- Published: January 12, 2022
- Updated: January 12, 2022
- University / College: Dartmouth College
- Level: Masters
- Language: English
- Downloads: 27
Romanticism The main ideals of romanticism include rejection of modern life, imagination, view of self and nature (Tekiner 43). The Romantics considered that mans greatest, most spiritual characteristic was his imagination/thoughts. For the romantic authors, nature was instilled with the divine. Day to day natural elements like stones, flowers, the weather and sunlight were described as if they had a bit of God in them. Romantics respected self-directed deeds and walking into the beat of ones individual drummer (Tekiner 43). The Romantic human model was the artist, thinker or creator who took a stand for individual belief and opinion at the risk of social exclusion.
Romanticism influenced music and literature, as well as visual art (Tekiner 60). For instance, the Sturm und Drang movement of Germany that exited from the late 1760s to the early 1780s was mainly minor-key musical and revenge-influenced literary, which caused a handful of image artists painting horrifying scenes (Tekiner 60). For a proper case, there is the Nightmare by Henry Fuseli that was painted in 1781. Some artists were into these movements until their relevant ends, whereas others maintained elements of Romanticism as they shifted to new directions (Tekiner 60).
The main themes in romanticism included democracy, revolution and republicanism, transcendence and the sublime, the influence of imagination, the source of inspiration and genius, extreme mental states and proto-psychology and finally the natural and nature (Tekiner 79). Radical Romantic-age politics were overly optimistic concerning human nature, always reasoning that human beings are vitally good and their vices are raised through poor education. Republican and democratic movements always advocated for mass education and equal wages as a way of freeing the human heart, as well as the mind from ignorance and poverty —and the ills and vices, which materialize from these evils (Tekiner 79).
Work Cited
Tekiner, Deniz. Modern Art and the Romantic Vision. Lanham, MD. University Press of America, 2000. Print.