Romanticism: Cultural movement of the early 19th century
White horse, Constable
Romanticism; basicsRomanticism; basics Revolt against classicism and the
enlightenment Classicism: too many rules, structure Enlightenment: Too much emphasis
on the rational approach to truth Primarily concerned with expressing
new forms of feeling and thought Influence of Rousseau and the French
RevolutionBrought into question all traditional beliefs
and institutions. The youth of the early 19th century felt it had to build something new or perish. This urge was the essence of the romantic temperament.
Romantic basics, cont.Romantic basics, cont. Characterized by a belief in emotional
exuberance Unrestrained imagination and spontaneity Tremendous emotional intensity Suicides, duels to the death Bohemian lifestyle-long, unwashed hair, no
visible means of support Driven by a sense of the unlimited universe
and by a yearning for the unattained, the unknown, the unknowable.
Nature was portrayed as awesome and uncontrolled-not pristine as classics saw it.
Romantics, basics, cont.Romantics, basics, cont.Idealized the middle agesIdealized untouched and exotic
lands.Untouched example-the Lake
District in EnglandExotic lands example-Morocco
Romanticism can be seen in the literature, art and music of the early 19th century
Romantic Literature- English poetsRomantic Literature- English poets
William Wordsworth 1770-1850Ode: Intimations of immortality from
the recollections of early childhoodDaffodils
George Gordon, Lord Byron 1788-1824Don Juan
John KeatsOde on a Grecian Urn
William Wordsworth 1770-William Wordsworth 1770-18501850 WW sought inspiration from the Lake
District of England Defied classical rules Abandoned flowery poetic conventions
for the language of ordinary speech Wrote of love of nature in very
democratic form which could be appreciated by everyone.
Poetry was the “spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling recollected in tranquility”
Daffodils, WordsworthDaffodils, WordsworthI wandered lonely as a cloudThat floats on high o’er vales and hills,When all at once I saw a crowd, A host of golden daffodils;Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze……And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.
Ode: Intimations of immortality from Ode: Intimations of immortality from recollections of early childhood-WWrecollections of early childhood-WW
“There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream, The Earth, and every common sight, To me did seem Apparell’d in celestial light, The glory and freshness of a dream”
Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792-18221792-1822 Shelley expressed the desire of many
English romantics for art itself to become more “natural”
Ode to a skylarkHail to thee, blythe spirit!Bird thou never wert-That from heaven or near it Pourest thy full heartIn profuse strains of premeditated art.
George Gordon, Lord Byron 1788-1824George Gordon, Lord Byron 1788-1824
In Don Juan, Byron exhibited another side of the romantic temperament: the restless and aimless hero
Through Byron the romantic’s continued the loss of faith in old ideas, the boredom with conventional civilization into a flirtation with life and death.
The concept of the Byronic hero. “On this day I complete my 36th year” “Prometheus unbound” “she walks in beauty”
Form: irregularly rhyming
Composition Date: July 1816
1. The Prometheus Bound of Aeschylus, in which Prometheus, chained to the Caucasian mountains and fed on by a vulture, suffers for his gift of fire to man and his defiance of Zeus, was one of Byron's favourite books. Titan. The Titans belonged to the faction of Saturn, whom his son Zeus replaced as chief of the gods. Defeated but unsubmissive, the Titans (and Prometheus in particular) were popular in the nineteenth century as symbols of revolution or resistance to tyranny
Thy Godlike crime was to be kind,36 To render with thy precepts less37 The sum of human wretchedness,38 And strengthen Man with his own mind;39 But baffled as thou wert from high,40 Still in thy patient energy,41 In the endurance, and repulse42 Of thine impenetrable Spirit,43 Which Earth and Heaven could not convulse,44 A mighty lesson we inherit:45 Thou art a symbol and a sign46 To Mortals of their fate and force;47 Like thee, Man is in part divine,48 A troubled stream from a pure source;49 And Man in portions can foresee50 His own funereal destiny;51 His wretchedness, and his resistance,52 And his sad unallied existence:53 To which his Spirit may oppose54 Itself--and equal to all woes,55 And a firm will, and a deep sense,56 Which even in torture can descry57 Its own concenter'd recompense,58 Triumphant where it dares defy,
