The Birth of Romanticism
F04, S07 
Dan Hofstadter
We will begin with the first self-conscious stirrings of Romantic art, from about 1760 to 1820. Among the major artists covered will be David, Gericault, Ingres, William Blake, the early Turner, David Caspar Friedrich, and Goya. Readings will be primarily drawn from the poets and philosophers of the period, including Blake, Diderot, and Goethe. Our emphasis will be on the intimate relationship between neoclassicism and romanticism, and on how the romantic impulse originated in sketchbooks, small paintings, diaries, and other highly personal offerings. Our principal topics will include the budding interest in chaos, disorder, and spontaneity; the rediscovery of the Middle Ages; the primacy accorded to the erotic impulse; and the fascination with the demonic and the revolutionary.