Sublime+Workbook

SUBLIME CASE STUDY
Examples of the sublime abound in all types of work, whether it is art, music, literature, or even very modern specialties like photography or video. This page aims to explain some examples of the sublime in both historical and modern contexts. Each example is explained below the quote or image representative of it. I hope you enjoy this page and feel the awe and power of nature that connected these artists and writers across such a gap of time and space.

This painting is a great example of the sublime. The powerful looking rocks dominate the landscape of huge mountains and giant plumes of steam. The mountain pass looks extremely powerful, and the pack animals of the humans along the tiny path are dwarfed by the power of those natural giants. The giant plumes of steam and the cloudy, turbulant sky give more indicators to the power of nature, showing the great power of the height and air. I especially liked the contrast of light and shadow between the right and left sides of the painting. However, in my opinion, the painting's most powerful feature is the huge slabs of rock on either side of the valley. The artist's depiction of those giant mountains really makes the humans seem tiny and hopeless, what appears to be a common theme in many sublime arts.
 * 1. 1804: J. M. W. Turner, //The Passage of Saint Gothard//**

http://www.humanitiesweb.org/human.php?s=g&p=c&a=p&ID=315

This painting is a perfect example of the sublime, romantic view painters and artists of the 1800's took towards nature- great, craggy peaks, crashing waves, and brilliant combinations of light and shadow all demonstrate a wonderful understanding of the sublime and Nature's power, and carry that understanding on to modern viewers of the paintings. This painting's peaks and turbulant sea demonstrate a great awe of nature's beauty, just as the artist must have had. I especially liked the way the light streams from the sun to light up the scene, contrasting with the areas of shadow caused by the clouds. The crashing waves and high peaks also give a sense of power to the painting, and the contrast between the fragile looking birds and the powerful seascape adds a sense of   greater conflict to the painting. These fragile birds may represent humanity, and give the message that human achievement is powerless in the face of Mother Nature.
 * 2. 1840: John Martin, //Assuaging of the Waters//**

http://www.davidrumsey.com/amico/amico691800-59206.html http://www.pbase.com/pillroller23/image/38246993

**//    “With the aurora borealis flaming coldly overhead, or the stars leaping in the frost dance, and the land numb and frozen under its pall of snow, this song of   the huskies might have been the defiance of life, only it was pitched in minor key, with long-drawn wailings and half-sobs, and was more the pleading of   life, the articulate travail of existence. It was an old song, old as the breed itself--one of the first songs of the younger world in a day when songs were sad. It was invested with the woe of unnumbered generations, this plaint by which Buck was so strangely stirred. When he moaned and sobbed, it was with the  pain of living that was of old the pain of his wild fathers, and the fear and mystery of the cold and dark that was to them fear and mystery. And that he  should be stirred by it marked the completeness with which he harked back through the ages of fire and roof to the raw beginnings of life in the howling   ages. ” //**    This quote from Jack London's most famous work, //The Call of the Wild//, really shows romanticism and the sublime in literature. Both starting with the description of the natural environment in which the scene occurs (the aurora borealis, the stars, and the snow) as well as describing in detail the song of the dogs, this passage is a great example of romanticism at the start of the 20th century. This shows a slight shift in the understanding of the sublime: there is less focus on powerful images of nature, such as giant waves and mountains, and more of a focus on more commonplace things like stars and snow.
 * 3. 1903: Jack London, //The Call of the Wild//**

http://london.sonoma.edu/Writings/CallOfTheWild/

media type="youtube" key="cWnmCu3U09w" height="344" width="425" I thought that this introduction scene to the film classic //2001: A Space Odyssey// really shows a shifting understanding of the sublime during the 60's and 70's: this especially shows an awe of space, which was less present in older pieces of art. The scene of the planets and the sun really shows a feeling towards space that reflects the old views of the sublime. Although this doesn't have some of the traditional images of nature on earth, such as huge storms or the sea, it certainly conveys a similar feeling with the huge planets slowly moving by. I also believe that the music in the background, Also Sprach Zarathustra, really fits this mood of the sublime. In this way, this entry combines music and video to make a great feeling of Nature's power in a more "modern" time. Throughout the entire movie, in fact, the sublime plays a small role in the scenes of huge starscapes. These almost artistic camera angles really give you a sense of the power of nature.
 * 4. 1968: Stanley Kubrick, //2001: A Space Odyssey//**

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWnmCu3U09w

Coming full circle, this image shows an awe of the power and beauty of a storm. The rolling clouds in the sky and the powerful image of the building being buffeted by rain must have influenced the photographer to take a picture of such a wonderful and powerful event. I like the image of the lights in the buildings in the midst of the pitch dark of the storm. The tiny lights bring to mind the theme from the other images of frail human achievement in the face of Nature's Fury. I also really enjoy this image's sharp lines of the roofs of the buildings framing the turbulent sky.
 * 5. 2007: Detroit Bike Blog, A Perfect Storm**

http://www.adrianplatts.com/jpegs/Detroitv/bikeblog/index_Sept2007.htm