American painter Thomas Cole was much known for his detailed depictions of the American countryside, depicted in alliance with the tenets of Romanticism and Naturalism. As a originator of the Hudson River School, Cole was contributory in this creation and depiction of the American landscape.

However, not all landscapes depicted by Cole were based on actual existing places. Indeed, whilst even his depictions of existing scenes often exhibited idealistic interpretations of the natural environment, some of his most famous works were not based on specific landscapes at all. Among these works, we find the aptly named "The Titan's Goblet". This work of art was painted by Thomas Cole in 1833 and its farther meaning has been open to translation ever since. It was painted on a fairly small canvas which contrasts nicely to the magnitude of the subject, and was done applying a very thin layer of paint, maybe because Cole painted this subject for himself rather than for any specific sponsor. However, its humble beginnings none withstanding, it was a accomplished execution of a mind boggling subject: An massive mountain landscape amid which rests an immense goblet. The Goblet is brimming with water and along its shores people are living, while they spend their days sailing on the waters of the goblet itself. From the sides of the goblet, some water falls to the landscape beneath and where it falls, life emerges.

The interpretations of such an limitless work have unmistakably been many and varied. Cole himself did not supply any text on the subject, which only heightens the contemplation on the real meaning of the painting. Some early speculation focused on the connection of the goblet to a tree and went to associate it to Yggdrasil of the Norse Methodology, though this rendering was later abandoned as it was very questionable that Cole had even heard of the Norse Gods and their detailed mythology.

Another more attractive interpretation, supported by the title of the painting on it's own, lends the inspiration to the realm of the Greek gods. With the titans of that Mythology being gigantic beings that did create colossal stone objects, this interpretation lends itself more easily. That the titans were themselves also givers of life can be seen as taken in the life giving characteristics of the goblet in the painting. The appearance of both a Greek temple and an Italian palace on the banks of the goblet as well further lends credibility to such a Mediterranean interpretation.

However, Louis Legrand Noble who was equally a friend and biographer of Cole did not cover any such Mythological connection - and we could rightly have foreseen him to already know. Rather, he wrote:

"There (the goblet) stands, rather reposes upon its shaft, a tower-like mossy structure, light as a bubble, and yet a section of a substantial globe. As the eye circles its wide rolling brim, a circumference of many miles, it finds itself in fairy land; in accordance though with nature on her broadest scale... Tourists might travel in the countries of this imperial ring, and trace their fancies on many a romantic page. Here steeped in the golden splendors of a summer sunset, is a little sea from Greece, or Holy Land, with Greek and Syrian life, Greek and Syrian nature looking out upon its quiet waters."

So in his interpretation, we are preferably looking at a utopic fairy land where romantic fantasies can spring to life. In other language it is a world of dreams, set above the lands of normal mortals. It is the illustration of a dream. In such an interpretation, the title itself only refers to the size of the goblet, and the painting to a romantic idea. As Cole's paintings were certainly influenced by Romanticism, this is definitely an alternative potential.

In acknowledgment of the unique nature of The Titan's goblet, it was the only pre-20th century painting incorporated in the New York Museum of Modern Arts 1936 "Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism" exhibition. The painting can as of this moment be found on exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Arts in New York.