Romanticism 



The Romanticism period of time where there was a movement in literature, music, and the visual arts that reacted to the order imposed by the enlightenment. During the Romanticism period the fine arts had special themes that were included in works,  such as: awe of nature, emotion, importance of the individual, grotesque, and or irrational. In the painting above Death of Sardanapalus by Eugene Delacroix, it displays Romanticism themes such as grotesque, emotional, irrational, and the importance of the individual. This painting displays a grotesque theme because in the circle on the right side that includes a man and a woman; the man is stabbing the woman in the neck. I chose this portion of the painting as grotesque since it is a helpless naked woman being murdered by a man with a vicious look on his face. This painting also has a emotional theme. The woman laying on the bed with her arms spread and head down is one of the emotional parts of this painting. It is an emotional part of the painting because it displays by her body language that the woman is sad because everyone else in the painting will be killed. This painting is also very irrational. The theme irrational is not circled because the whole painting doesn't make sense and is irrational. The story behind this painting is Sardanapalus the last king of Nineveh who is represented being the man laying down on the bed in white, found out his city was going to be attacked. Since Sardanapalus didn't want to a humiliating defeat, he decided to burn and destroy his concubines, horses, slaves, and himself. This entire painting is irrational because displays everything that was destroyed and all lives people and animals that were lost. It is also irrational because the painting is based on an event where instead of fighting the king just assumed a loss, burning and destroying this he cared about in his life. This painting displays the theme importance of an individual because it has king Saranapalus wearing all white clothes making him stand out more than other parts of the painting. It is also has this theme because he is important part of this painting, he's the one who made the decision to not fight causing harm to others and himself in the painting.   


source: http://www.artble.com/artists/eugene_delacroix/paintings/the_death_of_sardanapalus

picture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Delacroix_-_La_Mort_de_Sardanapale_(1827).jpg