Romanticism v. Realism
The ris
e of a
n artistic movement that was characterized by intellectual components led to the creation of masterpieces like the Raft of Medusa and the L’église de la Madeleine. The aim of the paper is to compare and contrast these two artworks and understanding the periods or movements they were created or commissioned. Today, the La Madeleine in Paris, France, is identified is a Catholic church that was primarily dedicated to Mary Madeleine Church. The intial design of both exterior and interior was inform of a temple to glorigy of conquest of Napoleon ‘s army. The new redesigning was commisoned to an architect called Pierre-Alexandre Vignon. The La Madeleine is a form of realism movement style that artists utilised to express factual and realistic views of the world. Immediately after the fall of Napoleon, there were poaitive reviews from the Catholic population concerning their reaction at the structure during during the Restoration period (Spangler, 2018).
Figure 22-2, La Madeleine, Paris ( Realism )
Additionally, the King Louis XVIII decided to convert the structure to a church. The primary sytle that was involved in the La Madeleine was the Neo-Classical which was greatly inspired by the Maison Carrée that was located in Nîmes, as kne of the Roman temples . The general size of the structure is precisely 108 meters long and around meters wide marking it as a phenomenal design by Pierre A. The exterior of La Madeleine is very exquisite as it has several Roman Corinthian columns which is the main attraction of the outside structure. More importantly thebl presence of bipartite architrave that is highly decorated makes the structure fuctuonal. The interior as one enters the church will meet an opulent spectacle, it is also designed at the top as to having coffered barrel vault.Besides that there are three massive domes,which are supported by structural pendentives. The artistic decoration with various colossal relief figures proves the profiecncy and mastery of the style.
One major similarity was the both the La Madeleine and The Raft of the Medusa were the major works that were all done in French but a major difference is that the one was a painting which depicted Romanticism (Orta, & Orta, (2017). The message behind the Raft of Medusa depicted a unique event that expressed human and political aspects influnced the artist called Théodore Géricault. As one of this works, the Raft of Medusa painting explained the aftermath of a French shipwreck, whereby there are few survivors struggling on a raft . The painting also expressed emotional delight of theem surviord being decimated by thirst and starvation as they wait to get rescued at sea. The difference with La Madeleine is that the church structure doesnot expreas emotionalism in any form both artists or viewers. In the painting, the shipwreck had a deeper hidden meaning that critised the scandalous political implications of that time. In comparison to La Madeleine is depicted a tribute or a dedication to someone first was the Napoleon army then Mary Magdalene. The artists both had different styles that were applied as romanticism is charcterised by Théodore Géricault’s studies of the poverty, and humans especially the poor,and the old. Further Pierre Vignon had no sympathetic intensity in his structure compared to Théodore Géricault’s paintng.
Figure 22-1 ,The Raft of the Medusa, A romanticsm style
Conclusively, Realism tend to be direct contrast to Romanticism. The Raft of the Medusa v. La Madeleine ideally came from two different movements. Realism sculptors usually do not to rely beautification as compared to the Raft of Medusa which is visually appealing. It ia imperative to under that Romanticism usually depicts fantastical situations and events, but difference of this movement is that Realism depends on facts that happen on ordinary occasions and normal daily experiences. Finally, the indifference of Romannticsm and Realism in both the works expresses that artists tend to have varied mission, vision and reasons.The Raft of Meduss clearly expresses and stresses on emotions and ideologies of imaginations. Realism is viewed as a reaction to romanticism as as the various subjects were anslysed as ideas. The raft of medusa tend to discard theatrical drama and approcah. The church focused in classical art form while romanticism in the ficused on interest of ordinal individual.
References
Spangler, M. (2018). Paris in Architecture, Literature, and Art.
Orta, L., & Orta, J. (2017). Raft of the Medusa.