Chapter 20: Romanticism

Enlightenment

Romantics reacted against _____, advocating for trusting the heart over the head.

Romantic artists

They sought pleasure in refined things or audacious adventures, and were influenced by the extremes of human endeavor

Photography

It was the greatest artistic invention of the period, but was initially not seen as a form of art

Charles Barry

A classical architect; he accounts for the regularity of plan in the Palace of Westminster

Augustus Pugin

A Gothic architect, added Gothic architectural touches to the structure of the Palace of Westminster

Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament)

* By Charles Barry and Augustus Pugin (1840–1870)
* The building holds the two chambers of the United Kingdom’s government
* Enormous structure of 1,100 rooms, 100 staircases, 2 miles of corridors.
* building is a reaction against art as a mass-produced product of the Industrial Revolution

Big Ben

A clock tower; in a sense a village clock for all of England.

Central Lobby

* Situated between the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
* Meant to be a space where constituents can meet their member of Parliament.

Westminster Hall

* When the old Houses of Parliament burned to the ground, this hall survived and became the last vestige of the medieval parliament building.
* Perpendicular Gothic style of this hall inspired the design of the Houses of Parliament.

The sublime

any cathartic experience from the catastrophic to the intellectual that causes the viewer to marvel in awe, wonder, and passion

And There’s Nothing to Be Done (Y no hai remedio)

* By Francisco De Goya (1863)
* from The Disasters of War (Les Desastres de la Guerra), Plate 15
* used a combination of etching and drypoint.
* Bitterly ironic and sardonic.
* Central figure is seen in a Christ-like pose.

Fatal Consequences of Spain’s Bloody War with Bonaparte and Other Emphatic Caprices

Original title of “And There’s Nothing to Be Done (Y no hai remedio)”

Caprice

usually a work of art that is an architectural fantasy; more broadly any work that has a fantasy element

Drypoint

an engraving technique in which a steel needle is used to incise lines in a metal plate. The rough burr at the sides of the incised lines yields a velvety black tone in the print

Odalisque

a woman slave in a harem

**La Grande Odalisque**

* By Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1814)
* Commissioned by Caroline Murat, Napoleon’s sister, Queen of Naples.
* Raphael-like face.
* Not a traditional frontal nude.

Liberty Leading the People

* By Eugène Delacroix (1830)
* Red/white/blue (colors of the French flag) echo throughout the painting.
* The painting symbolically depicts the July Revolution of 1830;
* Exhibited at the Salon of 1831 and then acquired by the French state

Slave Ship

* By Joseph Mallord William Turner (1840)
* Based on a true story; slaves were insured against accidental drowning


* Nature responds to the inhumanity of the slave trade.

Thomas Clarkson

Turner’s painting was inspired by an account of the scandal published in a book by ____, which had been reprinted in 1839.

The Oxbow

* By Thomas Cole (1836)
* The View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm
* Painted as reply to a British book that alleged that Americans had destroyed a wilderness with industry.
* Manifest Destiny.

Thomas Cole

the founder of the Hudson River School.

camera obscura

Experiments in photography go back to the seventeenth century, when artists used a device called a ____ to focus images in a box so that artists could render accurate copies of the scene before them.

Photosensitive paper

It was introduced that could replicate the silhouette of an object when exposed to light.

Photogram

an image made by placing objects on photosensitive paper and exposing them to light to produce a silhouette

Daguerreotype

a type of early photograph, developed by Louis Daguerre that is characterized by a shiny surface, meticulous finish, and clarity of detail. Daguerreotypes are unique photographs; they have no negative

Calotype

a type of early photograph, developed by William H. F. Talbot that is characterized by its grainy quality. It is considered the forefather of all photography because it produces both a positive and a negative image

Still Life in Studio

* By Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre (1837)
* Long exposure times required.
* Produced on a metallic surface; photos have a glossy finish.