Romanticism vs. Realism
The romantic era in the 1800s included a lot of different styles, ideas, and new techniques. Two of those are the Romanticism and the Realism. I am comparing those two styles, because they are so different to each other and I have a clear preference, which I will elaborate on in my analysis below.
Romanticism
The Romanticism was mainly meant as a rejection of the Neoclassical style and in some cases against the Enlightenment, the 18-century rationalism, and physical materialism in general. "Romanticism emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental." (Britannica)
I have chosen art of Francisco Goya and William Blake to illustrate paintings from this era and both of those examples are not my favorite.
Saturn Devouring His Son, by Francisco Goya
I do not even think a lot of words are needed for this art piece of Francisco Goya, and there is nothing actual romantic about it. It is terrifying and not pretty or cool even for someone like me who loves horror and dark subjects. This was originally painted in 1820-23 on one of Goya's homes walls, right outside of Madrid, together with other similar nightmare causing art, which were called "Black Pictures". The name could obviously not be a better fit, and I am wondering how anyone could sleep with those paintings close by and not have constant nightmares.
Francisco Goya was one of the most famous artists during the Romantic era. He was from Spain and all his creations were either extremely dark or captured the painful truth about the political issues at this time. I have not really found any piece I like from him, and this surprised me, because I usually find beauty in anything.
The subject is like the name already reveals, about Saturn, devouring his son. A myth of the Roman god Saturn, who, haunted by a prophecy that he would be overthrown by one of his sons. Due to this fear, he ate each of his sons, moments after they were born. The myth says, that, in the end, his wife hid his sixth son, and he overthrew Saturn later as the prophecy had predicted.
There exist rumors that Goya did not even create those black paintings, due to a theory, that he was already dead when the second floor was added to the house and the paintings in the lower level would have been destroyed in the progress. It is being speculated, that Goya's son, Javier, was the actual author of the paintings and used his father’s name to increase the price. But those are just speculations, and nothing has been proofed.
Others are speculating, that the child's body on the picture seems to not be one of a boys, but rather a women or a girl’s body and the painting might present something completely different. Unfortunately, we are not able to ask Goya anymore and those speculations and different perspectives makes the painting even more interesting, and I am sure it even increases the value.
Even if the story is interesting, it still does not appeal to me.
Isaac Newton, by William Blake
I do understand the importance of the subject, however, it is not one of my favorites either. It is not realistic, which was done intentionally, because it was meant as a satire, rather than an idealization. William Blake even dared to say, "Art is the tree of life and science is the tree of death.". He thought that scientists are not capable to see the beauty in the world, which is of course not true, but what did they know to those times.
Blake was an English man from London and created this piece between 1795 and 1805. He presented Newton with exaggerated muscles in an almost hero or God like form. He is following the rules of his compass on a script, which seems to appear right out of his head. The rock formation behind Newton, might signalize the beauty of the world, which he seems to be missing, while concentrating on his science work. Nowadays, we of course know that even scientists are not blind to the worlds beauty and are a particularly important part of society but so many had to go through skepticism before it was socially accepted. This did not stop in today's times and will probably be like this for many years to come.
My first opinion of this painting, before further investigating, was that I found it rather ugly. Later, after reading through multiple articles, I realized that the story behind it was funny, and Blake seems to have been a sarcastic and brave person. I bet he would have regretted it many years later. I still would not want to own this art piece and do not think that is extremely appealing to me.
Realism
The Realism is a true-to-life style which represents nature and persons as natural as possible and is remarkably like photographs. This style does not leave a lot of room for fantasy objects or over dramatic scenes. This is my favorite style and by far more appealing to me than the above-mentioned Romanticism.
For this part, I have chosen art from Ivan Shishkin and Adolph Menzel. Both of those art pieces are beautiful, and you do not have to be an art expert to see the difference to above shown paintings.
Morning in a Pine Forest by Ivan Shishkin and Konstantin Savitsky
Ivan Shishkin was a Russian artist and landscape painter and created Morning in a Pine Forest in 1886 in Moscow, with the help of his colleague and friend Konstantin Savitsky. All of his art works are stunning and I dare to say, better than photographs. Just look at the details, the lightning, shading and color choices and I thought at first that this goes under the Naturalism category.
