This Section is intended to cover not only the different genres, such as Landscapes & History Painting into which art works can be grouped but also the varying subject categories into works can be divided. The genres are fairly obvious but the subjects overlap & their selection involves a considerable element of judgement & personal preference. Lists of notable paintings have been included under each subject heading & an image of any given work can be called up by clicking on the title of the work, which is underlined.
Readers may like to make suggestions about suitable paintings & missing categories. They will be most welcome.
LIST/INDEX
ADAM & EVE & THE GARDEN OF EDEN
Agony in the garden. See JESUS CHRIST 5: PRE-CRUCIFIXION AGONY
ARCADIA including PAN, BACCHUS, SATYRS, NYMPHS, MAENADS & BACCHANTES, ANDRIANS, GRANIDA & DAIFILO
ART GALLERIES & COLLECTIONS Ascension. See JESUS CHRIST 8: RESSURECTION, EMMAEUS & ASCENSION
ASSUMPTION & CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN (assunta) See Virgin Mary/Madonna
BATTLE & WAR PAINTINGS PRE-1914 but not genre involving soldiers
BATTLE & WAR PAINTINGS, SECOND WORLD WAR
BATTLE/WAR OF THE SEXES from Medusa to the Female Vampire
BLACK PEOPLE , THEIR STATUS, including the Noble Savage, Slavery &Native Americans
BRIGANDS, BANDITS & HIGHWAY MEN
BUILDINGS, PORTAITS IN FOCUS/HOUSE PORTRAITS, etc but excluding Ruins
INNS, CAFES, BARS & RESTAURANTS excluding drunkenness & debauchery
CANALS, RAILWAYS & THE HORSE OMNIBUS
CHARITY & BENEVOLENCE & PHILANTHROPY, COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE & ACTING
CHILDREN, including Children with Parents etc
CONVERSATION PIECES & PAINTINGS
CORONATION/CROWNING OF THE VIRGIN
COURTSHIP & MARRIAGE PROPOSALS , ETC
CRUCIFIXION The DEVIL, DEMONS, HELL, WITCHES & DEATH PERSONIFIED, including the Last Judgement & Christ’s descent into hell & his Temptations
DOCTORS & NURSES including Operations & Dissection
The DOWN & OUT including Hard Times & Suicide
DRESSING, ABLUTIONS & PREENING
ELITE BRITISH WOMEN IN THE GEORGIAN ERA:
EROTIC & BAWDY ART, INCLUDING PORNOGRAPHY, Copulation, Lesbianism, Masturbation & the Vagina & also Prostitution & Brothals where this is made clear
FANTASY & HORROR excluding warfare, witches & witchcraft etc, prisons & asylums & disaster of a natural or semi-natural type
GENRE, including Merry Company [Take out Merry Company]
The HAGIASTORISSA (Holy Sorrow) or MARIA DEOMENE (intercessor)
HISTORY, MYTHOLOGICAL & ALLEGORICAL PAINTINGS including National Romanticism
HUMOUROUS PAINTINGS excluding Bawdy Works
ICONS:
JESUS CHRIST 2: MINISTRY including departure baptism & temptations by the Devil
JESUS CHRIST 5: TRANSFIGURATION
JESUS CHRIST 6: ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM & SCURGING IN THE TEMPLE
JESUS CHRIST 7: LAST SUPPER including Christ Washing a Disciples’ Feet
JESUS CHRIST 9: AGONY IN THE GARDEN
JESUS CHRIST 11. THE CRUCIFIXION (Stations of the Cross 11-12)
JESUS CHRIST 12: DEPOSITIONDECENT FROM THE CROSS & ENTOMBMENT (Stations of the Cross 13-14)
JESUS CHRIST 13: Descent into Hell/Harrowing of Hell
JESUS CHRIST 14: RESSURECTION, EMMAEUS & ASCENSION
JESUS CHRIST 15: KING OF HEAVEN/MAJESTAS/DOMINI/PANTOKRATOR
The LAST JUDGEMENT 16, images without HELL. For those with hell see The DEVIL, DEMONS & CHRIST PERSONIFIED
The MADONNA LACTANS, MADONNA DEL LATTE, OR THEOTOKOS GALKTOTROPHOUSA (milk-giving)
MOTHERS, MOTHERHOOD, HOUSEWIVES & FATHERHOOD, including pregnancy & breast-feeding but excluding the Virgin Mary & pictures of the Family
The NATIVITY & THREE KINGS/MAGIC
OLD TESTAMENT SUBJECT, including Adam & Eve & the Garden of Eden
PAINTERS PAINTING & THE STUDIO
PEASANTS, FARM LABOURERS & FISHER FOLK
POLITICALLY COMMITTED ART/TENDENZKUNST including strikes and propagandistic Great War cripples
PRISONS & ASYLUMS, including Death & Concentration Camps, together with related works.
READING & SEDENTARY LEISURE ACTIVITIES
RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCE, excluding The Wedding Day
REPTILES & INSECTS IN THEIR NATURAL SURROUNDINGS
RUINS from the Ancient World onwards but excluding those resulting from warfare
SEASCAPES & MARINE PAINTINGS including Beaches but not Naval Battles
SERVANTS & MASTERS/MISTRESSES including portraits of servants
The SICK, DYING & DEAD excluding war and martyr deaths
SPORT & SPORTING SCENES including Shooting & Fishing, Hiking, Skating, Swimming & Beach Scenes
STRESS & STRAIN/STURM UND DRANG Supper at Emmaeus. See JESUS CHRIST 8: EMMAEUS & ASCENSION
SUNRISE, SUNSET, RAINBOWS, FIREWORK DISPLAYS & DRAMATIC CLOUD SCENES, ETC:
SWINDLERS, CHEATS & THIEFS but excluding Alchemists & Quacks
TOWNSCAPES excluding Market Scenes & Shops
TRAVEL & TRANSPORT from the Flight into Egypt to the Canal
TREES, STANDS, WOODS & FORRESTS
The VIRGIN MARY/MADONNA excluding paintings of the Holy Family as a group, the Nativity, & the Three Kings but including her with Saints & Martyrs
VIRGIN MARY 1: Virgin Birth/Nativity
David Gerard Madonna and Child 1460 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.)
VIRGIN MARY 2: With St Anne
VIRGIN MARY 3: Growing up
VIRGIN MARY 4: Alone
VIRGIN MARY 5: Annunciation
VIRGIN MARY 6: Marriage
VIRGIN MARY 7: With St Elizabeth
VIRGIN MARY 8: Breast-feeding
VIRGIN MARY 9: At the Crucifixion
VIRGIN MARY 10: Grieving/The Pieta
VIRGIN MARY 11: Death
VIRGIN MARY 12: Ascension
VIRGIN MARY 13: Queen of Heaven
VIRGIN MARY: 14: As Intercessor [Including the rescue of those in Purgatory]
WITCHES & WITCHCRAFT including warlocks & sorceres
WOMEN WHO ARE CLOTHED & DOING LITTLE OR NOTHING, LATE 19TH CENTURY
WOMEN WORKERS who are generally paid excluding servants, nurses & doctors, those who serve food & drink, together with prostitutes
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[Although an enjoyable activity, it is not an easy one. It is necessary to start off with the right aim. This is to identify as many positive points about a particular painting, or group of paintings, as possible. Far too many critics appear to have taken delight in discovering how many painters & paintings they can dismiss as worthless. How else can one explain Clive Bell’s rejection of all art between Giotto & Cezanne save for the work of a few geniuses? He regarded Dutch portraiture as tedious & his brief those who were did not include Rembrandt!!!] BellC pp 39-40. (a) General Questions: Is the emphasis linear or painterly Are there powerful verticals, horizontals &/or diagonals Has the artist used the golden section. Has the work been painted from a high or low viewpoint. Does the painter appear to have been particularly concerned with colour. Are the colours of a restricted or of a particular type, eg the primaries or pastel shades. Is it a tonal picture. The test is whether the structure would be clear in a black & white reproduction Is the painting of an all-over type containing very little empty space. On the other hand has the painter made effective use of empty space. Is the work inward turned & self-contained or does it appear part of a larger scene. Does the painting appear to be two or three dimensional, & if the latter is this due to linear or atmospheric perspective. Does it have a high degree of finish, What type of brushwork has been employed. Is the painting beautiful Has the subject matter been idealised or the reverse Was it painted with Love Where does it fit in the history of art. For the conventional Groupings etc See Section 8 & for proposed Movements See Section 9 (b) History, Mythological Paintings & Religious Works: Term: The Italian word historia does not mean history but story & narrative, Alberti said History Painting was the artist’s greatest task (1435) L&L. Such paintings should move the viewer by showing men demonstrating their feelings as clearly as possible in order to please & move the spectator Grove14 pp 581-2 To qualify as History it was thought necessary, that the painting should display noble actions &, according to Hoogstraeten, if this was not sufficiently clear the picture was not of the highest grade Haak p77. Delacroix said that a history painter was he who represented heroic deeds from Greek & Roman history, other eras were genre Nochlin1971 p24. [Greek & Roman history were certainly an important source] but so also were mythology, the Bible & literature. What, however, was not clear was whether current history qualified, although Hoogstraeten said that it did Haak pp 77-8. Development: The first paintings of a mythological type appear to be the twelve frescoed sections dedicated to the months in the Palazzo Schifanoia, Ferrara, which were painted by Francesco del Cosa before 1470. The upper section illustrates the procession of the relevant pagan gods based on the text & illustrations of late medieval mythological handbooks Grove 11 p7. However, what was more notable & innovatory were the mythologies that Botticelli painted between about 1478 & 1486 beginning with the Primavera L&L [During the Renaissance painters seem to have almost exclusively confined themselves to Histories of the narrowest type.] Battles might be commemorated as in Titian’s Portrait of Charles V at Muhlberg but there was no sign of action & the nearest he came to current history was Alfonso di Avalos Addressing His Troops Kaminski pp 71, 93. During the 17th century Rubens painted a series of large works during 1622-5 depicting the life of Marie de Medici, the wife of Henry IV of France, in which both contemporary & allegorical figures were included. Here he created a [new] type of political history painting which glorified the protagonists & placed them in a timeless realm Grove14 p583. The Rubens series inspired the greatest decorative scheme of the century: the vast paintings glorifying Frederik Hendrik in the Huis ten Bosch Grove14 p584, MB p26. There were also depictions of commanders who were surrendering after defeat, vide Velazquez’s Surrender of Breda, 1634-5, & Jusepe Leonardo’s Surrender of Julich, together with some notable scenes of naval battles by Dutch artists NGVelazquez pp 38, 41, etc. [Nevertheless, what is perhaps more significant is the limited nature of these developments & the way in which painters & patrons largely confined themselves to the old, old stories. The broadening out of history painting did not come until the 18th century]. Here it was Hogarth who paved the way both for tragic histories & for the paintings by West & Copley of contemporary events & up to date costume Antal1962 pp 178-9. During the 19th Century traditional, elevated History Painting was replaced by works that were more mundane, i.e., historical genre, or by paintings that were, like Gerome’s, more factual, concrete & realistic. The historical period was also enlarged backwards (Cormon’s Stone Age) & forwards. By about 1850 all that separated new History Painting from the Realists was the latter’s insistence on contemporaneity Nochlin1971 pp 23-4. [During the 20th century the painting of current history virtually ceased, except for War artists, totalitarian art, & far left work in France (Fougeron, Taslitsky), USA & Mexico (Rivera)]. Characteristics: According to French critics a History Painting must have a compelling unity, allowing its absorption at a glance or coup d’oeil A&M p61. In traditional History Painting, which was subverted by Gerome, the hero or central figure was an exemplum virtuous or at least tragic. The picture was not primarily an eyewitness report A&M pp 82, 85-6 Notable Images: Sandro Botticelli Primavera, c1478, & Birth of Venus , c1485-6 (Uffizi) Baldassare Peruzzi Perseus Slaying Medusa & other ceiling decorations , c1510, (Logia di Galaetea, Villa Farnesina, Rome) Chase, William Merritt, Study of Young Girl 1884 (National Academy of Design, New York) Chase, William Merritt Across the Room 1899 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) Chase, William Merritt Weary 1889 (Berry-Hill Galleries, New York) Raphael Wedding of Cupid & Psyche (ceiling decoration Villa Farnesina ) Jan Brueghel the Elder Orpheus in the Underworld 1594-1600 (Palazzo Pitti, Florence) Carlo Saraceni Landscape with Salmacis & Hermaphroditus, c1608 (Capodimonte) Rubens Minerva Protects Pax from Mars.1629-30 (NG) Velasquez Surrender of Breda, 1634-5 (Prado) Hogarth The March to Finchley (The Foundling Museum, London) West Death of Wolfe, 1771 (NG Canada, Ottawa) Copley The Death of Chatham, 1778-9, & Death of Peirson (Tate Gallery) Delacroix Massacre of Chios, 1824 (Louvre) Is this Arcadia Why did the artist choose this particular incident Does the picture illustrate a pleasing story Or was the artist’s principal concern religious or political If the focus is on violence what are the feelings of those so engaged (c) Genre: What is the social status of those involved What is the relationship between the participants, eg are the women likely to be prostitutes as in many 17th century Dutch paintings. What are the feelings & emotions of the persons involved eg are they bored, unhappy or lustful How is the viewer meant to respond to what is happening, eg is the picture intended to be humorous, arouse sympathy & empathy, or promote some cause Does the painting belong to a recognised category such as a Merry Company, Fete Champetre/Fete Gallante, Conversation Piece, or Proposal Painting. For these terms See this Section (d) Landscapes: Has the landscape been idealised or is it a Romantic work How has the painter sought to convey depth or has he deliberately flattened the picture Are there people or is the landscape empty Is the countryside wild or man-made Is the scene benign or hostile. Is it a big sky painting Does the work belong to a recognised category such as Mannerist Landscape, Ideal Landscape, or Impressionism (e) The Nude: Is the nakedness the result of some activity or are the figures posed Where do the figures come in the spectrum from high-minded & sexless to highly erotic, or alternatively is the naked body deliberately off putting What is the attitude of the sitter to the viewer, eg is he or she self-absorbed, shy & embarrassed, unembarrassed, or inviting Is pubic hair present or absent (f) Sexual Activity Does the work qualify as bawdy because it is humorous Is the woman being raped or is it co-operative copulation Is there self-loathing in scenes of masturbation (g) Portraits : Male, female or androgynous Does the sitter have presence or is it notable by its absence. The essential quality of a good portrait is that the sitter should in one way or another attract the viewer’s attention. Is this a formal portrait or a more intimate study in which, for instance, the pose of the sitter is more relaxed & less formal. If there are multiple figures what is the relationship between them. What is the relationship between the sitter & the person who is looking at &/or painting the portrait? In many paintings no relationship is apparent because the sitter is not looking at the viewer & because this does not seem to be deliberate, eg not the result of haughtiness. In many cases the sitter will appear to be looking at but not seeing the viewer due to pride or self-absorption; will be looking with hostility or anger; will appear to be friendly, amorous or lusting; or will appear to be appealing to the viewer for some undiscoverable repose. Once the sitter’s attitude has been provisionally identified, the question arises of how the message is being conveyed by the artist. Sometimes the answer is obvious because, for instance, the sitter is smiling or frowning -though there are different types of smile- but in most cases the indications will be more subtle. Haughtiness can, for instance, be indicated by a twist at the side of the mouth. Pay particular attention to lips, whether they are closed or open, & what they seem to show. What do hands & fingers indicate about disposition. For instance drooping hands & curled fingers suggesting languid, effortless distinction, as in Van Dyke. What does the sitter’s facial weathering & clothing tell us about his age, life, social status & self-image. What do the other objects in the picture indicate. There may, for instance, be subsidiary figures which contrast with & point up the message conveyed by the principal figure, as in many portraits by Van Dyke RACharles p131. Animals are sometime present & may, as with dogs, indicate the sitters’ capacity to inspire love & loyalty. Have background details been included that tell us something about the sitters’ social position or interests? Sometimes, for instance, there are columns or curtains etc that indicate sitter’s high status. Does the sitter emerge from the frame or meld into the background, as achieved by tonal unity without stark colour contrasts. Is the pose contrapposto &, if so, with what result. (h) Seascapes & Beech Scenes: Rough or calm water & a vast or restricted view. Presence & absence of people, boats, or other signs of humanity If the scene one of enjoyment or danger & if the latter how convincingly is its depiction (i) Townscapes: Is it a pleasant or unpleasant place in which to live or work Is it a big & exciting city Why was the artist particularly interested in this scene (j) Still Life: If there are fruits & flowers are they fresh or blighted. If there is food is it half eaten Is the viewpoint high so the objects are seen more or less from above & not just in profile (k) War & Military Pictures: Does the work focus on officers, men, civilians or destruction. Are soldiers displaying bravery, endurance, or have they become automata Does the work celebrate or deplore what is happening, or does it does it merely reportage [This section obviously needs to be refined & improved] |
Notable images:
Bethe Morisot Woman at Her Toilette 1875 (Art Institute of Chicago)
Nicolas-Bernard Lepicie Le Lever de Fanchon 1773 (Musee Hotel Sandelin)
ADAM & EVE & THE GARDEN OF EDEN
Masaccio, The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden 1425 (Brancacci Chapel, Florence)
Albrecht Durer, Adam and Eve 1507 (Museu de Prado, Madrid)
Peter Paul Rubens, Adam and Eve, 1615 (Maurithaus, Hage, Netherlands)
Michelangelo, The Creation of Adam, 1511 (Sistine Chapel)
[See Franits p140}
Notable images of: Cornelis Bega Alchemist, 1663 :
Early churches had no altarpieces, although from the 9th century reliquaries & then shrines containing relics were placed on the altar. By the 10th & 11th centuries these were located elsewhere, so as not to interfere with services, & were replaced by a reredos (a construction in wood or stone) or a painted altarpiece. These grew in size & importance evolving into the (rare) diptych, in which two panels face each other; the triptych in which there is a central panel & two wings; & the polyptych, which has a number of panels Murrays1996 pp 11-2.
[NB how beautiful they are in some early Renaissance Maestas]
Notable Images:
Ambrogio Bondone Giotto Angels from the Lamentation 1305 (Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy)
Antonello da Messina Dead Christ Supported by an Angel 1476 (Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain)
Edward Burne-Jones The Angel Musician 1921 (Anglesey)
Francesco Botticini The Three Angels and Tobias 1471 (Uffizi)
Francois Boucher Angels and Doves
Jean-Honore Fragonard Swarm of Cherubs, a Group of Children in the Sky 1767 (Louvre)
Raphael Sanzio of Urbino The Sistine Madonna 1513 (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden)
William Blake Christ in the Sepulchre, Guarded by Angels 1808 (V&A Museum)
During the late 18th century & especially in England
Notable Images:
John Singleton Copley Watson & the Shark, 1782 (Detroit Institute of Arts)
George Stubbs A Monkey, 1798 (Walker)
Philip Reinagle A Vulture Disputing with a Hyena (RA, 1801)
Lucy Kemp-Welch Mixed Company at a Race Meeting, 1904 (Bushey Museum & Art Gallery)
Emile Claus Cows Crossing the Lys, 1899 (Musee Royaux des Beaux, Belgium)
Giuseppe Pellizza Da Volpedo The Mirror of Life, 1895-98 (Galleria Civica, Turin)
New iconography with angel & Mary kneeling in Annunciation (Giotto at Arena Chapel) & Mary knelling before Christ in Nativity Male1949 p103; Adoration of Magi becomes more picturesque with Wise Men kissing Christ’s feet Male1949p104 [More]
Notable Images:
Murillo La Annunciation (Santa Caridad, Seville)
Sir John Everett Millais Bt. PRA, The Apollo Belvedere, 1841 (RA)
ARCADIA, including PAN, BACCHUS, SATYRS, NYMPHS, MAENADS & BACCHANTES, ANDRIANS, GRANIDA & DAIFILO:
See also Garden of Love
Concept: Arcadia was a pastoral paradise ruled by Pan, the Greek god of woods, fields, flocks & herds, who during the Renaissance personified Lust. It was inhabited by shepherds & shepherdess, satyrs, nymphs, maenads & bacchantes; & also by Bacchus. He was the god of wine, although originally it was fertility HallDic pp 30, 37 , 197, 232.
| Satyrs were spirits of the woods & mountains who were the attendants of Bacchus, from whom they derived their goat-like features, which included hairy legs, hooves & horns. They were lazy & spent their time drinking & chasing nymphs. In medieval & Renaissance times they personified lust & evil HallDic p273. Nymphs were young & beautiful female spirits with different types inhabiting differing classes of objects, eg niads were fresh water nymphs. Sometimes satyrs & nymphs sported together & this was a theme popular with Baroque painters HallDic pp 227, 273. Maenads & bacchantes were female followers of Bacchus who took part in his orgiastic rites (Bacchanalia) & copulated with Pan HallDic pp 197, 232. Andrians inhabited the Aegean island Andros which was visited annually by Bacchus. They partied when a fountain turned into a wine river of wine HallDic p16. |
History: In the third century BC the Greek poet Theocritus depicted a Sicilian Arcadia in his Idylls; & the poet Virgil pictured an Italian Arcadia in his Eclogues HallDic p30. Arcadia was an earthly paradise. According to Ovid’s Metamorphoses this Golden Age was followed by Silver, Bronze & Iron Ages, although the concept of differing & deteriorating ages goes back to the early Greek poet Hesiod. Each succeeding age brought increasing trouble & misery HallDic p9, Panofsky p40 The Golden Age was an era of harmony & innocence in which man’s simple needs were supplied by nature. In the Silver Age cultivation has begun, dwellings have to be constructed & there is knowledge of right & wrong. The Iron Age is one of greed, malice & warfare HallDic pp 9-10.
A Caveat: Arcadia followed by regression was not the only view of human evolution that was held in the ancient world. The alternative story of a bestial state followed by technical & intellectual progress was also to be found. Moreover the two visions frequently co-existed, particularly in later classical writing, as in Ovid Panofsky p40. [There was also inter-penetration in painting] where Arcadian creatures & humans live together in the primitive world, as pictured by Piero di Cosimo Panofsky pp 53, 55. Moreover Piero is believed to have been non-Arcadian position painted the elegiac Death of Procris where a faun or satyr grieves over her dead body Panofsky p67, Grove24 p770.
Arcadian Poetry: Pastoral poetry & drama flowered in 16th century Italy HallDic p37. There was an Arcadian spirit in Italy as early as Boccaccio (1313-75) & there were poets in an Arcadian movement at Catarina Cornaro’s court at Asolo (near to Castle le Franco).
| Catarina CORNARO, 1454-1510, was the daughter of a Venetian nobleman who in 1472 married the king of Cyprus where she reigned after his death. In 1489 she was forced to abdicate, Cyprus was annexed by Venice but she was granted the sovereignty of Asolo, a charming citadel on the foothills of the Dolomites. Here & in Venice she presided over a court in exile Grove7 p862. See Bembo. |
Arcadia was popularised by Sannazaro’s eponymous work in the 1490s Clarke1949 pp 114-5. It was not printed until 1502 in a Venetian pirated edition, but had previously circulated in manuscript. It is a prose & verse narrative in which a melancholic court poet escapes from urban life to idyllic countryside in ancient Greece. Here, shepherds, nymphs & satyrs live in an atmosphere of perpetual romance, although the poet’s love for the nymph Phyllis is frustrated Hale p739. As Clark pointed out Sannazaro’s description of landscape & its colours & inhabitants foreshadowed the works that Giorgione & Titian were shortly to paint Clark1949 pp114-5.
During the 16th century Guarini’s Il Pastor Fido, which was set in Arcadia, also became a fruitful pictorial source in Italy. Pieter Hooft’s play Granida (1605), played a similar role in the Here princess Granida falls in love with the shepherd Daifilo, they flee to woods to live pastoral life but are arrested etc HallDic pp 30-1, 141, 232
Arcadian & Pastoral: These are more or less interchangeable terms with shepherds present from Theocritus OxCompEng
Depiction: Satyrs were sometimes rapists. There is, for instance, an engraving after Primaticcio of a Woman Being Carried to a Libidinous Satyr (1547) & an engraving by Fantuzzi of A Satyr Assaulting a Woman Defended by Three Cupids (c1543) Lucie-S1991 pp 190-1. [But rape appears to be unusual.] All (18) of the nymph & satyr pictures from the Bridgemen Art Library show them as amiable & loving with nothing worse than voyeurism, & these were mostly in North European works.
