Art Through the 19th Century- Romanticism

The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, Goya, 1799

- - Goya explores the concept of the dream world in The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters. - This graphic work is an etching with aquatint from a series known as Los Caprichos produced by Goya in 1799. The title is Spanish for "The Caprices." - A "caprice" is an impulsive change of mind. - The work depicts Goya himself asleep at his writing desk on which is printed the phrase: "The sleep of reason produces monsters." - Owls, which are iconographic symbols of witchcraft and foolishness, and bats, symbols of ignorance, appear to be attacking the sleeping figure. - Goya's nightmare was read as an allegory commenting on Spanish society. As a result, the government censored this series.

Poussinistes

Artists who followed Poussin's classicized linear approach to line and had an interest in historical moralistic narrative paintings are known as "Poussinistes."

Odalisque

the French term for a concubine or woman slave in a harem frequently associated with the Turkish culture.

Goya's Third of May 1808

- - Goya's most famous and powerful work is The Third of May, 1808 painted in 1814. - This painting recounts the events that took place on May 3rd, 1808 when, in an attempt to overthrow his father King Charles IV, Ferdinand VII invited Napoleon and his army into Spain. - Napoleon was eager to take control of the Spanish throne and agreed to aid in the coup. - When Napoleon's troops marched into Madrid in early May of 1808 they were shot at by a group of Spaniards. - In retaliation and to establish their power and presence, the French troops systematically executed 5,000 Spanish civilians from 6pm May 3rd to 12 Noon the following day. - Goya produced a powerful contemporary history painting that is his answer to the Neoclassical idealism of David. - Goya's composition is far more emotional and expressionistic than David's Oath of Horatii. - The faceless French soldiers shoot on command without questioning whether their actions are reasonable. - Positioned in a Christ-like pose, the central figure begs for mercy, a look of sheer terror on his face. - Goya instills a sense of time and succession through figures that convey before (the people in line), during (the main figure), and after (the pile of dead in the foreground), thus underscoring the continuous annihilation of the powerless Spanish. - In the background the spires of a Catholic church are barely visible through the darkness. - A theme that Goya and other Romantic artists often explored in their work was "man's inhumanity to man." - This theme relates to the Sublime and is an indication of the turbulent times in which Romantic art was produced. - Goya's expressionistic use of line and color is decidedly Rubeniste. - His painterly, expressionistic brushwork translates an immediacy of emotion. - Notice how the use of thick impasto in the whites of the central figure's eyes contributes to his expression of horror. - The tenebrist lighting is also expressive, casting a stark spotlight on the terrifying scene. - The Romantic artists were best known for their expressionistic use of color. Goya is no exception.

Gericault, Raft of the Medusa, Romanticism

- Although Romanticism spread throughout Europe, nowhere was the movement embraced more passionately than by the painters in France. - as the movement embraced more passionately than by the painters in France. These painters were known as the "2nd Generation" of painters who were born after the Revolution of 1789. - The style of the 2nd Generation of French Romantic painters is characterized by a highly coloristic Rubeniste approach featuring dynamic, twisting figures, muscular bodies, dramatic movement and a tendency to portray contemporary history scenes in which the politics of the day are reflected in the mood or temperament of the painting. - This style was the antithesis of Ingres' style and the two French approaches to Romanticism began to compete for the public's favor. - The first of two master 2nd Generation painters that we will cover is Theodore Gericault. - Gericault's The Raft of the Medusa painted between 1818 and 1819 recounts the story of a French Ship of that ran aground off of the African coast. - The officers on the ship made the inhumane decision to put 147 of the lower class crew on a small raft in order to lighten the weight of the troubled vessel. - Only twelve of the people on the raft survived via cannibalism. - The true story was a sensational, grisly tale that captured the imagination of the public. - Gericault's painting was a huge success at the Salon. - Gericault carefully studied dead bodies and severed heads and made many preliminary sketches in preparation for this large format work in order to convey the intense humanity of the harrowing situation. - The composition is filled with drama and movement. - Gericualt chose to depict a moment of false hope when the men tried to flag down a passing ship. - Notice how the twisting figures pile one on top of the other progressively moving from the ashen figures of the dead at the bottom of the raft to the more muscular tanned figures of the living that form the apex of the pyramid. - Like Goya, Gericault presents the viewer with a sublime display of man's inhumanity to man.

Jean-Aguste-Dominique Ingres

- Began his artistic career as a Neoclassical painter who studied with Jacque-Louis David. Ingres' Poussinste painting technique is characterized by larity of outline and a tight, linear style. - Although Ingres' stylistic approach is decidedly Poussiniste and therefore Neoclassical, the subject and mood of the piece in undeniably Romantic. - Is considered a Romantic artist because of his Romantic sensibility.

