The Romantic Age

1. The Romantic Age Introppico Fedora Lupattelli Ilaria Mecarelli Vanni Minciarelli Francesca Montesi Gaia Pianigiani Elena

2. literature Movement in to emphasize feelings art music Reaction aganist the convinction that human actions are guided by economics, sociology and phisics ROMANTICISM New sensibility aganist the faith in reason that have characterised the previous age John Constable

3. It affects all the arts SOME CONSIDERATIONS ABOUT ROMANTICISM… It changes the human way of perceiving the world It begins at least in the 1770s and continues into the second half of 19th century England and Germany: the strongholds of the Romantic movement • «age of revolution» • the French revolution • the American revolution • effects of Industrial revolution

4. 1776: American Declaration of Independence American identity Equality and Freedom Puritanism influenced French revolution (1789-1791) Human progress Britain France Napoleon’s ascent Jacobinism 1793: Napoleonic Wars 1815: Waterloo

5. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

6. In the middle of 18th century Great increase in population  more goods Connected to Agrarian Revolution (technological inventions) INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION • PROS • new sources • new inventions • transports’ improvements • machines vs workers • CONS • from countryside to «mushroomstowns» • inhuman living and workingconditions • rise of unemployment Luddites riots (1811)

7. ROMANTICS’ AIMS Contrasts with Neoclassicism Individualism VS universalism Middle Ages + ancient classics + Baroque Romanticism revalues Imagination VS Reason Romantic hero VS society

8. It is presented as a work of art A living being to be described as it is made by a divine immagination It is viewed as a system of mechanical laws The new concept of NATURE Attention to describing natural phenomena in Romantic landscape painting and in Romantic nature poetry. Romantic nature poetry is a poetry of meditation.

9. It is the supreme faculty of the mind It is bound up with symbolism and nature It is the equivalent of the creative powers of nature and God IMMAGINATION It is uncorrupted in children and closer to God It is in contrast to reason It is a rebellion from a mechanisation and a razionalisation of society Romantic reconciliation with opposites

10. SYMBOLISM • Symbols: • Expression of nature’semblematiclanguage • Superior to one to onecommunication of allegory • In languagesymbols express the inexpressible Myth is a symbolic narrative

11. OTHER CONCEPTS: Emotion, Lyric Poetry, and the Self Greater attention to the emotions The "poetic speaker" becomes the direct person of the poet applied to Art is important to know the world within creation of the poetry Development of self Wordsworth's definition of good poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" Artist as hero

12. My heart leaps up My heart leaps up when I beholdA rainbow in the sky:So was it when my life began;So is it now I am a man;So be it when I shall grow old,Or let me die!The Child is father of the Man;And I could wish my days to beBound each to each by natural piety. William Wordsworth

13. First-person liric poetry Freedom in composition Boldness VS restraint ROMANTIC LITERATURE Emotions Artist is an inspired creator and an independent genius Suggestiveness to neoclassical clarity Dominated by poetry and novel Scott  Ivanhoe Shelley is intense Byron is sardonic Keats is sentimental

14. Pictoresque and sublime Elevated forces of nature Man dwarfed in comparison of Nature Wonder for the creation No heroic figures Nature as protagonist (landscape) Intensity of feeling ROMANTIC ART Neoclassic art Impressionist movement John Constable Caspar David Friedrich Francisco Goya Francesco Hayez William Turner

15. He interprets things through their emotions ROMANTIC ARTIST IN SOCIETY He is politically and socially involved  period of revolution: to animate souls againist oppression and injustice He distances himself from the public The contrast between artist and middle-class «Philistine»

16. rejects PHILOSOPHY Kant Locke’s ideas The human mind is structured in a way that affects experiences Innate knowledge Liberating man from tyranny of knowledge Hegel Dialectic: no definited knowledge from scientific experiments Ideas are the blending of theories that come before and any idea is an hypothesis Hypothesis + antithesis Synthesis

17. Artists for their symbols turned to: • Domestic • Folk legends and older art form • Children Realistic techniques («local color») It is apposed to the conception of «objective» reason EVERYDAY and EXOTIC • Paradoxicalcombination: • LyricalBallads • Frankenstein It is submitted to imaginative suggestion (ideal of semplicity or innocence)

18. ROMANTICISM TODAY 1990s – 2000s Romantic Age Advancement of industry and technology Spawn desire for a more simple time The mass can partake the culture New form of poetry, new musical instruments and elevated lifestyle

19. Bibliography • History: • http://academic.brooblyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/rom.html • http://www.indepthinfo.com/history/romanticism.html • Lit&Lab – From the EarlyRomantics to the Present Age • Images: • Caspar David Friedrich – “Frau vor untergehender Sonne” • Caspar David Friedrich – “Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer” • Francesco Hayez – “Il bacio” • John Constable – “Deadham Vale” • Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson – “Apothéose des héros français morts pour la patrie pendant la guerre de la liberté” • Eugène Delacroix – “La libertéguidant le peuple” • EugèneDelacroix – “Autoportrait” • Other images from the Net