Legacy: [The Arcadian vision lay behind & developed into] the Fete Champetre, populated as it is with romantic figures in idealized outdoor setting. [Another development was the work of Claude & Poussin] which established the pastoral conventions in painting that prevailed throughout the 18th century Barrell pp 7-8. [See HallDic for the subjects Guarini inspired]
Painters: (a) Italian [Who??] (b) Dutch Van Haarlem, Moreelse, Van Everdingen, Van Uyttenbroeck (2) Wilenski Pls 12, 13, 15; Haak Pl 547, 715, 716
Albrecht Altdorfer, Satyr Family 1507 (Berlin)
These were pioneered perhaps around 1610 by Frans Francken II. He inspired similar works by his brother Hieronymous Francken II, David Teniers I, Hans Jordaens, & Cornelis de Baeillieur Vlieghe pp 203-4. Tenniers was responsible for enlarging & displaying the magnificent collection of Archduke Leopold William, Governor of the southern Netherlands. He was involved in purchasing masterpieces from the confiscated collections of Charles I & royalties. He produced at least eight views of the Archduke’s gallery Grove30 pp 461-3
Notable images:
Frans Franken II Preziosenwamd/wall of treasures (Kunsthistorisches)
David Teniers II Gallery of Archduke Leopold William, 1651 (Petworth House)
Notable images:
Chase The Inner Studio, Tenth Street, c1880s
In the Studio. c1881
Tenth Street Studio, c1880-1
A Corner of My Studio, c1885
The Studio Corner, c1882?
Orpen The Studio, c1910-5
Chase, William Merritt, In the Studio 1881 The Brooklyn Museum
Jean-Frederic Bazille The Artist’s Studio. Nine rue de la Condamine 1870 (Musee d’Orsay, Paris)
Sven Richard Bergh After the Pose 1884 (Malmo Museum, Sweden)
ASSUMPTION & CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN (assunta):
This is to be distinguished from the Ascension which relates to Christ. The Assumption is first mentioned in the various apocryphal gospels between the 2nd & 4th centuries. Depictions of the Assumption date back to a 9th century fresco in Rome.
She is often shown in a Mandorla borne upwards by angels as in the sculpture by Nanni di Banco in the Porta della Mandoria of Florence Cathedral, 1414-21 Murrays 1996. Because she was immaculately conceived the Virgin was not subject to decay or death. Hence she was shown as a young woman Hale p158. In Byzantine & late medieval images Mary drops her girdle, the symbol of her perpetual virginity, on the head of Thomas who doubted both her Dormition & Assumption. She is often surrounded by music-making or singing angels, wispy clouds, & attributes from the Song of Songs& the Book of Revelation, including 12 stars, which are the tribes of Israel & the Apostles, & roses of sharon DicChritianArt.
The Assumption is immediately followed by her Coronation by Christ & the two scenes are often treated together Murrays1996. During the early 16th century the Assumption began to be pictured in a powerful illusionistic & almost realistic manner by [Titian &] Correggio NCMH1 p139
Notable images:
Fresco, 9th century (San Clemente, Rome)
Bouts Assumption, late 15th century (Museum, Brussels)
Giovanni Battista The Assumption of the Virgin 1735 (Louvre)
Titian Assumption, 1516-8 (S. Maria dei Frari, Venice)
Correggio , 1520-4 (cupola decorations, S. Giovanni Evangelista, Parma)
Paolo di Giovanni The Assumption of the Virgin
Sittow The Assumption of the Virgin
Van Dyck The Assumption of the Virgin
Poussin The Assumption of the Virgin
BATTLE & WAR PAINTINGS PRE-1914 but not genre involving soldiers
Albrecht Altdorfer, The Battle of Alexander 1529 (Munich)
BATTLE & WAR PAINTINGS, GREAT WAR & INTER-WAR excluding propaganda pictures but including factories & related works:
Paintings of the First World War require a separate entry because of the volume of important works & the distinctive nature of the conflict.
Notable Images of Munitions Factories:
Notable Inter-War Images:
Sir William Orpen RA Dead Germans in a Trench 1918 (Imperial War Museum)
Willfried Nagel, The Great Horror 1945 (Army Art Collection US Army Center of Military History Museum)
Willfried Nagel, The Red Terror 1945 (Army Art Collection US Army Center of Military History Museum)
Willfried Nagel, Vision of a Soldier on Eastern Front 1943 (Army Art Collection US Army Center of Military History Museum)
BATTLE & WAR PAINTINGS, SECOND WORLD WAR
Karl Raible, Air Raid Over Hamburg 1944
For non-abusive European erotic art See Arcadia etc; See also Misogyny for later period; See also Love & Loving Relationships Between Sexes
Concept: [Men physically exploiting & abusing women for a sexual purpose (or vice versa), women (men) employing erotic means for the purpose of harming/humiliating a member of the opposite sex, or women (men) seeking to harm a member of the opposite sex who has refused sexual advances; to be distinguished in art from pictures in which a man or woman appears to be presented to satisfy/stimulate viewer’s erotic desire; sometimes ambiguous whether abuse is real or story merely opportunity to paint nude; tests = does victim appear distressed; are there hovering cupids indicating amorous relationship HallDic p87; but difficult to tell when victim’s gestures theatrical & in response to erotic/non-hostile gesture, eg Cignani’s Joseph & Potiphar’s Wife H&S. Pl 18]
Imagery: [From the Renaissance various Biblical & Classical stories were used, viz]
(a) Men abusing women: Angelica & Hermit; Antiope & Jupiter; Boreas & Oreithyia; Callisto & Jupiter; David & Bathsheba; Diana/nymphs surprised by Satyrs; Neptune & Caenis; Neptune & Coronis; Rapes of Daughters of Leucippus, Europa, Helen, Hippodamia, Lucretia, Porserpine, Sabine Women, Tamar by Amnon; Susanna & the Elders HallDic pp 18, 20, 51, 58, 61, 93, 146, 222, 259, 269, 294. [ However, many apparent rape pictures are non-violent, even consensual, particularly Rape of Europa with picture of abduction not rape; but rapes of Lucretia, Proserpine, Sabines almost always abusive ; not very many violent rape pictures in the latter 16th century & most of the 17th century, though notable exceptions by Piazetta (Rape of Helen), Lorrene (Abduction of Deianara by the Centaur Nessus); Fragonard (The Bolt); from later 18thcentury more pictures of violence against women, particularly Goya’s war scenes & Delacroix] BAL
(b) Women abusing men: Aristotle & Campaspe; Aurora & Cephalus; CIrce; Jael & Sisera; Joseph & Potiphar’s Wife; Judith & Holofernes; Salome & John the Baptist, Samson & Delilah; Temptation of S. Anthony HallDic pp 21-2, 31, 69, 93, 62;102, 173-4,176, 181, 271-2, 283-4. [ Was this merely a convenient excuse for painting a sexy picture? It seems unlikely for] Judith & Holofernes where there are relatively few Judiths in sexy postures. The notable exceptions Grien-like nude, Artemesia’s decoltes, Saraceni & Flemish painters = Massys, Seghers, Sellaer, Renieri); [religion-political triumph? unlikely] = few depict Judith’s return & display of head (exceptions Benvenuti, Cavellino, Giordano, Solimena). There was a notable absence of Judiths after c1675 except for Ligari & the 18th century Venetians (Amigoni, Bolla, Pelligrini, Piazetta) BAL= lots
Notable Images:
Cignani Joseph & Potipar’s Wife, c1675 (StaatKunst, Dresden)
Paul Joseph Jamin, Brennus and His Loot, 1893 (Musee des Beaux-Arts, La Rochelle)
[Overlap with separate Judith & Holofernes item, etc]
BLACK PEOPLE, THEIR STATUS, including the Noble Savage, Slavery & Native Americans
[There was a long period during which paintings involving the black & coloured were few & far between. Moreover, where they did occur, they were mostly servants in a subsidiary role, as in Van Dyke B&V pp 151, 168, 265. An exception was the portrait of Ignatius Sancho by Gainsborough who is portrayed in a sympathetic manner & as an imposing figure Vaughan 2002 p81. Even more notable was the joint portrait Dido Elizabeth Belle & her Cousin Lady Elizabeth Murray.
Dido was born into slavery, the daughter of Sir John Lindsay who had commanded HMS Trent in the West Indies. She was brought up at Kenwood House by the Earl & Countess of Murray who were already raising their grand-niece Lady Elizabeth Murray. Dido acted as Mansfield’s amanuensis. In the case of Somerset V Steward, 1772, Mansfield who had become Lord Chief Justice, observed that slavery was “odious” & ruled that it had never been legalised in England, hence Somerset must be released Wikip. Reynolds’ portrait of the Polynesian called Omai,1776, [& other works around that time] reflected the new idea that a man from an unspoiled primitive society would be physically & morally finer than somebody from what many believed to be a decadent one R&J p14.
They also embody the Enlighten conviction that all human beings are fundamentally the same & share a common human nature. David Hume said that in all nations & ages there was a great uniformity in human action & human nature. That human beings were fundamentally the same led to a growing stress on their equality & William von Humboldt, the Prussian philosopher & diplomat, argued that unequal treatment as a result of religion, colour & nation should be eliminated, the great Enlightenment figures were opposed to slavery though this might be combined with a belief that negroes were inferior, witness Hume & to begin with Kant Malik pp 17-20.
[Painters appear to have mainly been an enlightened group: those who were black & coloured are depicted in a favourable manner even in the rare works of people of colour in societies where slavery was legal. The sympathetic depiction of people of colour took a number of forms. Free coloured women in a slave society were painted by Agostino Brunias as elegantly dressed in spotless clothing. Similarly, the young Mexican in a portrait by Jose Arrieta is not only neat & tidy but also looks alert & intelligent. In Reynold’s portrait of the Indian Omai he has the posture of a Greek statue, & in paintings by Benjamin West North America Indians display uncommon nobility & sensitivity. They reflect the belief, popularised by Rousseau of man as a Noble Savage, at once healthier, happier & nobler in earlier times & less developed societies. Expeditions to the Great Plains & beyond were another important source for romantic paintings of native Americans, & Alfred Miller’s Trappers Bride’s is doubly so because it shows the betrothal of a white man & an Indian woman See Section 1 for Brunias, R&J pp 17-8, Evans pp 45-6.
An important step in the painting of coloured people was Winslow Homer’s work after the Civil War. They are depictions of labour, play & a meeting with a former white mistress. In these masterpieces, which were well received by critics, the former slaves are presented sympathetically as dignified & stoical when confronting the stern world or happy at play rooted in traditional black culture Cikovsky pp 46-9, 86.
[There can be no doubt that Homer, who had been with the Union forces during the Civil War, was in sympathy, with former slaves.] But how are we to explain the works of Alfred Miller [who made highly critical remarks about Native Americans.] The answer appears to be that dramatic depictions of black & coloured people are to be explained by National Romanticism See Section 9.
During the late 19th & 20th centuries Afro-American artists began painting their compatriots. Henry Ossawa Tanner was the first to gain international fame. He was later fooled by Archibold Motley & notably by Jacob Lawrence in his Migration of the Negro series, 1940-1. The 1960s the Civil Rights movement led to an upsurge in activity & organisation by black artists Wikip, OxDicMod, See Black Art Movement in Section 8
Notable images:
Van Dyke Princess Henrietta of Loraine attended by a Page, 1634 (Kenwood House)
Frans Post, Brazil Paintings (Louvre)
Gainsborough Ignatius Sancho, 1768 (NG Canada)
George Morland European Ship Wrecked on the Coast of Africa 1788-1790 (The Menil Collection, Houston, Texas)
George Morland Execrable Human Traffick or The Affectionate Slaves (The Menil Collection, Houston, Texas)
John Quidor Money Diggers, 1832 (Brooklyn Museum)
West The Death of General Wolfe, c1769
Agostino Brunias Chatoyer, the Chief of the Black Charaibes, in St Vincent with his Five Wives, c1775, engraving (Barbados Museum & Historical Society, St Michael)
David Martin Dido Elizabeth Belle & her Cousin Lady Elizabeth Murray (Scone Palace, Perth)
Reynolds Omai, 1776 (Private)
Benjamin West The Death of General Wolfe, c1769
Wright of Derby The Indian Widow, 1783-5 (Derby Art Gallery)
Girodet J. J. Belley, Deputy of St-Domingo, 1794 [Lindsay]
William Berczy Joseph Brant, c1805 (NG Canada)
John Quidor Money Diggers, 1832 (Brooklyn Museum)
Alfred Miller Trapper’s Bride, after 1837 (Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska), & Buffalo Hunt, 1838-42 (Buffalo Hunt, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas)
Jose Agustin Arrieta El Costeno/The Young Man from the Coast (Hispanic Society Museum & Library, New York)
De Landaluze the Cane Harvest, 1874, & Epiphany Day in Havana (Museo Nacional, Havana)
Winslow Homer The Cotton Pickers, 1876 (Los Angeles County Museum of Art), Dressing for the Carnival 1877 (The Met), & The Gulf Stream.1899 (The Met)
Henry Ossawa Tanner the Banjo Lesson, 1893 (Hampton University Museum , Virginia), & The Thankful Poor, 1894 (Art Bridges Foundation?)
Jacob Lawrence The Migration of the Negro No 1, 1940 (Phillips Collection, Washington)
[Remove existing material & amend title here & in summary list at beginning if necessary]
BRIGANDS, BANDITS & HIGHWAY MEN
George Morland The Wreckers 1790-1799 (National Gallery of Canada)
BUILDINGS IN FOCUS/HOUSE PORTRAITS ETC. but excluding Ruins
Saenraedam was the first painter to concentrate on accurate portraits of real buildings OxDicArt
Notable images:
Nathaniel Home RHA Harbour View 1853 (Merrion, Dublin)
Walter Richard Sickert St Marks, Venice 1896 (Tate, London)
INNS, CAFES, BARS & RESTAURANTS excluding drunkenness & debauchery
Harry Kernoff RHA Jammet’s Restaurant, Dublin 1914 (Merrion)
CANALS, RAILWAYS & THE HORSE OMNIBUS
Term: It is an intentionally humorous [or hostile] depiction of the features of a particular individual as opposed to representations of comic or grotesque type. The genre & the term was invented by Annibale Carracci Posner1971 p66
From the 1750s to the 1780s caricatures were largely the work of amateurs & limited to the depiction of types rather than individuals Grove12 p639
Martin p99 [section needed]
CHARITY & BENEVOLENCE & PHILANTHROPY:
There appear to be two main groups of paintings concerned with charity & philanthropy. The first batch consisted of genre works painted in the Netherlands from the early years of the 17th century. They reflected a profound change in attitudes towards poverty. The medieval attitude was that, despite its alleviation through the church & by monasteries, it had to be accepted as part of God’s will. However, humanism & the Reformation led to a more active approach. Charitable institutions were constructed on a large scale & with a vast increase in municipal support for the deserving poor Haak pp52-3, Schama1987 pp 576-7, Van Deursen p55.
During the late 18th century there was a second outcrop of paintings depicting charity & philanthropy. It was in Britain & its context was the belief dating from the earlier part of the century that human beings are not entirely selfish, as Hobbes supposed, but are endowed with an innate moral sense giving rise to acts of benevolence. One practical act was the inhiation in 1739 by Thomas Coram of Foundling Hospital & it was followed by many others See Golden Age & Grand Manner in Section 9
Notable images
Master of Alkmar the Seven Works of Charity, 1504 (Rijksmuseum)
Joost Droochloot The Seven Works of Charity, 1618 (Central Museum, Utrecht)
Werner van den Valckers Registration of the Poor & Orphans by the College of Almoners, Amsterdam, 1626 (Historic Museum, Amsterdam)
Joost Droochloot The Seven Works of Charity, 1618 (Central Museum, Utrecht)
Jan de Bray Receiving Children in the Children’s Charity Home, Haarlem, 1663 (Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem)
Zurbaran Charity of Fray Martin de Vizcaya
Jan Victors The Girl’s Dining Room in the Reformed Parish Orphanage Historic Museum, Amsterdam?)
William Bigg A Lady & Her Children Relieving a Cottager, 1781 (Philadelphia Museum of Art)
Edward Penny The Marquis of Granby Relieving a Sick Soldier & Widow (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford), & Costard’s Cow & Goods, Distrained for Taxes, Redeemed by the Generosity of Johnny Pearmain, 1782
Gainsborough Charity Relieving Distress, 1784
Francis Wheatley Mr Howard Visiting & Relieving the Miseries of a Private,1787, & Rustic Benevolence, c1797
George Morland The Benevolent Sportsman, 1792 (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge)
Sir William Beechey Portrait of Sir Francis Ford’s Children Giving a Coin to a Beggar Boy, 1793 (Tate)
See also GROUP PORTRAITS for board members of Dutch 17th charitable institutions
CHILDREN, including Children with Parents etc:
Development: Early portraits of parents with children stress the dynastic nature of the parent-child relationship. This remained but by the 17th but portraits of parents & children became less formal & other generations were sometimes involved. By the end of the 18th century portraits of children playing with toys, teasing their parents or misbehaving became more common West2004 p117
[Take account of Noclin Representing Women pp 70, 200 etc]
Notable paintings:
Bernardino Luini Child Playing a Flute 1500 (The Fitzwilliam Museum.)
Campbell
Van Dyck Thomas Howard 2nd Earl of Arundel with His Grandson Thomas, 1535-6
Giuseppe de Nittis Breakfast in the Garden 1884 Barletta, Italy)
Hoare Christopher Anstey & His Daughter, c1779
Leon Frederic, The Stream, 1890-99 (Musee Royaux des Beaux, Brussels)
Wyrsch, Johann Melchior Soap Bubbles 1784 (Musee des Beaux-Arts)
A notable feature of Dutch 17th century painting was that only a few types of sky were commonly employed . The most frequent were an even grey sky which was used almost exclusively in the tonal period; a bright blue sky with a few white clouds, most often used in townscapes & the quieter type of marine painting; & the restless sky, greyish-blue with dark, gathering clouds Fuchs p163. [This also appears in Section 10]
Cloud studies were painted intermittently since the end of the 17th century but suddenly assumed a new importance in the early 19th. Their fleeting colours & intangible forms fascinated Constable, turner, Linnell, Dahl, Dreyer, Johann Fischbach, Carus & Blechen Honour1979 pp 105-6, NG1984 p252. Luke Howard’s Essay on the Modification of Clouds, which identified different formations, JacksonD p41.
CONVERSATION PIECES & PAINTINGS:
Term: modern & 18th century=small informal portrait group, usually family or friends belonging to acceptable & polite part of society & in a familiar private & proprietary setting with a lady serving tea in her parlour, musicians meeting in their reserved room etc L&L, Vaughan1999 pp 50-1, BurkeJ pp 108-9; a speciality of Belgium painters, eg Coques Haak p490; 17thcentury usage=group engaged in any communal activity including low life; to converse could mean having intercourse Vaughan1999 pp 51-2
History: early form invented by Anguissola? L&L; c1725 introduced in England by Mercier = Viscount Tyrconnel & His Family L&L; out of fashion in London by late 1740s but continuing provincial popularity Vaughan 2002 pp 52-3; supreme visual expression of cult of informality/recreation among 18th century England upper class BurkeJ p109
Painters: Dandridge; Devis; Du Pan; Gainsborough (early); Gawen Hamilton; Hayman; Highmore; Hogarth (early); Mercier; van Aken; Zoffany L&L, OxDicArt, Vaughan 2002; Waterhouse1953 Ch12
[Read Ch in Solkin’s Painting For Money & note]
Although not included in the standard art dictionaries, it is a term frequently used by art historians to describe Victorian paintings L&L, Lucie-S2003, eg Wooddic. In Britain genre paintings which drew mainly on English literature of the 17th & 18th centuries became very popular during the 1830s & 40s. Favourite authors were Goldsmith, Boswell, Pepys & Sterne, & they were painted among others by C. R. Leslie, Mulready, Egg & the young Frith. They are described as being anecdotal, sentimental, humorous & they were often exhibited with long quotations Wood1999 pp 30, 35-9.
There was. during the latter part of the century, another wave of painting with a heavy emphasis on costume. Prominent proponents were John Seymour Lucas, Dendy Saddler, Frank Topham, Marcus Stone & Edward Blair Leighton. They were influenced not only by work of the previous era but also by that of Meissonier. Moreover the focus was now on Regency period Maas p240, Treuherz1993 pp 169-70. [Such work was an aspect of the nostalgic, backward looking painting & attitudes, so common during the latter part of the 19th century.] See British & German Genre (Historical, Literary, Contemporaneous) & Rural Idylls in Section
COUNTRY HOUSE PORTRAITS:
COUPLES: DANCING, KISSING, EMBRACING, & COMPANIONATE, including Fete Champetre, Fete Galante, & Garden of Love
[Images of couples kissing are of particular interest because they indicate mutual affection. They do this much more clearly than couples engaged in copulation. Here the motive force could be mutual lust or it may, unless otherwise indicated, be a rape. Paintings of kissing are by no means common. This appears to be especially true prior to 1900 & the few prior to this date are confined to mythological scenes?????]
Concept: The term Companionate Marriage was used 1927 by Judge Ben Lindsey in an eponymous book to describe trial cohabitation on proceeding full marriage Wikip. Its extensive use was by Lawrence Stone in 1977 to mean marriage for love in which the partners are relatively equal friends & companions Stone1979 Ch 8. [This is the sense used here.]
Development: The idea of married companionship was stressed by early 17th century English preachers, even though they believed in wifely obedience. In 1727 Defoe said that marriage without love was to put the cart before the horse & that it was incompatible with female subjection. Wentworth Wilkes in 1740 criticised marriage for money & advocates companionate marriage in a multi-edition publication. By the second half of the 18th century foreign observers noted the trend to companionate marriage Stone1979 p217-9
Iconography: Paintings of companionate marriage occur from Hals’ Painter & His Wife (c1622) to Hogarth’s Garrick & His Wife (1757) but not thereafter Dijkstra pp 6-9. It has been argued that the husband is dominant in Hals’ picture, he being more prominent & powerful but, on the other hand, their relationship seems natural with her hand casually placed on his shoulder Fucks p90, Dijkstra p6.
It seems surprising that there appear to be few Victorian paintings of companionate marriage. There are numerous paintings of courtship & flirting, the marriage day, the angel in the house & the happy family Wood1976 Fig 52-5, 77-8, 81-5, 171-3. There are also notable paintings of unhappy relationships because of gambling, drink, adultery or incompatibility Wood1976 Fig 24, 38-9, 41, 145, . What seem to be more or less absent are paintings of couples enjoying each other’s company & companionship because they are, for instance, reading to each other or playing board games. However [Leighton] A Conversation Piece by Solmon Joseph Solomon is an exception Wood1976 Fig23. Where there is mutual comfort the scene is often one of sadness due, for example, to sickness, emigration or imprisonment Wood1976 Fig 2, 51, 123
Notable images of:
(a) Dancing
(b) Kissing & Embracing:
Verbeke Neptune, Thetis et l’amour, 16th century
Boucher Hercules & Omphale, c1670
Picasso The Embrace, 1903
Pal Szinyei Merse, Picnic in May 1873 (NG, Budapest)
Munch The Kiss, 1905
Francesco Hayez, The Kiss 1859 (Milan)
Klimt The Kiss, 1907-8
(c) Companionate
Jacob Gheyn II Poseidon & Amphitrite, 1592 (Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne)
Hogarth David Garrick with His Wife, c1760 (Royal Collection)
Gainsborough The Morning Walk, 1785 (NG)
Romney Mr & Mrs William Lindow (Tate)
Raeburn Sir John Clerk & Lady clerk of Penicuik, 1792 (NG Ireland)
(d) Tense
Casorati Platonic Conversation, 1925
Fleetwood-Walker Amity, 1933
Schad Self-Portrait, 1927
Stanley Spencer Self-Portrait with Patricia Preece, 1936
Freud Hotel Bedroom, 1954
Notable images by celebrated artists:
Jan Miense Molemaer, Family on a Terrace, Allegory of Marital Fidelity 1633 (Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts)
Raphael possibly in the History of Venus fresco in Cardinal Bibbiena’s Vatican bathroom, c1515. Viewing is forbidden Grove10 p477
Romano’s lost drawings of copulatory positions with accompanying sonnets by Aretino. They were engraved by Raimondi for Aretino’s Sonnets & Postures, a book of about 1524. There is no known copy but there are some plates in the BM & Albertina Grove10 p477.
