Art > Romanticism and its Impact on Art

Neoclassicism's rationality enforced a desire for a political, intellectual, emotional, and for all kinds of freedom. Romanticism had the answer for the principle of individual freedom. It became a parallel movement to Neoclassicism. As Charles Baudelaire describes: “ Romanticism is precisely situated neither in choice of subject nor exact truth, but in a way of feeling.” Jean Jacques Rousseau's ideas contributed to the rise of the new phenomenon. "I am like no one in the whole world I may be no better, at least I am different."

Romanticism transformed the Western civilization in many ways from the late 18th century to the mid-19th century. Its root is the ideas of the Enlightenment and medievalism. It was influenced by the French Revolution and Industrial Revolution. As opposed to the order of Neoclassicism Romanticism had the emphasis on feelings, emotions, intense emotion by fear, intuition. The movement explored the human brutality, violence, dramas, sublime, the mixed feelings of awe and terror rather than human virtues, historical examples as it was in the Neoclassical period. The freedom they longed for, was reachable through imagination and dreams.

The historical subject matter of Neoclassicism changed to themes from literature, horrific events, exotic, imaginary places and people. This movement gave rise to a new style in visual arts with expressive colors, dramatic lightning, loose brushstrokes. To examine the difference of Romanticism and Neoclassicism we can compare the works of the two artists Eugene Delacroix and Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres.

There was a competition between the two of them which come from the opposites of the Rubenistes, who declared the importance of color over line and Poussinistes, who announced that drawing is nobler than color. The contrast of the style summed up at the Salon, when Delacroix exhibited the Death at Sardanapalos at the same time with Ingres' The Apotheosis of Homer. We can express further the Neoclassical and Romantic style with two works of Paganini, one is a painting of Delacroix and one is a drawing of Ingres. The drawing is very technical, show no emotion, has precise lines, objective. The painting expresses the passionate of the musician through blurry outline, loose brushstrokes and the fact that Paganini is depicted while playing music. We have a sense of spontaneity as he is capturing the music.

There are two other painters, who promoted the idea of expressing emotions through art and were great Romantic artists , the French painter Theodore Gericoult, and the Spanish painter Fransisco de Goya. Goya’s Third of May is the icon of the Romantic movement. Gericoult’s Raft of the Medusa depict a tragic shipwreck where 150 people died. The survivors portrayed at the dramatic moment when the rescue ship appears on the horizon.

The work of art at the Metropolitan that I would like to introduce from the Romantic period is Eugene Delacroix is Christ Asleep during the Tempest. The subject matter is a widely depicted story from the New Testament. Artists, including Rembrandt painted the storm on the sea, the boat with Christ and the apostles. Only Delacroix painted fourteen versions of this story, when Christ fell asleep while crossing the Lake of Gennesaret in a raging storm. Being awakened by his frightened disciples, Christ scolded them for their lack of belief and calmed the turbulent waters. The pictures depict the moment when the disciplines are struggling with nature while Christ is still asleep.

We can find all the Romantic elements, the drama, emotion, dazzling colors, dynamic composition. The diagonal composition gives a powerful movement, and it is strengthened by the swirling waves and the motion of the bodies.

The unconditional admirer, Charles Baudelaire stated of Delacroix: “ The last of the great artists of the Renaissance and the first modern”. This description suggests the influences of the artist by previous artist and also himself. Delacroix rediscovered the spirit of Michelangelo and Rubens. The taste for terribilitas, and the imagination of the dread is the influence of Michelangelo. The turbulent movement of brightly colored forms has the assimilation of Rubens‘ style.

There is a further influence in the matter of color, the Venetian school. Delacroix is master of color and he believes: ...“Color gives the appearance of life.“ Following artists learn his tradition and bring it to another level. Picasso tells to Delacroix: “You took what you could from Rubens and made Delacroix of it. In the same way, I think of you and what I make is my own.” His influence on Cézanne and Matisse is clear. Van Gogh was studying Delacroix and he described this painting and exult color over content: "Christ in the boat ... with his pale lemon-yellow aureole, luminous in the dramatic purple, dark blue, blood-red patch of the group of disciples, on that terrible emerald-green sea ... what an inspired conception!" Christ Asleep during the Tempest reveals the Romantic sensibility of emotions.

 

 

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