In comparing the two paintings, the Watteau’s painting, “The Storm” and Delacroix’s “Christ on the Sea of Galilee” are not exactly alike. There exists some conspicuous differences and, one can easily distinguish one that is more of Romantic work and one that is more of Neo-classical work. “The Storm” by Watteau is from the Neo-classical era while, on the other hand, “Christ one the Sea of Galilee” is from the Romantic era. The Romantic style is the direct opposite of the characteristics of the Neo-classical style. Majority of the artists of the eighteenth century quiet often used them but many preferred the romantic style. The Neo-classical style was used to reflect a clear and simplistic description of the matter, while the Romantic style was used to convey the significance of emotion and environment surrounding the Romantics.
Watteau’s painting portrays a rural setting during harvest time, and a summer storm is almost coming. As a result, every peasant out in the field is eager to their work over and done with before the storm hails down. We observe the peasant’s nervousness to get their harvests home prior to the storm unfolding. The power is not as striking and captivating as one would expect. Atmosphere and brightness are the fundamental principles of any neoclassical painting. From this painting, we can clearly see the simplicity with which Watteau designed the painting. Artists in the Neo-classical era tried as much as possible to be historically precise by creating more importance on the setting and costumes (Frucht, 2005). The archetypical representation of persons in this painting, characters in this painting gain timeliness.
In contrast to Watteau’s painting, Delacroix tries to vividly describe the storm in its violent valor. There is nothing that clearly stands out in the painting, but still the painting still depict an oncoming vicious storm. The colors within the storm are vivid and lively, yet the feelings within it are almost inconceivable, almost too intense to explain. The sea is exceedingly rough, and the boat is almost capsizing due to the massive water currents swaying it. The sail loosens up, and the surfers are truly desperate to maintain the boat afloat. Little did they make out that, in a few minutes, Christ was going to calm the storm.
There is apparently no hope in the surfers to evade the raging storm and pure hopelessness dominates the entire scene. It is here that Delacroix manages to bring out the most dominate principles of the Romantic era artists. The principle is that of profound inner motion as anticipation for creativity. Another feature that is well developed in the scene is beauty of nature, the vivacity and colorful nature of a storm developed in its massiveness (Schneider, 1977). In comparing both storms, Watteau’s storm is calm and very mild. The atmosphere is not very as grim as it should be, and the effect of light is not particularly well developed. The storm’s presentation is rather simplified. On the other hand, Delacroix’s storm is described by a powerful display of forces and scares the seafarers by attacking them very violently.
Romanticism had a number of characteristics that helped distinguish it from the neoclassical era of artists. It entailed imagination and a lot of individual innovation on the side of the artist. It also tried to use every day language to express events. It used nature to distinguish mystical and sublime qualities, which was the antithesis of materialism (Frucht, 2005). It tried to reach beyond the rational and, classicist models to elaborate a rejuvenated medievalism as well as elements of art and narrative that were there before thought to be realistically medieval. Lastly, it incorporated a lot of freedom of the spirit from the artists to express emotions concerning nature.
Romanticism was a minute movement that cropped up from a small group of elites that slowly spread throughout the society. It was intended to be an enlightenment movement. It existed between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It made a few accomplishments thought a small. For instance, the Gothic movement which sort to discard the ideal of stability and rationalism. The major media that was observed in this era was sculptures, panel paintings and fresco. This period was characterized by idealism and naturalism (Watteau, 2000).
It also gave rise to individualism, since few people in the eighteenth century concerned themselves with discovering and developing their own abilities. As a result, the change in the economy due to mercantilism and capitalism, individualism became attractive to the rich. This greatly benefited the artists who would now seek out to audiences to pay them for their works instead of confining their works to a single party. Other influences on romanticism included enlightenment which was viewed as an offset civilizing movement.
Neo-classical period, on the other hand, was divided into two periods, Restoration age (1660-1700) and Augustan age (1700-1750) (Schneider, 1977). This period represented a response against the optimistic and energetic. Neo-classical theories described the man as an imperfect being whose potential was greatly limited. This was in contrast to what neo-classicism represented. With time, this movement was overshadowed by the romanticism artists. This did not, however, mean that the neoclassicism artists died, they later on reappeared in poetry.
References
Hauser. A, 1999. The Social History Of Art: Renaissance, mannerism. Routledge publisher, New York.
Schneider. P,1977. The World of Watteau. Time-Life Books Publishers, Alexandria.
Watteau. A, Borsch-Supan. H, 2000. Antoine Watteau. Konemann Publishers, UK.
Frucht .R, 2005. Eastern Europe: an introduction to the peoples, lands and culture. ABC-CLIO Publishers, UK.
