RomanticismPartI.pptRomanticism
A Bridge between Neoclassicism and Romanticism
ANNE-LOUIS GIRODET-TRIOSON, The Burial of Atala, 1808. Oil on canvas, 6’ 11” x 8’ 9” Louvre, Paris
There are never any clear lines of demarcation between movements but rather overlapping boundaries. This painting by Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson entitled The Burial of Atala is considered to be a bridge between the Neoclassical movement and the Romantic movement. It depicts the myth of Atala from a novel by Chateaubriand which was so popular that Atala became a cult figure. Atala is of mixed European and Native American descent and Chactas is a Native American man. The story takes place in Louisiana, a French territory until 1803. This depicts Atala’s burial after she commits suicide having made love to Chactas even though she promised her mother to remain a virgin her entire life. Chactas holds her and assists in the burial while a hooded priest cradles her head. In the background is a cross backlit by the setting sun and on the cave wall is inscribed in French the phrase (j’ai passé comme la fleure, j’ai seché comme l’herb des champs” (I have wilted like a flower, I have dried like the grass in the field). The European public was fascinated by images from the “new world” and this story about Native American lovers. Avoiding heroism, this narrative combines Christian and mythological themes emphasizing emotion and passion over reason.
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JEAN-AUGUSTE-DOMINIQUE INGRES, Apotheosis of Homer, 1827. Oil on canvas, 12’ 8” x 16’ 10 3/4”. Louvre, Paris.
As was mentioned, Ingres was the most well known of David’s students. He studied with David but broke with him because of stylistic differences. This painting, The Apotheosis of Homer, or the Deification of Homer was painted in 1827. It demonstrates that while Ingres continued to employ Neoclassical technique he often referenced painters of the Renaissance. In the center, Homer is being deified by Winged Victory who crowns him with a laurel wreath. The two women who sit just below his throne represent his two great works, the Iliad and the Odyssey. To his left are a Greek poet Pindar, the sculptor Phidias, Plato and Aristotle, among others. On the right are the poets Horace and Virgil, Dante, and the painter Raphael. Seated are the painters Poussin (pointing), the writer Shakespeare (concealed), and a host of important French writers including Molière and Voltaire. This work is directly inspired by Raphael’s School of Athens. It was Ingres’ intent to make his figures sculptural and like low-relief Greek carvings.
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Ingres Apotheosis of Homer
Raphael School of Athens
JEAN-AUGUSTE-DOMINIQUE INGRES, Grande Odalisque, 1814. Oil on canvas, approx. 2’ 11 7/8” x 5’ 4”. Louvre, Paris
You can see in this work how Ingres starts to distance himself from the purity of the Neoclassical movement, even though his style is influenced by David. Fascinated as much by the Renaissance as by antiquity, Ingres borrows from the painter Raphael and Parmigianino. This was painted for Napoleon’s sister Caroline Murat, the Queen of Naples. Think in terms of the Canova sculpture of Pauline Borghese or some of Raphael’s heads which you will see on the next slide. Because this work is entitled Odalisque, which refers to concubine, it removes the subject from the realm of mythology and situates her as a woman from a Turkish harem evoking exoticism. Just as the subject of Atala in the previous slide focuses on a romantic and embellished idea of the wilds of America, so too this image of a Turkish harem slave contrasts European ideals against what is perceived as the sensual and licentiousness of the Near East. The painting was not well received originally because it combined Mannerist proportion with Romantic themes. Later, after the arrival of Delacroix, who we will examine shortly, Ingres became appreciated by the more conservative forces of the Academy for paintings like the Apotheosis of Homer.
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Raphael La Fornarina, 1519
Parmigianino, Schiava Turca, 1531-4
Exoticism: style or traits considered characteristic of a distant foreign country
Orientalism: the representation of Asia, especially the Middle East, in a stereotyped way that is regarded as embodying a colonialist attitude
ROMANTICISM DEFINED
- The shift from Reason to Feeling, from objective nature to subjective emotion
- An new interest in the Medieval and Mystery, including nightmares, the ghoulish and terrible, the occult
- The essays of Edmund Burke, a philosopher who wrote about the Sublime, a feeling of awe and terror that was equated with beauty, a feeling that pain or fear could be thrilling
- Accessing the subconscious and parts of the imagination linked to the fantastic, and the macabre
- The paintings of Henry Fuseli, one of the first to capture the spirit of horror in his paintings
“WHATEVER is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, (…) is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling. (…) I am satisfied the ideas of pain are much more powerful than those which enter on the part of pleasure. Without all doubt, the torments which we may be made to suffer are much greater in their effect on the body and mind, than any pleasure (….)
I am in great doubt whether any man could be found, who would earn a life of the most perfect satisfaction, at the price of ending it in the torments, which justice inflicted in a few hours on the late unfortunate regicide in France.”
