Example of Gothic Novels
- Jane Eyre- contains elements of madness
- Frankenstein- contains elements of gloomy, decaying settings, and supernatural monsters
- Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker- Supernatural beings
Cause of shift to Romantic/Gothic
- Romanticism lasted from about 1750 to 1870
- Began as a revolt against an established order of rules, laws, and dogmas
Romantic Art (cont'd)
Gothic Architecture
French Revolution
- Romanesque building have either stone barrel vaults (semi-circular) or groin vaults
- Bays of barrel vaults crossing at a right angle
- Thick walls to counter the outward thrust of the vault and they allow only small windows
- Pointed arch, store ribs
- Adopted the pointed arch (less lateral thrust than the round arch and adaptable to various widths and heights
- Engineering challenge: How to span in stone ever-wider surfaces from ever-greater heights?
- Flying buttresses had vertical members that connected to the exterior wall of the building with bridge-like arches called flyers
- Appeared in the 1170s
- Gothic cathedral interior had symbolic paintings on the highest point in the vault
- representing the hope of leaving the terrestrial world for a heavenly realm
- Gothic architecture is reinforced by rich stained-glass windows
Romantic Literature
Element 1: Belief in the individual and common man
Element 2: Love of (reverence for) nature.
Element 3: Interest in the bizarre, supernatural and gothic
Element 4: Interest in the past
Element 5: Looks at the world with more than reasonable optimism (rose-colored glasses)
Element 6: Faith in inner experience and the power of the imagination
Quiz:
1. Were walls of gothic architecture thick or thin?
2. What is a flying buttress?
3. True or False: In gothic literature, tyrannical women threatened males.
4. Where were paintings often taken from?
5. What are 2 of the elements of Romantic Literature?
Flying Buttress
Romantic Art
Paintings
- Often taken from nature
- Others from biblical, mythological, & supernatural subject
- radiant colors
- unrestrained, expressive brushwork
- differed from place to place
- William Blake- dreamlike illustrations, dominant
- English style- landscapes
Gothic Literature
- Setting: in a castle
- Omens, portents, visions
- Supernatural/inexplicable events
- High, even overwrought emotion
- Women in distress
- Women threatened by a powerful, impulsive tyrannical male
- The metonymy of gloom and horror
- The vocabulary of the gothic
Gothic/Romantic Art Movement of the 19th Century