59 And making Death a Victory.
1 She walks in beauty, like the night 2 Of cloudless climes and starry skies;3 And all that's best of dark and bright4 Meet in her aspect and her eyes:5 Thus mellow'd to that tender light6 Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
7 One shade the more, one ray the less,8 Had half impair'd the nameless grace9 Which waves in every raven tress,10 Or softly lightens o'er her face;11 Where thoughts serenely sweet express12 How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
13 And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,14 So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,15 The smiles that win, the tints that glow,16 But tell of days in goodness spent,17 A mind at peace with all below,18 A heart whose love is innocent!
Composition Date:
June 1814
1.
"She" is Byron's cousin, Mrs. Wilmot, whom he met at a party in a mourning dress of spangled black
John Keats 1795-1821John Keats 1795-1821 Represented romantic belief that truth
could best be discovered through intuition and that aesthetic truth was the highest kind of truth
Keats believed in spirit as the source of poetic inspiration and identified it with the spontaneous creative power of language
Ode on a Grecian UrnBeauty is truth, and truth beauty,-that is
all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know
William Blake 1757-1827William Blake 1757-1827The chimney sweeperA critique of industrial EnglandWhen my mother died I was very
youngAnd my father sold me while yet my
tongueCould scarcely cry “weep, weep,
weep”So your Chimneys I sweep, and in
soot I sleep
Victor Hugo- French 1802-Victor Hugo- French 1802-18851885The Hunchback of Notre DameExemplified romantic fascination
with fantastic characters, strange settings and human emotions
Romantic literature Romantic literature potpourripotpourriThe love of the grotesqueVictor Hugo-Hunchback of Notre
DameMary Shelley- Frankenstein
Romantic Art- FrenchRomantic Art- French Delacroix 1798-1863
Massacre at ChiosLiberty leading the peopleDeath of Sardanapalus
Delacroix was fascinated with remote and exotic subjects; lion hunts, Sultans harem
Gericault Raft of the Medusa
Delacroix
“Liberty leading the People”
Delacroix, Death at Sardanapalas 1828 Death of Assyrian
King
Delacroix Algerian apartment
The Raft of the Medusa The Raft of the Medusa 1819 Gericault1819 GericaultIn 1816, a French naval vessal
(La Meduse) sank en route to West Africa. The captain and senior officers took the life boats and left a makeshift raft for the 150 passengers and crew. During 13 days adrift in the Atlantic, all but 15 people died.
Man vs. Nature
Gerricault
“Raft of the Medusa”
Delacroix
“Massacre at Chios”
Francisco Goya Third of May 1808
Romantic Art-EnglishRomantic Art-EnglishJoseph M.W. Turner 1775-1851
Depicted natures power and terrorJohn Constable 1776-1837
Painted Wordsworthian landscapes
Turner “Snowstorm”
John Constable “White Horse”
John Constable, “Rainstorm”
Joseph M.W. Turner “Rain, Steam, Speed”
Romantic MusicRomantic Music Medium in which romanticism was most fully
realized Classical music had held to structures Mozart Romantics used range of forms-broke rules Berlioz-The creator of Romantic music Frederick Chopin- 1810-1849 “Revolutionary
etude” Franz Liszt- 1811-1880 Great Pianist Beethoven- Bridge between classical and
romantic music.
Romantic musicRomantic musicMusic built around themesPlayed up natureInterest in deathInterest in the supernatural
Revolution in France 1848Revolution in France 1848 “the July monarchy in France was a
platform of boards built over a volcano. Under it burned the repressed fires of republicanism put down in 1830, which since 1830 had become steadily more socialistic”
Radicals wanted universal suffrage and a republic, but liberals asked only for broader voting rights within the existing constitutional Monarchy
Louis Phillipe and his Prime Minister refused any change. Stupid move. What should they have done?
