Romanticism Essay

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Romanticism Essay
Explain how different version of the sublime can be found in various Romantic paintings and literature.
During the 19th century Romantic Movement, authors and artists began to include the philosophical concept that combined beauty with terror. This philosophy, known as the sublime, used scenes of beauty with subtle addition of shocking terror to make the viewers scared but also feel safe knowing that they could not be harmed by this impending danger. Artists used this to draw a new form of attention to their work and have the viewer compelled to see or read more. Artists and writers such as Thomas Cole, Immanuel Kant, and Arthur Schopenhauer use the sublime to display an essence of beauty that is paired with the uneasiness of vulnerability.
Thomas Cole in his piece The Course of Empire (Cole) uses the sublime to create a passion with the viewer about the rise, fall and growth of a nature surrounded empire. During the first stages of the pieces, Cole paints magnificent landscapes scattered with seemingly nomadic tribes of natives that have just come to settle. This Savage State represents the dauntingness of nature in its pure form with its natural resources untapped and its land undisturbed by man. But as man progresses and begins to settle during the Pastoral State, the viewer can see structures being built in the distance and people preparing to farm. The Consummation of Empire shows the quickly growing power of the empire and the viewer feels overwhelmed by the rapid growth from a small village to an overflowing city. Cole uses this overwhelming feeling and the sublime to display the growing vastness of this new empire. Destruction displays the fall of this grand empire as the entire city goes up in flames a...

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...o present the pure essence or ideas of the world in a small picture. The reason for only the short immersions is that within these paintings, an artist cannot capture the vastness or monumental size of the world and thus leaving room for the feeling of the sublime to escape.
As the Romantic era grew throughout its time during the 19th century, artists and authors began to implement the sublime into their work. The philosophy of the sublime surround the idea of shock. As a viewer gazes upon a beautiful scene of a raging waterfall, there is danger coming from the waterfall but the viewer cannot be harmed by it. This is what Thomas Cole tried to capture in his artwork and what philosophers Immanuel Kant and Arthur Schopenhauer began to study. This feeling of uneasiness is what the sublime is and many artists and writers tried to encapsulate that feeling in their work.

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