Despite the early efforts of pioneers like El Greco (Domenikos Theotocopoulos) (1541-1614), Adam Elsheimer (1578-1610) and Claude Lorrain (1604-82), the style we know as Romanticism did not gather momentum until the end of the 18th century when the heroic element in Neoclassicism was given a central role in painting. This heroic element combined with revolutionary idealism to produce an emotive Romantic style, which emerged in the wake of the French Revolution as a reaction against the restrained academic art of the arts establishment. The tenets of romanticism included: a return to nature - exemplified by an emphasis on spontaneous plein-air painting - a belief in the goodness of humanity, the promotion of justice for all, and a strong belief in the senses and emotions, rather than reason and intellect. Romantic painters and sculptors tended to express an emotional personal response to life, in contrast to the restraint and universal values advocated by Neoclassical art. 19th Century architects, too, sought to express a sense of Romanticism in their building designs: see, for instance, Victorian architecture (1840-1900).
Among the greatest Romantic painters were Henry Fuseli (1741-1825), Francisco Goya (1746-1828), Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840), JMW Turner (1775-1851), John Constable (1776-1837), Theodore Gericault (1791-1824) and Eugene Delacroix (1798-63). Romantic art did not displace the Neoclassical style, but rather functioned as a counterbalance to the latter's severity and rigidity. Although Romanticism declined about 1830, its influence continued long after. NOTE: To see the role that Romantic painting played in the evolution of 19th century art, see: Realism to Impressionism (1830-1900).
The Nightmare (1781)
Artist: Henry Fuseli
Artwork description & Analysis: Fuseli's strange and macabre painting depicts a ravished woman, draped across a divan with a small, hairy incubus sitting on top of her, staring out menacingly at the viewer. A mysterious black mare with white eyes and flaring nostrils appears behind her, entering the scene through lush, red curtains. We seem to be looking at the effects and the contents of the woman's dream at the same time.
Fuseli's ghastly scene was the first of its kind in the midst of The Age of Reason, and Fuseli became something of a transitional figure. While Fuseli held many of the same tenets as the Neoclassicists (notice the idealized depiction of the woman), he was intent on exploring the dark recesses of human psychology when most were concerned with scientific exploration of the objective world. When shown in 1782 at London's Royal Academy exhibition, the painting shocked and frightened visitors. Unlike the paintings the public was used to seeing, Fuseli's subject matter was not drawn from history or the bible, nor did it carry any moralizing intent. This new subject matter would have wide-ranging repercussions in the art world. Even though the woman is bathed in a bright light, Fuseli's composition suggests that light is unable to penetrate the darker realms of the human mind.
The relationship between the mare, the incubus, and the woman remains suggestive and not explicit, heightening the terrifying possibilities. Fuseli's combination of horror, sexuality, and death insured the image's notoriety as a defining example of Gothic horror, which inspired such writers as Mary Shelly and Edgar Allen Poe.
Oil on canvas - Detroit Institute of Art.
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