EDITORIAL CONSULTANT

ANDREW GRAHAM-DIXON

Peeee emi IVE VISUAL GUIDE

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 ART CULTURE HISTORY

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EDITORIAL CONSULTANT ANDREW GRAHAM-DIXON
 Senior Art Editors Senior Editor
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First published in Great Britain in 2008

by Dorling Kindersley Limited,
80 Strand, London WC2R ORL

A Penguin Company

6810975

Copyright © Dorling Kindersley Ltd 2008

Copyright foreword text © Andrew Graham-Dixon 2008

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior written permission of the copyright owner

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available

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ISBN: 978 1 4053 2243 0

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Editorial Consultant ae
Andrew Graham-Dixon vA
a

Andrew Graham-Dixon is one of the leading art critics and presSeniters of arts
television in the English-speaking world. He has presented si Bont eat
on art for the BBC, including the acclaimed A History of BritisAr enaissance
and Art of Eternity, as well as numerous individual documentari En art and artists.
For more than 20 years he has published a weekly column on abtefirst negee
Independent and, more recently, in the Sunday Telegraph. He has also Witter r *
number of books, on subjects ranging from medieval painting and sculpture
to the art of the present.

Chief Consultant
lan Chilvers
Writer and editor, whose books include The Oxford Dictionary ofArt,
The Baroque and Neoclassical Age, A Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Art,
and The Artist Revealed: Artists and Their Self-Portraits. Specialist consultant
for the 17th- and 18th-century chapters of this book.

Consultants
Looking at art Indian and Southeast Asian art
Mary Acton Dr Heather Elgood
Tutor and Lecturer in History of Art, Course Director of the Postgraduate
Department for Continuing Education, Diploma in Asian Art, School of
University of Oxford. Publications Oriental and African Studies,
include Learning to Look at Paintings University of London
and Learning to Look at Modern Art
African art
Prehistory to 1400ce Barbara Murray
Dr Paul Taylor Writer, editor, curator, and activist
Deputy Curator, Photographic for contemporary art in Africa
Collection,
The Warburg Institute,
University of London. Recent American art
publications include /conography Dr Julia Rosenbaum
without Texts Professor of Art History,
Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson,
Renaissance and Mannerism New York. Publications include Visions
Dr Maddalena Spagnolo of Belonging: New England Art and
Research Fellow at Villa | Tatti, The the Making of American Identity
Harvard University Center for Italian
Renaissance Studies, Florence Latin-American art
Dr Susan L. Aberth
19th-century art Assistant Professor of Art History at
Caroline Bugler Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson,
Editor of Art Quarterly and Review, New York, and author of Leonora
The Art Fund, London. Publications Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy
include Art in Focus: Vienna and Art

20th-century art Australian art

John Glaves-Smith Dr Jennifer Mitchell
Writer and former Senior Lecturer Honorary Research Associate,
in Art History at Staffordshire Monash University, Melbourne
University, England. Publications
include Contemporary Art and Contributors
A Dictionary of Modern Art
Simon Adams
Japanese art Anna Fischel
Dr Meri Arichi Ann Kay
Tutor, lecturer, and external academic Dean Kenning
assistant, School of Oriental and Dave King
African Studies, University of London Larry McGinity
Matthew Rake
Chinese art Nigel Ritchie
Dr Alison Bailey Peter Sharrock
Director, Centre for Chinese Research, Marcus Weeks
Institute of Asian Research, University Jude Welton
of British Columbia, Vancouver lain Zaczek
The American painter Ad Reinhardt, creator of the all-black canvas (see
p.515), was also an occasional comic-strip artist. One of his best cartoons
was a salutary comment on how to look — or more to the point, how not
to look — at art. In the first frame a man in a gallery stares in disbelief
at an abstract painting and jeeringly exclaims “What's that supposed
to represent?” In the second frame the painting morphs into an angry
diagrammatic creature, points an accusatory finger at the man and shouts
back the defiant question, “What are you supposed to represent?”
Reinhardt, who had suffered more than most at the hands of
uncomprehending critics, was in his caustic way making a plea for greater
understanding. It is easy to dismiss any work of art that might at first sight
seem difficult and remote, resistant to easy interpretation (orjust plain
baffling). But make an effort; try to discover what the artist who made it
might have intended; find out something about the where and the when
and the why of it — and the chances are that the work in question will, at
the very least, seem suddenly more approachable. At best it will become
an object of fascination and open up a whole new world.
The meaning of a picture or a sculpture, of an installation or a work of
video art, is not simply something that it contains, like the contents of a
suitcase. Meaning is made, actively created, in every encounter between
individual human being and particular work of art. The depth and richness
of that meaning will depend on the quality of that encounter, and that in
turn will depend not just on the qualities of the work of art being looked
at, but also on the qualities of the person looking at it — their values and
sensitivities, their knowledge, their breadth of reference. “What do you
represent?” Reinhardt was right to ask the question.

Foreword
by Andrew Graham-Dixon
The truth is that a person who is aesthetically open and intellectually
enquiring, a person who has a historical imagination, a person who is both
curious and tolerant in matters of religion, a person who is prepared to
abandon the set coordinates of their personal preconceptions to explore
new ways of seeing — the truth is that such an individual will get a lot
nore from art (and a lot more from life!) than someone who complacently
chooses to close their mind.
The purpose of this book is as straightforward as its “does-what-it-says-
on-the-tin” title. Its aim is to open, to the general reader, a thousand doors
into a thousand different experiences of art — and by doing so, to make the
world of museum and art gallery, church and cloister, temple and mosque,
both more enjoyable and more accessible. Those who consult its pages
will find a wealth of information about a multitude of artists, from Renoir to
Reinhardt, from Michelangelo to Damien Hirst. They will find succinct but
informative accounts of different historical periods and major movements.
They will also find a series of short, lucid introductions to such subjects as
colour, composition, and perspective: a primer in much of the fundamental
grammar and vocabulary employed by the visual artist through the ages.
To become interested in art is to embark on a voyage of discovery that
leads to countless thrilling places and promises all kinds of unexpected
encounters. This book can be used as a work of reference, or it can be
consulted as a bluffer’s crib. But think of it, above all, as an orienteer —
a friendly guide and companion to the best kind of travel that there is.
Enjoy the journey.

Acie Cae es
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 ppeeee hs " : ~
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Hina
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 Prehistory
to 1400cE 36
Prehistoric art 38
Ancient Near East 42
Ancient Egypt 46
Civilizations of the East So
Ancient Greece 52
Themes: Nudes 56
Looking The Etruscans and Ancient Rome 59
Outside the Empires 62
at art 12 Early Christian and Byzantine 64
Subject and Composition 14 Carolingian 66
Perspective and Viewpoint 20 Ottonian 67
Light and Shade 22 Viking art 68
Media and Techniques 24 Anglo-Saxon and Celtic art 69

Contents Colour 30
Brushstrokes and Texture 34
Early Islamic art 72
South Asia 74
 17thand18th
centuries 192
15thand 16th Baroque 194
Themes: Still Life 208
centuries 90
Rococo 242
Italian Renaissance 92 Themes: Animals 260
Themes: Myth and legend 128 Neoclassicism 266
Southeast Asia 76 Northern Renaissance 138 English Watercolourists 276
East Asia 78 Themes: Landscape 152 Colonial America 278
Central and South America 80 Mannerism 175 China: Qing Dynasty 281
Romanesque and Gothic art 82 China: Ming Dynasty 185 Japanese art 285
Early Italian art 84 Japanese art 188 Islamic art 288
International Gothic art 88 Central and South America 190 Hindu art 292
 Early 20th
century 400
19th century 294 Fauvism 402
Romanticism 296 German Expressionism 408
Themes: Love 314 Pre-war Vienna 4412
Realism 324 Cubism 416
Pre-Raphaelites 332 The Nabis 380 Futurism, Rayonism and
Victorian art 334 Symbolism and Art Nouveau 382 Orphism 428
rench academic art 336 Scandinavian art 388 Birth of Abstract art 434
Japanese art 338 End of the Century 391 Themes: Work 442
Impressionism 340 Sculpture 394 Early British Modernism 446
Neo- and Postimpressionism 360 African art 396 Early US Modernism 452
Themes: Children 370 Oceania 398 Naive Painting 454
 1945
onwards 500
Abstract Expressionism 502
Themes: War 510
Postwar Europe 516
Abstract Painting and Sculpture 523
Minimal art 529
Ecole de Paris a58 Pop art 533 New Media 578
Constructivism 462 Themes: Portraits 546 Contemporary Sculpture 583
Dada 466 Op art and Kinetic art 548 Australian Aboriginal art 586
Surrealism 470 Assemblage, Junk and Europe Today 588
Neue Sachlichkeit Land art 551 Africa Today 590
(New Objectivity) 480 Conceptual art 557 Asia Today 592
Bauhaus 482 Figurative painting 563 North America Today 594
Avant-Garde 486 Superrealism 570
Realism and Feminist art 572 Glossary 596
Figurative Painting 490 Neo-Expressionism and index 599
Mexican art 496 Graffiti art 574 Acknowledgments 610
 When you look at a work of art you may quickly decide whether
you like it or not. But have you ever wondered why some pictures
appeal to you more than others? There is no definitive answer to
this question, but if you can start to understand how and why
the artist created the piece, you will appreciate and enjoy it more.

_ Looking
Art is rarely created in a moment of inspiration.
To understand the artist's aims and intentions there are a
myriad of factors to consider — the size of the painting or Looking at Art explains how to “read” a work of art more
sculpture, its subject matter or story, and how the different thoroughly, and understand what the artist was trying to
elements of the piece relate to each other. What is the achieve. The section also introduces the language of art,
artist's viewpoint and how has she or she used colour, so that you gain the vocabulary to analyse what you see.
perspective, light, and shade — and why? What materials As you begin to develop an informed sense of why you
and surfaces have been.used, and how do these contribute like some works of art more than others, the experience of
to the qualities at the finished work? Kote) dinle i iare|aan dli mMel=Xere)palomanlelxemant=x-laliaeviUlm-lalem-iale)-1e)(om

atart i
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 Subject and composition
When you look at a work of art, the first question to ask is, what is it about? Once
you have established the content, you can consider how the artist has arranged
the elements of the piece - the composition. Whether the image is of people,
landscape, still life, or abstract, it has to work as an integrated whole, in which
the other pictorial qualities such as colour, light, and shade also play their part.

Portraits
Knowing that faces always attract attention, the artist has to think how best to present a sitter.
Composing a portrait is more than a question of how true a likeness to attempt. Size, scale, shape,
and viewpoint are important for all subjects and, for a portrait, the pose and props depend on what
the artist and the sitter want to convey. If the sitter has commissioned the portrait, their opinion
counts, but a paid model has no say in the composition.

Format Size
The typical shape for a portrait is the so- How big: or small a portrait is depends on its
called “portrait format”, a rectangle that is purpose as well as practicalities. In general, the
taller than it is wide. A head-and-shoulders larger the image, the more expensive the materials
portrait fits neatly into this format, without are and the longer it takes the artist. Huge portraits
leaving empty space at the sides or create an impact by their sheer size alone, and
chopping off the top of the sitter’s head. suggest that the subject is a god, of noble birth,
Oval shapes are less common but also suit prominent in society, or wealthy. Small portraits
human proportions. Artists do not have to tend to be personal and intimate.
use the portrait format, as they may want
< Miniature Measuring a mere 13.6 x7.3cm,
to include a broader setting or some space. this portrait of an Elizabethan nobleman may
have been intended as a love token. Young
» Classic shape Here Man among Roses, Nicholas Hilliard, c1587
the portrait format has been
used to enclose the sitter
within a plain background » Giant-sized Averaging 11m high, about six
that provides breathing times life size, the massive volcanic stone
COMPOSITION
AND
SUBJECT space. Portrait of aBoy, statues on Easter Island, Polynesia, may be
Rosalba Carriera, 1726 memorials to dead chiefs. c7/000—1600

View
With a portrait, the artist has to Full-face portraits were originally
decide how much of the sitter to reserved for God in Christian
include. A head, shoulders, and societies. The ancient Egyptians,
upper chest (1), often called a bust however, depicted several
in sculpture, is the most common viewpoints at once, such as a full-
format. A half length (2) is common face eye within a profile, something
ART
AT
LOOKING for seated portraits. A three-quarter not attempted in Western art until
length portrait (3) requires some Picasso. The three-quarter view (1)
skill to make it look as if it is meant is more common, providing a good
to stop at the subject's knees. Full- idea of what the sitter looks like, as
Se
length “swagger” portraits proclaim is the profile or side view (2), which
a person's grandeur and superiority. was much used in early portraiture.
<A Full-length glamour Sargent both scandalized «> Looking at you Full-face portraits can
and delighted high society in London and Paris with appear confrontational but in this picture the
his flattering, elongated swagger portraits. This one sitter’s expression is warm and engaging rather 1 rs
is life size. Portrait of the Countess of Clary than aggressive. Madame Antonia de Vaucay,
Aldringen, John Singer Sargent, 1896 Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, 1807

Scale Cropping
Whether the sitter fills “ Y Bigger picture Here the Sometimes what is left out
the canvas, looming large artist could have focused on the of a painting says more
at you, or Is just one sitter’s face, but chose to about the subject than
of several elements include her plain tea-table and
what is left in, intimating
cat too. Quaker Girl, Grace
competing for attention life beyond the confines of
Cossington Smith, 1915
within the frame, scale is the canvas. Cropping -
an important consideration deliberately truncating a

Via
Psychological portraits tend figure — can make you look
to go close in on the human afresh at the everyday and
form and features. But can suggest that what we
moving further out and “ ALess is more
see is not always what it
Bonnard, just visible top
including a setting and seems. It may also imply left, painted his wife in
props gives the artist an that the subject was the bath many times
opportunity to suggest moving too fast to be Cropping both figures
more about the sitter’s captured within the frame makes the image
character, interests, and disturbingly voyeuristic
or was not posing at all, as
Situation in life Nude in the Bath, Pierre
in a candid snapshot.
Bonnard, 1925
The multiple portrait
Depicting more than one person presents practical challenges for the artist, who may not
v Intimate
be able to persuade all the sitters to pose at the same time. Even if they pose separately, group In this study
they must look like part of an integrated composition or the completed portrait will look the positions of the
hands and arms
artificial and stilted. The space between the sitters plays a key part in the composition, keep you looking
as does the background, which both encompasses and links the sitters. from parents to
baby. Family
Portrait, Anthony
Relationships van Dyck, 1618-21
¥, a3
In multiple portraits the sitters are often
engaged in a communal activity, such
as feasting, which helps to relate them
to each other. If the portrait is of just
two or three people, the artist can
suggest their relationship by their poses
as well as through the composition.

A» Eye contact
The trust between
the old man and the
boy is emphasized
cement by their gaze of
<A Looking out The banner leads your eye into the painting, and the circular mutual affection.
arrangement takes you to each face in turn. The men are all looking in different © An Old Man anda
directions, helping you to understand where they are in the composition. Boy, Domenico
A Banquet of the Officers of the St George Militia Company, Frans Hals, 1616 Ghirlandaio, 1480s

Space and form

To suggest isolation, an artist may
contrast the solid, positive forms
of people with the empty spaces
between them, which is often
referred to as negative space.
These gaps between figures or
objects strengthen the composition
and can make the characters seem
more three dimensional and <A Family split The sharp division LOAra
GNV
NOILI
therefore more convincing. between space and form signals a rift
between the sitters. The contrast
» Staggered depth The spaces between between the duchess’s full-frontal pose
the solemn children, emphasized by the and the daughters half out of the picture
dark background, make them poignantly accentuates the split. The Duchess de
separate. The Daughters of Edward Darley Montejasi and her Daughters Elena and
Boit, John Singer Sargent, 1882 Camilla, Edgar Degas, 1876

Nudes
The art historian Kenneth Clark pointed out that while being naked was embarrassing, Modern SNIXO
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nudity was art. In Christian iconography, nakedness is linked with Adam and Eve's fall , is
f : 7 h ere al While traditional female nudes were
rom grace. From the Renaissance, however, studying the male nude ecame essentia ROO SOON, ROO SA ete
for anatomical accuracy and classical myth made it more respectable to paint female for psychological realism or to shock.
nudes, who were idealized and made more beautiful and less individual than in real life. They tend to accentuate the naked
truth rather than idealizing the image
of women for male delectation.
Traditional
“Before dressing a nude we first draw him nude, then v » Ona diagonal The model sprawls
diagonally across the canvas, cropped at the
we enfold him in draperies,” wrote the Renaissance art
head and knees to fit the nearly square format.
theorist Leon Battista Alberti. The male nude, exemplified | » Active man The Naked Woman on a Sofa, Lucian Freud, 1985
by Michelangelo's works, was active. Artists and patrons tradition of nude
were nearly y always
y men, ; and spying
PyIng on nude women ceeactive
upright eS nen
poses
bathing or asleep became an artistic genre: When awake, goes back to classical
nude women tended to recline before an imagined male antiquity. Bronze
onlooker in front of the picture. Soldier, 5th century ece

v » Picture format
A wide format is best
suited to portraits of
a reclining nude as it
allows for the length
of her body. Titian set
the standard for the
genre. Danae Receiving
the Shower of Gold,
Titian, 1554
 < Diptych and triptych Sc

«< A Christian altarpiece

pical of the ea

COMPOSITION
AND
SUBJECT

living and the dead. Ka

«< A Amorous conquest |p this Italian

Mannerist painting Zeus, the leader of the
Ancient Greek gods, has cunn

nymph. £
: Pon
Candlelit scene Genre paintings often showe
Composing a narrative
When a painting tells a story, the artist uses composition to give Y » Changes in scale The
the work a natural flow that helps the spectator to follow the dramatic contrast between the size
of the figures in the foreground, who
action. The composition can therefore help you understand
are so close you can almost hear
what is going on. In a well-made composition the spectator’s their conversation, with the scale
eye is led to each of the main components of the story in turn of the bustling activity on the river
leads your eye from the women to
by various visual means, such as shapes, linking devices, the scene behind them. The posts in
contrasts in scale, and the use of colour. the foreground also direct your gaze
towards the river. Winter Scene,
Yamamoto Shoun, c1900
Balance
All the different components of a picture have to balance each other so
that the image works as an integrated whole. There are different ways
to go about it, depending on the artist's aim. Some artists want to convey
harmony and serenity, whereas others opt for contrast and dynamism
or want to create a feeling of jagged discord.

~ a nis ~

<A Harmony Christ is <A Diagonals A walk along one

firmly established as the of Oslo’s main streets has become
central figure of this a nightmare vision in this painting,
painting because the as the pedestrians fan out and
composition is based appear to come right out of the
upon the most stable of painting towards you. The curves
shapes: a triangle with of their cadaverous faces contrast
a wide base narrowing with the strong diagonals of the
to a point at the top of composition. The solitary figure
the picture. This creates heading in the opposite direction
a feeling of serenity. increases the sense of nightmare
The Resurrection, Piero and alienation. Evening on Karl LOAra
GNV
NOILI
della Francesca, c1463 Johan, Edvard Munch, 1892

Rbythm Following the plot

A painting or sculpture should have rhythm like a piece Most stories in art taken from history, religion, or myth were known to
of music. Shapes can be repeated or set in oppositon their contemporary audience but may be unfamiliar now. To help viewers,
to each other. Visual links and a sense of rhythm artists provided visual clues, such as dramatic gestures, or objects, such
are particularly important in a picture where there as attributes, weapons, or crowns, to identify the key characters. The
is a lot going on, or it can look like a jumble of style of dress provides another clue: classical drapery indicates a history
unrelated elements that rapidly lose your attention. or mythological theme, but nudity is rarely a feature of historical tales.
The spaces between the shapes are just as important ONINO
LV
LYV
as the shapes themselves and play a vital role in the
composition, providing places for moving elements to
go. As with all aspects of composition, a unified colour
scheme and finish, the interplay of light and shade,
and the use of perspective all help to weave the
action together.
<A Visual flow In
this scene Boucher
used a billowing swirl
of cloth to create a
figure-of-eight design
that links the sky and
figures and keeps you
looking from one to
the other. The cloth
also echoes the
shape of the clouds
at the top right of
the picture. Fluttering
Cupids lead your eye
towards Venus, as <A Scene of virtue This painting
does the wave of depicts a popular 17th-century
figures undulating theme, in which Scipio, a Roman
from left to right. general returns a captive woman
The Triumph of to her fiancé. Poussin divided the
Venus, Francois figures into groups. Scipio can be
Boucher, 1740 identified by his throne and crown
(1), and his magnanimous gesture
towards the woman in blue Is
answered by her fiancé’s grateful
acceptance (2). The soldiers on the
right (3) remind you that this is
war. The Continence of Scipio,
Nicolas Poussin, 1640
 » Landscape forma thn

COMPOSITION
AND
SUBJECT

ART
AT
QOOKING

I picture Chinese pares

Still life
The advantage of a still life over landscapes or portraits is that the artist has
complete control over content, composition, and lighting. While painters can edit
details of a landscape, there is no need to with a still life. They can select objects
and arrange them exactly as they wish, tinkering with the composition for as
long as they like, without trying the patience of a portrait sitter.
Directing the
eye The knife handle
Composing projecting from the
Still lifes are generally indoor compositions, but even edge of the table
appears to come
in the smallest interior the artist wants to convey the
out of the painting
interaction of space and form. Still life is a chance for
towards you. The
an artist to show his or her skill at creating a balanced, artist has placed it
pleasing composition, which shows off colours, forms, there it to act like
contrasts in texture, and their relationships to each other. an arrow into the
Try turning a still life upside down — the composition painting. Copper
Cauldron with a
should be just as satisfying as it is the right way up.
Pitcher and a Slice of
Salmon, Jean-Siméon
Chardin, c1750

A > Line-up The

A > Height and depth dark background adds
In this Dutch still life the an air of mystery to
artist has built up height this painting and adds
from right to left and given a surreal dimension to
everyday objects that NOIL
LOAr
GNV
her painting depth by
setting objects behind are lined up almost as
one another. Still Life of if they were sacred.
Flowers and Dried Fruit, A Linking shapes By repeating similar objects, the artist encourages Still Life, Francisco de
Clara Peeters, 1611 you to see them as a design in which the spaces between the solid Zuburan, 1650
shapes are just as important as the shapes themselves. Grey Container,
Tony Cragg, c1980

Abstracts
Artists do not always want to copy nature: they may use it as a starting point and transform it < Geometric abstraction
Sharp-edged rectangular blocks
ONINO
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beyond recognition. Piet Mondrian drew his abstract forms from landscape, but believed if you
of colour are removed from
reduced a picture to its bare essentials you would gain a spiritual experience unhampered by immediate connotations with
associations with the natural world. Expressionist artists, such as Wassily Kandinsky or Mark the natural world. Train
Landscape, Ellsworth Kelly,
Rothko, stylized and exaggerated forms to state their own feelings or provoke a response. 1952-83

Semi-abstract Wholly abstract

In semi-abstract works, there are hints of recognizable subject The Dutch painter Theo van Doesburg said in
matter. Some Impressionist paintings are semi-abstract 1930 that art had “no significance other than
¥ Minimalism Eva Hesse
because the subject has been used as a vehicle for showing itself” and “nothing is more real than a line, a
believed that basic geometric
light effects. Most 20th-century abstract painters went colour, a surface”. Art that does not represent forms, such as a cube, arouse
through a semi-abstract phase, but only Monet stayed true the physical world in any recognizable way is specific emotions in the viewer.
to the ideals of Impressionism. called non-representational, or abstract. Accession II, Eva Hesse, c1960

< Fleeting
glimpses In this
semi-abstract
composition of
shimmering colours
Monet has tried to
capture the ever-
changing light made
by reflections on
water. You can,
however, just make
out the waterlilies.
< A Aboriginal expression
Waterlilies and
Elements of asymmetry within the
Reflections of a overall symmetry make this personal
Willow Tree, Claude
vision an aesthetically pleasing
Monet, 1916-19
composition. Mens Dreaming,
Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, 1990
 Perspective and viewpoint
For artists who want to convey an impression of space and depth, perspective is
the key. Some aspects of it can be worked out mathematically, but many artists
reach a similar result through intuition. Viewpoint - the position from which
both the artist and spectator look at the picture - has a bearing on perspective.

The illusion of reality

Since the Renaissance most Western painters have wanted to make it look it is, which the viewer interprets as a visual code for depth. Artists make the
as if the picture they are painting on a flat surface is three dimensional — has most of such visual devices and use. them to represent the real world around
depth as well as breadth, like the real world. There are many ways to create __us. Many, however, from the Ancient Egyptians to modern painters, have had
this illusion, such as making the same object look smaller the further away no interest at all in creating the illusion of three-dimensional work.

Picture plane Overlapping

When painters talk about the picture plane, they are One simple way for artists to give a picture
describing the flat surface of the picture as if it were a depth is to overlap the figures or other
pane of glass. Artists can accentuate the flatness with a elements of the composition. The viewer
decorative design or they can create the illusion of depth, reads this as a representation of what
visually piercing the pane of glass, like a window offering happens in the real world — one thing
a view of a scene beyond. behind another automatically translates
as distance. Also, the further away an
object is, the smaller it looks.

VIEWPOINT
AND
PERSPECTIVE

<< A Picture zones This scene has been composed in three zones to give
it depth: the foreground (1), where most of the action takes place, the
middle ground (2) where the boats are, and the background (3) beyond <A Layers
the aqueduct. The Finding of Moses, Nicolas Poussin, 1638 Overlapping the
horses and jockeys
Aerial persective Linear perspective has created a
sense of space
Sometimes called atmospheric perspective, aerial perspective mimics the receding into the
LOOKING
ART
AT distance. The Race
natural effect of light that makes things in the distance appear paler and
more blue than those in the foregound. Things also seem closer if they Course, Edgar
Degas, c1876-87
are in sharp focus, but further away if they are hazy. Renaissance artists
often accentuated the effects of light on distance by painting the
foreground green, the middle ground brown, and the background blue.
FORESHORTENING
Later artists tend to blur the distinction between one zone and another.
Foreshortening — making an object look
shorter than it really is to create the illusion
of recession — is an extreme example of linear
perspective. The term is often applied to the
human body when shown in poses that
compress its length. It makes the part nearest
you look larger than those further away.

<A Getting narrower Yv Master of foreshortening In this Renaissance

The sides of the road picture Christ's body looks very short and his feet
seem to meet ata appear larger than his head. Perspective had just
vanishing point (1). The been discovered, and the foreshortening would
small figure on horseback have been even more startling to contemporary
draws your eye into the viewers than it is now. The Dead Christ, Andrea
painting, taking you down Mantegna, late 15th century
the road. The Poplar
A » Hazy hills Aerial A Chinese landscape Avenue, David Cox, c1820
perspective is most The detail in the
effective when painting foreground is crisp and
landscapes. These Ae RR reat .
If you look down a straight :
road, the sides appear to
mountain ranges become outline in the background converge in the distance. Eventually they seem to join up,
blue in the middle is faint.The middle ground at a point known as the vanishing point. You know that
distance and paler in the bridges the distance the road sides do not actually meet, but you interpret it
background. Landscape between the two. as a sign of distance. Artists exploit this mathematical
Caspar ROGER,
lth David Friedrich, Moligtaive
Willows andhe een:
Distant lear
law of linear perspec
per ive, also
tive, al called
lled single
single viewpoin
vi int
1810-11 od Song Dynasty (960-1279) perspective, or one-point perspective, to convey space.
Viewpoint
You automaticallly stand further away from a large picture than a small one, decision on how high to hang it. In fact, the artist had already decided on
to take it all in. It's also natural to peer closely at a detailed image, then move which viewpoint to use before he started work on the painting. From the
back to look at loose brushwork, for example. If you are in an art gallery, the Renaissance until the 20th century, when many rules about how to convey
picture you are looking at was probably intended for a different setting, such depth and reality were broken, most artists took a single viewpoint. They
as a church, a palace, or a house, so you are at the mercy of the curator’s stood in one place and simply painted what they saw from that spot.

Portraits
Whether the painter is looking v » Looking up Despite his eae ae
up or down at their sitter affects youth, the young Italian nobleman SPATIAL DISTORTION
the psychological impact of the in this painting looks haughty and Distorting the perspective, or including two or more
Bere Nilat ac a conversation imperious because the artist was different perspectives, is unsettling as your brain
P J M wg looking up at him and therefore cannot follow the visual conventions normally used
between a standing person and j i ; :
a seated one puts te AWONOR ca Du are von to make things look real. Some painters, such as
: : oi aie Paul Klee, play around with perspective with childlike
an unequal footing. If the artist Halberdier, Jacopo Pontormo, Leetee tincuetatnh agide Chirice chanae th the
01528-30 glee, w _ such as de Chirico, change
and, therefore, the viewer — looks rules to disturb you and make you feel you are
up at the sitter, the sitter appears dreaming. Cézanne changes his viewpoint to mimic
powerful and dominant. If you how you look at objects in real life, moving around
look down on the sitter, the roles and looking at them from here and there.
are reversed: you are in the
Y Odd perspective In this painting de Chirico has
position of strength and the created a visual cul-de-sac with a wooden path that ends
subject of the portrait looks abruptly. The effect is surreal. As if on a diving board, you
vulnerable as a result. are dared to jump into the street beyond, where the buildings
look like dolls’ houses compared with the mannequins in
the foreground. Disquieting Muses, Giorgio de Chirico, 1925

SAIL
GNV
LNOd

~«( < Looking down By looking down

__ at himself and bringing his face right
into the foreground, the Expressionist
*) painter Kirchner emphasizes his frailty.
{ The exaggerated perspective, which
+ makes the bedstead look large in
relation to the window, heightens
the effect. Se/f-portrait as an Invalid,
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1917-20 LYV
ONIN
LV

Landscapes
The horizon line in a landscape equates to the painter's
eye level. The artist can maximize the amount of land
visible by taking a mountain top viewpoint and looking
down over lower ground. The highest viewpoint is a bird’s
eye view, in which the artist looks straight down at the
landscape below. A worm’s eye view, from which the
artist looks up, as if lying on the ground, is at the other
extreme. Some artists shift viewpoint within a painting.

<{ A High horizon Although you are

looking down at this landscape, there is
also a sense of a shifting viewpoint, as
you can see it from several angles,
particularly in the foreground. Rocks at
|‘Estaque, Paul Cézanne, 1879-82
= IIT LOT

<A Low horizon The Dutch made a virtue of their flat country, creating
a national tradition of landscape painting. Here the artist has taken a low
viewpoint that emphasizes the expanse of sky. He has contained the
landscape with a frame at the left but suggests it is endless at the right.
Dutch Landscape with Skaters, Salomon van Ruysdael, 17th century
 Light andshade
Like perspective, lighting is a tool that artists can use to make a painting look
realistic. Showing the play of light makes objects look three dimensional even
on a flat canvas. They are paler where the light falls and darker in shadow.
Seeing colour in terms of black and white is called “tone”.

Direction of light
When looking at an artist's use of light, the first point to consider is its source. another angle, to create tonal contrasts. Screwing up your eyes makes it easier
The easiest way to determine this is to look at the direction of the shadows to see where the main areas of light and dark in a painting are. Sometimes a
and see where the highlights fall. This helps you work out how high or low the painting is lit from more than one angle. The sun is the main source of natural
light source is as well as where it is coming from. Whatever the direction, artists ‘light. In an indoor scene daylight might come through a window, or the artist
interested in realistic depiction tend to light their pictures from the side or may use artificial light, which remains constant and can be controlled.

Front lighting Back lighting

Particularly effective in landscapes, back
lighting makes the horizon glow and draws
the eye towards it. Backlit figures or objects
look dark and indistinct but have an aura of
light around them. As with front lighting,
it is rare to have the light source pointing
straight at the viewer because everything
would be in shadow.

When the light shines straight

from the front, it spotlights the
action in the foreground of the
painting. It bleaches people and
objects, and casts shadows
SHADE
AND behind
LIGHT them. You cannot see
the shadows. It is more common
with front-lit paintings to angle
the light from one side or the
other, creating visible shadows
to help define shape and form <A Sunny
glow Here the
Falling light Here the light source is sun is low over
shining down from the top centre left of the horizon,
the canvas towards the kneeling Lady casting long
Jane. It throws her pitiful figure into shadows towards
ART
AT
LOOKING
sharp, pale relief against the darker the viewer
ackdrop and picks out the face of her A Seaport,
ady-in-waiting. The Execution of Lady Claude, 1639
lane Grey, Paul Delaroche, 1833

Side lighting Three-quarter lighting Lit from within

Light shining from either side works well for portraits and Sometimes a painting has no external light source, as the
still lifes because it creates an even division of light and
shade. The artist can show the full tonal range of the ie light comes from within the picture and radiates outwards
An inner light source creates an intimate feel that suits certain
subject matter, which helps to define shapes and make types of painting, such as genre (scenes of everyday life).
things look convincingly solid. Indoors, the light may come It is particularly apt for religious scenes, in which the light
from a window, sometimes shown in the painting, or be emanates from holy beings and symbolizes godly powers
artificial, in the form of a candle, a lantern, or a light bulb.

<A Tonal range The

shadows in this still life
point diagonally down to
the right, throwing the
objects into relief. Sti//
life with Dead Birds, Fruit
< A Realistic lighting Here and Vegetables, Juan << A Inner light !n this
Vermeer used side lighting, Sanchez Cotan, 1602 scene, light helps you to see
to help him model light and the birth as the shepherd
shade on the girl's face. The A light source near one of the top corners of does. The light from the Christ
light comes down at a slight the canvas is also popular for indoor subject child leads the eye out in all
angle to highlight her vibrant matter. It creates a full range of tones and directions and is reflected in
hat. Girl with a Red Hat, Jan Mary's face. Nativity Scene,
seems to push the objects forwards, making
Vermeer, 01665 Antonio Correggio, 1522-30
them appear more solid and realistic
Quality of light
As both its source and quality affect how light reveals form, the artist not only feeling of freedom. Like all aspects of looking at a work of art, light does not
has to decide what direction the light will come from, but also what kind of work in isolation but blends with colour, style, and technique to create an
light it will be. Light contributes to the mood of a painting. It can be soft and overall harmony. Not all artists want to paint naturalistically. For those who
gentle or harsh and razor sharp. It may cast a garish glare or be as uplifting as want to depict inner truths or a spiritual world, reality, in terms of tonal
a summer's day. It can create a claustrophobic atmosphere or an elating contrasts, is less significant and the lighting can be uniform and flat.

Diffused lighting Coloured lighting Flat lighting

ites ae Oar Beg pie: mtr
Apart from some Chinese painting, light and
shade is a European obsession, particularly
from the Renaissance until the Modern era.
Artists who are not concerned with imitating
the physical world do not need to use light
and shade to make people think that their
paintings or drawings are three dimensional.

< A Brightness
ca
The midday sun
fills this scene
with golden light
and creates a
warm feeling. 4 Spirit worlds The path taken by the soul on its
Apple Picking at journey to the other world is in a stylistic language that
Eragny-sur-Epte, excludes light effects. Aboriginal bark painting, undated
Camille Pissarro,
1888 ‘ Colour
relationships The
“(A Soft tones Fog envelops Friedrich’s landscape like a blanket. The
visual language of
snow and the pinkish sky create two faint sources of light. Apart from Light can dominate a painting. Colouring the
this painting does
the dark tree standing out against the snow, there are only subtle tonal light draws attention to it and affects the
not rely on tonal
variations from light to dark in the foreground, middle ground, and painting as a whole, just as a tinted filter contrast or trying to
background. Winter Landscape, Caspar David Friedrich, c1811
suffuses a photograph. Coloured lighting make things look
Dim lighting subdues a painting. It creates neither creates a mood, whether sunny or sad. If three dimensional LHD!
GNV
AGVH
the light is coloured, the shadows are too. Blue Red, Ellsworth
highlights nor noticeable shadows and narrows the
Kelly, 1964
range of tones. The artist may choose naturally diffused The tonal contrast is narrower with coloured
light, such_as-mist,-or-filter artificial sources of light. lighting because even yellow is darker than
white. Its corresponding shadows are
therefore lighter in tone than black.

Strong lighting Spot lighting HIGHLIGHTS

Bright light creates sharp tonal contrasts with brilliant Artists use highlights to show pinpricks of light.
highlights and dark shadows, and throws detail into
They can make a surface look shiny or show
movement on water. Because highlights are the SNINO
LY
LYV
focus. Strong lighting works best when it comes from an
lightest tones in a picture, they catch your eye,
angled source to emphasize the play of opposite ends of
like a lit window on a dark night. In oil painting,
the tonal range. The Italian word chiaroscuro (meaning artists traditionally work from dark to light and
light-dark) is sometimes used to describe how artists add highlights last. Thick paint can heighten the
distribute light and shade to depict form. impact. Highlights do not have to be white to be
effective: Velasquez, for example, also used
lemon-yellow and pale orange.
“ Glints Touches
of white make the
glaze of a humble
earthenware pot
sparkle. An Old
Woman Cooking
Eggs, Diego
Velasquez, 1618

<A Shaft of light Artistic device and symbolism

are fused in this painting. The moonlight symbolizes
the Roman moon goddess Diana and draws attention
to the beautiful face and form of Endymion, sent to
«A Gritty realism The strong sleep for ever in return for perpetual youth. The Sleep
light in this painting creates of Endymion, Anne-Louis Girodet, 1791
dramatic tonal contrasts and
focuses the eye on the most Another dramatic way to light a painting is
important point in the story — to focus a beam of light on one area. As
St Thomas's contact with
on a stage, it focuses your attention on the
Christ's wounds. The /ncredulity
of St Thomas, Michelangelo Merisi spot-lit section, thrown into dramatic relief
da Caravaggio, 1602-03 by the surrounding deep shadow.
 Mediaandtechniques
Pigment - powdered colour - is suspended in a liquid medium to create paint. The
medium can be oil, egg, or just water, and when it dries, it binds the paint to the
support (working surface). Drawing materials are different as they are already dry.
Granules of pigment stick to fibres in the paper. Sculpture has its own set of media:
mainly stone, metal, or wood plus a host of modern materials. Each medium has its
own techniques. Some media dictate the artist’s technique; others are more versatile.
&

Early media
When it came to paintings, medieval and early Renaissance artists only had Flemish artists worked on oak, and Germans on pine, fir, lime, or oak.
one option: egg tempera on panel (wood). The type of wood depended on what Alternatively, early artists could paint murals, in the form of frescoes, which
grew locally and this is used by art historians as a clue to the country of origin. were popular in Italian churches and chapels. Medieval and Renaissance artists
Italian panel paintings of the 14th to 16th centuries are generally on poplar, worked to commission, usually to produce work on a religious theme.

Egg tempera
Vibrant and crisp, egg tempera is stable,
durable, and the colours remain strong.
The medium, however, is egg, usually just
the yolk, mixed with water to make a
creamy paste. Egg dries in minutes, so the
artist cannot blend colours on the surface
of the picture or use impasto (thick paint).
He has to build up thin layers of paint, using A1, Underdrawing Working from A 2. The paint layers The
small hatching strokes — lines side by side — preliminary sketches, the artist drapery of the kneeling figure is
makes a detailed underdrawing on painted with green earth and lead
to create form. This demanding medium
the top, thinnest layer of gesso or white. Magnified x 380, some
was superseded by oil paints but has been chalk. The drawing shows through black drawing particles are visible
revived several times in recent centuries. where the paint has thinned. between the paint and the gesso.
» Egg tempera on poplar Early Italian painters
prided themselves on mastering the technical
difficulties of egg tempera. Many worked in the
Byzantine style of the time, using much gilding.
The Transfiguration of Christ, Duccio, 1311

ELE 2 ; see A3,. Cross section of gilding The A 4. Fragment of gilding

A Cross section of panel support Planks of wood lines showing the folds of Christ's Magnified x185, you can see the
were glued together and planed until smooth (1). They ultramarine robes are gilded, thin gold leaf has worn away from
were then covered with several layers of white gesso following the Byzantine tradition. Christ's robes, revealing the yellow-
ART in Italy, or chalk in northern Europe, mixed with animal-
|
TECHNIQUES
AT
LOOKING
AND
MEDIA This magnification of x130 shows brown of the mordant size that
skin glue (2) before being painted (3) and gilded (4). the gilding on top of the paint. Duccio used to glue on the gold.

Fresco
The artist traces a cartoon (detailed drawn plan) on to the wall and paints
water-based pigment straight on to wet plaster, hence the word fresco,
meaning “fresh” in Italian. The wall has to be painted in sections. When
the plaster dries, the fresco is part of it and will last as long as the plaster.
Artists can paint on to dry walls, which is easier, but the paint is liable to
flake off because it has not bonded with the surface of the plaster. Fresco
is only practical in dry climates like that of Italy, as damp damages plaster.

A» Restoring frescoes <A Visible joins Giotto, who painted all four walls
Earthquakes are the biggest threat of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, had to estimate how
to frescoes in Italy. Restorers try much work he could do each day, as just that area of
to replace any missing fragments, wall was plastered first thing in the morning. A face
not to hide the original work or might take a whole day, whereas flat areas of colour
“improve” it with additional paint. were quicker. Colours had to be matched from one
This fresco in S. Francesco Church, section to another: where the colours do not match, the
Assisi, was completely restored after joins show. These are called giornate, from the Italian
an earthquake in 1997. Four Fathers word for “day”. Baptism of Christ, Giotto, 1303-05
of the Church, Giotto, 1290-95
Oil painting
In oil paints the medium is a vegetable oil that dries naturally when exposed The introduction of oil paint made artists’ lives easier and the new medium
to air — Olive oil is no good. Linseed oil is the best and most commonly used, had replaced egg tempera by the mid-16th century. Oil paint is easy to work
although walnut oil was sometimes used in 16th-century Italy, and poppy and the artist can create a variety of finishes. Venetians started working on
seed oil in Dutch and French paintings of the 17th and 19th centuries. canvas and this lighter form of support also gained widespread popularity.

Preparing an oil painting Glazing

ee ee e A : 5 As for egg tempera, the support — be it Oil paints can be transparent as well as opaque. The artist applies thin
wood panel or canvas — has to be prepared layers of paint, letting each layer dry before adding the next, to build up
for an oil painting. Layers of gesso or chalk complex, luminous layers of translucent colour. This classic use of oil
mixed with animal size create a smooth, paint, known as glazing, was perfected by the Flemish painter Jan van
absorbent ground, which can be sealed to Eyck. He often glazed over an opaque underlayer of tempera.
prevent subsequent layers of paint sinking
in. Oil paintings are usually varnished, to
intensify the colour, show up details, and
add gloss. The varnish darkens with age,
lasting less well than the paint beneath.

<¥ Layers of a panel painting The ground layer of

chalk and animal glue (1) was sealed with an isolation
layer (2). The artist probably added the black particles
(3) to darken the layer of green paint (4). Once dry, the
painting was varnished (5). Last Judgement, Jan van A > Depth of colour Like
Scorel, c1550 laying sheets of cellophane on
top of one another, each layer
of glaze changes the colour of
those above and below it.
This effect can be seen in the
turban. A Man in a Turban,
Jan van Eyck, 1433

“All [oil painting] asks of the

artist is care and love, for oil in VIGSIN
SANO
itself possesses the property
of making colour smoother, OIL ON COPPER
A Cross section of a canvas Flat copper is rigid, as long as it is small, and
softer, more delicate, and more
support Steenwyck’s painting
easily harmonized and shaded", provides a smooth, non-absorbent surface. It is suited
is on canvas, made of linen and i}

wrote the Italian art historian, to detailed painting and jewel-like colour with good |
stretched taut (1). It was then
Giorgio Vasari, in 1550, thrilled coated with a glue-sizing contrast of light and shade. Some artists, such as
ground (2), before being Elsheimer, made a career out of painting on copper.
by the medium. One of the joys
of oil paint is that the artist can painted (3), often in several
layers, and varnished (4).
work at leisure all over the
painting — unlike egg tempera
SNIXO
IV
LYV
or fresco, both of which
demand a piecemeal approach.
Oils can be blended on the
surface of the painting, to
create smooth transitions from
one colour to the next without
leaving any visible brushmarks. A > Subtle tonal shifts In this Dutch still life, the artist has made full use
of the versatility of oils, mimicking the fall of light to model form and show
surface textures. Such realism was simply not possible with earlier media.
Vanitas, Pieter van Steenwyck, 17th century

Painting with a knife

Oil paint is usually diluted with
turpentine or similar solvent (not water,
which will not mix with the oil), to make
it more runny and easier to work. The
thinner also makes the paint dry more A Grandeur on a small scale The detail in this
quickly. However, oils can also be used painting on copper is exquisite, despite the small scale
really thickly, without being diluted, in a of 30x 25cm. Ceres and Stellio, Adam Elsheimer, c1600
technique called impasto. While Old yq
pee

Masters tended to reserve impasto for

A Application Cranked shaft and
pale, opaque highlights, modern painters straight palette knives are available for
sometimes revel in thick paint for its impasto knife-painting.
own sake.
v Impasto cross-section Instead of
» Trowelling it on Frank smooth, thin layers, the canvas (1) is
Auerbach is renowned for his loaded with thick, craggy paint (2 and 3).
flamboyant use of impasto, in
which the marks of the palette
knife are strikingly apparent.
Head of Gerda Boehm, Frank
Auerbach, 1965
 Media on paper
Paper is absorbent but, unlike canvas, is not strong enough to take layers of priming and oil paint. Pastel
It is, however, ideal for drawings in a variety of media as it is light and portable. Paper is made up
of a web of fibres that file off particles of lead, charcoal, or whatever the artist is drawing with.
Even paper that looks completely smooth has enough fibre to catch all drawing media. Heavier
papers are suitable for watercolour, a water-based paint that is usually applied in thin washes.
Textured papers tend to be used for their interesting surface rather than any specific function.

Watercolour
A Highlights Degas let
Built up in washes of delicate colour, » Wet-on-wet the tinted paper show,
watercolour is transparent and lets the Washes of paint to make highlights on
white of the paper shine through. It is have been applied the dancers’ shoulders
to wet paper for the and arms. Its pallor
good for sketching as all the artist needs
canal. The artist has stands out against the
is cakes of paint, water, and brushes. sponged out areas predominant deep blue.
Watercolour can also be used for more of paint to create
detailed work by letting one layer of paint highlights. Palazzo
dry before applying another. Dario, Venice,
Hercules Brabazon A Vivid sketch Degas described himself as a colourist
Brabazon, c1870 with line, using pastel as a bridge between drawing and
painting. Blue Dancers, Edgar Degas, c1899
<< Fine detail Pastels — sticks of colour bound with gum or
Watercolour is
resin — have existed in their modern form for
traditionally used for
botanical, bird, and over 200 years. They come ready-mixed in a
animal illustrations. range of tints and shades and are applied A Strength of colour
It combines the detail directly, usually to mid-toned paper. Blending blues on the
of a drawing with the Hatching (parallel lines), as on the back of paper creates a matte,
colour of a painting. the central dancer above, is one way of dense area of blue on
Golden Pheasant, the dancer's bodice.
creating tone in this versatile medium.
Ch‘ien-lung period
(1736-95) Colours can also be blended or layered.

Conté crayon Ink

Named after Nicolas-Jacques Conté, an 18th-century First used in China and Egypt
French scientist, conté crayons can be used on their side around 2500 BCE, when
to build up tone or held like a pencil for linework. The blocks of lampblack ink were
TECHNIQUES
AND
MEDIA
pigment in conté crayons is bound with a waxy or oily mixed with water, ink is
substance, so they are harder and less crumbly than pastel suitable for writing or drawing
or chalk. The particles stick to the paper and do not need — Chinese artists combine the
fixing (spraying with liquid resin to hold them in place). two. It can also be used for
painstakingly detailed work.
» Velvety tones Seurat
is renowned for his tonal
drawings in conté crayon v Pen Drawn freely with a sparing
He created tone solely with use of line, this drawing is all
differing pressure. Study the more expressive. Yvette Guilbert,
for “La Grande Jatte”, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1894
ART
AT Georges Seurat, 1884
LOOKING

Rods of graphite — a carbon

mineral — encased in wood
date from the 16th century.
Confusingly, until about
1800, the word “pencil”
was used to mean a small
brush. Nicolas-Jacques u Ys

Conté created pencils of A Crosshatching The tone on

<< Conté crayon colours From the left, differing hardness, which the horse's flank was created
sepia, sanguine, and bistre are the core were used to great effect by with crosshatching (a lattice of poetry and image are integrated
earth colours. White and black are French artists such as Ingres parallel lines). Rearing Stallion calligraphically with ink. A Chicken,
common, too, and nowadays a wider Held by a Nude Man, Théodore Cockscomb, and Chrysanthemum,
and Géricault.
Géricault, c1820

)
range of colours is available. Li Shan, 18th century

Charcoal Chalk
Dating back to ancient << Light and dark The This medium, used in
Rome, charcoal is tonal and linear potential prehistoric cave paintings,
easy to rub off on the of charcoal are exploited came into its own in the High
drawing surface. It is to record the grooves and Renaissance in the hands of
therefore a favoured hollows of the man’s face.
Head of a Man, Lucian
Leonardo and Michelangelo
choice for underdrawing, and, later, Rococo artist
Freud, 1990
because it is easy to Watteau. White chalk came
correct mistakes and its » Willow charcoal from limestone, red from red
impermanence does not Charcoal sticks make earths, and black from stones
matter if it is going to be a smudgy grey mark.
such as shale. Nowadays,
Charcoal also comes in
covered up. As a finished chalk pigments are often made
compressed form, which
work, it must be sprayed creates an intense, velvety synthetically, bound, and then A Human form Red chalk is used to describe how
with fixative (liquid resin) black, or pencils, which pressed into sticks rather like the muscles ripple as the body moves. Study for the
for the drawing to last. are easiest to handle. pastels or conté crayons. Creation of Adam, Michelangelo, c1508
 Printmaking
The advantage of prints is that the artist can reproduce the same image etchings, are passed through rollers like a mangle and ink is forced into incised
over and over again. The picture is printed from a metal plate, wooden block, furrows. The more recent technique of lithography is a surface method in
or other surface on to a sheet of paper. There are two main types of print: which the print is taken from a flat slab. The antipathy of grease and water
in relief prints such as woodcuts or linocuts, the parts to print black are left separates the areas that receive or reject the printing ink. Screenprinting is a
in relief and the remainder cut away. Intaglio prints, such as engravings and stencil method, in which colour is brushed through on to the paper beneath.

Woodcut Lithograph
The design is drawn with greasy chalk on to limestone or a
synthetic equivalent (often zinc or aluminium today), which w Personalizing a print A large part of the American
absorbs both grease and water. When the drawing is artist Jasper Johns's output is prints. Here he is shown
completed, the stone is wetted. Water only penetrates the Working on a wax model foranembossed lead version
part of the stone that is free from grease. Greasy ink is of Numerals in 1968.
rolled on to the stone. It is repelled by the wet surface but
sticks to the greasy chalk and can then be transferred to
paper. Multicoloured prints can be made by inking
different parts of the stone with different colours.

A Graphic image Belgian

graphic artist and painter Frans
Masereel gouges out the areas
to be white in the printed sheet.
Woodcuts create strong images
with tonal contrast. Frans
Masereel, 1924

For a woodcut, the drawing is transferred to a woodblock. The blank

areas are gouged away, leaving the drawing in relief. The drawing prints
black and the other areas stay white. The printmaker cannot vary the
depth of colour as the relief surfaces are of equal height. The raised A Posters Multicoloured lithography was used to make
strips of wood have to be thick enough to withstand the pressure of eye-catching advertising posters in the 19th century. The
printing, so the result is bold and graphic. technique allows the artist to combine line and colour.
The Simpson Chain, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1896 VIGSIN
SANOD

Etching Engraving Screenprint =

The engraver incises the image on to a metal plate. A refinement of the stencil S
[.Rp Soa ita
The deeper the furrow, the stronger the line. The plate printing used by textile zA
is inked, then wiped clean so that ink is only left in the printers, screenprinting &
incised lines. The plate and a dampened sheet of paper was adopted by artists in =
are then passed through the rollers of the printing press. the United States in the =4
The pressure forces the paper into the inky grooves of 1930s. A finely meshed z
the plate and the image is transferred to the paper. silk screen is stretched oH
over a wooden frame,
» Sharp versus grainy 1 2 : :
The engraver uses a then a cut stencil design
tool called a burin. Its is attached to it, and paper
shaped metal point cuts placed underneath. Colour
a V-shaped groove (1), is forced through the
producing a sharp, clean unmasked area of the
line. Etching lines tend to screen, leaving the cut
be slightly fuzzier, with a
stencil image on the paper.
granular texture (2) where
the acid seeps out. A Printing process
The stencil is put in
< Hard lines place, ready for the
Duirer’s work shows colour to be pressed
how fine and clear through on to the
engraved lines are. paper beneath.
This demanding
technique requires < Bold design
great control and Screenprinting is
precision on the part an ideal medium for
of the engraver. producing graphic
was as great a graphic artist as
Nemesis (The Great blocks of strong
painter. His etchings show the free-
Fortune), Albrecht colour, as in this
flowing lines typical of the medium.
Durer, c1501-02 design. Start 2000,
Tone is created by hatching (close
Bridget Riley, 2000
parallel lines). Se/f-portrait with
Wife, Rembrandt, 1636

A metal plate is covered with an acid-

resistant layer of wax or resin and the
lines of the image are scratched into it
with a needle. When the plate is placed
in an acid bath, the metal exposed by
the drawn lines is eroded by the acid.
The plate can then be inked and printed.
 Modern media
The explosion of new media in the 20th century prompted a reappraisal of the whole Assemblage
purpose of art. Artists no longer had to reproduce reality faithfully as photographers could Assemblage is a three dimensional form of collage.
do it better, and films took on many of the traditional narrative roles of painting, such as The French artist Jean Dubuffet coined the term Y Found objects
A miscellany of items
stories of battles and religious or historical subjects. The invention of new materials also in 1953 to describe a collage, made from found
including a paintbrush,
objects such as household items, which transforms
gave artists scope for different methods of working. Acrylics revolutionized painting in the hat, spoon, and stick,
everyday things into a work of art. The word is used has been used here to
1950s and 60s, and plastics and polymers led to innovations in three-dimensional work. more loosely to apply to photomontage — sticking create a mixed media
parts of different photos together to make an image assemblage. Saddle,
Provisions, Tools for
Collage — and ready-mades such as Marcel Duchamp’s
the Primary Surveyor,
Fountain (see p.467), tableaux, and installations.
In the early 20th century, the Cubists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque made Tim Storrier, 1982
collage, traditionally used in scrapbooks, into an art form. A collage (from the
French verb coller, meaning to stick or glue) is a composite image made by
sticking newspaper cuttings, photographs, and other printed images on to a
flat surface, often combined with paint. By definition, collage uses mixed
/
media — more than one medium — in a single work. Mixed media can also
ee
mean using more than one type of paint, or both painting and drawing media.

ss
LUNs
ATR

nettle,

Nye Fogle. he i wig edad

<{ A Modern statement

Scraps of newspaper, factory
chimneys, and stick-like
figures are juxtaposed on PS
irene
PEE
brown paper to suggest
the bleakness of life in
an industrialized world.
Industrial Landscape,
Julian Trevelyan, c1950

TECHNIQUES
AND
MEDIA

Acrylics
After centuries of oils dominating painting, acrylics were developed in the
1940s. Made from pigment, acrylic polymer emulsion, and chemicals that
control texture, stability, and durability, acrylics can be thinned with water
and used like watercolour, or applied thickly like oils, with the advantage
that they dry within hours. Acrylics can be applied to all types of surface,
on their own or with other media, and act as a glue and sealant in
ART collages. They come in a huge array of colours and finishes.
AT
LOOKING

A Acrylic palette Colours come

in a variety of consistencies, from
fluid to paste-like, and adding
water makes them more liquid.
They are also available with
different intensities of pigment
and various finishes: matte,
shiny, or metallic (as above),
as well as opaque, semi-opaque,
or transparent.

BE ame
A Thick paint By adding an impasto
medium, Hoyland makes acrylic so
thick that it stands out in relief from
the surface of the painting. Farewell! A Stained glass wall This
Installations are site-specific three-
Paradise, John Hoyland, 1995 installation consists of coloured
dimensional works. They are not made glass framed with steel rods.
» Shiny surface In this minimalist traditionally, but are assembled from Although the materials are relatively
painting, fine, vertical lines of graphic everyday objects so that the artist can conventional, the vast size is typical
on a smooth layer of acrylic bear no dismantle the work and recreate it of this recent genre of art. The Glass
trace of the artist's hand. Untitled Wall, Brian Clarke, 1998
elsewhere. It is important that the artist's
No 12, Agnes Martin, 1990
hand is not as visible in the work as it
would be in a painting or sculpture.
Sculpture
Sculptors carve hard materials such as stone, wood, or ivory, but model soft materials such
as Clay, building up the object rather than chiselling it away. Sculptures made from metal are Like stone, wood is carved, but it is not as hard, making it easier to work.
either cast or welded together. Sculptures on buildings are in relief — meaning that they Some woods, such as lime, are particularly soft and can be carved in
project from the background to a greater (high) or lesser (low) extent. In the past, relief was great detail, hence the tradition of limewood carving around 1500 in
often used on tombs, sarcophagi, or bronze doors, to depict stories in three dimensions. Germany, where it was used for altarpieces. Woods such as oak and
walnut are harder to carve, but are less likely to rot in damp conditions.

v Wooden figure Few of these

Stone wooden Polynesian ancestral figures
Marble (rock that formed when limestone or deities survive today because
recrystallized) and stone are very hard, and ¥ Sculptor at work 19th-century Christian missionaries
Eric Gill chisels away destroyed them. Nude figure from
sculpting them is physically strenuous. This
at his sculpture of Raratonga, Cook Islands, undated
may be one reason why early statues were
Prospero and Ariel,
stylized — they were easier to carve than one of four external
realistic work. The tools used by sculptors groups he was
today are the same as in Michelangelo's commissioned to
time: flat- and toothed-claw chisels, drills to make in the 1930s for
Broadcasting House,
create tracks and holes, hammers, and files
the headquarters of
to reach into areas such as armpits.
the BBC in London.

A Painted wood Nowadays, sculptors emphasize

the natural colour and grain of wood, but in earlier
A Work in progress This unfinished work centuries it was common to paint all carved wood.
shows how Michelangelo “released” a figure Swedish ships figurehead, 18th century
from a marble block. It is one of a series of four
for the tomb of Pope Julius Il. The Awakening VIG3IN
SANO
Slave, Michelangelo, 1519-20
LOST-WAX TECHNIQUE
To make a bronze, the sculptor starts with a model of the desired
form. By the lost-wax technique, the model is coated in wax and
Most sculptures made of bronze, an alloy encased in plaster (1). The wax is replaced by molten bronze.
of copper and tin, are created using the lost- Once the bronze has solidified (2), the plaster mould is broken off.
wax technique (see box far right), which The final bronze can be smoothed and polished (3). Working
works on a similar principle to making ice Model for Draped Reclining Mother and Baby, Henry Moore, 1982
cubes. The bronze is cast from a mould.
Since the 18th century, this has often been
made in sections (called a piece mould) so SNIXO
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it can be removed and reassembled to make
a copy of the sculpture. Up until then, the
mould had to be broken in order to remove
it, So only one sculpture could be made.

A Sculptor’s studio Henry Moore worked in stone, wood, and

bronze as well as making drawings and etchings. Cast bronze
became his favoured medium towards the end of his life.
<< Bronze sculpture With the lost-wax method, the model can
be scaled up or down to change the proportions of the finished
sculpture and the castings can be made in several versions.
All metal develops a patina (surface colouration). This is often
greenish on bronze. Warrior with a Shield, Henry Moore, 1952
 Colour
Colour is often one of the most exciting components of a painting, but what exactly is it?
Understanding the basic principles of colour theory helps you analyse how artists exploit
and manipulate it in their work. They use colour together with composition, perspective,
and light and shade to strengthen the impact of the subject matter.

Mixing and comparing colours

The properties of light make colours visible. Light travels in waves of different lengths, and our TONE
eyes (and brains) perceive different wavelengths as different colours. The range of wavelengths Colours also have tone, which means how light
you can see is called the visible spectrum: the shortest visible wavelengths appear as violet, or dark they are. Any colour can be made paler
and the longest as red. Artists use paint made from powdered pigments that absorb some or darker by adding white, the lightest tone,

2
or black, the darkest tone. It can have shades,
wavelengths and reflect others. Like all colours in the physical world, the colours in a painting
which are darker in tone than the colour in its
are actually the colours of reflected light. pure state, and tints, which are light tones.
PRIMARY
The colour wheel
Artists’ understanding and use of colour
was revolutionized in the 19th century,
partly thanks to a French chemist Michel
Eugéne Chevreul. When he was working
—__—]
as the Director of Dyeing at the Gobelins
tapestry workshops near Paris, Chevreul
realized that colours appeared brighter or
duller depending upon the colour they were
placed next to in a design. To demonstrate
how colours modify each other, Chevreul
created a colour wheel. It shows the three
primary colours — red, yellow, and blue
— and various mixtures of secondary colours, A Tonal value This black and white version of
which are made by mixing two primaries. the colour wheel shows colours in terms of black
Chevreul’s theories underpinned the and white, which is called tone.
Impressionist painters’ use of colour in the
late 19th century. In earlier centuries, artists
ly
COLOUR
had used colour intuitively. Intensity
Pure pigment looks vivid and can be
» Technical tool The colour wheel links the colours
of the rainbow in a circle. The colours are red, orange, described as “saturated” Its saturation can
yellow, green, blue, and violet (purple). be weakened with water or another thinner,
or by mixing in another colour. Pure colour
is bright; when mixed it looks duller. Dull in

Primary and secondary this sense does not mean dreary — it is just
LOOKING
ART Red,
AT the opposite of bright. Intensity also varies
yellow, and blue pigments cannot be
to the viewer according to how bright or dull
mixed from other colours, which is why
the surrounding colours are.
they are described as primary. All other
colours can be mixed from primaries,
starting with the secondaries, made from AY¥VvaNooas
any pair out of red, yellow, and blue.

Warm and cool Complementary A Bright and dull Red, like any colour, can be
Be Be Se Colours are sometimes described by their Each primary colour is opposite a secondary made duller by diluting the saturation of the pigment
“temperature” Warm colours are those in on the colour wheel. These pairs of colours (above left) or adding another colour (above right).
Pure red looks strong and is likely to make any
the red—orange-yellow range. Cool colours are as different as can be in terms of tone
colours next to it appear duller by contrast.
are on the opposite side of the colour wheel or temperature and visually vibrate against
A Making secondaries from primaries Mixing
— those in the blue—green-violet range. each other. They make each other look
red and yellow makes orange; yellow and blue
make green; and blue and red make purple While warm colours appear to advance brighter when they sit side by side. Translucence
towards the viewer, cool colours recede. Some paints, for instance, watercolour,
are translucent — you can see through t
More colour mixtures hem. Others are opaque, covering up
When a primary and secondary colour are colours beneath. Oil paints and acrylics
mixed together, they make a tertiary colour
A The two extremes Red is hot and fiery and may be translucent or opaque, depending
(also called an intermediary), such as yellow- leaps out at the viewer; blue is more understated on the particular paint and how it is used.
green or red-purple. and drifts into the background. A Colour contrast The complementary pairs are
yellow and purple, blue and orange, and red and
green. Yellow and purple are tonal opposites, while
the other two pairs contrast in temperature alone

oa We

A Opacity If one colour completely covers

an underlying layer (above left), it is opaque
A Tertiaries Red and orange combine into red- Translucent paint allows underlaying layers
orange, and blue and green create blue-green to shine through and modify colours above
(above right).
How artists use colour
In nature and in art, colour has a profound effect on the viewer. Artists can However, artists do not have to imitate the colours they see in the physical
choose and use colour naturalistically — to recreate the colours they have world. In both figurative and abstract painting, colour can be used for its
seen in a landscape, for example. By convention, grass is green and water decorative beauty, to create a mood, or to express or arouse an emotion.
is blue but on a closer look they may be made up of many different colours. It can be also be used symbolically.

Creating impact
Colours that are close together on the colour wheel (see opposite)
harmonize with each other when an artist places them side by side in
a painting. For the opposite effect, to make colours demand
attention, an artist can use complementaries. Impressionists and
modern artists deliberately exploit the visual impact of opposite
colours, but painters instinctively juxtaposed complementaries for
centuries before the theory was known.

Av Complementary pairings The orange-

reds of the boats and their reflections contrast
with the bright green weeds. Likewise, the
yellow highlights of the masts contrast with
the complementary violet shadows.
{
{

\> ae

as a — A Light on water Monet was fascinated by the ever-changing shimmer of light on water :
A Playing with primaries This painting celebrates the bold, childlike freshness and used Chevreul’s theory (see opposite) to recreate what he saw. He questioned the i |
of primary colours. Pure black and white are neutral and, like primaries, cannot convention of blue sky or green leaves, preferring to paint the colours he saw, including |
be made by mixing other colours together. Gouache, Alexander Calder, 1974 vividly coloured shadows. Argenteui/, Claude Monet, c1872-75

Distance Expressing emotion

One of the ways an artist ree ‘ Expressions such as “feeling blue” and “seeing red” have come about yNO10
creates the illusion of space Bee 3 because colour has an emotional effect independent of its subject matter.
on a flat canvas is to use aerial od Wassily Kandinsky, one of the most significant figures in the development
(also called atmospheric) of abstract art, thought artists should use form and colour not to copy
perspective. Distant objects objects but to express emotion and to arouse feelings in the viewer. It is
appear progressively paler and not just bright primaries and secondaries that create a mood. Intermediary
bluer, because the shorter blue or tertiary colours, such as brown, mixed from primary and secondary
wavelengths travel through the colours, also affect the viewer, but have a more subtle effect.
atmosphere more easily than
the longer wavelengths. Artists
can apply this principle by using SNINO
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blues and greys to give depth
in landscapes. It also works
to imply distance in more
confined spaces.

A-Y¥ Warm and cool In this landscape Turner < Tranquil blue This
exploits the push and pull of warm and cool composition is divided so that
colours. Warm golds in the foreground the left side relates to worldly
advance, and hazy blues recede towards the mM existence and the right to the
horizon. Lake Constance, IMW Turner, 1842 spiritual. The right side is
F) dominated by “heavenly”,
“restful” blue. /mprovisation
| 19, Wassily Kandinsky, 1911
> Reflective mood The
muted, monochromatic
palette — limited to tones
of brown, with contrasts
of black and white —
contributes to the
stillness and serenity
of this domestic scene.
A Woman Sewing in an
Interior, Vilhelm
Hammershgi, c1900

A > Hot colours Cézanne made the fruit

stand out in this painting by using warm
colours that instantly catch the eye. Visually,
he pushed the cloth, bowl, and background
away by making them bluish, to accentuate
their distance from the warm fruits in the
foreground. Fruits, Paul Cézanne, 1879-80
 Pigments
The finely ground substance that provides colour when mixed with liquid minerals such as rocks and earth — which were made into artificial compounds,
to form paint is called pigment. It does not dissolve, or it would be dye. such as lead-tin yellow — or came from organic sources. Indigo, for example,
A pigment can be used in different media, such as oils or watercolour, with was made from a plant and cochineal from insects. Vegetable-based pigments
some provisos: fresco pigments, for example, need to be alkaline-resistant tend to fade with time, whereas other pigments may darken. The transparent
to cope with lime plaster. Traditional Renaissance pigments came from green glaze from copper resinate gradually turns brown over the centuries.

Primaries
The most prized blue is ultramarine, made from the mineral lapis lazuli. It had to
be extracted from a single source of mines in what is now northeast Afghanistan.
Ultramarine was so expensive that patrons specified, sometimes in a separate
contract, where in a painting they wanted it to be used — usually on the Madonna's
cloak. Cheaper blues, such as smalt, were used for the sky. The only intense red
was vermilion, which was either made naturally from cinnabar, a mineral, or
prepared synthetically. Lead-tin was an early yellow; yellow ochre was also popular.

A> Ultramarine and —

vermilion Here, the
most beautiful blue,
ultramarine, has been
play eee o used for Ariadne’s robe
. Yellow ochre This pigment has been used for Judas’s and vermilion for her
|COLOUR
a robe, applied full strength for the shadows in the folds of sash. Both preserve well
cloth, and mixed with white to create the highlights. Betrayal in oil paint, although this
of Christ, Scrovegni Chapel frescoes, Giotto, c1305 picture has been
restored. Bacchus and
Ariadne, Titian, 1520-23

Earth colours Biack and white PREPARING PIGMENTS

Warm, natural siennas, umbers, and ochres, which make dull reds and Renaissance painting was a team effort. Apprentices spent
LOOKING
ART mellow yellows, were the staple pigments of the Renaissance and
AT about four years learning their trade, starting with mixing
Baroque palettes. Earth colours were stable in oil paint and cheap. They colours. They could collect their own earth pigments and buy in
could either be used raw or roasted like coffee to create a richer colour the rarer ones. They had to grind the pigments until they were
Some artists, including Rembrandt, primed the panel or canvas with an fine enough to be evenly suspended in the medium and make the
earth colour mixture that glowed through the subsequent layers of paint. strongest colour possible. Once they had mastered prepararing
materials, apprentices moved on to drawing and painting.
Any cool colours used contrasted with the overall warmth of the painting.
» Azurite This purplish blue
pigment acquires a green tinge
when it is ground up, making it
too green for sky. It was widely
used in the Renaissance, as an
undercoat or as a cheaper
alternative to the fabulously
expensive ultramarine.

< The medieval

artist's studio
This Illuminated
manuscript shows
a female artist
painting an icon
of the Madonna
A Tonal contrast Lead white was used for the and Child in egg
<A Burnt sienna, ruff in this painting. It makes a striking contrast to tempera. Her
Spanish brown, and the background and draws attention to the sitter's brushes are laid
burnt umber The thick face. Portrait of a Man, Frans Hals, c1643—45 out behind her,
white and grey strokes of and an apprentice
the shirt and the slightly Carbon-based blacks included charcoal is grinding pigment
blue-tinged flesh tones and the warmer bone black, the precursor with a stone. The
stand out against the pigment was
of ivory black. Lead white dominated
underlying earth colours mixed with egg
easel painting and, in oils, acted as a just before use, as
that suffuse this painting
drying agent. The faster an oil painting egg tempera dries
with warmth. Woman
dried, the better it was preserved. quickly. French
Bathing in a Stream,
School, 1402
Rembrandt, 1654
Technological advances
At the end of the 18th century, a wider range of stable pigments was
discovered and by the mid-19th century a huge number of strong new colours
had emerged. Packaging methods also improved, making paints portable and
far more easy to use. These advances transformed the ways in which artists
worked and also opened up painting to the amateur artist.

19th century
Before the 19th century, artists had a
limited range of pigments at their disposal.
Towards 1800, chromium was discovered
and chrome yellow, viridian (chrome
green), and cadmium yellow, orange, and
red became available to buy. Naples yellow
replaced lead-tin yellow. In the 19th
century, a whole raft of artificial dyes
produced mauve and more stable blues
and greens, such as emerald green (later A Monet's palette Monet is best known for the brilliance of his colours,
found to be toxic) and cobalt blue. These which he used unmixed. Ironically, in early works he mixed new pigments
pigments were strong in colour, cheap, to make dull colours when he could have used pure earth pigments.
and synthetic, and they worked in every
medium from oils to watercolour. Even
ultramarine was now made synthetically,
and called French ultramarine.

» Portable materials Manet painted his

Impressionist friend Monet at work outdoors,
something neither could have done without portable
easels, canvases, or tubes of ready-prepared paints.
Monet in his Floating Studio, Edouard Manet, 1874
She Ssre=
< > Complementaries
Renoir has used blue A Pig's bladder bag Prepared A Collapsible tubes In 1841,
against the orange boat, paint first appeared in the 17th light, airtight metal tubes of paint
to make it look vibrant. century but the bags it came in were invented. This meant that
A cross-section of the tended to burst. They had to be oil-painters could work outside
water (right) reveals pure punctured for use, which made any —_and sketch, as if they were using yunoT10
cobalt blue painted over leftover paint dry out and go hard. —_watercolours or drawing.
light green. Boating on
the Seine, Pierre-Auguste
Renoir, c1879
GOLD AND PRECIOUS METALS
>» New colours The Gilding was the standard backdrop for religious pictures,
cross-section of the symbolizing the heavenly realm, before realistic settings and
rushes shows that Renoir landscapes became popular during the Renaissance. Gold was
made full use of the new also used for haloes. Gold leaf was laid or stuck on to the
range of 19th-century
dampened area, often spread with red clay to give a warm
colours. The new green,
underglow. The gilded area was then tooled — given patterns
viridian, is laid over
chrome yellow.
with a punching tool — so that it shimmered and sparkled in the SNINOO
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candlelight. Occasionally artists used powdered gold paint, called
shell gold because it was kept in a mussel shell. Silver leaf was
sometimes substituted for gold.

20th century <{ Medieval gold Early Florentine

tempera artists made lavish use of
The invention of new painting and three-dimensional media in the << Wide range gilding, giving their paintings a
20th century was matched bya vast range of pigments, textural Just as with magical, luminous quality. Miracle
household paints, of the Dragons from the Altarpiece
possibilities, and finishes. Computer-generated art has widened the of St Matthew, Andrea and Jacopo
artists can now
artist's possibilities still further and technological advances gather di Cione, c1367—70
buy a vast range
pace in the 21st century. of colours ready
mixed, in every
» Flat, bold colours Y Metallic acrylics Artists today
medium.
Modern media, such still use metals for decorative
as acrylics and effect. Metallic pigments, acrylic,
screenprinting, can aluminium, brass, and collage were
mimic the effects of used to create this homage to the
newsprint or posters stars. Lunetta con Constellazioni,
with areas of flat, Lucio del Pezzo, c1965
matte colour that
mask the artist's hand.
Matte need not
mean muted; in this
screenprint garish
colour is combined
with an impersonal
touch that disturbingly
dehumanizes the
glamorous face of
Marilyn Monroe.
Green Marilyn, Andy
Warhol, 1962
» Graphic quality Acrylic on tarpaulin has been used
to create an image with bold colour, thick outlines, and
a strong impact. Untitled, Keith Haring, 1981
 Brushstrokes andtexture
A sculpture is tactile as well as three dimensional - touching it is as much
a part of experiencing it as looking at it. Paintings have texture, too: smooth
and flat, or ridged and lumpy depending on how thickly the paint has been
applied. The paint finish may be matte or glossy; varnish makes it shiny.

The artist’s hand

Fashions change as to whether artists want you to see their brushstrokes in their work.
During some periods they have favoured a high degree of finish, in which the artist's
technique conceals all traces of the working process. The finish, combined with skilful use
of perspective and tone, helps to create a realistic illusion of the physical world. At other
times, artists have taken great pride in revealing the craftsmanship in their work.

Invisible traces
Some media are more forgiving than
others. Because egg tempera dried so
fast, artists had to paint with tiny
brushstrokes, just visible to the naked
eye. Oil paint enabled them to conceal
their brushwork in a fluid blend on the
canvas or panel. Invisible brushwork
reached the peak of its popularity in A-¥ Smooth flesh Cabanel was a leading light of French Academic
painting. His slick, highly finished handling of oil paints made flesh in
19th-century traditional works, and
his paintings look completely smooth — the acceptable face of female
was partly responsible for provoking nudity posing as high art on the pretext of retelling a classical myth.
later artists to daub — and in the 20th Birth of Venus, Alexandre Cabanel, 1863
century even pour — paint on. A
counter-reaction to this has led to
some artists creating ultra-smooth
surfaces, helped by the new acrylics.
TEXTURE
AND
BRUSHSTOKES
> Sculptural realism Tura was working when
oil painting first became popular and he used
both oils and egg tempera in this work. Blended
brushstrokes with crisp highlights convey stiff
folds of cloth, as if the figure were a sculpture.
St Jerome, Cosimo Tura, ¢1470

Visible brushstrokes
Oil paints give artists the choice of whether to hide or show
ART their
AT
LOOKING BROKEN BRUSHWORK
brushstrokes. Some Old Masters, including Velasquez
and Rembrandt, made visible brushmarks. The invention of
One reason why the French Impressionists were
criticized by contemporary critics was because their
tube paints in the late 19th century made it easier for artists
work looked unfinished and slapdash — you could see
to use thick, undiluted paint. If you look at a painting from
<-¥ Thick impasto their brushstrokes. This apparent sketchiness was a
the side, you can see how thick the paint is.
Kossoff's work is deliberate attempt to convey the flickering effects of
characterized by craggy light reflected from moving water, clouds, or plants.
impasto — thickly
applied opaque paint —
and heavy black
outlines. Portrait of
Father No 3, Leon
Kossoff, 1972

Pe
ea:
A» Conveying movement Renoir
blurred one shape into another,
using his long brushes (right) to
create feathery strokes of varying
Ne eee im size and direction. The rapid
: brushstrokes convey the impression
A ® Slabs of paint Van Gogh of scudding clouds and windblown
is known for working at feverish grass. The Gust of Wind,
speed, but his brushstrokes are Pierre-Auguste Renoir, c1872
actually laid down carefully and
precisely. They sit side by side
in series of lines and differently
coloured dots, with the canvas
visible in between. The Garden
at Arles, Vincent van Gogh, 1888
Surface appearance
How a painter applies paint or a sculptor finishes the surface of a sculpture
gives the work the characteristic imprint of the artist. Both paintings and
sculptures can look smoothly polished, or textured and pitted. An artist may
adopt a spontaneous, fluid style that leaves you free to supply the missing
information or provide every detail for you — either approach can look realistic.

Identifying the artist Chinese brushstrokes

Each artist's brushstrokes are unique, just as handwriting is. In the early 6th century, Chinese
When experts want to determine whether a painting is scholar Xie He set out six
genuinely by the artist to whom it is attributed, or which parts principles of painting, the second
of a work were by an Old Master, such as Rubens, and which of which refers to brushwork.
parts were delegated to his workshop, they analyse the Brushstrokes, according to him,
brushstrokes. Even when two artists work in the same are the “bones” of the painting
period and on the same subject matter, as in these paintings and give it its structure. Through
of Venice, their personal style is recognizably different. each brushmark, the painter
should express the spirit that
flows through everything in the
universe. The vitality of the
brushwork conveys the energy
of life and breath. The way the
Chinese use brushes is often
described as calligraphic because
it is like handwriting — and
Chinese works of art frequently
combine image and writing.

AY Fluid brushwork Guardi also painted scenes

of Venice but in a much looser style than Canaletto.
His canal waves do not conform to a set pattern,
but vary with the changing weather conditions.
Rio dei Mendicanti, Venice, Francesco Guardi, c1750
A.» Linear precision p eA Demme A Confident brushwork Sparing use
Long before postcards, of line is fleshed out with tonal washes.
Canaletto painted The inscription balances the composition.
scenes of Venice for Figure painting, Li Keran, c1950 SAWNOY
AYNLX
people on the Grand
Tour. He painted waves < Brush and ink Chinese brushes tend
with a characteristic to be larger than European ones and
curved white line. have a fine tip. Ink traditionally comes
Bridge of Sighs, Venice, as an inkstick, ground on an inkstone
Canaletto, c1740 with a little water.

Sculpture
Both wooden and marble sculptures were often painted until the ¥ Bronze with patina Bronzes usually develop a patina
Renaissance, though the pigment seldom survived the centuries. Later of green oxidation. The weathered-looking surface
incrustation forms an integal feature of this outdoor SNINOO
LV
LYV
sculptors preferred to let the nature of the material, such as the grain
sculpture. Sea Form (Atlantic), Barbara Hepworth, 1964
of the wood or the smooth coldness of marble, show. Metal sculptures
can be left to patinate (develop a surface film). As natural patination
can take centuries, sculptors since the Renaissance have added acid
to speed up the process of creating a mellow surface appearance.

L..
<< A Smooth surface The Italian
) sculptor Canova worked mainly in
’ marble. The smooth white finish is
typical of neoclassical sculptures,
modelled on classical examples in the
mistaken belief that they were not
painted. Cupid and Psyche, Antonio
Canova, 1783-93 A Rough and lumpy The Swiss-born sculptor Alberto
Giacometti works on a clay model for one of the many
elongated figures he made in the mid-20th century. The
roughly kneaded surface accentuates the edginess and
fragility of the spindly figure. i
cach
 When four boys were playing in the woods at Lascaux in France
in 1940, they little expected to come across cave paintings of
bulls dating back to about 15,000 sce. Some cave paintings,
found in Australia, Africa, and Europe, date back even earlier.
While scholars can find out how and roughly when the earliest
art was made, they will probably never be sure why. The same
goes for much paleolithic, neolithic, and Bronze Age art.

_ Prehistory
36 3000zce 2000 1000 750

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GREEK ARCHAIC .700-c480

MINOAN 3000-1100 GREEK CLASSICAL 480-323

MYCENAEAN 1500-1100

CHAVIN 850-200
The Ancient Near East saw the rise of the first cities and
city-states in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq). Temple
complexes combined worship and business, and in these Minoan civilization on Crete, home of the legendary
places archaeologists have discovered cuneiform tablets N/ITaXo)
<0Teamdalcolle]amtal-W-Niatcaliclame(=)aatelelr-\envalam (al-molial
showing the earliest system of writing as well as figure century BCE, and on to the wall paintings discovered in
sculptures whose size attests to their importance. Pompeii and Herculaneum, have been a continual cultural
Fascination with Ancient Egypt has rarely dimmed since influence. Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism inspired art
Napoleon's army went up the Nile in 1798. The discovery of in the East, while the Maya develqned the pre-eminent
more than 100 mummies in 2000 fuelled yet more interest (oN 1722)
te)a iam olgom Oxo)[Ula
ale)iclaw-Vaal=\alerei- late Mma MAUscsicsiaa
in the era. Similarly, Ancient Greece and Rome, from the art, Christian iconography gathered strength.

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MAYA 300ceE-900

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TEOTIHUACAN 50ce-600s
 (Horses and Deer Sometimes known as “the
Sistine Chapel of Palaeolithic Art”, Altamira in Spain is
famed for its lifelike depictions of animals. Dating from
¢1300 BCE, the cave paintings capture the creatures
sense of movement and the texture of manes and fur.

deliberately left uninhabited; in many

cases, too, images were drawn on
top of earlier paintings, which would
detract from any decorative effect they
might have. The most common theory
is that the act of drawing the animals
formed part of some magic ritual that
The oldest examples of prehistoric art _in a more cursory manner. Abstract was designed to bring the cavemen
date from the Upper Palaeolithic. The signs are plentiful, but are much better hunting.
first artists adorned their caves with harder to interpret.
a wide range of engravings and There is considerable debate over CURRENTevents
paintings. The latter were produced the purpose of the animal paintings. Lower Palaeolithic Era Appearance of
Prehistoric cave paintings the earliest forms of primitive humans.
with a limited range of earthy colours — Some may have been decorative, but
are as beautiful as they are blues and greens were rarely available. there are good reasons for believing Middle Palaeolithic Era Neanderthal era.
mysterious. No one can be The pigments were obtained mainly that they fulfilled some ritual purpose. c38,000 BCE Upper Palaeolithic era
Modern humans appear. The earliest
sure of their purpose, but they from mineral extracts, mixed with Often, they were produced in parts of examples of cave painting are created.
provide a tantalising record animal fat or blood. a cave that were barely accessible, ¢15,000—c10,000 BcE Magdalenian era,
where they could never have been named after the La Madeleine site, in the
of the earliest days of human
Subjects seen properly; sometimes, they were Dordogne region of France. Produces the
existence, along with an finest examples of cave painting in Europe.
The most popular subjects were located in areas where no human
insight into the first stirrings c12,000-3000 BCE Mesolithic era, or
animals. Human figures were less debris has been found, suggesting “Middle Stone Age”.
of art itself. common and were generally portrayed that these were sacred spots,

Prehistoric art
|PREHISTORIC
ART
European Cave and Rock art
30,000 BCE-10,000 BCE
< Bison Most cave paintings
show live animals, but this bison
Some of the finest European cave art was produced in south-western appears to have been depicted
France and northern Spain during the final phase of the Ice Age, from after its death, with its legs
15,000-10,000 sce. The paintings at Altamira in Spain, which were trussed up. The striking image
discovered in 1879, are so well preserved that for many years was created with just three
archaeologists doubted their authenticity. Most of the images depict colours — ochre, red, and black.
bison, although there are also a number of horses and red deer. c13,000 BcE, rock painting, Altamira,
The paintings at Lascaux in France were discovered accidentally, near Santillana del Mar, Spain
TO
PREHISTORY
1400
cE by four boys playing in the woods. The cave, which contains more
than 600 paintings, boasts some of the most spectacular prehistoric
artworks ever found, most notably in the celebrated “Hall of Bulls”
This is dominated by pictures of four black bulls, each measuring up
to 4.9m long. The cave complex at Chauvet in France also includes
a remarkable array of animal paintings and is much older, dating
back to around 30,000 sce.

eN\
HUNTER OR SHAMAN?
Archaeologists have made
numerous suggestions about the
identity of this figure with his
bird-headed stick. Some suggest
he is a hunter with a decoy;
others, a shaman with a totem.
x
wsteei

A Lions The animal paintings at Chauvet include A"The Shaft of the Dead Man” Discovered in 1940, the cave
bears, lions, panthers, rhinos, and owls. These lions paintings at Lascaux are often cited as the finest examples of
are an extinct variety, with males that have no prehistoric rock art in the world. This enigmatic scene shows a
manes. 30,000 BcE, rock painting, Chauvet-Pont-d'
Arc, man with a bird-like head along with a bison that seems to be
Ardéche Départment, France disembowelled. c17,000 8c, rock painting, Lascaux, Dordogne, France
Australian Cave and Rock art
c40,000 BCE-1780 CE

Australian art has a very long pedigree. Rock engravings at Wharton Hill
and Panaramitee North in South Australia are thought to be more than
40,000 years old, while traces of pigment at Cape York in Queensland
appear to date back to c25,000 sce. Many Australian Aboriginal
paintings are more difficult to date, however, as they have often been
retouched on several occasions. Australian Aboriginals believed that
the original designs had been formed by creation spirits during the
Dreamtime — the ancestral past — when their shadows passed over the
landscape. The most important concentrations of rock painting can be
found at Arnhem Land and Kimberley, near the northern coast, and
Victoria in the south-east. The images usually consist of slender,
anthropomorphic figures or “X-ray” paintings of animals.

Y Wandjina Paintings /he Wandjina are ancestral figures —

the spirits of clouds, who govern the weather. These paintings
were discovered in 1837. Main figure 100 x 78cm, Kimberley District,
Western Australia

Oo aes

A The Lightning Brothers /hese images come CLOSERI|ook

from a rock shelter in the ancestral territory of the : LR :FACELESS There were no fixed
Wardaman people. The Lightning Brothers were images for Creation heroes, as
two Creation heroes — Jabaringi and Yagjagbula — these were tribal deities, varying
who brought lightning and the monsoon rains. from region to region. In most
Rock painting, Ingalari Waterhole, Willeroo Station, cases, the Brothers were shown
Victoria River, Australia as simple, human-like forms with
few facial details. They often had
rays emanating from their heads.
DINOL
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c4000 BCE-c1500 BCE

The finest surviving examples of prehistoric African art are

located in remote, mountainous regions. In many cases, the sites
were occupied for centuries, and contain thousands of paintings
and engravings. At Tassili NAjjer in Algeria, paintings are so
numerous that different periods can be detected. The earliest
feature hunters pursuing animals that are now extinct. Following
this, there are scenes of herdsmen tending cattle and, finally,
images of more recent animals, such as horses and camels. alam ne Ore Sn iesal OLAYOL
00vVL
49
The most intriguing paintings, perhaps, were produced by San A Hunters with Bowman Thousands of paintings and
bushmen in the Drakensberg area. Some prehistorians believe engravings were produced at Tassili N’Ajjer, a rocky
these depict shamans and therianthropes (composite human and plateau in the Sahara, in a period when the climate was
animal forms), involved in trance ceremonies with elands (large more favourable than today. Early scenes of hunters were
antelopes). The elands were thought to possess spiritual power, followed by paintings of herdsmen. c4000 8ce, rock
which shamans tried to harness through ritual dances and trances. _ painting, Tassili N’Ajjer, near Djanet, Algeria

> Shamanistic
Image with Eland
This prehistoric
masterpiece, from
the mountainous
Drakensberg region,
has been interpreted as
a trance picture. The
animal is accompanied
by humans with hooves.
Rock painting, Game
Pass, Kamberg Nature
Reserve, South Africa

A"The White Lady” When it was firs:

discovered, this painting was interpreted as a
white woman. Some now believe, however, that
the figure is a male shaman wearing white body
paint. c\st century BCE, rock painting,height 40cm,
Tsibab Ravine, Brandberg Mountain, Namibia
 Portable figurines Neolithic Pottery
c30,000 BCE-c10,000 BCE c9000 BCE-c2400 BCE

Alongside their rock art, early humans also produced a variety of The earliest known ceramic vessels are from c11,000 sce in Eastern
portable objects. Weapons were often decorated with images of prey, Siberia and Japan. Ceramic objects, including a Venus figure and
presumably as a form of hunting magic. There was also an intriguing Y The Kostionki Venus /he numerous animal figurines, have been found at Dolni Vestonice in the
group of very ancient European sculptures known collectively as earliest surviving non-functional Czec Republic. These date from c2400 sce. However, the craft became
“Venus” figurines. Dating from the Palaeolithic era (c35,000-8000 sce), objects come from the much more common in the Neolithic period, as nomadic hunter
most of the statuettes represent naked, well-rounded women. Their Paleolithic period. This female gatherers were gradually superseded by farming communities, who
purpose is unknown, although their obvious voluptuousness has led figure is from the Voronezh kept livestock and grew crops. Their settled lifestyle enabled them to
some archaeologists to regard them as fertility figures. region in south-western Russia. acquire more belongings, without the worry of transporting them.
More than a hundred of the figures have been found, at sites ranging c23,000 Bce, stone, height 10cm, Initially, most pottery was either modelled or built up in coils. In
from France to Russia. They generally have tiny legs and arms — indeed, Hermitage, St Petersburg, Russia many communities, women made the pots for their own households.
the arms on the Willendorf figure, folded across her breasts, are barely However, the invention of the potter's wheel stimulated the growth of
discernible. Most of the statuettes could not have stood independently, a specialist “industry” The wheel was introduced in Western Asia in
and it is possible that they were designed to be held in the hand. c3400 sce, and reached Europe in the following millennium.

Y Bison Carving /his delightful carving CLOSERIook

was made from a reindeer antler and
used as a spear-thrower. It was found
at La Madeleine, in France. c12,000 8ce,
ivory, length 10cm, private collection

gummy cry could have

had more meaning than
appears at first sight:
a crying toothless
baby-god often
appears in
Olmec art.

eo
PREHISTORIC
ART
> The Venus of Willendorf ge
The most famous of all the Venus
figurines, this carving takes its
name from the Austrian village
where it was discovered, during A Olmec Baby This ceramic baby was made by the Olmec
construction work on a railway. It culture of Mexico. The purpose of this and similar crying babies
was made from a small stone and is unknown, but some archaeologists have suggested that the
tinted with red ochre. c24,000 Bce, Olmec performed infant sacrifice, and the ceramic babies may
limestone, height 11cm, have been connected to this practice. c800 sce, earthenware with
Naturhistorisches Museum, bichrome slip, 31x24x18cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, US
Vienna, Austria
TO
PREHISTORY
1400
ce
Peake ak

FACELESS APPEARANCE
One feature common to virtually
all of the Venus figures is their
lack of facial detail. In the case
of the Willendorf statuette,
the entire head is covered
in hair. This may have
served to emphasize the
universality of the figure.

A Pot with sculpted Shaman Head /his

was produced by the Majiayao culture, which
was based in the Chinese province of Gansu. 3rd
millennium BCE, painted earthenware, height 40cm,
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, US
 » Pot with Whorl Design his comes
from the Middle Jomon period in Japan.
Characteristically, the vessel is decorated
with an elaborate, curvilinear design. < Crouching Male Figure
c7500-300 sce, low-fired ceramic clay, Popularly known as The
38x 33cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, US Thinker, this famous piece
is a product of the Hamangia
culture. c3500-3000 bce, pottery,
height 113cm, National Museum
of Art, Bucharest, Romania
Y Skarpsalling Bowl /he
decoration on some Neolithic
pots mimics other materials.
Parts of this vessel resemble the
stitching that might have been
found on leatherwork. c3000 BcE,
terracotta, height 17cm, National
Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark

ahPad)
fi

» Nok Bird-man Figure /Vok

figures take their name from a
village near the Niger River,
where the first finds from this
culture were made. These consist
almost exclusively of ceramic
sculptures, depicting an
imaginative range of human DIVOLS
LYV
and animal forms. Their original
purpose can only be guessed
at. It has been suggested, for
example, that they may represent
ancestor figures or deities, or that
they were used in funerary rites.
c500 Bce-200 cE, terracotta,
47x20x22cm, private collection
|

Cal
CLOSERIook

OLAYOL
0O0VL
39

COMPOSITE FORMS Nok

artists blended human and
animal forms. This creature
appears to have human hands,
but its fingers are clenched
tightly together, like a bird’s
claws gripping a perch.

A Stylized Head /his is a typical example of the distinctive

figures produced by the Vinéa culture, which flourished at a
large farming settlement on the banks of the Danube, a few
miles from modern-day Belgrade. c4500—4000 sce, terracotta,
18x 15cm, Musej Kosova, Pristina, Serbia
 Origins and Influences
In antiquity, Mesopotamia referred important by Mesopotamians. As a
to the land “between the rivers” — result, astronomy was born and with
namely, the Tigris and the Euphrates. it mathematics, which would one day
This is roughly equivalent to modern- lead to modern science.
day Iraq. As the Sumerians and later
the Akkadians and Babylonians CURRENTevents
occupied the area, they progressed ©1792 BCE Hammurabi comes to power,
Civilization was founded in
from being hunter gatherers to establishing Babylon as the centre of his
Mesopotamia. The inhabitants considerable empire.
herding and agriculture. Production
of this region invented the A The Ishtar Gate (replica) One of eight gateways 717 BCE The Assyrian city of Khorsabad
of surplus food led to the growth of of the ancient city of Babylon constructed in c580 BCE by (Dur Sharrukin) was founded by Sargon II.
wheel, agriculture, vehicles, “states” adminstered by cities, which “Nebuchadnezzar Il. Built of bricks decorated with glazed He erected a magnificent palace there,
cities, writing, law, medicine, had huge temples, called ziggurats, reliefs of bulls and dragons, the gateway is 23 m high. famed for its guardian figures, but his son
It formed part of a sacred, processional avenue into relocated the capital to Nineveh.
philosophy, mathematics, and at their centres.The biblical Tower of
the heart of the city. e518 BCE Darius | founds Persepolis,
Babel may have been based on the making it the centrepiece of the
astronomy. Mesopotamian art
ziggurat of Babylon. associated with planets (for example, Achaemenid empire. It remained an
was mostly connected to the People went to temples to worship Shamash with the Sun, Sin with the important seat of power, until Alexander
gods who were thought to watch the Great destroyed it in 331 BCE- an
their gods and offer them sacrifices. Moon, and Ishtar with Venus) planetary
action he later regretted.
over these early city states. Because some of the gods were movements were thought to be very

Ancient Near East

TIMEline 2600-2400 BCE c1750BCE 858- 823 BCE 516-465 BCE
604-562 BCE
The Sumerians emerged in
southern Mesopotamia around
3400 Bce, with the magnificent
finds at Ur dating from c2800 BcE
onwards. By c2350 BCE, the
Akkadians were in power, though
they in turn were supplanted by
the Babylonians (c1790 Bce). The
Assyrians began their rise in the
Sth century BCE, eventually
competing with a revitalized
Babylonian empire. The ancient
Persians had their greatest
success under the Achaemenid BABYLONIAN Mushushu
dynasty (559-333 BCE). SUMERIAN BABYLONIAN The ASSYRIAN King PERSIAN Giant Griffin
The Queens Lyre Worshipper of Larsa Shalmaneser III

Chronology
|EAST
aTO
PREHISTORY
NEAR
ANCIENT
1400
cE Although Mesopotamia and its neighbours
were occupied by a dizzying succession of
races and cultures in ancient times, their <( Akkadian Cylinder Seal
art forms were often very closely linked. In this mythological scene, Ea — the
The Akkadians, for example, adopted many Sumerian god of water and wisdom
aspects of Sumerian civilization as their — passes judgment on Anzu, a
monstrous bird-man. c2200 BCE,
own. By the same token, the Stele of
serpentinite, height 3.9 cm, British
Naram-Sin — a monument to Akkadian Museum, London, UK
military prowess — was eventually carried
off by the Elamites, who used it as a symbol to seal doors and vessels of all kinds, or sculpture — most notably in their huge,
of their own victories. worn as amulets to ward off evil. Seals sculpted reliefs and their massive guardian
were also employed in various rituals, figures. The Babylonians, however,
Style and Subjects such as those connected with childbirth and specialized instead in polychrome
Sculpture was the most durable medium sickness. They were marks of ownership or (multicoloured) reliefs on glazed bricks.
employed during this period. On a miniature a person's authority, but were only rarely These were so admired by the Persians that
scale, the most ubiquitous item was the donated as offerings in temples. they employed Babylonian craftsmen to
cylinder seal. The Akkadians produced some Sculpture in the round was also popular, adorn their palaces. The Achaemenid rulers
of the finest examples, but the device was as is confirmed by the many statues of were equally fond of opulent metalwork —
commonplace throughout western Asia worshippers and royal figures. The latter their taste for luxury was proverbial in Greek
from around 3000 to 500 sce. Usually an were not portraits, but symbols of power. circles — so they also employed the finest
image was produced by rolling the cylinder Some of the most celebrated examples goldsmiths and silversmiths of the day.
across a Clay tablet, but they were also used depict the Sumerian ruler, Gudea of Lagash,
He took the trouble to import stocks of
Statue of Gudea Gudea was a prince diorite — an extremely hard stone — to
of Lagash (now Al Hiba). He was known
ensure that his memorials would survive.
for his piety and commissioned several
statues of himself, listing the temples The ready availability of good, workable
thathehad founded. c2150 Bce, diorite, stone enabled the Assyrians and the
height 62 cm, Louvre, Paris, France Persians to create impressive, monumental
 Akkadian
c3400-2000 BCE CLOSERI|ook c2500-1790 BCE

Sumer is situated in Lower Mesopotamia (part of The Sumerians were eventually conquered by Sargon, who united Mesopotamia
modern-day Iraq). The Sumerians are credited with the under his rule and established his capital at Akkad. The Akkadians adopted many
invention of writing (cuneiform), urbanization, and the aspects of Sumerian culture, but made new advances in sculpture. The Stele of
wheel, while their cultural influence spread throughout Naram-Sin, for example, records a military victory in an entirely novel fashion.
western Asia. In the arts, their craftsmen produced Instead of a narrative sequence on horizontal strips, the sculptor has produced a
outstanding pottery, metalwork, and sculpture. single, unified composition. There is a sense of upward movement, as Naram-Sin
Sumer was divided into city states, the most important ascends to claim equal status with the gods, and it also includes landscape elements.
of which was Ur. Spectacular finds have been made in
the Royal Cemetery there, particularly in the grave of a WAR CHARIOT When W Head of Sargon /his regal portrait is
high-ranking woman called Pu-abi, buried with servants, they were unearthed, the thought to be Sargon |(c2334—2279 BCE),
jewellery, golden vessels, and musical instruments. shell figures were loose, and the founder of the Akkadian Empire.
their original order could 2350-2200 Bce, copper, height 37cm, Iraq
only be guessed at. Experts Museum, Baghdad, Iraq
Y The Standard of Ur Many researchers now believe that have assembled them into
this was not a military standard but the sound-box of a musical two panels, representing
instrument. c2600-2400 sce, shell, lapis lazuli, and red limestone, War and Peace.
26cm high, British Museum, London, UK

» Victory Stele of Naram-Sin

Naram-Sin is shown at the top of the
slab, wearing the horned helmet of a
god. ¢2230 8c, pink limestone, height LNSIDN
YVAN
LSV43
210cm, Louvre, Paris, France
po)
> Royal Game of Ur Found Is worFiO) i)
in the Royal Cemetery at Ur, Re: O_o Hittite
this game was similar to 1250)
modern-day backgammon. c2000-1000 BCE
c2250 Bce, wood with inlays of The Hittites were living in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) by
shell, red limestone, and lapis Y Sphinx Gate /he practice
c2000 BcE, reaching the peak of their power during their
lazuli, 2x11x30cm, British of erecting monumental
Imperial period, when they controlled most of Asia Minor
Museum, London, UK guardian figures at the
and northern Syria. Their surviving art consists mainly of entrances to a city was
metalwork and stone reliefs. The latter formed an integral common in many parts of the
part of their architecture. On gateways, they produced Near East. The image of the
< Queen's Lyre Jhis instrument, monumental, high-relief sculptures of lions, warriors, and male sphinx originated in
from the grave of “Queen” Pu-abi mythical creatures. The adjoining walls, meanwhile, were Egypt, but in Anatolia it was OLAYOL
0OVL
49
in the Royal Cemetery at Ur, was decorated with friezes of low-relief carvings, usually portrayed as a winged female.
intended to provide music in the depicting hunting scenes and religious ceremonies. 1450-1200 Bce, stone, Alaca
afterlife. In the grave, a sacrificed Hoyilk, Turkey
slave was placed next to the lyre,
with her hands over its strings.
2600-2400 sce, wood, shell, lapis
lazuli, and gold, height 112cm,
British Museum, London, UK
 Assyrian
c1500 BCE-612 BCE

The Assyrian heartlands were in northern Mesopotamia

(modern-day Iraq). The Assyrians took their name from
the land they came from around Ashur, their religious
capital, but soon built the far greater cities of Nineveh,
Nimrud, and Khorsabad. At the height of their power
(from 883 to 612 sce), the Assyrians commanded an
empire that stretched from Persia to the Mediterranean.
Assyrian art is most notable for its relief carving and
sculpture. The most important theme was the lion hunt
—an event that had both royal and religious significance. INContext
Depictions of the hunt frequently adorned royal palaces. CUNEIFORM WRITING Cuneiform (“wedge-
On a much smaller scale, the Assyrians also produced shaped") writing, the world’s first script, was
very fine ivory carvings on plaques, which were mostly invented in Mesopotamia around 3000 sce. It
was written by pressing a reed pen into wet clay.
used as veneers on their furniture.
A number of different Near Eastern languages —
Sumerian, Akkadian, Elamite, Hittite, and Hurrian
» Winged Guardian Figure /his is one ofa pair of monumental — were written in this way.
statues from the palace of Sargon I! at Khorsabad. It is a Lamassu —
a winged bull with a human head. 8th century BCE, gypseous alabaster, Cuneiform brick /his inscription lists the name and
titles of Shalmaneser Ill, King of Assyria, before
height 420cm, Louvre, Paris, France
referring to the construction of a temple in Nimrud.
Sth century BCE, clay, British Museum, London, UK
CLOSERI|ook
DIVINE PROTECTOR ets |
The Assyrians erected statues
of guardian figures to ward off
evil spirits. These creatures
wore horned helmets to signify
their divinity. Several local
deities, such as Assur, Ishtar,
and Shamash, were portrayed
wearing a cap with one or
more pairs of horns. The
remainder of each creature's
body emphasized its strength
(a bull or a lion), its speed (the
wings), and its intelligence
EAST
NEAR (the human head).
ANCIENT

TO
PREHISTORY
1400
cE

A King Shalmaneser III This shows

the king in an important ritual role, as the
protector of the Tree of Life. 9th century BCE,
ivory, Iraq Museum, Baghdad, Iraq

» Ashurnasirpal II at a Lion Hunt

(detail) Lion hunting was more than a
sport of Assyrian kings; it had religious
connotations. 7th century BCE, whole panel
length 224cm, limestone, British Museum,
London, UK
 c3000 BCE-642 CE

The inhabitants of the area now known as Iran were

Babylonian producing distinguished artworks from the Bronze Age.
At Susa, the Elamites developed an elegant style of pottery, 66 It was the
nes800-1595 BCE while in the west, the Luristan culture was noted for its highly =
Babylon first came to prominence during the reign of King Hammurabi decorative horse-trappings. The Persians themselves emerged wealthiest
(1792-50 sce), who introduced a celebrated law code and is in the 7th century BcE, and eventually controlled an empire city under the
commemorated in a number of sculptures and stelae (upright stones that extended from Libya to India.
inscribed with names or figures). The Babylonians were overrun by the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Greeks probably made sun... filled with
Hittites for a time, but recovered their fortunes and reached the peak of sculptures for the Persians, producing their finest precious objects
masterpieces at Persepolis. Even in its present, ruined state,
their power under King Nebuchadnezzar || (605-562 sce). He created a
its monumental sculptures and relief-carvings are spectacular. of every kind ?
powerful empire, restoring Babylon itself to its former glory.
The Babylonians’ most distinctive artworks were animal reliefs, On a smaller scale, they also created exquisite metalwork, DIODORUS SICULUS, 1ST CENTURY
such as the lavish, golden objects found in the Oxus Treasure. BCE, GREEK HISTORIAN, FROM
which they produced on glazed, polychrome bricks. The creatures were HIS DESCRIPTION OF THE
modelled on a panel of damp clay, which was then cut up into bricks The Persian Empire, the largest of the ancient world, was BURNING OF PERSEPOLIS
and fired. The examples adorning the Ishtar Gate, the spectacular conquered by Alexander the Great, in the 4th century BCE. BY ALEXANDER THE GREAT
entrance to Babylon, are particularly impressive.

v Mushushu A /ion-bird-snake monster adorning the

Ishtar Gate, Mushushu is the attribute and mount of
Marduk, the nation’s protective deity. 605-562 Bce, glazed
terracotta bricks, 116x167cm, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, US
1 4

LNSJIDN
YVAN
1iSv4

<The Worshipper of Larsa

An inscription on the base
identifies this as a commission by
aman from Larsa. It invokes the
protection of the god Amarru for
King Hammurabi of Babylon. OLAYOLS
007!
49
c1750 8cE, bronze and gold, Louvre,
Paris, France

we A “ . ie OP ss Pi g fis’

A Giant Griffin [his colossal statue is from the ancient capital

Persepolis. The griffin, which combined a lion’ body with an
eagle's head, was a common, ornamental feature in eastern art.
518-465 Bce, limestone, Persepolis, Iran

> Winged Creature Ornament /his

exquisite item of jewellery depicts a
winged stag with the head
of a horned lion. csth-4th J}
century BCE, gold, height
6cm, British Museum,
London, UK

A Dish Depicting King Ardashir Il

Ardashir I! belonged to the later
Sassanian dynasty, which produced
outstanding examples of embossed silver
vessels. c380 CE, silver, diameter 28cm,
National Museum of Iran, Tehran, Iran
 Origins and influences
Egyptian civilization grew up around symbolized, respectively, by a red and
the fertile Nile Valley. The annual a white crown, by the cobra and the
flooding of the river provided rich vulture, and by the papyrus plant
farming land, in stark contrast with the - and the lotus flower. These pairs of
deserts that surrounded it. In addition, symbols were ubiquitous. They can
the area was blessed with extensive be found on the pharaoh's head-dress,
Egyptian art was opulent, mineral resources, while Egypt's cities his throne, and in temples.
were well placed to control the Nile
monumental, and often very CURRENTevents
region's trading routes. The resulting
colourful. Using natural form wealth attracted a diverse mix of 2518-493 BCE Rule of Chephren.
and geometric designs, it was He was buried in one of the largest of
conquerors, who helped to create the pyramids at Giza and may be the
almost entirely symbolic and the nation’s complex culture. model for the Sphinx.
had very precise meaning. From the outset, Egyptian art 1336-1327 BCE Reign of Tutankhamun,
reflected its geographical and political the boy king. His rule was marked by a
Egyptian art flourished little return to orthodoxy. He died very young,
setting. The country was formed from but his tomb is the only one from the New
changed for almost 3,000
the union of Lower Egypt (the Nile A Funerary Mask of Tutankhamun /his gold inlaid Kingdom period to have survived intact.
years, and had a profound Delta) and Upper Egypt (the thin strip funerary mask, now in the Egyptian National Museum
1279-1213 BCE Renowned as a great
Cairo, was placed over the head and shoulders of
influence on neighbouring of land along the length of the Nile Tutankhamun’s mummy. The latter was encased in three
warrior, Rameses || defeated the Hittites
at the Battle of Qadesh (c1274 BCE).
Greek cultures. Valley). These kingdoms were coffins, the innermost of which was made of solid gold.

Ancient Egypt
TIMEline
c1340 1279-1213 BCE 664-332 BCE
Egyptian history is traditionally 1400-1350 BCE
divided into three main periods: 2600-2500 BCE a: -

the Old Kingdom (c2647—2124

BCE) witnessed the building of
the Sphinx and the pyramids
at Giza; the Middle Kingdom
(c2040-1648 Bce) extended from
aEGYPT
ANCIENT
the 11th to the 17th Dynasty;
while the New Kingdom (c1540—
1069 BCE) produced the tomb and
treasures of Tutankhamun and
the monuments of Rameses II,
which include Abu Simbel. 4TH DYNASTY The Great Sphinx
18TH DYNASTY Fowling the
Marshes 19TH DYNASTY 26TH-30TH DYNASTIES
18TH DYNASTY Bust Rameses II Smiting his The Canopic Jars of Horemsaf
of Queen Nefertiti Enemies

Chronology necessary rituals, they could provide a

genuine point of contact between the
1400
TO
PREHISTORY
cE The splendours of Egyptian art developed realms of the living and the world beyond.
slowly, over the course of many centuries. This “correct” form of depiction
The Predynastic phase, which dates back amounted to a distinctive type of
to around 5000 8CcE, produced a range of stylization, for example, the larger the
pottery and small-scale sculpture. By the size of a figure the higher his or her
time that the 1st Dynasty of kings (c2972- status. Artists were also expected to
2793 BCE) assumed control, many of the portray the essence of their subject,
basic forms of the culture were taking without distracting, temporary features.
shape. Some of these altered remarkably Figures in paintings and reliefs were
little over the years, surviving until after depicted in a form of profile, while statues
332 BCE, when Alexander the Great were Carved in a rigid set of postures and
displaced the 31st and final Dynasty. had blank, otherworldly expressions. There
was no perspective. Instead, complex
A Amulet in the form of a Vulture [his exquisite Style and subjects events were shown in sequence, rather
object was placed as a charm around the neck of The Egyptians had no word for art. They like a cartoon strip. The figures were placed
Tutankhamun’s mummy. 18th Dynasty (c1540—1295 sce),
valued fine craftsmanship, but did not on horizontal base-lines, known today as
gold encrusted with lapis lazuli and cornelian, 6.5x 11cm,
Egyptian National Museum, Cairo, Egypt necessarily link it with aesthetics or “registers” and, if any explanations
individual expression. Their artworks were were needed, these were provided by
purely functional, designed to facilitate their hieroglyphs (literally “sacred carvings").
worship of the gods and help smooth their The symbols used in this pictorial language
passage to the afterlife. There was a firm were incorporated into the overall
belief that, when objects or events were composition. They can appear very
correctly reproduced, accompanied by the decorative, and normally had religious A Mummy Case of
overtones, especially when they were Nespanetjerenpere /he deceased
was a priest from Thebes. His coffin
used to form incantations on objects
is adorned with various scenes of
relating to the dead. protection and rebirth. 22nd Dynasty
(945-730 BCE), cartonnage, Brooklyn
Museum of Art, New York, US
 Egyptian Funeral Art
31 DYNASTIES (c2920 BcE-332 BCE) 6¢ The heart of Osiris
has in truth been
A considerable proportion of the artworks produced in ancient Egypt were created
for the benefit of the dead. Throughout their long history, the Egyptians believed firmly ow Fowling in the Marshes from the tomb of Nebamun at weighed and his soul
in the existence of an afterlife and their need to prepare for it. First and foremost, this Thebes. This painting shows an Egyptian artist's typical blend has stood as a
meant preserving their physical remains. Their corpses were elaborately embalmed of
realism and stylization — the goose on the boat is closely witness for him ”
and certain internal organs were stored in four canopic jars, each presided over by observed, while the cat performs an impossible balancing INCANTATION FROMTHE
one of the four sons of Horus. act on two reeds. 18th Dynasty (c1350 Bce), wall painting, BOOK OF THE DEAD
The dead were furnished with everything that they might need in the afterlife, from 98x83x22cm, British Museum, London, UK
jewellery to furniture, and the tombs of the wealthy were lavishly decorated, to :
provide a pleasing environment for the occupants. The dead were expected to work
in the afterlife, but servants called shabtis eased this burden. The path to the afterlife
was smoothed by a host of rituals and incantations. Many of these were contained
in a series of texts entitled Spells for Coming Forth by Day, popularly known as
The Book of the Dead.

<The Canopic Jars of Horsemsaf

These jars held the internal organs — liver,
lungs, stomach, and intestines — which were
removed during the mummification process.
Late Period (664-332 sce), alabaster, height
37cm, Louvre, Paris, France

CLOSERIook

DIVINE PROTECTOR
This stopper represents
Hapi, the ape-headed
guardian of the North.
His jar held the lungs. LNSISN
1IdAD4

<< Shabti Figures Shabti

(Answerer) figurines were
symbolic servants, placed in
the tomb with the dead. In the
afterlife, they would carry out
any menial tasks for their
masters. New Kingdom
(c1567—1085 sce), wood and
faience, various sizes, Louvre,
Paris, France

00VL
49
OLAYOL

0S el ESE oe ce eee Abi GE " beatles ESA a So has ae

A The Weighing of the Heart Against the CLOSERIook

Feather of Truth /his is the judgment scene Dream §~FUNERARY DEITY The
from The Book of the Dead belonging to aman § jackal-headed god Anubis was
called Any. He stands on the left with his wife, | a key figure in the judging of the
watching as his heart is weighed against the | dead. He guarded the mummy
feather, which is the symbol of Maat (divine and weighed the deceased's
order). Any’s ba (the human-headed bird heart — regarded as the seat of
representing his spirit) also observes the ' Beet a and decane ee
process. 19th Dynasty (c1275 ace), painted papyrus, CRRA EOIN, TE WUC DE
a
45x31cm, British Museum, London, UK consumed
fe renniebyonthehar“devourer”,
ork
 Egyptian Sculpture
2ND DYNASTY (c2793 BCE-2647 BCE)

The Egyptians excelled at low-relief carving, producing high-quality work from

the Predynastic Era (5500-3100 Bc) onwards. Fine examples can be found on
palettes, stelae, and in tombs. From the outset, they adopted certain artistic
conventions. The human figure was shown in partial profile: the head and the
limbs were viewed from the side, while the chest and a single eye faced the
front. A similar approach was employed in paintings. Figures were portrayed on
different scales, with kings and gods towering over their inferiors. Background
details were normally kept to a minimum. Instead, the context of the scene
would be explained in the accompanying hieroglyphs.
Sculpture in the round only came into its own in the 2nd Dynasty, but here, < Statue of Chephren /he king is seated
too, the figures were highly stylized. The models gazed ahead and were seen ona lion throne with Horus, the falcon-
in strict profile, when viewed from the side. High-status figures were idealized. headed god, perched on the back of
Male figures might be portrayed in a walking pose, but otherwise there was Chephren’s chair (not visible from this
+ eee
very little suggestion of movement. The overall shape of the sculptures shows
view). The bird spreads its wings
tS protectively around Chephren’s
the block from which each was carved.
: head, emphasizing that the
= king is his representative on
| INcontext earth. The statue was discovered
|MAGIC SYMBOLS The in 1860, at Chephren’s valley
Egyptians believed that divine , temple at Giza. 4th Dynasty
symbols could ward off evil, 4 (C2500 bce), diorite, height 168cm,
and the wedjat eye was one . { Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Egypt
-Y
of the most potent examples. *\
|Representing the eye of Horus,
|which was torn out and then
restored, it was linked with
regeneration and was often
placed in mummy wrappings.
Ornament with Wedjat Eye
(c1370-52) This lavish item was
found on Tutankhamun’s mummy.

5ANCIENT
EGYPT
<The Great Sphinx /his enormous statue — the
largest in Egypt — was built as a guardian figure. It
combines the body of a lion with the head of a man
wearing the royal head-cloth. 4th Dynasty (c2500 sce},
limestone, height 20m, length 74m, Giza, Egypt

6¢ Details of the room

emerged slowly from
TO
PREHISTORY
1400
cE the haze: strange
animals, statues, and
gold - everywhere
the glint of gold ”’
HOWARD CARTER,
ARCHAEOLOGIST, DESCRIBING
HIS FIRST GLIMPSE INSIDE
TUTANKHAMUN'S TOMB

CLOSERIook

M5 WS
“4 WS i ;
S Oee eg
ti7

THE “BLIND” EYE Although the portrait

was highly finished in other respects, one of
Nefertiti's eyes was left blank. One theory is
that the bust was actually a template, so there
was no need to duplicate this detail.
 v Ramesses II Smiting his Enemies /his was a favourite theme in
Egyptian art, demonstrating the power and authority of the Pharaoh.
Here, Ramesses grips a Nubian, a Libyan, and a Syrian by their hair.
As the most important figure in the composition, he is shown on a larger
scale than the prisoners. 19th Dynasty (c1297—1185 Bcé), painted limestone,
Egyptian National Museum, Cairo, Egypt

LNSIDSN
1idA9D3

OLAYOLS
O0OVL
49

< Bust of Queen Nefertiti 7his famous portrait ?

was excavated from a studio belonging to
Thutmose, the court sculptor of Akhenaten
(Nefertiti’s husband). It dates from the Amarna
Period, when Egyptian art displayed a degree of
naturalism, allowing Nefertitis beauty to shine
through. 18th Dynasty (c1340 Bce), painted limestone,
height 50cm, Aegyptisches Museum, Berlin, Germany

» Statue of Horus Discovered at

Edfu, one of the best-preserved
Egyptian temples, this is a fine
example of monumental sculpture.
Horus, the sky-god, was sometimes
portrayed as a human with a
falcon’s head. Here, he is shown as
a living falcon, wearing the double
crown of Upper and Lower Egypt.
Ptolemaic period (332-30 Bce), stone,
Temple of Horus, Edfu, Egypt
 a process that allowed them to
produce large bronze vessels of
One of the world's earliest civilizations unparalleled quality. The process,
grew up along the Indus Valley. By called piece-mould casting, employed
around 2500 Bce, a number of cities an unusual alloy, adding lead to the
had emerged, with grid-plan streets, normal mix of copper and tin. During
a sophisticated drainage system, and casting the surface of the vessels
bathing facilities. The two main could be adorned with fantastic,
centres, which show a strong similarity animal-like imagery and motifs, which
in their layout, were at Harappa and may have been related to ancient
Mohenjo-Daro. This culture produced sacrificial or funerary rites.
some distinctive pottery and carving, The creation of the Terracotta Army
however, it is best remembered for its for the tomb of Oin Shi Huang is
distinctive seals. equally remarkable, but for different
The Indus Valley civilization went reasons. [his was an early example of
Some of the most spectacular
into decline after 1800 Bce and there mass-production. Standard moulds
examples of ancient art were
was a considerable gap before the arts A Head of a Soldier (Terracotta Army) Despite the
were created for the main body parts:
produced in the Far East and revived under Emperor Ashoka (c269— vast number of figures that were required for the tomb of there were eight different torsos, two
the Indian subcontinent. 232 BceE). He encouraged development Qin Shi Huang, craftsmen took pains to ensure that every types of leg, eight faces, and so on.
of a new kind of sculpture through his figure appeared different. Made around 210 BCE, this These were assembled in different
Chinese craftsmen produced a
soldier has a topknot indicating his rank of general.
magnificent range of metalwork many Buddhist monuments. Stone combinations and then finished by
became the favoured material for hand, to give each of the figures an
and sculpture for the tombs of China
carving — its durability becoming individual look. This care and attention
the mighty, while Indian artists apparent from trading with countries The Shang Dynasty bronzes mark a to detail is particularly impressive,
created their first Buddhist such as Greece, Iran, Egypt, and defining moment in Chinese culture. given that the figures were never
masterpieces. South East Asia. The craftsmen developed and refined meant to be seen by any living person.

