Art And History Assignment Reports

Running head: ART AND HISTORY
ART AND HISTORY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Authors note

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ART AND HISTORY
The Romanticism or the Romantic movement has risen the belief that artistic
manifestation contributes to the ethical evolution of society. Almost after two centuries of
supremacy of the scientific consideration of reality. Finally the art has started to be proclaimed as
subsequent sources regarding spiritual insight, which was necessary for society’s welfare. The
romantic artists are now seen as the creator of amalgamating symbols in a fragmented
edification. “Beauty alone can confer upon him a social character. Taste alone brings harmony
into society, because it fosters harmony in the individual” (Schiller, 1795/1967, p. 215). In the
field of art history, originality became the centrally valuable notion, which gave rise to the
concept of romanticism (Sigaki, Perc and Ribeiro, 2018). This movement has brought an end to
the eighteenth century movement of neoclassicism (Furst, 2017). Artists were started to be
considered as the persons whose power of imagination was an aptitude of instantaneous insight,
which superior to science, thus art was a traditionally relevant arrangement of knowledge
(Hemingway, 2017).
Born in Swiss, the painter named Henry Fuseli from the year 1741 to until the year 1825,
has been considered as one of the inordinate originators of the Romantic Movement (Gill, 2016).
In London, at the Royal Academy he won his very first acclaim in the year 1781, when he
exhibited his famous work of Nightmare. Most of Henry’s works were based on literal
elucidations of literary passages selected for their deep psychological level, intense horror,
extreme mystery and intrigue. Similarly, the painting “Nightmare” comprises of chiaroscuro
lighting, overt sexuality and dramatic intensity was atypical of Henry’s oeuvre, however, it was
centred on imagination and folklore rather than any particular literary source. As per the
reference of his friend John Knowles, Fuseli’s favourite ‘foreign poet’ is Dante and throughout
his life, he sought inspiration from the divine comedies of Dante, especially the Inferno.

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ART AND HISTORY
Knowles states that, “Dante’s imagery made the deepest impression on Fuseli’s mind”, this
statement has been supported by many visual interpretations. Due to Fuseli’s religious and
academic training along with his biographical background and his contradictory and complex
view of morality shows his extreme contribution over the field of art history.
One of the most recognised and popular work of Henry Fuseli is his painting named “The
Nightmare”. This painting falls under the category of macabre and strange piece of art, which
depicts an enchanted woman, swathed across a divan and a small hairy incubus is sitting on top
of her body, who is menacingly staring at the viewers, also a black and mysterious mare white
flaring nostrils and white eyes is appearing through the red lush curtains behind the incubus. The
connection between the incubus and the mare with the woman remnants suggestive and not
overtly expressed, that heightens the petrifying possibilities. Fuseli’s amalgamation of sexuality,
horror and death indemnifies the pictures disrepute as an example of Gothic terror (Davison,
2016).

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ART AND HISTORY
In terms of William Blake, although he is well known by everyone as a poet to the world,
but he is a significant artist in the field Art History falling under the movement of Romanticism
(Honour, 2018). His life and his work delivers the template for the understanding of our
contemporary notion of artists. However, due to lack success in the commercial ground, Blake
has to live with extreme poverty. His life can be considered as a life in thrall to an individualistic
and sometimes iconoclastic. Through his paintings, poems and prints, William Blake has
constructed a mythological universe of a complexity and in depth to bout the Divine comedy of
Dante. Blake was possibly the quintessential Romantic artist. He was different among all other
artists of his time, as his spiritual vision was rare and was centralised to his creativity and
uniquely and crucially knowledgeable by a critical imaginative pantheon of his self-creation,
which was populated by deities, like, Los, Enitharmion,Urizen and many more grand
metaphorical with Blake’s own design.

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ART AND HISTORY
One of his personal favourite work of himself and the most famous work was, “The
Ancient of Days”, which he created in the 1794, this is one of the most recognizable work of
Blake’s, portraying a godlike figure which has beard is genuflecting on a disk of flame
measuring a dark annulled with the help of a golden compass. This is the figure of Urizen, which
is a Blake’s self-invented fictional Deity, that is developing a part of the artists mythological
complexity; exemplifying the spirit of law and reason, which are the perceptions having a very
vexed spot in Blake’s moral universe. The figure of Urizen features a character in various
illuminated poems of Blake, such as, Europe: A Prophecy, where Urizen was an oppressive
force, obstructing the positive power of imagination, and implements gothic feel (Corgan, 2018).
Hence, in conclusion it can considered that the movement of Romanticism has
contributed a lot in the field of History of Art, and regarding this two of the famous romantic
artists are mentioned above with all their work and life details along with picture and its details,
which ultimately validates the point of contribution that has been provided by this movement.
Apart from William Blake and Henry Fuseli, there are many other artists who have give their
significant part in developing the field of Art. In addition, there are many movements which have
helped in development and growth of the art world but taking the romanticism in account it can
be considered that this has left the most solid imprints, as this added ethical value and emotions
to this field.

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ART AND HISTORY
References:
Cogan, L. (2018). William Blake's monstorus progeny: Anatomy and the birth of horror in The
[First] Book of Urizen. In William Blake's Gothic imagination. Manchester University
Press.
Davison, M. (2016). Henry Fuseli’s The nightmare (Doctoral dissertation, uga).
Furst, L. R. (2017). Romanticism (Vol. 2). Taylor & Francis.
Gill, F. C. (2016). The Romantic Movement and Methodism: A Study of English Romanticism
and the Evangelical Revival. Wipf and Stock Publishers.
Hemingway, A. (2017). Landscape between Ideology and the Aesthetic: Marxist Essays on
British Art and Art Theory, 1750–1850. Brill.
Honour, H. (2018). Romanticism. Routledge.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/image/10746944-4x3-940x705.jpg
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theartstory.org%2Fartist
%2Fblake-william%2Fartworks
%2F&psig=AOvVaw1UONBGH4_blWnwg5tQQ8_e&ust=1585749389650000&source=images
&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCMilzf3uxOgCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD
Sigaki, H. Y., Perc, M., & Ribeiro, H. V. (2018). History of art paintings through the lens of
entropy and complexity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(37),
E8585-E8594.