THE BEAUTY OF THE SUBLIME | MONT VIDUYA
THE BEAUTY OF THE SUBLIME
The sublime can be defined as a transformative experience. It's the pinnacle of a person's emotional state. The sublime is present when one experiences mixed emotions such as being left in awestruck wonder or being trapped between puzzlement and comprehension. It is a sublime experience to see the enormity of things in comparison to our insignificance, and to have a profound connection with our innermost soul. Being surrounded by mountains while growing up and living in Baguio City has a strong influence on something deeper to me. It's as though being in the presence of something higher than ourselves alters our perspective and understanding of life and the things that truly matter. The beautiful, lush green pine trees and foothills, as well as the enticing sea of clouds, humble and astound me.
When passion meets purpose, I’ve realized that that’s when we discover sublime. Living in Baguio transformed my outlook on the world and gave me perspective on what is truly important in life and what isn’t. Personally, I take pleasure in hiking and consider myself fortunate that various mountains are just nearby. I always feel like I'm higher than everyone else in the world when I'm standing at the top of the mountain. Around me, a desolate landscape reminds me of the power of nature and what it can make you feel. When I reach the peak, I then realize how small the issues and problems I have back home. This broad view enables me to focus on my own existence. It’s a sensation one feels when you stare at something immeasurable.
In a video titled "What Friedrich Can Teach Us About the Sublime," the speaker emphasized how vastness makes you realize not only how small you are in relation to the rest of the world, but also how small your personal world is compared to the rest of the world. Seeing huge unexplored places emphasizes how little our personal world is. Furthermore, nature's components will undoubtedly outlast humans. It's not just about the massive size of trees and mountains, but also about its permanence. Nature has existed for millions of years and it will survive us all. Days spent in the high mountains allow me to witness nature in all of its forms and stages. It’s a sensation of complete triumph. Being in the mountains shows me what it means to live in harmony with nature.
The Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog reminded me and gave me the precise impression of being on top of a mountain range, according to Caspar David Friedrich, a German painter who embraced romanticism and curated works focusing on the beauty and force of nature. This quintessential image is both sublime and overpowering. A figure of a man stands right in the middle of a sea of fog, surrounded by huge mountains. The sublime shown in this artwork is the vibe it emits, the fog creates an atmosphere and a sense of uncertainty and fragility.
Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, 1818, oil on canvas, 37.3 × 29.4 inches/ 98.4 cm × 74.8 cm, (Kunsthalle Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany)
Friedrich's "Ruined Monastery of Eldena near Greifswald" was another piece that took my breath away. This piece depicts a massive abandoned structure that has devolved into a ruin. The sublime’s illustrated in this artwork because it confronts us with our mortality and insignificance. The feeling of sublime isn’t necessarily only something positive. It can include other emotions such as fear of death. Vulnerability and feeling empty or worthless.
Caspar David Friedrich, 1824, Oil on Canvas.
The sublime may be observed in Friedrich's work "The Monk by the Sea", which was made in 1809. It represents a monk standing before the sea, surrounded by nothing but the vastness and majesty of both the great ocean and most significantly, the sky. The monk in this painting is odd in a way that he is so small and low on the horizon. It's a clear depiction of how wide our world can really be and how tiny we are.
Monk (detail), Caspar David Friedrich, Monk by the Sea, c. 1809
The art of sublime definitely gives us a sensation of a variety of emotions. At times, it can even provoke deep, transcendent, spiritual feelings. The sublime isn't only limited to nature, but also with the man-made structures. As long as it evokes immense emotions, you can consider it as sublime. What struck me the most from the video titled "What Friedrich Can Teach us About the Sublime", is when the speaker ended with a bunch of questions as to why we enjoy experiencing sublime, why we love the feeling of being insiginificant, why it's important for us to leave our busy world and compare it to the bigger one and so one and so forth. He answered by saying "we need a readjustment in perspective to remind us that all this stress caused by our social situation is not all that necessary." And that spoke to me, the sublime paves the way for us to take a breather, weigh everything around us and just contemplate on the things that really matter in life. The art of the sublime is such a beautiful concept.
Picture Sources:
https://www.artsy.net/artwork/caspar-david-friedrich-wanderer-above-the-sea-of-fog
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