Romanticism

Room 8 opens with works by Caspar David Friedrich and his followers, who were represen­tatives of Romanticism, one of the main trends in nineteenth-century art, which largely determined the development of European painting.

Romanticism took shape earlier in Germany than in France and found embodi­ment both in the fine arts and in literature, philosophy and music. Caspar David Friedrich, one of the greatest masters of German Romanticism, made use of the painted landscape to express philosophical ideas. His views of nature are very grandiose.

Friedrich's work influenced the artistic views of the Nazarenes, an association of German and Austrian painters who first came together in 1809 in Vienna as the Brotherhood of St Luke. Inspired by Christian and literary subjects, the Nazarenes strove to revive the language of classical painting. Examples of this type of art are the pictures Girl from Another Land (circa 1812-1831) by Johan­nes and Friedrich Riepenhausen and Contest of Bards (early 1810s) by Heinrich Anton Dahling,both stylised Renaissance works.