Storm at Sea

The Tide of Romanticism in Francesco Guardi’s Storm at Sea

Going with your heart more willingly than your mind was a valued decision and feeling manifest in Europe between 1750 and 1860. During this period, wild, vivid, and untamed souls surfaced in all facets of life: art, literature, music, etc. “Romanticism emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental.”[1] William Wordsworth, (1770-1850) the leading English poet of the nineteenth-century established three key motifs of the art movement: the idea of nature’s sympathy with humankind, the view that one who is close to nature is close to God, and that which I will further draw upon, the redemptive power of nature.[2] Romantics ultimately believed the path to freedom was through imagination rather than reason and functioned through feeling rather than through thinking.[3] Berlin thoroughly describes Romanticism in a circular manner. Attempting ever so hard to define the movement, in the end of his article he declares that there is no concrete way to pigeonhole such a sentimental phenomenon occurring in thought and attitude which was then reflected in this mid-eighteenth to mid-nineteenth century movement. He employs statements of several prominent philosophers on the topic. Unfortunately, this only adds but does not delineate or strengthen the definition of Romanticism.

Simply put, it is the reaction towards order, against the Neoclassical style. It was a desperate search of freedom in expression, aesthetic choices as well as subject matter. This art movement renounced imitation and focus on what was already done.

As Baudelaire characterized it, the movement was a manière de sentir, or if you wish, a way of feeling.[4] Romanticism cannot be categorized formally. One Romantic artwork may differ immensely next to another, yet they evoke similar emotions. Spontaneity, irregularity, and even irrationality are present. Artists begin to model form by way of color instead of defined line with visible brushstrokes underlining the immediacy of the creative act. They also employ dramatic textures and tones in addition to choosing to deliberately blur details with the intention of illustrating a particular mood.[5] Not to mention, the age of Romanticism held the natural world in high esteem. Ego had no place in such an era. “No arrogant man was ever permitted to see nature in all her beauty.”[6] In light of this, the sea along with maritime subjects was a popular and fashionable theme. Examples of such are Delacroix’s Christ on the Sea of Galilee (1855) and Turner’s Snow Storm: Steamboat Off a Harbor’s Mouth (1842).

Francesco Lazzaro Guardi (b. Venice 1712 - d. Venice 1793) donated his contribution to the Romantic age in 1765 with Storm at Sea. It currently belongs to the Sir William Van Horne’s collection in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. A work of the sort would not shock those familiar with the shift in attitude occurring in this period when simply gazing at the canvas. However, when reading the author’s name, one might quickly become perplexed. Did Romanticism not flourish principally in England, France, and Germany? This type of subject matter and brushwork was highly unusual in Venetian painting tradition in view of the high drama presented.

Conversely, in the eighteenth century, an intimate connection existed between England and Venice in the art realm. This is exemplified by the fact that many Venetian painters visited England at the time in search of patronage and inspiration. However, this was not Guardi’s case. He was said to travel very little but certainly never crossed the Channel.[7] Nonetheless, as proven by unidentified Italian sources, Guardi indisputably had English patrons in the second half of the century. He was a scholar of Giovanni Antonio Canal (1697-1768) and much like his instructor he firstly excelled in painting architectural views of Venice, such as Venice: The Palazzo Corner Della Ca Grande. Thus, the student typically observed and painted in situ via the scrutiny of his eye.

In spite of this, the scene of Storm at Sea is subjective in nature. Of course in this instance it is obvious that the author of this text did not paint from observation. Rather, he consulted Dutch sources accessible through prints as confirmed by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts on the piece’s curatorial comments. This is evident when carefully observing the vessels portrayed. They appear to be relatively small merchant ships named “bilanders”, which were originally introduced by the Dutch and used in Holland for coast and canal traffic.[8] Hence, space-binding material such as prints on paper facilitated aspects of Romanticism to spread and flourish much like a cultural web in other parts of Europe, in this case the city of water.