Notable Images of: Rosso Pluto & Proserpine, c1526 (engraved by Caraglio), Albertina
Parmigiano Venus & Mars (engraved by Enrico Vico) BM
Agostino Carracci Satyr Copulating with a Nymph, c1585, BM
Rembrandt Ledikant (bedstead), etching, engraving & dry point BM
Rowlandson prints:
A Scene in the Farce called “The Citizen”
The Gallop
Love on a Bicycle
Rural Felicity or Love in a Chaise BM
The Observers
The Concert
The Modern Pygmallion
The Willing Fair or Any Way to Please
The Country Squire New Mounted BM
The Happy Huntsman
Out Posts of a Camp
Sympathy II
Turner Venus & Psyche, painting Tate
(a) Milestones: 1510? earliest full-length portrait Murrays 1959, Pope-H p320. the first known case of a portrait being bought because of the artist & not the sitter was in 1536 when the Duke of Urbino purchased one by Titian BurkeP p108. His Emperor Charles V at the Battle of Muhlberg, 1549, was a source of inspiration during the 17th century Pope-H p176;
(b) Napoleonic: Gros’ Napoleon on the Battlefield of Eylau, 1808 (Louvre) depicts him as pacific & humanitarian viewing the horrors of war in a propaganda commission that was suitably rewarded Honour1979 pp 36-7
COURTSHIP & MARRIAGE PROPOSALS, ETC:
[It might be expected that paintings dealing with these topics would be frequent. They are not if one excludes scenes of violence (Judith & Holofernese) & near violence (Susanna & the Elders). These do not qualify because there is no relationship but merely an involuntary reaction by one party against another. During the Renaissance erotica would appear to be an exception to the rule because copulation certainly shows one form of mutual relationship between the sexes. Another exception are] paintings of the Ages of Man which were not uncommon during the Renaissance. However, here the underling purpose usually appears to be the Vanitas theme of human transience HallDic p9.
[Apart from these special cases, it was not until the 17th century, & the advent of Realism in the Low Countries, that relation paintings became frequent.]
[Continue including Watteau & Tissot, etc]
Notable Images:
Master of the Antwerp Family Portrait Portrait of the Van Gindertaelen Family , 1559 [See L&D p92]
Joachim Beuckelaer The Egg Woman, 1565 (Musee Royal des Beaux-Arts, Antwerp) [See L&D p89]
Images do not occur before the 9th & 10th centuries & then only in Gospel books Murrays1996. The subject became more common from the 14th century possibly because of the Revelations of St Bridget of Sweden who vividly described Christ’s sufferings. Painters in Germany & the Low Countries show the crown as having huge fantastic thorns, sometimes piercing his brow from which blood trickles, whereas southern artists depict plants with smaller thorns. In Italian painting of the 15th & 16th centuries two soldiers are frequently shown as pressing down the crown with their staffs forming the shape of a cross HallDic p80.
Notable images:
Duccio Mocking of Christ & His Crowning with Thorns, on the back of the Maesta, 1308-11 (Cathedral Museum, Siena)
Fra Angelico Christ Crowned with Thorns, fresco 1437-45 (San Marco, Florence)
CRUCIFIXION: The DEVIL, DEMONS, & DEATH PERSONIFIED, including the Last Judgement where combined with hell, Christ’s Descent into Hell & his Temptations
Under the Empire crucifixion was a degrading punishment only inflicted on non-Roman subjects. This helps to explain the absence of Christian images, although this may also have been due to the desire to sidestep the early controversy about the nature of Christ. The earliest Crucifixion appeared around 430, & with Christ standing against the cross, although he was nailed. All early representations are images of victory of the Christus Triumphans variety Murrays1996 pp 136-7, Cormack pp 55-6. Here Christ was often shown alive, regarding the viewer, standing rather than hanging & apparently without pain BuckH p11.
The other type is the Christus Patiens (Suffering Christ) in which Christ is dead, & has closed eyes, a bowed head & a sagging body. This Byzantine type emerged by the 9th century & appeared in the West during the 11th century where it became predominant. It was greatly developed from c1230 due to the emotionalism of Franciscan preaching & their wish to express compassion at Christ’s suffering. Under the auspices of the Franciscans violent images of the wounded Christ appeared from c1300, especially in Germany & Italy. The body was now twisted & the legs crossed due to the use of only one nail. In Grunewald’s Isenheim Altar the emotional intensity & emphasis on Christ’s humanity reached a peak Murrays1959 p79, 1966 p137, HallDic p81, Sekules pp 98-9.
Contemporary Italian works were more restrained. In Perugino’s paintings there was an absence of physical agony & Raphael only painted one important Crucifixion, which is early & not physically agonized Murrays 1966 p137, BuckH p11, Sekules p99. There were no important Crucifixions by Bartolommeo or Sarto Wolfllin1899 p293.
Michelangelo’s drawing of around 1640 shows Christ contorted & anguished, looking heavenwards; but for Annibale Carracci & most painters in 16th century he is dead or dying with slumped head;
Around 1680 Gimabologna’s living, unsuffering & divine Christ led to Barocci’s Renaissance Crucifixion (1604) & also Reni’s Cappuccini Crucifixion (1619) in which Christ is alive & looking heavenwards, victorious at Golgotha (place of skull) with Adam’s skull symbolizing man’s redemption from original sin Spear pp 182-6. There were two dominant versions in the 17th century: Reni’s tender & submissive Christ with outstretched arms where he is almost giving a blessing, & Rubens’ agonized but triumphant Christ with raised arms, clenched fingers & twisted head Wedgwood1967 p59.
[Apart from Christ’s appearance there is the question of whether he is more or less alone or in a crowd scene.] During the Counter-Reformation there was a reaction against crowd scenes & the great Baroque artists, both Catholic & Protestant, concentrated on his figure Murrays1966 p138
The DEVIL, DEMONS, HELL, WITCHES & DEATH PERSONIFIED, including the Last Judgement
Notable Images:
Antonio Verrio The Hell Staircase (Burghley House, Lincolnshire)
Story: Actaeon who is out hunting in the woods comes upon Diana & her nymphs. Angry to have been seen naked, Diana changes him into a stag, & he is torn to pieces by his dogs Bulfinch pp 63, 65.
DOCTORS & NURSES including Operations & Dissection
The donor is the person who has commissioned the painting, & who is portrayed within the work. The person is typically shown in a devout pose & often accompanied by a patron saint. Such pictures may have been for private use & were painted during the late medieval & renaissance periods L&L, Lucie-S2003, OxDicTerms.
[This is the death of the Virgin but problem as to whether to include Assumption See Murray Dic]
The DOWN & OUT including Hard Times & Suicide
Notable images:
Ferdinand Hodler, Unemployed Man 1891 (Private collection) Fernand Pelez A Mouthful of Bread 1892 (Musee du Petit Palais, Petit Palais, Paris)
Juan Manuel Blanes Paraguay: Image of Your Desolate Country 1880 (Nacional des Art, Uruguay)
Janos Thorma The Sufferers 1893 (Magyar, Budapest)
Sir Hubert von Herkomer Hard Times 1885 (Manchester Art Gallery)
DRESSING, ABLUTIONS & PREENING:
Early in the 19th century French doctors advised against bathing more than once a month, there were inhibitions about nudity, & Parisian water was considered unhealthy; although it appears that by 1900 bidets were used fairly regularly by the Parisian bourgeoisie. Portable bathtubs were however a sign of prostitution. Prostitutes had to bathe & those registered had to take frequent baths. Degas’ monotypes show that bathing, & related activities, were associated with prostitution Lipton pp 168-74, 215.
Notable Images:
Notable images of;
Adriaen Brouwer Peasants of Moerdyck, c1629
Edgar Degas L’Absinthe 1876 (d’Orsay, Paris)
ELITE BRITISH WOMEN IN THE GEORGIAN ERA:
Notable Images:
Francis Cotes Lady Hoare Spinning 1766 (National Trust, Stourhead)
Gainsborough, Thomas Duchess of Hamilton (Detroit) 1776
Gainsborough, Thomas Mary, Countess Howe 1764 (Kenwood House)
Gainsborough, Thomas Lady Eardley 1766 )Cintas Museum, Havana)
Gainsborough, Thomas Penelope, Viscountess Ligonier 1749
(Huntington Art Gallery, San Marino)
Alan Ramsay Lady Mary Coke 1762 (NG)
Sir Joshua Reynolds Anne, Duchess of Cumberland 1772 Waddlesdon (Rothchild, National Trust)
Sir Joshua Reynolds Charlotte, Countess of Dysart 1775 (National Trust, Surrey)
Sir Joshua Reynolds Georgina, Duchess of Devonshire 1774 (Huntington Art Gallery, San Marino)
Sir Joshua Reynolds Diana, Viscountess Crosbie 1777 (Huntington Art Gallery, San Marino)
Sir Joshua Reynolds Mrs Robinson 1782 (Rothschild, National Trust)
Sir Thomas Lawrence Mrs Elizabeth Farren 1790 (Met, New York)
EROTIC & BAWDY ART, INCLUDING PORNOGRAPHY, Copulation, Lesbianism, Masturbation & the Vagina & also Prostitution & Brothals where this is made clear
See Portraits (under Women); Nude; & Fancy Picture for mildly erotic imagery
Meaning: The Dictionary says that erotic means concerned with or dominated by sexual love & desire, or tending to arouse sexual desire, whereas pornography is a graphic or other form of communication intended to incite lascivious feelings.
It has been said (Roger Thompson) that erotica in a broad sense encompasses writing & representations that are:
(i) pornographic because they are intended to arouse lust or stimulate auto-erotic desire;
(ii) obscene (or lewd) being intended to shock, disgust, or render the subject shocking & disgusting;
(iii) bawdy (ribald) because they are intended to provoke amusement about sex;
(iv) erotic because they are intended to “place sex within the context of love, mutuality & affection” Frantz p4.
More recently Alyce Mahon says that “the vital difference between the erotic & the pornographic lies in the intent. Pornography’s sole intent is to stimulate sexuality; it is an aid to sex or masturbation”. The consent of the sexual performer or performers is a key element in the distinction between the erotic & the pornographic MahonA p14 [my emphasis]. Pornography for radical feminists, like Gloria Steinem, is not about sex but about female powerlessness where sex is used as form of aggression. The sexually explicit depiction of breasts & other female body parts is a pornographic reduction of of women to those parts (Dworkin & MacKinnon) MahonA p15
Comments:
[(a) Defining pornography in terms of intent, especially sole intent, is unhelpful if only because of the difficulty of discovering artists’ motives which are likely to be mixed.
(b) Stimulation of sexual desire may well be beneficial (eg where it enables couples to engage in mutually satisfying sexual activity) & it is therefore wrong (following Mahon) to term sexual stimulation pornography, which is an inherently derogatory word.
(c) It is a mistake to associate the depiction of female body parts with female powerlessness, as shown by Judith & Holofernes, Sampson & Delila, etc.
(d) If the sexually explicit depiction of breasts is to be condemned so must swathes of great art.]
Conclusion: [The word pornography should, if possible, be avoided in favour of erotic, which is less emotive, & attention needs to be concentrated not on artists’ intentions but on what their pictures show. Erotic art is about (a) depictions of sexual pleasure & desire where this does not cause distress to a participant (as in rape, paedophilia, some voyeurism, etc), or (b) images of genitalia, which are the instruments of sexual pleasure. Other erotic images include copulation, masturbation, ecstasy due (or apparently due) to sexual activity, non-distressing voyeurism, nudes signalling their approachability or preparing for sex, somebody making a sexual advance to another person or paying for sexual services.]
Historiography: The pioneering study of erotic art was by Eduard Fuchs, a Germany Professor who wrote Birth of Erotic Art, 1912-26. However subsequently there was surprisingly little serious study of Western erotic art LSmith1972 p276. Erotic images [were regarded as obscene, witness their] confinement to restricted collections in the BM, Louvre etc Webb p355. [ And erotic subject matter was regarded by Formalists as a serious distraction, as shown by] Fry’s comments on Indian art OxDicMod.
Development: There was an absence of pornographic art in Greek culture because explicit eroticism was not regarded as shocking PosnerR p360. Erotic art was uncommon in the Middle Ages, although there were erotic depictions by wily craftsmen on capitals & misericords including copulation, eg in Toledo Cathedral Grove10 p475, Webb pp 106-7.
There was an upsurge in erotic art during Italy Renaissance, of which Cossa’s Triumph of Love, 1470, was an early example Webb pp 107-8. The Classical world & Golden Age were now seen as eras of sexual freedom Frantz p122. Moreover the modest dress & deportment during the Renaissance created space for shocking & pornographic pictures PosnerR p360. In 1497 Savonarola launched his bonfire of the Vanities which led to the destruction of erotic paintings JonesS p32. However Raphael was soon to become the first famous pornographic artist PosnerR p360. Romano made drawings of copulating couples, which were published in 1523 as engraved by Raimondi Webb p346. They were followed by other copulatory series by del Varga & Agostino Carracci Frantz p123. Other notable works were Corregio’s Io, c1530 & Tintoretto Susanna & the Elders, c1556. [Nothing has been said about Cranach or the impact of the Counter-Reformation]
Libertine literature of the 18th century was often lavishly illustrated & Paris was the centre for a flourishing industry which employed artists from all over Europe H&W p212. Much of the depiction of sexual activity during in the 18th century & early 19th centuries was bawdy & humorous. In France there were anti-clerical engravings featuring monks & nuns while in England there were Rowlandson’s libidinous engravings H&W p43, SmithWG. After 1800 there was the appearance of depictions of Lesbianism that were no longer mythological (Fuseli, Ingres) Webb pp 156-7, LSmith1972 p204.
The open celebration of sexuality became rare partly due to Ruskin’s prudery, but there was nevertheless an obsession with sex during the Victorian period, eg the pretty but superficial works by Cabanal & Alma-Tadema Grove10 pp 479-80.
After 1900 there was much explicit sexuality in the work of Rodin, Klimt & Schiele Grove10 p480. [A feature of this period is that a great deal of the work can legitimately be described as pornographic.] Fin de siècle images, for instance, included female crucifixtion (de Feure, Khnopff, Rops, Dritikol) WoodG p73. Towards the end of the 19th century women were depicted as not just mysterious but also as dominant or death dealing, eg by Rossetti, Moreau, Beardsley & Rops Grove10 p480. [This is inadequate. Vampirism, Roualt & Picasso etc need to be included]
There was an absence of erotic art at in the male-dominate Bauhaus WoodG p92 [This is inadequate. Vampirism, Roualt & Picasso etc need to be included]
Imagery: During the Renaissance & Baroque periods certain Old Testament stories provided ideal material for erotic paintings, especially the bathing episode in Susanna & Elders (previously her trial had been emphasised) Grove10 p476, DicChristianArt p313. Other frequent Biblical stories were Joseph & Potipher’s wife & Lot & His Daughters. The New Testatment’s Mary Magdalene story also had obvious erotic potential Turner10 p476. Greek mythology provided endless opportunities for erotic portrayals, especially Danae & the Shower of Gold (Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, Corregio, Gossart etc), Leda & the Swan (Leonardo, Titian, Corregio, Bronzino, Lorenzo di Credi, Perino del Varga) Turner10 p476.
It is notable that Renaissance artists felt the need, even in depictions of copulation (Perino del Varga, Agostino Carracci), to use a Golden Age context Frantz p123. However Titian had already transferred Italian erotic subject matter into the modern world. Giorgione had painted his Venus sleeping & memorial but Titian’s Venus of Urbino is a contemporary woman Frantz pp 133-4. [The transformation of erotic imagery into genre was however more evident in northern Renaissance painting], an early example being A Brothel, c1520 (by the Brunswick Monogrammist), though Durer’s Women’s Bath, 1496, was even earlier Brinkmann pp 129-30, 223. [Erotic images were a feature of northern art, especially bawdy & satiric scenes] SuttonP Pls 10, 40, 81, 90, Fuchs pp 44-5, 54-5.
Features:
(a) Humour: Erotic art is frequently humorous. Indeed the postures of copulating couples are often ridiculous with humorous depictions dating back at least to Parmigianino’s Venus & Mars.
(b) Hair: Female pubic hair is sometimes visible in Cranach & Grien Brinkmann pp 45, 115. However, it was generally absent because, according to Berger, hair was associated with sexual power & passion Berger1972 p55; Fuseli & followers’ fetish treatment of female hair (elaborate piled) & necks (attenuated) giving women a threateningly phallic quality Myrone pp 71-5. An intense focus on erotic body parts pre fin de siècle as in Courbet’s L’Origine du Monde WoodG p14.
(c) Politics: Erotic art (& literature) had a political aspect because of the rejection of traditional values structures at the time of the Enlightenment & Art Nouveau WoodG p31. Grosz used erotic scenes to attack the ruling classes Grove10 p481,
*******
Renaissance & Baroque nudes have delicate & minimal breasts, big bellies PosnerR p360;
sympathetic reportage of brothel scenes/prostitutes by Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec Grove10 p480; depictions of women as not only available but also self-possessed & sexually aware, eg Manet’s Olympia & Gallen-Kallela’s Demasque WoodG p14
Artists: Balthus; Beardsley; Blake; Antoine Borel; Boucher; Carl Breuer-Courth; Agostino Carracci; Jacques Caresme; Corregio; Courbet; Delvaux; Artur Fischer; Margit Gaal; Paul Gavarni; Jacob De Gjeyn II; Golzius; Greuze; Grien; Grosz; Theodor von Holst; Abraham Jansen; Rudolph Keller; Klimpt; Kirchner; Koeiusai; Adolfo Magrini; Johannes Martini; Louis Morin; Oldenburg; Joseph Ortloff; Henry Lemort; Georg Opitz; Paul Paede; M. East. Philipp; Picasso; Andre Provot; Raphael; Rembrandt; Leon Richet; Romano; Heinrich Romberg; Rops; Rowlandson; Rudolf Koch; Schiele; Stockmann; Turner; Utagowa; Franz von Bayros; Theovan Elsen; Martin van Maele; Marcel Vertes; Watteau; Italo Zetti; Mihaly Zichy H&W, Lucie-S1991; PosnerR p360; Myrone pp 71-5, Fuchs p34, Vlighe p21
Notable Images:
Richard Dadd, Titania Sleeping 1841 (Louvre)
Johann Henrich Fuseli Titania and Bottom 1788
Francis Danby, Midsummer Night’s Dream 1832
Joseph Noel Paton, Under the Sea I (Sotheby’s)
Arkinson Grimshaw, 1876 Iris, Spirit of the Rainbow (Leeds City Art Gallery)
Term: It was used b Virtue in 1737 Grove10 p785
Meaning: It is ill defined & indeterminate in both in size & in the number of figures. Nevertheless it is a work between portraiture & genre. Fancy Pictures include rural scenes of idealized, studio peasants which are sentiment-laden; & figures picturesquely posed & dressed OxCompArt, L&L, Vaughan1999 p152. These usually depict children & young women of which the keynote is contrived innocence, sometimes with erotic overtones Grove10 p785. In Dutch 17thcentury painting a bird escaping from as cage was a metaphor for lost virginity, as in paintings by Frans & Willem van Mieris Franits pp 225-7.
Development: British Fancy Pictures were anticipated in 17th century Netherlands, eg Moreels & Bloemaert’s Shepherdesses Wilenski Pls 14, 16, 20. They were at the height of popularity in the late 18th & early 19th centuries Grove10 p786
Painters: Hayman; Hogarth; Nathaniel Hone; Gainsborough; Mercier (usually credited with creating genre in Britain); Henry Morland; Reynolds; Wheatley Grove10 pp 785-6
Notable Examples:
Mooreelse Shepherdess (Steengracht Collection, Hague)
Bloemaert Shepherdess With Grapes (Carlsruhe Gallery )
Reynolds Boy Reading, 1747. This was his earliest Fancy Picture Grove10 p785
Reynolds Piping Shepherd Boys, 1773
Hayman May Day, or the Milankmaid’s Garland, c1741
Hogarth Shrimp Girl, c1745
Greuze Girl With A Dead Bird, 1765
The Drunkard’ Return, c1780 (Portland Oregon)
Gainsborough Girl With Dog & Pitcher, 1785
The FAMILY, but not the Holy Family for which See Holy Family
FANTASY & HORROR excluding warfare, witches & witchcraft etc, prisons & asylums & disaster of a natural or semi-natural type
Notable Examples:
Eugene Delacroix The Death of Sardanapalus 1827 (Louvre)
Gerard David Justice of Cambyses: Flaying of Sisamnes 1498 (Groeningemuseum, Bruges)
Goya Saturn 1821-23 (useo del Prado, Madrid)
John Singleton Copley Watson and the Shark 1782 (Detroit)
Nicola Abraham Abildgaard Nightmare 1800 (Private)
FETE CHAMPETRE & FETE GALANTE:
Influences: The Gardens of Love in medieval manuscripts OxDicArt
Concept: The literal French meaning of “fete champetre” is outdoor feast. In painting a Fete Champetre is a genre scene with romantic figures in idealized outdoor setting. They are usually eating, dancing, flirting, listening to music. The Fete Galante was a term invented by the French Academy in 1717 to cover Watteau’s courtship scene Pilgrimage to the Isle of Cythera OxDicArt, L&L. Figures in Fete Galantes are depicted full length but they are small, even in large pictures; & they are never nude L&L
Legacy: Conversation Pieces were influenced by engravings after Watteau & his followers L&L
Revival: Groups of nude figures & bathing scenes were to reappear in pictures by Manet, Renoir, Cezanne & Gauguin B-S p136
This is virtually unknown in Byzantine art & only became popular in the West in the 13th & 14th centuries under Franciscan influence. During the 15th century the depictions became more brutal, especially in the North Murrays1996 p196. Images of Christ after the flagellation first occurred in Italian paintings of the 16thcentury & were especially popular in 17th century Spain. Christ is shown on hands & knees by the column, to which from the early Renaissance he is often depicted as tied. Alternatively he is shown being untied, lies slumped & exhausted on the ground, or drags himself along the ground to retrieve his clothes HallDic p123, Murrays 1996 p196.
Notable images:
Ludovico Carracci, c1585
Caravaggio
This is a French term coined by Charles Beaudelaire in his essay The Painter of Modern Life, 1863, in which he is regarded as a man of leisure, idler & urban explorer. The Flaneur is not quite equivalent to the super-smart Dandy who is focused on his persona, appearance, fashionable clothing & the pursuit of elegance: whereas the Flaneur although smartly dressed is detached, perhaps somewhat aloof, & who is observing & savouring modern, big city, life as in Degas’ Place de la Concorde Paris, 1873 (State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia) who is out with his children but ignoring them as he stares ahead Wikip
Strictly speaking these are not Still Life & in 17th century Holland flower painters were among the best paid artists, whereas Still life painters were low paid. In the late 15th & the 16th century there were a few independent flower paintings, but they did not lead anywhere. During the 16th century one aspect of humanism was an intense interest in botany which led to illustrated books about plants & botanical gardens. The first Dutch flower pictures appear to have been painted after 1550, but the first that has been preserved dates from 1601 or 1604, & is by Roelant Savery. However Ambrosius Bosschaert had a greater role in flower painting with more followers. Although the flowers themselves were studied from nature & carefully depicted the pictures were seldom fully realistic. The bouquets often contain flowers that do not bloom together, they are nearly always perfect specimens & they are sometimes out of proportion. Moreover the painters worked from drawings. Later in the century the bouquets became looser & were painted with greater depth Haak pp116-9.
The Biedermeir middle classes were keen gardeners & took a new scientific interest in botany. Flower paintings were popular & the Vienna Academy had a professor for whom such work was a speciality Norman1987 p46.
[Expand using Grove article Vol 11]
William Leech RHA Sunny Afternoon Cancarneau 1908 (Merrion, Dublin)
See also Garden Paintings
The flower garden, especially one attached to a town or suburban house, was a recurrent theme in romantic art & literature Honour1979 p109
Concept: early: In 1972 the Marxist John Berger in Ways of Seeing said active & potentially powerful men view women who are reduced to passive objects, watching themselves being looked at Berger1972 pp 45-7. In support of his argument he reproduces paintings of Susanna & the Elders, the Judgement of Paris, & courtesans & other women whose nakedness is on display. However he observed that Manet’s Olympia is somewhat defiant Berger1972 pp 45, 50-2, 54-7, 63. Linda Nochlin, who was a New Wave Feminist, endorsed Berger’s arguments in Woman as Sex Object Hess&North p14 etc. Michel Foucault argued in Discipline & Punish (1975) that the army, school & prison coerce through observation & surveillance. Foucault-like arguments were applied by feminists to male domination through observation, eg compulsory examination of prostitutes for VD during the 19th century. Laura Mulvey in her 1975 critique of films popularised the idea that passive females were objectified in works that were mainly written, directed & filmed by men. In 1982 Mary Ann Doane, following Mulvey, argued that because men monopolise the desiring gaze women renounce desire in masochism, objectivise themselves becoming narcissistic, or they masquerade as men engaging in transvestism Kern pp 11, 246. Nochlin, turning from films to art, concluded in 1988 that women can either adopt the male viewpoint or accept the male-created view of women as seductively passive Nochlin1989b p30
Concept: later: By the late 1980s some Feminists were starting to modify & qualify their position. Mulvey & Nochlin said they had somewhat over-simplified. Nochlin recognised that in an ideal world of unconscious equality, where women could be painted without any suggestion of submission, the female nude would present no problem Nochlin1989b pp 30-6. Germaine Greer said (2003) that Feminism increased the difficulty of acknowledging that young males sometimes had supernatural beauty & she wrote The Boy partly to reclaim women’s right to take visual pleasure in viewing the young male Greer2003 pp 7, 11, back cover
[Comment: Irrelevant comments apart, those who believe in the Male Gaze have curiously disregarded:
(a) Arcadian paintings which portray unsubmissive female nudes & appear to depict Nochlin’s ideal world of unconscious equality] Haak Pl 694 etc;
[(b) Fete champetres, especially during the Rococo era which feature active lovers of both sexes;
(c) Classical pictures in which women, often depicted as a goddess, make sexual & seductive advances to men, or try to prevent them leaving. Paintings of Venus & Mars, & Venus & Adonis, provide numerous examples HallDic pp319-20.
