Art History - Romanticism - Essay Example

Art History: Romanticism The Romantic Movement and the whole concept of romanticism occurred between the 18th and 19th century. Romanticism was embedded on the act of shying away from the traditional precepts of thinking also referred to as classicism. Romanticism was featured in art practices such as literature, architecture, music, painting and philosophy. Romanticism criticized the contemporary thinking and practices, which marked the neoclassical period from the mid 18th century to late 19th century. The other issues, which inspired the growth of romanticism was the enlightenment, physical materialism and rationalism. Romanticism in other words was a reaction against the actions that were depicted by the enlightenment and rationalism of the 18th and 19th century. The major characteristics that were attributed to romanticism included a high appreciation of nature’s beauty, a deep turning towards the inner self and scrutiny of human personality and mental capabilities, embracing irrationality and emotions over rationality and reason and stressing on imaginations as a way towards spiritual truth and transcendent experience. Other characteristics included focusing on individual creativity and passions. Artists in the Romantic Movement based their artistry on freethinking as opposed to following strict tradition guidance and formal procedures. In the Romantic Movement, practices were referred to as romantic art, romantic literature, romantic music or romantic painting. This paper is a definition of the term Romanticism in terms of artistic manifestation of this tumultuous era. 1 Romantic Movement The Romantic Movement featured phrases like romantic originality, romantic composers, romantic originality, romantic thinkers, and not limited to the romantic era. The definition of romanticism initiates with nature and irrationality. Romanticism freed individuals and art from the contemporary thinking of the mid 19th century and late 19th century, which was judgmental and restrictive. The following philosophers and writers greatly influenced the growth of the Romantic Movement, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Johann Arthur Schopenhauer, Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche. These philosophers believed and emphasized on the fact that an individual’s emotions and feelings were fundamental in the process of searching for truth in the universe (Brown 298). Romantic literature Romantic literature as a form of romanticism stressed on the idea of the inner self, the dream and the intrinsic part of the individual. In romantic literature, the visionary and imaginary part of the individual was exposed this was contrary to the contemporary thinking, which blindly, focused on traditions. In romantic literature, the church faced a huge criticism since it was judgmental and restrictive. Individuals indulged in romantic literature since it brought them on the verge of exemplifying their inner feelings and experiences. The Romantic Movement allowed individuals and more specifically, artist to focus on what they perceived without guilt or facing criticism. “The sublime” was a strong phrase when it came to the practice of romantic literature as it included emotional experiences such as horror, awe and magnificence. The ultimate basis of romantic literature was the indulgence in emotions and feelings, as it was seen to be important than analysis and logical thinking. A further analysis reveals that in romantic literature senses were important that intellect. Romantic literature aimed at eradicating the premise that materialism, empiricism, rationalism and idealism was important than emotions, feelings and irrationality (Riou 156). 2 Romanticism and nature The world around us better known as nature was highly used in the romantic era to help in defining romanticism. Romantics embraced nature as a definite work of art. Romantics expressed that any reasoning or analysis regarding nature put across by traditional thinking was short of the transcendence that nature depicted in terms of romanticism. The simple form of life such ants or non-loving things such as stones that are commonly witnessed in nature, according to romantics are very divine elements. In romanticism, nature is also transcendent in that it comprises a healing power. Nature is also expressed in terms of being a refuge from the contemporary restrictions presented by civilization and artificial language, and a definite source of subject and imagery (Riou 106). In essence, romantics focus on the organic constitutes of nature. In romanticism, nature was understood organically this meant that romantics overlooked the rational and scientific thinking regarding the constituents of nature. The system of mechanical laws was put aside when it came to nature and the attitude of romanticism because romanticism entailed irrationality, emotions and feelings. Romanticism did not focus on the idea that the world or nature operated as a machine. However, romantics appreciated act of describing phenomena in nature accurately, which was best seen in romantic landscape paintings. In poetry, nature was also focused on as it featured accuracy in terms of observing nature, and thus it was referred to as romantic nature poetry. In the romantic comprehension of art, symbolism and myth were equally important. Symbols were best used as correlatives of human aesthetic and nature’s emblematic communication. Symbols and myth were valuable because they suggested a variety of things at any one time, as opposed to allegory, which was inferior. In romanticism, symbols and myths aided in expressing the inexpressible that is the infinite, which was impossible to express in contemporary language, and thus the advent of symbolic language (Fischer 403). Romanticism and imagination In the Romantic Movement, the imagination of individuals was elevated to a level in which it was considered as the absolute faculty of the mind. This precept was a direct opposite of the contemporary thinking at that time, which asserted that traditional arguments were the basis for any supreme understanding or reasoning. The creative power of individuals according to the romantic era was embedded in imaginations. Through imaginations, romanticism expressed that human were equivalent to deity. Imagination was considered as being an active and dynamic power, which had many roles. A primary role of imagination was the fact that it was the creator of all forms of art. The faculty of imagination helped humans to constitute reality that is humans could perceive the world around them and partly contribute to its creation. This premise in essence, united both feelings and reason, which are the intellectual