Romanticism
Friday, January 30, 2009 at 11:15AM Stuart Wilde
Romanticism was a movement of the mid 1700s until the midpoint into 1800s; it was a movement of painting, art, and writing that emphasized warmth, color and softness.
I was very influenced in the early days of my writing by romantic French writers like Stendhal, Flaubert and Baudelaire who said: "Romanticism is precisely situated neither in choice of subject nor exact truth, but in the way of feeling."
Many intellectual historians have seen Romanticism as a key movement when perceptions shifted as a reaction against the logical thinking that was then described as the Age of Enlightenment, during which time people felt reason and facts were the only way to go. Wikipedia says “While thinkers of the Enlightenment emphasized the primacy of deductive reasoning, Romanticism emphasized intuition, imagination and feeling.”
A Scene from 'Undine' (detail) 1843 (The Queen owns this one)
You can see the color and romance in this painting by Irish painter Daniel Maclise.
I realized that the things I teach today are a return to Romanticism for we seek to establish an order built on softness, colourful expression and tender sentiments. In a world of perpetual war and the grey, yang-style harshness of a scary media, and the cold logic of technology, and a New World Order that we don’t want, romanticism offers us a ray of hope—a softer way.
I’ve seen it manifest in myself as adoration and admiration, like watching a dog in the park, a baby in a carriage, an old lady hobbling across a street, a sunset in the desert. It is all about respect for Gaia and our humanity. It is about sensuality, love and esteem.
Francesco Hayez, The KissThe best of it comes to you as heightened perceptions once you become comfortable in your skin then you can look beyond yourself and truly see what is out there and how beautiful it really is. It is really an honouring of femininity and the soft things of life.
Painting by William Holman Hunt
Here is a painting of a goat by William Holman Hunt a romanticist of the mid-1800s. It is such a special painting. I love it so much. This is a ‘romantic animal’ in a soft setting and it has a little red head band so it’s a “going-to-a-party” type of goat, not a serious goat--different.
Celebration
I see the celebration of life in laughter and the appreciation of the amusing stupidities one sees in the street and the purple hopes that spring from illogical beliefs.
The million-to-one-shot, the victory of the rank outsider, the rescue of the hopelessly lost, the romance of the eternal optimist, the insanity of believing everything, and everyone, knowing it will all be alright in the end even if all the evidence suggests that the ship sunk a long time ago and we are in the lifeboats without a paddle. I am the madman that believes that some god somewhere still loves us and that we’ll make it in the end.
Perhaps romance is an addiction of the fool and then we might say, better to be the fool than to be just a dull grey clump of damp thoughts, rules and resentments. When I walk in the street I can feel people’s hatred as an etheric pain in my body. It is very sharp and distinct. It is as if a pedestrian passing me walks through my shoulder through my sinews and bones. I can tell with my eyes shut how far away a group of people are on the sidewalk up ahead by the level of pain in me. As they get closer it is more intense and as they pass it weakens.
Romanticism is a part of our luminosity it is a cure, not a global cure, just a one-person-at-a-time cure.
Gaze in the distance and hum. Hum that your soul might be delivered of its pain, bathed once more in the pristine waters of the tears of Gaia. To be made whole, radiant, luminous, an innocent child playing on the banks of the Lake of Avalon, every dream restored every hope still intact, every ache now passed away.
Yes indeed—pray for these things.
© Stuart Wilde 2008
www.stuartwildeblog.com
Ecce Ancilla Domini! Dante Gabriel Rosetti 1850
Reader Comments (129)
I feel like shouting Yaaaaaa - love wins in the end! Love ya Stuie.
Ida
Very nice Stuart, a beautiful reminder of where one can regain sanity within this insane world.
Married to the soul of Gaia,
Saved by the symetry of heaven.
Dancing with the colours of the rainbow,
playing in the sweet garden of hope.
Lost in your own breath, swiming towards a festival of light.
We dream of things not yet told that turn feathers into flight.
Joshua King
Wow... Thank you so much! Thank you for opening my heart to such an extend that I have tears in m eyes. Thank you! I send all my love to you!
Feli
Amazing wow.....just so beautifull we need more light like this in the world.
Thank you so much Stuart, your blog is awesome.
Jackie
Sweet! Love this post and your blog. Thanks Stewart!
Did you know Artistic Monsters are the Key to civilisation
Just the very sound of the Word Art inspires us all in being our true selves expressing our imagination
thanx
EM
thank you all for your kind comments, I'm going to try and write these kind of pieces on art and culture as they are less complicated than some of the other subjects like the Morph worlds, so more people can consider these ideas without becoming confused....sincerely Stauart W
So nice.
Actions to enhance your softness and connection to Gaia:
1. take of your shoes and walk about bare foot for a day. It makes you childlike and connects you to the earth and is so simple.
2. Go for a walk in the forst and sing alloud to the trees and the animals- take your guitar if you have one. Nature dosn't applaud but sometimes you become natures voice for a while.
3. take your shirt off and ride your bike in the sun. feel the warmth on your skin and the breeze on your chest.
4. Pick someone at random and send them love and good thoughts. Look them in the eye and smile with your eyes as well as your mouth. Send warmth into their cold world.
5. Please feel free to suggest more ideas everyone............
Josh King
.......better to be the fool.....me thinks.............in love...
