Overview

The Enlightenment (18th century) said: “Reason is everything. Science will save us.” Romanticism (early 19th century) screamed: “No! Feeling is everything. Nature will kill us.” It was a rebellion against the cold logic of the Industrial Revolution. Artists wanted to feel awe, terror, and passion. They painted shipwrecks, ruins, and lonely wanderers on mountaintops.

Core Idea

The core idea is The Sublime. This is a feeling of “delightful horror.” It’s what you feel when you stand on the edge of a cliff or watch a thunderstorm. You feel small, and nature feels huge and dangerous. Romantics believed this feeling was closer to God than any mathematical equation.

Formal Definition

A movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual. It reacted against the order and restraint of Classicism.

Intuition

  • Classicism: A garden. Neatly trimmed hedges. Order. Control. Man dominates nature.
  • Romanticism: A dark forest. Twisted trees. Fog. Mystery. Nature dominates man.

Examples

  • Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (1818): The ultimate Romantic image. A man stands with his back to us, looking out over a misty mountain range. He is alone with the infinite. It represents the “Rückenfigur” (back-figure) inviting us to share his contemplation.
  • J.M.W. Turner: The “Painter of Light.” He strapped himself to the mast of a ship during a storm so he could paint it later. His paintings are swirling vortexes of color where you can barely see the ship. He painted the power of nature.
  • Eugène Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People: Romanticism wasn’t just about nature; it was about political passion. This painting shows the chaos and emotion of the French Revolution, with Liberty as a bare-breasted goddess leading the charge.

Common Misconceptions

  • It’s about romance (love): It has nothing to do with Valentine’s Day. It’s about “Roman” (the novel/story). It’s about intense emotion of any kind—fear, grief, awe.
  • It’s anti-science: Many Romantics were fascinated by science (like Mary Shelley writing Frankenstein), but they feared its power to destroy the soul.
  • Sturm und Drang: “Storm and Stress.” The German literary movement (Goethe) that preceded Romanticism, emphasizing extreme emotion.
  • The Picturesque: A middle ground between the Beautiful (smooth, gentle) and the Sublime (terrifying). The Picturesque is “rough and irregular” (like an old cottage).
  • Orientalism: Romantics loved the “exotic” East (North Africa, Middle East) because it seemed more passionate and colorful than boring, gray Europe.

Applications

  • Environmentalism: The modern idea that nature is sacred and should be preserved (National Parks) comes directly from Romanticism.
  • Horror Movies: The Gothic horror aesthetic (castles, monsters, fog) is a child of Romanticism.

Criticism / Limitations

  • Melodrama: It can be overly dramatic and self-indulgent (“emo”).
  • Nationalism: The focus on “folk culture” and “blood and soil” later fed into dangerous nationalist movements (including Nazism).

Further Reading

  • Honour, Hugh. Romanticism. 1979.
  • Berlin, Isaiah. The Roots of Romanticism. 1999.
  • Rosen, Charles and Zerner, Henri. Romanticism and Realism. 1984.