February revolution in France February revolution in France 18481848
Banquet in Paris planned for Feb. 22 On February 21 the gov’t forbade such
meetings-that night barricades went up throughout the city
Gov’t called the national guard-refused to move-King now promised electoral reform-too late.
Demonstration at Guizot’s house-20 killed February 24 Louis Phillipe abdicates to…
England That leaves us with the liberal reformers
and the radical republicans-now it gets interesting.
Creation of provisional governmentCreation of provisional government
Const. Reformers hoped to carry on with the son of Louis Phillipe
Republicans stormed the Chamber of Deputies and proclaimed a republic-no whiff of grapeshot this time.
Provisional government:7 political republicans-Lamartine3 social republicans- Louis Blanc
Blanc was interested in creating social workshops Instead he got national workshopsBy June there were 200,000 idle men in a city of 1
million
Election of Constituent Election of Constituent AssemblyAssemblyElected in April 1848 by Universal
Male suffrage across all of FranceImmediately replaced provisional
gov’t with temporary executive board of its own
This new exec board contained NO socialists
““June Days” of 1848June Days” of 1848One side: nationally elected
constituent assembly Other side: National workshopsNW unsuccessfully attacked the
CACA declared martial law giving all
power to General Cavaignac (the butcher)
The bloody June days followed June 24-26
Class war raged in Paris-CA won
Louis Napoleon BonaparteLouis Napoleon BonaparteAfter the June Days the CA
sought to create a republican constitution and elect a new President
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte won in a landslide.Defeated Lamartine, Blanc,
Cavignac
Revolution in Austria 1848Revolution in Austria 1848 Began in Hungary Louis Kossuth-Demanded national
autonomy from Austrian Empire, full civil liberties and universal male suffrage
Austrian gov’t hesitated Viennese students and workers took to
streets-added own demands Aust. Emp. Ferdinand I gave in-
promised reforms and a liberal constitution
Metternich fled to London
Weaknesses in Austrian revolutionary coalitionWeaknesses in Austrian revolutionary coalition
Peasants, who made up most of the army, were satisfied by the Gov’ts aboliton of serfdom
Hungarian revolutionaries wanted to unify the diverse groups in Hungary-opposed by minority groups-croats, serbs, rumanians-soon were locked in armed combat with the new Hungarian government
Middle class wanted liberal reform Urban poor rose in arms-wanted socialist
workshops, universal voting rights MC and UP soon were opposing
eachother
Reassertion of Conservative forcesReassertion of Conservative forces
Ferdinand I abdicates in his place his nephew Francis Joseph
Windishgratz-smashed Czechoslovakia
Austria defeats revolutionaries in Italy Army (peasants) attacked student
workers in Vienna Hungary brought back after Russia
went in with 130,000 troops The attempts to liberalize and break
up the Austrian empire were unsuccessful.
Revolution in Prussia Revolution in Prussia 18481848 Prussia’s middle class wanted a liberal
constitutional monarchy that would unite Germany into a united and liberal German nation.
Prussian middle class pushed demands after the French rev of 1848
Demands not granted Workers in Berlin exploded Frederick William IV gave in to
demands FWIV promised Prussia liberal const. +
merge into German state Workers wanted more
Delacroix
“Liberty leading the People”
Prussian workers Prussian workers demandsdemands
March 26 workers issued a series of radical demands: universal voting rights, minimum wage, 10 hour day
The Prussian middle class could not go along with it
While the tensions in Prussia escalated , an elected body met in Berlin to write a constitution for a Prussian State
Frankfurt AssemblyFrankfurt Assembly Self appointed from various German
States successfully called for a national constituent assembly to begin writing a Const. For a unified German State
Denmark distraction: Schleswig/Holstein
March 1849, Frankfurt assembly finally offered throne to FWIV
By early 1849 reaction had been successful in Prussia
FWIV refused the Frankfurt assemblies “crown from the gutter”
Romanticism: Cultural movement of the early 18th century
White horse, Constable