Iconography

= **Hudson River School Iconography (America, 1830-1870)** =
 * Lakes, Mountains, Sky, Storms, Trees, Waterfalls, Man, and a Lack of Ruins
 * An almost scientific attention to detail



Lakes
Lakes represented the //"eye of the human countance"// a mirror reflecting the sublimity of the rest of the landscape, and, most importantly, linking the sky and the earth.



Man
The Hudson River artists show man as a small part of a larger environment. Man's small stature implies a harmony with nature.



Mountains
Mountains represented our physical differences from Europe as well as the great age of the American continent.



A lack of ruins on the American landscape
The lack of ruins was one of the surest signs that America was both young and new and free of the corruption of monarchy implied by the presence of ruins on the landscape.



Sky
The sky represented //"the soul of all scenery"//, the truly sublime in the landscape as well as spirituality.



Storms
Storms had several different meanings. They would eventually come to represent both the coming sectional crisis and tension over the encoaching technology that threaten the landscape.



Trees
Trees are the true heros of Hudson River art. The trees of the American landscape have a primitive quality that sets them apart from Europe, and their autumnal color //"surpasses all the world in gorgeousness"//.



Waterfalls
Waterfalls suggested something special in the American experience, both //"unceasing change and everlasting duration"//, both //"fixedness and motion"//.