| John Martin’s Sublime Paintings |
| Chronologically, John Martin's life for the most part belonged in the 19th century, but | Párr. 1 |
| stylistically and ideationally he was a child of the late 18th century. He was born in the |
| Revolutionary Year of 1789, and the late-18th-century romantic trends in philosophy, |
| literature and art characterized his entire production. |
| 5 | Today, few remembers John Martin anymore, even when it comes to art historians. | Párr. 2 |
| But this makes him all the more interesting: by studying what our own time doesn't appreciate |
| you can learn a lot. In Martin's apocalyptic and often chaotic landscapes with biblical and |
| literary figures, his contemporaries saw both a pictorial boldness bordering on madness, and |
| a near perfect expression of what Edmund Burke called "the sublime" - the romantic concept |
| 10 | that represented the "strongest feeling which the mind is capable of feeling." Simply put, |
| Burke argued that the sublime can be discerned when beauty exceeds the dimensions and |
| constraints of human perception. |
| Despite being an unskilled small town boy on the Scottish border and constantly being | Párr. 3 |
| in quarrels with the Royal Academy, Martin was a respected artist. The contrast is great |
| 15 | against his predecessor, the thirty year older William Blake. Blake's mythological images, |
| despite their loaded content, are calm and transparent, with clear contours. In Martin's large |
| and dramatic scenes, the movement and intensity are one with the landscape itself - the |
| spectator is drawn into the images like in a maelstrom. Martin saw nature with the eyes of an |
| 18th century Romantic and portrayed it with a consistent topographical and meteorological |
| 20 | exaggeration. The paintings offered the urban bourgeoisie who visited the art galleries an |
| opportunity to live out their strong emotions. |
| "The Assuaging of the Waters" (1840) is one of John Martin's more quiet and peaceful | Párr. 4 |
| works. It almost seems tacky and kitschy to our eyes, with its pink skies and seductively |
| swirling water. The sun has broken through the clouds and the dove, sent out from the ark, |
| 25 | has picked its olive branch. But it's contrasted by a non-biblical raven. Both have survived |
| the deluge. However symbolic they may be, they're only details in the composition. The real |
| motive is the overwhelming sea and rock landscape. Today, it's difficult to overwhelm any |
| brain suffering from sensory overload by having been marinated in Hollywood junk since |
| day one. Perhaps a judgement day, such as in many of Martin's pictures, would be a suitable |
| 30 | cure. |
| Referencia |
| 100 | Steemswede. (2018) John Martin’s Sublime Landscapes, https://steemit.com/art/@steemswede/art-john-martin-s-sublime-landscapes. | |