The Sublime

- Concept of the awe-inspiring relating to the terror, obscurity, vastness, and beauty of man and nature. - Established by Philosopher Edmund Burke - actually the antithesis of the Beautiful relating to the exploration of self-preservation and individuality, ideals that lay at the core of the Romantic awareness.

Henry Fuseli, The Nightmare, 1781

- Henry Fuseli explores another favorite subject of Romanticism: the unconscious mind. - Nightmares of course relate to imagination and the erotic, often evoking aspects of the Sublime including terror, horror and obscurity. - Fuseli's interpretation of a nightmare has a sadistic quality, conveying a sense of the perverse, and the terrifying, engaging the viewer's imagination. - The scene depicts a woman experiencing a "night terror." - Clothed in a clinging nightgown, the woman is sensually and vulnerably splayed across her bed while an "incubus" rests on her stomach. - An incubus is a medieval demon/spirit said to visit women in the night, often engaging in sexual relations with them - In the background a ferocious horse looks on. Horses are iconographic symbols of lust. - The painting is one from Fuseli's Night Moods series. This particular image explores the irrational subconscious mind and "hysteria" of women. - The romantic interest in the human psyche heralded the coming of psychoanalysis and dream interpretation. - It is said that the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud had a print of this painting in his office.

Death of Sardanapalus, Delacroix, 1827

- Like many of the French Neoclassical and Romantic paintings we have covered, this is a large-format work that now hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris. - The subject matter was inspired by the narrative poem "Sardanapalus" by the great romantic poet Lord Byron. - The Romantic story takes place long ago and far away in the exotic local of Assyria (Turkey/Iraq). - Some historians have noted that Delacroix may have chosen this story in order to comment on France's political involvement with Turkey at the time. - The scene is one of high drama and emotion with gratuitous nudity and graphic violence. - Delacroix uses large, open brushstrokes; bold, saturated colors; dramatic lighting. - The overall effect is a dynamic and flowing composition. - Notice Delacroix's ability to use color to convey emotion and drama. - He was a master of the expressionistic use of color. - The figures display overwrought emotion and sweeping gestures that infuse the scene with romantic melodrama. - Death of Sardanapaluscombines the exotic, erotic, violent and sublime, creating one of the most memorable paintings of the Romantic era.

Francisco Jose de Goya

- One of the most influential and compelling Romantic artists was the Spaniard Francisco Jose de Goya. - Like Velazquez, Goya was an artistic innovator who was interested in social and political issues and served as the official painter to the court of Spain. - Goya began his career as a Late Rococo painter in the court of Charles IV. - However, it was not long before Goya rejected the French Rococo and Neoclassical style and cultivated a romantic sensibility based on the artistic influences of Velasquez and Rembrandt. - Although Goya worked for the royal court, he became increasingly disillusioned with the Spanish monarchy, the Catholic Church and the political climate in Spain. - Goya's dramatic and compelling art reflects his deep concern for, and experience with, the events and issues of his day.

The Haywain John Constable 1821

- One of two of England's most prominent Romantic landscape painters - onstable grew up in the English countryside where his father owned a mill. - The artist was known for his "picturesque" landscapes that were rendered in great detail. - Deeply concerned with the effects of the Industrial Revolution which had begun to sweep across England, Constable dedicated himself to depicting the Romantic landscapes of his youth that were slowly disappearing. - His love for nature and interest in light lead the painter to take his canvases outside where he began to paint a series of cloud studies. - Constable's approach to painting started with him sketching outdoors to achieve a quick impression of light, air and color, and then taking the sketches into the studio for reworking into more finished works of art. - This was unique for its time and anticipated the plein-air approach of the Impressionists. - During his outdoor painting sessions, Constable captured the effects of light and the ever-changing sky at different times of the day, during various months of the year. - Constable's picturesque landscapes were very popular with the public and he is one of England's most beloved artists.

Eugene Delacroix

- The second master of the 2nd Generation French Romantics that we will discuss is Eugene Delacroix. - Like his contemporary Gericualt, Delacroix was a Rubenisteemploying painterly brushwork, expressionistic color and light, dynamic twisting figures, high drama and an emphasis on emotion. - However, Delacroix used less light in his compositions than Gericault. - For Delacroix color was the most important formal element. - This Rubeniste emphasis on color put Delacroix at odds with the leading Poussiniste Romantic painter of the day, Ingres. - So much so that the two became rivals and much publicity was made over their Poussiniste/Rubeniste debate of line versus color. - This cartoon humorously depicts the two artists, Ingres with a pen, and Delacroix with a brush, in a duel.

