A Movement across the Arts Eugene Delacroix Liberty Leading the People, 1830

Characteristics of Romanticism  Emphasis on Personal Experience  Spontaneity and Freedom  Love of Nature  Importance of Commonplace  Fascination with Supernatural and Exotic Joseph Vernet Shipwreck, 1759

Emphasis on Personal Experience  Glorification of individual rather than emphasis on greater world  Wrote about complexity of own mind and own emotions  Powerful expression of a desire for personal freedom William Blake Songs of Experience, 1794

Spontaneity and Freedom  Romantics criticized Neoclassic artificiality  Value on emotional outbursts  Free play of imagination  “Spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” John Turner Steamer in a Snowstorm, 1842

Love of Nature  Romantics didn’t use nature for its own sake  Used nature to represent/symbolize something else Caspar David Friedrich Woman before the Rising Sun (Woman before the Setting Sun), 1818

Importance of Commonplace  Humble subjects  Celebration of ordinary things  Byron only one who didn’t accept lowering of standards John Constable The White Horse, 1819

Fascination with Supernatural and Exotic  Obsession with the supernatural  The allure of the unknown  Introduction of the gothic Caspar David Friedrich Monastery Graveyard in the Snow, 1819

Origins of Romanticism  Result of the problems in the 1780s when personal freedoms were denied.  Child labor  Factory abuse  Lack of representation in parliament  Laws denying rights to religious groups  Result of power-hungry Napoleon who in 1799 tried to take over Europe.  Result of a rejection of Neoclassical thinking.

NeoclassicalRomantic Stressed reason and common sense Stressed emotions and imagination Objective issues concerning society as a whole (politics and religion) Subjective issues concerning the individual (desires, hopes, dreams) Respected human institutions of church and state Exalted nature in all creative and destructive forces. Believed in order of all things and control Believed in spontaneity of thought and action Maintained traditional standards Believed in experimentation Focused on adult concerns of ruling class Reflected on childhood, primitive society and common man Exercised controlled wit and urbanity (politeness/polished) Celebrated intense passion and vision Followed formal rules of diction and poetry Sought more natural poetic diction and form “Charm school kids”“Hippies of their time”

Are you a Neo-Classic or a Romantic? 1.The answers to life’s most puzzling questions can be found through discussions with a simple person who lives in the country close to nature – not with a sophisticated, well-educated person from the city. 2.The answer to life’s most puzzling questions can be found through a connection with nature. 3.The use of one’s imagination is more important than rational thought. 4.Subjectivity is more important than objectivity. 5.Knowledge is gained through gut reactions and subjective hunches rather than level-headed, objective, deductive thought. 6.Nature is more important than art. 7.Experimental trial and error is a better process than the conventional scientific method. 8.Poetry should be spontaneous and full of emotion, not planned and straightforward. 9.Sensitivity, feelings, and spontaneity are more important than intellectualism. 10.“Dare to be” is a better battle-cry than “dare to know.”

If you answered TRUE to most of the comments, you are a Romantic. If you answered FALSE you are a Neo-Classic.

Romanticism was a movement across all of the arts, including visual art, architecture, fashion, music, and literature.

At the start of the Romantic Era, fashion was based on classical principles of flowing Grecian robes. They had an eastern exotic feel with Egyptian decoration. Near the end of the Romantic Era, the Gothic influence began to show itself in fashion, with bodices, fuller skirts, and intricate sleeves.

Romanticism and Architecture Sir Christopher Wren's Tom Tower, at Christ Church, Oxford Revival of the Gothic Sought to revive medieval forms, in distinction to the classical styles which were prevalent at the time. The House of Lords in Westminster designed by A.W.N. Pugin

Caspar David Friedrich Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, 1818 Romanticism and Art “If by my Romanticism people mean the free display of my personal impressions, my remoteness from the servile copies repeated ad naseum in academies of art and my extreme distaste for academic formulae, then yes, I am indeed a Romantic.” Eugene Delecroix, French painter.

 A freedom in form and design; a more intense personal expression of emotion in which fantasy, imagination and a quest for adventure play an important part.  Frédéric Chopin’s “Prelude in E-Minor”

The Big Six Samuel Taylor Coleridge William Wordsworth William Blake John Keats Percy Bysshe Shelley George Gordon, Lord Byron

 Wrote of poetry as the “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.”  Considered poems “experiments.”  Took examples from “common life.”  Wrote about memories. Together they wrote Lyrical Ballads in 1798, which is widely noted as the start of Romanticism in literature.  Wrote of subjective experiences such as dreams, visions, and hallucinations.  Considered the dream state a window to the human soul.

 Concerned with the private emotions of the individual.  Concerned with the quality of beauty.  Was not influenced by revolutionary desires.  An artist, poet, and visionary.  Had visions that were inspired by infinity.  Wrote of the contrary states of the human soul.

 The rebel of Romanticism.  Called “mad, bad and dangerous to know” by one of his lovers.  Created characters of great passion and strong will.  Kept to the classical forms of diction and poetry.  Wanted to change the world through love, imagination, and poetry.  Believed and fought for reform.  Wanted society to transcend the evil of society.