1.1 Main features of romanticism
Romanticism - (French romantisme, from the medieval French romant - novel) is a direction in art that was formed within the framework of a general literary movement at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. in Germany. It has become widespread in all countries of Europe and America. The highest peak of romanticism occurred in the first quarter of the 19th century.
The French word romantisme goes back to the Spanish romance (in the Middle Ages, this was the name given to Spanish romances, and then to the romance of chivalry), the English romantic, which turned into the 18th century. in romantique and then meaning “strange”, “fantastic”, “picturesque”. At the beginning of the 19th century. Romanticism becomes the designation of a new direction, opposite to classicism.
Entering into the antithesis of “classicism” - “romanticism,” the movement suggested the opposition of the classicist demand for rules to romantic freedom from rules. The center of the artistic system of romanticism is the individual, and its main conflict is the individual and society. The decisive prerequisite for the development of romanticism were the events of the Great French Revolution. The emergence of romanticism is associated with the anti-Enlightenment movement, the reasons for which lie in disappointment in civilization, in social, industrial, political and scientific progress, the result of which was new contrasts and contradictions, leveling and spiritual devastation of the individual.
The Enlightenment preached the new society as the most “natural” and “reasonable”. The best minds of Europe substantiated and foreshadowed this society of the future, but reality turned out to be beyond the control of “reason,” the future became unpredictable, irrational, and the modern social order began to threaten human nature and his personal freedom. Rejection of this society, protest against lack of spirituality and selfishness is already reflected in sentimentalism and pre-romanticism. Romanticism expresses this rejection most acutely. Romanticism also opposed the Age of Enlightenment in verbal terms: the language of romantic works, striving to be natural, “simple”, accessible to all readers, was something opposite to the classics with its noble, “sublime” themes, characteristic, for example, of classical tragedy.
Among the late Western European romantics, pessimism in relation to society acquires cosmic proportions and becomes the “disease of the century.” The heroes of many romantic works are characterized by moods of hopelessness and despair, which acquire a universal human character. Perfection is lost forever, the world is ruled by evil, ancient chaos is resurrected. The theme of the “terrible world”, characteristic of all romantic literature, was most clearly embodied in the so-called “black genre” (in the pre-romantic “Gothic novel” - A. Radcliffe, C. Maturin, in the “drama of rock”, or “tragedy of rock” - Z. Werner, G. Kleist, F. Grillparzer), as well as in the works of Byron, C. Brentano, E. T. A. Hoffmann, E. Poe and N. Hawthorne.
At the same time, romanticism is based on ideas that challenge " scary world", - first of all, the ideas of freedom. The disappointment of romanticism is a disappointment in reality, but progress and civilization are only one side of it. Rejection of this side, lack of faith in the possibilities of civilization provide another path, the path to the ideal, to the eternal, to the absolute. This the path must resolve all contradictions, completely change life. This is the path to perfection, “towards a goal, the explanation of which must be sought on the other side of the visible” (A. De Vigny) For some romantics, the world is dominated by incomprehensible and mysterious forces that must be obeyed and obeyed. do not try to change fate (Chateaubriand, V.A. Zhukovsky). world evil"caused protest, demanded revenge, struggle (early A.S. Pushkin). What was common was that they all saw in man a single essence, the task of which is not at all limited to solving everyday problems. On the contrary, without denying everyday life, the romantics sought unravel the mystery of human existence, turning to nature, trusting your religious and poetic feeling.
A romantic hero is a complex, passionate personality, whose inner world is unusually deep and endless; it is a whole universe full of contradictions. Romantics were interested in all passions, both high and low, which were opposed to each other. High passion is love in all its manifestations, low passion is greed, ambition, envy. The romantics contrasted the life of the spirit, especially religion, art, and philosophy, with the base material practice. Interest in strong and vivid feelings, all-consuming passions, secret movements of the soul - characteristic features romanticism.