Cartoon of Delacroix

- This cartoon humorously depicts the two artists, Ingres with a pen, and Delacroix with a brush, in a duel.

Turner's Slave Ship

- While Ingres and Delacroix were true rivals, Constable and Turner simply represented two varied approaches to the Romantic landscape. - While Constable was the father of the "picturesque" landscape, Joseph Mallord William Turner was the master of the "Sublime" landscape. - The Slave Ship is Turner's most compelling and political work. - Painted in the year 1840, the Slave Ship recounts the horrifying true story of an English slave ship returning to England from the West Indies upon which an epidemic broke out among the slaves. - Many of the slaves had died from the plague and the rest were seriously ill. - he captain made the inhumane decision of throwing all of the shackled slaves (living and dead) overboard into a sea of shark-infested waters so that he would be able to collect insurance money upon his return by reporting the slaves as "lost cargo" rather than dead. - So moving was Turner's portrayal of the event that the image became an emblem for the 19th Century English abolition (anti-slavery) movement. - Although he was equally interested in the effects of light, Turner's technical approach to painting couldn't be more different than Constable's. - The typical painterly Rubeniste brushstrokes are pushed to the point of near abstraction in Turner's hand. - Forms are suggested rather than clearly defined through loose directional applications of expressionistic color, creating a tumultuous impression of the turbulent seascape. - Turner's "impressionistic" approach to painting is often referred to as Proto-Impressionism.

Goya's "Saturn Devouring His Children" 1820 Spanish Romanticism

- a powerful and grotesque image from his so-called "black period" entitled Saturn Devouring his Children painted between the years 1819 and 1823. - he subject is Goya's interpretation of the ancient Greco-Roman myth of Saturn, God of Time, who was warned that one of his children would one day take his place. - Thus, Saturn ate his children in an effort to preserve his power. - Again, we see that Goya has employed the Rubeniste traits of an expressionist color palette and brushwork to create an emotionally charged scene that reflects the "dark" side of Romanticism. - During his "black period" Goya contracted syphilis and became very ill. - The artist went deaf in 1820 and entered a deep depression, painting all of the walls in his house black. - On these walls he hung a series of dark, terrifying images such as Saturn Devouring his Children, the content of which explored the Sublime and man's willingness to embrace evil. - Historians have also interpreted these works as political statements relating to the repressive authority of the Church and State as well as to the bloody revolutions taking place in Europe that devoured their own "children." - But it's not to say that Goya was not without a sense of humor. Can you guess in which room he hung this painting? If you guessed the dining room, you guessed correctly. As Goya ate, Saturn ate.

Ingres, Grande Odalisque, 1814, Oil on canvas.

- from a stylistic crossover artist named Jean-Auguste- Dominique Ingres. - The subject matter; the reclining female nude is one that we have seen throughout this course but now expressed in the sensibility of Romanticism. - To the French male viewer the odalisque is an exotic, erotic, forbidden, and perhaps even dangerous creature. - She is surrounded by rich oriental fabrics and furs, exotic accoutrements such as her peacock fan and opium pipe, adorned with only a bejeweled turban and a few gold bracelets. - Ingres renders the figure with impossible idealism and a hyper-real quality of detail. - Although line is paramount to Ingres the contours of the form are rhythmic, volumetric, and sensual. Ingres' nude is based on a classical body, with a Renaissance face influenced by Raphael, realized in Mannerist and Venetian colors.

Proto-Impressionism

- is the stylistic technique that anticipates the Impressionist style, literally meaning "pre-impressionism."

Rubenistes

- who believed that color, not drawing, was superior due to its being more true to nature. Drawing was based on reason and only appealing to the few experts whereas color could be enjoyed by everyone. - Artists who followed Rubens' expressionistic use of color and loose-painterly brush approach are known as "Rubenistes."

Romanticism

19th century artistic movement that appealed to emotion rather than reason - Began around 1750 and ended about 1850. - A western cultural movement encompassing fine art, literature and music which gave precedence to feeling, imagination and freedom over reason and thought. -German literary critics who wanted to define an emerging "modern" literary movement that moved away from Neoclassicism coined the term Romanticism. - The movement celebrated the ideals of romantic love, adventure, freedom, individuality, self-preservation and the embrace of "feeling." - A concept featured prominently in the art and literature of Romanticism was the "Sublime." - Characteristics : expressionistic color palette, expressionistic brushwork, large scale, emotion. - Think of Romanticism as more of a sensibility than a distinct style. - Romantic artists didn't always share the same stylistic and formal approaches. - What linked Romantic artists together was their fierce individuality, expression of freedom and rejection of the strict academic tradition.