EAST
THE
OF Civilizations of theEast
CIVILIZATIONS

India
c2500 BCE-185 BCE

For many historians, the steatite seals produced in the Indus Valley
are extraordinary artworks of genuine quality. More than 4,000
of these have been unearthed. Most depict animals, though there
are a few, enigmatic human figures. The script has not yet been
deciphered, but there is speculation that the words could be personal
TO
HSITORY
1400
cE names, as the seals were used as tokens of ownership, in the
region's commercial dealings with Mesopotamia.
PRE The Mauryan era (326-184 sce) heralded the arrival of Buddhist art.
In early images, the Buddha was not portrayed physically, but was
represented indirectly by symbols such as a wheel and a lion, both of
which are featured on the Ashoka Pillar. Yakshis were originally linked
with nature worship, but they were adapted for use in Buddhist art.

» Yakshi Figure
Discovered at the ancient
site of Tamralipta (now
Tamluk), this figure is
thought to be a yakshi —
a nature spirit — although
the weapons in her
headdress may suggest
a more powerful role.
1st century BCE, terracotta,
Ashmolean, Oxford, UK

A Seal from Mohenjo-Daro /ndus seals were among A Ashoka Pillar (detail) The emperor Ashoka erected a
the earliest objects to combine words with images. This series of pillars with Buddhist symbols to mark his conversion
curious creature has been dubbed a “unicorn” bull, to the faith. The wheel represents the first sermon given by the
because only one horn is visible. c2300 sce, steatite, width Buddha in a deer park at Sarnath. 3rd century BCE, sandstone,
3.5cm, National Museum of Pakistan, Karachi, Pakistan height 213cm, Sarnath, Uttar Pradesh, India
|China
c1500 BCE-207 BCE v Ritual Vessel with Cover
A product of the Western Zhou Dynasty,
Many of China's earliest masterpieces were excavated after burial with the
this ceremonial bucket is decorated
dead. During the era of the Shang Dynasty (c1500-1050 sce) and the Zhou
with a taotie (monster) mask, featuring
Dynasty (c1050-221 sce), the graves of rulers frequently contained items the face of a horned monster. ¢1th-
made of bronze or jade. These materials were costly and, as such, were 10th century Bc, bronze, height 25cm,
recognized as symbols of high status, though they also served a variety Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, US
of ritual functions.
The Chinese had been fascinated with jade since Neolithic times,
believing it had magical qualities. Celestial discs were often interred with
the dead, though these pale into insignificance beside Liu’s burial suits.
These were made up of 2,000 jade tablets, sewn together with gold thread.
Bronze was used for a sizeable repertoire of ritual vessels. Most of these
were containers for the food and drink used in sacrifices and during
funerary banquets. Initially, these rituals took place in the open air or in
palaces, though the objects were subsequently buried with their owners.
The material used for the Terracotta Army had no such intrinsic value, but A Dou Vessel /his was produced during the Warring States
the scale of the production costs more than compensated for this. era, the final phase of the Zhou Dynasty. The Dou is a food
container. Its lid can also serve as a bowl. 5th—4th century BCE,
bronze and gold, height 19.2cm, China

< Burial Suit of Princess Dou Wan

Jade was a rare and expensive stone
in China and was believed to have the
power to preserve human bodies. With
this in mind, Prince Liu Sheng ordered
lavish burial suits for himself and
his wife. 2nd century BCE, jade, length
188cm, Hebei Provincial Museum, Hebei
Province, China
SNOILV
SJHLAO
1LSvVi

< Yu Vessel /hought to have been

made in Hunan province, this is the
most famous of the ritual vessels
produced in the Shang Dynasty
period. A yu is a ceremonial bucket
with a swinging handle, designed to
hold alcohol. 11th century BCE, bronze,
height 35cm, Musée Cernuschi, Paris

OLAYOL
0OVL
J.
CLOSERI|ook

FELINE MONSTER Nicknamed

“the Tigress”, the precise meaning
of the human figure that clings
perilously below the monster's
fangs Is uncertain, although it may
be linked with the blood sacrifices
that played an important part in
the ancient rituals.

BF

The Terracotta Army More than 7,000 clay warriors were produced,
together with hundreds of horses and chariots, as a posthumous escort for
China’s first emperor. They were placed in a network of corridors and pits,
guarding the main tomb complex. c210 sce, terracotta, average height of figure
180-190 cm, Tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, Lintong, near Xi’an, China
 Origins and influences -
the Aegean
Greek culture dates back to the
Bronze Age (c3000 Bce). In the
Aegean, there were important aristocracy, rapidly grew rich and
developments in the Cyclades powerful, as the wealth of their graves
and on Crete although, ultimately, attests. One theory suggests that
both cultures were absorbed by they fought as mercenaries for the
the Mycenaeans. However, their
Ps ed
Egyptians, who paid them in gold. Their
association was not straightforward. A View of the Acropolis /he citadel of Athens was decline dates from around 1100 BcE.
At first, the Minoan (Cretan) influence built on top of the Acropolis, overlooking the city. Its
Greek art is widely regarded principal structure is the Parthenon, a temple which was CURRENTevents
was far stronger and some historians begun in 447 BCE, to replace the buildings that were
as the chief cornerstone of c1250 BcE Regarded as a legend by some,
used to regard Mycenaean art as destroyed during the Persian occupation.
Western civilization. Inspired there is evidence that the famous Trojan
a provincial form of it. War took place around this time.
by the achievements of the The Minoans were not Greek- ‘sources, though, producing a rich 776 BCE First recorded Olympic Games.
Egyptians and the Minoan speakers. Their origins are uncertain, culture, centred on their palaces 490 BCE The Persians invade Greece and
culture on Crete, Greek although some believe that they came and their bull-cult. occupy Athens. They are expelled after
from Anatolia (Asian Turkey). Certainly, The Mycenaeans absorbed Minoan defeats at Salamis (480) and Plataea (479).
sculptors strove for - and 356 BCE Birth of Alexander the Great.
their art forms display a number of ideas, only taking the lead when
succeeded in creating - a Educated by Aristotle, he went on to
eastern traits, most notably from the Cretan civilization collapsed in create a vast empire. He also founded
perfect balance of beauty, Egypt, Syria, and Anatolia. Minoan c1400 sce. The Mycenaeans, who the city of Alexandria in 331 BCE.
harmony, and proportion. craftsmen rapidly outshone these were dominated by a warrior L

Ancient Greece
TIMEline 640-630 BCE 447-432 BCE c42-20BCE
540-530 BCE
c1500BCcE STS
The first major achievements
on the Greek mainland stemmed
from the Mycenaean culture,
which flourished from around
1600 to 1100 BcE. The Archaic
period produced some early
masterpieces, most notably the
fa
GREECE
ANCIENT
Lady of Auxerre (c640 Bce), but
it was during the Classical era
that Greek art blossomed fully.
The Parthenon sculptures (447—
432 Bce) provide the highlight
of Athenian culture, which
Alexander the Great (356-323 AEGEAN funerary Mask
BCE) spread far and wide. ARCHAIC The Lady ARCHAIC Achilles CLASSICAL Lapith HELLENISTIC Lacodén
of Auxerre Slaying Penthesilia Fighting a Centaur and his Sons

Origins and influences - attitudes. In the 7th century BCE, Greek

Greece mercenaries were employed in Egypt and
TO
PREHISTORY
1400
cE During the Iron Age, Greek culture needed were allowed to settle at a single site —
to renew itself. Following the decline of Naucratis. Through this, their only legitimate
the Mycenaeans, which may have been entry point into the land of the pharaohs,
prompted by Dorian invaders from the north, Greek artists gained inspiration and a new
parts of the mainland became increasingly sense of ambition.
depopulated. The era of the Mycenaeans
Classical Art
TPN
ELT
pt
a
was remembered as a heroic age, celebrated
in Greek legends, but little of its material For much of the Archaic period, Greek art
culture survived. was still essentially regional. The idea of
A The “Ludovisi Throne” or “Throne of Venus”,
The revival began to take place during a national Greek identity only began to take from the Villa Ludovisi [his is an example of the
A Horse of Selene One ofthe most — the Geometric period (c900-c750 BCE), root in the 6th century BCE. This grew more Western Greek style, produced by an expatriate artist
famous sculptures from the Parthenon which takes its name from the simple, linear pronounced in the following century, when working in Italy. The carving is particularly notable for
frieze. It displays the exhaustion and the subtle treatment of the drapery. c470-460 BCE,
designs of the pottery of the time. Towards the country faced a common threat. The
strain that the horse has suffered marble, Palazzo Altemps, Rome, Italy
while pulling the chariot of Selene — the end of this phase, Eastern influences Persian invasion (490 BCE) stirred the Greeks
the moon goddess — across the night began to creep in, as trading links with the into action and, once the invaders had been
sky. 447-432 8c, stone, length 83cm, East improved. This continued throughout expelled, they founded the Delian League
British Museum, London, England the Archaic period (c750-480 sce), when (478 BCE), to maintain this sense of unity.
Greek artists became more confident and The achievements of the Classical era
gained a taste for experimentation. epitomized these bonds. The building of the
The scale of Archaic artworks was usually Parthenon was a physical symbol of national
modest, but exposure to the opulent and pride, while the spirit of the new style was
monumental sculpture of Egypt changed the defining point of Greek civilization. The
twin goals of naturalism and idealism were
unparalleled in the ancient world and they
provided inspiration for generations of
artists in the West.
c3000-c1100 BCE

Before the heyday of Ancient Greek art, a group of different cultures

flourished in the area around the Aegean Sea. The earliest of these
developed in the Cyclades Islands, where settlers from Asia Minor
arrived in around 3000 sce. Their most distinctive artefacts are tiny,
marble figurines, with spare, minimalistic forms that have been greatly
admired by modern sculptors.
Minoan culture emerged on Crete at a similar period. The name was
coined by the archaeologist, Sir Arthur Evans, because of the island's
mythical association with King Minos and his Minotaur. Minoan art was
centred around its palaces, which were adorned with spectacular wall-
paintings. The Cretans also produced fine pottery and jewellery.
Mycenaean culture developed on the Greek mainland. Its
outstanding artworks were discovered in the “royal” graves at the
city of Mycenae itself. These yielded up a stunning array of gold
masks, jewellery, weapons, and vessels.

< Minoan Pottery Jar Cretan

artists were particularly fond of
decorating their pots with
extravagant octopus designs that
wound around the entire vessel.
This type of jar was probably used
for storing or transporting olive oil.
1450-1400 sce, painted earthenware,
Ashmolean, Oxford, UK
» Funerary Mask This piece is popularly known as
the “Mask of Agamemnon” (the Greek leader in the
Trojan War). It is not a death mask — the object was
created separately and then placed over the dead
man’s face. 16th century Bce, gold, height 26cm, National LNJION
4943449
Archaeological Museum, Athens, Greece
}
4)|

<The Bull-Leaping
Fresco /his famous mural
comes from the Palace at
Knossos. It depicts the
Minoan custom of bull-
leaping, which was probably
a ritual ceremony rather than
a sport. Although heavily
restored, enough of the
original painting has survived
to give an idea of the local
artists’ gift for long, graceful, OLAYOL
007!
49
taut curves. c1500 BCE, fresco,
National Archaeological
Museum, Athens, Greece

> Female Figurine /his is

the most common form of
Cycladic sculpture. Most of
the figurines depict women
with their arms folded across
their body, although images
of musicians have also been
found. The carvings were
generally placed in graves,
CLOSERI|ook but their precise function is
JPRS ACROBAT These uncertain. c2600—2500 Bce,
INcontext
’ acrobatic displays were marble, height 21cm, Benaki
} part of the bull cult, which KNOSSOS The grandest of Museum, Athens, Greece
flourished in Ancient Crete. the Minoan palaces, Knossos
Historians have questioned was not only a royal residence,
whether such daring but also contained shrines,
somersaults were physically granaries, workshops, and
possible, and some have an open court, where public
suggested that the bulls ceremonies were staged.
| were carefully tethered. Large parts of the palace
have been reconstructed.

Knossos, viewed from the east

According to legend, this is the
site of the palace where King
Minos lived.
XL
 Greek Archaic
c750-480 BCE

The Archaic Period covers the early development of

Greek art, from around 750 sce until 480 Bce, when
the Persians sacked Athens. In sculpture, Greek artists
eagerly assimilated ideas from Egypt and the East,
gradually producing their own, highly individual style.
Progress was most evident in depictions of the kouros A Antefix of a Gorgon’s Head Plaques
(nude male), and the kore (draped female). Most of these of this kind were very common in early
statues were used as grave markers, although some Greek architecture. They were used as
represented gods. |n the earliest phase, the figures had ornaments to mask the end of arow
stereotyped features and a rigid stance, with their arms of roof tiles. The designs often
barely leaving their sides. Over the course of this period, _ featured monsters, as\it was %
the poses became more relaxed, and the treatment of thought that these would ward off
anatomy grew more convincing. evil spirits. Gorgons, with their
The Archaic Period was also the golden age of vase projecting fangs, tongues, and
painting. Initially, the Corinthians dominated this field but, _/aring eyes, were a popular
by the early 6th century ce, the lead had been taken by _—“N70Ice. cBth century Bce,
Athens. Its artists became masters of the “black-figure” __‘terracotta, length 25cm,
technique, highlighted in the work of Exekias, and later private collection
of the more sophisticated “red-figure” technique, which
superseded it.

Achilles Slaying the

Amazon Queen, Penthesilea << The Lady of Auxerre
This moment of high drama was This remarkable statuette
painted by Exekias, the most owes its name to its first
famous exponent of the black- known owner, a theatre
figure style of decoration. As he manager in Auxerre, who
delivers the fatal blow, Achilles used it as a prop in an
falls in love with his enemy. 6th operetta. It is the finest
century 8cE, pottery, height 42cm, surviving example of the
British Museum, London, UK “Daedalic” style of sculpture,
named after the mythical
GREECE
ANCIENT
figure Daedalus, who was said
to have created the first Greek
statues. It was made in Crete
and was originally painted. c640
BCE, limestone, height 65cm,
Louvre, Paris, France

TO
PREHISTORY
1400
cE
~,
PS <

THE ARCHAIC SMILE

Many statues from the
Archaic Period had a smile
on their face. This probably
had a symbolic meaning, as
the smile was often featured
in contexts| that were far
from humorous. Most
< Achilles Tending the historians believe that a
Wounded Patrocles smile was meant to signify
This red-figure scene was health and vitality.
produced for the interior of
akylix (cup) by the Sosias
Painter. He belonged to a
group of vase-painters
now known as the
Pioneers. c500 BcE, pottery,
diameter 20cm, Staatliche
Museen, Berlin, Germany

A Anavysos Kouros Named

after the village where it was
found, this kouros was a warriors
grave-marker. c530 ace, marble,
height 194cm, National Archaeological
Museum, Athens, Greece
 < Statue of Zeus or Poseidon /his
Greek Classical figure probably once held a weapon —a
480-323 BCE thunder-bolt (Zeus) or a trident (Poseidon).
c460 Bce, bronze, height 209cm, National
Greek culture reached new heights during the Classical Period, from 480 to 323 BCE, Archaeological Museum, Athens, Greece
when victory over the Persians ushered in an era of prosperity and self-confidence.
In Athens, democracy took root, literature flourished, and the study of history and
philosophy became established. National and civic pride increased, particularly in
Athens, which became dominant in Greece up to c413 Bce. The Parthenon, with its
magnificent sculptures of Greek triumphs, was designed to embody this new mood. CLOSERIook
In the visual arts, sculptors gained a fine understanding of the structure of the body
and how it moved, and achieved a new blend of realism and the ideal. This was
particularly evident in the work of Polyclitus, who liked to contrast the taut, straining
muscles of one limb with the relaxed pose of another. Classical sculptors were not
satisfied, however, with mere anatomical accuracy: their concept of beauty entailed
both ideal proportions and a serene nobility of expression. In pursuit of this goal, they
produced statues of mortals that are barely distinguishable from those of their gods.

» Cavalcade Jaken from

the frieze that was on the i
Parthenon, these horsemen
DECORATIVE DETAILS
form part of a procession. Even
The figure would originally
though the carving is in very
have looked even more
shallow relief, the overlapping
realistic, with eyes and
horses provide a sense of eyebrows inlaid with a
depth and movement. 447-432 different material, probably
BCE, marble, height 106cm, British glass or stone.
Museum, London, UK

<The Spear Carrier /his is a Roman copy ofa

lost bronze statue by Polyclitus of Argos, one of the
greatest sculptors of antiquity. The impassive gaze
is typically classical, as are the harmonious
proportions of the figure and the perfect balance of LNAIS
49334
the pose. c440 sce (Greek original), marble, height
212cm, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, Italy
» Discobolus (The Discus SS UPPED
LIS
Thrower) This Roman copy is
thought to be a marble version
of a lost bronze by Myron. A
native of Attica, he was famed
for his realism and for his skill
at depicting figures in active
poses. Unlike modern athletes,
the Greeks did not spin round
before hurling the discus.
c450 ace (Greek original), marble,
height 155cm, Vatican Museums OLAYO
00vVL
JD
and Galleries, Vatican City

<—e 7 iy ir aie

A A Lapith Fighting a Centaur /he Parthenon had 92 high-relief

carvings of mythical battles. The most memorable examples show
the human Lapiths confronting the Centaurs at a wedding feast,
after the latter had been maddened by wine. 447-432 Bce, marble,
height 172cm, British Museum, London, UK
 BE N U de S V The Grande Odalisque Jean-Auguste-
oe Dominique Ingres Ingres’ accomplishment as
- The nude was central to the art of the ancient Greeks and a painter is exemplified by his cool, classical
in their statues of naked heroes and goddesses they created nudes, which were a reaction to the emotionally-
charged Romanticism of the period. 1814, oil on
standards of beauty that have been a challenge and an inspiration 1Gzcmn, Lore: Paris: Eee
carwas, S11
to later ages. Many artists, however, have used the nude not es
only to create images of beauty, but also to explore ideas and
emotions. Drawing directly from a naked model has formed a
part of art education for centuries, although in certain times v Susanna and the Elders
and places the nude has been subject to censorship. Guercino This biblical subject
pie Basia wa was a popular one with artists
because of the chance it gave to
portray a beautiful naked young
< Cycladic kouros Greek Greek i { bea 1617, a* Ela
study , alleria Nazionale, Parma, Ita
eee cavelopment of Egyptian V Relief of Eve from Autun Cathedral :
ee arteai,Oar aie Gislebertus Thought to be the first European
24cm, National Archaeological Museum, nude since antiquity, Gislebertuss relief sculpture
** “Athens. Greece shows a shapely Eve picking an apple. c1130,
ie stone, Cathedral of St. Lazare, Autun, France

Aj
_ APanathenaic Amphora Depicting
_ a Boxing Contest Greek, Greek vase-
- painters contributed significantly to
advances in the depiction of musculature.
C336 BCE, pottery, British Museum, London, UK

A A Reclining Nude (Miss O’Murphy)

A David Michelangelo This
Francois Boucher This provocative nude depicts
monumental emobodiment
of human beauty stood at the A Adam and Eve Titian /he Venetian Marie-Louise O'Murphy, a mistress of King Louis
entrance of Florence's Palazzo artist's delicately sensitive flesh tones, which XV.1751, oil on canvas, 60x 74cm, Wallraf Richartz
Vecchio for over 300 years. he was still developing in the latter stages of Museum, Cologne, Germany
1501-04, marble, 434cm, Galleria his career, humanize this famous scene. c1550, : :
dell’Accademia, Florence, Italy oil on canvas, 240x 186cm, Prado, Madrid, Spain A The Naked Maja Francisco de Goya Goya’s
depiction of the unabashedly naked maja — who
makes no attempt to conceal her breasts or pubic
hair — was too forceful a portrayal of female
sexuality for the Spanish Inquisition, who branded
it obscene. c1800, oil on canvas, 98x 191cm, Prado,
Madrid, Spain
 V The Source or Bather at the Source
< Self Portrait Egon Schiele 3 Re
Gustave Courbet Courbet’s radically naturalistic
The angular contortions of this ‘tar
approach to painting, throwing off academic self-portrait are typical of :
~ convention, is expressed in his realistic depictions Schiele’s Expressionist approach
of the female form. 1868, oil on canvas, 128x97cm, to painting the nude. 1911,
Muse watercolour and pencil on paper,
V The Dance Henri Matisse The
48x 31cm, private collection
use of vibrant colours makes Matisse’s
boldly executed nude dancers come — V Small Naked Portrait Lucian Freud Harshly-lit
alive with a rampant energy. 1910, oil OM ONENACHOEICACINLO MILO OLIN]
on canvas, 260x391cm, The State approach to nude portraiture. 1973-74, oil on canvas,
Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia 22x27cm, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK

St
\VANIESET

A Reclining Figure No.2

fe ge .
Henry Moore The fluid
A Nude, or Nude Seated on movement and undulations of
a Sofa Pierre-Auguste Renoir Moore's female forms owe a debt
The subtle use of colour and shade to the influence of African
lends Renoir’s subject a delicate sculpture. 1953, bronze, 42x 91cm,
sensuality. 1876, oil on canvas, private collection
92x 73cm, Pushkin Museum,
Moscow, Russia

A Woman Putting on her Stocking Henri de

Toulouse-Lautrec Typical of the artist's style, the
figures are somewhat linear and the painting has
A Reclining Nude from the Back
an unfinished appearance. c1894, oil on card,
Amedeo Modigliani In his nudes Modigliani often
58x 46cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
crops the arms or legs, helping to create a sense
of close-up intimacy. 1917, oil on canvas, 65x 100cm,
The Barnes Foundation, Merion, Pennsylvania, US
 Hellenistic
323-31 BCE
«(Venus de Milo /he serene expression
The Hellenistic era covers the period from the death of Alexander the Great in
of this goddess is classical in style, but her
323 ace to the accession of the first Roman emperor in 27 sce. Alexander's conquests
twisting, spiral pose is typically Hellenistic.
had spread Greek culture throughout Egypt and Western Asia, and the city of
The statue was made from two blocks of
Alexandria in Egypt, rather than Athens, became the centre of the Hellenistic world.
marble, pegged together, and was once
Among Hellenistic sculptors there was a growing taste for figures that conveyed
adorned with metal jewellery. c100 8ce,
fiery emotions or violent movement. This could be achieved by a contorted pose or marble, height 204cm, Louvre, Paris, France
by elaborate, swirling drapery. Another change was that art was no longer dominated
by state patronage. Private collectors increased dramatically, creating a demand for v Laocoon According to Greek legend,
different styles and subjects. There was a new interest in humorous or low-life themes, Laocoén and his sons were slain by serpents,
such as aged drunks, comic actors, and lust-filled satyrs. Portrait sculpture also gained after trying to warn their fellow Trojans against
in popularity. Occasionally, the results were unflattering, offering a foretaste of the the Greeks’ wooden horse. This statue was
Romans’ realistic approach. |In this field, the leading figure was Lysippus, the favourite discovered in 1506, in a vineyard in Rome.
sculptor of Alexander, who apparently refused to be portrayed by any other artist. 1st century BCE, marble, height 210cm, Vatican
Museums and Galleries, Vatican City, Italy

CLOSERIook
e ~ =a

fe fgets d ahh

VIOLENT EMOTION
Hellenistic sculpture is noted
for its emotional intensity.
Laoco6n’s agonized expression
was greatly admired when the
statue was found, and proved a
GREECE
ANCIENT key influence on Michelangelo
and later Baroque artists.

1400
TO
ORY
cE
The Farnese Hercules Hercules rests
on his club after completing his labours. The DRAMATIC MOVEMENT
| original statue, now lost, was probably by In contrast to classical art, with
PREHIST
| Lysippus. 4th century BCE (copy), marble, Museo its calm sense of grandeur,
Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, Italy Hellenistic sculptors tried to
give an impression of dynamic
movement, shown here in
Laoco6n’s despairing attempts
to struggle free

< Victory of Samothrace

This famous statue shows Nike, INContext
the winged goddess of Victory, ALEXANDER THE GREAT
alighting on the prow of a ship. In his short life, Alexander
It was made to commemorate the Great (356-323 BCE)
a naval triumph, perhaps in transformed Greece by
Rhodes in 190 cE, and was conquering the vast Persian
prominently displayed on a cliff- Empire, which extended as far
top sanctuary. c190 BCE, marble, as India. His victory at Issus in
height 328cm, Louvre, Paris, France | 333 BCE was commemorated
in the Alexander Mosaic

The Alexander Mosaic (c/00 8c)

This detail shows Alexander
himself, riding into battle against
the Persian King, Darius III
 The Etruscans
<< She-Wolf The wolf
Distinctive Italian cultures can be figure is Etruscan, but the
traced back to the Bronze Age. In sculptures of Romulus and
Remus were added by
the 9th century sce, the Villanovans Antonio Pollaiuolo in
flourished briefly in the area around ¢1484—96. 6th century BCE,
present-day Tuscany, producing some bronze, height 75cm, Museo
Capitolino, Rome, Italy
fine metalwork. In the following
century, they were superseded by
the Etruscans, an Italian people, stemmed from their trading links of War, in 753 sce, the city rose to
whose origins are still hotly disputed. with the Phoenicians (natives of greatness during the period of the
They rapidly built up an extensive present-day Lebanon and Syria). Republic (510-27 sce). The Romans
trading network, which brought them borrowed from the Etruscans and the
Italian art played a key role in considerable wealth. Greeks, copying slavishly from the
the history of Western culture. Etruscan artists built on the While the Etruscans had artistic flair latter, employing travelling craftsmen
One of the twin pillars of achievements of the Villanovans, but they lacked political organization. to carry out the task. The rank of artists
Classicism, Roman art helped owed a greater debt to foreign styles. Increasingly, they were caught was not as high as in Greece, and the
They were heavily influenced by between the expansion of the Celts in creators of many of the Romans’
provide the basis of European
Greek craftsmen, many of whom the north and the Romans in the south greatest monuments are unknown.
civilization, while the Romans and by the 3rd century sce, they had They did, however, pioneer a taste
came to work in Etruria, central Italy.
in turn owed much to their Their artworks also displayed a strong fallen under the latter's control. for realism, shown in their portrait
Etruscan forebears. Near Eastern flavour, which probably Founded by Romulus, son of the God sculptures and still-life paintings.

Etruscans andAncient Rome SNVOSN

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LNSISN
JINOY
}

| |Etruscan art
<< Phersu Dancing, from
ITALY, c8TH-c2ND CENTURY BCE
the Tomb of the Augurs /he
Before the emergence of the Romans, Italy was dominated by paintings in this tomb depict
the Etruscans, a people who appear in the historical record around some of the sporting activities
the 8th century sce. Their trading links brought them into contact with that the Etruscans staged at
many cultures, but their art was chiefly influenced by the Greeks. The their funerals. Many involve
Etruscans were concerned with the the preservation of the body and a masked figure “Phersu”,
the afterlife, and they developed an elaborate cult of the dead. They which, via Latin, may be the
created huge necropolises and staged funeral games — a precursor of source of the word “person”.
the gladiator combats in ancient Rome. They decorated their tombs c530-520 ace, wall painting, Tomb OLAYOL
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49
with lively murals, illustrating the sporting contests. The finest of the Augurs, Tarquinia, Italy
examples can be found in central Italy at Tarquinia and Cerveteri, both
of which have been classed.as world heritage sites. The Etruscans
were also noted for their tomb sculpture and high-quality metalwork. CLOSERIook
The latter includes some remarkable bronze mirrors, decorated with
mythological scenes, highlighting the benefits of physical beauty.

rs,
» BIRD DECORATION The
| tomb gained its nickname from
the “augur”, a classical priest
whose duty was to predict the
future and interpret the will of
} the gods, by observing the flight
and cries of birds.

A Sarcophagus of a married couple From the Banditaccia

necropolis in Cerveteri. The couple recline, as if at a banquet. The
wife anoints her husband's hand with perfume, a traditional funeral
ritual. c520-510 ace, terracotta, 111x194cm, Louvre, Paris, France
 Roman Painting
c510 BCE-476 CE v Woman selling Cupids Discovered in the Villa Arianna at
Only a small number of Roman paintings have survived, _Stabiae, a luxury seaside retreat just south of Pompeii, this curious,
From written sources, we know that the Romans light-hearted theme later captured the imagination of Neoclassical
produced panel paintings on a variety of wooden artists. Angelica Kauffmann was one of many to produce a version
of it. cst century BCE-79 cE, fresco, 28x 35cm, Museo Archeologico
surfaces, but these have vanished almost without trace.
Nazionale, Naples, Italy
However, the preservation of houses at Pompeii and
Herculaneum, following the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE, @
provides a clearer picture of Roman wall paintings. These
were executed using a traditional fresco technique, with
watercolours applied on wet plaster.
Historians have detected four different styles of
decoration in the remains at Pompeii, but there is less
agreement about their source. Some murals may have
been modelled very closely on Greek and Hellenistic
examples, but no Hellenistic painting survives to judge
from. Roman artists had a feeling for nature and a taste
for realism. There was an interest in closely-observed
landscapes, which created the illusion of distance, as if
the viewer was looking out of a window. Paintings of
gardens were particularly popular. Artists did not feel
constrained to include human figures in these, but
portray flowers, birds, and shrubs. This same detail can
be observed in Roman still lifes.

6¢ Antiquity has not ceased to be

the great school of modern
painters, the source from which
they draw the beauties of
their art ”’
JACQUES-LOUIS DAVID (1748-1825)

ROME
ANCIENT
AND
ETRUSCANS
THE

» Cupids Making Gold /his

example of the “Fourth Style”
of Roman painting comes from
a house owned by two
merchants called Vettius. It
can be dated precisely, as their
home was rebuilt after the
earthquake of 62 ce. Roman
artists portrayed cupids in a
wide variety of whimsical
subjects. There are even
TO
PREHISTORY
1400
cE scenes of them playing games
such as hide-and-seek and
blindman’ss buff. 62 ce, fresco,
Museo Archeologico Nazionale,
Naples, Italy

» Portrait of a Married
Couple This couple have
been tentatively identified
as a baker, Terentius Neo,
and his wife. He holds a
scroll, which may be their
marriage contract, while
she has a wax tablet and
stylus pen. \st century CE,
fresco, 58x52cm, Museo
Archeologico Nazionale,
Naples, Italy

KS
PA en os ie IN a

< The Head of Silenus with a Mask

This is part of a fresco cycle, illustrating
the initiation rites for a Bacchic cult.
c60-50 ace, fresco, Villa of the Mysteries,
Pompeii, Italy
 |Roman Sculpture
c510 BCE-476 CE

Roman sculpture served a number of purposes, ranging

from pure decoration to political propaganda. Statues
were designed to boost an emperor's prestige, while
columns and triumphal arches, covered in high-relief
< Still Life with Peaches carvings, commemorated his achievements in vivid
In their still-life paintings, detail. The Emperor Augustus commissioned a huge
Roman artists achieved a number of portrait sculptures — more than 200 still
freshness and an eye for detail survive — and they highlighted different aspects of his
that no one attempted to equal
role. Sculptures of ordinary citizens were far less grand
for many centuries. This
and could often be unflatteringly realistic. Sometimes,
outstanding example was
they were even based on death masks.
discovered in a house in
Herculaneum. c50 CE, fresco,
35x 34cm, Museo Archeologico
Nazionale, Naples, Italy

CLOS

» Augustus of Prima
Porta Jhis statue was
discovered at the Villa of
Livia at Prima Porta. The
breastplate is decorated
with military achievements,
including the recapture of
legionary standards. ¢20 BCE,
oe eld : we marble, height 203cm, Vatican
ILLUSIONISTIC EFFECTS Museums and Galleries, Italy
Roman painters loved showing
off their technical skills. Ina
genuine tour de force, this one
mm has highlighted the transparency
_ of the glass, even showing the
| reflection of a leaf behind it.
SNVISNY
GNV
LNSISNV
AINOY
AHL

Sarcophagi
2ND CENTURY CE-476 CE

The development of the sarcophagus (a stone or

terracott a coffin) resulted from changes in funerary
customs. Originally, the Romans cremated their dead
but, from around the 2nd century ce, burials became
more common. The sarcophagus was set against a wall,
so not every side was decorated. The Etruscans had
developed a kline (couch) format with reclining effigies,
which the Romans borrowed, though they soon 39
OLAYOLS
00VL
developed a large repertoire of their own. Typical
examples of decoration included heroic battles, usually
reserved for high-ranking soldiers, classical legends, or
hunting scenes. Depictions of the seasons, with their
overtones of rebirth and renewal, were also popular.

OY WAN

A Garden Painting This remarkable wall painting was produced A The Ludovisi Sarcophagus Formerly in the Ludovis/
for a subterranean chamber in the Villa of Livia, at Prima Porta. The collection, this magnificent high-relief carving shows Roman
occupants of the house would have withdrawn here in summer, to soldiers battling against Germans. The commander on horseback
escape from the heat and the dust of the outside world. c20 BCE, has been identified as Hostilian, the son of Emperor Decius.
fresco, height 200cm, Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome, Italy c250 ce, marble, 150x270x 130cm, Palazzo Altemps, Rome, Italy
 Origins and influences
As the Roman Empire expanded,
some of the peoples who blocked its
a7 |
progress were nomadic. In practical
terms, this meant that their artworks j, ' ;
were very different. There was no
great architecture, no monumental
sculpture, no wall painting. Most
artworks, such as jewellery and belt < Relief Depicting a Man Fighting a
Roman Soldier he Romans liked to
buckles were portable, although commemorate their victories with sculpted
some grave-markers and shrines reliefs on triumphal arches and columns. Here,
have survived. a soldier confronts a man thought to be a
Dacian. 2nd century CE, stone, 84x 88cm, Louvre,
On a more positive note, the
Paris, France
mobility of these peoples ensured
that cultural traits were received and
transmitted over great distances. Sarmatians looked to Persia, while body was elongated and moulded into
The Romans exerted such
Some of the tribes in the Asian the Celtic style included patterns aring or an “S" shape, so that the
a huge impact on Western
Steppes travelled as far afield as from the Near East. image would fit onto a circular object.
civilization that, for centuries, China and the Balkans, while Celtic Violent animal combats were popular,
the culture of less powerful influences eventually reached most Subjects as were savage heads, confronting
peoples was dismissed as parts of Europe. This created a The dominant theme for many of each other at the ends of a necklace or
barbaric. Increasingly though, genuine melting-pot of different styles. these nomadic peoples was animal an armband. Historians can only
Altai craftsmen, for example, shared life. Almost without exception, they speculate on the meaning. Some
it has become clear that the
links with the Ordos culture, which portrayed wild animals or birds, rather believe that the imagery was a survival
artworks of these peoples were flourished in the Yellow River region of than their domesticated flocks and of prehistoric hunting magic, while
often highly sophisticated and northern China, the Scythians drew herds. In most cases, the forms were others interpret the animals as totemic
very beautiful. influences from Greek colonists, the highly stylized. Often, the creature’s ancestor figures for individual tribes.

THE Outside the empires

EMPIRES
OUTSIDE

Scyths Altaic Sarmatians

EURASIAN STEPPES, c6TH CENTURY BCE PAZYRYK, c6TH-4TH CENTURY BCE SCYTHIA, c600 BCE-400 CE
The Scythians were a semi-nomadic people of Iranian origin, who The Altai nomads take their name from a Siberian
migrated to the Eurasian Steppes in around the 8th century BCE. In its mountain range, overlooking the eastern Steppes of
narrowest sense, the term relates to the tribes who lived to the west of Russia. Their trading contacts, which ranged from China
the River Volga and north of the Black Sea. However, the word “Scythia” to Mesopotamia, are reflected in the eclectic style of
was also frequently applied to a much wider area, extending from the their artworks. The most intriguing finds come from
Ukraine to Siberia. the Pazyryk burial mounds, where the cold climate
The Scythians produced magnificent, golden artefacts, including preserved items that would normally have perished long
TO
PREHISTORY
1400
ce shield ornaments, buckles, clasps, combs, mirrors, and torcs. Their ago. These include high-status objects such as saddle
metallurgical techniques derived, in part, from their contact with Greek covers, carpets, and even an elaborate set of tattoos on
colonies around the Black Sea. In time, the Scythians’ vigorous, highly the skin of a tribal chief.
original animal style of decoration influenced Celtic craftsmen. Peter |
(1672-1725) amassed more than 200 Scythian artefacts.

Vv Belt Buckle Animal fights were

a popular theme in Scythian art. This A Diadem This head piece was discovered ina
ornate piece, which was cast in two kurgan (burial mound) at Khoklach. The intricate
sections, comes from the huge collection decoration shows sacred animals flanking a tree.
amassed by Peter the Great. 7th century The diadem may have been related to a fertility
BCE, gold, 9.9x 16.8cm, Hermitage, St ritual. 1st century CE, gold, turquoise, coral,
Petersburg, Russia amethyst, garnet, pearl, and glass, 15x61cm,
Hermitage, St Petersburg, Russia

The Sarmatians were a group of tribes

who hailed from Iran but eventually
flourished in western Scythia, in parts
of the Ukraine, and the eastern Balkans.
Their artefacts display a blend of classical
and Scythian influences. The richest finds
A Felt Wall-hanging Depicting a Mounted come from the burial mound at Khoklach,
Warrior This was discovered in the Pazyryk burial near Novocherkassk, where many
mounds, a unique, high-altitude site in central exquisite items of jewellery were
Asia, where the contents of the tombs were discovered. Made of gold and precious
permanently frozen. 5th—4th century BCE, textile, stones, these were decorated with
450x650cm, Hermitage, St Petersburg, Russia
stylized animal forms, which were
thought to have talismanic powers.
Celts
EUROPE, c600 BCE?-c1000 CE?

The Celts were a loose association of tribes, who were first recorded by classical
authors in the 6th century sce. At this stage, their heartlands were in the Upper
Danube region of Central Europe, though their migrations were considerable. The
Galatians, for example, settled in Asia Minor, while the Gauls moved west. The.Celts
were known for their martial prowess. At different times, they sacked Rome (386 sce) Wine Flagon from Basse-Yutz /his is one
and occupied Delphi (279 sce). of a pair of flagons, discovered in 1927. The two
A distinctive Celtic style emerged over a lengthy period, blending influences from were made in eastern France, but were based on
the classical world, designs from the Scythians and the Persians, and geometric the shape of Etruscan vessels. 4th century BCE,
motifs from Hallstatt (an Iron Age culture). Many finds come from watery sites, where bronze with coral and enamel inlay, height 38.7cm,
high-status objects were deposited as ritual offerings to the gods. The most famous British Museum, London, England
example is LaTéne, by Lake Neuchatel in Switzerland, which has given its name to a
phase of the Iron Age. CLOSERIook

ANIMAL ORNAMENT The

idea of using animal forms on
wine vessels had its origins
in the classical world, but
the Celts added their own,
grotesque brand of humour.
Here, a canine creature that
orms the handle looms over a
stylized cat on the lid of the jug.
This, in turn, casts a predatory
eye over a duck, swimming
happily up the spout.
AHLAGI
SAYIdIN

AYOLSIH
OL
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49

A Gundestrup Cauldron /his

unique piece was left as a prayer
offering in a Danish peat bog.
The workmanship is typical of
Thracian silversmiths, but the
imagery Is thoroughly Celtic.
Ist century BCE, silver (once gilded),
A. The Agris Helmet /his CLOSERIook diameter 69cm, National Museum,
Copenhagen, Denmark
outstanding example would INTRICATE DECORATION
originally have been The cheekpiece of the helmet is < Figure of a god /his Gaulish
surmounted by a crest, now decorated with a horned serpent. sculpture from Bouray, France,
broken off at its base. 4th The serpent could be a symbol of has strong Roman influences,
century BCE, iron, bronze, gold, the underworld, leading to but the torc and the animal
coral inlay, height 21.4cm, Musée | speculation that the place where hooves confirm that it is a Celtic
Archéologique et Historique, the object was deposited — a deity. 1st century BCE-1st century
Angouléme, France grotto near Angouléme — may
CE, bronze, height 42cm, Musée
once have been regarded as an
des Antiquités Nationales, Saint-
entrance to the Celtic underworld.
Germain-en-Laye, France
 Byzantine art
In 330, Emperor Constantine moved
his capital to Byzantium, renaming
Early Christian art it Constantinople. Here, Christian
The term “Early Christian” describes artists were exposed to very different
the period between c300 and 750, influences. The city was Greek, but
when the influence and organisation affected by cultures of the Near East.
of the faith were growing rapidly in Byzantine artists created their first
the West. To begin with, it was a religious masterpieces in mosaic;
clandestine religion. Persecution by some of the finest examples created
the Roman authorities, which reached at Ravenna. After the fall of Rome,
a peak during the reign of Diocletian Ravena played a key role, as Justinian
(284-305), ensured that meetings made it his capital in the West.
were held in secret and artworks The veneration of holy images led
were either portable or — as in the to problems in the 8th century, when
case of the Catacombs — hidden away it was deemed idolatrous. During
from public view. the Iconoclastic crisis (¢725-843),
From being an obscure sect in The situation improved in 313, A San Vitale, Ravenna, 526-48 The building of this thousands of religious works were
Palestine in the 1st century cE, when Emperor Constantine granted unusual, octagonal church began during the rule of destroyed. In later Byzantine art, wall-
the Ostrogoths, but was completed after Justinian
Christianity rose to become the Christians full religious freedom. Even had ousted them. paintings and icons played a growing
state religion of the Roman so, it took time for Christian artists to role. The latter, in particular, transmitted
develop their own religious language. classical depictions of Roman gods. Byzantine influences far beyond the
empire in 313 ce. As the
Images of the Crucifixion, for example, Their favourite theme was the Good empire's borders, with the greatest
congregations swelled, so too
were abhorrent, because this Shepherd, which was frequently icons being produced in Russia, where
did the demand for art works degrading form of execution was depicted in paintings, mosaics, and Andrei Rublev (c1360-1430) and
that would provide a focus for reserved for slaves and criminals. carvings, but fell out of favour after Theophanes the Greek (c1330/40-
Christian prayer and teaching. Instead, artists borrowed ideas from the Middle Ages. c1410) were the leading figures.

AND Early Christian and Byzantine

BYZANTINE
CHRISTIAN
EARLY

Early Christian
ROMAN EMPIRE, c300-750 CE
In the West, Christian art appeared before the religion
was Officially established in 313. Some of the earliest
examples can be found in the Catacombs — the
subterranean burial galleries just outside Rome — which
were used for covert prayer meetings during the days of
persecution. The images there are very basic, often little
more than a symbol: a fish, a dove, an anchor, the Cross.
1400
TO
PREHISTORY
cE More ambitious artworks were generally inspired by
classical models. Christ was frequently depicted as a
beardless youth, a form that derived from statues of
Apollo, Mercury, or Orpheus.
Once Christianity had been sanctioned officially by the
emperor, this allowed artists to place greater emphasis
on the grandeur of the Lord. Working within the
Byzantine tradition, the mosaics produced by artists at
Ravenna were on a far grander scale than previous work.

aneats

A The Raising of Lazarus, Scenes from the Life of Christ

Early Christian artists often used imperial imagery to underline the ~,

majesty of Jesus. Here, a young and beardless Christ is shown A The Good Shepherd A very
wearing purple robes — a colour associated with kings and popular Early Christian theme.
emperors. 6th century, mosaic, Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, Italy The youthful figure of Christ is
based on classical statues of
Mercury, the protector of flocks.
A The Three Hebrews in the fiery furnace /he Biblical tale The sheep returned to the fold
of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego (Daniel II!) had particular symbolizes the repentant sinner.
resonance, at a time when Christians were still threatened with c300, marble, Pio-Christian
persecution. Late 3rd century, fresco, Catacombs of Priscilla, Rome, Italy Museum, Vatican City, Italy
 Byzantine
EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN, 330 CE-1453
Byzantine art flourished from 330 CE, when Constantinople was founded, until 1453,
when the city fell to the Turks. Within this huge time-span, the boundaries of the
empire fluctuated considerably, though this did not prevent Byzantine trends from
affecting artistic developments as far afield as Italy, Egypt, and Russia.
In 395, following the death of Theodosius the Great, the empire was divided
and the artistic traditions of its two halves rapidly began to diverge.In the West,
constant warfare led to an era of diminished artistic production, while in Byzantium a
<The Barberini Ivory
new order of art work emerged. Religious icons and imperial images were venerated,
The central panel depicts the
and their appearance was strictly controlled. Their forms were symbolic and stylized,
Emperor Triumphant. Above,
and any artistic individuality was frowned upon. Christ offers a blessing, flanked
In other fields, Byzantine craftsmen serviced a thriving market for luxury objects. by winged Victories; below,
The quality of their silks, jewellery, cloisonné enamels, and carved ivories was earthly powers pay homage.
| outstanding. The latter often took the form of diptychs, adorned with religious Early 6th century, Ivory, 34.2 x
or imperial subjects. 26.8cm, Louvre, Paris, France

> Emperor Justinian and Attendants

Justinian commissioned this mosaic, shortly
after his troops had captured Ravenna from
the Ostrogoths. He never visited the city, but
this portrait emphasised his official presence
in his western capital. c547, mosaic, San Vitale,
Ravenna, Italy

ive CLOSERIook |

AlYV43
NVILSI
GNV
ANILNV

DIVINE STATUS Justinian is shown with a

halo, underlining the theocratic nature of the
emperor's role. He is God's representative on
earth, playing a central role in the celebration
of Mass. In his left hand, he carries a golden
paten that will hold the communion breads.

OLAYOL
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49

INcontext
THE TETRARCHY In 293
ce, Diocletian devolved
responsibility to four rulers
(“Tetrarchs”) — an emperor
(“Augustus”), along with a
subordinate (“Caesar”), for
the empire's eastern and
western halves. The system
failed, but the titles survived.
The Four Tetrarchs /he
sculpture underlines the
sense of unity that the
Tetrarchs were meant to
provide. c300, porphyry, St
eee, =—T . Te a a)
Mark's, Venice, Italy
A The Old Testament Trinity Painted by
Andrei Rublev, this depicts the three angels who
visited Abraham. Byzantine artists used this A The Anastasis (Descent into Limbo) Created for the Chora
theme to illustrate the Holy Trinity. c1411, Monastery (now a museum), this shows Christ rescuing the souls
tempera on panel, 142x 114cm, Tretyakov Gallery, ofthe virtuous. 1316-21, fresco, height of Christ 163cm, Kariye Camii,
Moscow, Russia
Istanbul, Turkey
 Origins and influences
The term “Carolingian” derives from the best evidence comes from
Charlemagne (742-814), who became illuminated manuscripts. The most
King of the Franks in 768 and was original examples of these were the
crowned the first Holy Roman Emperor illuminated manuscripts produced at
in 800. The name Charlemagne is the monastic workshops in Reims.
derived from the Latin word for Arguably though, the most crucial
Charles, Carolus, and means “Charles innovation in manuscript production
the Great” His use of this title showed relates to its script. By Charlemagne’s
his ambition to revive the lost glories time, the existing Merovingian form
of Rome, and assume the leadership had become virtually unreadable. In its
of Christendom. place, he promoted a new version —
These ambitious aims could not be the Carolingian minuscule. Developed
achieved by military prowess alone. at the palace school in Aachen, this
Charlemagne introduced sweeping lettering was so clear that it became
Following the collapse of the
political and economic reforms, as A Reliquary of Charlemagne Charlemagne was the basis of many modern typescripts.
Roman Empire in 476, Europe well as a farranging revival of learning. buried in Aachen cathedral. In 1349, the tomb was
The Carolingians produced no
opened and his skull was transferred to this shrine. 1350,
endured centuries of turmoil, The effects of his policies were felt gold inlaid with gems, Treasury, Aachen Cathedral, Germany monumental sculpture, but the
as different people battled for long after his death and the Carolingian quality of their small-scale work was
supremacy. Order was not epoch lasted until around 900. classical and early Christian art, while extremely high. lvory-carvers and
also keeping abreast of the latest goldsmiths, in particular, created
restored until the rise of
Subjects developments in the Eastern empire. some exquisite pieces. The ivory-
Charlemagne. His coronation Some notable frescoes survive at
With regards to the visual arts, carvers specialized in intricate book-
as emperor in 800 signalled Charlemagne made a deliberate effort Auxerre and Mustair, along with a fine covers, while the finest metalwork
the start of a new era. to build on the achievements of mosaic at Germingny-des-Prés, but was made to adorn the high altar.

Carolingian
CAROLINGIAN

Manuscripts ivory
EUROPE ; 8TH-10TH CENTURIES v St Mark Jhe sketchy style of this manuscript FRANCE; 8TH-10TH CENTURIES
commissioned by Ebbo, Archbishop of Reims, was typical
Carolingian manuscripts provide one of the chief legacies of the manuscripts produced by the School of Reims. Ebbo lvory carving was the most popular form of sculpture
of the age. As with other aspects of the revival, the Gospels, c816-35, vellum (animal skin parchment), 18x 14cm, during the Carolingian era. The material had been used
key sources were classical and Byzantine. This did not Bibliotheque Municipale, Epernay, France for luxury items since ancient times, and local craftsmen
produce a recognizable Carolingian style, however, drew inspiration from both classical and Byzantine
as different centres developed variations. The opulent models. The vast majority of the carvings were
Godescalc Evangelistary, for example, was stiff, with its rectangular plaques, which were used as centrepieces
| text written in letters of gold and silver on purple vellum. on book-covers. Because of the close links with
TO
PREHISTORY
1400
cE By contrast, the illustrations in the Ebbo Gospels had an manuscript production, the principal workshops for both
intense, almost frenzied appearance, while the images art forms were frequently located in the same vicinity, in
in the Utrecht Psalter — arguably the greatest of all places such as Tours and Metz. In addition, the scenes
Carolingian manuscripts — were dynamic and expressive. portrayed on the ivories were often loosely based on
manuscript illustrations.
CLOSERIook
» St Gregory One
of the Fathers of the
Church (c540-604),
copies of St Gregorys
writings were
frequently produced.
This ivory may have
formed part of a
book cover for one
such manuscript.
ies 850-875, ivory,
Kunsthistorisches
DIVINE INSPIRATION While he is
Museum, Vienna,
writing his gospel, Mark looks upwards
to the winged lion — his traditional Austria
symbol — for divine inspiration. The
lion is an apocalyptic beast, described
in the Book of Revelation.
 who commissioned the finest
monumental sculpture of the period;
Archbishop Egbert of Trier, who
The Ottonian era takes its name from ordered several major manuscripts,
Otto | (Otto the Great), who became among them The Epistles of St
King of the Germans in 936 and was Gregory, and Bernward of Hildesheim,
crowned Holy Roman Emperor in who is said to have done metalwork
962. His reign was followed by himself. Canonized in 1192, he later
those of Otto II (973-83) and Otto II| became the patron saint of goldsmiths.
(996-1002), but the scope of the term
extends beyond this, covering most Subjects
of the 11th century. In many areas, Ottonian craftsmen
followed a similar path to their
Origins and influences Carolingian predecessors. lvory relief
The Ottonian style was a cocktail of carvings remained popular, the vast
many different influences. There was majority depicting religious subjects,
a conscious attempt to recapture the many of them produced in the
After Charlemagne’s death, A Otto II From the Epistles of St Gregory, produced in
achievements of the Carolingian era Trier, this shows Otto receiving homage from the four flourishing workshops at Echternach
the Holy Roman Empire rapidly and, as a logical extension of this, provinces ofhis empire. c983, vellum, 27 x20cm, Musée and Reichenau. However, the growing
disintegrated. Its glories were a desire to echo the grandeur of Condé, Chantilly, France interest in large-scale sculpture,
only revived in the following classical and late antique models. epitomized by the Gero Crucifix
century, when Otto the Great At the same time, the sheer volume the time of Otto II, who married and the bronze doors at Hildesheim,
of ecclesiastical patronage Jed to Theophanu, a Byzantine princess. marked a significant departure from
came to power. During his
a reawakening of interest in Early Although imperial support was Carolingian tradition. Together with
reign, and those of his German
Christian art. Finally, there were strong important, the outstanding patrons of Ottonian manuscripts, they provide
successors, imperial art cultural links with the Byzantine the age were powerful clerics: men hints of the Romanesque style that
regained much of its lustre. empire. These reached a peak during such as Archbishop Gero of Cologne, was to follow.

Ottonian NVINOL

Bronze-casting Jewellery Manuscripts

GERMANY; 11TH CENTURY GERMANY; 11TH CENTURY GERMANY; 10TH-11TH CENTURIES

Ottonian craftsmen achieved marked advances in the Although few wall paintings have survived from the Ottonian era,
field of sculpture, most notably through their revival of some manuscripts have survived. These were created and preserved
bronze-casting with the “lost-wax" method (casting at the major monastic centres, such asTrier, Echternach, Reichenau,
with a wax mould). The two most celebrated examples and Cologne. The miniatures themselves betray a number of different
were commissioned by Bernward of Hildesheim (c960- influences, most notably Byzantine, late antique, and Carolingian.
1022) for the local church of St Michael. These consisted From these diverse sources, Ottonian artists developed their own,
of a bronze column — which served as a gigantic distinctive style.
candlestick and was loosely based on Trajan’s Column They focused primarily on human figures, restricting background OLAYOLS
007!
JD
in Rome — and a magnificent pair of doors — decorated details to a minimum. These figures were often stylized, with slender,
with relief carvings of scenes from the Scriptures, elongated bodies, and highly expressive, making expansive gestures
adapted from illustrations in illuminated manuscripts. with their large hands.

<The Ascension, Liber

Evangelicorum Ottonian
illuminators shifted their
A Eagle Brooch /his magnificent item was emphasis from the Old to the
produced for Gisela of Swabia (995-1043), the New Testament. Gospel books
wife of Emperor Conrad Il. The eagle became a and pericopes (extracts from
potent symbol for the Holy Roman Emperors. the Gospels) became the most
11th century, gold, enamel, and precious stones, popular form of manuscript.
Mittelrheinisches Landesmuseum, Mainz, Germany Here, Christ ascends in a
golden mandorla, an almond-
Like the Carolingians before them, shaped halo. 10th century,
painting on vellum, 35.5x 25.4cm
Ottonian craftsmen worked with
Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana,
precious materials. Some items were
Florence, Italy
produced for imperial use. There is the
celebrated Crown of the Holy Roman
Empire, bearing an inscription to Conrad
ll, as well as jewellery belonging to his

la
A Door from Hildesheim Cathedral (detail) The door was
commissioned by Archbishop Bernward, the former tutor of Otto III. wife. The most lavish pieces, however,
The Adoration of the Magi is depicted here, above the door- were generally destined for the Church.

bade
knocker. 1015, bronze, width of panel 59cm, Hildesheim, Germany Typical examples include Bible covers,
ornate crosses, and receptacles for
relics, all made out of gold and studded
with gems, pearls, enamel, or cameos.
 v The Oseberg Ship Excavated
in 1904, now in the Viking Ship
Origins and influences Museum Oslo, the well-preserved
remains of this 22x5m wooden ship
“Viking” is a collective name for the were originally used for the burial of
seafaring people of Scandinavia, who a high-ranking female, perhaps
Queen Asa.
had a devastating impact on northern
Europe during the Medieval period. certainty. However, lions and snakes
Although the Vikings are most famous were frequently featured, along with
as pirates and marauders, their some birds — chiefly hawks, ravens,
artistic style came about through and eagles. More rarely, there were
commercial contacts. depictions of horses and towards the
Scandinavian seamen regularly end of the period, dragons. Human
travelled to Russia and Constantinople, figures were even scarcer, although
building up a rich trade in precious some examples can be found.
metals, fur, and tusks. In the process, In most cases, the animals’ purpose
they became influenced by Carolingian, seems to be purely ornamental.
The Viking Age blossomed However, attempts have been made
Byzantine, and Celtic culture.
in Scandinavia in the Middle In its most basic form, Viking to look for deeper symbolic meanings,
Ages, from around 800 to decoration consisted of interlacing either by linking the designs with
1050. Northern craftsmen plants and animals. Over the centuries, episodes from the Viking sagas or the
there were subtle developments. Subjects Bible. The most convincing example
developed a form of animal
In chronological order, the main Throughout the period, the most is the image of a fight between a lion
decoration, which influenced
phases are known as Oseberg, Borre, common motifs were stylized animals. and a snake, which can be seen on
neighbouring cultures and Jelling, Mammen, Ringerike, and One of these animals was a ribbon- several Christian memorials. This
became an important element Urnes. Most of these take their names shaped beast, which cannot be linked has been interpreted as a symbolic
of the Romanesque style. from finds at important burial sites. to any existing creature with real struggle between good and evil.

ARTViking art
VIKING

| Metalwork Carving
SCANDINAVIA, c800-c1050 SCANDINAVIA, c800-c1050

I, During the Early Middle Ages, the Vikings built up extensive trading
contacts with Russia and the East. Influenced by these contacts, their
craftsmen developed a distinctive style of design using interlacing
animals, with biting snakes and monsters. Over the years, a number
of different variants evolved, all of which featured similar, densely
entwined patterns. The style itself was extremely versatile. Although
usually associated with wood-carving, it has been found on objects
TO
PREHISTORY
1400
cE made of stone, bone, and metal. The designs were also used on
military equipment, such as weaponry and longships, inside churches,
and on rune-stones (“memory stones” placed by graves of warriors).

Y Figurehead of the Oseberg

Longship Jhe decorations on this prow » North Portal /his carving,
show a monstrous head formed from with its mix of entwined ribbon-
patterns of interlace. 9th century, wood, snakes and dragons, has given
Viking Ship Museum, Oslo its name to a versatile form of
decoration known as urnes. The
panel was transferred from an
A Helmet, from the Vendel treasure /n earlier painting. c1050-1100,
the 1880s, archaeologists found a rich array of wood, Urnes Stave Church, near
weaponry in a group of ship burials at Vendel, Lustrafjord, Norway
in the Swedish province of Uppland. c600 ce, iron
and bronze, Historiska Museet, Stockholm, Sweden CLOSERIook

The earliest Scandinavian metal objects known to us

were made around 1500 Bce, but there seems to have
been no sustained practice of metalworking until » The Cammin Casket
c 550 ce. From this later period an impressive array (copy) The original casket
of shields, helmets, and swords has been unearthed was housed in Cammin MAMMEN STYLE The
from graves, notably at Vendel and Valsgarde. Both in Cathedral, Pomerania but combination of stylized
was destroyed during World animals with intricate
their decoration and overall design, these have strong
War I/. c1000 ce, wood, elk- interlacing is typical of
affinities with weaponry found at the Anglo-Saxon
horn, bronze, 63x 25.9cm, Mammen decoration.
burial site, Sutton Hoo (see opposite).
Nationalmuseet, Denmark
 Anglo-Saxons
Many of the newcomers originated
from Germany or Scandinavia. The
Angles hailed from the southern Celts
part of the Danish peninsula and The Celts had migrated to Britain a
settled along the east coast, from few centuries before the arrival of the
Northumbria to Essex. The Saxons Romans, but the arrival of Germanic
were Germanic and have left their tribes pushed them further west, until
mark in local place-names, such as their strongholds were in Scotland,
Essex (East Saxons), Wessex, and Ireland, Wales, and Cornwall. Their art
Sussex. The first of the incomers survived these disruptions, bridging
were brought across by the Romans, the transition from paganism to
to serve as mercenaries against the Christianity. This is most obvious from
Picts and Scots, but full-scale their metalwork. The designs on their
The British Isles did not escape
migration began in the 4th century. A Celtic Cross Some believe that the wheel motif on weaponry and horse-trappings were
the turmoil that followed the The finds at Sutton Hoo near the Celtic crosses, such as this 10th century Irish example, still being used, centuries later, on
refers to the sun, others that it represents a halo.
collapse of the Roman Empire. coast in south east England have chalices, croziers, and shrines.
Shiploads of settlers from tended to overshadow other Anglo- The Anglo-Saxons also developed an In their stonework and manuscripts,
across the North Sea sailed Saxon achievements. In the north, impressive tradition in manuscript the Christian Celts broke new ground.
sculptors produced some outstanding illumination. This owes its fame to the In Ireland, they developed a style
there, bringing a range of
ee 9g stonework, most noteworthy are success of the Winchester School, of monumental high cross, lavishly
cultural influences. These
the high crosses of Ruthwell and which flourished in the 10th century. decorated with biblical scenes. And
merged with local styles, Bewcastle, which combine Germanic Their illustrations are notable for their manuscripts like the Book of Kells
to create new artistic trends. decoration with imposing figures. large, ornate borders. (see pp.70-71) won much admiration.

Anglo-Saxon and Celtic art NOXVS-

GNV
9111439

Anglo-Saxon Insular Celtic

BRITAIN, LATE 4TH CENTURY CE-1066 BRITAIN, c500 BCE-c1000 CE

When the Roman hold on Britain began to crumble, the country was invaded by In the British Isles the Celtic style proved highly durable, surviving long into the
successive waves of Germanic migrants. These included, among others, Angles, Christian era. This was possible, as their designs had long been composed of abstract
Saxons, Jutes, and Frisians, who have become known collectively as Anglo-Saxons. patterns and stylized animals. Depictions of the gods appear to have been rare —
The majority of their artworks were produced in Christian workshops, although the although as the Chrsitians were very systematic about destroying idols, there may
ship burial at Sutton Hoo contains some outstanding exceptions. The site can probably have been more than we can surmise from the surviving record. As a result, Christian
be linked with Redwald (died c627), an East Anglian king who is said to have erected artists were able to borrow some elements from old, pagan artefacts, adapting them
both Christian and pagan altars. Discovered in 1939, Sutton Hoo contained a veritable for use in their Gospel Books, their stone crosses, and their metalwork. In the
treasury of gold buckles, silver bowls, decorated weaponry, and lavish symbols of Crucifixion plaque below, for example, the garments of Christ and the angels, AYOLSIH
OL
0OVL
49
royal authority. as well as the Cross itself, are adorned with Celtic spirals and interlacing.

CLOSERIook

A The Alfred Jewel Made for Alfred the Great, || PLAYFUL DESIGN The
this is thought to be an aestel — a pointer for *\\ curvilinear patterns are similar
following the text of a manuscript. The figure may ~j\ to continental, Celtic designs,
represent the sense of sight. Sth century, gold, rock @ while the central boss is raised,
to accommodate the hand-grip
crystal, and enamel, length 6.2cm, Ashmolean A St John’s Crucifixion underneath. Figurative forms of
Museum, Oxford, UK. Plaque Discovered near stylized birds are concealed
Athlone, this was probably XN amid the swirling lines.
once attached to the cover of tl 2}
A Helmet from the Sutton Hoo Ship Burial an early Gospel Book. Late 7th 4 The Battersea Shield This beautiful, but flimsy shield-covering
The helmet is decorated with interlacing and century, gilt bronze, height 21cm, was designed for ceremonial purposes. It was placed in the Thames
heroic scenes, while the face-mask is adorned National Museum of Ireland, as an offering. 350-50 ace, bronze with enamel inlay, length 77.5cm,
with a dragon. c625-30 cE, iron and gilt bronze, Dublin, Ireland British Museum, London, UK
height 31.8cm, British Museum, London, UK
ANGLO-SAXON
AND
CELTIC

TO
PREHISTORY
1400
ce

ee.

Folio 34 from T he
 CLOSERI|ook

The Book of Kells

The Book of Kells is one of the crowning achievements of Celtic art, a
masterpiece of sumptuous decoration. It is a Gospel Book — a manuscript that
consists principally of the four Gospels. This format was originally devised for Story
Despite its lavish appearance, the manuscript
missionaries, as the shorter text was easier to transport than a complete Bible.
was never completed and its origins are
The Kells manuscript, however, was meant for display. It is lavishly illustrated uncertain. The likeliest scenario is that it was
with stunning calligraphy, depictions of the Four Evangelists, and biblical begun on the Scottish island of lona, which
scenes. These decorations had a practical purpose — they helped the priest to headed a wealthy confederation of monasteries
find his way around a text that, as yet, had no chapters or verses — but they devoted to the teachings of St Columba. In the
early 9th century, however, lona was repeatedly
were also designed to dazzle potential converts.
raided by Vikings and the surviving monks were
i 2s" pap Abani eventually forced to flee to Ireland, where they
Composition established a new home at Kells. Their abrupt departure may explain why
This magnificent example of Celtic work on the manuscript was abandoned.
calligraphy is generally known as the
v CATS AND MICE A pair of mice are v HUMAN HEAD Celtic artists often used
Monogram Page. It represents just
nibbling a communion wafer, while two cats human heads as decorative flourishes on a
three Latin words: Christi autem
stand on their tails. This is probably just a piece —wide variety of objects. They can be found,
generatio (“Now the birth of Jesus of whimsy, illustrating the difficulty controlling for example, on the hilt of a sword, the ends
Christ...”, Matthew 1, 18). Indeed, rodents. There is a similar scene on Muiredach’s — of a torc (metal collar), or on the clasp of
most of the page is taken up with two Cross at Monasterboice, also in Ireland. a brooch.
characters. These form the Chi-Rho,
the first two letters of Christ's name wt,Et ee
eae RY eR Fe
Ee Cee,
PETTY AD
oo
in Greek, which were traditionally
represented by “XP”. Beneath this, AVIRGIN AND CHILD AEVANGELIST
in much smaller letters, the scribe The manuscript boastsa © SYMBOLS The symbols
continues with “h” (the standard unique blend of styles. of the Four Evangelists —
contraction for autem) and generatio. The Virgin, with her the authors of the Gospels —
maphorion (Greek robe), recur throughout the
Christ's monogram was a potent
appears to be based ona manuscript. Drawn from
symbol in early Christian art.
Byzantine icon, while the passages in Ezekiel and
beard-tuggers to her right Revelations, they are a
are typically Celtic. winged man (Matthew),
a lion (Mark), an ox (Luke), NOXVS
GNV
311149
and an eagle (John).

Technique
Manuscripts of this kind were produced in a monastic workshop
known as a scriptorium. The number of monks assigned to this
task is unknown, although experts claim to have detected the
hands of three different artists and three or four scribes. Animal
hides were prepared, smoothed out, and then stretched to form
the vellum, the fabric from which the book is made. Tiny holes
were pricked into the surface, to mark out the writing area, while
the artists would have tried out their compositions on wax tablets,
before using the costly parchment.
AYOLSIH
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49

A MATERIALS The manuscript was produced on

vellum, a material made out of calfskin. In general,
the hide of a single animal was enough for a
double sheet of vellum, so around 200 calves ay a
would have been required for the Book of Kells.
A OTTERS AND FISH
Monastic painters loved to add
INcontext tiny, humorous details to their
CELTIC STYLE Celtic
work. Some experts have looked
design was remarkable for symbolic meanings in these,
but they are often unconvincing.
for its adaptability. The
Pe dae ee aaa > 2 The fish, for example, is an
swirling, curved lines that
ancient Christian symbol.
A PIGMENTS The pigments came from are so typical of the style
a variety of natural sources. Some were were developed by the {ANGELS Three angels adorn
available locally (red lead, chalk, and pagan Celts, from around the edge of a letter. The two on
Tara Brooch Complex
woad), while others had to be imported. the 5th century BCE. the left have L-shaped bodies,
interlacing was a feature of
These included folium (pink) and kermes Centuries later, Christian Celtic jewellery, metalwork, and with tiny feet protruding from
(red), which was obtained from a artists borrowed these manuscripts. 8th century, silver, | their tunics, underneath the
Mediterranean insect. motifs and used them in gold, amber, and glass, National wings. They are shown here,
their own work. Museum of Ireland, Dublin as the page is close to the
passages on the Annunciation
and the Nativity.
 The history of Islamic art in medieval
times reflects the power of the ruling
dynasties. An early period, from the
life of Muhammad to around 1000,
was first under the centralized
control of the Ummayad dynasty in <The Dome of the Rock,
Damascus, and later the Abbasid Temple Mount, Jerusalem,
dynasty in Baghdad and Samarra; this completed 691 cE Architecture,
especially that of the mosque, has
was followed by a period up to about been central to Islamic culture and
1500 in which various dynasties vied displays the regional and stylistic
for dominance, and invasions from variations of Islamic art. Buildings
of early Islam became increasingly
Asia resulted in various regional # ornate, with decorative tiles, carved
centres, each with recognizably
different artistic cultures.
r and painted arabesques, and
precious metals.
The Islamic faith, as revealed to
the Prophet Muhammad in the Subjects and styles artistic expression is seen mainly in geometric, designs were also seen
7th century, spread rapidly from At first, Islamic art and architecture architecture and the decorative arts, in crafts such as ceramics and textiles,
Arabia across the Middle East was influenced by Byzantine, Roman, calligraphy and the arts of the book. especially carpets.
and early Christian styles, but a Domed mosques were decorated Another profound influence was the
and into Asia and Africa,
distinctly Islamic style soon emerged. sumptuously with ceramic and glass written word, specifically the Qur’an’s,
influencing the arts of many
Because of a convention (not a mosaics, and carved or painted in various ornate scripts. Calligraphy
cultures. Decorative arts and Quar’anic proscription) forbidding arabesques — elaborate repeated was important not only in copies of the
crafts in particular flourished the depiction of people, there was embellishments using floral, vegetal, Qur'an, but also as sacred inscriptions
from the beginnings of Islam. no tradition of easel painting, and or birdlike motifs. These abstract, often in mosques and craftwork decoration.

ART Early Islamic art

ISLAMIC
EARLY

i
Calligraphy
7TH-13TH CENTURY

The central role of the Qur’an in Islamic culture has made calligraphy the
most revered of its art forms, a visual expression of the spiritual. The art
of the book has been central to Islamic art since the first transcriptions
of the Qur’an, and arabic calligraphy has been a major influence in all the
decorative arts. The angular Kufic script was first to gain popularity, but QMS
A I $fi if

more elaborate and cursive scripts emerged in the early Islamic period, =)
and regional variations developed throughout the following centuries.
TO
PREHSITORY
1400
cE The finest examples of Islamic calligraphy are naturally to be found in
editions of the Qur'an, often ornately illuminated, but extracts from the
holy book were also used decoratively in mosques or on ceramics —
often in highly stylized, almost abstract, scripts where it is difficult to
decipher the meaning of the words.
2S Seay)

Wiss,
ves

ae E
=
t aS
$a
Bes: Ss

A Seljuq style Qur'an /he cursive

script of this Qur'an is typical of the Turko- ILLUMINATIONS The
Persian Seljug dynasty (11th-14th century). illuminations in the margin,
In addition to the elegant calligraphy, the like those within the text,
text is illuminated with sunburst marks, are not merely decorative
and marginal decorations depicting small but are designed as an aid
trees. 13th century, vellum, Museum of the to the correct reading of
Holy Ma’sumeh Shrine, Qom, Iran the holy book. As well as
marking the sections of the
text, they also indicate the
points for prostration.
A Fragment from a Qur'an with Kufic script /he angular, unadorned Kufic
script evolved through the early Islamic period into a number of more elaborate
styles, but in areas such as the Maghreb (northern Africa) it was widely used, often
without any illumination, until about 1000 ce. 10th century, North African school, vellum
 Glass and ceramics
7TH-13TH CENTURY
7TH-13TH CENTURY
As with the decorative arts, crafts such as ceramics
One of the distinguishing features of Islamic
and glasswork assumed a great importance in Islamic
architecture is the intricate and extensive decoration
culture, achieving the status of fine art. Craftsmen in
of both interior and exterior surfaces. Alongside carved ee a
Baghdad developed a tin-glaze technique to imitate
and painted decorations, tilework and mosaic played reo
Chinese porcelain, while the process of using metallic
a major role from the first Islamic buildings such as ;
overglazes to produce lustreware spread from Egypt
the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalern (completed 691),
throughout the Islamic world. Persia adopted the
using techniques of Byzantine mosaic but in non-
techniques in the 10th century. It became a major
representational geometric and arabesque patterns,
centre for ceramic production and introduced faience
and the Great Mosque of Damascus (715), which
(alkaline-glazed ware). Innovations in glasswork
unusually also has a mosaic depicting buildings and
included Fatmid Egypt's cut glass and lustre-painted
an imaginary city. Through the 8th century, the use of
glass, and Syria’s enamelled glass lamps.
mosaic decoration spread as far afield as Spain, where
it can be seen in the Great Mosque of Cérdoba and
later in the Alhambra; specific styles such as Zillij, using
purpose-made tiles, were developed in the Arabic
countries and North Africa; and in Eurasia in the 13th
century Seljuq mosques and palaces were decorated
with richly coloured glazed tiles.

A The Dome of the Rock, Temple Mount /his earliest extant

example of Islamic building is essentially Byzantine in structure, but
its mosaic decoration in repeating geometric patterns is distinctly
Islamic. The rich blues and greens are typical of the mosaics of A Ewer with birds /he finest A Jug with moulded
early Islamic architecture. Completed 691 ce, Jerusalem, Israel early Islamic glasswork came decoration A feature of many
from Egypt, and especially 12th-century Persian pots was
< Mosaic above a doorway of the Prayer Hall Originally prized were the carved rock calligraphic decoration: the
a Christian church, the Mezquita was rebuilt as a mosque by a crystal pieces produced towards words “glory” and “prosperity”
succession of Islamic rulers from c785. Among the alterations the end of the Fatimid dynasty. can be seen in the glaze of this
was the addition of mosaics in the Prayer Hall of the extension Fatimid Period, late 10th century, Jug. \ran, 12th century, stone- AlYVva
DIINVTISI
LYV
built by al-Hakam II. 961-66 ce, Great Mosque of Cordoba, Spain rock crystal, Louvre, Paris, France paste with turquoise glaze,
height 21.8 cm

AYOLSIH
OL
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49

A Bowl from Kashan, Iran An overglaze containing

metal oxides gave Seljuq pottery a goldlike finish, and
sometimes incorporated painted illustrations in the
style of Persian miniatures. 1211-12 cE, stone-paste with
lustre overglaze, diameter 20cm, Ashmolean, Oxford, UK

INcontext
ISLAMIC CULTURE in the
medieval period encouraged
scientific learning, continuing
a long tradition of scholarship sem iZeafens TSS!
“oe wha Noles
in mathematics and astronomy
in particular. Craftsmen were
also often innovative in their
use of new materials.
AReenr a * (ome
aa2ene2 2220008 Transcriptions
li ese’. Islamic scholars also studied other
civilizations’ achievements, © 8c Ca Galea: Tiiece
ily
A Courtyard arcade (riwaq) and vaulted entrance (iwan) Islamic Pr -)| Ga er
translating the works of Pr
decoration was integrated into Persian architecture under the Abbasid philosophers and scientists, as in
dynasty, producing mosques with large courtyards enclosed by elegant this edition of Greek physician ln #
arcades with aniwan, a vaulted porch, decorated with colourful Dioscorides’De Materia Medica,
SSUiSpissses apne iui
arabesque tilework. c1121-22 ce, Masjid-i-Jomeh mosque, Isfahan, Iran transcribed in the 13th century.
 The internet of the medieval world
was formed by a network of trade
routes that linked China to India and
Rome, and later the Arab states. The
complex overland network was called
the Silk Route because it transported
the precious fabric the world desired
and whose production method the
Chinese kept secret.
The more southerly maritime
trade route carried Roman technology, A Ananda and Paranirvana Buddha At Gal Vihara
Chinese ceramics, and spices. in Sri Lanka a 12th-century recumbent Buddha over 15 support from them, but the sub-
However, its most precious cargo was metres long, carved from a granite rock face, is seen at continent's constant creative impulse
South Asia includes the areas
the moment of transition to Nirvana. His disciple,
now covered by modern India, ideological, including Indian ideas of Ananda, stands forlornly with arms crossed.
towards art, philosophy, and
religion, statesmanship, art, languages metaphysics made India the cultural
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri
(Sanskrit and Pali), and writing scripts. — Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma — as well fulcrum of Asia.
Lanka, Nepal, and other small as the precisely-ordered layout of China had an enormous
Himalayan states. In the first Influences Indian cities, were all the product of technological and commercial
millennium cE, many ideas on India was a treasure-house of religion, the long intellectual tradition of the impact, but India was the crucible
religion, philosophy, and the philosophy, art, and technology for the Vedas, the Brahmins, and Buddhist of fundamental notions of man, the
smaller nearby states that came into monks. The great Indian religions — gods, the city, the state, and of the
arts came from these areas and
formation in the first millenium. The Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism — art that could capture and embellish
were expressed in the sacred
great stupas of India erected to hold waxed and waned throughout the these notions. Art that was to act as a
texts, icons, and temples of relics of the Buddha, the temples Middle Ages, as did the political principal stimulus to the fledgling states
Buddhism and Hinduism. dedicated to the Hindu universal gods dynasties that sought supernatural forming between India and China.

ASIASouth Asia
SOUTH

Buddhist art
1sT CENTURY BCE-8TH CENTURY CE

One of the most important Buddhist discoveries

was the excavation of a 1st century BceE to 3rd
century CE mound at Amaravati in eastern India.
Artefacts discovered included slabs of carved
limestone from a collapsed Buddhist stupa.
During the golden age of the Gupta Empire
in India around 450 ce the image of the Buddha
TO
PREHSITORY
1400
cE with lowered eyes, placid features, long ears,
short “snail shell” curls of hair, and cranial bump
was invented in the city of Mathura. This image
| was refined at the city of Sarnath on the Ganges,
where it was adopted by the many Buddhist
communities that sprang up across Asia between
the 4th and the 11th centuries, and it became
a universal icon of peace, power, and reflection.
Before the start of the first millennium,
Buddhism also crossed from India to Sri Lanka.
Among the innovations of the Sri Lankan
Buddhists were ceremonies centred on colossal
images of the Buddha and the bodhisattvas
A Amaravati Jhis slab from the Great Stupa
(one who helps others achieve Englightenment)
at Amaravati shows a detailed depiction of the
Avalokiteshvara, Tara, Maitreya, and Manjushri.
stupa itself. On the other side is a group
In the 5th century, the renowned monk and
worshipping at the spot where the Buddha
scholar Buddhaghosa assembled the Pali received enlightenment. 1st century BCE to 3rd
language texts of the Buddhist canon and century CE, stone, 124x 86cm, British Museum, ‘N
secured the island's place as the headquarters London, UK Ni

i:
%
of southern Theravada (“way of the elders”)
Buddhism, a status it still holds today. » Tara This 8th-century gilded bronze from Sri
Lanka is of Tara, the consort of Avalokiteshvara, a
the bodhisattva of compassion. Tara's right hand :
» Standing Buddha /he /ong ear lobes of this is shown in the position of varada mudra, the
‘
Gupta Empire Buddha betray the Buddha’s earlier gesture of giving. It is cast in one piece and
status as a prince who wore heavy gold earrings. is one of the finest Asian figural bronzes. 8th
This Buddha has a circular halo of concentric floral century, gilded bronze, British Museum, London, UK
bands and diaphanous robes. 5th century ce, stone,
Government Museum, Mathura, India
Hindu art
INDIA, 5TH-13TH CENTURY
The Gupta Empire of northern India produced
sacred art of unsurpassed beauty. The
Dashavatara temple at Deogarh in Orissa
on the east coast has red sandstone walls
panelled with deeply-cut narrative scenes
of the god Vishnu. Northern Indian temple
building reached its height in the temples at
Khajuraho, capital of the Candella kings from
the 10th to the 12th century.
The Sun Temple at Konark on the shore of
the Bay of Bengal is the largest of Orissa’s
shrines. The 70-metre high temple is
constructed in the form of the chariot of the
sun god Surya, with seven life-size horses
pulling the vast temple on 24 huge wheels.
In. the south of India, the Chola dynasty of
the Tamils became the most powerful empire Soe me
in this part of the world from the 9th to the
13th century. As well as building great temple A Surya Temple, Konark /he temples 24 giant 14-metre diameter
complexes, they were masters of bronze. Their wheels have 16 spokes and are carved with spiralling floral motifs in
greatest icon is Shiva Nataraja (Lord of the a spectacular design that makes the whole mass of stone look capable
of rolling forward. 13th century, stone, Konark, Orissa, India
dance) — who dances the creation and
destruction of the Universe.

A Dashavatara Temple, Deogarh Here, Vishnu sleeps in

potent, majestic ease on the pneumatic coils of the giant, multi-
headed serpent Ananta (representing the pre-Hindu serpent cults).
Vishnu dreams into existence a new kalpa (eon) for the Universe,
as four-headed Brahma rises above him on a lotus flower to HLNOS
vVISV
implement his creation. c500 ce, stone, Deogarh, India

CLOSERIook
GANGA The goddess
Ganga (personification of
the River Ganges) floats in
Shiva’s flowing ascetic’s
_ locks. Ganga holds her
palms together to venerate
= Shiva as the source of all,
including the cool waters of
the mighty river named after
» her which flow down from
Shiva’s Himalayan home. AYOLSIH
OL
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JD

» Shiva Nataraja /his Chola period

bronze shows Shiva holding the small
damara (drum) of creation in his upper » Kandariya Mahadeo Temple,
right hand and a burst of the fire of Khajuraho /he gods appear at
destruction in his upper left hand; his times with aristocratic arrogance,
lower right hand signals “have no fear”, ne
posturing in jewel-bedecked
and the lower left hand points to his minimal courtly dress. Here Agni,
uplifted left leg, signifying release the ancient Vedic god of fire and
or salvation. 12th century, bronze, destruction, poses with foppish
97x83cm, National Museum of India, waxed moustache and soft,
New Delhi, India swelling girth. 12th century, stone,
Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh, India
 Artists and craftsmen were highly
prized in the courts of medieval
Southeast Asia. However, artists did
not leave their names on their works
until colonialists arrived centuries
later and introduced this European
convention. As a result, we will
never know the names of the artists
and architects who conceived and
constructed Borobudur, Angkor Wat,
and the Ananda Temple — some of
the most beautiful sacred monuments
that have ever been built. A The Ananda Temple at sunrise Built by king
From 800 to 1400, recently Kyanzittha around 1090, the Ananda Temple — seen carved by hand from surface quarries
formed states in Southeast State art here at sunrise — is one of the finest surviving temples
of the Pagan Empire.
and transported by river on rafts before
Asia such as Cambodia The sculptors and architects in the being hauled into position to make the
and Srivijaya (Indonesia) royal workshops who built Borobudur came down and occupied these walls of these monuments. Finally,
constructed the largest in Java and Angkor Wat in Cambodia temples during religious festivals so masons perched on bamboo
were of great value to the state. This conferring power and prosperity on scaffolding with simple iron chisels
elaborately carved stone
was because they alone could create the earthly kingdom. carved the the surface of the rock with
temples in the world for the the stone temples that were believed From the slopes of the volcanoes narrative scenes from the Hindu and
veneration of Buddhist and to mirror the heavenly homes of the of Java and from the Kulen Mountain Buddhist epics, beautiful goddesses,
Hindu deities. gods. It was believed that the gods north of Angkor, tons of stone was and scrolling foliage swirls.

ASIASoutheast Asia
SOUTHEAST

Borobodur
JAVA, INDONESIA, 750-850 CE
The arrival of the new Shailendra dynasty (Lords of the mountain) in
760 ce — possibly from eastern India — gave the naturally artistic people
of Java in Indonesia an opportunity to express their art on a monumental
scale, and they created the most impressive and beautiful Buddhist
monument ever built. The largest Buddhist shrine in the world,
| Borobudur is at once a stupa holding holy relics, a mystical mandala
(or cosmic diagram), and a mountain of narratives in stone that show
1400
TO
PREHISTORY
cE | the way to Buddhist enlightenment.
| The monument, constructed from a million blocks of volcanic rock
| and set like a mantle on a natural hill, rises in singular splendour from
a fertile plain of rice paddies. The lower galleries are superbly carved
with intimate tales of Buddhist heroes. Monks and elite visitors would
| ascend the summit for ceremonies, where 72 icons of the supreme
tantric Buddha, Vairocana, sit inside latticed stone stupas looking out
over the plain to the nearby volcanoes.

‘ ¢
M9 ‘
¥ eM 7) Trg i

Sais ev attas eh Wont Buh)

< Temple of Borobudur Seventy-two
supreme Buddhas, their hands turning the Buddhist heroes — all rendered in a close-up, social
Buddhist “wheel of the law”, sit on top of the style that is uniquely Javanese — stretch along the
monument inside elegant latticed stupas that four square galleries that mount like a pyramid
look out to the surrounding volcanoes. Below towards the cosmic Buddhas at the summit. 778-850,
them 500 other Buddhas, concentrated but stone, Borobudur, Java, Indonesia
gentle, face the quarters of the Universe they
contro/. 778-850, stone, Borobudur, Java, Indonesia
Angkor
CAMBODIA, 800-1400 cE
In 800 ce the ancient Cambodians started to build brick temples to the Hindu
god Shiva in the lake-side region of Angkor. By 1200 ce, they had built the
largest, lavishly sculpted, stone monuments in the world with highway, canal, CLOSERI|ook
and hospital networks that stretched from Burma to the Malay peninsula and af x if wee
GODDESSES
Vietnam. The largest temple is the vast and palatial Angkor Wat dedicated to The walls of Angkor
the Hindu god Vishnu. The temple's five majestic towers rising within a 1000 Wat are carved with
square kilometre walled enclosure and 190-metre wide moat represent the thousands of goddesses
home of the gods on Mount Meru. in flimsy courtly dress
and with exotic
The second largest temple, the Bayon, marks the historical switch of the
hairstyles. In Hindu
ancient Cambodians to Buddhism in spectacular fashion with its 59 towers
belief, their radiated
bearing giant faces of a supreme protective Buddha rising high into the air female essence
at the centre of a new citadel in the capital called Angkor Thom. resonated with the male
essence of the king and
Brahmins and elevated
v Angkor Wat Behind a 190-metre wide moat and elaborately carved galleries, rise the them to a state where
five central towers of the high central “Bakan” section where the king and court Brahmins they could communicate
performed the rituals necessary to appease the gods. The temple is the largest stone
monument on Earth. 12th century, stone, height 65 metres, Angkor, Cambodia

f : ’ - me : 4

A Buddha face, Bayon Temple /wo

hundred giant faces of Buddhas look
out with staring eyes and gentle
Cambodian smiles from the Bayon
Temple and from the gates of the new
citadel, Angkor Thom. 1181-1219, stone,
Angkor, Cambodia
LSVSHL
viSV

Sukhothai
BURMA, 1000-1300 cE THAILAND, 1250-1350 CE

By the 11th century, Pagan began to develop rapidly as As the great Cambodian empire began to decline after the death of its
a Buddhist kingdom under king Anawratha (reigned greatest King Jayavarman VII in about 1220, the western provinces of
1044-77). His successor, king Kyanzittha, who reigned the empire began asserting their independence. For some centuries
from 1084 to 1113, purged the northern Mahayanist gifted and technologically advanced Thai people had been gradually
Buddhist sects from Pagan and promoted southern descending the valleys from Yunnan, southwest China. On the Yom
Theravada Buddhism, which it still follows today. river, in central northern Thailand, arose Sukhothai, the first great city
Burmese temples are distinguished by their murals of the Thais. The rulers of Sukhothai inherited the Khmer tradition of
and frescoes. The vast Ananda Temple is covered with grandiose temple construction and quickly demonstrated their already AYOLSIH
OL
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49
internal murals that were explicitly designed to plant enhanced technological skills in bronze casting and ceramics under
Theravada Buddhist thoughts in the minds of subjects. king Ramkhamheng who ruled from 1279-98. Vast temple parks with
Ananda was in constant use and endowments by later gigantic standing and seated Buddhas were constructed from brick and
kings resulted in further murals being painted. stucco, and the distinct Buddhist culture of the Thai people was founded.

v Fresco, Ananda Temple /n this court scene the dancers < The Buddha at the
have been painted for visibility with bright turquoise and ochre. Moment of Victory
Fresco, Ananda Temple, Bagan, Burma Bronze images of the
Buddha achieved
unsurpassed Classical status
at the first Thai kingdom
of Sukhothai. The smooth
limbs, lowered eyes, and
flame rising from the
Buddha’s head produce a
powerful effect of serenity.
Bronze, height 92cm, Walters
Art Museum, Baltimore, US

A Standing Buddha At the heart of the Ananda

temple stand four huge gilt wooden Buddhas
measuring nine metres high and representing
Gotama Shakyamuni and the three earlier
Buddhas — Kakusandha, Kassapa, and
Konagamanda. Wood, 9m, Bagan, Burma
 thé Tang period: calligraphy and
traditional figure painting flourished
in his court, but landscape painting
The ruthless conquests of Emperor also emerged as an important genre.
Wendi brought China under the single Unfortunately, Xuanzong was not
rule of the Sui Dynasty, paving the way so successful politically, and his reign
for an unprecedented period of cultural ended in civil war and a fragmentation
achievement. Trade with India and of the empire.
the Middle East brought contact with
craftsmen and artists that reinvigorated Reunification
Chinese art. Buddhism, which had Stability returned to China in 960
spread from India, became in effect when the empire was reunified
the national religion when It was under the Song Dynasty in Bianliang
adopted by the imperial family. (modern Kaifeng), and a rise in
maritime trade produced the wealth
Imperial patronage to allow the arts to flourish again.
The empire continued to grow under Emperor Huizong (reigned 1101-25)
After centuries of division,
the Tang Dynasty. The increased encouraged landscape painters, and
China became a unified empire prosperity enabled the building of large there were also a growing number
in 581, and the arts flourished cities, such as the capital Chang‘an of literati (schola-amateur) painters
under the patronage of (modern Xian), which quickly became working outside the courts.
successive emperors. The important cultural centres. Tang Eventually conquered in the north
emperors were enthusiastic patrons of by the Jin, the Song continued to
period of the Tang Dynasty
the arts attracting the finest artists and rule south of the Huai River until 1279,
(618-907) in particular is A Silver bottle, Tang Dynasty Western influences, when Kublai Khan united China once
craftsmen to their palaces from as far
such as Persian techniques and design, were noticeable
regarded as a golden age of afield as Persia. The reign of Xuanzong again, but under the divisive rule of
during the Tang period (618-907). Silver, height 20cm,
Chinese art and literature. in the 8th century was the height of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, US the Mongol Yuan Dynasty.

ASIA
EASTEast Asia
| Tang Dynasty
618-907
Under the Tang Dynasty, musicians, poets, and artists
enjoyed imperial patronage and Chinese culture
prospered. The adoption of Buddhism led to the building
of temples, pagodas, and tombs, decorated with wall
and silk paintings, and containing ceramic figures and
pots; and emperors attracted the finest artists and
craftsmen to their courts.
TO
PREHISTORY
1400
cE Taizong (reigned 626-49) employed the two brothers
Yan Lide and Yan Liben, who revitalized the art of figure
painting, but the height of Tang art was reached under
Xuanzong (reigned 712-56). His court at Chang’an
included the great poet and artist Wang Wei, and
attracted the most prominent painters of the day such as : Sarees, fi ri 2 i ry i

the traditional figure painters Wu Daozi and Han Gan; and A A Groom with Horses Han Gan Sponsored by Wang Wei, Han
also a group of artists including Li Sixun, Li Zhaodao, and Gan became the foremost painter of the Tang court. He painted many
Wang Mo, who were responsible for establishing the portraits and figure paintings, but was best known for his sensitive
landscape as an important genre in Chinese art. portrayals of horses. 8th century, watercolour on paper, Musée Cernuschi,
Paris, France
» The Court Instructress > Emperor Wudi of
Writing the Admonitions Northern Zhou Dynasty
Gu Kaizhi The 4th-century artist (The Thirteen Emperors) Yan
Gu Kaizhi was revered as the Liben As a government official
greatest of all painters by and portrait artist in Emperor
scholars in the Tang period, and Taizongs court, Yan Liben
inspired many figure painters painted a number of important
of the time. Most famous of historical figures. The best
his paintings was the series known, a handscroll depicting
of illustrations for Zhang Hua’s 13 emperors from the Han to Sui
parody The Admonitions of the dynasties, follows the tradition
Instructress to the Court Ladies, of figure painting established by
of which this is an 8th-century Gu Kaizhi. c600-673, ink and
copy. British Museum, London, UK colour on silk, 51.3x531cm,
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,
Massachusetts, US
 Song Dynasty
960-1279
dl

After Xuanzong's abdication in 756, China was not reunited

until the Song Dynasty. At first governed from the north, it was
less expansionist than previous dynasties, devoting more energy
to culture. International trade prompted advances in the crafts,
especially ceramics, and the imperial courts attracted artists
such as Dong Yuan, Guo Xi, and Ju Ran, whose elegant
| landscapes became very different from the painting of
contemporary Daoist literati. The Jin invasion drove the Song
south to Lin’an (modern Hangzhou), where Gaozong founded
the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). Landscape painting
developed in this era, led by Ma Yuan and Xia Gui, into a more
atmospheric, gentler style than that of the Northern Song.

A Wintry Groves and Layered Banks Dong Yuan

Dong Yuan’s elegant style was marked by carefully
balanced composition using sophisticated perspective ¥
and a wide range of brushstrokes. c950, hanging scroll,
ink and colour on silk, 181.5x 116.5cm, Kurokawa Institute
of Ancient Cultures, Hyogo, Japan

< Bare Willows and Distant Mountains 23 1 MY Mi ‘ (com a

Ma Yuan The landscapes of Ma Yuan marked the A Early Spring Guo Xi Many elements of his almost abstract
highpoint of Southern Song painting. His unusual compositions are shown in this work. Subtly different textures and
compositions based on diagonals earned him the brushstrokes emphasize the symbolic significance of the mountains
nickname “One-Corner Ma”. Ink and light colour on and trees and give a three-dimensional feel. 1072, hanging scroll, ink and LSV4
VISV
silk, 23.8x24.2cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, US light colours on silk, 158x 108cm, National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan

Yuan Dynasty
1279-1368 eek k,
Although the Mongol invasion under Kublai Khan reunited north <
and south China, the Yuan Dynasty was nevertheless a foreign & has
occupation. The empire stretched as far as eastern Europe, bringing Sa
many new influences to the arts and revitalizing trade in crafts, but
the Yuan were not great patrons of fine arts. Mongol discrimination
against the Chinese meant only a few native artists worked under
imperial patronage. A class of literati, including the four great late- hap
Yuan masters Huang Gongwang, Wu Zhen, Ni Zan, and Wang 9 0OVL
49
OLAYOLS
Meng, rejected the Mongol rule, and what they saw as its vulgar
influence, and instead developed a more allegorical style of
landscape painting in the Chinese tradition. Rebellions after Kublai
Khan's death led to the overthrow of the Yuan, and the succeeding
Ming Dynasty was more appreciative of native Chinese art. a
MOS

Re emai coe : hy Me Lg 2 2 See IE Ah PEST anal ee ka SE,

<< Landscape Ni Zan This artist refused to work under the A Horse and Groom in Winter Zhao Mengfu After the
Mongol rulers. He painted landscapes almost exclusively, Mongol invasion, Zhao was one of the few court artists.
often in an austere monochrome, tending to abstraction in Horses, important to the Mongol way of life, often feature in
which balance of composition was of prime importance. his paintings, whose archaic style was influenced by Chinese
Pen and ink on paper, Osaka City Museum, Japan art history. Ink on paper, National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan

< Dwelling in the Fuchun

Mountains Huang Gongwang After
serving as a court official and being
wrongfully imprisoned for misconduct,
Huang Gongwang became a Daoist
priest.He retreated to the Fuchun
mountains where, rejecting the Yuan
emperors’ style, he painted some of
his finest landscapes in ink on paper
with brushstrokes akin to calligraphy.
1347-1350, handscroll, ink on paper,
height 33cm, National Palace Museum,
Taibei, Taiwan
 The two main areas for the
development of civilizations in the
Americas were the valleys and plains
of southern Mexico and Guatemala in
the centre, and the central Andes of
Peru in the south. All the civilizations
were culturally advanced, producing
a wide range of buildings, stonework,
pottery, textiles, and goldwork.

Central America
The civilizations of Central America
developed out of the Olmec culture
A Avenue of the Dead he main avenue of the city of
that flourished around the coastline of Both the city-state of Teotihuacan in Teotihuacdn in Mexico runs north-south through the city.
Starting around 2,800 years
the Gulf of Mexico from 1700-400 sce. central Mexico and the Maya of the On the left is the imposing Pyramid of the Sun, measuring
ago, the peoples of Central It was the Olmecs who first built Yucatan peninsula developed from 57 metres in height.
and South America developed ceremonial platforms and temple Olmec culture. The Maya went on
civilizations that were among pyramids, carved large stone to create the only complete writing its temple complex of Chavin de
the most artistically advanced sculptures, and developed an early system in pre-Colombian America. Huantar, which was located in Peru,
form of glyphic, or picture, writing, and was well established by about
cultures in the world at that South America
a ritual calendar. Such works were part 850 sce. The Moche and then Nazca
time. Their buildings and of a religion that placated the gods It is difficult to date the early peoples succeeded them, both leaving
artistic works still inspire through offerings and eased the civilizations of the central Andes a rich artistic legacy of temples,
us today. sufferings of daily life through worship. region, but the first, the Chavin, with pottery, and textiles.

SOUTH
AND CentralandSouth America
AMERICA
CENTRAL

Chavin
PERU, c1300-c200 BCE MOCHE PERU, cO-c600 CE
There has always been debate about the The Moche people of northern
Chavin culture of the eastern Andes in coastal Peru built up a substantial
TO
1400
YCE Peru, but most historians believe that the civilization based on the city of
R
civilization began in the coastal regions Moche, near modern-day Trujillo
ISTO | around 1300 &ceE and then spread to the in Peru. The enormous Huaca
highlands, reaching its culmination in the del Sol, or Pyramid of the Sun,
temple complex of Chavin de Huantar dominated the valley. Built of
PREH after 850 BCE. adobe (mud) bricks, it now
The stone-block temple faces out over measures 40 metres high and
a large sunken plaza while a staircase 350 metres long, although it was
leads down to a sunken circular court much bigger when it was built.
lined with stone blocks carved with Opposite it is the smaller Pyramid
jaguars and other creatures. The outside of the Moon. The two pyramids
walls of the temple feature carved being the focus of Moche religion.
heads of gods, the only works of three- The Moche were skilled
dimensional sculpture in the temple. potters, textile workers, and
Canals once ran through the temple, goldsmiths. They decorated their
providing water for ritual purposes. ceramics with high-relief
modelling, low-relief stamping,
» Raimondi Stone Chavin deities adopt the and scenes painted on to flat
features of tropical forest creatures, in this case surfaces. Most vessels were
the jaguar, carved on a standing stone. 460-300sce, handcrafted, although some
stone, height 2m, Museo Nacional de Antropologia y were made in moulds, showing
Arqueologia, Lima, Peru a wide variety of shapes and
decorative styles.
These craftsmen also
produced hundreds of portrait
heads like the one pictured. They A Vessel Moche ceramic vessels often had a stirrup
are unique in that every face is spout through which to pour out the liquid, and depicted
completely different. either Moche men, as in this case, or the heads of deities.
Ceramic, Museo del Banco Central de Reserva, Lima, Peru
Maya
YUCATAN, 300-900 cE
The Maya rose to prominence around 530 ce. In pre-Columbian America they
were the only people to construct a fully literate and numerate culture. They
were based in the Yucutan and Petén peninsula of southern Mexico and
Guatemala but their impact was felt throughout the wider region.
The Maya lived in a series of city-states, of which Tikal, at more than 16 square
kilometres, was one of the greatest. They constructed tall, limestone temple-
pyramids faced with limestone stucco and decorated with sculptures and
carvings. Later buildings were horizontal and colonnaded. The Maya were also
skilled wall painters, using bright colours, elaborate detailing, and an individual
creativity by the artist when drawing figures that kept within the conventions
of officially commissioned art.

A Temple of the Jaguar One of five temples in

the ceremonial heart of Tikal, the Jaguar Temple
stands in the middle of the complex and has nine
terraces. Causeways and ramps link these
temples to other outlying temples. 700s—800s ce,
stone, height 161m, Tikal, Guatemala
< Wall painting 7he murals at Bonampak cover Se
all four walls of asmall building built by a Maya A Carved lintel from Temple 23, Yaxchilan /he
king. They depict a warring expedition that ruler, Shield Jaguar, watches while his wife, Lady Xoc,
captured and killed their prisoners while the king passes a rope of thorns through her tongue. Blood
performed ritual honours to the gods. c776 CE, letting was practiced by all Mayan rulers. 726 cE, stone, IWYLNAD
GNV
HLNOS
VOINAIN
stucco, Bonampak, Chiapas, Mexico British Museum, London, UK

Nazca Teotihuacan
NAZCA, 400 BCE-600 CE MEXICO, c50 CE-600s CE

The Nazca people of the coastal For almost 600 years, the city of Teotihuacan ruled over Mexico and
deserts of southern Peru established the wider Mesoamerican region. At its height, the city contained
a centralized state based around towns perhaps 125,000 people, making it among the largest in the world at
and ceremonial centres. Their art, often that time. The city was dominated by the 70-metre, fourtiered Pyramid
linked to religion, included delicate of the Sun built over a natural cave that ended in a chamber near the
polychromatic pottery decorated with centre of the pyramid.
decorative motifs. At first these were The exterior of the pyramid and other buildings were covered with
mainly naturalistic representations but white plaster painted with red or polychrome mythical scenes. Artisans OOVL
49
OLAYOLS
included mythic figures and zoomorphic also worked obsidian (a volcanic glass-like rock) to make tools and
subjects. Later pots became less cutlery as well as to use it in masks and other artefacts.
experimental in design and were
decorated with warlike themes. < Anthropomorphic
The most extraordinary artworks were mask [he mask makers of
cut out of the neighbouring desert by Teotihuacan used a variety
removing the dark surface gravel to of natural materials to
reveal the lightercoloured earth “a Bue S create their life-size
underneath, the gravel and stones piled = A Hummingbird The famous lines in the desert depicting animals, images. The masks may
along the edges. The lines can only be birds, and flowers, as well as straight lines and various geometric have been attached to
appreciated properly from the air. and abstract forms, cover more than 500 square kilometres. mummies and might have
200 acE—600 ce, earth drawings, Nazca, Peru been portraits rather
than simply human
< Mantle Nazca weavers representations. Stone,
decorated their textiles with turquoise, obsidian, coral,
repeating geometric or shell, 30x24 cm, Museo
naturalistic figures, often set Nacional de Antropologia,
within a differently coloured Mexico City, Mexico
border. They used a variety of
skills, including embroidery,
brocading, needlework, and
lacework. 0-600 ce, cotton and
camelid fibre, 300x 162 cm,
Brooklyn Museum of Art, US
 system of construction that enabled
large windows to take the place of
solid areas of wall. In painting and
sculpture too, art of the Gothic period
is typically refined, with figures often
The terms “Romanesque” and
having elongated proportions and
“Gothic” were originally applied only
a sense of flowing elegance. Like
to architecture, and although they are
Romanesque art, Gothic art was used
still used mainly in this field, they have
predominantly in the service of the
been extended to cover other arts
Christian Church, although it also had
of their respective periods. The two
secular expressions, particularly when
styles spread all over Europe, taking
it developed into the courtly style
on many different national and local
known as International Gothic.
variations as they did so.
Romanesque CURRENTevents
910 The Benedictine abbey of Cluny
As the name suggests, Romanesque ccimunaiiimaaiaien in Burgundy, France, is established,
architecture revived certain features of A Chartres Cathedral Begun in 1194, Chartres is one initiating a period of monastic reform
Two styles of architecture ancient Roman art, especially its sheer the greatest oftheFrench Gothic Cathedrals, famous throughout Europe.
and art dominated western ambition: Romanesque buildings are for its sculpture and stained glass as wellasforits 962 Otto | iscrowned Roman emperor
. ; ; architecture shown here. by the pope in Rome, setting up the Holy
Europe after 1000. The first often IMMENSE, Expressing anew 2 Roman Empire as the main temporal
was Romanesque, succeeded confidence following a period when Gothic : power in western Europe.
radually during the 1100s by Western Christendom had been Whereas Romanesque architecture 1066 William of Normandy invades and
g uh . hi threatened with destruction. Large- is massive and often overpoweringly conquers England.
the new Gothic style, which scale sculpture similarly was revived, | austere, Gothic architecture at its ead wetitle Be Wpeccecaimpepe
loated in some places until and painting and the “minor arts” most characteristic is soaringly alee °
well into the 16th century. also flourished. graceful, based on a new skeletal

ART es
GOTHIC
AND
ROMANESQUE dGothi t
Gislebertus
ACTIVE FIRST HALF OF 12TH CENTURY v The Last Judgment The awe-inspiring image of Christ, ;
: depicted much larger in scale than all the other figures, dominates
Most Romanesque art is of anonymous workmanship, but the names the tympanum on the west portal. He is shown separating the
of a few artists have survived, notably the great sculptor Gislebertus, blessed (on the left-hand side) from the damned (on the right).
who worked in the Burgundy region of France around 1125. Nothing 1125-35, stone, Cathedral of St Lazare, Autun, France
is recorded about his life or personality, but his name is known because | ; SEER NES
he signed his masterpiece, The Last Judgmentat Autun Cathedral.
Other sculpture at the cathedral is obviously by the same hand, and
on the strength of these works he is regarded as one of the giants
TO
PREHISTORY
1400
cE of medieval art. His style is imaginative and emotionally intense, wit}
an expressive use of distortion that is typical of Romanesque art.
The Last Judgment fills the tympanum (decorative semicircular
area) over the west doorway (the main entrance) of Autun Cathedral.
| In addition Gislebertus carved about sixty capitals (the topmost part of
columns) inside the cathedral and decoration for the north doorway. This
doorway has been destroyed, but fragments of the sculpture survive,
including a famous reclining nude figure of Eve. Gislebertus must have
had assistants when working on such large commissions, but all the
carving at Autun is so distinctive and of such high quality that they were
presumably involved only in fairly menial capacities.

HIGH RELIEF Below the main

} scene are figures of the blessed
being resurrected (left) and the
damned being chased to hell.
, They are carved in high relief,
at times almost detached from
INSCRIPTION The sculptor the background.
cathedral showed the Temptation and Fall. This figure of Eve is prominently signed his name beneath
unique in medieval art, for it shows her in large scale as a iefigureof Christ: Gislebertus hoc
reclining nude. c1125-35, stone, Musée Rolin, Autun, France ecit— “Gilbert made this”.
 W The Klosterneuberg Altar /he altar is the greatest piece of
enamel work of the Middle Ages. Enamel is a glassy substance
that is fused to a metallic background by means of intense heat.
Nicholas of Verdun It can create brilliant colour effects. 1181, gold and enamel,
Klosterneuburg Monastery, Austria
ACTIVE LATE 12TH-EARLY 13TH CENTURY
During the Romanesque and Gothic periods there was no hierarchy
dividing the “major” arts of painting and sculpture from what are now
sometimes described as the “minor” arts, such as metalwork. Indeed,
work in precious materials had great prestige, especially when it was
used in the creation of prominent art for the Church. One of the most
notable artists who produced such work — incorporating classical and
natural elements — was the goldsmith and enameller Nicholas of
Verdun. Nothing is known of his life, apart from the fact that — as his
name indicates — he came from Verdun in France. There are two signed
works by him, both still in the churches for which he made them: the
Klosterneuburg Altar (finished 1181 and originally made to decorate
a pulpit) in Klosterneuburg Abbey, near Vienna; and the Shrine of the
Virgin Mary (1205), which is in Tournai Cathedral, Belgium.

CLOSERI|ook

» Shrine of the Virgin Mary

Tournai Cathedral is dedicated to
the Virgin Mary and this shrine was
made to contain relics relating to
her (although these no longer exist).
BIBLICAL SCENES The VIGOROUS DESIGN COLOUR Different coloured
It is decorated with various scenes altarpiece shows the complex Animals, such as this donkey, enamels are used with great
relating to Mary and Jesus. 1205, relationship between various as well as human figures are effect to tell the biblical
gold and other materials, 78x88 cm, scenes from the Old and the described by Nicolas of Verdun stories, this one showing
Cathédrale de Notre-Dame, New Testament. with engaging vitality. the Nativity. ANOS
GNV
SIHLO
LYV
Tournai, Belgium

NMiosan School Gothic stained glass

MEUSE VALLEY, c1125 TO c1200 c1150 TO 1500

“Mosan” refers to the River Meuse, which flows through parts of Stained glass was first used on an extensive scale during the Romanesque period,
France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. During the 12th century art but it really came of age in the Gothic era, when it was one of the glories of medieval
flourished in the Meuse valley, especially in the area around Liége, and art. As the Gothic style matured and glassmaking technology improved, church
it is to this that the phrase “Mosan School” is applied. Mosan artists windows grew to huge size, encouraging stained-glass designers to develop their art.
were particularly renowned for their lavish metalwork and enamelwork, It flourished particularly in France, but also in other countries of northern and western
but other skills, including ivory carving and manuscript illumination, Europe, not least England (it was of comparatively marginal importance in Italy, where
also developed in the area, which was very prosperous at this time. the Gothic style was never fully assimilated and wall painting remained the primary
Several leading Mosan artists are form of church decoration). The cathedrals of Chartres and Canterbury are among the OLAYO
0OVL
49
known by name, notably Nicholas buildings that are especially renowned for their glass. Early Gothic stained glass has a
of Verdun. Although Mosan art magnificent grandeur and boldness, with strong, pure colours, but from the 15th century
comes within the broader category it tended to imitate the effects of painting, gaining in subtlety but often losing in vigour.
of Romanesque art, it has certain
distinct features, particularly in the
treatment of the human figure. SAAS
WA CER

Instead of the free

use of distortion
and exaggeration
found in much
Romanesque art,
work of the Mosan
School has an almost
walDi
Pi » (2
classical dignity in
its figure style.

A Scene from the Life of St Thomas a

» Cross Attributed to
Becket he murder of Archbishop Thomas
Godefroid de Huy. Godefroid
a Becket in 1170 in his own cathedral turned
was famous in his time as
Canterbury into a pilgrimage site. The
a goldsmith, but attributions
windows in the Trinity Chapel behind the
to him are highly speculative.
high altar depict scenes from his life. c1220,
c1130-50, gold, enamel, and other
stained glass, Trinity Chapel, Canterbury
materials British Museum, A Noah's Ark Jhis is part of a large Paki depicting the
Cathedral, UK
London, UK Old Testament story of Noah and the flood. c1200-20, stained glass,
Chartres Cathedral, France
 forms in painting, and sculptural
types included pulpits and statues
Italy at this time was not a unified of saints. However, secular subjects
country, but was made up of a were beginning to emerge, notably
number of small states. It was much in the decoration of civic buildings
more urbanized than other parts of such as town halls.
Europe and the major cities competed
in many ways, including artistic Style and techniques
patronage. They wanted their churches During this period, Italian painters
and civic buildings to be bigger and established ways of working that
better than those of their rivals, and endured for centuries. The two
Italian art of the late 13th they wanted to have them decorated standard techniques of painting
by the best available artists. A St John Baptizing This guilded bronze panel from were tempera (in which the colours
and 14th centuries differs a set of doors by Andrea Pisano, was designed around are mixed with egg) and fresco.
fundamentally from that 1330-36 for the Florence Baptistery, a commission
Origins and influences expressing great civic pride. Tempera was used on wooden panels,
produced elsewhere in Europe and fresco is a method of wall painting
Various currents flowed through Italian
at the time. While art in other art in the early 14th century, including otherworldliness of Byzantine art in which paint is applied to fresh wet
countries was predominantly influences from the Gothic style, began to be softened by a new plaster. Many artists were masters
of anonymous authorship, which was dominant in most of naturalism and humanity, looking of both techniques.
Europe, and from Byzantine culture. forward to the Renaissance. In sculpture, the materials for the
in Italy there were numerous
Constantinople (Byzantium) was most prestigious works were marble
painters and sculptors who
captured by Crusaders in 1204, and Subjects and bronze. Sometimes the bronze
are known by name and who this increased the contact between Religion was a major inspiration to was gilded (covered with a thin layer
left a body of documented Italian and Byzantine art. In the later artists at this time: altarpieces and of gold), an expensive and time-
or firmly attributed works. 14th century, however, the austere church frescos were the dominant consuming process.

Early Italian art

lg
ART
ITALIAN
EARLY
Nicola and Giovanni Pisano
<< Pulpit Giovanni’s pulpit
NICOLA: b APULIA, ¢1220; d PISA, c1278-84;
GIOVANNI: b PISA, 1245-50; d SIENA, c1314-19 is similar in basic format to
his father’s in the nearby
Nicola and Giovanni Pisano, father and son, were the first great Baptistery. But the style of
personalities in the history of Italian sculpture. They are often seen as the carving is a total contrast:
counterparts of their near contemporary Giotto (see p.86) in painting, crowded and dynamic
even though their work was not quite so momentous as his. They where Nicola’s is weighty
occasionally worked together but mainly had separate commissions. and serene. 1302-10,
These included a series of four magnificent pulpits, two by Nicola marble, height 4.6m, Pisa
1400
TO
PREHISTORY
cE and two by Giovanni, in the Baptistery at Pisa (1259), Siena Cathedral Cathedral, Italy
(1265-68), S. Andrea, Pistoia (1300-01), and Pisa Cathedral (1302-10).
» Virgin and Child
The first of these is Nicola's masterpiece, showing a strength and
Giovanni carved this
dignity that reflects the influence of ancient Roman sculpture.
sculpture for the Scrovegni
Giovanni's style was more emotional and energetic than his father’s Chapel, where Giotto
and sometimes had a Gothic elegance. In addition to his pulpits, his painted his famous fresco
work included the rich sculptural decoration of the facade of Siena cycle (see p.86). Mother and
Cathedral, of which he was also the architect. baby hold each other's gaze
with a tenderness quite
different from that ina
typical medieval portrayal,
in which symbolic gesture
SERIook was more important than
a MASSACRE OF human feeling. c1305, marble,
THE INNOCENTS Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy
® King Herod presides
m over his order to kill
all the male infants in
Bethlehem. Below him
is a scene of horrific

« Adoration of the Magi One of the six reliefs

around Nicolas pulpit shows the three kings
worshipping Jesus. The Virgin Mary has the dignity
and grandeur of a Roman noblewoman as she holds
up the baby to the kings, while their horses look on.
1259, marble, pulpit height 4.6m, Baptistery, Pisa, Italy
 v Madonna Enthroned
Cimabue Cimabue gives the Madonna Ambrogio and Pietro Lorenzetti
ACTIVE TUSCANY, 1272-1302 a tender humanity, and
AMBROGIO: ACTIVE SIENA, 1320-45; PIETRO: ACTIVE SIENA, 1319-48
the prophets below are
“Cimabue” is a nickname meaning “Ox-head’ perhaps individualized to a degree These two brothers were among the leading Sienese painters of their time. They
indicating that the artist had an aggressive personality; his not previously seen in sometimes collaborated but mainly worked independently; both may have died in
real name was Cenni di Peppi. Very little is known of his life Byzantine art. c1280-90, an epidemic of the plague in 1348. Most of their work is on religious subjects, but
and works, but he was probably the leading Italian painter tempera on panel, there is one great exception — Ambrogio’s fresco cycle on Good and Bad Government
in the generation before Giotto, and he may well 390 x220cm, Uffizi, (1338-39) in Siena’s Palazzo Pubblico (town hall). This is one of the most original works
have been Giotto's teacher, as early sources Florence, Italy of its time in all European art, showing remarkable panoramic views of town and
suggest. In one of these sources, Giorgio country, with many beautifully observed details of contemporary life. The frescoes
Vasari's Lives of the Artists (1550), occupy three walls of the large room where the counsellors who governed Siena
he is described as the first Italian held their meetings.
painter to break with Byzantine
tradition. The works that are
usually attributed to him include
a magnificent panel of the
Madonna Enthroned (c1280-90),
painted for the church of Santa
Trinita, Florence.

CLOSERIook |]
ANGELS The angels’ Pigs ala
gold haloes set off the
Madonna's blue robe.
The gold would have
glinted in the light of A Good Government in the City
the church for which This is part of one of the side walls PEOPLE AT WORK To
this altarpiece was of the council's meeting room. It show how well-ordered
made. The solemn moves seamlessly into a scene the city is, bustling
expressions follow ‘ citizens are busily at
depicting Good Government in the
Byzantine tradition, but 1 work everywhere, even
Country beyond the city wall on the
there is an elegance on the rooftops. These
right of the picture. 1338-39, fresco,
and a delicacy of touch @ human figures also give
that is personal.
overall length 14m, Sala della Pace,
a sense of scale to the
Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, Italy magnificent architectural
panorama of Siena. AlYV3
NVITVL
LYV

b UNKNOWN; d SIENA, 1318/19

Duccio was the greatest and most influential of all .
Sienese painters, his flowing draughtsmanship and
wonderfully subtle and expressive colouring inspired
followers for generations. There is only one surviving
work that is fully documented as his, but this is one
of the supreme masterpieces of Italian art — a huge
double-sided altarpiece (finished 1311) painted for Siena
Cathedral. The central scene on the front is known OLAYO
OOVL
JD
as the Maesta (“Majesty”) and there are numerous
smaller front and back panels, mainly showing scenes
from Christ's life. Most of the altarpiece survives in
Siena Cathedral's museum, but a few panels are lost
or have been dispersed to collections outside Italy.

N
RES,

<( Reverse side of the A The Madonna Enthroned /n the central CLOSERIook
Maesta /he back of the main panel of the Maesta altarpiece, Duccio alters
panel shows 26 scenes from the Byzantine tradition, with expressive glances
the life of Christ: the 11 here rather than stylized faces, and fluid instead of
are on the left-hand side of stiff drapery. Around the base of the throne is an
the altarpiece. They include the inscription: “Holy Mother of God, be the cause of
entry of Christ into Jerusalem peace to Siena, and of life to Duccio because he
on the bottom left, and, next to has painted you thus.” Completed 1311, tempera on
it, Jesus washing the feet of the panel, 213x396cm, Museo dell’Opera del Duomo,
disciples and the Last Supper. Siena, Italy €

Completed 1311, tempera on focuses the eye on the centrally placed

panel, Museo dell’Opera del Madonna and Child. They are the largest
Duomo, Siena, Italy figures, because they are the most important.
Saints and angels are ranked on either side.
 ct, Giotto di Bondone, trained under
his master, he replaced the Byzantine
lism. Giotto rediscovered how to
dimensional, using artistic devices that
ssical Greek world. However, achieving
spective and light and shade, was not
1 was merely the tool he used for his
ory with all its human pathos and drama.
eciated in his own lifetime, and he was
it Italy. Despite the plague ravaging

A Scrovegni Chapel /his chape! was

commissioned by a local banker, Enrico Scrovegni,
and stands next to his palace in Padua. Giotto’s
frescoes fill the interior. 1305-06, Padua, Italy

< The Nativity Giotto uses vivid colour to make

the story of the birth of Christ come alive. The
robe of Joseph, who is seated in the foreground,
is intense yellow in its shadows and lightened
ART
ITALIAN
EARLY with white for highlights. c1305, fresco, Scrovegni
Chapel, Padua, Italy

ipant, worshipping the

19s. The rounded
ture. c1305, fresco

Crucifix Emotion and suffering were part of

nbolism that Giotto inherited.

sh death pallor contrasts with the blood

the wc Cruc ‘sh | fe Yd A The Lamentation of Christ Giotto uses the composition to
ne were hung high up in churches So a 5 igh bring out the poignancy of this scene, in which Christ's mother and
lat all the congreg d see them. c1 / ’ followers mourn over his dead body. The ridge swoops down from
| tempera on par 5.1 ta Maria Novella, i! f p j ‘ right to left, and John the Baptists arms swept back contribute to
| Florence, Italy care [ eae the downward thrust towards the prostrate figure of Christ. The
c. single tree is a medieval symbol of death and may also represent
the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden. c1305, fresco,
Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy
 Simone Martini
b SIENA?, 1284?; d AVIGNON, 1344

Simone Martini probably trained under Duccio, and,

like his master, he is one of the greatest Sienese
painters. His most famous work is The Annunciation
(1333), which he was commissioned to make for Siena
Cathedral to partner Duccio’s Maesta (1311). The
Annunciation is normally jointly assigned to Simone
and his brotherin-law, Lippo Memmi.
Simone shared Duccio’s interest in colourful pattern,
but his style was more Gothic than Byzantine. The
delicate grace and decorative detail of The Annunciation
appealed to the French, and he spent the last 10 years
of his life working in Avignon. Here, his work paved
the way for the International Gothic style, adopted by
French and other European manuscript illuminators
and painters.

