Analysis of Sea Representation in Romantic Paintings based on the Concept of the Sublime in Kant's Philosophy (Case Study: Selected Works of the 19th Century, Europe)

Nature representation is one of the most important subjects in painting. The general concept of representing or imitating nature in art means that art is nothing but a narration of the nature; the artist recreates what he experiences in the outside world, i.e. nature, by means of artistic tools. The attraction of many paintings for us is because we see things in them that we enjoy watching directly. This is one of the special features of representational imagery.Painters have been drawn to the mysterious power of the sea for more than two thousand years. Some artists have painted heroic naval battles. Some show us how the strong storm affected the lives of people working at sea. Others have expressed the great liaison between sky and sea in colors which never occurs on the land. Marine art is a genre of art that places the sea and the ocean as its main focus. This genre of painting can include the human element (people working on ships, in battle, etc.). When seascape painting was first created, it was rare to see a composition without a ship or human presence in the foreground, as landscape art was not recognized as an individual genre and specialty until the 17th century. Early naval art often featured naval ships in battle, accompanied by rough and turbulent seas. This type of painting was placed in the homes of high naval officers to record real battles, or even legendary stories for entertainment and display.On the other hand, with the emergence of some developments and new definitions in philosophy, as a noble matter in the age of enlightenment, a new platform for exploring the meanings of works of art was provided. The beginning of the 19th century represented one of the most exciting flourishing in philosophical power and talent, which may be comparable to the generation that nurtured Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. The greatness of the revolution initiated by Immanuel Kant in philosophy was comparable to the Copernican revolution that announced the end of the middle ages. The key concept of the sublime can illuminate new dimensions of the representation of nature.Kant's attitude towards the sublime as a kind of separate aesthetic category goes back to year 1764 and his treatise on the relationship between the sublime and beauty, entitled Considerations on the Sublime and the Beautiful. The sublime includes the feeling that is evoked as a result of the lack of imagination in the understanding of a very large object. Kant divides the sublime concept into two types: mathematical and dynamic. A very large object is understood either in terms of magnitude (size) or power. Mathematical and dynamic are distinguished depending on the connection with theoretical or practical reason. Mathematic highness expresses the fact that the subject of judgment is faced with vast magnitudes or greatness in time or space. Faced with the majestic object, the subject makes an aesthetic estimate of a magnitude in which the object is not really imagined as infinite, but only brings to mind the idea of ​​infinity, an idea that no reasonable intuition can conceive. It can be enough for that. Strength is superior to great obstacles. If it overcomes the resistance of something that has power, it is called force. Nature, considered in the aesthetic sense as a power that has no force on us, is a dynamic sublime.Despite the wide range of research on Immanuel Kant and the history of art, no research has been presented that focuses on the works of representation of the sea in the 19th century based on the concept of the sublime in Kant's philosophy. Therefore, due to the newness of this topic, the lack of complete research and the lack of centralized information, the present research, while examining the concept of the sublime and its types, is focused on examining the symbols and indicators of the sublime as well as the motivation of artists to create works of painting with the theme. The sea is discussed in the works of romantic paintings of the 19th century in Europe. The main question in this research is what is the interpretation of the representation of sea waves in romantic paintings based on the sublime? The current research was done with descriptive-analytical method and using the library collection method in collecting information. By selective sampling among the paintings of the sea in the 19th century Europe, five works have been selected and analyzed qualitatively. The method of selecting the works was such that first the romantic paintings related to the sea in the nineteenth century of Europe were examined. Among these, the works in which sea waves are the main subject or at least have a special place in the image were selected. In the last step, after examining the theoretical foundations and finding the concept of the sublime, the works in which the field of analysis was based on the sublime were selected. The final result was modified with the opinion of experts. The reviewed images were also selected as an internet search through reputable sites and galleries, led to the emergence of various artistic styles.The concepts of the beautiful and the sublime, which had entered the world of works of art in parallel with the spread of romanticism in the late 18th century, paved the way for explaining the meaning of romantic works. Until now, nature was represented with beautiful effects by the beautiful thing, but with the emergence of the sublime thing, it showed new characteristics. The sea was no longer depicted with its motherly qualities, the calm and life-giving waters that bless people's tables, but the angery and furious side of the sea startled people and showed it's the power and vastness of nature over the thinness and wisdom of the beings. Such a risky situation led to the discovery of aspects of human existence that could not be achieved before in the beautiful matter. The lofty and sublime matter was especially in a significant connection with the style of romanticism, which means the appearance of the meaning of the work in connection with it. Romanticism in its specific and limited sense is a phenomenon related to the beginning of the new era. The revolutions that founded the new world also shook the soul and mind of the western man.Romanticism was the product of this spiritual movement; it was an emotional response to the rapid changes that had begun. The results of this research show that the pattern of sea representation in 19th century paintings based on the concept of the sublime is different according to its type. The high and dynamic matter in the studied works is done through the display of the power and violence of the sea. Representations of sea storms, the overwhelming power of nature over humans, and sometimes even the representation of a metaphysical quality, become an arena for visual metaphor and symbolic expression of the artist's intention.The apprehension caused by the events in dealing with the wild nature revives a high dynamic feeling in the subject and shows the human ability to deal with it. But if he finds himself safe from its harm, he experiences a kind of pleasant feeling that is the result of stopping an unpleasantness. The artist draws the majesty and vastness of the sea for the high mathematical display. The vastness of the sea creates a feeling of infinity in the subject. This greatness and infinity does not occur in nature, which actually occurs in the subject's mind. Therefore, according to Kant, natural objects such as the vast ocean and the like are called sublime only when the mind is already full of various ideas so that such an intuition arouses a feeling in the subject that can be called sublime, in otherwise, this exaltation appears simply scary for a person without the growth and evolution of mental ideas. In the following table, the characteristics of the reviewed works are briefly compared.