----Edmund Burke (1729–1797). On the Sublime and Beautiful
WHATEVER is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling. I say the strongest emotion, because I am satisfied the ideas of pain are much more powerful than those which enter on the part of pleasure. Without all doubt, the torments which we may be made to suffer are much greater in their effect on the body and mind, than any pleasure which the most learned voluptuary could suggest, or than the liveliest imagination, and the most sound and exquisitely sensible body, could enjoy. Nay, I am in great doubt whether any man could be found, who would earn a life of the most perfect satisfaction, at the price of ending it in the torments, which justice inflicted in a few hours on the late unfortunate regicide in France.
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HENRY FUSELI, The Nightmare, 1781. Oil on canvas, 3’ 4 3/4” x 4’ 1 1/2”. The Detroit Institute of the Arts
The Swiss painter Henry Fuseli lived in Rome, then settled in England in 1799. He is largely self taught and was inspired to create images from his imagination, concentrating on darkness, horror, the macabre, and even the sadistic. Here we see a woman who sleeps, but who appears to swoon in a deathlike trance. Sitting atop her is an incubus, a demon popular in stories of the Medieval period who was thought to prey, sometimes sexually, on sleeping women. Although the horse with the flaring red eyes is thought by many to be the overt symbol of the ”night-mare”, the word mare actually comes from the Scandinavian word mara (not mare as in horse) which in their mythology refers to a spirit that torments sleepers. Fuseli was one of the first known artists to explore the dark sides of consciousness and was a forerunner of the Romantic period proper by about two decades.
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Illustration from the 1830 edition of the Mysteries of Udolfo by Ann Radcliff
Writers of the late 18th and early 19th centuries explored Gothic themes in popular novels like The Mysteries of Udolfo and The Monk by Matthew Lewis
WILLIAM BLAKE, Ancient of Days, frontispiece of Europe: A Prophecy, 1794. Metal relief etching, hand colored, 9 1/2” x 6 3/4”. The Whitworth Art Gallery, Pierpont Morgan Library, New York.
Artists pulled further away from Neoclassical style looked back in time towards a style more comparable to the Baroque. Blake, the artist and the poet, explored mysticism in his work and had many influences including Greek art because it was built upon mathematical ratios which he believed were symbols of the eternal. He was also inspired by the art of the Middle Ages because of its emotional qualities and Medieval work inspired many of his poems and paintings. He believed in the importance of dreams, an idea that was initiated by the Romantics and was explored again in the at the turn of the 19th century as we will see later. This frontispiece of a book he wrote unites the idea of the Creator with wisdom as you can see by the compass the figure holds in his hand. Despite the Baroque dynamism of the work, it may be inspired by Gothic era illuminated manuscript painting but the figure of the Creator looks like a creation by Michelangelo.
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FRANCISCO GOYA, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, from Los Caprichos, ca. 1798. Etching and aquatint, 8 1/2” x 5 7/8”. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Allied to a somewhat covert group of Enlightenment thinkers in Spain (the Illuminati), while at the same time being official painter to Charles IV of Spain, Goya transitioned from Neoclassical thought to Romantic painting style. Goya is an outstanding painter and print maker whose varied oeuvre spans a good part of the 18th century. His work depicts subjects ranging from the traditional to the bizarre. In this etching entitled The Sleep of Reason produces Monsters, which was part of a series called Los Caprichos (in English caprice or change of mood), Goya depicts himself asleep at his desk while owls who symbolize folly and bats who symbolize ignorance seems to attack him. Goya explained that “Imagination abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters; united with her (reason) she is the mother of the arts and the source of their wonders”.
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FRANCISCO GOYA, Third of May, 1808, 1814. Oil on canvas, 8’ 9” x 13’ 4”. Museo del Prado, Madrid
This painting fully demonstrates Goya’s modernity and his commitment to Romanticism. He is dealing with a contemporary event. This painting created in 1814 commemorates the invasion of Napoleon’s French forces into Spain in 1808 with the permission of the King’s son Ferdinand VII (against his father’s will). When Napoleon arrived he deposed King Charles IV (Goya’s patron) and installed his own brother Joseph on the Spanish throne, thereby disappointing Ferdinand VII. The Spaniards attacked the French on May 2, 1808 but the next day the French retaliated by rounding up and executing unarmed Spanish citizens. The central figure in this composition takes on a pose reminiscent of Christ on the cross, evoking ideas of martyrdom. The French troops are faceless whereas those being executed express various kinds of anguish and fear.
