This interdisciplinary study looks at the influence of Edmund Burke's theories of the sublime on British Romantic art, arguing that it is far more significant than previously imagined.

Hélène Ibata is Professor of English and Visual Studies at the University of Strasbourg

Introduction
Part I: From the Enquiry to the Academy
1 The Philosophical Enquiry, theories of the sublime and the sister arts tradition
2 Presenting the unpresentable: the modernity of Burke's Enquiry
3 Reynolds, the great style and the Burkean sublime
4 The sublime contained: academic compromises
Part II: Beyond the 'narrow limits of painting'
5 Immersive spectatorship at the panorama and the aesthetics of the sublime
6 Frames, edges and 'unlimitation'
7 'Sublime dreams': ruin paintings and architectural fantasies
Part III: Relocating the sublime: Blake, Turner and creative endeavour
8 Against and beyond Burke: Blake's 'sublime Labours'
9 Turner: from sublime association to sublime energy
Conclusion
Index