Mary Leriche                                                

                    

Post 1

A comparison will be made between Neoclassicism and Romanticism by looking at different art works that were created during these two times. I will also compare works within each art movement to each other to give more detail to how these movements changed within themselves.

            The first work that will be looked at is Lictors Returning to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons, which is an oil on canvas painting created by Jacques-Louis David in the year 1789. In this painting the hero is Junius Brutus as he might have received the beheaded corpses of his two male heirs, executed at his own order for treason against the new political order. It was through the blood ties of their mother, who was related to the expelled king, that the two sons had been enlisted in the plot to restore the monarchy. Under the law that Brutus had himself brought into being, a sentence of death was mandatory, and the law obliged him to deliver it and to witness the execution.

            First Junius Brutus is the namesake of Caesar’s assassin, who Caesar considered his close friend. “E tu, Brutai,” which translates to “And you, Brutus.” This throws a dark light on Brutus in this image because you think of him as a traitor, so the death of his sons is that more poignant. The reason this artwork is Neoclassical is because the images, particularly Brutus who is cast in shadow, are solemn and statuesque. The subject matter is from antiquity, it is part of the classics or Roman history. The tone of the painting is serious, and the way the work has been rendered has very clean lines and muted colors, linear perspective, and the figures are pushed to the foreground.

            The next artwork that I will compare to David’s’ Lictors Returning to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons is Napoleon at the St. Bernard Pass which is one of David’s later works, created in 1800. This painting is also oil on canvas. Between these two works you can see the progression of David’s works and he slowly changes over the years. His earlier works dealt only with historical moments in time to represent and comment on things that were happening during his time period. In this second work we see Napoleon, as a general, calmly seated on a rearing charger, crossing the Alps over the St. Bernard Pass. The picture is not completely accurate; the actual crossing was on the back of a donkey. Carved in the stone are the names of Hannibal and Charlemagne, who had followed the same route to Italian conquests. The setting of natural sublimity of course does more than serve historical commemoration, the wild terrain and turbulent weather are meant to lend action and drama of an irrational kind to the sheer presence of the main actor. Here David depicted an actual event that was occurring during his time. He didn’t use a story or scene from the past to represent Napoleon.

            The painting of Napoleon is still Neo-Classical because there is a statuesque Napoleon upon a rearing horse, which no one in that situation would be so calm, and there is order in the scene. The tone of the image is serious and organized; the subject is idealized with muted colors and smooth brush strokes. Napoleon and the horse are in the foreground of the frame, with depth of field behind them as you see the mountains and other subjects. The role of this image is political, it is meant to uplift the viewer since they see this brave Napoleon calmly handling an unstable animal and is still pushing forward even though there is an unruly animal under him.

            The next paintings that I will talk about are Snow Storm: Hannibal and His Army Crossing the Alps, which is oil on canvas and was created in 1812 and Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying—Typhoon Coming On, which is also oil on canvas and was created in 1840. Joseph Mallord William Turner who is considered a Romantic artist made both of these works. The Snow Storm: Hannibal and His Army Crossing the Alps is definitely part of Romanticism, but it still has some neoclassical aspects to it. It represents Romanticism because it is expressive and has more motion seen in the storm that is descending down on the people in the image. It shows nature and its fury creating a semi chaotic and dynamic composition. The technique used is soft and blurry where the viewer is able to see some of the brush strokes that were made. The role of this image is more emotional, but this leads into some neoclassical influences where the people in this image are in the foreground and there is some depth created with linear perspective. This image is of Hannibal and his army, but when Turner created it, it represented his fear and thoughts of Napoleon and what was happening during his time.

            Turner’s second painting, which is many years later, is a more developed representation of Romanticism. Turner had a life-long passion for nautical disasters and blood-red sunsets, which found its perfect expression in a near contemporary subject of moral outrage and social conscience. It is inspired by a late eighteenth century account of a slave ship that jettisoned its ailing human cargo at sea for the purpose of collecting insurance money. This painting is expressive, has motion, and is fluid and spontaneous in how the brush strokes (which can be seen) are applied. The scene is very chaotic and dynamic in the use of rich, vibrant colors that are applied roughly and are blurry. The painting is very emotional in the fact that people, who can be seen a little in the water, are thrown off the ship, which is in the middle left side of the landscape. The fury of nature is captured in response to this heinous act.

            Neoclassicism developed as a throwback to the Classical period and Renaissance that occurred in Greece and Rome. Artists wanted to capture the form and feeling of classical artwork. The academic studies shifted towards this, with one of the main focuses on the human form, which was almost worshiped in Classical art are the human form was considered the Golden Mean, which everything else was measured against. Romanticism developed as a response to Neoclassicism. Romanticism embraced movement and feeling that was seen within the artwork, the process of creating the art should be visible in the final product. Romanticism also dealt with more contemporary subjects and had the extremes of emotion and nature.

ArtStor

            Historically Romanticism prevails since it came after Neoclassicism, but in my opinion looking at history before these two art movements, and what has occurred up till now, I think overall Neoclassicism prevailed. In art, and even art school, the figure is still studied and there is still this push to master the creation of figure and form into art. Perfection in the depiction of subject matter is still sought, and in society now and the general media world artwork that leans more to Neoclassicism is accepted more readily than works that are inspired more by Romanticism. I believe this is the case because the public is able to understand neoclassical art easier than Romantic art since the message that is trying to be portrayed is clearer when depicted in a neoclassical way.

Sources that were used are:

Nineteenth Century Art: A Critical History by Stephen Eisenman

Images were obtained from Google images

ArtStor

ArtStor is one of Rutger's databases that is available. You will need to sign in with your student ID. This database has many images that you can look up.