Romanticism: The Exaltation of Emotion over Reason

Caspar David Friedrich - The Sea of Ice - c. 1823-25 - Oil on canvas - 96.7 x 126.9 cm - Kunsthalle, Hamburg (click photo for larger image)Romanticism was an orientation that characterized literature, painting, music, architecture, criticism, and historiography in Western Civilization from the late 18th to the mid-19th century. Order, calm, harmony, balance, idealization, and rationality were rejected in favor of the beauties of nature, the exaltation of emotion over reason, and of the senses over intellect. A new view of the artist as a supremely individual creator, whose creative spirit is more important than strict adherence to formal rules and traditional procedures arose, with an emphasis upon imagination as a gateway to transcendent experience and spiritual truth. The German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) was also inspired by medieval motifs, which were very “romantic” in nature, long before the label of “romanticism” was created.