Francisco Goya Snow Romanticism

Francisco Goya y Lucientes, better known as Francisco Goya, was a dominant Spanish artist during the Age of Romanticism. Goya favored social reform but after suffering a life threatening illness which led to his becoming deaf, he art focused on looking at the human condition and psychology. He attempted to express real life realities of cruelty, greed and ignorance while displaying death as a “frightening, unknown void” (Davies 823). An example of his reaction to the happenings of the time in Spain is his painting, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters. In the painting, Goya is pictured asleep on a box of reason while in the background bats and owls are flying around. These bats and owls were symbols of ignorance and folly (Davies 823). There

Constable was an English artist who stood out for his landscapes paintings in the period of Romanticism. John Constable decided to attend the Royall Academy School in London in 1799 instead of working at his family’s farm. Constable was known for “capturing the ephemeral properties of nature- clouds, light, and atmosphere” (Davies 828). His paintings include great emotion that comes from “experiencing the beauty of the Stour Valley” (Davies 828). His painting, The Haywain, on a six foot canvas, depicts “a blue sky pushing out darker clouds, and invisible layer of moisture that makes everything glisten” (Davies 828). Constable completes the picture with smaller details such as the showing of the dog, the boat, and the harvesters. The picture does not create represent ideal beauty but the passionate feelings of a particular place. The picture itself is “a particular site presented in all of its heartfelt specificity” (Davies 828). The Haywain represented the life that John Constable knew and loved best (Barker). His unique style combined the study of nature with personal vision of the area near his boyhood home