Thank you, Stuart. I love this post….as an Art gallery owner who shows still life, landscape and romantic figurative paintings and sculptures, my mission is to offer beauty to a world that is often cold, painful and insane…and while I sometimes feel the fool treading on the brink of utter financial devastation, it’s worth it, for those precious moments when a person sees a painting, their eyes fill with tears, and I know some form of positive shift has happened inside. And so the business survives, in ways that defy rational thought…
What a wonderful blog. Your site reflects softness and a wonderful uncomplicated mind.
Thank you for this today.
You have been in my dreams before and you are singing Italian lullabies to me. LOL!
Love you, Cathy
PS My dreams are all about dogs and water.....can you write about dreams??
Stuart - thank you so much for setting up this site, already in the last few days it is changing me, moving me, inspiring me, connecting me with - family -
So much of what you have written and spoken, since I first met you 22 years ago at a London seminar, has reached into my heart. So many pages, notebooks, diaries, written on or in, with the one sentence or the few, are filled with your wisdoms and the truths, from your heart, your Mind - with 'SW" written underneath. Always reminding me. at the exact right moment I may open up that page, never to give up - I thank you -
On reading the last paragraph in "Romanticism" your words of :
"Gaze in the distance and hum. Hum that your soul might be delivered of its pain, bathed once more in the pristine waters of the tears of Gaia. To be made whole, radiant, luminous, an innocent child playing on the banks of the Lake of Avalon, every dream restored, every hope still intact, every ache now passed away. Yes, indeed pray for these things" .....
I lifted my head, my face, my eyes - looking through and beyond the window above my desk. There, in supreme glory and beauty, was the sunrise, the sky spectacular in its colours of blue, turquoise, aquamarine and deep pinks in tones of beyond this earth. I then went to the opened door, to the wider, further view, and in fleeting moments saw a vision in the cloud's formations, of the "Madonna", head and shoulders, with her head bowed down facing Gaia, the blessed Earth below her, and then last and fleeting, her face turned sideways, looking directly to the north east - 'strength, fortitude' were her words in feeling.
This whole experience a rare and precious gift for me. Only yesterday, I had reminded myself of "the darkest hour before the dawn" - I know you understand these things - and with gratitude to you and your soul dear Stuart, I am revived - filled with the light, radiance and luminosity of that rising of the sun. The sun itself did not appear, here in England, as I watched over the fields and trees, mist hovering above them - but the higher light of the sun manifested itself in the exquisite colours, and the vision and images in their absolute perfection.
And all because I arose at that 'chosen' moment to go to your site- thank you - so much.
A card of a painting by Sergei Oussik, 'Reflection' - of a young woman at the edge of a lake, dipping her hand into the water she is gazing into, has been beside me for weeks. It is truly lovely, and from 2008 Woodmansterne Publications.
It is completely heartwarming to read and feel the delight and happiness of all those placing their comments - the gladness in everyone to connect with you in words not just by thought, and to reach and touch, and be touched, by each other's hearts, across the world, is really great!
Love to you, as ever,
Julia *
Dear Stuart,
My life, though simple now, is full of these rich soft qualities, of color, beauty, inner warmth, gentleness. It feels like so much from this essence of the feminine energy longs to be born, to come more into the world to balance all the harsh edges, rapid, time is money craziness of these soul-lost years. But many of us have been living one way or another, in these softer worlds, learning very different lessons in readiness to share again softer ways of being, rich with beauty and soul. As we open to these ways of spirit, they take us into the rich inner (then the center is everywhere) mystical worlds we experience in various ways which show us directly the spiritual nature which runs though the heart of all "matter".
I love the art and sentiment you are sharing here. The world has been incredibly harsh on this softer energy which brings such rich warmth and beauty into our lives. When we sought to bring it into the world in the past, it was too often quantified out of existence. I hope and believe it is finally time again now, that more of this can come back out to balance the world of forms.....
Best, Brin
Nice work Stu.....lookin forward to the new book.
33
I love art. I have an old beautiful old oil painting of a french village lake and country side.
I rescued it from a garage sale for two dollars I had it appraised online and found it might worth 800 USD or more. It was in great shape and a nice find. It has personal meaning to me.Thanks Stuart for your love of art.
Lovely article, thank you Mr. Wilde. You...and the goat...explained Romanticism so much better and more poignantly than any of my professors ever did.
Nice article. In reading your books Stuart, I have often felt as though i were walking through many domains simultaneously... Romanticism being one of them. With this article it reaIly makes sense now. I appreciate your expressive power, and the beauty of your sentiments.. even if you are a madman! Thanks dude, and all the best ;-)
Sir,
Thank you for the refreshing articles, tender sentiments and the yearning for eternity you have invoked. As a request, could you write a piece on the silent strength men may develop via cultivating softness in their lives, as opposed the the harsh yang we too often see.
Many Thanks, Adam
Calmmm...............
So many tanks, Stuie, teach us more, Paz.
How I love the way you encourage and uplift, Stuie.
Thank you from my heart. XO
Stuart, I've always loved your books and tapes, they made me laugh and made more sense of this insane world and that is better than gold to me, your spirit has always walked with me and I felt stronger because of your words and knowing you were out there, rooting for us fringe-dwellers and giving us hope. Whenever I feel lost or depressed, I put on one of your tapes and my world is right again. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Love, Eileen.
P.S. I love your new website.
Stuie, love it when you converse with the "sage within the temple",( Masters quoting Clyde Ford) lets have more of this beauty, your writing has always been inspirational, just gets better and more rich and mellow.,,,,,,but of course you don't want accolades, these have all been, enjoy the serenity that the Divine Wonder Come to Be, brings, blessing lets share in the wonder of this new energy,,,, Soulforce,,,,,thank you everyone G:L
PS will pass on to others, cheers