"By giving the commonplace a high meaning . . ."

“By giving the commonplace a high meaning, the ordinary a mysterious aspect, the known the dignity of the unknown, the finite the aura of infinity, I romanticize it.” – Novalis (Frederick von Hardenburg, 1772-1801)

Romanticism by Norbert Wolf is a beautiful but simple book of Romantic era paintings

 (about 30), with brief introductions to the various artists and a reasonably well scripted introduction to the genre of Romantic art. Of most use to the course on Romantic Era thought and art I am building, the introduction takes the reader on a tour of Germany, France, England, Scandanavia, America and beyond and shows how the same impulse to create romantic art manifested in these different places in different ways.

There are, unfortunately for my purposes, just too many names of too many artists per paragraph for this small guide to the art of the period to function as a textbook but as an ancillary, it would be most helpful. It has given me some leads to follow up on.

Rousseau: Musings of a Lonely Vagabond

Edmund Burke: A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful –

John Ruskin: Modern Painters (1843)

Comments

[mommalibrarian]

Too bad no one sells 'slide decks' (note my age) / DVDs of the illustrations. The cover makes me think there must be some great ones inside. A new picture on the wall behind you for each class .... very nice