artistic style. Name some of its frequently occurring
subject matter as well as its stylistic qualities.
 Compare and contrast Neoclassicism and Romanticism.
 Discuss initial reaction by artists and the public to the new art medium known as
photography
Features of Romanticism: P.I.N.E.
 P. I. N. E.
 Past – longing for the medieval past, pre- industrial Europe (Gothic architecture
will be revived)
 Irrational/ Inner mind / Insanity – Romantic artists depict the human psyche and
topics that transcend the use of reason. One Romantic artist, Gericault chose to
do portraits of people in an insane asylum.
 Nature – longing for the purity of nature, which defies human rationality
 Emotion/ Exotic – Romantics favored emotion and passion over reason. Exotic
themes and locales were also popular because they did not adhere to European
emphasis on rationality.
 Reacting against Neoclassicism
 Shift from reason to feeling
 Subjective look at emotion, proto, pre-Romantic
Figure 30-9, HENRY FUSELI, The Nightmare, 1781.
 Subject matter, dark fantasy, darker look at the unconsciousness
 Incubus, a little demon that takes advantages of women at night
 Marks the beginning of Romantic art
Figure 30-10, WILLIAM BLAKE, Ancient of Days, frontispiece of Europe: A Prophecy,
1794.
 Dark and dreamy aspect, blended with classical figure types
Romanticism’s Key Artists
SPAIN
 Goya
FRANCE
 Theodore Gericault
 Eugene Delacroix
LANDSCAPE PAINTING
 Caspar David Friedrich
 John Constable
 JMW Turner
Goya
 Father of modern art, some say
 First he made cartoons for Rococo tapestries (designs for the artwork)
 Cartoons thought to be disposable
Figure 30-11, FRANCISCO GOYA, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, from Los
Caprichos, ca. 1798.
 Goya supported French Revolution, became disillusioned with it
 Famous etching from Los Caprichos
 Personification of reason, bats and owls flying around reason symbolize
ignorance and foolishness
 Charles IV bestowed Goya as the royal painter
Figure 30-12, FRANCISCO GOYA, The Family of Charles IV, 1800.
 Different interpretations, Goya behind the painting
 Inspired by Las Meninas, very similar, 150 years apart
 Napoleon’s army came to Spain, put his brother on the throne after conquering
Spain, Spanish people were not happy about his occupation
 Mass riots, French soldiers killed about 1,000 Spanish rebels
Figure 30-13, FRANCISCO GOYA, Third of May 1808, 1814.
 Commemorated that day
 Very expressive, martyr’s death, a lot of emotionalism comes from the figures
Goya’s “Black Paintings”
 Did series of paintings, had these frescoes in his villas, in his house
 Both formally and thematically
Figure 30-14, FRANCISCO GOYA, Saturn Devouring One of His Children, 1819–1823.
 Story from mythology, beginning of the creation of the world
 Very dark, one interpretation (irrationality of getting old)
Theodore Gericault
Figure 30-15, THÉODORE GÉRICAULT, Raft of the Medusa, 1818–1819.
 Based on an actual event of a ship crash on the coast of Africa, captain’s fault,
people left to die on the boat, made a raft out of ship debris, sailed around for 13
days, people dying, only about 15 people survived
 Expressing his outrage he felts toward the event
 Two crossing diagonals, people falling outside of the picture, Man vs. Nature
 Hope vs. Despair
Figure 30-16, THÉODORE GÉRICAULT, Insane Woman 1822–1823.
 Died when he was 32
 Death left room for a new primer French Romantic painter
 Known for his sophisticated use of colors
Eugene Delacroix
Figure 30-17, EUGÈNE DELACROIX, Death of Sardanapalus, 1827.
 Servants rebelling around, killing the women and horse
 Exotic painting with high key emotion
 The red of the bed unifies the whole image
 3 years after, revolt, painted for the rebellion
Figure 30-18, EUGÈNE DELACROIX, Liberty Leading the People, 1830.
 Allegorical figure in the middle, Liberty
 Different types of people fighting the government
 Liberty wearing a Red hat, symbol of freedom
Figure 30-19, EUGÈNE DELACROIX, Tiger Hunt, 1854.
 Color becomes a stronger element
Figure 30-20, FRANÇOIS RUDE, Departure of the Volunteers of 1792 (La Marseillaise),
Arc de Triomphe, Paris, France, 1833– 1836.
 Named the relief after the national anthem
 Wearing clothing from antiquity
 Heightened emotionalism makes it Romantic