Exam #2 Study Guide: Romanticism, Modernism, and Postmodernism

A comprehensive collection of vocabulary terms, primary figures, artists, and philosophical movements covered in the Exam #2 study guide.

John Locke and Voltaire

Primary figures associated with the Enlightenment Era.

Jean-Antoine Watteau

Rococo artist known for the work Return from Cythera.

Jean-Honoré Fragonard

Rococo artist known for the work The Swing.

Angelica Kaufmann

Neoclassical artist known for The Artist in the Character of Design Listening to the Inspiration of Poetry (The Inspiration of Poetry).

Jacques-Louis David

Neoclassical artist whose works include The Oath of the Horatii, The Death of Marat, and Napoleon Crossing the Saint-Bernard.

Fichte, Hegel, and Kant

German thinkers known as the German Philosophical Revolutionaries.

David Hume and Edmund Burke

English Enlightenment philosophers whose ideas are related to the birth of Romanticism.

William Blake

Romantic poet who wrote "The Piper" and selections from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.

William Wordsworth

Romantic poet who wrote "Tintern Abbey" and the "Preface."

John Keats

Romantic poet known for "Ode on a Grecian Urn."

John Constable

Romantic artist known for the paintings The Rainbow and The Hay Wain.

J. M. W. Turner

Romantic artist known for Snow Storm—Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth and The Upper Falls of the Reichenbach.

Caspar David Friedrich

Romantic artist known for Wanderer above a Sea Mist and Monk by the Sea.

Eugène Delacroix

Romantic artist known for Liberty Leading the People and Scenes from the Massacres at Chios.

Francisco Goya

Romantic artist who painted Third of May $1808$ and Saturn Devouring One of His Children.

Théodore Géricault

Romantic artist known for The Raft of the "Medusa."

Notes from Underground Characters

The key figures in Dostoevsky's text include Liza, Simonov, Zverkov, and The Underground Man.

Chernyshevsky

A Utilitarian/Utopian Socialist mentioned in the context of Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground.

Édouard Manet

Proto-Impressionist artist known for Luncheon on the Grass and A Bar at the Folies-Bergère.

Claude Monet

Impressionist artist known for the "Water Lilies" series and Impression: Sunrise.

Berthe Morisot

Impressionist artist known for Young Girls by the Window.

Edgar Degas

Impressionist artist known for The Rehearsal (Adagio).

Vincent van Gogh

Post-Impressionist artist known for The Starry Night and Night Café.

Georges Seurat

Pointillist artist known for A Sunday on La Grande Jatte.

Toulouse-Lautrec

Post-Impressionist artist known for At the Moulin Rouge.

Pablo Picasso

Cubist artist known for the works Guernica and Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.

Characters in Albert Camus's The Plague

Includes Dr. Bernard Rieux, Jean Tarrou, Raymond Rambert, Joseph Grand, Father Paneloux, and Cottard.

Cubism

An approach to art emerging in early $20^{th}$ century Paris where objects or people are portrayed from multiple perspectives simultaneously using geometric shapes.

en plein air

A method of painting "in open air" favored by Impressionists to capture the play of natural sunlight on city- and landscapes.

Existentialism

A mid-$20^{th}$ century philosophy asserting that life has no inherent meaning and that individuals define their moral meaning through actions and responsibility.

Fin de siècle

A term for the cultural mood of the late $19^{th}$ and early $20^{th}$ centuries, characterized by a feeling of decadence, moral exhaustion, and ennui.

Idealism

A philosophical position asserting that thought and ideas play the primary role in generating reality and human experience.

Impressionism

A late $19^{th}$ century French art movement that used new brushwork and color theories to convey a painter's subjective vision and the effects of natural light.

Modernism

An early $20^{th}$ century movement that challenged Enlightenment beliefs in a stable world, experimenting with nonlinear narratives and fragmentation.

Nationalism

A $19^{th}$ century ideology stressing unique traditions and identities, arguing for a separate nation-state for every people.

Novel

An extended prose narrative that seeks to give a realistic representation of life, manners, and people, depicting the world "as it really is."

Pointillism

A technique developed by Georges Seurat using tiny dots of pure color that blend in the viewer's eye to create luminosity.

Post-Impressionism

An art movement ($1880s$ to $1910$) that rejected Impressionist focus on light in favor of arbitrary colors and distorted geometric shapes for emotional effect.

Postmodernism

A late $20^{th}$ century view stressing fragmentation, relativism, and the multiplicity of identities, often celebrating irony and verbal play.

Realism

A post-Romantic trend of the mid-$19^{th}$ century that focused on daily struggles and portrayed life as it was rather than following exotic heroics.

Rococo

An early $18^{th}$ century French style in visual arts characterized by light, elegant, and sensuous designs.

Romanticism

A cultural stance ($1780s$-$1840s$) emphasizing human feelings, nature's mysteries, artistic genius, and the organic unfolding of life over rational laws.

The Sublime

A Romantic concept referring to that which inspires terror and astonishment, often through the dark and powerful aspects of nature.

The Beautiful

A Romantic concept referring to that which inspires affection and domestic feeling, resulting in a relaxation of the body.

Utilitarianism

An early $19^{th}$ century British movement seeking reforms to produce the "greatest good for the greatest number" based on mathematical calculation.

Utopian Socialists

Early $19^{th}$ century socialists like Henri de Saint Simon who believed owners could be persuaded to relinquish resources for the good of all.

Volksgeist

A German term meaning "the spirit of the people," describing the transcendent force of an ethnic group sharing a common language and worldview.