Zak Brooks

Del Carey
Essay Questions
WorldCivII
12November2017
Classicism Vs. Romanticism
Classicismand Romanticism are the two main artistic styles. They will remain the baseline for even many of the modern styles of art we see today. Classicism dominated the ancient regime around 1600-1820. Romanticism dominated the early 19thcentury from 1780-1880. Romanticism is arejectionofclassicism.

Some of the main attributes of classicism are that it reflects thescientificrevolution and enlightenment, puttingan emphasis on reason and logic. Classicism was influenced bydescarte’sexplaining deductive reasoning and bacon’s scientific observations. Classicists that therearenatural laws that govern the universe and everything in it. Classicism isidealistic, that means everything has a perfection and an ideal. This means that things need to be perceived as what they should be not what they are because one can never achieve perfection. Classicism believes that the closest we have come to perfection was with the power and might of the empires of Greece and rome. Because of that they feel that everything greek and roman should be copied to achieve perfection. Classicism mainly uses pastel colors as they give off a light and airy feeling. Classicism is both mythological and humanistic believing that there was once a perfect time of gods but also on the everyday person and their struggles to get through life.
The main concepts of Romanticism are that it refers to emotion and passion. Romanticism discounts natural laws stating that nature isn’t perfect, it cannot be controlled. This leads to a greater concept that there are things that are more powerful that the natural laws. These lead to the fact of supernatural, that man cannot explain everything there’s higher power. Romanticism also believes that that idealism is a hoax, there is only realism and the reality we perceive, which allows the supernatural to occur. Realism will grow with the movement, and eventually spawn its own style. Things need to be perceived as they are nt what the should be because no one will ever have the power to determine what should be. They also believe that there is no such thing as perfection that it’s the individual that matters. The thing that makes you different should be celebrated. They glorify the middle ages because it was the rejection of Greece and Rome that created the modern nations. Romanticism is heavy and dark, they feel that the trespasser should be excluded and it should not seem open and inviting. Because of this they tend to use earth tones because they are dark and heavy. Romanticism is nationalistic and thus emphasizes what makes every nation different.
The main difference between the two is that romanticism is just basically a big rejection of all classicism ideas. Romanticism focus more on the what it is be rather than classicism where they are all what it should be. Basically, every element of these two styles is different in the fact that romanticism will never agree with classicism. The architecture is also extremely different. In classicism they seem to use much simpler straight lines and that “perfect” style whereas romanticism seems to use much more elaborate styles. Romanticism says that there is no such thing as perfect because no one is good enough to say what perfect is. In classicism they say that there is always a perfect idea that everyone should strive for based off of the Greece and Roman styles.
I feel that based on the beliefs I fit more into the romanticism because I feel that nothing can be done perfect you can get close but it could always be better. You just need to be ok with how you do things and accept that it may not be considered perfect to everyone. When looking at the artwork though I feel like I enjoy the classicism more just because I enjoy the more colorful side rather than the earth tones.