The Romantic Aesthetic

General Tendencies

• Uniqueness vs. Normality
• Individual/excessive emotions
• Predilection for color

Neo-Medievalism

• Classical motifs replaced by Medieval ones
• Fascinated by irrational and supernatural aspects of Middle Ages
  • Gau and Ballu - Ste. Clotilde
  • Renwick - Grace Church
  • Barry and Pugin - Houses of Parliament
  • Wyatt - Fonthill Abbey (Interior - Exterior)

Back to Nature Movement

• A reaction to industrialization
• Idealization of nature or nature as fantasy
  • Goethe - Sorrows of Young Werther
  • Constable - Hay Wain
• Growth of the suburbs as a retreat from the industrialized urban areas

Rise of the Individual

• Individual expression as opposed to group norms
• A fragmentation of styles
• Struggle between the uniqueness of the individual and the commonality of a "massed produced" society

Rise of Nationalism

• A post-revolutionary nation-state consciousness
• Loyalty to, and the identifying with, one country
• Unification of European States
  • Delacroix (French) - Liberty Leading the People
  • Wagner (German) - The Ring Cycle

Escapist Arts

• Arts as fantasy and escape
• Drugs
  • Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique
  • Shelley - Frankenstein

Exoticism

• Interest in non-European cultures
• Asia, Africa, Middle East, etc
  • Ingres - Turkish Bath
  • Nash - Royal Pavilion
  • Benoist - Portrait of a Black Woman
  • Delacroix - Massacre at Chios

Historicism

• An interest in the systematic study of past cultures/times
• Archeological studies in Pompeii, Egypt, etc.
• Mendelssohn's rediscovery of Bach
• The British Houses of Parliament recalled the Magna Carta of 1215

The Two Competing Aesthetics of Western Culture

Humanities Resource of Mark Hunter