Art History I / The Gaze, the Body and the World
Practice question · Sort into groups

Sort each statement by whether it belongs to the SUBLIME or the PICTURESQUE.

Groups: The sublime · The picturesque

Hints
  1. One category is about overwhelming scale; the other about pictorial suitability.
  2. Anything about composing well belongs to the second.
Show the answer

The sublime: Pleasurable terror before the vast and overwhelming, Mountains, storms and precipices, Formulated by Burke in 1757

The picturesque: Land judged by whether it would compose well as a picture, Irregular, varied scenery with agreeable roughness, The word means fit to be made into a picture

Why

The picturesque is the stranger of the two once stated plainly: it assesses land by pictorial criteria, reversing the expected relation in which a painting represents a place. Tourists carried tinted glasses to view scenery as if already painted, which is the idea taken to its logical end.

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