Artists Of The Romantic Era example essay topic

The Romantic period displayed a marked change in the styles of art. Painters, writers, and musicians began to feel a freedom like never before. Painters began to show emotions on the faces of their subjects. Writers began to write with their own emotions, contradictory to the neo-classical balance and forms. Musicians broke away from folk tales and began to write of love and emotions.

Music displayed the population's desires for freedom and individuality. Francisco Goya (1746-1828) may have been one of the greatest pioneers of the romantic period. Goya may be best known for his painting Execution of the Madrilenos on May 3, 1808. In the winter of 1792, while on a visit to southern Spain, Goya contracted a serious disease that left him totally deaf and marked a turning point in his career.

(Cunningham & Reich p. 289) A mood of pessimism entered Goya's work. Between 1797 and 1799 he drew and etched the first of his great print series Los Caprichos (The Caprices), which, in their satirical humor, mock the social mores and superstitions of the time. These works sealed his feelings toward neo-classical ideals as smothering and restricting. Another of the Romantics was Jean Louis Andre Theodore Gericault (1791-1824). Gericault sparked interest when he painted Raft of Medusa. The painting showed his intense desire to show the government at face value.

The ship disaster was at the hands of a deeply political captain who was attempting to prove his worthiness. People seemed to flock to see the painting that would dare mock the government and what it stood for. Raft of Medusa showed the faces of death and despair, while maintaining an innocence of death and suffering. Francois-Ren'e de Chateaubriand was one of the most important French writers of the Romantic Era.

He introduced new and exotic types of character and background, principally the Native Americans and scenery of North America, and emphasized introspection, generally of a pessimistic nature, as exemplified in his novels A tala (1801) and Ren'e (1802). These new literary elements mark him as a forerunner of the romantic period. In addition, in The Genius of Christianity (1802; trans. 1856) he asserted that Christianity was morally and aesthetically superior to other religions.

This assertion profoundly influenced the religious and literary life of his time. Among his other important works are other defenses of Christianity, literary accounts of his travels in America, and his posthumously published autobiography, Memoires d'outre-tombe (Memoirs from Beyond the Tomb, 1849-50). (Encarta Encyclopedia) Johann Wolfgang von Goethe crossed lines from neo-classical to romanticism while combining his own flair for writing. The period from 1805 to his death in Weimar, March 22, 1832, was for Goethe one of considerable productivity. Among his writings between 1805 and 1832 the most renowned are the novels Die Wahlverwandtschaften and Wilhelm Meister's Travels an account of his Italian trip, Goethe's Travels in Italy (Ludwig, p. 58). The Autobiography of Goethe, a collection of superb lyrics West easterly Divan and the second part of his dramatic poem was written shortly before his death.

Music became an outlet for the most romantic of the Romantic Period. Ludwig van Beethoven was widely accepted as the father of Romantic music. It has been written that Beethoven had the ability to give emotions to notes. "Since Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), widely regarded as the pioneer of musical Romanticism, also manifested many Characteristically Romantic attitudes-such as love of nature, passionate belief in the freedom of the individual, and fiery temperament-it is not surprising that he has come to be regarded as the prototype of the Romantic artist". (Cunningham & Reich p. 280). Goethe would often use his music to display his own personal feeling, such as the last movement of Symphony No. 9 to preach the doctrine of universal brotherhood.

(Cunningham & Reich p. 280) Franz Schubert provided us with Romantic music in another light. Schubert wrote an almost melancholy, lighter music. Schubert was a teacher and an inspiring being. Schubert wrote with his own personal attitudes and feelings. The most widely known of Schubert's pieces is Symphony No. 8 in b minor, also known at the Unfinished Symphony, because he only finished two of the movements. Romantics prove to be the most interesting for the writer due to their sincere yearning to break the molds set forth for them.

Romantics wanted to display the ways in which they felt and use their inter-most feelings to direct their art forms. Romantics are also intriguing because of the time period in which they lived. Between Napoleon trying to conquer the world and the vast changes in religion and theories they managed to bring light to those they touched. The writer is intrigued by the misconception that Romanticism is about love.

Romanticism is about living on the edge of mortality and being able to capture those feelings in a record able art form. The artists of the Romantic era were ground-breakers for today's modern artist. The artist of the time were persecuted by many and loved by few. The earliest Romantics even struggled with the past and it is evident in the art.

Had there been no Romantic era would we still be practicing neo-classical art forms or was the human spirit too free to contain in rules and styles of a particular era?

Bibliography

Cunningham, L. & Reich, J. (2002).
Culture and Values: A Survey of the Humanities. U.S. : Wadsworth group Microsoft (R) Encarta (R) Encyclopedia 2002.
c) 1993-2001 Microsoft Ludwig, E.
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