Some Neoclassical and Romantic Stuff

I thought it might be a little helpful for the class to have access to some of the media that we looked at together in class when we were talking about the Enlightenment, and its embodiment in art through the Neoclassical movement, and the Romantic works that we looked at as well.  For those that might have missed this initial discussion, we were looking on a very visual level–not too concerned with the specific histories of these particular paintings, but more of how they embody the movements that we’re seeing literarily in the texts that we’re looking at in class.  Please feel free to offer comments that you have about the paintings here as either a reminder of something that you may have brought up in class or maybe something that you’ve thought of since.

The first painting that we looked at was Jacques-Louis David’s painting, The Oath of the Horatii (1784).  Here it is:

Some of the really great comments were notes on the symmetry of the figures as well as the architecture by which the figures are surrounded.  This is really relevant to our discussion of Enlightenment ideals as being just that–ideals and idealized notions.  In addition, the focus upon symmetry also emphasizes the necessity of order within this period, in a general sense.  

There were also a number of interesting points about the power of emotion that we can sense within the painting. I believe it was Morgan who also made a really excellent point about the way in which we could empathize with the emotion within the image but that it didn’t necessarily evoke an emotional response in the viewer, which is very unlike the Romantic paintings that we looked at, the first one of which was Eugène Delacroix’s The Death of Sardanapalus (1827):

A number of you made excellent points about the asymmetrical composition (particularly asymmetrical in comparison to David), the much more vibrant use of color, and the much more evident sense of emotion from within the image.  There was a nice point made about the horse in the foreground having an obvious sense of anxiety that the viewer can perceive as well.  These comments pointed to the very different appearance of the Romantic paintings, that is quite striking, in comparison to the Neoclassical (Enlightenment).  There’s a different sense of immediacy here in comparison to the David, but there’s also a different emotional resonance that affects the viewer that we can clearly sense in this painting versus David’s.  Finally, I think I briefly mentioned in class that another aspect of the Romantic is its interest in the “exotic”–and this is manifested here as well.

Next, we looked at  J.M.W. Turner’s The Slave Ship (1840):

You all noted the really substantial use of color, and light in particular as a focal point.  I think Linh had even noted that this appears very impressionistic, which is definitely true, and emphasizes some really important ideas about the painting’s Romantic qualities–notably that through the use of color the painting is attempting to evoke emotion in the viewer.  We also discussed that the slaves who have been abandoned in the water are in the foreground as we see the ship sailing out of frame in the background–and that the combination of the content and the form here definitely evokes emotion in the viewer.

Finally, we looked at Goya’s Saturn Devouring His Son (1819):

A number of you pointed out how incredibly dark (both in the actual paint surrounding Saturn and in content) the painting is.  There were also some great comments about the emphasis on the size of Saturn’s eyes (as well as the crazed look in them) as he devours one of his children.  This emphasis on the dark also reveals another aspect of the Romantic, the focus on the truly disturbing as a different method of accessing information.

So, that’s just a quick overview–I know there were SO many other great comments made, and please add those in the comments–it is undoubtedly helpful to everyone!!

 

–Daphne