Neo-classical aesthetics and romanticism

Brix's introductory essay exposes the problematic rapport between neoclassicism and Romanticism in the aesthetic commentaries and creative work of early nineteenth-century Romantic writers on which this volume is based. Rather than a simple opposition between neoclassicism as imitation of the Antique and Romanticism as a break with the classical ideal, he shows that the debate on the nature of beauty takes place within the ranks of the Romantics themselves. Whereas writers like M-me de Stael and Victor Cousin describe their aesthetic ideal in neo-Platonic terms as indissolubly linked to the Good and the True, others like Stendhal or Balzac believe great art is an expression of the passions with no claim to Truth. Tensions between the two positions can be seen in the work of Chenier, Gautier, Nerval, and even Delacroix.