V The Annunciation Flanked by two local patron saints of

Siena, the angel Gabriel tells a hesitant Mary that she is to be
visited by the Holy Ghost — the dove in the centre — and will
become the mother of God's son, Jesus Christ. 1333, tempera on
panel, 300x270cm, Uffizi, Florence, Italy

ATYVW4
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io) J
9
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i
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ss

@
a
<
CLOSERIook at

ANGEL GABRIEL The oO

words “Hail Mary, full of is
grace, the Lord is with you” oO
ro)
in Latin stream in gold from
fe)
Gabriel’s mouth, and further m

words from the Hail Mary,

a key prayer of Catholicism,
are written in the hem of his
robes. Gabriel holds an olive
branch, a symbol of peace.

< St Martin Shares

his Cloak with a
Beggar /his scene of
generosity is part of a
fresco cycle on the life
of the saint. Simone
gives the action a
CLOSERI|ook
THE ANGELS While MOTHER AND SON contemporary castle
the earth-bound figures The emotional weight of entrance setting. 1326,
are frozen in anguish, the tableau is off-centre, fresco, Lower Church of
the angels move freely in the grief-stricken features S. Francesco, Assisi, Italy
* in the sky. However, of the Virgin Mary as she
their faces mirror the sees her son for the last
grief below. Each angel time. The haggard strain
has an expression as on her face contrasts with
individual as its pose, the deathly calm on his,
and all of them lead the especially as she is
eye to Mary and Jesus. awkwardly hunched over
_ for this close caress
 Pv AAMC,

(\\
\
aN

Origins and influences

The term “International Gothic”
describes a medley of trends that
affected the art of various countries ‘\OWARED ammnANT ee |
in the period from about 1380 to 1430. DE GON gt
4 7, ;e |
|
Elegance of pose and gesture typical " i

of the Gothic style of northern Europe

were combined with a new interest in
naturalistic detail. Such fashions were
spread by the increased mobility of
Jewel-bright colours, slender, A Portrait medal of Gianfrancesco Gonzaga
artists and by the rivalry between
elongated figures in elaborate by Pisanello. The solidity and clarity exemplify
courts in making extravagant displays nominally religious, they contain a Renaissance values, but the delicate observation
costumes, and nature observed of wealth. wealth of beautifully observed detail of plants is typical of International Gothic.
and recorded in minute detail of the everyday world.
all characterize the charmed Subjects Magi, for example, make abundant
world of International Gothic. Religion continued to be the mainstay Style and techniques use of gold leaf and are painted with
of art in this period, but secular International Gothic art is often exquisite sensitivity. There is also
Artists of the time blended
subjects increased in importance, conspicuously luxurious — created for often a strong element of fantasy,
elements from Italy and for example in the manuscript as in the architectural background
rich and sophisticated patrons who
northern Europe into a illuminations of the Limbourg brothers. appreciated beautiful craftsmanship. of Pisanello's St George Rescuing
sophisticated idiom. Although the books they created were The Wilton Diptych and Adoration of the the Princess of Trebizond.

ART International Gothic art

GOTHIC
INTERNATIONAL

Pisanello
b PISA?, c1394; d ROME?, 1455?

Tantalizingly little remains of the frescoes and panel paintings of Antonio

Pisano, nicknamed Pisanello (“the little Pisan”). He and Gentile da
Fabriano were Italy's leading International Gothic artists, and they
collaborated on frescoes in the Doges’ Palace in Venice. Unfortunately,
these have not survived. Pisanello worked in various other cities in Italy,
| including the northern courts of Ferrara, ruled by the Este family, and
Mantua, ruled by the Gonzagas.
1400
TO
PREHISTORY
cE In addition to being an outstanding painter, Pisanello is notable as the
inventor and perhaps the finest of all exponents of the portrait medal. He
was also a superb draughtsman, and many of his drawings of animals
survive. The accuracy of his studies shows that close scrutiny of nature
could sit side by side with the courtly, gem-like style of painting.

« Portrait of a Lady /here are

many romantic theories about this
painting. The sitter could be Ginevra
d Este, identified by the juniper
(ginepro in Italian) on her shoulder
— in folklore, it was said to protect
against early death. She died in
1439, aged 22, rumour had it after Ripe ‘
being poisoned by her husband, e é oe ee tes
Sigismondo Malatesta, Lord of = a ae
Rimini. c1436-38, oil on panel, A St George Rescuing the Princess of Trebizond
43x 30cm, Louvre, Paris This is one of only two surviving frescoes documented
as Pisanello’s work. The golden-haired St George has
» Guinea Fowl Pisanellos dismounted after slaying the dragon that held the
drawings include many lively princess captive. She is seen in profile, wearing all her
studies of birds and other animals. royal splendour. Originally his armour and her train
Pen and ink and watercolour on paper, would have sparkled with gold and silver, but it has
Louvre, Paris, France been damaged by water seepage. c1433-38, fresco,
Sant'Anastasia, Verona, Italy
Gentile da Fabriano
b FABRIANO, c1385?; d ROME, 1427
Along with Pisanello, Gentile is the most renowned Italian painter to
exemplify International Gothic. Little of his work has survived, however,
and his reputation largely rests on one piece — the Adoration of the
Magi (1423), a large altarpiece made for the Strozzi chapel in the
church of S.Trinita in Florence. Within its elaborate, pinnacled frame,
a cavalcade follows the three kings to worship the newly born Jesus in
the left foreground. A golden light unifies the painting, complementing
the gilt frame, tooled haloes, and embroidered patterns on the kings’
robes. Gentile’s blend of naturalistic light and decorative detail
influenced later painters, such as Jacopo Bellini and Fra Angelico.

» Adoration of the Magi /he kings in the foreground

represent old age (kneeling), middle age (bowing), and
youth (standing). Behind the standing king is Palla Strozzi,
the Florentine banker who commissioned the work. 1423,
tempera on panel, 303 x 282cm, Uffizi, Florence, Italy

CLOSERI|ook

THE NATIVITY The predella — the three THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT In
panels below the central image — shows the central predella panel, Mary
further episodes from Christ's infancy. Gentile carries Jesus on a donkey through
uses light rather than line to show form. The _a Tuscan-style landscape. Fra
light also has a symbolic element — it comes _ Angelico repeated this composition
from the baby Jesus himself. 30 years later. TIWNOI
DIHLOD
LYV

Paul, Herman, and Jean de Limbourg Master of the Wilton Diptych

ACTIVE 1402-16 DATES UNKNOWN
The Limbourg brothers were The Wilton Diptych gets its name from Wilton House in Wiltshire,
Netherlandish manuscript illuminators, England, where it was in the collection of the Earls of Pembroke for
and their work is the epitome of the more than two centuries before being bought by the National Gallery
International Gothic style. The colours in 1929. It is one of the most famous and beautiful paintings of its
are bright, with lavish use of blue and time, but nothing is known of its origins, and the identity (and even the
gold. The detail is naturalistic and minute, nationality) of the artist is unknown. Almost certainly, however, it was
probably painted with the aid of a painted for King Richard || of England (reigned 1377-99) for his personal
magnifying glass; figures are gracefully use. Small hinged altarpieces like this could be closed like a book, OLAYOL
0OVL
49
elongated; the nobility wear fantastic carried on travels, and opened up when the owner wanted to pray.
finery, while peasants work the fields. The unidentified artist who created this radiant masterpiece was most
The brothers’ main patron,was Jean, likely English or French, but other nationalities have been suggested.
Duc de Berry, a great manuscript
collector for whom they produced two
illuminated Books of Hours: selections
of prayers and readings. They contain
illustrations of various types, but the
most remarkable are the full-page
depictions of the months in the second
book, the Tres Riches Heures.
All three brothers died in the same
year — 1416 — probably of the plague,
leaving the Trés Riches Heures
unfinished. It was completed by the
French illuminator Jean Colombe about
70 years later.

» December, Hunting Wild Boar /n this

page from the Trés Riches Heures, a swathe of
trees separates the foreground hunt from the
background towers. Signs of the zodiac appear
at the top of each page devoted to a month.
A The Wilton Diptych Backed by John the Baptist
1411-16, gouache on parchment, 23x 14cm, Musée
(carrying the lamb) and two canonized former kings
Condé, Chantilly, France
of England, Richard II kneels in frontofMary, Jesus,
and a host of angels. c1395, tempera on panel, each
wing 53x37cm, National Gallery, London, UK
 The Renaissance, a revival of the cultural ideals of ancient
Greece and Rome, flowered during the 15th and 16th centuries
in Europe. Based on a new scientific spirit of observation,
painting and sculpture became more naturalistic and artists
used perspective to portray a three-dimensional world, rather
than the spiritual space depicted by medieval artists.

ITALIAN RENAISSANCE 1400-1525

4

3
Beis
FLEMISH RENAISSANCE 1400-1540

GERMAN RENAISSANCE c1440-c1540

MING DYNASTY (CHINA) 1368-1644

MUROMACHI PERIOD (JAPAN) 1333-1573

INCAS 1220s-1533

AZTECS 1325-1521
The Renaissance started in Italy, where wealthy bankers In the 1520s the classical harmony of the High
lave Maat=)ceatelayesmere)nalaalissi(e)alcvom ey<lialdlalesomcvelel| o)(0lc=\oear=] ale] Renaissance began to break down as Mannerism
frescoes for churches and palaces. Figures in paintings emerged. This was a sophisticated style in which poses,
became more realistic and sculptures of the nude were colours, and perspective were exaggerated.
based on anatomical study. The development of oil paint Art also blossomed in the Far East during this period.
freed artists from the limitations of egg tempera and Under the Ming Dynasty in China, artists painted vast
enabled them to experiment with layers of colour. In landscapes, flower and bird compositions, and narrative
Flanders and Germany, artists produced masterful paintings, using ink wash and calligraphy. In Japan,
altarpieces and realistic portraits. Landscape became evocative ink paintings and screens featuring scenes on
a new genre, with nature depicted in minute detail. gold backgrounds showed the influence of Zen philosophy.

centuries
1525 1550 eS |).

eT 3

HIGH RENAISSANCE 1500-1520s

VENETIAN RENAISSANCE 1450-1580

AeA GS a ae EI I an PI EE DE NE RE SR EGET EEE III pe

MANNERISM 1520-c1610

AZUCHI-MOMOYAMA PERIOD (JAPAN) 1573-1615

 inherited their wealth and position,
the new middle classes had achieved
their status themselves. Instead
of bowing to inevitable death and
Origins and Influences focusing on the afterlife, they took
For the first time since Renaissance means “rebirth” and pride in their contribution to society
classical antiquity, painting the idea stems from the 14th-century in this life. Part of this involved a good
Italian poet Petrarch. He divided education in classical law, rhetoric,
gave a convincing illusion of
history into ages: the golden age of and philosophy. This cultural shift was
three dimensions, with solid- labelled humanism in the 19th century.
classical antiquity; the dark age after
looking figures set in a unified the Roman Empire collapsed; and his A Cathedral dome Filippo Brunelleschi The huge
space. The figures have noble own modern age, when the values of _dome of Florence cathedral, built from 1417 to 1436, was Subjects
a remarkable feat of engineering and the most prominent
proportions and features and antiquity were “reborn” symbol of the city’s leadership in cultural affairs. Christianity remained as strong as
Although classical texts had in fact ever and religious subjects were the
show believable emotions.
been important throughout the Middle Alongside an intellectual rebirth, most common themes in art. Some
While Florentines approached
Ages, Petrarch believed that he and the economy in the Italian city-states were highly critical of corruption in the
art intellectually, Venetians his contemporaries had revived Greek flourished. By 1400 merchants and Catholic Church, ultimately leading to
revelled in the luscious colour and Roman ideals and thought after bankers were the most powerful the Protestant Reformation in the 16th
of oil paint. a period of cultural stagnation. citizens. Unlike aristocrats who century. From the mid-15th century,

italian Renaissance
TIMEline c1413-17
es 1425-28 1430-32
lant
Donatello's St George looks like
a purposeful young man, and his
friend Masaccio’s Holy Trinity
has a powerful new sense of
RENAISSANCE
ITALIAN
space. Piero’s Dream added
light for drama, while Botticelli’s
Venus reflected the culture of |
the Medici court. David, Mona ee:
Lisa, and the School of Athens
of the High Renaissance giants
Michelangelo, Leonardo, and
Raphael show the realization
f ig
of the naturalistic aims of their PIERO DELLA
predecessors. Titian’s Venus MASACCIO FRANCESCA
BOTTICELLI The Birth of Venus
is a Venetian match for them. DONATELLO Holy Trinity The Dream of
St George Constantine

Schools decisively breaking with the Gothic style

(see p.82), while his friends Donatello and
Throughout the 15th century Florence was Masaccio brought a new naturalism to their
Italy's most innovative and productive art respective arts. They and their successors
CENTURIES
16TH
AND
15TH
centre, but in the 16th century Rome and flourished in a stimulating environment, for
Venice rivalled it in importance. Several Florence was extremely prosperous and the
other leading cities — including Mantua, bankers and merchants who created its
Milan, and Padua — had impressive artistic wealth were often generous (and competitive)
traditions, and numerous smaller places patrons of art, helping to create a constant
were significant, notably Urbino, which flow of major commissions. The city was a
had a brief but brilliant cultural flowering. republic, but from 1434 it was, in effect,
ruled by the Medici family. Its members
Florence included several of the leading patrons of
Florence is often described as the cradle of the age. Sandro Botticelli, Michelangelo,
the Renaissance. In the early 15th century Benvenuto Cellini, and Agnolo Bronzino are
it was home to a remarkable group of artists among the host of illustrious artists who
who brought about a revolution in style and worked for them.
set the agenda for much of what followed.
Masaccio in painting, Donatello in sculpture, Rome
and Brunelleschi in architecture were the For much of the early Renaissance Rome
A The Holy Family with a Lamb Raphael
His early works included intimate and tender
most influential of these figures. Brunelleschi was of secondary importance. Because
religious images like this. In Rome, his style
revived the decorative vocabulary and lucid of anarchic political conditions there, the became grander. 1507, oil on panel, 29x 21cm,
harmony of ancient Roman architecture, papacy transferred its court to Avignon in Prado, Madrid, Spain
France from 1309 to 1377 and it was not
“Adam and Eve Banished from Paradise
Masaccio Adam and Eve look like real people, distraught until the reign of Pope Martin V (1417-31)
at being thrown out of the Garden of Eden. Previously, that Rome began to stabilize and emerge
the fall from grace had been presented more from this bleak period. His successors
symbolically. c1425~-28, fresco, Brancacci Chapel, included some notable patrons, who started
Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, Italy
rebuilding Rome and attracted major artists
to the city (Giulio Romano is the only
 <The Dead Christ Supported
by an Angel Antonello da Messina
This Sicilian artist's use of oil paint
to give a strong sense of atmosphere
made an impact in Venice. c1475-78,
oil on panel, 74x 51cm, Prado,
portraits reflected the new sense Madrid, Spain
of self-worth. Patrons also collected
art with mythological themes to CURRENTevents
enjoy at home. 1492 Florentine ruler Lorenzo de’
Medici dies. Preacher Girolamo
Savonarola takes advantage of the
Style and techniques power vacuum, possibly influencing
Painting and sculpture became Michelangelo among others. “Pagan”
works of art are burned in street
realistic, representing the living, bonfires. |
visible world rather than, as in 1498 Savonarola is executed. After
medieval art, symbolically portraying a brief spell as a republic, the Medici,
the heavenly realm. Discovery of absent since 1494, return to power
in Florence in 1512.
the laws of perspective put art
1527 |n the Sack of Rome, Holy
on a rational footing that showed Roman Emperor Charles V's troops
mathematically calculated depth and and Protestant mercenaries loot
WAN i —y" the city’s art treasures and murder
proportion. Technically, the use of oil
A Detail he angels sorrowful face with eyes cast many inhabitants.
paint freed artists from the constraints down and tears running down his cheeks makes a
of quick-drying egg tempera. poignant expression of bereavement.

1501-04 c1509-11
190
c1503-05

NVITVLI
JONVSS

We|

: LEONARDO DA
oO VINCI Mona Lisa CORREGGIO
LINE San Giobbe MICHELANGEL
piece David RAPHAEL The School of Athens Jupiter and lo TITIAN Venus of Urbino

outstanding artist of the period who was other painters of the next generation, including
born there). The greatest of these papal Giorgione and Titian. Other artists, notably
patrons was Julius II (1503-13), who began Jacopo Tintoretto and Paolo Veronese,
the rebuilding of St Peter’s Basilica, with continued this age of Venetian painting
HL9L
SSIYNLN
HLSt
GNV
Donato Bramante as his architect, and almost to the end of the 16th century.
employed Michelangelo and Raphael on
frescoes in the Vatican. These three artists,
together with Leonardo da Vinci, were
largely responsible for creating the grand,
noble High Renaissance style. The golden
age it represented ended when Rome was
sacked by troops of the Emperor Charles V
in 1527. By the end of the 16th century the
city had recovered and was the most
important art centre in the country.

Venice
Venice was enormously wealthy because A Pieta Giovanni Bellini Be lini put Venice on the artistic ~
of maritime trade, but it lagged behind as map with the strength of his colour and atmosphere,
an art centre until the late 15th century, contrasting with the Florentine emphasis on line. c1505,
when it was transformed, largely through oil on panel, 65x87cm, Galleria dell’ Accademia, Venice, Italy
the work of Giovanni Bellini. He matched
» Danae Titian Loose brushwork and mellow colour
the skill of his Italian contemporaries, and make Titian’s retelling of classical myths soft and
also gave Venetian art a particular character, sensuous. Here Zeus seduces Danae in the guise of
showing a concern with colour and light that a shower ofgold. c1554, oil on canvas, 135x 152cm,
contrasted with the Florentine emphasis on Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria
line. Bellini ran a busy workshop and passed
on his methods and ideals to his pupils and
 Lorenzo Ghiberti
b FLORENCE, 'c1380; d FLORENCE, 1455 LIFEline
Lorenzo Ghiberti's breakthrough came in 1401, when as a 1401 |n his early 20s, wins
young and little-known goldsmith he defeated Brunelleschi commission to decorate the
(opposite) and five others in a competition set by the Cloth
North doors of the INcontext
Baptistery in Florence CITY GUILDS By 1400, there were seven
Importers’ Guild of Florence. The prize was a commission 1413-17 Makes first of main guilds in Florence, each representing a
to decorate the North doors of the city’s Baptistery, three large bronze statues key trade or profession. They wielded great
Self-portrait situated in front of the cathedral. The reliefs for the pair of saints for the Orsanmiche
power, and only guild members could hold '
of bronze doors took him 23 years to complete. The result — 1424 The completed North
government office. Luckily for the arts, rivalry [=
closer to International Gothic than Renaissance in its elegant lines, doors are hung
meant that the guilds vied to commission I
rhythmic drapery, and detailed landscape — was so successful that the 1425 Embarks on second
the best sculptors to decorate their buildings.
pair of doors for the
guild commissioned a further pair of doors for the East entrance. Dubbed All the guilds competed to decorate the
Baptistery's East entrance
the “Gates of Paradise” by Michelangelo, they were ahead of their time niches of Or San Michele, a combined guild
1440 Writes Commentarii,
for their clever spacing of figures within varying depths of relief. Ghiberti one of the first art history hall, granary, and church near Florence
moved on from his Gothic roots in his designs for the second pair of books and the first surviving cathedral. Ghiberti was commissioned
doors. His later reliefs put him in the vanguard of the Renaissance use autobiography of an artist to make larger-than-life bronze statues
of perspective. While the doors took up most of Ghiberti’s career, he 1452 Finishes East doors of St John the Baptist, St Matthew,
claimed that “few works of importance were made in our city that were and St Stephen.
not designed or devised by my hand” Indeed, some of the best artists
of the day trained in his workshop. Portal for the Tailors’ and Drapers’ Guild,
Museo di San Marco, Florence, Italy

> North doors Surrounded by

a frieze of foliage, the 28 relief
panels illustrate a cycle of New
Testament subjects. Ghiberti’s
panels were modelled on Andrea
Pisanos earlier doors for the
Baptistery. Each panel is in the
Gothic shape of a quatrefoil,
consisting of four lobes and
points —a tricky space to fill.
The decoration surrounding the
panels incorporates the heads of
prophets and sibyls and Ghiberti’s
self-portrait. 1424, part-gilded
RENAISSANCE
ITALIAN
ronze, Baptistery, Florence, Italy

CLOSERIook jf
A The Sacrifice of Isaac Ghibertis winning
entry for the design of the North doors was cast
in one piece, except for the naked figure of Isaac.
This use of metal was economical and unified
the sculpture. Ghiberti uses the diagonal of the
rocky landscape to separate and balance the
subordinate attendants and their donkey and the
key characters. The turning figures of Abraham
and his son Isaac gracefully echo each others
movements. 1401, bronze, Bargello, Florence, Italy

CENTURIES
16TH
AND
15TH
THE TRANSFIGURATION,
NINTH PANEL The disciples
are shown falling to the ground
as Christ reveals His divine
nature, flanked by the prophets
Moses and Elijah. Ghiberti uses
the quatrefoil's lower lobes as
a dividing point between the
standing and prone figures.
:
«
ee PI OL zaleeee
Fyre = eT—— . te Fis

moO _~a _» Sh i ws Miedo ™

A Cain and Abel /n this pane! from the East

doors, Ghiberti uses subtle gradations of relief
to suggest receding depth and represent different
aspects of the story. Cain cudgels Abel to death
with convincing brutality: Ghiberti has moved on
from symbolic Gothic gestures. Completed 1452,
gilded bronze, 52x 45cm, Baptistery, Florence, Italy
 Y Creation of Eve /n most
Filippo Brunelleschi |Jacopo della Quercia Oi Giele Rovene aoa anes
Jacopo used only three figures,
b FLORENCE, 1377; d FLORENCE, 1446 b SIENA, c1374; d SIENA, 1438 interpreting them with individual
character. Begun 1425, marble,
After Brunelleschi lost out to Ghiberti in the competition | Jacopo hovers between the medieval and the classical: heavy Gothic
S. Petronio, Bologna, Italy
to design the doors to the Florence Baptistery in 1401, folds of drapery grow increasingly fluid, and the figures have a sense
he devoted himself mainly to architecture. A former of volume and muscle that stems from Roman sources. The leading
goldsmith, he is credited with discovering the sculptor of the Sienese school (more conservative than trend-setting
mathematical laws of perspective. His mathematical Florence), Jacopo worked in many Italian cities, often moving on
skills and knowledge of Roman construction enabled before completing a commission.
him to design the vast dome of the Florence Cathedral, Jacopo was influenced by Donatello, and both contributed bronze
which spans 45m without supports. His revival of reliefs for the marble font in the Siena Baptistery. Jacopo lagged
Roman architectural forms shaped the Renaissance, behind schedule, and his Annunciation to Zacharias owed a debt to
and his perspective laws were soon applied to painting. Donatello's already completed Feast of Herod in its portrayal of space
and depth. His last work was a commission for a series of relief
scenes from Genesis and Christ's nativity for the doors of S. Petronio,
Bologna. In the ultimate accolade, Michelangelo reinterpreted some
of them on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

LIFEline LE SILALAPSAOSIN
~~ es rea
1401 Enters competition for
the Florence Baptistery doors
1405 Receives commission
for first known work
1408 Commissioned to carve
the Fonte Gaia in Siena =
1417-30 Works on reliefs a
for Siena Baptistery font ae
1425 Begins the portal of oO
S. Petronio in Bologna us
=

J > Fonte
on Gaia Jacopos ‘
lb saa. A meena sculptures for the fountain =
A The Sacrifice of Isaac /n Brunelleschis version in Siena’ city square show a x
—more dramatic but less graceful than Ghibertis — an Renaissance solidity. The outer =
angel holds Abraham's arm away from the contorted figures have a Gothic swaying a
Isaac. The elements were cast separately and pinned axis and sweeping drapery. o
to a back plate. 1401, bronze, Bargello, Florence, Italy 1414-19, marble, Siena, Italy

¢
Luca della Robbia_
b FLORENCE, c1399; d FLORENCE, 1482 CLOSERIook
Luca della Robbia was the leading proponent of the “sweet style”
of sculpture, an alternative to Donatello’s expressive style. His marble
reliefs of children singing and dancing for the Singing Gallery in
Florence Baptistery were outstandingly original in their joy of life
and exuberance. He was among the first to bring out the sentimental
bond between the Virgin and Christ Child.
Luca’s greatest technical innovation was his use of glazed terracotta
for sculptures. Adding colour made statuary much more visible in the
dim lighting of a church. The bright and permanent colours also made
HLOL
SAIYNL
HLSL
GNV
the terracottas suitable for use on the outside of buildings, such as
in coats of arms and niches, Luca’s workshop flourished on these
commissions. His nephew, Andrea, and other members of his family
carried on the tradition well into the 16th century. INDIVIDUALLY MODELLED
The two angels are unique, but
both have similarly sweet faces
LIFEline and serene expressions. Later
1414 Probably apprenticed figures were mass-produced
as a teenager to Nanni di from moulds, with an inevitable
Banco =) reduction in quality.
1431-38 First documented
work, the Singing Gallery
over the North doors of the
Baptistery in Florence
1463-66 His workshop
makes roundels of babies
on the facade of Florence's
Foundling Hospital

i A Angel Holding a Candle Jhis is one ofa pair

A Virgin and Child Roundels of gently of angels modelled in white terracotta for the cathedral
expressive, half-length Madonna groups in Florence. It was the first use of the medium for
in glazed white terracotta on a blue ground free-standing sculpture. 15th century, glazed terracotta,
were the bread and butter of Luca's workshop. Florence Cathedral, Italy
15th century, terracotta, Bargello, Florence, Italy
 Masaccio
ae
Y Holy Trinity with the Virgin, St John, and Donors
ik »\ b SAN GIOVANNI VALDARNO, 1401; d ROME, 1428/29 | LIFEline Using the laws of Jinear perspective, Masaccio makes the
In his short life, Masaccio took up where Giotto left off. Together 1401 Born near Florence architectural niche look like a hole in the wall. The donors,
with Brunelleschi and Donatello, he was the greatest innovator of 1422 Becomes a member of who paid for the painting, kneel outside the niche. c1425-28,
the Painters’ Guild in Florence fresco, 6.8x3.2m, S. Maria Novella, Florence, Italy
Italian art in the 15th century. While his contemporaries were painting
c1425-28 Collaborates with
in the International Gothic style, he applied his friend Brunelleschi’s
Masolino on a fresco cycle of
mathematical laws of perspective to create the illusion of space on a flat the life of St Peter, including
Portrait by surface. Masaccio used a single light source so that the play of light and scenes of Adam and Eve, in
wee shadow added solidity. And instead of decorative detail and generalized Brancacci Chapel, Santa Maria
asarl
elegance, he gave his figures strong bodies, individual looks, and del Carmine, Florence
expressive faces. Masaccio is best known for a polyptych (multi-panelled altarpiece) for 1428 Moves to Rome before
completing the frescoes
a church in Pisa (its panels are now scattered around art galleries in Europe and the
c1428/29 Dies suddenly,
US), a fresco cycle in Florence's Brancacci Chapel, and the Holy TrinityinS. Maria perhaps from plague but
Novella, Florence. The Brancacci Chapel was a training ground for later Florentine artists some suspect he may have
such as Michelangelo, who went there to copy and study Masaccio's figures. been poisoned

CLOSERIook
SOREL

» Brancacci Chapel
The banking Brancacci family
paid for the three walls of
this chapel in the Florentine
church of Santa Maria del
Carmine to be painted with
scenes from the Gospels.
The Tribute Money (below)
runs almost the entire length
of the upper register of the
left wall. It tells of a tax
TRIANGLES The triangular
demanded of St Peter —
arrangement stabilizes the figures
a story that resonated with
and represents the Trinity: God the
Florentines, who paid an
Father (top), the Holy Ghost (the
unpopular tax for the dove), and God the Son (Christ).
defence of their city.
3ITALIAN
RENAISSANCE

CENTURIES
16TH
AND
15TH

A The Tribute Money /he figures get proportionately larger CLOSERIook

from the left to the right of this fresco, mirroring the perspective >) ) THE MAIN CHARACTER LIGHT AND REALISM
of the building shown in the picture, and also that of the adjoining St Peter appears three times To match the perspective,
fresco. ¢1425-28, fresco, Brancacci Chapel, S. Maria de! Carmine, } in the story: in the right-hand light falls from a single
Florence, Italy group giving money to the tax source (top right), creating
collector; in the main group, shadows and highlights
_ gesturing, and hooking a coin that make the individualized
out of a fish's mouth on the left. » figures look more realistic.
Donatello
b FLORENCE, c1386; d FLORENCE, 1466
Donatello (short for Donato di Niccolo) was to sculpture what his friend
b PANICALE, UMBRIA? c1383?; d UNKNOWN, c1435/40?
Masaccio was to painting. Abandoning his Gothic training in Ghiberti’s
-workshop, Donatello grafted a psychological insight on to classical Tommaso di Cristofano, known as Masolino,
models. His figures are anatomically accurate with individual characters collaborated with Masaccio on the Brancacci Chapel
— the embodiment of humanism. Donatello mastered the art of linear frescoes (opposite) in Florence. Although about 20
perspective from his friend Brunelleschi, combining it with emotional years his senior, he joined the Painters’ Guild in Florence
reaction to forge a startling realism. He was prolific and versatile, and a year later than Masaccio, in 1423, and the younger
his work had enormous impact on his contemporaries. His influence artist influenced the older. Little is known of his life,
was spread by his travels — he worked not just in Florence, but also in except that he worked in various places in Italy and in
several other major art centres. Hungary. More is known of his style, which is softer and
St George and the Dragon (see panel at foot of statue, right) shows more decorative than Masaccio’s, and graceful rather
Donatello's technical virtuosity in the imperceptibly subtle way in which than bold — qualities that grew more pronounced after
it depicts space. High relief gives way to a barely scratched background Masaccio’s untimely death.
that suggests hazy trees in the distance. Donatello was the inventor of
this kind of drawing in stone. v Banquet of Herod /his fresco straddles old and new styles:
the figures are more decorative than realistic, yet the diminishing
size of the colonnade puts Masolino at the forefront of spatial
LIFEline
representation. c1435, fresco, Baptistery, Castiglione Olona, Italy
1404-07 In his early 20s, v Dead Christ Tended by Angels /he impassive
is an assistant in expression on Christ's face contrasts with the
Ghiberti's workshop anguish of the two angels. c1435-43, marble, 81x
1430-33 Works and studies 114cm, Victoria and Albert Museum, London (on loan to el
classical sculpture in Rome o1
National Gallery, London), UK =
1443-1453 Based in Padua,
where his works include an
-
Oo
equestrian monument to m
military leader Gattamelata, 2
=
cast in 1447. Donatello’s
reliefs influenced painters as Cc
A St George Jhe square stance and a
well as sculptors =<
slight frown of concentration imply the
1454 Returns to Florence,
saints strength of purpose. In the shallow >
where he spends most of the Es)
rest of his life panel below the statue, St George slays =
the dragon. c1413-17, marble, Bargello, n
=
Florence, Italy n

FRAMING DEVICE HLS!

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The tree of temptation
j creates a canopy over
the heads of Adam and
Eve in an otherwise
bare setting. The snake
curls over Eve's head
like a branch from
the tree.

ie

<< St Mark /n this classical A The Feast of Herod /n the centre of the
pose, the weight-bearing leg scene, where the main action might be expected
is covered by vertical cloth folds, to take place, Donatello leaves a vacuum —a rift
like the flutes of a column, while between the presentation of St John’s head on a
platter on one side and the horrified recoiling of A Temptation of Adam and Eve
fabric wrinkles emphasize the
bent knee of the other leg. The the guests on the other. Applying the new system Masolino bathes the two figures
elongated torso compensates of linear perspective, the sculptor uses a low wall in a diffused light and makes them
for the viewer looking up at to separate the earlier scenes in the story from look slim and elegant, emphasizing
the high niche. 1411, marble, the key episode in time and place. c1417-30, the beauty God gave to humanity
Orsanmichele, Florence, Italy gilded bronze, S. Giovanni, Siena, Italy and the pairs happiness before
the Fall. c1425-28, fresco, Brancacci
Chapel, S. Maria del Carmine, Florence
 Paolo Uccello
> | b FLORENCE, c1397; d FLORENCE, 1475
Paolo Uccello was obsessed by perspective. According
to the biographerartist Giorgio Vasari (see p.178), he
spent all night working out vanishing points. When his
wife urged him to come to bed, he dawdled, unable to
< Battle of San Romano
tear himself away from his drawings. He solved the
One of Uccellos biggest
Self-portrait problem of making objects look three-dimensional on a
commissions was a series
flat surface using linear perspective, without the help of
of three paintings depicting
light and shadow. Born Paolo di Dono, this eccentric man was dubbed a recent battle between
Paolo Uccello (“Paolo of the bird”) because of his love of birds and Florence and Siena. Lorenzo
a nimals. But even they were neglected in his pursuit of a mathematical de’ Medici was so anxious
system that submitted the material world to human logic. to obtain the pictures that he
Unlike his fellow Florentines, Uccello used perspective for its own resorted to force when the
sake. He was not interested in furthering realism, or bringing a religious owners would not sell them,
story to life, or even in symbolic value. His art was ornamental, and has and the dispute ended up in
a rich narrative vein that gives a fairy-tale tone to his work. court. c1440—-50, tempera on
panel, 182x323cm, Uffizi,
Florence, Italy
LIFEline
c1412 Apprenticed as a
teenager to Ghiberti
1425-27 Makes mosaics at
Basilica di S. Marco, Venice
1436 First surviving dated < Battle of San Romano
work, a fresco depicting an Battle pennants unfurl
| equestrian statue in Florence against a hedge of rose
Cathedral and orange trees and, beyond,
1444-45 Works in Padua a farm peopled with tiny
1465-68 Works in Urbino figures. The splendid hat of
ie hg Sie a as Thine
£1470 Paints St George and the general, on a white horse
the Dragon, one of the first . Birth of the Virgin 7he space is convincingly in the centre, contrives to be
Italian works on canvas
deep, receding into a bedroom niche. The painting both round and octagonal.
1475 Dies in Florence, where is close in style to Uccello, but some authorities c1440—50, tempera on panel,
he spent most of his life
RENAISSANCE
ITALIAN think it is by a follower rather than the master 182x320cm, National Gallery,
himself. c1440-50, fresco, Duomo, Prato, Italy London, UK

CENTURIES
16TH
AND
15TH

fae eke .

The Hunt in the Forest Ucce//o CLOSERIook

combines a world of chivalric make- 66 3 , VANISHING PREY The lines
believe with a study of perspective Oh, what a * As scat _ oem et =) of the trees, diminishing in size
1460s,
oil onpanel, 73x177cm, sweet thing this § into the distance, and the fallen
Ashmolean, Oxford, UK - Follies, ) tree trunks direct the eye to a
perspective ‘s! } central vanishing point (the spot
PAOLO UCCELLO, ACCORDING ; ; Soy =) ee eee where receding lines seem to
TO VASARI , set a oh Beer converge). Uccello makes this
: the place where the stag — the
focus of the hunt — disappears
from view.
Fra Angelico
b VICCHIO, c1395; d ROME, 1455 LIFEline
Fra Angelico was beatified by the Vatican, 1417 First recorded as a
the first step to sainthood, in 1982. His painter while in his early 20s
painting was influenced by Masaccio’s By 1423 Becomes a
Dominican friar, taking the
Benozzo Gozzoli
handling of space, but still connected to name Fra Giovanni b FLORENCE, c1421; d PISTOIA, 1497
the Gothic tradition of lively narrative. c1438-45 Paints series of
Portrait by He made numerous versions of the frescoes in S. Marco, Gozzoli was apprenticed as a goldsmith, and helped
Carlo Dolci Annunciation to the Virgin Mary, but he Florence Ghiberti to make bronze panels for the Florence
is best known for the frescoes he painted 1447-50 Paints frescoes Baptistery. He then became the pupil of Beato Angelico
in the convent of S. Marco, Florence. In painting the in the Vatican chapel of Pope and worked as his assistant, but Gozzoli's talent was for
frescoes, his aim was to encourage, express, and Nicholas V the ornamental. He is famed for one particular work: the
1455 Dies, and is buried in
channel the devotion of the monastic community. Procession of the Magi, commissioned by the Medici
S. Maria sopra Minerva, Rome
Fra Angelico’s simplicity of line and vivid colour carry family for the private chapel in their city palace in
spiritual conviction and serenity. He is able to represent Florence. Revelling in the International Gothic style of a
space as realistically and harmoniously as Masaccio, but French Book of Hours (see p.89), he covered the walls
he keeps his setting bare so as not to distract from the Y The Annunciation /he elegantly elongated figures are in the with the decorative pageantry of the kings’ royal journey
religious purity of the work. His use of light and pure courtly International Gothic style, although the architecture is through an enchanted landscape. After finishing this
colour was a starting point for painters such as Piero classical and the perspective gives realistic depth. Fra Angelico fresco, he worked on altarpieces and created a fresco
della Francesca. shows the moment when the Virgin Mary submits to the news that cycle of Old Testament scenes in the Campo Santo in
she is to give birth to the son of God. c1430-32, tempera and gold, Pisa, which was damaged by bombing in World War II.
central panel, whole altarpiece 194x194cm, Prado, Madrid, Spain
v The Procession of the Magi Gozzoli applies the
new knowledge of light and shade and recession to
suggest space. However, his real interest lies in
portraying fine costume and jewel-like detail. c1459-61,
fresco, chapel of Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, Florence, Italy
Sa - :

Git

CLOSERI|ook
Se Se ~
SELF-PORTRAIT
SE Gozzoli painted
himself in the
procession, in a red
cap with the words
Opus Benotii (work
i of Benozzo). Also
featured are the HLS!
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| whose dynasty the
ss fresco celebrated.

DIVIDERS The columns (INcontext

separate Mary, the ILLUMINATED
~ Archangel Gabriel, and MANUSCRIPTS Before
Adam and Eve, mirroring the invention of printing in
the triptych (three-part
the 15th century, the Bible
altarpiece) format of which
was transcribed by monks
) it forms the central panel.
and illuminated (richly
The shaft of holy light links
decorated). Monks such as
all three sections.
Fra Angelico, who may have
started as a manuscript
illuminator, were the last
<< The Sermon on the Mount
generation to work in the
A single light source illuminates International Gothic style.
the semi-circle of disciples
listening to Jesus. Not one The Crucifixion attributed to
plant relieves the rocky Fra Angelico (early 1430s). This
decorated initial “N” is a detail
landscape: all attention is on
from an illuminated Missal.
the religious message. c1442,
fresco, Cell 32, Museo di S. Marco,
Florence, Italy
 Piero della Francesca
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 Domenico Veneziano
b VENICE?, EARLY 15TH CENTURY; d FLORENCE, c1461

The artist-biographer Vasari (see p.178) claimed that

Domenico brought oil painting from Venice to Florence.
This is no longer thought to be true, but he did inject
colour, clarity of lighting, and texture into the linear
Florentine style. These qualities are visible in the work
of Piero della Francesca, who was Veneziano’s assistant
on a fresco cycle in Florence. Only fragments of these
frescoes survive, and little else is known about
Domenico’s career. His main surviving work is the St
Lucy altarpiece, painted for the church of S. Lucia de’
Magnoli in Florence; the central panel is in the Uffizi,
Florence, Italy.

J LOT

a a 7
A St John in the Desert /he classical style of this nude
contrasts with his medieval halo and the craggy rocks, which look
Flemish or Byzantine. c1445, tempera on panel, panel from the St AYNLN
SLSILH
Lucy altarpiece, 28x32cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, US

Luca Signorelli
b CORTONA, c1440-50; d CORTONA, 1523

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>
CLOSERI|ook A Preaching of the Antichrist (detail)
A The Montefeltro Altarpiece /his type of altarpiece, in which
With gesture and expression, Signorelli
the Madonna and Child are flanked by saints and, here, angels, is PERFECT SYMMETRY conveys the Devil's insidious whispers and
called a sacra conversazione (holy conversation). Bright colour offsets The overall symmetry of the
Christ's unease. 1499-1504, fresco, Chapel of
the solemnity of their expressions. Above the Madonna is an ostrich painting is relieved by the
the Madonna di S. Brizio, Orvieto Cathedral, Italy
9g, 2 symbol of the Virgin birth that was sometimes hung over kneeling donor (the Duke of
altars dedicated to her. c1472—74, oil on panel, 248x170cm, Urbino, who commissioned
Said to be a pupil of Piero della Francesca, Signorelli
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, Italy the work), and by the fall of
light. Shadow crosses over added movement and emotion to his master’s solid
the centre of the shell-like forms and clear light and colour. He finished the wall
structure above the Madonna's frescoes for the Sistine Chapel, left incomplete by other
head. In Italian Renaissance artists, and went on to even greater things in Orvieto
painting, the Madonna is Cathedral. In his depiction of the end of the world,
often centrally placed figures writhe in agony and faces show torment and
terror. His expressive, muscular nudes inspired
Michelangelo in his fresco painting of male nudes
in the Sistine Chapel
 Filippo Lippi
Antonello da Messina b FLORENCE, 1406; d SPOLETO, 1469
Filippo di Tommaso di Lippo — better known as Fra
b MESSINA, c1430; d MESSINA, 1479
Filippo Lippi — was an innovative Florentine painter,
Antonello was one of the great famous mainly for his frescoes and depictions of the
pioneers of oil painting in Italy. Madonna and Child. He was brought up in a Carmelite
Although born in Sicily, he probably friary, and became a friar himself, but he eventually left
trained in Naples. There he would the order after a scandalous affair with a nun. Lippi’s
have been able to study the work of first major work, the Barbadori Altarpiece, led to
Antonelloda | contemporary Flemish artists (Naples important commissions and the support of the powerful
Messina and Flanders had strong links at this Medici. From 1452 to 1466, Lippi painted frescoes in
time). Combining Flemish oil painting techniques and Prato Cathedral, probably his finest works. Immediately
realism with the clear and d gnified Italian approach afterward, he began work on frescoes in the cathedral
to form and space, he devel oped a style that greatly at Spoleto, where he died in 1469.
influenced Venetian artists| ) particular, including
Giovanni Bellini (see p.126).
Little is known of Antone lo's life. He may have
made several visits to the Italian mainland, but
only one is securely documented, in 1475-76,
when he painted a large altarpiece for the church
of S. Cassiano in Venice. Only fragments of this
work now remain, but it greatly impressed his
Venetian contemporaries.

LIFEline
€1430 Born in Messina, Sicily | opel.
c1450 Probably trains in St Jerome in his Study
Naples with Niccold The austerity of the
Colantonio, the leading | architectural setting is
painter of the day there counterbalanced by the
1456 Documented working central image of St Jerome
independently in Messina with his books and papers,
1475-76 Visits Venice where and by the birds, plants, and
©Paints tea. baesie10 glimpses of landscape through A The Barbadori Altarpiece /his is one of the
Altarpiece 7 the windows to either side. earliest examples of a sacra conversazione, in which
1479 Dies in Messina
RENAISSANCE
ITALIAN | 1475, oil on panel, 46x 36cm, Madonna, Child, and saints are grouped in a single
National Gallery, London, UK panel. 1437, oil on panel, 208x244cm, Louvre, Paris, France

Antonio del Pollaiuolo

b FLORENCE, c1432; d ROME, 1498

Antonio and his younger brother Piero (c1441-c1496)

ran a successful workshop together in Florence and
later in Rome. They worked in various media, including
painting and sculpture, and it is often difficult to
distinguish their individual contributions. However,
Antonio is regarded as the more creative and
innovative, his mastery in depicting the human figure
puting him in the forefront of Florentine artists of his
time. He is said to have dissected corpses to study
anatomy. The brothers were known as Pollaiuolo
because they were the sons of a chicken seller (pollo
is Italian for chicken).

<< The Martyrdom of

St Sebastian
This altarpiece was
painted for the church of
SS. Annunziata, Florence,
which owned a relic of St
A Portrait of a Man Antonello’s three-quarter Sebastian. The figures
view bust portraits were popular in Venice. This are probably by Antonio
one may be a self-portrait. ¢1475, oil on panel, and the landscape by
36 x 25cm, National Gallery, London, UK Piero. 1475, oil on panel,
292 x 203cm, National
< Calvary (also known as the
Gallery, London, UK
Antwerp Crucifixion) /he Virgin
Mary and St John mourn the dead
pitiable Christ. He is flanked by the
two thieves crucified with him. 1475,
oil on panel, 53x 43cm, Koninklijk
Museum voor Schone Kunsten,
Antwerp, Belgium
Piero di Cosimo
b FLORENCE, 1462; d FLORENCE, 1522
Famous as much for his bizarre lifestyle (described in Vasari's Lives of the Artists) as
his paintings, Piero di Cosimo developed an idiosyncratic and eclectic style of painting.
The son of Lorenzo di Piero Ubaldini, a goldsmith in Florence, Piero adopted the name
of Piero di Cosimo when he was apprenticed to the painter Cosimo Rosselli, whom he Andrea del Castagno
assisted in painting frescoes in the Sistine Chapel.
v A Satyr Mourning over a b CASTAGNO, c1418; d FLORENCE, 1457
Little is really known of Piero’s life, but he had a reputation as an eccentric loner
Nymph Piero was fascinated
who, unusually for an artist of that time, often painted without commission. None of Andrea del Castagno’s realistic portrayal of human
with animals and portrayed
his works are dated. Initially influenced by Botticelli and Ghirlandaio, Piero adopted figures made him one of the most influential of the
them with great sensitivity —
elements from many of his contemporaries to his own fantastical style. This can be Florentine artists of his time. He was born Andrea di
here, the dog looks as sorrowful
seen particularly in his paintings on mythological subjects, which are among the as the satyr. In the background Bartolo di Bargilla, but was known by the name of his
most distinctive works of the time — full of whimsical and tender detail. In later life, are other creatures, including a birthplace. By 1440 he had moved to nearby Florence,
perhaps influenced by the preaching of the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola, he pelican in the water. 61495, oil where the influence of Masaccio, Brunelleschi, and
returned to religious subjects. on panel, 65x 184cm, National Donatello was strong. In about 1442 he moved to
Gallery, London, UK Venice, painting frescoes in S. Zaccaria and St Mark's
aaa dL Basilica, but returned to Florence a few years later. The
frescoes in the refectory of Sant’Apollonia, probably
his best-known works, occupied the next few years,
followed by a series of frescoes for the Annunziata.
He died of the plague in 1457,

Y The Last Supper Above the Apostles at the

Last Supper are depictions of the Resurrection,
Crucifixion, and Entombment. The figures are
arranged against a classically balanced,
geometric architectural structure. 1447, fresco,
Convent of Sant’Apollonia, Florence, Italy

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ST JAMES THE GREATER

Detailed portraits of the
Apostles emphasize their
individual characters
They are depicted with
A Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci /he three-dimensional realism,
inscription identifying this Florentine beauty (who using perspective to give
shape to their haloes. Their
died in 1476) was added later. From the snakes
naturalistic hand gestures
coiled around the neck, it may represent Cleopatra.
and expressions are echoed
Oil on panel, 57x 42cm, Musée Condé, Chantilly, France from one side of the painting
to the other.

A The Immaculate Conception and Six Saints Pieros

religious paintings, which date mainly from the later part of
his life, are generally in a more conventional style than his
mythological subjects. c1505, oil on panel, 206 x172cm, Uffizi,
Florence, Italy
 Pietro Perugino
b CITTA DELLA PIEVE, c1450; d PERUGIA, 1523

Andrea del Verrocchio A formative influence on the young Raphael, Pietro

L
Perugino was hailed as “the best painter in Italy” in
b FLORENCE, c1435; d VENICE, 1488 1500. Today he is famous for his many altarpieces and
Considered the finest sculptor of the Italian Renaissance between frescoes. Born Pietro Vannucci, he is said to have
Donatello and Michelangelo, Andrea di Cioni adopted the nickname studied in Florence with Verrocchio (at about the same
Verrocchio (true eye) from the goldsmith he was originally apprenticed Self-portrait time as Leonardo), but he spent much of his later life
with. Little is known of his early life, and few of his paintings have in Perugia, from which he earned his nickname. His
survived, although his studio was well known at the time and attracted first major commission was for frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, Rome,
such distinguished students as Perugino and Leonardo da Vinci. After where he worked alongside Botticelli and Ghirlandaio. He later set
Donatello’s death in 1466, Verrocchio came under the patronage of the up workshops in Perugia and Florence.
Medici. He died in Venice while working on his masterpiece, a huge His numerous portraits, frescoes, and altarpieces show a mastery
equestrian statue of Bartolommeo Colleoni. It was unveiled in 1496, of figure painting within classically balanced compositions. But from
eight years after his death 1512, his style became conventional and repetitive.

LIFEline — LIFEline
c1470 Paints Baptism of c1450 Born in Umbria
Christ, assisted by Leonardo c1470 Probably studies with
c1475 Bronze statue of David Verrocchio in Florence
(now in Palazzo Vecchio, By 1475 Working in Perugia
Florence) c1480 Moves to Rome to
1476-83 Works on statue work in the Sistine Chapel
of Christ and St Thomas, (Madonna and Child
1481-82 Paints Christ
Or S. Michele, Florence Painted at the height of
Delivering the Keys to
1481 Begins Colleoni St Peter in the Sistine Chapel Perugino’s career, this altarpiece
equestrian monument, Venice c1486 Returns to Florence, shows his sweet, idealized
but keeps a studio in Perugia style. His sentimental,
1490s Travels throughout devotional approach was
central Italy popular in 15th-century Florence,
c1505 Moves permanently but Perugino’s work looked old-
Lorenzo de’ Medici to Perugia fashioned in the High
Though some scholars doubt 1523 Dies of the plague Renaissance of Leonardo,
Verrocchio's own hand, the Michelangelo, and Raphael.
| ,
sculptor captures his patron's c1500, tempera on panel,
nobility. 1480, terra-cotta, Palazzo 81 x65cm, The Detroit Institute
Medici-Riccardi, Florence, Italy of Arts, Detroit, US
“8
RENAISSANCE
ITALIAN

ae
EXPRESSIVE FEATURES
CENTURIES
16TH
AND
15TH Colleoni’s face, depicted in
realistic detail, shows the grim
determination of the condottiere,
breaking the tradition of calm,
dignified monumental statues,
and paving the way for the more
expressive sculptures of later
sculptors such as Michelangelo

A Crucifixion /he three

frescoes known as the Pazzi CRUCIFIXION The symmetrically
Crucifixion were commissioned arranged figures beneath the outer
in 1493. The central panel arches emphasize the pyramidal
depicts Christ and Mary form, with Christ at its apex.
Magdalene, with St Bernard Painted in the idealized style of
and the Virgin to the left, Perugino’s altarpieces and
and St John the Evangelist portraits, they suggest piety and
and St Benedict to the right. devoutness, rather than passion.
4 Equestrian monument to Bartolomeo
The harmonious balance is
Colleoni Verrocchio’s finest work, this bronze
statue of a Venetian general was completed by characteristic of Perugino’s
assistants after the sculptor’s death. It has a approach to structure.
powerful sense of movement, with the rider 1493-96, fresco, 4.8 x 8.1m,
standing in his stirrups and the horse turning, Santa Maria Maddalena dei
one hoof raised. 1483-90, gilded bronze, height Pazzi, Florence, Italy
395cem, Campo S. Giovanni e Paolo, Venice, Italy
Domenico Ghirlandaio
b FLORENCE, C1449; d FLORENCE, 1494 LIFEline
Born Domenico di Curradi di Bigordi, Ghirlandaio was 1449 Born a goldsmith’s son
nicknamed after the golden garland necklaces made by 1475 Receives first
his father. He was a religious painter first and foremost, commissions for frescoes in
the Collegiata in S. Gemignano
and was also one of the most popular and proficient
1481-85 Works on frescoes
portrait painters in 15th-century Florence. He often in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio < Giovanna Tornabuoni,
Self-portrait incorporated portrayals of Florentine people and life 1485 Works on six frescoes née Albizzi This is one of
into his religious works. for S. Trinita, Florence the few surviving portraits by
In the early 1480s was commissioned to paint frescoes in the 1486-90 Paints a fresco Ghirlandaio. The posthumous
Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, and in the Sistine Chapel. On his return cycle in S. Maria Novella for portrayal of Giovanna
to Florence in 1485, the Medici’s banker Francesco Sassetti the Tornabuoni family Tornabuoni depicts her as
commissioned Ghirlandaio to paint a cycle of frescoes in S.Trinita, c1485 Paints tender double an ideal of beauty in formal
portrait of An Old Man with a profile, with her delicate
and immediately after this Sassetti's successor, Giovanni Tornabuoni,
Boy
employed him to replace the frescoes in his family chapel. Both features and sumptuous
1494 Dies of the plague in
commissions were of biblical scenes, but included portraits of the Florence
dress realistically highlighted
noble families. Ghirlandaio’s busy workshop also produced a number against the dark background.
of altarpieces and society portraits, painted with often startling realism. 1488, oil on panel, 77x49cm,
The young Michelangelo was apprenticed there. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection,
Madrid, Spain

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LUDOVICA finest fresco, The Birth of the Virgin is set in an INcontext
TORNABUONI AND architectural framework and painted in realistic ARTISTS’ WORKSHOPS
HER RETINUE Ludovica detail. The setting owes more to contemporary Renaissance artists ran busy
Tornabuoni, the daughter Florence than to the Bible. 1486-90, fresco, workshops to supply their
of Ghirlandaio’s patron, S. Maria Novella, Florence, Italy patrons. Apprentices began by
leads her four companions doing menial tasks, such as
to pay their respects to the preparing panels or grinding
mother of the Virgin. She and mixing pigments, later
is depicted in profile and drawing and copying paintings
dressed in fine brocade, under the master’s supervision.
i
as in a society portrait.
Moving up Ski//s /earnt as an
artist's assistant enabled some
talented apprentices to start
their own workshops.
 Andrea Mantegna
yy) b ISOLA DI CARTURO, c1431; d MANTUA, 1506

Mantegna was the leading artist of his time in

northern Italy, He was an engraver as well as a
painter, and his prints helped to give his work ates ~casigelicaadiaiasaen
RATT TICAPUAUVATOEAT
HLL)ba| Lined PEayGARvaeChwn
dt MPaHs datettid nee Arti fa reissane SHSTONIIUNEL
wide influence (Durer was among his admirers). PALO ot ey MT GaPwown ie
His style reflects his ardent study of ancient art LT PeTiae
Portrait from and is also remarkable for his virtuoso skill with “<P
ee?
Vasari's Lives perspective and foreshortening.
Aged about 11, Mantegna became the
apprentice and adopted son of Paduan painter Francesco
Squarcione, but he left in 1448 after an acrimonious dispute
over Squarcione’s exploitation of his pupils. Mantegna had
no difficulty finding work in Padua, which brought him into CLOSERI|ook
contact with the painter Jacopo Bellini, father of the artists
Gentile and Giovanni, and Nicolosia — their sister and his
future wife, He left Padua in 1460 for Mantua. Apart from a
short period working in Rome, he remained in Mantua for the
rest of his life as court painter to the ruling Gonzaga family.

LIFEline
c1431 Born a carpenter's son in
Isola di Carturo, Italy
1442 Moves to Padua
1448 Decorates the Ovetari Chapel
of the Eremitani Church » Altarpiece of St Zeno of
1453 Marries Nicolosia Bellini Verona /he young Mantegna’
1459 Appointed court painter to superb use of perspective creates = SHARP DEFINITION
Ludovico Gonzaga at Mantua and a feeling of depth. The finely Mantegna’s Madonna and
moves there the following year observed and executed details, ! Child in the centre of the
1465-74 Works on the Camera degli particularly the trompe |'oeil | polyptych are depicted with
Sposi in the Palazzo Ducale, Mantua the crisp outline for which he
garlands and architectural
1488-90 Paint frescoes (destroyed) was renowned. The Madonna's
features, add to the three-
in the Vatican for Pope Innocent VIII throne is decorated with
dimensional effect. 1456-60, oil
| 1506 Diesin Mantua classical motifs, like the
RENAISSANCE
ITALIAN on panel, 480 x450cem, Church of | architectural setting.
S. Zeno Maggiore, Verona, Italy

oar
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A The Camera degli Sposi

(or Camera Picta) wo walls
of the Camera degli Sposi
(bridal chamber) in Mantua’s
Palazzo Ducale are decorated
with frescoes of life at the
palace, while the ceiling gives
ie
the illusion of a central opening
to the sky. A representation of
~ oe the Court on the north wall looks
* Me -
a across to three scenes of the
€
estate on the west wall
A Agony in the Garden An innovative approach to composition,
based on diagonals rather than the traditional symmetry, helps
(Servants with Horse and Dogs, THE COURT OF MANTUA This fresco
Inscription with Putti, The depicting members of the court is found above
give this painting its expressive power. Judas leads the soldiers
Meeting). 1465-74, fresco, the fireplace on the north wall of the Camera
along a winding road via some rabbits towards the sleeping degli Sposi. A group portrait of Ludovico
Palazzo Ducale, Mantua, Italy
Apostles. Steps go up to the praying figure of Jesus. The scene Gonzaga and his family, it forms part of the
is set against a brooding landscape and wintry sky. c1460, tempera visual narrative of the room as a whole.
on panel, 63x 80cm, National Gallery, London, UK
 b FLORENCE, c1445; d FLORENCE, 1510 LIFEline
Although Sandro Botticelli was highly successful at the 1445 Born Alessandro di
peak of his career, he spent the last decade of his life in Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, in
obscurity, considered outmoded compared to the new Florence er, 2
generation of artists such as Leonardo. Botticelli’s work Flieeo ieee to Fra
was eventually rediscovered by the Pre-Raphaelites before 1470 Establishes his
it frc (pp.332-333) almost 500 years later, and he is now own workshop in Florence
Vasari’s Lives one of the best-loved painters of 15th-century Italy. 1478 Paints Primavera « Portrait of Giuliano de’
Botticelli developed his graceful and ornamental 1481-82 Works in the Sistine Medici This posthumous portrait
linear style, harking back to elements of the Gothic period and ignoring Chapel, Rome of Giuliano de’ Medici is one of
anatomical realism, during his apprenticeship with Filippo Lippi. In his c1485 Paints Birth of Venus several probably commissioned
large-scale paintings, including the famous Primavera and Birth of Venus, | 1480s Works for the Medici by the family after his
he treated mythological subjects with as much seriousness as religious _|20 other Florentine nobles assassination in 1478. Botticelli
themes. Although Botticelli is most famous for his secular subjects, his | 1500 Paints the Mystic also included likenesses of the
late years were almost entirely devoted to religi themes, influenced Neuve, rn. signed work Medici, frequent clients of his
y nee ; y gious 1510 Dies in Florence
by the Dominican friar and preacher Savonarola.Other than the two workshop, in some of his
years in Rome spent on the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel, Botticelli religious paintings. (1480,
remained in Florence all his life. tempera on panel, 60x 41cm,
Galleria dell’ Accademia Carrara,

m4 CLOSERIook

Symbolic of spiritual passion,

the figures of Zephyr, god of
the winds, and Aura, the
breeze, embrace each other
as they blow Venus towards
the shore of Cythera AYNLNS
SLISILL

HORA FIGURE OFFERING

HER CLOAK he goddess
of Spring, one of the Horae,
is hare depicted in profile
against the flowered cloak
she offers to Venus as she
is blown ashore

A The Birth of Venus

Perhaps Botticelli’s best-known « Madonna and Child with
painting, it shows Venus'’s St John the Baptist //i/s
arrival on the shores of depiction of the Madonna
handing the infant Jesus to a
Cythera, driven by Zephyr and
young St John is painted in the
Aura. The statuesque goddess
more serious, devotional style
of Love stands demurely
ona scallop shell, her hair Botticelli adopted during the
1490s. Nevertheless, it retains
blown by the wind, as she is
much of his earlier elegance
welcomed by the dancing Hora
of line. ¢1490-95, tempera on
of Spring. The painting was
canvas, 134x 92cm, Palazzo Pitti,
probably designed to hang
with Primavera (see pp. 108-111) Florence, Italy
1485, tempera on canvas,
180x280cm, Uffizi, Florence, Italy

A The Adoration of the Magi /he grouped figures lean

towards the central Virgin and Child, making a satisfying
composition. ¢1478-82, tempera and oil on panel, 70x 104cm,
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, US
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CENTURIES
16TH AND 15TH SM ARTISTS 15TH-CENTURY
 CLOSERI|ook

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CHARACTERS The | ne figures derive fror 66 Spring goes on her way OFe et ~ 2

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 Technique
Primavera is paint ed in tempera on wooden
which was Botticelli’s usual technique, 2
sometimes used canvas instead as the sux
The Birth of Venus) and he often m
tempera method by adding oil to the paint,
make it more fluid and transp arent. He was a superb craftsman, who t

> IDEAL BEAUTY Botticelli

favoured a distinctive type of
female beauty whether he
was painting religious or
mythological works — his Virgin
Mary and his Venus are from
the same mould. Golden hair,
ivory skin, and solemn, exquisite
grace are characteristic of
his women

v RAISED DECORATION
Botticelli was fascinated by
decoration and stylized pattern
Flora’s white, floral dress may
be based on one that was worn
at a masquerade, and described
by Poliziano as “painted with
roses and flowers and
greenery”. The slightly raised
gold detail on the sleeve was
produced by a form of powdered AYNLN
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A EXPRESSIVE HANDS 8
 Leonardo da Vinci
b VINCI, 1452; d CLOUX, NEAR AMBOISE, 1519 LIFEline | W Head of a Young Woman with Tousled
Leonardo is now famous for the range and variety of his talents, 1452 Born at Vinci, near Florence Hair (La Scapigliata) /he subject of this
embracing science as well as art. However, most of his scientific c1472 Completes apprenticeship beautifully executed study isunclear. It has some
work remained hidden in his notebooks for centuries, and his with Verrocchio similarities with Leonardo's portrayals of Leda,
ntemporaries knew him primarily as a painter. His output of €1482 Moves to Milan, where he but could also be a study for the head
of the
ae P : a works mainly for Duke Ludovico Sforza | Madonna. c1508, gouache on panel, 27x21cm,
paintings was small (and he left several works unfinished), partly ©1495-98 Paints Last Supper Galleria Nazionale, Parma, Italy
Leonardo because his mind was constantly roaming to new interests, but 1499 Leaves Milan after city is
da Vinci in spite of this he was immensely influential. He is regarded as captured by French
the main creator of the majestic High Renaissance style, which moved away 1500-08 Works mainly in Florence
from the emphasis on line and decorative detail characteristic of so much 15th- ©1503-05 Paints Mona Lisa
century Italian painting. Although no-one painted detail more exquisitely than 1508-13 Based in Milan
Leonardo, he combined this with grandeur of form and unity of atmosphere, 1513 Moves to Rome
in part achieved through his wonderfully subtle handling of light and shade. 1516-17 Moves to France at the
At times Leonardo led an unsettled existence, but his career was divided invitation of Francois |
mainly between Florence and Milan. He spent his final years in France as an 1519 Dies aged 67
honoured guest of Frangois |. By the time of his death he had already acquired
a legendary aura.

> The Annunciation Nothing

is known of the circumstances
in which this work was created,
but it is generally regarded as
Leonardo earliest surviving
independent painting, probably
dating from soon after he
completed his apprenticeship
with Verrocchio. The angel's
wings (which look as if they are
based on those of a bird) and
the closely observed botanical
detail indicate his scientific
curiosity. c1472—-75, tempera on
ITALIAN
RENAISSANCE
wood, 98x 217cm, Uffizi, Florence

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CLOSERIook
LINKING GESTURES
Unusually, Leonardo has
placed the infant Christ
at the Virgin's feet, with
her hand above him. The
angel has a protective
arm around Christ as
he raises his hand in
w] blessing to St John,
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A Technical Drawing From a Notebook Leonardo
was described as the most relentlessly curious man
in history. His notebooks are filled with technical (Madonna of the Rocks /he Virgin,
drawings of engineering projects and inventions, and Jesus, the infant St John, and an angel
detailed illustrations of anatomy. He wrote from right are arranged in a pyramid — a stable
to left, so his notes can only be read in a mirror. Sepia composition. The unusual grotto setting
ink on linen paper, Galleria dell’Accademia, Venice, Italy indulges Leonardo's fascination with rocks
and water, which stemmed from his
birthplace of Vinci, a town built above a
river gorge. ¢1483-85, oil on panel transferred
to canvas, 199x122cm, Louvre, Paris, France
 CLOSERIook

MONA LISA'S EYE The eyes fix

the viewer with an amused gaze,
complementing the slight curve of
her mouth. The transition of tone at
the corners is gentle and lifelike

THE “ENIGMATIC” SMILE

Leonardo’s use of sfumato (subtle
blending of tones) makes the edges
of Mona Lisa's lips “melt” into
fleshtones, giving her her mysterious
smile. Sfumato was not only a
technique, but also a poetic device,
fixing neither the boundaries of
forms nor human expression. HOSIH
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4 The Lady with the Ermine (Cecilia Gallerani)

The mistress of Ludovico Sforza is innovatively
depicted in three-quarter view. She turns as if
someone, perhaps Sforza himself, has just entered
the room. The ermine was a symbol of purity )
oil on wood, 55x 40cm, Czartoryski Museum, Krak6

A Mona Lisa (La Gioconda) Jhis painting is now so famous that it is difficult to
imagine how fresh and innovative it must have looked to Leonardo's contemporaries. The
relaxed naturalism of the pose, with the hands casually overlapping, and the intriguing
subtlety of the expression would have made most earlier portraits look stiff. The
mysterious landscape, too, differs greatly from the plain background characteristic of
15th-century portraits. c1503--05, oil on panel, 77 x53cm, Louvre, Paris, France
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The Last Supper Leonardo da Vinci

c1495-98, experimental technique on plaster, 460 x880cm,
refectory of the Monastery of S. Maria delle Grazie, Milan, Italy
 CLOSERI|ook

The Last Supper Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo’s patron in Milan, Duke Ludovico Sforza, commissioned him
to decorate the refectory of the Dominican monastery of S. Maria delle Grazie,
which housed the Duke's family chapel. His coat of arms appears above the Techniques
Leonardo was dissatisfied with
painting. The mural took Leonardo about three years, to the Duke's irritation.
the restrictions of fresco technique,
Often he just stood on the scaffolding and looked at it for hours at a time in which the artist has to work
without painting a stroke. On completion, the painting became instantly famous quickly one area at a time, on a day's
and was copied by numerous artists, including Peter Paul Rubens (see p.224). a - ais Sa + ee na worth of wet plaster. He wanted to
Sadly, by the 17th century, it was in such a dilapidated state that the monks cut work slowly and subtly, as with an oil painting, so he used a tempera-
like paint — the exact formula is unknown — on dry plaster. The paint
a doorway through the centre of the wall. The refectory was reduced to rubble
started to decay even in his own lifetime. Fifty years on, it was hardly
by bombs in World War II but the sandbagged wall survived — just. visible. It has been restored several times, most recently in 1980-99.

Composition
No other artist has surpassed Leonardo's
ability to compose figures into dramatically
and visually satisfying arrangements, and this
painting is the supreme example of this skill.
The disciples all react differently, yet they form
nobly harmonious groups on either side of the
central figure of Christ; art historian Kenneth
Clark describes them as “two dynamic
masses united and kept in repose by a single
point of balance”. Instead of giving Christ a
halo, he is framed by a “window” and a glimpse
of countryside, which brings out the pathos of
his human plight rather than emphasizing his
A MODELLING Use of light and shade
divinity. It also increases the illusion of reality.
makes Christ's outstretched fingers look
» LINEAR PERSPECTIVE Leonardo continues the realistic, which brings out the poignancy
perspective of the refectory with converging walls of the gesture. The flesh tones, made
and a coffered ceiling of recessed decorative panels. from earth-based pigments, have survived
RENAISSANCE
ITALIAN
The illusion of real space is so powerful that monks better than the stronger colours used on
must have felt they were with Christ at “top table”. the robes.

4 CENTRAL TRIANGLE Christ forms a stable A SYMMETRY AND ORDER The apostles are
triangle with his outstretched hands. All the grouped in threes rather than the traditional linear
disciples’ gestures lead the eye back to Jesus. pattern. The groups link them compositionally and
Christ's robe contains the warm and cold colours psychologically. In contrast to the serene Christ, they
CENTURIES
16TH
AND echoed in the garments of the disciples.
15TH all make shocked and sudden movements.

|INcontext A STUDY FOR AN APOSTLE

BREAKING CONVENTION Leonardo made numerous studies to come
The Last Supper was a popular up with particular features appropriate for
theme for a monastic refectory, each apostle. His aim was to “show the
where monks or nuns dined in intention of man’s soul” through gestures
silence before images of the and expressions.
apostles and Christ at table.
| While Leonardo depicted
Judas sitting alongside the
| other disciples, most other
artists seated him apart

The Last Supper Andrea del

Castagno (c1445-50). /n early
Renaissance depictions such as
| this fresco in S. Apollonia, the
disciples sit calmly in a row with
Judas opposite.
A INDIVIDUALIZED FACE Based on drawings
such as the study (left), Leonardo takes pains to
recreate the grey hair and sunken eye sockets of
an elderly man for apostle Jude. In true fresco
technique, the head of a key figure usually took a
day and just that area of wall was plastered in the
morning. Leonardo was unwilling to submit to such
a restriction, with disastrous consequences.
 Story
The Last Supper is recorded in the New
Testament as the final meal Christ took
with his 12 disciples in Jerusalem before
he was arrested. Leonardo takes the
sii moment of anticipation when Jesus has
| just Be cineed that one = em will betray him, and the apostles respond
in horror. Within the traditions of the disciples’ appearance — John young,
long-haired, clean-shaven, and slightly effeminate; Peter with short curly
grey hair and a blue cloak, for instance — Leonardo adds psychological depth.

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A THE APOSTLES Left to right, the 12 apostles ©» JESUS The classical beauty S
are: Bartholomew, James, son of Alphaeus (James and calmness of his face express Oo
the Less), and Andrew; Judas Iscariot, Peter, and order in the midst of recoil and o
John; Thomas, James, son of Zebedee (James the _ disbelief. His downcast eyes and >
Greater), and Philip; and Matthew, Jude, and slightly open mouth suggest =
Simon the Zealot. acceptance of his fate. m

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JOHN Peter, sitting in the
middle, jerks forward with a
knife (with which he will shortly
A PHILIP AND MATTHEW Op the right,
cut off a Roman's ear) and says
Matthew seeks reassurance from his fellow-
6¢ And whilst they were eating, he said: apostles, while Philip looks anguished. Despite Fees earn Pe
Amen, | say to you that one of you being in separate groups, Matthew's gesture links fea pouie te Gah
. the two, forming another triangle of negative ;
is about to betray me. And they ies end coin at leuk Ocal the Judas knocks over the salt,
being wery much troubled began apostles’ robes were reflected in the metal Be see Say ihe
every one to say: Is it I, Lord? 29 tableware — unfortunately, this subtlety is Seok John, ‘is tora.
lost for ever.
MATTHEW 26:21-22, THE BIBLE looks dreamy. He will go on to
write the Book of Revelations.
 Michelangelo Buonarrot
b CAPRESE, NEAR AREZZO, 1475; d ROME, 1564 | LIFEline
Michelangelo's titanic career lasted virtually three- 1475 Born in Caprese to a
quarters of a century and for most of that time he family of minor Florentine
nobility
was unchallenged as the greatest artist in Europe,
1488 Trains in fresco painting
his contemporaries looking on him with awe. He with Ghirlandaio
regarded himself primarily as a sculptor, but he was 1489 Joins the household of
Michelangelo equally outstanding as a painter, draughtsman, and Lorenzo de’ Medici
Buonarroti architect. His career was divided mainly between 1501-04 Creates statue of
Florence, where he was much employed by the Medici family, and David for the city of Florence
Rome, where he produced most of his greatest works in the 1505 Receives commission
service of the papacy, particularly the decoration of the Sistine to create sculptures for the
tomb of Pope Julius ||
Chapel and the rebuilding of St Peter's.
1508-12 Paints frescoes on
In both painting and sculpture Michelangelo showed an the Sistine Chapel ceiling
unequalled mastery in portraying the nude human figure and also 1534 Settles in Rome
an intense spirituality that reflected his own devout way of life. He 1536-41 Paints Last
concentrated almost entirely on deeply serious subjects, treated Judgement fresco on altar
with superhuman beauty and grandeur, and he was unconcerned wall of the Sistine Chapel
with the anecdotal or the ornamental. In spite of his huge success 1546 Apponted architect to
and fame, he lived modestly, completely devoted to religion and art St Peter's Rome
and working tirelessly (a contemporary biographer said that to save 1564 Dies aged 88
time he sometimes went to bed with his boots on). His work was
immensely influential not only on his contemporaries but also on
generations of later artists.
Y Moses Jhis imposing figure is part of
the tomb of Pope Julius /I. The tomb was
commissioned in 1505 and was conceived
on an immense scale, but when finally
erected in 1545 it was in much reduced
form. c1513-15, marble, height 235cm,
S. Pietro in Vincoli, Rome, Italy

RENAISSANCE
ITALIAN

> David This gigantic figure of the biblical

character David came to symbolize the new
Republic of Florence in its strength and
potential for powerful action. 1501-04, marble,
height 5.18m, Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence
rc
CLOSERIook

ANATOMICALLY ACCURATE
Michelangelo dissected corpses
to help him understand how the
muscular system worked and portray
A Pieta Michelangelo made his name with the human body realistically.
this work. When critics said the Virgin looked
too young to have a fully grown son, he said
that sin was what aged people. 1498-99, marble,
height 174cm, St Peter's, Vatican City

» Holy Family (Doni Tondo) his is

Michelangelo s only known completed panel
painting. It was commissioned by Agnolo Doni,
a wealthy Florentine weaver, hence its name
“Doni Tondo” (tondo is Italian for ‘“round” and
the word is applied to circular paintings such
as this). Although Michelangelo claimed not to
READY FOR ACTION One realistically
be a painter, the sheer polish of his technique is
sinewed hand holds the sling from which
masterly. The frame is original and was perhaps
David will hurl the rock that kills the giant,
designed by the artist. c1503-04, oil on panel, Goliath. He looks poised to unfurl his arm
diameter 120cm, Uffizi, Florence, Italy {and take aim

19 I a a8ll Os ST a
 Pe oe
ey
<The Creation of Adam As God fires Adam
with the divine spark of life, the gap between their
fingers heightens the anticipation. The outlines
are clean and uncluttered to make them easy to
“read” from the floor, 20m below. 1511, fresco,
Sistine Chapel ceiling, Vatican City

INcontext |
THE SACK OF ROME In 1527, the troops of
Charles V — the Holy Roman Emperor — sacked
Rome, destroying or stealing many of the city’s
treasures. After this, the confident, humanist
world of Michelangelo's youth crumbled, to
be replaced by the new Counter-Reformation.
Michelangelo's apocalyptic Last Judgementon
the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel dates from |
after this life-changing event.
Pope Clement VII is besieged by Charles V.

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<The Sistine Chapel /o paint A The Fall of Man Michelangelo

the ceiling frescoes, Michelangelo combines two incidents from the
worked uncomfortably on scaffolding story of Adam and Eve in one image.
for four years, without helpers. At left they are tempted by the
When he finished the nearly 300 serpent to eat the fruit of the tree *¢ Brush splatterings
figures, he was hailed as i| divino of knowledge, and at right they are
Michelangelo (the divine expelled from the Garden of Eden make a pawement
Michelangelo). However, his Last
Judgment on the end wall was
for disobeying God.1509-10, fresco,
Sistine Chapel ceiling, Rome, Italy
of my face... |'m
harshly criticized for its “obscene” not a painter ?
nude figures and censored by the MICHELANGELO, ON PAINTING
Council of Trent (see p.199) in 1563. THE SISTINE CHAPEL CEILING
Ceiling painted 1508-12, end wall
1536-41, fresco, ceiling 13.75x39m,
Rome, Italy
 | Raphael
b URBINO, 1483; d ROME, 1520 LIFEline
Michelangelo are regarded as the 1483 Born in Urbino, son of
the painter Giovanni Santi
1e High Renaissance, Raphael — the third
1500 Working as an
the triumvirate that dominated the period — was
independent master
er, building on the ideas of others and c1502 Works with Perugino,
remely graceful unity. The balanced the strongest influence on his
ed his personality, for unlike early work
o — both of whom tended to be 1504-08 Works intermittently
s renowned for his charm and social in Florence, where he is << Portrait of Agnolo Doni
ely hardworking, producing a large influenced by Leonardo and
Michelangelo
Raphael's study of Leonardo
1508 Moves to Rome to work
shows clearly in this portrait.
njoyed a career of continual success: he was for Julius II The composition, and even
was only 17 and was summoned to Rome 1512-14 Paints the Sistine the positioning of the hands,
25. For the rest of his life he was employed Madonna echoes the Mona Lisa, but
ects for the papacy. Most of his work was on religious 1514 Appointed architect to here the landscape gives way
n outstanding portraitist and a leading architect. St Peter's, Rome to clear sky. c1505-06, oil on
el and inspiration to other artists for centuries. 1520 Dies in Rome wood, 63x 45cm, Palazzo Pitti,
Florence, Italy

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RENAISSANCE
ITALIAN
:

fen

The School of Athens

Thy
SELF-PORTRAIT On
brooding figure in the the right, the astronomer
contemporaries of foreground, representing Zoroaster and geographer
Raphael. The dignified the philosopher Ptolemy are leading a
white-haired figure at Heraclitus, is based on discussion. They each
, the centre of the painting,
representing the Greek
Michelangelo. While
working on The School of
hold a globe, showing the
heavens and the earth |
philosopher Plato Athens, Raphael saw the respectively. Listening to
conversing with his first half of the Sistine f them is Raphael himself,
student Aristotle, is a Ceiling unveiled in 1511 # his gaze directed out of
likeness of Leonardo and he added this figure ards
i da Vinci the vie
e the nting and tow
paiwer
™ as a tribute to its creator Sea
I
 “ Lae % a
a &:
é |
Vv The Triumph of Galatea Aaphaels
lively depiction of the sea-nymph Galatea’s
apotheosis anticipates the expressive figure
¢¢ Leonardo da Vinci painting of the Mannerist style. c1511, fresco,
promises us heaven, 295 x225cm, Villa Farnesina, Rome, Italy
3 \ : Raphael gives it to us
= i PABLO PICASSO

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Le, | 4
<The Triumph of Galatea (study) Classica/ eee |
models were important to Raphael. He drew many
studies for his major works, both of individual figures
and of the painting as a whole. Numerous versions,
with slight variations, were made before he was
FA satisfied with the composition. Red chalk on paper,
a a §=Ashmolean, Oxford, UK

™ CIRCULAR EMPHASIS The

upraised arms of the figures in
* 2 the lower half of the painting =
) create a compositional harmony Q
complementing the arc of the <=
cherubs above and framing the e)
central figure of Galatea. The m
2
focal centre is further emphasized
by the cherubs’ arrows.
>
n
n
>
a
<The Sistine Madonna 2)
m
This is one of Raphael's most
celebrated works. Flanked
by St Sixtus and St Barbara, | . |
the Virgin carries the infant
Christ, apparently from the
area behind the curtains to
the real world beyond. 1512-14,
oil on canvas, 270x201cm,
Geméaldegalerie, Dresden, Germany

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CHERUB Contrasting with

the seriousness of the figures
above, the impishly childlike
putti leaning on a balustrade
provide a link between the viewer
and the space in the painting.

INcontext
CLASSICAL PHILOSOPHY [he
humanism that characterizes the
Renaissance invoked a fascination
A The Transfiguration his was Raphael’ final large work, for all things classical. Artists
still unfinished at his death. The agitated movement and emotion rediscovered the art and
marks a move away from the serenity of the High Renaissance, architecture of Ancient Rome,
presaging the Mannerist style. 1518-20, oil on wood, 405x278cm, which heavily influenced their style.
Vatican City Raphael in particular was attracted
to the work of classical artists.
Portrait of Aristotle by Joos van
Gent (c1475)
 ‘Andrea del Sarto
b FLORENCE, 1486; d FLORENCE, 1530 LIFEline
at artists of the High Renaissance, 1486 Born son of a tailor
most of his working life in Florence. 1493 Apprenticed to Piero
s on his work were Fra di Cosimo
1507-1526 Works on first
large commission, 12 frescoes
<, the figures have a classical
1508 Sets up a workshop
| Self-portrait monumentality, set in atmospheric surroundings with the artist Franciabigio
en ed by his use of colour. His preparatory c1511 Probably visits Rome
drawings are adm r their immediacy and direct observation of 1513-14 Paints Birth of the
life. Ar ri (see p.178) described him as a “painter Virgin for SS Annunziata
| without rk became extremely important in the 1518-19 Works in France
|late 16th century to 7 n artists dissatisfied with Mannerism. 1530 Dies of plague Lady with a Book of Verse
by Petrarch Dating from late
in Andrea’s life, this watch
Madonna of the Harpies Festoration in 1984 revealed portrait has the immediacy and
Annunciation /n this unusual composition, the
the glorious colours that sing out from this otherwise austere painterly brushwork of his late
p s place at either side, with classical
composition. The winged harpies can be seen on the plinth style. c1528, oil on panel,
re stage. 1512, oil on panel,
_ Florence, Italy 1517, oil on panel, 207 x178cm, Uffizi, Florence, Italy 87x 69cm, Uffizi, Florence, Italy

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| CONTRASTS OF COLOUR The

se rose of the Madonna's gown
set off by the golden yellow of the
apery over her shoulder: this bold
Dosition compels the eye into
entre of the picture

| IN THE SHADOWS Soft

in and out of
cherub peeps
shind the Virgin
Fra Bartolommeo
b FLORENCE, 1472; d FLORENCE, 1517 LIFEline
Fra Bartolommeo was a key figure in the evolution of 1485 Apprenticed to Rosselli
High Renaissance painting in Florence. He started his in his early teens Dosso Dossi
training in the workshop of Cosimo Rosselli. There he 1501 Joins the Dominican
Order and adopts the name b MIRANDOLA?, c1485; d FERRARA, 1542
met Piero di Cosimo, who taught him and Mariotto
Fra Bartolommeo
Albertinelli, with whom he later set up a studio. Little is known of the early life of Giovanni Francesco
1509-13 Works with
Fra Bartolommeo combined an understanding of Albertinelli, sharing a Luteri, known as Dosso Dossi. However, by 1513 he
Bartolommeo Leonardo's use of light and shade to model form workshop in the convent of was recorded at Ferrara, home of the magnificent court
with a feeling for the luminous light and brilliance of colour that San Marco of the Este family. For most of his career he worked for
characterized Venetian art. He achieved his control of chiaroscuro 1517 Dies in Florence the Dukes of Ferrara, producing religious images,
(light and shade) by laying in a composition in monochrome first, Self-portrait mythological subjects, portraits, and landscapes, often
then building up the colour as glazes — a technique he borrowed v The Mystic Marriage of in collaboration with his brother, Battista. Dosso's work
from Leonardo da Vinci. In his sacre conversazioni, the participants St Catherine of Siena with is sometimes eccentric, with complex themes and obscure allegorical
react to situations and interact with each other, rather than simply Saints Commissioned for his references. His paintings reflect the poetry of Giorgione and the rich
”
standing in devout contemplation. convent, S. Marco in Florence, colour of Titian. He signed his work with a pictorial pun — the letter “D
Bartolommeo was a follower of reforming friar and preacher this painting was admired for next to a bone (osso in Italian).
Savonarola, and became a Dominican friar in 1501. He had plenty the grandeur of the architectural
of opportunities for absorbing influences from beyond Florence: it background and the convincing
is likely that he met Raphael who visited the city in around 1504; way the figures occupy the
he went to Venice in 1508; and he visited Rome in 1513. space. 1511, oil on panel, 257x
228cm, Louvre, Paris, France

ST CATHERINE Shown
kneeling with her back to the HOIH
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viewer, St Catherine of Siena
wears the white habit of the
Dominican order. She is
receiving a ring from the
infant Christ. On the far right
is her namesake, St Catherine
of Alexandria.

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» Study of a Man anda

Woman for the Madonna
della Misericordia
Bartolommeo was a pioneer
of drawing with black chalk,
a material that allowed him to
model form with light and dark
tones. c1515, chalk on paper,
Uffizi, Florence, Italy A Apollo and Daphne /he god Apollo is shown making music, while in the
background Daphne, the subject of his unwanted attentions, is transformed
into a laurel tree. c1525, oil on canvas, 191x116cm Galleria Borghese, Rome, Italy

INcontext
THE CLASSICAL IDEAL Artists of
the High Renaissance sought to create
beautiful and harmonious effects. Everything
should look effortless and right, with no
| jarring colours or harsh transitions of tone.
In architecture, Bramante’s Tempietto
epitomizes this classical ideal in the
harmony of its proportions and the simple
forms and austerity of the Doric order.

The Tempietto of S. Pietro in Montorio, Rome,

designed by Donato Bramante, c1502—-12
————
 |Correggio
b CORREGGIO, 1489?; d CORREGGIO, 1534 | LIFEline v Jupiter and lo he god Jupiter disguised himself as a grey mist in order to
Inventive and technically accomplished, Correggio | 1489? Born in Correggio, from seduce the shy nymph lo. His face and hand can just be seen. As in the frescoes of
| which he takes his name | the domes in Parma, Correggio shows his mastery at depicting clouds, a difficult
worked in and around Parma but was aware of the
innovations in Florence, Rome, and Venice. His early 1514-15 Earliest existing work: | thing to paint, being transparent and soft. c1530, oil on canvas, 164x74cm,
Virgin of St Francis for Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria
work has a hard, linear quality, which echoes Mantegna, S. Francesco, Correggio
but soon this was overtaken by a skilful use of sfumato | ¢1519 Moves to Parma. Works
Artist unknown effects — the gradations of tone and colour for which on frescoes for the Benedictine
Leonardo was so famous. From Mantegna Correggio | convent of S. Paolo
also took an interest in illusionism, and it became a distinctive mark of 1522 Wins commission for
his style. Correggio’s work falls into three major categories: frescoes, frescoes in Parma Cathedral
altarpieces, and mythological paintings. He was admired for his ability | 1522-25 Works on a cycle
of illusionistic frescoes for
to create dazzling illusions in fresco, using extreme foreshortening and S. Giovanni Evangelista in Parma |
other painterly devices to dissolve the architectural structures on which 1534 Dies in Correggio
he painted. In the Assumption of the Virgin in Parma Cathedral, the
Virgin does indeed appear to be soaring through the dome into the
heavens beyond. Correggio also produced ravishing nudes. ————_

i CLOSERI|ook
if
f —

beeive
> Madonna and Child with
MASTERY OF OIL PAINT
Angels Correggio painted many
Correggio had a specially subtle
| small devotional works such as
and delicate way to “touch the
this. Cherubs and music-making
colours”, producing soft and
angels inject a sense of luminous flesh tones. The blush
playfulness into this intimate on the Virgin's cheek is created
study of Madonna and Child. using transparent glazes, which
1510-15, oil on panel, 20x 16cm,
RENAISSANCE
ITALIAN modify the paint layers.
Uffizi, Florence, Italy
5

» Nativity Scene Correggio

was an acknowledged master
of painted light. At the centre of
| this picture, the Virgin is bathed
in the supernatural light
emanating from her baby son,
while the young woman at the
foot of the cradle shields her
eyes from the dazzling rays.
1522-30, oil on panel, 256x
188cm, Gemaldegalerie Alte
Meister, Dresden, Germany
CENTURIES
16TH
AND
15TH

eee, ‘ ¥

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GESTURE OF SURRENDER |o throws
her head back in complete surrender as she
abandons herself to Jupiter's embraces
Correggio has captured her swooning
expression and the pearly, sensuous quality
of her skin. Jupiter's features emerging from
the mist are suggested with the lightest of
touches, his bodiless quality contrasting
with lo’s flesh-and-blood substance
 Sebastiano ce! Piombo
b VENICE?, c1485; d ROME, 1547 | LIFEline
Sebastiano worked successively in Venice and Rome. His early 1511 TSettles in Rome
|Lorenzo Lotto paintings display the harmonious qualities of the Venetian painters 1512 Produces several
Giovanni Bellini and Giorgione. After his move to Rome in 1511, he | 'mportant portraits, including
b VENICE, c1480; d LORETO, 1556 d j ; | Cardinal Ferry Carondelet and
began to work in a bolder, more vigorous style under the influence of | his Secretary
Born in Venice, Lotto was a contemporary of, and an eccentric Michelangelo, who introduced him to patrons, procured commissions ©1513 Painted Piet, for
alternative to, Giorgione, Palma Vecchio, and the young Titian. He had for him, and supplied drawings. S. Francesco in Viterbo,
a quirky and idiosyncratic style — he combined a dynamic line with Sebastiano produced many important religious works and achieved | central Italy
brilliant colour and carefully rendered detail to create images that are fame as a painter of portraits. Despite his reliance on Michelangelo for 1531 Becomes Keeper of the
charged with emotion and express the new devout tendencies of the important drawings, he was an accomplished draughtsman in his own Papal Seals — the Piombo-
mid-16th century. right, often working in black chalk on a tinted paper, heightened with from which he gets his name
Lotto lived and worked in various locations throughout central and white. At the height of his career, he combined the classicism of Rome eal alah SIRE:
northern Italy, including Bergamo, Rome, Recanati, and Venice, and with the rich palette of Venice. In his later work, muted colours provide 1547 Dies in Rome
made a good living producing altarpieces, devotional pictures, and a foil for bright accents. In 1531, Sebastiano became the keeper of
portraits. His account book for the years 1538 to 1554 survives and papal seals; they were made of lead — piombo in Italian — and this is
provides information about his patrons, the materials he used, and how he got his nickname. x
his working methods. Lotto never married, and he spent his final
years as a lay brother in the monastery of Santa Casa in Loreto.
CLOSERIook
» Christ Carrying the Cross
The pathos and violence of
Christ's Passion is captured in
this intense, close-up image.
1526, oil on canvas, 66x 60cm,
Louvre, Paris, France

=
a
<=
DIRECTING THE EYE The a
v The Annunciation /n this kneeling figure, whose profile m
dramatic image, both Mary and is outlined against the dark 2
the cat are startled by the ground, gazes up at Christ, >
”
unexpected arrival of the while Christ's extended arm ”
Archangel Gabriel carrying a lily, points the viewer to Lazarus, >
1 emerging from his tomb. 2
a symbol of virginity. c1534—35,
oil on canvas, 166x114cm, Museo
9°m
Civico, Recanati, Italy

BORROWED FROM THE

MASTER For Lazarus and the
| attendant figures, Sebastiano
used a drawing, in red chalk
with some black chalk, provided
by Michelangelo. HLSL
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A The Raising of Lazarus

This immense altarpiece < Portrait of Andrea Doria
The subject of this
| brooding and
was commissioned by
Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici watchful portrait was a native
for the cathedral at of Genoa. The maritime motifs
Narbonne. Michelangelo on the marble frieze refer to his
probably negotiated the position as Admiral of the Fleet.
1526, oil on canvas, 153x107cm,
ission for Sebastiano, ee os
CU UU : Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome, Italy
and provided drawings for
the main figures, some of
which survive. c1517-19, oil
on canvas (transferred from
wood), 381 x290cm, National
Gallery, London, UK
 Giovann! Bellini << Madonna of the Trees
b VENICE, c1430-35; d VENICE, 1516 | LIFEline This exquisite picture
| 1430-35 Born, son of the painter epitomizes Bellini’s tender
The leading Venetian artist of the High Renaissance, approach to painting. The
| Jacopo Bellini and brother (probably |
e Giovanni Bellini was largely responsible for giving Madonna and Child, composed
younger) of Gentile Bellini
ian the city its distinctive poetic painting style. In doing 1453 Becomes Mantegna's ina triangle, are softly lit by
* wae =so, he helped Venice rival the cities of Rome and | brotherin-law when his sister | light from the left. c1487, oil
i il Ee @ Florence as a major art centre. | Niccolosa marries Mantegna on panel, 71 x58cm, Gallerie
Portrait by Venice is a city of beautiful, fluid light — and this 1479 Takes over from his brother dell’Accademia, Venice, Italy
Vittore is reflected in Bellini’s paintings, which are suffused | Gentile, painting historical scenes
| in the Great Council hall in Venice Y Altarpiece of San Giobbe
Balimerie with warm colours and a delicate atmosphere.
Unlike Florentine artists, who focused on draughtsmanship, Bellini | 1480-90 Altarpiece of San Giobbe Bellini uses his mastery of
c1501-04 Paints The Doge perspective to set the figures in
relied on paint rather than line. He applied his paint gradually, in
| Leonardo Loredan the curved apse of a church. The
overlapping layers, to attain softly blended colours. Bellini's pupils |1516 Dies in his 80s
Giorgione and Titian continued this tradition. golden mosaic above shimmers
and reflects a warm light on the
figures. 1480-1490, tempera and
oil on panel, 471 x258cm, Gallerie
dell’Accademia, Venice, Italy

Pieta /n a Pieta (“pity”),

Mary cradles Jesus's dead body
in her lap. Bellini includes St
John and, unusually, shows
Jesus upright. This Pieta was
painted in tempera before
Bellini mastered oil painting.
The precise linear description
of the dramatic poses shows
the influence of Bellini’s
brother-in-law, Mantegna. c1468,
tempera on panel, 86x 107cm,
RENAISSANCE
ITALIAN
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, Italy

CLOSERIook

\
FACIAL EXPRESSION The
| Doge seems hypnotically calm.
Instead of staring at the viewer,
he gazes into the middle distance,
perhaps a little wistfully.

|
contrasts reveal the folds of the
exquisitely patterned fabric and
help convey the play of light

» The Doge Leonardo

Loredan /his painting of the
Venetian Republic's head of
state has the sculptural solidity ST FRANCIS Wearing
of a Roman portrait bust his traditional monk's habit,
¢1501-04, oil on poplar, 62 x 45cm, St Francis holds out his
National Gallery, London, UK hands to show his stigmata
(marks like Christ's nail
wounds). One hand almost
seems to be beckoning the
viewer into the picture.
Vittore Carpaccio
Vv The Dream of St Ursula An angel steals into Ursula’s
b VENICE?, c1460; d VENICE?, c1525-26 LIFEline
chamber to forewarn of her martyrdom. c1495, oil on canvas,
Vittore Carpaccio is best known for his grand depictions 1490 Begins painting the 273x267cm, Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice, Italy
of religious subjects. He generally set these stories in St Ursula cycle for the Scuola
di S. Orsola
Venice, the city in which he spent all his working life,
1502-07 Paints cycle of
and would often include contemporary Venetian St George and St Jerome for Vv The King of Brittany
notables in the scenes. the Scuola di S. Giorgio degli Receives the English
Carpaccio worked mainly for the Venetian Scuole Schiavoni Ambassadors /his painting,
(religious and trade associations), whose tastes for 1507 Employed to decorate from the St Ursula series,
richly coloured panoramas celebrating the city's the Doge's Palace shows the English ambassadors
success perfectly matched his artistic talents. 1511-20 Works on cycle of bringing a letter with a
St Stephen paintings for the marriage proposal. In the
Decorative and pageant-like, his paintings contain Scuola di Santo Stefano
wonderful anecdotal detail such as dogs and pet room on the right, a pensive
c1525-26 Dies, probably in
monkeys and lounging cavaliers, along with bustling Venice King of Brittany discusses the
activity everywhere. matter with Ursula. c1495, oil
on canvas, 275x589cm, Gallerie
dell’Accademia, Venice, Italy

DOORWAY The objects

and furnishings are depicted
with meticulous care,
providing a faithful
reproduction of an upper-
class Venetian bedroom. The
doorway is open, suggesting
the journey that Ursula will
take. She and her fellow
pilgrims were killed by Huns
who were besieging Cologne.

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Gentile Bellini Paima Vecchio

b VENICE, c1430-35; d VENICE, 1507 LIFEline lbNEAR BERGAMO, c1480; d VENICE, 1528

Giovanni Bellini’s brother, Gentile, started his careenin his father’s 1460 Paints in the workshop of his father, Palma Vecchio is first documented in Venice in 1510,
Jacopo Bellini
workshop. In his middle age, he became a very successful artist, and he spent the rest of his working life in the city. He
1465 Produces his first documented painting specialized in altarpieces, particularly sacre conversazioni,
winning prestigious commissions from both the Doge and the
1469 Knighted by German Emperor Frederick III
Scuole (religious and trade associations). in which the Madonna and infant Jesus are shown amid
1474 Starts working on paintings for the Council
Gentile Bellini was known as an excellent portrait painter, but saints. He is also renowned for his half-length pictures of
Hall at the Doge's Palace
today only about six portraits are definitely attributable to him. His beautiful women, often thought to be courtesans. In line
1479-81 Serves at the court of Sultan
reputation now rests on his te/eri— narrative paintings on canvas. Mehmet II in Constantinople with the Venetian artistic tradition, Palma Vecchio painted
These are immensely detailed and are of great interest as records 1507 Dies 9 years before his brother Giovanni wonderfully balanced compositions in bold colour.
of Venice at the moment of its greatest splendour.
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SAVING THE CROSS

The guardian of the
Maes Scuola di San Giovanni,
M af 1a P for which the painting
A Portrait of the Doge John was made, saves the
Mocenigo /his profile view relic from the canal.
allows Bellini to make a strong
statement about the dignity of
the Doge but precludes acute A Miracle of the Cross at the Bridge of San Lorenzo
insight into his character. This is the first in a series of eight paintings, depicting the
1478-85, tempera on panel, 62x history of a relic of the True Cross — the wooden cross on
which Jesus was crucified. It provides a wonderfully detailed A Portrait of a Young Woman Often called
45cm, Museo Correr, Venice, Italy
record of Venice’s palaces. 1500, tempera and oil on canvas, La Bella, this painting has a mood of sensuous
323 x 430cm, Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice, Italy opulence. c1525, oil on canvas, 95x 80cm,
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Spain
_ Mythandlegend
. For thousands of years, artists’ imaginations have been fired
by the evocative and inspiring subjects of myths and legends.
Indeed, artistic representations of classical myths are
responsible for much of our knowledge of the ancient world. < Feathered Coyote Aztec
Adopted as a symbol by Aztec warrior
Many of these stories have been depicted by more than one
orders, the feathered coyotes unusually
artist, and their depictions have varied greatly, such as Cézanne V The Judgement of Paris Lucas Cranach the
long fur signifies movement. 16th century,
Elder The goddesses Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite
and Dali's different treatments of the Leda myth. stone, 38x 17x 13cm, Museo Nacional de
try to bribe Paris, who was asked by Zeus to
Antropologia, Mexico City, Mexico
choose the most beautiful. Features such as the
V The Hero Gilgamesh hat on the middle nude make the story Cranach’s
Holding a Lion that He Has V Landscape with St George and
Y Mithras Sacrificing the Bull Roman own. c1528, tempera and oil on panel, 102x71cm, the Dragon Domenichino The action of
Captured Assyrian School Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, US
Mithras’s slaugher of the bull was a central image St George's symbolical triumph over evil
In subduing. a lion, the —
in Mithraic religious practise, associated with takes place in front of a classically
~ Babylonian king Gilgamesh.
Spring. As the bull dies, a dog and serpent drink beautiful landscape. c1610, oil on panel,
demonstrates hissuperhuman
its blood while a scorpion attacks its testicles. 2nd National Gallery, London, UK
powers. c725 BCE, gypsum, —
century, marble relief, Museo Archeologico, Venice
Louvre, Paris, France
¥

A The Second Incarnation of Vishnu as

Kurma ‘The Tortoise’: The Churning of the
Ocean Indian School All the things lost in the
deluge were recovered and the Hindu goddess A Landscape with the Fall > A Seal in the Form of a
Lakshmi was born from the churning ocean. of Icarus Pieter Bruegel the Qilin Chinese School, Ming
ci6th century, paint on paper, Chandigarh Museum, Elder Having flown too close to Dynasty This Chinese
Chandigarh, Punjab, India the sun and melted the wax that mythological creature symbolizes
held his wings, Icarus fell into longevity and good government.
the sea. This dramatic event goes 15th-17th century, carved ivory,
unnoticed amid everyday affairs. 6x7cm, private collection
c1555, oil on canvas, 74x 112cm,
Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de
Belgique, Brussels, Belgium
 Vv Medea Frederick Sandys Jason only succeeded
in stealing the Golden Fleece because Medea helped
him in return for his promise to marry her. Many of
Sandys's works depict moments from well-known
mythological stories. 1868, oil on panel, 61 x46cm,
Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, UK

Vv Prometheus Gustave Moreau

Mythical subjects preoccupied
Moreau. He depicts Zeus’s
punishment of Prometheus for the V Leda and the Swan Paul Cézanne
theft of fire from the gods with Cezanne is just one in a long line of artists
_ typically sparkling colour. 1868, oil on, to have depicted Zeus’s rape, or seduction,
canvas, 87x52cm, Musee Gustave of the mortal Leda in the form of a swan. His
Moreau, Paris, France treatment captures the bizzarre ambiguities
of this relationship. c1880-82, oil on canvas,
59.8x 75cm, The Barnes Foundation, Merion, .
Pennsylvania, US
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A Leda Atomica Salvador Dali

This is Dalis reinterpretation of
the myth Leda and the Swan in
the light of nuclear physics:
am, various elements of the painting
21k ESS ie Ai ese Sa.
gravitate around the “nucleus”
A Kriemhild Sees the Dead Siegfried ina A Ulysses Deriding of Leda like the electrons of an
Dream Henry Fuseli A German legend in which Polyphemus JMW Turner atom. 1949, oil on.canvas, 61 x45cm,
Kriemhild foresees the murder of her husband Ulysses blinds Polyphemus, Teatro-Museo Dall, Figueras, Spain
Dreams were a frequent source of inspiration for the man-eating giant cyclops.
Fuseli. 1805, wash with white heightening, 128 x146cm, Turner contrasts the size of
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, US the hero — who taunts the
giant from his ship — with
> Sir Galahad — the Quest of the might of his foe. 1829,
the Holy Grail Arthur Hughes oil on canvas, 133x203cm,
Three knights set out from Camelot i, _ National Gallery, London, UK
in search of the Holy Grail; Sir
Galahad was considered to be the
purest of them. Hughes bathes his
journey in an ethereal light. 1870,
oil on canvas,113x 168cm, Walker
Art Gallery, National Museums
IBNY=16010(0) LUG
 Giorgione
b CASTELFRANCO, c1477; d VENICE, 1510 LIFEline
Although Giorgione is one of the most c1477 Born inCastelfranco Titian
important Venetian Renaissance painters, c1490 Probably studies under
little is known about his life, and very few Giovanni Bellini b PIEVE DI CADORE, c1485-90; | LIFEline
| c1505 Paints The Tempest d VENICE, 1576
surviving paintings can definitely be | ©1485 Born Tiziano Vecellio |
¢1505-10 Paints Sleeping Titian was the greatest painter of the c1500-02 Arrives in Venice and
attributed to him
Venus Venetian school. In a long and prolific | begins apprenticeship
Self-portrait Giorgione’s work proved hugely
1507-08 Paints a canvas career, he won the most prestigious | 1511 Paints first firmly dated |
influential. His Sleeping Venus (finished by | (now lost) for the audience pictures attributable to him -
commissions from the Hapsburg court.
Titian) established the tradition of the reclining nude, and chamber of the Doges’ Palace frescoes of three episodes of
Self-portrait Titian revolutionized every genre of
his sensual portraits were much imitated by other artists. 1508 Paints frescoes with the life of St Anthony in the
Titian for German warehouse painting that he worked in. His dramatic | Scuola del Santo
He was also one of the first painters to specialize in
in Venice. Fragments survive altarpieces have complex, innovative compositions — 1533 Made Knight of the
“cabinet pictures” — paintings made for private
collectors. But perhaps Giorgione’s biggest contribution 1510 Dies of the plague while famously, the Madonna and Child are placed off-centre Golden Spur by CharlesV
in Venice in the Pesaro Altarpiece (1519-26). His mythological 1538 Paints one of his most
was the moody, evocative depiction of the landscape
paintings are exuberant and colourful, and celebrate | celebrated works, Venus of
and lyrical relationship between figures and nature. | Urbino (see pp.132-5)
erotic passion. His portraits present subjects actively,
1545 Visits Rome and meets
in a variety of poses and formats — one of the best
Michelangelo
shows Charles V mounted on his horse at the
| 1548 Travels to Augsburg to
Battle of Muhlberg. | work for CharlesV
| 1576 Dies of a fever while
| plague rages in Venice: his
| exact cause of death is
| unknown

< Concert Champétre Jitian,

or Giorgione, or both may have
painted this work. The description
of the landscape, with its hazy
atmosphere, seems to be
Giorgione’s, while the distinctive
poses of the figures seem to
RENAISSANCE
ITALIAN be Titian. c1510, oil on canvas,
105x137cm, Louvre, Paris, France

URIES
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\ Sacred and Profane Love
The twin figures in this painting
are now both thought to be
The Tempest A/though many
Venus. The clothed figure
have tried to interpret this work, the
represents earthly love — she
identity of the figures is uncertain.
holds a chalice of jewels,
They may be Adam and Eve after
symbolizing fleeting happiness
being cast out of Eden. The real
in this world. The nude figure
subject seems to be the landscape,
represents celestial love — she
brought alive by the dense, hazy
holds a lamp, symbolizing
atmosphere and stormy light
eternal happiness in heaven. COAT-OF-ARMS Titian LANDSCAPE The landscape
Giorgione also added a thunderbolt
1514, oil on canvas, 118x279cm, made this painting for the shows the influence of
considered extremely difficult for
Galleria Borghese, Rome, Italy marriage of Nicolo Aurelio, Giorgione, but the rich colours
a painter. ¢1505, oil on canvas, and the vitality of the figures
whose coat-of-arms appears
82x 73cm, Galleria dell'Accademia, on the sarcophagus. are typical of Titian
Venice, Italy

» Laura Jhis intriguing portrait was

named in the 1600s after the laurel as
a symbol of chastity and fidelity. But
many critics believe the subject was 66 The Assumption of the Virgin has the grandeur and
a courtesan, because of her exposed
the awesomeness of Michelangelo, the pleasing
breast and fur collar. c1506, oil on
canvas, 41x34cm, Kunsthistorisches beauty of Raphael, and the colours of nature itse!f ””
Museum, Vienna, Austria LODOVICO DOLCE, VENETIAN CRITIC, 1557
< The Assumption of the Virgin
The animated figures, bold, luminous
colour, and dramatic tonal contrasts
give this massive painting a turbulent
intensity. The Virgin's twisting body
adds to the dynamism. 1516-18, oil on
panel, 690.x 360cm, Santa Maria Gloriosa
dei Frari, Venice, Italy

CLOSERIook
DYNAMIC
COMPOSITION The
earthbound apostles are
contained within a
rectangle at the bottom
of the painting, while the
Virgin and God make a
loose circle at the top.
wo apostles in red, one
of whom is reaching up,
form a triangle, which
pulls the viewer's eye
up to the Virgin.

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A Venus and Adonis /his scene

is based on a story in Ovid's
Metamorphoses. Venus is trying to
stop Adonis going on a hunt that
will end in a wild boar killing him.
Cupid sleeps in the background, a
symbol of Adonis refusal of Venus'’s
embrace. The pose of Venus is
modelled on ancient prototypes, like
lo in Correggio’s Jupiter and lo (see
p.124). But where Correggio’s version
is lyrical and sweet, Titian’ is vivid
and dynamic. 1553, oil on canvas,
168x207cm, Prado, Madrid, Spain
NVITV. JONVSSIVNAY
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Venus of Urbino Jitian

61538, oil on canvas, 119x165cm,
Uffizi, Florence, Italy >

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 CLOSERIlook

Venus of Urbino /|itian

Venus of Urbino is one of the most Technique
celebrated — and debated — of Titian’s paintings. Titian earned a reputation
It was commissioned by Guidobaldo II della for extending the expressive
effects of oil painting -
Rovere — who became the Duke of Urbino
especially in his late paintings,
in 1539 — and was probably intended for the when he employed extremely
bridal chambers of his palace. A young woman : loose brushwork. Here, +
looks frankly at the beholder. She is naked however, the pictorial handling is one of precision and
expect for earrings, a bracelet, and a ring. Her refinement. Titian uses thick paint to create forms. The broad
areas of colour are offset by crisp details. It is a technique
body creates voluptuously flowing rhythms
that suits the tightly structured composition and the exact
against the precisely rendered order of the geometric perspective used to construct the picture space.
Venetian interior. However, many critics see Moreover, Titian has deployed a technique that befits the bold,
the image not primarily as an allegory of lust forthright confidence of the subject.
but of marital love. The myrtle tree and the roses
allude not only to the goddess Venus but also to
constant love. The dog symbolises faithfulness.

Composition
Titian has created a beautifully balanced composition
dominated by two diagonals. One diagonal — from top
left to bottom right — is formed by Venus; the other —
from top right down to bottom left — leads through
the two heads of the maids and the left hand of
Venus. Together they create a dynamic cross-like
composition. The figures in the background play an
important role — counterbalancing Venus and helping
create a sense of tension. Similarly the dog on the
right counterbalances the strong point of interest
formed by Venus’s face and posy on the left.
RENAISSANCE
ITALIAN

|
|

COMPOSITIONAL GRAPHICS The edge of E oS

the room divider and Venus's left hand lie on the A FLESH TONES Venus's pale, smooth flesh
CENTURIES
16TH
AND central vertical; Venus’s left nipple and the bottom of
15TH
tones immediately catch the viewer's eye. The
the cassoni (bridal chests) are on the central horizontal. soft transitions from pearly white highlights to
rose-coloured shadow tones add to the sensuous
allure of the body.

o by : r oe
A LIGHT AND DARK Venus's face stands out
from the dark curtain in the background. The A THE POSY Roses are associated |» HAIR Venus's chestnut
darkness of the curtain in the top left corner is with Venus, the goddess of love and __ tresses, defined in individual
balanced by the light tones of the sheet in the this posy of roses, with its strong strands as they shimmer in the
bottom right corner tonal contrast, deep red colour, and light, fall seductively over her
detailed rendition, also provides a shoulders. Together with the
strong point of interest. The colour roses, which languidly drop from
red is repeated in the mattress and her hand, they add an erotic
in the maid's dress. charge to the painting
 INcontext
RECLINING NUDES Early in his career, Titian
| worked as an assistant to Giorgione and the Venus
| of Urbino seems to be based on Giorgione’s
| Sleeping Venus (c1508-10). Giorgione’s Venus
Story | lies in a landscape with her eyes closed — she
The identity of the nude figure has been seems romanticized, remote, and unattainable
debated for centuries. In contemporary Titian’s, by contrast, is a sentient, flesh-and-blood
correspondence, she is described as the |heroine. Paintings of nude reclining women were
extremely popular in Venice in the 16th century.
“nude woman” or “woman reclining”.
The figure seems to have been referred to
att as Venus, the Roman goddess of love and
beauty, only after the painting was moved from Urbino to Florence in the
17th century. Roses and the myrtle tree are traditional attributes of Venus —
THE FACE Venus stares straight at the viewer,
but the inclusion of Venus’s son Cupid would have made the identification
with a nonchalant, almost provocative, expression.
unequivocal. Instead, the setting — with maidservants in the background Apparently unconcerned with her nudity, she
busying themselves with the subject's clothes — suggests the temporary seems to challenge, rather than be challenged by,
nakedness of a mortal rather than the ideal nudity of a goddess. her unseen beholder.

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WINDOW The window is the same as one ina
drawing of the Duke’s palace in Urbino
It suggests this painting was destined to be
displayed in his palace. The myrtle tree on the
sill symbolizes eternal commitment.

SPANIEL The dog, a traditional symbo

fidelity, implies that the painting is a story of
conjugal love. However, dogs were also used by
artists as symbols of lust.

4 TWO MAIDS The maids take clothes out of a bridal

chest (cassone). Such chests were often painted with erotic
scenes similar to this painting. Critics who see this painting
as an allegory of marital love have suggested the maids are
involved in their mistress’s nuptial preparations
 Jacopo Robusti Tintoretto v Study of a Male Nude
Vv The Miracle of St Mark Freeing a Slave /he use of from Behind /intorettos
3 b VENICE, 1518; d VENICE, 1594
foreshortening, contrast of light and shade, and closely observed drawings show even more
After Titian, Tintoretto was the most respected and prolific Venetian figure painting give this picture a sense of drama and movement. energy and brilliance than
painter of the Renaissance, but very little is known of his life. Born 1548, oil on canvas, 414x541cm, Galleria dell’ Accademia, Venice, Italy Michelangelos. c1577, charcoal}
Jacopo Robusti, Tintoretto was nicknamed for his father’s occupation on paper, 35x 25cm, Hermitage,
from the Italian word tintore, meaning “dyer” Tintoretto may have St Petersburg, Russia
trained with Venetian artist Bonifazio Veronese (no relation to Paolo
Self-portrait Veronese), and legend has it that he also studied with Titian, but
was dismissed because of the master's jealousy of his talent.
Tintoretto set up a workshop of his own some time before 1539. But it was not until
1548 that he produced a major work in his distinctive style, the Miracle of St Mark
Freeing a Slave. His draughtsmanship, seen vividly in his drawings, was perfected
by making wax models of the figures for his paintings and producing studies of them,
from all angles and with different light sources. One ofTintoretto’s hallmarks was
dramatic foreshortening. Bold brushwork matched the striking poses. Tintoretto’s
work in the churches and Scuole of Venice established his reputation as an alternative
to Titian and he had enormous influence, on El Greco in particular. His children —
Domenico, Marco, and Marietta — helped in his workshop once it was well established.

——— =
LIFEline
1518 Born in Venice, son of
a cloth dyer
before 1539 Sets up his |
w own workshop
O
= 1552-62 Works in the church
q of Madonna dell'Orto
” 1562-66 Paints a series of
® four works for the Scuola
< Grande di San Marco
“=
ui 1564 Produces several series
ce of scenes from the Bible for
<= church and Scuola di S. Rocco

<a after 1588 Paints Paradise for

the Doge's Palace

F 1594 Dies aged 76

» The Last Supper Many of

Tintorettos later works were
painted in collaboration with
his assistants, but this one is
undoubtedly his own work —
his glorious swansong. It is
a distinct break with the
traditional portrayal of this
CENTURIES
[ie
16TH subject. The dramatic depiction
| of Christ serving the Eucharist
beneath the supernatural angels
| contrasts with the very earthly
figures of the Apostles. 1594, oil
AN
15TH
on canvas, 365x568cm, S. Giorgio
Maggiore, Venice, Italy

CLOSERIook
Se yf

ee Toke,

DIAGONAL FRAMEWORK The SHINING HALOES The main light

visionary quality of this Last Supper source in this painting is the blazing
is heightened by the unconventional halo around the head of Christ, echoed
viewpoint — from above and to one side. in the auras around the Apostles’
The table forms a diagonal framework heads. Christ's halo lights the whole
for the painting scene, and highlights the figures of
the angels above.
Ss

is teeming with movement, and depicts the raising of the cross rather
than the conventional contemplative portrayal of the crucified Christ
1565, oil on canvas, 5.36x12.24m, Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice, Italy
 Paolo Veronese
b VERONA, 1528; d VENICE, 1588
Known by the nickname Veronese, after his native
city of Verona, Paolo Caliari became one of the most
important members of the Venetian school. He
Jacopo Bassano “ti absorbed some of the elements of Mannerism, Y The Triumph of Mordecai
MEE particularly the use of unusual perspectives and This is part of the massive cycle
Gee ne 1818) A BASSANO) 1692 Self-portrait foreshortening, but his work is generally characterized of paintings in S. Sebastiano.
Although he spent most of his life in Bassano, a village 65km by its dazzling use of colour and light, expressing the The works striking “worm’s-
northwest of Venice, where his father Francesco the Elder worked as a_| magnificence of the time. eye” viewpoint is explained by
painter, Jacopo Bassano is considered part of the Venetian school. He Veronese trained in Verona. After a short period in Mantua, he its position on the ceiling of the
studied with Bonifazio Veronese in Venice in the 1530s, but otherwise _| moved to Venice in 1553. He almost immediately started work on nave. The Mannerist portrayal
remained in his home town all his life. ceiling paintings in the Doge's Palace, and was then commissioned of figures and horses adds to the
Like his father, Bassano often placed biblical scenes in a rural setting, to provide canvases for the church of S. Sebastiano — a task that drama. 1956, fresco, 900x370cm,
peopled with peasants and animals, anticipating the 17th-century taste was to occupy him for about 10 years. Veronese’s work was much S. Sebastiano, Venice, Italy
for genre scenes of everyday life. His knowledge of the work of in demand, especially the banquet paintings for which he was
Raphael, Parmigianino, and other Mannerists lifted his work far above renowned, and his career culminated in a second series of
that of a village artist. Bassano experimented with a more expressive works for the Doge's Palace.
approach to anatomy in his figure painting, and he developed a
dramatic use of light and colour which continued throughout his career.
His four sons — Francesco the Younger, Giovanni Battista, Leandro, and
LIFEline CLOSERI|ook
Gerolam — were also painters. They assisted their father in his later
years, and took over his workshop after his death. 1528 Born in Verona
1553 Moves to Venice <m
1555-65 Paints a series of
works for the church of
2m
S. Sebastiano =
1562-63 Paints the Marriage >
» Adoration of the Magi
Feast at Cana in the refectory 2
The unnatural postures of the of S. Giorgio Maggiore aa
figures in this rural setting of m
the Adoration are typical of
1575-82 Commissioned to
decorate the interior of the
2
Bassano mature style, as is fire-damaged Doge's Palace ze
HORSE AND GROOM ”
the intensity of colour created 1585 Paints the Apotheosis n
Veronese’s eye for detail and love
by the light falling on them. of Venice for a ceiling in the >
Doge's Palace
of ornamentation, seen here in the 2
1563-64, oil on canvas,
92x 118cm, Kunsthistorisches 1588 Dies in Venice
boot and the horse’s hoof, add to rs)
m
the realism of his narrative cycles.
Museum, Vienna, Austria

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A The Adoration of the Kings /his is as much a portrayal of

country people and animals as of the Adoration. The pageant
of acutely observed figures leads to the Madonna. ¢1540, oil on
canvas, 183x235cm, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK \ : aly ee

A The Marriage Feast at Cana he banquet at which Christ turned

INcontext water into wine is depicted here in a Venetian setting, with classical
HOLY INQUISITION In 1573, architecture, guests in contemporary clothes, and Renaissance
Veronese painted a Last Supper, set musicians all realistically portrayed. Veronese'’s approach to religious
in contemporary Venice. He was themes was generally celebratory, even light-hearted, rather than
called before the tribunal of the devotional. 1562-63, oil on canvas, 6.6x9.9m, Louvre, Paris, France
Holy Inquisition because he had
included figures and ornaments that
were not in the biblical account.
Four days later, he changed the title
to Feast in the House of Levi, in
which Jesus ate with tax collectors
and sinners.
Detail from Auto da Fe in the Plaza
Mayor, Madrid by Francisco Ricci (1680).
 1419-67), hired Claus Sluter and Jan
van Eyck respectively. The English king
Henry VIII, meanwhile, employed
Origins and influences Hans Holbein.
The Northern Renaissance lasted from Artistic inspiration also came from
the end of the 14th century to the end Italy. There were extensive trading
of the 16th century. Many scholars contacts between northern Europe
In the 14th and 15th centuries, look to the flourishing of the arts and Italy — Giovanni Arnolfini, the
artists in northern Europe - as under the French king Charles V subject of van Eyck’s portrait (below),
(reigned 1364-80) and the Holy was an Italian merchant working in
in Italy - began to depict the
Roman Emperor Charles IV (reigned Bruges. Albrecht Durer worked for
world in a more realistic way. 1355-78) as the start of the Northern German merchants when in Venice.
While Italian artists attained Renaissance. And French king Francis | (reigned
this greater naturalism The princely courts of northern 1515-47) brought many Italian artists,
through the study of anatomy, Europe sponsored the Renaissance including Leonardo da Vinci, to France.
perspective, and classical art, much as the cities in Italy did. Royal
patrons were able to attract the best Subjects
A West End of King’s College Chapel, Cambridge
northern artists achieved it by
artists with large salaries and enticing Frederick Mackenzie. King’s College Chapel, started in Most of the best artworks of the
developing and mastering oil opportunities. Two Dukes of Burgundy, 1446, is one of the finest examples in England of the last 15th century were altarpieces. There
phase of the Gothic style, known as the Perpendicular.
paint and paying precise Philip Il (the Bold) (reigned 1363-1404) were also highly detailed prints, both
Aquatint from “The History of Cambridge”, published by
attention to detail. and Philip III (the Good) (reigned R. Ackermann in 1815, private collection woodcuts and copperplate engravings.

iorthern Renaissance
TIMEline
Van Eyck and Rogier van der
Weyden pioneered the use of oils,
creating intricate detail in The
Arnolfini Marriage and Descent
RENAISSANCE
NORTHERN
from the Cross. In the early 1500s
Hieronymus Bosch and Mathis
Griinewald made powerful
sermons in pictures. Durer idealizes &
Adam and Eve in the manner
of Italian artists. After the
Reformation, saints and the Virgin
were rarely painted. Instead Hans ag
Holbein turned to portraits such as po
VAN EYCK bs BOSCH The Carrying
The Ambassadors, while Cranach
and Bruegel painted myths.
The Arnolfini Marriage
VAN DER WEYDEN Descent from the Cross_ CAMPIN Virgin and Child of the Cross DURER Adam and Eve
before a Firescreen

Schools
In the 15th century, the Northern

CENTURIES
16TH
AND
15TH Renaissance centred on Flanders and
Germany. Flanders lies in what are now
Belgium and northern France. Germany
was a vague entity — it was made of small
states, all nominally part of the Holy Roman
Empire. This Empire covered the whole of
central Europe and was ruled by Austrian
Habsburgs. Germanic aftists lived in areas
now in eastern France, Switzerland, Austria,
and northern Italy.

