Real Romanticism

After the peaceful and productive Baroque era came the Rococo, and then the period of Romanticism and Realism. Art from this era was very similar to the Rococo period, save one element; the tumult of the French Revolution. The tension from this historical tragedy came out in many paintings, even though they were created twenty to thirty years after the end of the Revolution. Paintings such as Goya's Third of May (27-11) and Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People portray the terrible effects of mislead ideas. The rest of the world took after the humanistic thoughts injected into some of the art; the Revolution had been influential, but not good in a very good way.

When I came to this question, it made me laugh I little. David was a friend of Robespierre, the inciter of the French Revolution. Napoleon, on the other hand, wanted to kill as many Frenchmen as possible. When the Revolution was over, David, who had been associated with Robespierre. Was sentenced to prison. What the textbook did not say, however, was that David was given his freedom only because he was a cowardly liar that claimed he had never been in league with Robespierre! In the end, Napoleon was impressed with David's work probably because his personality was much like his own. Napoleon would set boundaries for other people, only to break them himself; something David did often. (Kleiner, 757) Napoleon also admired David' style because it imitated the Neoclassic era, which Napoleon identified with the power of the Romans, a trait he aspired to. In France, David's art promoted Napoleon by making him look like a hero (Napoleon Crossing St. Bernard 27-1a).

I loved how (during this period) there were the two main movements, and others worked their...

... middle of paper ...

...omantic era dealt with dark themes, bad dreams, nightmares, and horrific scenes. (27-8, 10, 12)

Interestingly enough, the Romanticism movement was not what the regular person would think as “romantic”. Delacroix's Death of Sarandapalus (27-15) was inspired by one of Lord Byron's poems. What the textbook did not mention was that many of Byron's poems reflected his wild living, that is, Byron chose scandalous moments throughout history to write about. The Romantic era was one of art picturing tumult and imagery, not one of normal “romantic” attributes.

Works Cited

Kleiner, Fred S., and Helen Gardner. Gardner's Art through the Ages: A Global History. Boston, MA: Thomson/Wadsworth, 2009. Print.

Hindley, Meredith. "Thomas Cole, View from Mount Holyoke, 1836." Picturing America. Washington, D.C.: National Endowment for the Humanities, 2008. 24-25. Print.