Romanticism - A Beauty of Conception

Houses of Parliament, London, England by Sir Charles Barry & Augustus Pugin

Romanticism was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. Romanticism was a period in art where great sweeping natural scenes were depicted. Mountains, gorges, lakes, lighthouses. Anything that showed the power of nature.

Romanticism can be seen as a rejection of the precepts of order, calm, harmony, balance, idealization, and rationality that defined Classicism in general and late 18th-century Neoclassicism in particular. Romanticism emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental aspects.

Romanticism in architecture is a broad term. The most common styles tend to be the revival styles. The manifestations of romanticism can vary greatly by region. Romanticism in architecture was based on a rejection of Classicism and Neoclassicism, and was at the beginning of industrialisation where gardens were designed with a natural flow as opposed to the orderly designs of Neoclassicism. It was influenced by the Romanticism movement which influenced literature and art in the late 18th to mid 19th century. Its origins were in England but quickly spreading to Germany as well. The focus was on individualism, imagination, emotive, transcendental and personal visionary journeys through the age of enlightenment. The style is asymmetrical in shape, and more subjective in interpretation and often finished with a dome structure or tower.

The Royal Pavilion - Brighton

Romanticism can be characterised by ;

Irregular floor plans, the use of iron as a building material, a dome or tower in the design, subjective expression and evoking styles of the past.

The style was favoured by cathedrals and churches, which were often grandiose in design and ornately decorated with gargoyles, spires, and crenulations. Romanticism architecture is subjective of past styles such as Gothic, which is seen in the mid 19th century Gothic Revival. Because of the subjective nature of Romanticism Architecture there is no typical example to display but this image of the Crystal Palace in London is a fine example of it.

The Crystal Palace designed by architect Sir Joseph Paxton

Romanticism being depicted as beautifying the earth

I'd like to conclude with that, that Romanticisim era deals with all the emotions in the form of art, literature, music and architecture and makes us realize the importance of imagination and how it gives us different experience into divulging to the beauty of humanity and nature.

"Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart."

- William Wordsworth, English Romantic poet

Hope you liked the reading. Stay tuned for more!