15th-century Flemish
Two of the most influential 15th-century
Flemish artists were Jan van Eyck, who
worked mainly in Bruges, and sculptor
Claus Sluter, a native of Haarlem, who
worked in Brussels, then Dijon. Van Eyck and
Sluter recreated the real world with clarity,
moving away from the stylistic conventions
of medieval art. In the Ghent Altarpiece, for
instance, van Eyck paints an extraordinarily
A Portrait of a man, aged 93 Albrecht Dilrer
The detail and acute psychological observation is
4 Madonna and Child with Canon Joris van der lifelike Adam and Eve. They are not the
characteristic of the best of northern portraiture. 1521,
Paele Jan van Eyck Van Eyck uses his portrait skills to flat figures of medieval art, nor are they pen and ink heightened with white drawing, 41.5x28.2cm,
show the Canon being introduced to the Virgin and Child idealized as in Italian Renaissance painting. Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna, Austria
by St George. 1436, oil on panel, 122x 157m
Groeningemuseum, Bruges, Belgium
Martin Schongauer and Durer were
the masters of printmaking. Portraits,
too, were in demand from royal and
clerical patrons and the new < The Flood (detail) Ba/dung envisages
the Old Testament flood as a desperate
bourgeoisie. While sitters in early riot of splashing, struggling, and drowning
Italian Renaissance portraits were humans and animals.
generally painted in profile, van Eyck
began to use three-quarter views — CURRENTevents
adding vitality and allowing for more ©1440-1450 Johannes
Gutenberg of Mainz develops
exploration of facial expression. the printing press. It is key to
In the 16th century, Northern spreading the ideas of the
Renaissance artists also instigated Renaissance and later the
Protestant Reformation.
painting genres. Albrecht Altdorfer
1517 In Wittenberg, Martin
was the first artist to paint landscapes Luther begins the Reformation,
in oils without any figures or story. leading to a decrease in
Holbein's portrait The Ambassadors religious art.
(below) anticipates the still-life genre, 1566-67 A wave of Protestant
A The Flood Hans Baldung The German's work iconoclasm, the Bee/denstorm,
while Breugel's paintings of peasants hits the Low Countries. Much
is full of drama and doom — similar to that of his
at work and play were among the first contemporary Matthis Grtinewald. 1516, oil on religious art is destroyed.
scenes of everyday life. canvas, Neue Residenz, Bamberg, Germany 2
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MASSYS Ecce Homo Judgement of Paris BRUEGEL THE ELDER
HOLBEIN The Ambassadors Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
GRUNEWALD The Isenheim Altarpiece

Similarly, Sluter's sculpted figures are yet he retained the psychological insight,
remarkably naturalistic. They appear to be meticulous design, and masterful
flesh-and-blood people who exude vigour and observation of detail characteristic of
emotion. They are also highly detailed as can northern painters.
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be seen in the wrinkles, tendons, veins, and
sagging flesh. 16th-century Flemish
Northern art was transformed by the use and Dutch
of oil paint, a medium first mastered by Jan The Reformation profoundly affected the
van Eyck. Panel painting had previously been Northern Renaissance in the 16th century.
in egg tempera — this required laboriously Many Protestants objected to paintings and
building up the picture in small brushstrokes. sculptures of saints as popish idolatry and
Oils meant greater freedom. By using commissions for altarpieces dried up. Book
transparent layers, known as glazes, dazzling illustration and portrait painting became
jewel-like colours could be attained. major sources of income. Pieter Bruegel the
Chiaroscuro (light and shade) could bring Elder, the most renowned Flemish artist of
faces alive. Above all, details could be the era, painted peasant scenes and found
depicted precisely. patrons among the bankers of Antwerp and
the court at Brussels.
German The Low Countries became increasingly
Two of the greatest German artists of the unstable at the end of the century and
time — Albrecht Durer and Mathis Grunewald conditions were not conducive to
—are vividly contrasting figures. Grunewald commissioning arts. In 1566 many paintings
eed vaeegitle ot
looked back to the medieval idea of and statues were destroyed in Protestant
A Haymaking, possibly the months of June and
delivering sermons in pictures, but in an iconoclastic riots. In 1576, Spanish soldiers
July Pieter Bruegel the Elder This is one ofaseries of
original way, with vivid colour and powerful rampaged through Antwerp, leaving 7,000 six paintings Bruegel painted entitled The Months. Before
emotion. Durer was thoroughly dead. Three years later, seven northern 1566, oil on panel, 117x161cm, Lobkowicz Collections,
contemporary. He was the first German artist provinces of the Low Countries signed the Nelahozeves Castle, Czech Republic
to travel extensively in Italy. He mastered the Union of Utrecht and started the formation
colour, light, composition, and perspective of of the Dutch republic.
Italian painters, especially the Venetians. And
 Claus Sluter
b HAARLEM, c1350; d DIJON, 1405/06 LIFEline
Sluter was the greatest sculptor of the 15th century in northern Europe. 1379 Documentation shows
He was active in Brussels and Haarlem, but spent most of his life he is living in Brussels and
came from Haarlem
working in Dijon for the Duke of Burgundy. His most famous work is
the Well of Moses, of which only the base survives undamaged.
1385 Moves to Dijon to enter Melchior Broederlam
the service of Philip the Bold,
Living in an era when the “soft” or “sweet” Gothic style was Duke of Burgundy b YPRES, c1350; d YPRES, c1411
prevalent, Sluter developed a robust naturalism. His figures are all 1389 Succeeds Jean de
individualized humans, who exhibit a range of emotions and are Marville as the Duke's chief Broederlam was a Netherlandish painter, who, from the 1380s, worked
characterized with distinctive details. Furthermore, they are weighty sculptor as a court painter to Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. Documents
and expressive, projecting from their architectural settings with great 1404 Joins Augustinian testify that he was a busy and versatile artist, but his only surviving
monastery in Dijon works are two wings from an altarpiece for the chapel in the
emphasis on their three-dimensionality. His work influenced not just
sculptors but also painters such as Robert Campin. Carthusian monastery at Champmol, Dijon.
Showing The Annunciation and Visitation and The Presentation
and The Flight into Egypt, they are among the finest examples of
International Gothic art, a style characterized by brilliant colour and a rich
sense of pattern. The panels are full of naturalistic details — the figure of
St Joseph in The Flight into Egypt is depicted as an authentic peasant —
and they look to the future of realism in later Netherlandish art.

v The Annunciation and

Visitation, left-hand panel
of the Dijon altarpiece /his
wing panel was intended to fit
around a central shrine that
contained sculptures, which
accounts for its shape. ¢1394-99,
tempera on wood, 167x125cm,
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon, France

RENAISSANCE
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CENTURIES
16TH
AND
15TH

a
INcontext
CHARTREUSE DE CHAMPMOL
Philip the Bold began building this
Carthusian monastery in 1383 and made
its chapel a family mausoleum. To adorn
the chapel, Philip recruited a team of
artists, including Sluter and Broederlam.
The monastery was largely destroyed
CLOSERIook A The Well of Moses /his sculpture in the French Revolution.
Peso PROPHET JEREMIAH was originally situated in a cloister in the
fa Jeremiah typifies Sluter's Chapel portal Jhe portal of the chapel,
Chartreuse de Champmol, forming the base of a which contains Sluter’s sculptures of Philip
skills as a sculptor. The
7.5m-high fountain with the crucified Christ at and his wife (both kneeling) being presented
prophet is a believable old to the Virgin (centre), still survives at the |
the top. Six prophets — David (shown here with
man with wrinkles across site — along with the Well of Moses (left) ee
his forehead and around his
a crown), Moses, Jeremiah, Zachariah, Daniel,
deep-set eyes. His thumb and Isaiah — stand before small niches, while
makes an impression on the SIX grieving angels hover above. 1395-1403,
m™ ©manuscript. To make him as stone, height 183cm, Chartreuse de Champmol,
® lifelike as possible, originally Dijon, France
# Sluter gave him a pair of
a copper glasses
Robert Campin
b VALENCIENNES?, c1375; d TOURNAI, 1444 LIFEline
Vv The Annunciation Like his Northern European
Robert Campin was the leading painter in Tournai, in Belgium, from 1410 Buys citizenship in contemporaries, Campin had no scientific
about 1410 until his death. Jacques Daret and probably Rogier van der Tournai, suggesting he may understanding of perspective, but he creates
have been born elsewhere
Weyden (see p.144) were among his pupils. No works can certainly be a convincing illusion of depth intuitively. He is
1423 Secures deanship of
attributed to Campin, but there are strong reasons to think that he is also extraordinarily rigorous in his depiction of
Tournai’s painters’ guild
responsible for the body of work previously grouped under an invented architectural details. Workshop of Robert Campin,
1425 Becomes captain of
name — the Master of Flémalle. his quarter of the city
Campin developed a distinctive realist style that had a huge 1429 Sentenced to make
influence on Netherlandish art. He humanized subject matter, showing a pilgrimage to Provence,
religious scenes taking place in convincingly represented, middle-class following a revolt against
Tournai homes. The famous Merode Altarpiece triptych, for instance, the government of Tournai
1432 Banished from Tournai
shows the Virigin reading in a dining room, unaware of the Archangel,
for a year for a scandal in his
while Joseph makes mousetraps in his workshop. The Virgin and Child private life. The sentence is
before a Firescreen, now thought to be the work of a follower rather commuted to a fine on the
than Campin himself, also presents the Virgin in a domestic interior. intervention of the Countess
of Holland

CLOSERIook

» The Virgin and Child

before a Firescreen /his
=
is attributed to a follower 2%
of Robert Campin. Like the
FRAMING ARCH The
master, he presents a true-to-
architecture doubles as an
life contemporary interior. A
artistic device, framing the
humble firescreen serves as Virgin. God the Father in the top
the Virgins halo. Oil with egg left-hand corner sends diagonal
tempera on panel, 63.4x48.5cm, golden rays towards her. HSIINAT
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SYMBOLIC DECOR The gold
background of all three of the
panels is decorated with a motif
of vine branches and grapes,
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which are symbols of Christ.

war”

4 Entombment Triptych Jhis triple panel shows the unidentified donor

in the left panel with the empty cross, then the Entombment, and finally
the Resurrection. The painting has a medieval-style gold background, but
the figures have a sculptural solidity that anticipates High-Renaissance
art. ¢1410-20, tempera and gold leaf on panel, 65x 54cm (centre), 65x27cm
(wings), Courtauld Institute Gallery, London, UK
 Jan wan Eyck
b MAASEYCK?, c1390; d BRUGES, 1441 LIFEline

Jan van Eyck was one of the greatest and most c1390 Born perhaps in
important painters of the Northern Renaissance. He did Maaseyck, near Maastricht
not invent oil painting, as 16th-century artist-biographer 1422 Works in The Hague at
NiNeari (e aN ce F the court of John of Bavaria,
Vasari (see p.178) suggested, but he did perfect the @annticatioland
technique of glazing — building up layers of transparent 1425 Travels to Lille, then
Portrait by paint. This allowed him to create wonderfully deep Bruges, as a painter and
Theodor Galle colours and to work up minute details. Nobody before — equerry for Philip the Good,
and very few since — had mimicked reality so exquisitely. Duke of Burgundy
Van Eyck’'s pain g craftsmanship was matched by rigorous 1426 Death of his brother
observation. He was: extraordinarily sensitive to the fall of
:
light. He
;
Hubert, who had started work
on the Ghent Altarpiece
loved describing s in cloth, delineating the precise point at which the 1428-29 Travels to Portugal
form turns away from the light. He painted sculpture with such precise ona diplomatic mission for
ht and dark that it is hard to believe they exist only in two Philip the Good
dimensions. His portraits were brought to life by this close scrutiny. For 1432 Completes the
his bust-length portraits, he would register stubble, light reflected in the | Ghent Altarpiece
¢ ease in the skin. While his Italian contemporaries 1432 Paints the Arnoffini
a profile view for portraits, van Eyck pioneered the three- | Portrait
which allowed facial expressions to be fully investigated. 1441 Dies in Bruges

Ghent Altarpiece, interior view //his masterpiece consists The Virgin of Chancellor Rolin Here,
Lu
Oo , 12 of which appear when it is opened, as here. the donor, Nicolas Rolin, Chancellor to Philip the
i 1 the upper level,God the Father is flanked by the Virgin and Good, is shown stern and care-worn opposite
bo hn the Baptist, angels, and Adam and Eve. Below, saints travel the flawless Virgin. Beyond is a garden, with
2)
re the Lamb of God. Finished 1432, oil on panel, 350x461cm, roses and lilies symbolizing the Virgin's virtue.
Z athedral, Ghent, Belgium c1435, oil on panel, 66x 62cm, Louvre, Paris, France
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The Arnolfini Portrait Jan van Eyck

1434, oil on oak panel, 82x 60cm, National Gallery, London, UK
 CLOSERI|ook

The Arnolfini Portrait Jan van Eyck

This celebrated double portrait has Story v ST MARGARET On the bench, the
carved figure emerging from a dragon, is
long been the focus of scholarly debate about The painting's story remains a fascinating
probably St Margaret, the patron saint of
enigma. Is it a marriage? A betrothal? Ora
whom and what it depicts. It used to be known pregnant women. Constanza may have
mémorial to Arnolfini’s young wife Constanza died in childbirth
as “The Arnolfini Marriage’ following the classic who died the year before the picture is dated?
interpretation by art historian Erwin Panofsky. Until Are the objects “disguised symbols”, or are
recently, the couple were identified as Giovanni di they simply ravishingly realistic depictions of
Arrigo Arnolfini and Giovanna Cenami, a wealthy household contents? Is the dog a symbol of
fidelity, of lust, or simply a reference to the
Italian couple living in Bruges. However, in 1997
= dogs seen on funerary monuments?
documentation was published showing that they On the back wall hangs a convex.mirror in which two figures are
did not marry until 1447, Experts now think that reflected: Arnolfini raises his hand, perhaps to greet them. The painting
the painting depicts Giovanni's cousin and his wife. probably originally had shutters: and so when they were opened, it
What no-one disputes is that this masterpiece would have seemed as if the viewer was entering the room and
being greeted too.
displays van Eyck’s skill at using oil paint to create
an image of unprecedented illusionism.

Composition
Van Eyck's composition creates the illusion of two figures
in a believable space, even though the linear perspective
is approximate rather than absolutely accurate, and the
figures are too large in proportion to the room. It is a
beautifully balanced composition in which apparently
significant elements, such as the chandelier, van Eyck’s
signature, the ornate convex mirror, the wife's red shoes,
the couple’s joined hands, and the little dog, are arranged
along an imaginary central vertical and flanked by the
figures themselves. The windowed wall to the left of
the painting is counterbalanced by the brilliant red bed
hangings on the right.

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ENTURIES

\ LIGHT SOURCES A SLOPING FLOORBOARDS

16TH
AND
15TH
¢ Consistent lighting is part of the Van Eyck relied on intuition A ARNOLFINI’'S GAZE Arnolfini raises his
painting's realism. The fall of rather than rules of perspective hand — in affirmation of an oath, or in greeting? —
light and shadow (see Arnolfini’s to create a sense of recession yet his solemn, heavy-lidded gaze is pensive and
clogs) indicates several sources and space. The converging lines sidelong. He does not look at the viewer, the
the window to the left, an unseen of the floor boards, beamed figures in the mirror, or his wife.
window to the front, and/or the ceiling, window frames, and bed A MIRROR AND INSCRIPTION Two figures are reflected
open door reflected in the mirror pelmet define the box-like interior. in the mirror, above which is is a Latin inscription that means
“Jan van Eyck was here/1434”. It has been suggested thatthe
inscription was a marriage certificate, with van Eyck a witness to
the ceremony. However, it may simply be an ornate signature.

¢¢ The meaning of this painting

is that wealth — the wealth
to hire van Eyck — can
purchase immortality,
even if no one will be quite
sure what your name was 9
JONATHAN JONES, 2000
JOURNALIST
A HOLDING HANDS The couple's hands
were seen as joined in matrimony, but in the
Christian ceremony it is both right hands which
are joined. In the underdrawing Arnolfini grips
his wife's hand firmly — here it is slipping
A EXPENSIVE ORANGES Imported through his fingers just as Constanza did
citrus fruit was included to signify affluence,
“fruitfulness”, and/or to display van Eyck’s skill
at modelling its spherical form
 < POLISHED CHANDELIER Van Eyck not only
recreates in meticulous detail the way the complex
form of the chandelier takes up space: he captures
the different ways light is reflected on its polished
surfaces, and even shows the tool marks.
VW HIGHLIGHTS The prayer beads are depicted
with an astonishingly economical technique. Bold
strokes and blobs of paint create highlights,
shadows, and the thread running through them.

Technique
Much of the powerful impact of the painting comes
from its exceptional sense of realism. Surfaces are
depicted with a precision that was only made
possible by the skilful use of oil paint. Although the
long-standing belief that van Eyck “invented” oil
painting has been discredited, it is evident that he
refined and perfected the technique. Oil paint dries
slowly, and allowed van Eyck to apply layers of
transparent glazes to build up forms, create realistic
textures, and even give the illusion of light. Van Eyck worked his oil paints
with great care and skill, using rags and fingertips to obliterate any signs of
brushmarks and create his jewel-like finish.
A ; < CROPPING AND
PERSPECTIVE Arnolfini’s
wooden pattens (shoes that
are worn outdoors) reveal van
Eyck’s extraordinary level of
observation. He distinguishes
different textures with minute
detail. The smooth upper surface
contrasts with the mud spattered
heels, where the artist uses
strokes of grey and pink to
indicate chisel marks. The
strongly cast shadows make
the pattens appear to project HSIINATS
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A DELICATE BRUSHSTROKES The little dog,

looking directly at the viewer (unlike the humans),
was added later. The vertical line of the floorboards
is visible beneath its meticulously painted wiry
A GREEN AND RED The brilliance of the dress’s green is coat and there is no underdrawing
heightened by placing it next to its complementary colour, red
The colours may have symbolic significance: green signifying
fertility, red signifying passion. Tiny dots of paint suggest the
intricate decorative cut-work on the dress.
 ~
Rogier wan der Weyden
. b TOURNAI, c1399; d BRUSSELS, 1464 » St Luke Drawing the
The work of Rogier van der Weyden combines the expressive realism Virgin The windowin
of his probable master, Robert Campin, with a deep spirituality and this picture looks onto
empathy. Rogier’s most characteristic work is the Descent from the a Flemish city scene,
Cross, in which the grief of the Virgin Mary and Christ's attendants is in which a river winds
palpable. All of his surviving works are religious subjects or portraits. with converging linear
Portrait by The latter combine a Flemish attention to detail with flattery and piety. perspective into the
distance. The silverpoint
aus de As with many early artists, very little is known about Rogier's life. He
oulonols drawing that St Luke is
spent most of his career in Brussels, where he was the leading painter
making was the usual first
of th day, but nothing is recorded of his personality. There are no signed works, and
stage of a painting at this
paintings are attributed to him mainly on stylistic grounds. Although Rogier was famous time. ¢1435-40, oil and
in his lifetime*® with a busy workshop exporting copies of his paintings to France, tempera on panel, 138x
Germany, Spain, and Italy, after he died his name gradually faded from view. It was 111cm, Museum of Fine
only in the 20th century that his reputation regained its 15th-century status. Arts, Boston, US

LIFEline
1427 Apprenticed to Robert
Campin » Descent from the Cross For this
1432 Becomes master in scene, showing the lowering of Christ's
Tournai’s painters’ guild
body from the cross, Rogier painted a
1436 |s appointed official painter
gold backdrop, so there is no depth. The
to city of Brussels
©1445-50 Last Judgement effect is to thrust the highly realistic,
altarpiece for hospital in Beaune | grief-stricken players into the viewers
1450 Goes on pilgrimage to Rome space, as if they are at the very front of
1464 Dies in Brussels | a stage. c1435, oil on panel, 220x262cm,
Prado, Madrid, Spain

RENAISSANCE
NORTHERN

SF ed

CLOSERIook
ECHOING SHAPES The INDIVIDUAL FEATURES
*¢ Roger felt and expressed emotions pose of the swooning Mary The faces, particularly of the
and sensations — mostly of a bitter repeats that of the dead men, are recognizable portraits.
or bittersweet nature — that no Christ. Groups of three figures John the Baptists youthful face
balance either side, while is furrowed in concern as he
painter had ever recaptured 9 John the Baptist’s red robe supports the Virgin Mary. His
ERWIN PANOFSKY, ART HISTORIAN counters Joseph of ruddy glow contrasts with her
Arimathea’s gold brocade deathly pale face.
 Hugo wan der Goes
b GHENT, c1440; d RODE KLOOSTER, NEAR BRUSSELS, 1482 LIFEline
| |

The reputation of Hugo van der Goes rests on the one piece of work that he 1440 Born in Ghent |
certainly painted — the Portinari Altarpiece. However, on the strength of stylistic 1467 Becomes master
similarity, a handful of other paintings are also attributed to him. the Painters’ Guild of Ghent
The Portinari Altarpiece shows Hugo's ability to arrange groups of figures within Seay ne in Bruges
a realistic setting and to portray intense emotion. He applies his Flemish love of 1474-78 Paints the Portinari
naturalistic detail and surface texture to the symbolic objects in the foreground of Altarpiece
the picture, as well as to the rich fabrics. Set against such realism, Hugo uses the 1475 Becomes Dean of the
medieval device of including the figures of the donors, who commissioned the Painters’ Guild. Enters the
altarpiece, in the foreground, but showing them much smaller than the important monastery of Rode Klooster, |
religious figures behind them. When Portinari, a Medici agent in Bruges, took this _| "ear Brussels
altarpiece back home to Florence, it influenced local artists such as Ghirlandaio. | 1482 Dies, having suffered
a mental breakdown the
previous year

< The Fall of Man and the TI

Redemption Hugo revels in |
m
the details of foliage and in the
hybrid serpent in the Garden of =
n
Eden. Atmospheric perspective x
— the blue background — gives ==
Oo
the landscape depth. In both +
panels, the figures are arranged =
in a diagonal slope from left to i?)
m
right, echoing the descent of =
man and Christ. After c1480, oil =
on panel, 32x22cm and 34x 23cm, Cc
a
Kunsthistorisches Museum, né
Vienna, Austria

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The humble status of the shepherds

is raised by the rapt expressions on
A Altarpiece of the Seven their faces. This tightly knit group
Sacraments (central panel) contrasts with the solitary subject
The red garments and white of their worship.
headdresses focus attention — a ES > Sr Fe

on the figures at the foot of the A The Portinari Altarpiece [his central panel €
cross. They are set against the
shows the adoration of the Christ child. Instead INcontext
neutral tones of the architecture,
of lying on Mary’ lap or in a manger, he is THE GOLDEN LEGEND This 13th-century
Ap SEoil on panel, Koninklijk
1445-50, isolated on the bare ground,
: radiating light. collection
s of saints’
; lives: was a sourcebook for
Museurn Antwero. Belaium c1474-78, tempera and oil on panel, 253x304cm, Renaissance artists. It included, for instance,
; oe Uffizi, Florence, Italy the story of St Luke drawing the Virgin Mary's
portrait, a tale that made him the patron saint of
~ Portrait of Young Woman many painters’ guilds. About 900 manuscripts
in a Pinned Hat Typically of of The Golden Legend survive, and after the fx! :
Rogier’s portraits, the young invention of printing it became the most Se petcooreocereretinev-cenrs
woman is seen half-length and popular book in 15th-century Europe. anlescont
in three-quarter view. Her pose
Manuscript page from The Golden Legend by Dag) peasy omgquis.
shows devoutly clasped hands
Jacobus de Voragine (14th century). |
and a fashionable high waistline.
1435, oil on panel, 47x32cm,
Gemaldegalerie, Berlin, Germany
 Petrus Christus
b BAERLE-DUC?, c1410; d BRUGES, 1475/76

Petrus Christus is credited with being the first northern European artist
to use geometrically accurate perspective, in his Madonna with Two Edward Grimston Christus
Saints of 1457. He was the leading artist in Bruges in the generation portraits were his most successful
after Jan van Eyck. Christus may indeed have been one of van Eyck’'s works. Here, the sitters face is lit
pupils and have completed some of his unfinished works. He certainly from the side, so the artist can model
helped to spread van Eyck’s naturalism — like him, Christus observed and the features with a full range of
recorded details of the world around him with meticulous accuracy. In tones. 1446, oil on panel, 33x 24cm,
his religious scenes, Christus borrowed from both van Eyck and Rogier Earl of Verulam Collection, on loan to
van der Weyden. He shows greater individuality in indoor scenes, National Gallery, London, UK
especially his portraits. Gone are the black, blank backgrounds of earlier
artists. Instead, he provides a room setting that complements the
realism with which he depicts the sitter’s particular features.
v The Lamentation over the Dead Christ
This composition is based on Rogier van der
Weyden'’s Lamentation, but the result is less
dramatic. Oil on panel, 101 x 192cm, Musées
Royaux, Brussels, Belgium

The Death of the

Virgin The use of
perspective was
intended by Flemish
artists to increase the
| sense of space in all
directions, not to unify
the scene, as for Italian
painters. The spatial
setting is detailed, and
the figures at the door
and window lead the eye
into the world outside.
A limited palette of red,
black, and earth tones
unifies the various
elements. 1460-65,
oil on panel, 171x 138cm,
Timken Museum of Art, San
RENAISSANCE
NORTHERN
Diego, US

Hans Memling
b SELIGENSTADT, c1435-40?; d BRUGES, 1494

Born in Germany, Memling (or Memlinc)

became the leading painter in Bruges after
the death of Christus. Tradition has it that
he trained under Rogier van der Weyden.
Memling had a large workshop, and many
Self-portrait of his small altarpieces were exported to
Italy. The style of his background landscapes,
with a blue and hazy far distance, influenced Italian artists,
such as Perugino.
CENTURIES
16TH
AND
15TH
Memling had the skill of creating an intimate Madonna
| and Child scene in a setting that approximated to an Italian
palace in a Flemish landscape — a hybrid style that
appealed both at home and abroad. His success brought
him wealth — he was one of Bruges's richest citizens.

» Benedetto Portinari
The sitter for this portrait
was a Florentine agent of
the Medici bank. Memling
puts this pious memorial in A Triptych of St John the Baptist and
a realistic setting. 1487, oil St John the Evangelist Flanked by the two INcontext
on panel, 45x 34cm, Uffizi, Johns — shown in other scenes from their BRUGES |n this period,
Florence, Italy lives in the outer panels — the Virgin and Bruges was drifting into
Child are also accompanied by female saints. financial decline. Once an
St Catherine has the wheel she was tortured international trading centre
on, and St Barbara the tower she was locked where European merchants
in. c1474-79, oil on panel, Memling Museum, bought Flemish cloth, it was
Bruges, Belgium superseded by Antwerp,
with its bigger harbour,
during the 16th century

Town plan of Bruges as

it was in the 16th century.
 Dieric Bouts
b HAARLEM?, c1420; d LOUVAIN, 1475
Geertgen tot Sint Jans Dieric, or Dirk, Bouts is remembered chiefly for his long, thin figures
and also for the beauty of his landscape settings, in which the
b LEIDEN?, c1460; d HAARLEM?, c1490
foreground slides seamlessly and continuously into the far distance.
Very little is known of Geertgen, whose full name He used paths and walls to lead the eye from one figure to the next,
means “Little Gerard of the Brotherhood of St John’ and to coax the viewer into enjoying the full illusion of depth. His
after the religious order in Haarlem of which he was backgrounds gradually become lighter and bluer, imitating the natural
a lay brother. Paintings are attributed to him by their effects of atmospheric perspective.
stylistic similarity to two works — the Lamentation of Bouts's early life is obscure, but he probably moved from Haarlem v The Last Supper /n this central panel
Christ and the Burning of the Bones of St John the from the Louvain altarpiece, Bouts uses linear
to Louvain in the early 1460s. He received a major commission in
perspective in the converging lines of the room
Baptist —which are known to be by him. Geertgen 1464 for the altarpiece for the chapel of the Confraternity of the Holy
to create a sense of depth. The meal takes place
added a new element of humility to the devotional Sacrament at St Peter's in Louvain. Bouts set the narrative events in
ina light-filled room with Gothic arches, complete
works of the northern Netherlands. He relied on radiant his paintings in his own day. The figures often looked like people he
with contemporary details, such as the double
light, slender, childlike figures, and naturalism to convey knew, dressed in contemporary costume, and mingled with imaginary portrait hanging on the wall. 1464-68, oil on panel,
his holy vision. characters. The realistic space, landscape, and faces contrast with the 180x151cm, St Peter's, Louvain, Belgium
stiffly elongated figures, unemotional in the face of the gory events.
¥ The Nativity Light emanates from the Christ Child, revealing
the tender look on his mother’s face. A campfire on the hillside
lights up the angel. Late 15th century, oil on panel, 34x 25cm,
National Gallery, London, UK

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| CATCHING ATTENTION
The condemned man, wrongly
convicted of rape, is shown
» twice. In the foreground, his
decapitated body spews blood
while behind him, again in
white, he earlier pleads his
innocence to his wife. The
V-shaped group of figures
converges on the arrow-like
tower in the top left-hand corner.

A The Justice of the Emperor Otto Jown halls were often

decorated with justice scenes. Here Bouts uses his adopted city
of Louvain as the backdrop for the grisly tale. The emperors wife
attempted to seduce a nobleman and later accused him of rape.
A The Resurrection of Lazarus /he high Her husband had the man beheaded before the truth came out,
viewpoint shows Lazarus stepping out of his coffin and she was Jater burned at the stake. 1470-75, oil on panel,
after Jesus miraculously raises him from the dead. 325 x182cm, Musées Royaux, Brussels, Belgium
The detailed landscape is typically Flemish. Late
15th century, oil on panel, 127 x97cm, Louvre, Paris
 Nuno Gongalves
Y Coronation of the Virgin Areas of white lead
ACTIVE PORTUGAL, 1450-71 the eye up in loops to the dove (the Holy Ghost) and
While there are no certain works by Goncalves, the six Enguerrand Quarton the arms of God the Father and Son crowning Mary
panelled St Vincent polyptych is attributed to him on good Queen of Heaven. 1453-54, oil on panel, 183x220cm,
evidence. Made in Lisbon, it is the most impressive SUAS LL NF asc AE 0 Musée de I'Hospice, Villeneuve-lés-Avignon, France
painting produced in Portugal during the 15th century. This French artist is documented as working in Aix,
Shortly before Goncalves painted it, Jan van Eyck was Arles, and Avignon, but his only two certain works are
sent by the Duke of Burgundy to paint a Portuguese The Madonna of Mercy and Coronation of the Virgin.
princess whom he had in mind as a potential wife. Their quality has caused scholars to tentatively attribute
Goncalves's work shows the influence of van Eyck to him the Louvre's Avignon Pieta, widely considered
and other Flemish artists such as Bouts in his to be the greatest French painting of the time.
concentration on surface texture and colour and his The Coronation of the Virgin is an ambitious work,
interest in individualized faces. The panels show an encapsulating a great deal of Christian doctrine. The top
array of people, from fishermen to monks to royalty, two-thirds of the painting is devoted to a serene vision
venerating St Vincent, the patron saint of Lisbon. of heaven, while the bottom third is crammed full with
earthly figures panicking at the Last Judgement. Christ,
depicted on the cross, links the two realms.

v Madonna of Mercy /he Madonna appears

as a monumental protector. The figures resemble
sculptures of the region at the time. 1452, oil on
panel, 66x 187cm, Musée Condé, Chantilly, France
< St Vincent of
WW Saragossa /he portrait
O of St Vincent, the patron
=
<< saint of Lisbon, is
” idealized, while all the
2 other faces are of real
< people. The saints
= gorgeously embroidered
Lid
ce deacons garment
ee outshines that of the
cc prince, kneeling in
Lad
os supplication, and the
- haughty archbishop in
ce
ie) gold. c1466—70, oil on panel,
a 207 x 128cm, National
Museum, Lisbon, Portugal

» |Bartolomé Bermejo
= b CORDOBA?, c1440?; d BARCELONA?, c1498

= | Mixing the intense religious feeling of the Spanish with the naturalistic ees
5 | detail of the Flemish, Bermejo was the leading painter of the 15th re rai of Christ Bose
- | century in Spain. The dynastic marriage joining the Spanish kingdoms ae ieWU ee He
Ee il of Castile and Aragon increased the trade links with Flanders and made ony ae os
= |travel for artists and diplomats both possible and necessary. Bermejo background ae hills
= | oe in various cities of northern Spain and may have been Bermejo displays a Flemish-
= sll nes in Bruges. — ; influenced love of naturalistic
| Such attention to detail, beloved of Gothic and Flemish artists, was detail. The realism of the figures
re made easier by the introduction of oil paint, and Bermejo was one of is almost exaggerated. c1480, oil
| the first to use it in Spain. His real name was Bartolomé de Cardenas, on panel, 89x68cm, Museo de Arte
and his nickname Bermejo (“red”) is more likely to refer to his de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
appearance than his colour palette.
oe ts ae CLOSERIlook }
LIFEline |
1486 Working in Barcelona, |
having left Aragon |
1490 Completes the Pieta in
Barcelona Cathedral
c1498 Dies, after spending
most of his career in Barcelona |

> The Resurrection /n the

sister panel to The Descent,
Christ's appearance dazzles
one soldier, while the other has
yet to see him. The three Maries
in the background are small TONAL CONTRAST
(even allowing for perspective), Glowing from the fires of hell
following the Gothic tradition on one side and Christ's halo
of making the key characters at the other, a swathe of light
adds pathos to the plight of
the largest. c1480, oil on panel,
the supplicating sinners.
89x 68cm, Museo de Arte de
Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
 b TOURS, c1420; d TOURS, c1481
V Virgin and Child 7he Virgins face is said to be modelled on
that of Agnes Sorel, Charles VII's mistress. One pneumatic breast
The leading French painter of the 15th century, Fouquet had a uniquely is bared, although she is not nursing the Christ Child, who points
cool, severe style. Influenced by both Italian and Flemish art, he at Chevalier in the left wing of this diptych (below). She has an
created his own brand of realism with sculptural figures, chiselled hourglass figure and fashionably shaved hair, giving her a high,
features, simplified forms, and broad expanses of colour. bulbous forehead. 1452, right wing of the Melun Diptych, oil on panel,
Fouquet excelled equally as a manuscript illuminator and a painter 94x 85cm, Koninklijk Museum, Antwerp
Self-portrait on wood panel. He worked a good deal for the court, which at this
time was based in his home town of Tours. His patrons included
Etienne Chevalier, the royal treasurer under Charles VII. For him, Fouquet produced
both a Book of Hours and his most famous painting, The Melun Diptych. |ts two
panels are now in different galleries, one in Germany and the other in Belgium.
The likeness of the kneeling Chevalier is accurate, as is known from other portraits
of him. His namesake saint, Stephen (Etienne in old French), puts a protective arm
around him, but otherwise appears oblivious to the rock with which he will be
martyred or the blood already trickling down the back of his head. In contrast to
the realism of the left-hand panel, Mary is an idealized if improbable Madonna,
held adrift from time and space by cherubs.

LIFEline
1444 Paints portrait of Charles VII
1446-48 Probably visits Rome v Etienne Chevalier and St Stephen fouquet makes no
c1450-60 Creates a Book of attempt to flatter the face of Chevalier, the powerful donor who
Hours for Etienne Chevalier commissioned the altarpiece, giving him a long nose and grimly
1452 Paints The Melun Diptych compressed mouth. Chevalier kneels in a classical Italian interior
1474 Designs for the Louis XI's with accurate perspective. Fouquet deliberately sets the realism
tomb of the earthly realm apart from the ethereal world of the Virgin
1475 Made royal painter and child in the right wing of this diptych (right), with St
Stephen bridging the two. c1452, left wing of the Melun Diptych,
oil on panel, 93x 85cm, Geméaldegalerie, Berlin, Germany

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COLOUR CONTRASTS While the

flesh and cloak of The Virgin and Child
look as cool and chiselled as marble, the
framework of cherubs and seraphs is
composed of vivid reds and blues. Each HL9L
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face is seen from a different angle and,
although the colouring differs quite
starkly, the forms are stylized and
simplified in an appeal to rational order
B= rather than emotion.

INcontext
JOAN OF ARC Fouquet owed his patronage indirectly to Joan of Arc and her part |
in restoring the French monarchy. Charles VI of France died in 1422, and England tried |
to claim the throne. As a teenager, Joan heard voices that inspired her to lead the
crusade that restored Charles VII to his throne. He made no attempt to save her from
her fate — she was burned at the stake as a witch and heretic in 1431. But the English
were successfully routed. Under Charles's son, Louis XI, royal patronage of the arts
flourished. Joan of Arc was eventually made a saint in 1920.
Signature of Joan of Arc
protcmenyPeer Sepre
wheended eet ieee
= _-Joan of Arc’s crusade
pate Serieacas= “: SaaS tess ended centuries of struggle
ee aa x eriecee cee, nf for power and territory
AM fone Nw Brome wf C—fople ane between England and
" France. Thanks to her,
or Charles Vil was crowned
at Reims in 1429
Ee Ditikyery
its
In China, landscape painting has for centuries been < Landscape with Bathers Antonio Carracci
one of the most prominent forms of art. In Europe, This landscape was once attributed to Agostino
however, its history has been more uneven. It was often Carracci, but is now thought to be by his
illegitimate son Antonio. c1615, oil on canvas,
(Uisy=Yo Mam tar= We=verolr-yielaMe)arelarel(=iaialnelanr-lameleli(elialecpmelee 32x 34cm, Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy
then lost popularity until the Middle Ages. During the 16th
century it began to develop into an independent speciality er V Herdsmen with cows Aelbert Cuyp Cuyps
for artists and eventually attained widespread Tan)elelacelarer=) | dl ; depictions of his native
in warm sunlight = were Holland — often
iffienced bathed
ty eta
in the 17th century. The Impressionists, in the 19th century, a . the French painter Claude, Late 1860, oil on eave,

helped to turn landscape into one of the most popular 99x 14cm, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, UK
branches ° alee

V Pygmies. enti, from the Casa del Dottore (House of the Doctor)
van Thi '
mpeil. The Nile setting adds to the exoticism of the work.
126x 74cm, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, Italy

A Wooded Landscape with a Cottage, .

Sheep, and a Reclining Shepherd
Thomas Gainsborough Gainsboroughs
A Willows and distant mountains Ma Yuan, pastoral landscapes combine his
Monochrome images with calligraphic brushwork idiosyncratic vision with the influence of
are characteristic of landscape paintings of this Rubens. c1748-50, oil on canvas, 43x 54cm,
A March: saa atwork ona ieuaal
period. Mountains, as symbols of stability, were Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon
estate Limbourg Brothers This detailed pastoral
favourite subjects. Song Dynasty (960-1279), ink Collection, US
scene comes from the Trés Riches Heures du Duc de
and watercolour on silk, private collection. Berry, one of the most beautiful of all illuminated » A Cottage in a Cornfield John
manuscripts. 1414-1418, vellum, Musée Condé, Constable Constables quintessentially
Chantilly, France
English landscapes were often inspired by
Dedham Vale, the area in which he grew up.
1817, oil on canvas, 32x 26cm, National Museum
Cardiff, UK
Vv Wheatfield with Cypresses Vincent van Gogh
The urgent brushwork and bold colours of van Gogh's
landscapes combine his love of Japanese art with his
understanding of Impressionism. 1889, oil on canvas,
72x91cm, National Gallery, London, UK < Drifting Smoke het
remoteness of the Australian outback is
vividly expressed in this painting. 1981,
oil on canvas, 152x 183cm, National Gallery
of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.

V Western Hills Graham Sutherland

The English artist often uses abstract
forms to lend his landscapes a surreal,
dreamlike quality. 1938-41, oil on canvas,
56x 91cm, Scottish National Gallery of
Modern Art, Edinburgh, UK

3dVO

=
Be
m
=
m
n
Z
>
me
at

the k aes: ie
A Mont Sainte Victoire
Paul Cézanne Mont Sainte
Victoire was a frequent :
subject of Cezanne’s. His HOMIE SSG Staeo ipa
radical approach to form A Wessex Flint Line Richard Long The English
= influenced Cubism. c1900, oil _—_and artist's sculptures are an expression of his
ee on canvas, 78x 99cm, personal relationship walking in landscapes. 1987,
A A Haystack, Hazy Sunshine Claude Monet Hermitage, St. Petersburg, flint, 1130 x160cm, Southampton City Art Gallery, UK
His series of Haystack paintings helped Monet to Russia
develop his masterful treatment of light. 1891,
oil on canvas, 60x 101cm, private collection <An Angler Tarsila do
Amaral The bold colours and
A Cayambe Frederic Edwin Church Church’ shapes of Amaral's landscapes
panoramic landscapes are bold celebrations of the ER RROMMROUAO
majesty of nature. 1858, oil on canvas, 76x 122cm, Brazilian Modernism. c1925, oil
Collection of the New-York Historical Society, US on canvas, 66x 75cm, Hermitage,
St. Petersburg, Russia
 Gerard David
b OUDEWATER?, c1460; d BRUGES, 1523
David was one of the last painters to work in the early
Flemish style of Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der
Weyden. He used translucent layers of oil paint to build
up richly coloured glazes, and depicted a meticulously
ordered world. Consolidating rather than innovative,
Self-portrait David was at his best when painting quiet, pious Jan Gossaert (Mabuse)
reigious scenes.
b MAUBEUGE?, c1478; d ANTWERP?, 1532 | LIFEline
A contemporary of the Antwerp master Massys, David became
the leading painter in Bruges after the death of Memling in 1494. His “Better in execution than invention” was Durer's verdict on Jan Gossaert, | 1503 Becomes Master of
technical skill and familiar style and subject matter made him popular which chimes more with today's opinion of him than the artist-biographer | the Antwerp Painters’ Guild |
in his day, and his works were much copied for export to Spain. David Vasari’s (See p.178) praise. He wrote that Gossaert was the first “to bring 1508-09 GoestoRome |
| with Philip of Burgundy, the |
broke from his normal themes in a pair of pictures of the Judgement the true method of representing nude figures and mythologies from Italy
| ambassador to the Vatican
of Cambyses (1498) for Bruges town hall, but returned to religious to the Netherlands” | 1520 Paints St Luke
subject matter thereafter. Gossaert, whose alternative name, “Mabuse’ derives from his | Painting the Virgin Mary
probable birth place, attempted to pull off an artistic marriage between
the styles of northern and southern Europe. This was more successful
LIFEline in some of his paintings than in others. After a trip to Rome, he kept
c1460 Born, probably in his loyalty to the traditions of Jan van Eyck and followers, but changed
Oudewater, near Gouda the settings in his paintings. He liked to show off his skill at drawing in
1484 Settles in Bruges perspective, knowledge of Italianate architecture, and mastery of light
1498 Paints Judgement of Vv Danaé Here, the god
and shade. Gossaert was also influenced by Durer, and the large,
Cambyses, his main secular Jupiter seduces Danaé
A
works muscular bodies of his “Romanizing” style owe as much to the German
artist as to the Italians. by disguising himself as a
1507 Paints Baptism of Christ
shower of gold. Gossaert
triptych
integrates the figure within
c1515 May have opened a
workshop in Antwerp < Adoration of the Magi /n this early work, her classical interior much
1523 Dies in Bruges the Virgin has long wavy hair, a demure face, more successfully than in
4 and angular drapery, following the 15th-century Neptune and Amphitrite.
Netherlandish tradition. In the same vein, 1527, oil on panel,
Madonna and Child Gossaert relishes the surface detail. Oil on 113x 95cm, Alte Pinakothek,
Crowned by Two Angels panel, Museo Lazaro Galdiano, Madrid, Spain Munich, Germany
David excels in detail, from -—
aod o
Marys tender look and Christ's
absorption to the glittering
crown. c1520, oil on panel,
RENAISSANCE
NORTHERN
34x27cm, Prado, Madrid, Spain

CENTURIES
16TH
AND
15TH

a SS 2.

\ Triptych of the Sedano Family Both the foreground group of

donors, with their patron saints flanking the Madonna and Child,
and the landscape background are unified across the three panels.
1495-98, oil on panel, 97x 145cm, Louvre, Paris, France

INcontext
SECULAR THEMES Lucas
van Leyden founded a tradition of A Neptune and Amphitrite /hese
genre painting (scenes of everyday life-size figures look too large for their
life), which was to become a Dutch setting, a misinterpreted ancient
speciality in the 17th century Roman temple. The leaves in their hair
Massys also painted secular and shell shielding Neptune's genitals . = ‘tare
themes, while Marinus van strike an unintentionally comic note.
Reymerswaele later specialized LIKE THE MADONNA CONTRASTS The
1516, oil on canvas, 188x 124m, Apart from the semi-nudity, sharply focused marbled
in painting caricatures of bankers,
Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany Danaé looks like one of columns and classical
misers, and tax collectors
Gossaert's Madonnas, down motifs vie with the
The Engagement by Lucas van to the traditional blue robe figure for attention
Leyden (early 16th century).
 b LOUVAIN, c1466; d ANTWERP, 1530
Massys, also referred to as Matsys or Metsys, was
the leading painter in Antwerp from about 1510 to
the end of his career. His style is deeply rooted in
the Netherlandish tradition, but it also shows a strong
é influence from Italian Renaissance art, and he may
Portrait by well have visited Italy at some point in his career. Like
Theodor Galle Gossaert, he included Italian motifs, especially in < Madonna Standing with
architectural decoration. In some of his work, the the Child and Angels /he
landscape backgrounds were painted by his friend Joachim Patinir. Virgin Marys sweet face and
As well as religious pictures, Massys painted portraits and genre her blue robes falling into
scenes that satirized everyday life. His satires were the pictorial sculptural folds are typically
equivalent of The Praise of Folly (published in 1511), written by Netherlandish. But the cherubs
the great Dutch humanist Erasmus, whom he painted twice. and classical architecture show
The resulting pair of portraits influenced Hans Holbein. that Massys was also familiar
with Italian art. c1500-09, oil
on panel, 49x34cm, Courtauld
LIFEline : : Institute of Art, London, UK
1491 Aged 25, becomes : a - r ss \ aot ly
Masterofthe Antwerp i : CLOSERIook
Painters’ Guild hase
Aa
c1500-09 Paints Madonna
Standing with the Child and
Angels
1507-09 Paints his first
dated work, an altarpiece
of St Anne
1517 Paints two portraits of
Erasmus for Sir Thomas More

» Ecce Homo /he ugly faces S44 Beh Wed SY 3 ser

on the left and right evoke a | EXQUISITE HIGHLIGHTS
jJeering mob. By contrast, Christ ©) The Madonna's wavy hair is part
submits to his pain and | of the Netherlandish tradition.
humiliation with dignified Massys uses a fine brush to
endurance. Oil on canvas, highlight the individual curls. HSIIN
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Palazzo Ducale, Venice, Italy
a ai4

Lucas van Leyden L

b LEIDEN, c1494; d LEIDEN, 1533 — LIFEline

Lucas was a highly skilled printmaker from an early age. €1494 Born in Leiden
In an engraving entitled Mohammed and the Murdered 1514 Becomes member of
Monk (1508) — made in his teens — he had already the Painters’ Guild in Leiden
mastered figure groups in space, foreshortening, and Polly Paints The Card:
landscape. However, what really interested Lucas were hore
; , : ravels to Antwerp,
Self-portrait caricatures and genre scenes. He was among the first where he meets Diirer
artists to make everyday life the subject, not the 1526-27 Paints The Last
background, of a work of art. His prints were widely circulated at Judgement
home and abroad, including Italy. 1527 Travels to Middleborg
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Lucas was highly rated by his contemporaries. The artist-biographer and meets Gossaert
Vasari thought that some of his work was better than Durer’s — though 1533 Dies in Leiden
Vasari’s Netherlandish counterpart, van Mander, thought Lucas was
lazy and pleasure-seeking. He was the precursor of another brilliant
printmaker born in Leiden — Rembranct.

A The Last Judgement /his

Renaissance design, filled with
nude figures, is unified by bright light,
giving the impression of vast space.
The light is matched by brilliant colours.
1526-27, oil on panel, Lakenhal Museum,
Leiden, Netherlands

<< The Card-Players [his pioneering

work set the trend for morally
questionable subject matter to take
centre stage in a painting. The close
viewpoint, revealing a players cards,
makes the viewer feel like a participant
in the game. c1517, oil on canvas,
36x 46cm, Wilton House, Wiltshire, UK
- a cos = ES. :
A The Milkmaid Lucas‘s deft touch shows in
details, such as the modelling of light and shade on
the cow’s flank and the texture of the tree trunks.
1510, engraving, British Museum, London, UK
 Hieronymus Bosch
b ‘s-HERTOGENBOSCH, c1450; d ‘s-HERTOGENBOSCH, 1516
Joachim Patinir
Although some of his paintings are fairly traditional,
b DINANT OR BOUVIGNES, c1480; d ANTWERP, 1524 Hieronymus Bosch also created pictures that rank among
Patinir, also called Patenier or Patinier, was the first artist the most powerful and imaginative fantasy scenes in the
to specialize in painting landscape and to make it more history of art. They depict a weird world full of grotesque
important than the people in it. In additon to independent and horrifying creatures, giving vivid form to the fear of
works, he sometimes painted the landscape backgrounds Portrait by Hell that haunted the medieval mind. Little is known of
Theodor Galle Bosch's life and because his work is so compellingly
for other artists, such as his friend Massys.
Portrait by Typically, Patinir takes a panoramic viewpoint, as strange it has prompted ideas that he was involved with
Durer if scanning the landscape like a bird — or God. Craggy witchcraft or heresy. However, all the contemporary evidence suggests
mountains and lush valleys dominate the nominally that he was a devout Christian as well as a respected and successful
religious subject matter, while tiny human figures give a sense of scale. citizen of the prosperous provincial town where he evidently spent all
The landscape resembles Patinir's home locality, the River Meuse gorge, his life. His work-was popular and influential (for example on Bruegel)
its steep cliffs a far cry from the flat scenery typical of the Netherlands. during the 16th century, but then long forgotten. Since his rediscovery in
As David and Bosch had already done, and Bruegel was to do, the early 20th century he has continued to fascinate and perplex viewers.
Patinir divided his landscapes into a warm brown-red foreground, a
green middle ground, and a cool blue background. He also alternated ;
LIFEline
light and dark areas. Together, this use of colour temperature, tone,
c1450 Born to a family of
and viewpoint conveys an impression of space. artists In ‘s-Hertogenbosch,
from which his name derives
and where he worked all
LIFEline
his life
c1480 Born in Meuse valley 1474 First documentary
1515 Becomes a member of reference to Bosch
the Antwerp Painters’ Guild in c1480 Paints The Cure of Folly
his mid-30s — one of his favourite themes
c1515 Paints the Baptism 1504 Burgundian ruler Philip
of Christ the Fair commissions a large
c1520 Paints Landscape with altarpiece of The Last
St Jerome Judgment (this no longer
1521 Meets Durer, who exists) < Nativity This is one of
attends his second wedding 1516 Dies in ‘s-Hertogenbosch’; several similar treatments of
and describes him as a “good : by this time his reputation has the subject by Bosch and his
landscape painter” | ‘ PE oe) Paes spread to Italy and Spain followers. His work was
1524 Dies; the painter Quentin | Baptism of Christ John the Baptist appears 1517 First record of his most greatly admired in his lifetime
reer gg guardian of here in the foreground and again, preaching, in famous work — The Garden of and was much imitated.
NS MOLE)
RENAISSANCE
NORTHERN the middle ground. c1515, oil on panel, 60x 76cm, Earthly Delights Oil on panel, Erasmus House,
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria Anderlecht, Belgium

CENTURIES
16TH
AND
15TH

A Landscape with St Jerome /n the CLOSERIook

foreground, the hermit Jerome removes a
thorn from a lion's paw. The lion becomes
his pet. But the strange rock formations,
the lush forests, and the avenues of space
leading to a blue horizon all dwarf the
human activity. c1520, oil on panel, 74x91cm,
Prado, Madrid, Spain

ZONES OF DISTANCE Patinir

divides the landscape into coloured
zones. St Jerome sits in a triangle
A The Carrying of the Cross Here, the extreme close-up heightens the
of brown. The green middle ground
grotesque faces, which cram the frame around the resigned Christ. There is
and blue distance shift from bright
to dull, and dark to pale no depth — the viewer cannot look beyond the foreground horrors. c1485-90,
oil on panel, 74x81cm, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent, Belgium
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A Tabletop of the Seven Deadly Sins | CLOSERIook

Bosch’s concern with human wickedness aS
appealed to the gloomy Philip II of Spain,
which is why many of his paintings are
in Spain. King Philip kept this table in 6¢ .. others try to
his bedroom in the Escorial palace, near paint man as he
Madrid. Bosch’s transparent, bright appears on the
colours glow against the black
background. c1480-90, oil on panel, outside, while
120x150cm, Prado, Madrid, Spain [Bosch] alone had

| bd i Li B Thee ee 2. the audacity to

paint him as he is
GLUTTONY In the Middle Ages and ; insi 2
Si Renaissance, the sin of gluttony was HELL A nun beats a sinner’s ash the inside
ANGER Bosch presents wrath _ represented by a fat man or woman, naked body in Bosch’s vision of JOSE DE SIGUENZA,
as a drunken man brandishing gorging on food and drink. The glutton Hell (in the bottom left circle LIBRARIAN TO PHILIP II
a sword in a lover's tiff. More might be accompanied by a voracious of the tablecloth). Others are
often the aggressor was portrayed wolf, pig, bear, or hedgehog, although thrown into sulphurous flames
as a warrior, bandit, or woman. _ this man has only human attendants or submerged in a freezing river.
Salyn NYSHLYON JINVSSIVNSY
 15TH 16TH AND
CENTURIES

oS© Bosa=)eo i= o a iaco = = tes f=)o oH= oT” <=ace)= a == —WY aa)S WYS
c1500, oil on panel, 220x390cm total size, Prado, Madrid
 CLOSERIook

Garden of Earthly Delights Hieronymus Bosch

This vast painting was evidently made Story
for the private home of an aristocrat in Brussels, People believed fervently in the afterlife in medieval times, and
Bosch's images of hellish torment would have seemed only too
where it is first recorded in 1517, the year after
plausible. Bosch’s extraordinary vision includes creatures out of his
Bosch's death. Although the format of a triptych
qwn imagination, medieval monsters, exotic animals like giraffes
(three painted or carved hinged panels) was newly discovered by explorers such as Columbus, and creatures
traditionally used for altarpieces, the ribald subject such as unicorns, on the very left of the Garden of Eden, thought
matter would have been inappropriate in a church. to be“ real” at the time.
Among the many interpretations of its meaning, W STRAWBERRY MOTIF Exotic fruit, most
one is that God's instruction to married couples to of all strawberries, appear as food, shelter, and
even a boat. The huge and luscious fruit are
“increase and multiply” has become misdirected
sexually symbolic. According to a writer of 1600
into a licence for debauchery. Far from creating a the triptych was called The Strawberry Plant.
lovers’ paradise, this orgy of lustful sin leads to Hell. fo

Composition
Once the monochrome exterior panels of the triptych
are opened, they reveal a colourful world unified by the
landscape that continues across the three panels. The
fantasy landscape is peopled by humans, animals, and
make-believe creatures set amid lakes and strange, fleshy
protuberances. A high horizon line suggests a godlike
viewpoint, looking down on earth. The use of atmospheric
perspective — the landscape turns blue in the background —
combines with the high viewpoint to give a sense of depth.

» THE CLOSED TRIPTYCH,

When the panels are shut, the
two halves join to form a globe >» TREE OF KNOWLEDGE With a serpent
painted in shades of grey. In the coiled around its trunk ready to tempt Eve, the A GLUTTONY PUNISHED A throned hybrid
top left-hand corner is the figure tree's forbidden fruit is ripe for the plucking. Its creature with a cauldron hat eats human beings an
of God with a Bible in his lap. position, butted up to the panel join, leads the excretes them into a pit below. Below the throne,
RENAISSANCE
NORTHERN
The image possibly represents eye on to the central action. one man vomits into the pit while another defecate
the third day of creation before coins, and a woman is ensnared by a human tree.
light came to an as yet people-
free world — hence the lack of
any colour

|
CENTURIES
H
eT

HAT
SETTLING
DIONE,
AND
TH
1€
4!

4 THE OPEN TRIPTYCH The left-hand panel shows the Garden

of Eden, the central panel the Garden of Earthly Delights (sometimes
called the World Before the Flood), and the right-hand panel depicts
Hell. Exactly in the centre is an egg teetering on a horseman’s head,
speaking of the creation of life and its fragility.
™) < THREE DISTINCT
| LAYERS The general mayhem
in the foreground of the central
} panel is bounded by a thicket.
The middle layer is ordered. Naked
women flaunt themselves in a
central pool, while a cavalcade
of ogling men ride round them in
circles. In the distance, the waters
i } part in four directions. This may
: } ) refer to a biblical passage in
EEO §=which the waters of lust split
and travel to four places through
a land of paradise.
 Technique
Bosch was as technically skilled as he was imaginative.
Vivid colour is his hallmark, applied with fine brushes
that allow minute detail. He made an underdrawing of
the whole scheme, which shows through the overlying
paintwork in some places. His drawing is sometimes
careful, sometimes casual, just as he varied between
thick brushwork and more fluid, thin application.
< FOUNTAIN STRUCTURE Crab,
shell, plant, human edifice — this
imaginary form houses an owl peering
out from the globe at its base. The
owl stands for wisdom and folly, and
watches God creating Adam and Eve.

A SELF-PORTRAIT This white

face, probably Bosch’s own, stares
out from a construction that is part
man, part egg, part tree, which
mirrors the pink fountain in the left
panel. The bagpipe on Bosch’s hat is
likely to be another sexual symbol.
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v PIG DRESSED AS NUN One of
the few characters with any clothes
on at all, the pig seems to be
attempting to seduce the man so he
will sign away his fortune to the
church. Looking at the armour-clad
crouching creature beside the man, it
is easy to see why the Surrealists
(see p.470) took Bosch to their hearts.

Vuie)

A DETAIL The accuracy of these recognizable species

of birds — albeit giant sized — makes the imaginary
creatures believable. Dotted highlights make the eyes
beady, bright, and bird-like. All the life forms are SAIY
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presented with the same painstaking precision.

A PAINT TEXTURE The right inner panel is

thinly painted and rapidly executed, in contrast to
the precise detail and thicker paint of the left inner
panel. Fiery light illuminates the blackness.

< COLOUR When the panels are opened,

the overwhelming impression is of green, made
brighter by the accents of contrasting red and the
< TRANSPARENT BALL The motif of hiding inside and pink structures. Beside the darker tonality of the
emerging from fantasy structures that look both natural and panel depicting Hell and the pale human flesh,
artificial is repeated across the panels. Whether such imagery the colours appear to glow.
speaks of innocent paradise or uncontrolled debauchery is a
matter of opinion. The globe may be a glass distilling chamber
and refer to alchemy — making gold out of base metals — just
as Christ's power raised human nature from.base to spiritual.
 Pieter Bruegel the Elder Y The Parable of the Blind /n one of his last paintings, Bruegel
uses dark humour to illustrate Christ's warning: “And if the blind
b BREDA?, c1525; d BRUSSELS, 1569 | LIFEline | ead the blind, both shall fall into a ditch”. 1568, tempera on canvas,
Pieter Bruegel pioneered the painting of rural life. With 1551 Becomes amasterin | 86x 154cm, Museo e Gallerie Nazionali di Capodimonte, Naples, Italy
wit and colour, he showed peasants hunting, herding, the Antwerp Painters’ Guild a Pe g - %
harvesting, and enjoying themselves at feasts and c1552-54 Visits Italy,
ae : i , travelling as far south as Sicily
festivities. Bruegel was nicknamed “The Peasant’ but 1555. Returns to Antwerp,
} this is misleading, for he was a sophisticated artist and a where he designs engravings
Pieter Bruegel townsman rather than a countryman. Little is known of for print publisher Jerome
the Elder his early years, but he spent most of his working life in Cock
Antwerp and Brussels, and he had rich, educated clients and friends, 1563 Marries, moves to
who included the geographer Abraham Ortelius. Brussels,
wooY and begins
é to work
primarily as a painter
Like many northern European painters of this era, Bruegel travelled 1565 Commissioned to part
to Italy, but Italian art seems to have had little impact on him. His lively, The Months, six paintings
crowded scenes, full of frank, humorous observation, are the antithesis showing the seasons
of the beauty and refinement of Italian Renaissance painting. Instead, 1569 Dies in Brussels, leaving
he was more influenced by the Alpine scenery he crossed on his way two infant sons, Pieter the
to Italy. As a result, mountains and rocky crags appear in the landscapes _|Younger and Jan, who both
he painted of the Low Countries. go on to be painters

Children’s Games /n this

scene, hordes of children run
amok in a town. The moral of
the picture — if there is one — is
unclear. Is Bruegel celebrating
the innocent and imaginative —
if at times cruel — behaviour
of these children? Or is he using
the children as a metaphor
for the irresponsibility and folly
he sees in the adult world?
1560, oil on wood, 118x161cm,
Kunsthistorisches Museum,
Vienna, Austria

pate CLOSERIook
RENAISSANCE
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| 4 a a

DIAGONAL COMPOSITION By using a vista

down the street, and setting up a strong diagonal
| from the bottom left to the top right, Bruegel
helps pull us into the picture. The restless activity f
of the town is balanced by the tranquillity of the
AND | Flemish countryside in the top left corner.
CENTURIES
16TH
15TH
GIRL PLAYING
WITH A TOP In the
foreground, a girl bends
over to play with a
spinning top. Next to
her, another girl bangs
a drum and bursts her
lungs playing a pipe.

ACROBATIC BOY In
a topsy-turvy world, in
which children have
taken over, Bruegel
shows two boys literally
upside down. Setting
their comical body
positions against a plain
wall helps attract the
eye to their japes.
 Landscape with the Fall of Icarus /carus, who flew too
close to the sun, appears almost incidental in this scene. While
our eye is pulled to the left — from ploughman to horse to distant
coastline — Icarus falls into the sea in the bottom right corner.
c1558, oil on canvas, 74x 112cm, Musées Royaux, Brussels, Belgium

6¢ During his trip across

the Alps, Bruegel
swallowed all the
mountains and rocks
and spat them out
again, after his return,
on to his canvases
and panels ”’
KAREL VAN MANDER, FLEMISH
WRITER AND PAINTER

< The Adoration of the Kings /his

painting is remarkable for its naturalism.
The figures are not idealized — Jesus
struggles in the Virgins lap, the Virgin
has her face partially hidden, and the
kings appear almost as caricatures.
The king to the bottom left has an
elongated figure, characteristic of the
Mannerist style, which makes him look
awkward and discomfited. 1564, oil on oak HSII
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panel, 112x84cm, National Gallery, London

a=i
ae
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2
Mm
ea)

A Hunters in the Snow (January) /his is one of a series ofsix

paintings, entitled The Months. The viewers eye travels from the
hunters, dogs, and trees to the people skating on the ice, and
ultimately to the mountainous background. This is an example of
Bruegel including Alpine scenery in a scene supposedly set in the
Low Countries. 1565, oil on panel, 117x162cm, Kunsthistorisches
Museum, Vienna, Austria
 Jan van Scorel
b SCHOORL, NEAR ALKMAAR, 1495; d UTRECHT, 1562
|Marten van Heemskerck
Jan van Scorel was one of the first artists to bring the
ideas of the Italian Renaissance to the area we now Call b HEEMSKERCK, 1498; d HAARLEM, 1574 LIFEline
Holland. His best paintings show that he grasped the Named after his birthplace in Holland, Heemskerck | 1498 Born in Heemskerck,
Renaissance sense of monumentality, achieved through studied with Cornelis Willemsz and Jan Lucasz in the son of a farmer
the use of linear perspective. Furthermore, his figures Haarlem, and briefly but more significantly under Jan c1527-29 Studies with Jan
van Scorel
Portrait by have a sculptural solidity reminiscent of Andrea van Scorel in Utrecht.
Anthonis Mor 1532-36 Travels to Italy
Mantegna, while his palette could be as colourful In the early 1530s, Heemskerck lived in Rome, where __ |
1537 Returns to Haarlem
as the best of Venetian painting. Self-portrait he spent a lot of time sketching architecture, sculpture,
1554 |s made deacon of |
Pope Adrian V| acknowledged Scorel's devotion to Italy — and its and the paintings of Raphael and Michelangelo. This the Guild of Saint Luke
classical heritage — by appointing him curator of the papal collection experience had a profound effect on his art. He adopted the muscle- | 1572 Moves toAmsterdam |
of antiquities, a highly privileged position previously held by Raphael. bound figures and animated compositions of Michelangelo and helped when the Spanish lay siege
Scorel was an amateur archaeologist, engineer, ecclesiastic, and to popularize mythological subject matter in the Low Countries. He to Haarlem
cultivated man of letters as well as a painter of religious works and proclaimed his identification with Rome by painting a self-portrait in 1573 Returns to Haarlem,
portraits. From 1524, he lived in the Low Countries, mainly in Utrecht. 1553 in front of the Colosseum — the timeless symbol of the Eternal: City. where he dies the following
year
His pupils included Marten van Heemskerck and Anthonis Mor. From 1548 onward, he also produced many designs for engravings.

LIFEline CLOSERIook
c1512 His training probably
includesbrief period with Gossaert
in Utrecht
1518-24 Visits Italy and during
this period makes pilgrimage to
holy Land
1524 Settles in Utrecht, where he
spends most of the rest of his life
1550Visits Ghent to restore van
Eyck altarpiece

Head of a Girl This unknown girl DIAGONALS The dramatic

has a remarkably gentle expression diagonals created by Christ's
arms are echoed by the figures
of thoughtfulness, resignation, and
in the foreground and the
sadness. Undated, Kunsthistorisches
RENAISSANCE
NORTHERN clouds in the background.
Museum, Vienna, Austria

> The Crucifixion Christ ‘

occupies an unusually small part @ ;
of this picture, but, set against
the dark cloud, He immediately
attracts the eye. The drama is
enhanced by the deep space,
from the figures close to the
picture plane through to the
background landscape. c1530,
oil on panel, 39x 36cm, Detroit
Institute of Arts, Detroit, US

CENTURIES
16TH
AND
15TH

A Pieter Jan Foppeszoon and His Family

secatiie
This lively group portrait is strikingly original. Its *

array of food looks forward 17th-century still-life A Momus Criticizes the Work of the Gods /his
paintings. The laughter of the two children, rarely painting of Momus, a Greek god who was banished
seen in portraiture of this era, foreshadows from Mount Olympus, shows that Heemskerck was
Frans Hals. 1530, oil on panel, 119x 140cm, well-acquainted with anatomy. Momus stands in
Geméaldegalerie Alte Meister, Kassel, Germany front of a legend that starts: “My name is Momus,
born of Night, without a father, the comrade of Envy.
Ph F aie e is, / enjoy criticizing each individual thing.” 1561, oil on
Adam and Eve in Paradise /his painting shows van Scorel’s panel, Bode Museum, Berlin, Germany
mastery of atmospheric perspective. In the distance, the landscape
turns from green to blue and details become less distinct, helping
create a great sense of recession. 16th century, tempera on panel
Johnny van Haeften Gallery, London, UK
 b UTRECHT, c1516-20; d ANTWERP, 1576?
A pupil of Jan van Scorel, Mor became one of the most
celebrated portraitists of the 16th century. His strong,
severe portraits won him commissions at the courts of patBser
England, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. ;
Mor’s portraits often convey a penetrating insight into Queen Mary | Mary was
Self-portrait character, revealing not just the dignity and solemnity the elder daughter of Henry VIII.
that befitted his royal and aristocratic sitters, but also In 1554, aged 38, she became
thoughtfulness and even a faraway wistfulness. Unlike Hans Holbein — the wife of Philip Il of Spain.
the leading court portraitist of the previous generation — he used This portrait was painted in
chiaroscuro (light and shade) to define facial features. And he usually connection with her marriage
painted his sitters with their head slightly turned. 1554, oil on panel, 109x 84cm,
Mor's most important patrons were Cardinal Granvelle, a key figure Prado, Madrid, Spain
at the Hapsburg court, and later Philip Il, King of Spain. The painter is
often better known by the Spanish version of his name, Antonio Moro. “i. CLOSERIook

LIFEline
c1516-20 Born in Utrecht
1547 Becomes a member of
Guild of St Luke at Antwerp
1549-50 Travels to Rome with
his patron, Cardinal Granvelle
1554 Travels to England,
where he paints the portrait
of Queen Mary |
1573 A document shows he is
settled in Antwerp, where he
probably dies in 1576 2 Oe
PINK ROSE The rose adds a
delicate touch to an otherwise
» Portrait of a Noblewoman
austere painting. With its use of
with a Puppy A three-quarter-
chiaroscuro (light and shade) and
length view, with the head wary expression, this differs from
slightly turned, is typical of other Tudor portraits, perhaps to
Mor’: portraits. 1555, oil on oak emphasize Mary as a Hapsburg
panel, 107x78cm, Gemaldegalerie consort not an English queen. HSII
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Alte Meister, Kassel, Germany

Frans Floris
b ANTWERP, c1519; d ANTWERP, 1570 |INcontext
ANTWERP For much of the 16th
Frans Floris played a huge role in disseminating Italian ideas in the Low
century Antwerp was the leading port |
Countries. In the 1540s he studied in Rome, where he filled sketchbooks
in northern Europe. Through it,
with drawings of classical sculpture and the frescoes of Michelangelo.
England traded with continental
On his return north, Floris ran a successful workshop in Antwerp with | Europe, and exotic goods, such as
his brother Cornelis, a sculptor and architect who designed Antwerp | pepper and silver, were imported from
Town Hall. Floris painted large religious and mythological pictures in the newly discovered parts of the world. |
Mannerist style — crowded with athletic figures in the midst of action. Artists were attracted to Antwerp by |
During the Reformation, Antwerp remained Catholic apart from two its new art-buying middle class.
waves of iconoclasm, in 1566 and 1581. Floris has been seen as a Antwerp Town Hall Bui/t between HLOL
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Catholic propagandist — his Fall of the Rebel Angels, for example, can 1561 and 1565 to the design of Cornelis
be interpreted as virtuous Catholics fighting off heretical Reformers. | Floris, this is one of the great Renaissance |
buildings of the north
es ag
LIFEline
€1537 In his late teens,
studies in Liege with painter
Lambert Lombard
1540s Studies in Rome
1554 Paints Fall of the Rebel
Angels
1570 Dies in Antwerp

» Portrait of an Elderly
Woman, or The Falconer’s
Wife Floris was a gifted
portraitist, forthrightly
characterizing his sitters. His
frank, assertive style and bold A Fall of the Rebel Angels /his painting,
brushwork anticipates the showing St Michael fighting the devils, was the
portraiture of Frans Hals, 1558, middle panel of a triptych for the altar in the Church
oil on panel, 108x 83cm, Musée of Our Lady, Antwerp. Floris was clearly inspired by
des Beaux-Arts, Caen, France the writhing, muscular bodies in Michelangelo's
Last Judgement, which was unveiled while he was
in Rome. 1554, oil on panel, 308x220cm, Koninklijk
Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, Belgium
 | Stefan Lochner
b MEERSBURG, c1410; d COLOGNE, 1451 Konrad Witz
Noted for his characteristic “soft” style, Lochner created poetic,
b ROTTWEIL, c1400; d BASEL, c1446 | LIFEline
gentle paintings, often of the Madonna accompanied by angels. In
the mid-1800s, these images were a major inspiration for the group Very little is known of Konrad Witz’s life, except that he spent | 1400 Born in Rottweil in
|southwestern Germany
of English painters known as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. most of his career in Basel, probably attracted by the opportunities
| 1434 Becomes a master painter
Lochner's work belongs to the late Gothic style and looks back to for commissions at Pope Martin V's great Church Council | in the Basel Guild
medieval devotional art, especially in his extensive use of gold and (1431-37). Witz developed a specific naturalistic style — his | 1435 Marries Urselin von
ultramarine. Yet his paintings also show his familiarity with contemporary religious paintings provide a direct sense of nature, not the Wangen
art, especially that of Robert Campin and Jan van Eyck. He included a rarefied, fabled atmospheres of his predecessors. His figures 1444 Paints The Miraculous
wealth of naturalistic detail, and, in contrast to the flatness of medieval are expressive and solidly modelled, and the light falls naturally, Draught of Fishes
art, his figures are sculptural and occupy three-dimensional spaces. casting shadows and shimmering on water. c1446 Dies in Basel, leaving a
Witz's most celebrated picture, The Miraculous Draught of wife and five children
Fishes, is remarkable in many ways. The location is specific — not
LIFEline the Holy Land, but Lake Geneva. It is one of the first examples of
61410 Bornin Meersburg, in | a topographical view — one that shows an identifiable landscape — Y The Miraculous Draught
south-west Germany and Witz has ensured it is recognizable, defining the fields, of Fishes Witz merges three
€1430s Moves to Cologne houses, and trees, and the Savoy Alps in the background. stories — the miraculous catch
c1440—45 Paints Adoration of Moreover, real people inhabit this real landscape. The disciples of fish, Christ walking on water,
the Magi altarpiece for Cologne
look ungainly, struggling with the tackle and oars, and the wading and the resurrected Christ calling
Cathedral
St Peter looks unstable, with his legs distorted below the water seven disciples. 1444, oil on panel,
1447 Joins Cologne town council
and arms held helplessly above it. 132x151cm, Musée d’Art et
1451 Dies in Cologne, in his
early 40s d'Histoire, Geneva, Switzerland

» The Adoration of Christ

This nativity scene with its
attendant angels and farm animals
epitomizes Lochner’ painting. The
subject, composition, and style all
speak of harmony and tenderness.
1445, oil on panel, 38x 24cm, Alte
RENAISSANCE
NORTHERN
Pinakothek, Munich, Germany

CENTURIES
16TH
AND
15TH

: : > . ip
ous, #)) eed NS a a SESE Fag
WATER The treatment of the
A Adoration of the Magi /he use of gold in the background and
water is remarkably naturalistic.
for Christ's halo was a medieval convention, symbolizing holiness.
The reflections of the architecture
However, in Renaissance style, Lochner places the figures in and light shimmer on its surface.
correctly measured space and records minute detail, especially In the foreground, by contrast, the
in the robes of the kings. c1440-45, oil on panel, central panel of water is translucent, revealing
an altarpiece, Cologne Cathedral, Germany murky depths, with green slime
and stones on the lake bed.

A Cardinal Francois de Mies Presented to the Virgin and

Child Witz delights in showing the sheen, colour, and detail of de
Mies’ robe as he is introduced to the Virgin and Child by St Peter.
1444, oil on panel, 132x 154cm, Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Geneva
Martin Schongauer
b COLMAR?, c1450; d BREISACH, 1491
The son of a goldsmith from Augsburg, Martin
Schongauer was the greatest engraver of his ¥ The Temptation of St Anthony Schongauer shows
generation. He brought a painterly quality to engravings, St Anthony — a Christian monk who fled to the Egyptian
using a broken, fluid line that enabled him to capture the desert to escape persecution — assailed in mid-air by
fantastic demonic creatures. c1475, engraving, Uffizi, Florence
solid form and tactile quality of his subjects. The refined
sensitivity of his work gave rise to such nicknames as
Hubsch (charming) Martin and Schén (beautiful) Martin.
Although his work was late Gothic in style,
Schongauer was widely admired by High Renaissance
artists, especially Durer. Giorgio Vasari (See p.178) noted
in his Lives of the Artists that Michelangelo copied
Schongauer's Temptation of St Anthony. Very few
paintings are definitely attributable to Schongauer;
but 115 engravings are known to be his, all signed
with his distinctive monogram.

LIFEline CLOSERIook §
c1450 Born, probably in the oy ; |
town of Colmar in Alsace
1465 Enrols at the University
of Leipzig
1473 Paints Madonna of the
Rose Bower altarpiece
1488 Is mentioned as a
house-owner in Colmar as er
1489 Becomes citizen of CONTRASTING FORMS
Breisach The solidity of the Virgin
1492 Diirer travels to visit contrasts with the delicate
Schongauer, without knowing background, which is like a
he has died the previous year tapestry of rose bushes filled
with birds.
=)

» Madonna of the Rose Bower /he detailed, twisting rose

bushes echo the intertwined bodies of the Madonna and Christ —
and reveal the hand of an expert engraver. 1473 (his only dated
work), oil on panel, 200x115cm, Church of St Martin, Colmar, France

Michael Pacher
b BRUNECK?, c1435; d SALZBURG, 1498 INcontext
Both a wood carver and a painter, Michael Pacher was one of the ARTISTIC CROSSROADS fhe Tyrol in the
Alps, where Pacher spent most of his working
leading Austrian artists of the 15th century. While his sculpture is late
life, was an important crossroads between
Gothic in style, his painting is influenced by Italian Renaissance art,
northern Europe and Italy. Pacher was a product
especially Andrea Mantegna. However, his rich narrative vein led him of both cultures. His figures, for instance, are
to a complex, inventive, and almost visionary painting style. anatomically correct in line with Italian art, yet
One of the first German-speaking artists to master perspective their features and intense expressions often
fully, Pacher exploited this skill in his painting by using low viewpoints owe more to northern art. Pacher’s precise
and depicting foreshortened figures close to the picture plane. perspectives show Italian influence, but he paints
His great work, the extraordinarily elaborate St Wolfgang altarpiece, vernacular and Gothic architecture, rather than
the classical buildings favoured by Italian artists.
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remains intact in the Salzburg church it was made for. Illustrating
Pacher’s skill as both a sculptor and a painter, it comprises 16 painted
The View Towards the Fenderthal, Tyrol by
compartments, a central carved relief of the Coronation of the Virgin, James Vivien de Fleury (1870). |
and an ornate crowning piece showing the Crucifixion. The exterior
wings show scenes from St Wolfgang's life.

» The Raising of Lazarus,

from the St Wolfgang
Altarpiece With its
dramatically receding
perspective, low viewpoint,
and figures close to the
picture plane, this painting
shows an awareness of
Italian art. But Pacher uses
perspective to create an
eccentric, multi-faceted
space in which the light
seems to vibrate against
the fantastic architecture. Bu:
1479-81, oil on panel, Church of ia
& 5 ee <a ray Lee : Pe

St Wolfgang, near Salzburg, Jj

A The St Wolfgang Altarpiece /his shows the Coronation of
Austria Ble the Virgin, flanked by paintings of the Nativity (top left), the
i
' Circumcision (bottom left), the Presentation of Christ in the Temple
(top right) and the Death of the Virgin Mary (bottom right). 1471—
81, pine and limewood sculpture with oil on panel painting, centre
390x315cm, Church of St Wolfgang, Salzburg, Austria
 Albrecht Diirer
b NUREMBERG, 1471; d NUREMBERG, 1528 LIFEline

The greatest German artist of the | 1484 Aged 13, creates an

Renaissance, Durer was a brilliant exquisite self-portrait in
silverpoint
draughtsman, and his paintings rivalled
1486 Apprenticed to painter |
those of his Italian contemporaries. His
Michael Wolgemut :
minutely detailed, subtly toned prints
: | 1494 Visits Italy
Self-portrait elevated the printmaking medium toa | 1498 Publishes Apocalypse -
new level of accomplishment. Like his | the first book printed entirely
contemporary Leonardo da Vinci, Durer found wonder in by an artist
everyday subject matter. He was the first to paint realistic | 1505 Visits Italy again, staying |
watercolours — one of the most famous showing a | mainly in Venice
simple sod of turf, beautifully and accurately observed. | 1507 Returns to Germany |
Also like Leonardo, he had skills beyond art — in the 1520 Travels to the
1520s, he published books on measurements, | Netherlands
fortifications, and proportion in the human body. {1528
— ——
Dies a
Nuremberg |

» Virgin and Child with a

| CLOSERIook ua oe
| a ges THE EYE Diirer faithfully Pear This isone of many Virgin
| Sem records his imperfections — and Child paintings by Durer The
here, he shows his right eye as Virgin is portrayed with delicacy,
larger and lower than his left while the Child is depicted more
one. There is also psychological robustly. 1512, oil on panel,
: ie insight — he is clear-eyed, but 49x37cm, Kunsthistorisches
ing 3) with a look of foreboding. Museum, Vienna, Austria

RENAISSANCE
NORTHERN

<< St Jerome in his Study Durer

shows St Jerome (with his legendary
companion, the lion) in contemplative
solitude — a subject that would have
appealed to the educated Renaissance
elite. 1514, engraving, 24x 19cm,
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France

THE FALL OF LIGHT

Durer achieved a unique
subtlety of shading and A Adam and Eve Eve receives the
richness of texture. His apple from the serpent, while Adam
dedication to registering stretches his hand out to take it.
the fall of light here seems Diirer based the figure of Adam on
to echo the dedication of the Apollo Belvedere, a famous
Self-Portrait Diirer believed that his artistic mission reflected that St Jerome in his studies classical sculpture. 1504, engraving,
of Jesus, and here he seems to have deliberately painted himself as a
Christ-like figure. Jesus was often shown in full-frontal, symmetrical
25x 19cm, British Museum, London, UK
compositions like this one. The darkened tone of the background creates
a mood
of sanctity. His fingers holda piece of the fur he is wearing,
possibly alluding to his profession as a painter in its resemblance to
4
a brush. 1500, oil on panel, 67x 49cm, Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany
 NVIN
AJIN

A Festival of the Rose Garlands Diirer

created this altarpiece for the German INcontext
church of S. Bartolomeo in Venice. His PIONEER OF SELF-PORTRAIT
aim was to show he could compete with Diirer was the first artist to make
Venetian painters and “silence those who a series of self-portraits — both
said | was good as engraver, but did not drawn and painted — at different
know how to handle colours in a painting”. ages. They reveal a successful and
1506, oil on panel, 162x194cm, Narodni self-assured man. Durer's travels
Galerie, Prague, Czech Republic in Italy showed him that the artist
need not be a humble, provincial
craftsman but could be celebrated
E fi 3
and revered. In Venice, he wrote to
*¢ \Vhat beauty is, THE ARTIST HIMSELF Diirer a friend in Germany, “Here | ama
painted himself among the
| know not, though EMPEROR MAXIMILIAN | exalted company in this picture.
gentleman, there | am a parasite”.

it adheres to Many important people appear

in the painting, including Pope
He wears a luxurious fur cloak
and grabs attention by turning his Self-Portrait with Gloves by
many things ”’ Alexander VI, kneeling to the left head to the viewer. He is holding Albrecht Durer (1498)

DURER’S EPITAPH of the Madonna. This is Emperor a document with his name, the
Maximilian | — one of Direr's date of the painting, the time it
most important patrons — on took him to complete it — five
whose head the Madonna is months — and, significantly, his
placing a crown of roses. nationality
 Mathis Griinewald
b WURZBURG, c1475/80; d HALLE, 1528 | LIFEline
Although he lived during the Renaissance, Grunewald 1475/80 Born in Wurzburg
in many ways looked back to medieval art. While Italian | 1504-05 Works in Aschatfenburg, near Frankfurt
painters sought to reveal beauty, he had a simpler and older | 1510 Employed by the archbishop of Mainz
aim — to deliver sermons. He did this using expressive 1512-15 Works on the /senheim Altarpiece
distortion and brilliant colour, to astonishing effect. 1525 Moves to Frankfurt, after the archbishop’s
| palace is besieged during the Peasant’s War
Grtinewald’s undoubted masterpiece is the /senheim
1527 Flees to Halle, where he dies of plague
Altarpiece. It was painted for the hospital church of the
a year later
abbey at Isenheim in Alsace, now in France. Christ is first
shown in darkness on the cross — dirty, lacerated, and
disfigured — and then resurrected, with spotless skin A The Annunciation When the altarpiece is opened, it reveals
the second face. This shows the Annunciation, the choir of angels,
against golden light. Looking at this altarpiece, the patients
the Nativity with the divine spirit hovering overhead, and Christ's
at the hospital would be able to see their own suffering as
Resurrection against a stunning halo of light. Unusually, in the
part of a divine plan.
Nativity scene, there is an everyday chamber pot and washtub

RENAISSANCE
NORTHERN

CENTURIES
16TH
AND
15TH

A Isenheim Altarpiece
Griinewald'’s altarpiece has three
faces. The various wings were opened
and closed in accordance with dates on the
liturgical calendar. This first face shows the
Crucifixion, flanked by portraits of St Anthony
and St Sebastian. The bottom panel — known
as the predella — shows the entombment of
Christ. c1512-15, oil on panel, Musée
d'Unterlinden, Colmar, France
IN HORROR The Virgin and
John the Evangelist recoil in
horror. John’s face echoes that of
Christ — his mouth agape, head
| cast down and tilted to the left. IMPALED Christ's hand is shown
graphically impaled on the rough-
HANGING HEAD Christ's hewn log. While the body slumps,
hanging head, with its fearsome Christ's fingers twist upwards in
| crown of thorns, and his # agony, or perhaps rigor mortis. The
disfigured body are full of horror upraised fingers are echoed by those
Wounds dripping with bright red m of Mary Magdalene — she holds her
blood cover the whole body hands and fingers up in prayer.
|Albrecht Altdorfer
b REGENSBURG?, c1480; d REGENSBURG, 1538
Altdorfer was the leading member of the Danube
School, which also included Lucas Cranach and
Wolfgang Huber. Although working independently, all
these artists used landscape prominently, to add drama
and realism to the stories they told. Altdorfer’s unique
contribution was to make pictures that had no story,
and were nothing but landscape. In doing so, he
instigated a new genre of painting.
One of Altdorfer’s early works shows the tiny figure INcontext
of St George, overwhelmed by a great forest. His SPREAD OF THE PLAGUE Europe suffered
celebrated altarpiece (now dismembered) for the catastrophically from the plague in the middle
Austrian abbey of St Florian featured magnificent of the 1300s — losing an estimated third of the
skyscapes, and he used dramatic skies again to population. Plague continued to strike until the
heighten the emotional impact of The Battle of Issus. 1600s, killing people with terrible speed. The
As well as painting, Altdorfer produced prints and Italian writer, Giovanni Boccaccio, said its
victims often “ate lunch with their friends
worked as an architect. Although none of his buildings
and dinner with their ancestors in paradise”.
survive, his skill at handling tricky perspective is evident
in several paintings.
Representation of the Plague [his 1572 woodcut
shows the plague being carried by locusts.
LIFEline » The Battle of Issus /his
¢1480 Born, probably in painting shows Alexander the
Regensburg Great's victory over the Persian
1505 Granted the citizenship army of King Darius III in 333 Bce.
of Regensburg Altdorfer’s depiction manages to
1509 Begins work on the be both historical and visionary
altarpiece for the Austrian
abbey of St Florian, which at the same time. He gives a
he completes 7 years later. remarkable bird's-eye view over
1512-13 Works for Emperor the teeming, ant-like armies
Maximilian | and a mountainous northern
1526 Appointed city architect landscape below a swirling sky
of Regensburg with a triumphant sun. 1529, oil
1538 Dies in Regensburg on panel, 158x 120cm, Alte NVIN
JDN
Pinakothek, Munich, Germany

Hans Baldung a
4

b SCHWABISCH GMUND, 1484/85; d STRASBOURG, 1545 =

>
Baldung, who spent most of his life working in ee
Strasbourg, was one of the most expressive painters of S)
the northern Renaissance. He painted many religious a
Ho
works, but is now known for his gruesome allegorical Pi
paintings and erotic nudes. He was fascinated with o)
mM
death, witchcraft, and suffering and painted these Zz
subjects with dramatic colour and distorted figures. 4

=
22
< Woman and Mm
ep)
Death Baldung
painted women with
Death many times.
This reflected
A The Large Spruce A/tdorfer produced popular notions,
some of the first prints of pure landscape based on the story
subjects in European art, as well as some of Eve, that women
of the first landscape paintings. His were powerfully
etchings are free and vigorous in style. seductive and
c1520, etching, 23.5x 18cm, Fitzwilliam associated with evil.
Museum, Cambridge, UK 1517, tempera on
panel, 30x 18cm,
< Christ taking Leave of His Mother Kunstmuseum, Basel,
Christ, accompanied by St Peter and Switzerland
St John the Evangelist, leaves for
Jerusalem to face his coming death.
The Virgin — attended by holy women —
is prostrate with grief. Altdorfer has
elongated the figures and enlarged
their hands and feet, allowing him to
add drama to the gestures and stances.
1520, oil on panel, 139x 109cm, National
Gallery, London, UK
 Lucas Cranach the Elder
~~
b KRONACH, 1472; d WEIMAR, 1553

Cranach was one of the most successful and innovative artists of

the Northern Renaissance. He was fascinated by the old forests
and romantic vistas of Germany, and used them as settings for his
biblical and classical stories. He was also fond of erotic, coquettish
all nudes — which had little precedent in either Italian or northern
Self-portrait European art.
Cranach became truly successful in Wittenberg, where he
worked as court painter to Frederick III (the Wise). He was great
friends with Martin Luther, and became known as the official artist of the Lutheran
Reformation. He also ran a flourishing studio, and his paintings, especially those
showing female beauty, were eagerly sought by collectors.

LIFEline
1472 Born in Kronach
1501 Establishes his reputation in Vienna, |
working in the humanist circle around the
newly founded university |
1504 Moves to Wittenberg to become court
painter for Frederick III (the Wise) of Saxony
1519 |s elected to WittenbergTown Council |
1522 Creates woodcuts for Martin Luther's
| first German translation of the New Testament
c1528 Paints The Judgement ofParis
1550 Follows John Frederick (the Unfortunate)
into exile in Augsburg
1553 Dies in Weimar, in his 80s

Henry, Duke of Saxony Cranach uses a

full-length format, which was unusual in the
early 1500s. This format allows him to create
an image of power, with the assertive pose and
fine dress shown in their entirety. 1514, oil on
wood, 184x83cm, Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister,
RENAISSANCE
NORTHERN
Dresden, Germany

Portrait of Dr Johannes Cuspinian

Dr Cuspinian was a lecturer at the University
of Vienna, so appropriately he is shown with
a book. His upturned face gives him the air
of an erudite Renaissance humanist. This
portrait was intended to be seen next to that
of his wife, Anna (right), as a diptych, and
the landscape runs across the two paintings.
1602-03, oil on panel, Dr Oskar Reinhart
Collection, Winterthur, Switzerland

CENTURIES
16TH
AND
15TH A The Judgement of Paris
Cranach transports this story
from classical mythology to
a Germanic forest. Paris is
dressed as a Teutonic knight in
a suit of armour, while Mercury,
in the guise of a Norse god,
stands nearby holding a glass
orb in place of the golden apple.
c1528, oil on wood, 102x71cm, Nth, BMA ek,
MoMA, New York, US EROTICALLY ADORNED
Cranach often adorned his nudes
< Portrait of Anna Cuspinian
with necklaces and large hats,
When side by side, Anna and her
as he does here with Venus, the
husband Johannes are framed
Be goddess of love
by two trees, one to the right of
Anna, the other to the left of
Johannes. 1502-03, oil on panel,
Dr Oskar Reinhart Collection,
Winterthur, Switzerland
Hans Holbein the Younger
TP; aucssure, 1497; d LONDON, 1543 LIFEline
Holbein was a man of versatile artistic talents. At the €1497 Born in Augsburg > Portrait of Erasmus Frasmus
beginning of his career, he worked in Switzerland as a 1515-19 Works in Basle was an admired humanist scholar.
book designer and printmaker, and also painted mural 1521 Paints Body of the Dead In this portrait, Holbein looks
decorations for government buildings. When he became Christ in the Tomb forward to The Ambassadors by
the court artist to Henry VIII of England, he made 1524 Visits Paris surrounding the sitter with objects
1526 Visits Sir Thomas More that reflect his interests. 1523,
Self-portrait designs for all manner of decorative arts — from buttons,
in England and paints portrait oil and egg tempera on panel,
jewellery, and goblets to costumes for pageants, of the More family, now lost
furniture, and architectural details. 74x52cm, private collection
1528 Returns to Basle to
However, it is as a portraitist that Holbein is most renowned. He complete his mural decoration
Vv The Body of the Dead
created magnificent large portraits, such as The Ambassadors, that in the council chamber of the
town hall Christ in the Tomb Aarely has
radiated wealth and power. His wall painting at Whitehall Palace, Christ been shown as here — dead
showing Henry VIII with his parents and third wife, Jane Seymour, 1532 Moves to London
permanently, leaving his wife in His tomb, when He was neither
is said to have “annihilated” and “abashed” visitors. But some of and two children in Basle man nor deity. Holbein’s image
Holbein's best works in England were exquisitely detailed miniatures — 1533 Paints his most famous is harrowing: the eyes and the
portraits that would sit in the palm of the hand. These paintings could portrait - The Ambassadors mouth are open, the hand looks
be presented to visiting dignitaries or sent abroad with ambassadors. c1536 Becomes court painter like a claw, and rigor mortis
They were also in demand as keepsakes — tokens of love and desire for Henry VIII seems to have set in. 1521, th ee
)
in an age of courtly love. 1543 Dies in London oil on panel, 31 x 200cm, TONOT
Kunstmuseum, Basle, Switzerland

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CENTRE OF THE WORLD The globe HL9YL

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under Dinteville’s left arm bears the name
of his chateau at Polisy, near Troyes, as
if it was at the centre of the world. The
A Portrait of Anne of Cleves
painting was first hung in this chateau.
Henry VIll was looking for a new
wife and sent Holbein to paint a
prospective bride — Anne of Cleves.
Henry clearly liked what he saw, and
married Anne in 1540, but he had
the marriage annulled later that
year. 1539, oil on canvas, 65x 48cm,
2 Louvre, Paris, France
te a SD < The Ambassadors /his
DISTORTED SKULL This is an example powerful and detailed painting
of anamorphosis, where an object is only shows Jean de Dinteville, French
seen in the correct perspective if viewed Ambassador at the court of Henry
from an angle — in this case from the right. Vill, and his friend Georges de
Skulls were often used in 16th- and 17th-
Selve, Bishop of Lavaur. Around
century painting to symbolize mortality.
them, the musical, astronomical,
and scientific instruments testify to
= their learning, success, and wealth.
1533, oil on panel, 207 x210cm,
. See au National Gallery, London, UK
 » Assumption of the
Tilman Riemenschneider Virgin This early work uses
b HEILIGENSTADT, c1460; d WURZBURG, 1531 the play of light and shade
on deep carving to make the
A contemporary of Durer, Riemenschneider was southern figures expressive. 1505-10,
Germany's leading sculptor of this period, and one of the last limewood, central panel of
to work in the late Gothic style. Although he also sculpted in the altar, Herrgottskirche,
alabaster, sandstone, and marble, he is best known for his Creglingen, Germany -
limewood altarpieces. Riemenschneider was among the first
sculptors to leave his woodwork unpainted, just using pigmented v Tomb of Henri Il and
varnish and touches of colour on lips and eyes. His early figures his Wife Kunigunde
relied on the complex play of light and shade, but his mature work The sides of the tomb are
became more simplified and flattened. carved with reliefs depicting
Riemenschneider was probably apprenticed in Strasbourg and the couple's lives. In this
Ulm, both centres for sculpture. He spent most of his working life one, Kunigunde is subjected
in Wurzburg, where he had a large workshop. However, his career to trial by fire on suspicion
came to an abrupt halt when he sided with the peasants who of adultery. 1499-1513,
revolted against the city’s prince-bishop. stone, Bamberg Cathedral,
Bavaria, Germany

LIFEline
1485 Aged about 25, becomes
a citizen of Wurzburg and a
member of the Painters’ Guild
of St Luke
1490-92 Carves Munnerstadt
altarpiece for the church of
Mary Madgalen
1501-05 Carves the Holy
Blood altarpiece for the
Jakobskirche in Rothenburg |
1504 Elected to Wurzburg city
| council
1520-21 Elected mayor
1525 |s arrested and probably
tortured after the Peasants’
Revolt. Part of his estate is
confiscated
1531 Dies, and is buried inthe |
cathedral cemetery
RENAISSANCE
GERMAN
won ee

Bernt Notke Veit Stoss

b LASSAN, POMERANIA?, c1440; d LUBECK, c1509 LIFEline b HORB AM NECKAR?, c1450; d NUREMBERG, 1533
The painter and sculptor, Bernt Notke, was the leading woodcarver around the Baltic, 1467 Is first recorded in
and the north German counterpart to Stoss. He had a strong personality, matched by Lubeck, as a painter
the huge scale he worked on. His Dance of Death frieze (1463-66) was 30 metres 1470-77 Sculpts Triumphal
Cross for Lubeck Cathedral
long, while his Triumphant Cross group (1470-77) was 17 metres high.
1483-89 Sculpts St George
Notke made his reputation with the Triumphant Cross in Lubeck Cathedral, which and the Dragon in Stockholm,
consisted of 78 figures, all the large ones carved from single tree trunks. Its size was Sweden
unprecedented, as was Notke's use of strips of leather for veins and plaited cords as 1499 Creates his last great
| fabric trims. These materials both increased the realism and speeded up work. Notke work, the Mass of St Gregory,
for Marienkirche, LUbeck
15TH is perhaps best known for his sculptural group of St George and the Dragon (1483-89).
CENTURIES
16TH
AND 1505 Made Master of Works
Again he used real materials: hair, elk antlers on the dragon, and coin imprints to
in Lubeck
decorate the armour and horse's bridle.

NP ve \ 4

A The Assumption of the Virgin Mary /he faces

are full of character, while swoops of fabric, defined
in paint, add to the theatricality. 1477-89, wood,
altarpiece of St Mary's Church, Kracow, Poland

Best known for his bold woodcarving, usually painted,

A German-born Stoss also worked in stone, and was a
Dance of Death Called the painter and engraver. His masterpiece was the huge
Totentanz in German, a Dance THE POPE THE EMPRESS Her finely altarpiece for St Mary’s Church in Kracow, Poland.
of Death is an allegory on the Emaciated skeletal embroidered robe and
certainty of death for everyone Stoss later returned to Nuremberg where, in 1503,
figures, representing elaborate headdress will
Under each figure are the words he forged a document to recover an investment.
death, take the hand soon be stripped away by
with which Death invites them of a row of figures the ultimate equalizer, When his forgery was discovered, Stoss was tried,
to dance, and their reluctant from pope to Death. Dances of Death convicted, his cheeks branded, and confined to the
response. 1463-66, tempera on peasant. The pope were popular at this time, as city. He escaped being blinded or killed only through
linen (detail), 160x750cm, and emperor were at a reminder of how fleeting the intervention of the prince-bishop of Wurzburg. Stoss
St Nicholas’s Church, Art Museum the top of the material goods are in the carried on working, his career somewhat blighted, and
of Estonia, Tallinn, Estonia medieval hierarchy. face of the fragility of life six of his sons went on to work as artists.
 The painter and biographer Giorgio his High Renaissance contemporaries
Vasari (1511-74) was the first to use such as Leonardo and Michelangelo,
the word maniera ("stylishness”) to others as an evolution from elements
praise the work of his contemporaries in their work. Most definitions of the
in the 16th century. However, as Mannerist style are in terms of either
“Mannerism” it became a disparaging the distortion or refinement of late
label for later critics who dismissed Renaissance ideals.
work in this vein as an affected
transition between the Renaissance Style and technique
and the Baroque. In the 20th century Mannerist style can be seen as either
the term began to be used neutrally, refined and emotional, or affected
After the High Renaissance
but with differing opinions as to and decadent, but there are stylistic
in Italy there followed a exactly what style and period it defines. elements that can be agreed upon.
period in which painting, It was a courtly style, but beneath
sculpture, and architecture Origins and influences the elegance and technical brilliance
broke with many of the The roots of Mannerism were in Italy. there is often an element of emotional
It is sometimes specifically traced to disturbance. Tension and drama were
classical conventions. The term
Rome and the followers of Raphael achieved by the use of elongated
Mannerism was later adopted A. The Conversion of St Paul Parmigianino The
after his death in 1520. Some scholars figures in exaggerated poses, bold
to describe both the period and dramatic tension and movement of Parmigianino’s work
see Mannerism as a reaction against are characteristic of Mannerism. c1527-30, oil on canvas, colours and lighting, and a dramatic
its stylistic characteristics. the classical harmony of Raphael and 177.5x128.5cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. distortion of scale and perspective.

oy
c1580-82
TIMEline 1526-28 c1540-50
Mannerism began to develop 1534-40
around the time of Raphael's
death in 1520. It flourished in
Florence, Rome, and other
cities, including Parma. INSIY
Expatriate Italians, and artists
trained in Italy, helped spread
E
Mannerism to other countries me)
in Europe throughout the 16th
century, establishing it as
the “house style” of several
courts. The period came to a
a
close with the emergence of
the Carracci brothers and PARMIGIANINO — PRIMATICCIO The EL GRECO
Caravaggio in about 1600. PONTORMO Madonna with the BRONZINO An Allegory with Holy Family with Elizabeth SPRANGER Hercules, The Burial of Count Orgaz
The Deposition of Christ Long Neck Venus and Cupid and St John the Baptist Deianeira, and the Centaur Nessus

Schools produced outside the traditional major Outside Italy

art centres, notably in Parma, where The courts at Fontainebleau in France
Mannerism began and flourished in Italy, Parmigianino represents the style at and Prague in Bohemia were perhaps the
but the style was influential elsewhere in its extreme of elongated elegance. most impressive settings for Mannerist art
HLSL
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HLOL
SSIYN
Europe. In essence it is a sophisticated, outside Italy. In the 1530s and 1540s King
sometimes rather inbred style, so it is not Francis | brought outstanding Italian artists
surprising that its most refined manifestations (notably Fiorentino Rosso, Francesco
were produced for courtly settings. Italian Primaticcio, and Benvenuto Cellini) to work
artists were employed at several foreign at his favourite residence of Fontainebleau,
courts (particularly at Fontainebleau in near Paris, which he transformed from a
France) and Mannerist influence was also Seats ; hunting lodge into a palace. These artists
spread widely by engravings. Nene z= : created a distinctively elegant style —
featuring long-limbed, small-headed figures
Italy — that formed an influential current in French
Florence was the principal setting for Italian art until the end of the 16th century. In
Mannerist art. Jacopo Pontormo exemplifies Prague, the art-loving Emperor Rudolf ||
the style at its most emotionally intense and (reigned 1576-1612) made his court one
Agnolo Bronzino at its most lasciviously of Europe's most dazzling cultural centres,
chic. Slightly later, Giorgio Vasari shows employing an international roster of painters
how the style could easily degenerate into and sculptors, among them Arcimboldo and
elegant but rather empty posturing. Bartholomeus Spranger. The most powerful
A Vulcan's Forge Giorgio Vasari Elongated figures in
contorted poses were a characteristic of much Mannerist Mannerist sculpture also flourished in and personal interpretation of Mannerism
painting and sculpture. Vasari not only adopted the style, Florence, particularly in the work of outside Italy, however, is perhaps that of
but also chronicled the lives of Mannerist painters. 1565, Benvenuto Cellini (see p.177) and El Greco (see pp.182-83), a Cretan who
oil on panel, 38x 28cm, Uffizi, Florence, Italy 1 J aa a, lO. spent most of his career in Spain. Although
Giambologna (see p.179). Apart from
Florence, Rome was the main home of the A Water Giuseppe Arcimboldo /n his witty portraits and his work is intensely individual, his
caricatures Arcimboldo took Mannerist playfulness to elongated figures have a stylistic kinship
style, with Michelangelo (in his later work)
extremes. His paintings were so popular he painted
its most potent exemplar. Some of the most with those of other artists of the time.
several versions to satisfy the demand. 1566, oil on
remarkable Mannerist art, however, was canvas, 66.5x50.5cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
 Parmigianino
- ~~ b PARMA, 1503; d CASALMAGGIORE, 1540

Girolamo Francesco Mazzola is better known as

Parmigianino — “the little one from Parma’ He was
a Mannerist painter and printmaker, famous for the
exquisite draughtsmanship of his portraits and religious
frescoes. Orphaned as a small child, Parmigianino was
Self-portrait brought up by his uncles and showed a precocious talent » Madonna with the Long
for art — he painted frescoes alongside Correggio in Neck Parmigianino spent six
S. Giovanni Evangelista, Parma, while still a teenager. years working on this painting.
In 1524, he travelled to Rome, where his Se/f-Portrait in a Convex The length and slenderness of
Mirror impressed Pope Clement VII and led to important commissions. all the limbs is exaggerated, but
The Sack of Rome in 1527 forced Parmigianino to move to Bologna; itis the Madonna ‘s neck, likened
then in 1530 he returned to Parma to work on frescoes in S. Maria della to the ivory-coloured column
Steccata — a project that landed him in jail when he failed to complete behind her, that gives the picture
the work. His highly original figure painting is seen at its best in his its expressive power. 1534-40,
many portraits, and in the sensuous Madonna with the Long Neck. oil on canvas, 216 x132cm, Uffizi,
Florence, Italy

LIFEline
1503 Born into a family of artists
in Parma |
1522 Meets Correggio and
works with him in S. Giovanni
Evangelista, Parma
1524 Paints Self-Portrait in a
Convex Mirror, which he takes |
with him to Rome
1530 Returns to Parma
1534-40 Works on his
masterpiece, the Madonna with
the Long Neck
1539 Imprisoned for breach
of contract over paintings for
S. Maria della Steccata
1540 Dies tragically young
MANNERISM

Madonna and Child with

St John the Baptist and St
Jerome /his representation of b ROME, c1499; d ROME, 1546
the sleeping Jerome’ vision has
John the Baptist in a stylized, Born Giulio Pippi in Rome, Guilio trained as an
Mannerist pose, directing assistant to Raphael. After Raphael's death, Giulio
attention through his turning completed his frescoes in the Vatican and went on to
torso, curved arm, and hand succeed him as head of the Roman School. In addition
to the Virgin and Child above. to his undoubted skill as a painter, Romano was also
1526-27, oil on panel, 343x149cm, Self-portrait an accomplished engineer and architect. He was
ational Gallery, London, UK invited to Mantua to oversee a number of projects for
Federigo Gonzaga, including the renovation of the city's cathedral,
CLOSERIook and the planning and construction of a ducal palace, the church of
CENTURIES
16TH
AND
15TH
~ S. Benedetto, and the Palazzo del Té. He also submitted a design
for the facade of S. Petronio in Bologna but it was not used.

HEAD OF THE MADONNA

The Virgin's modest expression
and realistic hair, framed by the
light blazing from her halo, are
painted here in meticulous detail,
in the style Parmigianino adopted
for his many portraits. Her
slightly elongated features
presage the famous Madonna
with the Long Neck

A The Fall of the Giants (detail) 7his is one of the

impressive frescoes in the Sala dei Giganti in the Palazzo del
Té, depicting the Gods of Olympus and the Fall of the Giants.
1530-32, fresco, Sala dei Giganti, Palazzo del Té, Mantua, Italy
 Pontormo (Jacopo Carucci)
Benvenuto Cellini Bs on b PONTORMO, 1494; d FLORENCE, 1557

Known simply as Pontormo, Jacopo Carrucci was a key

b FLORENCE, 1500; d FLORENCE, 1571 LIFEline figure in the transition from Renaissance to Mannerism.
A goldsmith, sculptor, musician, and soldier, Benvenuto c1515 As a teenager, runs His passionate and restless style shows an early break
Cellini is as famous for his exaggerated and risqué away to Siena, then to with Renaissance classicism, and explores disturbing
Bologna and Pisa
autobiography as for his exquisite craftsmanship and spatial effects and distortions of scale. These interests
1519 Moves to Rome
Mannerist sculptures. His training was initially in Self-portrait led Pontormo to study northern prints, especially those
c1527 Returns to Florence,
Florence, but various escapades took him to Siena, where he kills his brother's of Durer, in order to overtake the classicism of earlier
Portrait by Bologna, Pisa, and Rome, picking up his craft along the murderer, then flees to models such as Andrea del Sarto. He spent all his life in Florence and
Rafaello way. In Rome, he worked mainly as metalworker, but Naples was famous for his religious works. The altarpiece of S. Michele
Morghen
also played the flute in the Pope’s court and fought 1534 Kills a rival goldsmith, Visdomini marks the beginning of his mature style, and he followed
bravely in the Sack of Rome. He travelled widely in Italy, and spent but is pardoned by the Pope it with a Passion cycle and — the greatest of his achievements — the
some years working at Fontainebleau in France, before returning to 1540-45 Works at altarpiece in S. Felicita.
Fontainebleau, France
his native Florence.
The last two decades of his life were spent under
1545 Returns to Florence to
the patronage of Cosimo | de’ Medici, for whom he created several work for Cosimo | de’ Medici
fine sculptures.

NVITVL
INSIYA

A Portrait Bust of Cosimo | de’ Medici a

4

Cosimo |de’ Medici encouraged Cellini to extend aia

his fine metalworking skills to the art of large- >
a
scale sculpture. This portrait bust of his patron O
was one of his first sculptures in the round, and
combines a Mannerist approach to form with a 2
4

goldsmiths delicate attention to detail. 1545, a

bronze, height 110cm, Bargello, Florence, Italy O
m
z
4

=
zu
m
”n

A The Deposition of Christ

Pontormo creates a mood of
grief and confusion by an almost
neurotic use of agitated movement,
in abstract colours, within a
A Saltcellar of Francis | Cellini transform ed complex and unstable composition.
a table accessory into a valuable sculpture, so 1526-28, oil on panel, 312x193cm,
desirable that it was stolen in 2003 from the Felicita, Florence, Italy
Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. (It was
<The Holy Family with
recovered in 2006 and returned to the museum.)
Saints A/though the subjects are
Neptune, Roman god of the sea, the source of
symmetrically arranged with the
salt, leans in counterpoint to Earth, nurturer
A Perseus with the Head of Medusa /his statue of Perseus Virgin at the apex of a triangular
of the pepper plant. The salt fits into a boat-
was an attempt to outdo Michelangelo's David and Donatello’s composition, the restless figures
shaped bowl. 1539-43, gold with enamel, 26 x33cm, and the compressed perspectives
Judith and Holofernes, and is considered Cellini’s masterpiece.
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria give no feeling of the equilibrium
The intricacy of the helmet, the head of Medusa, and the reliefs
on the base show his mastery of metalwork, and the statue took associated with classicism.
several years to complete. When unveiled, it was highly 1518, oil on canvas, 214x185cm,
acclaimed, and poets wrote sonnets in praise of it. 1545-53, S. Michele Visdomini, Florence, Italy
bronze, height 320cm, Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence, Italy
 r Allegory with Venus and Cupid As Venus and Cupid embrace,
they are surrounded by the figures of Folly, Deceit, and Jealousy, while
Bronzino above them Time prevents Oblivion drawing a veil over the scene. The
complex meaning of this allegory is still to be fully understood. c1540-50,
b FLORENCE, 1503; d FLORENCE, 1572 oil on panel, 146x 116cm, National Gallery, London, UK
Agnolo di Cosimo, nicknamed Bronzino, was court painter to the CLOSERIook
Medici family. He produced mainly portraits and allegorical paintings,
in a somewhat analytical Mannerist style. Bronzino trained with
Pontormo, and learnt much of his technique from him. Unlike his
master, however, he was not at home with religious subjects, as his
unemotional style was better suited to profane subjects and formal
portraiture. Apart from a couple of years spent in Rome, Bronzino
spent his whole life in Florence, but he was well known across Europe
and highly respected, becoming an active founder member of the
Accademia del Disegno, Florence. Although best known at the time
for his portraits, Bronzino is today remembered also for his allegorical
paintings, especially that of Venus and Cupid. Among his pupils was
his own adopted son, Alessandro Allori.

EYE MOVEMENT The

LIFEline viewer's gaze is drawn around the
1503 Born in Florence figures, from the masks at Venus's
c1515 Becomes pupil of feet, through her upstretched arm,
Pontormo to the sweep of Time's arm
1546 Begins working for across the top of the painting.
Cosimo | de’ Medici, Duke of
Florence |
1563 Co-founds the Accademia |
del Disegno
1572 Dies in Florence

Eleonora of Toledo and

Her Son, Giovanni de Medici
Eleonora, the wife of Cosimo | HANDS OF FOLLY
de’ Medici, is portrayed here = Encouraging the lovers is the
with their son in a dignified cherubic Foolish Pleasure, who
and aristocratic pose. c1544—45, =) has a handful of rose petals he
oilon panel, 115x 96cm, Uffizi,
MANNERISM is about to throw over the couple.
Florence, Italy

Giorgio Vasari
ne
b AREZZO, 1511; d FLORENCE, 1574

Better known for his biographical book, Lives of the

Artists, than for his paintings and architecture, Giorgio
CENTURIES
Vasari was born in Arezzo, but worked mainly in Florence
6TH and Rome. His Mannerist style was much influenced
by his friend and hero Michelangelo.
Self-portrait Although he was a prolific and well-regarded painter
in his time, producing numerous large fresco schemes in
| the Vatican and the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Vasari’s painting is now
considered somewhat derivative. However, his architectural designs,
AND
115TH
| notably those for the Palazzo degli Uffizi in Florence and his home in
Arezzo, are of much higher quality. But it is his writing on art that was
most influential — not only his biographies of Italian painters, sculptors,
and architects, but also his analytical study of art history. His works
have been, and still are, the source books for art historians of the
Renaissance period

LIFEline
1511 Born in Arezzo, Tuscany A Lorenzo de Medici, “The Magnificent”
1527 Goes to Florence to train Lorenzo's dynamic posture, curving diagonally
with Andrea del Sarto and his across the picture, is typical of the later
pupils, Rosso and Pontormo
Mannerist style, and is accentuated by Vasaris
1529 Visits Rome |
dramatic use of colour. Oil on panel, 90x 72cm,
1550 Publishes the first edition Uffizi, Florence, Italy
of his Lives of the Most
Eminent Italian Architects,
Painters, and Sculptors < Cosimo | and His Artists One of Vasaris
1560 Begins work on design most ambitious projects was a series of frescoes
of the Palazzo degli Uffizi in the Palazzo Vecchio, showing scenes from the
1563 Co-founds the history of Florence. They included this portrayal
Accademia de! Disegno of the artists he knew well. 1560s, fresco, Palazzo
1568 Second expanded Vecchio, Florence, Italy
revision of his Lives
A Allegory of the Immaculate Conception Crowded with
allegorical symbols gleaned from his discussions with cultivated
1574 Dies in Florence
men of letters, this classical composition in subdued colours
derives its power from the movement of the figures in the lower
half. 1541, oil on panel, 58x 39cm, Uffizi, Florence, Italy
Giambologna vy
b DOUAI, 1529; d FLORENCE, 1608
Flemish-born Jean Boulogne — also known as Giovanni
da Bologna, or simply Giambologna after his move to
Italy - was second only to Michelangelo as the finest
sculptor of the Mannerist period. He trained first with
a Flemish sculptor, but when he travelled to Rome to
Portrait bust study classical sculpture, he discovered the work of
by Pietro Michelangelo. Giambologna established his reputation
Tacca
with a series of marble statues, and soon enjoyed the
patronage of the Medici family, becoming their official sculptor. His
work is characterized by a strong sense of movement, executed with
classical elegance and refinement, despite the often complex
Mannerist forms. His small bronze statuettes were eagerly sought
by connoisseurs of his time, and large-scale statues — especially his
two innovative equestrian monuments — were not only popular, but
influenced sculptors across Europe in the following two centuries.

