Standing alone on a high dark rock a lone figure contemplates his place in the universe, while foggy mist swarms over the distant valleys and mountains beyond. One of the most iconic and sublime landscape paintings of all time, German painter Caspar David Friedrich’s, Wanderer Above Sea Fog, 1817, encapsulates the dreamy idealistic spirit of European Romanticism. Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer Above Sea Fog, 1817 Wanderer Above Sea Fog Caspar David Friedrich, 1817, via Kunsthalle Hamburg But beyond narrative references, this sublime landscape of Turner’s is ultimately a reflection on the sheer, destructive brutality of nature, which threatens to callously engulf the people below.Ĥ. In the distance, the sun is a glowing orb of mesmerizing light, a glimmer of hope amidst the tragedy of war. Here the storm becomes a potent metaphor for life-threatening struggle as black, angry clouds form a terrifying, swirling vortex that pushes back against the tiny, helpless soldiers. Dedicated to Hannibal Barca, Commander of the Carthaginian army in 200-100 BC, the painting conveys Hannibal’s soldiers attempting to cross the Alps in 218 BC, with Salassian tribesmen fighting Hannibal’s rear-guard. Turner’s Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps, 1812, typifies the agonizing beauty of the Romanticism era, with monstrous, arching storm clouds that soar over small people below. Joseph Mallord William Turner, Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps, 1812 Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps by Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1812, via Tate, London A flash of white light in the center draws our eye to the tiny, terrified onlookers who are minuscule in the face of the falling rocks around them, soon to be destroyed by the elemental forces of nature.ģ. Here the distant French mountains are beginning to crumble away into an avalanche, casting terrifyingly huge clouds of billowing dust and smoke across the scene and obscuring the sky above. As well as a painter, De Loutherbourg moonlighted as a theatre set designer, a role which allowed him to invest overwhelming drama into his canvases through stark lighting, depth, and movement.
The British-based, French-born Philip James De Loutherbourg painted An Avalanche in the Alps in 1803, at a time when the picturesque yet dangerous French Alps were an increasingly popular embodiment of the sublime landscape. Philip James De Loutherbourg, An Avalanche in the Alps, 1803 An Avalanche in the Alps Philip James De Loutherbourg, 1803, via Tate, London This balance of opposites between darkness/light, fragility/permanence, and stillness/movement is why this sublime landscape painting has become one of the most enduring images of all time.Ģ. Breughel sought to contrast areas of stillness and motion within this single image, painting the rocks and mountains as a steady and unmoving constant, in comparison to the constantly flowing movement of water, people, and birds. The scenery is tied closely to their story as pale, distant scenery represents the familiar land they are leaving behind, while the dark, foreboding foreground which they head towards is shrouded in the darkness and danger of the unknown. The tiny figures of Mary and Joseph teeter along a perilous cliff face in the foreground, fleeing persecution in Bethlehem. Pieter Brueghel the Elder’s, Landscape with the Flight into Egypt, 1563 typifies sublime landscape painting of the Northern Renaissance, combining breath-taking scenery with religious narrative. Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Landscape with the Flight into Egypt, 1563 Landscape with the Flight into Egypt Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1563, via The National Gallery, London Let’s get lost in some of the most awe-inspiring, sublime landscape paintings of all time, from the Renaissance era to modern and contemporary times.ġ. Even before Burke’s famous text, painters since medieval times have ramped up swirling storm clouds, sharp cliff faces and jagged, snow-peaked mountains to convey an overwhelming wonder and terror to captivated audiences. Sublime Landscape Painting Through HistoryĪlthough the term sublime could describe various subjects, sublime landscape paintings have been some of the most enduring and captivating of them all.
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