Fingal's Cave 1850 - 1880

This stereograph of Fingal’s Cave was produced sometime in the nineteenth century by an anonymous artist. The image presents a geological formation that has inspired artists, writers, and musicians for centuries. Stereographs like this one were a popular form of entertainment in the 19th century. They also captured scenes from around the world, bringing distant locations into people's homes. Fingal’s Cave is located on the uninhabited island of Staffa in Scotland. The cave is formed entirely from hexagonally jointed basalt columns. The regularity of these shapes has often been likened to the architecture of a cathedral. The popularity of the cave as a destination in the 19th century was in part due to its fame through Romantic art and literature. The composer Felix Mendelssohn visited in 1829 and wrote an overture inspired by the sounds and atmosphere of the cave. To understand this image fully, we might want to turn to travel writing, landscape painting, and musical scores of the period. In this way, we can see how nature becomes an aesthetic phenomenon.