Theoretical underpinnings of the mythic metaphor of the void as exemplified in select nineteenth-century paintings

Abstract

The void, the abyss, infinite space – an a temporal and a spatial vastness evocative of terror related to the insecurity of precariousness – these descriptors all point equally to reality as well as to myth and metaphor. The void is present in nature and is represented metaphorically and mythically in music, literature, films, architecture and art. The concept of the void has been an existential topic for millennia, discussed and debated by philosophers, scientists and psychologists, whose endeavours to make sense of it have changed over time. What causes insecurity upon encountering the void is that it signifies the threshold between the known, the unknown and the unknowable. Science and technology empower us to push the boundaries of the void ever farther, yet an aspect of the unknowable seems residual. That is where mythic metaphor is useful and is instrumental in both a metaphysical and psychological way. This article examines how, rather than recoiling from the void, engaging or embracing it may result in an enlarging, or transcendent experience. In this article the horizon and luminosity in the sublime paintings of the nineteenth-century Romantic painters Caspar David Freidrich and Joseph Mallord William Turner, potentially leading to a transcendent experience and/or an encounter with the sublime, are positioned as portals to the void.