Guardi’s master was inspired by the hustle and bustle of the social mercantile life and frequently created depictions of the Venetian scene, setting a model for his followers.[9] Differing from the Romantics, Canaletto (as they referred to him) demonstrated interest in clarifying and illustrating what can be seen objectively rather than producing a personal obscured outlook. Interested in mimesis, he painted elaborate topography that seems photorealistic. He set the stage for Guardi, aiding him in appreciating landscape and depicting what he sees. This master embodied his culture and geographical setting being as French philosopher Honoré Daumier (1808–1879) would say “of his time” or “de son temps.”

Furthermore, Guardi was touched by the work of his infamous brother-in-law Giambattista Tiepolo (1696–1770), considered the greatest decorative painter of eighteenth-century Europe. Being virtuous, this man basked in all aspects of art in Venice, leaving nothing untouched or unexplored. Although never painting from view, Tiepolo dove into history pictures, genre in the shape of caricatures, landscape drawings of evocative economy, and even portraiture.[10]  Accumulating wealth through noble patronage such as Pasani, Tiepolo became an easy figure to follow in view of his work being ubiquitous in Serenissima.

Coming back to Guardi’s work, his painting escapes narrative. Sure, this can be considered an event of a literal storm at sea, however there are no records affirming that theory. Guardi then follows the popular Romantic motif of a vessel amidst a gale dramatizing man’s resistance against fate and nature. He demonstrates the soul in a shaken state struggling on the road to salvation.[11] Storm at Sea allegorizes life’s threats whilst maintaining a tragic view. The artist here has given visual form to feelings.[12] The image is thus not a representation of an actual weather event but a metaphor for the human problematic. “It is his virtuosity of temperament and bravura of execution which strike us in his scenes of stormy seas.  The motifs of these pictures (altogether only three have come to light) are analogous. Frigates are seen in each of them tossed upon the crest of angry waves.”[13] These waves fundamentally symbolize obstacles and turmoil of the soul, pushing man to his emotional limits. Yet, amidst the chaos, the clouded sky is torn allowing a bath of sunshine to pour through and illuminate the scene. This effect might be focalizing the subject much like an ad monitor would do, though in accordance with Romanticism, it would be more reasonable to deem the lighting as a symbol for hope in an esoteric battle.

In Storm at Sea, Guardi has rendered several seventeenth-century storm-tossed boats in a nightmarish seascape, where the sheer size of the tides reflects the sublime, a characteristic feature of the art period. “By exaggerating the heeling of the frigates which appear in the composition and adroitly massing shadows in the foreground, he has made the waves look much larger than they would otherwise appear, so that this fantastic rather than careful study conveys the illusion of reality in the most vivid manner conceivable.”[14] His image, being at the same time part reality and part fantasy invokes sentiments of awe. The painting is executed with utmost dexterity attempting to replicate the corporeal. However, the work contains hazy qualities. You can almost feel the gust of wind blurring your vision and as a spectator of this episode you cannot help but squint while advancing towards the canvas to figure out exactly what is occurring in this picture. Guardi has used stylistic elements such as dry brushing the immense waves with white pigment to signal the abundance of mist purposely to get his viewer to feel part of the event.

It brings one to ultimately find delight in the terrifying, the vast, noble, and overpowering. These carefully thought out definitions of the sublime were carried down by Burke (1729-1797) and Kant (1724–1804) although this emotional response is complex to break down taking into account its oppositional ideas. The sublime can also be correlated to an oxymoron, such as “bittersweet”. In terms of nature, it would be explained as lure in one and threat in the other.[15]

