Pertemuan 8
http://www.shoshone.k12.id.us/romantic/art.htm
Romantic Characteristics in Art
Romantic Characteristics:
Increased Nationalism and Exoticism
More interest in Nature and the Supernatural
Individuality
Change in the style of Artists
Heroism
Increased Nationalism and exoticism:
Artist used their works for highlighting national identity. Thomas Gainsborough painted
many pictures of royalty, as did Jacques-Louis David, who was Napoleon's official artist.
Nationalism also includes the notion of national spirit embodied most clearly in the
works of John Constable
Francisco Goya also displayed nationalism in his work The Third of May, 1808.
The artist displayed exoticism by painting new and foreign things, including far away
places and odd objects. This idea is illustrated in the Lion Hunt, by Eugene Delacroix.
More interest in Nature and the Supernatural:
Nature- during the Romantic Period, many artists painted landscapes that usually showed
either nationalism in painting and sketching the land near them, or the exoticism and
adventure of far-away places. Also, artists often used nature to convey emotions.
The natural world was considered less a model of perfection and more a source of
mysterious powers.
Romantic artists painted from many supernatural texts and stories.
Supernatural- The romantic period was a time of surging emotions, and the supernatural
represented love (cupids), fear (demons), and many other characteristics.
Horror of the supernatural- the scary creatures and such often see in romantic artwork.
Goya is a supreme example of this. Among his works, Los Caprichos are some of the
most noted, and they have to do with the horrors of the supernatural (Los Caprichos,
published in 1799, deal with such themes as the Spanish Inquisition, the abuses of the
church and the nobility, witchcraft, child rearing, etc... The supernatural part of theses
pictures include goblins, witches, animals acting like human fools and aristocrats, and
many others.)
Individuality:
Classicism, the period before the Romantic age, was quite different from Romanticism.
Classicism was objective, and Romanticism was subjective; Classicism was all about
balance and definite and distinct formal structure, whereas the Romantic spirit was all
about loosing formal constraints, giving way to artists to show their individual ideas and
emotions
Many Artist used or based some of the ideas of their art works on other art works or
artists, but they also developed their own styles.
Goya became a pioneer of new artistic tendencies, which were commonly used in the
19th century. With the artworks he made in his 60 years of creating art, Goya represented
the reaction against previous conceptions of art, a new form of expression.
Another great artist who showed individuality is Joseph Mallord William Turner. The
power of individual perception is most evident in his works.
Change in the Style of Artists:
During the eighteenth century, the rococo style was one of the most dominant. However,
that changed with the Romantic Era. Through the efforts of Goya and many others, the
Romantic Period showed the change from the decadent and courtly rococo styles to the
vivid, detailed, and passionate artworks created by Romantic artists.
The new style of art explored the human heart, heroism of a revolutionary age, or
sometimes the emotional aspects of life.
From Romanticism, rationalism and realism emerged in the later part of the nineteenth
century.
Heroism
During the Romantic Period, heroism became a big thing. Heroism didn't just mean the
supernatural (myths, and imaginary people); many people, like Beethoven, believed that
the common man could be heroes. Artists painted this idea during the Romantic Age.
Eugene Delacroix's painting, The Lion Hunt, shows the Arabs as the heroes. The painting
shows that the common man can be a hero.
Jacques-Louis David, who was Napoleon’s official artist, painted Napoleon in some of
his greatest hours. (Bonaparte Crossing the St. Bernard Pass) David also painted many
of the heroes of Greek mythology, and Socrates, another hero, in The Death of Socrates.