Essay on Romanticism Explain how different versions of the sublime can be found in various Romantic paintings and literature. During the Romantic movement of the 19th century, authors and artists began to include the philosophical concept that combined beauty and terror. This philosophy, known as the sublime, used scenes of beauty with a subtle addition of shocking terror to scare viewers but also to make them feel safe knowing that they could not be harmed by this imminent danger. Artists used it to draw a new form of attention to their work and push the viewer to see or read more. Artists and writers such as Thomas Cole, Immanuel Kant, and Arthur Schopenhauer use the sublime to display an essence of beauty that is paired with the discomfort of vulnerability. Thomas Cole in his piece The Course of Empire (Cole) uses the sublime to create a passion with the viewer for the rise, fall and growth of an empire surrounded by nature. During the early stages of the pieces, Cole paints magnificent landscapes dotted with seemingly nomadic tribes of indigenous people newly arrived to settle. This wild state represents the intimacy of nature in its pure form, with its natural resources untapped and its land undisturbed by man. But as man progresses and begins to stabilize during the Pastoral State, the viewer can see structures being built in the distance and people preparing to farm. The Consummation of the Empire shows the rapidly growing power of the empire and the viewer feels overwhelmed by the rapid growth from a small village to an overflowing city. Cole uses this overwhelming and sublime feeling to show the growing vastness of this new empire. The destruction shows the fall of this great empire as the entire city goes up in flames and… in the middle of a sheet of paper… to present the pure essence or ideas of the world in a small image. The reason for only short immersions is that within these paintings, an artist cannot capture the vastness or monumental dimension of the world and thus leave room for the feeling of the sublime to escape. As the Romantic era grew over its time during the 19th century, artists and authors began to implement the sublime into their work. The philosophy of the sublime surrounds the idea of ​​shock. As a spectator watches a beautiful scene of a rushing waterfall, there is danger coming from the waterfall but the spectator cannot be harmed by it. This is what Thomas Cole tried to capture in his works and what the philosophers Immanuel Kant and Arthur Schopenhauer began to study. This feeling of discomfort is what is sublime, and many artists and writers have tried to encapsulate that feeling in their work..