Origins and Meaning of Romanticism Of the numerous and bewildering definitions and redefinitions of Romanticism none quite embraces

all the complex, diverse and often contradictory aspects of the Romantic vision and its ideals. And although several theories were developed about Romanticism towards the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries, no definitive manifestoes were advanced for the visual arts of this period. Nor is there any one work of art that unmistakably exemplifies the aims of Romanticism in the visual arts in the way that David's Oath of the Horatii typified the ideals of the Neoclassicists. Not only did the nature of Romanticism manifest itself quite differently in countries such as Germany, England and France, but it was expressed in diverse forms even within the work of individual painters of the period. Attitudes of life and art also fluctuated and varied fundamentally from artist to artist. Writers such as Victor Hugo, Alfred de Vigny, Goethe and Byron, who were in their own times labelled Romantics, disassociated themselves from the term. In Romantic art there is no common style or common subject matter, as there had been during the Baroque or the Neoclassical period, for instance. For while David attempted to create a style of universal significance, the Romantic artist was a passionate individual rebelled against academic rules and resented any norm or rationalised system for art. Romanticism should be approached as a historical phenomenon, emerging as an event such as the Age of Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and the Revolution in England. There is no clear demarcation between Neoclassical and Rmantic art. There is no distinct date at which artists ceased to be inspired by antiquity and began to look at the Middle Ages; when the appeal to reason was replaced by the supremecy of emotion; when the linear approach was rejected in favour of an exploration colour; when artists moved from closed to open form, from a controlled to an expressive and spontaneous composition, and from a smooth application of paint to gestural and direct brushwork. Delacroix's world was as inspired by mythology as was David's, and Friedrich's positions were as deliberately constructed as those of the Neoclassical masters. It must furthermore be understood that many concepts associated with Romanticism, as imagination, intuition, originality, spirituality, feeling, fascination with the surreal and with natural phenomena, can be traced back as far as the Middle Ages and beyond. Elements of romanticism may be found, amongst other sources, in landscape imagery of a Giorgione and an Altdorfer, in Claude Lorraine and Poussin, in Ruyssdael and 17th century Dutch painting. Many of these works anticipate the mood in, for instance, the landscapes of Turner and Constable. The decision to focus on the period roughly between 1790 and 1835 as the Romantic period proper has been based on the fact that most artists associated with the period, that is Gericault, Friedrich, Turner and Constable, as well as the somewhat younger Delacroix and

Runge, had produced their most important and mature works by 1835. 1790 serves to mark the end of the Age of Enlightenment and the beginning of the French Revolution. As early as 1755 Dr Samuel Johnson had defined "Romantick" as "... resembling the ,ales and romances, wild ... improbable, false ... fanciful; full of wild scenery". Since then the term has been defined and redefined on numerous occasions. In 1798 the German philosopher Friedrich Schlegel made yet another attempt to clarify the goals and ideals of a group of German Romantic poets. In his famous Fragment no 116 of the Athenaeum, a literary magazine which he edited for two years together with his brother August Wilhelm at Jena, Schlegel used the term "Romantic" in opposition to "Classical". Initially, "Romantic" was associated with the German Roman (English: novel) which, during the Romantic period, contained a mixture of poetry, passages of dramatic dialogue, literary criticism, philosophy and letters. The fragment and the novel were initially considered the main forms of Romantic expression. And it was at Jena around the year 1800 that the Schlegel brothers, Schleiermacher, Ludwig Tieck and several other poets and philosophers formed the first and most influential avant-garde Romantic group, echoed in England by the Lake poets, Wordsworth, Shelley and Keats. In essence, Romanticism thus began as a literary movement. For this reason Romantic painting should never be studied in isolation, because it can only be understood within the context of both sociohistorical events and in relation to the literature, poetry and music of its time. Like many other movements in art, Romanticism started in opposition to what existed before. In the fragment and the novel, the order and logic of Neoclassical hierarchies was first questioned. The fragment, by its very nature, defied any ordering, because in it all barriers between various genres were broken down. It blended, amongst other elements, lyrical poetry, drama, history, autobiography, philosophy and fairy tales. The fragment, like the sketch, was seen by Schlegel as an independent, complete work of art. The sketch was considered to be the most authentic and spontaneous form of art, revealing directly the individual "touch" of the artist. The many sketches by Constable, Turner and Friedrich, for instance, clearly demonstrate this. Although Romanticism initially emerged as a counter movement to Neoclassicist ideals, and was seen as such by many subsequent critics, the relationship between the two periods is more complex and demands closer scrutiny. Such an examination will reveal both their irreconcilabilities and their similarities. Romanticism was most commonly regarded in late 18th century art as an opposition to the CLASSICAL; and while this is perhaps the simplest way to approach its character, it must be remembered that in the broad analysis of the styles of world art both the Classical and the Romantic incorporate the ideal rather than the real, and that both are types of NATURALISTIC painting and sculpture.
