Thursday, June 12, 2008

Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog



We studied this painting while discussing Kant's concept of the sublime. A sense of majesty understood through reason and thus mastered, how enchanting is that scene? I wish I could trade places with him. After reading Wordsworth I wonder if Missouri can inspire the same sense of ecstasy with nature experienced by the Romantics. I suppose there have been times when I've felt crippled by the beauty of a Kansas City sky, however I feel like what Casper David Friedrich was experiencing in this image, is so much greater, something I've never understood.

All of this makes me wonder if I have been missing something, something essential. How would the fulfillment of this x value flavor the syntax in which I view life, art, and all the other topics that pop into my malleable mind? This painting evokes void in my heart instead of the glorious sublime. Void and jealousy. And although I fear this post sounds pretentious, as so many of my writings do, I have to emit my feelings. Thus, this post.

1 comment:

Faye Wray said...

the trick, I think, is to see the beauty even though we are crippled by the place.
It's as hard as it sounds, but, in small, glittering moments, it is possible.