We can talk about romance as a special type of personality - a person of strong passions and high aspirations, incompatible with the everyday world. Exceptional circumstances accompany this nature. Fantasy, folk music, poetry, legends become attractive to romantics - everything that for a century and a half was considered as minor genres, not worth attention. Romanticism is characterized by the affirmation of freedom, the sovereignty of the individual, increased attention to the individual, the unique in man, and the cult of the individual. Confidence in a person’s self-worth turns into a protest against the fate of history. Often the hero of a romantic work becomes an artist who is capable of creatively perceiving reality. The classicist “imitation of nature” is contrasted with the creative energy of the artist who transforms reality. A special world of its own is created, more beautiful and real than the empirically perceived reality. It is creativity that is the meaning of existence; it represents the highest value of the universe. Romantics passionately defended the creative freedom of the artist, his imagination, believing that the genius of the artist does not obey the rules, but creates them.
Romantics turned to various historical eras, they were attracted by their originality, attracted by exotic and mysterious countries and circumstances. Interest in history became one of the enduring achievements of the artistic system of romanticism. He expressed himself in the creation of the genre historical novel, the founder of which is considered to be W. Scott, and in general the novel, which acquired a leading position in the era under consideration. Romantics reproduce in detail and accurately the historical details, background, and flavor of a particular era, but romantic characters are given outside of history; they, as a rule, are above circumstances and do not depend on them. At the same time, the romantics perceived the novel as a means of comprehending history, and from history they went to penetrate into the secrets of psychology, and, accordingly, of modernity. Interest in history was also reflected in the works of historians of the French romantic school (A. Thierry, F. Guizot, F. O. Meunier).
It was in the era of Romanticism that the discovery of the culture of the Middle Ages took place, and the admiration for antiquity, characteristic of the previous era, also did not weaken at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 18th century. XIX centuries A variety of national, historical, individual characteristics had and philosophical meaning: the wealth of a single world whole consists of the combination of these individual features, and the study of the history of each people separately makes it possible to trace, as Burke put it, uninterrupted life through new generations following one after another.
The era of Romanticism was marked by the flourishing of literature, one of the distinctive properties of which was a passion for social and political problems. Trying to comprehend the role of man in ongoing historical events, romantic writers gravitated toward accuracy, specificity, and authenticity. At the same time, the action of their works often takes place in settings that are unusual for a European - for example, in the East and America, or, for Russians, in the Caucasus or Crimea. Thus, romantic poets are primarily lyricists and poets of nature, and therefore in their work (as well as in many prose writers), landscape occupies a significant place - first of all, the sea, mountains, sky, stormy elements with which the hero is associated complex relationships. Nature can be akin to a passionate nature romantic hero, but can also resist him, turn out to be a hostile force with which he is forced to fight.
Extraordinary and bright pictures nature, life, way of life and customs of distant countries and peoples also inspired the romantics. They were looking for the traits that constitute the fundamental basis of the national spirit. National identity is manifested primarily in oral folk art. Hence the interest in folklore, the processing of folklore works, the creation of their own works based on folk art.
The development of the genres of the historical novel, fantastic story, lyric-epic poem, ballad is the merit of the romantics. Their innovation was also manifested in lyrics, in particular, in the use of polysemy of words, the development of associativity, metaphor, and discoveries in the field of versification, meter, and rhythm.
Romanticism is characterized by a synthesis of genders and genres, their interpenetration. The romantic art system was based on a synthesis of art, philosophy, and religion. For example, for a thinker like Herder, linguistic research, philosophical doctrines, and travel notes serve the search for ways to revolutionize culture. Much of the achievements of romanticism were inherited by realism of the 19th century. – a penchant for fantasy, the grotesque, a mixture of high and low, tragic and comic, the discovery of “subjective man.”
In the era of romanticism, not only literature, but also many sciences flourished: sociology, history, political science, chemistry, biology, evolutionary doctrine, philosophy (Hegel, D. Hume, I. Kant, Fichte, natural philosophy, the essence of which boils down to the fact that nature - one of the garments of God, “the living garment of the Divine”).
Romanticism is a cultural phenomenon in Europe and America. IN different countries his fate had its own characteristics.
