The Raft of the 'Medusa' by Theodore Gericault

I think the artist is able to communicate the bad condition of the ship and its crew is in. The mood of the work is scary and gloomy. The design and intensity of the waves, the changing weather, and the ships in the ocean seem to make the scene come alive. It really conveys a since of naturalism in the painting the way it depicts the environment around the ship.

The suffering is reflected in the face of every passenger and it is the main focus of the piece than any other element. The Raft's theme of human suffering evoked empathy and compassion, which helped project the image beyond any hopes the artist could have held for the piece. This predominant focus on the human condition allowed a stereotypical Romantic piece. Another artist famous for highlighting the human condition was Spanish-born, Pablo Picasso.

The Romanticism art movement praised imagination over reason, emotions over logic, and literature over science. The Romanticism artists were known for replacing the classical 18th century literature heroes with much more complex and passionate characters. Romanticism focuses on self-expression and individual uniqueness that does not lend itself to be defined nor controlled by society. The landscape on Romanticism was commonly displayed in cool rich colors and untamed peaceful surroundings. In Romanticism, nature was used to represent the extension of the human personality, the capability of feeling love, serenity, and sympathy.

Romanticism. Romanticism is characterized by its impressive expressiveness in harmonic and thematic process with an increasing weight of chromatic and dissonant elements. There is a new tendency to give a particular importance to timber, texture and rhythm. Like the Renaissance after the Middle Ages, Romantic composers want to express the new-found independence of the humanity that is no longer under the constraining influence of the strict model that classical composers follow. Some Romantic compositions express a powerful individualism while others express the beauties and terrors of nature, but the most common theme is nationalism.

There is a particular painting that portrays the style of Romanticism very effectively. In the painting "The Execution of Third of May" by Francisco Goya, we can see a great example of an artist who utilized the style of the day to create a piece of art that leaves an impression. Francisco Goya was from Spain, and a large part of the Romantic work that took place there was portrayed through Goya's work. This particular painting of his, is an example of Romantic Nationalism. There is a large story behind what is seen in paint. The historical context of this painting involves Portugal, when Spain and France invaded into Portugal. Spain was defeated, and overrun by Napoleon. Napoleon made his brother King of Spain, but on May 2 1808 the Spanish

Voyage on the Great Titanic, by Ellen Emerson White, is the diary of Margaret Ann Brady. This book is about a young girl that is given a once in a lifetime chance to do something amazing that ended up being a disaster. The setting takes place aboard the Titanic. The setting affects its characters because if Margaret hadn’t gotten the chance to board the Titanic, she wouldn’t have experienced the horrible things that happened. I know this because Margret says, “Most of all, I hope I can learn how to forgive myself for still being alive, when so many others are not.”

In the time when the French salon would have been looking for a Rococo style painting of important figures and royalty to hang in their gallery they accepted Gericault’s work as it was an extreme change from the typical types of paintings they hung. It represented the nameless souls who fought to stay alive upon the raft. Jeffaris (2005) exclaims “This event was a political scandal - and Gericault's painting - an exposé - a 17th Century tabloid headline!”. They knew it would create a stir and grasp attention, and it has become iconic for the the way in witch it broke traditions. This event had a huge effect publicly because of the fact that the lower ranking people were left behind to die while the wealthier and more important people escaped on life rafts. This is quite metaphorical of the political situation in France in this period (after revolution) as the wealthy got wealthier and the poor were left to starve and die. Its ironic that this painting of such a horrible event was such a symbol of hope for the lower class of France at the time. It showed the strength of the weak and poor, it showed that the lower class had the strength to survive even after the wealthy had taken everything and left them to die. Giving hope to the lower tier of society that anyone can make it regardless of their status. From the description of Medusa (n.d.) the raft of the medusa was “Intended as a political statement about the disorderly state of the French

Work of art from the Romantic time period shares many similarities with work that is seen in the modern world and today’s audience can relate greatly to art from that time. There is a strong sense of emotion and erotic response in art in the modern age and people react strongly to that. Art from romanticism brings out the same emotion and response.

The horizontal lines of the land represent calmness and te diagonal and vertical lines of the sea represents power and ever changing . There is a contrast with these two such as the sea is ever changing and the land that is hard slow to change. Next I looked at the shapes of the painting. With landscapes, such as this painting, there is organic shapes that show the chaos and never ending change of the ocean and storm that is pounding the land that is calm. I then looked at the contrast of the waves and land then the sky and storm. The waves are dark with the land being light with the opposite light above the dark waves and dark above the light land area. It makes it seem like the storm clouds are passing with the rising of the

All the colors in the scene have an earthy tone, meaning there is a lot of browns, dark greens and yellows. This works because they’re supposed to be at a boy scout camp, and are learning to be experts in the

My definition of romanticism is when nature played a huge part to all the great artists and writers of the time. The Period of romanticism took place during the 1800s when individuals put emotion into their work and cared about education, literature, and natural history. The true romantics wanted to escape the industrial age and move away from urbanization and population in general. The romantic revolution paved the way for many writers and artists because people felt free and it gave inspiration for original ideas. Some of the great novelists surfaced during the Romanic age, one of which was marry shelly who wrote Frankenstein a masterpiece during its time.

Webster's dictionary states the definition of Romanticism as "a movement in literature and art during the late 18th and early 19th centuries that celebrated nature rather than civilization". Romanticism was a movement that helped generated other movements, but brought a new form of literature that was well embraced during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Romanticism can be used to describe a time period when poets, painters, essayists and composers increasingly came to view nature itself as the greatest teacher (Sayre 177). Romantic artist believed that the past Classical values of dominance were over. Romanticism believed by a new way of living one where emotion and feeling can into play. Romantics had a very deep and passionate feeling for the beauty of nature and how it corresponds to life. The emotion of the new view of an individual creator, whose creative spirit is more important than strict adherence to formal rules and traditional procedures in romanticism (Britannica). I feel that people felt a time of relief when painting they did not need to feel like they were subject to a certain

In reaction to The Enlightenment, the period of Romanticism rises in the nineteenth century; with its major influences in the arts. Romantics focused on the individual and emotion over reason. Nature is their biggest influence. Through nature romantics could be closer to a supreme being. When it came it religion, the romantics were drawn to Christianity, but did not consider themselves Christians. In her essay “Defence of Poetry,” Percy Shelley describes the characteristics of Romanticism, when describing poetry. She uses phrases like “the expression of the imagination,” to describe poetry. (Percy Shelley, Defence of Poetry). In her essay Shelley describes what true poetry is and consists of. Her descriptions resemble the ones of Romanticism. Thus, what is Romanticism? It is one of the hardest periods to define as Hobsbawm states, “As a style, a school, an era in the arts, nothing is harder to define or even describe in terms of formal analysis…” (The Age of Revolution, 257). Even though Romanticism can be described as undefinable, its presence could be felt throughout Europe.

One of the key themes within the idea of Romanticism is ‘the artist’. Taking Lowy and Sayre’s definition of romanticism into account, this figure could be described as