„The Bigger Fear the Sheerer Delight.” On the Depictions of the Catastrophe and Calamity in the Selected Examples of the 18th and the 19th Century Paint ing in Regard to the Aesthetics of the Sublime and the Spectacle

Abstract

The article develops the concept of disaster and calamity in the 18th and 19th century painting (since the beginning of modernism). The motif, which was particularly pop
ular on the threshold of modernity, was depicted then without a religious or allegoric context and more often than not with reference to actual events that occurred in that period such as a shipwreck or fire. It is said that the key element characteristic for the presentation of disasters within painting was the discourse on the sublime which was related to fascination with the natural elements. The discourse was dominated by the British philosophy and aesthetics of the XVIII century and the reflection expressed by Immanuel Kant in his book Critique of Pure Reason. The aesthetics of spectacle, which was present in other areas of the culture those days, was essential for the 18th and 19th painting as it attached the pageantry and monumentality and led to thecommercial success. In the middle of the 19th century, when painting revealed the fascination with technology and industrial revolution, the concept of the sublime was transformed as well. In a way, the images of the industrial expansion which delighted the contemporary viewer might be interpreted today as a premonition of the disaster which is yet to come.