Romanticism

When we had to guess what Romanticism was, I believed it was simply something to do with nature, for in literature, that is what it deals with, yet I was wrong. Romanticism portrays dramatic and exotic subjects with intense feeling. I enjoy much of Romanticism and like how the picture holds much motion. The feelings blast out of the artwork, the eye cannot stop swirling around the piece, while the mind think "whoa.." One of my favorite pieces was by an artists named Théodore Géricault, it is titled Raft of the Medusa. We studied this work in class, learned how it showed true historical events. This particular piece showed the result of an incompetent sailor who took many people aboard a ship called the Medusa. He was wealth, yet did not supply enough life boats. Like the Titanic, the poor were left to drown while the rich escaped on a lifeboat. This painting shows the 15 people that survived of the 149 people left on the sinking ship. These 15 people had to do live through horror, even cannibalism. It sickens me to think of such an occurrence, yet the painting turns the rage up on a higher level.

Romantics also used diagonals, the dramatic effects of light, and kinetic energy to bind each painting together. Another artist of this era was Eugeune Delacroix. He throws motion into the pictures, letting the viewer see the figures as they move. One painting he created was called The Death of Sardanapalus. This specific one hold those semi-murky outlines, those vivid colors, those insane actions, letting the imagination continue the story he is telling.