LIFEline
1529 Born in Douai, Flanders (now in France)
c1550 Studies in Rome for two years
1553 Settles in Florence, and is commissioned
by Pope Pius IV to create Fountain of Neptune
in Bologna
1550s Becomes official sculptor to the court
of the Medici
1583 Completes the Rape of the Sabines
1608 Dies in Florence

A Fountain of Neptune » The Rape of a Sabine

» Edward the Confessor Giambologna Giambologna originally intended Carved from a single block of
produced a number of monumental statues for this fountain for Florence. When marble, the intertwining spiral
ducal palaces and churches. In spite of its commissioned for a fountain in of bodies in this masterpiece
memorial purpose, this representation of Edward Bologna’s main square, he used has no principal viewpoint. His
the Confessor, in a niche of the Salviati Chapel, the designs to create his first knowledge of classical sculpture
has elements of the Mannerist poses for which major sculpture. 1563-66, bronze is evident. 1582, marble, height
he was famous. 1579-89, marble, church of and marble, height 335cm, Piazza 410cm, Piazza della Signoria, NVITVL
INSIM
S. Marco, Florence, Italy Maggiore, Bologna, Italy Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence, Italy

Federico Barocci Federico Zuccaro

b URBINO, c1535?; d URBINO, 1612 b SANT’ANGELO IN VADO, NEAR URBINO, c1542;
d ANCONA, 1609
Preferring to work in his native Urbino
after two unhappy stays in Rome, Zuccaro was in his 20s when his brother, Taddeo, died in
Federico Barocci had a long and 1566 and he took over the work of his studio. Federico
productive life, despite his constant completed Taddeo’s decoration of the Villa Farnese at
complaints of ill health. In central Italy Caprarola and the Sala Regia in the Vatican. He travelled
Self-portrait he was the finest painter and engraver widely across Europe, working in England and Spain,
of his time. His work was an influence returning to Rome to become founding President of the
on Carracci and Rubens, among others, and formed Accademia di San Luca in 1593. Together with Bronzino
a bridge between the High Renaissance and the and Vasari, Zuccaro was the model of a court artist
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coming Baroque period. mingling with the most illustrious patrons of his time.
Barocci trained with his father Ambrogio, a sculptor,
and later with the Venetian Battista Franco in Urbino,
developing a taste for the warm colours of Venetian
painting. His prolific output was mainly of religious
subjects, conventionally but sensitively handled in
a Mannerist style. In later life he experimented with
spatial effects and a more contemplative mood,
presaging the devotional style that emerged in
the new century.

LIFEline
©1548 Travels to Rome to
study with Taddeo Zuccaro
c1560 Second visit to Rome, A Francis | and Alessandro
working with Federico Farnese Entering Paris in
Zuccaro 1540 Zuccaros Mannerist
1561 Commissioned to paint frescoes cover the walls of ‘<€
frescoes in the Vatican < Study for the Head of A St Francis Receiving the state rooms in the Villa ve m 3
1563 Moves to Perugia Christ Barocci was a fine the Stigmata Barocc/s later Farnese, and in the Sala dei ;
1565 Returns to Urbino draughtsman, and one of the works moved away from the KEY FIGURES Central to this
Fasti Farnese (Hall of the
©1566 Joins a lay order of first to use coloured chalks in his Venetian-inspired colours of his painting are the portraits of
Splendours of the Farnese)
Capuchin monks numerous sketches and studies. earlier paintings. Oil on canvas, Alessandro Farnese and the
they feature the exploits of the
1612 Dies in Urbino Chalk, private collection Palazzo Ducale, Urbino, Italy King of France, as they ride
Farnese family. 1557-66, fresco, into Paris in triumph
Villa Farnese, Caprarola, Italy
 Rosso Fiorentino
b FLORENCE, 1494; d PARIS OR FONTAINEBLEAU, 1540 LIFEline |

Giovanni Battista di Jacopo was known as Fosso Fiorentino 1494 Born in Florence
(the Red Florentine) because of his red hair. He was one of the c1510 Trains under Andrea del Sarto
at the same time as Pontormo
leading figures in early Florentine Mannerism. Rosso’s altarpieces
were sometimes rejected by patrons because they lacked
1521 Paints his masterpiece The Jean Goujon
Deposition, in Volterra, Tuscany
decorum: the saints were depicted in such a way that they 1523 Moves to Rome b NORMANDY?, c1510; d BOLOGNA, c1565
appeared as “devils” After the Sack of Rome (see p.119), Rosso 1527 Sack of Rome forces him Very little is known of the early life of Jean Goujon, who ranks as one
travelled around Italy until he was invited to Fontainebleau by to flee the city
of the finest and most distinctive sculptors of 16th-century France. His
Francois | of France. Arriving in France in 1530, he established 1530 Moves to France
earliest known work was in Rouen, France, in 1540, but it is possible
the “First School of Fontainebleau” with Francesco Primaticcio, 1540 Dies in France
that he had travelled to Italy before then.
and remained there until his death in 1540.
As a Huguenot Protestant, Goujon was at a disadvantage in Catholic
France. However, he gained highly prestigious commissions in Paris,
particularly working with the architect Pierre Lescot on the sculptural
Moses and the Daughters
decoration of the Louvre in 1546. In 1562, Goujon fled from the anti-
of Jethro Moses defends
Protestant atmosphere of Paris, and is believed to have died in Bologna
Jethro'’s daughters from the
a few years later.
Midianites. The subject gave
Rosso the opportunity to explore
contrapposto (twisting poses), LIFEline v Reliefs from the Fountain of the Innocents
which he had seen in The relief panels from the Fontaine des Innocents
c1510 Born, probably depict nymphs who personify the rivers of France:
Michelangelo's work. The somewhere in Normandy
tortuous figures express the they are considered to be Goujon’ masterpiece.
1540-42 Works at the church
violence of the scene and give of St Maclou and the 1547-49, marble, Louvre, Paris, France
a powerful sense of movement. Cathedral in Rouen
1523-24, oil on canvas, c1544 Moves to Paris
160x117cm, Uffizi, Florence, Italy 1547 Appointed “sculptor
to the king’ Henri II
CLOSERIook 1547-49 Produces his
masterpiece — the Fountain
of the Innocents
1549-62 Collaborates with
Lescot on the decoration of
the Louvre
1562 Flees to Italy
c1565 Dies in exile in
MANNERISM
3] Bologna, Italy

CENTURIES
PYRAMID COMPOSITION
The complex composition of this
painting, outlined by the limbs of
the brawling figures, is basically
| pyramidal, with a diagonal
separating the terrified women
[ from the fight

16T|
AND
15TH
A The Fountain of the
Innocents Goujon originally INcontext
built this fountain as a pavilion THE “SCHOOL OF FONTAINEBLEAU”
adjoining the corner of the Rue Frangois |’s enthusiasm for Italian art, starting
aux Fers and Rue St Denis in with his patronage of Leonardo at the Chateau
Paris. It was reconstructed as d'Amboise, prompted him to invite several
a free-standing block in the prominent Italian artists to work in France. At
18th century. Most of the relief Fontainebleau, Rosso, Primaticcio, and others
panels are now housed in the established a distinctive style that influenced
Louvre. 1547-49, Paris, France Goujon and many other French artists.

Chateau de Fontainebleau Formerlyahunting

lodge, Fontainebleau was rebuilt as a richly
decorated palace from 1528.

A View of the Galerie Frangois | Frangois | commissioned

Rosso to design the main gallery of his palace at Fontainebleau.
Rossos paintings are framed by stuccos by Francesco Primaticcio
(see opposite), and show how he refined his Florentine Mannerist
style to suit the elegance of the palace. c1534—-39, Chateau de
Fontainebleau, Seine-et-Marne, France
A The Marriage of the Virgin his elegant
altarpiece is still in the church for which it was
painted — the parish church of the Medici family.
1523, oil on wood, 325x 250cm, S. Lorenzo,
Florence, Italy
Francesco Primaticcio
b BOLOGNA, 1504; d PARIS, 1570
A leading figure in the “School of Fontainebleau’
Francesco Primaticcio adapted Italian Mannerism to
French sensibilities, and with his colleague Rosso 6¢ The first works in
Fiorentino created an elegant style that influenced stucco that were done Francois Clouet
French art throughout the 16th century. In 1532, in France, and the first
Self-portrait Primaticcio’s master, Giulio Romano, was invited by b TOURS, c1510; d PARIS, 1572
labours in fresco of
Francois | to work in France, but he sent his pupil As official painter to the French royal house of Valois,
instead. He worked mainly on the stuccos framing Rosso’s paintings any account, had their
Francois Clouet was the foremost portraitist of the
in the Chateau at Fontainebleau, and took over as director there after origin, it is said, from French Renaissance, but little is known of his life. His
Rosso’s death. Much of the work has been destroyed or radically Primaticcio ”’ father, Jean Clouet, was Francois I's court painter before
altered in later remodelling of the palace, but many of Primaticcio’s GIORGIO VASARI (1511-74) him; the two artists bore the same nickname, Janet,
drawings fortunately survive. ARTIST-BIOGRAPHER which is one reason why attribution of paintings to
them has often been problematic.
Francois took over his father’s post in about 1540. He
LIFEline supervised a workshop through the reigns of Francois |,
1504 Born in Bologna, Italy Henri Il, Francois || and Charles IX, producing various
1525-26 Trains with Giulio Romano in Mantua artworks in addition to the portraits for which he
1532 Moves to France to work at became famous. Although his portraits were in the
Fontainebleau Flemish naturalist style of the time, Clouet was also
1540 Takes over from Rosso as head at much influenced by Italian portraiture, in particular
Fontainebleau
the work of Agnolo Bronzino and Leonardo da Vinci. Ss
1545 Travels to Rome to make casts of
sculptures in the papal collection >
1547 Francois | dies, Primaticcio works for his
a
2
successor Henri |l on various commissions, m
turning his hand to architecture in his Es)
later years n
1570 Dies in Paris Ss
Oo
=
=
» Masquerade at Persepolis
This is a preparatory drawing for 2
~)
the decoration of the Room m
of the Duchesse d’Etampes at 5
Fontainebleau, later much altered.
1541-45, pen and ink on paper,
>«<
Louvre, Paris, France

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A Pierre Quthe /his is one
of only two paintings signed
by Francois Clouet. The sitter
is Clouet’s neighbour, Pierre
Outhe, a Parisian apothecary
and owner of a well-known
garden of medicinal plants.
1562, oil on panel, 91x 70cm,
Louvre, Paris, France
A The Holy Family with St Elizabeth and
St John the Baptist Fase/ paintings by
Primaticcio are fairly rare. This one has formerly
been attributed to various other Italian artists. Pri FN See

1541-43, oil on slate, 43x 31cm, The Hermitage, BALANCE Exquisitely

St Petersburg, Russia painted to show the sheen of
the fabric, the curtain forms an

)tis aS oHR effective frame for the sitter,

echoing the line from his right
hand to his head, and
balancing the essentially
pyramidal composition with the
A Female figures and cherubs surrounding a painting of
shadow to the left of the sitter
Alexander the Great Primaticcio developed a Mannerist style
in which sophistication and elegance were more important than
emotion. His stucco decorations at Fontainebleau often feature
graceful, slender female figures. c1540—45, stucco, Room of the
Duchesse d'Etampes, Chateau de Fontainebleau, Seine-et-Marne, France
 El Greco
b CANDIA, 1541; d TOLEDO, 1614

El Greco spent some of his formative years in Italy, but

he settled in Spain when he was in his mid-30s and is
now regarded as the first great personality in the history
of Spanish painting. His real name was Domenikos
Alonso Berruguete 2 Theotokopoulos but he became known as El Greco
Self-portrait (the Greek). He began his career as a traditional icon
| b PAREDES DE NAVA, c1488; d TOLEDO, 1561 painter, before moving to Venice, where he absorbed
One of the foremost sculptors of Renaissance Spain, influences from the great artists of the day, particularly the
Alonso Berruguete originally trained as a painter with his emotionalism of JacopoTintoretto. In 1570 he moved to Rome and
father, Pedro. Having worked for a time in Italy, Pedro in 1576 to Spain. After briefly staying in Madrid, he moved to Toledo,
encouraged his son to complete his artistic education where he spent the rest of his life. In Italy he had achieved only
there. In about 1504 Alonso travelled to Florence, where modest success, but in Todelo he quickly became the leading artist of
he studied the work of Michelangelo, and discovered the day. His deeply spiritual side was well suited to the religious zeal
the early Mannerist style of Jacopo Pontormo and of his adopted country, although after his death he was long forgotten
Rosso Fiorentino. Returning to Spain in around 1517 he and not fully appreciated again until the advent of Expressionism in
was appointed court painter to CharlesV in Valladolid, the 20th century (see pp.408 and 502).
but increasingly turned to sculpture. In 1539 he was
| invited to provide sculptures for the cathedral in Toledo,
LIFEline :
| where he worked until his death in 1561. é
1541 Born in Candia, now
6¢ CézanneNS and El Greco
known as Heraklion, on Crete are Spiritual brothers,
c1567/8 Moves to Venice despite the centuries
1570 Settles in Rome
that separate them %?
1576 First recorded in Spain, P
in Madrid; by the following FRANZ MARC (1880-1916),
year he has settled in Toledo EXPRESSIONIST PAINTER, IN
1577 Paints altarpiece for the Ya tI EY NG
church of Santo Domingo el
Antiguo in Toledo, the first ina
stream of major commissions | » The Trinity £/ Grecos first commission in
1578-82 Works for the court Spain was the altarpiece of Santo Domingo el
of Philip Il Antiguo in Toledo. This is one of nine paintings
1586-88 Paints The Burial of | for the church, and was designed to go above his
the Count of Orgaz, his depiction of the Assumption. The Mannerist style
masterpiece established El Greco's reputation in the somewhat
1614 Dies in Toledo conservative city. 1577, oil on canvas, 300
x179cm,
Prado, Madrid, Spain
MANNERISM
oe

IES
7TUR

CEN

CLOUDS OVER TOLEDO The

| 4Salome with John the Baptist’s Head Painted while in Italy, storm clouds help to make this a
| this picture is very much in the style of Florentine Mannerism: the personal interpretation of the city,
| expressive, contorted pose and glimpse of Tuscan landscape are rather than a straightforward
depiction, enhancing the mood of
| reminiscent of Pontormo and Rosso. c1512-16, oil on wood, 88x71cm,
foreboding and expressing the
| Uffizi, Florence, Italy
passionate nature of the artist.

| INcontext
| TOLEDO For centuries Toledo was the capital
| of Spain, and although Philip Il made Madrid the
| Capital in 1561, Toledo continued to be a major
| cultural centre and the country’s spiritual heart
Toledo's archbishop was Spain's most powerful
churchman and the city had more than a hundred
| religious establishments, providing plentiful work |
for El Greco and other artists

Cityscape of Toledo Situated on a bend of the River

| Tagus, Toledo is crowded with buildings in a mix of
| styles, from Roman to Moorish and Hispano-Flemish,
reflecting its cosmopolitan history. Cuz Aa eee
DRAMATIC LANDSCAPE
The swoops and curves of the hills
and river valley are accentuated by
buildings on the slopes and ridges
Together, the composition, eerie
lighting, and dramatic sky give a
| spiritual, other-worldly feel

A View of Toledo /his cityscape of Toledo is more than a simple

representation — in fact El Greco has moved various features from their real
positions — it tries to capture the essence of the city. c1600-10, oil on canvas,
121x109cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, US
 Portrait of Jorge Manuel Theotokopoulos
Although primarily a religious painter, El Greco
was also a superb portraitist. This is his son,
depicted in aristocratic pose, but with the tools
of his trade. Jorge Manuel was one of the few
artists to adopt his father’ idiosyncratic style
El Greco and Jorge Manuel’ mother never
married, perhaps because he had left a wife
in Crete or Italy. c1603, oil on canvas, 74x52cm,
Museo de Bellas Artes, Seville, Spain

INSIYAN
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A The Burial of the Count of Orgaz Jhis

painting is generally regarded as the finest HEAVEN AND EARTH E,

expression of El Greco’s very personal style. The two halves of the

painting, distinctly
The Virgin of the Immaculate
It depicts a 14th-century nobleman being laid Conception /his is one of the final
separated by a line above
to rest by St Stephen and St Augustine and masterpieces of El Greco’s career.
the mourners’ heads,
received in heaven by the Virgin and St John Above Toledo, mysteriously lit by
represent the realms of
the Baptist. The mourners are represented by the terrestrial and the both sun and moon, the figures
a line of portraits of contemporary local spiritual. The movement spiral upwards, with no regard for
dignitaries, including the artist. The absence of the lower section is perspective or anatomical accuracy,
of background, and the contrast of the mundane directed downwards, towards a blaze of supernatural
JORGE MANUEL The
and the spiritual, combine to give a visionary and towards the mortal body light. 1608-13, oil on canvas,
pageboy at the graveside is
other-worldly atmosphere. The count had been a believed to be the artist's son, of the Count; in the upper 348 x175cm, Museo de Santa Cruz,
benefactor of Santo Tomé, which was El Greco's Jorge Manuel. He became a section, It is ascending Toledo, Spain
parish church. 1586-88, oil on canvas, 480x360cm, painter, working as his heavenwards with his soul
Santo Tomé, Toledo, Spain father’s chief assistant from
about 1603.
 Giuseppe Arcimboldo Y¥ Spring Arcimboldo painted a number of versions of his cycle of
portraits representing the four seasons. His choice of fruit, flowers,
b MILAN, c1527; d MILAN, 1593 | LIFEline vegetables, and other objects was partly dictated by the subject,
A favourite court painter to the Hapsburg emperors, Giuseppe
©1527 Born in Milan | but probably also had some symbolic or satirical significance for
1549 Works with his father in contemporary viewers. 1573, oil on canvas, 76x64cm, Louvre, Paris
Arcimboldo enjoyed a resurgence of popularity when his eccentric
“vegetable” portraits were rediscovered by the Surrealists in the Milan Cathedral
20th century. His early artistic career was conventional. Born the 1556 Carries out various works for
cathedrals at Monza and Como
son of a painter in Milan, he learnt his trade with his father. He
1562 Called to the court of
assisted his father at Milan Cathedral, where he provided designs Ferdinand | in Vienna
for stained-glass windows, and later worked in the cathedrals at 1563 Paints the first of his Seasons
Monza and Como. series
Arcimboldo's work came to the attention of the Holy Roman 1564 Made portrait painter to
Emperor, Ferdinand |, who invited him to his court in Vienna. It Maximilian II in Prague after the death
was there that he painted the first of his bizarre portraits, Spring- of Ferdinand |
a clever arrangement of fruit, flowers, and vegetables forming | 1576 Maximilian || dies and is
succeeded by Rudolf ||
the likeness of a human head. The fantastic wit of these
c1590 Paints Vertumnus, a portrait
portraits, which may have been satirical or allegorical, was of Rudolf II in fruit and vegetables
immensely popular with the Emperor and his successors, and 1593 Dies in Milan
Arcimboldo continued to receive Rudolf |l’s patronage, even
when he returned to Milan for the final years of his life.

i ys
Te DEBS ARO Aee
Summer 4 Autumn A Winte

Hans won Aachen Bartholomeus Spranger Adriaen de Vries

b COLOGNE, 1552; d PRAGUE, 1615 b ANTWERP, 1546; d PRAGUE, 1611 b THE HAGUE, c1545; d PRAGUE, 1626
A leading painter in the late Mannerist style, Hans von < Hercules, Like Spranger and von Aachen, the sculptor Adriaen de
Aachen travelled widely throughout Europe. With Deianeira, and Vries left his homeland for Italy, before becoming one of
Bartolomeus Spranger, he established the court of the Centaur the foremost artists of Rudolf II's court in Prague. Little
Rudolf || in Prague as a centre of artistic excellence. Nessus Sprangers is known of his life before he arrived in Florence in 1581
Born in Cologne (not Aachen, which was his father's sophisticated to study with Giambologna, under whom he developed
birthplace), he trained there before making his way to Mannerist paintings his elegant Mannerist style. In the 1590s he worked in
Venice in the 1570s, and then spending some time in appealed to Rudolf // Augsburg, producing three fountains and receiving his
Rome and Florence. In 1587 he returned to Germany, because they contained first commission for the Emperor — Mercury and Psyche
®
CENTURIES
16TH
AND
MANNERISM
TH
| both flattering
15 working as a portrait painter in Augsburg and Munich, (1593). De Vries became Rudolf's court sculptor in 1601,
where he was first commissioned by Rudolf II. In 1596 references to his reign and remained in Prague for the rest of his life.
he settled permanently in Prague where he was and erotically depicted
employed both as court painter and as an agent and figures. c1580-82, oil
on canvas, 112x82cm, < Mercury and Psyche
diplomat for the Emperor.
Kunsthistorisches Taking the lightness and
Museum, Vienna, Austria elegance of his teacher
< Bacchus, Ceres,
Giambologna’s work one
and Cupid /he art of
step further, this sculpture
Rudolf Il’s court combined
seems to defy gravity in
the influences of Italian
its upward-spiralling
Mannerism and Flemish
After training in his native Netherlands, Bartholomeus movement. The slender,
Realism. It featured
refined, elongated Spranger travelled to France in about 1565. He worked long-limbed figures and
figures, particularly in Paris, where he discovered the work of Primaticcio, delicate drapery, typical of
then travelled to Milan and Parma, before settling in Mannerist sculpture, are
sensuous female nudes,
in allegorical or mythical Rome in the service of the Farnese family who ruled designed to be viewed
Parma and Piacenza. In 1575, Spranger was appointed equally well from any
scenes alluding to
the qualities of the court painter to Maximilian II in Vienna. With his angle. 1593, bronze, height
Emperor. c1600, oil successor, Rudolf II, Spranger later moved to Prague, 215cm, Louvre, Paris, France
on canvas, 163x113cm, where he introduced the Italian Mannerist style and
Kunsthistorisches Museum, helped to establish the court as a cultural centre.
Vienna, Austria
 The cosmopolitan, but nevertheless
alien, Yuan dynasty had not been great
patrons of the arts, so the early Ming
period was a time of rebuilding. The Masters Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming,
Yongle emperor (the third emperor of Tang Yin, and Qiu Ying, these literati
the Ming dynasty), moved the Ming painters were all accomplished
capital from Nanjing to Beijing, where in the “Three Perfections” (poetry,
the Forbidden Ciy was built, and calligraphy, and painting) in the style
courts there and in the major cities of the Yuan masters, and became
became important patrons of the arts. known as the Wu School, after the
town of Wumen (modern Suzhou),
Ceramics where the majority were based.
Ceramic techniques became more Various individualist artists also
sophisticated in the Ming period. emerged, especially towards the end
As well as the appearance of the of the Ming era, including the painter
first cloisonné work, innovations and art theorist Dong Oichang. He
in porcelain overglazing, blue-and- interpreted the divergent styles of
After almost a century of
white ware, porcelain, and lacquer A Pilgrim's “Blue and White” Gourd /he return to Ming painting as being two separate
Mongol rule, China regained reached a height of refinement, Chinese artistic traditions under the Ming Dynasty is traditions — a Northern and a Southern
epitomised by the elegant decorations of ceramics of
a sense of national pride with with elegant decoration in School — and believed that the
the period. c1403-—24, ceramic, Musée Guimet, Paris, France
the foundation of the Ming specifically Chinese styles. Southern style, derived from the great
Dynasty. The Ming emperors official court painters, there was an Yuan masters, should be the model for
Pamting academic group founded by Dai Jin in literati painters. Don Oichang’s theories
encouraged indigenous culture, Through the 15th century, court Zhejiang, painting in the manner of the were to prove important in the
and their patronage aided the patronage of the arts increased, Southern Song period, known as the establishment of an Orthodox School
revival of Chinese traditions leading to the formation of various Zhe School, and also a number of of painting in the subsequent Oing
in painting and ceramics. schools of painting. As well as the artist-scholars. Led by the Four Great dynasty (see p. 281).

China: Ming Dynasty

A
-VWNIHD
ONIIN
ALSVNA
Dai Jin Shen Zhou
b QIANTANG, 1388; d HANGZHOU, 1462 b XIANGCHENG, 1427; d XIANGCHENG, 1509
Dai Jin was the foremost painter of the academic Zhe school in The literati (scholaramateur) painters of the ancient
Zhejiang. He worked for a short time at emperor Xuande’s court in Wu area around Suzhou in southern China, known as
Beijing, but his conservative style was viewed with suspicion by the the Wu school, worked independently from the imperial
other artists there. Accused of anti-imperial tendencies, he fled back courts in a style very different from the painters of the
to Hangzhou, but returned to Beijing after the emperor's death. Most Zhe school. The most accomplished of the Wu artists,
of his existing paintings date from about 1440, when he was a court Shen Zhou, was influenced by the four Yuan masters
painter in Beijing, adopting the compositional style of the Southern Ni Zan, Huang Gongwang, Wu Zhen, and Wang Meng,
Song painters, but reinvigorating it with dynamic brushwork. At the continuing the literati tradition of innovative and
end of his career, he returned to Hangzhou where he died in 1462. individualist landscape painting. Shen was from a
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wealthy and educated family, and his status allowed
» Yuan An Sleeps Through the him the freedom to paint without the restrictions of
Snow Much of Dai Jin'’s mature patronage, exploring the aesthetic links between
work followed the tradition of poetry, calligraphy, and painting and studying China's
Southern Song silk scroll painting, artistic history.
often adopting the diagonal
compositional style of Ma Yuan,
and demonstrating a mastery of
dynamic brush techniques. His
landscapes also show the influence
of Yuan painters and the boldness
of their perspective. c15th century,
ink and slight colour on silk, 202x107cm,
Indianapolis Museum of Art, US

6¢ Late in life he
begged to return =
to Hangzhou,
A Invitation to Reclusion at Chaisang /n contrast to
where his fame the sometimes strict academicism of the Zhe school, Shens A Ode to the Pomegranate and Melon Vine
had increased ”’ landscapes are in a gentler and more elegant style. For Shen, This painting shows the integration of poetry,
DU QIONG (1396-1474) inspiration, expression, and sensitivity to the subject matter calligraphy, and painting that was central to the
were of greater importance than composition or technique for aesthetic of the Wu literati artists. c1506-1509,
their own sake. c16th century, ink and colour on paper, 25x 1094cm, pen and ink and watercolour on paper, 149x75.5cm,
Indianapolis Museum of Art, US The Detroit Institute of Arts, US
 Wen Zhengming
L

b SUZHOU, JIANGSU PROVINCE, 1470; d SUZHOU, 1559

Considered one of the four Masters of the Ming period, Wen Zhengming was the Tang Yin
most influential of the second generation of Wu school artists. He studied under Shen ;
b SUZHOU, JIANGSU PROVINCE 1470; d SUZHOU 1524.
Zhou (p.185), and like his teacher was inspired by the literati of the Yuan period, but
spent much of his early career trying to obtain civil servant qualifications. He finally got The son of a restaurateur, Tang Yin was not of the same social status as most of
a teaching post at the Hanlin Academy in Beijing in 1523, but returned to Suzhou the contemporary literati artists, however he was acknowledged as one of the four
disillusioned with official life, four years later. His mature paintings show some of this Masters of the Ming dynasty, despite some scandal. He was an excellent student,
disaffection, and his highly individual style often conveys a feeling of solitude. Wen was achieving top marks in the provincial civil service examinations, but he was then
best known for his garden scenes (he also helped to design gardens), illustrations of accused of bribery in the final exams in Beijing, jailed, and sent home in disgrace. He
poems, scenes celebrating events in scholarly life, but also painted landscapes, often went on to study painting with Zhou Chen in Suzhou and embarked on a career as an
simplifying the composition to focus on a single rock or tree. artist, financing himself by selling his work. The absence of an independent income
and his notoriously debauched lifestyle was frowned upon by other literati artists, but
Y Old Pine Tree /rees feature frequently in Wen'’s work especially his undoubted skill as a landscape and figure painter eventually secured his reputation.
pines, junipers, and cypresses, for their symbolic meaning of human
struggle. A respected calligrapher, the range of brushstrokes in Wens
paintings derive from calligraphic techniques, emphasising the
decorative pattems and textures of the tree. 1530s, handscroll,
nk on paper, 27 x139cm, Cleveland Museum of Art, US
7

DYNASTY
MING

CHINA

<p)
=e
oc
=)
j—
|
Ps
uJ | A Scenes of Hermits’ Long Days in
O |e
||
the Quiet Mountains /nfluenced by his
iL study of Northem Song landscape painting,
<) | Tang often chose secluded, peaceful
Q scenes as his subjects — favourite haunts
PL of the reclusive literati. Typical of this style
<= are the large mountains in the background
BE
foe of this picture, and the expressive sinewy
ite)
shapes of the pine trees in the centre.
c16th century, ink and colour on silk,
109x62.5cm, private collection

¢¢ To dab at paper and

smear at silk is only
a trifling skill for
amusement. And
A The Peach Blossom | CLOSERIook the careecOdseROuk
Spring Wen’ landscapes ae
showed the influence of
ES ~ROCKS AND TREES A recurrent
theme in Wen’'s landscapes and A The Immortal Ge Changgeng Sitting scholar or decrepit
Yuan masters, especially illustrations is the portrayal of tree- on his Three-legged Toad Jang was famous clerk — how can
Huang Gongwang. He | topped mountains, built up from for his sensitive figure painting, particularly of
adopted 2 severe, almost / separate rock formations. Each beautiful women, in the style of the Tang period: that be worth
desolate style. This painting |§ element of the mountain, the rocks
g and the trees, is independently
a solitary figure on a blank background. This doing? ””
is an illustration of apoem, | keenly observed portrait of the calligrapher
positioned, but dictated by the TANG YIN AS AYOUNG MAN, ON
Tao Yuan Bi Jing, by the and Buddhist scholar, Ge Changgeng, portrays HEARING A PROPHECY THAT HE
8th-century poet, Wang overall composition. This gives a him as the embodiment of the Chinese God, WOULD BE A SUCCESSFUL A
sense of movement within a Liu Hai, and the mythical toad symbolises the
Wei. 1524, ink and colour / PAINTER OR WRITER
carefully balanced structure.
on paper, 28.5x377cm, / unattainable. 1506-10, ink and colour on paper,
private collection 109x40.5cm, private collection
 < Two Scholars Playing the Qin
and Erhu Under a Pine Tree /he
dramatic contrast of the finely detailed | The Garden of Wang Chuan’s Residence As
musicians against a gentle background _ well as painting original works, Qiu made many detailed
is a feature of several of Qiu’s most copies of old masterpieces and was proficient in styles
striking paintings. The fineness of this of previous periods. In this landscape, after the painting
b TAICANG, JIANGSU PROVINCE, 1494;
figure painting is complemented by his _ style and poetry of Wang Wei (701-761), he incorporates
dc1552
sensitive, naturalistic depiction of the the sensuous, translucent colour of his own work into
The youngest of the four Ming Masters, pine tree. c16th century, ink and colour the style of the old master. c16th century, ink and colour
Qiu Ying came from a peasant family, and on silk, 101 x 43cm, private collection on silk, 30x 463.5cm, private collection
although he studied with Zhou Chen in
Suzhou, he remained only a peripheral
member of the Wu school. His lack of
independent income meant that, unlike
most Wu literati, he was reliant on
patrons for his living and became
proficient in a wide range of styles
and genres. Three of these patrons in
particular, all art collectors, enabled him
to pursue his career: Chen Guan in
Suzhou, Zhou Fenglai in nearby Kunshan,
and Xiang Yuanbian in Jiaxing
in Zhejiang Province.
Qiu was somewhat apart from the
Wu school stylistically. He chose to
work in richer colours, muted earth VNIHD
tones, and especially his characteristic
blues and greens, rather than the ink
washes favoured by most of the Wu
literati, probably to satisfy the tastes
of his patrons. He was renowned as a
draughtsman, especially in his faithful
portrayals of human figures, but it is
for his sensuous landscapes that he ONIIN
ALSVNA
is best known today.

Dong Oichang Chen Hongshou a

4

b SHANGHAI, 1555; d HUATING?, 1636 b ZHUJI, ZHEJIANG PROVINCE, 1598; d SHAOXING?, ZHEJIANG PROVINCE, 1652 x
>
The painter, calligrapher, and art theorist Dong Qichang Born to a family of wealthy civil servants, Chen Hongshou's initial ambition was | Zz
was an individualist, not associated with any school of for a career as an official, but after several failed attempts to gain a position in & S)
painting. He painted mainly landscapes in an eclectic Beijing, he devoted his time to painting, calligraphy, and poetry. He employed ; 5& D
—
style, borrowing from the Yuan masters, but it was a self-conscious archaic style, adopting the mannerisms of the Tang and Song pat ae
as a theoretician that he was most influential. Noting periods, and became known for his whimsical figure painting and colourful { @)
Mm
the different styles of the Zhe and Wu schools, Dong depictions of birds and flowers; unlike many of his contemporaries, he seldom : : Z
argued that there were Northern and Southern painted landscapes. Although Chen lived the life of a typical scholarrecluse on KK o4 a

traditions, and that the literati should paint exclusively the family estate, it is quite likely that many of his paintings were commissions eee
eS
2h
in the Southern style. that were not strictly approved by the code of the literati artists. i A ;, m
<7)
——
; kay
hes

A One Hundred
Butterflies, Flowers BALANCED COMPOSITION
and Insects /his | Chen's naturalistic depiction of
handscroll, in the style of | butterflies fluttering around
the old master Yi Yuanji, blossom is handled with great
delicacy and elegance. The A Immortals Celebrating a
shows Chen's eye for
p) balance and apparent simplicity Birthday /ypica/ subjects for
detail and use of
©) of the composition counteracts Chen‘ figure paintings were
exuberant colour. He was
) the bold colours and carefully depictions of literati and elegant
well-kown for his
© observed details, to give a ladies, or as in this painting,
realistic painting of groups of immortals. The archaic
= feeling of spontaneity.
ris <ee
birds, flowers, and style emphasises the mystical
insects. c17th century, nature of the scene. 1649, ink and
A Rivers and Mountains on a Clear Autumn Day Dong’s handscroll, ink and colour
colour on silk, 169x 68cm, Indianapolis
landscapes often distorted perspective for compositional effect as on silk, 32x531cm, private
Museum of Art, US
shown here in this mountainscape. c1624—-1627, handscroll, ink on collection
paper, 38x 137cm, Cleveland Museum of Art, US
 Origins and influences
Zen Buddhism was introduced to
Japan in the 13th century by two
priests, Eisai and Dogen, who
travelled to China to study Zen
teachings. On their return to Japan,
they established the Rinzai and Soto
sects of Zen Buddhism. The austere
simplicity and stress on self-discipline -
appealed to the samurai (warrior)
Shoguns (military rulers) class, and many Zen temples were
from the Ashikaga family built in the 14th and 15th centuries
under the patronage of the Ashikagas.
ruled Japan from the 14th
to the late 16th century. The Subject matter A Rock Garden of Ryoan-ji Temple, Kyoto Dry
Ashikagas were great patrons Art of this period reflects a strong and Tokugawa leyasu, fought for
landscape gardens in Zen temples symbolize the vast
of art, and the origin of many influence of Zen philosophy, which universe with a few rocks amid gravel. the control of the country. They had
traditional Japanese art forms promoted a balance between physical magnificent castles built to show
such as Noh (masked drama) work and the practice of meditation. true meaning of human life and the off their power, authority, and
Artistic activities such as ink painting, greatness of the natural world. wealth. In sharp contrast to the
theatre, ink painting, garden
calligraphy, poetry, and garden design After the political and economic quiet atmosphere of Zen temples,
design, flower arrangement, were important aspects of training failures of the Ashikaga government in the interior of castles were richly
and the tea ceremony date for monks. Themes of Zen art 1573, three successive military rulers, decorated with colourful paintings
from this period. address the individual's search for the Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, on gold background.

ART
Japanese art
JAPANESE

op) Sesshu Joyo

ge
= b OKAYAMA, 1420; d YAMAGUCHI, 1506 LIFEline
5 | Sesshu became a monk at a young age and was trained in the tradition of 1420 Born in Okayama, but
| Chinese ink painting. In the 1460s, he left his temple and went to China where he hee recorded about his
=| Saw contemporary Ming art as well as studying Song and Yuan masters. Sesshu Y
5 : paar: 5; nee : 1430s Enters Hofuku-ji temple
is established his own distinctive style of ink painting by breaking away from the as a monk, then moves to
= Chinese ideals of the “mind landscape” On his return from China, he settled in Shokoku-ji, Kyoto
a the province of Yamaguchi and continued to paint real places from his observation. 1464 Leaves the temple, and
<_ | His late works in the style of haboku (broken ink) became highly abbreviated, free, moves to the province of
I | and almost abstract — as if the ink had splashed randomly on to the paper. Yamaguchi
5 1467-69 Travels widely
aa in China
1470s Settles back in Japan
first in Kyushu, then in
Yamaguchi
1495 Paints his masterpiece
Landscape in the haboku
Technique, now in the Tokyo
National Museum
1506 Dies, having achieved
recognition as the greatest ink
painter of his age

» Winter Landscape Having

mastered the Chinese idiom,
Sesshu successfully created
as ~ = \, depth of space with zigzagging
A Ama no Hashidate, CLOS ERlook diagonal lines, expressive
Landscape of Mountain eee ah. eal st) HISTORIC SITES brushstrokes, and varying tones
and Sandbar Ama no ae ES & Sesshu painted famous ofink. c1470s, ink on paper,
Hashidate in the north of landmarks such as 46 x 29cm, Tokyo National
Kyoto is one of the three temples and shrines, Museum, Japan
famous scenic spots in Japan, paz which still exist today.
celebrated in classical poetry. The accurate depiction
1501, ink on paper, 90x 178cm, * of the scene suggests
Kyoto National Museum, Japan Sesshu actually visited
the location.
pea" Eitoku
b KYOTO, 1543; d KYOTO, 1590
Kano Eitoku came from the family of professional painters who
had enjoyed the patronage of Shoguns since the time of his great < Hawks in the Pine Subject
grandfather, Kano Masanobu. Eitoku distinguished himself as a matter of the Kano school
talented artist from a young age. He established a dynamic and painters was mainly secular
vibrant style of painting in a large format that suited the needs of landscape, birds, and flowers
feudal lords in the late 16th century. Eitoku was chosen to be in with auspicious symbolism.
charge of the extensive decorative scheme for the magnificent wihe CNMI of expensive
castle built by Oda Nobunaga in Azuchi between 1576 and 1581. mineral pigment and gold
The castle was unfortunately destroyed by fire after Nobunaga's indicates the prestige of the
owner. Late 16th century, six-panel
death in 1582. The opulent interior of the castle can be imagined
folding screen, Tokyo National
from the records and some of Eitoku’s surviving screen paintings.
Museum, Japan

LIFEline CLOSERIook
1543 Born the son of Kano
painter Shoei
1566 Collaborates with his
father to paint the sets of
sliding doors in the temple
Daitoku-ji in Kyoto
1583 Begins work on the
decoration of Osaka Castle
for Toyotomi Hideyoshi
GOLD LEAF Large areas of walls
1587 Commissioned to paint
screens for Jurakudai Palace and screens were covered in thin
squares of gold leaf. The gold
eaDies, tedly f provided backgroun d
luminous back
ided aa lumi
1590
senor eee that reflected light in the dark
castle interior.

< Cypress Jhe large tree is brought to the

foreground with branches extending sideways over
eight panels to create a powerful composition that
characterizes Eitoku’s style. 1580s, eight-panel screen,
colour and gold leaf on paper, 170x 462.5cm, Tokyo ASANVdv
LYV
National Museum, Japan

Sen no Rikyu Hasagawa Tohaku

b SAKAI, 1522; d SAKAI, 1591 b NANAO IN NOTO, 1539; d KYOTO, 1610

A merchant from Sakai, Sen no Rikyu is Hasegawa Tohaku began his career as a painter of Buddhist images in his native
credited with perfecting Chado (literally, province of Noto. He moved to the capital Kyoto in the 1580s and studied the
the Way of Tea — the Japanese ritual of dynamic and colourful style of painting in the Kano studio. His most famous work in
drinking tea). His principles for an ideal the decorative style is the Maple Tree in the Chishaku-in temple, Kyoto. Tohaku also V Forest of Pines The image is extremely simple,
tea ceremony were harmony, respect, studied monochrome ink paintings by Chinese masters in the Zen temple Daitoku-ji, yet it captures the atmospheric morning mist in
purity, and tranquillity. Rikyu thought tea and was deeply influenced by Zen teaching. Tohaku’s ink paintings, with his the forest. The depth of space is subtly handled
utensils should have wabi (simplicity, imaginative use of empty space, inspire a contemplative mood as Zen temples do. by the dark andpale tone of
ink, and conveysa
frugality) and sabi (patina of age, He was a versatile artist who created his individual style by combining the best wondertully evocative mood. Late 16th century,
tranquillity) under the influence of Zen qualities from different traditions. a pair of six-panel screens, ink on paper, 156x347cm,
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philosophy. He endorsed the beauty of Tokyo National Museum, Japan
natural materials in simple rustic tea huts ;
and handmade pottery.

Lae

8
3

A Raku Earthenware Black-glazed Tea

Bowl Aikyu commissioned a humble tile-maker
Chojiro to create this handcarved tea bowl. The
irregular shape of the vessel has a tactile quality,
and the rich black glaze enhances the colour of - iis
the green tea.
 The Inca and Aztec empires were both
relatively short-lived: the Inca empire ~
lasted from the 1220s to 1533, the
Aztec empire from 1325 to 1521.
<< Machu Picchu 8ui/t during the
However, their achievements and
reign of Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui
artistic creations were immense. (1438-71) as country retreat for the
nobility, this Inca town was never
The Incas discovered by the invading Spanish
and remained hidden until 1911.
The Inca empire of the Peruvian Andes.
was founded in the 1220s as a small than original architects, and used local people living on an island in the middle
chiefdom in the Cuzco area of central gold and silver to create ceremonial of a large lake connected to the
Peru. After 1438, the empire began a artefacts. The Spanish conquistador mainland by causeways. During the
period of rapid expansion so that by Francisco Pizarro invaded and 1400s, Aztec armies built up an
1493 the Incas eventually controlled conquered the empire in 1532-33. empire that ruled more than ten
In the 14th and 15th centuries
most of western South America, from million people and dominated
the two powerful empires that modern day Ecuador in the north to The Aztecs southern Mexico and Guatemala from
dominated Central and South central Chile in the south. The Inca The Aztecs moved south from the the Pacific to the Caribbean coasts.
America were the Incas and emperors maintained control of this northern Mexican deserts into The Aztecs built great temples on
the Aztecs. Both civilizations vast area through a lengthy network of the Valley of Mexico around 1325, which to sacrifice victims to their
stone-built roads through the founding their capital, Tenochtitlan, gods, and carved often monumental
produced outstanding artworks.
mountains that allowed for rapid on Lake Texcoco. That city soon sculptures of their deities. The
The Inca and the Aztec empires communications and the movement became one of the biggest and most Spanish, led by Hernan Cortés,
both fell in the early 1500s to of troops. The Incas were skilled splendid cities in the world, the conquered the empire in 1519-21,
Spanish conquest. masons, although functional rather population of more than 200,000 bringing the Aztec civilization to an end.

CentralandSouth
AMERICA
SGUTH
AND
CENTRAL America
The Incas
PERUVIAN ANDES; 1220s-1533
Inca art is more functional and less elaborate than earlier Andean civilizations, although
evidence is patchy as much was destroyed, lost, or melted down after the Spanish
| conquest. The Inca’s main skill was in stonemasonry, using perfectly cut, massive
stones fitted without the use of mortar to create walls and buildings. Some of these
stones, as well as living rocks, were carved with religious symbols drawn from nature.
wove a
‘AWD it
Inca artists developed considerable skill and sophistication in gold and other metalwork,
developing a copperarsenic bronze into which they inlaid gold and silver. Their textiles
were finely woven using vicuna, alpaca, or llama wool. Repeating geometrical patterns
15TH feature regularly in this work, perhaps having a heraldic significance.
CENTURIES
16TH
AND

v Llama figurine This /nca CLOSERIook :

llama is made of several
SYMMETRY Each
pieces of sheet silver. The patterned square of this
blanket in cinnibar, and the geometrically patterned Vio

HN
diamond design may have poncho has a symmetrical
been originally inlaid with design, often consisting of
turquoise; the blanket trim single, dark coloured
is gold. After 1438, silver, thread set against a
American Museum of Natural lighter background.

a
History, New York, US

» Inca poncho Ponchos

were worn by all classes Psi.
ear
of Incas, the poor wearing
alpaca wool, the rich a silkier
vicuna wool. The elaborate
decoration on this poncho
suggests it was not for =
wins
everyday use. ¢1500, wool,
American Museum of Natural
History, New York, US

x
|The Aztecs
VALLEY OF MEXICO; 1325-1521
Aztec art was almost all produced as a material expression of Aztec << Feather mosaic shield /he animal on
cosmology — their vision of the creation of the Universe. The Aztecs this shield is an ahuizotl, a mythical “water-
thorn beast” that dwelt on riverbanks and was
drew their beliefs from previous Mexican civilizations and believed that
said by the Aztecs to seize people who came
their world had been created by the Sun god, Huitzilopochtli, whose
too close to the water. It gave its name to the
continuing appearance in the morning sky required a constant supply
Aztec emperor, Ahuizotl, who reigned from
of hearts and blood from captured enemies. The Sun and other gods 1486 to 1502. c1500, feathers, sheet-gold, agave
dominated everyday life, their images and the myths associated with paper, leather, reed, 70x 70cm, Museum fir
them represented in human form or as flora or fauna. The Aztecs never Volkerkunde, Vienna, Austria
carved actual portraits, as those sculptures with a human appearance —
whether of gods, priests, or common people — represent the
inhabitants of the sacred Universe. Repeated symbols — often based
on nature — reinforced the message of the gods’ spiritual powers.
The main Aztec art form was stone sculpture, often monumental in
form, although their craftsmen were also skilled in using wood, fired
clay, precious stones, feathers, and other materials. However, it is
mainly the sculptures that have survived, as more vulnerable works
of art, as well as any decorative items in palaces and houses, were
almost all destroyed during the Spanish conquest.

A Coyolxauhqui /he name of the moon

goddess, Coyolxauhqui means “the one
< Coatlicue /he goddess of the Earth and patron of life with bells on her face”. As usual, she is
and death, Coatlicue is shown here decapitated and with shown decapitated and with closed eyelids,
serpents entwining her body. They represent the blood as she was beheaded by her brother,
gushing from her neck. She is wearing a necklace of Huitzilopochtli the sun warrior. c1500, diorite,
human hands and hearts. c1500, stone, height 257cm, 80x80x 65cm, Museo Nacional de Antropologja,
Museo Nacional de Antropologia, Mexico City, Mexico Mexico City, Mexico

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A Chacmool The carved figure of Chacmool strikes a characteristic pose.
He wears a feather headdress, necklaces, bangles, and bracelets with bells
attached. A Chacmool figure wears a mask, which identifies him as Tlaloc,
the rain god. c1500, stone, 74x 108x45cm, Museo Nacional de Antropologia,
Mexico City, Mexico

A Grasshopper When the Aztecs first arrived in the Valley of

Mexico, they attempted to found their capital at Chapultepec, the
“hill of the grasshopper”. Pictograms always show the hill with a
grasshopper on its summit. This grasshopper from Chapultepec is
made from cornelian quartz. c1500, cornelian, 19.5x16x47cm, Museo
Nacional de Antropologfa, Mexico City, Mexico
 The dominant artistic style of the 17th century was Baroque,
a bold, theatrical style characterized by movement, intense
emotion, and dramatic contrasts in lighting. Originating in Rome
to celebrate the renewed power of the Catholic Church, it spread
to Spain, Portugal, Germany, and France, where it also came
to represent the grandeur and power of monarchs, notably
Louis XIV of France.

221600
7thand18th
1625 1650 1675
BAROQUE .1600-c1720

QING DYNASTY (CHINA) 1644-1911

EDO PERIOD (JAPAN) 1615-1858

MUGHAL EMPIRE 1526-1857

The Low Countries adopted a more restrained version interest in the art of ancient Greece and Rome and the
of the Baroque style, leading to a golden age of Dutch Tavile(-alex-meo)im atom iali(e|aiccialan\=lalemr-m e)a)](eysvele)alier=] mente\Y{-laalsyayt
painting dominated by portraits, landscapes, and scenes promoting the power of human reason, led to a rejection
of everyday life. Early in the 18th century the Baroque style (o}MnoLexereron- cel lnle maat-manlielel(Movmial-Mitsiqamer-lanUlaalamic\ elle
NAVZekSiesIU] Ol)ec1o10(c10m o\ adatom pale)gemi(e]aycaatey-]ac-1e melave melgarslan(-\aite) of a revived classical style: Neoclassicism. Perfectly
Rococo style associated initially with the court of Louis XV (oXo)an] eles<\-Xe maalUlerom ey-]laltiave|smicralt0] coreMm
ave)e)|=Mm al-icel[emsver>alets
of France. Light, shimmering colours and swirling forms from classical literature and history, often with high moral
were used with wit and elegance in paintings, sculptures, WYZ-)UI-S<¥ar-] avo Malle]al\ar-rexerolpaye)|siatcremaar-lde)(eMcvee] e1Ulg-tMNAVe1K>)
and dazzling frescoes for palaces and churches. A renewed inspired by the “lost art” of the ancients.

centuries 1725 i a Fy a

510]
os0] ox ©Micub elemronbss103

= cs et a ; BO Ca ST Doe bd PP WOT Flas (OP Naas Se |

NEOCLASSICISM .1770s-1810s
SEE POSS
 official guidelines for artists,
encouraging them to create realistic
By the late 16th century, the Mannerist works to which ordinary men and
style had become rather lifeless and women could relate. However, there
contrived, with artists placing more is much more to Baroque art than this
emphasis on polish and virtuosity than religious element, and there were
on genuine feeling. In some ways the other stylistic currents in the 17th
Baroque style looked back to the century. In France particularly there
“Baroque” is the name given
grandeur, dignity, and directness of was a strong Strain of classicism, and
to the vigorous style that
the High Renaissance, but it also took A. The Four Rivers Fountain, Gianlorenzo Bernini in Dutch art, for example, there was
dominated art and architecture elements from Mannerism — notably This powerful and energetic work in the Piazza Navona often an earthy naturalism. These
in the 17th century. This style intense emotion and a sense of was created in 1648 and is the most famous of several three currents — Baroque, classicism,
fountains Bernini created in Rome
originated in Rome, from where movement — blending these influences and naturalism — often overlap or blend.
it spread throughout Europe. into a fresh and dynamic style. Church made forceful efforts to assert
its authority in the face of the spread Subjects
It flourished mainly in Catholic Origins and influences of the Protestant Reformation. This Although religion remained central to
countries and has strong ties This new style was linked with art in most countries, other subjects
fight-back is known as the Counter
with the Counter-Reformation contemporary religious events. From Reformation. The Church realized the became increasingly important during
movement in religion. the mid-16th century the Catholic propaganda value of art and it set the 17th century. Portraits were in

SRR 6a a a TT -- a

1611-14 1622-25
TIMEline
Italian Baroque art is sometimes
divided into three main phases:
early Baroque, c1600—25; high
Baroque, c1625-75 (coinciding
BAROQUE
roughly with the career of
Bernini); and late Baroque,
7 Rigs
Rk: ' c1675 onwards, the style
blending imperceptibly with
WY Rococo in the early 18th century.
LL Bernini visited Paris in 1665 and
oc the subsequent rejection of his
designs for the Louvre indicated
that the balance of artistic power
é ee Gl rl AE:
was beginning to shift from Italy eS MONTANES HALS The Laughing Cavalier
to France. The Merciful Christ RUBENS The Descent from BERNINI Apollo
CARAVAGGIO Supper at Emmaus
the Cross and Daphne
PDA SERS EDI A LA
RR = — moe

Schools many of the major commissions of the time.

Outside Rome, both Bologna and Naples
Italy, France, Spain, and Flanders (which at rose to prominence as leading centres of
this time was ruled by Spain) were the main painting, and although Florence had
Catholic countries where art flourished in declined in importance, Pietro da Cortona
the 17th century. Among Protestant produced some of his finest work there.
countries, the Dutch Republic had by far
the most vigorous tradition, particularly Foreigners in Rome
in painting, but England also played a Painters and sculptors flocked to Rome
significant role in artistic affairs, partly from all over Europe — not only to study
because of the patronage of Charles |, one its unrivalled storehouse of ancient and
of the greatest of all royal connoisseurs. Renaissance art, but also to seek work.
It was a prosperous and growing city, with
Italian a steady demand for artists to decorate the
At the beginning of the 17th century Italy many new churches and palaces that were
led Europe in the visual arts, just as it had being erected. Some foreign artists settled
done during the Renaissance. Rome was permanently in Rome, but others returned
the main artistic centre, and it was there — in to their homelands, thereby helping to
the years around 1600 — that Caravaggio and spread knowledge of the Baroque style
Annibale Carracci laid the foundations of the
Baroque style in painting. They abandoned French
the conventions of Mannerism, introducing During the 17th century France became the
a new gravity but also a new vitality most powerful state in Europe and began to
Sculpture was similarly reinvigorated by rival Italy for artistic leadership. Whereas in
Gianlorenzo Bernini, who was the dominant Italy the most characteristic Baroque art
The Betrayal of Christ Guercino The dramatic lighting and figure in Italian Baroque art, running a large was religious, in France it was used in the
vigorous sense of movement are typical of Baroque art. c1621 workshop in Rome that was involved in service of the state — specifically to glorify
oil on canvas, 113.5x 140cm, Fitz william Museum, Cambridge, UK
King Louis XIV. His palace at Versailles is
one of the great monuments of the style.
The two most illustrious French painters of
 v The Israelites Gathering Manna (detail) Poussin’s
demand virtually everywhere; style was strongly influenced by the classical dignity of
landscape, which had begun to ancient and Renaissance art, but the eloquent gestures
he uses here are typically Baroque.
emerge as an independent theme in
the 16th century, became a speciality However, elements of the Baroque
for many artists; mythological and style often occur in Protestant
allegorical subjects were popular with countries and in secular as well as
sophisticated patrons; and genre religious Subjects. The swagger of
(scenes of everyday life) flourished, Hals's Laughing Cavalier, for example r
particularly in the Dutch Republic. is thoroughly in the Baroque spirit.

Style and techniques

| CURRENTevents
1618-48 The Thirty Years’
Baroque art in its purest form was War, at the end of which
produced only in Catholic countries, Spain’s power has greatly
declined and France's
often as part of the decoration of has increased.
churches. Rich materials, spectacular
1626 St Peter's, Rome,
altarpieces, and grandiose paintings consecrated; its |
on walls and ceilings were in keeping decoration goes on
throughout the century.
with the ritual of Catholic worship.
1652-78 A series of wars
Protestant churches and ceremonies
with England and later
were usually much plainer, and France devastates the
Baroque art generally seemed Dutch economy, including
A The Israelites Gathering Manna, Nicolas Poussin its art market. |
overemotional to Protestant eyes. 16339, oil on canvas, 147x200cm, Louvre, Paris, France

1642 1650 1666-68

anoowu

Pe Rte oi) i ae
POUSSIN The Ashes of Phocion MURILLO The
VELAZQUEZ Pope Innocent X
REMBRANDT The Night Watch Collected by his Widow VERMEER The Artist's Studio Immaculate Conception

the century — Claude and Nicolas Poussin — Spanish but were relatively uncommon in Holland.
worked mainly in Rome, but they were Although it declined greatly in political Peter Paul Rubens dominated Flemish art
highly influential in France, helping to create power, Spain had a glorious flowering of art and ranks as one of the archetypal figures
an ideal of classical dignity and restraint that in the 17th century and the Baroque style of the Baroque style, his work being full of
HL8L
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had a profound and enduring impact on was well suited to the religious fervour of warmth and energy. Rembrandt was a
the country’s art. the country. Religion dominated its art, figure of comparable stature in Holland,
although the greatest Spanish artist of the although his influence was less pervasive,
time — Diego Velazquez — was primarily a as 17th-century Dutch art was unprecedented
» Portrait of the
Blessed John portraitist. His work sometimes has a for its volume and variety of painters.
Houghton rhetorical quality characteristic of Baroque
Francisco de art, but it is always tempered by naturalism. English
Zurbaran This He spent most of his career in Madrid, England had only modest native-born talent
painting has an which was becoming the most important in painting and sculpture during the 17th
austere naturalism
art centre in the country, although other century and imported most of its best
and a classical
grandeur, but its cities, notably Seville, were also of major artists. The art-loving Charles | attracted
emotional directness importance at this time. both Rubens and Anthony van Dyck to work
can be considered for him — the latter was chief court painter —
Baroque. It shows an Dutch and Flemish A Young Woman with a Water Jug Jan Vermeer as well as numerous lesser lights. His son,
English Carthusian Art in Flanders (roughly equivalent to
This is an example of the everyday life subjects beloved Charles II, was much less of a connoisseur,
monk who was of Dutch artists, but its strength of composition and
modern-day Belgium) and the Dutch but nevertheless he was a highly cultivated
martyred in the wonderful handling of colour and light lift it far above
reign of Henry Vill. Republic (Holland) shared a common the commonplace. c1662, oil on canvas, 44.5x39cm, man who employed artists of the calibre of
1637-39, oil on heritage, as the two countries had been Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, US Grinling Gibbons and Peter Lely. Gibbons
panel, 122x64cm, united in the 16th century. However, while had English parents, but he was born and
Museo de Cadiz, the Dutch broke away from Spanish rule to brought up in Holland. The outstanding
Cadiz, Spain native-born English artist of the period
create an independent, largely Protestant
state, Flanders remained loyal to Spain was portraitist William Dobson
and to the Catholic Church. Consequently,
although there are many similarities between
the countries’ art, religious subjects
remained of major importance in Flanders
 Annibale Carracci
» Christ Appearing to St
b BOLOGNA, 1560; d ROME, 1609 Peter on the Appian Way
Annibale Carracci was the greatest member of a family The subject of this picture is an
of artists from Bologna who gave a new impetus to early Christian legend in which
Italian painting in the years around 1600. By the later St Peter encounters a vision of
16th century, much Italian art had become rather Christ outside Rome. 1601-02,
oil on panel, 77x56cm, National
“inbred” and artificial, but the Carracci created vigorous
Gallery, London, UK
Self-portrait and dignified works that heralded the Baroque style.
To some extent they revived the grandeur of the High v Galleria Farnese Ceiling
Renaissance, but they added a new warmth and sense of movement. (detail) The ceiling depicts
Although they admired the great masters of the past, they also based various mythological scenes
their work on observation of the world around them. linked by the theme of love.
Annibale’s varied output included altarpieces, portraits, genre scenes, The main figure here is the
landscapes, and caricature drawings (a type he invented). His greatest giant Polyphemus, who
work, the fresco decoration of the Galleria of Rome's Palazzo Farnese, hopelessly loved the nymph
was considered a worthy successor to Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling. Galatea. 1597-1601, fresco,
Palazzo Farnese, Rome, Italy
a I
LIFEline
1560 Born the son of a tailor
Early 1580s Tours northern
Italy. Opens art academy in
Bologna with Ludovico and
Agostino Carracci |
1583 Completes his first major
religious painting, The
Crucifixion with Saints |
1595 Moves to Rome, his
base for the rest of his life, to
decorate the Palazzo Farnese
1597-1601 Paints his
masterpiece: ceiling frescoes ) DRAMATIC GESTURES Although
for the Galleria of the Palazzo # the picture is fairly small, it has
Farnese tremendous strength and dignity, partly
c1604 Paints Flight into Egypt because of the force and economy of
1606-09 Unproductive final the gestures. Christ points to Rome,
years, blighted by illness and which Peter had been fleeing in fear
melancholia of his life. Strengthened by the vision,
BAROQUE Peter turns back to face martyrdom.

CENTURIES
18TH
AND
17TH

> a
x xe

A Flight into Egypt his scene of people, buildings,

and nature in serene harmony is regarded as the first
great example of the “ideal landscape”. c1604, oil on
canvas, 122x230cm, Galleria Doria Pamphili, Rome, Italy
 Ludovico Carracci
“¥= b BOLOGNA, 1555; d BOLOGNA, 1619 LIFEline
Ludovico, the cousin of Agostino and Annibale, was a 1555 Born a butcher's son in
Agostino Carracci dedicated teacher. He took most of the responsibility for Bologna, where he lives most
of his life, in spite of lucrative
running the academy (art school) that the family founded offers to work elsewhere
b BOLOGNA, 1557; d PARMA, 1602
in Bologna in the early 1580s. Many distinguished artists Early 1580s Helps to found
The older brother of Annibale, Agostino is famed trained there, including Domenichino and Reni, and the Carracci academy
chiefly as an engraver. His many prints after the work Ludovico they carried on the Carracci tradition of clear, strong Mid to late 1590s Runs the
of leading painters circulated across Europe, and Carracci draughtsmanship. Although Bologna was important academy alone from this point
engravings of his anatomical drawings were still for commerce and education, it had previously been relatively c1595 Paints The
used as teaching aids in the late 1700s. undistinguished in art, but the Carracci and their academy turned the Transfiguration
Portrait by Agostino was less accomplished and distinctive as a city into a major centre of painting. Ludovico’s own paintings are almost 1619 Dies, still sole head of
the family academy
ieee painter than Annibale and Ludovico. He was Annibale’s all on religious subjects, often treated in a highly emotional way.
arraccl
chief assistant at the Palazzo Farnese from 1597 to
1599, but the brothers then quarrelled and Agostino moved to Parma.
There he began a grand fresco scheme of his own at Ranuccio
Farnese's palace, left unfinished at his death.

LIFEline
1557 Born the son of a tailor
1576 First dated engravings
Early 1580s Opens art academy in
Bologna with brother Annibale and
cousin Ludovico
1597-99 Helps Annibale paint the
frescoes at the Galleria Farnese, Rome
1599-1602 Decorates the Palazzo
Farnese, Parma
1602 Dies and is buried in Parma

» Portrait of Giovanni Gabrielli

These impressively engraved facial
details and exuberant hair belong to
acomic actor, also known as |! Sivelio. =
1599, engraving, 16x 12cm, Art Gallery / Atats Lutues (gniees Vascrttrec ) THE
of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia tice Ee SL

Al
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> The Annunciation Early
in their careers the Carracci
often worked together, and
it is sometimes difficult to
distinguish their hands. This
picture is now thought to be
by Agostino, but in the past
it has been attributed to
Annibale and Ludovico.
1585, oil on canvas, 48x 35cm,
Louvre, Paris, France

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a
INcontext
THE CARRACCI ACADEMY
The Carracci family academy,
A The Transfiguration CLOSERIook
also known as the Accademia DRAMATIC CONTRAST The
This explosive altarpiece was
degli Incamminati (Academy contrast of light playing across
for the church of S. Pietro
of the Progressives), stressed this upturned head is typical of
drawing from life and the close Martire in Bologna. It depicts
Christ — flanked by Moses Ludovico's work in the 1590s. It
study of nature. Many important helps to create an emotionally
Baroque artists trained there. and Elijah — revealing his
divine nature to three of his charged mood of spiritual
ecstasy, true to the ideals of
Head of a Youth by Annibale disciples. c1595, oil on canvas,
the Counter-Reformation.
Carracci. All three Carracci drew 438x268cm, Pinacoteca :
constantly. A contemporary wrote Nazionale, Bologna, Italy Sees J
that even when eating they had
“bread in one hand and a pencil
or charcoal in the other”.
 | Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio Sick Bacchus /his is almost
certainly a self-portrait of the
b CARAVAGGIO OR MILAN, 1571; d PORT’ERCOLE, 1610 —_/Young Caravaggio, painted soon
after he arrived in Rome. c1593-94,
ugh his life was short and troubled, Caravaggio
oil on canvas, 66x 52cm, Galleria
an overwhelming impact on Italian (and indeed Borghese, Rome, Italy
European) art. He broke with the stale Mannerist
tradition, introducing a new solidity and weightiness to
a painting. Early in his career he painted hedonistic
Portrait by subjects, but in his maturity he concentrated on sombre . Crucifixion of St Peter
Ottavio Leoni religious works. He imagined the familiar stories afresh, $ Caravaggio painted this
depicting characters who look like real people from the \ powerful altarpiece for a
streets of Rome rather than idealized visions. Some contemporaries . pr. church in Rome, and it can
thought It was disresy ful to bring religion down to earth like this, but = tie = \\O still be seen there. When
| many painters imitate realistic details and dramatic contrasts of light Bs hy) St Peter was about to be
ade, even though few could rival his grandeur or depth of feeling. J martyred, he asked to be
became notorious for his violent temperament as well as ; crucified upside down, as
ius. In 1606 he fled Rome after killing a man ina he did not fee! worthy to
it the remaining four years of his life as a fugitive from die in the same way
e continued to receive major commissions (and to influence Christ. 1601, oil on
erever he went, working in Naples, Malta, and Sicily. ae alee
olo, Rome, Italy

local painter
Rome Beheading of St John
series of major the Baptist Vany people
consider this huge work to be
; Caravaggiosmasterpiece. It
ta, and Sicily was painted for the Knights
an in Rome of the Order of St John (the
s masterpiece Knights Hospitaller), who at this
n time effectively ruled the island
of Malta. John the Baptist was
their patron saint. 1608, oil on
BAROQUE canvas, 361x520cm, Co-Cathedral
of St John, Valletta, Malta

CLOSERIook

OFF-CENTRE ARRANGEMENT The bold composition — with the

group on the left and an expanse of wall on the right — was highly
ompelling sense of reality. The two
Caravaggio
us offences

*¢ He thinks that all paintings

are mere nothings, child's
play or trifles, whatever their
subject matter or authorship,
unless they have been painted
from life, and that nothing can
be good and nothing better
than to follow nature ”’
 Artemisia Gentileschi
Supper at Emmaus /n this painting, the resurrected Christ b ROME, 1593; d NAPLES, 1652/53 LIFEline
reveals himself to his disciples. The realism of the faces and
clothing invites instant involvement. 1601, oil and egg tempera
Like her painter father Orazio Gentileschi (1563-1639), | 1593 Born nR

on canvas, 141x196cm, National Gallery, London, UK Artemisia was an outstanding follower of Caravaggio.
Her work did much to spread his style, and she became
CLOSERIook one of the first female painters to be widely acclaimed.
1612-20 L
Unusually for a woman of her day, Artemisia lived a life becomes fir
of great independence, and she tackled ambitious city's A
historical and religious themes in preference to the still c1613-14 Judi
lifes typically chosen by 17th-century female artists Holofernes (Uffizi
Her favourite subject (which she treated several times) c1630 Moves to
was Judith Beheading Holofernes. Her liking for this 1638-41 |n England, v
bloodthirsty theme has been interpreted as “pictorial for King Charles |
revenge” for her own youthful sufferings: she was 1641 onwards Probably
FOREGROUND DEVICE works
raped by the painter Agostino Tassi and was tortured
Caravaggio often used foreground
at his trial to test the truth of her evidence.
objects to draw viewers in. He
was a superb painter of still-life
details such as this.

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Artemisia’s most famous painting of the subject. |INcontext
The drama, violent realism, Caravaggesque | ART SERVING RELIGION During the 16th
lighting, and solid figures are all characteristics and early 17th centuries, the Catholic Church
of her work. c1613-14, oil on canvas, 199x 162cm, | underwent a period of reform and renewal, nov
Uffizi, Florence, Italy |called the Counter-Reformation. Artists such as
Caravaggio were acutely aware that religious
art must move the masses to devotion

| The Council of Trent A series of hig

 |Gianlorenzo Bernini
» Baldacchino /his massive
b NAPLES, 1598; d ROME, 1680 LIFEline canopy rises over the high altar
1598 Born son of Florentine of St Peter’. Its twisted bronze
If any one artist embodies Baroque art, it is Bernini, who
sculptor Pietro Bernini columns rest on marble bases.
ranks as the greatest sculptor of the 17th century and
1618-25 Produces a series of 1623-34, gilded bronze and marble,
one of its greatest architects (he was also a brilliant
life-size marble sculptures for height 29m, St. Peter's, Vatican City
painter, but mainly as a private pleasure). His work, which Cardinal Sciptone Borghese,
is passionate and rhetorical, often expresses his deep his first majour patron v Ecstasy of St. Theresa
Self-portrait religious feelings, but he also excelled at secular 1623 Appointed architect to Bernini shows the mystic
subjects, including portraits. He achieved great success St Peter's, for which his work Theresa in a spiritual faint
while still very young, and for most of his long career he was the includes the Baldacchino in front of an angel, who has Ww
\
dominant artist in Rome. His buildings, fountains, and outdoor sculptures 1645-52 Creates Ecstasy speared her heart with divine
of St. Theresa fire. Natural light falls across
have had a huge impact on the city's appearance. He worked for
1665 Visits Paris the group from a hidden
every pope who reigned during his career, and some of his greatest
1680 Dies, aged 81 window. 1645-52, marble, life-
masterpieces are in St Peter's. His other patrons included Louis XIV
of France, for whom he worked in Paris in 1665. size, Cornaro Chapel, S. Maria
della Vittoria, Rome, Italy

GILT PERFECTION The

canopy’s spiraling columns were
modelled on ancient examples,
thought to have come from King
Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem
Gilded surface decoration stands
out strikingly against the dark
bronze of the columns. The
decoration takes the form
of beautifully wrought vine
# leaves, often interpreted as
a reference to the wine used
BAROQUE in the Catholic Eucharist.

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8TH

pameel

AND
17TH
1

A The Cornaro Chapel Bernini was at his

greatest when combining his skills as a designer,
sculptor, and architect, as he did here. Notoriously
self-critical, he regarded this masterpiece as his
“least bad” work. 1645-52, marble, bronze, and
other materials, S. Maria della Vittoria, Rome, Italy

6¢ Bernini strove with

everything in him to
make resplendent
all the conceptual
beauty inherent
in whatever he was
working on %
FILIPPO BALDINUCCI (1
FLORENTINE ART HIS
 Alessandro Algardi
b BOLOGNA, 1598; d ROME, 1654

Apart from the great Bernini, Algardi was the leading Italian sculptor
of his time. His style was more sober than Bernini's, and during the
pontificate (1644-55) of Innocent X, whose taste was conservative,
he was the leading sculptor at the papal court. He had several large
CLOSERIook commissions, including one for a huge marble relief for St Peter's,
Pope Leo the Great Driving Attila from Rome (1646-53). However,
Algardi is now most admired for his portrait busts, which show great
dignity and skill in characterization.

VY Beheading of St. Paul This group is part of an

elaborate altar composition. Completed 1644, marble,
over-life-size, S. Paolo Maggiore, Bologna, Italy

MIRACLE IN MARBLE Bernini's

extraordinary skill in cutting marble
enabled him to create effects that would
have been beyond any other sculptor.
Here he not only convincingly shows
a woman turning into a tree but also
captures the astonished expression
on her beautiful face.

S
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< Apollo and Daphne /his is one of a
group of early masterworks commissioned
by Cardinal Scipione Borghese. Bernini
shows the moment from Ovid's poem
Metamorphoses when Daphne is
transformed into a tree. 1622-24, marble,
243cm high, Galleria Borghese, Rome, Italy
E

» Cardinal Paolo Emilio

Zacchia /he figure has an
imposing dignity, but the
hands leafing through the SSIYAL
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book add a note of intimacy.
1650s, marble, 163cm, Bargello,
Florence, Italy

< Four Rivers Fountain A Piazza S. Pietro With this

This is Bernini’s best-known vast colonnaded piazza in front
and most impressive fountain, of St Peter's, Bernini succeeded
full of movement and peopled in creating a grand space that
with over-life-size figures could be used for many purposes,
representing the Danube, including holding the huge
Ganges, Nile, and Plate rivers. crowds that gathered for papal
1648-51, marble and other stones, blessings. 1656-67, Piazza
Piazza Navona, Rome, Italy S. Pietro, Vatican City
 Domenichino
b BOLOGNA, 1581; d NAPLES, 1641
Domenichino (Domenico Zampieri) trained in the Carracci Academy in
Bologna, then in 1602 moved to Rome — one of a number of Bolognese
artists who followed in the footsteps of Annibale Carracci and
capitalized on his success. He began his career in Rome assisting
Annibale with his frescoes at the Palazzo Farnese, but he soon made < Last Communion of St Jerome /his
is Domenichino’s best-known altarpiece,
a reputation of his own. By 1615, he was established as the leading
renowned for the pathos with which it
painter in the city.
depicts the dying St Jerome. It was
Domenichino worked mainly on church commissions (frescoes and
inspired by a painting of the same subject
altarpieces), but he also painted outstanding portraits and landscapes.
by Agostino Carracci, but far outshone its
His style was noble and restrained — looking back to Raphael and model in fame. 1614, oil on canvas, 419x
forward to Poussin — although it became somewhat freer as his 256cm, Pinacoteca Vaticana, Vatican City
career advanced. He spent his final years working in Naples,
notably in the cathedral.
a ~CLOSERIook :

LIFEline
1581 Born in Bologna, the
son of a shoemaker
c1595 Joins the Carracci
Academy (see p.197)
1602 Moves to Rome. Works

;\
at the Palazzo Farnese with
Annibale Carracci
1614 Paints Last Communion
of St Jerome
1617-21 Works in Bologna
and Fano
1621-31 Returns to Rome.
SURFACE TEXTURES Detailed
Paints frescoes for S. Andrea surface treatment of the fabric of the
della Valle priest's garment, with shimmering
1631 Moves to Naples to HW highlights glancing beautifully off the
work on a commission in perfectly observed folds, introduces a
the cathedral i623) ay uh sumptuous note. This is echoed in the
1641 Dies in Naples, allegedly various different surfaces the picture,
4 St Luke Domenichino skilfully fitted figures
poisoned by hostile local artists as well as in the rich palette of colours
of the Evangelists into the awkward shapes that Domenichino has used.
BAROQUE beneath the dome. 1624-25, fresco, S. Andrea
della Valle, Rome, Italy

Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri)

b CENTO, NEAR BOLOGNA, 1591; d BOLOGNA, 1666 LIFEline
Giovanni Francesco Barbieri is commonly known by his 1591 Born in Cento
nickname Guercino, which means “squinter’’ He was one 1607-10 Apprenticed to local
of the most individual Italian painters of the 17th century, painter, Benedetto Gennari
creating a bold and lively style that is highly distinctive. 1621 Paints Aurora fresco
Guercino spent most of his career in his native north 1642 Moves to Bologna and
succeeds Guido Reni as the
Self-portrait Italy, but he also had a brief period (1621-23) in Rome. city's leading painter
There he worked for Pope Gregory XV and for Gregory's 1666 Dies in Bologna
nephew, Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi, for whom he painted his most
17TH famous work, the exuberant ceiling fresco Aurora (1621).
CENTURIES
18TH
AND » Erminia Finds the
When Guido Reni died in 1642, Guercino moved to Bologna and took Wounded Tancred /his
his place as the city’s leading painter. By this time, his style had moved painting is typical of the artist's
away from the energy of his youth, becoming calm and dignified, and early, boldly lit style. 1618-19,
some of his late works have a Reni-like serenity and refinement. oil on canvas, 146x 188cm, Galleria
Doria Pamphili, Rome, Italy
[REC
a RIN eR < Aurora Jhis captivating work depicts
dawn’ chariot speeding across the skies.
1621, fresco, ceiling of the Casino, Villa
Ludovisi, Rome, Italy

CLOSERI|ook

=a ‘i Das

CEILING PAINTINGS Here, Guercino has

skilfully foreshortened his figures so that they
| look as if they are being viewed from below (this
is especially clear in the horses). However, not
all painters adopted this approach. Guido Reni
painted his Aurora (opposite) as if it were to
be seen at normal eye level
 Guido Reni
= b BOLOGNA, 1575; d BOLOGNA, 1642 LIFEline
|Giovanni Lanfranco Reni was the most famous Italian painter of his time, 1575 Born a musician's son
renowned throughout Europe for the grandeur and c1584-97 Studies with
b TERENZO, NEAR PARMA, 1582; d ROME, 1647 Denys Calvaert, then at the
gracefulness of his work. In spite of his enormous
Carracci Academy
Lanfranco spent part of his early career in northern Italy and most of success, however, he was often in debt because he
1601-14 Based in Rome;
his later years in Naples, but his key works were produced in Rome. was addicted to gambling. paints Aurora fresco (1614)
There he was a rival of Domenichino, and during the 1620s he Guido Reni Reni spent most of his career in Bologna, but from 1614-42 Settles in Bologna
overtook him as the leading fresco painter in the city. During this 1601 to 1614 he was based in Rome, where his work 1642 Dies, and is buried with
period both painters worked in the church of S. Andrea della Valle, included the ceiling fresco Aurora (1614), painted for Cardinal Scipione great ceremony in Bologna
Lanfranco decorating the dome with a glorious scene of the Borghese. This is much more serene and classical in style than the
Assumption of the Virgin (1625-27). This was the first dome painting in slightly later — and equally famous — treatment of the subject by
a full-blooded Baroque style — teeming with movement and emotion — Guercino (see p.202). Reni painted several other mythological pictures, v St Matthew and the Angel
and it was influential throughout Europe. In addition to his frescoes, but the bulk of his work was on religious subjects. He is said to have The dignified features are
Lanfranco produced many smaller paintings (mainly on religious taught more than 200 pupils, and they, and other imitators, produced typical of Reni’s work. c1635-40,
subjects). He was also a prolific draughtsman. a huge number of copies and adaptations of his pictures. oil on canvas, 85x68cm, Pinacoteca
Vaticana, Vatican City

LIFEline
1582 Born near Parma
Late 1590s Apprenticed to
Agostino Carracci in Parma
1612-34 |n Rome. Paints
Assumption of the Virgin
1634-46 Works in Naples
1646-47 Back in Rome
1647 Dies, shortly after
producing frescoes for
S. Carlo ai Catinari

» Ecstasy of St Margaret
of Cortona /he saint swoons
in front of a vision of Christ in
this powerful altarpiece. 1622,
oil on canvas, 230x 185cm,
Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy

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painting was much admired by his contemporaries.

The biographer Giovanni Pietro Bellori compared the
thronging figures to the blending of voices in a choir
“when all the sounds are in harmony”. 1625-27, fresco,
§. Andrea della Valle, Rome, Italy

DIAGONALS The use of ATTENTION TO DETAIL

A Aurora Although this is a masterpiece
strong diagonals is a feature The viewer can feel the saint
of fresco painting, Reni rarely used the of Baroque art. Here, the two grip his pen as he writes down
medium again, preferring to work in oil. diagonals are curved, giving a the Gospel dictated to him by
1614, fresco, Casino dell’Aurora, Palazzo feeling of movement. an angel
Rospigliosi—Pallavicini, Rome, Italy
 Pietro da Cortona
b CORTONA, 1596; d ROME, 1669 LIFEline
Painter, architect, and designer, Cortona ranks second 1596 Born the son of a
stonemason and builder
only to Bernini as the most versatile genius of Italian
c1612 Arrives in Rome
Baroque art. Like Bernini, he spent most of his career in
1624-26 Receives his first
Rome, but he also carried out major works in Florence. < SS. Luca e Martina
major commission, to paint
As a painter he specialized in grandiose fresco decoration frescoes in the church of S. This is Cortona’s architectural
Pietro da in palatial interiors: his most famous works in this vein Bibiana for Pope Urban VIII masterpiece, the first church
Cortona were produced for the Barberini family in Rome (its 1633-9 Paints Allegory of to be designed and built ina
members included Pope Urban VII!) and for the ruling Medici family Divine Providence and unified Baroque style throughout.
Barberini Power 1635-50, the Forum, Rome, Italy
in Florence. He often combined his frescoes with elaborate stucco
1640-47 Works mainly in
ornamentation, creating a highly sumptuous effect. Such treatment Y Allegory of Divine
Florence, decorating the
was much imitated, for example at Louis XIV’s palace at Versailles. Palazzo Pitti Providence and Barberini’s
In addition to his large-scale decorative schemes, Cortona produced 1647 ReturnstoRome Power Cortona’s most famous
many smaller paintings (mainly on religious and mythological subjects), 1669 Dies and is buried in work as a painter glorifies Pope
and designed tapestries and festival decorations. He was also one of his church of SS. Luca e Urban Vill and his aristocratic
the greatest architects of his time, even though he claimed that Martina, Rome Barberini family. 1633-39, fresco,
architecture was merely a recreation for him. approx 25x 15m, Gran Salone,
Palazzo Barberini, Rome, Italy

BAROQUE

A Sala di Apollo (detail) 7he combination of painted

image and elaborate stuccowork in ceilings such as this was
highly influential. 1640s, fresco, Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy

CENTURIES
17TH
18TH
AND

wt:

a ‘

CLOSERIook
THE ART OF ILLUSION The figure
representing Divine Providence is backlit
with a blinding glow and points towards
A Romulus and Remus Given Shelter by Faustulus
the Barberini family emblem of three bees.
Expressive gestures, rich colours, and majestic figures are Like the other figures, Providence is expertly
characteristic elements of Cortona’s painting. c1643, oil on foreshortened to give the feeling of a
canvas, 2.5x2.6m, Louvre, Paris, France dizzying view from below. Spectators
are pulled up towards this focal point,
and the ceiling seems to open to the sky.
 Carlo Dolci
b FLORENCE, 1616; d FLORENCE, 1687

Dolci was one of the leading artists of his time in

Salvator Rosa Florence. Deeply devout, he specialized in religious
works, which included some large altarpieces. He
b ARENELLA, 1615; d ROME, 1673 LIFEline
is best known for small, intimate works for private
A poet and actor as well as a painter 1615 Born in Arenella, on devotion. These were highly popular in his lifetime and
and printmaker, Salvator Rosa was the outskirts of Naples
for many years afterwards, but then fell out of favour,
a colourful character who did a great 1635 Moves to Rome
being dismissed as cloyingly sentimental. The past
1640-49 Works in Florence
deal to create the popular romantic half-century has seen renewed interest in his work,
after causing a scandal in
image of the artist as a rebel and Rome by insulting Bernini especially his beautifully polished craftsmanship. Dolci
Self-portrait outsider. He trained in Naples and 1649 Returns to Rome also painted portraits, but these are strong and sober —
spent most of the 1640s in Florence, 1673 Dies, after a deathbed very different from his religious works.
but otherwise he worked mainly in Rome. marriage to his mistress
Although he regarded his historical and religious
pictures as his most important works, Rosa is now
best known for his landscapes, in which he created » Democritus in Meditation
a new type of image of nature — wild and raw — that Rosa was an accomplished
contrasted with the serene “ideal” landscapes of etcher who made prints such as
Claude and Poussin. |In a similar vein, he also painted this reproducing his paintings.
c1662, etching, 46x 27cm, Leeds
macabre subjects, including scenes of witchcraft.
City Art Gallery, Leeds, UK

A Virgin and Child with the Infant St John the

Baptist he sweet sentiment and smooth finish are
typical of Dolci’s style. c1635, oil on panel, diameter NVITVLI
AnNo0O0Y
79cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, US

Bernardo Strozzi
b GENOA, 1581; d VENICE, 1644

Strozzi’s two nicknames — // Cappuccino (the Capuchin)

and // Prete Genovese (the Genoese priest) — reflect his
years as a Capuchin monk in a Genoese monastery
(1598-1610). He had trained as a painter before entering
the monastery, and may have painted devotional works
while inside its walls. Strozzi left the monastery in 1610
to support his widowed mother and his sister. After his
mother died, the monastery pressurized him to return,
but he moved to Venice in 1630/31, becoming one of
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the leading painters in the city. As befits a monk, he
painted mainly religious works, but he also produced
portraits, allegories, and genre scenes. His style shows
A Rocky Landscape with many influences (including that of Rubens, who worked
a Huntsman and Warriors in Genoa), but it has a distinctive richness and warmth.
Showing humans dwarfed by
a threatening and untamed
nature, this picture exemplifies
the wild, romantic strain in
Rosa’s work. 1660s, oil-on canvas,
142x 192cm, Louvre, Paris, France

ROCKS AND CRAGS Well known for using NOTES OF DRAMA The eye goes quickly
large rocks and crags as prominent features in to the tiny figures, despite the expanse of
his landscapes, Rosa was expert at rendering turbulent landscape around them. Although
their rough surfaces with vigorous brushwork. painted sketchily, they are picked out deftly
This was part of his way of stressing nature’s with patches of bright colour against highlights
wild, elemental forces. in the dramatic sky above. A Alexander the Great Restoring the Throne
Usurped from Abdolonimus /his obscure story
from Greek history inspired several operas, including
Mozart || re pastore (1775). c1615-17, oil on canvas,
123x175cm, Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
 Giovanni Battista Gaulli Luca Giordano
b GENOA, 1639; d ROME, 1709 | LIFEline b NAPLES, 1634; d NAPLES, 1705

Gaulli, who is also known as Baciccio (a 1639 Born in Genoa Although he began his career working in the sombre tradition of
dialect form of his Christian names), spent c1657 Settles in Rome Caravaggio, Luca Giordano developed a light, airy style that heralds
most of his career in Rome, where he 1674-77 Adoration of the the Rococo. He was the most prolific decorative painter of his time,
Name of Jesus
was a protégé of Bernini. His most so renowned for his speed and energy that he was nicknamed Luca
c1675 Paints portrait of
famous work is the Adoration of the fa presto (Luke work quickly). His life began and ended in Naples, but
Bernini
Self-portrait Name ofJesus, a glorious ceiling fresco 1709 Dies in Rome Self-portrait he also did a good deal of work in Florence and Venice, and he spent
in the Gest (the mother church of the a decade in Spain, mainly in the employ of King Charles II. Initially he
Jesuits) in Rome. In its energy, virtuosity, and spiritual worked at the Escorial, the huge monastery—palace near Madrid, and then on other
v The Three Marys at the
conviction, this is one of the archetypal Baroque works. royal and church commissions. When he returned to Naples he was approaching
Empty Sepulchre Here, rich
Gaulli also produced many smaller religious paintings and 70, but he continued working with vigour and passion.
Genoese colours shine through.
was a fine portraitist. His sitters included seven popes. 1684-85, oil on canvas, 87x113cm,
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK. LIFEline
1634 Born in Naples, the son
of painter Antonio Giordano
1653 First dated works
1658 Marries
1665 Begins period of
extensive travels, spending
much of it working in Florence
and Venice
1692 Goes to Spain to work
for King Charles I
1702 Returns to Naples
1705 Dies in Naples a
wealthy, famous, and
respected man

» Celestial Glory and the

Triumph of the Habsburgs
This fresco adorns the ceiling
over the Escorial’s Imperial
Staircase. Giordano created
such works with extraordinary
BAROQUE fluency. 1692-94, fresco,
EI Escorial, Spain

b TRENTO, 1642; d VIENNA, 1709 CLOSE Rlook

ce
Andrea Pozzo is a perfect example
of religious faith wedded to art. A painter
and architect, he became a lay brother
in the Roman Catholic Jesuit order in
his twenties. After this, he completed
Artist unknown numerous projects for Jesuit churches,
especially in and around Rome. His
masterpiece is the Glory of St Ignatius Loyola and
AND the Missionary Work of the Jesuits in the church of
CENTURIES
18TH
17TH
S, Ignazio, Rome — one of the most breathtaking ceiling
paintings ever created. It shows the formidable skill with IMAGINARY ARCHITECTURE Pozzo was
perspective that lay at the heart of Pozzo’s work. one of the greatest masters of quadratura, a
type of decoration in which painted architecture
In 1703 Pozzo moved to Vienna, where he spent
seems like an extension of the real architecture
the rest of his life, mainly engaged on Jesuit projects. of a building. An indicator on the floor of the
He wrote a major treatise on perspective, which was church of S. Ignazio shows the place to stand
published in Latin and Italian in two volumes in 1693 to get the most convincing effect.
and 1700 and was soon translated into other languages.

LIFEline = << Guardian Angel » Glory of St

1642 Born in Trento, | Even in this relatively Ignatius Loyola and
where he receives his small work, Pozzo the Missionary
initial training manages to convey Work of the Jesuits
1665 Becomes a Jesuit a vigorous sense of Here, the perspective
lay brother movement typical of scheme sweeps the
1681 Settles in Rome Baroque art. ¢1685-94, viewers eye up to the
1688-94 Paints ceiling of oil on canvas, 173x122cm, single vanishing point
S. Ignazio, Rome Musée des Beaux-Arts, at the central figure
1693 and 1700 Writes Caen, France of Christ. 1688-94,
the two-volume treatise, fresco, vault of nave,
Perspective in Painting and S. Ignazio, Rome, Italy
Architecture
1703 Moves to Vienna
1709 Dies in Vienna; is
buried in the Jesuit Church
 Adam Elsheimer
||ee as
b FRANKFURT AM MAIN, 1578; d ROME, 1610 LIFEline
Although he died aged 32 and left only a small number 1578 Born the son of a tailor
of works, Elsheimer was a highly influential painter, 1598 Travels to Venice
inspiring artists of the calibre of Rubens (who was a 1600 Settles in Rome
friend) and Rembrandt to imitate his poetic lighting 1606 Marries; becomes a
member of the Accademia
effects. As well as being brief, his life seems to have
di S. Luca
been unhappy, blighted by melancholia and debt.
1610 Dies in poverty and is
It was only after his death that his work began to be buried in the church of S.
widely admired. Lorenzo in Lucina, in Rome
Elsheimer spent most of his short career in Rome.
Almost all his paintings are small, painted on copper
with a miniaturist-like delicacy. However, they never » The Mocking of Ceres
seem fussy and have a grandeur of conception out of The goddess Ceres, searching
all proportion to their size. Most of them depict figures for her daughter Proserpina,
in a landscape setting, and he is particularly renowned thirstily gulps down a barley
for his sensitive treatment of nocturnal scenes. drink offered by an old woman.
c1607, oil on copper, 30x 25cm,
Prado, Madrid, Spain
6¢ Surely, after such a CLOSERIook
loss our entire LIGHT EFFECTS As
profession ought to the old lady stands outside
her cottage at night, the
clothe itself flickering candle picks out
in mourning... Ve parts of her lined face in
will not easily succeed a way that makes her
seem rather sinister.
in replacing him; in my Elsheimer seems to have
opinion he had no experimented with lighting
equal in small figures, and compositional effects
by using little wax figures
in landscapes, and in that he arranged on a kind
many other subjects 9? of miniature stage set.
PETER PAUL RUBENS, 1610,
ON ELSHEIMER’S DEATH L

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Francois Duquesnoy Gerrit van Honthorst
b BRUSSELS, 1597; d LIVORNO, 1643 b UTRECHT, 1592; d UTRECHT, 1656

The Flemish-born Duquesnoy came from a distinguished The Dutch painter Honthorst was one of the best of
family of sculptors. After training in his father’s studio in the many foreign artists who were influenced by
Brussels, he moved to Rome. There he rivalled Algardi Caravaggio's work in the early 17th century. He spent
as the leading sculptor of the day, after the great roughly a decade in Rome, from about 1610, and earned
Bernini. Duquesnoy’s style is more classical and the nickname Gherardo delle Notti (Gerard of the Night
restrained than Bernini's, although it often displays Scenes) because of his skill with nocturnal light effects,
warmth and charm, especially in his smaller pieces. especially in scenes illuminated by candlelight.
He was renowned for his skill in representing children. After his return to the Netherlands, he played a major
In 1643 Duquesnoy was summoned to France to role in establishing his home town of Utrecht as a
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work for King Louis XIII, but he died on the way. stronghold of Caravaggio's style. It lingered there into
the 1650s, long after it had gone out of fashion in Rome.
LIFEline NRA
=>
However, Honthorst himself abandoned the style in his
le as
later years, when he worked mainly as a portraitist.
1597 Born son of sculptor e
Jéré6me Duquesnoy, with -
whom he trains mq
1618 Moves to Rome, where .
he initially works mainly on ms)
restoring antique sculpture
1627-28 Assists Bernini with
Baldacchino in St Peter's
1629-40 Carves statue of St
Andrew for St Peter's
1643 Falls ill and dies at
Livorno, Tuscany

» Putto with a Dolphin

Duquesnoy is especially well
known for this kind of piece,
featuring putti (cherubs) 4 The Freeing of St Peter from Prison Honthorst
depicted in a charming way. A St Andrew /his was the most important clearly shows his debt to Caravaggio in the dramatic
1625-30, ivory, Galleria e public commission of Duquesnoy’ career. It gestures and bold lighting. c1616-20, oil on canvas,
Museo Estense, Modena, Italy shows St Andrew with the X-shaped cross on 129x179cm, Bodemuseum, Berlin, Germany
which he was crucified. 1629-40, marble, 450c¢m
high, St Peter's, Vatican City
Still Life > Still Life of Kitchen
Utensils Jean-Siméon Chardin
Chardin'’s domestic still lifes
Still life, the painting of ordinary objects without human
are typical of his understated
presence, was long regarded in the Western world as a lowly realism. 18th century, oil on canvas,
form of art on the grounds that it required only technical skill — 32x39cm, Ashmolean Museum,
not imagination. It was frequently associated with themes of Oxford, UK.
transience, decay, and the vanity of earthly things. Since the V Still Life with Lemons, Oranges, and a
late 19th century, however, its neutrality has made it a powerful Rose Francisco de Zurbaran Fruit is a popular
vehicle for artists engaged with issues of pure form. still life subject and here Zurbaran has produced
a masterly study. 1633, oil on canvas, 62x 110cm,
V Still Life with Peaches Roman Fruit and other Norton Simon Collection, Pasadena, CA, US
still life objects were not painted in isolation at first but {
formed part of much larger paintings. c50 BCE, mural from
Herculaneum, 35x34cm, Museo Archeologico Nazionale,
Naples, Italy, =

A Six Kakis Chinese School This early oriental

still life, depicting six persimmon fruits, avoids
realism in favour of abstraction, conveying a
feeling of the subject, rather than representing 60 yy, *
it exactly. 13th century, ink on paper, 35x29cm, A Still Life of Flowers and
private collection. Dried Fruit Clara Peeters This
example of “breakfast” art
comprises flowers, a dish of nuts
and dried fruits, and another
of pretzels. 1611, oil on panel,
52x 73cm, Prado, Madrid, Spain.

> Vanitas Still Life Sébastien

Stoskopff Symbolic of the
transience of life, vanitas
paintings often include a skull A Old Models William Michael Harnettt The
asa sign of death. 1641, oil on composition of this painting evokes a feeling of
canvas 125x 165cm, Musée des refinement through leisure acitvities — here music
Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg, France and reading. 1892, oil on canvas, 138x72cm,
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Massachusetts, US
 V The Round Table Georges
Braque The Cubist style is readily
apparent but has been softened by
Braque’s subtle use of colour. 1929,
oil.on canvas, 145x114cm, Phillips
Collection, Washington DC, US
V Still Life with Dishes Amedee Ozenfant Ra i, SG
This kind of flat, almost diagrammatic still life
is characteristic of the intellectual approach
of Ozenfant, who was a renowned teacher and
writer on art. 1920, oil on canvas, Hermitage,
St Petersburg, Russia

V New Stones - Newton's Tones Tony

Cragg Made from fragments of discarded
plastic, this sculpture is arranged according to
Isaac Newton's spectrum of colour. Cragg uses
found materials to comment on urban waste.
1978, found plastic objects, 366x244cm, Arts
Council Collection, Hayward Gallery, London, UK

TLS
3411
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A Wine Glasses Patrick

Caulfield The plain but brightly
coloured background of the
painting provides a stark contrast
to the simple outline of the
wine glasses. 1969, screenprint,
36 x31cm, private collection.

A Still life with Basket Paul Cezanne ALe Reveil du Lion Daniel Issac Spoerti
A basket overflowing with fruit has been Known as a “snare picture’, everyday items
carefully arranged on a table with a including a slipper, a bowl, and a lamp have been
white cloth and three different pots. attached to a board and then hung on the wall,
1888-90, oil on canvas, 65x 81cm, Musée with the intention of “snaring” a moment in time.
d'Orsay, Paris, France 1961, mixed media, 90x76x 48cm, Galerie Schwarz,
Milan, Italy.
< Two Cut Sunflowers Vincent
van Gogh One of a series of van Gogh
paintings depicting sunflowers, the
wilted heads and use of brown pigment,
infuse it with a wistful melancholy. 1887,
Sey oil on canvas, 50x 60cm, Kunstmuseum,
Bern, Switzerland
 Simon Vouet
b PARIS, 1590; d PARIS, 1649
In the early 17th century, French art was at a low ebb, as the
country recovered from a lengthy civil war. One man was largely
responsible for reviving French painting from this period of
stagnation — Simon Vouet. He did this not only through his own
works, but by training many artists of the next generation, when
Self-portrait his country made such giant cultural strides that it began to
challenge Italy for leadership in the visual arts
Vouet formed his style during a lengthy stay in Italy from 1613 to 1627. He
combined elements from various sources into a Suave and vigorous manner. His
work sometimes lacks individual personality and rarely shows emotional depth, The Presentation in the
but it is always dignified, superbly drawn, and beautifully polished in technique. He Temple /his altarpiece was
was versatile and highly professional, carrying out a great variety of work, although commissioned by Cardinal
most of his major decorative schemes have, unfortunately, been destroyed Richelieu for the Jesuit Church,
Paris (now St Paul and St Louis)
1641, oil on canvas, 393 x 250cm,
LIFEline Louvre, Paris, France
1590 Born the son of Parisian
painter Laurent Vouet
fas
} CLOSERIo0k
1611-12 Visits tc Constantinople |
1613-27 Lives in Italy, mainly
n Rome
1624 Elected president of The
Academy of St Luke, Rome, a
great honour for a non-ltalian
1627 Recalled to Paris by King
Louis XIII to become his
principal painter
1640-42 His pre-eminence is |
threatened when Poussin visits
Paris
1641 Paints The Presentation SERENE FACES /he faces
in the Temple in this biblical scene have a
1649 Dies in Paris while still gentle, poetic serenity and, like
the dominant artist in France the rest of the picture, bask in
a warm, glowing light that
A Justice [his formed part of a decorated ceiling on the theme
me unifies the whole work
BAROQUE of the four cardinal virtues. ¢1637—38, oil on canvas, 140.x 159m,
Musée National du Chateau et des Trianons, Versailles, France

Georges dea Tour » The Newborn Child

b VIC-SUR-SEILLE, 1593; d LUNEVILLE, 1653
This is the type of painting for
Georges de La Tour enjoyed a successful although fairly low-key which La Tour is best known
career in his native Lorraine (now part of France, but at this time an a serene nocturnal scene with
independent duchy). After his death, however, his work was virtually flickering candlelight and
forgotten for about for 250 years, and the process of rediscovery did simple, monumental shapes
not begin until the early 20th century. Since then, his reputation has Few of La Tours paintings are
grown enormously, and he is now generally considered the greatest dated and it has proved difficult
of all Caravaggesque painters to establish a chronology, but
Like many other artists, he imitated Caravaggio's dramatic use of this is usually considered a late
light and shade, but he looked beyond the obvious trademarks of the work. ¢1645—50, oi! on canvas,
master's work to capture something of its grandeur and solemnity, to 76x91cm, Musée des Beaux-Arts
which he added his own sense of mystery and contemplation. Little is de Rennes, Rennes, France
known of his life and it is uncertain whether he visited Italy and saw
Caravaggio's work at first hand or learned about it from intermediaries

LIFEline
1593 Born the son of a baker
1616 First documentary
reference to La Tour as an
adult; in his earlier unrecorded
years he possibly visited Italy
1617 Marries Diane Le Nerf, CLOSERI|ook
from Lunéville MYSTIC LIGHT This wonderfully tender
1620 Moves to Lunéville, and very intimate scene is illuminated by
where he lives for the rest of a single candle held in the hand of the
his life woman on the left, but because she
1639 Visits Paris and is made a shields the candle from the viewer, the
painter to the French king light seems to emanate from the baby’s
1653 Dies in Lunéville, and his head, In this way, what is evidently a
work slips quickly into obscurity scene of human maternity takes on a
very spiritual aura, with the baby evoking
images of the Christ Child

A The Payment of Taxes /t /s uncertain if this

is a pure genre scene or is meant to represent
an incident from The Bible. c1620, oil on canvas,
99x 152cm, Lviv State Art Gallery, Lviv, Ukraine
Antoine, Louis, and Mathieu Le Nain
b LAON, c1600, c1600, c1607; d PARIS, 1648, 1648, 1677

The three Le Nain brothers represent one of the great unresolved

problems in the history of art, for in spite of much research on their
lives and work, there is still uncertainty about what each brother
painted individually and how much they operated as a team. Several
paintings are signed with their surname, but none of them with a first
name, and all their dated pictures belong to the period 1641-48, when
all three were still alive.
We know from early accounts that the brothers collaborated at
times, but there is sufficient variety in subject and treatment among
their pictures to suggest that all three had separate artistic personalities.
The most distinctive of these pictures — and the main reason for the
Le Nains’ fame — are the peasant scenes, which are strong, sober, and
dignified, in spite of their lowly subjects. These paintings have often
been attributed to Louis Le Nain, but without any solid evidence.

LIFEline v The Adoration of the Shepherds /his biblical

scene combines a suitable sense of awe and serenity
c1600-07 Born into a
with vividly observed naturalistic details. c1640, oil on
good family in Laon
canvas, 109x139cm, National Gallery, London, UK
1628-29 The three
brothers move to Paris, and
set up a joint workshop
1633 Mathieu is made
artist to the city of Paris
Nemes"! "
CLOSERIook A Peasant Family in an Interior A/though it a
1648 All three brothers m
become founder members HANDLING LIGHT is a scene of everyday life, this picture has the 2
of the Académie Royale de Fae El aera dignity worthy of a grand history painting. In the 2)
Peinture et de Sculpture ae faces sbanesting 2 19th century, Gustave Courbet and other Realist <=
1648 Antoine and Louis : painters found works such as this inspiring. c1640, a
die within days of one
window to their left. The ; ie. >
expert handling of light and oil on canvas, 113x 159cm, Louvre, Paris, France P
another, presumably of oO
a contagious disease fairly limited palette help
fe)
1677 Mathieu dies to create a harmonious and Cc
quietly powerful piece. mi

b BRUSSELS, 1602; d PARIS, 1674

Philippe de Champaigne was a distinguished religious
painter, but he is famous primarily as the greatest French
portraitist of the 17th century. His sitters included some
of his leading contemporaries, including most
memorably Cardinal Richelieu, of whom he created the
Portrait by definitive images. His work is severely dignified in
Jean-Baptiste composition, strong and pure in colouring, and piercingly
eeearapaigne direct and honest in characterization. In the 1640s he
became involved with the Jansenists — an extremely austere Catholic
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sect — and his work subsequently became even more sober and
ascetic in tone, completely unconcerned with normal worldly values.

1602 Born in Brussels

1620 Enters workshop of
landscape painter Jacques
Fouquier
1621 Moves to Paris
1625 Begins working for the
royal family, particularly Marie
de Meédicis
1629 Becomes a French
citizen
c1635—42 Paints several
of portraits of Cardinal
Richelieu
1645 Becomes involved
with the Jansenists, for << Omer Talon Jalon, a distinguished lawyer and A Mother Catherine-Agnés Arnault and Sister
whom he paints several parliamentarian, is here depicted in magnificent Catherine de Sainte Suzanne de Champaigne
works judicial robes. His candid expression exemplifies | Champaigne’s daughter (right) was a nun at Port-
1674 Dies in Paris Champaigne’s penetrating characterization. Royal, a Jansenist convent in Paris. This work gives
1649, oil on canvas, 225x 162cm, National Gallery thanks for her miraculous recovery from paralysis
of Art, Washington DC, US 1662, oil on canvas, 165x229cm, Louvre, Paris, France
 Nicolas Poussin
v The Adoration of the Golden Calf While Moses was
b LES ANDELYS, NORMANDY, 1594; d ROME, 1665 receiving the Ten Commandments, the Israelites made a
Although he spent almost all his mature career in Rome,
golden calf and worshipped it as a false god. c1633, oil on
canvas, 153x212cm, National Gallery, London, UK
Poussin is regarded as the most important French
painter of the 17th century, exerting a powerful influence CLOSERI00k
~aER
3
not only on his contemporaries, but also on future
generations of artists in France. His beginnings, 4Ibey
Self-portrait however, were inauspicious, for his achievements were
modest when he settled in Rome aged nearly 30, and
initially he struggled there before finding his true direction. He was
inspired by the art and the classical world to create paintings of great
grandeur and lucidity. His work is so deeply pondered that he later
became known as the painterphilosopher. This rational approach
appealed profoundly in France, and the Académie Royale de Peinture USING COLOUR Poussin uses white to
et de Sculpture (founded in Paris in 1648) held up Poussin as the pick out a major figure in the worshipping
embodiment of its ideals. revellers. This is Aaron, Moses’s brother, who
Poussin worked mainly on modest-sized paintings for private patrons was responsible for creating the false idol.
who shared his intellectual tastes. He lived quietly and unpretentiously, Poussin was a master at using colour to
but by the time of his death he was internationally famous and revered. animate a composition.

LIFEline
1594 Born in Normandy
1612 Inspired to take up
painting when an itinerant
artist, Quentin Varin, works
in his home town. Soon
afterwards, he moves to Paris
1624 Settles in Rome
1626-28 First conspicuous
success with Death of
Germanicus painted for
Cardinal Francesco Barberini
Lu
1640-42 Reluctantly works
= in Paris for Louis XIll
Oo
2) 1648 Paints Landscape with
cc the Ashes of Phocion
<{ 1665 Dies in Rome
.)

Landscape with the

Ashes of Phocion /his is one
of a pair of paintings illustrating
URIES
\
the story of Athenian general
| and statesman Phocion, who
was executed on unjust charges
of treachery. Here his widow
gathers his ashes. The sombre
landscape provides a perfect
setting. Poussin became
increasingly interested in
landscape in the 1640s. 1648, oil
on canvas, 117x179cm, Walker
CENT
18TH
AND
17TH
Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK

> The Exposition of Moses

Poussin depicts the biblical tale
of baby Moses being set adrift
on the Nile to escape the order
of the Pharaoh of Egypt that all
the newborn sons of Israelites
should be killed. 1654, oil on
canvas, 150x 205cem, Ashmolean,
Oxford, UK

SETTING THE SCENE The trees at either FOREGROUND FOCUS Ihe

side act like curtains, an artistic device called figure of Phocion’s widow is small but
coulisses ("theatre wings” in French). They frame it draws our attention through her
the action, separating the foreground figure from light-coloured clothing. Her maid
the middle ground activity and background city of looks around apprehensively, fearing
Megara, where Phocion’s body was cremated they will be discovered preserving the
because it was refused burial in Athens remains of the disgraced politician.
Noe
| INcontext
Claude Gellée
THE LOUVRE [his is now one of the world’s b CHAMAGNE, LORRAINE, c1605; d ROME, 1682 LIFEline
greatest museums, but in Poussin’s time it was a
In his own lifetime and for generations afterwards, c1605 Born in Lorraine,
royal palace. Begun in the 1540s by Francis |, it
Claude Gellée (also known as Claude Lorraine) was northeastern France
was expanded and adorned by many subsequent
almost universally regarded as the greatest of all c1617—20 Moves to Rome
French monarchs. Louis XIII commissioned
landscape painters. He was considered the supreme 1625 Returns to Lorraine and
Poussin to decorate the immensely long Grande
works on church frescoes
Galerie, but nothing survives of his work there. exponent of the ideal landscape — a type of picture that
(destroyed) in Nancy
Claude Gellée created a noble vision of nature without any of the
The Louvre seen from the Pont Neuf, engraving 1627 Settles permanently in |

after a work by 19th-century artist Jean Jacottet. imperfections of the real world. Like Poussin (who Rome
became his friend), Claude spent most of his career in Rome, but his 1634 His work is being
work was much sought after in France and elsewhere in Europe (his imitated, indicating he already
v Christ and the Adulteress patrons included Philip IV of Spain). has a high reputation
The frieze-like composition In dignity and grandeur, Claude’s paintings have much in common 1637-39 Paints four pictures
reflects Poussin'’s study of for Pope Urban VIII
with Poussin’s landscapes, but Claude was much less austere than
ancient Roman reliefs. He 1653 Fathers an illegitimate
Poussin and was more concerned with light and atmosphere. During
painted the picture for André daughter, who helps care for
the 18th and 19th centuries his work was particularly esteemed in him in his old age
Le Notre, famous designer of England, Constable and Turner being among his professed admirers. 1663 Seriously ill with an
the gardens at Versailles. 1653, unknown ailment
oil on canvas, 121x195cm, Louvre,
1682 Paints Landscape with
Paris, France Ascanius Shooting the Stag
of Sylvia. Dies in Rome

<¢ Seaport with the

Embarkation of St Ursula
This work depicts St Ursula (in
yellow) and her companions
leaving Rome following a
pilgrimage to the city. Grand
seaports of this kind were one
of Claude’s specialities. 1641,
oil on canvas, 113x149cm, HONAYS
AnNo0OY
National Gallery, London, UK

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A Winter, or The Flood

Poussin’s last completed works
were a series of four paintings
on the seasons. In addition to
depicting a season, each picture
represented a different time of
day and an appropriate biblical
subject, and each one is
dominated by a particular colour
—here a steely grey. c1660-64, A Landscape with Ascanius Shooting the Stag
oil on canvas, 118x160cm, Louvre, of Sylvia Claude’s last painting takes its subject
Paris, France from Virgil's Aeneid. It shows the ethereal, dreamlike
Sfilla quality the artist developed in his final years. 1682,
foreground triangle, and Poussin leads the eye oil on canvas, 120x150cm, Ashmolean, Oxford, UK
to the middle-ground figure at the waterfall and
the streak of lightning in the background. The
structure is similar to that in Landscape with the
Ashes of Phocion, but more loosely executed.
 Charles Le Brun
b PARIS, 1619; d PARIS, 1690 | LIFEline
For most of the second half of the 17th century, Charles Le | 1619 Born in Paris, the son Francois Girardon
Brun was the dominant artist in France. He was a favourite of a sculptor
c1634 Begins training with b TROYES, 1628; d PARIS, 1715
of Louis XIV, who employed him to give visual expression to
| Simon Vouet
his ideas of personal and national glory. Le Brun did this not Among the army of artists and craftsmen
1642 Travels to Rome with
only through his own paintings, but also in the many projects Nicolas Poussin who worked with Le Brun at Versailles,
Self-portrait in which he had a supervisory role, particularly the 1646 Returns to Paris one of the finest was the sculptor
decoration of royal palaces. 1662 Appointed first painter Francois Girardon. His work is
Born into an artistic family, Le Brun was highly precocious: he was Vouet's | to the king sometimes light in spirit, appropriate to
star pupil and was already making a name for himself by the time he was 1663 Made director of Francois the garden settings in which it was often
20. When Poussin visited Paris in 1640-42 he was greatly impressed by the Académie Royale and the Girardon placed, but it also has a classical dignity.
young man, who accompanied him back to Rome. Le Brun stayed there Gobelins tapestry factory He produced impressive work in very different vein,
until 1646, and when he returned to Paris he was quickly launched on a 1679-84 Decorates Galerie too, most notably his marble tomb of Cardinal Richelieu
des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors),
hugely successful and productive career. His most famous work is the Versailles (1675-94) in the church of the Sorbonne, Paris.
decoration of the Galerie des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors) at the palace of 1690 Dies in Paris
Versailles — his lavish style was perfectly attuned to the scale and pomp 1698 Treatise on emotions in v Apollo Tended by the Nymphs Originally placed
of the building and to the task of glorifying his flamboyant king. art published posthumously in a grotto, but now in the Palace gardens, this is often
cited as Girardon’s masterpiece. 1666-75, marble, life-size,
Bosquet des Bains d’Apollon, gardens of Versailles, France
Spain Recognizing the
| Pre-eminence of France in
| 1662 Le Brun filled the ceiling
| of Versailles’ spectacular Hall
| of Mirrors with grand images
| gloriiying Louis XIV reign.
| Spain had long been the most
powerful nation in Europe, but
| under Louis France took this
| position. 1678-84, oil on canvas,
| Galerie des Glaces (Hall of
| Mirrors), Versailles, France
Lu
=)
Oo
QO
OH
«ft
4

< Pyramid Fountain

Girardon produced
various fountains at
Versailles, of which
this is the most
impressive. It was
based on designs
drawn by Charles
Le Brun. 1668-70, low
parterre, gardens of
Versailles, France
Oy Mid

Moliére Le Brun was an

accomplished portrait painter.
His notable sitters included this
famous French playwright
1660, oil on canvas, 66x 57cm,
Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, “INcontext
Moscow, Russia VERSAILLES |n the 1620s,
Louis XIII built a hunting lodge
CLOSERIook
: a a |
jam at Versailles, near Paris. He
later enlarged this into a
chateau, and from the 1660s
his son Louis XIV began
expanding it into a palace of
stupendous size and
magnificence. In 1682 it
became his official residence
and seat of government.
- Fes id ,
The Groves of Versailles, by
POTENT SYMBOLISM [he Jean Cotelle the Younger. 1688, oil
on canvas, 200x 140cm, Chateau du
drooping lion, cowering at the
Grand Trianon, Versailles, France
feet of an allegorical figure of
France, symbolizes Spain's
acknowledgement of France's
pre-eminence. Art played a vital
propaganda role for Louis XIV.
Pierre Puget
b MARSEILLE, 1620; d MARSEILLE, 1694
Puget is now acknowledged as the most powerful
and original French sculptor of his time. However, in
worldly terms he had a less successful career. This < Milo of Crotona
was a reflection of his independent and obstinate Attacked by a Lion Pugets
temperament. The artistic dictatorship of Le Brun masterpiece symbolizes the
Pierre Puget demanded efficient teamwork, but Puget was too need to temper physical
distinctive in style and abrasive in personality to fit in strength with reason.
easily. Consequently he carried out relatively little work for the court 1671-82, marble, 270cm high,
and instead spent most of career in his native south of France (where Louvre, Paris, France
he worked as an architect and painter as well as a sculptor) and also
in Italy. His vigorous, highly emotional Baroque style was strongly CLOSERI|ook
influenced by Italian art.
Puget did have one conspicuous triumph at Versailles, however,
with Milo of Crotona. In ancient Greece, Milo was a famous athlete of
prodigious strength. He tried to split open the trunk of a tree, but his
hand became trapped and he was devoured by wild beasts.

ane)
LIFEline
1620 Born the son of a
mastermason
1634 Apprenticed to a wood
carver
1638-43 First of several
visits to Italy
1643 Begins work decorating
ships at Toulon’s naval yards
THE SHAPE OF AGONY
1660s Works mainly in
Milo’s body — from his
Genoa
backward-flung head to his
1668-94 Works mainly in
toes, shown tensed as they
Toulon and Marseille
S38 grip the ground — has a
1671-82 Milo of Crotona
zigzag shape, featuring
Attacked by a Lion A Stone Portal for the Hotel de Ville (Town
several strong diagonals.
1694 Dies, after a succession Hall), Toulon For this typically expressive work, This powerfully underlines
of late projects are rejected Puget carved two Atlas figures straining to the idea that Milo is
by the French court support the balcony, 1656-57, stone, Musée Naval, convulsed with pain.
E Toulon (the Hétel de Ville was destroyed in 1944)

H
HONsAY
Inoou
Hyacinthe Rigaud
b PERPIGNAN, 1659; d PARIS, 1743 ‘J CLOSERIook
Rigaud was the outstanding French court portrait
painter of his time, working for both Louis XIV and
Louis XV. He excelled at creating magnificent formal
portraits of important people, emphasizing their status
with stately poses and sumptuous detail. His
Self-portrait masterpiece in this vein is his famous full-length portrait
of Louis XIV, painted in 1701. This is the definitive image
of Louis and one of the most imposing of all portrayals of royal majesty.
Rigaud’s Baroque style, with its vivid colouring and attention to
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surface texture, reflected a mix of influences from Flemish and Italian
art, notably van Dyck and Titian. He also had a much more informal
side to his art, expressed in intimate portraits of friends and relatives. @ EYE FOR DETAIL The
Mm coronation robes in which the
king is dressed are painted with
LIFEline fan extraordinary flair that owes
much to van Dyck. Rigaud’s
1659 Born the grandson of
a painter brushwork picks up every detail,
such as the embroidery of the
1681 Settles in Paris
royal fleur-de-lis motif.
1688 Makes his name with a
portrait of Louis XIV’s brother
1700 Admitted to Académie < Louis XIV Louis commissioned
Royale as a history painter this portrait as a gift for King
1701 Paints portrait of Louis Philip V of Spain (his grandson).
XIV, which brings him a
European reputation However, he was so impressed
with it that he decided to keep it
1733 Made director of the
Académie Royale for himself. 1701, oil on canvas,
1743 Dies, brought low by A Double Portrait of Madame Rigaud 277x194cm, Louvre, Paris, France
the death of his wife the These studies of Marie Serre, the artist's mother,
previous year show Rigaud’s more personal side. There is a
Rembrandt-like quality in the wrinkled face and
very human expressions. 1695, oil on canvas,
83x 103cm, Louvre, Paris, France
 Juan Martinez Montaniés
b ALCALA LA REAL, JAEN, 1568; d SEVILLE, 1649 | LIFEline
Spanish sculpture of the 17th century fundamentally differs 1568 Born in Alcala la Real Juan Sanchez Cotan
from that produced elsewhere in Europe. In most other c1579 Begins his training
in Granada b ORGAZ, 1560; d GRANADA, 1627
countries the favoured materials were stone (particularly
marble) and bronze, but Spanish sculptors preferred 1587 Moves to Seville Religion was the mainstream of 17th-century Spanish
wood, usually painted in lifelike colours. Almost all Spanish 1597 Carves St Christopher, painting, but still life was a fascinating tributary. Juan
his first major work
Portrait by sculpture of this period was on religious subjects, and Sanchez Cotan was one of the earliest and greatest
1603-6 Carves The Merciful
Velazquez the realistic colours helped to make it believable and European specialists in this area, producing paintings of
Christ
emotionally involving for the devout spectator. 1635-36 Visits Madrid to
£ extraordinary power and originality. Usually they show
There were many eminent sculptors in this great age of Spanish art, make portrait head of Philip Portrait b a few fruits or vegetables arranged with mathematical
but the most famous was Juan Martinez Montanés, whose skill as \V, his only secular work Carderera y precision against a plain dark background. Despite the
Solano
a carver was So superlative that he was nicknamed “el dios de la 1649 Dies in Seville humble objects, these works have a haunting spiritual
madera” (the god of wood). He spent most of his career in Seville, quality, conveying awe at the mystery of God's creation. In 1603,
but his work had wide influence in Spain and South America. — — Sanchez Cotan became a lay brother at a monastery in Granada,
abandoning still life for much less memorable religious paintings.
> The Merciful Christ
Montanéss contract specified Y Still Life with Game Fowl, Fruit, and Cardoon
that Christ was to be shown The dark, recessed spaces in which Sanchez Cotan
looking at anyone who might be arranges his still lifes are based on a typical Spanish
praying at his feet, suggesting: larder. 1602, oil on canvas, 68x 89cm, Prado, Madrid, Spain
“It is for him that He suffers”.
1603-06, painted wood, life-size,
Sacristy of the Chalices, Seville
Cathedral, Spain

BAROQUE

MOVING REALISM The

| expertly carved anatomical
| detail is made even more
| convincing by the flesh tones in
| which it is painted. Montanés
was a perfectionist, and he
chose only the finest masters
to paint his works.
CENTURIES
18TH
AND
17TH
Fe
INcontext
MADRID In 1561 Philip !l made Madrid his
capital, and the city soon became a magnet
for artists, rivalling and then outstripping such
established art centres as Seville and Toledo.
Its population increased rapidly, from about
| 20,000 when it became the capital to about
150,000 only 60 years later.
A Quince, Cabbage,
Plaza Mayor, Madrid, Spain The Plaza Mayor, Melon, and Cucumber /his
originally built in 1617-19, is a huge square at the
heart of the Spanish capital.
is considered by many to be
Sanchez Cotan’s masterpiece.
The hyper-realism seems to
raise these ordinary objects to
a spiritual plane. c1600, oil on
canvas, 69 x 85cm, San Diego
Museum of Art, California, US

A St Christopher Montanés’ realism shows

in the figures muscular legs and the detailed | STAGE SET The items are arranged in a
treatmentof folded fabric. 1597, painted wood, =: oat precise curve, suggesting a perfect natural
EI Salvador, Seville, Spain ais z ST ae order. The receding shelf is like a stage, with
the fruit and vegetables as actors
 Jusepe de Ribera
Francisco de Zurbaran
pe q b JATIVA, VALENCIA, 1591; d NAPLES, 1652
b FUENTE DE CANTOS, BADAJOZ, 1598; d MADRID, 1664 LIFEline Known as Lo Spagnoletto (the Little Spaniard) after the
Although he occasionally turned to other subjects, Zurbaran was 1598 Born the son of a country of his birth, Ribera settled in Italy at an early age
essentially one of the great religious painters of the 17th century. merchant trader and spent almost all his career in Naples, where he
His style in his most typical works was massively austere and | 1614 Studiesin Seville; became the leading painter of his generation. At this
intensely spiritual — perfectly in tune with the religious fervour of spends most of the next time the city was ruled by Spain and much of Ribera’s
decade in Llerana, near his
his country. He spent most of his career in Seville, which at the home village Jusepe de work was exported back to his homeland.
time he moved there was immensely prosperous (it was the main Ribera He was a versatile artist, capable of expressing great
1629 Settles in Seville
port for Spain's lucrative trade with its American colonies). 1634-35 Visits Madrid, tenderness as well as powerful drama, and he painted various types of
However, Zurbaran also worked elsewhere, including Madrid, where he works for Philip IV's secular subjects as well as the religious works that were his mainstay.
where he painted a series of ten pictures on the Labours of Buen Retiro Palace His early work was sombre and strongly influenced by Caravaggio, but
Hercules (his major secular commission) for Philip IV's Buen Retiro | 1658 Moves to Madrid his style later became much lighter and more richly coloured, although
Palace. In 1658 he moved permanently to Madrid, but by this time 1664 Dies, with his career always retaining an essential seriousness.
his career was in decline, partly because of a general economic in decline
slump in Spain and partly because Murillo — who worked in a very
different style — had overtaken him as the leading painter in Seville. LIFEline
1591 Born the son of a
shoemaker
CLOSERIook 1611 First documented
in Italy (in Parma)
1616 Settles in Naples
1639 Paints Martyrdom of
St Philip, presented by the
Viceroy of Naples to Philip IV
of Spain
1652 Dies after years of |
recurrent illness

> Adoration of the

PMA ei Shepherds /his shows
FACIAL EXPRESSION many of Ribera’s trademarks:
The strong lighting brings rich colouring, tenderness of
out the forceful combination feeling, and realism in the
of mystical intensity and shepherds’ clothes. 1650, oil
sombre naturalism that is on canvas, 239x 181cm, Louvre, HSINVd
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typical of Zurbaran. Paris, France

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SIMPLE LINES This

composition is strikingly bold.
Its colours are muted, and its
stark design features a single
centrally placed figure ina
frontal pose. As usual,
Zurbarén uses a plain
background against which
the figure stands out with
enormous physical presence.
——E—E——E—————————————————

A St Francis Standing Zurbardn made A Democritus Aibera invented this type of picture,
something of a specialty of figures such as this, in which he depicted an ancient Greek philosopher
showing a saint or monk in prayer or meditation. as a beggar or vagabond. 1635-37, oil on canvas,
1650-60, oil on canvas, 209x110cm, Musée des 155x119cm, Collection of the Earl of Pembroke, Wilton
Beaux-Arts, Lyons, France House, Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK
 Diego Velazquez v Pope Innocent X During his second visit to Italy,
b SEVILLE, 1599; d MADRID, 1660 LIFEline Velazquez painted this famous portrait. It captures
the pope's wily character so vividly that the sitter
Velazquez was the greatest figure of Spain’s golden 1599 Born in Seville toa
family of minor gentry himself called it “too truthful”. 1650, oil on canvas,
age of the arts, which reached its peak during the reign 141x119cm, Galleria Doria Pamphili, Rome, Italy
1617 Following a 6-year
(1621-65) of his major patron, King Philip IV. At the age of
apprenticeship with Francisco
only 24, Velazquez was appointed a royal painter, and he Pacheco, he qualifies as a
spent most of his life working for Philip in Madrid. The | master painter
Self-portrait majority of his paintings are portraits of the royal family 1618 Marries Pacheco's
and other members of the court, but he produced daughter
masterpieces in other fields too. All his work is notable for its dignity, | 1623 Settles in Madrid as
its penetrating sense of actuality, and its beauty of technique, his court painter to King Philip IV
brushwork developing from almost clotted richness in his early 1629-31 Visits Italy
pictures to sparkling freedom in his final paintings. 1634-35 Paints The
| Surrender of Breda
Velazquez made two visits to Italy, and his work was acclaimed there.
1649-51 Returns to Italy on
However, after his death most of his paintings remained hidden from an art-buying trip for the king
the public in royal palaces and it was not until the Prado, Spain's national | c1656 Paints Las Meninas
museum, opened in 1819 that his work became widely known. Many 1660 Dies in Madrid after a
artists were subsequently influenced by it, notably Manet, who admired sudden illness
Velazquez above all other painters.