For this, Shishkin chose one of his favorite motifs, a dense Russian pine forest. His colleague Savitsky added the cute bear family into the scene. I really like how they worked together and how they completed each other and I believe that it takes a lot to admit yourself to be not great at everything and ask for help, especially for such an famous artist.
This is definitely a painting I would present in my home and even his other creations are just as beautiful. Therefore it is not surprising, that he received a Gold Medal for his work "View of Valaam, Island, Kukko" and a scholarship to allow him to study abroad for three years.
Personally, I would fill my house with his art and cover every bit of wall with it, if we would be just rich.
Adolph Menzel – Steel Rolling Mill (Eisenwalzwerk)
Adolph Menzel was an artist, born in Poland but moved with his German parents to Berlin in his teenager years. This painting was created between 1872 and 1875 in Königshütte in Oberschlesien. It is quite different to the above shown painting but is still in the Realistic style. It shows the local working procedures and conditions of the “United Königs- and Laurahütte" which was a Steal Rolling Mill. Menzel took the time to went to the location to paint it as realistic as possible and that clearly made a huge difference.
I think it is amazing how many people are working together, and what a difference it was, to today's times, where almost everything is being done by machines. You can see the blacksmiths work in the middle and how they lean back, shows how hot the fire was to melt the steel. In the lower right corner, you can see part of the workers taking a break, eating, and drinking, probably waiting for the start of their shift. A lot of them look very exhausted and who can blame them? It is obvious, that this was a very physical and mentally demanding job.
Like the example of Shishkin, this also almost looks like a Photography, however, it is very crowded, and dark, and you can see the workers in live action. You can almost feel how hot it was in the building and the details are amazing. It does not seem like a lot at the first sight, because it is this dark, but after further investigating the art piece, and zooming in, it brings out more and more of the details. It is almost like one of my children's "Wimmelbilderbuch", which is German for Search and Find books. I would absolutely hang this up in our house and I believe we would find something new every time we would pass by and look at it.
Let me know what you all think and
stay safe,
Sylvia
Works Cited:
“William Blake.” Google Books, Google,
books.google.com
Comment: I really loved your blog post, the part I found the most interesting was about the painting of, “Saturn Devouring His Son”. I have read and heard a lot of mythology and God/Goddesses myths. That myth was one I have never heard of before though. That was very dark. I like some horror and dark things but that was a lot. To think of someone actually eating their sons because they are scared one day, they may take over is crazy. When I first seen that painting, I was kind of worried, but at least now I know a little back story behind it. Thank you for the information!
ReplyDeleteWhat I found most interesting about "Saturn Devouring His Son" is the similarities to Greek mythology, which I know they did borrow and rename some of their stories. In Greek mythology it was Kronos who ate all his sons until his son Zeus defeated him and freed his brothers Hades and Poseidon.
ReplyDeleteI like realism more than romanticism, I prefer the nature scenes such as "Morning in a Pine Forest" than most of the romanticism paintings.
Hi Sylvia.
ReplyDeleteI too wrote about Francisco Goya, I really loved his work and found that many of them had interesting backgrounds that really enriched the art pieces. I love gore and gritty art, and would have loved to see all of the grotesque details of the open flesh and blood oozing. I found that aspect to be lacking especially in comparison to the beautiful contouring and shaping of Saturn's body.
I am not very fond of the Isaac Newton painting. I do see how he looks like a superhero, especially the cape that he is wearing. I don't like how the cape drapes over because it kind of blends into the paper. I do wonder however if Newton was portrayed as the "hero" as a reference to how science is praised or over glorified.
Morning in a Pine Forrest is very beautiful but I find it a little boring as far as subject matter. I do however love the use of lighting, your eye is drawn way out into this forest, which is amazing as it is just canvas.
Steel Morning Reel is incredible. I zoomed in and am just in awe of how realistic the face look. You can tell that there is some smog in the building, by looking up and seeing the smoky gray and white gradients of color. I wonder why the men on the very right and in the back are holding this ears and ducking down.
I agree that Isaac Newton is a fairly unappealing painting. It is definitely not something to hang up in your house. But I think that there is a lot to be said for the message it was putting out. He was satirizing the way that scientists view the world, not necessarily the things they study. I also agree that the works of realism are very appealing, and are definitely something you hang on the wall, but I prefer the level of expression that can be shared in the works of realism.
ReplyDelete