2. The Romantic Hero
People who embodied Romantic
qualities:
1. Free-spirited
2. Unconventional behavior
3. Original
Napoleon, Beethoven, Chopin, Keats,
Lord Byron, Frederick Douglass, etc.
3. Values of Romanticism
Belief in the natural goodness of man
(Rousseau)
Glorification of the self
Love of nature, the exotic, history in a
nostalgic way
Originality
Rejection of Enlightenment ideals
Interest in folk tradition, nationalism
4. The Napoleonic Era
1799 – disillusioned citizens
New hero: Napoleon Bonaparte
Dreams of imperial glory
Crowned himself emperor in 1804
Campaign to conquer Europe
Defeated in 1814 at Waterloo
Imprisoned for the rest of his life at St.
Helena
5. Napoleon and the Arts
Imitated Roman emperors – made Paris imperial
capital like Rome
Power advertised by arts and buildings
Louvre – a museum for pieces stolen from
conquered countries
Triumphal arches and columns
La Madeleine – made in the style of a Greek
temple
Jacques-Louis David was “Painter to the
Empire”
Coronation scene and equestrian painting
6. Beethoven
Suffering romantic genius
Deafness at 25
Pianist in Vienna, able to sell his compositions
Added piccolo and trombone to the symphonic
orchestra
Symphony Number 5 in C Minor
Confrontation with fate: “fate knocking at the
door”
Motif – a term for short musical idea
Symphony No. 3, Eroica, was the bridge between
Classical style and Romantic style
7. Musical Virtuosos
Paganini – the violin
Chopin – the piano
Schumann -- songs and symphonies
Clara Schumann – lieder (songs)
Brahms – symphonies
8. Goethe and Faust
Faust – a romantic masterpiece drama in
two parts
Delacroix illustrated a French translation
Schubert composed songs
Gounod – the opera Faust – the ambition
to burst all human constraint and indulge
unquenched desire for experience
9. Delacroix and the Byronic Hero
French more attracted to sensuality of
Lord Byron – Don Juan, life of sexual
freedom, political idealism and exotic
travel.
Intellectual and moral freedom
Eugène Delacroix rebelled against the
academy
Color, drama, and exotic themes
10. Liberty Leading the People
Fig. 17.5
Revolution of 1830 overthrew the
Bourbon king
Unity of the classes
“Liberty” is idealized
11. Romantic Social Protest:
William Blake
Sympathetic observer of those enslaved
by the industrial city
Condemned the ills of urban existence
12. Romantic Feminism
Mary Wollstonecraft – A Vindication of the
Rights of Women, compared women to
soldiers
Revolutions did not liberate women
Napoleon’s legal code denied women the
right to hold property
Western nations did not allow women to
vote
13. Goya and Spain
Goya’s paintings depicted the senseless
brutality of war: Great Courage! Against
Corpses! (fig. 17.3)
Executions of the Third of May, 1808 (fig.
17.2)
Christ-like martyr in white
Lamp = enlightenment (irony)
14. The Romantics and Nature
Romantic landscapes
Constable: The Haywain (fig. 17.8), rustic
landscapes
Turner: The Slave Ship (fig. 17.9), colors
of sea and sky
Thomas Moran: Grand Canyon of the
Yellowstone (fig. 17.11), the drama of
nature
15. Romantic Exoticism
Middle classes become strong
Drawn to exotic and grotesque
Colonies overseas in Africa and Asia
Fascination with Arabic customs and
dress
Ingres – a disciple of David: La Grande
Odalisque (fig. 17.6), classical figures
16. Berlioz’s Symphonie
Fantastique
Innovated with program music
(composition that tells a story or describes
a place)
Story of Irish actress who rejected him
By the fifth movement, the musician is
dead and his beloved joins the celebration
in a witches’ dance
The macabre
17. The Romantic Novel
Fascination with evil and the demonic –
the “Gothic” novel
Edgar Allan Poe
Charlotte and Emily Brontë
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Hero who suffers a conflict between his
God-like ambitions and moral blindness
