What were the characteristics of the romantic movement?

TTHE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY BROUGHT CHANGES to literature and the other arts as well as political ideas. Followers of the new romantic movement, or romanticism, revolted against the emphasis on rationality, order, and restraint that characterized the Enlightenment and the controlled style of classicism.

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Casper David Friedrich, Two Men Contemplating the MoonCasper David Friedrich’s reverence for the mysterious powers of nature radiate from this masterpiece of romantic art. Completed in 1820, the painting shows two relatively small, anonymous figures mesmerized by the sublime beauty of the full moon. Viewers of the painting, positioned by the artist to look over the shoulders of the men, are likewise compelled to experience nature’s wonder. In a subtle expression of the connection between romanticism and political reform, Friedrich has clothed the men in old-fashioned, traditional German dress, which radical students had adopted as a form of protest against the repressive conservatism of the post-Napoleonic era. (Galerie Neue Meister Dresden, Germany/© Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden/The Bridgeman Art Library)