Romanticism and Romantic Painting - Essay Example

?HISTORY QUESTIONS When the word ‘romantic’ is mentioned, the very first thought that may come to a person’s mind is love. For this reason, romantic painting would readily mean the painting of love themes. But Berk (2000) notes that romanticism was movement originating towards the end of the 18th century in Europe that was focused on artistic, literary and intellectual glorification. Romantic painting has therefore been said to be concerned with the glorification of concepts around the human facet of life (Doniger, 1999). Rightly said, the feature of romanticism and romantic painting will be outlined. First, romanticism and romantic painting was distinguished for its revolt against aristocratic social standards that was in place from 1800 to 1850 as part of the Age of Enlightenment. Rightly so, the visual artistic aspects of romanticism and for that matter romantic painting were focused on the glorification of complex concepts that were anti-aristocratic and anti-scientific rationalization. Some of these concepts included liberty, ideals, hope, heroism, despair, and other themes of nature (Wagner, 2006). A typical example of this is Thomas Jones’s The Bard in 1774. Baroque painting is also an art form that emanated out of a social desire to drum home the ideologies and thoughts of a group of people. It was therefore born out of the Baroque Cultural Movement, making Baroque painting very population right from the 17th century and into the 18th century (Harris and Butterworth, 2002). The features of Baroque painting can be directly linked to the ideologies and concepts that the Baroque Cultural Movement represented. For example because of the support for Absolutism, the Counter Reformation and Catholic Revival, most Baroque painting were done with dramatic background when the events were taking place (Berk, 2000). It would be expected that most of these dramatic painting events would exemplify the concepts and notion of catholic revolution undertaken in rich, deep colour and sensational light and dark shadows. A typical example of this is Jan Brueghel’s The Entry of the Animals Into Noah's Ark in 1613. 2. The characterization of Srujit So-and-so is used by the author to depict two major socio-political ideologies and concepts, which are the Western culture and traditional Indian culture. Among the two, Srijut So-and-so plays his roles through his personal experience of having tasted all two cultures to show two clear forms of political conceptualizations. Generally, it could be said that the Western culture as experienced by Srijut So-and-so was more of a liberal society where there was not much for a person to think outside his or her own interest. This is to say that in Western culture, people were more individualistic and did not care much about what was happening with the other person. This created a sense of liberalism. A typical example of this is exemplified with the statement, “After nightfall I was caught and overwhelmed in the snare of a strange intoxication, I would then be transformed into some unknown personage of a bygone age, playing my part in unwritten history.” The traditional Indian culture did not present the character with much of the freedom and liberty he had with the Western culture to explore the unknown personality in him. This is because most of the principles of social politicking was society based instead of person based. What this means is that there were strict social rules and principles that guided the way people should live. For a person who had experienced other forms of culture, this would be seen as a restrictive lonely life. It is not surprising that places that were built by the Emperor Mahmud Shah II for pleasure and luxury were even referred to as lonely places. Quite differently from Kong Yiji, the character of Kong was of concern to the entire society. The society around him expected him to glorify himself with scholastic reputation rather than strict traditional ideologies. 3. The description of Jean-Jacques Rousseau on the relationship between individuals and the society is rightly trumpeted in his claim in The Social Contract that “Men are born free, yet everywhere are in chains.” Indeed, in the opinion of Jean-Jacque Rousseau, all men are born as free being who should otherwise have the freedom to manipulate the social world around them and decide on how the world around them should be moved. Rather contritely, this is not how Jean-Jacque Rousseau sees the relationship between individuals and the society. In his opinion, it is society rather that controls the individuals and decides on how the individual should conduct himself. This means that even though we are each born into the world as free individuals, we are into a social contract with society through rules, culture, traditions and ideologies in which we are born to live according to. In comparison to W.E.B Du Bois, there will be both similarities and differences in opinion. As far as similarities are concerned, both Du Bois and Rousseau admit that people are always forced to live according to the dictates of the world around them. But from the perspective of Du Bois, this form of influence has often impacted on the individual negatively when there are conflicting social perceptions. A typical example of such conflicting social perceptions is when people of African descent are born in America or Europe and must be forced to embody the nature of both African and European or American cultures. According to Du Bois, such a situation creates a double consciousness for the individual involved (Harris and Butterworth, 2002). 