On How the Artists of the Romantic Period Chose to React...

Throughout this assignment we will be taking a look at how artists during the Romantic period, that took place around the 18th and 19th centuries, choose to react against the approaches and philosophy established by artist during the age of Enlightenment. We will take a look at a few obviously Romantic artworks to help us better our understanding of this fascinating movement. To understand how Romanticism has rejected, or reacted to, the Enlightenment, we first need to take a look at what artists believed during the Enlightenment era. According to Fred S. Kleiner, the Enlightenment, which took place during the first part of 18th century, brought with it a new way of thinking critically about â€Å"the world and the humankind, independently of†¦show more content†¦118) .Very little art was still being produce as a result of being patrons, thus artist had to adjust what they painted and for who. Artist now had to produce art that were liked by the masses, as they competed in this new market place, where massive quantities of art was on display. Before looking at artworks from Henri Fuselli, Thà ©odore Gà ©ricault and William Turner, we will first take a look at the roots and origins of the romantic period. Romanticism was born when the Industrial revolution had already been in full force over most of europe. The industrial boom and the synthetic, man-made landscapes that came with it, had major influences on the romantic world. Romanticism gave them a taste for the natural, the foreign (exotic), and the emotional, according to Paul Brians (Public.wsu.edu,1998). Romantics, unlike Neoclassical artist of the previous age, choose to shift the emphasis from â€Å"reason to feeling, from calculation to intuition and from objective nature to subjective emotion† according to Fred S. Kleiner (Fred S. Kleiner Gardner’s, Art through the Ages,2013,pg 762). Romantic artist were very interested in what the previous ages saw as The Black Ages. Romantic artist saw beauty in this and choose to refer to it as Gothic Romance. In simpler terms one can say that they were interested in the Middle Ages as a choice of subject matter, according to Paul Brains (Public.wsu.com.1998) These interests in Gothic Romance lead writers like