The Romantic Age

1
The Romantic Age
2
Values of Romanticism

• Rejection of simplicity, proportion and
  restraint.
• Romantics valued
• Feeling, Intuition, Passion, Imagination,
  Spontaneity

3
Revolutions and Rights

• 1776-- American Revolution
• 1789-- French Revolution
• Democracy, republicanism, equality before the law
• Congresses, presidencies, constitutions--results
  of those conflicts

4
The Revolution in America

• American colonists resentment of British control
• Declaration of Independence, 1776
• Principles of Enlightenment--John Lockes
  Treatise on Civil Government
• Thomas Jefferson equality, civil rights and
  popular sovereignty from philosophes
• Federalist Papers authority of state rights of
  individual--did not address slavery

5
The Revolution in France

• Louis XVI
• July 14 Bastille prison attacked
• Declaration of the Rights of Man and the
  Citizen-- from Rousseaus thoughts
• Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite
• 1793, beheading of monarchs
• Reign of Terror began

6
The Napoleonic Era

• 1799--disillusioned citizens
• New hero Napoleon Bonaparte
• Dreams of imperial glory
• Crowned himself emperor in 1804
• Campaign to conquer Europe
• Defeated in 1814 at Waterloo
• Imprisoned for the rest of his life in St. Helena

7
Napoleon and the Arts

• Imitated Roman emperors--Paris imperial capital
  like Rome
• Power advertised by arts and buildings
• Louvre--museum to pieces stolen from conquered
  countries
• Triumphal arches and columns
• La Madeleine--Greek temple

8

• Jacques-Louis David--Painter to the Empire
• Napoleon Crossing the Alps
• Benoists Portrait of a Black Woman
• Counterpoint to Canovas sculpture of Napoleons
  sister as Venus

9
Colonial Revolutionaries

• 1793--Toussaint LOuverture led Haitis revolt
  against the French--Napoleon imprisoned him.
• Simon Bolivar--wanted to create a United States
  of South America. Obtained freedom for
  Venezuela, Colombia and Peru.

10
The Romantic Hero

• Romantics preferred feeling and imagination to
  intellect and reason. Attracted to the
  picturesque in nature and the past prized
  creativity and cast off neoclassical restraint
  and laws.
• 1775-1850

11
Beethoven

• Suffering romantic genius
• Deafness at 25
• Pianist in Vienna, able to sell his compositions
• Symphony No. 3 Eroica was the bridge between
  Classical style and romantic style

12

• Added piccolo and trombone to the symphonic
  orchestra
• Symphony Number 5 in C Minor
• Confrontation with fate Fate knocking at the
  door
• Motif Term for short musical idea

13
Musical Virtuosos

• Paganini violin
• Chopin piano
• Schumann Songs and symphonies
• Clara Schumann Lieder (songs)
• Brahms symphonies

14
Goethe and Faust

• Faust romantic masterpiece drama in two parts
• Delacroix illustrated a French translation
• Schubert composed songs
• Gounod opera Faust Ambition to burst all
  human constraint and indulge unquenched desire
  for experience

15
Delacroix and the Byronic Hero

• French more attracted to sensuality of Lord
  Byron Don Juan, life of sexual freedom,
  political idealism and exotic travel.
• Intellectual and moral freedom
• Eugene Delacroix rebelled against the academy
• Color, drama and exotic themes

16
Death of Sardanapalus and Liberty Leading the
People

• Orgy of egoism, violence and sexuality
• When threatened by rebellion he destroys his
  possessions and himself
• Revolution of 1830 overthrew the Bourbon king
• Unity of the classes

17
Elements of Romanticism

• Heroic individualism Faust and Lord Byron
• Protest against political and social injustice
• Attraction for nature and medieval times
• Fascination with evil and the exotic
• Sensibility that responded to historical
  circumstances

18
Romantic Social Protest William Blake

• Sympathetic observer of those enslaved by the
  industrial city
• Condemned the ills of urban existence

19
Romantic Feminism

• Mary Wollstonecraft A Vindication of the
  Rights of Women Compared women to soldiers
• Revolutions did not liberate women. Napoleons
  legal code denied women the right to hold
  property
• Western nations did not allow women to vote

20
Goya and Spain

• Goyas paintings depicted the senseless brutality
  of war
• Executions of the Third of May 1808
• Christ-like martyr in white
• Lamp enlightenment (irony)
• The Sleep of Reason Brings Forth Monsters,
  Romantic fascination with evil

21
The Romantics and Nature

• Romantic landscapes
• Constable The Hay Wain rustic landscapes
• Turner The Slave Ship (Slavers Throwing
  Overboard the Dead and DyingTyphoon Coming On)
• Effects of fog and smoke

22
Romantic Exoticism

• Middle classes become strong
• Drawn to exotic and grotesque
• Colonies overseas Africa and Asia
• Fascination with Arabic customs and dress
• Ingres Disciple of David--The Turkish Bath
• Classical figures

23
Berliozs Symphonie Fantastique

• Innovated with program music (composition that
  tells a story or describes a place)
• Story of Irish actress who rejected him
• Fifth movement musician is dead and his beloved
  joins the celebration in a witches dance
• The macabre

24
The Romantic Novel

• Fascination with evil and the demonic The
  Gothic novel
• Edgar Allan Poe
• Charlotte and Emily Bronte
• Mary Shelleys Frankenstein
• Hero who suffers a conflict between his God-like
  ambitions and moral blindness