sublime+study+serena

__ **Sublime Case Study** __ Serena S.


 * __Sublime__**: A mood or attitude toward beauty, nature, and/or spirituality characterized by a combination of awe/pleasure and terror/fear.

This painting shows the sublime idea of nature triumphing over humankind with its depiction of snow covering a graveyard. It shows the eternal greatness of nature, and how our lives our short and insignificant, and eventually return to and are consumed by nature. This painting doesn't show a terror of nature, just the idea that nature is all-powerful, and we are insignificant and it is futile to try to stand up against nature. Although the darker side of nature isn't shown, it shows that nature is very powerful, so we should try not to incur its wrath so that it is calm and beautiful when we return to it.
 * __Historical examples:__**
 * = [[image:http://www.shafe.co.uk/crystal/images/lshafe/Friedrich_Cloister_Cemetery_in_the_Snow_1817-19.jpg width="656" height="483"]] ||
 * = "Cloister Cemetery in the Snow", Caspar David Friedrich (1817-19) ||

Friedrich, Caspar David. __Cloister Cemetery in the Snow__. painting. 1817-19. 12 Dec. 2008 .

This late Romantic painting portrays both the beauty and darkness of nature. The mountains in the distance and the vast sky convey a sense of grandeur from sheer size. On the other hand, the vast emptiness also seems rather desolate, and fear of the unknown contained within the emptiness can inspire fear. The sunset is beautiful, but after the sun vanishes, it will be dark, and shadows are already enroaching upon the sides of the painting. The redness from the sunset coloring the clouds and reflected on the water are unsettling, and the beautiful stillness of the scene right before nightfall seems ominous.
 * [[image:http://www.artchive.com/artchive/c/church/twilight_wilderness.jpg width="797" height="412"]] ||
 * "Twilight in the Wilderness", Frederic Church (1860)   ||

Church, Frederic Edwin. __Twilight in the Wilderness__. Painting. 1860. The Cleveland Museum of Art. 12 Dec. 2008 .

__**Modern examples:**__

Although humans have become more and more confident about their power and grip over nature over the last century, recent problems such as global warming have led to an increase in natural disasters, and reinvoking peoples' sublime view of the disaster that nature can inflict. The above photograph of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina shows the power of nature over humanity.
 * = [[image:http://bbsnews.net/bbsn_photos/topics/hurricane_katrina/uscg_new_orleans_under_water20050829.jpg width="548" height="548"]] ||
 * = "Hurricane Katrina damage assessment", Kyle Niemi (2005) ||

Niemi, Kyle. __Hurricane Katrina damage assessment__. Photograph. 29 Aug. 2005. 13 Dec. 2008 .

Nature still awes people with its sheer beauty and power, and continues to be the subject matter for all genres of art. This photo shows the beauty and vastness of nature compared to humanity (the ship). The sea's neverending tides, the mountains' solidness, and the beauty of the everyday sunset continues to take peoples' breath away. Nature's eternity in comparison to humans' mortality is also shown in the ship coming back to harbor for the night, while the landscape remains.
 * = [[image:http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3214/3109285952_c5a17b0414.jpg?v=0 width="500" height="375"]] ||
 * = Honshu-Shikoku bridge: ships returning, Serena S. (2008) ||

Honshu-Shikoku bridge: ships returning. Personal photograph by author. 2 Aug. 2008.