1. Introduction to Expressionism: The Romantic Movement - 1 The Expressionist Theory of Art: historical background zThe historical background of the Expressionist Theory - the Romantic movement yAn intellectual & artistic historical movement yDate limits x1789-1850 xIn literature - 1750-1850 xIn music - 1825-1900

2. Introduction to Expressionism: The Romantic Movement - 2 The Expressionist Theory of Art: historical background ySome principal traits xA reaction to the Enlightenment (1688- 1789) xAn emphasis on the subjective & the inner world of the mind xAn emphasis on emotion & feeling over reason In art this took the form of a movement from mimeticism to expressionism

3. Introduction to Expressionism: The Romantic Movement - 3 The Expressionist Theory of Art: historical background xA revival of religion Took different forms ånature mysticism (Goethe, Schelling, Wordworth, & Casper David Friedrich) åA Catholic revival

4. Introduction to Expressionism: The Romantic Movement - 4 The Expressionist Theory of Art: historical background xInterest in nature Kenneth Clark (British, 1903-1986) suggests that the Romantics viewed nature in two ways åAs ferocious, vengeful, destructive (The Byronic view) åAs tranquil, conforting, healing (the Wordsworthian view)

5. Introduction to Expressionism: The Romantic Movement - 5 The Expressionist Theory of Art: historical background xRomantic epistemology A distinction between two faculties of the mind (among others) åUnderstanding (the term varied) - that faculty which is concerned with the world of appearances

6. Introduction to Expressionism: The Romantic Movement - 6 The Expressionist Theory of Art: historical background åIntuition (again, the term varied) - that faculty which can penetrate appearances to the world of things-in-themselves, or the Divine, or the spiritual, or God xThe artist as visionary The artist has special insights Cf. Renaissance - artist as intellectual (umanista)

7. Introduction to Expressionism: The Romantic Movement - 7 The Expressionist Theory of Art: historical background xRevival of interest in the Middle Ages Took several forms åA Gothic revival åThe pre-Raphaelite brotherhood åThe creation of literature about medieval tales of chivalry (Sir Walter Scott)

8. Introduction to Expressionism: The Romantic Movement - 8 The Expressionist Theory of Art: historical background xInterest in the grotesque & in the orient Eugène Delacroix’s paintings of remembrances of Morocco xExperimentation in style In painting, use of bright colors & rejection of the smooth, polished surfaces of academic art & neo- Classicism

9. Introduction to Expressionism: The Romantic Movement - 9 The Expressionist Theory of Art: historical background Interaction of music & literature, and painting & literature

10. Introduction to Expressionism: The Romantic Movement - 10 The Expressionist Theory of Art: historical background yHugh Honour on the Romantic image of the artist - (From Hugh Honour. Chap. 7, “Artist’s Life.” Romanticism. Harper & Row, 1979). xThe project of art is to express the innermost feelings of the artist. xArt is a vocation, a calling

11. Introduction to Expressionism: The Romantic Movement - 11 The Expressionist Theory of Art: historical background xThe creation of art is the task of a small elite, an “aristocracy of sentiment” (253). Romantic artists looked down on the “insensitive multitude. This marks the beginning of a widening gap between artists and the general public.

12. Introduction to Expressionism: The Romantic Movement - 12 The Expressionist Theory of Art: historical background xThe relationship between artists & patrons changed. They began to see each other as equals. xRomantic artists made a cult of loneliness.

13. Introduction to Expressionism: The Romantic Movement - 13 The Expressionist Theory of Art: historical background xSome Romantic heroes Columbus. Why? Fictional figures åDon Quixote åHamlet å To Collingwood