1. A Movement Across the Arts
Romanticism
A Movement Across the Arts

2. Question: What comes to mind or what do you associate with the term “Romanticism”?
“The heart, like the mind, has a memory. And in it are kept the most precious keepsakes.” HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW 1807–1882

3. Although we usually associate a quaint or exaggerated outpouring of emotion with Romanticism (hence, the shift in meaning of the word “Romantic” to everything relating love…), the Romantic age brought about concepts of the individual and his/her relationship to the world/society that we still largely subscribe to and even champion today.

4. Definition
Romanticism refers to a movement in art, literature, and music during the 19th century (1800s).
Romanticism is characterized by the 5 “I”s
Imagination
Intuition
Idealism
Inspiration
Individuality

5. Imagination Imagination was emphasized over “reason.”
This was a backlash against the rationalism characterized by the Neoclassical period or “Age of Reason.”
Imagination was considered necessary for creating all art.
British writer Samuel Taylor Coleridge called it “intellectual intuition.”

6. Intuition
Romantics placed value on “intuition,” or feeling and instincts, over reason.
Emotions were important in Romantic art.
British Romantic William Wordsworth described poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.”

7. Idealism
Idealism is the concept that we can make the world a better place.
Idealism refers to any theory that emphasizes the spirit, the mind, or language over matter – thought has a crucial role in making the world the way it is.
Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher, held that the mind forces the world we perceive to take the shape of space-and-time.

8. Inspiration
The Romantic artist, musician, or writer, is an “inspired creator” rather than a “technical master.”
What this means is “going with the moment” or being spontaneous, rather than “getting it precise.”

9. Individuality Romantics celebrated the individual.
During this time period, Women’s Rights and Abolitionism were taking root as major movements.
Walt Whitman, a later Romantic writer, would write a poem entitled “Song of Myself”: it begins, “I celebrate myself…”

10. Origins
Romanticism began to take root as a movement following the French Revolution.
The publication of Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1792 is considered the beginning of literary Romanticism.

11. The Arts
Romanticism was a movement across all the arts: visual art, music, and literature.
All of the arts embraced themes prevalent in the Middle Ages: chivalry and courtly love. Literature and art from this time depicted these themes. Music (ballets and operas) illustrated these themes.
Shakespeare came back into vogue.

12. Visual Arts
Neoclassical art was rigid, severe, and unemotional; it hearkened back to ancient Greece and Rome
Romantic art was emotional, deeply-felt, individualistic, and exotic. It has been described as a reaction to Neoclassicism, or “anti-Classicism.”

13. Visual Arts: Examples
Romantic Art
Neoclassical Art

14. Romantic Art Today - Banksy

15. Music
“Classical” musicians included composers like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Josef Haydn.
Classical music emphasized internal order and balance.
Mozart’s Fantasia in D Minor
Romantic musicians included composers like Frederic Chopin, Franz Lizst, Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
Romantic music emphasized expression of feelings.
Chopin plays Mozart

16. Literature In America, Romanticism most strongly impacted literature.
Writers explored supernatural and gothic elements.
Settings in a castle/old mansion
An atmosphere of mystery & suspense
An ancient prophecy
Omens, portents, and visions
Supernatural or otherwise inexplicable events
Women in distress
Metaphors of gloom and horror

17. Literature Continued
Writers wrote about nature – Transcendentalists believed G-d was in nature, unlike “Age of Reason” writers like Franklin and Jefferson, who saw G-d as a “divine watchmaker,” who created the universe and left it to run itself.

18. Which are you? Are you Romantic or Classical?
Exit Slip: After viewing the brief video below, which category do you think best fits your personality, way of living, and way of thinking? Explain.
Romantic vs. Classical