1.2 Romanticism in Russia
By the beginning of the second decade of the 19th century, romanticism occupied a key place in Russian art, revealing more or less fully its national identity. It is extremely risky to reduce this uniqueness to any trait or even a sum of traits; What we see is rather the direction of the process, as well as its pace, its acceleration - if we compare Russian romanticism with the older “romanticisms” of European literature.
We have already observed this acceleration of development in the prehistory of Russian romanticism - in the last decade of the 18th century. - in the first years of the 19th century, when there was an unusually close interweaving of pre-romantic and sentimental tendencies with the tendencies of classicism.
The revaluation of reason, hypertrophy of sensitivity, the cult of nature and natural man, elegiac melancholy and epicureanism were combined with moments of systematism and rationality, especially manifested in the field of poetics. Styles and genres were streamlined (mainly through the efforts of Karamzin and his followers), and there was a struggle against excessive metaphor and floridity of speech for the sake of its “harmonic accuracy” (Pushkin’s definition of the distinctive feature of the school founded by Zhukovsky and Batyushkov).
The speed of development also left its mark on the more mature stage of Russian romanticism. The density of artistic evolution also explains the fact that in Russian romanticism it is difficult to recognize clear chronological stages. Literary historians divide Russian romanticism into the following periods: the initial period (1801 - 1815), the period of maturity (1816 - 1825) and the period of its post-October development. This approximate diagram, because at least two of these periods (the first and third) are qualitatively heterogeneous and they are not characterized by at least a relative unity of principles that distinguished, for example, the periods of Jena and Heidelberg romanticism in Germany.
Romantic movement in Western Europe - especially in German literature- began under the sign of completeness and integrity. Everything that was separated strived for synthesis: in natural philosophy, and in sociology, and in the theory of knowledge, and in psychology - personal and social, and, of course, in artistic thought, which united all these impulses and, as it were, gave them new life .
Man sought to merge with nature; personality, individual - with the whole, with the people; intuitive knowledge - with logical; the subconscious elements of the human spirit - with the highest spheres of reflection and reason. Although the relationship between opposing moments sometimes seemed conflicting, the tendency towards unification gave rise to a special emotional spectrum of romanticism, multi-colored and variegated, with a predominance of a bright, major tone.
Only gradually did the conflicting elements develop into their antinomy; the idea of the desired synthesis dissolved in the idea of alienation and confrontation, the optimistic mood gave way to a feeling of disappointment and pessimism.
Russian romanticism is familiar with both stages of the process - both the initial and the final; however, at the same time he forced general movement. The final forms appeared before the initial forms reached their peak; the intermediate ones crumpled or fell off. Compared to the background of Western European literature, Russian romanticism looked at the same time both less and more romantic: it was inferior to them in richness, ramifications, and breadth of the overall picture, but superior to them in the certainty of some final results.
The most important socio-political factor that influenced the formation of romanticism is Decembrism. The refraction of Decembrist ideology into the plane of artistic creativity is an extremely complex and lengthy process. Let us not, however, lose sight of the fact that it acquired precisely artistic expression; that Decembrist impulses were clothed in very specific literary forms.
Often “literary Decembrism” was identified with a certain imperative external to artistic creativity, when all artistic means were subordinated to an extra-literary goal, which, in turn, stemmed from Decembrist ideology. This goal, this “task” was allegedly leveled or even pushed aside “syllable features or genre features.” In reality, everything was much more complicated.
The specific character of Russian romanticism is clearly visible in the lyrics of this time, i.e. in lyrical attitude to the world, in basic tone and perspective author's position, in what is commonly called the “image of the author.” Let's look at Russian poetry from this angle in order to get at least a quick idea of its diversity and unity.
Russian romantic poetry has revealed a fairly wide range of “images of the author,” sometimes converging, sometimes, on the contrary, polemicizing and contrasting with each other. But always the “image of the author” is such a condensation of emotions, moods, thoughts or everyday and biographical details (in lyrical work as it were, there are “scraps” of the author’s line of alienation, more fully represented in the poem), which stems from opposition to the environment. The connection between the individual and the whole has broken down. The spirit of confrontation and disharmony blows over the author's image even when in itself it seems uncloudedly clear and whole.
