In this episode, we're going to be using paintings to examine what exactly the Romantics were all about. Now, I should point out right away that I'm going to be focusing on Europe, particularly England, for Romanticism. And that's not all-encompassing. It was taking place all over Europe, Russia, the Americas, all over the place.
But I'm just looking at what I know best and what I think most of you are probably looking for. Because if you're watching this video, you're probably taking like a British literature class, or maybe... Maybe you're just interested in it. Whatever it might be, thanks for watching.
Let's dive right into it. So what is romanticism? You know how you have different tastes than your parents and grandparents in movies and music?
Well, the reason for that is because you're a human, and part of being human is finding your own thing. So it's hard to examine romanticism without first looking at what the romantic's parents and grandparents were interested in, and that was enlightenment, which is all about intellect. building a perfect society, the industrial revolution, putting things in an order like kingdom, phylum, class, genus, species, all that sort of stuff, and even putting words in an order, such as a dictionary of the English language by Dr. Samuel Johnson, one of the major works of the Enlightenment. To contrast that, romanticism is not about intellect, but emotion, right?
When you say something is romantic, that's because it makes you feel lovey emotions. The romantics wouldn't have. narrowed that word to just love. In fact, the most particular emotion for them is the sublime, which is this awestruck feeling like if you've been to a national park and it just takes your breath away.
Instead of society, they're all about the individual and this new type of hero that emerges. We'll talk about that. Instead of industry, they're about nature. There's a lot of lake poets in England, and this includes the super nature or supernatural. You'll see some of that in this art.
And then instead of just order, they're more focused on beauty. Keats said beauty is truth and truth beauty. And that's all you need to know.
So yes, there is some order to beauty, but they're not narrowing it to golden ratios or, you know, just symmetry. They're looking at a much more emotional approach, less analytic. And finally, Frankenstein is the major work of Romanticism.
which is a very different read than the dictionary, if you've never read it. So, yeah, basically the romantics, they're very smart people still, but their focus is no longer on the mind, it's on the heart. Let's look at some paintings to figure this out, shall we?
Alright, first off we have The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli. This is kind of a colloquial name for it. The exact Italian name is a little bit longer, but I like calling it The Nightmare because it's at night, and there's a mare, and it's got some crazy eyes going on.
All right, so what romanticism is going on in this painting, though? First off, you have the supernatural, right? Troll dude sitting on this woman's chest. Second off, you have high levels of emotion. This is not an intellectual painting.
It's an emotional painting. It makes you feel fear or distraught or discomfort or maybe even beauty. I put that one there because the way the woman is laying off this bed is pretty beautiful for a nightmare. I don't know about you, but when I have a nightmare, I'm probably sweating and curled up. I'm definitely not laying like that.
In fact, if I'm laying like that, I'm dead because my spine broke. Because that looks very uncomfortable. But for the romantics, it's not about what's comfortable.
It's about what's beautiful. Alright, next painting. Here we have Lord Byron in Albanian dress by Phillips Thomas.
Lord Byron was one of the celebrities of romanticism. English poet here. And like I said, he's English, not Albanian.
So why is he wearing an Albanian dress? Well, that's going to tell us something about romanticism. First off, you have the Byronic hero.
This is a character type Lord Byron kind of based off himself. The Byronic hero is an edgy hero. He doesn't just stand for good.
He's not Superman. He is Batman or Walter White or Deadpool. The Byronic hero has some stuff that's messed him up a little bit, but he still strives to do right.
He's just going to blur some lines along the way. and he has kind of a dark past, very brooding, lonesome figure. Again, the Byronic hero is an individual, so he's individualistic.
And the last thing, which doesn't have to do with the Byronic hero, but more the painting itself, is that the Romantics were very interested in other cultures, whether it be Albanian, Arabian, Greek, or Roman. Roman. Romantic. That's where it comes from.
Next painting. This is Manfred and the Alpine Witch by John Martin. Manfred is a closet play by Lord Byron, so it's a play just meant to be read, not necessarily acted out loud, although they tried to perform it on stage. I don't think it went well because you need a mountain.
But anyway, here you see the Byronic hero, lone figure. You see supernatural, the witch, the soul, all that sort of stuff. And it takes place in nature, in this beautiful setting for nature.
When you think supernatural, you think like selling your soul to the devil or a witch or whatever it might be. You're probably not picturing this like Yosemite looking landscape. But here you see that beauty is again infused even with the supernatural.
Perhaps the most famous painting of all of Romanticism is Caspar David Friedrich's Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog. If you have an edition of Frankenstein, this might be on the cover of it. And this painting is just absolutely encapsulating for Romanticism. You see nature at work here. You have this Byronic hero.
right he's like an adventurer but he's edgy which is why his back is turned to you uh he's dressed in dark clothing he has like this cane thing you see beauty going on it's like a terrifying landscape but it's still beautiful and i think it's just a great example of the sublime at play you have this awestruck feeling as you're standing almost like above the clouds um it's a little terrifying but it would certainly take your breath away. So I hope that helped explain a little bit about romanticism. There's a lot more paintings out there.
There's a lot more poems. If you're interested in learning more about romantic poems in particular, I put some links here on this end card. Also, feel free to subscribe if you want to see more videos like this.
And above all else, thank you so much for watching. And if you have questions about any of this or you want to start a conversation about it, do so in the comments. Love talking to you guys.
Thank you so much. Have a good one. Bye.