Free Case Study On Romanticism And Neoclassical Art

Neoclassical paintings were prevalent during the late 18th century. In France, the era was led by a French painter David Louis who lived between 1748 and 1825. The neoclassical paintings generally put emphasis on austere linear design in depicting the subject matter. During the French revolution, a new style of painting arose. It had a lot of borrowed aspects from the Roman style that was well known for simplicity, austerity, heroism and stoic virtue as it was in the Roman republic. Considering the political environments, there existed parallelism in the way the ideas were used. The neoclassical painters attached more concern to costumes, background settings and the subject matter unlike the Roman painters who attached more concern to heroism and austerity.
Romanticism paintings came after the neoclassical paintings drawing most of their contents from the neoclassical paintings. These forms of paintings were the neoclassical paintings with an emotional attitude depicted in it. From the idea of romanticism, the neoclassical paintings took another turn and instead of only depicting the costumes, heroism and subject matter, they started communicating more about emotions as well. This occurred towards the end of the 18th century and in the early 19th century. Romanticism also relied on the genies traits of the artist. It was used to show how an artist would come up with something of originality which was not copied or illuminated by another person in the past. The third characteristic of this style of painting was the restlessness of the spirit of the artist. It depicts that the artist had lots of conflicting that were depicted through then work done.
As earlier described, the neoclassical paintings emphasized more on costumes, background settings the subject matter. Little attention was paid to the emotions thus reserved emotions were depicted. So as to depict this, the paintings had sharp lines, deliberate mathematical composition reserved feelings and cool colors to ensure the background setting does not scare the audience.
Comparing the two paintings, the first one depicts neoclassic characteristics. The main feature exhibited in this photo about neoclassic is the sharp curves that result in the sharp images. The emotion of terror or tension is very much suppressed since the images show people who are not in a hurry to evade being rained on. The background colors contrast greatly creating a very real background which can’t be easily detested. The painting also tries to emphasize on the French costumes which were common during the era. Therefore the painting depicts a lot of characteristics of neoclassic era.
The second painting about the biblical story of the storm in the Galilean sea when Jesus was crossing, there is great imagination of the scene. The great imagination makes the artist paint a picture full of emotions. As an example, we can see from the painting that the disciples are terrified and trying to control the boat in the sea. We can also see Jesus sleeping in the belly of the boat while the disciples try to get the boat to the shore. This painting depicts great imagination of the whole scene and how it looked like though the artist was not present to witness it. The emotions depicted also add to the characteristics of the painting making it to be termed as a painting of romanticism era. The curves are not very sharp since the painting is an imagination unlike the first picture which has sharp curves and color contrast to depict a real background and scene.
In conclusion, it is evident that the romanticism era of painting was drawn from the neoclassic style which depicts more of reality than imagination. By adding emotions and imagination of scenes some of which might not be real makes the neoclassic style change to romanticism. Hence, one can loosely define romanticism as neoclassic style which depicts great imagination and emotion.