Definition – a movement in the arts and literature, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual.

Romanticism begun in 18th century western Europe and in most areas was at its peak from 1800 to 1850. It was used as a form of expression against the industrial revolution as romanticism emphasized nature over industry.

Artists such as Henry Fuseli and Caspar David Friedrich were part of the revolt against the age of enlightenment because it valued new technology and machinery over nature ands the natural world.

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THE SUBLIME

The idea of the sublime is central to a Romantic’s perception of, and heightened awareness in, the world. The theory of sublime art was put forward by Edmund Burke in 1757 in A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful which provided the English Romantic movement with a systematic analysis of what constitutes the sublime, and the possessed qualities. This gave the English Romantics a legitimacy and a strong theoretical foundation to their expressions. He defined the sublime as ‘an artistic effect productive of the strongest emotion the mind is capable of feeling’

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Edmund Burke

Burke was born in Dublin and educated there at Trinity College. He is best known for his political achievements and being the founder of modern conservatism of the Reflections on the Revolution in France, as he expressed his mistrust in the rationalism of the French Revolutionaries.

When 28 years old Burke wrote his Enquiry, Consistent with the dominant philosophical way of thinking in Britain during his life, Burke was an empiricist (the idea that all learning comes from only experience and observations). He believed that the our ideas, and what we know about the natural world, is aquired from our sensory experiences. For Burke, it is the passions which decide how and what we see, hear and feel.
Burke also sought to apply a scientific method to his chosen subject-matter, so in the Enquiry he does a scientific investigation into our various passions, and uses the evidence to explain the nature and power of the sublime.