Romanticism

The Romantic age in literature, art and culture arose as a reaction to the Enlightenment cultivation of the rational and reasonable. The individual was central, and the emphasis lay on the individual’s feelings and moods. Under the influence of philosophers such as Kant, Schlegel, Schelling and Rousseau, the most important themes in literature and the visual arts were a fascination with the sublime, a natural creation filled with spirit of which everything forms part, atmospheric landscapes, childhood, mysticism, the greatness of former ages and the artistic genius.

Romanticism is defined more by attitude than by form and style, and Romantic literature and visual art finds many different expressions. Common to them all is a sense of infinity and of forces that transcend the boundaries of reason. Romanticism is about the spirit in nature, and in Bakkehuset it was especially Kamma Rahbek who was interested in it and in the young Romantic poets and artists. At the same time, Knud Lyne Rahbek clung throughout his life to the ideas of his youth from the Age of Enlightenment on freedom and reason, so that the home in Bakkehuset combined the great cultural and intellectual currents of the time, which in Denmark are also called the Golden Age.