Romanticism Flashcards

1
Q

Romanticism - the term

A
  1. romantic - like romance
    — medieval literature - chivalric novels
    — fantastic stories about the adventure of knights
    — plots about love, revenge, suicide, betrayal, black magic, ghosts etc
    — became popular again in 18th century
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2
Q

Sublime - key notion of Romanticism

A
  1. Edmund Burke - british philosopher
    — a philosophical enquiry into the origin of our ideas of the sublime and beautiful
  2. definition - qualities that arouse feelings of awe mixed with terror - transcendence
  3. purpose - express and arouse the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling
  4. reference: michelangelo, caravaggio, rubens
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3
Q

Romantic art - characteristics

A
  1. wide range of subjects - freedom of imagination
  2. creative process highlights subjective feelings, individual point of view
  3. aims to arouse intense emotions like terror, despair, awe
  4. in varied styles, but in general some of these may apply
    — loose composition, infinite forms, exaggeration and distortion
    — colorism - brilliant colour; vibrant, energetic brushstrokes
    — background generates a mysterious or unsettling mood (tenebrous, smoky, turbulent)
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4
Q

Johann Heinrich Fussil

A
  1. swiss painter settled in england
  2. a professor of the Royal Academy
  3. specialized in night moods of horror and dark fantasies - among the first to depict the dark terrains of human subconscious and madness
  4. despised the scholastic approach to art, admired the eccentric works of william blake
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5
Q

Johann Heinrich Fussli - nightmare

A
  1. “incubus” a demon who often prey sexually on sleeping woman
  2. nightmare - night + mare - mythological spirit which torments and suffocates sleepers
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6
Q

Johann Heinrich Fussli - Sleepwalking Lady macbeth

A
  1. illustration for shakespeare’s macbeth
  2. macbeth was too deeply concerned with her husband’s crime that she became mad
  3. “femme fatale” - woman who brings destruction to man
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7
Q

William Blake

A
  1. an eccentric poet-artist, thinker, philosopher
  2. hostile to orthodox religions, rejected their stringent rules - they killed creative, artistic impulse
  3. only use watercolour - against academic tradition of using oil
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8
Q

willaim blake - elohim creating adam

A
  1. god is rendered as a sinister, tyrannical father, and the creation is a torture, not blessing
  2. reinterpreted the story of genesis; Elohim - jewish name of god
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9
Q

William Blake - Ancient of days

A
  1. God Urizen is creating the universe
  2. god captures the infinity of the universe with a pair of compass -> math, geometry and science
  3. negative act to impose rational order on chaos resulting in reduction of the infinite to finite
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10
Q

Franciso de Goya y Lucientes

A
  1. courter painter of charles III and IV
  2. became deaf, created his masterpieces afterthat
  3. admired Diego Velasquez
  4. emphasized imagination, intuition and feelings
  5. spoke for the suffers of Napoleonic invasion (neoclassic hero in france is murderer in spain)
  6. spain
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11
Q

Franciso de Goya - Sleep of reason produces monsters

A
  1. series of 80 plates, critics to contemporary spanish society
  2. art is the child of reason in combination with imagination
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12
Q

francisco de goya - charles IV and his family

A
  1. modelling on Velasquez to include himself into the painting
  2. traditional state portrait, though without idealisation of his sitters
    — some look away
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13
Q

Franciso de goya - uprising of the second of may

A
  1. rioters were suppressed by Morish cavalry of the french troops
    2.Peinisular war - fr troops entered and the king was abdicaed
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14
Q

Francisco de Goya - executions of the third of may

A
  1. rioters arrested the previous day were executed without a fair trial
  2. like a martyr, has features of christ crucified: white shirt(purity), wounds on palms, hands lifted as in crucifixtion
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15
Q

Francisco de Goya - Saturn devouring his sons

A
  1. one of 14 black paintings decorating his house of deaf
  2. according to legends, one of saturn son will kill and seize his power
  3. god in old age - mad and barbaric - devoured his offspring
  4. metaphor for autocractic spanish state - devouring its own citizens?
  5. or for catholic church - killing many people in order to keep her power?
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16
Q

