Art Blog - Art In History

A few years ago I did a small piece under this same title, comparing two landscape paintings which treated the viewer very differently, one inviting him in, the second deliberately blocking his way. As a follow up to my recent posts on landscape painting, I thought that I should say more on this topic, which involves many of the most powerful tools available to the landscape painter. The most compelling aspect of a landscape painting is its ability to draw the viewer into its world. We will see later that the choice to exclude the viewer is powerful precisely because it frustrates this natural impulse to enter and explore. The "Cornfield" by Constable is a beautiful example of the magic of invitation, and of many of the most common devices by which it is nurtured… Continue reading… 1 comment

The rich interaction between painting and theater is something I have touched on in an earlier post on David and the French Revolution, and I will end by looking into that extraordinary moment of symbiosis at the end of this post. However, another moment of rich interaction occurred in the Italian Renaissance, and it is difficult to claim that either art form was taking the lead. The lead image, Botticelli's "Story of Lucretia", may be a surprise to those who know his "Birth of Venus" and "Primavera". However, this is one of many works in which he essentially paints an elaborate stage setting and fills it with dramatic action. There is little question that the elaborate architectural frame with its described deep space reflects the stage design of the time… Continue reading… 3 comments

This post is in some ways a response to Gary's post on Raphael's "Descent from the Cross". I agree that Raphael represents a perfect moment in the High Renaissance: fully realized, harmonious and sublime. I then had to ask myself why, of the great masters of his time, he is the least interesting to me. I decided the answer lay in the limitations of perfection itself. "In praise of Imperfection" is a bit misleading; this post is more in praise of striving, of asking the questions instead of finding the final answer. For the Renaissance, the primary questions were those raised by Humanism, both in the arts and in thought in general (Gallileo, Copernicus, and of course Leonardo)… Continue reading… 4 comments

Perhaps the greatest single contribtion made by Leonardo da Vinci to Italian Renaissance painting was the simple pyramidal composition he developed in his seminal "Madonna and Child with Ste. Anne". This compositional idea was later perfected by Raphael in his many Madonnas, and became virtually a trademark of Italian painting for a century. We see a variation of it in the "Resurrection" by Piero della Francesca. The effect of the pyramidal composition is that of the pyramids themselves: stable, massive and timeless. Piero della Francesca uses the pyramid shape to give a feeling total permanance and significance to his subject. Christ is the top of a pyramid of figures, perfectly erect and frontal, looking directly at the viewer… Continue reading… 0 comments