European Romantic Perception of the Middle Ages: Nationalism and the Picturesque

Abstract

The aims of this study are theoretical and comparative. It contains a theoretical section describing the 18 and 19 centuries visions of the Middle Ages (admirable, critical and indifferent). Then, the relationships with the European romantics, including the Catalans, are studied. The folkloric and nationalism are presented as bridges between the two epochs. The history of the 17 and 18 centuries Picturesque is reviewed and a new view of it is presented. Instead of conceiving it as a minor aesthetic, I propose it as a precedent for the avant-garde given its defence of the irregular and the badly done. Furthermore, the 19 century idea of paradise lost was conceptualised around four axes (past, infancy, nature and art) and I propose a fifth (ethnicity) for the 21 century.