Pre-romanticism knew mainly two forms of expressing conflict in lyrics, which can be called lyrical oppositions - the elegiac and epicurean form. Romantic poetry developed them into a series of more complex, deep and individually differentiated ones.
But, no matter how important the above forms are in themselves, they, of course, do not exhaust the entire wealth of Russian romanticism.
Romanticism in painting – philosophical and cultural direction in the art of Europe and America of the late 18th - first half of the 19th centuries. The basis for the development of the style was sentimentalism in the literature of Germany, the birthplace of romanticism. The direction developed in Russia, France, England, Spain and other European countries.
Story
Despite the early attempts of the pioneers El Greco, Elsheimer and Claude Lorrain, the style we know as Romanticism did not gain strength until almost the end of the 18th century, when the heroic element of neoclassicism received main role in the art of that time. The paintings began to reflect a heroic-romantic ideal based on the novels of the time. This heroic element, combined with revolutionary idealism and emotionality, arose as a result French Revolution as a reaction against restrained academic art.
After the French Revolution of 1789, significant social changes occurred within a few years. Europe was shaken by political crises, revolutions and wars. When the leaders met Congress of Vienna to think over a plan for the reorganization of European affairs after Napoleonic wars, it became clear that the hopes of the peoples for freedom and equality were not realized. However, during these 25 years, new ideas were formed that took root in the minds of people in France, Spain, Russia, and Germany.
Respect for the individual, which was already a key element in neoclassical painting, developed and took root. The artists' paintings were distinguished by their emotionality and sensuality in conveying the image of the individual. At the beginning of the 19th century, various styles began to show features of romanticism. 
Goals
The tenets and goals of Romanticism included:
- A return to nature - exemplified by the emphasis on spontaneity in painting that the paintings demonstrate;
- Faith in the goodness of humanity and best qualities personalities;
- Justice for all - the idea was widespread in Russia, France, Spain, England.
A firm belief in the power of feelings and emotions that dominate the mind and intellect.
Peculiarities
Characteristic features of the style:
- The idealization of the past and the dominance of mythological themes became the leading line in the work of the 19th century.
- Refusal of rationalism and dogmas of the past.
- Increased expressiveness through plays of light and color.
- The paintings conveyed a lyrical vision of the world.
- Increasing interest in ethnic topics.
Romantic painters and sculptors tend to express emotional reaction on personal life, in contrast to the restraint and universal values promoted by neoclassical art. The 19th century marked the beginning of the development of romanticism in architecture, as evidenced by the exquisite Victorian buildings.
Main representatives
Among the greatest romantic painters of the 19th century were such representatives as I. Fussli, Francisco Goya, Caspar David Friedrich, John Constable, Theodore Gericault, Eugene Delacroix. Romantic art did not supplant the neoclassical style, but functioned as a counterbalance to the dogmatism and rigidity of the latter. 
Romanticism in Russian painting is represented by the works of V. Tropinin, I. Aivazovsky, K. Bryullov, O. Kiprensky. Russian painters sought to convey nature as emotionally as possible.
The preferred genre among the Romantics was landscape. Nature was seen as a mirror of the soul, and in Germany it is also seen as a symbol of freedom and limitlessness. Artists place images of people against a rural or urban background, seascape. In romanticism in Russia, France, Spain, Germany, the image of a person does not dominate, but complements the plot of the picture. 
Vanitas motifs such as dead trees and overgrown ruins are popular, symbolizing the transience and finite nature of life. Similar motives occurred earlier in baroque art: Artists borrowed the work with light and perspective in such paintings from Baroque painters.
Goals of Romanticism: The artist demonstrates a subjective view of the objective world, and shows a picture filtered through his sensuality.
In different countries
German Romanticism of the 19th century (1800 - 1850)
In Germany, a younger generation of artists responded to changing times with a process of introspection: they retreated into a world of emotions, inspired by sentimental aspirations for the ideals of past times, most notably the medieval era, which is now seen as a time in which people lived in harmony with themselves. and peace. In this context, Schinkel's paintings, such as the Gothic Cathedral on the Water, are representative and characteristic of the period. 
