The Storm and Stress Reaction
The Concept
- A reaction to the narrow aesthetic of Rococo art, and
Enlightenment philosophy
- Not just pretty and frivolous, but also wild and horrifying
- Philosophy not just the rational, but also the irrational
- Rules (art, music ) not just broken, but shattered
- The revolutions on the horizon
- Goethe - Sorrows of Young Werther
- The novella that launched the movement
- Love shown in the extremes of joy and painful destruction
- A man caught up in passion
Music
- Contrasting emotions through shifting rhythms, dynamics
and harmonies
- C.P.E. Bach - Symphony in E-flat Major
- Beethoven's music is the next step of musical style
Painting
- Fuseli - The
Nightmare
- Irrational exploration of the incubus
- Dark foreboding hues
- Sensuous and dangerous rather than Rococo erotic playfulness
- Stubbs - Lion
attacking Horse
- English painter uses nature as a tool of Storm and Stress
- Predilection for horse themes beautiful and yet violent
- Wright - Indian
Widow
- Her state of mind is reflected in nature around her
- Man in a "state of nature," though nature is not always placid
Gardens
- Formal/Baroque Garden
- Geometric and orderly
- A paradigm of man's control and his imposition on nature
- A reflection of the Baroque
- Love of systems and complex designs
- Cartesian logic
- Bach fugues
- French absolutism
- English Garden
- Natural and left alone (laissez faire)
- A design aesthetic, though just as man-made as the formal gardens
of the past
- A reflection of the Enlightenment and its credo of natural law
- English liberties (English garden) vs French authoritarianism
(formal garden)
- The English style comes to France
Humanities
Resource of Mark Hunter