Romantic Era Visual Art

Romanticism, by focusing on people's longing to return to nature, a reaction to the industrialization of England and Europe and the rise of the modern industrial city, raised landscape to a level of first importance.

The supernatural transposed from traditional religious imagery to nature• Divine Truth– things visible to the eye which

symbolically express through their forms the truth of nature.

Artists to Know

Two Romantic Artists to Know:• Francisco Goya– Supernatural,

tormented artist, symbolism

• John Constable– Landscapes, nature=God and Good, peaceful and tranquil

Francisco Goya Goya paints dark,

dramatic, supernatural works. For example, his work to the left is about man’s inhumanity to man.

Notice the symbolism and the fantastic nature of the work.

Goya was an artist’s artist. He felt no one knew his pain, especially the public.

The Third Of May, 1808

Here in The Third of May, 1808 Goya portrays the inhuman brutality of Napolean's military machine. The military is portrayed as faceless automatons, inhuman killing machines brutalized by war into mindless robots without human feeling.

The “Black Paintings”

When Goya was in his 70's, he painted a series of "black paintings."

Painted for himself, rather than on commission

Represent his personal feelings and his struggle to understand a world gone mad, torn apart by war and savagery.

Chronos Devouring One Of His Children Notice the fantastic

subject and supernatural nature

Notice, too, the gore and horror of the work

Here Goya combines several themes that preoccupied him throughout his life• humanity at its "blackest,"

primitive form of behavior—

• Infanticide• cannibalism.

John Constable

On a quieter note, we have John Constable's nostalgic view from his childhood, The Hay Wain of 1821.

Constable

Observable facts and the intangible qualities of light and atmosphere.

Constable felt that the sky was the main "organ" for communicating emotion.

Nostalgic view of the English countryside that was fast disappearing in the wake of Industrialization