Romantisme

Based on the painting "The Monk by the sea" by Caspar David Friedrich, Françoise Bonardel questions the common interpretation of this work which is supposed to express loneliness of man in a world which is not warranted by the faith. According to her, this lonely monk, standing on a beach between sky and sea, instead of embodying man loneliness in a world sealed by the death of God, would be the emblem of an aspiration towards a double infinite, aspiration of "romantic religiosity".

  Appeared during the 18th century, romanticism is an artistic movement which developed in reaction to classicism judged too rigid and philosophical rationalism of a world more and more disenchanted.
Aiming at exploration of all possibilities of art, it generally characterizes by the expression of feelings, ecstasies and disturbances of the soul, exaltation of mystery and fantastic, evasion and enchanting in morbid and sublime.