Hi guys,
today's video is dedicated to Romanticism, a movement born at the end of the eighteenth century as a reaction to the order and perfection of its rival Neoclassicism.
I tell you about the most important definition, characteristics, works and artists of Romanticism in art and the various movements that have developed in different countries such as German Romanticism, English Romanticism, French Romanticism and Italian Romanticism.
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The main theme of the works of this period are emotions. Romantic artists move away from the concepts of logical and rational, and express feelings that were previously left aside. Movement, color and drama become the center of their works. The world for Romantics is a world of inner forces and nature, which are often destructive and almost always beyond the reach of man to control. And in contrast to this nature, man is small, vulnerable and in danger.
Romanticism is welcomed and carried forward by artists who want to redefine the figure and of man and the role of art in a world that is facing great changes. With the French Revolution of 1789 and the advent of Napoleon Bonaparte, European artists felt the need to create works full of ambiguity and chaos. This also in response to the ideals of the Enlightenment that wanted science and rationality to be the basis of the perception of the world.
The first romantic artists are influenced by witchcraft, dreams and apparitions, but above all by emotions. Strong and accentuated emotions. As in the works of the English artist William Blake.
And the historical period that becomes a reference for romantic artists is the Middle Ages understood as a primitive world, instinctive and made up of passions.
From the point of view of the composition of the works, the art of the nineteenth century has always been considered complex. On the one hand, there is the construction of the work through the line for Neoclassicism with artists such as Ingres. And on the other, the extreme use of color for Romanticism with Delacroix.
Depending on the nation and over the years, the themes of Romanticism have gradually evolved. In France, rebellion, but above all human freedom, is for example a fundamental theme.
In Gericault's The Raft of the Medusa there are no compromises: the battle against death can be seen as a heroic gesture or a total failure. In this case, a real event is told, not a supernatural episode.
And another French artist who has remained in the history of Romanticism is Eugène Delacroix. His most famous work is Freedom Leading the People.
From here we understand how the political theme is at the center of the works for the French, while German and English artists are more linked to the landscape and the relationship between man and nature.
In the work The traveler over the sea of fog by the German artist Friedrich, it is as if the viewer were inside the storm to make him feel the same emotions as the painted character.
And another example of landscape in Romanticism are the works of the English artist William Turner. They are abstract paintings where sensations are transmitted through the colors and whirls of his storms.
In Italy, however, the ideals of Romanticism are aligned with those of the Risorgimento and the political role of art. The greatest exponent of this movement is Hayez, with works such as the Kiss, of which there are several versions including one with a white dress.
In Spain, the greatest exponent is one of my favorite artists Francisco Goya. Many of his works can be found in the Prado Museum in Madrid, one of the must-see museums if you visit the city.
With the advent of the Second Industrial Revolution in the mid-nineteenth century and the increasing spread of the Academies, Romanticism in art will begin to give way to other movements. And it will no longer be only the man with his emotions that will be at the center of the works but also the world around him and the representation of nature, as we will discover with the Impressionists.
18 окт 2019