By craving for the past romantic artists were very close to the neoclassicists, except that their historicism criticized the rationalistic dogmas of neoclassicism. Neoclassical artists set the following tasks: they looked into the past to justify their irrationality and emotionality, preserved academic traditions art in conveying reality.
Spanish Romanticism of the 19th century (1810 - 1830)
Francisco de Goya was the undisputed leader of the romantic art movement in Spain, his paintings show characteristic features: a tendency towards irrationality, fantasy, emotionality. By 1789, he became the official painter of the Spanish royal court. 
In 1814, in honor of the Spanish revolt against French troops in Puerta del Sol, Madrid, and the shooting of unarmed Spaniards suspected of complicity, Goya created one of his greatest masterpieces- “Third of May.” Notable works: “Disasters of War”, “Caprichos”, “Maja Nude”.
French romanticism of the 19th century (1815 - 1850)
After the Napoleonic Wars, the French Republic again became a monarchy. This led to a huge push of Romanticism, which had hitherto been held back by the dominance of the Neoclassicals. French artists the era of romanticism did not limit itself landscape genre, they worked in the genre portrait art. The most prominent representatives of the style are E. Delacroix and T. Gericault. 
Romanticism in England (1820 – 1850)
Theorist and most a prominent representative style was I. Fusli.
John Constable belonged to the English tradition of Romanticism. This tradition sought a balance between a deep sensitivity to nature and progress in the science of painting and graphics. Constable abandoned the dogmatic depiction of nature; the paintings are recognizable thanks to the use of color spots to convey reality, which brings Constable’s work closer to the art of impressionism. 
The paintings of William Turner, one of the greatest English artists of romanticism, reflect a craving for observing nature as one of the elements of creativity. The mood of his paintings is created not only by what he depicts, but also by the way the artist conveys color and perspective.
Meaning in art
The romantic style of painting of the 19th century and its special features stimulated the emergence of numerous schools, such as: the Barbizon school, plein air landscapes, and the Norwich school of landscape painters. Romanticism in painting influenced the development of aestheticism and symbolism. The most influential painters created the Pre-Raphaelite movement. In Russia and countries Western Europe Romanticism influenced the development of the avant-garde and impressionism.
Romanticism (French romantisme), an ideological and artistic movement in European and American culture of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Born as a reaction to the rationalism and mechanism of the aesthetics of classicism and the philosophy of the Enlightenment, which took hold during the revolutionary break-up of the old world order, romanticism contrasted utilitarianism and the leveling of the individual with aspirations for boundless freedom and the infinite, a thirst for perfection and renewal, and the pathos of personal and civil independence.
The painful discord between ideal and reality formed the basis of the romantic worldview; His characteristic affirmation of the intrinsic value of human creative and spiritual life, the depiction of strong passions, the spiritualization of nature, interest in the national past, the desire for synthetic forms of art are combined with the motives of world sorrow, the desire to explore and recreate the “shadow”, “night” side of the human soul, with the famous “romantic irony”, which allowed the romantics to boldly compare and equate the high and the low, the tragic and the comic, the real and the fantastic. Developing in many countries, romanticism everywhere acquired a strong national identity, determined by local historical traditions and conditions.
The most consistent romantic school developed in France, where artists, reforming the system of expressive means, dynamized the composition, combined forms with rapid movement, used bright rich colors and a broad, generalized style of painting (painting by T. Gericault, E. Delacroix, O. Daumier, plastic - P.J. David d'Angers, A.L. Bari, F. Ryud). In Germany and Austria, early romanticism is characterized by close attention to everything highly individual, a melancholy-contemplative tonality of the figurative-emotional structure, mystical-pantheistic moods (portraits and allegorical compositions by F.O. Runge, landscapes by K.D. Friedrich and J.A. Koch), the desire to revive the religious spirit of German and Italian painting of the 15th century (the work of the Nazarenes); L. Richter, K. Spitzweg, M. von Schwind, F.G. Waldmüller).