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NEOCLASSICAL--BENJAMIN WEST, Death of General Wolfe, 1771. Oil on canvas
ROMANTIC---FRANCISCO GOYA, Third of May, 1808, 1814. Oil on canvas
FRANCISCO GOYA, Saturn Devouring One of His Children, 1819–1823. Detached fresco mounted on canvas, 4’ 9 1/8” x 2’ 8 5/8”. Museo del Prado, Madrid
When Goya painted the Third of May he was deaf following an illness he suffered in 1792. His unidentified ailment resulted in him becoming temporarily blind, and partially paralyzed. Although he recovered all but his hearing, his illness and the political situation made him seriously depressed. This fresco, one of a series of what are now called Goya’s Black Paintings, painted on the interior walls of his country home, reveal Goya’s pessimism as he battled with increasing deafness and illness. This is a Romantic work because it is expressive and nightmarish. It depicts the Greek god Saturn (or Kronos) who heard a prophecy that one of his sons would overthrow him. According to the myth Saturn/Kronos consumed each of his offspring to prevent them from taking power. Some scholars think that the Greek name of the god, Kronos (which also means time in Greek) may allude to the fact that Goya was feeling despair over the passage of time or perhaps the end of his life. However, Goya was also very disturbed by the political strife occurring in Spain as well as suffering the effects of the illness that nearly killed him.
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THÉODORE GÉRICAULT, Insane Woman 1822–1823. Oil on canvas, 2’ 4” x 1’ 9”. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyons.
Goya was the primary Romantic painter in Spain whereas in France Gericault’s and Delacroix were the two best known painters for their exploration of the exotic, erotic and fantastic. In this painting, Insane Woman, Gericault demonstrates his interest in irrational and emotionally chaotic states of mind. He like other Romantics worked against the reason of the Enlightenment which he felt had failed and which was less important than imagination and feeling as a means to attaining personal freedom. To create this portrait Gericault studied the inmates of an insane asylum. This breaks with traditional portraiture which up until this time idealized the sitter. At that time asylums housed people with a variety of mental illness including dementia, which it appears is what this woman suffers from, and very little was done to help the inmates since medical science, especially when relating to mental illness was totally undeveloped.
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Theodore Gericault, Charging Chasseur, 1812. Oil on canvas 11’5” x 8’8-3/4”. Musée du Louvre, Paris
Although Gericault died young his style influenced many French painters. He studied by looking at paintings in the Louvre and was inspired by the works of Jan van Eyck, Titian, Caravaggio, Rembrandt and Peter Paul Rubens. Many of these were taken by Napoleon’s troops and brought to France as the spoils of war. Rembrandt and Rubens were a primary influence on Gericault’s works. This is one of the first of his painting successfully submitted to the Salon in 1812 which depicts a Lieutenant by the name of Alexander Dieudonné who was a hero during Napoleon’s military campaign in Russia. This work made him famous.
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THÉODORE GÉRICAULT, Raft of the Medusa, 1818–1819. Oil on canvas,
16’ 1” x 23’ 6”. Louvre, Paris
Theodore Gericault articulated visually what Edmund Burke wrote. This huge scale canvas, Gericault’s masterpiece, which is over 16 feet x 23 feet draws the viewer in emotionally. Although beautiful conceived and composed it breaks away from the purity of Neoclassicism by presenting a terrifying image of life and death at sea. In 1816, a ship called the Medusa was wrecked off the coast of Africa due an error by the captain who was inexperienced and who had been given the captaincy as a political favor. This painting therefore, was a critique of the Bourbon dynasty which had been restored only a year before it sent a convoy of ships to Senegal to reclaim the colony from the English. When the ship started to sink after running aground, the captain and officers took the lifeboats and left the rest of the crew for dead. After 13 days at sea, only 15 of the original 147 passengers survived, partly as a result of cannibalism. When the story came out it was politically toxic for King Louis XVIII. Gericault used the painter Eugene Delacroix, his friend, and his assistant as models. He also studied bodies in the morgue to be as accurate as he could in presenting the dying and dead. The composition is organized in a X shaped diagonal with some of the dead slipping into the water directly into the viewer’s space, thus drawing us in to the horror of the scene which alludes to death, starvation and cannibalism. This is Gericault’s last work before his death.
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Above: Gericault
The Raft of the Medusa
1818
Right: Michelangelo (detail) The Last Judgment, Sistine Chapel, Rome, 1536-41
The Romantic Movement
- A rejection of Enlightenment’s reliance on science
- A warning against the arrogant notion that science is the only means of improving the human condition
- Romanticism inspired many art forms from the late 18th to the early 19th century
- Music: composers like Franz Shubert, Franz Liszt, Frédéric Chopin and Johannes Brahms emphasized the lyrical in their music
- Literature: writers like poets John Keats, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelly, and Lord Byron wrote of love, exotic locales, and over the top emotion
- Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly, (Shelly’s wife) wrote the novel Frankenstein as a critique against the belief that science was the only way to improve the human condition