A work that can be compared to Storm at Sea is that of Caspar David Friedrich’s Das Eismeer (1823–1824) for it demonstrates nature as triumphant, tramping over man and all his possible creations through a shipwreck in the arctic. We are faced with a scene of helplessness at the mercy of nature’s overbearing power. It is much like a feverish nightmare, a disaster, yet one that possesses beautiful qualities. It affirms once again that destruction can be elusive and that solace can be found through that which is shattered, on the edge, or in a state of terror. Hence, contemplating a frightening situation consequently evokes an elemental response in the reader of the text. Das Eismeer does not simply compare to Guardi’s work in that they share a similar subject matter: a shipwreck. They both give the viewer no choice but to accept the colossal damage nature’s elements are capable of causing. Freidrich fits into the same art movement as Guardi’s bearing in mind that he was said to “[represent] a midpoint between the dramatic intensity and expressive manner of the budding Romantic aesthetic.”[16] Finally, Das Eismeer carries various titles, one being The Wreck of Hope tying into the idea that the presence of sunlight in Storm at Sea can very well denote faith and optimism in petrifying circumstances.

Another renowned artist that can non-mistakably have his work paralleled to Guardi’s is Joseph Mallord William Turner’s (1775-1851). Turner painted in an innovative style where color tramped line in a painterly fashion, when taking the formalist approach. His undeniable love affair with storms at sea involving typhoons and snowstorms (blizzards) among other natural disasters is epitomized in his most notable piece entitled The Slave Ship (1840). His emotion-driven execution of a barbaric historical event forcefully involves the viewer and pushes him/her to feel. Turner’s point is for his audience to sense the implied visible struggle and absorb this tragic denouement. He asks you to share his vision, his version of what happened by letting yourself get lost in a traumatic world infused with fuzzy distorted forms, high viscosity colors, and undefined outlines allowing his viewer’s imagination to discover the painting and piece together whatever pieces they find fit. It is the receiver’s task to fill in the details, not Turner’s. Kleiner asserts that this artist is not only associated with the Romantic movement but emblematizes it. “The passion and energy of Turner’s works reveal the Romantic sensibility that was the foundation for his art and also clearly illustrate Edmund Burke’s concept of the sublime—awe mixed with terror.”[17] Moreover, his “landscapes of the sublime”, as Fiero describes them, capture the spirit of Wordsworth’s nature mysticism.[18] In addition, eight of Guardi’s canvases had been seized during the French Revolution, being depatriated and placed in the Louvre at the time Turner dwelled in France hinting to possible influence though none is documented.[19] It is unclear as to who had inspired who originally in this age where Romanticism was a shared way of feeling that did not progress in a linear fashion. It did not share specific similarities even in the same geographical locations.

High and mighty, the tides responsible for the tumultuous bilanders in Storm at Sea exemplify the Romantic approach to life in mid-eighteenth-century Europe.  Guardi relentlessly subdues himself to the dominant sentiment governing the period in reaction to progressing science, reason, and the enlightenment. He releases his inner frustrations by means of following the prevailing motif of the storm-tossed boat all the while employing his irrefutable skill acquired through study of Venetian masters.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Baetjer, Katharine. "'Canaletti Painting': On Turner, Canaletto, and Venice." Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 42 (2007).pp. 163-172, 16-17. Web. 6 March 2012. <http://proxy4.vaniercollege.qc.ca:2118/stable/20320681>

Baetjer, Katharine. "Venice in the Eighteenth Century". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000. Web. 6 March 2012. <http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/venc/hd_venc.htm (October 2003)>

         Berlin, Isaiah. The Roots of Romanticism. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University

Press, 1999. Print.

bilander, n. Second edition, 1989; online version March 2012. <http://proxy4.vaniercollege.qc.ca:2117/view/Entry/18934>; accessed 06 March 2012. Earlier version first published in New English Dictionary, 1887.

Caspar David Friedrich, The Complete Works. 2002-2012. Web. 05 March 2012. <http://www.caspardavidfriedrich.org/links.html>

Eitner, Lorenz. “The Open Window and the Storm-Tossed Boat: An Essay in the Iconography of Romanticism,” The Art Bulletin 37,4 (December 1955): 281-290.

Fiero, Gloria K. The Humanistic Tradition (Third edition). New York: McGraw Hill, 2006.