(d) Lasciviae which show co-operative copulation Frantz Fig 1-2, 8, 14-20;
(e) The difficulty of seeing how erotic pictures of women can have been responsible for female passivity when] such paintings were frequently hidden from view. The Spanish king had a very private room full of nudes in the Alcazar in Madrid Jacobs1979 p49, NGVelazquez p64;
[(f) The way in which women who are painted naked or partly clothed often have active & aggressive roles (Judith, Salome, Delilah, Potiphar’s Wife etc) See Battle /War of the Sexes.in Section7???]
[Fit in] Berger does not discuss the way in which paintings in these categories cast doubt on his argument that women are typically shown as passive. He does mentions pictures of couples making love but says that their owners would have seen themselves replacing or identifying with the man Berger1972 p56. Possibly, but this does mean that they saw the woman as passive or were not stimulated into satisfying their sexual needs.] [Done’s suggestion that men monopolise the desiring gaze appears to assume that sexual desire is in limited supply & that women are prevented from looking longingly at men because men look longingly at them.
I have no intention of denying that in the past women were denied equality or that before the advent of genre paintings their roles were restricted, or largely confined to mythological scenes. However it is highly questionable whether the Male Gaze was an important form of oppression &, even if it was, to question whether paintings were themselves a form of oppression.
Female passivity should be reflected in portraiture with women being pictured looking down or way from the viewer & artist. However this does not appear to be case at least since the move away from profile portraits in late 15th century Italy.]
Notable examples of direct female gaze:
Raphael Portrait of Maddalena Doni, c1506 (Pitti); La Donna Velata, c1515
(Pitti); La Fornarina, 1518-9 (Galleria Natzionale d’ Arte Antica)
Titian A Blonde Woman (NG); La Schiavona, c1511 (NG); Lavinia, c1555 (Gemaldegalerie, Dresden); Isabella d’Este, very late (Vienna) del Piombo Portrait of a Lady (NG)
Moroni Portrait of Isotta Brembati, c1553 (Fondazione Museum & Palace Moroni, Bergamo); Portrait of Lucia Albani Avogadro, c1557 (NG) Portrait of Pace Rivola Spini, c1574 (Academia Carrara, Bergamo);
Portrait of a Younger Lady with a Fan, c1575 (Rijksmuseum); Portrait of a Young Lady, c1575 (Private)
Romano Isabella d’Este, 1524 (Hampton Court)
Bronzino Eleanora of Toledo, 1546 (Uffizi)
Holbein, the Younger The Duchess of Milan (NG); Queen Anne of Cleves, c1539 (Private)
Lotto Lucina Brembati, c1523 (Bergamo)
Other Possibilities. [The Bergerite notion that the male gaze is a control devise is, of course, by no means the only explanation for preoccupation with sexual body parts.] Freud thought that it was a male defence against castration anxiety. The female lack of a penis aroused the fear of castration & this gave rise to a diversionary gaze at breasts or the bra which covers them Lubin p258
(a) Notable images of men gazing at women:
(b) Notable images of women gazing at men:
Watteau Spring
GENRE, including Merry Company:
See also Social History of Art in Section 7
Term: It was probably first used by Diderot to designate paintings by Chardin & Greuze Fucks p42. Even then, it was employed to describe those specialising in a particular branch of genre, eg animal painting. Greuze was admitted to the Academy as “Peintre du Genre”; term gradually confined to paintings not otherwise pigeon-holed OxCompArt pp 465-6. In 1791 scenes of everyday life were first described as genre (Quatremere de Quincy), but the term only gradually became widespread. In Franz Kugler’s influential book (Birth of Painting) of 1837 genre was defined as the “depiction of everyday life”; & at about same time it was proposed subject-division into (a) low which deals with coarse, comical & peasant subjects &, (b) high which shows the family life of the upper classes SuttonP pp xiv, lxii
Nature: Pictures, usually small, of everyday unidealized life & surroundings Murrays1959; an ongoing situation, in contrast to Histories which usually show a decisive moment Fuchs pp 45-6; initially an element of humorous detachment & condescension of lower classes dating back to medieval times OxCompArt p466. It should be noted that the depiction of everyday scenes does not imply absence of symbolic & moralistic content. Indeed Fucks says that genre is characterised by key symbols that “reverse” what is pictured into a moral example Fucks p46; inclusion in pre 17th century genre of non-symbolic indicators, including background Bible scenes (Aertsen/Beucklaer), written slogans (Aertsen) Haas p121; wrong to see such religious elements as mere pretext; they were the human/material expression of Biblical/moral truths SuttonP pxxvii
A Problem: Dutch genre from the 16th & 17th centuries involves the much debated question of the way in which the works were perceived. The traditional view is that these paintings were didactic & that viewers were being taught to avoid vice & bad behaviour. However, this raises the question of why viewers thought they needed to be reminded about the depravity of, for instance, the rural underclass (as in Vinkbooks’ scenes of rural merrymaking). One possibility is that it enabled the affluent classes to savour their own moral superiority Frantis pp 54-5.
[ Another & probably more frequent motivation would be that the paintings were humorous.] This seems, for example, to explain the appeal of genre pictures in which a lecherous old man is purchasing sexual favours from a younger woman who displays amusement. It was then widely believed that the elderly had low sexual drives & hence the man’s prospective disappointment was viewed as funny. The theme of unequal lovers in which a foolish old man solicits a young woman flourished in northern art and literature of the 16th & early 17th centuries Frantis pp 72-3.
It is notable that picaresque novels flourished during this period in the Netherlands & throughout Europe. They were lengthy, comic texts about the colourful travels & adventures of soldiers of fortune & other rogues who engaged in thievery, fighting, whoring & other profligate activities Frantis p71
Types: Merry Company L&L p114; historical Nochlin 1971 pp 24-5
Development: Pyreicus was called a dirt painter by Pliny for painting barbers’ shops, cobblers etc (in Greece around time of Alexander Great) Gomb2002 p17, Wikip.
Throughout the middle ages, calendars, with occupations of the months, contain the best illustrations of everyday life Clarke1949 p22. Those by the de Limbourg brothers’ Tres Riches Heures are a delightful example Clark1949 p22. Boccaccio’s De Mulierbus Claris, which deals with the lives of 106 women (1374, & translated into French in 1401), had numerous genre illustrations (in yet another manuscript owned by Philip the Bold) ThomasM pp 15-6, 70, Pl 16A-D, Wikip. Late in the 15th century there was a notble series of drawings of everyday life in the Hausebuch by a Rhenish or Dutch painter (Master of the Housebook) & there are also some 90 engravings & a few paintings that attributed to him Murrays1959 p263.
Initially genre was confined to illuminations but the 15th century saw the tentative beginning of panel painting. The first obvious panel work of more or less pure genre is van Eyck’s Anolfini Marriage of 1434. Another early example is St Elgius as a Goldsmith, 1449, by Petrus Christus. However, there were also religious works with a strong genre element Grove12 p287, Cuttler p131, JonesS Pls 3, 6, 7, 8. 13.
During the 16th century figures in everyday surrounding & activities frequently appear in panel pictures by painters from the Low Countries that deal not only with the proverbs & the Prodigal Son, but also in depictions of children’s games, weddings, banquets, feasting, dances, women spinning, peasants harvesting & kitchen scenes, which were very popular. The artists include Bruegel, Massys, Van Hemersen, Pourbus, Vinckboons, Heemkerck, Beuckelaer GibsonWS pp 66, 79, 178, Pl 44, 54, 105, 115-7, 119, 129, Haak pp 86-91, 121, JonesS p140. However, Lucas Van Leyden [deserves pride of place] as the earliest artist, who from 1610, painted a number of pure genre works Cuttler p443 .
Traditionally the elements, virtues, senses & seasons had been personified, usually in a religious or mythological context, but there was now a developing tendency to depict profane figures & everyday scenes [beginning with] Aertsen & Beukelaer GibsonWS pp 66, 79, Pls 44, 110, 115-7, 119, 129, 148, Haak pp 71-2, 121-2, JonesS p140. Around 1600 there was a revival of kitchen painting in Netherlands (van Mierveld, Wttrwael, Bailly, van Nieuland, van Ryck, van Haarlem) Haak p122.
A new [why new?] type of Dutch genre painting was initiated around 1615 by Buytewech & by Esias van de Velde in Haarlem Fuchs pp 46-7, TurnerRtoV pp 350, 352. There was no longer any element of humorous detachment in Terborch & de Hooch OxCompArt p466. There were sporadic Dutch stage pictures (Steen/Quast) & true-to-life scenes by Gillot who was the first theatre specialist.
There was a notable absence of genre painting in England during the 17th century, except by genre painters from the Low countries (Egbert van Heemskirk, Tilborch) Piper pp 154-5, Vlieghe p147. Hogarth was probably first England painter to paint actual scenes Antal1962 p59.
Nineteenth century genre began with Marguerite Gerard R&J p73
Feature: [Genre led to huge expansion in roles occupied by women, which had hitherto been very restricted.]
George Morland The Press Gang 1790 (Royal Holloway, University of London)
Derivation: This is from Italian grotto OxCompArt
Term: This differs from the word’s everyday meaning. In art grotesques are fanciful mural decorations, representational & largely composed of natural forms but disintegrated & recombined according to the artist’s fancy eg plants metamorphosing into human shapes, or creatures which are half animal & half human OxCompArt, L&L
History: They were found in Roman buildings such as Nero’s Domus Aurea, or Golden House, which was excavated around 1500. Grotesques quickly became popular throughout Europe. Renaissance & antique grotesques are characterised by bilateral symmetry, which differentiates them from similar Gothic or Rococo decoration. There is no interlacing of forms as in arabesque but evolve. Perugino & Ghirlandio were among the first to revive true grotesque decoration OxCompArt, L&L. Raphael. probably helped by Giovanni da Udine, created the first decorative scheme entirely composed of grotesques in the Vatican bathroom of Cardinal Bibbiena Grove31 p523
See also Children
Notable paintings:
Verspronck, Johannes Regentesses of the St Elizabeth Hospital, Haarlem
Jan de Braij/Bray Regents of the Children’s Charity Home Haarlem, 1663
Regents of the Leper Hospital, Haarlem, 1667 Regentesses of the Leper Hospital, Haarlem, 1667 (Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem for all these paintings)
Icons. See the Virgin Mary/Madonna
[An emphasis on hands appears to have become a feature of portraiture in the late 19th century. Examples are Romarko’ portrait of Empress Elizabeth & Kokoschka’s portraits of Harta, Loos & the Tietzes Faerna pp 12-13. Hands by Schiele & Sargent’s are often interesting & expressive. However, Gauguin paid little attention to hands in his portraits.]
From meagre New Testament beginnings (Matthew & Revelations) hell gradually acquired a rich imagery, drawing on eastern religious myths & the writings of Christian mystics HallJ p218. Important eyewitness accounts of hell were given in the anonymous Vision of Tundale (c1150), which was especially popular in Germany & the Low Countries, & later by Dante in the Inferno WGibson p57, Wikip. Tundale’s Visions are of particular importance because of their vivid & detailed descriptions of the tortures of the damned Lecky1877 pp 221-2.
Around the 12th century fear of devilry intensified & confidence in salvation waned. St Thomas Acquinas (c1225-74) expatiated on the reality of hell-fire & it was accepted that only a minority would reach heaven. Francis of Assisi preached on hell & the Franciscan Berthold of Regensburg, the greatest mission preacher of the Middle Ages, constantly referred to hell’s tortures Coulton pp18-9, Lecky1867 p50, Wikip. There was a corresponding change both in depictions of Christ, which became less comforting & more harrowing, & in those of Satan who became more terrible Lecky1867 pp 50-1. In the 12th& 13th centuries punishment was mostly confined to those guilty of Avarice, who clutch at money-bags dangling from their necks, & Lust, depicted by females from whose sex organs hang toads or serpents. Later the lustful, tormented by demons, are plunged into sulphurous flames, sodomites turn on a spit, gluttons wallow in filth or are forced to consume inedible food, the envious are half-submerged in freezing rivers, & the proud are bent by rocks on their backs HallDic p147.
Depictions of hell continued during the following centuries & received a new impetus from Dante’s Inferno Murrays1996p246. This was illustrated by Botticelli in powerful drawings which he produced towards the end of 15th century G&L pp 104-7. Meanwhile Bosh & Bruegel had developed [??]
At the beginning of the 16th century Signorelli painted a series of frescoes in the cathedral at Orvieto in which devils & their victims are vividly portrayed. Here he replaced the grotesque semi-animal tormentors by even more terrifying humans with flesh the colour of rotting meat. [This paradoxically was an aspect of the humanisation of religious imagery that took place during the Renaissance.] Michelangelo, who was inspired by Signorelli, also broke with tradition in his Last Judgement. He represented Christ as a Jupiter-like figure, as if launching thunderbolts, rather than an impartial judge; & the damned now fall headlong instead of being arranged in a group. A late depiction of hell was made by El Greco in his Adoration of the Name of Jesus Murrays1996 pp 246, 282, 296. Last Judgements are rare after 1600 & The Harrowing of Hell (Descent into Limbo) was now seldom painted HallDic p100
Notable Images of Hell:
Bosch Last Judgement
Bouts Fall of the Damned
Luca Giordano The Fall of Rebel Angels 1666 (Vienna)
For further information on the Devil etc see Iconography Religious, General, & Artists, Perceptions by
HERMITS, SAINTS, MARTYRS & MIRACLES, excluding those principally concerned with Christ, the Virgin & Mary Magdalene
(a) General: 13th century Italian artists began increasingly to paint panels of the saints Eimerl p23. (b) Anthony Abott: most paintings are of his temptation. They divide into those where he is as assailed by fantastic subhuman creatures, as in Bosch & Grunewald, & those were the tempters are lewd women. The former were especially popular with 15th century northern Europe & lasted until well into the 16th century; the latter began in the 13th century & from c1450 the women became progressively more nude Murrays1996 p27; A-C p32
Crucifixion of St Peter 1660 Jose Antholines (Dulwich Picture Gallery)
Crucifixion of St Peter 1656-60 Mattia Preti (Barber Institute, University of Birmingham)
Jose Antolinez The Assumption of Mary Magdalene 1671 (Museo del Prado, Madrid)
Mattia Preti Martyrdom and Crucifixion of St Andrew 1651 (Saint Andrea della Valle, Rome)
Mattia Preti Martyrdom of St Bartholomew c1660 (Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire)
Mattia Preti Martyrdom of St Catherine 1659 (S. Caterina, Valetta, Malta)
Titian Martyrdom of St Lawrence 1557-59 (Church of the Gesuiti, Venice)
Master of the Figdor Deposition Martyrdom of Saint Lucy C1507 (Rijksmuseum)
Martyrdom of Saint Philip 1639 (Prado)
Juan de Juanes Martyrdom of Saint Stephen 1562 (Prado)
Master of Boi Stoning of Saint Stephen c1100 (Museum National Catalonio)
Adam Elsheimer Stoning of Saint Stephen c1600-1602 (Richarty Museum, Cologne)
Bartolomeo di Giovanni Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian 1498 (The Walker) similar entry for Saint Matthew (Caraveggio)
Martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket
Caravaggio Martyrdom of Saint Ursula 1610 (Gallery of Polazzo Zevalles Stigliano, Naples – it is a public museum)
[The works that are covered here are a distinctive form of genre in which a members of the haute bourgeoisie &/or aristocracy are depicted together in activities which may or may not involve mutual interaction & where the participants are polite & well behaved. Hence, they exclude Dutch Merry Company paintings in which the manners & behaviour of the upper class were crude or informal See Merry Company. Works which focus on the amorous interaction of men & women also form a separate category, & so do super-polite & often somewhat stilted Conversation paintings See Couples & Conversation Pieces. Paintings of High Society became frequent during the Victorian era & the key painter was Tissot, although he also painted works that do not qualify.
Notable Pictures:
Adolf von Menzel Pause Between Dances, 1875 `(Bayerische Statsgemaldesammlungen, Munich)
Henry Gervex The Pre Catelan,1909.
James Tissot The Reception 1883 (Knox Gallery, Buffalo, NY)
Jean Beraud The Soiree, 1875-85. (Musee Carnavalet, Paris)
Marius Avey Bal Blanc, 1903 (Petit Palais, Paris). Bals blanc were dance training sessions for young girls who were preparing to come out into society when they became18 Celebonovic pp 127-8.
Mihaly Munkacsy Parisian Interior, 1877 (Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest)
Millais Hearts Are Trumps, 1889. (Leighton House, London)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir Luncheon of the Boating Party 1880 (Phillips Collection, Washington DC)
Sargent An Interior in Venice, 1899 (RA, London)
Sebastien-Charles Giraud The Dining Room of Princess Mitilde, 1854. (Musee de Chateau, Compiegne)
Solomon Joseph Solomon Conversation Piece, 1884. (Leighton House, London)
James Tissot Too Early, 1873 (Guildhall Art Gallery, London), & The Ball on Shipboard, 1874 (Tate Gallery), & Hush, 1874-5 (Manchester City Art Galleries)
HISTORY, MYTHOLOGICAL & ALLEGORICAL PAINTINGS including National Romanticism
Term: This is from the Italian historia meaning story & narrative, & not history. Alberti said History Painting was the artist’s greatest task (1435) L&L. He said that paintings should move the viewer by showing men demonstrating their feelings as clearly as possible in order to please & move the spectator Grove14 pp 581-2 To qualify as History it was thought necessary, that the painting should display noble actions &, according to Hoogstraeten, if this was not sufficiently clear the picture was not of the highest grade Haak p77. Delacroix said that a history painter was he who represented heroic deeds from Greek & Roman history, other eras were genre Nochlin1971 p24. [Greek & Roman history were certainly an important source] but so also were mythology, the Bible & literature. What, however, was not clear was whether current history qualified. Delacroix thought not but Hoogstraeten thought that it did & even included land & sea battles Haak pp 77-8. .
Development: [During the Renaissance painters seem to have almost exclusively confined themselves to Histories of the narrowest type.] Battles might be commemorated as in Titian’s Portrait of Charles V at Muhlberg but there was no sign of action & the nearest he came to current history was Alfonso di Avalos Addressing His Troops Kaminski pp 71, 93. During the 17th century Rubens painted a series of large works during 1622-5 depicting the life of Marie de Medici, the wife of Henry IV of France, in which both contemporary & allegorical figures were included. Here he created a [new] type of political history painting which glorified the protagonists & placed them in a timeless realm Grove14 p583. The Rubens series inspired the greatest decorative scheme of the century: the vast paintings glorifying Frederik Hendrik in the Huis ten Bosch Grove14 p584, MB p26. There were also depictions of commanders who were surrendering after defeat, vide Velazquez’s Surrender of Breda, 1634-5, & Jusepe Leonardo’s Surrender of Julich, together with some notable scenes of naval battles by Dutch artists NGVelazquez pp 38, 41???.
[Nevertheless what is perhaps more significant is the limited nature of these developments & the way in which painters & patrons largely confined themselves to the old, old stories. The broadening out of history painting did not come until the 18th century. Here it was Hogarth who paved the way both for tragic histories & for the paintings by West & Copley of contemporary events & up to date costume Antal1962 pp 178-9.
During the 19th century traditional, elevated History Painting was replaced by works that were more mundane, ie historical genre (Alma-Tadema), or by paintings that were, like Gerome’s, more factual, concrete & realistic. The historical period was also enlarged backwards (Cormon’s Stone Age) & forwards. By about 1850 all that separated new History Painting from the Realists was the latter’s insistence on contemporaneity Nochlin1971 pp 23-4. [During the 20th century the painting of current history virtually ceased, except for War artists, totalitarian art, & far left work in France (Fougeron, Taslitsky), USA & Mexico (Rivera)].
Characteristics: According to French critics a History Painting must have a compelling unity, allowing its absorption at a glance or coup d’oeil A&M p61. In traditional History Painting, which was subverted by Gerome, the hero or central figure was an exemplum virtutis or at least tragic. The picture was not primarily an eyewitness report A&M pp 82, 85-6
Milestones: 1514-24 Alfonso d’Este, Duke of Ferrara commissions Giovanni Bellini & then Titian to paint non-moral mythologies NGTitian p17 [Include in Historical & Mythological Painting]
[See Novotny for Belgium’s poor 19th century history painting]
[Terrible overlap with with the following other HISTORY PAINTING entry which is now being transferred here
This is painting in which the subject matter is taken classical, mythological or biblical history. From the Renaissance to Neo-classicism this was regarded in academic circles as the highest form of painting See Hieracy of Genres. The word in English & French (histoira) are misleading because the artistic term does not necessarily apply to historic scenes. The term derives from the Italian historia, which means story or narrative & contrasts to imagine, which means a single timeless figure. The distinction must have originated in church decoration which included both the painting of figures & the more difficult narrative scenes L&L. However, the boundary line for history painting remained imprecise. Were paintings of real & important historical events to be regarded as History Paintings if they took place in modern times? [Conclude after reading the Grove entry Vol 14 p583 etc]
This embraced several different combinations of sacred figures including St Anne & St John the Baptist. The family in settings that were more or less domestic, V Biblical events, was unknown in earlier times & it hardly emerged before the 15th century, which saw both devotional & narrative forms Murrays1996 p250, HallDic p324
Notable images:
Anthony Van Dyck The Rest on the Flight into Egypt 1630 (Pinakothek, Munich)
HUMOUROUS PAINTINGS excluding Bawdy Works:
[During the Renaissance humorous art was in short supply.] Indeed it is authoritatively [but wrongly] claimed that there is only one humorous painting MET2006 p172. [Moreover it was not until the blossoming of genre painting in the 17thcentury that humour became evident & widespread.]
Notable examples:
Carpaccio St Jerome & the Lion
The Vision of St Augustine
Bellini Feast of the Gods
Sodoma St George & the Dragon Walker p154
Abraham Janssen Hercules & Omphale
A religious picture of Christ, Mary or a Saint, restricted in subject matter & form A-C p165. [Eyes stare out of a full face that is strikingly solemn & immobile.] Strictly speaking an icon is not the same as a Western devotional image because icons are regarded as inherently holy & they are venerated as prototypes of the figures they represent Murrays1959 p255. Increasingly from the 6th century Byzantine icons of Christ that were regarded as divinely produced & were thought have the powers of healing & protection, witness the Mandylion of Edessa & the mosaic of Christ in the church of Hosios David, Thessalonika Cormack pp 77-8. Many icons were believed to have been the work of St Luke Grove9 p622. Initially there were two versions of Christ. There was the Greek version in which Christ is a young beardless man with short curly hair & there was the older, austere & staring figure with a full, pointed beard & long, dark hair. [Here we have the classic icon], which ultimately completely displaced the Greek type. In the West the hieratic Byzantine image gradually softened into a gentler, more human figure during the Gothic period Murrays1996 p113. For icons of Mary see Virgin Maryunder Icon-type Paintings
Meaning: The term goes back at least to Christopher Hussey who in 1927 who saw Ideal Landscape as a phase following after historic landscape (reached in Flanders during the 15th century by Patinir etc & in Italy by c1500). In Ideal Landscape objects, such as ruined temples or fantastic hills, were depicted in order to remind viewers of the historic past & there was little attempt to imitate nature. Ideal Landscape was painted by Claude, Dughet & Rosa. Its background was Aristotle’s conception of nature as a force working in the refractory medium of matter to produce a central & generalised form. Hence artists’ task was to produce the perfect forms to which nature was striving. Claude sought calm & idyllic forms whereas Rosa concentrated on nature’s wild, fierce aspect Hussey pp 7-8
Background: Paul Bril had a key role in the evolution of landscape in Italy L&L. With Tassi he developed late Mannerist landscapes’ artificial dark-brown foreground, lighter-green middle distance & blue horizon hills, each stage marked by wings as in a theatre starting from a dark foreground tree Blunt1954 p196. Ideal Landscape developed through Annibale Carracci & Elsheimer ‘s discovery of the poetic possibilities of enveloping & poetic light Kitson1966 pp 73-4, Blunt1954 p196; (Bril & Elsheimer were friends. The latter influenced & may have taught Tassi who was Claude’s master Klessman p22, Murrays1959).
