¶ … Medium Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (1818) by Caspar David Friedrich is an oil-on-canvas Romantic Movement representation of a young man metaphorically rising above the uncertainty of the world around him and transcending to a height that puts if not clarity on all things at least some perspective for the imagination. The painting literally depicts a young wanderer or hiker in the center of the frame, back to the viewer, as he gazes out over a rocky precipice to the valley before him, where rock structures stick up out of the surrounding fog. The fog, indeed, appears like waves of the sea crashing upon the rocks below, giving the young man the look of a solitary captain, aloft at the promontory peak of a ship as it makes its way through the dangerous straits ahead. The painting thus blurs the concept of sea, land and fog in a way that gives the work the ability to raise various interpretations among viewers. That the work is Romantic, however, is without doubt, as the style is thoroughly consistent with the idea of individualism, nature, emotion and the grandeur of thought (Johnson, 2003; Koerner, 2009). The painting symbolizes...
Nostalgia for the Past Nostalgia can take many forms, but can perhaps be summarized by the phrase 'appropriating selected aspects of the past for the use of the present'. It tends to involve an emotional or spiritual response to the past rather than a rationalizing one, and as a result is associated with the art of sentiment rather than of intellect. As we shall see, however, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century artists who
All of the styles inspired by the Romantic current can be clearly traced from the Formalist point-of-view, as they had in common the use of image itself, leaving meaning and content to a secondary design. In the poetry and literature world, the Romantic period was a chance to explore the inner feelings of the artist, the development of his own soul and thoughts, where the author is the hero of the
Arts and Humanities in Rosseau's Second Discourse And Other Pieces Of Work Arts and Humanities in Rousseau's Second Discourse and other Pieces of Work In the second discourse, Rousseau changes progress and decries imprisoning in men, in a fabricated logic of civilization. Rousseau uses striking language, "the sciences, letters and arts….." However, he believes that the new arts and sciences portray the appearance but not the reality of virtue, which he believes
Progress Jean-Jacques Rousseau on the Origin of Inequality There are apparent relations that exist between human beings and nature and also among themselves. In these relations also exists differences especially among human beings which attract a lot of attention and need explanations since if all are human beings then why the differences that exist among them. If all mankind have the same will and are from the same source, be it
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
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