o express the inexpressible. It was emphatically
subjective, self-conscious, a mood of mind or feeling. In this respect
it was diametrically opposed to the academic and the classic. In French
painting it came forward in opposition to the classicism of David.
People had begun to weary of Greek and Roman heroes and their deeds, of
impersonal line-bounded statuesque art. There was a demand for something
more representative, spontaneous, expressive of the intense feeling of
the time. The very gist of romanticism was passion. Freedom to express
itself in what form it would was a condition of its existence.

[Illustration: FIG. 62.--DELACROIX. MASSACRE OF SCIO. LOUVRE.]

The classic subject was abandoned by the romanticists for dramatic
scenes of mediaeval and modern times. The romantic hero and heroine in
scenes of horror, perils by land and sea, flame and fury, love and
anguish, came upon the boards. Much of this was illustration of
history, the novel, and poetry, especially the poetry of Goethe,
Byron, and Scott. Line was slurred in favor of color, symmetrical
composition gave way to wild disordered groups in headlong action, and
atmospheres, skies, and lights were twisted and distorted to convey
the sentiment of the story. It was thus, more by suggestion than
realization, that romanticism sought to give the poetic sentiment of
life. Its position toward classicism was antagonistic, a rebound, a
flying to the other extreme. One virtually said that beauty was in the
Greek form, the other that it was in the painter's emotional nature.
The disagreement was violent, and out of it grew the so-called
romantic quarrel of the 1820's.

LEADERS OF ROMANTICISM: Symptoms of the coming movement were apparent
long before any open revolt. Gros had made innovations on the classic
in his battle-pieces, but the first positive dissent from classic
teachings was made in the Salon of 1819 by Gericault (1791-1824) with
his Raft of the Medusa. It represented the starving, the dead, and the
dying of the Medusa's crew on a raft in mid-ocean. The subject was not
classic. It was literary, romantic, dramatic, almost theatric in its
seizing of the critical moment. Its theme was restless, harrowing,
horrible. It met with instant opposition from the old men and applause
from the young men. It was the trumpet-note of the revolt, but
Gericault did not live long enough to become the leader of
romanticism. That position fell to his contemporary and fellow-