Characteristic of calm tendency: grand & formalized arrangement worth an approximately flat foreground, often with stream; with side trees, generally occupying whole side, partly in shadow and silhouetted against sky; further back & on or towards the other side more & smaller trees, often near classical building on rising ground; distant flat ground, possibly with river; horizontal hills, sea; classical & biblical figures; poetic & enveloping light Kitson1966 p74, OxDicArt
Albrecht Durer, Wire-drawing Mill 1494 (Berlin)
George Mullins, View of Tivoli 1776 (Merrion, Dublin)
See also Classicism in Baroque Era
It made its appearance relatively late probably because of the difficulty of devising a suitable representation HallDic pp 326-7. It was first widely depicted in the 16th century often with the Virgin in front of God the Father; she being surrounded with learned saints to indicate the debate over her status. During the Counter-Reformation the standard image emerged with the young Virgin dressed in a white robe & blue cloak, standing on a crescent moon (the antique symbol of chastity), & crowned with twelve stars. The latter features are derived from a woman in the Apocalypse who in medieval times was identified with the Virgin HallDic pp 24, 326-7
Notable images of: Wright An Iron Forge
Bartome Esteban Murillo The Virgin and Child 1617 (Met, New York)
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo The Madonna of the Goldfinch 1765 (Washington DC)
Sir John Everett Millais Christ in the House of his Parents 1849 (Tate, London)
JESUS CHRIST 2: MINISTRY including departure baptism & temptations by the Devil
Gabriel Metsu Christ and the Woman taken in Adultery 1653 (Louvre)
Notable images:
Mattia Preti The Tribute Money 1640 (Milan)
Sebastiano Ricci The Miraculous Draught of Fishes 1659 (Detroit Museum of Art)
Santi di Tito Raising of Lazarus 1576 (Santa Maria Novella, Florence)
Pieter Bruegel The Elder The Blind Leading the Blind, Blind, or The Parable of the Blind 1568 (Museo di Capodimonte in Naples)
JESUS CHRIST 5: TRANSFIGURATION
JESUS CHRIST 6: ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM & SCURGING IN THE TEMPLE
Duccio Entry Into Jerusalem 1308-11 (Museo dell’opera del Duomo)
JESUS CHRIST 7: LAST SUPPER including Christ Washing a Disciples’ Feet
Notable images:
Leonardo da Vinci The Last Supper 1497 (Santa Maria, Milan)
Tintoretto Christ Washing the Disciples’ Feet 1547 (Prado, Madrid)
JESUS CHRIST 9: AGONY IN THE GARDEN
Notable images:
Mantegna Agony in the Garden 1459 (NG)
Paolo Veronese The Agony in the Garden 1580-3 (Pinacoteca di Brera)
Sebastian del Piombo, Christ Carrying the Cross 1535-40 (Szepmuveszeti Museum, Budapest)
JESUS CHRIST 10: PRE-CRUCIFIXION AGONY/HUMILIATION (Stations of the Cross 1-10) including the meeting with Pontious Pilate & behold the man/ecce homo
Bosch Christ Carrying the Cross (Vienna)
Giotto Betrayal of Christ 1303-5 (Scrovegni Chapel)
Grunewald Christ Mocked 1503 (Munich)
Holbein the Elder Flagellation 1502 (Munich)
Mihaly Munkacsy Christ Before Pilate 1881 (Deri Museum, Debrecen, Hungary)
Simone Martini Christ Carrying the Cross 1342 (Louvre, Paris)
Tintoretto Ecce Homo 1560 (Museum of Art, Sao Poalo)
Titian Christ Crowned with Thorns 1550 (Munich)
Van Dyck Christ Arrested 1618 (Prado, Madrid)
JESUS CHRIST 11. THE CRUCIFIXION (Stations of the Cross 11-12)
Antonello da Messina Crucifixion 1475 (Musee Royal des Beaux-Arts, Antwerp)
Francis, Danby The Crucifixion 1835 (RA)
Grunewald Small Crucifixion 1520 (Basel)
Rubens Christ between the Two Thieves 1620 (Antwerp)
Van der Weyden Crucifixion Triptych 1440 (Vienna)
JESUS CHRIST 12: DEPOSITION/DECENT FROM THE CROSS & ENTOMBMENT (Station of the Cross 13-14)
Rembrandt Decent from the Cross 1633 (Alte Pinacothek, Munich)
JESUS CHRIST 13: Descent into Hell/Harrowing of Hell
JESUS CHRIST 14 RESSURECTION, EMMAEUS & ASCENSION
Carravaggio Supper at Emmaeus 1598 (NG)
Correggio Ascension 1520-24 (Church of S. Giovanni, Palma)
Giovanni Bellini Resurrection Early 15th Century
Remembrandt The Pilgrims at Emmaeus 1648 (Louvre)
Santi di Tito Supper at Emmaus 1574 (Santa Croce, Florence)
JESUS CHRIST 15: KING OF HEAVEN/MAJESTAS/DOMINI/PANTOKRATOR
The LAST JUDGEMENT 16, images without HELL. For those with hell see The DEVIL, DEMONS & CHRIST PERSONIFIED
This subject dates back to at least 1250 & a small illumination in the Wenceslaus Salter. The Master of the Joseph Legend produced a painting around 1500 & there was another by Tintoretto in 1555. [However, it was not until the 17thcentury & the Baroque era that the scene became at all frequent Fletcher.] H&S pp 49, 51-3
Notable images of:
Master of the Joseph Legend, 1500
Tintoretto, 1555
Orazio Gentileschi, 1626-30
Reni, c1625 & 1630 (2)
Cantarini, c1640
Paolo Finoglio or possibly Artemisia Gentileschi,
Guercino, 1649
Cignani, c1670-80
Philip Veit, 1816-7 (Casa Bartholdy fresco)
One fascinating detail is that a female sculptor, Properzia de Rossi, made a bass-relief of Potiphar’s wife vigorously trying to detain Joseph. According to Vasari, Prosperzia was at the time enamoured of a handsome youth who cared little for her Vaasari2 p326
In medieval times Judith was compared with the Virgin, with Judith’s triumph being likened to Mary transfixing Satan in the widely read Speculum Humane Salvationis Warner p55. This was an anonymous illustrated work of c1315 that purported to show how events in the Old Testament had anticipated those in the New Wikip
Phases: medieval image of virtue overcoming vice perhaps associated with personification of humility; frequent during Reformation when seems to have signified man’s misfortunes at hands of scheming woman; during Counter Reformation = victory over sin HallDic p181
[More]
LANDSCAPE [including the Danube School??. There is a separate item for Ideal Landscape!!!]:
Term: Its first known use was in 1521 in both in Italy by Michiel & in Germany BurkeP p155. Michiel’s frequent use of the term was not an isolated example in Italy, though it was not used in the Netherlands so early, despite the greater advancement in developing landscape backgrounds. It is likely that the Italian usage mirrored the southern demand, & the valuation of paintings for artistic quality, not subject mater, product of Italy Renaissance Gomb1966 pp 109-10
Historiography: 1892 Theodore von Frimmel descries Danube style ie common features of painting in region around Regensburg, Passau & Linz; early the works of elder Cranach later recognised as being formative & Danube School gains recognition TurnerRtoI p71; word School criticised because of weak linkages with Aldorfer (brothers) or Regensberg; but Ostendorfer acknowledged exception & mutual influence & acquaintance between Albrecht Altdorfer & Huber TurnerRtoI pp 71-2, Benesch pp 125-6
Milestones/Development: Ambrogio Lorenzetti painted two small landscape panels, probably in the mid 1320s, which are the earliest known pure Italian landscapes L&L. Martini celebrated country life in his frontispiece to Virgil Clark1949 pp 9-10. In 1423 sun first shined & the landscape was united by light in Gentile’s Flight into Egypt Clark1949 p29. Around 1415 Van Eyke painted his Hours of Milan, which was the first modern but small landscape [??]& his Adoration of the Lamb, which was the first great modern landscape Clark1949 pp 29-30, 33. Bassano was the first modern landscape painter. Hitherto they had been decorative backgrounds and were seldom direct studies from nature Berenson p52. Piero di Cosomo’s Forrest Fire, c1505, was the first Italian landscape in which man was unimportant Clark1949 p77. 1500 first stand alone & exclusive landscapes, though townscapes were earlier BurkeP pp 154-5. Landscape (& still-life) did not appear earlier because pictures were not valued for own sake BurkeP p168; transition from Mannerism to Baroque (Goltzius) Martinp61. During 1600-04 Ideal-Classical landscape was created by Annibale Carracci with his Flight into Egypt & Landscape with the Rest on the Flight into Egypt Waterhouse1962 pp 10-11, NGArt1986 pp 287-8. After his Scandinavian voyage of 1644-5, Everdingen painted rocky mountain scenes L&L. During the late 1720s Wootton introducesd Gasparde-like landscape into Britain Waterhouse1953 p155. Ideal Landscape was destroyed with the annihilation of an ideal past by Malthus & Darwin Clark1949 pp 143, 145. Landscapes (& seascapes) without men were a rarity until the 19th century Stechow pp 7, 110.
[What about Neoclassicism, Romanticism etc]
Types:
(a) Fantasy: It started during the 15th century & was a semi-romantic response of semi-secure urbanites to the world of nature. It was a form of expressionism that was essentially northern & forest inspired. Grunewald & Albrecht Altdorfer, who exemplify fantasy landscape, came from forest lands Clark1949 pp 73-4. However the movement was not exclusively northern, with Italian interest being stimulated by Classical literature (Lucretius, Vitruvius) & travellers’ reports Clark1949 p77. The Danube School landscapes of c1500-50 showed the dynamic exuberance of nature by means of forest growth, explosively radiant heavens & mountains seemingly in motion TurnerRtoI p71. Fantastic panoramas were dominant in the 16th century; flaming light & fire, not ordinary sunset or sunrise, from 1490s (Bosh & Patenier); fantastic jagged rocks, from Byzantine art, dominated southern landscape (da Valancia, Mantegna, Leonardo). Mannerist landscape consisted of tricks & a minimum of first-hand observation (dell’Abate). Fantasy landscape degeneration into the 18th century picturesqueClark1949 pp 77-87, 94-5, 105.
(b) Ideal/Classical: These were inspired by Virgil’s mythology of a Golden Age. Here man lived on earth’s fruits, peacefully, piously & simply. Another source was the study of antique sculpture. Ideal Landscape developed with Giorgione & his poetical, lyrical & park-like scenery. He was folloswed by Titian & Annibale Carracci, [though Clark downplays the latter]. Clark1949 pp 109-20. It degenerated into 18th century to pornographical painting Clark1949 p105. Ideal Landscape also became more heroic when Koch heightened its grandeur, structural clarity & linearity Grove18 pp 182-3. Novotny says that Koch’s landscape was the fulfilment of classical landscape Novotny p68. [It is arguable that Ideal landscape continued with the Hudson River & Rocky Mountain Schools. If mountains can be regarded as classical why should those painted in America be disqualified? However, a feature of Ideal & Classical landscape was that it was inspired by the myths & ruins of the ancient world, & by what was to be seen in Italy, & in particular the Campagana. It was in Rome & the surrounding area that so many artists were trained & painted. Ideal landscape was, like Rome itself, essentially cosmopolitan & international. It was rooted in the myths & ruins of the ancient world.
(c) National-Romantic. The 19th century witnessed a rise of nationalism & of a new type. It was now popular rather than dynastic. This nationalism was accompanied by & reflected in a new type of landscape which depicted what was, or was thought to be, the distinctive national terrain or the mood which this landscape evoked. What was supposed to be the distinctive type of landscape differed from country to country & it is not to be expected that National-Romantic landscape will take the same form & this is indeed the case. Nevertheless a number of common tropes can be identified. The landscape was frequently shown as a wilderness unspoilt by the modern world & hence as an evocation of the eternal national spirit. Another feature was the depiction of places that were topographically unique, exceptionally monumental, where there were distinctive meteorological or light effects, or where there were distinctive flora or fauna. (It is, of course, true that what has just been said about the emergence of national landscape requires qualification. There had, for instance, been a period especially during the first half of the 17th century which saw the emergence in the Low Countries of a distinctive & non-Ideal form of landscape. However, before long Italian influence prevailed.)]
(d) For its own sake & of fact: This was virtually absent from the High Renaissance to the mid 17th century, except for Brueghel Clark1949 pp 53-4, 56
Painters (main) by types:
(a) Fantasy: Altdorfer; Breughel the Elder; da Valencia; Polidoro Caravaggio; dell’Abate; di Cosimo; El Greco; Elsheimer; Grunewald; Leonardo; Lotto; Mantegna; Romano; Rubens; Tintoretto; Van Leyden; Veronese Clark1949, Ch3
b) Fact: van Ruisdael Clark1949 p 64
Notable Images:
Childe Hassam The Little Pond 1890 (Institute of Chicago)
Vasili Dmitrievich Polenov Moscow Courtyard 1902 (Russian Museum, St Petersburg)
LAUNDRESSES & LAUNDRY WORKERS:
[Use Lipton Chapter 3]
Contrasted light & dark female bodies traditionally indicator of Nochlin 1989 p49
Notable Images of:
Fuseli Lesbian Couple, c1815-29
Madonna. See Virgin Mary/Madonna.
This is rare & more so in Italy than in Spain, but 15th century examples are known, of which the most famous is Pierro della Franchesca’s Madonna Del Parto Murrays1998 pp 314-5, M&V p98
The MADONNA LACTANS, MADONNA DEL LATTE, OR THEOTOKOS GALKTOTROPHOUSA (milk-giving)
This is the oldest of all Mother & Child images since it appears in thirds century wall-paintings in the Catacomb of Pricilla in Rome. It was particularly widespread in the 14th & 15th centuries in Italy NGLeonardo p222, Murrays1996 p314. It was rarely or never painted by Domenichino, Guercino & Reni but only by Albani Spear p357. [Rubens’ versions were very naturalistic.]
This is the Italian for majesty. Maestas depict the Virgin enthroned as the Queen of Heaven holding the Child & closely surrounded by saints &/or angels. They are of impressive size & were usually altarpieces. Such works differ from (a) the Sacra Conversazione where the saints seem to be engaged in some kind of dialogue or are [supposedly] at least aware of each other, (b) the Sacra Farmiglia (Holy Family) where the Virgin & Child are accompanied by St Joseph & sometimes St John the Baptist & St Anne, or (c) the Majestas Domini where the enthroned Christ is the ruler of the universe OxDicTerms, Lucie-S 2003, Murrays1959 & 1963 p256.
Maestas, at least in a mosaic form, date back to the early 800s & they were popular in Italy in the 13th & 14th centuries. In the great Maesta by Duccio, 1308-11, the numerous flanking saints are mostly in strait rows whereas in that by Martini, 1315 & 1321, the arrangement is less formal & their upper boundary has a curved shape Norman pp 54, 63, 134.
The Maesta gave way to the Sacra Conversazione which made its first appearance in 1436 with van Eyck’s Madonna of Canon van der Perle Murrays1963 p157.
Notable examples:
Ducio Rucellai Madonna, 1285 (Uffizi); The Virgin & Child Enthroned with
Angels & Saints, c1308-11 (Museo dell’Opera de Duomo, Siena)
Ambrogio Lorenzetti, c1335-7 (Pinacoteca, Massa Marittima)
This is the name given to Christ because of the events during his Passion. See Passion for a list of the episodes & their depiction.
Notable Images:
Baselitz The Great Piss-up, 1962-3 (Museum Ludwig, Cologne)
Notable images:
Aertsan Market Scene
Beuckelaer Fish market with as Scene of the Miraculous Fraught of Fishes
Campi Fish Market
William York MacGregor The Vegetable Stall 1884 (NG, Scotland)
Notable images of:
Klimt Woman Masturbating, c1916 (BM)
Schad Two Girls. 1928 (Private)
Baselitz The Great Piss-up, 1962-3 (Museum Ludwig, Cologne)
The Virgin of Sorrows grieves for her son at the Cross, in Pietas with his dead body in her lap, or with seven swords piecing her breast or framing her head. The latter were particularly common in northern Europe during the 16th century HallDic pp 324-5
Maternal Affection. See Motherhood in this Section
The first Genre banquet scenes & Merry Companies & genre banquet scene were painted by Willem Buytewech The Elder L&L
George Morland The Tea Garden 1790 (Tate, London)
(a) Marriage at Cana: From at least the 4th century this was seen as prefiguring the Eucharist with many Byzantine & medieval works showing Christ at the centre of the table surrounded by his disciples Murrays1996 p93. By the 13th century Mary had had become more prominent, especially as an intercessor. The subject became less popular between the mid 14th& mid 16th centuries A-C p229. There was a return to popularity among the Venetian painters & Veronese painted magnificent scenes in contemporary costumes. Sometimes even the subject becomes uncertain Murrays 1996 p93.
(b) Feeding the Five Thousand was one of the most frequent religious subjects but by the 12th & 13th centuries it became rarer & was infrequent during the Renaissance Murrays1996 p303
Misrecordia or Virgin of Mercy. See Virgin Mary/Madonna
Mistresses. See Courtesans & Known Mistresses
Along with the Crucifixion, this was glossed over in early Christian art, & it is less common than the Crowning. It does not occur until the 9th/10th centuries & then only in Gospel books. Not until the 12th century was it shown with precision in a wall-painting (Sant’Angelo in Formis). It mostly appears in the art of Renaissance Italy & Germany, & is notably more violent & horrific in the north, as in Bosch, Grunewald & Altdorfer HallDic p211, Murrays 1996 pp 326, 360-1..
Notable Images:
Mocking of Christ, wall-painting 12th century (Sant’Angelo in Formis, near Capua)
Duccio Mocking of Christ & his Crowning with Thorns, 1308-11 on the back of the Maesta (Cathedral Museum, Siena)
Barna da Siena Passion of Christ fresco (Collegiata, San Gimignano)
Limbourg Brothers/Jean Colombe Man of Sorrows, 1416 (Tres Riches Heures)
MOTHERS, MOTHERHOOD, HOUSEWIVES & FATHERHOOD, including pregnancy & breast-feeding but excluding the Virgin Mary & pictures of the Family
After the Treaty of Munster, 1648, there was a period of great affluence which was accompanied by an increased emphasis on civility in public & quiet privacy within the house. Artists now painted housewives, young children & maids in secluded tranquil interiors, often with inter-connected spaces, & in most cases without men Franits pp 161-2. Works where there was a view beyond a particular room where known as Doorkijkje (see-through door) & are generally thought to have been invented by Peter de Hooch Hodge2020 pp 90-1. Hitherto Dutch genre paintings had included a number of adults who were actively pursuing some activity that was frequently boisterous, rowdy, pugilistic, drunken or lascivious See the Humanisation of Painting in Section 7.
Paintings of intimate & often mutually affectionate relationship between mothers & their children, which are an aspect of motherhood, date back to the 17th century. They were painted by Rubens & de Hooch & it was from about 1660 that breast-feeding mothers become frequent in Dutch art Franits p102. By the latter part of the 18th century, which was an age of sensibility, elegantly dressed women engaging with their children had become a feature of British portraiture, as in works by Romney & Reynolds, & continued into the Victorian era. Previously mothers had usually been shown as part of a family group or posed rather stiffly with their children Hallett pp 406-8, Solkin2015 pp 233-4.
The new emotional relationship between mother & child was associated with breast-feeding. During the 1770s & 80s wet nursing went out of fashion in upper class circles & the Duchess of Devonshire breastfed her own child. She was shown by Rowlandson suckling a fox after she had campaigned for Charles James Fox in the Westminster Election Stone1979 pp 272-3, Hallett pp 410-12. Breast-feeding continued to be painted during the 19th & 20th centuries. They included one by Renoir of his wife nursing their son. For this he has been accused of producing a male artist’s image of breast-feeding, ie one that is semi-sentimental, traditional, cliched & “animalistic” Wikip, Nochlin1999 pp 25-6, 196, See Section 4 for Nochlin
Portraits of pregnant women are rare during the Renaissance Buck-H p26.
Notable images:
Adams, John Ottis (image see Adams)
Wash Day, Bavaria, 1885 (Indianapolis Museum of Art)
Chase, William Merritt, For a Little One 1895 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
Raphael Portrait of a Pregnant Woman, c1506 (Palazzo Pitti, Florence)
Rubens Helen Fourment & her Children (Louvre)
Peter de Hooch A Woman Nursing an Infant with a Child & a Dog, c1659 (Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco)
Jean Mosnier The Young Mother, c1775
Romney Mrs Thomas Carwardine & Her son Thomas, c1775 (Private)
Reynolds Lady Dashwood & Her Son, c1784 (Pew Fine Art Centre, Grove City College, Pennsylvania)
Reynolds Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire with her Infant Daughter, Lady Georgiana Cavendish, 1786 (Chatsworth)
Thomas Rowlandson Political Affection, etching1784
Charles Leslie A Mother & Child, 1846 (Private)
George Dunlop Leslie Alice in Wonderland 1835 (Royal Pavilion, Brighton & Hove)
George Smith Fondly Gazing,1860 (Private)
Karoly Ferenczy Woman Ironing 1897 (Magyar, Budapest)
Morisot The Wet Nurse Feeding Julie Manet, 1880 (Private)
Pieter de Hooch A Woman Nursing an Infant with a Child and a Dog c1659 (San Francisco Art Museum)
Renoir Portrait of Mme Renoir Nursing Pierre, 1885 (Private?)
Moderson-Becker Naked Woman Breast-feeding Her Child, 1907
Samuel Van Hoogstraten Two Women by a Cradle 1670 (Springfield Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts)
Simon Bening Virgin and Child 1520 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
(x) CENTRAL EUROPE
Giuseppe Appani Vierzehnheiligne pilgrimage Church, before 1773
Cosmas Assam
Weingarten Abbey church, begun 1718 Hempel p187 & Weltenburg Abbey, 1721 Hempel p188
& Brevnov Monastery, 1727 Wikip etc & Schloss, Alteglofsheim, near Regensburg, 1730 (secular)
Hempel p188, Wikip
& St Johann Nepomuk, Munich, 1733 Grove2 p582 & Legnickie Pole (Wahlstatt), Abbey church,1733 & Ingolstadt, St Maria Victoria, Burgersaal, 1735
Christoph Dientzenhofer Schontal, Cistercian church, 1700-17 & Banz, Benedictine Monastery Church, 1710-8 & Pommersfelden, Schloss, 1711-8 & Prague, St Niklas on the Kleinseite, 1703-11
Fischer von Erlach Vranov(Frain) Castle, 1690-4
Johann Fischer Otterbeuren, Rott am Inn, abbey church, 1759-63
Gottfried Goz, Birnau, pilgrimage church, 1749-50
Daniel-Gran Imperial Library dome, Vienna, 1726-30
Johann Holzer, Partenkirchen, St Anton
Martin Knoller Neresheim Abbey church, before 1793
Johann Kracker St Niklas on the Kleinseite, 1760-1
Simpert Kramer & Johann Fischer, Ottosbeuren, abbey church, begun 1737 & Brevnov (Breunau), Benedictine Church, 1708-21
Hans Kuen & Caspar Mosbrugger Einsiedeln, abbey church, 1703
Carlo Lurago Passau Cathedral, after 1668
Franz Maulbertsch, Vienna, Piaristenkirche, 1752-3 & Old University Divinity School, c1766 & Heiligenkreuz-Gutenbrunn, church, 1757-8
Joseph Munggenast Altenburg Abbey, church, 1730-3 & Durnstein Priory, church, 1721-5 & St Florian, Abbey Church, 1686-1708
Anton Pilgram, Jaszo (Jasov), abbey church, 1745-63
Johann Rottmayr, St Matthias, Wroclaw (Breslau), 1704-6 & Melk Abbey church, frescoes from sketches by Antonio Beduzzi with quadratura painting by Ippolito Ippolito Sconzani Grove21 p84
Johann Santin-Aichel?, Krtiny (Kiritein), Premonstratensian church, before 1712-35 & Lomme (Lometz), chapel, 1692-1702
Franz Spiegler Zwiefalten, Abbey church
Paul Troger, Altenberg Abbey, library, 1730-3 & Altenburg, St Lambert & chapel, Schloss Heilgenkreuz-Gutenbruun, 1739 & Melk Abbey, conventual buildings, ceiling frescos of the Triumph of Moderation, 1731, & Virtues, 1731-2 Grove21 p84
Peter Thumb, St Gallen, abbey, 1758-67
Christian Wink Dietramszell, St Leonhard
Dominikus Zimmermamm, Steinhausen, pilgrimage church, 1728-31
Sources: Hempel’s Plates & text, etc
Notable images:
Cornelius Bega Duet 1663 (National Museum, Stockholm)
Gonzales Coques The Duet 1627 (Musees Royaux de Beaux-Arts, Brussels)
Piazza Musical Group, 1520s (Museum of Art, Philadelphia)
Sven Richard Bergh After the Pose 1884 (Malmo Museum, Sweden)
Mythological Painting. See History Painting & Mythologies in this Section:
Background: From the mid 19th century there was a shift in forensic investigation both actual & fictional. Extorted confession were replaced by the interpretation of clues. Detective fiction dates from the 1840s & Edgar Allen Poe’s Auguste Dupin A&M p87
Concept: A narrative painting is so crammed with detail that it must read rather than viewed Nochlin1971 p147. It involves the choice of a moment in a story so the spectator will know or guess what has & will happen Murrays1959. [Narrative painting has become a derogatory term used by Modernists.]
