I’m American so this sort of thing never really happened but I’ve been reading about Romanticism, Neoclassicism, and these sorts of movements where artists looked into the past for inspiration. Has anything like this happened in recent time in any art form?

7 comments

  1. I think it’s fairly normal to look into the past for inspiration in arts, wether it is to birth something new from it, or reject it completely and do the exact opposite.

    I’ll be honest I don’t quite know what you mean, or what exactly you mean by recent, but Finland like many European countries had a national romantic period in politics and arts in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In Finland’s case it lead to our independence, having been ruled by Sweden and Russia for since we were forest roaming pagans. In our case the inspiration came mostly from Karelian (one of the Finnish tribes) folklore.

    A notable Finnish composer from this era is Jean Sibelius, whose Karelia Suite is probably a good example of this. [The 1st movement](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtIw5AkUEsE) is my favourite from it. There was also national romantic architecture, examples of which can be found in many places. [Tampere Cathedral](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3f/Tampereen_tuomiokirkko_kes%C3%A4_2004_IMG_2328.jpg/1024px-Tampereen_tuomiokirkko_kes%C3%A4_2004_IMG_2328.jpg) is a church representing this style. And then there was of course national romantic literature, and visual arts. Akseli Gallen-Kallela is the most prominent national romantic painter, [many of his paintings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akseli_Gallen-Kallela#Mary_Sl%C3%B6%C3%B6r) depict scenes from Kalevala, a book compiled by Elias Lönnrot that’s based on old Karelian songs and poems. [Ad Astra](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Gallen_Kallela_Ad_astra.jpg) is my favourite painting from Gallen-Kallela, it mixes old Finnish shit with Christian themes. It’s not directly out of Kalevala though. My favourite Gallen-Kallela painting of a Kalevala scene is [The Mother of Lemminkäinen](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b7/Gallen_Kallela_Lemminkainens_Mother.jpg/1920px-Gallen_Kallela_Lemminkainens_Mother.jpg).

    There is some stuff like this from the States too, btw. Dvorak isn’t an American composer, but his 9th symphony, or the New World symphony as it’s known as, is a good example. He was Czech, but composed the 9th in New York. Many if not most of the themes in it are derived from black spirituals and Native American songs. And the 2nd movement from Charles Ives’ Three Places in New England also has a lot of that, quoting old American songs. It’s quite dank though, not a very pleasant listen for ears that aren’t used to weird harmony.

  2. 50 years ago traditional music was something only strange people up in the Highlands danced to, and the idea of English speakers listening to Gaelic song was unheard of.

    Since then, there’s been a big revival in traditional music, largely because it became culturally acceptable to play around with it and introduce contemporary influences as well. When traditional music was kept unchanging, it was stifled, moribund and dying out. Allowing it to flow and change has kept it alive.

    Something like Celtic Connections, a festival which takes over pretty much every music venue in Glasgow for two weeks every January would have been unthinkable back then. One of the bands I saw was Breabach, who have a song called *The White Sands of Jervis Bay* which features collaboration with Aboriginal Australian musicians – I can’t imagine what the reaction of the beardy old men that held sway in the past would have been.

  3. An example from fashion would be Irish designer Simone Rocha who regularly incorporates Irish heritage elements from folklore such as the [Children of Lir](https://www.independent.ie/style/fashion/fashion-news/irish-designer-simone-rocha-brings-the-children-of-lir-to-london-fashion-week-41370165.html) as well as Irish traditions such as [mumming](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.independent.ie/style/fashion/fashion-news/nothing-quite-like-a-wren-boys-traditional-straw-suit-to-bring-catwalk-inspiration-38815140.html&ved=2ahUKEwj-qqT35p39AhWQh1wKHRTACbgQtwJ6BAgNEAE&usg=AOvVaw10lQ-7LfoX7rIyzR36-TVB) into her designs.

    Irish jewelry designers also very often draw inspirations from ancient Irish symbols, design, art and folklore

    Irish traditional music never went away but bands like The Dubliners and The Chieftains can’t be credited enough for popularising Irish folk, being amazingly talented and leaving a vast catalogue of amazing versions of Irish traditional songs for younger generations.

    Irish dance also never went away but again was significantly popularised by groups like Riverdance and Michael Flatley in 2000’s

  5. Last to do something like this in Italy was Mussolini, or better Fascism, they tried to combine old aesthetic with new tecniques with good results (the EUR is a UNESCO heritage site) I think something similar will come back soon enough

  6. The only example I’m aware of is a genere of metal music called neoclassical metal. The most famous musician in this genere is Yngwie Malmsteen a Swedish guitarist, one of the best guitarists in the world.

  7. Depends what you mean by “recent”.

    Post-1950, a lot of new churches were built in the suburbs of Athens and Thessaloniki to serve an increasingly urbanizing population, and after a few centuries of Neoclassical and Renaissance influences (1500-1900), as well as some very good Byzantine-Revival ones too (1850-1950), there was a “return” to a 1960s *interpretation* of “pure” Byzantine art and architecture.

    In more recent decades, like the past 20-25 years, there’s a growing revival of historical/traditional architecture, after a disregard of anything post-1800 in the 50s/60s/70s because it wasn’t “old enough” for the uneducated masses at the time, and also because we didn’t have many carpenters, stonemasons, architects, etc, trained in traditional styles, and there was rapid urbanization. In the past 25 years, quite a few towns and regions are seeing a revival of new buildings in the local historical style -but built to modern earthquake codes- and the tourism industry has also been a very helpful incentive in this movement.

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