Writers, musicians, and artists of the period faithfully elevated this perspective, rejecting what they viewed as an excessive emphasis on the cerebral and instead arguing for heightened emotion as a wellspring of aesthetic opportunity. Horror, passion, and awe, especially when experienced in the face of nature’s sublime landscape, offered an artistic antidote to the perceived disconnect from spirituality occurring as the theory of evolution took hold around the world. Artists longed for an earlier time when the pastoral, untouched grandiosity of nature and its mysteries offered a fountain of self-discovery and wonder. This nostalgia inspired the Romantics to shift the spotlight onto the individual’s imagination and his or her interpretation of the world.
