With this work, Friedrich seems to send us a message: man is not much in the face of this unpredictable, sometimes cruel nature. The line, the color, the human presence, appears as a simple “detail” in the composition. Almost everything here is reduced to a minimum. In the same way that the spectator himself is called to contemplate this vast enigmatic expanse. Indeed, his scenes, inspired by allegory and philosophy, invite the character of his work to contemplation. The canvas is a remarkable illustration of the painter’s concerns throughout his career. The only thing certain: he seems thoughtful in the face of the immensity of the surrounding landscape.Ĭaspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) fits perfectly into the German Romanticism that began in 1770. Or would it be in the evening, as this fading light would suggest in the distance? The presence of the Capuchin monk walking on this seaside gives us no answer. What time of day would you place this scene? Perhaps in the morning, as evidenced by this enveloping white mist. Caspar David Friedrich: Spiritual LandscapeĬaspar David Friedrich, Monk by the Sea (1808-10) The famous gondoliers are represented near the Grand Canal, as well as merchants and diplomats from the Orient. In addition to being a landscape painting, Canaletto’s work depicts the life of the people of Venice.
The light, almost transparent, envelops the city in a soft and warm atmosphere and sets the scene in the late afternoon. If the painting of the Italian master wants to be meticulous in the representation of topography, the landscape represented is no less poetic. Because they are faithful to the perception of reality, the Veduta were made at the time using several instruments, including the camera obscura, ancestor of the camera. It is exactly a Veduta (“view” in Italian), which is characterized by the exact representation of a landscape, often urban. The Grand Canal at the Church of La Salute, painted by the Venetian artist Canaletto (1697-1760) is a special type of landscape painting. Giovanni Antonio Canal (aka Canaletto), The Grand Canal at the Church of La Salute (1727) Giovanni Antonio Canal (aka Canaletto): Urban Landscape However, some elements are also recomposed and regenerated: the eternal return of certain events becomes inevitable. In the cyclical and natural reading, inherited from antiquity, actions are repeated at each new start of the cycle. Life is understood as an accumulation of events predicted and organized by Christ, who has the power to punish or bless us according to our behavior. In the first, called linear and Christian, God appears as the point of connection of all things. In all of the paintings of the Four Seasons, Nicolas Poussin allows two interpretations of the scenes. The imminent original sin is notably underlined by the presence of God at the top right, fleeing the scene to prepare the punishment. But if warm colors and a pleasant light emerge from the work, it is indeed a dramatic outcome that is suggested by the painter. They are in the middle of a meadow dotted with trees, including the famous apple tree described in Genesis. Here, the artist depicts Adam and Eve naked. It was with Spring that he began to complete the order.
Scenery paintings series#
Painted at the end of his life for the Duke of Richelieu, the series presents sketches from the Old Testament, in which the landscape takes a dominant place. Inviting to delight, it offers an in-depth reflection on the place of the son of Adam within the divine immensity.īetween 16, he produced the Cycle of 4 Seasons.
He is notably the inventor of the “ideal landscape” where man is intimately linked to nature, portrayed in a majestic and grandiose way. For example in the 1960s land artists such as Richard Long radically changed the relationship between landscape and art by creating artworks directly within the landscape.The classical painter Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) produced a deeply erudite and profound painting, fundamental in the history of art. The genre expanded to include urban and industrial landscapes, and artists began to use less traditional media in the creation of landscape works. In the second half of the twentieth century, the definition of landscape was challenged. The baton then passed to France where, in the hands of the impressionists, landscape painting became the vehicle for a revolution in Western painting (modern art) and the traditional hierarchy of the genres collapsed. Britain produced two outstanding contributors to this phenomenon in John Constable and J.M.W. The nineteenth century, however, saw a remarkable explosion of naturalistic landscape painting, partly driven it seems by the notion that nature is a direct manifestation of God, and partly by the increasing alienation of many people from nature by growing industrialisation and urbanisation.
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