Great Art is Both Romantic & Classical
Goethe stated that “Classicism is Health, Romanticism is Sickness.”
Oct 19, 2008
Classicism and Romanticism are both famous for varied and contradictory definitions.
Classicism Based on Tradition
Classicism is basically a reference to Classical authors and artists, namely the ancient Greeks and Romans. Classical influence means that an artistic object has order, balance, and discipline; in short, it is ideal. Nothing can be added to it or removed from it without affecting its perfection. Classicism has been described as an attempt to express infinite ideas and feelings in a finite form.
Romanticism Breaks from the Norm
Romanticism was a 19th-century reaction against Classicism and against tradition. It values individualism and can be thought of as an attempt to express a kind of universal poetry by which the poet makes his own laws. The work of art is viewed as expressive of the artist's mind, the artist’s feelings, the artist's emotions. Romanticism takes very seriously the relationship between the artist and his artwork, believing that artwork should be spontaneous and thus "sincere."
The Romantic movement seemed to favor a longing for a rebirth of the Middle Ages. This fascination with things medieval produced the gothic romance, prompted the Grimm brothers to record their folk tales, and generated a renewed interest in mythology.
Romanticism emphasized individualism and subjective feeling. To romantics, feeling is more important than thinking and one should trust one’s heart over one’s intellect. In contrast, the principles of Classicism value personal restraint and espouse that emotional excess is akin to a disease.
Example of Romantic and Classical Art
Poet Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) displays characteristics of both Romanticism and Classicism. Poe absorbed the then-current wave of romantic thought, which in his day brought significant changes in literary theory and practice. His classical background contributed to his theory of unity of effect and to the rather traditional ways he constructed his poems.
Characteristics of Great Art
All great works of art have both classical aspects and romantic aspects: they have both form and feeling. Great art requires form; great art cannot exist without feeling.
It would seem that Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's famous dictum - “Classicism is Health, Romanticism is Sickness” - shows his belief that health relates to both beauty and moral integrity, while ugliness relates to degeneracy.
Perhaps when Goethe associated classical ideals with health and romantic feelings with sickness he meant that one of the charms of romanticism was its illogical nature. During Romanticism, the disturbed mind was often thought to have a truer path to clarity than that of a rational thinker. Are we really that far from a similar mindset now – witness our present-day interest in “visionary” art of the untrained and the insane.
Sources:
- Bailey, Colin J. The Art Quiz Book: 2000+ Questions on Painters and Paintings. Station Press: Scotland, 1995.
- “Grove Dictionary of Art.” Oxford University Press, 2008.
