Romanticism was an artistic and intellectual movement that spread across Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It emphasized emotion, imagination, individualism, spontaneity, and a fascination with nature and the past. Romantic artists believed imagination was superior to reason and devoted themselves to depicting feelings and emotions in imaginative forms. Their works, like Caspar David Friedrich's "Wanderer above the Sea of Fog," often featured solitary figures in nightmarish or emotional landscapes. Romantic music also pushed boundaries by including complex melodies and climaxes meant to evoke intense feelings.