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This art movement holds onto many of its key features, such as:
1. "The Sublime", where artistic effects are used to create the strongest possible emotion of awe and occasionally fear.
2. These paintings are full of emotion and reject many of the tenets of Academic art.
3. Part of the rejection mentioned above involves higher and higher abstraction in the paintings. These features especially are very common in Francisco Goya's works, and as he aged, his art took a darker critical turn. -
Francisco Goya, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, 1799, etching, aquatint, drypoint and burin, plate, 21.2 cm by 15.1 cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
: This work and the rest of Los Caprichos heavily criticized the Spanish public and their superstitions.
: Much of the work is abstracted, but not terribly so, while heavily using natural imagery to impart meaning beyond the picture.
: The owls and bats indicate ignorance witchcraft, the lynx is associated with watchfulness. -
Francisco Goya, The Family of Charles IV, 1800, oil on canvas, 280 cm by 336 cm, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid.
: Despite this being a family portrait, Goya's brushwork is much freer.
: Everyone here is portrayed much more realistically, and potentially negatively considering the arrangement and faces of the family members.
: This is not Goya's first work, and especially not his first work criticising his government and others. As we see with Los Caprichos -
Once again, England's Romanticism art movement held fast to key features of the movement, but heavily emphasized several aspects:
1. Naturalism- the intense study of nature to accurately represent it in art.
2. A fear of over-industrialization in the world and that returning to nature was best.
3. Nationalism infected this area of the movement, and as such began to carry a moral message behind much of their work. Helping support The Cult of Domesticity and its effect on womanhood in England. -
During this horrific war of Spain and their allies against the French is where Goya found inspiration for many of his pieces, including the prints The Disasters of War and The Third of May, 1808 . This war began with France invading Spain (a then allly) and deposing their current king, Charles IV, and replacing him with Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother. It ended in 1814 but brought back Charles V, who's iron grip on the country strangled it; according to many of Goya's pieces.
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This movement, aiming to regulate and define womanhood in rigid boundaries, was also infused into many Romantic art pieces of England.
: Explicitly stated a true woman's sphere of influence was the domestic, or home sphere, as a refuge for the man who worked in the city.
: Stressed piety, purity, submission and domesticity as key tenets.
: Any woman who did not uphold these was considered a "fallen woman" (prostitutes, adulterers, laundresses) or a Redundant woman (childless). -
Francisco Goya, Saturn Devouring His Son, 1823, oil paint on plaster wall, then transferred to canvas, 143.5 cm by 81.4 cm, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid.
: Part of Goya's Black Paintings, here the aspect of the Sublime is presented, albeit to horrify as Saturn devours one of his sons.
: During this time, as Goya retreated from public life due to his new deafness and old age, these Black Paintings became more and more abstract and emotional.
: Even then direct criticisms are somewhat unclear -
This trio of artists, which later grew in size, aimed to reject the influence of Raphael's work on classical art and subsequently academic art as well. Their key rules were:
1. Naturalism-study nature intensely to more accurately represent it.
2. Create art that is heartfelt and original, never copy.
3. Above all, create good artworks and sculptures.
With this, many of the orginal trio created artworks that reinforced the ideas set in motion by the Cult of True Womanhood. -
Dante Gabriel Rosetti, Ecce Ancilla Domini, 1850, oil on canvas, 73 cm by 42 cm, Tate Britain Museum, London.
:An additional aspect of PRB works was depictions of religious scenes.
:However, Dante was looked at askew as he used family members (in here, his sister) as models for them.
:Here the Virgin Mary receives news from the Archangel Gabriel about her divine conception, and despite the wondrous news, here she is depicted more humanely, like a young girl given startling news as she awakes. -
William Holman Hunt, Our English Coasts, 1852, oil on canvas, 43.2 cm by 58.4 cm, Tate Britain Museum, London.
: Naturalism is paired in here with nationalism, with the sheep representing the English populace unaware of potential danger from other nations, like France.
:And true to that key part of their art movement the coast, along with the sheep, are painted with detail and color.
:This message was so strong that when Hunt displayed this work in France, he changed the name to "Strayed Sheep" -
William Holman Hunt, The Awakening Conscience, 1853, oil on canvas, 76.2 cm by 55.9 cm, Tate Britain Museum, London.
:Once again the moral rules for the Cult of Domesticity are on full display here along with all the bright, intense colors emotion.
:This woman was almost "fallen", improperly spending time with a man while unmarried and unchaperoned.
:However, it seems she has a change of heart to become a Proper Lady, as she is looking happily to something out of frame, the bright outside world -
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Lady Lilith, watercolor and gouache, 1867, 51.3 by 44 cm, Delware Art Museum.
:Carries aspects of naturalism with the abundance of detailed flowers and the natural scene around the model.
:Also a representation of the "fallen woman", as Lilith is a figure from Jewish literature who was exiled from the Garden of Eden for not obeying Adam.
:She is surrounded by wealth and beauty, but only has eyes on herself as she combs her red hair, an old sign of witchcraft. -
Schaefer, Dr. Sarah C. “Smarthistory – Francisco Goya, the Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters.” Smarthistory, 9 Aug. 2015, smarthistory.org/goya-the-sleep-of-reason-produces-monsters/.
Harris, Dr. Beth, and Dr. Steven Zucker. “Smarthistory – Francisco Goya, the Family of Charles IV.” Smarthistory, 23 Nov. 2015, smarthistory.org/francisco-goya-the-family-of-charles-iv/. -
Easby, Dr. Rebecca Jeffrey. William Holman Hunt, Our English Coasts (Strayed Sheep), Smarthistory, 9 Aug. 2015, smarthistory.org/hunt-our-english-coasts-strayed-sheep/.
Easby, Dr. Rebecca Jeffrey. Smarthistory – William Holman Hunt, the Awakening Conscience, Smarthistory, 9 Aug. 2015, smarthistory.org/hunt-the-awakening-conscience/.
“Lady Lilith.” – Works – Delaware Art Museum, emuseum.delart.org/objects/6457/lady-lilith. Accessed 21 Sept. 2025. -
Mark, Harrison W. “Peninsular War.” World History Encyclopedia, https://www.worldhistory.org#organization, 7 Aug. 2023, www.worldhistory.org/Peninsular_War/.
Harris, Dr. Beth, and Dr. Steven Zucker. “Smarthistory – Francisco Goya, Saturn Devouring One of His Sons.” Smarthistory, 18 Nov. 2015, smarthistory.org/goya-saturn-devouring-one-of-his-sons/. -
“Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Lady Lilith.” The Metropoltian Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/337500. Accessed 21 Sept. 2025.
Pollitt, Ben. “Smarthistory – Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ecce Ancilla Domini.” Smarthistory, 9 Aug. 2015, smarthistory.org/rossetti-ecce-ancilla-domini/.
Lavender, Catherine. “The Cult of Domesticity True Womanhood Defined.” The Cult of Domesticity, faculty.weber.edu/kmackay/cult_of_domesticity.htm. Accessed 21 Sept. 2025.