On the 7th, I had mentioned the seemingly cryptic title of this talk:
Structures of Meaning in Civil War Imagery from the Sublime Theaters of Battle to Picturesque Places of Remembrance.
A reader was good enough to email a translation yesterday:
I'm no art historian, but I recall once going through an exhibit (probably at the National Museum in DC) that centered on the depiction of sublime vs picturesque in 19th C art. IIRC sublime refers to depiction of nature untamed by man (think of imagery of American forested landscapes) while picturesque refers to nature heavily influenced by man (think of English Victorian era formal garden landscapes).
Thanks. If I can use this in another context, the conservation goals of the Civil War Preservation Trust are picturesque at Mine Run and Gettysburg and sublime at South Mountain.