intuition. Imagination in the world of appearance acts as the final faculty of synthesis, which enables individuals to bring to a compromise the opposites, deviations and differences. The romantics base their understandings on reconciling opposites, deviations and differences that exist in the world of appearance. Additionally, imagination assists individuals in understanding nature and all the symbols comprised in nature (Barth 121).3 Romanticism and poetry Lyric poetry, emotions and the self, were partly intertwined to create romanticism. The emphasis that romantics invested in imagination was later reflected in instincts, feelings and intuition. In romanticism, a great attention was focused on emotions, as it was an important alternative for logical reasoning. The emphasis on instincts, feelings and intuition in contemporary poetry in turn, brought about a tremendous change in the poetry that was created by romantics. In romanticism, poetry came to be understood as a spontaneous flow of powerful emotions and feelings, and this brought about a new understanding of poetry. The new understanding of art according to romanticism went beyond mirroring the external world and including focusing on illuminating the world from the inner side. Through this conceptualization, the unprecedented first-person lyrical poetry was established. The poetic narrator who was commonly referred to as the persona was later referred to as the poet’s direct person. The romantic artist came into existence as a result, of the inner journey, which aided in the growth of the inner self. One of the most renowned romantic types is the artist being a hero (Prickett 99). Romanticism and Neoclassicism Romantics chose to define their objectives through systematic contrast with the ethics of “Versailles neoclassicism” (Bietoletti 97). They self-consciously revealed and stressed their differences from the past age, “ancient regime,” and revealed their liberation from the mechanical “rules”. This contrast still highlights certain significant aspects of Romanticism. Two key differences are already noted in this case: the move from a mimetic to a direct orientation for poetry, and the substitution of reasons by the imagination for primary place amongst human faculties (Bietoletti 103). Additionally, neoclassicism prescribed for art a notion that universal or general aspects of human behavior were more vital subject matter than an individual’s manifestations of human activity. Romanticism and exotic Romantics also understood the social world around them in a complex way. Although they developed certain realistic techniques like the use of “local color,” (Fischer 405) social realism was perceived as a subordinate to imaginative thinking, and the most significant ideals were suggested by innocence and simplicity. In addition, Romantics are also amazed by realms of existence, which are opposed to the ordered conception of “objective” reason (Fischer 405). Consequently, it is worth noting that the revolutionary process characterizing the Romantic Movement, did not only affect literature, but all other artistic works such as painting, architecture, sculpture, and music (for example, the rise of Romantic opera) (Fischer 410). Romantic Movement also spread evenly reaching westwards to America, and eastwards to Russia. For example, American great landscape painters, especially those of the Utopian social colonies of the 19th Century, and the “Hudson River School,” are underlying proofs of the Romantic Movement on this side of the Atlantic. Romanticism and romantic hero The Romantics also stressed on the significance of the individual, the eccentric, even the unique. On the other hand, they strongly opposed the character typology of neoclassical drama (Bietoletti 99). This implies that Romanticism developed its own literary types. Romantics, in their own styles, preferred boldness more than neoclassicists, the Baroque, and Middle ages, which desired restraint, free experimentation over the “rules” of genre, decorum, and composition, maximum suggestiveness above the neoclassical ideal of clarity, and they promoted artistic concepts as “inspired” creator above that of the artist as technical master or “maker (Bietoletti 105). In summary, Romantics identified themselves with the very period of literature, which the Baroque, middle Ages, and neoclassicists had dismissed, and they credited artist whom Voltaire referred to as a barbarian, Shakespeare (Bietoletti 104)4. Despite the fact that power of faith and religion characterized the Romantic period, Romantics refuted any suggestion, which favored the notion that every person has to create the system of, which to live. Conclusion Romanticism came as a result, of the desire to break from the contemporary way of thinking, which marked the period between the 18th and the 19th century. Issues of enlightenment, neoclassicism and rationalism marked this particular period. Romantics burned with the idea of breaking from empiricism, materialism, rationalism and idealism. In contrast, romanticism was defined by embracing the idea of irrationality, emotions, passion and feelings originating from the inner self. Romantics were artists, authors, musicians, politicians, philosophers and poets. The main characteristic portrayed by romantic thinkers was the act of irrationalism. Romantics highly focused on the individual being irrationality, spontaneous, visionary, imaginative, subjective, emotional and transcendental. Romanticism was engrained on the nature and having a free mind, which was not restricted or judged by beliefs of enlightenment, rationality and neoclassicism. Romantic literature focused on expressing the inner feeling and emotions of an individual other than the logic and reason. In essence, definition of romanticism is engrained on freethinking and avoidance of strict adherence to traditional thinking that is materialism and idealism. Works Cited Barth J. The symbolic imagination: Coleridge and the romantic tradition. New York: Fordham Univ Press, 2001. Print. Bietoletti S. Neoclassicism & Romanticism. New York: Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., 2009. Print. Brown M. Romanticism. London: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Print. Curran S. The Cambridge Companion to British Romanticism. London: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Print. Fischer D. Washington's crossing. London: Oxford University Press, 2006. Print. Prickett S. European Romanticism: A Reader. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2010. Print. Riou J. Imagination in German Romanticism: re-thinking the self and its environment. New York: Peter Lang, 2004. Print. 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