Romanticism During The Enlightenment

Western Europe culture and society from 1800 to 1850 is characterized as being the peak of Romanticism. This intellectual, artistic, musical, and literary movement was in response to the Age of Enlightenment (1685-1815, coinciding with Neoclassicism) which was an earlier movement in Europe that held rationalization of nature and universal truths above all else. The disillusionment with the ideas of the Enlightenment and skepticism of the pursuit of reason caused influential philosophers and more Romantic thinkers to begin questioning if the Age of Reason extracted all the morality, passion, and soul from life. Although traces of Neoclassicism can be seen within these years, due to the fact that it was the aesthetic expression of the Enlightenment, Romanticism describes the changes within art that were a direct reaction against the Enlightenments praise of empiricism and perfection.
Romantic thinkers stressed emphasis on feeling, freedom, imagination, and individuality, profoundly influencing art, music, dance, literature, theatre, and architecture during this time period. The Romantics were skeptical of science and held human will, authenticity, and passion above human reason (the most valued quality during the Enlightenment). Romantic Era icons such as Mary Shelley, Frédéric Chopin, Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, J. M. W. Turner, John Nash, Marie Taglioni and countless others exhibited this artistic movement through each of their expressions. The arts were truly one of the most pivotal aspects of this passionate period in which numerous prominent pieces from every category continue to teach us the emotions, history, and culture of Western Europe from 1800 to