Notable images:
Alfred Wallis, Houses in St Ives, c1930 (Tate, St Ives)
Hold House Port Mear Square Island 1932
Notable Images:
Hubert Robert A Fire in Rome c1733 (Musee des Beaux-Arts, Le Havre)
J. M. W Turner,. The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons 1834 (Phillidelphia Museum of Art)
Reynolds portrait of the Polynesian called Omai [& other works around this time] reflect that a man in an unspoiled primitive society would be physically & morally finer than somebody from what many believed to be a decadent one R&J p14
Notable images:
West The Death of General Wolfe, c1769
Reynolds Omai, 1776
Wright of Derby The Indian Widow, 1783-5
Noble Savages & Exotic Landscapes: Popeye pp 32-34; R&J pp 14-5
Background: God himself provided Adam with the first real clothes Genesis 3.21. It is implied that sexual intercourse postdates the Fall Genesis 4.1. Nakedness is generally shameful in the Old Testament but the female body is eulogised in the Song of Songs. The medieval church distinguished between
(a) Nuditas naturalis at birth, Adam & Eve pre-fall, at Resurrection, martyrs like Sebastain;
(b) Nuditas temporalis which was the absence of worldly possessions due either to poverty, like Job’s, or to abnegation, eg S. Francis or the repentant Mary Magdalene;
(c) Nuditas virtualis which was innocence preferably acquired through confession, sinlessness akin to naked Truth;
(d) Nuditas criminalis which was the sinfulness of the pagan gods or Satan, lust & the absence of all virtues HallDic p22,
DicChristianArt p258, Panofsky1939 p156.
In 1439 Alberti in his Treatise on Painting called painters attention to Truth which had been imagined as a nude figure in the Classical story of the Calumny of Apelles Panofsky1939 pp 158-9. Plato in his Symposium had distinguished between what have become known as the Venus Coelestis, celestial & spiritual, & the Venus Naturalis, which he termed Vulgar Clark1956 p71
In 15th century Florence humanists adopted this distinction with the Venus Coelestis as the love aroused by contemplation of the eternal & divine, & Venus Vulgaris as the beauty found in the material world. The latter was a stage towards the Venus Coelestis. Their personification, as adopted by artists, represented Venus Coelestis as a nude woman, signifying contempt for worldly things (sometimes with a vase burning with the flame of divine love), & the Venus Vulgaris as a woman richly attired & bejewelled, signifying earthly transience HallDic pp 226, 319. [Thus paradoxically the Venus Coelestis was likely to appear sexier than the Venus Vulgaris] & in paintings of Venus & Adonis the former, who had conceived a helpless passion for him, due to a chance graze from Cupid’s arrow, [is almost always (a sexy) nude which should mean it is a Venus Coelestis!!.] HallDic p319
Concept: For Clark to be naked is to be deprived of clothes whereas the word nude has no uncomfortable connotation [??? only revised up to here] nude used by 18th century critics to indicate that naked body central artistic subject Clark1956 p5; for Berger to be naked is to be oneself & undisguised; nudity a form of dress; to be nude is to be displayed as an object, typically for a male spectator Berger1972 p54
Development: The nude was invented by the Greeks in 5th century BC Clark1956 p4; Classical/Greek/Roman female nude = equal distances between breasts, from bottom of breasts to navel, & from navel to crotch Clark1956 pp 20-1; hips that are prominent, supporting, energetic Clark1956 p218.
The nude was eliminated by Christianity (second commandment, pagan nude gods=devils, etc) Clark1956 pp 308-9. Where the nude & the clothed figures were contrasted in medieval art, the nude was always the inferior principle Panofsky1939 p156. However, around 1350 the virtues began to be represented as nudes in religious art, with naked Truth but robed Mercy HallDic p226, Panofsky1939 p157
Leonardo = realisation/depiction of skin’s soft texture & new artistic significance of female body (Leda & the Swan) Wolfflin1899 p37; Leonardo’s influence on Lombardian female nude = passivity, softness, modelling & skin but absence of Leda’s movement Wolfflin1899 pp 37-8. The defective understanding of body structure during the 15th century (as shown by the lumpy & piecemeal nudes, as in Piero di Cosimo’s recumbent Mars &Venus, 1490) was replaced by clear articulation, as in Titian Wolfflin1899 pp 264-6.
Giorgione’s reclining Dresden Venus, aorund 1510, was not the pose of any famous nude of antiquity but was then painted for the next 400 years. Although his picture was hidden away, the pose was popularised by Titian’s Venus del Pardo & Venus of Urbino Clark1956 p115; c1510 or later Concert Champetre by Giorgione or Titian = shift from VsC in Dresden picture to VsV; c1638 Titian’s Venus of Urbino also = VsV Clark1956 pp 115-6, 120, NGTitian p14; Cranach’s erotic innovations for nude (necklaces, waistbands, big hats, filmy draperies, seductive poses) Clark1956 p334.
Counter Reformation opposition to female nude & the doctrine of decorum See Mannerism, with Maratta’s late employment by Innocent XI (1676-89) to cover exposed breast of Reni’s Virgin Haskell p162; having come under Jesuit guidance, Ammanati pleads (1582 & c1590) against representation of the nude & for removal or covering of existing works Wittkower&Jaffe p9; L&L; 1815 Goya denounced to Inquisition for painting Majas but nothing came of it & Inquisition petered out around then Hughes2003 pp 331-3 [But the Counter-Reformation did not inhibit the painting of secular nudes & what about the Neoclassical period & the nude]
During the 19th century the female nude replaced the male nude as the dominant form with rise of an art market & dealer system & decline of History Painting (until early 19th century necessary for aspiring artists to master the male nude, with Prix de Rome subjects invariably featuring heroic male nudes) Nochlin1999 pp 217-8; 19th century nudes = Courbet’s tactility in contrast to the smoothed-out form & waxen surface of academic nudes Clark1956 pp 163-4. Manet’s Olympia of 1863 was almost the first post-Renaissance nude of a real woman in real surroundings Clark1956 p164. The nude, which had almost disappeared from British painting during 1850s, returned with the Classical revival of the 1860s & the chained Andromeda became a favourite subject. it was painted by Poynter (1869), Burne-Jones (1888), Leighton (1891), etc. Venus also reappeared though she was unsexy Wood1999 pp 181, 213, Ash1993 Pl 24, Newall1990 p123
[A major development during the Impressionist era was] the depiction of those who were undressed due to to the activities on which they were engaged. These ranged from washing to prostitution & the painter was therby able to escape from the sterotyped poses in which nudes had previously been associated. The leading innovator here was Degas Jacobs1979 p66
[However, the female nude was soon to be shown as not only posed but also bestialised. Nude figures that were unnaturally posed, sometimes to the point of being disturbing, were a feature of Symbolism (Hodler, Gauguin, Knopff) together with] the predatory & inhuman nude or bare breasted female figures that appear in the work of numerous Symbolist artists (von Stuck, Moreau, Gauguin, Klimpt, Julius Klinger, Kubin, Munch, Schulz, Greiner & Beardsley) GibsonM pp 11, 25, 30, 33, 50, 98, 121, 124-6, 136, 141, 145: Lucie-S1972 p157, WilsonS Pl 13. [There was also a powerful element of misogamy in the nudes produced by the modernists.] Roualt’s horrifying images of prostitutes are one example & Picasso’s Demoiselles d’Avignon, described by Kenneth Clark as a triumph of hate, is another Clark1956 pp 344-6, 361-3.
Cubism had an impact on the nude because it led the dismemberment of the female body by Picasso, Leger & Metzinger Clark1956 p363, Nash Pl 21, A&L pp 82-3. [What, however, was of greater consequence was the extreme distortion that appeared in Picasso’s later & clearer work.] Hilton Pl 121
Radical Marxian-feminist thesis following Berger: growing secularisation widened subject matter of nude painting beyond Amsterdam/Eve, but the woman not naked, ie as she is, but nude ie as spectator sees her; often as in Sussanah & Elds this is picture’s theme & we join spying Elders or, as with Tintoretto, where she looks in mirror, she becomes a spectator & treats herself as a spectacle; Judgement of Paris another example but here, & in Lely’s Venus & Cupid ( = Nell Gwynne), nudity = supine submission not expression of own feelings; in non-Europedan paintings of sexual love women as active as men; in Bronzino’s Allegory of Time & Love child is kissing woman but her posture is merely a display to viewer; women’s sexual power minimised so that spectator can feel he has monopoly of passion; where male lover included woman usually looking away/to spectator; even in pornographic paintings of copulation spectator will identify with man Berger1972 pp 49-56; perhaps 100 exceptional pictures of naked women where painters’ vision so strong that spectator becomes an outsider Berger1972 pp 57-8;
Comment: [How does Berger know what the spectator is thinking? When nudes arouse erotic feelings this does not necessarily mean that men are simply a voyeurs (or potential rapists); they may feel the desirability of having a loving & mutually active relationship; moreover where a woman is displaying herself (Nell Gwynne) how does Berger know that she is not offering herself; a direct look from an unfamiliar woman was once regarded as a sexual advance; the vital point about pictures of Susanna is that she is not displaying herself; in pictures of copulation what is wrong with with the spectator identifying with the man unless it is clear that the woman is being raped or is at least unwilling; in many cases it is clear that she is an active participant, as in Agostino Carraci’s Satyr Copulating with a Nymph or Rembrandt’s Ledakant; unlikely that painters were minimising women’s sexual power when painting nudes] up to c1800 because of general belief that women lustier than men Stone1979 pp 311, 31
Notable images:
Emile Bernard Les Baigneuses 1890 (Musee de Pont-Aven)
Evelyn de Morgan Phosphorus and Hesperus 1882 (De Morgan Centre, London)
Mariano Fortuny y Carbo Nude on the Beach 1874 (Prado, Madrid)
Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema The Tepidarium 1881 (Lady Lever Art Gallery, Wirral, UK)
MODELS, availability & use of:
Piombo made the first known sketches from the nude by Piombo around 1615 Pearsall p24. During the 16th century the Venetians were the first Italians to paint routinely from living models (as well as from lay figures, plaster & wax models etc). It was much less common in central Italy where emphasis placed on study, dissection & Classical examples. Raphael never used human models for bodies but Lotto & Titian painted from nude, with Lotto using prostitutes Hale pp 127-8, 146. There were no nude female models in academies during the 18th century. Even male models presented difficulties. At the French Academy the model, who was a minor civil servant, had no retirement age. Moreover models were usually posed like antique statues Honour1968 p116. Nudes were traditionally painted in artificial & hence consistent light but Eckersberg introduced natural light painting at the Copenhagen Academy in search for greater Realism JacksonD p26. Female nudes were forbidden in almost all public art schools until after 1850, though Stockholm was an exception. In Berlin & the Royal college of Art they were not allowed until 1875. Female students were at a particular disadvantage. As late as 1893 they were not admitted to life drawing at the RA, & even then the model had to be partially draped Nochlin1989 b pp 159, 177. At private institutions the situation was more relaxed. During the early 1860s Gleyre, despite being shy & conventional, even allowed women students to work from nude models in the company of men Lindey p36. Mid-Victorian artists often drew nudes in compositions prior to clothing them, as Frith did for years Frith p59.
| Painters who had Sex with their Models : Burn-Jones; Gauguin; Hunt; Klimt; Manet; Milais; Renoir; Rossetti; Tissot; Toulouse-Lautrec Kern p27, etc. Deacroix on a session with model reported that it was “mostly love-making & kisses” Lindey p128 |
Notable images of:
Giorgione or Titian Concert Champetre c1510-11 or later (Louvre). Greatest erotic masterpiece in Western painting (Stella Newton) Hope p97
Bellini Lady with a Mirror, 1515 (Kunsthistorisches). Probably first Venetian nude without any Biblical/mythological/moral motivation NG Art2006 p219
Titian The Venus of Urbino, b1538 (Uffizi)
Classical/Greek/Rome
Female nude: equal distances between breasts, from bottom of breasts to navel, & from navel to crotch Clark1956 pp 20-1; hips that are prominent, supporting, energetic Clark1956 p218 [Am I going to have a Section on Classical Painting &, if so, what about sculpture?]
MURAL & CEILING PAINTING:
This Has Not Been Accorded Special Treatment As Information Is Provided At Fresco & Marflage (Canvas Stuck To The Wall) As Well As Under Individual Artists (Michelangelo Etc) & Their Works (raphael Etc). [However, The Revival Of Mural Painting From The Latter Part of The 19th Century Deserves Mention]
Notable Images:
Ford Madox Brown The Baptism of Edwin 1879 (Manchester Town Hall)
Notable images of;:
Adriaen Brouwer The Back Operation, c1635-6
Meaning: Orientalism refers to the depiction of contemporary scenes from the Near East by Western artists GroveRtoI p226, JacksonJ .
Background I: General: Romanticism’s taste for exotic figures & scenery together with a growing colonial & economic interest L&L; Vivant Denon’s Voyage dans la Base et la Haute Egypt (1802) chatty, learned & splendidly self- illustrated book by a somebody who was involved in Napoleon’s Egyptian venture; strongly promoted future Ortiental tropes, including female sensuality ThompsonJ pp 21-3. The official Description de l’Egypt (1809-22) provided information about setting & costumes for paintings Turner RtoI p227.
Background II: North Africa:
(a) Algeria was prior to 1830 ruled by deys who were increasingly independent from Constantinople but with unending anarchic strife between the adjuck (a military corps of janissaries recruited in Asia Minor) & the rais (a corporation of corsairs mostly of Christian origin). A dispute with France, which began in 1827, led to a three year blockade followed by invasion in 1830 & the capture of Algiers. There was continuing tribal opposition & the French vacillated. Then during 1841-7 Bugeaud created a successful African army & a proper colonial administration. French settlement now started & in 1848 Algeria was declared a French territory; 1847 France conquest completed; railways constructed; During the 1860s Napoleon III discouraged colonisation. After 1870 a tribal revolt was followed by energetic colonisation, although there was some decentralisation in late 1890s & greater liberality to the native population Ebrit.
Tunisia was ruled by hereditary Beys from 1702, but from early 1880s it was under effective French control EBrit; 1798
Egypt invaded by Naples (after England invasion abandoned; aimed to remain in headlines, colonise -as advocated by Talleyrand-, then hopefully conquer India) NCMH9 pp 310, 530; France evacuation 1801. Ultimately Mehemet Ali became the undisputed ruler of Egypt, though he acknowledged Turkish suzerainty &, as requested, fought the Wahhabis in Arabia. Around 1810 land nationalisation, established a monopoly over the chief products, establishes factories, canal Cairo-Alexandria canal constructed with forced labour (20,000 workmen died), cotton cultivation from 1822; creation of fleet & army on modern lines; revolt against Turkey Ebrit
Background III: Greek Revolt: During 1821-4 the Greeks aided by numerous European volunteers (Byron) fought successfully, despite interne disputes; 1824-27 Mehement Ali’s forces disciplined forces combat insurgents; 1827-33 foreign intervention; it was a barbarous war of mutual extermination EBrit
Background IV: Turkey: backward looking Ulemas (doctors of Islamic law) & powerful Janissaries (undisciplined army/praetorian guard originally of conscripted Christians but then hereditary) who with corrupt officials overthrew Selim III in 1807 when trying to introduce modern army; 1826 Mahmoud II (discarded turban for fez) massacred Js, & instituted new foreign trained army & reforms; 1839-1861 Abdul-Mejid with fundamental reforms executed by Mustafa Reshid Pasha; non-Moslems tolerated but mostly paid capitation tax EBrit, NCMH9 pp 527-8
Development: Figures in Oriental dress were painted by Gentile Bellini, Veronese & Rembrandt. Later opulent fantasies of harems & sultans were produced by Rococo artists (Le Prince & Vanloo). Liotard & van Mour lived in Turkey in the 18thcentury more & produced work that was seemingly more authentic TurnerRtoI p226. During the 19th century painters, mainly from France, travelled to North Africa & the Middle East. Oriental art was welcomed in the Salon L&L. Gerome’s Orientalist pictures were praised as a progressive escape from academic convention S&M p5. However Castletagnary & other 19th century Realist critics denigrated them as retardataire escapist fantasies A&M p106. The popularity of Oriental Artwained from the 1880s L&L.
Types:
(a) History Painting started with Gros’ Battle of Aboukir, 1806. The Near East was shown as wild & cruel (Delacroix Massacre of Chios, 1824, Death of Sardanapalus, 1827), though British paintings, which were less frequent, were more subdued.
(b) Biblical pictures, were more common than History Paintings from about 1850. Horace Vernet led the way but during the 1840s & 50s they were largely produced by English artists (Wilkie, Hunt, Brown, Solomon, Poynter, etc);
(c) religious contemporary a few depicting religious mayhem (Hunt, Delacroix) but most were respectful (Gerome, Belly, Lewis, Goodall, Leighton, Bauernfeind, Deutch, Ernst);
(d) Harems with women nude or clothed (Ingres, Gerome, de Nouy, Debat-Ponsan, Delacroix, Chesseriau, Constant, Renoir, Lewis) & slave markets (Gerome, Gleyre, Regnault).
(e) street markets (Fortuny y Marsal, Gerome, William & Leopold Muller, Lewis, Brangwyn);
(f) Bedouins (Fromentin, Delacroix, Schreyer, Lewis, Goodall, Gustavo Simoni) = noble herdsmen/hunters/warriors & gentle mothers; & also soldiers/seraglio guards (Gerome, Decamps, Melville, de Nouy) usually looking cruel/savage. (g) landscape & architecture generally of an objective type but including the picturesque (Marihat, Dauzats, Lear, Church), startlingly open/evocative landscapes (Roberts, Merson, Vedder, Levy-Dhurmer), vistas of death (Guillaument, Fromentin), ruins & monuments (Roberts, Frere, Pasini) TurnerRto I pp 227-30, Johnson p29
Characteristics: Orientals were often admired as archetypal Biblical or Classical men. In his letters Delacroix likened them to ancient Romans, & Fromentin enthused about Bedouins. or as surrogate medieval lords (Fromentin’s Arab Falcolner) ThompsonJ pp 28-30
Thesis: The social historian Linda Nochlin made a vigorous attack on on Gerome in 1983. In particular she criticised The Snake Charmer & His Audience & The Slave Market because:
(a) viewers are mislead & mystified by apparent authenticity & the suppression of clues that the picture is a flat surface, [although it is unclear whether she was primarily attacking Gerome’s means or his message] A&M p3, Nochlin1989 pp 37-8; &
(b) racial cultural stereotyping is prevalent. It is suggested that the Orient is an unchanging world of timeless customs & rituals at a period when Napoleon III etc was encouraging reform in the Turkish Empire;
(c) there is absence of Westerners here & in other Orientalist pictures;
(d) Islamic societies are pictured as decadent, mismanaged & prone to idleness as shown by the presence of ill-repaired tilework;
(e)there is absence of work scenes in Orientalist art A&M p3, Nochlin1989 pp 35-9.
She also says images of masculine power over female nude titillate moralistic voyeurs, allowing them to sexually identify with the Oriental man but morally distance themselves Nochlin1989 pp 43-5. Religious pictures depict Islam as traditional, pious, unthreatening & picturesque = tranquil & conflict (1871 Algerian Holy War revolt) masked Nochlin1989 pp 49-50. Concluded that the underlying assumption of much, though not all, Orientalism was that colonialism was justified as a civilizing & modernising force TurnerRtoI p227
Critique: [Critics of Orientalism ought to have recognised that it long proceeded colonialism in North Africa, as their own examples show], Champmartin’s Massacre of the Janissaries, 1827, etc) TurnerRtoI p227. Sympathy for the Greeks in the struggle for independence was a more likely factor than colonialism. The assumption unwarranted assumption that pictures of Near eastern violence & misgovernment to be seen as positive advocacy of imperialism unwarranted; admitted] (Bendiner) that many Oriental artists deplored Wernisation TurnerRtoI p227
Painters: Berchere; Bida; Bonheur; Bonington; Bouguereau; Brabazon; Dadd; Dauzats; Decamps; Dehodencq; Auguste Delacroix; Eugene Delacroix Denon; Elmore; Fortunay y Marsal; Fromentin; Robert Fox; Norman Garstin; Gerome; Goodall; Guillaumet; Hamdy Bey; Hart; Nathaniel Hone; Lavery; Lear; John Frederick Lewis; Marilhat; John Martin; Melville; Merson; Muller; Aloysius O’Kelly; Pasini; Pointillism; Poynter; Regnault; David Roberts: Rowlandson; Schreyer; Seddon; Tissot; James Thompson; Turner; Weeks; Westall; Wilkie; Wyld ThompsonJ
Chase, William Merritt, The Moorish Warrier 1878 The Brooklyn Museum
Notable images (a) in the studio
Notable images (b) en plein air:
Bakhuyzen: Self Portrait The Artist Painting a Cow In a Meadow Landscape, 1850 (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
Collet
Jean-Francois Raffaelli The Realist Painter 1884 (Philidelphia Museum of Art)
George Morland The Artist in his Studio and His Man Gibbs 1802 (Nottingham City Museums and Galleries)
This denotes the sufferings of Christ in the period following the Last Supper & up to an including the Crucifixion Dictionary. For the treatment & depiction of the Passion see Agony in the Garden, Crowning with Thorns, Flaggelation of Christ, Crucifixion
PEASANTS, FARM LABOURERS & FISHER FOLK:
Notable images:
Constantin Meunier Three Female Haulers 1885 (Tzwern-Aisinber, Brussels)
Fritz von Uhde The Gleaners 1889 (Neu Pinakathek, Munich)
George Morland The Peasant Repast 1792 (Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth)
George Morland Inside of a Stable 1791 (Tate, London)
George Morland Selling Fish 1799 (Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry)
Simon Hollosy Corn Husking 1885 (Magyar, Budapest)
Vincent Van Goch La Sieste 1889 (Musee d’Orsay, Paris)
As an artistic term, this derives from the Latin “pietas” & the Italian “pieta” meaning pity. It refers to devotional, non-narrative images of the Virgin alone with the body of Christ. It first occurred in Byzantine art in 12th century art & travelled into the West. Here it appeared in mystical writings (the Meditations of Giovanni de Caulibus & the Revelations of St Bridget) & in German art (Vesperbild) at the end of the 13th century. It then passed into French art &, in the early 15thcentury, into Italian art HallDic p246, A-C pp 278-9, OxDicTerms p187, Murrays1996 pp 427-8. Initially Christ’s body was shown lying across the Virgin’s knees but later he was seen lying on the ground & during the Counter-Reformation with just the head on her lap HallDic p247 [Surely this goes in Section 3]
In Italian & English this means poetry. However, in Italian the word is plural with the singular being poesia, whereas in English it is singular with the plural being poesies Wiktionary. From Renaissance times it was used to describe paintings inspired by the myths & legends of classical authors, although there was debate about the degree of fantasy that was permitted OxDicTerms. It is now used by art historians to describe paintings with figures in a landscape in which the subject is of little or no importance & a poetic mood is all important. The genre was created by Giorgione Steer1970 pp78-9. Titian painted a number of celebrated poesie for Philip II of Spain between about 1550 & 1562OxDicTerms
Notable images of:
Daubigny Fields in the Month of June
PORTRAITS & PORTRAITURE: including the Aged & Infirm, Donor Portraits, Fancy Pictures, Hair, Hands, scholars in their studies, Self-Portraits & The Smile but excluding Portraits of Servants, for which see Servants See also Court Portraiture
[Take account of Portraiture item in Grove25. Also L&D pp 94-99]
Definition: Works of reference generally shy away from defining the portrait (L&L, OxDicArt, OxDicTerms, etc). [Yet its meaning is not self-evident; an obvious ambiguity is whether to include pictures in which a model’s features were used to give reality to an ideal type]: some authorities say not Pope-H pxi. [However such exclusion is unrealistic because sitters, even in formal portraits, are often idealised. Hence a portrait will here be taken to mean any likeness, or apparent likeness, to an individual human being.] The eseential feature of a portrait is, according to John Rothenstein, “the power of evoking an entirely convincing presence” Rothenstein p450.
