Thoughts about the "" sublime ""

Thoughts upon the word sublime , a word rarely  used today if ever in connection with art -

oh certainly we have "' Awesome'" and if ever was a word more abused it is this  one , I mean 

a haircut is not awesome however wonderful , a visit to disneyland is not or is it .

Some years ago I vsited The Highlands of Scotland in the late Summer

I came over a rise in the hill and there below was the Loch , a huge expanse of water surrounded

by high mountains the setting sun  burnished gold upon the water .One heard in the distance the

the weird calls of the golden eagle - I was awe-struck by the I MMENSITY one felt small and insignificant- one drowned in the vastness of it .

                  However getting  back to the wonderful word sublime - its difficult to relate this word 

to a lot of  modern art because it seems to have many narrative classical aspects However I would say an artist like Mark Rothko seems to aim towards this mainly through his experience of the immediacy

of the experiance of some of Michelangelos works . Actually the word means putting something  

on a pedestal making something  elevated something of a transcendant nature. I can bring to mind

many examples of this quality Bethovens ninth symphony-some of Mahler Bela Bartok

In painting Nicholas Poussin  -probably also the Greek word pathos has a part to play in its meaning .

 Certainly if  one goes into  The British Museum and walks into - lets face it the stolen 

statues of the parthenon freize   -there one finds awe there one finds in marble flesh echos of 

the "" sublime "