SP w11 Sublime

Theory developed by Edmund Burke in the mid eighteenth century, where he defined sublime art as art that refersto a greatness beyond all possibility of calculation, measurement or imitation. He writes about the relationship between emotion, beauty, and art.

His theory “A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful“ was published in 1757.

In the 18th century, the concept of beauty was closely linked to views on morality, well-being, status, style and identity. Topics that Burke deals with include: feeling, light, power, darkness, grace, smell and infinity.

Central questions in the 18thcentury were were:

• Is there an immediate connection between the good and the clean?

• Is beauty the result of a system of proportions to be determined mathematically: are these relationships fixed in nature or in the properties of human perception?

• Do we value beauty based on the mind or emotions?

• Can the feelings that affect us the most be described with the concept of beauty?

In that period, society moves from an aristocratic (group society) to the bourgeoisie in which the individual is central. The church looses power. The individual stands alone against the powers that surround him. Not only the powers of nature who decide about death and life, but also all kinds of social powers that require an individual answer or a personal choice.

This can be quite threatening and that is something what is also going strong these days. I stand in front of the class and see that it is increasingly difficult for students to make choices. There are also more and more choices, possibilities and decisions to take. On the one hand, we are allowed to make more and more choices, but as a result, the pressure also increases. Advertising drives us crazy and tells us what we can choose even better and advertising is now also coming our way via social media. In the store I thought, standing in front of a shelf with 20 different boxes of eggs, how easy it would have been if I didn't have to make a choice. The flip side of not having to make a choice is of course not having a choice.

Burke's proposition is that there is no direct link between the beautiful and the good. Beauty has to do with the pleasant, but life also has much less pleasant sides. Our behavior is largely determined by duty, work and authority, and we are guided by emotions such as fear, fright and dismay. These emotions are part of the aesthetic category of the sublime. For a long time, the sublime was seen as the superlative of beauty. In Burke's eyes, however, it is something that is fundamentally different. Sublime is everything that intimidates, threatens and inspires us. Often the sublime evokes a sense of what is beyond us that we cannot comprehend.

Sublime is defined, as an artistic effect productive of the strongest emotion the mind is capable of feeling. Burke wrote ‘whatever is in any sort terrible or is conversant about terrible objects or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime’.

We encounter works of art that we regard as 'beautiful', but there are few works of art that can be described as 'sublime'. The beautiful is pleasure, and the sublime is pain, he says. The sublime scares us awake and makes us feel small with so much greatness.

Burke: "When pain and danger come too close, they are not able to give us any pleasure; but at a certain distance, and with some adaptation, they can bring us pleasure, and they do as we experience daily".

Example; Those who cling to a piece of wreckage in the middle of the sea in a seething storm do not enjoy it, but standing on a dune, watching such a storm can cause a pleasant shiver, which is entirely the case when such a storm by a talented painter on canvas is set.

This also means that the whimsical, asymmetrical, the non-human controlled has its own, intense beauty. What we see in the paintings from the romantic period but also what draws my photos.

Examples of art:

Artist: Théodore Géricault

The Raft of the Medusa 1818-19

This enormous canvas is inspired on a real, traumatic event that depicts the survivors of a French navy frigate I saw in the louvre. The people on the rafts are horrified and dying in a dramatic way. The composition, light, everything in the painting helps to evoke the feeling of horror in the viewer. The raft is rescued after 13 days but only fifteen men remained alive. It is the combination of the real event and the way it is depicted combined thit the big seize the painting that makes it a sublime artwork.

Artist: J.M.W. Turner

Slaves Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhoon Coming On - 1840

Turner investigated concepts of transience, violence and death in his paintings in a dynamic and expressive way with lots of color. This painting is based on a poem following a real, violent event on a slave ship. Nature is presented as all-powerful and terrifying.

Philosopher Nietzsche declares in 1886 that the sublime is outdated and artists return to wanting to achieve beauty. This is reflected in impressionism and modernism.  This while expressionism is looking for the sublime.

At the beginning of the century, artists began to look at the sublime in technological and scientifically made landscapes as a replacement for nature. Mass media and rapid technological progress are seen as daunting. Many people today are feeling anxiety and helplessness because of that. The Nazi art is also looking for the subliem and that gives it a bad taste for a long time.

People are struggling to adapt to a period of instability and dramatic shifts in meaning." Climate change and uncertainty of the future for th earth play an important role in this and makes that sublime is again is upcomming theme.

Sources:

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/sublime

https://www.groene.nl/artikel/het-sublieme-en-het-schone https://aureon.nl/boek/edmund-burke-over-het-sublieme-en-het-schone/

https://www.theartstory.org/definition/the-sublime-in-art/artworks/#pnt_7