Theodore Gericault

A
  1. france
  2. student of Pierre Narcisse Guerin
  3. broke with neoclassicism - never created history or heroic themes
  4. worked on contemporary themes, developed a realistic and painterly style based on colour
17
Q

theodore Gericault - severed limbs

A
  1. fantasy over cannibalism in a murder case of ritual slaughter
  2. close observation of dismembered limbs - atrocity became beauty
18
Q

theodore gericault - raft of medusa

A
  1. french frigate heading senegal was wrecked off the african coast
  2. ~150 ppl were left on a wooden raft
  3. agitated moment of the sight of a rescue ship - only 10 survived
  4. nudes - no nationality
  5. reminiscent of Michelangelo’s battle
19
Q

theodore gericault - portrait of a woman suffering from obsessive envy

A
  1. Gericault studied faces of insane people and those of guillotine victims
  2. investigated how problems of human souls can be reflected in the appearence
20
Q

theodore gericault - derby of epsom

A
  1. horse - symbol of speed, strength, freedom, metaphor for suppressed human potentials
  2. fell from a horse and died at 33
21
Q

eugene delacroix

A
  1. france
  2. student of pieer narcisse guerin
  3. influenced by gericault, further developed themes of violence and horror
  4. travelled to northern africa and fascinated by exotic cultures
  5. most prominent representative of orientalism
22
Q

Eugene delacroix - death of sardanapalus

A
  1. perverse pleasure - enjoying a scense of massacre; returned to the heightened drama of baroque
  2. inspired by Byron’s poem - king ordering all his slaves horse and palace to be destoryed after he was defeated by his enemies
23
Q

eugene delacroix - the 28th of july

A
  1. returned to history painting - revolution of 1830 - 3 glorious days of uprising of parisians against the rule of charles X who suppressed civil rights
  2. heroic and poetic - a neoclassic theme treated with romantic color tones
24
Q

eugene delacroix - tiger hunt

A
  1. colour theory discussed the expressive power of colour and light - hugely influential to the impressionists
25
Q

caspar david friedrich

A
  1. germany
  2. landscape painting with strong religious feelings
  3. divinity is inherent in nature
  4. art - a mediator between nature and humanity, captures the mystic vision of nature, conveys the poetic feeling of transcendence (communion with god)
26
Q

Caspar david friedrich - self portrait

A
  1. a severe man dressed in a monk’s clothing
  2. tragedies in his family exerted great influence on his art
27
Q

Caspar david friedrich - abbey in the oak forest

A
  1. monks are carrying a coffin across the dilapidated gothic gate among the ghostly trees - religion does not bring salvation, human existence is nihilistic
  2. a funeral procession on a snow-covered graveyard - haunting and mysterious
28
Q

Caspar david friedrich - winter landscape with church

A
  1. cripped man in snow praying to a crucifix among pine trees
  2. mysticism and pantheism - divinity lies in nature, not the gothic church in background
29
Q

Caspar david friedrich - wanderer over a sea of fog

A
  1. reduced a landscape to its basic elements of nature - fog, earth, sea, sky
  2. man seen from the back - no identity, nobody, anybody
  3. man reflecting his place in nature and in eternity
30
Q

Joseph mallord william turner

A
  1. engliand
  2. landscape
  3. impressed by dutch seascapes and claude lorraine
  4. specialized in landscapes and seascapes, explored the expressive power of light
31
Q

john constable

A
  1. eng, landscape, exposed the reality of wilderness, no idealization
32
Q

william turner - slave ships

A
  1. terrifying power of nature illuminated by the setting sun
  2. floating bodies eaten by sea creatures
  3. sick slaves are thrown overboard by eng trader to collect money insurance
33
Q

william turner - rain, steam and speed

A
  1. train speeding across a bright through the fog and vapour of torrential downpour
  2. strong foreshortening - long distance
  3. blurred view - high speed
  4. evokes mixed feelings towards the great achievement
34
Q

john constable - hay wain

A
  1. humble subject treated on a grand scale
  2. scene of his home village - his private nostalgia toward the disappearing eng countryside during industrial revolution
35
Q

john constable - opening of waterloo bridge

A
  1. blurry objects - use of white dots and patches – snowflake style - sketch-like finish - anticipates impressionism
  2. tho a history painting (celebrating the victory over napoleon) it gives away to the beauty of nature, sky and river