Your distance from a thing can, Novalis was among the first to say, stir your romantic imagination:
Everything at a distance turns into poetry: distant mountains, distant people, distant events; all become romantic.
(Quoted on page 286 of “The Open Window and the Storm-Tossed Boat: An Essay in the Iconography of Romanticism,” by Lorenz Eitner. Pages 281-290 in The Art Bulletin, Vol. 37, No. 4, Dec. 1955.)
For a brief biography of Novalis, click here. For images of or relating to Novalis, click here.
For a brief biography of Lorenz Eitner, click here. For images of or relating to Lorenz Eitner, click here.
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