6¢ Velazquez... makes the

journey worthwhile. .
He is the supreme
artist; he didn't surprise
me, he enchanted me ”’
EDOUARD MANET, 1865

An Old Woman Cooking Eggs

Velazquez’ early works included some
superb scenes of everyday life. He
treated these subjects with incisive
realism and a respectful humanity.
BAROQUE 1618, oil on canvas, 101x120cm, National
Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK

Ici SERIoo

CENTURIES
18TH
AND
17TH

a
FACES OF THE VICTORS Velazquez brilliantly
conveys the human drama of the scene, suggesting
| the pride but also the fatigue of the victors
following a 10-month siege. The bristling array of
pikes behind them has given the picture its popular
name in Spanish — “Las Lanzas” (The Lances).

<The Surrender of Breda

This is one of a series of
pictures celebrating military
triumphs of Philip IVs reign,
painted for his Buen Retiro
Palace in Madrid. It shows the
defeated Dutch commander
handing the key of the
captured city of Breda to the
victorious Spanish general
1634-35, oil on canvas, 307 x
367cm, Prado, Madrid, Spain
 HSINVdS
ANOOCHY

x
—

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Las Meninas Diego Velazquez

1656, oil on canvas, 321x281cm, Prado, Madrid, Spain »
 CLOSERIook

Las Meninas Diego Velazquez

A stunning group portrait, Las Meninas shows the Infanta
Margarita, daughter of the Spanish king and queen, with her maids
of honour (meninas). Velazquez, who was court painter to the
Spanish monarchy, has skilfully reversed the traditional relationship
between painter and sitter by giving himself a prominent position in -
the painting while showing a reflection of the king and queen in the
mirror in the background. This is not simply a painting of the royal Composition
The composition has been carefully worked out, with different
couple — it is a picture of what the royal couple sees as they are
figures — and different figure groupings — perfectly balancing each
painted. Velazquez’s masterpiece is painted on a large canvas and other. Various focal points and tonal contrasts direct the viewer's
employs a delicate harmony of colours, exquisitely arranged light eye back and forth across the canvas. It is almost as if the viewer
and darks, and, above all, amazingly fluent brushwork. becomes engaged in the activity of the room.

INcontext
INTERPRETATIONS Las Veninas
s a hugely influential artwork that has
d by several artists
Salvador Dalf. The
ed Pablo Picasso —
igust and December in
himself in his house near
ainted about 40 versions

are blocked in with a child-like

hunting dog looks like FIGURE GROUPINGS The COLOUR Red accents are
Ww cartoon character and takes
> two dwarfs and dog are balanced dotted throughout the painting light from the windows to make the
o rring role in the foreground. by the three girls. In the middle ground, They lead the eye in a zigzag from Infanta the focal point of the picture
o Velazquez stands to the left and the the dwarf (bottom right) to the She stands turned towards the light
ce Las Meninas, 19 September 1957 bodyguard and nun to the right. The dresses, the jug, Velazquez’s source and her illuminated face and
< 162 x130.m
ive] : royal couple's reflection is balanced palette, and ultimately to the red dress immediately catch the eye
= = —— : =<) by a chamberlain in the doorway drapery reflected in the mirror. among the large areas of shadow.

Story
Thanks to a description written by painter Antonio
Palomino, published in 1724, we know almost
everyone in the picture. The Infanta Margarita,
daughter of Philip IV and his second wife Mariana
of Austria, is at the centre. She is attended by two
maids of honour. On the right are two court dwarfs, a
nun (a chaperone to the Infanta), and a bodyguard.
On the left is Velazquez. In the background in the
doorway is the palace chamberlain

GROUP OF TWO DWARFS & THE ROYAL COUPLE

Two court dwarfs appear in the Philip and Mariana appear in
foreground on the right. One the mirror in the background
dwarf's face is horizontally and we assume they must be
aligned with the Infanta’s face — standing where the viewer is
this juxtaposition enhances the However, the mirror does not
beauty of the princess. The other reflect what is directly in front
dwarf is in shadow and playfully of it. Furthermore, the size of
4 % rests a foot on the king's sleepy the reflection and the perfect
INFANTA’S FACE The Infanta, with her pale face hunting dog cropping of the royal couple in
and luminous hair, is the focal point of the painting the frame are not consistent
She was only four or five years old when the picture VELAZQUEZ On his chest with the viewer's position
was made, but her dispassionate, knowing stare Velazquez bears the red cross of
(and corseted dress) gives her a regal bearing the order of Santiago. He did not
gain this high honour until 1659,
a few months before his death
According to legend, the king
painted the cross, but Velazquez
presumably added it himself
 Technique
Velazquez painted Las Meninas
with audaciously fluid
brushwork. If viewed close
up, the painting dissolves into
an incomprehensible network
of brushstrokes. It is only when
the viewer stands back that the
: sparkling brushwork resolves
ee § itself into distinctive forms. This
technique helps make the figures seem alive, as if they are
on the move. Velazquez has frozen the scene in an almost
camera-like way, and yet he also suggests that the group
will immediately rearrange themselves.

» HIGHLIGHTS AND
SHADOW The Infanta’s sleeve is
composed of loose strokes of white,
brown, and black. Flicked strokes of
purer white have been added on top
to show the light catching on the
shimmering fabric of the dress.
These are applied with very dry
paint so the underlying colours
show through.
H
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\ MODELLING FORM
Velazquez describes the rounded
form of the jug by subtly varying
the tone and colour of his red
mix. Small, dashing brushstrokes
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of white capture the light
reflecting on the shiny glaze
of the jug.

( SHIMMERING FABRIC
The Infanta’s dress contains a
tangle of brushstrokes, varying
both in size and intensity. Dabs
of pure white are used to
register the buttons, and linear
strokes describe some of the
folds. Thick daubs of impasto,
using nearly dry pigment, further
enliven the fabric.

; Be fe ¢¢ [Las Meninas]
4 DIFFERING BRUSHSTROKES The painting represents
contains endless varieties of brushwork. Here,
Velazquez uses exciting zigzagging brushstrokes to
the theology
render his white sleeve, but applies small, smudgy of painting ??
dabs of paint to put in the pigments on the palette
LUCA GIORDANO, 1692,
COURT PAINTER
 Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
b SEVILLE, 1617; d SEVILLE, 1682 LIFEline
Murillo spent virtually all his life in Seville, where he 1617 Born in Seville, the
enjoyed a highly successful career. His output consisted son of a barbersurgeon
mainly of religious works, but he also had a distinctive 1645 Marries; receives first
major commission, for S.
sideline in pictures of beggar children, and he was an
Francisco convent Alonso Cano
excellent, although infrequent, portraitist. Early in his
1655 Described by Seville b GRANADA, 1601; d GRANADA, 1667
Self-portrait career he was influenced by the sombre style of Cathedral's archdeacon as
Zurbaran, but he developed a much lighter, airier, “the best painter in Seville” Cano was the most versatile Spanish artist of his time,
and more colourful manner, particular in his many pictures of the 1660 |s one of the founders distinguished as a painter, sculptor, draughtsman, and
Immaculate Conception, a subject he made his own. Murillo’s work of Seville's art academy (the architect — hence his nickname, the Spanish
was So popular that it was influential in Seville for generations. This first in Spain) and becomes i,
Michelangelo. He also had one of the most eventful
co-president 1
eventually damaged his posthumous reputation, as countless lives of any Spanish artist, for his stormy temperament
1682 Dies after falling from
saccharine imitations obscured the high quality of his own work. scaffolding while painting a Portrait by often led him into trouble: he fought a duel, spent time
huge altarpiece eee in prison for debt, and — most notoriously — was tortured
ibot
when he was accused of murdering his wife (he was
eventually declared innocent).
In keeping with this turbulent life, Gano moved around a good deal,
v The Vision of Fray but he worked mainly in Seville, Madrid, and finally Granada. His art, in
Lauterio Murillos early style is contrast to his character, is typically calm and sometimes even sweet.
more solid and less soft-focus Almost all his work is on religious subjects.
than his later manner. c1640, oil
on canvas, 218x 172cm, Fitzwilliam
LIFEline
Museum, Cambridge, UK
1601 Born in Granada
1614 Moves to Seville,
where he studies painting
under Francisco Pacheco and
sculpture, probably under
» Two Boys Eating Melons
Juan Martinez Montanés
and Grapes Paintings of beggar
1644 Tortured in Madrid
children such as this were highly under suspicion of murdering
popular with collectors in the his second wife
18th century, helping to give 1667 Dies and is buried in the
Murillo an international crypt of Granada Cathedral
reputation unequalled among
Spanish artists of his time. c1650,
| oil on canvas, 146x 104cm, Alte
BAROQUE
| Pinakothek, Munich, Germany » Facade of Granada
N Cathedral Cano died a
NN few months after his design
CLOSERIook for the cathedral fagade was
accepted. It is his most
important work as an architect.
1667, Granada, Spain

CENTURIES
18TH
AND
17TH
SOFT FOCUS These putti
(cherubs) are so softly modelled
that they almost seem to be
dissolving into the surrounding
space. The Spanish use the
term “estilo vaporoso”to
describe this characteristic
was the son of an altarpiece
designer, and was brought up
Immaculate Conception understanding the architectural
The Immaculate Conception is elements involved in the
a Catholic doctrine that the elaborate altarpieces typical
Virgin Mary was conceived in of Spanish art. Pen and ink and
her mother’s womb free of the
wash on paper, 27x 20cm,
“original sin” with which all
Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
human beings are burdened.
Various details, such as the
crescent moon, a symbol of A St John the Evangelist /his altarpiece was
chastity, allude to her purity. painted for a convent in Seville. StJohn is shown
The subject was very popular with a snake in a chalice — an allusion to a legend
in Spanish art. c1678, oil on that he drank from a poisoned cup to prove the
canvas, 274x 190cm, Prado, power of his faith and then restored to life two
Madrid, Spain men who had died from the poison. 1635-37, oil
on canvas, 54x 36cm, Louvre, Paris, France
Claudio Coello Juan de Valdés Leal
: b MADRID, 1642; d MADRID, 1693 LIFEline b SEVILLE, 1622; d SEVILLE, 1690
By the later 17th century, Spain was in steep political 1642 Born, the son of a bronze After the death of Murillo in 1682, Valdés Leal was
decline, and its golden age of the arts was coming worker Seville’s leading painter until his own death eight
to an end. Claudio Coello was the last of the major 1660s Studies in Madrid with years later. He too was mainly a religious painter,
Francisco Rizi
Spanish painters working in Madrid before art at but he worked in a very different vein from that of
1684 Appointed one of Charles II's
court began to be dominated by foreigners: he died Murillo, his style being highly emotional, often with
royal painters
Self-portrait a year after the Italian Luca Giordano arrived to work 1685-90 Paints Charles /I and His Juan de a rather weird flavour and a taste for the macabre.
for King Charles II. Coello was mainly a religious Valdés Leal However, the two artists produced works of
Court Adoring the Host
painter, but he was also a fine portraitist. His work is notable for its 1691 Appointed chief painter at effective contrast in neighbouring commissions for
rich colour and vigorous brushwork, showing the influence of the Toledo Cathedral the Hospital de la Caridad: Valdés Leal's paintings gave a glimpse
Venetian paintings in the royal collection. of Hell, before Murillo’s offered a vision of redemption.

¥ In Ictu Oculi (In the Blink of an Eye) This allegorical work

shows the skeleton of Death snuffing out a candle and trampling
on the attributes of worldly success. 1670-72, oil on canvas, 220.x
216cm, church of the Hospital de la Caridad, Seville, Spain

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Antonio Francisco Lisboa
b VILA RICA [MODERN OURO PRETO] c1738; d VILA RICA, 1814
During the 17th and 18th centuries, a great deal of art was exported
from Spain and Portugal to their American colonies. There were also
some accomplished native-born artists working in the colonies, most
notably the Brazilian sculptor and architect Anténio Francisco Lisboa.
The illegitimate son of a Portuguese architect and a black slave girl,
Lisboa worked mainly in Ouro Préto, a wealthy gold-mining centre. He
was nicknamed OAleijadinho (Little Cripple) because he suffered from
a deforming disease (perhaps leprosy) that eventually affected him so
badly that he lost several fingers and toes and had to have his tools
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strapped to his hands. Although he continued working until the end
of his life, he died in poverty.

<( S. Francisco de Assis

This church was Lisboa‘ first
major commission. As well as
designing the building, he also
carried out much sculptural
decoration, including the
splendid ornamentation of the
entrance, seen here. 1766-94, in
Ouro Préto, Minas Gerais, Brazil

ros nT a»
be ie bo cd et pee
bi
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at
Bs ated, i

CLOSERI|ook A Charles II and His Court Adoring the Host

j REAL OR IDEAL Charles || (“La Sagrada Forma”) Coe//os masterpiece is
wae was a notoriously ugly man, a huge altarpiece commemorating a ceremony in
with a strangely shaped nose 1684 involving La Sagrada Forma (Sacred Form).
and chin. Here, Coello has This is the name of a miraculous consecrated host
diplomatically given him an (the wafer representing Christs body) that is said to
idealized face. The other have shed blood when desecrated by a Protestant
portraits — there are around
soldier in 1572. 1685-90, oil on canvas, 5x3m,
F 50 in the painting — are
Monasterio de EI Escorial, Spain
generally more realistic.
© Coello made painstaking
. studies for most of them.
 /Peter Paul Rubens
The Descent from the Cross Aubens accentuates
b SIEGEN, WESTPHALIA, 1577; d ANTWERP, 1640 the human drama of this biblical scene. Against a dark
ers and painter of princes’ as he was background, and surrounded by mourners, Christ's limp
his lifetime, Rubens was the greatest and body sweeps down in a diagonal white gash. 1611-14, oil
on panel, 420x310cm, Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp, Belgium
oque artist in northern Europe. The huge
uld be satisfied only with the help of
1 assistants. Cultured, cosmopolitan,
| Self-portrait and a ist, Rubens was employed by some of the
1 Europe. He was both a famous
family man, and his touching portraits
brated as his spectacular religious,
INntINgS.

1e retu ee totthe family home in Antwerp when he was

of his life there. However, his powerful style was shaped
based from 1600 to 1608. Although his artistic
aried, Rubens also worked as a diplomat, and he was
to negotiate peace between England and Spain. The
knighted him.

CLOSERI|ook
PHYSICAL DRAMA
Baroque painting gained
its effect by emotionally
overwhelming the spectator.
Rubens uses dramatic
physical gestures to express
the characters’ feelings,
and heighten the painting's
emotional impact. Grabbing
Christ's bloodied arm
1626
Nicodemus clenches the
Ww 1628-30 white shroud in his teeth,
=
e) adding dynamic tension in
e) both compositional and
cc psychological terms
<
is)

The p
pict
ture was
din Ruber

\ Le Chapeau de Paille /his charming, informal

at piarseution portrait may depict the sister of the woman who
of France¢ later became Rubens’s second wife. Her rosy,
translucent skin tones reflect the red of the silk
artist used sleeves. Reynolds said that Rubens‘ figures “look
as though they fed on roses”. c 25, oil on
panel, 79x54cm, National
 < The Rape of the
Daughters of Leucippus
The Greek myth of the
abduction of Helaera and
Phoebe, daughters of King
Leucippus, by the demi-god
twins Castor and Pollux has
been seen as an allegory
for the soul’s transport into
heaven. The winged cupids
holding the horses’ reins may
signify that lust is reined in
by love. c1618, oil on canvas,
224x211cm, Alte Pinakothek, HSIIWAT4
ANOOYV
Munich, Germany

CLOSERI|ook

t By ete

TWISTED POSES The HL8L

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i women’s twisted poses originate
in the famous antique sculpture
the Laocoén (see p.58). Outflung
arms create dynamic sweeping
movement in the composition.

OPPOSITES Rubens sets up

contrasts of colour and texture
ruddy, muscular, male hands
against soft, pale, female flesh
 |Anthony wan Dyck
b ANTWERP, 1599; d LONDON, 1641

yart from Rubens, in whose Antwerp workshop he

served at the beginning of his brilliant career, van Dyck
was the greatest Flemish painter of the 17th century. His
aristocratic portraits won him a European reputation and
particularly influential in England, where he spent
of his career.
>cociously talented, van Dyck was apprenticed at
just 10. He was strongly influenced by Rubens, although his
muscular, tending more towards exquisite sensitivity. Van
ly admired Titian, and avidly studied his work when he
to 1627 In these early years, he was in demand
and mythological subjects, as well as for
cade of his life, as court painter to King

LIFEline
1599 8
1618 £

| 1621-27 Liv
id UENOd

Charles | on Horseback
| t majestic of all of
of the King.
BAROQUE , 367 x292cm,
ondon, UK

The Rest on the Flight into Egypt (Virgin with Partridges)

This popular religious subject is given an unusual treatment, with dancing
ti (cherubs) entertaining the Holy Family, and the traditional choir of
CLOSERI|ook Lord John and Lord Bernard Stuart
DAZZLING ELEGANCE This magnificent double portrait is characterized
¢n Henrietta Maria, and the mixture of Catholic and classical imagery € . Van Dyck’s aristocratic sitters by a languid, aristocratic elegance. The teenage
2 In the masques (royal entertainment with dance, poetry, are often shown with slender,
brothers are differentiated by their poses, their
1 stage sets) held at Charles's court. Early 1630s, elegantly drooping hands
positioning (the older brother slightly ¢ the
1, Hermitage, St Petersburg, Russia Here, Lord Bernard is holding
younger), and by the contrasting warm gold-
one of his kid gloves, and its
fingers extend the graceful,
and-brown and coo! blue-and-silver of their
4 rhythmic line of his left hand dazzling Cavalier costumes. Both died a few
years later in the English Civil War. c1638, oil on
¢¢ Anthony van Dyck, who while he pale kid leather
canvas, 238x 146cm, National Gallery, London, UK
g shimmering
lived gave immortality to many ” blue satin and white lace
T Ni T
Or THE LATIN SCRIPTION (ORDERED with each different texture
brought alive by van Dyck’s
breathtaking brushwork
Jacob Jordaens
b ANTWERP, 1593; d ANTWERP, 1678
After the death of Rubens, Jordaens became the
leading painter in Flanders. His often boisterous
Baroque style shows a huge debt to Rubens, whom
he often assisted, even when he was running a large
and successful workshop of his own in Antwerp.
Self-portrait However, his figure types tend to be coarser than
those of Rubens. A versatile and prolific artist,
Jordaens produced mythological, genre, and religious works
as well as portraits, etchings, and tapestries.
» The Holy Family and
Like Rubens, Jordaens spent most of his life in Antwerp, but St John the Baptist /his
he received commissions from across Europe. Although he never dramatically lit work may have
visited Italy, the strong contrasts of light and shade in his works been inspired by Caravaggios
show the influence of Caravaggio. Late in life Jordaens converted Madonna of the Rosary (7607).
from Catholicism to Calvinism; he continued to work for Catholic 1620-25, oil on panel, 123x94cm,
clients, although his painting became more subdued. National Gallery, London, UK

LIFEline
1593 Born in Antwerp
1607 Begins training with Adam van Noort
1616 Marries van Noort's daughter; enters
the Antwerp painters’ guild
1621 Becomes head of the guild
1636-37 Assists Rubens with paintings
for Philip IV of Spain's hunting lodge
c1655 Converts to Calvinism
1678 Dies in Antwerp

» Satyr with Peasants /his scene from

Aesop's Fables was one ofJordaenss
favourite subjects, and he painted it a number
of times. The strong lighting, ruddy colouring,
and earthy figures are typical of his work.
1620, oil on canvas, 171x194cm, Gemaldegalerie HSIINAT
aNno0o0u
Alte Meister, Kassel, Germany

Frans Snyders Adriaen Brouwer Jan Brueghel David Teniers

b ANTWERP, 1579; d ANTWERP, 1657 cOUDENAARDE, 1605/6; d ANTWERP, 1638 b BRUSSELS, 1568; d ANTWERP, 1625 b ANTWERP, 1610; d BRUSSELS, 1690

The finest animal artist of his day, the Providing an important link between The son-in-law of Jan Brueghel, and the
Flemish painter Frans Snyders was often Flemish and Dutch art, the Flemish most celebrated member of a family of
called upon by fellow artists, including painter Adriaen Brouwer popularized a Flemish painters, Teniers the Younger
Rubens, to paint the animals, fruit, and new form of humorous, low-life genre was a hugely popular and prolific artist.
flowers in their paintings. Rubens painting in both countries. Brouwer He is best known for his genre scenes,
sometimes returned the favour by spent some years in Holland, where he some which show the influence of
painting figures in Snyders's pictures. probably trained with Frans Hals, and Brouwer, although they are more
The two men were close friends, and influenced artists such as Adriaen van refined. Employed in Brussels as Court
Snyders was an executor of Rubens’s Ostade. Though his subjects were Painter and Keeper of Pictures by
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will. Snyders collaborated in a similar coarse, his technique was delicate Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, Teniers also
way with other artists, including van and much admired by contemporaries, made paintings of the galleries housing
Dyck, Jordaens, and his brotherin-law such as Rubens and Rembrandt, both the Archduke’'s famous art collection.
Cornelis de Vos. of whom collected his works.

Y The Poulterer’s Shop Snyders

painted still lifes as well as animal scenes.
The figures here were added by one of
Rubenss workshop. 1612-15, oil on canvas,
188x152cm, National Museum Cardiff, UK
A Large Bouquet of Flowers ina
Wooden Tub Brueghel’s flower paintings
were highly prized by his contemporaries.
1606-07, oil on panel, 98x 73cm,
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria
A The Dentist Jeniers treats this scene of a
peasant visiting the dentist with restraint and
A Peasants Quarrelling Brouwers popular Jan Brueghel was the second son of the sympathy. The glistening bottles and pots have
low-life genre scenes often featured grotesquely great Pieter “Peasant” Bruegel. He had been painted with great delicacy. 1652, oil on
caricatured peasants brawling in run-down a meticulous, almost miniaturist style, panel, 33x47cm, Manchester Art Gallery, UK
taverns, but they are painted with a delicate and was nicknamed “Velvet” Brueghel,
touch. Private collection perhaps because of his skill at painting
delicate textures. He specialized in
painting lush, detailed woodland scenes
and still lifes, especially flower paintings.
He often collaborated with other artists,
including his friend Rubens.
 |'Frans Hals The Laughing Cavalier /his is one of the most famous portraits
b ANTWERP, 1582/83; d HAARLEM, 1666 in the world. Lit from the left, and set against a plain wall on to
which his shadow falls, this unidentified character seems to leap out
One of the greatest and most original of all portrait
at the viewer. An air of immediacy is created by his swaggering pose
painters, Hals brought his sitters to life with dashing,
and expression: hand on hip, he turns his glance (slightly downwards)
virtuoso brushwork and an uncanny ability to capture
towards us. Despite the painting's title, he is not laughing. 1624, oil on
fleeting expressions. Almost all of his 300 or so works
canvas, 83x67cm, Wallace Collection, London, UK
are portraits. The first great Dutch artist of the 17th
Self-portrait century, he brought a new vitality and realism to Dutch
painting and revolutionized the staid, formal portraiture
of the day. Hals was born in Antwerp, but spent most of his life in
Haarlem. Despite being in demand there for individual and group
portraits, he was plagued by money troubles. Indeed, most of the
few facts known about his life relate to domestic and financial crises.

1; : = Gypsy Girl This shows the bold, sketchy

ee freedom of Hals’s technique. The subject is
1582/83 Born in Antwerp, probably a prostitute rather than a gypsy. c1628-30,
+
the son of a cloth-worker
oil on panel, 58x 32cm, Louvre, Paris, France
c1585 Family moves back to
his father’s native Haarlem

1615 First wife dies

1616 Receives his first major
commission, Banquet of the
i of the St George
Civic Guard Company
1617 Marries his second wife
They have eight children, five
of whom become painters
1624 Paints The Laughing
Cavalier
1654 Sells his belongings to
| settle his debt with a baker
1664 |s destitute, and living off
charity. Paints Regentesses of |
the Old Men’s Alms House
BARCQUE
1666 Dies in poverty

a
Banquet of the Officers of the St George
Civic Guard Company /n his first major
commission, and the first of his celebrated civic
guard paintings, Hals reveals his skill at bringing
freshness and vitality to a group portrait. 1616,
oil on canvas, 175x324cm, Frans Hals Museum,
Haarlem, Netherlands

6¢ His paintings are imbued

with such force and THE SITTER’S AGE Although EMBROIDERY DETAILS Whereas much of
vitality that he seems we do not know the sitter’s the sitter’s costume is painted in broad, free
name, we do know his age. The strokes, Hals picks out the embroidery on his
to defy nature herself
inscription on the back wall tells chest and sleeve with nimble precision. The
with his brush 99 Regentesses of the Old Men's Alms House us (in Latin) that he was 26 when embroidered motifs, which include winged
THEODORUS SCHREVELIUS Painted when Hals was in his eighties, this subdued the portrait was painted, in 1624. arrows and bees, are emblems of love
A HAARLEM SCHOOLMASTER group portrait is a poignant, moving image of old
WHO SAT FOR A PORTRAIT BY HALS age. The painting behind the regentesses may show
the Good Samaritan, illustrating their charitable
role. 1664, oil on canvas, 171x250cm, Frans Hals
Museum, Haarlem, Netherlands
Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn
b LEIDEN, 1606; d AMSTERDAM, 1669 The Storm on the Sea of Galilee /he diagonal
composition and the shaft of light help create intense
The greatest of all Dutch painters, Rembrandt drama in this biblical scene. 1633, oil on canvas,
enjoyed domestic happiness and professional 162x130m, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, US
success early in his career, but his later life was
marred by personal and financial misfortune.
The bulk of his work was in portraiture, but he
Self-portrait excelled in other areas of painting and drawing,
including mythological and religious subjects. ¥ Young Woman Sleeping
After settling in Amsterdam in 1631/32, Rembrandt soon Rembrandt created this
became the city’s leading portraitist, enlivening even group masterful drawing, reminiscent
portraits with a dramatic sense of narrative. Early works feature of oriental calligraphy, with a
vivid lighting effects and expressive gestures. Later works, less few broad brushstrokes. c1654,
fashionable then but more admired now, are more introspective ink on paper, 24x 20cm, British
Museum, London, UK
— characterized by less overt drama, a broader, less polished —
technique, and a deeply compassionate psychological insight.

LIFEline w Jacob Ill de Gheyn /his striking

early portrait shows the polished
1606 Born in Leiden, the
son of a prosperous miller technique that helped bring the young
c1624 Trains with Pieter
Rembrandt success. 1632, oil on panel,
Lastman in Amsterdam; 30x 25cm, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, UK
1631/32 Settles in Amsterdam
1632 Paints The Anatomy
Lesson of Dr Tulo
1634 Marries Saskia van
Uylenburch. They have four
children, three die as babies
1642 Paints The Night Watch;
Saskia dies
1654 Hendrickje Stoffels
enters Rembrandt household
as a servant; she becomes
one of his favourite models
and has two children with him
1656 |s declared insolvent
1663 Hendrickje dies
1668 His son Titus dies HOLNG
anoouv
1669 Dies in Amsterdam

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a Ss
“ The Three Crosses » The Night Watch /his huge
Rembrandt was one of the painting earned its misleading title
greatest of all printmakers. because of its darkened varnish, but
Most of his prints are etchings, was originally called The Militia
but this expressive, richly Company of Captain Frans Banning
textured masterpiece is a Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van
drypoint, made by scratching Ruytenburch. /nstead of showing the
into a copper plate with a militiamen posed in the usual neat
needle-like tool. 1653, drypoint, 1 rows or seated around a table, CLOSERIook
39x 45cm, British Museum, Rembrandt depicts a lively, dramatic Zz, 2 COMPANY MASCOT Illuminated
London, UK scene, as if the men are about to by a shaft of light, this little girl stands
march out towards the viewer. 1642, out amid the surrounding darkness,
oil on canvas, 363 x437cm, Rijksmuseum, with her butter-yellow dress echoing
Amsterdam, Netherlands the Lieutenant's gorgeous costume. She
is probably the mascot of the company,
and carries its emblems — chicken claws,
fa pistol, and the company goblet.
ww
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Self-Portrait Rembrandt van Rijn

1665, oil on was, 114x94cm, Kenwood Hous
CLOSERI|ook

Self-Portrait Rembrandt van Rijn

During his lifetime, Rembrandt left around 70 self-portraits — half of
them paintings and half of them etchings and drawings. It was a remarkable, Composition
unprecedented 40-year exercise in self-examination. This self-portrait was Rembrandt is holding the tools of his trade — brushes, a mahlstick
(to support the hand without smudging the paint), and a palette.
made in c1665 when Rembrandt was in his mid- to late fifties. By this time,
In the background there are two circles. Many critics have speculated
he had declined from his earlier days of prosperity. He had lost three of his on their meaning — are they are a representation of the hemispheres
children in infancy, his wife Saskia had died aged 30 in 1642, and he had been found on maps of the world or purely an abstract design?
declared bankrupt in 1656. We can sense Rembrandt's tribulations in this s

masterpiece. And yet, in his expression, there is also serenity — perhaps even
confidence. He looks at us as if we are the ones to be pitied — the ones who
don't understand his genius.

Technique
The painting has a wonderful variety of marks. Bold strokes of
paint define the turban. Deft brushwork helps describe the curly
locks of hair. Rembrandt applies dabs of pigment across the
skin tones in feints and starts — resulting in an exciting array of a oes ao EA See

textured marks. By contrast, he sketches in his clothed body with 4 TONAL CONTRAST A STABLE STRUCTURE ABACKGROUN
fluent, thin passages of paint. Here, the picture dissolves into a The light source comes from Rembrandt's head, shoulders, CIRCLES Rembrandt has
half-painted blur of brown — only understated highlights on the the top left, illuminating the palette, and mahlstick form painted two circles on his
brushes and mahlstick hold our attention. turban and side of the face, a triangle. This provides canvas. The right-hand one
but leaving the bottom half a stable composition and counterbalances Rembrandt's
< MOUSTACHE Io create of the picture in mysterious, emphasizes the confidence head and body, which are on
the illusion of the thin, wispy melancholy shadow. exuded by Rembrandt. the left side of the canvas.
1e)
moustache, Rembrandt has Cc
sj
scratched into the wet paint ie)
with the brush handle. A pale =
highlight beneath the moustache OO
helps to define the top edge of >
a
the upper lip. °
)
Cc
m

A BROAD STROKES
Broad, thick strokes of white
paint are used to build up the SSIYNLN
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form of the turban, a type of
headgear that Rembrandt wore
in several of his self-portraits.

A LEFT HAND Rembrandt defines his left hand

with fast, sketchy brushwork imitating the way we
perceive objects in murky shadow. Rembrandt was ost hut cl

quite relaxed about leaving parts “unfinished” in « EVES AND NOSE In an act of brutal honesty, Rembrandt
a self-portrait — although for a commissioned applies two dabs of paints to the end of his nose — one white and
protrait, the patron would want more precise, one crimson. Just as Rembrandt's expression is open and candid,
detailed work. so too is his style of painting. He seems resigned to old age.

INcontext
COMPARE WITH OTHER SELF-PORTRAITS
In the early self-portraits Rembrandt generally shows
himself as confident, successful, and playful. This is
particularly evident in the colourful, lively painting of
him as the prodigal son with his latest conquest (the
model was his wife, Saskia). Many of Rembrandt's
early self-portraits — such as the c1628 and c1639
examples here — were “tronies”, head-and-shoulder
studies in which the model plays a role or expresses
a particular emotion. The later self-portraits tend to
be melancholy and reflective. They are frank, often
unflattering, but nevertheless dignified — exemplified Self-Portrait as a Young Man__— The Prodigal Son in the Self-Portrait with Gorget and Self-Portrait at the Window Self-Portrait 1669, oj! on canvas,
Tavern c1635, oil on canvas, Beret 1639, oil on panel, Uffizi, 1648, 16x 13cm, etching, 64x58cm, Mauritshuis, The Hague
by the 1669 self-portrait, believed to be his last. £1628, oil on panel, 23x 19cm,
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam Geméaldegalerie, Dresden Florence Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
 Gerrit Dou
<< Maid Servant at a Window
b LEIDEN, 1613; d LEIDEN, 1675 Dou often set his figures under
Rembrandt's first pupil, Dou was much influenced by a stone arch. The objects that
his master’s use of dramatic contrasts of light and dark. appear to project over the window
However, he went on to develop his own style, painting
ledge and into the viewers space
emphasize the illusionism of his
small-scale, meticulously detailed pictures using a highly
exquisitely precise technique.
polished, smooth technique. As well as genre subjects
Museum Boymans Van Beuningen,
Self-portrait and portraits, he painted historical scenes and still lifes.
Rotterdam, Netherlands
Dou was a slow and obsessively fastidious worker:
he is said to have waited until the dust settled in his studio before CLOSERI|ook
starting work. Hugely successful in his day and a popular teacher,
Dou founded the tradition of fijnschilders (fine painters) in Leiden,
which continued until the 19th century.

LIFEline
1613 Born in Leiden, the son
of a glass engraver
1628 Joins Rembrandt's
workshop, aged 15
1648 Becomes a founding
| member of Guild of St Luke
(painters’ guild) in Leiden
1665 Exhibition of 27 of
Dou's paintings in Leiden
| 1675 Dies in Leiden
) POLISHED SURFACE The
reflective surface of the water
pitcher is painted in painstaking
Anna and Tobit
detail. Dou’s highly finished
Rembrandtesque light and
technique creates an enamel-like
shade combine with Dou’s own
surface in which brushstrokes are
interest in detail and surface imperceptible. He further displays
textures in this touching scene. his skill in the water flowing over
c1645, oil on panel, 61x 46cm,
BAROQUE the carved window ledge.
Louvre, Paris, France

Jan Liewens Carel Fabritius

b LEIDEN, 1607; d AMSTERDAM, 1674 b MIDDEN-BEEMSTER, 1622; d DELFT, 1654
The son of an embroiderer, Lievens was extraordinarily Renowned as Rembrandt's most gifted pupil, Fabritius
precocious. Only 10 years old when he went to study in is also celebrated, along with Vermeer and de Hooch,
Amsterdam with Pieter Lastman, he was working as an as one of the masters of the Delft school. Sadly, his life
independent painter in Leiden by the age of about 13. In the late and promising career were cut short when he was
1620s, Lievens worked with Rembrandt, and contemporaries killed by the gunpowder explosion that devastated
sometimes had difficulty differentiating their work. Delft in 1654. Only about a dozen of his works survive,
Lievens enjoyed more worldly success than Rembrandt, but they show the range and sensitivity of his art.
but his later work, despite being highly accomplished, did
17TH not mature into equivalent greatness. He spent some time in
CENTURIES
18TH
AND
England, where he was influenced by Anthony van Dyck, then
lived in Antwerp, The Hague, and Amsterdam. The lasting
impression of van Dyck can be seen in Lievens’ fashionable
portraits and history painting.

Raising of Lazarus
In 1629 Lievens was
described as exceeding
Rembrandt “in a certain
imaginative grandeur
and boldness”. This
melodramatic image
of the dead Lazarus
emerging from his tomb
- hands first — was
painted around this time. A Fire and Childhood Painted when
1631, oil on canvas, 107x Lievens was in his teens, this picture, lit
114cm, Brighton Museum only by the glowing embers, shows his
and Art Gallery, UK precocious mastery of lighting. c1623-25,
oil on panel, 83x 58cm, Gemaldegalerie Alte
Meister, Kassel, Germany :

'
A The Goldfinch A painting remarkable
for its bold simplicity, subtle colouring, and
striking illusionism. 1654, oil on panel, 34x 23cm,
Mauritshuis, The Hague, Netherlands
Hendrick Avercamp
b AMSTERDAM, 1585; d KAMPEN, 1634 Aert wan der Neer
The most famous Dutch painter of winter scenes, Jan wan Goyen b AMSTERDAM, 1603/04; d AMSTERDAM, 1677
Avercamp trained in Amsterdam with Pieter Isacks,
b LEIDEN, 1596; d THE HAGUE, 1656 A much-imitated Dutch landscape painter, van der Neer
but spent most of his life in the provincial backwater
specialized in two types of paintings — winter scenes
of Kampen. He was unable to speak and was known
with skaters, and nocturnal landscapes, which were
as “the Mute of Kampen” because of this disability.
illuminated either by moonlight or by a burning building.
Although pictures of skating existed before the 17th
His earliest dated work is from 1630, but his most
century, Avercamp established them as a specific
accomplished landscapes date from the 1640s and 50s.
genre. He painted these lively scenes, densely
Although none of van der Neer’s contemporaries
populated by a cross-section of Dutch society, not
could equal his skill at nocturnal scenes, he struggled to
on commission, but for sale on the open art market.
make a living through his art. In 1658 he opened a wine
shop, but he was declared bankrupt four years later.
Two of van der Neer’s sons were also painters.

v Canal Scene by Moonlight Nocturnal scenes

suited a tonal approach to landscape. Van der Neer
silhouettes a Dutch skyline and fishermen working by
a canal against a luminous, moonlit sky. c1645-50, oil
on canvas, 59x 73cm, Wallace Collection, London, UK
A View from Rhenen Van Goyen’s muted
landscapes often feature a vast expanse of
sky. Here it occupies three-quarters of the
picture space. 1648, oil on panel, 63x 85cm,
Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany

An influential pioneer of realistic Dutch landscape

painting, van Goyen was a consummate master of
the “tonal” style, in which the primary concern was
to capture atmospheric effects. He often based his
paintings on open-air drawings made during extensive
sketching journeys. Van Goyen was hugely prolific, and
about a thousand of his drawings survive, ranging from
chalk sketches to elaborate watercolours.
A Winter Scene with Skaters Near a Castle /his early Van Goyen learned to paint in Leiden, but he became
landscape is full of carefully observed incidents. c\608-09, oil a pupil of the landscape painter Esaias van de Velde in
on panel, diameter 41cm, National Gallery, London, UK Haarlem, and later established a studio in The Hague.

Jan Both Nicolaes Berchem Jan van de Cappelle

b UTRECHT, c1618; d UTRECHT, 1652 b HAARLEM, c1620; d AMSTERDAM, 1683 b AMSTERDAM, 1626; d AMSTERDAM, 1679

The son of a Utrecht glass painter, Both was a pioneer Although he adopted a different name, Berchem was The wealthy heir to his father’s Amsterdam dye works,
of Dutch Italianate landscape painting. He probably the son of the still-life painter Pieter Claesz, who was Cappelle painted in his spare time but was one of the
studied in his native Utrecht with Abraham Bloemaert, his first teacher. He studied with Jan van Goyen and greatest Dutch marine painters. Self-taught, he learnt
before spending several years (c1637—41) painting in went on to become very successful and prolific — he partly by copying seascapes. He enjoyed excursions on
Italy with his brother Andries. He was influenced by the ranks with Jan Both as the outstanding Dutch specialist his pleasure yacht, and his drawings indicate that he
great landscape artist Claude, whom he met in Rome. in Italianate landscapes. sketched from nature. Most of his paintings show
Both returned north to Utrecht after his brother’s Berchem worked in Haarlem and Amsterdam, and handsome ships on calm rivers and estuaries beneath
accidental death by drowning in Venice. He made his probably visited Italy during the 1650s. He had many cloudy skies. His great skill was in capturing atmospheric
name with his idyllic Italianate landscapes, suffused pupils and followers, and his pastoral landscapes conditions. He also painted beach scenes and winter
“oy
HOLNG
anoouyv
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with the sunlight of the warm south and peopled with were highly prized by collectors. landscapes. An avid collector, Cappelle owned some
peasants or travellers. Such scenes were hugely 200 paintings and 7,000 drawings by leading Flemish
popular with the Dutch art-buying public. W Peasants with Four Oxen and a Goat at and Dutch artists, including about 500 by Rembrandt.
a Ford by a Ruined Aqueduct Againsta
luminous sky, Italian peasants lead cattle home
beneath ancient Roman ruins. c1655-60, oil on
panel, 47x39cm, National Gallery, London, UK

A Italian Landscape with Monte Socrate A A Dutch Yacht Firing a Salute as a Barge Pulls Away,
Beneath a warm southern sky, a winding road and Many Small Vessels at Anchor A/though Dutch ships are
leads to a distant mountain in this gentle the ostensible subject, the impact of this seascape comes from its
landscape. ¢1637—41, oil on canvas, 147x206cm, delicate tonal harmonies and enveloping, hazy atmosphere. 1650,
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK oil on panel, 86 x 114cm, National Gallery, London, UK
 Meindert Hobbema
Jacob van Ruisdael b AMSTERDAM, 1638; d AMSTERDAM, 1709

The Dutch landscape painter Hobbema is now mainly famous for

b HAARLEM, 1628/29; d AMSTERDAM?, 1682 LIFEline just one painting, The Avenue, Middelharnis — perhaps the most
Ruisdael is regarded as the greatest of all Dutch landscape artists. He 1628/29 Born in Haarlem memorable of all Dutch landscapes. It was painted relatively late in
may have been taught by his father, who was a frame-maker and art 1646 Paints his earliest dated his career, and towards the end of the great age of Dutch landscape.
works The powerful simplicity of the composition, with its celebrated central
dealer, or by his uncle, Salomon van Ruysdael, who was a prolific painter
c1650 Travels to the Dutch/
of quiet tonal landscapes similar to those of van Goyen. But Ruisdael perspective scheme, is unforgettable.
German border with fellow
soon developed his own moody, emotionally charged style painter Nicolaes Berchem Based in Amsterdam, Hobbema was a friend and the only
of landscape, using rich colouring, dramatic lighting, and vigorous c1655-60 Paints two versions documented pupil of Jacob van Ruisdael. His early paintings show
brushwork. His landscape imagery is inventive and wide ranging — from of The Jewish Cemetery similarities to Ruisdael’s, but his work is generally sunnier, less
rocky waterfalls to woodland scenes and sky-filled panoramic views. C1656 Moves to Amsterdam dramatic, and narrower in range. He concentrated on a few favourite
Few facts are known about Ruisdael’s life. He left his native Haarlem 1657 |s baptized into the types of composition, typically featuring woody landscapes and
in about 1656 and settled in Amsterdam, where he lived for the rest Reformed Church watermills around a pool, sometimes with a winding road. Such
of his life. Ruisdael’s only known pupil was Meindert Hobbema, but 1660 Writes testimonial for paintings influenced Gainsborough’s early landscapes.
Meindert Hobbema, his only
his influence on future painters — from Gainsborough to Constable It used to be thought that Hobbema gave up painting after marrying
documented pupil
and the Barbizon painters — was immense. and taking a well-paid job as a wine-gauger for the Amsterdam
1667 Presumably suffers
serious illness, as he twice customs. But it now seems that he continued painting in his spare
makes a will, describing time — his masterpiece, The Avenue, is dated 1689.
himself as a bachelor
1682 Dies, probably in
Amsterdam; is buried in the LIFEline
cathedral at Haarlem 1638 Born in Amsterdam
c late 1650s Studies with
< Peaceful Landscape /he Jacob van Ruisdael
tree has been called the hero of V The Jewish Cemetery /his 1668 [Marries Eeltije Vinck;
Ruisdael’s art. It could be noble scene creates a darkly emotional begins working for the
and strong, as in this drawing, impact unique in landscape Amsterdam customs and
or blasted and dying. Pen and ink painting of the time. c1655-60, oil excise, supervising the
with watercolour on paper, Musée on canvas, 84x95cm, Gemaldegalerie weighing and measuring
Condé, Chantilly, France Alte Meister, Dresden, Germany of imported wine, and
thereafter paints mainly
as a leisure activity
1689 Paints The Avenue, A A Ruin on the Bank of a River /his serene
Middelharnis
landscape, with leafy trees, a tiny figure, and a
1704 Death of his wife
ruin reflected in the still water of a pond, is typical
1709 Dies in Amsterdam
of most of Hobbema’s work. The unidentified ruin
BAROQUE recurs in several other paintings. 1667, oil on panel,
60x 84cm, Wallace Collection, London, UK

CENTURIES
18TH
AND
17TH

A The Avenue, CLOSERI|ook

Middelharnis Hobbema j =|
draws the eye deep into the /
landscape, along the straight, \e hi
tree-lined road at right angles \ [fs
to the picture surface. The | re |
CLOSERIook perspective scheme makes
the viewer feel he is entering
the avenue and will meet the
walking figure. 1689, oil on
canvas, 104x 141cm, National :
Gallery, London, UK \ eae
MEETING POINT The rapidly converging
lines created by the straight road, the trees,
£& aot
and the dykes meet at a distant vanishing point
SHADOWY TOMBSTONES The landscape BROODING CLOUDS Cloudless skies are on the horizon, close to the head of the man
is a “vanitas” — an allegory reminding us of the unknown in Ruisdael’s landscapes, and he used walking towards us
transience of human life. It is based both on clouds to evoke mood. Here, brooding storm
observation (of the cemetery at Ouderkerk clouds create the graveyard’s dramatic lighting
near Amsterdam) and on imagination and intense, melancholy atmosphere
 Adriaen van Ostade
b HAARLEM, 1610; d HAARLEM, 1685
Aelbert Cuyp Best known for his peasant genre paintings and
etchings, Ostade also occasionally painted small
b DORDRECHT, 1620; d DORDRECHT, 1691
portraits and biblical subjects. He lived all his life in
Celebrated for his luminous landscapes, Aelbert Cuyp was a versatile Haarlem and, according to the Dutch painter and writer
artist who also painted portraits, sea-pieces, and still lifes. The son and Arnold Houbraken, he trained with Frans Hals. One of
probably the pupil of Jacob Gerritz Cuyp, he was first employed to his fellow pupils was Adriaen Brouwer, whose works
paint in the landscape backgrounds to his father’s portraits. had a great influence on him. Ostade's use of light and
Cuyp’s early works are influenced by Jan van Goyen’s tonal shade also reflects a knowledge of Rembrandt.
landscapes, but in the mid 1640s he adopted an Italianizing manner, Ostade had joined the Haarlem painters’ guild by
evocative of Claude, and probably inspired by Jan Both. Cuyp never 1634 and was elected dean in 1662. He is thought
actually visited Italy, but he did make numerous sketching trips along to have taught his brother Isaak and Jan Steen. A
the Rhine and other rivers. successful, prolific artist, Ostade died a wealthy man.
Cuyp developed his Italianate landscapes in an individual way, A Sunset after Rain With its placid
peopling them with recognizably Dutch shepherds and farmers. His cows and evening sky, this poetic scene
reputation rests on his beautifully composed, tranquil landscapes, has a calm grandeur. c1648-52, oil on panel,
often featuring monumental cattle set against glowing skies. 84x 70cm, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK

LIFEline
1620 Born in Dordrecht, into
a family of artists
1639 Earliest dated painting
c1651-52 Travels up the
Rhine
1658 Marries a rich widow
and thereafter evidently
paints comparatively little
1691 Dies in Dordrecht
Oo
Cc
=
iz)
>» Ubbergen Castle 7he =
ruined castle at Ubbergen, oO
partly destroyed during the
>
Ps)
Spanish occupation, was a A The School Master Ostade’s early works °
Dutch national symbol. c1655, often depict drunken peasants, but later ones, QO
such as this, have more respectable subjects.
Cc
oil on panel, 32x 55cm, National m
Gallery, London, UK c1662, oil on panel, 40x31cm, Louvre, Paris, France

Gabriel Metsu Willem wan de Velde the Younger

b LEIDEN, 1629; d AMSTERDAM, 1667 b LEIDEN, 1633; d LONDON, 1707

An accomplished painter of genre pictures as well The son of Willem van de Velde the Elder (1611-93), who was the
as other subjects, Gabriel Metsu was the son of the official Dutch war artist, Willem the Younger was taught by his father
painter Jacques Metsu. Some sources suggest Metsu and by Simon de Vlieger. Though born in Leiden, he grew up in
was a pupil of Gerrit Dou, but this seems unlikely Amsterdam, and moved to England with his father in the winter of
because his early style is much broader than Dou's 1672/73. The following year, both men were appointed naval war
fijnschilder (fine painter) manner. Later, Metsu’s artists by Charles II, provided with a studio in Greenwich, and
technique became more meticulous. He mainly commissioned to make tapestry designs as well as paintings.
painted genteel middle-class scenes, some of which Renowned for his mastery of composition and atmosphere, Willem
have been compared to the work of Gerard Terborch the Younger painted battle scenes, portraits of individual ships, and
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and Jan Vermeer. In 1648, Metsu became a founder seascapes. He was in high demand from both the English and Dutch
member of the painters’ guild in Leiden. He spent markets, but was particularly influential in England, where the entire
the last decade of his life in Amsterdam. tradition of marine painting originates from him.

A Storm at Sea The sun bursts through clouds, as

ships face destruction on mountainous waves. Oil
on panel, Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts, US

« A Hoeker alongside a
Kaag at Anchor /his beautifully
balanced composition shows one of
Willem the Younger’s preferred
subjects — magnificent Dutch ships
in calm weather. It is the evocation
of space and atmosphere that is so
impressive. Harold Samuel Collection,
A The Sleeping Sportsman Jhis painting has
Mansion House, London, UK
various sexual allusions that would have been
apparent to Metsu's audience. 1650s, oil on canvas,
40x 35cm, Wallace Collection, London, UK
 Jan Steen
b LEIDEN, 1625/26; d LEIDEN, 1679

Along with Rembrandt, Hals, and Vermeer, Jan Steen

is one of his nation’s most popular painters. His name
has even become part of Dutch proverbial language: a
“Jan Steen household” refers to a rowdy, chaotic home
such as the one depicted in /n Luxury, Look Out (right).
Self-portrait Although he is best known for such comic scenes of
contemporary life, Steen was actually an inventive,
versatile, and prolific artist. He painted a wide range of subjects,
including portraits and historical and mythological works. In all,
about 800 paintings are attributed to him.
Steen is thought to have studied with various masters, including
Adriaen van Ostade and Jan van Goyen (whose daughter he married).
As well as painting, Steen ran a brewery, then a tavern, but he still
ended his life heavily in debt.

LIFEline
1625/26 Born in Leiden, the
son of a brewer
1648 Joins Leiden painters’
guild
1649 Marries daughter of Jan
Van Goyen
1660-70 Lives in Haarlem An Luxury, Look Out /his comic
1670 Returns to Leiden masterpiece has a serious moral
1679 Dies, and is buried in message, which is written on the slate
family grave in the Pieterskerk in the bottom right corner: \n Luxury,
Look Out. Steen’s chaotic cast of well-off
characters enact various forms of folly
a and debauchery. Meanwhile, a basket
Skittle Players Outside an hanging over their heads contains
MEANINGLESS BANTER SNIFFING PIG A pig sniffs
Inn Bathed in shimmering light, objects such as a crutch, indicating the
The quacking duck on the man’s a rose in a reference to vice
this small-scale scene creates a shoulder suggests he is talking in a Dutch proverb: throwing poverty and disease that await them.
gentle view of Dutch society at nonsense — paying no attention roses before swine represents 1663, oil on canvas, 100x140cm,
leisure. 1660-63, oil on panel, 33x
BAROQUE to the chaos around him. wastefulness. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria
27cm, National Gallery, London, UK

|Gerard Terborch the Younger Pieter de Hooch

b ZWOLLE, 1617; d DEVENTER, 1681 b ROTTERDAM, 1629; d AMSTERDAM, 1684

Terborch showed his talent early, as can One of the most accomplished of the Dutch genre painters, Pieter
be seen in drawings he made at the age de Hooch is best known for his tranquil, homely interiors and sunny
of eight. They were dated by his father, a courtyard scenes, characterized by convincing perspective, masterful
minor artist who was his first teacher. lighting, and peaceful atmosphere. Along with Vermeer, he is one of
Born in the provincial Dutch city of Zwolle, the masters of the Delft school. His reputation rests on the quiet
Self-portrait Terborch was unusually widely travelled — masterpieces he painted during his short time (c1652-60) living there.
visiting England, Italy, Germany, Spain, Although he is most associated with Delft, de Hooch moved
and Flanders. In 1654 he settled in Deventer, where he around the Netherlands. He was born in Rotterdam and trained in
17TH| was an extremely successful painter of genre (everyday
CENTURIES
18TH
AND Haarlem with the landscape painter Nicolaes Berchem. He left Delft
life) scenes featuring elegant members of Dutch society. in about 1660 and moved to Amsterdam, where he lived and worked
He had a gift for suggesting individual character, and was until his death in 1684, painting more elaborate but less touching
astonishingly skilful at rendering surface textures, such works. He died in an insane asylum.
as those of shiny silks and satins.
<A Boy Bringing
< The Lute Player Pomegranates /n this
This picture comes tender domestic scene, line -aesaam ae ‘
alive because of its and light combine to create § ip a Vose:
strong characterization a realistic and atmospheric er ee a
and the meticulous sense of space. The A The Courtyard of a House in Delft
technique with which converging perspective De Hooch uses perspective to create
Terborch captures the lines of the receding floor compartments of space in this subdued
brilliant sheen of the tiles, and an alternating courtyard scene: the eye is led into
lute player's dress. pattern of light and shade, depth across the paving stones, through
1667-68, oil on panel, measure the movement the archway, and into the hallway,
Geméaldegalerie Alte into depth. Warm, golden where a woman stands looking away
Meister, Kassel, light models forms and from us at the window of the house
Germany adds to the tranquil mood. across the street. 1658, oil on canvas,
C1662, oil on canvas, 73x 74x60cm, National Gallery, London, UK
60cm, Wallace Collection,
London, UK
 Girl with a Pearl Earring Against a dark background, a girl
turns to look, almost questioningly, towards the viewer. This exquisite
painting gains Its effect through strikingly simple composition, pearly
Jan Vermeer lighting, and the muted harmony of yellow and blue. c1665-68, oil on
canvas, 44x 39cm, Mauritshuis, The Hague, Netherlands
b DELFT, 1632; d DELFT, 1675 LIFEline
After centuries of obscurity, Vermeer is now celebrated as one of the 1653 At the age of 21,
greatest of all Dutch artists. He is renowned for his serene, beautifully | becomes member of Delft
composed and lit, and uncannily realistic paintings. His subject matter painters guild
: * ; 4 ne ; ‘ 1656 Earliest known dated
is usually a woman at home in a Dutch interior, writing, reading, playing picture, The Procuress
a musical instrument -—or simply posing —or a servant engaged in 1662 (and 1670) Elected
domestic activity such as pouring milk. He was “discovered” in 1866 hooftman (headman) of the
by the French writer Théophile Thoré, who called him “the Sphinx painters’ guild
of Delft’ because so little was known about him. There are few €1665-6 Paints much-loved
documented facts about Vermeer’s life, and only about 35 paintings Girl with a Pearl Earring
are known to be by him. 1672 Vermeer's art business
Vermeer was the son of an innkeeper and art dealer in Delft, and collapses after French invasion
of the Netherlands triggers
seems to have lived all his life in the city. Nothing is known of his youth | a national economic crisis
or training until he became a member of the painters’ guild in 1653 — 1675 Dies in debt
the same year that he married Catharina Bolnes, a Catholic. The couple
had 15 children. In his later years, Vermeer suffered dire financial
hardship, and he died in debt in Delft at the age of only 43.

< View of Delft One of only two exterior views

by Vermeer, this picture of his home town is a
celebrated masterpiece of lighting, atmosphere,
and almost photographic realism. As townsfolk
chat on the quayside in the foreground, the busy
skyline and clouds are reflected in the glistening
water. c1660-61, oil on canvas, 96x117cm,
Mauritshuis, The Hague, Netherlands

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SPECKLES OF PAINT From a distance,

Vermeer's paintings may appear smoothly
painted, but in close-up the individual brushmarks
and blobs of paint with which he recreates the
play of light reflected off different surfaces are
visible. His paint surface has been likened to
“crushed pearls melted together”. Molten
highlights evoke the texture of the grainy
bread crust and woven wicker.

> The Milkmaid /here was a /ong tradition of

picturing milkmaids in Dutch art, but Vermeers
image is unique in its serenity and monumental
simplicity. Sunlight from a window falls upon the
milkmaid, modelling her rounded figure with strong
contrasts of light and shade. c1657—58, oil on canvas,
45x41cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Ll
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(2)
2)
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The Art of Painting (The Artist's Studio) Jan Vermeer

c1666-68, 120x 100cm, oil on canvas, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria
CLOSERIlook

The Art of Painting Jan Vermeer

Vermeer painted this picture (also known as Technique
The Artist's Studio) in his 30s, and, despite dire No known drawings or preliminary studies by Vermeer exist,
financial problems, he never sold this masterpiece so this painting is important because it suggests his working
methods. Having covered his canvas in light grey to create a base
— perhaps keeping it as a showpiece for prospective
colour, he added compositional elements with white, probably
clients. It is larger than most of his paintings and
chalk, lines. Features such as exaggerated perspective (the
uses symbolism and allegory to comment on the chair), soft-focus (Clio’s face), and the molten highlights (curtain
status of art and artists in the 17th century. and chandelier) suggest the use of a camera obscura (see right).

INcontext
Composition
CAMERA OBSCURA
The curtain and the diagonal lines created by the floor tiles
A camera obscura (Latin for
help draw the viewer into the composition. Vermeer used
dark chamber) is a darkened
laws of linear perspective: he marked the vanishing point
booth or box with a pinhole.
with a pin, and the orthogonals — receding parallel lines — It allows an image of a brightly
with chalked lengths of string tied to the pin. lit scene or subject to be
projected onto a screen.
This scene can then be traced.
Vermeer may have constructed
a booth-type camera obscura
in the room in his studio.
Simple camera obscuras invert
the image, but mirrors can be
used to turn it the right way up.

A PAINTING IN PROGRESS
This detail gives a fascinating
glimpse of Vermeer's working
A DARK TO LIGHT The A VANISHING POINT method: using a mahlstick (the Explaining optics This engraving
curtain and chair create a dark Orthogonals drawn through the A BEADS OF LIGHT Vermeer had a black stick on which his hand from Denis Diderot’s 18th-century
foreground, which leads into the pale floor tiles and along the remarkable ability to create an almost tangible rests), the artist paints Clio’s Encyclopédie /lustrates the basic
scene beyond — lit, as usual with _table edge meet at the vanishing illusion of different surface textures. Pinpoints laurel crown, having first drawn principles of the camera obscura.
Vermeer, from the left. point in front of the girl. of light pick out the woven stitches on the curtain. in the outlines in chalk.

Story and Characters

Vermeer presents his painting as if the viewer has pulled
aside the curtain to see the artist at work, painting a model
dressed as Clio, the Muse of history in Greek mythology.
The painter himself is viewed from the back, wearing an
elegant costume from an earlier period. Illusion and
symbolism combine in the beautifully observed details —
from mask to map and ornate chandelier.

» PAINTED MASK
Although it may seem to be
a casually discarded studio
prop, the mask on the table
can be viewed as a symbol of am:
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imitation, one of the functions
of painting. Depicting a
convincing imitation of reality
—"a mirror of Nature” —
was a central aim of many
17th-century Dutch artists.

ay

A A COUNTRY DIVIDED
» THE MUSE OF
The age-worn map of the
HISTORY This figure can
Netherlands behind Clio relates
be identified as Clio, the
to history. The Dutch northern
66 \Vermeer's most Muse of history, because of
provinces gained independence
the objects she wears and
remarkable carries. Her crown of laurel
from Spain with the Treaty of
Minster in 1648. Vermeer has
leaves symbolizes glory and
trait... is the honour, which will survive
depicted this split by painting a
crease (above, centre) along the
quality of for posterity. She holds a
frontier of the Protestant Dutch
trumpet, indicating fame
his light” (which can be achieved
Republic on the right and the
Catholic Spanish Hapsburg
THEOPHILE THORE, by the artist), and a book
southern provinces on the left
FRENCH WRITER ON ART, c1866 (symbolizing history).
(north is to the right of the map).
A SPANISH DECLINE Apart from being a
virtuoso display of painting, the chandelier may
refer to the waning of Spanish power. It shows
the Hapsburg symbol — the double-headed eagle
— but, significantly, there are no candles.
 Willem Claesz Heda
b HAARLEM, c1594; d HAARLEM, 1680 Jan Davidsz de Heem
Willem Claesz Heda was one of the masters of 17th-century Dutch still-life painting,
b UTRECHT, 1606; d ANTWERP, 1683/84
and he made a particular speciality of the ontbijt (“breakfast piece”). Along with Pieter Y Still Life with Food and
Claesz, he was the leading exponent of this type of work, and the two men founded Drink Heda’ objects appear One of the most accomplished of the Dutch still-life
the tradition of still-life painting in his native Haarlem. Characterized by subdued, close. almost to float against a plain, painters, Heem is renowned for his flower pieces and
tonal harmonies, their paintings can be seen as the still-life equivalents of the tonal softly illuminated background. for tables laid with luxury foodstuffs. The son of the
landscapes of Jan van Goyen. This still life is a “vanitas” — Utrecht painter David de Heem, he was trained by
In common with other Dutch still-life painters of the time, Heda was concerned both symbolizing the brevity of life. Balthasar van der Ast. In 1635, he settled in Antwerp.
with rendering different textures — distinguishing between the dull sheen of pewter All food decays, and Heda’s Heem’s work links the Flemish and Dutch schools.
and the gloss of silver, for example — and with creating images that were symbolic of speciality, the mincemeat After his arrival in Antwerp, he was influenced by the
the transience of human life and achievements. Heda’s son, Gerrit, imitated his father’s pie, is already partially eaten. Baroque exuberance of Rubens and Snyders and
style, and their works are often hard to tell apart. Oil on panel, 53x 73cm, developed his speciality, banketje — lavish “banquet
private collection pieces’ featuring luxury items such as oysters,
CLOSERIook lobsters, and exotic fruits. Heem had many followers,
including his sons Cornelius and Jan Jansz.
maa
Y Still Life 7he velvet curtain, ornate silver, oyster,
and exquisitely painted fruit make this a more
ostentatious image than Heda’s muted “breakfast
piece”. Oil on panel, Prado, Madrid, Spain

LEMON PEEL Lemons

alluded to a deceptive
appearance — beautiful to
look at, but sour tasting. The
works by Heda, de Heem,
and Kalf shown here all
feature a half-peeled lemon —
a symbol and a display of
BAROQUE
the painter's skill.

Willem Kalf Rachel Ruysch

b ROTTERDAM, 1619; d AMSTERDAM, 1693 b THE HAGUE, 1664; d AMSTERDAM, 1750
Perhaps the greatest of all Dutch still-life painters, Willem Kalf is the most famous One of the leading Dutch flower painters of the first half of the
exponent of a type of still life known as pronkstilleven (‘still lifes of ostentation”). 18th century, Ruysch was the daughter of Anthony Ruysch, a
His ravishing images of precious objects show a mastery of lighting, colour, and celebrated botanist and anatomist. Her knowledge of botany shows in
composition that bears comparison with Jan Vermeer. her paintings. She had a long career: at 15, she was apprenticed to the
The son of a Rotterdam cloth merchant, Kalf lived in Paris during the 1640s, Dutch flower painter Willem van Aelst, and she continued painting until
painting peasant interiors and humble kitchen still lifes. After he settled in Amsterdam Portrait by she was in her eighties. However, only about 100 paintings by Ruysch
in 1653, he worked as an art dealer, and specialized in painting pronkstilleven, using es are known. The reason for this may be that, after marrying the portrait
cnaiken
fewer, grander objects, exquisitely lit against a dark background. In 1797, Goethe painter Juriaen Pool, she had 10 children. Ruysch worked mainly in
AND wrote that Kalf’s paintings showed, “in what sense art is superior to nature and what
CENTURIES
18TH
17TH Amsterdam, but also in The Hague, and in Dusseldorf, where she was court painter
the spirit of man imparts to objects when it views them through creative eyes” to the elector palatine (ruler of the Rhine region) from 1708 to 1716.

< Still Life with a Late Ming CLOSERI|ook

Ginger Jar Works such as this
\
one, featuring precious objects
from abroad — a Ming vase,
Venetian glass, an Indian carpet —
would have appealed to the pride
Kalf's Dutch contemporaries took
in their country’s trading power.
1669, oil on canvas, 77x66cm,
Indianapolis Museum of Art,
Indiana, US

SHINY SHELLS Ruysch’s flower

paintings teem with life and
movement, partly because of the
inclusion of insects, molluscs, and
reptiles. Here, the hard, shiny
snail shells create an effective
contrast with the delicate colours
and textures of the blooms
j Sp Sa
A Still Life of Flowers on Woodland Ground
Ruysch often mixed exotic and hedgerow flowers in
her complex compositions. c1690, oil on canvas, 93x
74cm, Geméaldegalerie Alte Meister, Kassel, Germany
 William Dobson
Grinling Gibbons b LONDON, 1611; d LONDON, 1646

The first great native-born English painter after the miniaturist Nicholas
,3 b ROTTERDAM, 1648; d LONDON, 1721
Hilliard, Dobson is renowned for his powerfully observed Royalist
The celebrated and influential woodcarver Grinling Gibbons was portraits, produced during the English Civil War. Most of his 60 or
the son of English parents who had business interests in the so known pictures date from 1642 to 1646, when he worked for
Netherlands. He may have trained in Amsterdam with the Quellin Charles |’s wartime court in Oxford. The extent of Dobson's royal
family of sculptors before settling in England, aged about 19. Self-portrait patronage is unclear, but after van Dyck's death in 1641 he was the
: Working mainly in limewood, he became renowned for his virtuoso best painter in the country. Dobson is said to have lived a “loose and
Portrait by naturalistic carving — particularly swags of fruit, flowers, and foliage, irregular” life, which may explain his poverty and early death, just a few months after
Godfrey which could festoon walls, ceilings, fireplaces, and furniture. The the Royalists surrendered to the Parliamentarians.
Kneller
architect Sir Christopher Wren employed Gibbons to work on St.
Paul’s Cathedral and Hampton Court Palace, and in 1693 he was appointed royal
master carver by King William III.

~< Detail of wood carving Gibbons’s

astonishingly fine woodcarving can be
seen in numerous English country houses.
This detail from a panel shows a complex
cluster of musical instruments. c1690,
limewood, Petworth House, Sussex, UK

< Portrait of Sir Charles

Lucas /his striking portrait of
a Cavalier combines a heroic
pose with down-to-earth
E “AIRY LIGHTNESS” Horace
characterization. The rich
= Walpole admired Gibbons’s ability
# to give wood a “loose and airy colouring and vigorous
technique show the influence
of Titian and other Venetian
painters. Oil on canvas, 45x
=) 36cm, private collection.

Peter Lely Godfrey Kneller

b SOEST, 1618; d LONDON, 1680 b LUBECK, 1646; d LONDON, 1723

Originally named Pieter van der Faes, Born in Germany, Kneller studied in
Lely was born into a Dutch family living Amsterdam with Rembrandt's pupil,
in Germany. He trained in Haarlem, but Ferdinand Bol. In the 1670s, he settled
in the 1640s moved to England, where a in England, where he dominated portrait
he was to spend most of his working Fomkem painting from Lely's death through to
Self-portrait life. After the deaths of Anthony van Self-portrait the early 18th century. Kneller was
Dyck and William Dobson, Lely became appointed principal painter to William III
the country’s leading portraitist. He was made principal in 1689, and later knighted and created a baronet.
painter to the king in 1661, was naturalized in 1662, Notoriously arrogant, he was also hugely prolific,
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and knighted just months before he died. sometimes taking as many as 14 sitters in a day.
Lely painted a range of sitters, among them Charles |
and Oliver Cromwell, but it is as the image-maker of
the Restoration court of Charles II that he is best
remembered. He lived in grand style and amassed
a magnificent collection of art.

A Diana Kirke, later Countess of Oxford Daringly draped in

silk, this aristocratic beauty has the large, languorous “Lely” eyes,
which gave many of his sitters a similar look. 1665-70, oil on canvas,
32x 104cm, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, US

< Studies of hands Le/y made numerous

preparatory drawings, like this one. He had a large A Samuel Pepys Kneller has been accused of
number of assistants who would also have used running his studio as a production line, but he was
these studies as reference. Chalk on paper, 38x27cm, capable of great quality. This portrait of the diarist
Ashmolean, Oxford, UK Pepys shows Kneller at his best. 1689, oil on canvas,
76x64cm, National Maritime Museum, London, UK
 It developed initially in France, but
eventually spread to most other parts
The word “Rococo” is thought to of Europe, either by engravings or
derive from rocaille, a French word by expatriate French artists.
describing an ornamental form of rock-
work that uses shells and pebbles to Subject matter
adorn fountains and grottoes. This Rococo painters retained many of the
Emerging in about 1700, seems to have been combined with themes that had been in vogue during
barocco, a source-word for Baroque the Baroque era, but treated them ina
the Rococo style dominated
(see p. 194). lighter, more playful manner. Symbolic
European art for most of the and mythological subjects were still in
18th century. Superseding Origins and influences A Interior of a Benedictine Abbey Church German demand, but they lost much of their
the Baroque movement, it The term Rococo is said to have School Built by Johann Michael Fischer (1692-1766), the serious content. In many cases, they
simplicity of the church’ architecture is transformed by simply provided a pretext for tastefully
emphasized elegance, frivolity, been coined by one of David's pupils,
the brilliant frescoes and the sumptuous stucco-work.
and decorative charm. The shortly after the French Revolution. 1748-68, Ottobeuren, Bavaria, Germany erotic depictions of the female nude.
It was meant as a humorous insult, Amorous themes were especially
greatest Rococo painters
mocking the supposed triviality of the free from any negative connotations. popular. Watteau pioneered the féte
were Giambattista Tiepolo, florid, aristocratic style. It remained a The Rococo style had a major impact galante, a new type of subject in
Jean-Antoine Watteau and pejorative term throughout the first on architecture, interior design, and which elegant young couples, dressed
Francois Boucher. half of the 19th century, but is now the decorative arts, as well as painting. in rich attire, wandered blissfully

Rococo
TIMEline
Watteau pioneered the 1717 1743
Rococo style, completing his c1748-49
masterpiece Embarkation for
Cytherain 1717. Canaletto’s
ROCOCO
career painting scenes of
Venice began to prosper a
decade later. In Britain, Hogarth
produced social satires such
as Marriage a la Mode and
Gainsborough painted elegant
portraits. Austrian painter
it Maulbertsch completed his GAINSBOROUGH
Apotheosis three years before CANALETTO PReturn of the Bucintoro Mr and Mrs Andrews
EN his French contemporary on Ascension Day HOGARTH Marriage a la Mode:
C the Toilette
Fragonard produced The Swing.

8TH
German and Central
European
The Rococo movement was nurtured in In the early 18th century, when Germany
AND
17TH
1 France, where it was closely associated began to recover from the Thirty Years War
with the reign of Louis XV (1715-74). It (1618-48), there was a building boom.
subsequently gained popularity in other Princes erected new palaces while, in the
countries, but often in very different forms. Catholic south, there was a spate of church
building, where Rococo decoration achieved
French its fullest flowering. The interiors were
French Rococo painting was dominated by adorned with frescoes, and some of the
Jean-Antoine Watteau, Francois Boucher, most elaborate stucco-work (architectural
and Jean-Honoré Fragonard (see p.246). decoration) ever produced. Some artists,
Watteau developed the style, but his such as Johann Zimmerman, worked in both
successors did the more typical work. In their these fields.
hands, Rococo became the art of the boudoir Meanwhile, Franz Anton Maulbertsch
—a blend of elegance, wit, and eroticism. painted altarpieces and frescoes with
The lightness of the themes is evident exuberant flair in his native Austria as well
from the ease with which they could be as in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and
transferred from one medium to another. Slovakia. He was a Rococo artist to the last,
For example, Boucher used the same ignoring the onset of Neoclassical austerity
infants and nymphs for his paintings, his (see p. 266).
porcelain figures, and his tapestry designs.
Directness and informality were also the Italian and Venetian
keynotes of Rococo sculpture, typified by In Italy, the emergence of the Rococo style
the approach of Jean-Antoine Houdon, its coincided with the heyday of the Grand
A Ruined gallery of the Villa Adriana Giovanni
leading practitioner (see p.248). The style Tour, and many of its leading exponents
Batttista Piranesi The artist used a low viewpont and tiny
figures to make his Roman ruins seem large and imposing also made a significant impact on the geared their work towards this market.
while the profusion of creepers adds an air of mystery. burgeoning porcelain industry
1756, engraving, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France
around a dreamy, parkland setting.
Pastoral scenes provided a similar
form of escapism. The aristocratic
figures were replaced by shepherds
and shepherdesses, idling away the < Portrait of Madame de
Pompadour (detail) Boucher’ skill
time with their flirtatious games. lay in his rendering of delicate frills
and flounces rather than in the
Style and techniques portrait itself.
The Rococo style was marked by a
light-hearted, decorative approach. In CURRENTevents
1702-13 The War of the
narrative subjects, the story was often
Spanish Succession
amplified by playful putti (cherubs) or divided Europe for more
by statues that seemed to come alive, than a decade, but also
made military pictures
eager to participate. Even in more
more topical. Watteau
sombre themes, painters indulged in tried his hand at this
ornamental flourishes or effortless, theme in 1709, when he
was living in Valenciennes.
virtuoso effects. In the applied arts,
1740s Herculaneum and
the emphasis on decoration was even
3 aise we
Pompeii became regular
more pronounced. Scrollwork and attractions on the Grand
A Portrait of Madame de
shell motifs were everywhere, and Tour, which proved so
Pompadour Francois Boucher, 1759, important for the careers
there was a taste for curved lines and oil on canvas, 91 x68cm, Wallace of Canaletto and Piranesi.
asymmetrical designs. Collection, London, UK

1757 _ 1758-60
1751 1764
1774
a
fe)
QO
.°)
Q
Lo)

e.

BOUCHER Reclining Nude MAULBERTSCH Apotheosis 0 f FRAGONARD

The Swing BATONI
(Mademoiselle O’Murphy) FALCONET TIEPOLO Young woman St James the Greater
The Bather with a Parrot Thomas William Coke

In Rome, Giovanni Paolo Panini, Giovanni with ancient gods in an imaginary sky, and
Battista Piranesi, and French-born Hubert human figures on the cornices, gazing down
Robert all found distinctive ways to portray at the bishop's guests.
the grandeur of the ancient ruins, while
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Pompeo Batoni’s graceful portraits of
visiting nobility were in constant demand. Rococo had less impact in Britain, but it
In Venice, Canaletto achieved similar still affected the major artists of the day.
success with his sparkling pictures of the The crucial influence came from Hubert
city’s best-loved sights and spectacles. Gravelot, a French painter and engraver.
Tourists, however, were not the only He settled in London, where he introduced
patrons. Giambattista Tiepolo, the greatest Rococo ideas to his friends Francis Hayman
Venetian painter of the age, worked for a and William Hogarth. He also taught at
A Ceiling fresco Giambattista Tiepolo This scene much broader clientele. His dazzling the St Martin's Lane Academy, where
greeted visitors as they walked up the palatial staircase
frescoes and canvases were commissioned Thomas Gainsborough was a student.
of the Residenz. Court dignitaries, musicians, and artists
mingle with allegorical figures: the reclining officer is to adorn some of the finest villas and The effects of the new style were
thought to be Balthasar Neumann, the architect of the churches in the region. most apparent in portraiture, where
building. 1750-53, fresco, Residenz, Wiirzburg, Germany Tiepolo’s fame spread far beyond Italy. the conversation piece — an elegant and
Arguably his greatest masterpiece was informal variation of the theme — gained
produced in Wurzburg, Germany, for the great popularity.
Residenz (palace) of the local Prince-Bishop.
> Music, Ftienne-Maurice Falconet
Tiepolo’s task was to produce a range This sensuous allegorical figure was
of frescoes, showing the Four Continents — commissioned by Madame de
Asia, Africa, America, and Europe (Australia Pompadour for her home, the
was yet to be discovered) — and paying Chateau de Bellevue. 1757, marble,
tribute to his patron. This could easily have
height 203cm, Louvre, Paris, France
resulted in a sterile allegory of symbolic
figures. Tiepolo, however, transformed the
setting into a virtuoso display of illusionism
 Jean-Antoine Watteau
b VALENCIENNES, 1684; d NOGENT-SUR-MARNE, NEAR PARIS, 1721 LIFEline
The greatest French painter of his time, Watteau played a major part in 1684 Born in the border town |
shaping the Rococo style. His art was formed in Paris, where he was _| °fValenciennes
strongly influenced by Claude Gillot, a painter of theatrical scenes. Gillot ue NE TES
took Watteau to see the improvised, knockabout shows of the Italian - C170807 otucios ii
Comedy, which inspired his most distinctive creation: the fétes galantes posh ASCE | Gilles A ‘Gilles’ wasa traditional type
Portrait by (courtship parties). These idyllic scenes show elegant costumed figures membership of the of clown, who was an innocent fool. In
Rosalba amusing themselves in romantic parklands. They stroll around, they flirt, Académie Royale sketches, a donkey would be led across the
cng they serenade each other. 1717 Completes his stage to emphasise his stupidity. c1718-19,
Depictions of fétes galantes were common in the Rococo era, but no__| Masterpiece, The Pilgrimage oil on canvas, 185x 149cm, Louvre, Paris, France
others had the fragile beauty of Watteau’s versions. They display a melancholic air, an __|1 the |sland ofCythera
apparent awareness that these pleasures cannot last for long. In part this may be due Maas Ae friend
to the artist's habit of assembling his compositions from individual studies, so that his _
figures often appear solitary, isolated from their neighbours. It may also be linked to his
illness. Watteau suffered for years from tuberculosis, and there is always a temptation
to interpret his work as the expression of a man who knew that he was living on
borrowed time. Certainly, there is a strong element of pathos in pictures such as Gilles. v L'Enseigne de Gersaint
Towards the end of his life, there are hints that Watteau was beginning to change Watteau's final masterpiece
direction — for example, the signboard painted for the picture dealer Gersaint was displayed a new interest in
more realistic than his characteristic works. Even so, after his death, Watteau’s fétes naturalism. 1721, oil on canvas,
galantes were rapidly dismissed as being artificial and old-fashioned. 163 x306cm, Charlottenburg
Castle, Berlin, Germany

6¢ His pictures reflect some

of the impatience and
inconstancy of his
nature... he had a need to
switch from subject to
subject; he often began a
composition already half-
bored with its perfection ”?
ROCOCO EDME GERSAINT (1694-1750),
PICTURE DEALER AND FRIEND

CLOSERIook

CENTURIES
18TH
AND
17TH

WISTFUL GLANCE The

amorous “pilgrims” have paired
off and are preparing to leave
the island of love. A woman
gazes back wistfully at a
couple, who are still wrapped
up in each other. She is aware
that this degree of passion is
all too fleeting. Her melancholy
expression is echoed by the
autumnal colouring and the
approaching twilight.

» Pilgrimage to the Island

of Cythera /nspired by a
contemporary play, this is the
greatest of Watteau’s fétes
galantes. Cythera is where
Venus, goddess of love, is said
to have come ashore after being
born in the sea. 1717, oil on canvas,
129x194cm, Louvre, Paris, France
 Jean-Siméon Chardin CLOSERIook
f, HISSING CAT Still-life artists of
b PARIS, 1699; d PARIS, 1779
B) this period often liked to add a living
Chardin’s sober domestic scenes and still lifes make a The Skate (or The Ray) element to their scenes. Here, a
striking contrast to the wilder excesses of the Rococo Lene eee. startled cat protects its find of oysters.
style, which was flourishing at the time. Despite some ae - 3 Ae ss fade The skate itself almost looks as if it
training from two history painters, Chardin was largely eR ANON EGON) Pyesenned has a face. Marcel Proust described it
; sips to the Académie as his reception as “a strange monster”, with its red
> self-taught. His early preference was for still-life : :
: : 4 ie mr piece. c1725,oilon canvas, flesh, blue nerves, and white muscles.
Self-portrait pictures in the Dutch tradition, as the Académie Royale iin deem LoumeaParis. France
confirmed in 1728, when it granted him membership : : i
as “a painter skilled in animals and fruit”
Chardin gained even greater plaudits when he turned his attention
to genre scenes (scenes of everyday life) in the early 1730s. These
often featured still-life elements — such as the charcoal heater in the
right-hand corner of Saying Grace — but were more remarkable for the
quiet interplay between mothers and their children. Late in his career,
Chardin also tried his hand at pastel portraits, with some success.

LIFEline
1728 |n his late 20s, gains
membership of the Académie
Royale
1731 Marries Marguerite
Saintard
1735 Marguerite dies
1755 Elected Treasurer of the
Académie, a post that he
holds for almost 20 years
1771 First exhibits pastel
portraits 7
ed
1779 Dies in Paris m
2
(2)
<=
Ps)
» Saying Grace Chardin fe)
presented this painting to King i?)
Louis XV, after their meeting fe)
2)
in 1740. 1740, oil on canvas, fo)
50x 39cm, Louvre, Paris, France

Francois Boucher se ae NI
b PARIS, 1703; d PARIS, 1770 LIFEline INcontext | z
: ae ; 1703 Born in Paris MADAME DE POMPADOUR Born Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, _| >
One of the chief highlights of the Rococo style is the 1723 Wins the Prix de Rome Madame de Pompadour was the principal mistress of Louis XV. | rs
art of Frangois Boucher. In his paintings, he conveyed 1728-31 Travels in Italy Beautiful, intelligent, and charming, she remained the king's *
blatant sensuality with a wit and a playfulness that was | 4799 Marries Marie-Jeanne maitresse en titre (official mistress) long after they had ceased o
much admired in royal circles. He was also extremely Buseau to be lovers. She met Francois Boucher in the late 1740s, and Eig
y ; versatile, creating designs that worked equally well in 1735 Receives his first royal he rapidly became her favourite artist. Boucher painted several | Oo
ia by paintings, in tapestries, or on china. The two main commission portraits of Madame de Pompadour, and she involved him ina gy
Lundberg figures in his Autumn Pastoral, for example, were 1751 Paints Mademoiselle wide range of other projects, including the decoration of regal a
remodelled as a biscuit group by the Vincennes porcelain | O’Murphy, his famous nude residences, the production of designs for Sevres porcelain, and =
factory, while the entire scene was reproduced on a Sévres vase. 1755 Appointed director of the creation of costumes and sets for her private theatricals. m
Boucher had an unrivalled talent for depicting the rosy tints ee ee) Madame de Pompadour by Francois Boucher (¢1758). Boucher’s portraits
of human flesh. This is seen to best effect in his female nudes, the Ncatlerrie'rloyale ane show
hischief patran as a mature, intelligent woman. The book and writing
masquerading as nymphs or goddesses, and in the plump cherubs 4770 Dies in his studio implements underline her wide-ranging literary
and artistic interests.
who accompany them.

CLOSERIook

mica cen menace bane ie

RUMPLED SHEETS Rococo

artists loved to create a
decorative sense of disorder
in their boudoir scenes. The
| luxurious fabrics and unmade
bed had erotic overtones.

< Mademoiselle O’Murphy

Louise O'Murphy was a mistress
of Louis XV and was mentioned
in Casanova’ memoirs. 1751,
oil on canvas, 60x 74cm, Wallraf-
Richartz-Museum, Cologne, Germany
 v The Bolt Amazingly, this delightfully risqué picture was
|Jean-Honore Fragonard Vv Figure in Fancy Dress Fragonard liked to
commissioned to hang alongside @ religious scene. The idea
demonstrate his virtuosity by painting at incredible
was to highlight the contrast between sacred and profane
" b GRASSE, 1732; d PARIS, 1806 speed. He claimed to have finished this portrait of
love. c1778, oil on canvas, 73x 93cm, Louvre, Paris, France
Fragonard's art represents the final, a friend, the Abbé de Saint-Non, in one hour. 1769,
magnificent flourish of Rococo in France oil on canvas, 80x65cm, Louvre, Paris, France
After a brief apprenticeship with Chardin,
he trained under Boucher, inheriting his
ae lightness of touch and feeling for colour. In
Portrait by 1752, he won the prestigious Prix de Rome,
M Gerard which enabled him to study in Italy, where
he became friends with Hubert Robert.
Fragonard made his
mark at the Salon with a dramatic history painting,
Coroesus Sacrificing himself to Save Callirhoe. A
emic career beckoned, but he only
: more at the Salon, preferring decorative,
sensual themes more suitable for the boudoir than
for public display. These pictures proved enormously
lar, winning Fragonard commissions from the
INC s. By the 1770s, though, tastes were
changing, as the Neoclassical style took root.

LIFEline
|
1732 Born in Grasse, the son

» The Swing /his private

fantasy was commissioned by
a courtier (bottom left), who
1765 Member of the wanted a picture of his young
Académie Royale mistress with a bishop.
1769 Marries his pupil Fragonard replaced the bishop
Marie-Anne Gérard with a cuckolded husband and
1793 Takes a museum job, as turned the scene into a witty
his style go out of fashion
piece of flirtation. 1767, oil on
gotten man
ROCOCO canvas, 81 x64cm, Wallace
Collection, London, UK

CLOSERI|ook

LIVING STATUES Raising a finger

to his lips, Cupid seems to share the
secret of the lovers’ affair. He looks
at the flying slipper, which echoes
the playful actions of the lovers but
is also a symbol of lost innocence

| THE SUN shines from the top left,

} enveloping the woman in a shaft of
| light. The darker foliage surrounds
| her like a frame, setting off the
central action
Jean-Baptiste Greuze
b TOURNUS, 1725; d PARIS, 1805 ¥ Morning Prayer Greuze created an uneasy blend of
innocence, piety, and veiled eroticism in his sentimental
Trained in Lyon and Paris, Greuze achieved early pictures of young girls. Even so, they proved immensely
success with his sermonizing scenes of domestic life. popular. Oil on canvas, Musée Cognacq-Jay, Paris, France
These caught the mood of the times and the influential
critic, Denis Diderot (1713-84) described them as CLOSERIook
\ a “morality in paint’ Greuze hoped that they would
Self-portrait bring him the status of a history painter — the highest EE
accolade for an artist — but the Académie Royale failed
to grant him this honour. Crestfallen, Greuze stopped exhibiting at the
Salon and turned increasingly to the market for sentimental pictures
i Cs
of young women. By the time of the French Revolution, public taste SHY LOOK Greuze’s gave all
his female portraits coyly
had changed and his work was deemed mawkish and melodramatic.
upturned eyes. He called them
In spite of a commission to paint Napoleon's portrait, his later years “figures of sentiment” with
were marked by poverty and neglect. “romance in their eyes”.

LIFEline
1725 Born in Tournus
1755 Enjoys first major
success at the Salon
1759 Marries Anne-Gabrielle
Babuti
1769 Stops exhibiting at
the Salon after criticism of
his work
1778 Paints The Punished Son
1793 Divorces his wife
1805 Dies in poverty in Paris =
Ps)
m
» The Punished Son 4
From a pair of paintings QO
<=
illustrating The Father's Curse. Ps)
A disobedient youth (right) fe)
seeks forgiveness, but returns 2)
home too late after his father te)
Qa
has died. 1778, oil on canvas, co)
130x163cm, Louvre, Paris, France

|Joseph Vernet Hubert Robert Jean-Baptiste Perronneau

b AVIGNON, 1714; d PARIS, 1789 b PARIS, 1733; d PARIS, 1808 b PARIS, c1715; d AMSTERDAM, 1783

Robert learned his craft in Italy, where he developed a Perronneau is one of the leading portraitists of his day,
taste for painting lush, overgrown gardens, landscapes, at home working in oils or pastels. His approach was
and city views. His most distinctive creation was the less vivacious than that of his chief rival — Maurice-
“anticipated ruin” — a modern building imagined in a Quentin de La Tour — but his sober, reflective style and
future state of decay. In later life, he proved an able his attention to detail won him many admirers. He was
administrator, becoming keeper of the king's pictures. well travelled, visiting England, the Netherlands, Italy,
Robert enjoyed a long and successful career, though he Poland, and Russia. He was a prolific artist, and his work
was imprisoned during the French Revolution (he is said is well represented in many galleries.
to have escaped the guillotine when another man of the
HL8tL
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same name was mistakenly executed in his place).

Y¥ Architectural Capriccio with Obelisk Aobert became so

fond of this type of subject that it earned him the nickname
“Robert des Ruines”. 1768, oil on canvas, 106 x139cm, Bowes
Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham, UK

A Port of Marseille (detail) 7his is one ofa

series of 15 views of French seaports, commissioned
by Louis XV. 1754, oil on canvas, 165x263cm,
Musée de la Marine, Paris, France

Vernet formed his style during a long stay in Italy (1734—

1753), where he made his name as a marine painter. He
produced two very different types of seascape: bustling
harbour scenes, bathed in soft light, and action-packed A Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Oudry
images of storms and shipwrecks. Both were equally Perronneau shows Oudry —a painter who
popular, bringing him a number of royal commissions. specialized in still lifes and hunting scenes —
richly attired, and bearing the tools of his
Vernet became the head of a proud artistic dynasty.
trade. c1753, oil on canvas, 131 x105cm,
His son (Carle, 1758-1836) and his grandson (Horace,
Louvre, Paris, France
1789-1863) both became distinguished painters.
 Jean-Antoine Houdon
b VERSAILLES, 1741; d PARIS, 1828 LIFEline
Best remembered for his vivid portraits, Houdon was 1741 Born in Versailles
also a versatile sculptor. He trained under Michel-Ange 1764-68 Studies in Italy
Slodtz and Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, before completing his 1767. Gains recognition with
his Ecorché figure
studies in Rome. Initially, he made his mark with a series
1778 Makes studies of
of sensual, mythological figures in the Rococo manner, Voltaire > Winter Jhis is one of a
Portrait by but he was increasingly in demand as a portraitist. Here, 1785 Travels to America, to pair of statues showing Winter
Louis-Léopold Houdon’s approach was direct and unadorned, ignoring make portrait of Washington and Summer. In true Rococo
Eouly the trend for depicting statesmen in classical garb. 1806 Produces a bust of fashion, Houdon chose to
Houdon portrayed some of the greatest figures of his day, Americans Napoleon
portray the seasons as
as well as Frenchmen, but he fell out of favour during the French 1828 Dies in Paris
young nymphs. 1783, marble, y
Revolution. In spite of a commission from Napoleon, he produced height 145cm, Musée Fabre,
little of note after 1800. Montpellier, France

( Voltaire Houdon produced several CLOSERIook

portraits of the philosopher Voltaire — this
is the most famous of them. Begun shortly
before the old man’s death in 1778, it
shows him looking out at the world with a
quizzical glance that has been interpreted
as “the smile of reason”. 1778-81, marble,
height 165cm, Comédie Francaise, Paris, France

SHIVERING GIRL Traditionally, the

figure of Winter was represented by an
old man or woman, warming themselves
by a fire. Houdon’s decision to opt for a
more erotic image was very much in
keeping with contemporary taste.

ROCOCO

CENTURIES
18TH
AND
17TH

INcontext
PORCELAIN FACTORIES
The Sévres porcelain factory was
established in 1738 and was France's
answer to the dominance of Meissen
in Germany. It was promoted by
Louis XV's mistress, Madame de
A George Washington » L’Ecorche (Flayed Body) Pompadour, who enlisted the help of
This is a bronze replica of This anatomical figure was two of her favourite artists — Falconet,
Houdon’s original marble statue one of Houdon’s early who became director of sculpture, and
in Richmond, Virginia. Houdon masterpieces. Casts of it were Boucher, who provided many designs.
travelled to the US to study used in many art academies
George Washington in person 1767, bronze, Ecole des Beaux- The Education of Love by Ftienne-
1788, bronze, height 189cm, Arts, Paris, France Maurice Falconet, after Frangois Boucher
(1763), Sévres porcelain.
Trafalgar Square, London, UK
Etienne-Maurice Faleonet
b PARIS, 1716; d PARIS, 1791
Falconet came from humble origins and
was initially apprenticed to a carpenter,
before Lemoyne took him on as a
pupil. He made his mark in the
1750s when his delightful figures
t
Portrait by of nymphs and cupids proved a hit
Bane at the Salon. They also impressed
Oo
two of the royal mistresses,
Madame du Barry and Madame de Pompadour
(see p.245), and it was through the latter’s
influence that Falconet gained his directorship
at the Sévres porcelain works.
He found even greater success in Russia,
with his daring portrayal of Peter the Great.
Newly weds still visit this, to be “blessed” by
the horseman's outstretched arm. Falconet’s
cantankerous manner won him few friends,
but his writings on art were admired, and he
was ahead of his time in condemning “the
blind adulation of everything that is ancient” A Peter the Great /his majestic
CLOSERI|ook equestrian portrait was Falconets most
important commission during his 12-year
LIFEline stay in Russia, though it was only unveiled
1716 Born into a poor family, after his return to France. 1782, bronze,
in Paris triple life-size, St Petersburg, Russia
1757 His Batheriswarmly
received at the Salon
1757-66 Director of sculpture
at the Sévres factory » The Bather Exhibited to 6¢ | love simple ideas,
1766 Catherine the Great
great acclaim at the Salon of they often say more
invites him to Russia MODESTY As she steps forward gingerly to
1757, this was Falconet'’s
1778 Returns to Paris
most popular work, and it
test the water, the bather's modest pose is than complicated or
1782 His statue of Peter the
was reproduced in a variety
typically Rococo. Her appearance is graceful far-fetched ones ”’
Great is finally unveiled and erotic, but without a hint of vulgarity — a
of different sizes and combination that proved extremely popular
ETIENNE-MAURICE FALCONET
1783 Suffers a stroke
materials. 1757, marble, with the aristocratic patrons of the period.
1791 Dies in Paris
81x 26cm, Louvre, Paris, France

Jean-Baptiste Pigalle Guillaume Coustou

b PARIS, 1714; d PARIS, 1785 LIFEline b LYONS, 1677; d PARIS, 1746

Pigalle was the most versatile sculptor of his time, 1714 Born in Paris, the son of A leading French sculptor, Coustou
a carpenter developed his style in Rome, where
equally capable of producing light-hearted Rococo
1736-39 Studies in Rome
masterpieces and grandiose tomb sculpture. Even so, he became a great admirer of Bernini’s
1744 Statue of Mercury
his early career was a struggle. After training with Jean- wins him membership of
work. His supreme achievement was
Baptiste Lemoyne, Pigalle failed to win the Prix de the Académie Royale the Marly Horses, in which the violent
Rome and endured considerable hardship in financing 1750-58 Under patronage of movement of the animals was balanced
his studies in Italy. Madame de Pompadour by the confident athleticism of their
But all these efforts proved worthwhile when his 1753 Designs the tomb of grooms. Unusually, the statues were not
figure of Mercury eventually brought him success. Maurice of Saxony linked with any specific myth or allegory.
1776 Completes his striking Hi
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HINAYSA
ODODOY
The sculpture of the young deity — seated on a cloud, Their classical pedigree is clear, however,
nude portrait of Voltaire
twisting round to tie up his winged sandals — was a as they were partly inspired by the
1785 Dies in Paris
triumph. Early versions in plaster and terracotta won sculptures of the Dioscuriin Rome.
Pigalle his membership of the Académie Royale, and
Louis XV was so impressed that he commissioned a
marble version, which he presented to Frederick II of
Prussia. Having made his reputation, Pigalle received
a string of important commissions. These ranged from
the imposing tomb of Maurice of Saxony, with its
majestic allegorical figures, to his.dazzlingly original
portrait of the philosopher and playwright Voltaire.

> Voltaire Pigalle worked on

the head and body separately,
using a professional model for
the latter. Voltaire was unsure
at first, but applauded the
result. 1776, marble, height
150cm, Louvre, Paris, France A Mercury Attaching his Winged Sandals
Pigalle’s figure was partly inspired by a famous
classical statue, the Belvedere Torso. 1744, marble, A Marly Horse One of a pair of statues, also
height 58cm, Louvre, Paris, France known as The Horse Tamers, commissioned by
Louis XV for his chateau at Marly. 1739-45,
marble, Place de la Concorde, Paris, France
 Johann Baptist Zimmermann
b WESSOBRUNN, c1679/80; d MUNICH, 1758
This German painter and stuccoer came from an area
that had a strong tradition in stucco decoration and was
trained by Johann Schmutzer, a specialist in the field.
Zimmermann’s younger brother, Dominikus (1685-1766),
became a celebrated architect and the pair occasionally
collaborated on projects. Their outstanding ventures
were at the pilgrimage churches of Steinhausen and Die
Wies, where the architecture, frescoes, and stucco
decoration blended perfectly into a single, harmonious
design. Zimmermann also worked for secular patrons
and eventually became court painter in Munich. As in his
religious commissions, his work displayed an exquisite
delicacy and lightness of touch.

LIFEline
1679/80 Born in Wessobrunn
1685 Birth of his brother
Dominikus, who will later
become his chief collaborator
1701 Receives his first
significant commission, from
a church at Gosseltshausen
1706 Count of Maxlrain
becomes his first major patron
c1706 Marries Elisabeth
Ostermayr, a chambermaid
1727-33 Collaborates with GBD E New
Dominikus at Steinhausen » The Last Judgement /he
ROCOCO SPLENDOUR
1734-39 Produces his finest pilgrimage church at Die Wies,
Zimmermann's fresco is located
stucco decorations for the a collaboration between the
inside a flattened dome, but his
Amalienburg hunting lodge Zimmermann brothers, is masterful use of foreshortening
1746-54 Works with his arguably the most spectacular Pe creates an illusion of enormous
brother on the church at Die of all Rococo churches. UNESCO fe space. The undulating, celestial
Wies, their masterpiece granted it World Heritage status clouds also echo the lines of
1758 Dies in Munich
ROCOCO in 1983. 1746-54, ceiling fresco, his stuccowork.
=e Wieskirche, Die Wies, Germany

Johann Michael Rottmayr Paul Troger

b LAUFEN, NEAR SALZBURG, 1654; d VIENNA, 1730 LIFEline b ZELL UNTER WELSBERG, 1698; d VIENNA, 1762 LIFEline
The Austrian artist Rottmayr may have received his 1654 Born at Laufen Troger was a leading Austrian painter in the period of 1698 Born in the South Tyrol
initial training from his mother, who was also a painter. 1675-87 Works in Venice transition from the Baroque to the Rococo style. He early 1720s Travels in Italy
However, his main studies took place in Venice, in the with Johann Carl Loth studied in Italy for almost a decade, learning much from 1733-34 Paints frescoes in
1688 Moves to Salzburg, Altenburg Abbey
workshop of Johann Carl Loth, where he worked as his the work of Piazzetta, Pittoni, and Ricci. On his return to
working for the prince-bishop 1739 Produces decorations
assistant for several years. Later, he formed a fruitful Austria, Troger gained a series of important fresco
1695 Collaborates with for Gdttweig Monastery
partnership with the architect Johann Fischer von Erlach, Fischer Von Erlach at Frain commissions, notably at Altenburg Abbey and Géttweig 1750s Becomes professor
providing the decorations for many of his buildings. Castle in Moravia Monastery. These frescoes are characterized by intense and later director of the
Rottmayr specialized in frescoes characterized by large, c1696 Settles in Vienna colouring and a dramatic sense of movement. Later in Vienna Academy
AND powerful figures and a robust sense of movement.
CENTURIES
18TH
17TH 1716-22 Carries out his career, Troger taught at the Vienna Academy, where 1762 Dies in Vienna
decorations at Melk Abbey he was influential on the next generation.
Y Hercules slaying the Hydra Hercules 1725-29 Paints the fresco in
the Karlskirche, Vienna
dispatches the many-headed snake with his
1730 Dies in Vienna
club, while nearby Minerva rides in her chariot.
1716-22, ceiling fresco, Melk Abbey, Melk, Austria
2 : 4

A The Apotheosis of the Emperor Charles VI

Troger'’s detailed study for a ceiling fresco, carried
out at Géttweig Monastery in Austria. c1739, oil on
canvas, 73x91cm, private collection
Ignaz Ginther
b ALTMANNSTEIN, 1725; d MUNICH, 1775 LIFEline
The outstanding woodcarver of his age, GUnther began 1725 Born in Bavaria Johann Joachim Kandler
his training in his father’s workshop and completed it 1754 Settles in Munich
at the Vienna Academy. In his carvings of saints and 1757 Marries Maria Hollmayr b FISCHBACH, 1706; d MEISSEN, 1775 LIFEline
biblical scenes, he displayed a mix of Rococo elegance 1759-62 Works on his Kandler was working as a sculptor in the service of 1706 Born in Fischbach
masterpiece, the decoration
and religious fervour, which won him many Frederick Augustus, Elector of Saxony, when he was 1730 Becomes court sculptor
of the church in Rott-am-Inn
commissions throughout Germany. Gunther's greatest transferred to the new porcelain works at Meissen. For to the Elector of Saxony
1763 Carves Tobias and the
achievement was probably the church of Rott-am-Inn, centuries, the Chinese had guarded the secret of 1731 Begins work at the
Angel
porcelain factory at Meissen
where he provided many of the furnishings. His most 1764 Produces sculptures for porcelain manufacture, but in 1709 the Germans finally
1733 Becomes chief modeller
famous individual piece, however, was the elongated collegiate church of Weyarn learned the process. The Meissen factory was founded at the factory, a post he holds
figure of the guardian angel leading Tobias by the hand, 1775 Dies in Munich in the following year and, under Kandler’s guidance, it until his death
produced for the Burgersaalkirche in Munich. became the leading porcelain centre in Europe. He 1737-41 Works on the
transferred popular themes from Rococo painting into 2,200-piece Swan Service
three-dimensional form, designing Watteau-inspired 1775 Dies in Meissen
CLOSERIook figurines, charming animal models, and pastoral scenes.

if 4

CALM NOBILITY In this impressive

sculpture, Giinther's obvious talent for
portraying religious intensity is almost
overshadowed by his taste for depicting
intricate, wind-blown drapery. ~{ Meissen Figure of
a Poultry Seller Kand/er
designed a range of tradesmen
<< Saint Peter /his elaborate carving figures for the factory, including
was produced for the high altar of a a saddler, a woodcutter, and a
monastic church. 1756, limewood, Church goat seller. c1750, porcelain, NVINYSDS
GNV
IWHYLNA
NV3dOU
030904
of St Peter and St Paul, Freising, Germany Clandon Park, Surrey, UK

Franz Anton Maulbertsch x

—

b LANGENARGEN, c1724; d VIENNA, 1796 a

>
The leading Austrian painter of his age, Maulbertsch is renowned for Zz
both his altarpieces and his monumental frescoes. After receiving S)
some training from his father, who was also a painter, he studied at oo
4
the Vienna Academy. Early influences came from Andrea Pozzo and zi
Paul Troger, but Maulbertsch rapidly developed his own virtuoso style. )
Mm
His first major fresco commission came from the Piarists’ church in Zz
Vienna, but Maulbertsch’s talents were soon in demand at religious 4

=
establishments throughout central Europe. The decorative schemes at ay
Stimeg in Hungary, at the archbishop’s palace at Kremsier, in Moravia, mM
2)
and at the Hofburg in Innsbruck are fine examples of his style.
Maulbertsch was a dazzling colourist with a lively approach to
composition. This is particularly apparent in his oil sketches, now
prized almost as much as his large-scale works, and is seen to
outstanding effect in his dashing portrayal of St James, appearing
triumphantly at the Battle of Clavijo.

LIFEline > Presentation in the Temple /his is a

dazzling example of Maulbertschs illusionistic
1724 Born son of a painter
skills. The central episode, where St Simeon holds
1741 Enrols at the Vienna
out the infant Christ to the Virgin, is viewed at eye
Academy
level, while the swirling host of angels is seen
1757-58 Decorates Simeg
church in Hungary from below. 1794, oil on canvas, Stiftsmuseum,
1770 Becomes professor Klosterneuburg, Austria
at the Vienna Academy
1775 Works on frescoes at
the Hofburg in Innsbruck
1796 Dies in Vienna

» Apotheosis of St James
the Greater Here St James
tramples the Saracens
underfoot. 1764, oil on canvas,
32x 48cm, Osterreichische
Galerie Belvedere, Vienna
 Giacomo Serpotta
Giovanni Paolo Panini
b PALERMO, 1656; d PALERMO, 1732
Working in his native Sicily, Serpotta took Rococo sculpture to its most
b PIACENZA, 1691; d ROME, 1765 | LIFEline
decorative extremes. His favourite medium was stucco, which he Panini trained initially as a stage designer, but he found fame with his 1691 Born in Piacenza
employed in a series of high-relief sculptures in various churches around colourful views of Roman ruins. These proved extremely popular with | 1711 Settles in Rome
the island. Serpotta concentrated mainly on religious subjects, but this French and English tourists, even though the artist took many liberties 1719 Elected to the
with the topographical accuracy of his scenes. Most of his pictures | Accademia di San Luca
did not deter him from producing figures of extraordinary delicacy and
| 1724 Marries Catherine
charm. His compositions were equally ornate. In its traditional format, conjured up ancient Rome, although he also portrayed modern
Gosset, the sisterin-law of
the presentation of the infant Christ in the Temple could be a very festivities and processions. Panini maintained a large workshop to | the painter Vieughels
modest theme, with just four or five figures, but Serpotta transformed keep pace with the demand for his paintings. He also found time |1732 Becomes a member of
it into a bustling crowd scene. Putti (cherubs) swarm around the biblical to teach at the French Academy in Rome, and to paint a number of | the French Academy in Rome
figures, sitting on the hems of their robes, materializing between pillars, decorative frescoes in local palaces and villas. 1738 Birth of his son
or simply gazing in wonder at the miraculous child. Francesco, who later becomes
BF an artist
|1765 Dies in Rome, aged 74

<< Roman Ruins with Blind

=a an Belisarius Panini often
spiced up his views of Rome
A Presentation in the Temple /his i//ustrates by including figures from the
Simeon holding the infant Christ, who is being presented Classical world. 1730, oil on
in the temple, according to Jewish ritual (Luke 2:22-39).
ROCOCO canvas, 142x 132cm, Temple
1695, stucco, Church of Santo Spirito, Agrigento, Italy Newsam House, Leeds, UK

Giovanni Battista Piranesi

Fae : b MOGLIANO, NEAR VENICE, 1720; d ROME, 1778

The son of a stonemason and master builder, Piranesi

trained as an architect in the workshop of his uncle,
Matteo Lucchesi, in Venice. He also studied with Carlo
cen Zucchi, learning the techniques of printmaking and
of perspective. Armed with these skills, Piranesi moved to
Portrait by Rome in 1740, where he was employed by the Venetian
Elwes ambassador. Shortly after his arrival, he also worked for
Olanzani
the Valeriani brothers, who were known for their stage
17TH designs and paintings of ruins. This very varied training would stand
CENTURIES
18TH
AND
| Piranesi in good stead in his later career.
In Rome, his principal source of income came from his prints of
the city's splendours, aimed at connoisseurs on the Grand Tour. With
his architect's eye, he portrayed the antiquities with precision and a
captivating sense of grandeur. Piranesi also tackled the popular theme
of the capriccio (fantasy), in his Imaginary Prisons series. These
extraordinary etchings, part stage set and part grotesque fantasy,
have proved to be one of his most lasting achievements.

LIFEline
1720 Born near Venice, the 6¢ | drew chasms, and
son of a master builder
subterranean hollows, <The Well A The Colosseum from
1740 Settles in Rome, where
the domain of fear and This is one of the Piranesi’s Antiquities of Rome.
he spends most of his career
nightmarish visions 1756, etching, 13x27cm, Central
1745 First edition of his Vedute | torture, with chains,
(views) of Rome is published from Piranesi’s Saint Martins College of Art and
racks, wheels and famous Imaginary Design, London, UK
1761 Publication of his
Imaginary Prisons dreadful engines in Prisons. 1761,
1764-66 Rebuilds the church the style of Piranesi etching, 40x 55cm,
of S. Maria del Priorato, Rome, Calcographia dello
WILLIAM BECKFORD, 1786
his only work as an architect Stato, Rome, Italy
AUTHOR, EXPLAINING HOW
1770 First visit to Pompeii
IMAGINARY PRISONS INFLUENCED
1778 Dies in Rome HIS GOTHIC NOVEL, VATHEK
Pompeo Batoni
b LUCCA, 1708; d ROME, 1787 ¥ Thomas William Coke /he inscription suggests
After receiving some training in his father’s goldsmith’s workshop in Tee eee oe as ai
Lucca, Batoni moved to Rome and studied under Sebastiano Conca. se appear on the reclining statue Which pice
Initially, he made his name with highly finished drawings of ancient to gaze adoringly at the young oRTGn caaonicn
statuary, then as a painter of religious and mythological subjects, aes 242 x168cm, Holkham Hall Norfolk. UK ;
= S though he was never more than competent in this field, and his style iid : : :
Self-portrait | was a pale imitation of Raphael's. Batoni’s real strength lay in painting
portraits, and from around 1750 this became his speciality.
Over the years, Batoni painted popes, princes, and rulers, but the majority of his
clients were British aristocrats undertaking the Grand Tour. These portraits were
supremely elegant, if a little formulaic. Usually, the sitters were shown posing
alongside a famous Roman landmark or sculpture. The same backgrounds appeared
again and again, but this scarcely mattered. Batoni was successful enough at this
work to support a family of 12 children and to own a large house with exhibition
rooms and a studio. In later life, he became the curator of the papal art collections.

LIFEline
1708 Born in Lucca, the son
of a goldsmith
1727 Settles in Rome
1741 Becomes a member of
the Accademia di San Luca
c1750 onwards Specializes
in portraiture
1761 His chief rival, Mengs,
departs for Spain
1774 Produces one of his
finest portraits, Thomas
William Coke
1787 Dies in Rome, one
of the most famous artists
in Europe

> Achilles at the Court of

Lycomedes Here, Achilles is
disguised as a woman, but his
identity is revealed when he
chooses a sword as a gift,
rather than jewellery. 1746, oil
on canvas, 159x127cm, Uffizi,
Florence, Italy

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INcontext
THE GRAND TOUR In the 18th
century, many young European
aristocrats undertook a “Grand
Tour” of the continent as part of
HIGHLAND DRESS The their education. Rome was the
wearing of traditional Scottish highlight of the tour, and many
highland dress was a political brought back works of art as a
statement at this time. Tartan souvenir of their stay. This aided
was outlawed in the wake the spread of Neoclassical ideas.
of the Jacobite uprising of Interior of St Peter's, Rome by
1745-46, so this portrait could Giovanni Paolo Panini.
not legally have been painted
in Gordon's homeland.

A William Gordon of Fyvie /he highlander

poses against a backdrop of the Colosseum.
The fragments in the bottom right-hand corner
reappear in the Coke portrait (above). 1766, oil
on canvas, Fyvie Castle, Aberdeenshire
 Giambattista Tiepolo
b VENICE, 1696; d MADRID, 1770 LIFEline
Tiepolo was the finest Italian artist of the Rococo era 1696 Born in Venice, the son
of a shipping merchant
and the last great master of his country’s fresco tradition.
1719 Marries Cecilia Guardi
He was apprenticed to Gregorio Lazzarini, a minor history
painter, but learned far more from the examples of
1728 Completes his first CLOSERIook
major fresco cycle at Udine j IMPERIAL SPLENDOUR
Piazzetta and Veronese. Tiepolo’s first major commission c1740 Paints his finest In Tiepolo’s hands, an obscure
Portrait by came from the Dolfin family, who hired to paint religious pictures for the historical event — the marriage
Giuseppe the frescoes in the Archbishop's Palace in Udine. This church of S. Alvise, Venice of the 12th-century German ruler
Ghislandi
work helped him to secure a string of other fresco 1750 Begins work on his Frederick Barbarossa to Beatrice
commissions, although he never restricted himself to this field, as masterpiece, at the Residenz of Burgundy — is given mythic
his powerful canvases for the church of S. Alvise in Venice confirm. in Wurzburg status. Beatrice is transported
1762 Moves to Madrid, to to her groom in Apollo's mighty
Tiepolo's great skill lay in his ability to depict huge, illusionistic
work in the royal palace horse-drawn chariot, with the
scenes with immense verve and imagination. This is best seen in his
1770 Dies in Madrid emblems of love — cupids and
masterpiece, the decorations of the Residenz (palace) in Wurzburg.
doves — swarming around her.