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More specifically, Romanticism developed as a result of the disillusionment of the individual - in both sociopolitical and intellectual sense. In France the Age of Enlightenment had merely served to prove the insufficiency of human reason. Logical order and rational systems had left many unanswered questions. The classification of plants, insects, animals and races, for instance, did not explain the inherent differences and conflicts that exist within these various species, genres and races. The attempt to reveal a divine order and a rational structure beneath the surface of nature led to the realisation that intuition and imagination were needed to comprehend the mysterious energies in nature, and acknowledge the individuality and diversity of every living organism, of species and of cultures. The assumptions made by philosophers like Herder and Kant during the Age of Enlightenment were questioned because they "... demonstrated the frailty of reason and the force of passion, the insufficiency of theories and the power of circumstances to shape events" . This is reflected in the words of the German poet, Novalis: "The more personal, local, peculiar of its own time, a poem is, the nearer it stands to the centre of poetry". Thus the growing awareness of the organic and dynamic quality in nature and society led to the awareness of the uniqueness of the individual and "inner truth". At the same time, however, the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century had a devastating effect on social and political ideologies. It, too, had left the individual disillusioned, sceptical and alienated. And thus there developed, especially in Germany, France and England, a movement which celebrated in art the independence of the human spirit and the supremacy of feeling. Romantic attitudes differed substantially in these countries, but they all shared a hatred for bourgeois values and doctrines.

ROMANTICISM IN SPAIN
With the end of nobility and the emergence of the bourgeoisie as the dominant class, new liberal trends appeared. With them came a new cultural movement, particularly in the literary field, called Romanticism. It began a revolution that was so great that many of the ideas that came from it are still in force today; the individual as the center of society, appearance of social classes, peoples rights, democracy as a governmental form The Romantic author tried to recreate the Middle Ages. They looked for new ideals that could be transferred to literature in a resurgence of the novel, and specifically the historical novel which would recreate the medieval age. They wanted to create a novel which would mix real historical characters with fictional ones. The most obvious example is Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott. This paradigm resuscitated the novel which had ceased to exist during the Enlightenment. The Romantic author felt liberated from all of the restrictions of the Enlightened didactic genre. Books no longer had to teach, but were a form of entertainment used to transport the reader to make-believe worlds. The fantastic was no longer repulsive. The Romantic author had a tragic vision of the world. He felt misunderstood and searched for an escape. This desire took one of two forms: the journeys in search of adventure (e.g. Lord Byron going to Greece), which led to the appearance of exoticism; or secondly, suicide.
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Romanticism reached Spain a little later. During the Napoleonic period Spain had found itself caught up in the Independence War (1808-1812). Finally Fernando VII was crowned King, but would go from being the most loved King to the most hated. Upon his arrival he cancelled any attempt to install a democracy, with the suppression of the 1812 Constitution and the persecution of all liberal movements. Journalism became stronger than it had been during the Enlightenment, and the main author of Spanish Romantic literature appeared: Mariano Jos de Larra. In his articles he portrayed the society that surrounded him in a critical and scathing manner. His life was saturated by the Romantic spirit, so much so that it caused his tragic death by suicide. Jos de Espronceda was another of the great Romantics. In his poems the main Romantic themes appeared, although his most well-know poem is the Cancin del Pirata (Song of the Pirate). As an idealist social outcast who lived on a boat and searched for adventure, the pirate was a symbol of freedom. He fit perfectly into the Romantic spirit. Subsequently two of the greatest names in Spanish Romanticism appeared: Gustavo Adolfo Bcquer and Rosala de Castro. The former was famous for his Rimas y Leyendas (Rhymes and Legends). His Rhymes innovated new meters which were full of rhythm and musicality. They were poems that talked about love and poetic creativity. The Legends were short prose texts which relayed popular legends that had been recreated by the author. The latter was a female author who wrote in Galician. Her lyrical works reached insurmountable success within female literature of the 19th century.