Sizes: These are full-length; half-length from the thighs; upper body usually from waist; kit-cat (originating from Kneller) with one or two hands; head & shouldersonly; or head alone Hallett p41. Full-lengths first appeared in Germany during the early 16th century. An early example was Duke Henry the Pious of Saxony & Wife, 1514, Dresden). The first Italian work was Carpaccio’s Portrait of a Knight, and the next dated work was Moretto’s Unknown Man, 1526. However, they remined infrequent until Titian. His first, Charles V, was in 1532, but not until the early1540s did he produce his most important full-length portrait Waterhouse1953 pp 25-6; Pope-H p320; Hale p286.
Development:
The first surviving panel portraits date from around 1360, viz Jean II of France & Duke Rudolf of Austria Walters p x. The first Italian Renaissance portrait to have a landscape background was Piero della Francesca’s twin picture of Federico da Montefeltro & his wife was the first in Italian Renaissance portrait to have a landscape background 1001 p100
Lomazzo’s writings emphasised the representation of motion, especially motions of the soul (moti delle passioni dell’animo) ie visble manifestations of emotion such as love, hate, fear, anger; citing apostles in Leonardo’s Last SupperBayer p17. Le Brun’s codification of emotional expressions, 1698 West p34;
There was a growing belief that personality could be indicated by physiognomy & facial characteristics culminating in Lavateur c1775 West pp 32-3. Gainsborough’s Ann Ford with crossed legs Vaughan p74. However, the expectation that portraits would indicate character was not common until the Romantic era West p29. Gainsborough’s Ann Ford with crossed legs Vaughan p74.
Until the late 19th century many artists were, like Bonnat, content to produce unpenetrating portraits of their sitters. [But it was not] conventional portraitsits who disregarded the inner life of their sitters. This was also the aim of Whistler who believed in art for art’s sake & belonged to the avant garde. However from the 1880s painters such as Krohg, Romaco, & then Munch turned away from description or aestheticism to the indication of inner feelings R&J pp 378-9.
It was not until the late 18th century that middle class sitters could be painted realistically & not as aristocrats Honour1968 p89; rarity of portraits showing extreme emotions until 20th century West p34.
[Include the type of female portrait in which a pretty young woman is portrayed as completely innocent & poetic. This was a type going back to Nattier & extending to Russia]
Symbols in: The weasel indicated propriety Pope-H pp 207-8. Laurel stood for virtue & inspiration Pope-H p218. Ivy = married Pope-H p220; owl or Saturn = melancholic Pope-H pp 223, 5; parrot = sanguine Pope-H p225; oysters = aphrodisiac Fuchs p42
Women: It has been argued (Felicity Edholn) that women’s restrictive role led to them being pictured as beautiful, modest & graceful when young & un-beatutiful when old West p148. Profile portraits, which minimise expression & character were universal until late in the 15th century. Leonardo’s Belle Ferronier of 1493-4 is an early portrait of a woman looking directly at the viewer. Frontal half or three quarter length portraits became particularly common in Venice (Titian, Giorgione, Palma Vechio) Pope-H pp 41,105. Idealised & eroticised half-lengths were a Venetian innovation of first third of the 16th century, and its realistic portraits are surprisingl rare. Some have Biblical or mythological attributes but others simply depict beautiful young women at their toilet, with musical instruments, in bridal dress, as courtesans. Sensuality is indicated by means of disordered hair, décolletage, bared breasts, & flirtatious glances NG Art2006 pp 190, 192-3.
Lely’s series of court beauties stressed their similarities; 18th century vogue for women in antique roles/dress elevates portraiture to History Painting & gives women less restrictive roles but less individuality West pp 152-3, 157-8. By the mid 19th century women were being pictured as literary & historical heroines West pp 152-3, 157-8. Portraits in conventional 18th century Venice were mainly male, with no women full-length or looking sexy Levey1959 p156.
Married Couples: Before the 19th century they were commonly depicted in separate but linked pictures. By the 17th century there was decreasing formality & possibly increased emphasis on companionate marriage; by 18th century single pictures of couples were more frequent West pp 112-6; [marriage pictures of couples were a feature of Dutch art] (Hals, van der Helst) Fuchs pp 90-91
Renaissance: Milestones/Innovations: Around 1470 Messina’s (Cefalu) portrait shows a man with a warm, wide smile Pope-H p60. His stay in Venice during 1475-6 was epochal: directly through his influence on Bellini, & indirectly by new standards of expressiveness Pope-H pp 60-3, L&L. Leonardo’s Belle Ferronier [duplicate reference!!!] of 1493-41was an early portrait of a woman looking directly at the viewer & such portraits contast with profiles which were universal until late in the 15th century Pope-H pp 41,105. Pofile portraits minimise expression & character West p150. Early portraits of lowish class men were painted by Franciabigio (1523), Romanino (1532), & Lotto (154). This was despite disapproval of such pictures (Aretino) Bayer p121
17th century French Portraiture: Streight naturalistic portraits almost disappeared during 1660-80, except for Mignard & even he flattered. However, from c1685 several emerged (Francois de Troy, Largillierre, Rigaud) Blunt1954 pp 276-7
18th century French Portraiture: Phases (a) continuation of grand portraiture by Rigaud/Largilliere’s & their followers (Tourniers, death 1752) Wakefield pp 58, 60;
(b) then direct middle class naturalism (Aved, Chardin, de La Tour, Tocque) largely patronised by bourgeois/professionals Wakefield pp 58-9, 65;
(c) or simultaneously realistic observation subordinate to set smile, mythological garb, impersonal fashionable dress, usually favoured by aristocrats, with increased formality/convention & pretence of naivety & chastity/rustic life during 1770s, with vaguely Greek style of female dress popularised by Louis XV’s mistress Madame du Barry (Nattier [from around1729], Roslin, Drouais) Wakefield pp 59-60, 63, 70-1;
(d) From about 1770 there was a reversion to sobriety, simplicity, directness & honesty with an absence of free brushwork, lively colour & sometimes a growing dullness (Duplessis, Vestier, Labille-Guiard; but not Vigee-Lebrun) Wakefield pp 70-2, 75, 77. French 18th century portraiture rarely has the breadth & vigour of contemporary English painting Wakefield p74. There were few masterpieces, & even in the best work (Tocqu, Duplessis, Aved, Perronneau, & the pastelist La Tour) sitters remain poised & sophisticated with the painters never penetrating their armour (though the La Tour had ardonic wit) Lucie-S1971 pp 153-4
(e) Around 1790 portraits of a distinctive type made their appearance. One essential feature was a very high degree of finish both in brushwork & in deliberation. Another, which goes back to David, was the composure of the sitter who does not reveal the least trace of tension or conflict Roberts p54. Hence such portraits can be termed Classical. [In David’s portraits of the latter 1890s, & those of followers, the sitter often has a frontal but remote stare with the marble chill of immobility, & an elegant & aloof elevation from mundane matters. Clothing is of a modish type, any furniture is handsome & antique, & the background is frequently more or less blank, which affords the subject a strong sense of presence R&J p32. It would be wrong to suggest that portraits of this type account for the whole of the painter’s output. Some by David & Ingres do suggest stress. However, even where there are signs of disturbing emotion it is not of a marked variety eg Rosenblum1990 pp 71, 117. Although Classical portraits were a feature of French art, they were not confined to that country. They were also produced by some Biedermeier painters including Waldmuller, Karl Begas the Elder, Joseph Stieler & von Shadow Norman1987 pp 59, 64, 127, 162
| David Mme de Verinac, 1799 Mme Recamier, 1800 M. de Seriziat Mme DeriziatGerard Comtesse Regnaud De Saint-Jean D’Angely, 1798 The Baroness of Pierlot Ingres Mme. Antonia Duvaucey de Nittis, 1807 M. Charle-Joseph-Laurent Cordier, 1811 Mme. de Senonnes, 1814 Mme. Francoise Leblanc, 1823 M. Louis-Francois Bertin, 1833 Baronne James de Rothschild, 1848 The Princess de Broglie, 1853 Mme. Ines Moitessier Seated, 1856 |
Dutch 18th century [but probably more general]: formal systems governing 17th century thought began to dissolve; now there was a more empirical & anecdotal approach to portraiture; single portraits mostly remained formal but it was of a different type; confident/active men had previously been shown standing but now (as illustrated by Troop’s Music Lover, 1736) the sitter, though still confident, is shown sitting, inactive & at leisure, & not as a professional but as an amateur & without a formal or prideful pose & surrounded by musical manuscripts etc, ie “formal informality” Fuchs pp 101-2
|
Although smiling faces date back to the Italian Renaissance, they were infrequent until the 18th century. There are, for instance, very few by Velazquez or those who painted in France Allen, Blunt, T&C. (Some of the notable exceptions are listed below). Only in the Low Countries are smiling faces common Haak pp 43, 72, 75, 89-94, 96, etc, etc, Vlieghe pp 36, 60, 72,122, 125-7, 129-30 [This is possibly because of the concentration on genre.] However, it is notable that, even in genre, faces were gloomy in French painting, witness the Le Nain brothers Allen pp 41-2, T&C pp 18-9. In the 18th century & with the advent of Rococo faces become less serious. This happened first in France, vide Largillier & Boucher Allen p214. The smile then spread to England where previously Kneller had been painting dour portraits. It was the next generation, as represented by Hogarth, & Hudson that started to paint smiling faces Bindman 106, 107, 111, 113, 120, 155. Reynolds’ portraits contain some notable smiles. To some extent they continued in British genre painting during the earlier part of the 19th century Solkin2008 pp 94, 116, 169, 193, 205. 212. However, in all these pictures the person smiling is a trickster, credulous or taking pleasure at another person’s humiliation. Even later the smile is not as widespread as might be expected & does not always occur where it might be expected. In British paintings of the 1930s which show those engaged in outdoor leisure pursuits it is difficult to find a single happy face & many are gloomy Wilcox, E&L. The Soviet Union was an obvious exception here happy smiles were frequent in contrast to Nazi Germany Bown1991 pp 78-9, 112, 193, 213, 218; Swanson pp 52, 95, 99, 123, 132-3, 167; Golomstock Pls Notable Pictures: Messina Portrait of a Man, c1470 (Cefalu) Luini Boy with a Puzzle,1520s Agostino Carracci Satyr Copulating with a Nymph Annibale Carracci Two Children Teasing a Cat, c1589 Rubens Portrait of a Woman possibly Clara Fourment Jacques Stella Clelia Crossing the Tiber with Her Handmaids Van Honthorst The Merry Fiddler, 1623 (Rijksmuseum) & The Violin Player, 1626 (Mauritshuis) Terbrugghen A Violin Player with a Glass of Wine, c1623 Frank O’Meara October 1887 (High Lane, Modern Art, Dublin) Hals The Laughing Cavalier (Wallace Collection) Henri & Charles Beaubrun Mlle de Montpensier,1655 Charles de la Fosse The Finding of Moses Largilliere La Belle Strasbourgeoise, 1703 Van Loo Maria Leczinska (Chateau Versailles) Hudson Grace Parsons, 1742, & Jacob Selfe,1744 Hogarth The Shrimp Girl & Miss Mary Edwards Knapton Portrait of Lucy Ebberton Parmigianino Anthea 1536 (Museale Napoletano) Reynolds Garrick Between Tragedy & Comedy, 1762 (Private), & Lavinia, Vicountess Althorp,1782 (Althorp) Tocque The Duc de Richelieu Goya Duke of Osuna Thomas Heapy Credulity, 1808 (British Museum) Edward Rippingille The Recruiting Party, 1822 (Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives) Schmitt Girl from the Hitler Youth Oleg Lomakin Road Worker: Nina, 1954 (Private) Nikolai Baskakov Milkmaids, 1956 (Private) |
POLITICALLY COMMITTED ART/TENDENZKUNST including strikes and propagandistic Great War cripples
Percy Horton, Unemployed Man 1936 (Sheffield City Art Gallery)
Robert Koehler The Strike 1886 (Deutches Museum, Berlin)
PORTRAITS OF THOSE IN ORIENTAL DRESS:
Notable examples:
Kneller Mohammed Ohadu, the Moroccan Ambassador, 1684
Liotard Richard Pococke in Turkish Costume, 1738-9
Maria Gunning, Countress of Coventry
Zoffany The Impey Family, 1783 (The central daughter is wearing Indian clothing Postle p265)
Thomas Phillips Lord Byron in Albanian Dress, 1814
Liotard Richard Pococke in Turkish Costume, 1738-9
Maria Gunning, Countress of Coventry
[See Grove 25 p557]
PRISONS & ASYLUMS including Death & Concentration Camps, together with related works.
Brothel scenes were traditionally represented in the Low Countries by pictures featuring the Prodigal Son with the earliest being a van Leyden woodcut of about 1520. Van Baburen was the first Dutch painter to use a Caravaggesque stylistic treatment in The Procuress of about 1622, a thoroughly peculiar work Sutton pp 130-1, Franits p68.
In many paintings prostitution & brothels were explicit, as in the latter work & other paintings in which money is being handed over or demanded (van Honthorst, Steen, Vermeer) Sutton pp 130-1, Schama p433, etc. In other works, there is an element of concealment but the venue & the activity are indicated by such telling details as] the presence of copulating dogs or military men who were traditionally believed to frequent brothels. Tell-tale signs include bedding, discarded shoes, mirrors, & the consumption of oysters. These were long believed to be an aphrodisiac, as well as being the Dutch slang for female genitalia. Even a series of female portraits hanging on a wall may indicate a brothel: they were there to assist clients select a partner Franits pp 124, 127, 197-8, 201, 208, 281, 292, SuttonP p277.
Doubt has been cast on the veracity of pictures of prostitution. Frantis has asserted that there is only a tenuous link between Dutch 17th century depictions & reality. He points out that the profession was dominated by women who became prostitutes through economic desperation, many of whom were migrants. They worked in taverns & small brothels maintained by a procuress, often being held hostage by their debts for lodging & the fashionable clothing that was de rigour for the trade Frantis p68.
There was a large group of paintings dealing with prostitution in France & elsewhere on the Continent during the second half of the 19th century & well into the 20th. It was estimated that during the 1850s there were about 34,000 prostitutes in Paris compared with 24,000 in London which had about half its population. Prostitutes were required to live in brothels & although there was a steep decline in those that were officially registered the number of clandestine establishments rose & the police estimated that in 1888 there were some 15,000 prostitutes in Paris Zeldin1 p307-8.
In 19th century France marriage, especially for those with means, was very much a business affair, not the union of a loving couple. There was a market difference in the expectations of partners. After the Revolution girls were brought up to be good & pure Catholics, & their upbringing was reinforced by the priests to whom they confessed. In a time of anti-clericalism husband & wife often in disagreement over religion & sexual desire, reinforced by the romantic ideal, all too often denied the husband a loving sexual relationship with a wife who became increasingly inexcusable. It was with a mistress, at a brothel or at a cafe where the waitresses made themselves available that he sought companionship Zeldin1 pp 289-93, 309. The paintings of women washing themselves by Degas were assumed to be depict prostitutes Lipton pp 169-82.
Notable images of Prostitution:
Grien Mercenary Love
Massys Ill-assorted Lovers
Van Baburen The Procuress, 1622 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
Gerrit Van Honthorst Merry Company, 1623 (Bayeriche Statsgemaldesmmlungen?)
Vermeer The Procuress, 1656 (Gemaldegalerie, Dresden)
Van Ochtervelt Musical Company in an Interior c1670
Manet Olympia,1863 (Musee d’Orsay)
Thomas Couture La Courtisane Moderne/The Thorny Path, 1873 (Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia)
Degas The Name Day of the Madam, 1876-7, & waiting, c1876-7 or 1879-80 (Musee Picasso, Paris)
Christian Krohg Albertine in the Police Doctor’s Waiting Room, 1886-7 (Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo)
Kirchner Five Women in the Street, 1913 (Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne)
Otto Dix Three Prostitutes on the Street, 1925 (Private)
Notable images of Courtesans & Mistresses:
Reynolds Kitty Fisher Dissolving the Pearl, 1759 (Kenwood House)
Reynolds Nelly O’Brien, 1760-2 (Wallace Collection)
Lawrence Frances Hawkins & Her Son John James Hamilton, 1805-6 (Abercorn Heirlooms Settlement Trustees)
Notable Images:
William Kenndey Stirling Station, 1887
Depiction: Conventionally this is shown by a woman’s flung back arms but in Rembrandt’s Rape of Persepine by a woman scratching a man Clark1978 p54. [An abusive sexual advance by a woman can be shown by a man’s arms being flung back in eg] Carlo Cignani Joseph & Potiphar’s Wife H&S. Pl 18. See Joseph & Potiphar’s Wife
Notable images of:
Padua Leda & the Swan
READING & OTHER SEDENTARY LEISURE ACTIVITIES:
Notable images:-
Dell Abate Card Players 1550 (Palazzo Poggi, Bologna)
Alberto Pisa Reading 1864-1931 (Sotheby’s, London)
Carl Olaf Larsson Woman Reclining on a Bench 1913 (Louvre)
George Morland The Delightful Story 1787, hand coloured mezzotint (British Museum)
John Singer Sargent Mosquito Nets 1908 (Founders Society)
The Reading Girl 1886–7, Théodore Roussel (Tate)
Notable images:
Bela Ivanyi Grunwald Praying 1891 (Magyar, Budapest)
Gari Melchers:
Istvan Csok ‘Do This in Memory of Me‘ 1890 (Magyar, Budapest)
The Sermon 1886 (Washington DC)
Communion Sunday in Church in Holland 1888 (NYC)
Nicolaes Maes Old Woman Saying Grace c1656 (Rijksmuseum)
Pascal-Adolphe-Jean Dagnan-Bouveret Breton Women at a Pardon 1887 (Calouse Museum, Lisbo
Wilhelm Leibl Three Women in Church 1882 (Kunsthalle, Hamburg)
REPTILES & INSECTS IN THEIR NATURAL SURROUNDINGS:
Such paintings, sometimes [misleadingly] called forest floor scenes, where a speciality of Dutch artists from the 1660s to the 1680s when they were enormously popular L&L p439.
Notable Paintings:
Vasn schrieck Thistles, Butterflies, Snakes & Lizard, Burdock Bush
Notable Images:
Henri Gervex The Pre` Catelan, 1909 (Colour image at Celebonovic p126)
RUINS from the Ancient World onwards but excluding those resulting from warfare
Ruins may either be decayed or vandalised structures, or alternatively they may be deliberately created to give such an impression, the latter meaning being sometimes regarded as the only legitimate use Dic, Grove27 p323.
Both real & painted, ruins appeal to those who view & create them in various ways. They may be seen as examples of human vanity, or they may be regarded as an indication that the old will give way to something new & positive. Hence the appearance of ruins in the depictitons of Christ’s birth that were painted from the 15th century. From the early Renaissance onwards they were regarded as evidence of the perfection that had been achieved once & for all in antiquity Grove27 p 324,OxCompArt p1023.
Ruins became frequent during the 17th century particularly in the work of Claude & Rosa, [& became a feature of the] Picturasque. From around 1750 there was a new romantic attitude to ruins which were now seen as eloquent symbols of the battle between man, who is the he builder, & Nature & Time, the destroyers Newton1962 pp 105-6.
Later they came to be regarded as evidence of continuity. As such they had an appeal to viewers, & sometimes painters, who felt threatened by developments that had or were taking place, or who wished to shore up their position or establish a quasi-aristocratic status. This helps to explain why, after the French Revolution, so many ruins were built & depicted (Friedrich) Grove27 p 324, OxCompArt p1023, Vaughan2004 Fig 36, 45, 65, 73, 104, 109, 111, 160.
Ghisolfi, 1623-83, was the first Italian artist to specializie in imaginary views of Roman ruins. He inspired Panini (1691-1765) who, in turn, inspired Piranesi (1720-78) L&L. However, it was Hubert Robert (1733-1808) who was the first artist to make ruins the main theme of his pictures rather than a picturesque accessory OxCompArt p983
Hubert Robert first to make ruins a subject rather than an embellishment OxDicArt; Archibald Alison believed beautiful natural scenery is exhaulted by events it has witnessed & that scenes carrying memories of ancient virtu&glory have the deepest effect Macmillan1990 p220
Notable Images:
Hubert Robert A Bridge in the Roman Campagna c1733 (Musee des Beaux-Arts)
Meaning: An enthroned Madonna & Child surrounded by Saints where the figures are of similar size & co-exist within the same space & light. They also have some emotional relationship, which is conveyed by gesture & expression Murrays1963p256, Grove27 p494. [However in some classic examples such as Bellini’s San Zaccaria altarpiece, the relationship is tenuous with the figures not looking at each other or apparently aware of their mutual existence. Indeed] Sacra Coversaziones usually have an aura of stillness & meditation Grove27 p494. They are to be distinguished from the earlier Maesta (Majesty) in which the enthroned Madonna, Child & Saints do not occupy a single pictorial space, & the still earlier Majestas Domini which shows Christ enthroned as ruler of the universe Murrays1959 & 1963 p504, etc . Fra Bartolomeo tranfomed the sacra conversazione from a scene where the saints merely stand in devout contemplation to one where they observe & react Grove 2 p302
Development: The first Sacra Conversazione was van Eyck’s Madonna of Canon van der Perle of 1436; & it was sometimes used by van der Weyden & Petrus Christus Murrays1963 p157. It was employed before the mid 15th century by Fra Angelico, Filippo Lippi & Veneziano Murrays1963 p256. The mid 1470s saw the fully developed form in Francesca, Messina & Giovanni Bellini. Here it continues the church’s actual architecture, like a chapel opening out of the church. Here the figures appear to be beyond the real world but in an extension of that world Murrays1963 pp 131-2, 256, Murrays1959
Notable examples:
Francesca Madonna & Child with Angels & Six Saints, Adored by Federigo da Montefeltro (Brera Altarpiece)
Messina Madonna & Child with Saints (S. Castlesiano Altarpiece), 1476, (Kunsthistorisches)
Notable paintings of:
Titian, c1513 (Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, Rome)
Gabriel, Max Monkey Critics The Jury of Apes 1890’s (Neue Pinakothek, Munich)
Development: little during the 16th century but Brugel the Elder’s late ships in a rough sea foreshadows naturalistic Seas of 17th century OxCompArt; Vroom (1566-1640) first specialist marine painter L&L; Porcellis (1584-1632) paints endangered ships on stormy sea Fuchs p109; however Dutch 17th century paintings mainly indicate the stoutness of boats/sea defences/sailors H&P p225
Phases:
(a) Vroom etc c1590-65= ship portraiture =multicoloured/large & detailed ships/fleets/sea battles L&L, OxCompArt;
(b) Van Ertvelt etc c1615-Vernet=romantic/colourful Flemish style OxCompArt;
(c) Porcelis etc=naturalistic with calms or pitching ships OxCompArt
Painters: Bakhuyzen; Bonington; Brooking; George Chambers; Cotman; de Loutherbourg; de Vlieger; Garnay; Monamy; Mulier; Peeters; Pocock; Jan & Julius Porcellis; Samuel Scott; Serres; Stanfield; Storck; Turner; Van Antum; Van de Cappelle; Van de Velde theYoung;Van Eertvelt; Van Wieringen; Claude-Joseph Vernet; Vroom; Willaerts; Wyllie OxCompArt
Notable images:
Richard Parkes Bonington Fishing Boats in a Calm 1825 (Sudley Art Gallery, Liverpool)
James Francis Danby, Wreck Ashore 1868 (Merrion, Dublin)
Walter Osbourne RHA The Ferry 1889 (Merrion, Dublin)
Types: With Models: During the latter 19th century Academic painters desperately tried to assert their originality by painting vulgar, anecdotal sexy pictures like Gerome’s Artist & His Model Nochlin1999 p223
Notable Self-Portraits:
Gerstl Laughing Self-Portrait (Belvedere)
See Golden Age & Grand Manner under Sensibility
Notable images of:
Romney Lady Hamilton at Prayer
Romney Emma Hart in a Cavern
SERVANTS & MASTERS/MISTRESSES:
Notable images:
Vermeer Mistress & Maid
Nicolaes Maes Idle Servant 1655 (NG); & Eavesdropper 1657 (Netherlands, Dordrechts Museum, Dordrecht)
Nicolaes Maes The Maidservant 1659 (Netherlands, Dordrechts Museum, Dordrecht)
Pieter de Hooch Courtyard of a House in Delft 1658 (NG)
Typology Leonardo made the following distinctions. (a) Cast shadows where an object obstructs light; attached. (b) Found shadows when something faces away from light. (c) Shading, where something appears darker because, though it is in the light, it receives less due to its being more acutely angled. It should be noted that a cast shadow need not be thrown onto a separate surface Baxandall pp 2-4
Landmarks: Coppo di Marcovaldo used shadows in his San Gimignano Crucifix to produce an atmosphere of suffering, probably in the late 1240s Eimerl p68. In 1425 Masaccio painted a cast shadow in S. Peter’s Shadow Healing Gomb1995pp 21-2. Caravaggio’s Supper at Emmaus lifted the taboo on harsh cast shadow Gomb1995 pp 24, 41
Phases: Giotto generally ignored cast shadows Wolfflin1899 p5. During the High Renaissance & after there was frequent avoidance & dislike of cast shadows, which were thought to impair clarity Gomb1995 pp 19-20, 24, 60. The Nazarenes ignored cast shadows Vaughan1980 p183
Leonardo on: avoid cast shadows by using cloudy & misty light Gomb1995 pp 19, 2
Notable images:
Passwrotti Butcher’s Shop
The SICK, DYING & DEAD excluding war and martyr deaths
Notable Images:
Arthur Kampf The Last Confession 1886 (Kinstmuseum, Dusseldorf)
Christian Krohg Sick Girl 1880 (Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo, Norway)
Christian Ludwig Bokelmann Northern Burial Ceremony 1887 (Kunstmuseum, Dusseldorf)
SKATING & WINTER SCENES ON ICE:
The adoption of a high viewpoint enabled the artist to spread small figures over the ice & to reveal their activity Haak p198. Scenes on the ice, which showed a cross section of society, reminded Dutch men & women that the country now beloged to them Langmuir p173.