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> The Road to Calvary /n this moving biblical
scene, Christ has collapsed under the weight of
the cross. On the left, the two thieves look on
with brute compassion while, opposite them,
St Veronica holds her veil, on which Christ's
features were miraculously imprinted when she
wiped the sweat from his face. c1740, oil on
canvas, 450x517cm, S. Alvise, Venice, Italy
Y Apollo Conducting Beatrice of Burgundy
to Frederick Barbarossa (detail) his
grandiose allegorical vision is part of Tiepolos
most important cycle of decorations, produced for
the Kaisersaal (Imperial Hall) of the palace of
Wiirzburg’s powerful prince-bishop. 1751, ceiling
fresco, approx 9x 18m, Residenz, Wurzburg, Germany

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A Neptune Offering Gifts to

Venice /his magnificent allegory,
commissioned by the Venetian
Republic, emphasized the city’s 6¢ Tiepolo has been made expressly
commercial and maritime power. for us... he is full of spirit... of
1745-50, oiloncanvas, 135x 275cm, = gen = tice
Palarra Dliestesvenice: tal an infinite fire, an astonishing
colouring, and an amazing
< Young Woman with a speed. He paints a picture in
Parrot /n this fine example of :
Tiepolo’s portraiture, the woman less time than it takes another
was probably meant to be an to grind his colours ”’
allegorical figure representing COUNT TESSIN TO THE KING OF SWEDEN, WHO
summer. The model may have TRIED TO SECURE TIEPOLO’S SERVICES
been one of his daughters.
1758-60, oil on canvas, 70x52cm,
Ashmolean, Oxford, UK
 Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal)
b VENICE, 1697; d VENICE, 1768 LIFEline
Canaletto is renowned, above all, for his superlative views of the 1697 Born in Venice, the son
city of Venice. He was trained by his father, a theatrical scene painter, of a theatrical scene painter
and spent the initial years of his career assisting him on sets for 1719 Travels to Rome to
design opera sets Vv Bacino di San Marco Canaletto
Scarlatti and Vivaldi operas. By the early 1720s, Canaletto had
c1727 Paints The exaggerated when necessary. Here, he
turned his attention to topographical views. Venice itself could be Stonemason’s Yard used two different viewpoints in order to
Portrait by compared to a gigantic stage set, and he spared no effort in capturing 1735 Engravings of his work make this panorama as spectacular as
Giambattista its drama and spectacle. appear in the Prospectus possible. c1735, oil on canvas, 125x205cm,
Piazetta Magni Canalis Venetiaftum
From the outset, his chief clients were English aristocrats, visiting Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, US
the city as part of their Grand Tour. Canaletto geared his pictures specifically towards 1740-48 The War of the
these buyers, providing them with exquisite souvenirs of their stay. He painted the Austrian Succession affects
his business
obvious tourist sights, such as St Mark's Square and the Grand Canal, as well as the
1744 Canaletto's agent,
| most colourful festivals — the carnival, the regatta, the Ascension Day celebrations. Joseph Smith, becomes
Accuracy and detail were strong selling points, so Canaletto made them the basis of British Consul in Venice
his style. He is thought to have used a camera obscura (see p.239) as a drawing aid, 1746 Decides to work in
but he also made countless sketches of the city, to ensure his work remained fresh. England
In the 1740s, the War of the Austrian Succession had a drastic effect on tourism in 1755 Returns to Venice
Venice, so Canaletto decided to pursue his career in England. His approach remained 1762 Joseph Smith sells his
remarkably similar, particularly in his scenes of the River Thames. Increasingly though, art collection to George III
his style was criticized for being too mechanical and there were even rumours that he 1763 Canaletto is elected to
the Venetian Academy
was an impostor. Canaletto himself never regained his former popularity, but his
1768 Dies in Venice; is buried
| pictures were still widely imitated. in the church of S. Lio

The Stonemason’s Yard /n nusual picture, Canaletto

sent Sacha 11Ng scene of everyday life in Venice: a mother runs
‘S water from a well.
19/4
24x 163cm, National Gallery, London, UK
 ¢¢ The Famous Painter of Francesco Guardi |
Views, Canaletto of Venice,
b VENICE, 1712; d VENICE, 1793
has procured a great reputation
and his great merit and The principal member of a family of painters, Guardi is
best remembered for his views of Venice. These were |
excellence in that way...
often based on Canaletto’s pictures, although Guardi’s
is much esteemed 9? approach was very different. His style was sketchy and |
v Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day Here,
GEORGE VERTUE, 1746, spontaneous, but his best works have a shimmering,
the Doge in his Bucintoro (state barge) casts a ring into the
ENGRAVER AND ANTIQUARY nou
sea, symbolizing the citys “marriage” with the sea. c1730, Portrait by atmospheric quality. This did not prove popular with
oil on canvas, 182 x259cm, Aldo Crespi Collection, Milan, Italy Pietro Longhi tourists, who preferred the sharper detail and greater
accuracy of Canaletto. As a result, Guardi gained little
recognition and died in poverty, although he was later féted by the
Impressionists. Guardi also specialized in the capriccio (caprice). His
versions usually took the form of an imaginary landscape, featuring
invented ruins picturesquely covered in creepers. Guardi's sister married
the artist Tiepolo, while his son, Giacomo, also became a painter.

v Venice: Piazza San Marco (detail) /n his

views, Guardi placed far more emphasis on the
figures than Canaletto did. c1760, oil on canvas,
72x119cm, National Gallery, London, U

A Caprice with Ruins Guardi

created a series of paintings of
imaginary ruins, inspired by
excavations on the islands in the
Venetian lagoon. c1775-80, oil on
canvas, Victoria and Albert Museum, SLSILYV
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London, UK

<< Westminster Bridge with

the Lord Mayor's Procession
Bernardo Bellotto
In London, Canaletto reproduced b VENICE, 1721; d WARSAW, 1780
the formula that had been so
successful in his native city. Bellotto was Canaletto’s nephew, and joined him as a pupil and later
Here, the most topical feature as a member of his workshop. Not surprisingly, his early work was
is Westminster Bridge, which strongly influenced by the master, and some of his Venetian scenes
was under construction at the have been mistaken for Canalettos. This confusion may well have
time of the painting and was been intentional, as he often used his uncle's name. Bellotto only
only opened in 1750. 1746, oil worked in Venice for a limited time, however, spending most of his
on canvas, 96x 138cm, Yale Center career in Dresden, Vienna, and Warsaw. Here, he worked mainly for
for British Art, New Haven, royal patrons, rather than tourists, and his mature style is marked by
Connecticut, US a fine attention to detail. Indeed, his scenes of Warsaw are so accurate
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World War II.

PROCESSION The larger barges WESTMINSTER The twin towers are

belong to the various city guilds. those of Westminster Abbey. To the left
A Entrance to the Grand Canal, Venice /his
Canaletto enhanced the spectacle by is Westminster Hall, where the new
is almost identical to one of Canaletto’s views.
adding a flotilla of smaller boats. Lord Mayor will be sworn in.
—— c1745, oil on canvas, 59x 95cm, Fitzwilliam Museum,
Cambridge, UK
 William Hogarth
INcontext
b LONDON, 1697; d LONDON, 1764 COFFEE HOUSES Coffee
Pugnacious, patriotic, satirical, and humane, Hogarth was introduced to Europe in
was the outstanding British artist of his day. He the 1600s, and coffee houses
devoted his life to raising the status of British artists. soon sprang up in all the
An innovative engraver, he was also a gifted portrait major cities. In Hogarth’s
painter. But it is as the inventor of a new art form —a London, they were the focus
Self-portrait series of paintings on “modern moral subjects” — that of social life, debate, and
he is best remembered. lively discussion. Along with
other artists and writers,
Hogarth began his career as a silverplate engraver. In 1720, he set
Hogarth frequented Old
up in business in London while studying
graduated from engraving shop cards to
painting in his spare time. He
painting conversation pieces,
Slaughter's Coffee House in ¢¢ Other pictures
theatre pieces, and his “modern moral” series. Engraving these as
St Martin's Lane.
we see,
prints for sale brought financial success, and Hogarth’'s campaign Coffee House in 1763 Hogarth’s
against unauthorized copying effectively invented artist's copyright. engraving, artist unknown.
we read ”’
LIFEline WILLIAM HAZLITT, 1845,
WRITER AND CRITIC
1697 Born in London
1729 Marries Jane Thornhill,
daughter of painter James
Thornhill
1732 Sells first “modern moral” |
prints: A Harlot’s Progress
1743-45 Paints the Marriage |
a la Mode series |
1753 Publishes his art treatise, |
The Analysis of Beauty |
1764 Dies in London
— st t, << Gin Lane Gin drinking among the
poor was at its height when Hogarth
The Graham Children created this hellish vision of the
Despite the smiles, symbols of backstreets of London, as part of a
death (the hourglass and scythe) campaign to support the Gin Act of
reflect that the baby died while 1751. The gin-soaked, snuff-taking
the portrait was being painted. mother is oblivious as her baby falls to
1742, oil on canvas, 161x181cm,
ROCOCO its death. 1751, etching and engraving
National Gallery, London, UK on paper, 36x31cm, private collection

ES

CENTURI
18TH
AND
17TH
SIGN OF THE CUCKOLD
Numerous details in this
painting reveal that the
countess is having an affair.
As the boy servant unpacks a
basket, we see a tray depicting
Leda being seduced by the swan
(Jupiter in disguise), and a
figure of Actaeon, whose horns
can allude to a cuckold — a man
whose wife commits adultery.

Marriage a la Mode:
The Toilette 7his is the fourth
scene of a narrative series
satirizing marriages arranged
for money. Here, the young
countess is in her boudoir
with her lover and pretentious
hangers-on. c1743-45, oil on
canvas, 71 x91cm, National
Gallery, London, UK
Richard Wilson
b PENEGOES, 1713; d LLANBERIS, 1782 LIFEline
The son of a well-to-do Welsh clergyman, 1713 Born in North Wales Allan Ramsay
Richard Wilson began his artistic career 1729 Apprenticed to Thomas
as a portrait painter but went on to Wright, portrait painter Sa b EDINBURGH, 1713; d DOVER, 1784
1735 Working independently
transform British landscape painting Allan Ramsay was the leading portraitist
in London
into an art form of poetic vision that in London from about 1740 until the mid
1750-56 Visits Italy, working
Portrait by could express ideas and emotions. chiefly in and around Rome 1750s, when Joshua Reynolds began to
Anton Raphael — Following his apprenticeship to a c1765 Paints Snowdon from ¥ Snowdon from Llyn rise to prominence. Ramsay also played
Mengs
London portrait painter, Wilson was Llyn Nantlle Nantlle /his serene, classically a leading role in the literary and
working independently by 1735, but it was not until the 1768 Becomes a founder balanced composition shows Artist unknown intellectual life of the time.
1750s during a trip to Italy that he decided to devote member of Royal Academy how Wilson imbued his native The son of a Scottish poet, Ramsay
himself to landscape. He may have been influenced by 1776 As an act of charity, British landscape with an studied in Edinburgh, London, and Italy, before settling
encouragement from the Italian landscape painter Royal Academy appoints him unprecedented poetic grandeur. in London. It may have been Reynolds's rising reputation
librarian; by this time he is an
Francesco Zuccarelli, but Wilson’s primary inspirations alcoholic and impoverished He often painted repeats of that led him to visit Italy again in 1755-57 In 1767, he
seem to have been the countryside around Rome and 1781 Returns to Wales
popular (money-making) became principal painter to George III, but it is for his
the landscapes of the 17th-century painters Claude and compositions: there are two intimate portraits, rather than those in the Grand
1782 Dies in Wales
Gaspard Dughet. Returning to London, Wilson was the versions of this celebrated work. Manner, that Ramsay is most admired. He gave up
first artist to apply this idealizing, classical tradition to c1765, oil on canvas, 104x127cm, painting in 1773 after an arm injury.
English and Welsh views. Castle Museum, Nottingham, UK
A founder member of the Royal Academy, Wilson oid v Portrait of Margaret Lindsay /his tender
was highly successful at his peak, but he had a difficult,
painting of his second wife has an elegantly
abrasive personality, developing a severe drink problem
French air. c1758-60, oil on canvas, 74x 62cm,
in later years, which led to his decline and death. National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK

CLOSERIook |
THE CLASSICAL
REPOUSSOIR [his
composition follows the
classical convention of
repoussoir (from the
French word repousser, to
push back). The dark
shapes of the trees and
reflection frame a lighter
centre and enhance the
sense of depth.

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A Wilton House from the South East W/i/son

= SKETCHING PARTY Following the A David Hume famsay painted this
painted many impressive views of country houses,
tradition of classical landscape artists of the wonderfully direct portrait as a gift for
including five of Wilton House. The colouring and
| 17th century, Wilson often included small Hume, an eminent Scottish philosopher
composition are reminiscent of the works of Claude
+ figures in his foregrounds. Here, a seated and historian. They were close friends.
and Dughet. c1758-60, oil on canvas, Collection of the artist paints the view, watched thoughtfully
Earl of Pembroke, Wilton House, Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK 1766, oil on canvas, 76x64cm, National
» by two standing companions. The silhouetted
Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK
~ figures, lit by an aura of glowing evening
| light, form a picturesque group against the
i cloud reflections on the still lake.
~ Animals V Vision of St Augustine (detail)
Vittore Carpaccio The Venetian artist
depicts the dog's devotion with fond
realism. 1502-08, oil on canvas, Scuola
Some of the earliest images known are of animals, di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni, Venice, Italy
daubed on the walls of caves some 40,000 years
ago. Since then, animals have been portrayed in
ra religious rituals, as sacrifices, mythical creatures,
. or incarnations of gods and goddesses, symbolically V Rhinoceros Albrecht Diirer The master
in Christian art, or simply as pets. Animals began to of the German Renaissance was inspired to
take centre stage in the 18th and 19th centuries as make this woodcut after receiving a letter
from a friend describing an Indian rhinoceros.
proud owners commissioned “portraits” of their Diirer had never seen an animal anything
well-bred livestockand pets. Some painters made V St Jerome in his Study Attributed like it and took his friend's phrase “armour-
in hunting and racing scenes. to Jan van Eyck The artist revelled in plated” literally. 1515, woodcut, 21 x30cm,
art is as popular as ever, even down detail and texture such as the lion’s private collection
mane. Early 15th century, oils, 20x 13cm,
that put a contemporary Isis
The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, US
i RHINOCERVS ©

f years apart. It is still unclear why prehistoric

vered cave walls with animal paintings like these.
scaux, Périgord, France

48

_ AGilt-bronze Sea Dragon Chinese, artist

unknown Chinese dragons are depicted as
_ snake-like creatures with four claws and are
_asymbol of auspicious power controlling the
element of water. Six Dynasties period (295-589 ce),
~ private collection

A St George and the Dragon

Paolo Uccello This Florentine
artist started in the courtly
International Gothic style,
elegantly elongating the
princess and embellishing the
dragon with butterfly-like spots A Turkey Mughal Empire Under the art-loving
on its wings — and a lead. Emperor Akbar, a vigorous, naturalistic style
f Uccello later became obsessed developed. Mid-17th century, watercolour, 21x 14cm,
Way with perspective and realism. Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK
c1470, oil on canvas, 59x 76cm,
National Gallery, London, UK
A Kublai Khan Hunting (detail)
Attributed to Liu Kuan-tao The founder
of the Mongol dynasty in China and his
followers spot their prey, intriguingly not
revealed to the viewer. 1270-1300, Yuan
Dynasty, ink and colour on silk, National
Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
V Whistlejacket George Stubbs The
English artist specialized in painting horses.
This thoroughbred, the product of recent
knowledge on breeding horses, merits a portrait
V The Parade or Race
huge enough for a human subject. 1762, oil on < Tiger Franz Marc The German
Horses in front of the Stands
canvas, 292 x246cm, National Gallery, London, UK Expressionist considered animals
NR
Edgar Degas The races gave
Degas the chance to experiment to be on a higher plane. He used
with unusual cropping and simplified shapes and symbolic
composition, as if he were colour to express their “animalness”.
taking a candid snapshot. 1912, oil on canvas, 111x112cm,
1866-68, oil on paper, 46x61cm, Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus,
Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France Munich, Germany
V The Physical Impossibility of Death
in the Mind of Someone Living Damien Hirst
The controversial artist's most famous work —
a Shark floating in a tank — reflects his fascination
with death. 1991, glass, steel, silicone, shark, and
formaldehyde, 213x640x213cm, Saatchi Gallery,
London, UK

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A Tiger Attacking a Wild A Joe’s Black Dog Marjorie Weiss

Horse Eugéne Delacroix The contemporary American artist shows a
French Romantic Delacroix giant dog dwarfing the landscape. The low
painted horses with wild viewpoint makes it seem even larger. 2000,
Byronic vitality. Sweeping brush acrylic on canvas, 76x 76cm, private collection
marks capture the horses fear aR edt fee oe etude ed WSS ; ;
and agony in the face of certain A Tiger in a Tropical Storm (Surprised!)
death. c1826-29, pen and ink and Henri Rousseau The artists childlike style
watercolour, 18x 25cm, Louvre, and vivid colour palette peaked in his “jungle”
Paris, France te * * 9) scenes of exotic animals. 1891, oil on canvas,
: sal ol 130x 162cm, National Gallery, London, UK
A Monarch of the Glen
Sir Edwin Landseer Queen
Victoria's favourite painter
appealed to the Victorians
CMU MULL CIALULLALE)
of animal subjects — the very
reason that caused his
reputation to decline in the
20th century. 1851, oil on canvas,
164x 169cm, United Distillers
and Vintners, Fife, UK
 Joshua Reynolds
Pa)
b PLYMPTON, DEVON, 1723; d LONDON, 1792
The most distinguished portraitist of his day, a learned
art theorist, and the first president of the Royal Academy,
Reynolds did more than anyone else in history to elevate
the status of British art and artists.
“pais The son of a headmaster and clergyman, he was ¢¢ Damn him, how
Self-portrait apprenticed at the age of 17 to Thomas Hudson in < Mrs Siddons as the 7 ic| 99
London. After some years painting in Devon and London, Tragic Muse /he greatest various he |s!
in 1750-52 Reynolds visited Italy, where he made a profound study of tragic actress of her day is THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH
classical and Renaissance art. Returning to London, he set out to raise shown in the guise of
the status of portraiture from lowly “face painting” to the level of Melpomene, the muse of
history painting, by making reference to the great art of the past. He Tragedy. Her pose echoes v Henry, Eighth Lord Arundell of Wardour
one of the prophets from the __In this grand portrait, Reynolds consciously makes
was phenomenally successful and productive, but so versatile and
Sistine Chapel, painted by references to past art. Lord Arundell’s pose derives
inventive that he rarely repeated himself. His Discourses on Art—
Michelangelo. 1789, oil on from classical art, while the column echoes van
lectures delivered between 1769 and 1790 at the Royal Academy —
canvas, 240x 147cm, Dulwich Dyck’s portraits. ¢1764-67, oil on canvas, 239x 147cm,
are the classic exposition of the academic ideal of the Grand Manner.
Picture Gallery, London, UK Dayton Art Institute, Ohio, US

LIFEline
1723 Born in Devon
1750-52 Visits Italy |
1768 Royal Academy founded;
Reynolds is its first president
1769 Delivers his first
Discourse on Art
1789 Stops painting due to his
failing eyesight
1792 Dies in London, and is
buried in St Paul's Cathedral

Georgiana, Countess of
| Spencer, and her Daughter
2)
O | This lovely preliminary sketch
Oo for an intimate portrait is based
O on a Madonna and Child format.
\e)
cc 1759, oil on canvas, 75x62cm,
private collection

The Ladies Waldegrave Reynolds’

skill at composing portraits which reflected
the sitters’ characters and interests is
shown in this triple portrait. Lady Charlotte
and Lady Elizabeth wind silk, while Lady
Anna is making lace on a tambour. 1780, oil
on canvas, 143x168cm, National Galleries of
Scotland, Edinburgh, UK

THREE GRACES With heads

bent towards each other, faces
shown in different views, and
arms creating a linking line, the
grouping evokes classical statues
of the Three Graces
Thomas Gainsborough
b SUDBURY, SUFFOLK, 1727; d LONDON, 1788 LIFEline v The Honourable Mrs Graham /his ravishing full-
length portrait shows Gainsborough’ later style, which was
Like Reynolds, Gainsborough was a giant of 18th-century British art. 1727 Born in Sudbury
supremely elegant and glamorous. c1775-77, oil on canvas,
But where Reynolds was scholarly and diligent, Gainsborough was c1740 Begins his training
in London 237 x154cm, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK
intuitive and impulsive. His influences included Dutch, Flemish, and
French Rococo art, but he was a painter of great originality, renowned 1748-59 Works in Suffolk
for portraits, landscapes, and sentimental “fancy pictures” 1759-74 Enjoys success
in Bath
Self-portrait Precociously talented, Gainsborough was sent to train in London
1768 Founder member of
aged about 13. He worked with the French engraver Hubert Gravelot Royal Academy
(a pupil of Boucher) and possibly Francis Hayman. His provincial portrait business in 1774 Settles in London
Suffolk was not lucrative, but a move to Bath in 1759 proved a turning point in his 1784 Quarrels with the Royal
style and fortunes. Seeing the works of van Dyck inspired a new, elegant style that Academy; exhibits privately
appealed to the fashionable and wealthy clientele of Bath, and later London. Although for the rest of his life
portrait painting was Gainsborough's livelihood, landscape remained his real love. 1788 Dies after a long illness

¢¢ His cranium is SO
crammed with
genius of every
kind that it is in
danger of bursting
upon you, like a
steam engine
overcharged ”?
DAVID GARRICK, 1824, 2]
ACTOR AND PLAYWRIGHT =
=
» The Harvest Wagon From his boyhood, n
=
Gainsborough painted landscapes for pleasure. P.)
This ts one of his finest, unified by the feathery fe)
touch of his mature style. The group on the 2
wagon are inspired by Rubens’s Descent from °
9
the Cross. c1767, oil on canvas, 120x 144cm, The °
Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham, UK

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A The Painter's Daughters with a Cat

Gainsborough painted his daughters several
times. Here, Mary is apparently giving Margaret
a hug while surreptitiously tweaking the cats
tail. The brushwork is looser than in his early
paintings, but because of its intimate nature, it
remained an unfinished work that did not require
the usual pristine finish. c1760-61, oil on canvas,
76x63cm, National Gallery, London, UK

CLOSERIlook A Mr and Mrs Andrews With its doll-like

[ae : EMPTY LAP An area in Mrs figures, posed by artist's mannequins, and tight
zi oe. _ Andrews'’s lap is left puzzingly brushwork, this delightfully fresh masterpiece is
~ _ unpainted. A popular theory is typical of Gainsborough’s early work. Although
that the space was intended this is a portrait, the entire right half is a lovingly
for a bird shot by Mr Andrews, observed landscape. c1748-49, oil on canvas,
__ but his wife would surely not 70x119cm, National Gallery, London, UK
~~ have sullied her expensive
} | dress with a bloody carcass.
: A craft bag is a more plausible
suggestion. |
 James Barry
b CORK, 1741; d LONDON, 1806
A history painter on an ambitiously grand scale, Barry Louis-Francois Roubiliac
is best remembered for his grandiose cycle of paintings
b LYONS, 1702; d LONDON, 1762
entitled The Progress of Human Culture. With no less
an aim than to paint the history of the world, he created Born in France, Roubiliac spent almost all of his career in
this enormous — and overambitious — cycle largely at his England, where he was the greatest sculptor of his day.
own expense. Barry was a protégé of the statesman- He may have trained in Dresden and Paris before
philosopher Edmund Burke, who financed an inspiring settling in London. A full-length statue of the composer
trip to Italy. Barry became professor of painting at the Handel established Roubiliac’s reputation, but he also
Royal Academy but was expelled for slanderous attacks Portrait by made his name for portrait busts, which are remarkable
on colleagues, including Reynolds. He died in poverty. Frangois for their vivid sense of life, and for tomb sculptures.
Mra On a trip to Italy in 1752, Roubiliac was deeply
r Crowning the Victors at Olympia (detail) impressed by the work of the great Baroque sculptor Bernini,
This scene is taken from one of six paintings making whose influence can be seen in much of his subsequent work.
up The Progress of Human Culture cycle. 1777-83,
oil on canvas, Royal Society of Arts, London, UK LIFEline
1702 Born in Lyons, France
1730 Moves to London
1738 Makes his name with a
marble statue of Handel for
Vauxhall Gardens, London
1745-49 Creates monument
of John, Duke of Argyll, in
Westminster Abbey, London
1751-57 Makes celebrated
series of busts of members |
of Trinity College, Cambridge.
1752 Travels to Italy with the
ANCIENT VICTOR painter Thomas Hudson
The ancient Greek 1758-61 Creates the tomb of
poet Diagoras the Lady Elizabeth Nightingale in
f Atheist is shown as Westminster Abbey, London
one of the victors at 1762 Dies in London, in
A Sir lsaac Newton Newton died almost30
m Barry's imaginary debt despite his highly
successful career A George Frederick Handel /his brilliantly years before this sculpture was made: it is a fine
* Olympic Games.
ROCOCO observed bust of the composer has a life-like example of Roubiliac’s imaginative and technical
energy. Terracotta, Foundling Museum, London, UK ability. 1755, marble, Trinity College, Cambridge, UK

Michael Rysbrack Joseph Wright of Derby

b ANTWERP, 1694; d LONDON, 1770 b DERBY, 1734; d DERBY, 1797 INcontext
THE INDUSTRIAL
Flemish-born Rysbrack was the leading One of the most original artists of the 18th
REVOLUTION In Wright's
sculptor in England in the 1720s and 30s, century, Wright spent most of his life in his native lifetime, England changed from
until he was outshone by Roubiliac. He town. After training in London with Thomas a rural society into a major
was a versatile artist, his works including Hudson, he worked as a portraitist in Derby. industrial nation. Factories,
tombs, portraits, and architectural In the 1760s, he began to paint extraordinarily mills, and cities transformed the
elements. Best known are his reclining Self-portrait innovative scenes with dramatic chiaroscuro (light landscape and the way of life.
monument to Sir Isaac Newton in and shade). He became justly famous for these Derby was one of the centres
Westminster Abbey and his equestrian “candle-lights’ which often featured scientific or industrial of the Industrial Revolution.
statue of William III in Bristol. subjects. After a trip to Italy (1773-75), Wright turned to more
CENTURIES
18TH
AND
17TH
literary themes, but pictures of Vesuvius erupting and moonlit Loading Coal on Cargo Ships
engraving by Thomas Bewick
landscapes reveal his continued interest in the effects of light.

zt
SCIENTIST AND SHOWMAN A candle throws
features and expressions into relief. With his
glazed eyes, wrinkled brow, and wild hair, the
lecturer looks as much magician as scientist. At
the time, scientists would visit wealthy families
A Alexander Pope Aysbrack popularized to demonstrate the wonders of modern science
two types of portrait bust in England: all’antica
(referring to classical Rome) and en négligé (in
contemporary costume), as in this portrait of the < An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump
poet Pope. Marble, private collection Wrights candlelit masterpiece shows the life-or-
death moment when the scientist is poised, ready
to let air into the pump to revive the bird. 1768, oil
on canvas, 183x244cm, National Gallery, London, UK
Henry Raeburn
b STOCKBRIDGE, 1756; d EDINBURGH, 1823 | LIFEline
Based mainly in his native Edinburgh, 1756 Born in Stockbridge,
Raeburn was the leading Scottish portraitist | NOW 4 suburb of Edinburgh
of his day. His vivid portraits include many of | 1784-86 Travels to Italy via
the scientists,,
philosophers,
:
and scholars Eondon, possibly. meets
Reynolds
of the Scottish Enlightenment. Renowned oiToanenidsanclnerstc
Engraving by _ for his ability to capture the personality of studio, including a framing
TW Knight his sitters, Raeburn was also admired for workshop and picture gallery
his free, painterly technique. 1822 Knighted by George IV
Raeburn was probably self-taught as a painter. After and appointed
lanaser (oainterlHisor Majesty's
Scotland
a two-year visit to Italy, he returned to Edinburgh where
he developed his “square touch’ achieved by using free
brushwork without underdrawing. He contemplated » The Paterson Children
moving to London in 1810, but decided against it on This charming portrait has
account of the competition from Lawrence. He remained a real sense of freedom
in Edinburgh, where he was in constant demand. and spontaneity. Polesden
Lacey, Surrey, UK

¢¢ He is the last and

greatest visual
representative of
the Scottish
Enlightenment ”’
WILLIAM VAUGHAN

» Sir Walter Scott Raeburn’ painterly technique

is evident in this celebrated portrait of the great
Scottish poet and historical novelist. By all
accounts, the two men did not hit it off. 1822,
oil on canvas, 76 x63cm, Scottish National
Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, UK

Sir Thomas Lawrence

b BRISTOL, 1769; d LONDON, 1830
An infant prodigy, Lawrence was the
most gifted and successful English
portrait painter of his generation. He
was almost entirely self-taught, but at
the age of 18 he confidently announced
Self-portrait that “excepting for Sir Joshua [Reynolds]
for the painting of a head, | would risk
my reputation with any painter in London”
With the death of Reynolds in 1792, Lawrence
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became the official painter to George III. He was ¥s
knighted in 1815, and in 1818 the Prince Regent sent
him on a tour of Europe to paint the sovereigns and
statesmen involved in Napoleon's overthrow. On his
return, he was made president of the Royal Academy.
Lawrence's glittering style and fluid brushwork
earned him admirers throughout Europe, including the
Romantics, particularly Delacroix. But his reputation
declined after his death and has never fully recovered.

; > Queen Charlotte With

ene its dazzling brushwork, this
1769 Born in Bristol
touching portrait helped to make =o eS PERCY TG,
1794 Member of the Royal Lawrences reputation. However,
Academy
A Portrait of Princess Darya Lieven /his glamorous
the royal family did not like It, drawing shows the Russian ambassador's wife, who was
1818-20 Goes on painting
tour of Europe perhaps because they found based in London from 1812. She was a diplomat and
1820 Becomes president of
the bareheaded, care-worn society hostess, and introduced the waltz to England.
the Royal Academy likeness too frank. 1789-90, oil c1812, pencil and chalk on canvas, 77x64cm, Hermitage,
1824 Exhibits at the Paris on canvas, 239x 147cm, National St Petersburg, Russia
Salon; helps found National | Gallery, London, UK
Gallery in London
1830 Dies suddenly, leaving
huge debts
 HISTOIRE
Subjects
LAT Ro
CHEZ LES ANCIENS. Neoclassical artists were often
ParMi J, Wimexnescen,
The prefix “neo” comes from inspired by Greek and Roman history,
Wt Aco tshones ei Loe ;
the Greek word for “new so » Title page of hes,6fates literature, and myth, but they also
“Neoclassicism” means “new “Histoire de l'art chez pour rrextee aden treated many other subjects. These
les anciens"
classicism” The style was inspired by included staples, such as portraits and
Winckelmann’s History of
the art of classical Greece and Rome — Artin Antiquity, published * landscapes, but also more innovative
specifically its qualities of “noble in German in 1764, was themes from the political and social
simplicity and calm grandeur’ These soon translated into other events of the time. The 18th century is
languages; this French
are the words of Johann Joachim edition appeared in often loosely described as the Age of
Neoclassicism was the Enlightenment, in reference to the
Winckelmann (1717-68), a German _ Amsterdam in 1766.
dominant style of the late scholar whose writings played an prevailing philosophical outlook, which
18th and early 19th centuries. important role in spreading the 18th century, partly because of questioned traditional beliefs and
In its purest form, Neoclassical ideals of Neoclassicism. archaeological discoveries in Rome stressed the primacy of rational
art is severe and high-minded - and in Herculaneum and Pompeii, two thought.
The Neoclassical style, with
Origins and Influences buried cities near Naples. Thousands its emphasis on order and clarity, was
often linked with the fervent
Neoclassicism originated in Rome, a of artifacts were excavated, many of very much in tune with this spirit, and
political ideals of the time - city with unrivalled remains of ancient which were published as engravings, some artists — above all Jacques-Louis
but it also has more intimate buildings and sculpture. Knowledge of which were influential in spreading David — used their work as a vehicle
and decorative aspects. ancient art increased greatly in the Neoclassical taste. for their moral convictions.

Neoclassicism
TIMEI|ine
The first stirrings of
Neoclassicism startedto appear
as early as the 1720s, but it was
not until after the middle of the
NEOCLASSICISM
18th century that the style began
to represent a serious challenge
to the dominance of Rococo. By
the 1770s Neoclassicism was in
op)
the ascendancy and it continued
to flourish well into the 19th
century —in architecture and
design as well as painting
and sculpture. MENGS Parnassus
STUBBS Horse attacked by a Lion DAVID The Oath of the Horatii
JUEL Still Life with Flowers

Schools movement, but Ingres is regarded as the

main upholder of classical values in 19th-
Although Rome lay at the heart of century painting. A more intimate side to
CENTURIES
18TH
AND
17TH Neoclassicism and continued to attract Neoclassicism is seen in the work of
ambitious artists because of its past Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun. Unlike David,
achievements, Italian painting of this period who supported the French Revolution,
was comparatively undistinguished. The she was a royalist and left France in 1789,
most momentous developments took working successfully in several countries
place elsewhere, particularly in France. before.returning permanently to her
homeland in 1805.
French
French (and to an extent European) Northern European
Neoclassical painting was dominated by Among the other countries in which
Jacques-Louis David. He not only created Neoclassicism flourished were several in
several of the archetypal masterpieces of northern Europe, including Germany and
the style, but also exerted a powerful Denmark. In Denmark there was a
influence through his role as the outstanding remarkable flowering of painting in the late
teacher of the day. His pupils included some 18th and early 19th centuries that was part
of the leading artists of the next generation, of a golden age in the country's art,
notably Anne-Louis Girodet, Antoine-Jean expressed also in Thorvaldsen's sculpture
Gros, and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. and in some superb buildings. Danish A Juno and Jupiter Gavin
In the work of Girodet and Gros, Neoclassical painting of this time generally shuns the Hamilton The Scottish painter Gavin
Hamilton spent most of his career in
severity is tempered with the glamour and elevated tone-of contemporary French art,
Rome. He was an influential figure
dash of the burgeoning Romantic concentrating on everyday life rather than in the spread of Neoclassicism,
Portrait of a Young Woman Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun heroic deeds. However, the clarity of form mentoring British visitors to Italy and
The clarity of form and cool precision of the brushwork are seen in the work of an artist such as Jens carrying out serious archaeologoical
Neoclassical in spirit, but the sheer prettiness of the work Juel is Neoclassical in spirit. work. Collection of the Earl of
recalls the Rococo style. c1797, oil on canvas, 82x71cm, Leicester, Holkham Hall, Norfolk, UK
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, US
Style and Techniques
«(The Sleep of Endymion
David's paintings represent (detail) The sleek drawing and
Neoclassicism at its most powerful smooth handling are Neoclassical,
and severe, and a similar lofty tone but the melodramatic treatment is
Romantic in spirit
(although a lesser level of inspiration)
is seen in the sculpture of Bertel
Thorvaldsen. However, many other
CURRENTevents
1775 The War of
artists of the time were much less Independence breaks
austere. Neoclassicism is often out between Britain and
characterized as a stern reaction its American colonies.
against the frivolity of the preceding 1789 Economic and social
unrest erupts in the
Rococo idiom (see p.242). Although French Revolution, during
this interpretation holds good for which a republic is
some artists, the two styles did, in established and the king
A The Sleep of Endymion Anne-Louis Girodet, 1791, and queen are executed.
fact, overlap considerably. Elisabeth oil on canvas, 198x261cm, Louvre, Paris, France
1799 Napoleon becomes
Vigée-Lebrun, for example, combined dictator of France.
Neoclassical purity of line with Rococo there are sometimes strong links 1815 Final defeat of
delicacy of sentiment and lightness of between the Neoclassical style and Napoleon at the Battle of
touch. Similarly, although they are the Romantic style (see p.296) that Waterloo.

often presented as polar opposites, followed it.

1787-93
1787 \

INSIDISS

— <a :
DAVID Madame Récamier
\ SCHADOW
VIGEE-LEBRUN a INGRES The
Princesses Louisa and
Marie-Antoinette and Her CANOVA Cupid and GROS Napoleon on the Battlefield of Eylau Valpincon Bather
Friderica of Prussia.
Children Psyche

British
British art tends to avoid extremes, and
Neoclassicism rarely appeared in a pure and
doctrinaire form in the country’s painting. Its
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influence is seen, however, in various ways,
for example in the dignity and lucidity of
George Stubbs’s work. Stubbs had scientific
inclinations and he experimented with
painting on earthenware panels made for
him by the famous pottery manufacturer
Josiah Wedgwood, who was renowned for
his elegant Neoclassical wares. Among the
designers employed by Wedgwood was
the sculptor John Flaxman, who was the
most original and committed British
exponent of Neoclassicism.
Emperor Francis Il), but he rejected these more austere, without Canova’s sensuous A Sleeping Nymph Antonio
Neoclassical sculpture offers, maintaining that his creativity was qualities (even when he did the final carving Canova One of Canova’ final
himself, he preferred a more matt surface). works, this was inspired by a
Whereas Neoclassical painting was inseparable from Rome.
famous ancient sculpture of a
geographically diverse, Neoclassical Both Canova and Thorvaldsen ran large The other leading Neoclassical sculptors
sleeping hermaphrodite. c1820-22,
sculpture was very much concentrated in workshops, which carried out prestigious included John Flaxman, the German Johann marble, length 194cm, Victoria and
Rome. Almost all the leading European commissions all over Europe. Although they Gottfried Schadow, and the Swede Johan Albert Museum, London
sculptors of the time worked in the city at occasionally worked in other media, their Tobias Sergel, all of whom spent periods
one time or the other, and the two most favoured material was marble — with its in Rome. The tradition was maintained
famous — Antonio Canova and Bertel strong associations with ancient statuary. well into the 19th century, Thorvaldsen’s
Thorvaldsen — spent virtually their whole Much of the actual carving was done by studio continuing to operate even after
careers there. Canova became an assistants, although Canova cared a great he retired and returned to his native
international celebrity and was invited to deal about personal handling of his materials Copenhagen in 1838.
settle in Paris (by Napoleon), Russia (by and applied what he called "the last touch"
Catherine the Great), and Vienna (by the himself. Thorvaldsen’s sculpture is generally
 | Jacques-Louis David
b PARIS, 1748; d BRUSSELS, 1825

The leading artist of the Neoclassical movement in

France, David studied under Joseph-Marie Vien.
However, his real education took place in Rome, where
he was overwhelmed by the splendour of the ancient
remains, and by the artworks of the great Italian masters.
Portrait by Following his return to Paris in 1780, David set about
Frangois creating his own vision of the antique, combining themes
Navez from classical history with an air of stern morality and
heroic sacrifice. This seemed to echo the growing mood of republican
fervour in the country and quickly made him a national celebrity. The Intervention of the
When the revolution came, David proved as passionate about Sabine Women /Jhis was
| politics as he was about art. He joined the National Convention, staged David's comeback painting, after
republican pageants, and attacked the Academy. His actions almost his near-fatal involvementin
led him to the guillotine, but he escaped with just a brief spell of politics — hence its conciliatory
imprisonment. Then, with the rise of Napoleon, the pattern repeated theme. The Sabine women stop
itself. David placed his art wholeheartedly at the service of the emperor. _ the fighting by taking their
After Napoleon's defeat, David went into exile in Belgium, where he children onto the battlefield.
continued to work until his death nine years later. 1794-99, oil on canvas, 385x522cm,
Louvre, Paris, France

| LIFEline
ne son of an Ironmonger

Prix de Rome
| 1775-80 Studiesin Rome
1782 Marries Charlotte Pécoul
| 1784-85 Paints his most influential picture, The
ratil

volutionary activities
fficial painter
following defeat of

in exile in Brussels

N NEOCLASSICISM
g
WY CLOSERIook
LJ

D ORDER David's composition

ise of order. The three arches

UNITED IN GRIEF The heroic actions of the

ve

loved ones are bound to perish

 < The Death of Marat 7he
revolutionary leader Jean-Paul
Marat had to spend hours in the
bath because of a skin complaint.
In July 1793, he was stabbed to
death in his bathtub by the royalist
Charlotte Corday. David immediately
Y The Oath of the Horatii 7hree Roman painted this tribute, showing Marat
brothers take a vow to their father as they in a pose reminiscent of the dead
prepare to fight to the death against three enemy Christ. 1793, oil on canvas, 165x 128cm,
champions. The lamenting women on the right Musées Royaux, Brussels, Belgium
include a sister who is betrothed to one of the
enemy. This paean to duty and self-sacrifice for CLOSERIook
the good of the state captured the mood of the
times. As such, it has been seen as a call to
arms for the French Revolution. 1784-85, oil on
canvas, 330x425cm, Louvre, Paris, France

used his bathroom as an office. In his

left hand, he holds Corday’s letter of
introduction, while beside it is a note
offering money to a soldier's widow.
The old crate, used as a table, was
a deliberate contrast to the luxurious
furniture owned by the rich. Here David
is illustrating his friend’s charitable
nature and his austere principles.
HON3AYS
INSIDI

INcontext
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION [he most turbulent
period in French history began in 1789, when rebel
politicians formed a new government — the National
Assembly — and rioters stormed the Bastille prison.
The insurgents swept away the powers of the
monarchy and the Church, but divisions appeared
within their ranks. Extremist groups took control,
unleashing the “Terror” (1793-94), when thousands
went to the guillotine. By 1795, the violence began
to subside, leaving a power vacuum that would
eventually be filled by Napoleon.
Arrest of the Governor of the Bastille by SSIYNL
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Jean-Fran¢ois Janinet.

ie ee . ete :

A Napoleon Crossing the Alps /his is a striking

piece of propaganda. Napoleon wanted to be shown
“calm on a fiery steed” and David obliged, creating an
image of dashing authority. In reality, Napoleon made
the journey on a mule. 1801, oil on canvas, 260 x221cm, = Ese BoPak Paat
Chateau de Malmaison, Rueil-Malmaison, France
A Madame Récamier Julie Récamier was a famous
society beauty. Her “Grecian” ringlets, Empire-style dress,
and bare feet give her a convincing classical appearance.
1800, oil on canvas, 174x244cm, Louvre, Paris, France
 'Antoine-Jean Gros Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun
b PARIS, 1771; d MEUDON, 1835 | LIFEline b PARIS, 1755; d PARIS, 1842
The art of Gros marks the transition between 1771 Born into an artistic Elisabeth was the daughter of Louis
Neoclassicism and Romanticism. He was one of | family in Paris Vigée, a minor artist who also trained
David's star pupils, but his emotive use of colour | 1785 Becomes pupil of her, and the wife of the picture dealer,
: Jaques-Louis David
and his taste for scenes of suffering heralded the Jean-Baptiste Lebrun. She established
j | 1793-1800 Works in Italy,
Romantic style to come. Delacroix and Géricault herself as a leading portraitist, known
. - where he meets Napoleon
Self-portrait were both keen admirers of his work. | 1808 Paints Napoleon on the Self-portrait in particular for her many depictions
Gros's best pictures were produced for Napoleon. | Battlefield of Eylau of Marie-Antoinette, France's doomed
He met him in Milan in 1796 and immediately joined his entourage. 1816 Becomes Professor at t queen. Their rapport is immediately evident from
This gave him first-hand experience of the general's campaigns, | Ecole des Beaux-Arts; takes | these paintings. Because of her royal connections,
which in turn enabled him to endow his war scenes with an unusual Se the studio A David, who | Vigée-Lebrun was forced to flee during the French
degree of realism. Although his work projects a glamorized vision of fe Sone Ie ale Revolution, later working in Italy, Russia, and England.
: himself in the
war, the prominent pile of corpses in Eylau shocked the Parisian ee ae
| public when the picture was shown at the Salon. ; v Marie-Antoinette 7he empty cradle isa
reference to Princess Sophie-Beatrix, who had
just died. 1787, oil on canvas, 275 x 215¢cm,
6¢ Pictures by Gros... Chateau de Versailles, France.
have this power of
projecting me into that
spiritual state which
| consider to be the
strongest emotion
that the art of painting
can inspire %?
EUGENE DELACROIX

Napoleon on the Battlefield of Eylau Gros

emphasizes the emperors compassionate side.
He is shown with his arm raised, as if he is
blessing the wounded and the defeated, who
cluster around him. 1808, oil on canvas, 5.2x7.8m,
Louvre, Paris, France

NEOCLASSICISM

b MONTARGIS, 1767; d PARIS, 1824

Like his contemporary Gros, Girodet
forms a bridge between the Neoclassical
and Romantic movements. He was one
of David's most gifted pupils and won
the Prix de Rome in 17839. Stylistically,
Self-portrait he owed much to his master, but his
approach was very different. Endymion,
painted at the height of the French Revolution, was a
CENTURIES
18TH
AND
17TH far cry from David's stern republican dramas — the idea
of using a symbolic source of light to represent the
goddess would have been anathema to his old teacher.

4 Napoleon Visiting the Plague-Stricken CL OSERIlook

at Jaffa This is a scene from Napoleon's Syrian CS HEROIC LEADERSHIP Gros
campaign of 1799. The picture was commissioned underlines Napoleon's bravery
to counter accusations that Napoleon had wanted by showing him touching a
to execute the sick. 1804, oil on canvas, 5.2 x 7.2m, plague-sore. This contrasts with the A The Sleep of Endymion The /unar goddess
Louvre, Paris, France behaviour of the officer behind him, Selene is in love with Endymion and visits him
who covers his mouth to protect here as a shaft of moonlight. 1791, oil on canvas,
himself from infection. Napoleon's 198x.261cm, Louvre, Paris, France
gesture is reminiscent of some , ;
Christian images showing Jesus
healing the sick by touching them
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
b MONTAUBAN, 1780; d PARIS, 1867
Ingres found fame as the champion of the classical
tradition in France. After training briefly with David, he
spent his early career in Italy, where he earned a good
deal of his living with exquisite pencil portraits.
Returning to Paris in the 1820s, Ingres became
Self-portrait embroiled in aesthetic controversy. With his emphasis on
draughtsmanship and classical values, he was revered as
the leading exponent of academic art, in contrast to the wilder approach
of the Romantics (see pp.296-97) headed by Delacroix. In fact, the
distinctions between the two were somewhat artificial. Ingres's
preference for highly finished pictures — he said that paint should be as
smooth “as the skin of an onion” — was certainly a classical trait, but
some of his exotic subjects bordered on the Romantic.

LIFEline
1780 Born in southern France
1797 Moves to Paris
1801 Wins the Prix de Rome
1806-24 Lives in Italy
1835-41 Director of the
French Academy in Rome
1863 Completes The Turkish
Bath, his final masterpiece
1867 Dies in Paris

» Madame Moitessier /n
true classical fashion, Ingres
based the pose on an ancient
Roman painting of a goddess
at Herculaneum. 1856, oil on
canvas, 120x 92cm, National
Gallery, London, UK

2
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A The Apotheosis of CLOSERIook A The Valpingon Bather /hroughout his career,

Homer /nspired by Raphael's AB | IDEALIZED NUDE Line takes Ingres sought to create the perfect, classical
School of Athens, this is Ad precedence over colour, and this | nude. He returned to this pose again and again,
effectively a classical | figure, lost in thought, resembles | sometimes placing the figure in a harem, but he
manifesto, showing Homer a living statue. The softly curving | never surpassed his youthful work. The picture is
being crowned by Victory. outlines of the figure contrast named after an early owner. Painted while he was
| with the vertical folds of cloth. in Rome, this is one of Ingres’s most classical
1827, oil on canvas, 386x
Critics often complained that works. The subject has exotic potential — the
512cm, Louvre, Paris, France
Ingres’s nudes seemed boneless, sunken pool hints at a bath-house, for example —
noting here that the bather
but the mood is cool and remote. 1808, oil on
» The Turkish Bath /ngress appears to have no ankles.
canvas, 146x 98cm, Louvre, Paris, France
most erotic painting was
completed when he was
well into his eighties. 1863,
oil on canvas, diameter 198cm,
Louvre, Paris, France
 Antonio Canova
b POSSAGNO, 1757; d VENICE, 1822 LIFEline
The greatest and most successful sculptor of the 1757 Born near Treviso,
Neoclassical era, Canova worked initially in Venice, but he | the son of a stonemason
made his breakthrough in Rome. His Theseus and the c1770 Moves to Venice
Minotaur (1781-83) brought him to the public’s attention, _| 1780 Settles in Rome
helping him to win prestigious commissions to design 1783 Begins work on papal
Self-portrait. two papal tombs. After this, Canova’s reputation was ee Xill and
made. He was employed by many of the crowned heads 1787-93 Cupid and Psyche
of Europe, as well as the Church, although his most spectacular pieces 1805-07 Statue of Pauline t
were probably the nude statues of Napoleon and his sister. Borghese
Canova was both versatile and original. He took an unusual interest 1815 Visits London to see
in the display of his sculptures. His Cupid and Psyche, for example, the Elgin Marbles
was designed to be rotated and viewed in subdued, coloured lighting. 1822 Dies, and is buried
Similarly, he preferred to show his work to clients by candlelight. in Possagno-

<< Cupid and Psyche /n one of Canovas

most tender sculptures, Cupid revives his
swooning lover with a kiss. 1787-93,
marble, height 155cm, Louvre, Paris, France
: ae ‘, F

> : “ye > . > Hercules and Lichas Mortally

E ; | wounded, Hercules takes revenge on the
youth who has unwittingly poisoned him. a
1795-1802, marble, height 350cm, Galleria Shur.
Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome, Italy

| NEOCLASSICISM
CENTURIES
18TH
AND
17TH
A Pauline Borghese as Venus Jhis daring sculpture of
Napoleon’ sister was never put on public display. It was only
viewed by candlelight, by friends of the family. 1805-07, marble,
length 201cm, Galleria Borghese, Rome, Italy

bi VES
CLOSERIook

Ao

ACT OF FURY Some critics found

Canova's work too cold and restrained,
but he was equally capable of fiery
brilliance. Here, Hercules strains
every sinew, while the despair of
his victim, clutching vainly at the
hero's lion skin, is vividly portrayed.
 Johan Tobias Sergel
b STOCKHOLM, 1740; d STOCKHOLM, 1814
v Monument to Lord Mansfield Flaxmans finest Sergel spent most of his career in his native Stockholm,
monumental sculpture is of the eminent judge Lord though he formed his Neoclassical style during an
John Flaxman Mansfield, flanked by the figures of Wisdom and Justice. 11-year stay in Rome. There, he joined Henry Fuseli’s
1795-1801, marble, Westminster Abbey, London, UK circle of friends, immersing himself in the more sensual
b YORK, 1755; d LONDON, 1826
aspects of antique culture. This was reflected in his
Both as a draughtsman and as a sculptor, i 5 sculptures, which often combined raw vitality with
Flaxman was England’s most important stg thinly veiled eroticism. His terracotta models were
Neoclassical artist. As a young man, he particularly spirited, while his pen-and-ink drawings
worked for Josiah Wedgwood and displayed a lively sense of humour.
gained an interest in classical pottery. As Sergel's reputation grew, he was summoned back
Portrait by Flaxman’s understanding of classical to Sweden by King Gustavus III, who made him his
Henry Howard art is evident from his tomb sculptures, court sculptor. His later career was largely devoted to
many of which resemble antique reliefs. portraiture, the most notable example being a statue of
It was his book illustrations, however, that were most Gustavus himself, loosely based on a famous classical
influential. His simple, pared-down drawings brought work — the Apollo Belvedere.
the works of Homer and Aeschylus to life.

INcontext
WEDGWOOD POTTERY Flaxman’s association (1775-87) with
the potter Josiah Wedgwood produced some of his most beautiful
Neoclassical designs. Flaxman emulated the style of classical
reliefs, while Wedgwood was inspired by Greek vases and
antique cameos. In this example, Flaxman illustrates a moral fable
invented by a friend of Socrates: Hercules must choose between
the rocky road to Virtue and the easy path leading to Vice.
< Mars and Venus
The Choice of Hercules, by John Flaxman, Wedgwood Jasperware. Neoclassical art was not
always high-minded and
serious. There were often
strong erotic undercurrents
in Sergel’s sculptures. Here,
it is unclear whether Mars
is rescuing or ravishing the
goddess. c1775, marble,
> height 93cm, Nationalmuseum, auNLdI
Stockholm, Sweden

Bertel Thorvaldsen Johann Gottfried Schadow

b COPENHAGEN, 1768/70; d COPENHAGEN, 1844 LIFEline b BERLIN, 1764; d BERLIN, 1850
After training at the Copenhagen Academy, the Danish sculptor 1768/70 Born in Copenhagen A crucial two-year stay in Rome, where
Thorvaldsen won a scholarship to Italy, where his style reached full 1797 Settles in Rome he became friends with Canova, honed
maturity. His portrayal of Jason, which owed much to an ancient 1802-03 His statue Jason the Neoclassical style of this German
sculpture by Polyclitus, established his credentials as a lover of the seals his reputation sculptor and printmaker. Although
antique and helped to launch his career. Soon, he had so many 1824-31 Works on the tomb Schadow’'s work could be very imposing
of Pius VII in St. Peter's
Portrait by commissions that he needed 40 assistants to cope with the demand. Self-portrait — his most famous sculpture was the
1838 Returns to Denmark
Christoffer Despite pleas to return to his homeland, Thorvaldsen remained a national hero magnificent chariot and horses on the
eee based in Rome for almost 40 years, aware that this boosted his 1844 Dies in Copenhagen Brandenburg Gate in Berlin (now replaced by a replica) —
claims to international status as an artist. He became Canova’s he could also produce portraits that displayed genuine
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chief rival. Thorvaldsen’s work lacked the Italian's versatility and warmth, but it charm and intimacy.
had a greater classical severity.
<The Princesses
v Ganymede and Jupiter Louisa and Friderica
Jupiter disguised himself as CLOSERIook of Prussia A delightful
an eagle, in order to carry the double portrait produced
youth away to become his to commemorate the
servant. 1817, marble, height weddings of the two
94cm, Thorvaldsens Museum, < sisters. 1795-97, marble,
Copenhagen, Denmark f= height 172cm, Alte
P ~< Nationalgalerie, Berlin,
Germany

CUP-BEARER There is PHRYGIAN CAP

further irony in the fact Ganymede’s Phrygian cap
that Ganymede is giving identifies him as a Trojan,
water to the divine but it had revolutionary
eagle. This prefigures overtones in Thorvaldsen’s
his future role, as day. Traditionally given to
cup-bearer to the gods. freed slaves, the cap was
gs EL, adopted during the French
f +5 Revolution as a symbol of
.
|
liberty. This is ironic, given
that Ganymede is about to
be enslaved.
 v Pope Clement XIII his painting was produced
Anton Raphael Mengs to celebrate Carlo Rezzonico’s recent election as pope.
; p g He took the name Clement Xil/. 1758, oil on canvas,
b AUSSIG, BOHEMIA, 1728; d ROME, 1779 | LIFEline Ca’ Rezzonico, Museo del Settecento, Venice, Italy
Although his reputation is no longer as exalted as it was 1728 Born in Bohemia,
in his own day, Mengs remains one of the key figures of the son of a court painter
the Neoclassical movement. Trained by his father, he 1740 First visit to Rome
1752 Settles in Rome
showed talent at an early age, and he rapidly established
c1755 Becomes friend of
; BE himself as a successful portraitist.
Winckelmann
Self-portrait Mengs's career changed course in the 1750s, when
: ! 1761 Completes his most
he settled in Rome and became friends with Johann famous painting, Parnassus
Joachim Winckelmann, an influential archaeologist and art historian. 1761-69 Court painter in Spain
Winckelman had just published a ground-breaking treatise, proclaiming 1774-17 Second spell as
the superiority of Greek art, and this had a profound effect on Mengs. court painter in Spain
In 1761, he produced his Parnassus for a ceiling in the Villa Albani, where 1779 Dies in Rome
Winckelmann held the post of librarian. Combining the influence of :
antique statuary and Raphael's painting style, this swiftly assumed the
status of a manifesto for the new movement, all the more so because
the Villa Albani was frequently visited by artists and connoisseurs.
CLOSERIook fF
1 >

Parnassus /Viengss most important painting shows

Apollo surrounded by the Muses. 1760-61, ceiling fresco,
3x6m, Villa Albani (now Villa Torlonia), Rome, Italy
SS a
oe ¢eexee
Wyte

=
od aa
2 SUMPTUOUS ROBES
”)
m) Mengs's portraits are now
< considered to.be his finest
aud
a) achievements. He has captured
)uJ Clement's mild, well-intentioned
character, as well as the rich
2 apparel of his new office.

» |Christen Kébke
Lu
Angelica Kauffmann Jens Juel
on b COPENHAGEN, 1810; d COPENHAGEN, 1848 b CHUR, 1741; d ROME, 1807 b BALSLEV, FUNEN, 1745; d COPENHAGEN, 1802
ae |
> |Christen Kobke enjoyed only modest success during AK The son of a clergyman, Juel studied in Hamburg.
E | his short life, but he is now recognized as one of the He travelled widely, working in Dresden, Rome, and
= outstanding figures of a golden age of Danish art in the Paris, before finally settling in Copenhagen. There
Ee | late 18th and early 19th centuries. Rather than the he forged an impressive reputation with his astute
= severe, heroic face of Neoclassicism (as seen in his portraits and decorous still lifes, and was appointed
= | countryman Bertel Thorvaldsen’s sculpture), his work court painter in 1780. Juel was also regarded as a
| exemplifies a more intimate side of the movement — fine teacher. In 1784, he became a professor at the
rooted in the everyday world but still marked by dignity Copenhagen Academy, where his pupils included
and clarity. Caspar David Friedrich and Otto Runge.

A Rinaldo and Armida /hese ardent lovers are from

Gerusalemme Liberata (Jerusalem Delivered) by the Italian
writer Torquato Tasso. This epic poem (1581) about the First
Crusade provided a rich fund of subjects for artists. 1771, oil on
canvas, 131x153cm, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, US

A Swiss-born painter who spent much of her career

in England and Italy, Kauffmann chose to paint
fashionable Neoclassical themes, but executed them in
a light Rococo manner. She had her earliest training
from her father, who was also a painter. However, her
mature style was more influenced by Mengs, whose
work she saw in Rome.
In 1776, she settled in London, becoming a close
‘a i ages friend of Joshua Reynolds. Like him, Kauffmann was a
A Adolphine Kabke This typically precise founder member of the Royal Academy. She spent the NR ae
portrait is of the artist's younger sister. 1832, final part of her career in Italy, after marrying the Italian A Still Life with Flowers Juels flower pieces
oil on canvas, 42x 35cm, Louvre, Paris, France painter Antonio Zucchi. are both orderly and elegant. 1764, oil on canvas,
53x39cm, Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
George Stubbs
b LIVERPOOL, 1724; d LONDON, 1806 LIFEline
The most famous of all horse painters, Stubbs 1724 Born in Liverpool, son of a leathe-worker
belongs in some respects to the burgeoning Romantic 1745 Moves to York to study anatomy
movement, but his magnificent purity of line links him 1754 Visits Rome
in spirit with Neoclassicism. He worked initially as a 1756-57 Dissects horses to study anatomy
portraitist, though his chief interest lay in anatomy. 1758 Moves to London V Horse Attacked by a Lion Stubbs produced
Portrait by The key period in his career began in 1756, when he c1762 Paints Horse Attacked by a Lion numerous paintings on this subject, of which this is
Ozias withdrew to a remote farmhouse in Lincolnshire and 1766 The Anatomy of the Horse is published the largest. He is said to have witnessed such a scene
Humphry
spent 16 months dissecting horses. The results of 1781 Becomes member of the Royal Academy in Morocco (on his return journey from Italy), but he
1806 Dies in London was perhaps inspired by an antique sculpture on the
these studies were eventually published in his ground-breaking book,
subject. c1762, oil on canvas, 244 x333cm, Yale Center
The Anatomy of the Horse.
for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut US
After a move to London, Stubbs began to make his mark in horse-
racing circles. His thorough understanding of the animal enabled
him to win a series of lucrative commissions for horse “portraits”
and racing scenes. He also expanded his repertoire to include other
aspects of these horse-owners' lifestyles, such as fox hunts and
picturesque scenes of the farm-work on their country estates.

¥ Lord Torrington’s Hunt /n preparation fora

hunt, two of Torrington’s servants set out from home.
1765-68, oil on canvas, 61x 105cm, private collection

HSILIYE
IWNSID

=
Gavin Hamilton INcontext
THE SPORT OF KINGS Stubbs’s career
b MURDIESTON HOUSE, LANARKSHIRE, 1723; d ROME, 1798 LIFEline coincided with a golden age for horse racing
This Scottish painter spent most of his career in Rome, gaining the rare distinction for 1723 Born the son of a Scottish laird The use of imported Arab stallions improved the
a British artist of being far better known in continental Europe than in his homeland. 1748-50. First visit to Italy bloodstock, producing genuine thoroughbreds.
Hamilton's greatest paintings were produced in the 1760s, and were mainly drawn 1756 Settles permanently in Rome, where The Jockey Club was founded in 1752, and three
from subjects in Homer's /liad. These were widely reproduced as engravings, which he encourages numerous British artists who of the “classics” were introduced — the St Leger
visit the city (1778), the Oaks (1779), and, most famous of all, |
influenced a younger generation of artists, among them Jacques-Louis David.
1763 Commissioned to paint The Death the Derby (1780).
Hamilton himself was gradually diverted away from painting into other, more lucrative of Lucretia
activities. He became an archaeologist, conducting lengthy excavations at. Hadrian‘s 1769 Begins excavations at Hadrian's Villa A Young Jockey George Stubbs.
Villa, and a successful picture-dealer, selling Old Masters to British collectors. 1798 Dies in Rome
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< The Death of Lucretia

Lucretia takes her own life after
being raped, while Junius
Brutus (founder of the Roman
Republic) vows to avenge her.
1763-67, oil on canvas, 213x
264cm, Yale Center for British
Art, New Haven, Connecticut, US

DRAMATIC
GESTURES [o modern
/ eyes, Hamilton's picture
may seem overcrowded
and melodramatic. The
figures’ interlocking
gestures resemble an
elaborate mime, rather
than a scene from real
life. However, this
painting inspired other
# “oath” pictures, notably
David's Oath of the
Horatii (see pp.268-69).
 was high. The topographers criticized
Cozens's textbooks on the picturesque
Origins and influences and his “blot” landscape method (see
Watercolour has a long history in below), while the picturesque painters
England. During the Tudor period, thought the work of the topographers
miniaturists, such as Nicholas Hilliard, was far too conservative.
used gouache — opaque watercolour —
for its jewel-like brilliance, while in the Techniques
1630s, portraitist Van Dyck spent his The partnership between the water,
spare time sketching the landscape paint, and paper makes this medium
in watercolours. The diarist Samuel unlike any other. With oils, the paint
Pepys dabbled in watercolour in the stays put; watercolour swims across
1640s, but it wasn’t until 1784, when the paper. Unlike other artists,
Reeves (still renowned today for watercolourists obey unwritten rules:
The very name of this medium artists’ materials) created watercolour for example, some do not use black or
cakes, that the medium became easily A Chirk Aqueduct John Sell Cotman used
alow white paint. So for white, they let the
suggests its qualities. Fluid and portable for outdoor use. viewpoint and left out detail to give the aqueduct a paper show or use a technique called
translucent, watercolour paint generalized grandeur.
“stopping out”: blotting colour while
is ideal for pale washes and Subjects of photography to produce accurate the paint is still wet. Turner, on the
ambiguous shifts of colour. Landscapes were the main subject representations of natural and artificial other hand, scraped out whites with
An understated medium, it is matter for English watercolourists, features. The other group featured his fingernail when the paint had dried.
who were divided into two groups. In artists such as Alexander Cozens and Landscape painters raised the
halfway between drawing and
the 18th century, military draughtsmen, John Sell Cotman, who highlighted status of watercolour. They founded
painting, making it ideal for imaginative and poetic qualities as the Old Watercolour Society in 1804
such as Paul Sandby, recorded scenes
outdoors, hence its use in in a map-like way. Their topographical opposed to topographical function. and made paintings of such quality
English landscape. approach was used before the advent Tension between the two camps they rivalled oil paintings.

English Watercolourists
WATERCOLOURISTS
ENGLISH

Alexander Cozens John Robert Cozens

b RUSSIA, 1717; d LONDON, 1786 b LONDON, 1752; d LONDON, 1797
Alexander Cozens is regarded as one of the leading watercolourists of the 18th < Bessanone, South
century and one of the first important British painters to focus exclusively on Tyrol Here, Cozens
andscapes. His work helped to propel landscape art to the fore, by presenting it from brilliantly captures the
a subjective, imaginary viewpoint. This poetic approach ultimately culminated in the haunting grandeur and
{omantic style of the 19th century mystery of alpine scenery
Born in Russia, where his father was working as a shipbuilder, but educated in in a way that inspires the
3ritain, Cozens later studied landscape under Claude-Joseph Vernet in Rome. On his imagination of the viewer.
return to Britain, he worked as a drawing master and teacher while developing his The low-toned combinations
heories on landscape painting. Cozens devised a technique called blot drawing, of grey, blue, and green
which he developed from one of Leonardo da Vinci's ideas. He used randomly placed watercolour add to the
‘blots” on the drawing paper to fire his imagination, developing them into imaginary atmosphere. ¢1782-83,
andscapes. He expounded on this in his 1786 treatise, A New Method ofAssisting watercolour on paper,
the Invention in Drawing Original Compositions of Landscape. University of Liverpool Art
Gallery, UK

John Robert Cozens was described by John Constable as “the greatest genius
that ever touched landscape” He studied under his father, Alexander Cozens, but
developed a more naturalistic, yet highly evocative and atmospheric style. His
watercolours proved hugely influential with British landscape artists for several
generations to come.
Cozens held his first exhibition of drawings in 1776 at the Society of Artists. He
made two extensive painting trips to continental Europe in 1776-79 and 1782-83,
discovering in the Alps and the Italian countryside the inspirational subject matter
A Fantastic Landscape Cozens identified that was to profoundly influence his art. His brooding paintings of weather, clouds,
16 landscape themes and 27 viewing and mountains presage the work of artists such as Thomas Girtin and JMW Turner.
situations, such as times of day or types of Cozens’ art often had a melancholic air, probably because he suffered from severe
weather, that could be used to produce poetic depression; this led to insanity and death at 45. Nevertheless, the poetic vision of his
A Classical Landscape Cozens’ work was
depictions of landscape. ¢1780-85, wash with later paintings, such as View of Windsor from the South West (1792), surpassed that
executed almost exclusively in monochrome wash. He
pencil on paper, 40x53cm, Yale Center for British of any of his contemporaries in English landscape art.
used contrasting areas of light and dark to suggest
Art, New Haven, US
natures power and inscrutability. Mid-18th century,
sepia on paper, 17x21cm, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, UK
Thomas Girtin v Lyme Regis, Dorset Girtin painted this view during a
sketching tour of the West Country. Here he displays the
b LONDON, 1775; d LONDON, 1802 LIFEline bolder style he had developed, with its use of broad washes
Considered the equal of Constable and Turner in his 1775 Born in London of strong colour. c1797, watercolour over pencil on textured
own field, Thomas Girtin was known for his innovative 1794 Begins to exhibit at the paper, 22x 43cm, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, US
watercolour landscapes, and he played a central role Royal Academy cue OSS

in establishing the medium as a major art form. 1800 Marries Mary Ann
Borrett - 16-yearold daughter
Girtin’s early works were in the 18th-century
of a London goldsmith
Portrait by topographical style, but he later developed a bolder
1801-02 Visits Paris to make
John Opie technique, which evoked a sense of space and mood a series of etchings, which
and made a lasting impression on English landscape are published posthumously
painting. Girtin made several sketching tours of Britain and by 1799 had 1802 His huge London
attracted eminent patrons, including the art collector Sir George panorama, Eidometropolis, is
Beaumont. He was also a friend of JMW Turner; as boys they had both exhibited. Dies, aged just 27
from tuberculosis
been employed to colour engravings for a print-seller.

66 |f Tom Girtin
had lived, |
should have
starved ”’
JMW TURNER,
(1775-1851)

» The White House at

Chelsea Girtin painted
two versions of this scene,
which show his mastery of
watercolour and his increasing WHITE LIGHT Here, Girtin has
power as an artist. This view magically captured the effect of
of the Thames at sunset the setting sun lighting up the
white house by leaving the
brilliantly creates a mood
paper virtually unpainted. He
of peace and reflection. 1800,
has added yellow as a contrast.
watercolour on paper, 31 x51cm, HSITSN3
SLSIYN
private collection —ee,

John Sell Cotman David Cox

i eh b NORWICH, 1782; d LONDON, 1842 b BIRMINGHAM, 1783; d BIRMINGHAM, 1859
A landscape painter and etcher, John Sell Cotman was Son of a Birmingham blacksmith, the landscape painter David Cox became one of
virtually self-taught, yet by the age of 18 he was already the leading British watercolourists of his era. Indeed, in 1852 a report in the Spectator
exhibiting at the Royal Academy. magazine declared that “In his work there are power and insight enough to swamp all
He left his home-town of Norwich in 1798 to study the others put together’
in London. Between 1800 and 1806, he made several Cox started his career as an apprentice to a painter of miniatures, and also worked
Portrait by sketching trips to Yorkshire and Wales, and some of his as a theatrical scene painter. In 1804 he moved to London, where he began exhibiting
John Varley works from this period are ranked among the best at the Royal Academy, combining his art career with teaching. Between 1826 and
English landscape paintings of their time. In 1806, 1832, Cox made several sketching trips to mainland Europe. From 1844, he also
Cotman returned to Norwich, where he exhibited with the Norwich made regular visits to North Wales, where he produced some of his most celebrated
Society of Artists and also taught. He later worked as an architectural
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watercolour landscapes.
draughtsman, eventually returning to London in 1834.

VIGOROUS STYLE The

rough texture of the rocks is
accentuated by Cox's vigorous
brushwork. He often painted
ona kind of coarse wrapping
paper that was well suited to
his technique.

A Greta Bridge, Durham Jhis is probably Cotman’s most famous 6

work, and is typical of the watercolours he produced while visiting A View in North Wales Painted during his final trip to North
the area. It is made up almost entirely of controlled, flat washes of Wales, when his eyesight was beginning to fail, this watercolour
cool colour. c1805, watercolour, British Museum, London, UK is typical of Cox’ lively style. It shows a drover driving cattle
across a bridge amid the rugged Welsh scenery. 1858, watercolour
on paper, 52x 75cm, private collection
 ‘a
ctu
The birth of the nation also stimulated
a greater interest in public sculpture
Origins and influences and in history painting. The decoration
By the late 1700s, a strong market of the United States Capitol building
for portrait painting had developed in Washington, which houses
throughout the colonies as affluent Congress, the US government, was
colonists from Boston to Philadelphia renewed and expanded after the
to Charleston sought to visually damage it sustained in the 1812 war
A Monticello /homas Jefferson, one of the with Britain, perhaps most vividly
preserve their family histories and
most prominent political figures in colonial
assert their social and political commemorating in paint and marble
America, designed his house near Charlottesville,
standing. Europe, and particularly Virginia, according to classical architectural
the stories of the country's founding
As the population of the British London and its vibrant art world, principles of order, rationality, and symmetry. and its charismatic leaders.
colonies grew and colonists provided important artistic models,
and artists and their patrons often London studio, for example, attracted CURRENTevents
amassed greater wealth, the
relied on imported prints and books a generation of American painters 1776 The Second Continental Congress of
demand for consumer and thirteen American colonies approves the
for the latest trends and fashions. eager to study art and painting. Declaration of Independence, launching
luxury goods surged. The desire Many colonial artists themselves the Revolutionary War with Great Britain.
for decorative objects, fine were European-born and -trained. Subjects 1786 Charles Willson Peale establishes a
furniture, prints, paintings, and Artists such as Benjamin West, European art centres remained public museum in Philadelphia highlighting
both art and nature, and displays portraits
the like not only spurred a brisk however, crossed the Atlantic in the important destinations for aspiring of Revolutionary War heroes.
other direction to establish their artists long after the War of 1789 Following the ratification of the
overseas trade, particularly
careers, never to return, while others Independence. At home, portrait United States Constitution and its
with Great Britain, but it also such as Charles Willson Peale and painting flourished and political creation of a new government, George
increasingly supported the work Washington is elected the first president
Gilbert Stuart travelled abroad only to heroes such as George Washington of the United States of America.
of local artists and artisans. train and hone their skills. West's offered ready material.

Colonial America
AMERICA
COLONIAL

Benjamin West
b SPRINGFIELD, PENNSYLVANIA 1738; d LONDON, 1820 LIFEline
Described as the “Father of American painting’ 1738 Born in Springfield,
Benjamin West was the most celebrated historical which is now Swarthmore
painter of his day, and the first American painter to 1760-63 Studies in Italy
1763 Settles in London
win an international reputation.
1765 Marries Elizabeth
West enjoyed early success as a portrait painter in his
Shewell of Philadelphia
Portrait by home country. He then studied in Europe, absorbing 1770 Paints The Death of
Christian Josi influences from Renaissance, Baroque, and General Wolfe, which creates
contemporary artists before settling in London, where he a fashion for depicting
contemporary events with
AND remained for the rest of his life. His colonial charm intrigued patrons, and
CENTURIES
18TH
17TH figures in modern dress
he quickly gained both popular acclaim and the friendship of Joshua
Reynolds, the most influential of the 18th-century English painters. Royal 1772 Appointed history
painter to George III
patronage followed, enabling West to give up portraits and concentrate
1792 Becomes President of
on the historical, religious, and mythological subjects that became his the Royal Academy
forte. Although West never returned to the United States, he was a 1820 Dies in London; buried
popular mentor to visiting American artists, and his work profoundly in St Paul's Cathedral
influenced the development of American art in the early 19th century.

A William Penn’s Treaty

with the Indians Depicting MOTHER AND
the foundation of Pennsylvania BABY A child sits
in 1681, this painting became beside a Native
American woman
part of American mass culture,
f while she feeds her
appearing on everything from
baby — a suggestion
curtains to cards. 1771-72,
of peace and plenty.
oil on canvas, 192x274cm,
# To lend realism, West
Pennsylvania Academy of the incorporated Native
Fine Arts, Philadelphia, US , American objects,
such as the baby’s
cradleboard
<< Death on the Pale Horse
This apocalyptic vision marked
a departure from Neoclassicism
and heralded the emotional
style of the Romantics. 1796,
oil on canvas, 59x 129cm, Detroit
Institute of Arts, US
 *¢ You can scarcely help discoursing
John Singleton Copley with them, asking questions and
b BOSTON, 1738; d LONDON, 1815 receiving answers ”
JOHN ADAMS, SECOND US PRESIDENT, 1817
Regarded as colonial America’s greatest painter, John Singleton Copley
was virtually self-taught. His remarkable skills brought him early
SUCCESS as a portraitist, and by the 1760s he was earning a small
fortune and mixing with affluent society. His colonial portraits are
sometimes a little stiff or awkward, but they have great strength of
design and vigour of characterization. Often he painted sitters with
objects relevant to their daily lives, helping create a sense of intimacy.
Copley moved to Europe in 1774, encouraged to do so by his
countryman Benjamin West. Unlike West, however, he failed to find
lasting professional success in England. His style became more ornate,
losing the vigour and originality that had infused his earlier works.
Copley turned from portraiture to history painting, and although he
enjoyed some accolades, his popularity began to decline in the 1780s.
He died in debt.

LIFEline » Watson and the Shark /his portrayal of

a real event focuses on an ordinary person —
1738 Born in Boston
a 14-year-old attacked by a shark off Havana.
c1760 |s established as the
colonies’ leading portrait
This is a slightly later version of the picture Copley
painter exhibited in 1778. 1782, oil on canvas, 91x 78cm,
1765 Paints the acclaimed Detroit Institute of Arts, US
Boy with a Squirrel, the first
American-painted work to be
HEIGHTENED
ts CLOSERIook
fe)
exhibited abroad
1775 Settles in England after DRAMA Attention is
22)
visiting Italy focused on the tension (2)
=
1778 Exhibits Watson and
the Shark at The Royal
and drama of the
rescue by the clever
>>
Academy to great acclaim; composition of figures, >
he paints two other versions which are placed Ss
1785 Career begins to decline within a “triangle” m
1815 Dies of a stroke in of oars, pole, and co]
London outstretched arms. re)
>

INcontext SSIYNLN
HLZI
GNV
HL8l
TURBULENT TIMES [he revolutionary era
began in 1763, when Britain imposed a series
| of unpopular taxes on its American colonies
|Gradually, the old social hierarchy was cast
| aside, as democratic ideals took hold. Boycotts
| of British goods, such as lace, are reflected in
| Copley’s portraits of plainly dressed merchants.
| Since his clients included both patriots and
| loyalists, Copley remained pointedly neutral.
|

Portrait of George
Washington by
Ite Vi it fy Pe7s Veg 3
James Peale the Elder
Neel RE For PY | Washington was a
distinguished general,
winning the American
3 Revolutionary War in
3 1783 and becoming the |
A Mr and Mrs Ralph Izard Copley painted this first president of the
portrait of the wealthy American and his wife United States of
while touring Italy. Lavish furnishings and America in 1789,
classical references suggest their refinement and
culture. 1775, oil on canvas, 175x224cm, Museum of
A Mrs James Warren Mercy Warren, a brilliant Fine Arts, Boston, US
satirist, was torn between convention and ambition. Her
direct gaze hints at this, but Copley typically focuses on
her fashionable elegance and femininity; the nasturtium
vine symbolizes her womanly role as nurturer. c1763, oil
on canvas, 126x 100cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, US
 < Self-Portrait with Angelica Peale and Portrait
|Charles Wilson Peale of Rachel /his complex self-portrait includes Peales
wife, Rachel, and his daughter, who is depicted as an
b QUEEN ANNE’S COUNTY, 1741; d PHILADELPHIA, 1827 allegorical muse of painting. c1782—85, oil on canvas,
Charles Wilson Peale was a brilliant American portraitist 92 x 69cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston US
who displayed a particular talent for capturing the
character of his sitters. He is best known for his
paintings of leading figures of the Revolutionary period,
particularly those of George Washington. During the
Portrait by course of his long life, Peale painted more than a
Rembrandt thousand portraits. Their sharp outlines, sombre
Peale
colours, and restrained emotions give them an
affinity with the Neoclassical style.
An enlightened, multi-faceted man, Peale was also a soldier,
inventor, agricultural reformer, author, political activist, naturalist, and
founder of the country’s first major museum. He was married and
widowed three times, and had 17 children, several of whom became
noted artists in their own right. Peale assisted in establishing the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, and continued
to paint throughout his life. However, his later years were dominated
by his growing interest in natural history.

<< The Exhumation of the

LIFEline
Mastodon /he most celebrated
| 1741 Born in Maryland exhibit in Peale's Museum was
1766 Studies in London with
the first complete skeleton of an
| Benjamin West
American mastodon. This painting
| 1769 Returns to the US
depicts its excavation in 1801.
| 1776 Settles in Philadelphia
1806, oil on canvas, 127x159cm,
| 1782 Opens a portrait gallery
of Revolutionary heroes, the
Peale Museum, Baltimore, US
| first art gallery in the US
1786 Founds the Peale » George Washington at
Museum in Philadelphia; later it | Princeton Aegarded as the
| moves to Baltimore definitive image of Washington
1794 Retires as an artist to | at the height of his military career,
| concentrate on his museum this optimistic portrait was widely
1827 Dies, aged 86 acclaimed. 1779, oil on canvas,
|
AMERICA
COLONIAL 233x 148cm, Pennsylvania Academy
of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, US

John Trumbull
b SAUNDERSTOWN, RHODE ISLAND, 1755; d BOSTON, 1828 b LEBANON, CONNECTICUT, 1756; d NEW YORK, 1843

One of the outstanding portrait painters of his time, Artist, author, soldier, and diplomat, John Trumbull is Y The Declaration of
Gilbert Stuart painted virtually all the leading figures of famous for painting the key events and people of the Independence /rumbul/s
the American Federal era. He is credited with creating a American Revolution. After graduating from Harvard, iconic painting is one of the
distinctively American style of portraiture, and his work is he worked as a teacher and Revolutionary soldier. most reproduced images in
known for its fluent brushwork, brilliant characterization, He made several visits to London, studying there American art, and has even
| Portrait by vitality, and down-to earth naturalness. Engraving by for a time with Benjamin West. In 1817, he was appeared on the back of a
tes oe Stuart trained and worked in London under Benjamin SL Waldo commissioned to paint four large murals for the two-dollar bill. Most of the
sal ranct West, and also spent time in Scotland and Ireland. In Rotunda in the Capitol, in Washington, showing “the most important people featured were painted
events of the American Revolution’ They include a version of his most from life. 1786-1820, oil on
17TH|
CENTURIES
18TH
AND 1793 he returned to the States, where he made a name
canvas, 53x79cm, Yale
| for himself. He is best known for his portraits of George Washington, famous work, The Declaration of Independence.
| and his work strongly influenced the work of younger artists. University Art Gallery, US

< Portrait of a Young

Woman, c1802-04
Benjamin West praised
Stuart for “nailing a face
to the canvas”. Stuart
succeeds in creating a
spontaneous-looking pose,
as if the sitter has just
looked up from writing a
letter, and captures the
dewy fleshtones of a
fashionable young woman.
1802-04, oil on canvas,
73.6x61cm, Indianapolis
Museum of Art, US
 When Manchu forces seized power wealthy merchants in southern China.
from the Ming in 1644, they founded Crafts too were thriving, but became
what was to be the last, and perhaps geared to mass-production rather than
greatest, Chinese dynasty. To avoid the artistic excellence as the empire grew,
unpopularity that dogged the Mongols especially in ceramics.
of the short-lived Yuan Dynasty, Oing
emperors did not impose an alien Styles and techniques
culture, but gained general acceptance The Qing emperors were however
by becoming almost completely conservative in their artistic tastes,
Under the Qing Dynasty, China sinicised (brought under Chinese and the Huayuan chu, the official
influence). In this way, they ruled over A Man's Robe /he rise of an affluent merchant class painting academy, advocated
became the largest and richest alongside the Qing imperial courts stimulated demand
a prosperous empire until the mid-19th traditional styles following the
empire in the world, and peace century, when food shortages, natural
for fine crafts such as textiles, ceramics, jade and metal
classically inspired Ming masters.
work as well as the fine arts. This full length, exquisitely
and prosperity allowed the arts disasters and a corrupt civil service decorated robe is made from satin silk and dates from As a result, especially in the early Oing
to flourish. Although ethnically precipitated their decline. the first quarter of the 18th century. period, an Orthodox school of mainly
Manchu, Qing emperors landscape painters predominated, but
Origins and influences (1662-1722), Yongzheng (1723-35), other groups of individualist artists
embraced and actively
Economic success from the and Oianlong (1736-96) emperors emerged outside the capital, including
promoted Chinese culture,
expanding Oing empire resulted in in Beijing and the official painting some who had connections with the
establishing artistic institutions increased patronage of the arts: academy they sponsored, but also Ming emperors and harboured some
and encouraging patronage. not only in the courts of the Kangxi among the growing number of anti-Oing tendencies.

China: Qing Dynasty VNIHD

TIMEline C17 TH
Between the founding of the
Qing Dynasty in 1644 and the
end ofthe century, the Orthodox
School was established, led
by Wang Shimin and Wang
Jian, and later their protégés
Wang Yuangi, Yun Shouping,
and Wu Li. Individualists, such
as the Buddhist monk-painters
and the Eight Masters of
Nanjing, were also working
at much the same time and in
the 18th century the Eccentrics WANG JIAN WANG HUI The Kangxi Emperor GONG XIAN Snow covered
of Yangzhou emerged as an Landscape with on His Southern Inspection Tour landscape LI SHAN
important school. mountains, rivers and Chicken, Cockscomb
huts among trees and Chrysanthemum

Development academic style was popular in the imperial

courts and satisfied the patriotism of many
sh

>

Artistic life continued virtually uninterrupted conservative Chinese artists, but some
ARR
Teme
rebelled against its restrictions. The four
e
DNIO
ALSWN
S3INNL
HLZL
GNV
HLL
REE
pw
pR-
in the changeover from Ming to Qing
Srtpcttecssace
dynasties, largely because the Manchu rulers monks Bada Shanren, Shitao, Hongren and
astutely founded institutions based on the Kuncan, working in monasteries isolated
eee,
theories of the Ming artist Dong Qichang. from the prevailing orthodoxy, developed
Although there was some anti-Qing feeling very personal and innovative styles
amongst the remaining Ming aristocracy, influenced both by their Buddhist philosophy
the continuity afforded by the Orthodox and antipathy towards the Manchu
School ensured a stable, if conservative and occupation; and in Nanjing a group of
derivative, artistic establishment which was literati artists led by Gong Xian catered
tolerant of dissenting artists. to the tastes of their more cosmopolitan
new patrons. Most striking of all, however,
Schools and styles were the eight “Eccentrics of Yangzhou”,
Dong Oichang’s theoretical Southern a group including Li Shan and Gao Xian
Tradition of painting was the model for the that flourished in the 18th century, whose
Orthodox School, and the so-called Six various expressive styles in mainly bird-
Masters of the Early Qing (the four Wangs, and-flower or bamboo painting verged on
Yun Shouping and Wu Li) continued the abstraction and were totally at odds with
tradition of landscape painting in the style the teachings of the Orthodox School.
of the literati rebels of the Yuan period, or
» Landscape Zhu Da Outside Beijing and the
in Yun‘s case resurrected an earlier genre * AY a
imperial courts, individualist painters such as '
” DK oo
of flower painting. This rather archaic, as ia
the Buddhist monk Bada Shanren rejected the a
*
* we
»
% :
<< Landscape After Huang Gongwang Wang imitative dogma of the Orthodox School, and oe
‘* mos
7
4
nt &
Shimin Landscape painters of the Orthodox developed new, sometimes subversive. Pen & ink * 42 s
2se om
an «

School worked within the genre rather than on paper, Musée Guimet, Paris, France - a&
as a
j
Hn
Oe
introducing innovations. Ink and colours on paper, {
114 x 59cm, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, US
 << Autumn Mountains, While
Wang Hui broadly following Dong Qichangs
code of working within the
b CHANGSHU COUNTY, JIANGSU PROVINCE, tradition of the Southern literati,
1632; d CHANGSHU COUNTY, 1717 Wang Huis aim was a “Great
Described as the most talented of the early Synthesis”, incorporating the
Qing Orthodox painters, Wang Hui studied calligraphic brush techniques
of the Yuan masters into the
Wang Shimin under Wang Jian and Wang Shimin, but where
narrative formal composition
they emulated classical traditions along the
b TAICANG, JIANGSU PROVINCE, 1592; d 1680 of Song landscape style. c18th
lines of Dong Oichang's theoretical Southern
century, pen and ink on paper,
The eldest of the four Wangs, Wang Shimin was a pupil School, he sought to combine and transform Musée Guimet, Paris, France
of Dong Qichang, following his guidance for scholar the styles of all the Song and Yuan masters.
painters to adopt the style of the Yuan period masters. Nevertheless, he remained their protégé even
He was especially influenced by the work of Huang when he had established his own career,
Gongwang. Illness forced him to abandon his career and after their deaths his work became less
as an official in 1636, but he had already established versatile without their encouragement. Like
most of the Orthodox artists, he was primarily
6¢ if one considers
a reputation as an artist, and continued to paint during
his long retirement. Although his landscapes are often a landscape painter, but collaborated with his the wonders of
derivative of Yuan models, in his later work he developed contemporary Yun Shouping on several albums brushwork, then
a more personal interpretation of the style, producing of alternate landscape and flower pictures. landscape cannot
some undoubted original masterpieces. His pupils equal painting ”’
included Wang Hui, Wu Li, and his grandson Wang Yuanqi.
DONG QOICHANG (1555-1636)

<< The Kangxi Emperor on

His Southern Inspection Tour
(detail) After reinforcing his
control over the former Ming
territories, the Kangxi emperor
recruited Orthodox southern
literati and made an inspection
tour of the area. Wang Hui was
A Landscape in the style of Huang Gongwang (detail) called to oversee the production
Although adopting the style of his influence, Huang Gongwang, of monumental commemorative
Wang Shimin avoided slavishly copying. He simplified the i handscrolls. 1689, handscroll, ink
QING composition to the main elements and emphasised areas of light
DYNASTY
CHINA: eee =and colour on silk, 68x 156cm,
and dark. c17th century, ink on silk, 28x237cm, Musée Guimet, Paris 4 Musée Guimet, Paris, France

Wang Jian Wang Yuana'

b TAICANG, JIANGSU PROVINCE, 1598; d 1677 b TAICANG, JIANGSU PROVINCE, 1642; d 1715

A friend and near contemporary of Wang Shimin, but The youngest of the four Wangs of the Orthodox school,
unrelated, Wang Jian was an enthusiastic supporter of Wan Yuanqi was also possibly the most conforming in
Dong Qichang's theories, following the principles of the following the literati tradition as laid down by Dong Qichang.
Four Masters of the Yuan and denouncing anything other He was the grandson of Wang Shimin, who recognised his
than the Orthodox school as degenerate. He painted exceptional talent at an early age and became his mentor,
mainly landscapes, which despite being deliberately in encouraging his studies of the classical landscape artists.
the Yuan or even earlier traditions, have a unique style As well as being a talented painter, Wang Yuangi had a
characterised by delicate brushwork and use of colour. successful career as an official under the Kangxi emperor,
He gained an official post as a young man, but he retired and was also a leading member of the Hanlin Academy,
CENTURIES
18TH
AND
17TH
early to concentrate on his painting and writing. where he was known as an influential art theorist. He saw
his paintings, almost exclusively landscapes, as part of
» Landscape with a long but evolving tradition. His personal interpretation of
mountains, rivers and huts the principles of the old literati masters was a continuation
among trees Wang Jian of the line stretching back to Wang Wei in the 8th century.
painted a number of hanging
scroll landscapes in archaistic
styles, with similar themes and v Wooded Islands Not content to merely imitate the
an almost formulaic composition. classical masters, Wang Yuanqi combined elements from
However his understanding of various periods to create a truly original style. In\Wooded
the underlying formal elements Islands, for example, he incorporates the blue and green
and elegant brushwork saves colours associated with Tang landscapes with the
them from being merely elegant, calligraphic brushwork of later periods. c17th
imitative. c17th century, hanging century, ink on paper, The Barnes Foundation, Merion,
scroll, ink on paper,10x8cm Pennsylvania, US

Pd, SEG,
es 3é as
a a ae
Te A Landscape After Wang Meng (detail)
One of four hanging scrolls in the style of the
Yuan master, this landscape is executed in
the appropriate monochrome style, but is
- -t -
more homage than imitation. Part of Yuangi’s
theory of painting was to capture the “dynamic
force” of a scene rather than reproduce it.
1702, ink and light colour on paper, 103x 48cm,
Kyoto National Museum, Japan
 Yun Shouping
b WUJIN, JIANGSU PROVINCE, 1633; d 1690 Y Lotus flower, from an
Brought up in a family of prominent artists, Yun Shouping Album of Flowers Yun
became one of the masters of the Qing Orthodox school, revitalised the art of
best known for his painting of flowers. After moving to Chinese flower painting
Jianning as a child, he was separated from his family and by resurrecting the ancient
adopted by an invading Manchurian general, but reunited “boneless” technique,
b CHANGSHU, JIANGSU PROVINCE, 1632; d 1718 with his father by chance after the general's assassination. without inked outlines. With
He then studied painting, calligraphy, and poetry, but on subtle variations of tone and
A close friend of Wang Hui and fellow student of Wang Shimin and Wang Jiang,
watercolour washes, rather
Wu Li also studied literature and poetry and was the archetypical cultured literatus seeing the landscapes of his friend Wang Hui felt he could
than carefully detailed ink
envisaged by Dong Oichang for the Qing Orthodox School. However, unlike other not match their excellence and realised that his talent lay
brushwork, he introduced a
literati, he converted to Christianity in 1681, after studying Confucianism, Daoism, elsewhere. Consequently, he decided to concentrate on
freshness and expressiveness
and Buddhism, and later became a Jesuit priest. His various religious and flower painting, specifically in the “boneless” style
enhanced by a striking use
philosophical leanings seem not to have influenced his painting — he worked in the (without ink outlines) that originated with the 10th-century of colour. c17th century,
traditional Chinese style of the Orthodox artists, taking the Song and Yuan masters master Xu Chongsi, and established a school of painting watercolour on silk backed
as his model. Huang Gongwang was his main influence as a young man, but in his in Changzhou. paper, Osaka Museum of
mature work he adopted and combined techniques from all of the four Yuan masters, Fine Arts, Japan
and despite his Catholicism in later life, had little time for Western art.

A The Lute Song (detail) Painted in Macao, the Portuguese colony where Wuwas
baptised as a Catholic, The Lute Song expresses his nostalgia for Chinese culture and
shows no European influence. Its subject is a poem from the Tang period by Bo Juyi
which tells of an exile being reminded of home by the sound of a lute. 1681, handscroll, -VWNIHD
ONIO
ALSVNAQ
ink and colours on paper, 25x 100cm, Herbert F Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, US

Zhu Da Shitao
b 1626, NANCHANG, JIANGXI PROVINCE; d 1705 b GUILIN, GUANGXI PROVINCE, 1642; d YANGZHOU,
JIANGSU PROVINCE, 1707
A descendant of the Ming prince Zhu Quan, Zhu Da fled from his native
Nanchang when the Manchu invaded in 1644, and sought refuge in a Buddhist A member of the imperial Zhu family of the Ming
temple. As well as becoming a respected monk and eventually an abbot, he was Dynasty, Shitao was taken by a family servant to
known as a poet and painter, and after the death of his Buddhist master left the a monastery to escape the Manchu invasion, and
temple to become an itinerant monk and artist. An emotionally unstable man adopted the life of an itinerant Buddhist monk. He
and bitterly opposed to the Manchu dynasty, he suffered a breakdown in 1680, became an accomplished calligrapher and painter
burning his monk's robes and devoting himself to painting. He painted mainly and developed a very personal style integrating an
flower and bird pictures in an increasingly abstract calligraphic style, and often influence of Classical and Buddist masters, and
with sarcastic and seditious references to the Qing dynasty. later Daoist teachings. In the last years of his life,
he wrote a treatise, Huayu lu (Remarks on painting), SSIYNLN
HLZL
GNV
HL8L
which systematically explained his theories of art,
< Birds on a Lake Rock Le 4 ae
By 1690, Zhu Da had moved uh BT and showed his contempt for the Orthodox
school's slavish imitation of previous eras.
away from the very realistic, ¥ aN P 5
detailed style of his early work 4 ey
and stripped his composition .:
"i
down to a minimum of skilful
brushstrokes. Here the subject
is suggested by simplified
lines and shapes, with
abstract rather than
representational significance. EER j wend
1690, ink on satin, 131 x47cm,
Indianapolis Museum of Art, US
reer
A a tfLandscape,
andicsset after
ater\.
» Lotus, Homage to Xu Wei Huang Gongwang /n the 1670s
Zhu Da’ radical attitude to art Shitao lived in a temple in the
had some precedence in the mountains of Anhui Province
work of Xu Wei, a similarly that had provided inspiration for
unstable Ming dynasty painter. generations of painters. Here, he has
This homage was as much adopted the linear style of the Ming
political as aesthetic and A Returning Home Opposed to the imitative ethos of painters, but also found inspiration
demonstrates a range of brush the Orthodox school, Shitao was innovative in his painting. in the work of Huang Gongwang of
techniques. c1689-90, ink on His landscapes show a very personal style of calligraphic the Yuan period, a Daoist who also
paper, 186x 90cm, Museum of brushwork and a subjective approach to composition. From an rebelled against an alien occupation.
Fine Arts, Boston, US album of 12 paintings, c1695, ink and colour on paper, each painting: 1671, pen and ink on paper, 86x41cm,
17x11cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, US Musée Guimet, Paris, France
 Kuncan
Hongren b CHANGDE, HUNAN PROVINCE, 1612;
b SHE XIAN?, ANHUI PROVINCE, d NANJING, JIANGSU PROVINCE, 1673 Y Winter One of four scenes
1610; d SHE XIAN, 1664 depicting the seasons, Winter
Along with Shitao, Zhu Da, and Hongren, Kuncan is considered one
The leading master of the Anhui was painted at the request of
of the four Great Monk Painters of,the early Qing period. He originally
school, Hongren, became a the scholar Qingxi and rather
studied to become a civil servant, but became increasingly interested
than depicting a particular
Buddhist monk in 1646 during in Buddhism and painting, eventually giving up his career to move to location, is an expression of
a brief exile from his native Nanjing in search of enlightenment. After the Manchu occupation, he Kuncan’s personal recollection.
province following the Qing took up a travelling lifestyle lasting some ten years before settling to The colophon (calligraphy)
invasion. When he returned to life as a monk-artist, first in a temple in Nanjing, then, in 1659, at the explains, “| have merely noted
She Xian, he adopted the life of a nearby Youqi Temple on Mt Zutang. This marked the beginning of his a little of the atmosphere and
monk-artist living in monasteries most productive period as a painter, in which he developed his lively flavour”. 1666, handscroll, ink
in Anhui and made several visits landscape style inspired by Huang Gongwang and Wang Meng. and colour on paper, British
to the Mt Huang region. He was Museum, London, UK
an influential artist and scholar,
painting landscapes in the
manner of the Yuan masters
Ni Zan and Huang Gongwang,
but in the 1650s developed a
distinctively angular style which
can be seen in all his later work.

» Monumental Landscape Hongren \

was much influenced by the sparse style
of the Yuan master Ni Zan, making
it popular among the Anhui school
painters. Combining Ni Zan’s use
DYNASTY
QING
of empty space with his own light
brushwork and jagged, linear style,
he achieved an impressive sense of
CHINAdepth and perspective. 1662, ink on paper,
294 x102cm, Indianapolis Museum of Art, US

Gong Xian |Zheng Xie

b KUNSHAN, 1619-20; d NANJING, 1689 b XINGHUA, JIANGSU PROVINCE, 1693; d 1765
Despite being an orphan from a poor background, Although he received a classical
Zheng Xie had a successful career in the civil service, education, including instruction
becoming Official Calligrapher and Painter to the in landscape painting in the
Oianlong emperor until a corruption scandal in 1753 Orthodox style, Li Shan had an
forced his retirement. He then devoted himself to erratic career in the civil service in
poetry and painting, and as a prominent member Beijing, regularly interrupting it to
of the Chinese painting group, Eight Eccentrics of concentrate on his painting, both
Yangzhou, he lived comfortably on commissions in his home town Xinghua, and
and the income from his estate. Best known for Yangzhou. He studied with the
CENTURIES
18TH
AND
17TH
his paintings of bamboo, rocks, orchids, and fingerpainter Gao Qipei and was
chrysanthemums, his style was highly personal, inspired by the freedom of the
but inspired by the freedom of artists such as Xu Buddhist masters Shitao and
Wei and Shitao. Zhu Da, soon turning his back
on Orthodox landscapes and
<( Bamboo and Rocks becoming one of the Eight
Zheng was a skilful and Eccentrics of Yangzhou. In the
1740s he retired from public
A Snow covered landscape The apparent solidity of pes 3 eee service completely, earning his
elements is achieved by tonal contrasts uncommon in : a 4 yan
%ee a pao y living from sales of his mainly
Chinese art of the period, and possibly influenced by
bird and flower paintings.
contact with Western art. c17th century, ink and watercolour
on paper, Oriental Museum, Durham University, UK especially the depictions
of bamboo. Here, » A Chicken, Cockscomb and
composition and
One of a family of Ming aristocrats, Gong Xian Chrysanthemum L/ Shan’ exuberant
representation are less
painting style, characterised by lively
spent much of his life in exile following the Qing important than the
and spontaneous brushwork, is made
invasion, and refused to serve under the Manchu expressive range of the
even more unique by his sensitive use
regime. He made his living as a painter and individual brushstrokes,
of colour washes. Like other members
poet in the tradition of the literati artist-scholars, and the colophon of the Yangzhou school, he rejected
becoming the influential leading light of the (calligraphy) forms Orthodox principles of imitative
Nanjing school. Gong's landscapes were an integral part of landscape painting in favour of a more
markedly different from those of his the picture. c1760, ink
intimate and expressive style. c18th
contemporaries, rejecting linear, calligraphic brush on paper, 172x 99cm, century, handscroll, ink and colour on
techniques in favour of a more three-dimensional Minneapolis Institute
paper, 155x 51cm, private collection
approach using tonal shading and emphasising of Arts, US
the contrast of space and solid forms.
 was originally a Buddhist term,
denoting the transient nature of
human life, but in the Edo period it
Fifteen generations of Shoguns from began to mean seeking a fleeting
the Tokugawa family ruled Japan for pleasure in this exciting and sensuous
250 years after Tokugawa Leyasu world. The visual culture associated
defeated his enemies in the decisive with the group flourished, and a large
battle of Sekigahara in 1600. He number of men from the samurai
moved the seat of government from class were drawn to it too.
Kyoto to Edo (the present day Tokyo). _—_A Pair of Hexagonal Kakiemon Vases and Covers Christianity was seen as a threat to
17th-century Japanese porcelain was avidly collected Japanese autonomy and was banned
by European royalty and aristocrats for its high :
quality. The bright enamel decoration ona milky white 'N 1617. All Europeans were expelled
The Tokugawa Shogunate controlled body directly inspired the developmentofEuropean from Japan, and the Tokugawa
the country with strict rules and social —_parcelain at Meissen. government enforced the official
orders. The class system according to if policy of isolation. In the 17th and 18th
The peace brought about Confucian principles was structured Subject matter centuries, contact with the outside
by stable rule during the from four categories. At the top of Although condemned to the lowest world was limited to Dutch Protestant
Edo period (1615-1868) society were the samurai warriors. class, merchants enjoyed the wealth and Chinese merchants. No Japanese
encouraged trade and industry, The second category was the farmers generated from their business. They were allowed to travel abroad, but this
Bet ._ who produced food. Then came became the main participants of the policy did not prevent the export of
which in turn created economic ; : . : i ;
5 5 2 artisans who made useful objects. At —_so-called “Floating World” the urban Japanese porcelain and lacquer wares
prosperity. Against this the bottom of the social ladder were | community of lively Kabuki (dance to Europe, or the import of western
backdrop, secular art and merchants who earned their living by | anddrama) theatre and the pleasure books and scientific materials, as well
culture flourished. simply exchanging goods with money. quarters.
The name “Floating World” as Chinese goods, into Japan.

Japanese art ASANVdv

LuV

Kano Tan’yu Tawarayo Sotatsu

b KYOTO, 1602; d KYOTO, 1674 active 1600-40

Artists from the Kano School served as official painters to the Shogunate throughout Tawaraya Sotatsu started his career as a
the Edo period. Kano Tan’yu, the grandson of Kano Eitoku (see p.189), was one of the painter of fans and owned a shop in Kyoto.
most successful painters of the day. He was named an official painter at the age of From the 1610s, he collaborated with Hon‘ami
15. He undertook many important commissions to decorate Shogun castles and Koetsu, who established a commune of
residences, painting the subject matter that reflected the ideals and authority of the artisans in Takagamine in the northern hills
rulers. Tan’yu continued the family tradition of large dynamic paintings on gold leaf, of Kyoto. The innovative and decorative style
and excelled at painting animals and themes from Chinese classical tales. He was of their works catered for the taste of
also a collector and connoisseur of classical Japanese and Chinese paintings, and sophisticated urban consumers. In his later
left a large number of sketches of the works he had been asked to authenticate. years, Sotatsu revived the colourful traditional
Japanese painting (yamato-e) style. He
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produced large scale paintings on gold screens
with themes taken from classical literature
such as the Tale of Genji. Sotatsu’s painting
is characterized by his strong sense of design
with highly stylized motifs.
A Setting out for Kawachi, from the
Tale of Ise Sotatsu illustrated scenes
‘ ! , from the classical Tale of |se, which relates
Y Scroll of Classical Poems (detail) Calligraphy by the journey of a courtier who was banished
Koetsu is decorated by Sotatsu with flying cranes. The from the capital. Early 17th century
combination of black ink and simplified motifs in gold —_94.5x21cm, album leaf, ink, and colour on
and silver makes a distinctive design. c1615, ink, silver, paper, Indianapolis Maan of Art. US
and gold on paper, Kyoto National Museum, Japan i ;

A Scholar Viewing a Lake CLOSERIook

The ideal landscape inspired by the Aaa COPYING THE
Chinese style ink painting continued MASTER Artists of the
to be popular during the Edo period. Kano School studied trees
17th century, ink and colour on paper, and rocks from a model
87x 125cm, Indianapolis Museum of : painted by the master,
Art, US @ rather than from nature,
ensuring the tradition of
the Kano style continued.
 Ogata Korin
Vv Lacquer Box As with the |rises screens, the theme for
b KYOTO, 1658; d KYOTO, 1716 LIFEline
the lacquer box comes from an episode from the Tale of \se.
Together with his ceramicist brother Kenzan, Ogata Korin created the decorative and 1658 Born
wvoalthy terto(lorena
a family of faniiincorporates the Yatsuhashi
The design hashi (Eight-p/
(Eight-plank i
bridge},
elegant style of art that reflected the taste of the wealthy merchant class in Kyoto in applied with large pieces of lead on top of the gold and black
in Kyoto
the early years of the 18th century. Their father had a textile shop called Kariganeya, lacquer. Height 14.2cm >=
1690s Inherits the business ~sse
which supplied luxurious kimono to the members of the imperial family. Korin’s flair after his father's death, but *
for design was probably nurtured in such an environment, surrounded by rich and squanders the family fortune
beautiful materials from a young age. with his flamboyant life style
Korin was inspired by the works of Sotatsu (see p.285), and adopted themes from 1704 Moves to Edo to seek
classical Japanese literature just as Sotatsu did. He also studied Sotatsu’s painting the patronage of samurei
techniques by copying his work, and adapting It to develop his own distinctive style. 1710 Returns to Kyoto
Korin was primarily a painter, but also designed lacquer wares and textiles as well as 1716 Dies in modest
circumstances
collaborating with his brother to decorate ceramics. His masterpieces display his love
of simplified forms and bold composition. He was also notorious for his extravagance,
and is said to have once wrapped food in gold leaf for a picnic, discarding the
wrappings afterwards. Korin’s works inspired a group of artists in Edo in the early
19th century, and the style is today known as “Rinpa” (School of Rin).

CLOSERIook
MOTHER-OF-PEARL
The irises are inlaid with
m mother-of-pearl. The
| contrast between the
iridescent flowers and
the dark lead bridge
creates a bold design
wg ‘Ypical of the Rinpa style.
es

(Irises The theme is thought to come from the Heian

period Tale of |se, in which the hero travels to a place
famous for its beautiful irises. c1700, pair of six-panel
JAPANESE
ART screens, colour and gold on paper, each 151 x 339m,
Nezu Institute of Art, Tokyo, Japan

Lela Nioronobu Okumura Masanobu

b AWA, 1618; d EDO, 1694 INcontext b EDO, 1686; d EDO, 1764
Hishikawa Moronobu started his working life in the
UKIYO-E (WOODBLOCK PRINTS)
Masanobu was a talented, energetic print designer who experimented
Woodblock prints had been used in Japan for
province of Awa drawing designs on textile for his family with new formats and techniques throughout his long career. He was
producing Buddhist texts since the 8th century,
business of embroiderers. He moved to Edo in the but the enormous popularity of secular illustrated also a successful publisher who vigorously promoted his own works.
1660s and illustrated over 150 books, becoming one of books encouraged the development of single- He claimed to be the inventor of hashira-e ("pillar prints” in a tall, thin
the most popular illustrators of the Edo publishing world. sheet prints in the 17th century. format, suitable for displaying on pillars) but is best known for his
He is credited with the invention of single-sheet prints uki-e (floating pictures), which used Western perspective.
_ Teamwork Ukiyo-e
without text, depicting the pleasure quarters and the ') prints were produced
All woodblock prints were monochrome at first, but Masanobu
everyday lives of common people in Edo. f by the collaborative produced a variety of hand-coloured prints on subjects as diverse as
His prints are mostly inexpensive black and white,
CENTURIES
18TH
AND
17TH efforts of the artist beautiful women, actors, birds and flowers, and interior scenes. From
but he coloured some by hand, probably for particular (designer), woodblock around the 1740s, he succeeded in producing so-called benizuri-e
carver, printer, and
patrons. He was also the first artist to sign his prints, (rose-printed pictures), which included pink and green colours.
publisher. Block
raising the status of print designer to that of artist. Cutting and Printing
Moronobu is considered to be the father of ukiyo-e Surimono by
(woodblock prints of “the floating world”) and his works % Katsushika Hokusai,
m 1825, Fitzwilliam
greatly contributed to the popularity of the genre.
g@ Museum, Cambridge,
i) UK

<< Music under the Cherry

Tree at Ueno Moronobus
single-sheet prints of genre
scenes were cheap so even
townspeople of modest means
could own and enjoy works of
art. Moronobu established the
. Hishikawa school and his
| followers continued to produce
popular prints in his style.
1680, woodblock print, Fitzwilliam
Museum, Cambridge, UK

A Interior of a Kabuki Theatre Masanobu’ uki-e prints used Western

linear perspective to give depth of space. They were enormously popular with
the Edo public, who were always keen to see a novel image. c1745, woodblock
print, 44x 64cm, British Museum, London, UK
 Kitigawa Utamaro
b MUSASHI PROVINCE, 1753; d EDO, 1806 LIFEline
b EDO, 1725; d EDO, 1770 One of the greatest ukiyo-e designers in the late 18th century, 1753 Born in Musashi
Kitagawa Utamaro was the foremost artist in the genre of bijin-ga 1780s Discovered by
In 1765, the invention of full-colour nishiki-e prints (brocade pictures) publisher Tsutaya Juzaburo
(pictures of beautiful women). Under the guidance of his mentor
was a major innovation in the art of woodblock printing. Suzuki 1789 Designs illustrations for
Tsutaya Juzaburo, the most successful publisher of the day, Utamaro
Harunobu is credited with producing the first nishiki-e when he was Book of Shells and other
first came to prominence with his fine illustrations of nature. poetry books
commissioned to design a multicoloured picture calendar for the
From about 1792, Tsutaya published many series of women’s 1792/3 Publishes Ten Studies
members of a poetry club to distribute as a New Year gift. It was so
portraits designed by Utamaro. Okubi-e (large-head prints) showed in Female Physiognomy, Great
successful that Harunobu immediately embarked on commercial
only the upper half of a woman's figure. Utamaro depicted women Love Themes of Classical
production of nishiki-e. He designed hundreds of colourful genre Poetry, and other series
from all social backgrounds including prostitutes and respectable
scenes in the next five years until his death in 1770. Harunobu's 1804 Imprisoned for
wives. He captured both physical and psychological characteristics.
favourite subject matter was beautiful young girls with delicate publishing a print of
After Tsutaya died in 1797, Utamaro’s life turned downhill. He was Hideyoshi, the historical figure |
features, slender figures, and dainty little hands. He was also fond
arrested for publishing a banned political image. The punishment was of a former ruler
of the mitate form, in which scenes from famous Noh plays or
three days in jail and 50 days in handcuffs, which directly contributed 1806 Dies in despair
ancient tales were shown in contemporary settings.
to his ill health and death in 1806.

» Osen of the Kagiya

Serving Tea to a Customer
Osen was a famous beauty
who worked in the tea shop by
Kasamori Shrine in downtown HB i iit [

Edo. Harunobu’s women are all We iy

idealized and look like pretty / lent, #
f ef wails
dolls. 1767, polychrome hi Wi ' 4
\
woodblock print, 27.5x 20cm, 4 4} ASANVdv
LYV
British Museum, London, UK

a
Toshusai Sharaku a CRO 5A

DATES UNKNOWN A Lovers from the series Poems of the Pillow /he | CLOSERIo ok
Sharaku is one of the most enigmatic ukiyo-e artists. Virtually nothing technique of polychrome printing reached its peak in the 1780s
is recorded about his life. The success of his striking bust portraits of and 90s. Utamaro conveys the fine texture of the transparent
Kabuki actors thrust him into the limelight in the spring of 1794, but material in this erotic image. c1789, polychrome woodblock print,
he disappeared completely from the scene after 10 months. In that 25.5x 37cm, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
short period, he produced about 150 designs, almost all of Kabuki
actors. Some of these portraits were not very flattering, but brilliantly
captured the essence of their character.

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EROTIC OVERTONES
The back of a woman's neck was considered
a sexy sight. Eroticism is expressed in this
image without being explicit. Utamaro’s
attention to detail can be seen in the
minute lines of the hairline.

~< Three Beauties of the Present Day /he

print is inscribed with the title and the names
of three women famed for their beauty in the
top right corner on a pale mica background. The
publishers seal and Utamaro’s signature are on
the left. The women’s faces look similar at first
but, on closer inspection, each can be identified
from the shape of their nose and the motifs on
their kimono. c1793, polychrome woodblock print,
A Actor Otani Oniki [he actor is 35.5x24.5cm, Museum of Fine Art, Boston, US
Fal» lee Bay caught in mid-movement. The grey
A Actor Segawa Tomisaburo A// background is sprinkled with mica
actors in the popular Kabuki theatre dust, which glistens in the light. 1794,
were male. This print depicts a female polychrome woodblock print, 37 x24cm,
impersonator, bedecked in a gaudy British Library, London, UK
costume with elaborate hair ornaments.
1794, polychrome woodblock print,
37x 24cm, British Library, London, UK
 After an age during which the Islamic
world was ruled by many disparate << Madrasa-yi Madar-i
dynasties and invaders, such as the Shah, Isfahan, Iran,
early 17th century
Mongols, there followed a period
Art and achitecture of
of stability under the three empires unsurpassed magnificence
that emerged in this region in the can be seen in the
early 16th century. mosques and palaces of
cities such as Isfahan and
The first of these, the Ottoman Istanbul, and the Mughal
Empire, stretched from Turkey to Taj Mahal (see p.291).
Tunisia, while the Safavid Empire
In the 17th and 18th centuries,
ruled in Iran, and the Mughals in India. and Safavids they continued to important means of artistic expression
Islamic art reached a peak The arts thrived in the prosperity flourish. However, other arts also across the Islamic world.The artistic
of excellence in three great of these empires, developing a became important. developments of each empire
empires: the Ottomans, distinctive regional style. The arts of the book were adopted influenced those of its neighbours,
Safavids, and Mughals. for secular themes, for example, and but as well as this “cross-fertilization”
Origins and influences illustration of manuscripts prompted the influence of Chinese porcelain
Some of the finest Islamic
In Turkey and Persia, there was the beginnings of a mainstream and decoration can be seen in Turkish
architecture dates from this already a long Islamic artistic tradition, Islamic tradition of representational and Persian ceramics, and Mughal
period, and ceramics and the in architecture and the decorative arts art. Crafts such as ceramics, textiles, illustration shows elements of both
art of the book also flourished. in particular, and under the Ottomans paper, and jewellery were also European and Hindu art.

ART islamic art

ISLAMIC

4
Ottoman
TURKEY TO TUNISIA, c1300-1932

The longest surviving of the Islamic empires, the Ottoman

era Saw Turkey emerge as a major centre of Islamic art.
Its architecture, based on Byzantine models, came to
international prominence in the work of Sinan (1489-1588),
whose 50-year career included the Selmiye Mosque in
Edirne and the Suleiman Mosque in Istanbul, and his
apprentices went on to build Istanbul's famous Blue
Mosque and the Taj Mahal in Mughal India.
Turkey became famous too for fine ceramics and crafts
CENTURIES
18TH
AND
17TH
such as jewellery, carpets, and paper marbling. Influenced
by Persian manuscript illumination, artists also created
illustrated books, such as the two “books of festivals”

A Jug with red decoration /he Turkish town

of lznik became a centre of ceramic production
in the Ottoman Empire, famous for the distinctive
“lenik red” used in painted decorations. Turkish
School, 16th century, earthenware, Hanley Museum
& Art Gallery, Staffordshire, UK
< Tile with two parrots Complementing
the magnificent Ottoman architecture, Turkish
ceramicists produced decorated tiles as well as
pottery. These were often finely decorated with te 2 -
geometric designs featuring floral, vegetal, and
A The Forces of Suleyman the Magnificent Besieging a Christian
animal motifs.Turkish (Iznik), 17th century, ceramic
Fortress Manuscript illumination under the Ottoman Empire, influenced by
tile, Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, UK
Safavid art, evolved into an art of book illustration, generally on historical
themes depicting the exploits of Emperors such as Suleyman | and the
expansion of the Empire. From the Hunername by Lokman, 1588, gouache
on paper, Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul, Turkey
Safavid
IRAN, C1501-1786

The Safavid Empire differed from the Ottomans and Mughals in several
respects: importantly, its Shahs were Shi'a rather than Sunni; and as
well as a strong artistic tradition dating back to pre-Islamic times, it had
absorbed many Chinese and Mongol elements after the conquests by
Timur in the 14th century. Between 1501 and 1786 (when the Safavids
Vv The Persian Prince Humay
lost power to the Oajar dynasty) Persia enjoyed a Golden Age of artistic
Meeting the Chinese Princess
achievement. In cities such as Isfahan, architecture flourished under
Humayun in a Garden
Shah Abbas the Great, and the ceramic industry thrived, inspired
The Timurid dynasty in the
by Chinese porcelain. However, the finest art was to be found in
15th century produced fine
illuminated manuscripts of secular narrative poetry, particularly manuscript illustrators, who
Ferdowsi's epic Shahnameh. As with Persian miniatures, these book worked for aristocratic patrons.
illustrations incorporated elements of Central Asian art, marking the Iranian, Timurid School, c1450,
start of a new style of representational painting within Islamic art. gouache on paper, Musée des

RSsCArs
a oe . Saal :
(cA (STIL
ee) 5:2 Me f
Z|
b ie ee s ie C | i

ie Ya jf TF Vp ss
A. Ceiling of the Palace of Hasht Behesht (Eight Paradises) When
Of 2 n B|
Isfahan became capital of the Safavid dynasty, Shah Abbas | initiated a massive
programme of building. The domed palaces and mosques built in the following
two centuries featured huge spaces and were lavishly decorated with mosaic. SIINVISI
LYV
Safavid dynasty, 16th-17th century, Isfahan, Iran

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Ons : Sk
whe
IH)Nee
PS Te ARS

> ie Bi ome A Zal Being Rescued by the

Mythical Simurgh from a copy of
A Princess Sitting in a Garden /he
Shahnameh. /ndividual illustrations
Islamic restrictions on representational art
were considered as works of art
did not apply to secular buildings, which in
in their own right, and were later
addition to traditional mosaic and arabesque
collected in albums known as
decoration, were adorned with paintings
muhaqaa. Safavid Dynasty, late 16th
similar in style to Persian book illustration.
century, gouache and watercolour on
Safavid Dynasty, 17th century, fresco, palace
paper, Chester Beatty Library, Dublin
of Chehel Sotun ("40 Columns”), Isfahan, Iran

» The delicately detailed depiction

of the flowers and trees shows an
>)
4 eastern influence, in contrast with
fF

: the distinctively Islamic portrayal

of geometric architectural features
and decorative calligraphy.
 INDIA, 1526-1707
Babur founded of the great Mughal dynasty in Delhi in 1526. He was a poet and
warrior. king descended from Tamerlane, the Turco—Mongol conqueror of West
and Central Asia. In India, Mughals continued the tradition of building mosques,
palaces, and majestic tombs that had been started 300 years earlier. The
Mughals brought perfection to this art, the culmination of a long Islamic
tradition that became more and more rooted in the rich and older indigenous
culture. Each Mughal ruler constructed a grandiose new capital and graced the
empire with the breathtaking beauty of royal tombs like the Taj Mahal at Agra.
Mughal architecture was born from a mixture of Persian, Turkish, and Indian
traditions, but in painting the Persian influence was more direct. The second
Mughal, Humayan, was forced into Persian exile, but when he returned to Indiai
in 1555 he brought two Persian masters, Mir Sayyid Ali and Abd al-Samad, to
establish a Mughal atelier. Humayan died suddenly, but his 14-year-old son Akbar
not only extended and consolidated the empire, he set about creating the
dynastic archives. The Akbarnama (Book of Akbar), written in Persian by Abu’l
Fazi recorded his military triumphs and heroic exploits. Akbar’s first surviving
child became emperor Jahangir. The 5th Mughal, Shah Jahan, travelled all over
the empire with his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal, rather than be separated from
her. On her death he created the perfectly proportioned Taj Mahal — an elegy in
white marble to his beloved wife. His conciliatory attitude to the Rajputs and
his fascination with their culture led to the Mughal innovations in art and
architecture being rapidly reflected throughout the empire.

ART
ISLAMIC

CENTURIES
18TH
AND
17TH

os

A Akbar Tames the Savage Elephant, Hawa’i,

Outside the Red Fort at Agra /n a dramatic narrative
painting from the Akbar-nama by Basawan and Chatai,
Akbar keeps his hold on the charging elephant, Hawa’i,
with an elephant hook as the demented animal crashes
over a pontoon bridge of boats on leaving Agra, sending
attendants diving into the river Jumna. This is the left-
hand page of a double illustration. c1590, gouache on
paper, 34.5x21.7cm, British Museum, London, UK
<< Akbar Assisting in the Quarrel of the Ascetics
Here, Akbar intervenes in an ascetics’ quarrel in the a
Akbar-nama. The organized chaos of the scene again
THE STRENGTH OF AKBAR The painting
shows the mastery of space in a condensed narrative
shows the moment when the matting rips and
painting by Bashawan. c1590, gouache on paper, Victoria
pontoon boats shoot out of the water as elephants
& Albert Museum, London, UK
dash across the river. Akbar, renowned for his
strength and battlefield coolness, thrusts his
feet under the neck strap and hangs on to the
hook sunk in the elephant's hide.
v Dying Inayat Khan /he former paymaster of the imperial
cavalry, Inayat Khan, was sketched in 1618 on Jahangir’s orders
after he was carried to the palace dying from addiction to opium
and wine. In his memoirs, Jahangir recorded his astonishment at
the deterioration in the once proud officer and close adviser. The
sketch and subsequent painting are a unique realist record and
a cruel portrait. An inscription on the edge of the painting in
Jahangir successor Shah Jahan’s hand attributes the work to
Balchand, a renowned Indian miniaturist (1596-1640) who had a
long career in the Mughal atelier. 1618-19, ink and light wash on
paper, 9.3x13.3cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, US

> Emperor Jahangir Holding a Portrait of Emperor Akbar

Portrait painting was an important part of the Mughals’ dynastic
archive. This genre had been previously unknown in Persia and LE oeSa ai
India. The early portraits are detailed, focused on courtly robes A Squirrels on a Plane Tree /he red squirrels (not native
and jewellery, and are often somewhat wooden. Here, Jahangir to India) that race about a plane tree, depicted in autumn
shows his affection for the new genre by having himself colours, attest to European influence in this celebrated piece
portrayed holding a portrait of his father, Akbar. 17th century, by the renowned portrait painter Abu’! Hasan. c1610, gouache
gouache on paper, Musée Guimet, Paris, France on paper, 36.2x22.5cm, British Library, London, UK
|

INcontext
TAJ MAHAL The masterpiece of Mughal art,
is the Taj Mahal at Agra. The tomb of Shah
Jahan and his wife Mumtaz Mahal rises in
perfect symmetry in a 300 square metre
formal garden with sunken flower beds and
raised marble tanks. Its shimmering white
marble facades, inlaid with jasper, are crowned
with a high bayed arch and a raised dome amid
four elegant, towering minarets.

