Romanticism

=The Romantic Movement **18th - 20th century AD** = = by Hannah Wille =


 * //__1.) How does romanticism differ from the previous classicism?__//**
 * //__2.) What triggered romanticism?__//**
 * //__3.) How did the art differ under romanticism?__//**
 * //__4.) How did the music differ under romanticism?__//**
 * //__5.) How did different social classes react to the movement?__//**
 * //__6.)Did it leave a lasting effect on society?__//**
 * //__7.) Are ideas of romanticism still applied today?__//**
 * //__8.)How does the word romanticism relate to the ideal "romance" we picture today?__//**
 * //__10.)What were some significant historical moments that happened under romanticism?__//**


 * 1.) How does romanticism differ from the previous classicism?**

Classicism was the movement of many rational ideas focusing more on order and stability; these logical impressions affected architecture, music, art, literature, and even political ideologies. However, in the late eighteenth century, the radical ideal of romanticism hit modern Europe. A new outlook of emotion over logic was now being preached. Contrary to Classicism ideas, and also a sharp contrast from ideas featured during the Enlightenment, Romanticism allowed people to get away from the constricted, rational views of life and concentrate on an emotional and sentimental side of humanity. Rousseau, a French philosopher of the 18th century, once wrote:"I am not made like anyone I have seen; I dare believe I am not made like anyone in existence. If I am not better, at least I am different." This quote touches on a romantic idea of subjective individualism. Romanticism radically changed the way people perceived themselves and the state of nature around them.


 * 2.) What triggered romanticism?**

Romanticism started as a reaction against the intellectualism of the Enlightenment, against the rigidity of social structures protecting privilege, and against the materialism of an age which, in the first stirring of the Industrial Revolution, had shown signs of making workers the slaves of machinery and of creating neglected urban environments. Romanticism reflects the movement of writers, musicians, painters, and sculptors away from rationalism toward the more subjective side of human experience. Feeling became both the subject and object of art.

Overall, many of these ideas were generated by a sense of inadequacy with the dominant ideals of the Enlightenment and of the society that produced them.


 * 3.) How did the art differ under romanticism?**

Classicism art focused on order, harmony, and rationality, usually striving for perfection. The painting below, "The Nativity", was painted by Nicholas Poussin, who was often considered one of the main founders of of European classicism. The people in the painting are drawn very realistically, wearing clothing of that time.



Romanticism art focused more on the feelings behind the artwork. It concentrated emotions and sensations in the pieces and included often more disturbing and darker passions. It was in a more subjective or personal point of view instead of objective. The romantic art also often expressed dissatisfaction with the existing social order, giving art some sort of political power to move and persuade spectators to their view. The painting below is "The Abduction of Rebecca" by the French painter Eugène Delacroix illustrates a scene from chapter 31 of Sir Walter Scott's //Ivanhoe//. Notice how the form of the girl is smudgy, and less defined compared to classic paintings. The dark and gloomy skies give of feelings of dread and sorrow, along with the violent act of the girl in the picture thrown over the horse. This paining appears to be in girl's subjective for it tries to create sympathy towards her and her pain




 * 4.) How did the music differ under romanticism?**

The Classical period of western music focused on short, clearly defined melodies. The Romantic period in music focused on long meandering phrases, brooding melodies, increased use of color and harmony, surprises -changing melodies, and tempo changes in dynamics.

media type="youtube" key="46aHty_hL6w" height="344" width="425" This is a popular example of music in the Romantic period. This piece was written by Hector Berlioz, a French Romantic composer. It is widely regarded as one of the most important and representative pieces of the early Romantic period, and is still very popular with concert audiences worldwide. The purpose of this symphony was to reproduce intonations of passions and emotions. Berlioz later added "Emotional (imitation) is designed to arouse in us by means of sound the notion of the several passions of the heart, and to awaken solely through the sense of hearing the impressions that human beings experience only through the other senses. Such is the goal of expression, depiction or musical metaphors."


 * 5.) How did different social classes react to the movement?**

During the era, few romantics could agree on the exact definition of what the movement meant. It was more a period in which certain ideas and attitudes arose, gained currency and in most areas of intellectual endeavor, became dominant. Thus creating a large variety of romantics stretching across social classes. Romantics were liberals and conservatives, revolutionaries and reactionaries. Some were preoccupied with God, others were atheistic to the core. Some began their lives as devout Catholics, revolutionaries and died as loyal conservatives. Romanticism had ideas that appealed to all classes. However, in later years the Congress of Vienna, assembly of European leaders resolving the left over crisis of the Napoleonic era, a new common enemy began to slightly divide the class united under Romanticism. The Romantics opposed the superficiality of the conventions of an artificial, urban and aristocratic society. The Romantics concentrated their attack on the heartlessness of bourgeois liberalism as well as the nature of urban industrial society. Industrial society brought new problems of soulless individualism, materialism and economic gain only for one's selfish needs.


 * 6.) Did it leave a lasting effect on society?**

Much poetry, music, literature, and artwork or the Romantic is still highly valued and studied today. The 20th century painting ideas of expressionism and surrealism carried on many romantic ideas of subjectivity, imagination, and strange, dreamlike imagery. Romantic literature traditions have set standards for many novels throughout the past few centuries. The novel style called "romances" were just one example that dealt with chivalry and feminine perfection. Jane Eyre is a novel from the mid-19th century Romantic era and is still a classic romantic tale today. The powerful story features many elements of the classic Gothic novel, a style created under the Romantic period, Jane Eyre tells the story of the title character’s life in the form of a simple narrative divided into parts. We see Jane Eyre in her childhood, her education, her first love, separation from love, and reunion. Studied in schools all over the world, there is perhaps no better known example of Gothic romance.

