Technique
Sublime
Theorised by Longinus (On the Sublime, 1st c. AD); re-theorised by Edmund Burke (1757) and Immanuel Kant (1790) as the confrontation of finite mind with infinite force.
Definition
An aesthetic quality evoking awe, terror, and a sense of overwhelming power or vastness beyond the merely beautiful.
Example
Shelley before Mont Blanc; Wordsworth's 'Simplon Pass' passage in The Prelude; Turner's paintings of storms.