Research Symposium Program - Individual Details

Romantic Expression in Art: A Study of Nineteenth Century Romanticism and Belief

Abstract

Romanticism was a complex social movement and period of history, which is associated with the Romantic line of thought that originated during that time and continues today. With mass changes stemming from human discovery, an equally massive backlash tends to follow. Romanticism is one of these backlashes. Best known for its explosive expansion around the Industrial Revolution, Romanticism became the name for those holding beliefs such as an affinity for nature and a subsequent opposition to the evolution of technology. Many experts, such as Edwin Berry Bergum and Edward F. Kravitt, have attempted to define Romanticism, but have been unable to encompass all of its facets, given the flexible outlines of Romantic thought, undeterminable chronical start to the movement, and indiscernible ending to the movement (if one has yet to, or could, occur). Without a widely recognized definition of Romanticism, the movement must be considered by the works that uphold its legacy. The arts became an outlet for Romantics, with authors like Jane Austen and Mary Shelly, musicians like Vaughan Williams, and artists like Ivan Aivazovsky, utilizing their passions to create pieces representing their beliefs. It is the intention of this paper to examine the correlation between Romanticism as an outlet to express belief in the nineteenth century, and the subsequent increase of Romantic art at the time. Specifically, the goal is to use these findings to aid the understanding of human expression and how it can be identified, and therefore further studied as the curiosity that it is.

Keywords: Romanticism, Art, Belief, Expression, History