Introduction to Romanticism –

Romanticism is a movement and feeling that surfaced around the late 18th century, romantics focus more on the natural beauty of the world and the emotions and feelings that come with that.

It was characterised with a focus of emotion, thought/imagination, and individualism. Romanticism placed a strong emphasis on creative freedom and individual expression, as well as a celebration of nature and the wonders of the natural world. Romanticism can be seen as a rejection of the precepts of order ; calm, harmony, balance, idealization and rationality that stereotypically thought out classicism in the 18th century.

Romanticism mood board –

Characteristics of romanticism –

A deepened appreciation of nature is an example of a characteristic which entails that romantic’s look at things with a lot more awe, they take in the natural beauty more then the regular person, appreciating it more. They have a deeper appreciation of the beauty of nature ; the idea of emotion over reason.

A deeper understanding of emotions and the connection of that to the natural world is another example of a characteristic and it means that romantics value and appreciate how beauty affects their emotions and are very in tune with feeling in a sense where a view or picture may make them feel emotions in a deeper way then most people.

The sublime

For Romantics, the sublime is a meeting of the subjective-internal (emotional) and the objective-external (natural world): we allow our emotions to overwhelm our rationality as we experience the wonder of creation.

Edmund Burke believed that the ruling principle of the sublime was terror. ~Whatever therefore is terrible, with regard to sight, is sublime too … Indeed terror is in all cases whatsoever, either more openly or latently, the ruling principle of the sublime. ~Burke was interested in what happens to the self when assailed by that which seems to endanger its survival.