J.M.W Turner And The Sublime Essay, Research Paper
Describe the term Sublime, Illustrating your definition through
reference to the work of Two of these artists; Turner, Martin, de
Loutherbourg, Danby, Ward.
The Sublime is a term that has had several meanings over a
period of time. The earlier usage would have been to describe very
emotional scenes, depicting romance, love and glory. Later Sublime
was used to mean deep thought provoking paintings of power, mans
subordination to the powers of nature and dark emotions.
This later meaning of the word is the one to which I will
compare Turner and Martin s work. Turner s early work was more
accessible than his later, almost abstract work, however the work
during his later years would possibly be easiest to find the elements
of the Sublime, One prominent painting, which exemplifies this
theory is Hannibal and his army crossing the Alps, exh. 1812, this
painting has a great deal of dark emotions running through it. The
small area along the bottom depicting Hannibles army raping,
murdering and torturing many people. The painting also shows the
other element of the Sublime, mans subordination to nature. The
way Turner has shown this is the way he has used space on the
canvas, the human element of the painting being a relatively small
area, compared with the raging storm over head. This symbolises
that no matter how powerful the army may be, nature is always more
powerful. The choice of colours is also symbolistic of the emotions
with dark greys, and blacks, with red and orange across the bottom
showing the blood spilt.
Turner also used the theme of mans subordination to nature
many times, such as in Shipwreck, exh. 1805 in this painting he uses
the layout of the boats, bringing the spectator into the painting, with
this in mind, using the sail he creates an agitated lozenge, where it
seems as though the sea is really moving. The life boat is shown with
a pale sail in an almost monochromatic background and although it
is trying to save the fishermen it is being drawn into the waves, and
is having trouble remaining stable.
Martin however was more interested in the dark emotions than
the part nature played. He mainly chose to paint religious themes,
this was probably due to his strongly religious and moralistic
upbringing. One such example of his portrayal of the Sublime in a
deeply religious context is The fallen Angels Entering Pandemonium,
from Paradise Lost, Book 1 exh. 1841 this picture is a landscape
with the figures only tiny and insignificant, this is common in
Martins work, like Turner, yet martin s landscape are always more
fantasy than reality, rather than Turner s love of observational
drawing. This paintings colours are intensely significant, the reds,
oranges and deep purples symbolising the rebellion and dark theme
of the painting.
The Great day of his wrath, 1851-3 is another powerful
landscape, with the figures, less important than the great expanses
of rock and fire. The lightning in the top corner and the falling rocks
are to symbolise gods power, and the dark emotions are the theme
again as an evil act must take place before such vengeance is taken.
Many of martin s work was reproduced as etchings, these being
black and white intensify the drama of the scenes, showing evilness
and darkness, which is not matched by Turner s work. Martins depth
of religion was put across in his paintings, This Sublime approach
would have been approved of at the time due to there moralistic
character and portrayal of hell.
The two artists chosen, Turner and Martin exemplify the given
meaning of Sublime each taking preference to different approaches,
Turner creating awesome paintings of mans subordination to nature,
and Martin, and his religious themes being ideal for the dark
emotional side.