Notable pictures depicting activity on ice:
Pieter Bruegel Hunters in the Snow
Hendrick Avercamp Winter Scene with Skaters Near a Castle ; A Scene on the Ice Near a Town; A Scene on the Ice Arentsz Winter Scene on the Y in Amsterdam
Notable images:
Adriaen Brouwer Peasants of Moerdyck, c1628-30
SOLDIERS, NON-COMBAT DEPICTIONS
Carel Fabritius The Sentry 1654 (Schwerin, Staatliches Museum)
Milestones: Francis Barlow c1650 Francis Barlow initiates British sporting painting Waterhouse1953 p119
Painters: Francis Barlow; Ben Marshall; Stubbs; Wootton Waterhouse1953 p297
Notable images:
Karoly Ferenczy Boys Throwing Pebbles 1890 (Magyar, Budapest)
STILL LIFE: See also Bodegones:
Term: It is from the Dutch word “stilleven” & was used from c1650. Previously there had been no generic term L&L
Development: The first stand alone still-lifes date from about 1500 BurkeP pp 154-5. They, like landscape, did not appear earlier because pictures were not valued for own sake BurkeP p168. Still-life was not really important in Italy until late 17th century; became so in early 17th century Netherlands, though no serious theoretical treatment & denigrated (by Hoogstraeten) Fuchs p104; Dutch pioneers Gillis, Van Dijck, Van Schooten L&L
Types:
(a) foodstuffs & tableware on middle of a table extending beyond sides from high viewpoint (Beert, Gillis, Clara Peeters, Floris Van Dijck) L&L;
(b) Realistist emerging in Netherlands after 1610 with Floris van Dyke’s table pieces & Bossaert’s flower vases etc Fuchs pp 109-111;
(c) Pronkstilleven = still-life of ostentation = Chinese bowls/silver vessels/Venetian glass/other luxury wares (Kalf, van Beyeren) L&L, Fuchs pp 115-6;
(d) still-lifes almost entirely composed of musical instruments (Bachenis) L&L;
(e) vanitas paintings indicating life’s transience with skulls, snuffed candles, watches etc L&L
Painters: Bailly; Beert; Gillis; Kalf; Clara Peeters; Harmen & Peter Steenwijck; Floris Van Dijck; Van Schooten L&L
Theotokos Galktotrophousa. See Virgin Mary/Madonna
[Cannot believe there is no alternative discussion. Anyway see Haak pp 180, 247 etc]
His works are of the first generation (spread out or additive) type in which there is a high vanishing point so that the objects on the table do not overlap with clear, fresh colours, a damask table cloth, one or two glasses, & usually a plate with various cheeses Haak pp123,
This is the name, taken from an absurd Romanic drama, given to a period of German literary ferment between the 1850s & ‘80s century. Inspired by Rousseau’s idealism, it was a revolt against literary conventions, particularly the unities, & featured the cult of genius & a return to nature. It was the first intense romantic movement in Europe. Leading figures were the young Goethe, Herder, Harmann & Schiller OxCompEng, Antal1956 pp 5, 15.
Although the Sturm und Drang writers were contemptuous of French art, particularly its drama, this did not reflect a nationalistic spirit. They merely emphasised the criticisms of middle-class French writers such as Diderot & Mercier. Their hostility was directed against the Frenchified culture of the German aristocracy whom they painted as corrupt, arrogant & privileged They saw the rising middle class from which they came as unhappy but virtuous, albeit somewhat narrow & servile due to unfavourable social conditions. Although they were class-conscious & may sound revolutionary they never criticised the princely rulers. They always blamed his advisers & there is never any incitement to political revolt Bruford pp 315-9.
Sturm und Drang was a literary movement & the only artist who belonged to the movement was Friedrich Muller Antal1962 p162. [However, it had an enormous influence on painting.] Sturm und Drang [brought a new emotionalism to European art] with its sometimes extremely subjective & volcanic eruptions Antal1956 pp 67, 192. In Goethe’s novel The Sorrows of the Young Werther, 1774, the young artist, melancholy & ill at ease with society, is hopelessly in love with an engaged woman. He ends by committing suicide. It caused a sensation throughout Europe & young men wore blue coats & yellow breeches in imitation of Werther OxCompEng pp 398, 1056. Fuseli was closely associated with the partisans of Sturm & Drang & has been treated as an extreme representative of the movement Antal1962 pp 12-3, 22.
The movement with its emotion & fantasy can be seen as the product of a social system in which the middle class had no means or prospect of achieving political reforms Antal1956 pp5-6
Notable Images:
SUNRISE, SUNSET, RAINBOWS, FIREWORK DISPLAYS & DRAMATIC CLOUD SCENES, ETC:
This item covers paintings in which there are striking light effects but which are of a non-calamitous type because these are covered at Natural Disasters, etc
The Christian Fathers saw Susanna, demure before the aged voyeurs, as a forerunner of the Christian virgin Warner p55. This was long a popular artistic subject beginning with representations from the late 3rd & early 14th centuries Murrays1996 p559. In the Middle Ages she became a forerunner of Mary, an example of legal justice, & a symbol of the church menaced by Jews & pagans. However, in the Renaissance Susanna provided an opportunity for painting female nudity HallDic p294, A-C p313. See also under Nude
TRAVEL & TRANSPORT from the Flight into Egypt to the Canal
TREES, STANDS, WOODS & FORRESTS:
Notable Images:
Carl Fredrik Hill Apple Tree in Blossom 1877 (Nationalmuseum, Stockholm)
Gerard David Forest Scenes (outer wings) 1510-1515 (The Hague)
[See Vlieghe p180 etc]
The DOWN & OUT, including Hard Times & Suicide
There was a crop of such depictions during the latter part of the 19th century extending from Russia to France & Britain.
Notable Images:
Augustus Egg Past & Present, 1858 (Tate Gallery)
Emily Osborn Nameless & Friendless, 1857 (Private)
Fernand Pelez Gamin des Rues, 1880 (Musee des Beaux-Arts, Montreal), & Sans -Asile- Les Expulses, 1883 (Petit Palace)
George Morland The Miseries of Idleness 1790 (Scottish National Gallery)
Henry Wallis The Death of Chatterton, 1856 (Tate Gallery)
Henry Wallis The Stonebreaker,1857 (Birmingham City Art Gallery)
Henry La Thangue The Last Furrow, 1895 (Oldham Museums & Art Gallery)
Hubert von Herkomer Hard Times 1885, 1885 (Manchester City Art Galleries) & On Strike, 1891 (RA)
Jean-Francois Raffaelli Ragpicker Lighting his Pipe , c1879 (Musee des Beaux-Arts, Nantes)
Jules Adler La Soupe des Pauvres, 1906 (Petit Palais, Paris)
Luke Fildes Applications for Admission to a Casual Ward, 1874 (Royal Hollaway & Bedford New College, London)
Thomas Lamont At the Pawnbroker’s (Private)
Vassily Perov The Drowned Woman, 1867 (Tretyakov)
Notable images or where it is featured:
Courbet The Origin of the World (Louvre)
Schiele Girl with Black Hair, Pencil & watercolour) MoMA, Black-Haired Girl with Raised Skirt, 1911 (Leopold Museum)
Schad The Coquettish One, The Melancholic One, The Sanguine One, crayon (Christian Schad Stiftung, Aschaffenburg)
Notable images:
[Include material from Warner in the Background sub-section. There is a serious overlap with the Early Italian Renaissance]
General: The Virgin is the foremost subject of Christian art DaviesN p301. Depictions are of two general types. First, there are narrative paintings which show her taking part in scenes from the Bible or Apocryphal Gospels. Second, there are paintings where almost nothing is happening & the Virgin is presented as an object of worship, reverence or devotion. Here she appears in her role as the Madonna or, as known in Eastern Orthodoxy, Theotokos Murrays1996 p340.
Background: Mother & Child images had long existed in pagan religions, notably Isis holding Horus in her lap HallDic p323. Initially the Marian cult had to overcome some opposition due to the the church’s hostility to women & the blame that was placed on Eve for her role in the expulsion from Eden & the consequent Fall HallDic p323, Warner pp 54-6.. There was even debate as to whether Mary could properly be called Mother of God, but in 431 this view, as held by Nestorius, was condemned at the first Council of Ephesus HallDic p323. However Mary was seemingly tainted the Fall & Original Sin. This was denied by St Augustine in his City of God (413-26) in which he attacked Pelagius who had attributed the Fall to God’s gift of free will. Augustine believed in Original Sin but exempted Mary because of her virginity.
| Augustine on Original Sin: He attributed this to concupiscence (sexual desire) which was necessary for copulation & could not be quelled by the will. Augustine thought that Original Sin was either transmitted to the body through the genitals during intercourse or the sin of passion stained the child while copulation was in progress Warner pp 53-4. However, Mary was without Original Sin because she was “conceived as a virgin, gave birth as a virgin & stayed virgin forever” Wikip. The celebration of virginity by the Christian fathers was not confined to Augustine & distrust of the flesh was a feature both of St Paul & of the philosophical systems abroad in the turmoil of Rome’s decline Warner pp 55-8. Gregory was clear that although the sexual act is innocent, desire is evil. (He dealt with the seeming contradiction between a wicked impulse leading to an innocent act by saying that a righteous rebuke delivered in anger is itself morally wrong.) Such views were modified during the later Middle Ages when scholastics conseeded that innocent sexuality was possible. However, while carnal desire & pleasure became more or less acceptable, passion (& even love) remained evil because for St Thomas Aquinas they involve the suspension of intellectual activity LewisCS pp 13-8. |
Development: Majestic images of Mary became widespread in the West during the 7th century & by the 13th century Maryiolatry had developed, this being a post-Crusade era of religious ardour. Medieval theologians who inspired this were Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-53) & St Bernard, a source for much of the Virgin’s imagery. [For a long period the Virgin was, even in the West, simply an icon, a window to the transcendental, or she was a remote Queen of Heaven. However she was gradually brought down to earth & humanised. The Virgin was now shown as a grieving mother in the pietas which began appearing in the West from the end of the 13th century; as a mother attending to her child rather than simply holding or displaying it; as a mother suckling her child; & above all as part of what looked like a normal family with an earthly father],as in Raphael’s Holy Families BuckH Pls 37, 38. [She was even ocassionally shown as pregnant.] After c1450 Madonna & Child groups lost their icon-like quality, & the Renaissance saw the development of less formal images including the Madonna of Humility. with the Virgin seated on the ground Murrays1996, HallDic pp 323-4.
Images of Veneration, included:
(a) Icon-type paintings whether small or large in which the Virgin is sometimes alone, as in images of her standing with her arms raised as if praying (Virgin Orans or Theotokos Blachernistissa), a pose which first appeared in Rome in the 3rd century. However, the Christ Child is usually present. In the Platytera he is enclosed in a roundish space (Clipeus) on her chest alluding to his birth but stressing his divine nature. However, usually she has the child in her arms or on her lap. She is often enthroned, wears a large viel (maphorion) & looks sad (this not being an image of tender motherhood). In the North was the viel rare, being replaced by a crown etc Murrays1996 pp 313, 331-2, 340, 342. Images of Mary as an icon were prevalent in Byzantium where adherence to an established iconic type was of prime importance & religious leaders who visited Italy were highly critical of the innovations which they encountered Murrays1996 p311.
| Byzantine images (Panagia Nikopoia) divide into the more severe version (Theotokos Nicopoia), which was important in the struggle against the Arian heresy, & a less formal type (Theotokos Hodeteria) in which the Virgin points to the child. Other versions include the Theotokos Elousa (compassionate) where the gesture between the mother & son is tender & affectionate; & the Glycopilousa (loving) where the child embraces her. The Elousa was popular from the 8th century onwards & the more human type became the most common image of the Virgin in the East, & also in the West where they are found from around 600. |
Their frequency & tenderness increased under Franciscan influence, with the severe type becoming rare after the 13thcentury. Guido da Siena, Cimabue, Giotto & Ducio all painted images of this type Murrays1996 pp 312-3, 315. [This snippet which followed on from the boxed section needs to be fitted in.]
(b) In large works known as Maestas (Italian for majesty) the Virgin & Child are closely surrounded by saints & angels; & when very large are known as Regina Coeli or the Queen of Heaven HallDic p329; Murrays1959 p315. Queen of Heaven pictures date back to the Ravenna mosaics & were later painted by Giotto, Simone Martini & Lorenzetti HallDic p329, Murrays p315. In late medieval & early Renaissance times Saints & donors were typically placed in separate compartments or panels. During the 14th & 15th centuries the representation became unified in the Sacra Conversazione HallDic p331 [This overlapps with the separate section on the Maesta]
Depiction: [Wanted a passage saying how unbeautiful the Virgin looks in icons with her long narrow straight (or gently convex) nose over a thin mouth set in a face without cheek bones eg Rice pp 376-7. See also Burchardt1894 p42] The Renaissance tradition was to show Mary as the current model of feminine beauty. For Raphael she was the ideal of grace, beauty & elegance, sensuous but not erotic. However, Parmigiianino depicted her (Madonna of the Rose) in a see through dress with visible nipples Hall1999 p118
See also The Assumption
The Hagiastorissa (Holy Sorrow) or Maria Deomene
The Holy Family
The Immaculate Conception
Madonna Dolorosa
The Madonna Expectans
The Madonna Lactans, Madonna del Latte, or Theotokos Galktotrophousa
Pietra
The Virgin of the Rosary
VIRGIN MARY 1: Virgin Birth/Nativity
Notable images:
VIRGIN MARY 2: With St Anne
Notable images:
VIRGIN MARY 3: Growing up
Notable images:
VIRGIN MARY 4: Alone
Notable images:
VIRGIN MARY 5: Annunciation
Notable images:
VIRGIN MARY 6: Marriage
Notable images:
Pietro Perugino Marriage of the Virgin c1503 (Musee des Beaux-Arts, Caen)
Sposalizio Marriage of the Virgin 1504 (Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan)
VIRGIN MARY 7: With St Elizabeth
Notable images:
VIRGIN MARY 8: Breast-feeding
Notable images:
Agostino Carracci The Virgin and Child with the Young St John the Baptist 1600 (Galleria di Palma)
VIRGIN MARY 9: At the Crucifixion
Notable images:
VIRGIN MARY 10: Grieving/The Pieta
Notable images:
VIRGIN MARY 11: Death
Notable images:
VIRGIN MARY 12: Ascension
Notable images:
VIRGIN MARY 13: Queen of Heaven
Notable images:
VIRGIN MARY: 14: As Intercessor [Including the rescue of those in Purgatory]
Notable images:
Here she is shown without the Child sheltering penitents under her ample cloak or kneeling before Christ at the Last Judgement. Cloak pictures became common in the West during the 13th century but died out during the 16th century HallDic pp 324-6. Male The growing emphasis on devilry & Hell around the 12th century [helps to explain why the Virgin of Mercy became so popular.] Theologians had declared that at the Day of Judgement prayer would be useless but ordinary folk & artists continued to hope that the Virgin’s intercession would prove efficacious p89
The Virgin of the Rosary originated at the end of the 15th century with her being seen framed in a Mandorla made of roses, sometimes with every eleventh bloom larger, as in a rosary; or with St Dominic kneeling before the Virgin & Child, & receiving the rosary from either HallDic pp 334-5
The Fathers of the Church taught that the virginal life alleviated the stigma which the Fall had imposed on women Warner p72 etc. [The extent to which virginity was celebrated in the early Church is shown by] the famous Procession of the 22 Virgins in the Basilica of S. Appolinare Nuovo in Ravena, a mosaic which dates from the 6th century Bustacchini pp 104, 117-8. There was a close association between virginity & martyrdom. Almost all the female martyrs were virgins &, as the era of persecution receeded, the legends of virgin martryrs altered: they now died to defend their chastity as well as their faith. According to Marina Warner, the focus on women’s torn & broken flesh in martyr paintings reveal the religious obsession with sexual sin & with the dangers of sexual contact with the female. Female martyrs are assaulted in numerous, often sexual, ways , eg St Agatha’s breasts are cut off Warner pp 70-1. Although scenes of her mutilation are rare, she is shown holding a dish containing her breasts HallDic p9, A-C p20
The Virgin among virgins shows her with the Child seated among female virgin saints -such as Agatha, Agnes, Catherine & Dorothy- often in a garden. It is similar to the Hortus Conclusius or enclosed garden but here there is a wall or fountain. It was a popular devotional image during the 15th century Murrays1996
Notable examples:
Gerard David , 1509
One important feature is the destructive effect of shelling on trees. Notable examples are the paintings of Paul Nash & the Austrian artist Wilhelm Dachauer
[Illustrate with Nash & Dachauer’s Casualty Transport, with the caption Here the tree has, as if in revenge for its mutilation, become a savage monster]
[See Sue Malvern web article in International Encyclopedia of the First World War]
Paul Nash, We Are making a New World 1918 (Imperial War Museum, London)
C.R.W Nevinson Troops Resting 1916 (Imperial War Museum, London)
Sydney Carline The Destruction of an Austrian Machine in the Gorge of the Brenta Valley 1918 (Imperial War Museum, London)
Eric Kennington The Kensingtons at Laventie 1915 (Imperial War Museum, London)
WAR PAINTINGS: SECOND WORLD WAR
Edward Ardizzone Naval Control Post on the Beaches 1944 (Imperial War Museum, London)
Charles Cundall The Withdrawal from Dunkirk 1940 (Imperial War Museum, London)
Paul Nash Totes Meer 1941 (Imperial War Museum, London)
Notable images:
Mariano Fortuny y Carbo La Vicaria 1870 (Barcelona)
Pascal-Adolphe-Jean Dagnan-Bouveret Wedding Party at Photographer’s Studio 1878 (Musee des Beaux Arts, Lyons)
William Hogarth The Wedding Banquet C1745 (Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro)
Background: During the Dark Ages the Catholic Church’s attitude to witchcraft was one of scepticism. In the 8th century St Boniface declared that belief in witches & werewolves was unchristian; & in the 9th it became part of canon law that those who believed in the capability of witches were themselves infidels T-R1969 p13. However, a witch-craze gradually developed, beginning with the struggle between the Church & the Albigensians in the 12th century. To combat these heretics the Dominicans & the Inquistion were established. The papacy had at fisrt resisted Dominican pressure for inquisitorial powers but in 1326 John XXII authorized the full use of inquisitorial procedure against witches, of whom he was terrified. The burning of witches began in the Pyrenees & then spread to the Alps for it was in these isolated mountain areas, where feudalism, & even Christianity, had not been fully established that heresy flourished T-R1969 pp 25-31. From the late 15thcentury the crusade witches became widespread with the papal bull Summis Desiderants Affectibus deploring the spread of witchcraft in Germany & authorizing two Dominican inquisitors to extirpate it. In 1486 their great printed encyclopedia of demonology, the Malleus Malificarum, appeared T-R1969 pp 24-5
General. There are Italian etchings of hideous hags (Mantegna’s Battle of the Sea Gods) & of S. Anthony’s temptation (including Procaccini’s with its female devil) [but it is questionable whether these are generally witch pictures.] Witchcraft art was virtually confined to Northern Europe. It has been suggested that this was possibly because of the Italian masters preoccupation with classicism. Italian artists then influenced Spain. Later there was Flemish influence on Spain but this was mainly from Rubens and other Baroque painters who did not paint witches Davidson p107. However, a more probable reason is that Italy was not, except for the Alpine valleys, a place of religious turmoil [conclude]
Artists: Altdorfer; Bramer; Peter Brugghel the Elder; Durer; Frans Francken the Younger; Jacques de Gheyn II; Goya; Grien; Rosa; David Ryckaert III; Cornelis Saftleven; Savery; David Tenniers the Younger Davidson
Notable Paintings of:
Franken II, Frans Hexenversammlung/Witches’ Sabbath, 1607 (Kunsthistorisches)
WOMEN AS CLASSICAL, MYTHOLOGICAL OR RELIGIOUS FIGURES:
[There is a disccuusion of this somewhere else]
[Prior to the 18th century such paintings seldom appear to have been true portraits.] Van Dyke, for instance, rarely painted works in which known women perform roles. Moreover in one of the two obvious exeptions –the Countess of Southampton as Fortune & Lady Digby as Prudence- the subject was dictated by Sir Kenelm Digby B&V pp 254, 322.
In France mythological & allegorical portraiture was revived towards the end of the 17th century by Mignard & role portraits became frequent during the first half of the 18th century. They were a speciality of Nattier where the theme of Hebe with the eagle & cup into which she pours the ambrosia of youth recurs countless times in his oeuvre. By the middle of the century such paintings were falling out of fashion Blunt1954 p245, Wakefield p63. They then came into fashion in Britain. Although not pained by Ramsey or Gainsborough, they feature in Reynolds portraiture & continued to be painted by Cotes, Romney & Hopner Smart pp192-3, see Vaughan2002 p204, Kidson pp 33, 88, 106-7. What appears to be a late example of the genre was painted by Lawrence in 1814 Solkin2015 pp 302, 333
Notable images of:
Van Dyke: Venetia, Lady Digby as Prudence, 1633-4
Rachel de Ruvigny, Countess of Southampton, as Fortune, 1640
Mignard The Marquise de Seignelay as Thetis
Reynolds Lady Sarah Bunbury Sacrificing to the Graces, 1762
Mrs Hale as ‘Euphrosyne’, 1762-4
Miss Mary Meyer in the Character of Hebe, 1771
Elizabeth Billington in the Character of st Cecilia, 1789
Romney Mrs Yates as the Tragic Muse, 1771
Elizabeth Warren as Hebe, c1776
Emma Hart as Mirth, 1791
Hopner Lady Charlotte Campbell in the Character of Aurora, 1796
Lawrence Lady Leicester as Hope, 1814
Notable images of:
Poynter Horae Seranae
Hogarth The Country Dance 1745 (Tate)
Leighton Greek Girls Playing at Ball
WOMEN LYING PRONE & OUTSTRETCHED: excluding non-narrative depictions of the Virgin for which See Virgin Mary
Notable images of:
Georgione
Titian
Cranch
Velazquez
Goya
Manet
Sargent
Modigliani
WOMEN WORKERS who are generally paid excluding servants, nurses & doctors, those who serve food & drink, together with prostitutes
WOMEN WHO ARE DOING LITTLE OR NOTHING, L19TH CENTURY
[It is notable how many paintings of the late 19th century depict scenes of this type. Indeed for certain painters (Alma-Tadema, Godward, Pointer & Moore) they were a speciality. In many cases the setting was ancient Rome & the women were watching & waiting for men to arrive or had gone to sleep. Were viewers expected to see a parallel between the ancient world & modern life: a society with a large rentier class in which many women had surplus leisure? It is significant that in late Victorian Britain there was a surplus of women of marriageable age partly due the large number of men who were serving abroad.]
Notable examples are show below. They do not include women are simply posed in what is a virtual portrait or fancy picture:
Alma-Tadema Roman, Gardens; The Way to the Temple;
Unconcious Rivals; Coign of Vantage; The Voice of Spring
Godward On the Balcony; Expectation
Moore Azaleas; Dreamers; Midsummer
Leighton Flaming June; Lieder Ohne Worte; The Garden of the Hesperides; Fatidica
Poynter On the Terrace & Psyche in the Temple of Love
Chase, William Merritt, Study of Young Girl 1884 National Academy of Design, New York
Valentine Cameron Prinsep At the Golden Gate 1882 (Manchester Art Gallery)