THE GENRE OF LANDSCAPE

John Wolseley, (b. 1938 U.K. lives Aust.), Flamingos – wind in reeds, graphite and watercolour, 77 x55cm, 2009.

The word “landscape” is literally, our surroundings, traditionally the natural forms. We may also talk of a cityscape, urbanscape or seascape (I include all these categories when we talk about landscape.) The view is far-looking, rather than a close-up detail. It can be a true observation of what is seen,(as with Wolseley’s work, here) or an imaginedlandscape, or combination.

Using the Structural frame, what could we say about the way this work has been composed, andabout the choice of media?

How would you say Wolseley has representedhis world with this image?

The genre (or category) of landscape painting has been around since ancient Greek and Roman times.

‘Spring Fresco’, wall painting and detail by anunknown artist, dating from1500-1550 BCE, in Akrotiri, Greece. Central wall: 250 x 260 cm. Side walls: 250 x 222 and 250 x 188 cm.National Archaeological Museum, Athens

During the Middle Ages, (5th to 15th century) landscape painting went out of favour, unless it was within a religious context. (In Europe, this period was very religious as well as superstitious.)

In the early Middle Ages there was a view that Nature wasn’t really something to be enjoyed, but a fearful place, or else a place that humans should work on to produce food. Also, people shouldn’t spend time thinking about the beauty of Nature, when their attention should be on the next world, that is, heaven.

Giotto, (Italian 1266/7 -1337), The Lamentation of Christ, 1305, fresco, 200 x 185cm

In Medieval art, everything in the image was a symbol of spiritual things. There was not the same desire for naturalism and realism that later artists had.

UPPER RHENISH MASTER, Paradise Garden,1410?, mixed media onWood panel, 26 x 33cm.jpg

There was an idea that the purpose of art was to bring people to God, or make them better people (a ‘moral purpose.’) Stories from The Bible were lessons on how to live your life well. Paintings describing Bible stories, as well as stories from classical myths and legends, were the most highly regarded. By the 17th century there was a hierarchy of genres in painting, saying which types of art were the best.

What do we think the purpose of art is these days? Does it have one?

Alessandro Moretto, (Italy, 1478 /1518 –1554) Christ and the woman of Samaria, oil on canvas , 38 x 31cm

With the Renaissance (14th-17th century) there was a renewed interest in Nature and the World generally for its own sake, and for its scientific interest. The Renaissance marked the beginning of the rise of science and reason.

The Christian church was still enormously powerful and would be for some centuries to come, but there was a growing awareness of the ancient civilisations of Greece and Rome (from before the birth of Christ.) These civilisations emphasised the importance of humankind rather than God.

This doesn’t mean people turned away from the Church; but the way of thinking about the world changed. The natural world became something to be explored and represented again.

Pietro Perugino (Italian 1430 /1470 – 1523) Nativity, 1504, oil on wood panel 34x 45cm

It was during this Renaissance period that the idea of both linear and atmospheric perspective in Painting developed. With Medieval art, paintings tend to be quite flat looking, without a good sense of depth or 3D. During the Renaissance, this changed.

Two Italians, Brunelleschi and Alberti , working at the beginning of the 15th century, developed the idea of linear perspective in drawing and painting. This is the idea that a sense of 3 dimensions (depth of field) can be captured on a 2-dimensional surface. This was calculated mathematically.

Piero Della Francesca, ( Italian,1415 – 1492) The Flagellation of Christ,1455, Oil and tempera on panel, 59 x 82 cm

Linear perspective was developed from geometrical calculations. To the people of the Renaissance, this was a wonderful combination of God’s brilliant design + Man’s mind. Yes, Man’s mind was designed by God too. But it was with the capacity for reason and thought that Man became most God-like.

All of Nature is subject to God’s mathematics. Linear perspective, and creating artworks that used this new way of representing the world, imposes this geometry onto unruly Nature. Linear Perspective was a symbol of Man’s place as the creature who orders God’s world. Humans ARE in charge of the natural world, and it can all be understood in terms of mathematics and calculation.

Giovanni d'Alemagna, (German, d. 1450) The blinding of St Apollonia, c.1440-45, tempera on panel, 54 x 34cm

It was this sense of Man ordering God’s world - commencing in the Renaissance and gathering weight through the centuries - that encouraged European powers to believe they had not only a right to Colonise other countries, but an obligation.

The indigenous people were often seen as less than human, more like animals. It was (white) man’s role to get some order into these wild worlds with his reason, his science. The use of linear perspective has come to be seen as a symbol of European man’s imperialism.

Raphael, (Italian, 1483 c- 1520 ) School of Athens, 1509–1510, tempera, 500 x 770cm.

LINKS

JOHN WOLSELEY: http://www.roslynoxley9.com.au/artists/1/John_Wolseley/1235/43769/

RENAISSANCE: http://faculty.ucc.edu/egh-damerow/renaissance.htm

Heirarchy of Genres: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/hierarchy-of-genres.htm