Neo-classical art and romanticism

¶ … Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog" by Caspar David Friedrich, a paining I believe embodies both Romanticism and reality on the same canvas. Romanticism was the result of several major events that took place in the background, from a political, social, economic, and cultural point-of-view. It was therefore only natural that the artistic world would be influenced by these developments.

Caspar David Friedrich is one of the most important painters of the Romantic period largely because he managed to include the realities of his time into a Romantic trend that encompassed artistic and human values alike. In order to better understand the complexity of his work, it is important to point out the background of the era and its implications for the painter. In this sense, perhaps one of the essential aspects of the time, especially in Germany, was the industrial revolution that took place at the end of the 18th century and whose effects were felt well into the 19th century. The Industrial revolution is not merely an economic development of Europe in particular, and through the colonial system, of the world in general, but also a human and social development.

The industrial revolution ensured new means of manufacturing and evolution of the industry to an extent that it allowed the economies to develop in a mechanized manner. The production times were being reduced, the demand was increasing, and the offer was being diversified (Berstein and Milza,1994) . However, this development was possible as a result of the introduction of machineries and replacement of the human labor force. Despite the fact that this was not necessarily a negative aspect on the road to development, the role of the people in the production chain was reduced to hard labors to support the machineries set in place and therefore, the human labor force became a side aspect in the production processes.

This mechanization was overall positive, yet for the human being, the replacement with machines resulted in a shift from the human perspective to a mechanic one. From a social point-of-view however, the rise of the small peasantry as a result of increased pressure on the agricultural sector worsened the situation and resulted in social upheavals and discontents. Finally, from a religious point-of-view, Romanticism was a clear breakup from the Renaissance period as the Church was no longer in the center of the artistic depictions and the human being became a standalone individual, with flaws and feelings, with reactions and reason. Thus, taking the economic background that included a shift towards science and rationale, with the social upheavals that promoted the human being as an individual, and the break from the religious dogma, the overall background was suited for an artistic revolution.