In Great Britain, the landscapes of J. Constable and R. Bonington are marked by the romantic freshness of painting, the fantastic images and unusual means of expression are the works of W. Turner, G.I. Fusli, with an attachment to the culture of the Middle Ages and the Early Renaissance - the work of the masters of the late romantic Pre-Raphaelite movement (D.G. Rossetti, E. Burne-Jones, W. Morris and other artists). In many countries of Europe and America, the romantic movement was represented by landscapes (paintings by J. Inness and A.P. Ryder in the USA), compositions on themes of folk life and history (the works of L. Galle in Belgium, J. Manes in the Czech Republic, V. Madaras in Hungary, P. Michalovsky and J. Matejko in Poland and other masters).
The historical fate of romanticism was complex and ambiguous. One or another romantic tendency marked the work of major European masters of the 19th century - artists of the Barbizon school, C. Corot, G. Courbet, J.F. Millet, E. Manet in France, A. von Menzel in Germany and other painters. At the same time, complex allegorism, elements of mysticism and fantasy, sometimes inherent in romanticism, found continuity in symbolism, and partly in the art of post-impressionism and art nouveau.
Reference and biographical data of the "Art Gallery of the Small Bay Planet" were prepared on the basis of materials from the "History of Foreign Art" (edited by M.T. Kuzmina, N.L. Maltseva), "The Art Encyclopedia of Foreign classical art", "Great Russian Encyclopedia".
Romanticism(Romanticism) is an ideological and artistic movement that arose in European and American culture of the late 18th century - the first half of the 19th century, as a reaction to the aesthetics of classicism. It originally developed (1790s) in philosophy and poetry in Germany, and later (1820s) spread to England, France and other countries. He predestined latest development art, even those directions that opposed it.
New criteria in art have become freedom of expression, increased attention to individual, unique human traits, naturalness, sincerity and relaxedness, which replaced the imitation of classical models of the 18th century. The Romantics rejected the rationalism and practicalism of the Enlightenment as mechanistic, impersonal and artificial. Instead, they prioritized emotional expression and inspiration.
Feeling free from the decaying system of aristocratic rule, they sought to express their new views and the truth they had discovered. Their place in society has changed. They found their readership among the growing middle class, ready to emotionally support and even worship the artist - a genius and prophet. Restraint and humility were rejected. They were replaced by strong emotions, often reaching extremes.
Young people were especially influenced by romanticism, having the opportunity to study and read a lot (which was facilitated by the rapid development of printing). She is inspired by ideas individual development and self-improvement, the idealization of personal freedom in the worldview, are combined with the rejection of rationalism. Personal development was placed above the standards of a vain and already fading aristocratic society. The romanticism of educated youth changed the class society of Europe, marking the beginning of the emergence of an educated “middle class” in Europe. And the picture " Wanderer above the sea of fog"can rightfully be called a symbol of the period of romanticism in Europe.
Some romantics turned to the mysterious, enigmatic, even terrible, folk beliefs, fairy tales. Romanticism was partly associated with democratic, national and revolutionary movements, although the "classical" culture of the French Revolution actually slowed the arrival of Romanticism in France. At this time, several literary movements emerged, the most important of which were Sturm und Drang in Germany, primitivism in France, led by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the Gothic novel, and an increased interest in the sublime, ballads and old romances (from which The term "Romanticism" originated. Inspiration for German writers, the theoreticians of the Jena school (the Schlegel brothers, Novalis and others), who declared themselves romantics, was the transcendental philosophy of Kant and Fichte, which prioritized creative possibilities mind. These new ideas, thanks to Coleridge, penetrated into England and France, and also determined the development of American transcendentalism.
Thus, Romanticism began as a literary movement, but had a significant influence on music and less on painting. IN fine arts Romanticism manifested itself most clearly in painting and graphics, less so in architecture. In the 18th century, the favorite motifs of artists were mountain landscapes and picturesque ruins. Its main features are dynamic composition, volumetric spatiality, rich color, chiaroscuro (for example, works by Turner, Géricault and Delacroix). Other romantic artists include Fuseli, Martin. The creativity of the Pre-Raphaelites and the neo-Gothic style in architecture can also be considered as a manifestation of Romanticism.