The Age of ‘isms--

Romanticism

The objectives for this slide show are:

• You will be able to identify some of the traits of Romanticism in poetry, art, and society.

• You will understand the relationship of nature and the romantics

• You will learn how romanticism inspired nationalism in Germany and other countries.

Romanticism was an ism that was not

political. It was a

theory or movement in literature

and arts.

Mood and emotions

were part of the

Romantic movement…

Romanticism glorified the

mystic, medieval past.

Old ruins and gothic buildings were the scene of romantic

paintings and poems.

Romantic music was emotional--

Beethoven and Berlioz were Romantic musicians.

A Romantic hero defined the

age…handsome, young and

daring. A man willing to live fast

and die for a cause.

The Romantics viewed with horrors the

industrialization of Britain—

when the country was

“devoured” by factories and

heaps of waste…

In poetry, the Romantic poets, Shelly, Bryon, Keats and

Coleridge wrote about nature.

Shelley and

Bryon both

moved to

Italy.Shelley drowned off the

coast…

Bryon died assisting in the cause of Greek independence…

Caspar David Friedrich captured eerie landscapes…

Romantic paintings sometimes dealt with exotic, Eastern

topics….

..and naked slave girls….

The Arctic expeditions captured the romantic fancy of authors…

The great Romantic novel—Frankenstein—even ends in

the arctic.

Romantics were not clinical classicists, but emotional and

intuitive.

The Romantic movement found a home in Germany…German nationalism, or

Volkgeist, celebrated the accomplishments of early Germans…this helped to re-enforce

a feeling of German Nationalism.

The brothers Grimm

gathered folk tales that

forged German identity.

Over time, Romanticism merged with Nationalism…

And most of these “nationalists” were young men, students,

searching for a better world and wanting to make a difference.

Delacroix’s painting, “Liberty Leading the People” focused on the revolution of 1830—when

barricades were built throughout Paris to protest the government’s

policies.

Gericault’s painting, Raft of the Medusa, depicted a group of

passengers who were left on a raft by the crew of a sinking ship. This Romantic painting was meant to depict the government deserting

the needs of the people.

Are you a Romantic?

• Do you meet at student cafes discussing current conditions?

• Do you write poetry about nature?• Are you fond of Gothic

architecture?• Do you contemplate what impact

you will have on the age?

The objectives for this slide show were:

• You were able to identify some of the traits of Romanticism in poetry, art, and society.

• You understand the relationship of nature and the romantics

• You learned how romanticism inspired nationalism in Germany and other countries.