“Francesco Guardi and England.” The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs , Vol. 82, No. 478 (Jan., 1943), pp. 2-5. Web. 5 March 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/868481>

Haskell, Francis. “Francesco Guardi as Vedutista and Some of His Patrons.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes , Vol. 23, No. 3/4 (Jul. - Dec., 1960): 256-276. Web. (28 February 2012) <http://proxy4.vaniercollege.qc.ca:2118/stable/750595>

Honour, Hugh. “Introduction” Romanticism. Reprint edition. London: Penguin Books, 1984. Pp.11-20, 326.

Kleiner, S. Fred. Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, The Western Perspective. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2010. Print.

Levey, Michael. Painting in Eighteenth-Century Venice. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994. Print.

Rees, Ronald. “Constable, Turner, and the Views of Nature in the Nineteenth Century.” Georgraphical Review 72,3 (July 1982): 253-269.

"Romanticism." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 05 March. 2012.

Simonson, George A. “Guardi as a Painter of Stormy Seas.”The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs , Vol. 40, No. 229 (Apr., 1922):174-175,179. Web. (28 February 2012) <http://proxy4.vaniercollege.qc.ca:2118/stable/861486>

Vaughan, William. "Romanticism." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. 5 March. 2012 <http://0www.oxfordartonline.com.mercury.concordia.ca/subscriber/article/grove/art/T073207>.

---

[1]  "Romanticism." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 05 March. 2012.

[2]  Fiero, Gloria K. The Humanistic Tradition (Third edition). New York: McGraw Hill, 2006.p.5.

[3]  Berlin, Isaiah. The Roots of Romanticism. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University

Press, 1999. Print.p.616.

[4]  Honour, Hugh. “Introduction” Romanticism. Reprint edition. London: Penguin Books, 1984.  p14.

[5]  Fiero 49

[6] Rees, Ronald. “Constable, Turner, and the Views of Nature in the Nineteenth Century.” Georgraphical Review 72,3 (July 1982): p.86.

[7] Simonson, George A. “Guardi as a Painter of Stormy Seas.”The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs , Vol. 40, No. 229 (Apr., 1922):174-175,179. Web. (28 February 2012) <http://proxy4.vaniercollege.qc.ca:2118/stable/861486>

[8] bilander, n. Second edition, 1989; online version March 2012. <http://proxy4.vaniercollege.qc.ca:2117/view/Entry/18934>; accessed 06 March 2012. Earlier version first published in New English Dictionary, 1887.

[9] Baetjer, Katharine. "'Canaletti Painting': On Turner, Canaletto, and Venice." Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 42 (2007).p 163. Web. 6 March 2012. <http://proxy4.vaniercollege.qc.ca:2118/stable/20320681>

[10] Levey, Michael. Painting in Eighteenth-Century Venice. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994. Print. p.193.

[11] Eitner, Lorenz. “The Open Window and the Storm-Tossed Boat: An Essay in the Iconography of Romanticism,” The Art Bulletin 37,4 (December 1955): p.287.

[12] Eitner 282

[13] Haskell, Francis. “Francesco Guardi as Vedutista and Some of His Patrons.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes , Vol. 23, No. 3/4 (Jul. - Dec., 1960): p.274. Web. (28 February 2012) <http://proxy4.vaniercollege.qc.ca:2118/stable/750595>

[14] Simonson, George A. “Guardi as a Painter of Stormy Seas.”The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs , Vol. 40, No. 229 (Apr., 1922): p.9. Web. (28 February 2012) <http://proxy4.vaniercollege.qc.ca:2118/stable/861486>

[15] Eitner 289

[16] Caspar David Friedrich, The Complete Works. 2002-2012. Web. 05 March 2012. <http://www.caspardavidfriedrich.org/links.html>

[17] Kleiner, S. Fred. Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, The Western Perspective. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage    Learning, 2010. Print. p.627.

[18]  Fiero 15

[19]  Baetjer 165