4. History has seen several forms of revolutions, reformations and restoration struggles in various parts of the world. Meiji Restoration is one of such restorations in Japanese history that was aimed at reinstituting imperial rule to Japan in the 19th century, and specifically 1868 under the leadership of Emperor Meiji. Compared to other reformations made in other parts of the world such as Egypt, there are a number of differences in approach or attempt to the restoration that can be seen. Even though both the Meiji Restoration and Egyptian revolutions were aimed at ending existing rules and bringing about new forms of rules, the Meiji Restoration was more focused on the use of political diplomatic processes involving the use of alliances such as the use of the Satsuma-Choshu Alliance in 1866. Through such similar alliances, it was possible to engage the existing Western empire in an ideological battle that was focused on winning the hearts of ordinary Japanese in supporting the Meiji Restoration. In the Egyptian efforts however, pockets of war and violence characterized the reformations. Unlike the use of the Charter Oath in restoring the imperial government in Japan, no such oaths and political diplomacies were used in the effort made in Egypt. One other important distinction is seen in the overall perception of struggle for change. This is because while the Japanese were seeking a change in the feudal society that existed into an all new Western influenced Japan, the Egyptians were seeking for a formulation of something that had been with them for generations. This was the Egyptian civilization that the people did not want to be adulterated with any forms of influences, especially from the West. 5. On the whole, the French Revolution could be said to be have been characterized by the goal of bring liberty to all French people. This was however done through various specific objectives of radical political and social unrests. For example for there to be consolidated freedom, the revolutionists believed there had to be a French constitution that would clearly define the scope of freedom and liberties for the ordinary French. They also believed that the constitution would be better regulated if France was a republic. There was therefore a goal of making France a republic. Yet again, this would not be achieved if the monarch system led by Louis XVI was not overthrown (Wagner, 2006). Above all, the French Revolution was an advocacy for bringing more and more protection of the rights of the people known as the third estate, who were the poorest class of French people. But within the early and late eras of the revolution, historians have argued that there was so much that changed in terms of goals and ideologies. At least, even if the central goals remained, it is common knowledge that the approach used in the revolution changed greatly. Spanning from 1789 to 1799, periods from 1789 to 1792 were thought of to be more diplomatic and peaceful with the use of National Constituent Assembly, which was in place from 1789–1791, and Legislative Assembly, which was in place from 1791–1792. War and Counter-Revolution that was experienced from 1792–1797 brought about several changes, even in the goals, including a renewed goal to target the personality of Louis XVI leading to his execution, rather than an attack on the principles of the king. In totality however, the revolution could be said to be successful, even though through a wrong approach as it brought about a prosperous middle class that had become more conscious of its social importance and identity (Doniger, 1999). 6. There were several dimensions and scopes of the industrial revolution or industrialization in the 18th and 19th century in Europe and UK to be specific. One of these is the effect of industrialization on the social structure of Britain. Generally, it would be noted that industrialization was born out of the British Agricultural Revolution, which brought about an overwhelming growth and increase in agricultural productivity. The social structure of Britain thus became characterized with massive and rapid population growth because there was enough for families to feed themselves with. What is more, several people were freed from the farming workforce into a more industrialized scope of workforce as a result of industrialization. As a result, the social standards of several people became enhanced as there was availability of money. As a long term effect, most people who were otherwise in the lower class had their social standards rising to higher class. The effect of the industrialization on the social class of Britain and other European countries is much similar to what was experienced in Japan. Historians have explained that the reason for similarities is because the industrialization that was experienced in Japan was the direct fall out of the Meiji Restoration, which also came, living so much Western influence on the social structure of Japan (Brophy, 2002). The Japanese social structure, which was otherwise confirmed to traditional Japanese way of life because more liberal and focused of the creation of wealth for ordinary Japanese so as to raise their status and class in society. Cited Works Berk, L.E. (2000). Child development. Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon. Brophy, J M. (2002). Perspectives from the past: primary sources in Western civilizations. New York: Adam Smith, Wealth of nations, Doniger, W. (1999). Splitting the difference. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Harris, M and Butterworth, G (2002). Developmental Psychology: A student Handbook. Hove: Psychology Press Wagner, M. (2006). Born in the USA: How a Broken Historic System t. Berkeley: University of California, 2006 Read More

 

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