The novel also reappeared in Spain in its historical paradigm, such as El Seor de Beimbre by Enrique Gil y Carrasco. In which he recreates the story of the Knights Templar in Bierzo (a region in Len). This historical novel created fantastic events that were based on real ones. He mixed real historical characters with imaginary characters in his eagerness to rewrite and interpret history. He wasnt trying to teach, he wanted to deduce present reality from previous events. This paradigm has remained valid even until today, despite losing its importance during the Realism movement at the end of the 19th century. Although not part of the mainstream of French, English or German Romanticism, the late works of Goya should not be ignored when discussing the Romantic period. Goya was an almost exact contemporary of David and also recorded the Napoleonic era - but from a vastly different point of view. He was court painter to a succession of Bourbon monarchs who attempted, come what may, to reestablish a prerevolutionary society in Spain. Goya was trained in the Rococo tradition, but soon abandoned this predominantly frivolous and buoyant style and began to explore the collapse of great religious and monarchic traditions in the West. Not only did he question the divine right of kings and the rituals of the Catholic Church, but he was also increasingly drawn to the irrational realms of human behaviour. In works like The Fire (c 1793) he gives expression to the nightmarish hysteria and confused terror of an anonymous crowd who, horrified and directionless, try to escape
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the flames and smoke of a fire which threaten to engulf them. The free and swirling painterly approach, and the sharp contrast between flickering, uncanny light and menacing darkness, contribute to an atmosphere of doom and chaos. In his Caprichos (1799), a series of 80 etchings, conceived in the didactic tradition of Hogarth and Fielding, Goya delves into the depths of human behaviour as dictated by contemporary realities - exposing in haunting and disturbing images the world of witchcraft, asylums, prisons and cannibalism. Goya, according to Rosenblum, here "redirected the eighteenthcentury tradition of moralizing social commentary from a world of empirical observation toward the threshold of a dark, private imagination". The etchings are accompanied by Goya's own commentary. By 1815 the heroic Napoleonic era had ended. Yet the Congress of Vienna tried to reestablish the pre-Napoleonic rulers of Europe and recreate a situation resembling that of the preRevolutionary wars. Through the restoration of (among others) Louis XVIII to a throne, royalist illusions were created - illusions suggesting that nothing had happened in the years between 1789 and 1815. In the nationalist and royalist associations thus evoked, artists sensed inherent contradictions. The attempt to revive an old world within the realities of the nineteenth century seemed hypocritical and false. In his paintings of the newly restored Bourbon king, Ferdinand VII, son of his former patron, Charles IV, Goya exposed with ruthless accuracy the hollowness and decadence of a ruling class, continuing unchanged the pomp and ceremonies of a pre-Revolutionary court. In his acute observation of The Family of Charles IV (1800-180 1) the corruption and promiscuities of the royal family are poignantly revealed. Goya selects unerringly what he wishes to expose and so expresses his personal vision of each individual. The royal family here is seen as a group ofordinary human beings, at once feeble and pompous, ugly and decadent. Between 1808 and 1814, Spain was occupied by Napoleonic forces. In courageous guerilla warfare the Spaniards resisted their invaders. In a series of 80 etchings, entitled Disasters of War, Goya recorded the rape, senseless murder and pillaging he saw during this period of Spanish resistance. These prints were not published at the time, possibly because they were too harsh an indictment of war itself to be generally accepted. They were (posthumously) published only in 1863. To commemorate the beginnings of the Spanish War of Liberation, Goya in 1814 painted the Spanish insurrection against French mercenaries at the Puerta del Sol, Madrid, on 2 May 1808, as well as the famous The Third of May, 1808, in which he recorded the shooting of all Spaniards suspected of complicity. In this intensely emotional and dramatic work, Goya gave expression to one of the most heroic moments in the Spanish struggle - the shooting of nameless civilians, who died with their compatriots in a noble cause. Disturbingly ambiguous, his work has stimulated a great variety of interpretations. Goya makes use of well-known metaphors, such as the Crucifixion. The burnt-out monastery in the background recalls the death of Christianity. In a characteristically Romantic way, the artist reinterprets such concepts as Christianity, nobility, heroism, courage, life and death. Goya, says
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Rosenblum, "revealed a new view of history, in which the ideal moral and political structures of the West have crumbled, leaving as raw fact only the collision of anonymous masses". In the Junta of the Phillipines (1815) Goya also comments relentlessly on a world of empty rituals. With spine-chilling insight he exposes the corrupt morals of an officialdom that determines the destiny of others. After 1815 Goya retreated increasingly into the private, irrational world of the individual, and created images in which he totally rejected all principles of reason and rationality. Although Goya's vision is consistently fed by the facts of reality, both imagination and fantasy play a predominant role in these works. In a series of 14 paintings, the so-called Black Paintings with which he "decorated" a country estate, La Quinta del Sordo, between 1820 and 1823, he delves deep into the world of irrationality. In his imagery he alternates between established symbols and private myth. In Saturn Devouring his Son, as an instance, he uses a metaphor from Classical mythology to express the horror and brutality of his own times. It is an image of monstrous self-destruction and utter rage, its emotive force heightened by the garish colour and startling treatment of scale and space relationships. One of Goya's most moving works, A Dog (1820-1823), can be interpreted as Goya's vision of the end of an era and as grim prophecy of another. All matter has here been dissolved in a veil of surreal light. The only survivor in this desolate emptiness is a fearful dog. Only his head is visible; his body has disappeared behind an amorphous barrier, perhaps a sinister prophecy of our 20th century fate too. In 1824 Goya left Spain to spend the last four years of his life in Paris, where he painted portraits of the people around him and recorded the life of beggars, prisoners and the insane. In Saint Peter Repentant (c 1824-1825) he expresses his own deep conflict between hope and black despair. Saint Peter could be interpreted as a self-portrait, in anguished yearning for immortality and redemption. Bibliography www.donquijote.org www.the-art-world.com