German Romantic prints and drawings

Giulia Bartrum

"This book covers the dominant themes of German Romanticism, a vibrant period of early ninteenth-century German art. It shows prints and drawings from a formative period of history, when French revolutionary forces swept across Europe and Napoleon forced the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation in 1806. During this period of economic ruin, artists sought to establish a new market and a new cultural identity. The establishment of art unions in all major German towns changed the nature of of patronage by transferring many commissions away from royal and private hands into the control of an expanding bourgeoisie. A group of young artists who met each other at the Vienna Academy sought to establish a revival of the values and techniques of medieval and Renaissance art. In 1809, they formed an artistic fraternity, the Brotherhood of St Luke, and moved to Rome, where...