Explorations of Art

The Romantic Era took place in the 19th century and consisted of a large range of creative freedoms and unique styles. Going into the 1800's, Europe was turning a corner and seeing unparalleled diversity and technology, making it no surprise that art also grew in diversity and began to draw from a larger base of influences. Some popular influences of the Romantic era are human behaviors, emotions, and experiences. At this point, the majority of art in this style has separated from religious influences that were characteristics of earlier artistic eras; and instead turned towards the human experience. I focused on paintings that came from France during this era so that it can be better observed how different artists approached portraying the world when faced with similar social, economic, political, and religious influences. Romanticism Romanticism was characterized by its sense for the dramatic. Romanticism liked to represent the world through an extreme lens. It was heavily focuse...

In the 1700's, art began to shift its focus once again. This time, the artists and architect's drew their inspiration from classic Greek and Roman influences. They also drew inspiration from new scientific discoveries such as the ruins of Pompeii. The discovery and exploration of ancient Greek and Roman ruins led to a new focus in the arts that re-ignited the use of ancient art and architecture approaches. Acts of heroism and selflessness also began to take the stage. Neoclassical describes the new use of classical influences. Neo means "new" so neoclassical means "new classical". In this era, classical was referencing the ancient Greek and Roman art ( Jackie, ThoughtCo ). The architecture in specific caught my eye as a beautiful rebirth of Greek and Roman architecture. Some of the key aspects of ancient Greek and Roman architecture, drawn from ancient ruins, included symmetry, arches, columns, and proportion ( Kljaich, Art200x ). Church of the Madeleine, Fr...