26/9/06 - History of Art - What is Romanticism?: Issues of Identity and Difference

Romanticism a broad term. Seen as different polarity.
Vibrant, passionate, personal, feelings.

Bonaparte Crossing the Saint-Bernarde Pass. Dramatic, larger-than-life. But can also be considered neo-classical so there is overlap. David's pupil Girodet also paints in a cross-over of the styles. Ingres. Frieze-like, marble-like 'dream', neo-classical. But depicts irrationality; therefore romantic also. So styles are flexible - art historians should not stick to rigid guidelines. Illucid.

Classicism related to imperial Rome and Napoleon. The mood in French society changed, thus Romanticism.

Ingres's Roger and Angelica. Dramatic lighting, eroticism - suggests romanticism but supposed to be neoclassicist. Drawn from ancient history, controlled, frieze-like, figures of grandeur. Neoclassicist?

Gericault. The Charging Chasseur. Depicting great hero, dynamism, baroque diagonal, virility. In contrast, Wounded Cuirassier. At time of political opposition. Pathetic fallacy, doom. The Raft of the 'Medusa' used to attack monarchical regime. Baroque diagonal. Used dead models from morgue for skin tone, and used friends as models for dead. Catastrophe. Anxiety, anticipation. Moment before climax. Gericault deliberated about which moment in the tale he would paint (seen in sketches). Left, despair; right, hope. Emotionally and politically charged.

Romanticism derived from French for 'story'. Delacroix's Death of Sardanapalus. Bright colours, complementary (red/green), sense of conflict, drama. Image of sex and violence. Inspired by Byron's work. In 1840 he painted crusaders at war in the east. Emotion, gesture, traditional western painting. Inspiration from classical literature and the Bible. Death of Ophelia, Abduction of Rebecca. Scott and Byron encompassed modern sensibility. Medea and her Children, from Jason and the Golden Fleece. Triangular composition reminiscent of Virgin Mary, but contorted into scene of violence.

Romanticism and workings of the inner mind. Gericault painted portraits of people suffering mental problems. Kleptomaniac. Delacroix painted Michelangelo procrastinating. Romanticism expressing anxiety of changing world.

Landscape perviously depicted harmony, idealism, particularly Italy's landscape. During Romanticism this was rejected. Nationhood was heightened in importance, e.g. Constable in Britain.

Corot changed from painting French landscape to medieval architecture. Romantic painters concentrated on conflicting, dramatic landscapes. Rousseau's pantheistic view led him to paint trees, overlapping Romanticism with Realism.

Orientalism, the Middle East. Napoleon invaded Egypt and now Christian Europe confronted Middle East, not necessarily in a violent way. Exotic influences enter paintings. Ingres's Odalisque and Slave and Delacroix's Women of Algiers. Sensuous, languorous. Establishes difference in cultures. William Holman Hunt, Egyptian themes. Painters depicted customs, culture, architecture as a record for Europe. New use - getting the setting for Biblical scenes accurate while availability allowed. Orientalism was adapted for the painter's purpose, for politics, style, artifice, etc.

Delacroix respected Arabs above Europeans. Graceful, orderly, politeness, style of dress, as shown in his watercolour Young Arab in His Room. Vernet depicted order, system. Arab Story-Teller. Again, shows respect.

But other Delacroix paintings depict the difference between Middle East and Europe. Fanatics of Tangier. Political. Dismissive. Inaccurate depictions, due to artist's purpose. Ingres's Turkish Bath. Gerome depicts harem, Grand Bath at Bursa. These are fantasies, not allowed to be painted in France but acceptable in Middle East.

Romanticism benefited from Enlightenment. Accentuates mood, emotion. Individuality. Modern. But also dwelled in past, did not reject classicism. Showed anxiety about change in society. Art is interlocked in broad social issues. Diversity.