Response to Nestor Garcia Canclini’s notion that Romanticism and Classicism are OppositesSosc.380 – Keith Bresnahan
In his essay ‘Remaking Passports’, Nestor Garcia Canclini poses a question near the beginning that asks “how are artists thinking” and he goes on to mention that romanticism and classicism are two opposing forces that survive even into post modernity. I absolutely agree with the latter that these two so called currents from the 19th century exist even today but I severely disagree with the notion that romanticism and classicism are opposites. Canclini’s essay is concerned with artists having to cope with their national barriers but that is not what I am going to talk about here. Instead, in my response I wish to elaborate on the issue that many people seem to have concerning the difference between romanticism and classicism for I feel it is the only thing in his essay that actually sparked my interest and that I can grasp much more fully than other theories concerning post modernity. Thus I feel I must stress the similarity and indeed the link between classicism and romanticism. To illustrate my opinion I shall examine how they are interconnected and how they cannot but coexist. I shall start by using examples from the 19th century and transfer on to modernity and finally to contemporary art.
In the 19th century classicism was reborn to take the form of neo classicism where the ideals and aesthetics of the ancient classical past and the renaissance were reborn in literature, philosophy, music, architecture, sculpture, and painting. Most of society lived by its morals more so than less. In the visual arts classicism is characterized by clean, symmetrical, geometric shapes that usually constitute the underlying compositions of many paintings done in this period. A very common shape is the pyramid. These shapes usually echo aesthetic ideals such as the golden ratio and also ancient Greek and Roman motifs such as classical arches and pillars. In painting the compositions usually were meant to be read horizontally across the canvas and the figures are usually on the same plane each striking a pose echoing ancient sculpture (classical poses). The people in this time period were on the most part obsessed with the classical past. Thus the painting is usually didactic in its intended purpose, and is meant to appeal to reason, but here is the thing; these paintings no matter how didactic in nature, or how devoid of ornament they are, they have always appealed to the mood and feelings that intensified their desired effect even more because the artists of the time must have had certain feelings that they wanted to express though their works.
Classicism has always been a part of Romanticism and romantic thought. The great nostalgia for the classical past which inspired many artists was and still is fueled by romantic visions of the past. The works of art that are labeled as classical or neo classical are also romantic. Take for instance Jaques Louis David’s ‘The Death of Seneca’. 
This painting which won David the Grand Prix de Rome is in all a classical execution of and ancient historical event. The figures’ poses are portrayed according to classical cannon. The figures on the left with the main figure focal point form a pyramid. The whole composition is anchored by the two pillars on the right and the background wall that leads to them from the focal point. It is a didactic painting charged with drama and tension to recreate the sensation of astonishment and grief of the moment. This view is precisely what makes it romantic, in that it is the artist’s romantic view of that historical account.
The same could be said about William Bouguereau’s “Dante and Virgil in Hell”
This image illustrates a scene from Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy”. It too is a romantic painting designed to capture the feeling of the romantic verse that inspired it. It is also classical as seen in the compositional elements. Here we also notice the pyramid anchored by the vertical figures on the left. The same forces appear in Thomas Couture’s ‘Romans of the Decadence’
as well as in Alexandre Cabanel’s ‘Epulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Paradise’
The influence of the romantic and classical echoed greatly through modernity, with art deco as seen in Tamara de Lempicka’s ‘Adam and Eve’
This paining reflects all the knowledge of classical painting and form in a much more sculptural and geometrically angular style.
In our contemporary world, romanticism and classicism are still as strong but manifest themselves in a great many different styles of visual form. They appear in many derivative forms which all have as a basis,the classical foundation from which they derive. This can be seen to a great degree in animation and comic illustration art such as Enrique Fernandez’s incredibly awesome illustrations like the one below
or in Robin Mitchel’s animation art
In conclusion I will say that all good artists have at the foundation of their work, the classical academic knowledge and hard earned skills that lets them give visual form to their romantic views. So it was and so it shall always be despite the tides of time.