Many ideas of romanticism are still applied today. Three examples of
 * 7.) Are ideas of romanticism still applied today?**
 * **Religion**- Romantic ideals reflected the religious revival, embracing Christianity and incorporating it into aspects of the era. Views of religion through the romantic era are still applied today, including ideas of faith and spirit health.
 * **Nationalism**- The idea of nations was a new concept in Western Europe in the late 18th Century. With the emergence of the United States, and then the French Republic, nationalism was created, which became a central theme of Romantic art and political philosophy and is still exercised today.
 * **Literature**- Romantics had a preoccupation with history and historical literature. Coupled with the growing sense of nationalism, people were encouraged to look back to the glorious past of their nation. This concept is still carried on today through the importance and value seen in studying the country and world history.

The common term romance is used as the feelings associated with love and attempts to express love. Romanticism ideas value emotions and expressing thoughts that might not consist of order. From these definitions it is simple to see how the common idea of romance, pertaining to powerful and slightly irrational love is connected to romanticism; irrational "love", or ideals in general, were ideals of this era.
 * 8.) How does the word romanticism relate to the ideal "romance" we picture today?**

Idealism is a philosophical idea that says the ultimate nature of reality is based on ideas of the mind. It compares to romanticism through both being anti-materialism, the ultimate nature of reality basing off of physical substances. They differ, however, in the fact that idealism is a more specific philosophy on one main idea whereas Romanticism tackles many different ideals that has affected a more vast amount of culture.
 * 9.) Compare and Contrast idealism and romanticism.**


 * 10.)What were some significant historical moments that happened under romanticism?**

Below is a time line referencing to **some important events in the Romantic Period:**
 * 1751: Linnaeus, Philosophia Botanica **
 * 1752: Thomas Chatterton b. (d.1770); Benjamin Franklin invents lightning conductor **
 * 1753: Linnaeus, Species Plantorum; charter granted to British Museum **
 * 1756: Edmund Burke, "Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful" **
 * 1760: Kew Botanical Gardens open **
 * 1776: America declares independence (based on natural rights) **
 * 1777: Priestley, Disquisition Relating to Matter and Spirit; John Aikin, An Essay on the Application of Natural History to Poetry **
 * 1786: Buffon, Histoire naturelle des oiseaux; first ascent of Mont Blanc; Herschel, Catalogue of Nebulae; Linnaeus, Dissertation on the Sexes of Plants (English translation) **
 * 1789: French Revolution begins; Blake, Songs of Innocence; Antoine Jussieu, Genera plantarum; Erasmus Darwin, The Botanic Garden (-1791) **
 * 1792: Percy Bysshe Shelley b. (d. 1822); Mary Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Women **
 * 1798: Wordsworth and Coleridge, Lyrical Ballads; Thomas Malthus, "Essay on the Principle of Population" **
 * 1811: Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility; Charles Bell, New Idea of the Anatomy of the Brain **
 * 1812: Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage; Cuvier, Recherches sur les ossements fossiles de quadrupèdes; Davy, Elements of Chemical Philosophy; Robert Browning b. (d. 1889) **
 * 1813: Shelley, Queen Mab **
 * 1816: Charlotte Brontë b. (d. 1855); Shelley, "Alastor"; Coleridge, "Kubla Khan" (written 1797); Laënnec develops stethoscope; Frankenstein "summer" in Geneva **
 * 1820: Keats, "Ode to a Nightingale", Shelley, Prometheus Unbound; Thomas Brown, Lectures on the Philosophy of the Human Mind **
 * 1830: Emily Dickinson b. (d. 1886); William Cobbett, Rural Rides; Robert Brown (Scotland) discovers cell nucleus **
 * 1846: Herman Melville, Typee; H. von Mohl (Germany) describes protoplasm **
 * 1847: Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre; Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights; I. T. Semmelweis (Hungary) establishes link between maternal mortality and infection **
 * 1855: Browning, Men and Women; Longfellow, Song of Hiawatha; Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass; Spencer, Principles of Psychology; Alexander Bain, Senses and Intellects **
 * 1858: William Morris, Defence of Guinevere and Other Poems; T. H. Huxley, The Theory of Vertebrate Skulls; Darwin's and Wallace's findings presented to Linnean Society **
 * 1859: Thomas de Quincey dies; Leigh Hunt dies; Darwin, On the Origin of Species by //Means of Natural Selection//  **

 **Primary Source **
 * Bibliography: **
 * Delacroix, Eugène. //The Abduction of Rebecca//. 1846. Oil on canvas. Metropolitan of Art, New York.
 * Mckay, Hill, Buckler. //A History of World Societies: Volume II Since 1500//. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1992. < []>
 * "dance notation." __Encyclopædia Britannica__. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 27 Sep. 2009 <[]>.
 * Ward, Keith. "The Triumph of Idealism." Web log post. //Gresham College//. Gresham College, 3 Mar. 2003. Web. 24 Sept. 2009. <[]>.
 * //19th Century Art//. Heart's Ease. Web. 24 Sept. 2009. .
 * Adapt. Glenmed. //Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique (Part 2 & 5)//. Youtube, 29 Feb. 2008. Web. 26 Sept. 2009. <[]>.
 * "Romanticism." //World History: The Modern Era//. ABC-CLIO, 2009. Web. 21 Sept. 2009. <[]>.
 * "Spirit of Romanticism (Overview)." //World History: The Modern Era//. ABC-CLIO, 2009. Web. 21 Sept. 2009. <[]>.
 * The Romantic Era. 4 Aug. 2009. //History Guide//. The History Guide, 2001. Web. 23 Sept. 2009. <[]>.

