Romaticism Flashcards
Romanticism
Represented the celebration of individuality, expression, emotion, and the power of imagination
Characteristics
- Honoured ambiguity, complexity, uncertaintity, and individualism over convention
- Experimented with different styles, subject matters, and compositions to find what worked best for them and their personal ideas/experiences
- Dream-like, visionary, eccentric, emotional intensity, subjective
- Is the opposite of Neo-classism
- Also placed emphasis on intuition and instinct
- Artists were seen as inspired creators, not technical makers
- Subject matter
- Emotional drama
- Nature and its wild and unpredictable sense
- Portraits being used to convey mental and psychological states, whereas traditionally they were just vehicles for people’s record
- Literature inspired the artists (Shakespear, Walter Scott, Lord Byron)
- Individual creativity as it portrayed inner struggle and passion
Composition
- Composition is comprised of diagonal lines
- Very dramatic composition
- Full of movement
Shape
- Open shapes that put emphasis on colour and brush strokes
Application
Brush strokes were very visable as artists were very connected to their work
Colour
Very rich colours
Fransisco Jose de Goya Lucientes
- His work got pessimistic after he got deaf
- Created a series of paintings called The Disasters of War
The disasters of war
Fransisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes
- Depicted the war that the invasion brought for what it was
- There was no hero, just suffering
- Showed the contrast between good and evil, light and darkness, life and death
- Was very graphic and showed people suffering and being tortured
- Made a pain that felt indescrible make sense through his art
Saturn devouring his children
Fransisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes
- Found amoung his “black paintings” which reflect the darkening of his mental state due to his deafness
- Depicts the Greek myth of Saturn eating his children because he fears they will overthrow him
- Brush strokes are very rough and expressive
- Saturn’s facial expression depicts madness as his eyes bulge
- Artwork is extremely dark, only light comes from body of child, Saturn’s eyes, and his knuckles
Possible interpretations of Saturn devouring his children
Fransisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes
- Time as the devourer of all things
- Old age vs youth
- The wrath of God as Spain devouring its children through wars and conflicts
Jean-Louis Andre Theodore Gericault
The Raft of Medusa
* Very important in the Romaticism movement
* A story of a boat that sunk on its way to West Africa so the 150 sailors made a raft but over 13 days only 13 people were left
* The composition is triangle shaped and so full that theres no space for the viewer to escape the scene
* Depicts death and suffering from the lack of bright colours
* The painful confrontation between man and nature
Eugene Delacroix
Liberty leading the people
- Liberty is shown as a woman holding a flag and leading people away from the king’s soldiers
- There is a worker, a boy, and an intellectual behind her
- The dead bodies create the base of the triangular structure
- Depicts violent movement, harsh brushstrokes
- Notre Dame is seen in the background
