The Iconography of the Sublime in John Martin`s Mezzotints to Paradise Lost

Abstract

The sublime has been a key idea in Western aesthetics from Longinus of the third century to the present times. However, Edmund Burke formulated a very systematic, comprehensive theory of the sublime as well as the beautiful. In eighteenth century England, Burke`s idea permeated almost every sector of art, for example, literature, architecture, music, and painting. Edmund Burke enumerates eight factors of the sublime, that is, terror, obscurity, power, privation, vastness, infinity, difficulty, and magnificence. John Martin is a highly artistic printmaker who made illustrations to Paradise Lost by using the form of mezzotint. Martin masterfully delineates the sublime in his mezzotints, which effectively produce light and blackness, depth and height. In three mezzotints, Martin embodies the sublime which Milton expresses in words. In Pandemonium, Martin embodies the sublime of infinity and obscurity. In Creation of Light, he is concerned with power which is represented in the fast moving image of God. Bridge over Chaos vividly expresses terror. Martin is credited with employing the mezzotint, which enables him to deal with the sublime with its wide tonal range, and with perceptively responding to Paradise Lost. In this sense, John Martin`s mezzotints are not merely pictorial renderings of the poem but perceptive interpretations of the poem. Martin endows Paradise Lost with the sublime.