The discussion of the beautiful and the sublime in art would be resumed

in the second half of the eighteenth century by artists and critics, above all
by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Kant's Critique of Judgment (1790)
distinguished between "the beautiful" and "the sublime".
The "beautiful" was what, in nature or in art, gives aesthetic pleasure,
creating a sense of harmony between the thing and ourselves, between our
imagination and our understanding. What appears in sensuous form can be felt and
accepted by our senses, but does not go beyond them.
The "sublime", however, is much more than this. It is something which
strikes us by its greatness (size, expanse, or degree of spiritual power). In
the case of sublimity we do not accept it immediately; it may at first give rise
to fear or astonishment. Sublimity does not produce harmony; on the contrary, it
makes us realize that we are in the presence of something beyond the
apprehension of our senses, an absolute power. We realize our littleness in the
presence of infinity. A sublime object reveals the work of a supernatural
designer, directing us from the sensible to the suprasensible.