Dreams of freedom: romanticism in Russia and Germany

Abstract

"Caspar David Friedrich and Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov are the most important artists of the Romantic era in their native countries of Germany and Russia. At the centre of this opulent book are night scenes and moonlit landscapes, views of Dresden and Italy that are full of yearning, and portraits and lovingly depicted interiors by both master painters and their contemporaries. The publication represents an encounter between artworks from Germany and Russia in which the fundamental questions regarding the radical start of a new era in around 1800 become visible: the fight for political and artistic freedom, the search for national identity, the fragility of the concept of homeland and religion. The relationships between the two cultural nations and the journeys of the artists are examined, as are political aspects of art. The literature and music of the Romantic era and selected positions of contemporary art complement the diverse picture. "--