Hi
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HLL
S3INMLN3
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Royal Tomb Completed around 1650 by Shah Jahan,

the Taj Mahal stands at the end of a canal that runs
through a walled garden. Under the 61-metre dome,
the royal tombs are set behind carved marble screens
inlaid with precious stones.
=

A Aurangzeb Hunting Lions The Mughal, Aurangzeb locked up his sick and ageing
father Shah Jahan in his Agra palace and seized the throne in 1658. Aurangzeb was
a ruthless general and no patron of the arts. As a consequence, the masters of the
imperial workshops soon dispersed to the surrounding Rajput courts. However,
the dynastic portrait tradition lingered on as in this scene of Aurangzeb hunting
lion. c1670-80, vellum, Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Ireland
 Islamic art and architecture had been _
steadily spreading across northern
and central India for centuries before < Vittala Temple Vijayanagara,
the Mughal Persian-Indian dynasty often known by its older name Hampi,
rose to power in Delhi. The Mughals developed into the greatest capital in
the south of India. Its scores of well-
began to reshape the landscape by
preserved temples and palaces make
building elegant palaces, new cities, it one of the most important art and
and imperial tombs. These new architectural sites in modern India. 16th
developments drained much of the century, stone, Hampi, Karnataka, India.
artistic resource from traditional Hindu
art forms. However, in the south of greet the deities as they exited and
India, beyond the reach of Delhi, the returned-to the temple.
The traditions of Hindu art
tradition of sculptured Hindu temple Further north, under the sway of
were revived in south India in
art continued to thrive in the 17th and the Mughals, Hindu sacred art still
magnificent temples like those 18th centuries. prospered in a tradition of miniature
at Vijayanagara in Karnataka painting that hailed back to the
and later at Madurai. In the Sacred art helped Rama, another Vishnu avatar, illustrated covers of sacred palm-leaf
north, the old purely Hindu Among the devotional cults that recover his wife Sita from the demons manuscripts. This tradition blossomed
flourished many focused on Krishna, on (Sri) Lanka. At festivals the major among the small independent states
miniature painting tradition
the powerful, playful, and amorous deities were installed in carriages below the Himalayas into lyrical,
burst into a final flowering avatar (human incarnation) of Vishnu. and drawn through the streets. An bucolic paintings of fresh, vital colour
in 17th-century Pahari and While some were devoted to innovation was carving portraits of and simple design known as Pahari
Rajput art. Hanuman, the monkey general who donor kings in the carriage hall to and Rajput painting.

ART Hindu art

HINDU

Indian temple art

<< Meenakshi Temple One ofthe
KERALA, c1790; TAMIL NADU, c1750
giant, elaborately sculpted gopuras
In the far south, the final wave of southern Hindu temple building (gateways) teeming with deities at
was often centred on the revived cult of Vishnu and his avatars Meenakshi, the great temple at
(human incarnations). After the Muslim kingdoms of the Deccan Madurai, which was the principal
plateau crushed Vijayanagara in the west, their viceroys further shrine of the Nayaka emperors in
south in Madurai proclaimed the independent Nayaka dynasty. In the 18th century 18th century, Madurai,
the 17th century they constructed large complexes with multiple Tamil Nadu, India
sanctuaries behind multi-tiered ornate gateways. The gaudy colours
of the gateways (or gopuras) and the somewhat muscled form of
the deities indicate a more popular art than the graceful forms of CLOSERIook
CENTURIES
18TH
AND
17TH - ~
deities achieved in the smaller Hindu temples of earlier centuries.
The monkey general Hanuman would usually be housed in a
shrine outside Vishnu’s main sanctuary, but in the southern state
of Kerala he often stands alone as a monumental statue to ward
off evil spirits. In Trivandrum he is honoured with his own temple.

SHIVA AND PARVATI Shiva and

his consort Parvati are depicted here
in painted stone on the exterior wall
of the southern gopura of the
Meenakshi Temple. They are riding
Shiva's white bull, Nandi “the happy
one”, who is a symbol of fertility.

A Sri Hanuman Temple Hanuman, the monkey general, is

given prominence on the roof of his own temple in the centre
of Trivandrum. 1808, Trivandrum, Kerala, India
Pahari painting
INDIA, c1700-1900
Pahari means “of the mountains” in Hindi, and the miniature paintings from the small Rajput painting
states below the western Himalayas are full of fresh air, mountain fields, and woods
INDIA, 1800-1900
painted in bright simple colours. In the Punjab hill states of Himachal Pradesh,
Jammu, and Kashmir the favourite themes include Krishna's amorous exploits with The Rajputs were the rajas (princes or kings) who ruled small states in the plains of
the adoring gopis (cowherd girls), and Rama’s dramatic rescue of his wife Sita, with Rajasthan and other areas of northern central India that became dependencies of the
a monkey army under Hanuman, from the demon-controlled island of Sri Lanka. Such central Islamic Mughal court in the 18th and 19th centuries. They generally maintained
marvellous narratives were underpinned by a passionate devotion to the universal cordial relations with the Mughals and enjoyed autonomous Hindu courts based on
Hindu gods, especially Krishna, in a growing religious pilgrimage movement. The military prowess, hunting, lineage, passion for music, and romantic art. Also important
origin of the Pahari genre remains mysterious. It suddenly appeared as a mature style was a devotion to the Hindu gods, especially Krishna the enticing and powerful human
in the mid-17th century and seems to owe something to the colour and space already form of Vishnu enacting his romance with Radha, a cowherd who rejected her
present in the art of the Rajasthani plains. When Delhi was sacked in 1739, Pahari art husband in favour of Krishna. In their erotic entanglement, Radha represents the
was boosted by the arrival of artists from the Mughal court, and the hill art blossomed human soul uniting with Krishna as the Godhead. Epics and scriptures were no longer
into India’s last pure Hindu art before the intrusion of European aesthetics that the preserve of the brahmins and entered mainstream daily life through popular bhakti
occurred in the 19th century. devotional cults. Rajput art also benefited from the dispersal of the artists of Mughal
Delhi in the 18th century, but whereas Mughal art was always realistic and politicized,
Y¥ Krishna Steals the Clothes of Gopis /n this i/lustration from Rajput (and Pahari) art was suffused with poetic metaphor and religious symbolism.
the Bhagavata Purana Krishna steals the clothes of the gopis as they
bathe at sunrise. The gopis are painted in flowing lines with charming
naturalism as they emerge shyly and gracefully from the river. 1780,
watercolour, 27.5x35.5, National Museum of India, New Delhi, India < The Fight
Between Arjuna
and Karna /he desert
of Rajasthan shows
through in the hot pink
terrain of this battle
between Arjuna and
Karna from the Indian
epic the Mahabharata.
Dead soldiers and
horses are heaped in
the foreground in this
painting from Bundi or
Kota. c1740, watercolour
and gold on paper,
28.3x36.7, Museum of NGNIH
LYvV
Fine Arts, Boston, US

< Krishna Fluting for

Gopis and Cows Krishna
is depicted standing ona
giant lotus flower that
shows his divine nature. He
plays his flute between two
trees and brings the cows GNV
HL8l
SAIYNLN
HLZL
and gopis — each holding a
lotus blossom in their hand
— to a swoon. 1700,
watercolour and silver on
paper, 16x24.5cm, Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston, US

» Having Coaxed My
Lotus-Faced Girl to Come
Towards the Bed, | Eagerly A Prince Hunting CLOSERIook
Prepare to Undo Her Bodice Antelope and Boar After COUNTRY LIFE The high
The more sombre and formal imperial service, art, fashion, walls of the city behind the
tradition of the Basohli school and religion, the pastime of hunting scene remind the ete
of Pahari painting is seen in the Rajputs was hunting. viewer that the idyllic Rajput 2-2-4 t tii a
the darker colours here, but Here, a prince ina chariot country life — imitating the
the content is romantic. This hunts abundant antelope grand style of the fabulous
watercolour illustrates and boar in an idealized Mughal court in Dehli — was
Krishna’s seduction of his and luminous landscape of buttressed by a standing
favourite gopi. 1660-70, rolling green hills. c1810, army for local feuds and
watercolour, Victoria & Albert watercolour, 20.6x27.6em, |Strong defences. -_ — —)
Museum, London, UK Museum of Fine Art,
Boston, US
 Early in the 19th century Romanticism reached its peak. Unlike
the Neoclassicists, who promoted order and reason, the
Romantics believed in the power of the imagination, emotion,
and individualism. Much of their work focused on the past but
was typically set in the Middle Ages rather than classical
EVoiecelUi aVamMil-\arecremetect-1cclom-Mel Cydia eh-M Colca me)mr-live tyr) of)
painting in which the forces of nature were seen as an extension
of feelings and were often given a mystical, visionary role.

on

{900 2 1825
19th
pret i

ROMANTICISM 1790-1850
NAZARENES 1809-1830

_ NEOCLASSICISM ¢1750-1820s

ES DSA TN CDI A IOI SS SDSS PE ET SI LT ELIS 8 AL GE SIE OIRO I TO RIE

EDO PERIOD (JAPAN) 1615-1868

/Ncolelaremcaremanl(e(e|(-meolmiat-mi betamex-ial(elaVAmn(cy-l Seam laaisice (cena
France as a reaction against French academic art. Instead express feelings and ideas by distorting shapes
of tackling noble themes, Realist artists painted the harsh Flare). e\ollaarolaidiaremiaditamexe) (ele|emllarommre]alem e\o1eslel-\eul\ice
conditions of rural life. In England, the Pre-Raphaelites Rejecting naturalism, the Nabis simplified forms and
tried to return to the simplicity of early Italian painting. used flat areas of colour to capture the “essence” of
Inspired by the work of the Realists and Japanese objects. Towards the end of the century the Symbolists
woodblock prints, the Impressionists strove to capture created evocative, dreamlike works derived from literature
the fleeting impressions of light in everyday scenes, using or legends. Art Nouveau took Symbolist imagery, such as
quick brushstrokes and flecks of pure colour. The Neo- and sinuous lines based on plant forms and pale, seductive
mossii an)e)k=sts1(0
a] IsieSme(enV{-1
(0)eL=Xe mUnlicmccreralalie|e(-ymare)e)iale nce) women, and used it primarily for decorative effect.

centur
1875 1900 2380"

REALISM 1850-1900

PRE-RAPHAELITES .1848-c1910

FRENCH ACADEMIC ART 1840-1900

MEIJI ERA (JAPAN) 12868-1912

IMPRESSIONISM 1870-1900

NEOIMPRESSIONISM 1885-1900

POSTIMPRESSIONISM .1880-c1905

NABIS 1890-1900

SYMBOLISM 1885-1910

ART NOUVEAU 1890-1914

 and order, the Romantics laid greater
emphasis on the power of the
imagination, the emotions, and
individualism. These qualities could be
evoked in very different ways. Some
painters, for example, liked to show
~ the individual dwarfed by the forces of
Origins and influences nature. At the same time, individualism
One strain of Romanticism took its can also be linked with the spirit of
name from the old romances — the rebellion that epitomizes the Romantic
colourful tales of chivalry and honour era. This manifested itself in popular
that circulated in the Middle Ages. uprisings against the state and in the
The term “romantic” was used very spread of new nationalist movements.
loosely to conjure up this nostalgic
Romanticism was a multi- view of the past and it gained added Style and techniques
layered movement that took force with the revival of the Gothic In France, the contest between
many forms and affected most style in architecture. Romanticism and classicism was,
In the late 18th century, a group to some degree, a confrontation of
branches of the arts. It began
of German authors began to use different styles. The Romantics, led £2 - A
in the late 18th century, and the term in a different sense, as the
Whe Author §tinterWBlake
» Songs of Innocence William Blake The title
flowered most fully in the early antithesis of classicism. While the page from Blake's celebrated book of poems, printed in
years of the following century. core values of classicism were reason 1789, bears the hallmarks of the Romantic style.

Romanticism
TIMEline
1794
The seeds of Romanticism were
sown in the 1780s, when the
French Revolution epitomized
the spirit of rebellion. By 1800,
ROMANTICISM
Goya had made a series of
prints entitled Los Caprichos,
while in 1810 the Nazarenes
moved to Rome. The movement
reached its peak around 1820,
when Gericault and Constable
produced their finest works.
GOYA The Naked Maja
Cole settled in the Hudson River
Valley in 1836, while Turner's OVERBECK The Adoration of
most daring pictures date from BLAKE The Ancient the Kings
the early 1840s. of Days
CENTURY
19TH

Schools Spanish paintings are steeped in religious belief

Spanish Romanticism is dominated by and he also betrayed a similar taste for
Perhaps more than any other movement, Goya, whose work is powerful and highly medievalism, as can be seen in his pictures
Romanticism developed along very different individual. This is exemplified in his of cowled monks and ruined abbeys.
lines from country to country. pioneering depictions of warfare which
concentrate on the suffering of individuals,
French rather than on any glory that might be
In France, more than anywhere else, achieved. Goya also often focused on the
Romanticism was seen as the direct darker side of the human psyche, tackling
antithesis of classicism. During the 1820s, themes that dealt with. madness, superstition,
in particular, reviewers of the exhibitions the supernatural, and the macabre. Thiswas
at the Salon placed Delacroix and Ingres in most evident in his graphic work — particularly
opposing camps. Traditionalists despised in the set of prints entitled Los Caprichos.
the former, not only for his style, but also For subsequent generations, though, it is
for his choice of subjects. They attacked the Black Paintings, produced in old age,
his depictions of the nationalist uprising in that typify Goya’s Romantic leanings. These
Greece, for example, deeming the topic nightmarish visions decorated the walls of
more suitable for journalists than painters, his own house and were not revealed to
and they were equally appalled by his the public until 1878.
A The Wounded Cuirassier Théodore Géricault Having alleged tendency of lingering on the goriest
achieved his breakthrough with The Charging Cuirassier, details in his pictures German
this picture, exhibited by Géricault two years later, was In reality, the boundary between the two Although they enjoyed only limited success
less popular, as it signalled Napoleon's impending defeat
styles was rather blurred. Delacroix was in their time, Caspar David Friedrich and
1814, oil on canvas, 358x 294cm, Louvre, Paris, France
a great admirer of tradition, while Ingres Philipp Otto Runge now stand out as the
chose some themes — most notably, his two leading German Romantic painters,
harem paintings — that were decidedly with Friedrich in particular regarded as one A Morning Philipp Otto Runge The only completed
Romantic in spirit of the giants of the time. He shared some section of Runge’s Times of Day series. According to his
of the attributes of his compatriots. His poetic definition “Morning is the limitless illumination of
the universe”. 1808, oil on canvas, 109x 89cm, Kunsthalle,
Hamburg, Germany
by Eugéne Delacroix, were powerful
colourists and often produced work Subjects
that seemed sketchy and unfinished The Romantic approach lent itself
to their opponents. In contrast, the to avery broad range of subjects. Its
classical camp, headed by Jean- anti-rationalist overtones led artists to
Auguste-Dominique Ingres, regarded explore themes that were linked with
sound draughtsmanship and a highly horror, madness, violence, and the
detailed, enamel-like finish as the supernatural. There was also a taste CURRENTevents
most important aspects of art. for the exotic, as well as visionary, 1805 Following the Battle of Trafalgar,
This division of opinion was evident mystical ideas King George IV commissions Turner to
paint a picture celebrating the victory.
elsewhere. One of J.M.W. Turner's Romantic artists often produced
storm scenes, for instance, was 1808-14 The Spanish Peninsular War
historical or legendary scenes, but leads Francisco de Goya to produce 65
famously likened to “a mass of generally set these in the Middle etchings depicting the horrors of war. He
soapsuds and whitewash" These Ages, rather than in the ancient times. also continues painting portraits, including
that of Joseph Bonaparte during the
attitudes, however, were by no means They also developed a distinctive form French occupation.
universal. In Germany, for example, of landscape painting. Classical artists 1821-32 The Greek War of Independence.
the Nazarenes developed a style that reshaped nature to suit their ordered Delacroix’s painting on this subject wins
A The Witches’ Sabbath Francisco de Goya His witch
may have focused on the past, but paintings were often inspired by popular plays. 1797-98, compositions, but the Romantics the gold medal at the Paris Salon in 1824.
was far closer to the academic norm. oil on canvas, 43x31cm, Museo Lazaro Galdiano, Madrid, Spain portrayed it as wild and ungovernable.

1830 c1854

INSIDIL

CONSTABLE The Hay Wain TURNER The “Fighting

FRIEDRICH Temeraire” Tugged to her Last DURAND Shandaken
DELACROIX Liberty Leading
The Wanderer above the People Berth to be Broken up Ridge, Kingston,
the Sea of Fog New York
AYNLNAD
HL6L

However, his attitude to nature was far responsible for the rebirth of German art, Visionaries
more original and there is an indissoluble although they conceded that much of their No artist produced a more extreme form of
link between the physical and the spiritual work was focused on the past. This was Romanticism than William Blake. His hatred
worlds. His human figures seem small most obvious from their attempts to revive of rationalism is evident from his pictures
and insignificant compared with the vast the art of fresco painting and to mimic the of authoritarian figures wielding compasses,
panoramas that stretch out before their lifestyle of the painter-monks from the early while his individualism is highlighted in his
eyes, but they can find redemption if they Renaissance. In some ways, these aims strange, personal mythologies. Blake revered
can recognize the symbols of Christian found a parallel in William Morris's efforts the imagination but he was also deeply
salvation that lie all around them. to reproduce the most positive aspects of religious. Samuel Palmer, too, was very
the medieval guild system. The Nazarenes pious, though in a more restrained manner.
Nazarenes were also closely linked with the upsurge of Even in a visionary picture, such as The
The Romantic movement in Germany was nationalist sentiments in Germany. This led Magic Apple Tree (see left), the composition
led by the Nazarenes. Contemporary critics some of their members to portray patriotic is centred around a church spire.
believed that the Nazarenes were themes from German history and legend.
American Romantics
British Romantics In America, the spirit of Romanticism shone
In Britain, too, landscapes provided some of brightest in the landscapes of the Hudson
the most potent examples of Romantic art. River School. Headed by Thomas Cole and
In their very different ways, Turner and Asher B. Durand, this influential group of
John Martin portrayed the terrible beauty artists celebrated the unspoilt beauties
A The Magic Apple Tree Samuel! Palmer /he
of nature, when the full force of its powers of their native land.
enormous crop of apples and the flock of plump, healthy
was unleashed. The Romantic aspects of sheep are signs of God's bounty. c1830, brown ink and
John Constable's work are more subtle. In watercolour, 17x 28cm, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK
his canvases, nature becomes an extension
of his feelings, echoing William Wordsworth’'s
definition of poetry as “emotion recollected
A Hadleigh Castle John Constable This melancholy in tranquillity”.
masterpiece was painted when Constable's wife was
dying. 1829, oil on canvas, 122x 165cm, Yale Center for
British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, US
 Théodore Géricault
b ROUEN, 1791; d PARIS, 1824

Pierre-Paul Prud’hon Théodore Géricault came from a wealthy family,

L which enabled him to pursue a truly independent
b CLUNY, 1758; d PARIS, 1823 LIFEline course in his art. Trained by Vernet and Guérin,
A fine portraitist, Prud’hon became one of Napoleon's favourite artists. | 1758 Born in Cluny he completed his studies in Italy. On his return to
After training in Dijon, he won the Prix de Rome and completed his | 1784 Wins the Prix de Rome France, he laboured for 18 months on The Raft of
and goes to study in Italy the Medusa (1819), the monumental painting that
studies in Italy. There, he was influenced by the work of Leonardo and Self-portrait
1788 Returns to Paris
Correggio. Prud'hon gained a string of commissions from Napoleon, secured his reputation.
1803 Obtains a separation Géricault's art typifies the spirit of Romanticism. He was drawn
although his most celebrated painting was Justice and Divine from his wife
Vengeance Pursuing Crime (1808), a lurid allegory produced for the to themes of violence, horror, and madness. He painted wounded
1805 Paints Portrait of the
Palais de Justice. Prud’hon’s style could be delicate and charming, but | Empress Josephine soldiers and wild, untamed horses. Even a traditional subject, such
some of his pictures display a slightly neurotic taste for emotionalism, 1808 Produces his most as The Epsom Derby (1821), was set against a threatening sky.
which may reflect the unhappiness of his own life. His wife gradually | famous picture, Justice and Géricault’s temperament and lifestyle were equally Romantic. He
went insane, while his mistress committed suicide in his studio. | Divine Vengeance Pursuing conducted a doomed love affair with the young wife of his uncle,
| Crime : which threw his family into turmoil; he had a brief, but hazardous
| 1808 |s awarded the Cross of |
CLOSERIook & the Legion of Honour
military career, fighting for the Royalists against Napoleon; and he
was a reckless rider, loving nothing more than a battle of wills with
1821 His mistress, Constance
Mayer, commits suicide a lively horse. Riding accidents helped to bring about his early death,
1823 Dies in Paris in his 60s which in turn added to the Romantic aura surrounding his name.

LIFEline
1791 Born in Rouen, the son | 6¢ | have seen the death
of a lawyer
Portrait of the Empress tong clean ene mask of poor Géricault...
Josephine Napoleons wife Udl
Gf Carle Verner
| Udl
|
-
and his sublime Raft.
-

is pictured in the grounds of

her home, the Chateau of 1812 The Charging Cuirassier | What hands and heads!
wins gold medal at the Salon | cannot express the
Malmaison. The painting was
1819 His masterpiece, The - = fer J
commissioned shortly after Raft of the Medusa, causes admiration |t INSPIFES...
Josephine had been crowned a sensation at the Salon | feel a longing to make
empress, though this triumph 1820-21 Lives in England a sketch of it. What a
RED AND GREEN Prud’hon's
was marred by personal 1822 Begins series of : < '
use of complementary tones on precious reminder of this
misfortune. Napoleon was portraits of mental patients
the empress’s dress ensures that
already thinking of divorcing 1824 Dies in Paris, aged 32, extraordinary man ””
his main subject resonates with
vibrant colour. Around her, the
her, because she was infertile. following a fall from a horse EUGENE DELACROIX, 1824
ROMANTICISM
setting-is dark and oppressive 1805, oil on canvas, 244x179cm,
Louvre, Paris, France

Francois Gérard
i
b ROME, 1770; d PARIS, 1837
The son of a diplomat, Gérard trained
under David and enjoyed a successful
CENTURY
TH career as a portraitist. He also produced a
19 number of attractive mythological scenes.
Neoclassical subjects remained in vogue
Portrait by after the Revolution, but they were no
Jean Alaux longer conveyed with the same moral and
political force. Gérard’'s Cupid and Psyche
(1798) Is typical of this new mood. The figures still have
| a sculptural appearance, but the overall approach is
decorative, superficial, and mildly erotic.

Portrait of Madame Récamier Récamier

much preferred this informal portrait to David's
severely classical one (see p.269). 1805, oil on
canvas, 225x 148cm, Musée Carnavalet, Paris, France

Cupid and Psyche Here

Psyche, the symbol of the
human soul, is surprised by
Cupid, who is invisible to her
1798, oil on canvas, 186x 132cm, A The Madwoman Afflicted with Envy Jowards the end
Louvre, Paris, France of his life, Géricault produced a pioneering and compelling
series of portraits of mental patients. Each one highlighted a
specific medical condition with clinical accuracy. 1822-23, oil
on canvas, 72x58cm, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon, France
 *
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A The Raft of the Medusa

This huge painting depicts the HL6L
AYNLNAO
shipwreck of the Medusa in
1816, which became the focus
of a major political scandal.
Géricaults decision to tackle
a subject of this kind proved
highly controversial, as many
critics believed the topic was
better suited to journalism
than to high art. 1818-19, oil on
3}
canvas, 491 x716cm, Louvre,
Paris, France HORRIFIC REALISM Géricault went to
extraordinary lengths to capture the full horror
of the situation. He observed the dead and the
dying in a local hospital, made studies in its
|dissecting room, and sketched the remains of
guillotined criminals. Some critics felt that he
went too far, and was wallowing in morbid
details, such as this prostrate corpse

A The Epsom Derby Géricau/ts horses perform a “flying

gallop”, with all four legs off the ground. Advances in
photography later proved that this was impossible. 1821,
oil on canvas, 92x 123cm, Louvre, Paris, France
 Eugene Delacroix
b CHARENTON-SAINT-MAURICE, 1798; d PARIS, 1863 LIFEline
A leading figure of the French Romantic movement, 1798 Born near Paris
Delacroix studied under Guérin, but was greatly | 1815 Studies with Guérin
influenced by Géricault. He posed for one of the figures | 1824 The Massacre of Chios
| causes a stir at the Salon
in Géricault's Raft of the Medusa (1818-19) and was
1830 Paints Liberty Leading
astounded by the passion and energy of the finished the People
Self-portrait work. Its impact can be seen in the remarkable series 1832 Visits Morocco, Algeria,
of paintings that Delacroix produced during the 1820s. | and Spain
On the strength of these, critics hailed him as the leader of a new 1833 Commissioned to
school, contrasting his youthful, Romantic approach with the stale decorate the Salon du Roi,
classicism of Ingres. Delacroix was wary of these labels, regarding in the Palais Bourbon
himself as a traditionalist, and it is significant that he won a number 1855 Work is shown at the
World Fair. Made Commander
of prestigious state commissions to decorate public buildings. of the Legion of Honour
A visit to north Africa in 1832 broadened the range of his work, | 1861 Completes the murals
providing him with new kinds of Orientalist subjects. In these, at Saint-Sulpice |
Delacroix was unbridled in his use of colour, which was later 1863 Dies at his Paris home
to exert a powerful influence on the Impressionists.
ee = nd

CLOSERIook

ROMANTIC SUFFERING
ROMANTICISM
Delacroix tried to symbolize the
suffering of the islanders by
placing a row of despairing
figures in the foreground. Critics
disliked the modernity of the
subject, the staginess of the
composition, and the unremitting
emphasis on misery.

The Massacre of Chios

In April 1822, Turkish soldiers
CENTURY
19TH
slaughtered civilians on the
island of Chios, believing that
they were assisting Greek
rebels. Delacroix verified the
details of this event by talking to
eyewitnesses. 1824, oil on canvas,
417x354cm, Louvre, Paris, France ‘ames

INcontext
GREEK WAR OF INDEPENDENCE In 18721,
the Greeks launched a bid for independence,
after centuries of domination by the Ottoman
Turks. In the West, their struggle rapidly became
a cause célébre, as many Europeans regarded
ancient Greece as the cradle of their civilization,
and the war inspired many artists and writers.
A Liberty Leading the People /n this famous picture, Delacroix
| Lord Byron by celebrated the “July Revolution” of 1830, when King Charles X was
Frederick Gore. The ousted from power. The artist was sympathetic to the rebels’ cause,
| - English poet Lord Byron
but took no part in the uprising. The new government bought this
was an active supporter
of the Greek cause. painting, though it was quietly removed from public view to quell
He financed a military any threat from lingering revolutionary sentiments. 1830, oil on
expedition, but died canvas, 260x325cm, Louvre, Paris, France
of a fever before the
fighting began

u A The Women of Algiers Western artists often

es SESS = ___} portrayed harems in a gaudy, artificial manner.
6¢ | do not care for reasonable painting
Delacroix had actually seen one, so his version is at all. My turbulent mind needs
simple, understated, and far more realistic. 1834, agitation, needs to liberate itself...
oil on canvas, 180x229cm, Louvre, Paris, France
There is in me some black depth
that must be appeased %?
EUGENE DELACROIX
 Richard Parkes Bonington
b ARNOLD, 1802; dLONDON, 1828
Although English by birth, Bonington
spent most of his adult life in France. He
studied there under Gros and became a
close friend of Delacroix. Bonington was
at his best when working on a small
Self-portrait | scale. His watercolours and oil sketches
are particularly fine, displaying a genuine
freshness and spontaneity. He gained recognition in
1824, winning a gold medal at the Paris Salon, but
his career was cut tragically short by consumption.

¥ Calais Pier Bonington’ coastal scenes

are masterful studies of light and atmosphere.
1823-24, oil on panel, 29x 34cm, Yale Center for
British Art, New Haven, US

HONAYS
INSIDI

Théodore Chassériau
b DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, 1819;
d PARIS, 1856

In his brief career, Théodore Chassériau

achieved a convincing blend of Romantic
and Neoclassical elements. Born in the HL6L
AYNLNA
West Indies, the son of the French
Self-portrait Consul, he was one of Ingres's favourite
pupils and shared his enthusiasm for
sinuous, well-drawn figures. Increasingly, though, he
came under the spell of Delacroix, developing a taste
for rich colours and exotic themes. Like that of
Delacroix, Chassériau’s art was transformed by his
African travels — in his case, a trip to Algeria in 1846.

< The Toilet of

Esther Nominally a
biblical subject, this
resembles one of
Ingress harem
paintings. Esther
displays the pale
sensuality of a
Neoclassical nude,
but the richly
coloured background
owes more to
Delacroix. 1841, oil
on canvas, 46x 36cm,
Louvre, Paris, France

REALISTIC ALLEGORY The REBELLIOUS YOUTH PARISIAN LANDMARK The towers

lighting makes Liberty the focus of the This figure of a street of Notre Dame help to locate the action.
composition. A highly unconventional urchin is said to have The cathedral was the scene of fierce
allegorical figure, Liberty's dishevelled inspired the character of fighting, as the rebels pulled down the
clothing and gun make her seem Gavroche in Victor Hugo's king's flag and raised the republican
strikingly real and modern. novel Les Misérables. tricolour in its place.
 Francisco de Goya
b FUENDETODOS, 1746; d BORDEAUX, 1828
The Spanish painter and printmaker Goya was one of the outstanding
figures of the Romantic movement. His talent was slow in showing
itself, however, and it wasn't until well into his thirties that he began The Sleep of Reason produces Monsters /n the
to produce work that set him apart from his contemporaries. most famous plate from Goya's Los Caprichos (“Caprices“)
” By the 1780s, his skills as a portraitist were increasingly in demand. series, a pessimistic blend of satire and fantasy, the
Self-portrait The results were both spectacular and daring — the artist made little sleeping artist is beset by nightmarish visions. 1799, ¢¢| had three
attempt to flatter his distinguished sitters — but they were well received, etching and aquatint, 22x 15cm, private collection
as a succession of honours was heaped upon him. Alongside these commercial
masters: Nature,
efforts, Goya worked privately on more ambitious themes, in which he gave full rein Velazquez, and
to his imagination. Beginning with Los Caprichos, his first great series of prints, and
Rembrandt ??
culminating in the magnificent Black Paintings of his final years, he portrayed his own
dark vision of the human soul, with its petty obsessions, its cruelty, and its folly. GOYA
Goya was an exceptionally versatile artist whose output was vast, leaving ebout
700 surviving paintings, 300 prints, and some 1,000 drawings.

LIFEline
| CLOSERIook
1746 Born near Saragossa, the The Parasol Goya produced a series of ten decorative eee Sie
son of a gilder scenes designed as models for the royal tapestry workshop.
1760 Studies under José Luzén | The finished articles were destined for a palace dining-
1770 Travels to Rome room. 1777, oil on canvas, 104x 152cm, Prado, Madrid, Spain
1773 Marries Josefa Bayeu, by ey z it ines ‘
‘cs
sister of artist Francisco Bayeu
1774 Produces first cartoons
for royal tapestries
1786 Appointed King's Painter |
1789 Promoted to Court
Painter, following the CREATURES OF THE NIGHT
coronation of Charles IV Owls are usually seen as symbols
1793 Becomes deaf of wisdom, because of their
1808 French invasion. Swears connection with Minerva, but
allegiance to Joseph Bonaparte Goya has intended one of their
1814 Paints The Third of May, | negative associations here. They
1808 (see pp.304-07) are also regarded as birds of
1824 Moves to Bordeaux = | ill-omen, harbingers of: death,
1828 Dies in France
and emblems of the night.
ROMANTICISM

CENTURY
19TH

\ The Naked Maja Female

nudes were very rare in Spain
and with good reason. The
Inquisition denounced this
famous example as “obscene
and summoned the artist to
appear before a tribunal, to
disclose the identity of the
patron and explain the painting's
purpose. c1800, oil on canvas,
98x 191m, Prado, Madrid, Spain

The Clothed Maja Jogether with its nude companion piece,

this painting was commissioned by Manuel Godoy, a royal minister
The maja (“fashionable young woman’) is thought to be the A The Duke of Wellington /his was painted during
Duchess of Alba. c1800, oil on canvas, 95x 190cm, Prado, Madrid, Spain the Napoleonic Wars when Wellington was head of the
British forces in Spain. The portrait was altered in 1814,
after he had acquired new medals and honours. 1812-14
oil on panel, 64x52cm, National Gallery, London, UK
 INcontext
PENINSULAR WAR Some of Goya's greatest
paintings were created against the backdrop of
a major European conflict. The Peninsular War
(1808-14) was fought between France and
a coalition of Spain, Portugal, and Britain.
Napoleon's troops invaded the Iberian peninsula
in 1808, and his brother, Joseph Bonaparte,
was placed on the Spanish throne. They were
eventually forced out by Wellington's army and a
fierce guerrilla campaign by the Spanish people |
|
|
Even Worse from The Disasters of War, Goya's
shocking catalogue of the atrocities committed |
during the Spanish conflict (1810)

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A The Colossus /t has been suggested CLOSERI|ook

that the giant is a symbolic guardian of
Spain, inspired by a contemporary
patriotic poem: “A pale colossus rises,
caught by the fiery light of the setting
sun; the Pyrenees are a humble plinth
for his gigantic limbs”. c\808-12, oil on
canvas, 116x105cm, Prado, Madrid, Spain

A Saturn Devouring One of His Children

This is the most gruesome of Goya's Black
UNREAL LIGHTING In PANIC At the sight of the giant, THE GIANT The meaning and Paintings. The Roman god Saturn ate his children
common with Goya's other war the convoy scatters. Goya may have identity of the giant have been because of a prophecy that they would usurp him.
scenes, [he Colossus is set in remembered the legend of the god the subject of endless speculation Goya placed the picture in his own dining room as
an eerie, nocturnal gloom, Pan, who was Said to be able to — personification of War, a macabre joke. 1821-23, oil on canvas, 146 x 83cm,
equally apt for the darker acts make armies flee in terror (hence Pestilence, or Panic, or even a Prado, Madrid, Spain
of human folly. the word “panic’). symbol of Napoleon himself
H1L61 AYNLNAD INSIDILNVINOY

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The Third of May, 1808 Francisco de Goya

1814, oil on canvas, 260 x 345 cm, Prado, Madrid, Spain >

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 CLOSERIook

The Third of May, 1808 Francisco de Goya

This painting depicts an atrocity committed by French forces during the Peninsular
War (1808-14), when Napoleon's troops occupied Spain. On 2 May 1808, there was a violent
uprising on the streets of Madrid, which the invaders managed to suppress. Their reprisals
were swift and brutal. On the following day, soldiers made arrests and carried out a series
of executions on the hill of Principe Pio, on the outskirts of the city. These actions helped to
spark off a nationwide guerrilla campaign against the French. At the end of hostilities, when Composition
the Spanish monarchy had been restored, the government decided to commemorate the Goya's painting was composed six years after the event
bravery and sacrifice of the rebels. A year of national mourning was declared and artists were and, in spite of various exaggerated tales to the contrary,
invited to submit their own tributes to the victims. Goya was granted some money, although he did not witness the atrocity in person. He took some
elements of his composition from secondary sources, such
not an official commission. In return, he produced two masterpieces on the theme.
as popular prints. There are strong affinities, for example,
with an engraving by Miguel Gamborino (1760-1820), which
was published in 1813. Goya also drew on the images he
had produced for his pioneering series of etchings The
Disasters of War (1810-14), which included several scenes
Story of firing squads.
In his painting The Second of
May, 1808, Goya concentrated
on the uprising itself, while
here he focuses on its bloody
aftermath. Both paintings met
with a lukewarm reception.
In part, this was due to the radical nature of the artist's
approach. Neoclassical pictures, which emphasized
the heroism of the rebels, were greeted with far more
enthusiasm. In addition, there were suspicions about se ee corse a ea
Goya's loyalties. He had been on good terms with the
A THE FOCAL POINT In contrast A THE CORPSES This is an example
occupying French regime and had accepted an honour from
A THE CITY None of the buildings in the to the drab appearance of his fellow of artistic licence. Bullets fired from
Joseph Bonaparte (Napoleon's brother). In any event, his background can be identified with any certainty. victims, this figure is brightly lit, making such close range would have propelled
paintings were quietly accepted, but not exhibited. Instead, Goya may simply have invented them. Either way, him the centre of attention. Goya these victims backwards, but Goya was
they were deposited in the storerooms of the Prado, where
ROMANTICISM their ghostly silhouette against a starless sky adds depicts the man kneeling. If he were keen to highlight the bloodshed in the
they lay forgotten for two generations. to the nightmarish atmosphere of the proceedings. standing, he would tower over everyone. forefront of his picture.

CENT|
19TH

A SOLDIERS In contrast to
their victims, the soldiers are
4 FIGURE IN WHITE The spectator's eye is ordered and anonymous. Their
immediately drawn to the man in white, whose expressions are hidden from
arms are raised in protest. His pose carries the viewer, underlining
deliberate echoes of the Crucifixion, a fitting their role as the faceless,
association for an innocent symbol of persecution dehumanized perpetrators
and martyrdom of violence and oppression.
» VICTIMS Goya took pains
<< NEXT TO DIE To complete
to depict the condemned men as
the tragedy, Goya includes a
individuals, each with differing
long line of victims, trudging
reactions to their fate. Here, a
up the hill to their death. Most
monk lowers his head and clasps
can hardly bear to look at the
his hands in prayer, while his
fate that awaits them.
neighbour stares his killers in
the face, defiant to the last
 ¢¢| see no lines
or details...
There is no
reason why
Technique my brush
Francisco de Goya used startling innovations
in colour and form to create an emotional should see
response towards his work, rather than a more than
straightforward, journalistic record of the
event. The killings actually took place during
| do
the day, but Goya preferred a nocturnal FRANCISCO DE GOYA
setting for such a nightmarish theme. The
sombre colouring, which is dominated by
browns, blacks, and greys, gives a foretaste
of the gloomy Black Paintings that Goya
produced in his final years. His forms,
meanwhile, are sketchy and distorted, often
dissolving into shadows.

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< SUGGESTED FORMS

Academic artists clarified every
detail in their paintings. Goya,
on the other hand, understood AYNLNAD
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that it was far more powerful to
show purely the things he saw,
even if some of the details
remained vague. On the naked
corpse, for example, there are
unexplained black markings and
the exact position of the head is
unclear, but the overall effect is
entirely convincing.
A FREE HANDLING Among
the most notable features of
Goya's mature style were his
dynamic brushwork and his
astonishingly free handling of
paint. Even on an everyday object
like a shirt, most contemporaries
would have carefully delineated
every button and every crease.
Goya, however, achieved a far
livelier effect by replacing minor
details with an energetic swirl
of colour. He manipulated his
paint with knives and fingers
as well as brushes.

» THE LIGHTING The sky is

pitch black, with no moon or stars,
so the scene is lit entirely by the
huge lamp at the soldiers’ feet.
This creates a firm dividing line
on the ground, separating the
riflemen from their victims, and
also casts long, ominous shadows.
 | Caspar David Friedrich
The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog /his
b GREIFSWALD, 1774; d DRESDEN, 1840 LIFEline haunting painting may be a posthumous tribute to
Friedrich was the greatest of the German Romantics, 1774 Born in Greifswald, near a colonel in the Saxon infantry. 1818, oil on canvas,
the Baltic coast 98x 75cm, Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
producing a uniquely spiritual form of landscape
1781 His mother dies
painting. Born in a sleepy Baltic town, he had a strict,
1787 Sees his brother drown
religious upbringing. The early death of his mother and
1794-98 Studies at the
brother probably heightened his sombre outlook. After Copenhagen-Academy,
Portrait by studying in Copenhagen, he settled in Dresden, where before moving to Dresden
| Franz Gerhard he swiftly absorbed the latest ideas about Romantic 1808 An early version of
| von Kugelgen
literature and philosophy. The Cross in the Mountains
Friedrich only took up oil painting in 1807 but his work made an causes a scandal
immediate impact. Cross in the Mountains, in particular, shocked his 1818 Marries Caroline
Bommer
| contemporaries due to the radical way in which it conveyed a religious
1818 Paints The Wanderer
message through a landscape. Increasingly, Friedrich turned his chilly
above the Sea of Fog
panoramas into yearning, mystical allegories, echoing the human 1835 Suffers a crippling
| desire to find spiritual comfort. He liked to depict people from behind stroke; dies 5 years later in
so that they could serve as “everyman” figures, and was equally fond Dresden
of cloaking his landscapes in mist to stimulate the viewer's imagination.

The Cross in the

Piss Mountains /his mystical
| ¢¢ A painting must landscape, a later
not be devised version of the theme
but perceived. ve explored some
5 years earlier, 1s full of
Close your religious imagery. The
bodily eye, barren foreground forms
so that you may a Stark contrast to the
Come celestial vision in the
see your picture distance. The cross points
| first with your the way to the latter,
Spiritual eye 29 while the rocks and the
Payee EERIE trees are symbols of
faith. 1812, oil on canvas,
ROMANTICISM 45x37cm, Kunstmuseum,
Diisseldorf, Germany

ECHOING FORMS Friedrich used

echoing forms to accentuate the
in landscapes. In this case,
le central triangle is mirrored on the
| | left, with further, miniature versions
| | on the horizon. Often, his compositions
the eye upwards, towards
ition, but here the cruel points
of the ice slabs offer only despair

| all human endeavour seemed frail and

uficant when set against the
ove whelming power of nature. Here,
| the sunken mast and timbers of a ship
go almost unnoticed, crushed beneath
a towering pyramid of splintered ice
1909/4
n canvas, 97x127cm
| Kunsthalle, Har g, Germany
Philipp Otto Runge
b WOLGAST, POMERANIA, 1777; dHAMBURG, 1810
Despite his tragically brief career and his small output,
Runge was a major figure in the German Romantic
movement, second only to Friedrich. He was a late
developer, only turning to art in his twenties.
Runge was a skilled portraitist, but is better known
Self-portrait for his complex allegorical works, which are steeped in
obscure Romantic symbolism. “Colour is the ultimate
art,” he declared, “and must remain a mystery which we can divine < The Hiilsenbeck
Children Runge believed the
only through the marvel of flowers.” Flowers play a significant role
universe was bound together
in both Arion and the Hulsenbeck Children.
Runge’s most cherished project was a series of pictures entitled EL ane
The Times of the Day. He intended to display the works in a special phases of
childhood are
building, accompanied by music and poetry. But at the time of his echoed by the sunflowers on
death at the age of 33, only one piece — Morning — was completed, the left. 1805-06, oil on canvas,
leaving this ambitious project unfinished. 132x144cm, Kunsthalle,
Hamburg, Germany

LIFEline
1777 Born in Wolgast, the
son of a ship owner
1797 First drawing lessons
from Joachim Herterich
1799-1801 Trains at the
Copenhagen Academy
1801-03 Continues studies
at the Dresden Academy
1804 Moves to Hamburg
1808 Paints first version of
Morning, the most complete < Arion’s Sea Journey
section of his Times of the Arion was famed for his skill
Day series
with the lyre. He was thrown
1810 Publishes his treatise overboard by pirates, but was
on the colour sphere
rescued by a dolphin, charmed
1810 Dies of consumption in
Hamburg. His fourth child is by his music. 1809, watercolour
born on the following day. on paper, 51x 118cm, Kunsthalle, NVINYAD
WSIDSIL
Hamburg, Germany

Karl Blechen
b COTTBUS, BRANDENBURG, 1798; d BERLIN, 1840 b NEURUPPIN, 1781; d BERLIN, 1841
A renowned German landscape painter, Blechen initially worked as a bank clerk, Although he is remembered mainly as a great architect, during
before training as an artist at the Berlin Academy. His early style was heavily Schinkel’s early career the political situation in Prussia (then under
influenced by Friedrich, whom he probably met in Dresden. French occupation) precluded any major commissions, and he
By 1824, he was working as a scene painter at the KOnigstadtisches Theatre in concentrated on paintings, panoramas, and theatrical work. HL6L
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Berlin, and this added a dramatic edge to his paintings. Blechen resigned from his a His style was greatly influenced by Friedrich, whose paintings
post in 1827 following a dispute with a prima donna, and went travelling in Italy. It Artist unknown were exhibited in Berlin in 1810. His views had an artificial, dreamlike
was during this time that he developed a more intense, naturalistic style, with free quality, while his stage sets combined architectural clarity with
brushwork and bold colour contrasts. In 1831, Blechen was appointed professor of Romantic flights of fancy. These culminated in his exotic designs for the celebrated
landscape painting at the Berlin Academy. However, the onset of mental illness 1816 production of Mozart's Magic Flute. In the same year, Schinkel gained his first
curtailed his career, and his final pictures are full of foreboding. major commission for a public building — the Neue Wache (New Guard House) in
Berlin — and his career as an architect blossomed.
EE

A Egyptian Set Design for Act Il of The Magic

Flute Schinkel’s stage sets reflected the popularity
A Mill in the Valley near Amalfi /n /ta/y, Blechen’s landscape of Egyptian designs in the wake of Napoleons
style altered dramatically as he tried to capture the brilliant light recent campaigns in Egypt. 1815, watercolour on
and searing heat. 1829, oil on paper, mounted on canvas, 14x22cm, paper, Bibliotheque de |’Opéra National, Paris, France
Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
 Peter won Cornelius
b DUSSELDORF, 1783; d BERLIN, 1867 LIFEline
Trained by his father, who taught at the Dusseldorf Academy, Cornelius 1811 In his late 20s, moves | : ’
was a key figure in the revival of German fresco painting. In 1811 to Rome Friedrich Overbeck
he settled in Rome, where he became a leading member of the ee Summoned to Munich, —
re 3 © work for Ludwig of Bavaria b LUBECK, 1789: d ROME, 1869
Nazarenes. Cornelius had a strong nationalist agenda, producing 1821-25 Director of the 2 f uy
illustrations for two German literary masterpieces, Faust and the Diisseldorf Academy Overbeck was the most prominent member of the Nazarenes, the
Nibelungenlied. He was employed by influential German patrons — 1841 Paints frescoes for the influential group he founded with a number of fellow students at
among them Ludwig | of Bavaria and Frederick William IV of Prussia. Prussian royal family in Berlin the Vienna Academy. Calling themselves the Brotherhood of St Luke,
Not all his work was well received. His most ambitious undertaking 1853 Returns to Rome they moved to Rome and set up an artistic community in a disused
was a massive fresco, The Last Judgment (1836-39), inspired by 1867 Dies in Berlin monastery. Overbeck, in particular, adopted the ascetic lifestyle of a
Michelangelo. After labouring for four years, Cornelius was met with paintermonk. He refused to study anatomy from dissected corpses
a lukewarm reaction from Ludwig when it was completed. or female models, saying “|! prefer to draw less correctly than damage
my feelings, which are the artist's greatest treasure”
Overbeck converted to Catholicism in 1813 and specialized mainly
Vv The Wise and Foolish in religious subjects, although he was also a fine portraitist. His style
Virgins /nthe parable from » The Last Judgment Often mimicked the strong lines and restrained colours of Renaissance
Matthew's Gospel, the wise cited as the largest fresco in the masters such as Perugino, Fra Angelico, and the young Raphael.
virgins have oil for their lamps, world, it was commissioned by : ~
while the foolish have none. Ludwig | of Bavaria. 1836-39,
c1813, oil on canvas, Kunstmuseum, — fresco, 18.9x11.6m, Ludwigskirche, ,
LIFEline vJ oseph Being j Sold by his j Brothers Jhisi
Diisseldorf, Germany Munich, Germany is taken from the cycle of frescoes at the Casa
1789 Born in Llbeck
Ee a, Bartholdy—the Nazarenes’ most important,
Acad collaborative project.
5 1816, fresco with
; tempera,
seen ane He 243x304cm, Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Germany
Nazarenes i ar
1810 Moves to Rome ae
1813 Converts to Roman
Catholicism
1816 Works on the frescoes
at the Casa Bartholdy
1828 Completes /talia and
Germania
1829 Paints Rose Miracle of
St Francis in Assisi
1869 Dies in Rome
ROMANTICISM

CENTRUY
19TH

ae

A The Adoration of the Magi Produced for Queen Caroline of

Bavaria, this was Overbeck’s first important commission. The theme
of the Magi — the first pagans to be converted — was particularly
appealing to the artist, as he was about to convert to Catholicism.
1811-13, oil on panel, 50x 66cm, Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany

¢¢ Everything was full of that immoderate

asceticism, which appears wraithlike
f ts i= to a healthy man of our day, like the
A Joseph Recognised by His Brother Part of a fresco cycle ; appearance of the master himself a
that was produced by the Nazarenes (also called the Brotherhood 19TH-CENTURY AUTHOR ADOLF STAHR, 1853,
of St Luke) for the Prussian Consul General in Rome. The fraternal ON OVERBECK'S STUDIO
theme had an obvious relevance for the Brotherhood. 1816, fresco
with tempera, 236 x 290cm, Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Germany
 Alexander Ilwanov
William Dyce
b ST PETERSBURG, 1806; d ST PETERSBURG, 1858
b ABERDEEN, 1806; d LONDON, 1864 LIFEline Training under his father at the St Petersburg Academy, lvanov
Dyce was an influential Scottish painter whose work 1806 Born in Aberdeen, the displayed an early preference for conventional Neoclassical subjects.
combined elements from both the Nazarenes and the son of a lecturer In 1827, one of his paintings was awarded a gold medal by the Society
Pre-Raphaelites. He became friendly with the former 1825 First visit to Rome for the Promotion of Artists, and this provided him with a grant to
during two visits to Rome in the 1820s, sharing their 1840 Superintendent of the travel in Italy. By 1831, lvanov had settled in Rome, where he met
enthusiasm for the revival of fresco painting. He later School of Design in London
Overbeck and the other Nazarenes.
1844 Commissioned to
Portrait by achieved considerable success in this field, producing Under their influence, he turned increasingly to religious art, which
produce frescoes for the new
David Scott Arthurian murals for the new Houses of Parliament in he hoped to produce on a monumental scale. His most ambitious
Houses of Parliament
London and a suitably patriotic subject for Prince Albert 1847 Paints Osborne House project was a huge painting, Christ's First Appearance to the People.
in Neptune Resigning to Britannia the Empire of the Sea (1847). frescoes for Prince Albert Ivanov laboured on this for 20 years, producing scores of studies for
Dyce proved equally capable in his easel paintings. Deeply pious, he 1860 Completes his individual heads and figures. Ultimately, this exhaustive, piecemeal
won plaudits for his imaginative religious pictures, and he was also one masterpiece, Pegwell Bay approach may have proved counterproductive, as the finished painting
of the first to appreciate the innovations of the Pre-Raphaelites. Their 1864 Dies at home in met with a less than enthusiastic reception, while many of the studies
Streatham, London
influence can be seen in his crowning masterpiece, Pegwell Bay. were greatly admired. Even so, the next generation of Russian artists
led by Repin and Kramskoi were inspired by the work.

LIFEline
v King Priam Begging Achilles for the
1806 Born in St Petersburg,
the son of a painter Return of Hector’s Body Produced by Ivanov
at the end ofhis student days. 1824, oil on canvas,
1817-24 Studies under his
father at the St Petersburg 119x125cm, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
Academy
1827 Joseph in Prison wins
a gold medal
1831 Settles in Rome
1837 Begins work on
Christ's First Appearance to
the People
1839 Paints Ave Maria
1858 Christ's First
Appearance is exhibited in
Russia
1858 Dies of cholera in
St Petersburg AHL
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A Pegwell Bay: A Recollection of

October 5th While Dyce’s family gather HL6L
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seashells in the foreground, the artist
painstakingly records the geology of the cliff-
face and the trail of Donati’s comet, which was
at its brightest on the date of the work. 1858-60,
oil on canvas, 64x 89cm, Tate, London, UK

INcontext
ABOLITION OF SLAVERY The campaign to
abolish slavery began in earnest in the 1770s.
Led by political pressure groups and religious
sects, such as the Quakers, it managed to
A Christ's First Appearance to the
secure a parliamentary ban on the slave trade
in 1807, followed by full emancipation in 1833.
People /his monumental scene depicts
the prelude to Christ's baptism in the River
A Joash Shooting the Arrow of Deliverance Drawn from William Wilberforce (1759-1833) /n Parliament, Jordan. In the.foreground, John the Baptist
the Old Testament, this picture shows Elisha aiding the king of the most tireless campaigner was the Yorkshire MP points Him out to the assembled converts.
Israel. On the prophet’s orders, Joash fires an arrow towards William Wilberforce. He died just three days after 1837-57, oil on canvas, 5.4x7.5m, Tretyakov
seeing the Abolition of Slavery Act through in 1833.
the spot where he will win a great victory over the Syrians. Gallery, Moscow, Russia
1844, oil on canvas, 76x 109cm, Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany

FOCAL POINT Even though

the figure of Christ is one of the
smallest in the painting, his
isolation ensures that he is the
focus of attention.
 “< Glad Day or Albion
Rose /his is Blake’s vision of
William Blake the spiritual transformation
b LONDON, 1757; d LONDON, 1827
of Albion — his symbol for
the British nation. c1795,
A poet, painter, printmaker, and visionary, Blake came from colour-printed engraving with
a family of Nonconformists, and his own, highly individual watercolour, British Museum,
views did much to shape the course of his art. His London, UK
apprenticeship with James Basire gave him a thorough
grounding in printmaking techniques. He used this skill to
Portrait by produce extraordinary colourprinted editions of his own
Thomas poems, with the words and illustrations appearing on the
Enillips same page. In visual terms, he was heavily influenced by «<The Sick Rose
Gothic art, which he had studied during his apprenticeship, while his Blake devised a method
muscular figures owed much to the example of Michelangelo. Blake of printing that made
derived many of his subjects from the Bible, Milton, and Shakespeare, his books look like
although increasingly he portrayed a pantheon of mythological characters, illuminated manuscripts.
drawn from his own prophetic writings. Blake's paintings baffled his This poem comes from
contemporaries, particularly as he often claimed that they were inspired his Songs of Innocence
by visions. But he received loyal support from his two main patrons, and of Experience. 1794,
Thomas Butts and John Linnell, and exerted a huge influence on Samuel
etching, ink and watercolour,
12x7em, Fitzwilliam
Palmer and his followers.
Museum, Cambridge, UK

LIFEline CLOSERI|ook
1757 Born in London RADIATING LIGHT
1772-79 Apprenticed to the Blake liked to use
engraver James Basire visionary shafts of light
1780 First exhibit at the Royal to convey the spiritual
Academy mood of his pictures.
1782 Marries Catherine Here, a blood-red sun
Boucher sets out a baleful tone,
1789 Publishes Songs of as Urizen (Blake's
Innocence authoritarian version of
1799 First commission from Jehovah) measures out §
Thomas Butts, his chief patron an imperfect universe.
1818 Meets the painter John
Linnell, another patron
1827 Dies in London
ROMANTICISM

CENTURY
19TH

4 The Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun
Blake’ visionary style was particularly well suited to the task of
illustrating the prophecies contained in the Book of Revelation. Here,
a satanic monster waits to consume the child, which the woman (the
A The Ancient of Days Jhis majestic image of the creation
Church) is about to bear (Rev. 12:1—-4). 1803-05, watercolour on paper,
of the universe was originally produced as the frontispiece for
59x 43cm, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, US
Blake's Europe. 1794 (this print 1824), etching with gouache and
watercolour, 23x 17cm, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, UK
 CLOSERIook
A : GHOSTLY HORSE This
Henry Fuseli picture may have started out
as a visual pun. The word
b ZURICH, 1741; dLONDON, 1825 Vv The Nightmare Fuse/is most famous painting “nightmare” comes from mara,
is a potent cocktail of sex and horror. An incubus the name of an evil demon,
Born Johann Heinrich Fussli, Swiss painter Henry Fuseli
squats on a sleeping woman's abdomen, causing rather than the ghostly horse
initially hoped to follow a career in the church, but his
her to have a nightmare. 1781, oil on canvas, (the “night mare”), which is
unconventional views soon landed him in trouble and he
101x 128cm, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, US peering round the curtains.
was obliged to leave Zurich. He settled in London in
1764, still uncertain of his future direction. It was only
Self-portrait after a meeting with Joshua Reynolds, four years later,
that he decided to devote himself to painting.
Fuseli's breakthrough as an artist came in 1782, when his painting
The Nightmare caused a sensation at the Royal Academy. This set the
tone for his unique brand of Romanticism. Most of Fuseli’s themes
came from respectable literary sources, but he liked to explore the
darker side of human nature. As a result, many of his pictures contain
hints of suppressed violence, irrational fears, or sexual perversity.

LIFEline ¥ The Three Witches Fuseli produced several

1741 Born in Zurich, the son versions showing the witches delivering their
of an artist predictions to Macbeth. His source was a series
1761 Ordained as a minister of grotesque heads by Leonardo da Vinci. c1783,
1764 Moves to London oil on canvas, 75x 90cm, Collection of the Royal
1768 Meets Reynolds and Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
decides to become a painter
1770 Begins studies in Italy
1779 Returns to London
1781 Paints his masterpiece,
The Nightmare
1788 Marries Sophia Rawlins
1799 Opens his Milton
Gallery. ls appointed
Professor of Painting at the
Royal Academy
1825 Dies in Putney, London,
and is buried in St Paul's
Cathedral
HSITON3
SSIYVNO

John Martin Samuel Palmer

b HAYDON BRIDGE, 1789; d DOUGLAS, 1854 b LONDON, 1805; d REDHILL, 1881

Renowned for cataclysmic scenes of doom and destruction, Martin ironically began The son of a bookseller, Palmer showed artistic promise from a very
his artistic career working in a more genteel vein, as a painter of glass and ceramics. early age, exhibiting at the Royal Academy when he was just 14. In
He turned to oils in 1811, rapidly making his mark at the Royal Academy. 1824, a meeting with William Blake led to a transformation of his style,
Many of Martin's pictures depict stories from the Old Testament and feature tiny, and an emphasis on the visionary. This intensified after 1826, when HL6L
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vulnerable human figures, dwarfed by the vast and hostile forces of nature. These Palmer moved to the village of Shoreham in Kent, where he headed a
pictures became incredibly popular, largely through the medium of prints. Martin Self-portrait group of artists known as the Ancients. In true Romantic fashion, they
was particularly skilled at mezzotint engraving — an elaborate process that enabled rejected the increasing urbanization and industrialization of modern life,
him to reproduce his dramatic effects with considerable success. He was also in retreating instead into an idyllic vision of the past.
great demand as an illustrator, producing his finest mezzotints for a deluxe edition Palmer's finest works are small-scale, pastoral fantasies, in which Nature's gifts are
of John Milton's Paradise Lost. portrayed as living proof of God's love. Rolling valleys with golden crop-fields, heavily
laden fruit trees, and contented shepherds combine to show Nature and humanity in
harmony. Largely forgotten after his death, Palmer was rediscovered in the 1920s.

A In a Shoreham Garden /he

luxuriant blossom of an apple tree
— Pe Shea ON NS dominates this scene, and Is a
A Early Morning Nothing seems quite real in this reflection of God's bounty. c1829,
A : - This “iis th famous woodland idyll. Even the human figures appear3 watercolour and gouache, 28x 22cm,
pera
picture that eres
made Martinag ne SanTypically,
famous. te inalit shows
Sti a Tnscenetheof to melt into the landscape. 1825, brown ink and sepia, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
19x23cm, Ashmolean, Oxford, UK
apocalyptic mayhem, drawn from the Old Testament. 1816, oil on
canvas, 150x231cm, private collection
 The challenge of depicting the emotion of love has inspired
“many artists across history and cultures, encouraging them to
~search for the story, character, or object that best represents the
feeling. The classical goddess Venus, for example, has been a
‘long-lasting popular symbol of idealized love in Western art. Post- VY The Faux Pas Jean-Antoine Watteau
; rds an an increased The é viewer is made to : feel like a voyeur in
; of He
Renaissance representations of love leant towards inc sci eiaenceen wave ted
“realism, replacing perfect eas eli chivalry and romance with V An Allegory with Venus and Cupid Agnolo advance. 1717, oil on canvas, 40x32cm,
“more personal depiction of plain physicality. While artists often Bronzino Framed by a group ofallegorical figures, Louvre, Paris, France
preferred to ages of romantic, or sexual love, themes including winged Time, Bronzio’s eroticized Venus pian,
and Cupid demonstrate his skill with flesh tones.
ndPlatonic love have also been tackled. 1540-50, oil on panel, 147x117cm, National Gallery,
London, UK

Y Throne, from the Tomb of ‘

Tutankhamun Egyptian This affectionate
scene of the young pharaoh being annointed
_ by his wife is ornately rendered in gold paint.
-€1370-1352 Bce, gold, Egyptian National
Museum, Cairo, Egypt

A Allegory of True Love Pieter

Pourbus The Flemish Mannerist artist
depicts a sexualized vision of love
- unfettered by social convention. ¢1547, ° Seay
ar oe ie oils, 133x206cm, Wallace Collection,
ae A Parade Shield aie als A Radha and Krishna Indian
Painted with Figures School The love of Radha, a
of a Lady, a Knight, married mortal woman, for the
and Death Flemish god Krishna is a popular theme
A knight declares his love in Hindu literature. The couple
fora lady, in the presence are colourfully depicted,
of Death. The permanance surrounded by bountiful wildlife.
of true love is a feature. c1780, watercolour on paper,
of the courtly tradition. Victoria and Albert Museum,
15th century, leather — ee ee tondonsUK
covered shield, British A The Proposition Judith
Museum, London, UK Leyster The composition -
emphasizes the physical
dominance of the man — : ; n
propositioning the woman with A Jewish Bride Rembrandt van Rijn al
money — which casts a threatening awkward initimacy lends this scene its mystery.
shadow over the whole scene. 1666 oil on canvas, 122
x166cm, Rijksmuseum,
1631, oil on canvas, 31x 24cm Amsterdam, Holland
Mauritshuis, The Hague, The
Netherlands
Y The Kiss Auguste Rodin The fluidity
and motion of The Kiss make it an iconic
representation of romance. Rodin did not > Bank Holiday William
value the work very highly. 1888, marble, Strang Although the couple in
184x111x118cm, Musée Rodin, Paris, France the picture are not relaxed in the
restaurant setting, the scene is
tempered by the flowers and the
cat which are symbolic of
devotion. 1912, oil on canvas,
153x123cm, Tate, London, UK
V The Embrace Egon Schiele Echoing his
friend Klimt’ The Kiss, this passionate work
exhibits a gro wing warmth in Schiele’s
treatment of love and sexuality. 1917, oil on
canvas, 98x 169cm, Osterreichisches Galerie,
Vienna, Austria
>
V The Kiss Pablo Picasso This is a typical pak
example of PicassoS use of unconventional =
techniques — such as multiple perspective —
to tackle popular themes. 1969, oil on canvas,
97x 130cm, Musée Picasso, Paris, France

ANSETA
TeV

sl

A Le Sommeil Gustave Courbet

Female sexuality was a favourite
subject of Courbet’s. His naturalistic FE
celebrations of womens’ bodies Ss

shocked the artistic establishment. A Jealousy Edvard Munch Jealousy casts a ot

1866, oil on canvas, 135x200cm, heavy shadow over Munch’ artistic vision. The
Musée du Petit Palais, Paris vitality of the woman in the centre of the picture Bh
is contrasted with the empty anxiety of the 2ST
foregrounded lover. 1895, oil on canvas, 67 x 100cm,
Rasmus Meyers Samplinger, Bergen, Norway
A Lovers from the Poem of the
< Parade Amoureuse
Pillow Kitagawa Utamaro These
Francis Picabia Early in his
delicate illustrations of poems are part
Dadist period, Picabia
of the tradition of shunga, a form of
created a series of pictures
Japanese erotica. 1788, woodblock print,
that illustrated the sexual
Victoria and Albert Museum, London UK
suggestiveness of machine
parts. 1917, oil on cardboard,
95x 72cm, private collection
 John Constable
Y Boatbuilding near Flatford Mill Constable
b EAST BERGHOLT, 1776; d HAMPSTEAD, 1837 | LIFEline painted many rural scenes. This one depicts his
Constable is regarded by many as England's greatest 1776 Born in East Anglia, the fathers boat yard. 1815, oil on canvas, 51 x62cm,
landscape painter. Despite this, his route to success was
son of a prosperous corn Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
| merchant
far from easy. His choice of career was opposed by his
1799 Enters the Royal
father and his bride’s family, and official recognition in Academy Schools
English art circles was very slow in coming. 1802 Exhibits for the first
Portrait by Constable's originality lay in his style and his subject time at the Royal Academy
Daniel matter. To modern city dwellers, his pictures may seem 1809 Becomes engaged to
Gardner Maria Bicknell
full of rustic charm, but his contemporaries did not find
them sufficiently picturesque. Instead of painting spectacular mountains 1816 Finally marries Maria,
despite her family's
or sweeping panoramas, he focused on the working countryside, with
disapproval
its mills, barges, and a busy, canalized river.
1821 Paints his most famous
Critics also condemned his pictures as unfinished. Constable was work, The Hay Wain, which
always anxious to capture the precise sensations created by nature — wins a gold medal at the Paris
the changes of light under moving clouds, the dampness of Salon 3 years later
rain-soaked fields, the effects of the slightest breeze — and he used 1828 Maria dies of
vigorous brushwork and white highlights to achieve this. English tuberculosis
commentators were unimpressed, but his innovations were better 1829 Elected a full member
of the Royal Academy
appreciated in France, where Géricault and Delacroix expressed great
1837 Dies in Hampstead
admiration for his work.

The Hay Wain Constable

depicts a rural scene that was
very familiar to him. He
exhibited it under the title
Landscape: Noon. The picture
received a tepid reception at
the Royal Academy, but won a
gold medal at the Paris Salon
and was much admired by
Delacroix. 1821, oil on canvas,
130x 185cm, National Gallery,
ROMANTICISM
London, UK

CLOSERI|ook

CENTURY
19TH

| |RUSTIC DETAILS Constable's

| painting overflows with many
authentic details of country life
A kitchen maid kneels down by
the landing stage to scoop up a
pail of water from the stream

» View of Salisbury
Cathedral Constable used
the trees as a natural frame
for the cathedral. The figures
(to the left) and the cows help
to lead the eye to the focal
*¢ No two days are alike, nor
point. It proved to be a even two hours: neither
troublesome project because
the Bishop disapproved of
was there ever two leaves
Constable's dark clouds. of tree alike since the
1823, oil on canvas, 88x 112cm,
Victoria and Albert Museum, THE BISHOP Constable was creation of the world %?
London, UK close friends with the Bishop of JOHN CONSTABLE
Salisbury, John Fisher, who not
only commissioned the painting
g Dut appears in it with his wife
Joseph Mallord William Turner
b LONDON, 1775; d LONDON, 1851
Turner was the most original and imaginative figure in the history of
English landscape painting. He was a close contemporary of John
Constable, but their careers could scarcely have been more different.
His talent was precocious, while Constable’s matured more slowly;
he travelled widely, while Constable concentrated on areas with which
Self-portrait he was most familiar. And, while Constable could toil for months
on a single canvas, Turner worked quickly and had a huge output.
Turner's style varied considerably over the years. Early in his career, he produced
accurate, topographical watercolours that sold well when transferred into prints. After
visiting Italy, he also painted serene landscapes in the classical manner, comparable
to those of Claude. In his most Romantic paintings, however, Turner tried to capture
the sheer power of nature, unleashed in violent storms and raging blizzards. Here, his
handling became incredibly free, as he scratched and scraped at the canvas until the
forms and figures dissolved into swirling vortices of light and colour.

LIFEline v A Canal near the Arsenale, Venice /Jurner

made his first visit to Venice in 1819, but it was only in
1775 Born, the son of a
the 1830s that he really fell under its spell. The place
barber, in London
inspired some of his most magical watercolours, full
1789 Begins studies at Royal
Academy Schools of shimmering reflections and ghostly architecture.
1792 Embarks on the first of Watercolour on paper, British Museum, London, UK
his many sketching tours ml

1800 His mother is admitted

to Bedlam, London's
infamous mental hospital CLOSERIook
A Ulysses deriding
1802 Fourth youngest ever Polyphemus 0n his return AE ee § NATURE’S DRAMA In
Net
full member of Royal Academy i
: his subject paintings, Turner
from the Trojan War, Ulysses
1833 Begins relationship with conveyed the full impact of the
Sophia Booth, a widow celebrates a narrow escape
narrative with nature rather than
1839 Paints his masterpiece, from a man-eating cyclops —
i figures. Here, the cyclops appears
The Fighting Temeraire the one-eyed giant of Greek as an apparition, looming over the
1840 Meets John Ruskin, mythology. 1829, oil on canvas, ship, and could be mistaken for a
his most ardent supporter 133x203cm, National Gallery, cloud formation. Turner focused
1851 Dies in Chelsea and is London, UK on the setting, featuring arched
buried in St Paul’s Cathedral rocks from the Bay of Naples.
HSITISN
INSIDI

<( Rain, Steam, and Speed —

: The Great Western Railway
== Turner felt exhilarated by the
>.< novel sensation of speed, which
the railways provided. During a
raging storm, he stuck his head
is out of a carriage window to
m experience the full power of the AYNLNA
HL6L
elements. 1844, oil on canvas,
91x 122cm, National Gallery,
London, UK

~~ CLOSERIook

‘ Tah aie

) VISUAL PUN Turner has

underlined the power of the
new technology by contrasting
it with older symbols of speed.
The hare that appears on the
track was probably meant as a
reference to the fable of “The
Hare and the Tortoise”.
ROMANTICISM

19TH
CENTURY
 HSITSNA
INSIDIL

The Fighting Temeraire, Tugged to her Last

Berth to be Broken Up, 1838 JMW Turner
1839, oil on canvas, 90.7x112.6cm, National Gallery, London, UK >

HL6L
AYNLNAD
 CLOSERIlook

The Fighting Temeraire JMVV [urner

A pale ghost of her former noble
and majestic self, the old warship the
Temeraire, veteran of the Battle of
Trafalgar, is towed up the Thames by Technique
Unlike many of Turner's
a steam tug, to be broken up for scrap. paintings, which have
Rather than painting a documentary deteriorated because of > BLAZING SUNSET Turner
of the event, Turner transformed the his experimental use of began by painting the sky with
materials, this masterpiece thin glazes. When this layer
ship’s final journey into a mournful
: is well preserved. He used was dry, he thickly brushed on
hymn to the passing of the great days yellows and reds for the clouds.
a relatively conventional oil-paint mix, with walnut oil
of sail. First exhibited the year after the as a medium. In some areas, such as the hull of the
He used several reds: traditional
vermilion and Venetian red, both
Temeraire was broken up, this has Temeraire, paint is applied in thin, fluid veils. In others, stable, and iodine scarlet, a
always been one of Turner's best-loved such as the sky, Turner uses a technique known as newly invented pigment that
canvases. Turner called it his “darling” “scumbling”, dragging brush-loads of thick, opaque was intense but unstable, and
paint irregularly across the underlayer. has changed over time.
and refused all offers to buy it.
>» IMPASTO YELLOW Capturing the effects of ]
yellow light preoccupied Turner. Here, he has built (=
Composition up impasto layers, using brilliant lemon yellow, es tg
Turner creates a composition based on which remains much as it was when he painted it,
contrasts — sail versus steam, dark forms along with other less stable yellows, which have
versus pale, cool colours predominating on become more silvery than he intended. Although
the left contrasting with warm colours on he often used a palette knife, Turner appears to
the right where the dying sun blazes. A have used a heavily loaded brush here.
strong diagonal divides the picture in two,
and draws the viewer's eye across the
v HULL OF BOAT In reality, the Jemeraire was
painted in yellow and black, but Turner evokes a
canvas in a way that creates the sense
ghostly sense of insubstantiality, by depicting her
of forward movement suggesting the
hull in thin veils of grey and brown over ivory-
Temeraire’s final journey towards the coloured paint. The pale lines of her timbers give
ominous, dark buoy in the bottom right. her a strangely skeletal appearance.

ROMANTICISM

CENTURY
19TH
A FORWARD MOTION The line of mast-tops
leads diagonally towards the bottom right, while
the dark shapes of tug and buoy suggest another
diagonal link. These two diagonals create a point
in the bottom left-hand corner, towards which the
ship is being drawn to her doom.

INcontext
GLORY DAYS [he Jemeraire
: es — whose name means
“fearless” — was a 98-gun man-
of-war, first launched in 1798.
A SMOKE TRAIL A trail of fiery smoke belching She played a “most noble and
from the tug’s funnel cuts dramatically across distinguished part” in the Battle
the Temeraire. To accentuate the effect, Turner of Trafalgar in 1805. When
deliberately altered the boat's design, transposing Admiral Nelson's flagship, the
mast and funnel. He put the funnel at the front and Victory, came under fire, the
elongated the smoke trail. Temeraire came to her aid
and captured two French ships
before being so battered that
The Battle of Trafalgar, 1805 Clarkson Stanfield,
she had to be towed away. (exhibited 1836). The Temeraire — flying the Union Jack —
is depicted at the centre of the action at Trafalgar.
 ¢¢ A gorgeous horizon
poetically intimates that
Story Ce as rags at the sun of the Temeraire
Although “based on a true 5 ; is setting in glory 99
story”, Turner's painting ce é
transforms reality into an i: i THE MORNING CHRONICLE, 7 MAY 1839

emotionally charged, poetic :

elegy. The ship was towed
in from Sheerness to the
breaker’s yard in Rotherhithe over two days, probably in
daylight hours, but Turner paints the scene at sunset,
creating an air of finality. She would have been travelling
west, but he shows her travelling east, So as to have the
sunset behind her. Her masts would have already been
removed, but he shows them intact, in stately opposition
to the squat little tug’s black funnel.
Sane $e aS
v ONE TUG NOT TWO |In reality, two steamboats * A SYMBOLIC MOON A crescent moon appears
(Samson and London) tugged the Temeraire, one in as the sun sets: some contemporary reviewers
front pulling her along, and one behind acting as a interpreted this as symbolic of the new era of
brake. Turner may have felt that the contrast would steam taking the place of the passing age of
be more powerful with a solitary steamboat. sail (symbolized by the setting sun).

HSIISNA
INSIDILN

i) i) =)

©
a
HE;
QO
m™m
=
=
Sc
0)
<

A FULL SAIL As the tug pulls the Jemeraire

forward, a number of sailing ships recede into the
distance. On the horizon, this ship is shown in full
sail, perhaps reminding us of the Jemeraire’s glory
days. Painted with a few deft brushstrokes, its
white sails stand out against the darkening sky.
 Albert Bierstadt v Rocky Mountain Landscape /n the Rocky Mountains
Bierstadt found a worthy alternative to the Alps of European
b SOLINGEN, NEAR DUSSELDORF, 1830; d NEW YORK, 1902 landscapes. His well-observed and often huge paintings of
the magnificent, unspoilt west were especially popular after
This Romantic landscape painter — one of the last of the Hudson River
the ravages of the American Civil War (1861-65). 1870, oil
School (see pp.296-97) — combined Germanic style with American
on canvas, White House, Washington DC, US
Washington Allston subjects and a distinctly American approach. Born near Dusseldorf,
Bierstadt grew up in Massachusetts. When he returned to Germany
b WACCAMAW, SOUTH CAROLINA, 1779; to study, he spent much of his time with American artists based there.
d CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, 1843 Like his contemporary Frederic Church, Bierstadt travelled widely
but found inspiration mainly from his trips to the west of the US, and
the Rocky Mountains in particular. His Romantic mountain scenes and
depictions of wagon trains on the Overland Trail, helped by a flair for
self-publicity, gained him enormous popularity in the 1860s. His huge
output of paintings sold well and gave him a comfortable lifestyle,
including frequent trips abroad. By the 1880s, however, Bierstadt's
Romantic style was falling out of favour, and his final important work,
The Last of the Buffalo (1888) — significantly, a portrayal of fast-
disappearing glory — was considered too old-fashioned as an
American entry to the Exposition Universelle in Paris.

Elijah in the Desert /he vivid colour contrasts

in Allston’s work earned him the nickname “the LIFEline
American Titian”. He painted several landscapes 1830 Born near Dusseldorf
with biblical subjects. 1818, oil on canvas, 1833 Moves to New
125x185cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, US Bedford, MA, with his family
1853-57 Studies in Dusseldorf
A pioneer of American Romantic painting, 1859 First visit to western US
Allston broke with the tradition of portrait 1889 The Last of the Buffalo
painting to produce a small but influential rejected for Exposition
collection of dramatic landscapes. The son Universelle in Paris
of a South Carolina plantation owner, he 1902 Dies in New York LUMINOSITY
moved to New England as a child. He Bierstadt painted the
graduated from Harvard in 1800 before » The Oregon Trail /he glowing skies in this
travelling to Europe, where he studied at sunset in exaggerated
stunning plains scenery Is
London's Royal Academy and worked in colours — in a style that
depicted in glowing colours
| was sometimes known
Paris and Rome. In 1818, Allston returned that typify the Hudson River
as Luminism — to help
to the US and settled in Boston and then School. 1869, oil on canvas, iy Capture the atmosphere
Cambridge. He gained some popular
ROMANTICISM 79x125cm, Butler Institute of H of the scene.
success as an author as well as a painter. American Art, Youngstown, US

Frederic Edwin Church

b HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, 1826; d NEW YORK, 1900
» Niagara Falls, from the
American Side Niagara is one
Frederic Church was a much-travelled landscape artist, of the foremost scenic wonders
regarded as one of the most important of the Hudson of America. Church’ detailed,
River School's second generation of painters. He realistic depiction of the Falls
CENTURY
19TH studied under Thomas Cole in the 1840s, and soon captures the power of this
achieved an enthusiastic reception for his historical natural wonder. 1867, oil on
landscapes. After reading the work of the naturalist canvas, 260 x 231cm, National
Alexander Humboldt, he decided to follow in his Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK
footsteps and travel to South America — Church's first
trip taking place in 1853.
Church made many extended trips abroad, notably to
v Cotopaxi Church made a
Europe, and the Near East, and also travelled widely in number of paintings of Ecuador's
the US. The paintings from these trips, including views Cotopaxi volcano in different
of Cotopaxi and Niagara Falls, made him both a popular states of eruption. His major
and a financial success. In 1869, he returned from concern in all his landscapes
London, where he had seen the work of Turner, and was the accurate portrayal of
settled outside New York. Arthritis forced him to give natural phenomena. 1862, oil on
up painting in 1877. canvas, 122x216cm, Detroit
Institute of Arts, US
LIFEline
1826 Born into a wealthy
Connecticut family
1844 Studies with Thomas Cole
1846 Paints first major work,
The Rev. Thomas Hooker and
Company Journeying through
the Wilderness from Plymouth
to Hartford, in 1636
1847 Settles in New York
1850 First visit to Maine
1853 Travels to South America
1857 Exhibits Niagara; travels
to South America again
1865 Visits Jamaica
1867-69 Tours Europe
1900 Dies in New York
Thomas Cole
b BOLTON, ENGLAND, 1801; d CATSKILL, NEW YORK, 1848 < The Course of Empire:
Destruction The Course of Empire
Cole was a founding member of the group of artists known as
series was produced when Cole was
the Hudson River School, and in his comparatively short career he
at the height of his powers. The
produced a number of influential landscapes and allegorical paintings. cycle charts the rise and fall of an
Born and brought up in the industrialized north of England, Cole imaginary city, from The Savage
emigrated with his family to the US at the age of 17 and after State through The Arcadian or
two years at the Pennsylvania Academy he joined them in Ohio. Pastoral State to The Consummation,
Cole's first success came in New York, when fellow Hudson River and ending with Destruction and
School artist Asher Brown Durand, noticed his work and helped him Desolation. 1836, oil on canvas,
to find buyers. Cole found a studio in nearby Catskill, from which he 100x161cm, Collection of the New-York
could make painting trips into the countryside. His growing reputation Historical Society, US
enabled him to visit Europe, and after his return in 1832 he embarked
on two series of huge allegorical paintings, The Course of Empire and
The Voyage of Life. He continued to paint the countryside of the
northeastern states until his death, aged 47.

LIFEline » The Oxbow /his view of a bend in

the Connecticut River shows the gentle
1801 Born in industrial
Lancashire, England encroachment of man into the wilderness as a
1818 Emigrates to rural
storm passes over. The diagonal division of wild
Steubenville, Ohio natural scenery and cultivated landscape is
1823-25 Moves first to emphasized by the leaning tree in the
Pittsburgh, then Philadelphia, foreground. 1836, oil on canvas, 131 x193cm,
and finally New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, US
1827 Takes a studio in Catskill
1829-32 Visits England CLOSERI|ook
and Italy COLE’S UMBRELLA a
1833-6 The Course of Dwarfed by the vast 2
Empire cycle of paintings landscape and barely Y iii
1836 Marries Maria Barlow in visible is an umbrella, Cf Sone
Catskill, and settles there closed after the passing
1839 Paints the
first of the of the storm; to the left
The Voyage of Life series Cole has included himself,
1841-42 Returns to Europe almost imperceptibly,
1848 Dies in Catskill on the hillside.
NVDISN
WSIDILN

Thomas Doughty_ Asher Brown Durand

b PHILADELPHIA, 1793; d NEW YORK, 1856 LIFEline b MAPLEWOOD, NEW JERSEY, 1796; d MAPLEWOOD,
1793 Born in Philadelphia NEW JERSEY, 1886
Doughty was one of the first American painters to.\concentrate on landscapes,
anticipating the artists of the Hudson River School (see pp.296-97). He was born 1816 Exhibits at Pennsylvania
in Philadelphia and spent much of his life there. He taught himself to paint while Academy of Fine Arts
1824 |s elected Academician
employed as a leather worker — so successfully, in fact, that by 1824 he was able
in Pennsylvania HL6L
AYNLNSAD
to describe his occupation as “landscape painter” 1830s Lives in New York,
Doughty exhibited regularly at the Pennsylvania Academy, and his fame spread as Massachusetts, Connecticut,
far as New York and Boston, where he also showed work. During the 1820s and 30s, and Delaware
his tours of the eastern US and Europe inspired some of his finest work, including the 1837 First visit to Europe
well-known Nature’s Wonderland (1835). Poor health eventually put an end to his €1845 Settles in New York
travels, and he spent his final years in New York. 1856 Dies in New York

» Denning’s Point, Hudson

River This painting is typical of the
tranquil, atmospheric style Doughty
adopted from the mid-1830s after
visiting Europe. 1839, oil on mounted
canvas, 61x 76cm, Butler Institute of
American Art, Youngstown, US

CLOSERIook

A Shandaken Ridge, Kingston, New York

Durand's landscapes have a classically balanced
composition, like those of European painters such
as Claude Lorrain. c1854, oil on canvas, Collection of the
New-York Historical Society, US

Working first as an engraver and illustrator, Durand

turned to painting in the 1830s and became a founding
SMOOTH EDGES Gently rounded member of the Hudson River School. Already well
shapes in the composition of this known for his engravings of famous American paintings
scene enhance its peacefulness. and portraits, he devoted himself to landscape painting
Framed by the dark foreground and after a trip to Europe. His work includes Kindred Spirits
tree, the curve of the mid-ground hill (1849), a portrayal of his friend Thomas Cole and the
echoes across the picture.
poet William Cullen Bryant in the Catskill woodlands.
 Origins and influences
In the late 1840s, a circle of writers,
artists, and intellectuals held regular
meetings at a Parisian bar, the working conditions, a topic that
Brasserie Andler. The group's heated smacked dangerously of socialist
discussions covered a broad range politics to conservative critics.
of subjects, from radical politics and The Realists attracted equal scorn
social issues to the latest artistic for their figures. Courbet's nudes
trends. They dubbed their meeting had double chins and rolls of fat,
place the “Temple of Realism; and while Honoré Daumier's workers
it was this nickname which Courbet A. La Rencontre, or Bonjour Monsieur Courbet
were wizened caricatures. For critics
The Realist movement emerged
adopted for his art. Gustave Courbet, 1854. With an air of self-confidence, accustomed to the idealized forms
in France in the mid-19th Although they appear anything but the artist, Courbet (right), greets his patron Alfred Bruyas. of academic art, this was not realism,
The composition is based on a popular print of the
century, as a reaction against revolutionary today, the paintings of but a deliberate quest for ugliness.
Wandering Jew.
the outdated strictures of Courbet provoked a storm of protest Realism proved influential, not just
academic art. Spearheaded at the Salon — the state-sponsored of escapism. The peasant pictures for the style itself, but for the way that
exhibition in Paris — largely because of Courbet and Millet, however, were Courbet promoted it. His “Pavilion of
by Gustave Courbet and Jean-
they contravened normal academic large, on a scale that was normally Realism” at the World Fair of 1855
Francois Millet, it signalled practice. Scenes of rural life were reserved for major historical themes was a show of artistic independence,
a definitive break from the expected to be small and picturesque, or religious subjects. Worse still, they and a model for the later Impressionist
artistic traditions of the past. providing town-dwellers with a sense focused on the hardship of modern exhibitions (see pp.340-41).

TIMEline c1863
The Barbizon School thrived
in the 1840s, when Rousseau
and Millet settled in the area.
Courbet burst upon the Parisian
REALISM
art scene in 1850; his work was
controversial throughout the
decade. In the early 1860s,
Menzel painted scenes from
modern life, while, in 1871 a
group of Russians, known as the
Wanderers, staged the first of =

their travelling shows. COURBET [he Stone-Br eakers

COROT he Gardens of the Villa MILLET The Gleaners
d’Este, Tivoli
SPITZWEG DAUMIER
The Bookworm The Washerwoman

Schools German uncompromising in their portrayal of manual

Courbet visited Germany several times, labour as anything produced by the French
As a coherent movement, Realism is chiefly making a particularly strong impact in 1869, Realists. However, their work was not all
associated with France. Naturalist trends, when he demonstrated his techniques to contentious, and included atmospheric
however, were prominent in several a group of young artists in Munich. His landscapes and scenes of daily life.
European countries. closest links were with Wilhelm Leibl, who
worked with him in Paris for a time. Leibl’s
French fascination with the style is most evident
Prior to the Realist controversies, a number in his starkly realistic portrayals of peasant
of landscape painters began working in the women. He also transmitted his ideas to
Forest of Fontainebleau, close to the village a circle of German artists, who became
of Barbizon. Although they are traditionally known as “Leibl’s Group”. This included
known as a “school”, the group did not Hans Thoma, Carl Schuch, Theodor Alt,
have any formal links or joint manifesto. and Wilhelm Trubner. Naturalist tendencies
However, they did share a dislike for the can also be discerned in some of the
artificiality of academic art, preferring to Biedermeier painters. Carl Spitzweg and
depict a more realistic version of the scenes Ferdinand Georg Waldmiller, for example,
that lay before them. The leading figures produced charmingly unaffected depictions
were Théodore Rousseau, Constant Troyon, of everyday life. :
Old Elms in Prater Ferdinand Georg Waldmiiller Narcisse Diaz, and Charles Daubigny,
Waldmilller’s work predates the Realist movement, but his although Camille Corot and Jean-Francois Russian
landscapes often display an almost photographic clarity
Millet were also associated with the group. In Russia, the baton of naturalism was taken
that is reminiscent of the style of Corot. 1831, oil on panel,
31,7x25,9em, Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany The Impressionists would later cite them up by an association of exhibiting artists,
as an inspiration for their own movement. known as the Wanderers, or Itinerants. Led A St Nicholas Delivers Three Unjustly
Condemned Men from Death Ilya Efimovich Repin
by painters such as llya Repin, lvan Kramskoi,
Repin brought a fresh approach to the portrayal of
and Vasily Surikov, they created a penetrating historical subjects. He supported a campaign for the
study of Russian society. Their range of abolition of the death penalty in Russia and here shows
subjects was very broad. Repin's Volga the saint saving three codemned men. 1888, oil on canvas,
Boatmen and Nikolai Kasatkin’s Paupers 215x196cm, State Russian Museum, St Petersburg, Russia.
Collecting Coal, for instance, were as
 Honoré Daumier
aa , b MARSEILLE, 1808; d VALMONDOIS, 1879

The satirical cartoons and caricatures that made Honoré

Jean-Francois Millet Daumier famous in his own lifetime somewhat eclipsed
his paintings and sculptures. These are now recognized
r ey PIGRUCHY ;NORMAND Y,(1814:.d BARBIZON, 1875 LIFEline both as fine examples of the Realist genre, and as
f Inspired by his observations of life on the land in his 1814 Born intoaprosperous pioneering the techniques of Impressionism.
native Normandy, Jean-Francois Millet painted mainly peasant family in Normandy Honoré In 1816, Daumier's father made a disastrous move to
rural scenes. His paintings were admired by Realist 1832 Moves to Cherbourg to Daumier Paris, and young Honoré was forced to find work. After
study with local painters
artists and the young Vincent van Gogh. a number of menial jobs, which shaped his left-wing
1837 Studies with Delaroche
Having trained in Cherbourg and Paris, Millet spent in Paris politics, he learnt the techniques of lithography, and he started to
Self-portrait his early career as a historical and portrait painter, 1840 One of his portraits is contribute cartoons to the journal La Caricature. For most of his life,
achieving modest success. However, after the 1848 accepted by the Salon Daumier struggled to make a living. He was admired by many fellow
Revolution and his move to the village of Barbizon, in the forest of 1848 Exhibits The Winnower, artists, including Corot, Degas, and Delacroix, but died in poverty.
Fontainebleau, he wanted to give his painting the social and political his first peasant scene
significance he admired in Daumier’s work. He struggled financially 1849 Moves to Barbizon,
LIFEline ¥ The Collector of Engravings
for much of his career (he had a large family to support), but by the near Fontainebleau Daumiers post-1848 paintings are mainly
1867 Exhibition of his work at 1808 Born into a family keenly observed and unsentimental
end of his life he was achieving recognition and honours (he was of artists in Marseille
Paris Exposition Universelle scenes of the Paris he knew. c1860-62, oil
made a member of the Legion of Honour in 1868). After his death 1816 Family moves to Paris
1875 Dies in Barbizon on canvas, 41x 33cm, Musée du Petit Palais,
his paintings became enormously popular. 1822 Produces lithographs to
Paris, France
augment the family income
» The Gleaners Millet often depicted 1830 Contributes satirical
peasants as noble, or even heroic figures. cartoons and lithographs to
Here, the women picking up the leftovers of the La Caricature
harvest are invested with a monumental dignity; 1832 Imprisoned for
depiction of King Louis-
they are the focus of attention in the fertile
Philippe as Gargantua
landscape. 1857, oil on canvas, 84x 111cm, Musée
1835 Works for Le Charivari
d'Orsay, Paris, France
1845 Befriends art critic
Charles Baudelaire
Y The Angelus Millets most popular painting,
1871 Becomes a member of
it fetched a huge price soon after his death and the Paris Commune
was endlessly reproduced. Originally titled
1878 Renowned art dealer
Prayer for the Potato Crop, /t depicts a peasant Paul Durand-Ruel exhibits
couple pausing devoutly as the Angelus bell his paintings
sounds the time for prayer. This is ostensibly a 1879 Dies, virtually blind
peaceful rural scene, but can be interpreted as and dependent on financial
having a more tragic subtext. 1857-59, oil on support from friends HON3AYS
IWSITW4
canvas, 53x66cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France

ae. v Ratapoil Daumier made

a large number of sculptural
heads and figures. In them
he created the character
Ratapoil (skinned rat) who
represented the sinister
agents of the government.
c1850, bronze, height 38cm, HL6L
AYNLNSD
Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France

A The Washerwoman Daumiers choice of subject

matter for his paintings places him within the Realist
tradition — especially his depictions of everyday life
in working-class Paris. Yet his paintings also display
a spontaneity and handling of light that anticipate
CLOSERI|ook Impressionism. c1863, oil on panel, 49x 34cm,
"ee PRAYING HANDS At first glance, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
the two figures appear united in prayer,
but there is awkwardness between
them. This is seen most clearly in their
hands: while the woman’s are tightly
clasped in devout prayer, the man’s
betray his embarrassment as he self-
consciously turns the rim of his hat.
 'Gustave Courbet
b ORNANS, FRANCE, 1819; d LA TOUR-DE-PEILZ, SWITZERLAND, 1877 LIFEline The Stone Breakers /n one of his first overtly Realist
Courbet rejected Idealism and led the way in Realism. He was one 1840 Moves to Paris, aged 21 paintings, Courbet starkly portrays the unglamorous
1844 Courbet with a Black work of labourers. This rebellion against the Romantic
of the movement's first and most dedicated exponents, expressing
Dog accepted by Paris Salon conventions of the time gained him some notoriety when
his political and social commitment in paintings of outstanding
1847 Sees the work of Dutch exhibited at the Salon of 1850. 1849, oil on canvas (destroyed
technical achievement. Brought up in rural Franche-Comté, in
masters in the Netherlands in 1945), 159x259cm, Galerie Neue Meister, Dresden, Germany
eastern France, Courbet went to Paris in 1840 to study law. In
1849 First Realist paintings
| Setspertrett fact, he spent his time studying works in the Louvre and resolved
1855 The Artist's Studio is
to become an artist (with the financial backing of his father). rejected by the Exposition
| After some initial success, Courbet's works were rejected as unconventional, and Universelle ,
| he became increasingly anti-establishment. A trip to Ornans confirmed his dislike of 1866 Begins a series of erotic
the rarefied Beaux-Arts, prompting him to adopt the Realist style. He was a leading paintings, including the
figure in the Paris Commune (opposite), who seized power in Paris following the notorious Origin of the World
Franco-Prussian war, but after its collapse in 1871 he fled to Switzerland, and spent 1871 Takes charge of art
museums in Paris Commune
his final years there.
1871 Arrested for dismantling
the Vendéme Column, a
*¢ The essence of realism is its negation of the monument to Napoleon
ideal... [he expression of beauty is in direct ratio to 1873 Flees France to escape
paying a huge fine for the
the power of conception the artist has acquired ” rebuilding of the monument
GUSTAVE COURBET 1877 Dies, exiled in Switzerland

=
cL
=
eg
ry
te
 The Artist's Studio (
INcontext
SubtitledA Real Allegory of Seven
PARIS COMMUNE In the uprising following
Years of my Artistic and Moral
the Franco-Prussian war, a citizens’ militia
Life, this painting shows Courbet
seized power in Paris, demanding a democratic
at work surrounded by “the
and social republic. The Commune governed
world of commonplace life” on
Paris from March to May of 1871, but it had
the left, and an admiring group
great political significance as a model for future
of friends (including novelist left-wing and anarchist revolutionary movements.
|
George Sand, art critic Charles
Baudelaire, and politician Pierre- | Destruction of the Vendéme Column, 1871 |
Joseph Proudhon), on the right. Courbet was responsible for the city’s art museums
during the short-lived Commune. He supervised the
In the centre, turning his back on |
toppling of the Vend6me column commemmorating
a voluptuous nude symbolizing Napoleon, for which he was subsequently imprisoned.
artistic tradition, the artist paints
a landscape under the gaze of a
small boy and his dog. 1855, oil SS Pop ee eee
on canvas, 361 x598cm, Musée t
d'Orsay, Paris, France

< Burial at Ornans /he funeral of Courbets

granduncle was thought an unconventional and
mundane subject for a painting in 1850, especially
one on such a massive scale. The portrayal of
ordinary people, rather than royalty or historical
figures, was a statement of his socialist beliefs. His
choice of this working-class ceremony was, he said,
“in reality, the burial of Romanticism”. 1849-50, oil HONAY
INSIT1W
on canvas, 314x663cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
i] i) wl
CLOSERI|ook

HL6L
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SYMMETRICAL COMPOSITION The

painting is divided into two distinct rectangles
either side of the central grave: to the left stand
the robed clergy and dignitaries, to the right less
colourful townspeople. The symmetry is
emphasized by contrasting vertical lines formed
by the cross and the mourner in the foreground

RURAL SOBRIETY In
contrast to the pageantry
and sumptuous clothes
associated with traditional
depictions of ceremonies,
Courbet shows townsfolk
attending the funeral in
sombre mood and wearing
their slightly shabby
“Sunday Best”
 Camille Corot
b PARIS, 1796; d PARIS, 1875
v The Goatherd beside the Water Corots /ater work
shows a softening of the landscape, presaging Impressionism.
A major influence on the next generation of The distant view, misty lake, translucent trees, and sole Théodore Rousseau
French artists, Camille Corot to some extent human figure are all frequent features of Corot’s landscapes. ve
anticipated Impressionist landscapes. After a 1843, oil on canvas, 81x65cm, private collection b PARIS, 1812; d BARBIZON, 1867
short-lived career in the family’s drapery
Nicknamed /e grand refusé for his
business, he turned to painting (with the help
frequent rejection by the Paris Salon,
Portrait by of a small allowance from his father) in his
Rousseau was the leading member
Constant twenties, and in 1827 first had work accepted at
Dutilleux of the Barbizon school of landscape
the Salon. His reputation started to grow, and he
painters. Uncomfortable with the
soon established himself as a successful artist, working from
Théodore Neoclassical formality then current
sketches made on his travels around France and Italy, and Rousseau in France, he based his style on 17th-
slowly developing a very personal style.
century Dutch landscapes, as well as on the work of
Although a supporter of the Realist artists of the Barbizon
contemporaries such as John Constable. Unusually for
school (see p.324) (his commercial success allowed him to
the time, he painted outdoors. Although he struggled
help Daumier and Millet financially), he did not share their
early in his career, by the end of his life he was an
concern for the social connotations of landscape; figures
acclaimed figure and his posthumous reputation
appear only incidentally, if at all, in his landscapes.
was for a time enormous.

LIFEline v Holm Oaks, Apremont Aousseau’s landscapes

1796 Born in Paris, the son of portray nature as powerful rather than idyllic. His ability
a draper to represent a scene realistically was much admired by
1825 Visits Rome and Venice his fellow Romantics, even if not by the establishment.
1827 The Bridge at Narniis 1850-52, oil on canvas, 63 x 99cm, Louvre, Paris, France
shown at the Paris Salon
1834 Travels around Italy
| sketching and painting
1836 Spends time in Avignon
and the south of France |
1846 Receives the cross of the |
Légion d'honneur < The Woman with the Pearl A/though primarily
1872 Buys acottage forthe | a landscape artist, Corot was equally skilled in figure
homeless Daumier painting. During his later career he produced a
1875 Dies and is buried in Pére number of female nudes and portraits of friends and
Lachaise cemetery, Paris family. He never exhibited any of these, preferring to
REALISM keep his private and public art completely separate.
c1842, oil on canvas, 70x 55cm, Louvre, Paris, France

CENTURY
19TH

A The Forest at
Fontainebleau: Morning
Working directly from nature
in the open air, Rousseau was
adept at capturing the subtle
contrasts of light and shade —
especially the effects of
sunlight through foliage —
using small, carefully handled FRAMING ARCH The
brushstrokes. 1850, oil on effects of sunlight through
canvas, 97x 134cm, Wallace foliage were a recurrent
Collection, London, UK subject for Rousseau. In this,
and several similar paintings,
the eye is drawn towards a
central area of light through
an arched frame of trees.
A The Gardens of the Villa d’Este, Tivoli Corot made several CLOSERIook
trips to Italy, and liked to make landscape sketches that he could jy SUBTLE COLOURS Corot
develop into full-scale paintings back in his studio. He aimed to tended to use a limited range
capture the scenes just as he saw them. This plein-air (outdoor) of colours, preferring to
approach, which paved the way for young painters such as Camille achieve his effects through
Pissarro, allowed him to develop a freer, more naturalistic style subtle tonal relationships of
within the classical French tradition. 1843, oil on canvas, 28x 50cm, light and dark, and a creamy
Louvre, Paris, France surface texture created using
small, quick brushstrokes
Carl Spitzweg
b MUNICH, 1808; d MUNICH, 1885 LIFEline
The most enduring of the Biedermeier group of artists, Carl Spitzweg 1808 Born into a middle-class
Ferdinand Georg Waldmilller
took up painting comparatively late in life and with no formal training, family in Munich
b VIENNA, 1793; d HINTERBRUHL, 1865
having previously worked as a pharmacist. He began his artistic career 1825-28 Trains as pharmacist
in Vienna Ferdinand Waldmiller, the foremost Austrian landscape
in the 1830s, becoming an active member of the artistic community
1828 Works in a Munich artist of the Biedermeier period, based his meticulous
in his native Munich. pharmacy while doing technique on a close study of nature rather than an
Having struggled to attain recognition for his anecdotal paintings of postgraduate studies adherence to any particular style of painting. He trained
Bavarian life, Spitzweg spent some years travelling before taking on 1833 Inherits enough money
at the Vienna Academy, and, after working as a private
work as a graphic artist for the satirical Munich magazine Fliegende to become a painter
Self-portrait tutor in Croatia and a short period as a portrait painter,
Blatter (Flying Leaves), putting his work before a wider public. 1835 Joins the Kunstverein,
Munich; leaves two years later he returned there as a professor in 1829. His Naturalist
Spitzweg's acutely observed caricatures and studies of provincial life
1837 First version of The Poor approach was, however, at odds with the Academy's ideology; despite
are sympathetic rather than politically critical, and his gentle humour
Poet, his best-known work his growing reputation and influence as a teacher, he was eventually
soon made him popular across Europe.
1839 Travels to Dalmatia dismissed. As well as a huge number of landscapes, Waldmuller
1840s Travels around Austria, painted many sentimental rural scenes, which were popularly
Switzerland, and the Adriatic successful, although not so highly regarded today. He was reinstated
1844-52 Works as illustrator at the Academy in 1864, just one year before his death.
for Fliegende Blatter magazine
1860 Turns to landscapes
v Coming Home from the War Waldmiillers
1885 Dies in Munich LIFEline
later work included a series of paintings of peasant
1793 Born in Vienna life in a sentimental mood, contrasting starkly with
1817-20 Studies at the his detailed naturalist technique. 1859, oil on panel,
<< Sunday Stroll From about Vienna Academy
1850, Spitzweg’s attention 42x53cm, Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
1825 Travels to Italy
moved away from the figures 1829 Appointed professor at
in his paintings to their the Vienna Academy
surroundings, which provides 1857 Dismissed after
an appropriate setting to the disputes with the Academy
action. He increasingly turned 1862 A major exhibition of his
to landscape painting; work is held in London
influenced by the Barbizon 1864 Reinstated as professor
School, he created idyllic rural at the Vienna Academy
scenes into which he could 1865 Dies in Hinterbruhl,
insert his whimsical petit- Austria, aged 72
bourgeois characters. 1841,
oil on canvas, Museum Carolino NVINY
INSITVW
Augusteum, Salzburg, Austria

» The Bookworm Spitzweg frequently

shows his subjects indulging their middle-class
enthusiasms — such as butterfly collecting,
mineralogy, or in this case literature — gently
poking fun at their absurdity. Spitzweg himself
was widely travelled and somewhat detached
from this provincial world. 1850, oil on canvas,
27x 50cm, private collection HL6L
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/INcontext |
BIEDERMEIER Originally the pseudonym of a
contributor to Fliegende Blatter, Biedermeier is
now a general term for the urban, middle-class
arts in early 19th-century Germany and Austria,
which emphasized domesticity and sober
simplicity, often tending to the sentimental.
Family Group by Franz Schrank (c1810). This scene
expresses the Biedermeier values of modesty and
respectability — a reaction against the political and
expressive preoccupations of Romanticism.
A Hallstatter-See A beliefinthe CLOSERIook
naturalistic depiction of the subject
based on close study and observation
led to an almost photographic realism ee “a 2
and detail in Waldmiillers landscapes. =
In particular, he used his considerable
technical skills and sensitivity to
colour to reproduce a scene, rather
than interpret It, and allow the subject
to speak for itself. 1838, oil on canvas,
ene Se, :
Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien,
Vienna, Austria LIGHT AND DARK Contrasts are
sharply defined in this landscape,
leading diagonally across the painting,
from the luminous sky down the
mountains to a rooftop, and through
the long shadows to the lowest point.
 Wilhelm Leibl
b COLOGNE, 1844; d WURZBURG, 1900 Adolph Menzel
Wilhelm Leib! studied in his home town of Cologne and at the Munich
b BRESLAU, PRUSSIA, 1815; d BERLIN, 1905 LIFEline
Academy, but his reputation as the leading Realist painter of late
19th-century Germany came after working with Gustave Courbet in Known in his own time as a painter of historical 1815 Born in Breslau, Prussia
(now Wroclaw, Poland)
France. Courbet was impressed by a portrait he had seen by Leibl at an and patriotic subjects, Menzel is today admired
1832 Takes over his father's
exhibition in Munich in 1869, and he subsequently invited him to Paris. more for his small genre paintings that depict the lithographic workshop after
Their collaboration was cut short by the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. everyday life of Berlin and Paris. Largely self-taught, | his death
Leibl had already adopted his mentor's practice of portraying everyday he started his artistic career producing lithographs 1839 Sees paintings by John
rural life. After a short stay back in Munich, Leib! moved to the country, Adolf Menzel to illustrate the many histories of Prussia that were Constable in Berlin
and spent the rest of his life in various villages around Bavaria. During popular at the time. Inspired by Constable, Menzel 1839-42 Illustrates Franz Kugler's |
the 1870s, he developed a meticulous style that emulated the work took up painting in the 1840s, with royal and military subject History of Frederick the Great
of Holbein, but later his technique became softer and more fluid, matter being his primary interest, particularly of the reign of | 1861 Invited to paint the
coronation of Wilhelm | of Prussia
as he worked directly on the canvas with no preliminary drawings. Frederick the Great. Menzel visited the Exposition Universelle in
1867 Visits Paris Exposition
Paris in 1867 to see Courbet's rural Realist paintings, but he was | Universelle; meets Meissonier
more impressed with the Naturalist historical scenes of leading | 1898 First painter awarded Order
LIFEline
French genre artist Ernest Meissonier, who became a close friend. _| of the Black Eagle
1844 Born in Cologne From this time, while he continued to produce nationalistic 1905 Dies in Berlin
1864 |n his early twenties, studies paintings and illustrations, Menzel painted several views of Paris,
at the Munich Academy
and a series of unorthodox scenes of Berlin life.
1869 Works with Realist Karl von
Piloty, then sets up a group studio
1870 Works in Paris with Courbet;
meets Manet
1873 Moves to rural Bavaria and
adopts a Holbein-like technique
1878 Lives in Berbling, where he
paints the Three Women in Church
1892 Settles in Kutterling
1900 Dies in Wurzburg

The Old Farmer While living in

Schondorf am Ammersee in 1874-75,
Leib! painted portraits of peasant folk.
heir great detail and enamel-like finish
typified what came to be known as his
“Holbein period”. 1875, oil on canvas,
REALISM
48x 39cm, Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany

CENTUR
19TH

A ln The Luxembourg
Gardens Menzel recreated
memories of Parisian scenes in
his Berlin studio using techniques
seen in France. His visits to Paris
and friendship with Meissonier
had a marked effect on his style,
influencing the way he depicted
figures of the royal court. Late
1860s, gouache on paper, Pushkin AHEAD OF HIS TIME
Museum, Moscow, Russia Although he disliked many
contemporary trends in French
painting, Menzel's fresh,
“Breakfast at the Café spontaneous handling of paint,
Menzel’s fascination with the and especially his treatment of
urban middle class prompted light, anticipate Impressionism.
a series of street scenes and
interiors, often seen from
unusual viewpoints, in which
he could explore the effects
of light. He also had an eye for
the minutiae of city life, which
sometimes verged on caricature.
A Three Women in Church Perhaps Leibl’s best-known
work, this painting is the culmination of his “Holbein 1894, gouache on paper, 19x 12cm,
Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
period”. The unsentimental subject is treated in delicate
detail, and the sombre atmosphere is intensified by the
solid, smooth finish of his intricate brushwork. 1882,
oil on panel, Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
 llya Repin
lvan Kramskoi
b CHUGUYEV, UKRAINE, 1844; d KUOKKALA, 1930 INcontext
ST PETERSBURG ACADEMY Founded b NOVAYA SOTNYA, 1837; d ST PETERSBURG, 1887
llya Repin became famous for his depictions of Russian
history, and his Realist style paved the way for the in 1757, the St Petersburg Academy was
Kramskoi was leader of the Russian democratic
the most prestigious art institution in
Socialist Realism of the Soviet era. Born into a peasant realist movement. He studied at the St Petersburg
Russia, housing a collection of artworks
" family near Kharkov, he trained with a local icon painter Academy, organizing a protest there in 1863 against
and educating Russian artists. For over a
a before moving to St Petersburg to study at the Academy the institution's old-fashioned ideas, and founding the
century, its teaching was conservative and
cesman of Fine Arts. After spending three years in France and Italy, academic and resisted new trends in art. Peredvizhniki (Wanderers) group. Believing it was an
Repin returned to Russia and joined the Peredvizhniki artist's duty to take a political stand, Kramskoi painted
(Wanderers) group, so called because their exhibitions travelled widely, The Antiquities Gallery of the Academy of portraits of sympathetic contemporaries, including
bringing art to the people. He sympathized with this protest movement's Fine Arts by Grigory Mikhailov (1836). author Leo Tolstoy, painter lvan Shishkin, and art
social and political concerns, but did not share their anti-academic i collector Pavel Tretyakov, as well as peasant subjects
ideology. He later became a Professor at the St Petersburg Academy, and several studies of Christ that dealt with ethical
after reforms had been instituted there. As well as his historical paintings, rather than theological issues.
Repin produced portraits of many eminent Russians.
¥ Christ in the Wilderness (Detail) Kramskoi's portrayals of
Jesus symbolized the moral choices of the individual, particularly his
LIFEline ¥ The Boatmen on the Volga /his starkly Realist interpretation of Christ in the Wilderness as a crisis of conscience.
1844 Born in Chuguyey, scene, begun while Repin was a student, was hugely 1873, oil on canvas, 180x210cm, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
Ukraine influential. The boatmen’s harsh working conditions are
1864 Studies at St Petersburg portrayed sympathetically, but as an inspiration rather
Academy of Fine Arts than out ofpity. 1870-73, oil on canvas, 131 x281cm, State
1873-76 Travels in Western Russian Museum, St Petersburg, Russia
Europe sae

1882 Settles in St Petersburg

1894 Appointed Professor of
Historical Painting at the St
Petersburg Academy
1907 Resigns from Academy
1917 Following the country’s
declaration of independence
from Russia, Repin’s home
in Kuokkala becomes part
of Finland
1930 Dies in Kuokkala, which
is later ceded to the USSR
and renamed Repino in his
honour
NVISS
IWSITV

Nikolai Ghe
b VORONEZH, RUSSIA, 1831; d NEAR PLISKI, UKRAINE, 1894

Ghe, a founding member of the Peredvizhniki

(Wanderers) with Kramskoi, was born into a land-
owning family descended from French nobility. He
studied mathematics in Kiev and St Petersburg before HL6L
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attending the St Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts.
He later worked as a painter in Rome and Florence.
Ghe's most characteristic paintings were of religious
subjects, but these were typically treated as moral
or psychological human dramas, and presented with
intense and almost Expressionist contrasts of colour,
light, and shade. In 1876, he returned to the countryside,
buying a farm near Pliski, where he died in 1894.

A The Zaporozhye Cossacks Writing CLOSERIook

a Mocking Letter to the Turkish Sultan CENTRE CIRCLE Repin
Repin wins the viewers sympathy with his , creates a mood of camaraderie
human portrayal of the figures, and also © / by interrupting the horizontal
captures the elements of their revolutionary ~ aspect of the picture with
struggle: liberty, equality, and fraternity. It ** acentral circle of figures.
took him a decade to complete and, when _| While most of these incline
’ sympathetically inwards, four
it was finished in 1891, in a cruel stroke of
1 lean back in laughter — one oe ers
irony, it was bought by the Tsar. 1880-91, oil
| directly out of the picture into A The Last Supper Ghe'’s humanist interpretation of the Last
on canvas, 203x358cm, State Russian Museum,
a the viewer's space. Supper was his first major work, and a break with traditional
St Petersburg, Russia
portrayals of the subject. He shifted the emphasis from religious to
psychological tensions, and the conflict between Judas and Christ
was seen as an allegory of the divisions in Russian society. 1863,
oil on canvas, 283x382cm, State Russian Museum, St Petersburg, Russia
 Origins and influences Subjects
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was The Pre-Raphaelites tackled a wide
formed in 1848 by a group of seven variety of themes. They shared the
young artists, including John Everett Victorian appetite for the colour and
Millais, William Holman Hunt, and romance of the Middle Ages, taking
Dante Gabriel Rossetti. They sealed themes from Arthurian legend. In
their pact by adding the initials PRB spite of these escapist tendencies,
to paintings. This caused an outcry they were interested in covering
in the press — largely because of the modern issues, such as emigration,
apparent insult to Raphael, who = a, \
prostitution, and religious reform.
was regarded as the greatest of all A Acanthus wallpaper design, by William The group often focused on a moral
Morris (1875). Morris believed that his wallpapers
painters. The protests were short- or a story, many of which were drawn
The Pre-Raphaelites burst upon reproduced the charm of the forest inside the home.
lived, however, after John Ruskin lent from literary sources. They avoided
the English art scene in the
his support to the group. classical authors, but Shakespeare,
mid-19th century. In a youthful Ruskin had advised artists to “go to Hunt turned to religious painting, while Keats, and Tennyson were popular
act of rebellion, they vowed to nature... rejecting nothing, selecting Millais joined the art establishment. choices, and Rossetti was passionate
counter the stifling predictability nothing, and scorning nothing.” The Rossetti carried the movement about the Italian poet Dante.
of academic art by seeking to Pre-Raphaelites adopted this principle forward, influencing Edward Eventually, Pre-Raphaelite was
wholeheartedly, with the landscape Burne-Jones and William Morris. used as a tag associated with some of
recapture the honest simplicity
settings of their early pictures often They, in turn, introduced Pre-Raphaelite the movement's most iconic images,
of early Italian painters who had ideas to a wider audience, through the from imitations of Rossetti's femmes
depicted in microscopic detail.
flourished before Raphael, hence The three main members of the Symbolist (see pp.382-87) and Arts fatales to the pale, androgynous
“Pre-Raphaelite”. group soon went their separate ways. and Crafts movements. figures in Burne-Jones's designs.

The Pre-Raphaelites
PRE-RAPHAELITES
THE

|John Everett Millais

b SOUTHAMPTON, 1829; d LONDON, 1896
Millais was a child prodigy, becoming the youngest
ever pupil at the Royal Academy Schools (a national
art school, founded in 1768 and based in London). His
CENTURY
19TH superb technical skills were well suited to the precision
that the Pre-Raphaelites sought to achieve. In his early
Self-portrait work, Millais opted for literary themes — drawn from
Shakespeare, Tennyson, and Keats — and autumnal
| scenes that were reflections on mortality. Gradually, he abandoned his
Pre-Raphaelite roots and veered towards a sentimental style, which
was In line with mainstream Victorian taste. Millais had a particular gift
for portraying children, and they feature prominently in his most famous
pictures, such as The Boyhood of Raleigh (1870) and Bubbles (1886).

LIFEline
1840 Enters the Royal Academy
Schools, aged just 11
1846 Exhibits first picture at the
Royal Academy |
1852 Completes Ophelia |
1855 Marries Effie Gray, Ruskin’s |
ex-wife
1885 |s made a baronet |
1896 Elected President of the |
Royal Academy
1896 Dies in London and is A Ophelia The Pre-Raphaelites painted natural details with
buried in St Paul’s Cathedral painstaking accuracy. In this scene from Shakespeare's Hamlet,
OTHER SENSES Millais was equally meticulous in portraying the flowers
m The blind girl cannot mentioned in the text and Ophelia herself. The model posed
» The Blind Girl /he enjoy the visual beauty for hours in a bath, eventually catching a severe chill. 1851-52,
Pre-Raphaelites liked tackling of the rainbow, but oil on canvas, 76x112cm, Tate, London, UK
modern issues. This touches on the way that she is
the controversial topics of child touching the grass
vagrancy and treatment of the and the inclusion of
disabled. 1854-56, oil on canvas, the concertina suggest
81x62cm, Birmingham Museum the sharpness of her
other senses
and Art Gallery, Birmingham, UK
William Holman Hunt
b LONDON, 1827; d LONDON, 1910 LIFEline Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Of all the Pre-Raphaelites, Hunt was the 1844 Begins his studies at
the Royal Academy Schools b LONDON, 1828; d BIRCHINGTON-ON-SEA, 1882
one who remained truest to the group's
original principles. From an impoverished 1848 Meets Rossetti Charismatic, domineering, and eccentric, Rossetti was
background, he worked as a clerk from 1865 Marries Fanny Waugh, the driving force behind the Pre-Raphaelite movement.
who dies a year later
the age of 12, until he gained admission He proposed the idea of a brotherhood, was the first to
1875 Marries Fanny's sister,
Self-portrait to the Royal Academy Schools. Hunt Edith exhibit a picture with the group’s initials, and inspired
was extremely devout, and he used 1905 Awarded Order of Merit the second wave of Pre-Raphaelitism through his
the group's painstaking approach to make his biblical 1910 Dies in London contacts with Morris and Burne-Jones.
scenes as realistic as possible. He even made several In early paintings, Rossetti conjured up a romantic,
trips to the Holy Land to ensure authenticity. The medieval dreamworld, but increasingly he concentrated
Scapegoat (1854), for example, was painted by the Vv The Scapegoat /na on pictures of mysterious female beauties. These often
Jewish symbolic act of reflected the complications of his own tangled love life.
shores of the Dead Sea, in keeping with the Jewish
atonement, the scapegoat
ritual. When his “model” died, he painted a second goat,
bears away human sins. 1854,
which he stood in a tray of mud gathered from the site.
oil on canvas, 87 x 140cm, Lady LIFEline » Proserpine A captive in the
Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, UK 1844 Begins his studies at Underworld, Proserpine turns
Ha
SEES, Mera sadly away from the daylight,
the Royal Academy Schools
1848 Co-founder of the which reminds her of her lost
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood freedom. 1871, coloured chalk
1860 Marries Elizabeth Siddal on paper, 22x 11cm, Ashmolean,
1861 Enters partnership with Oxford, UK
William Morris
1862 Siddal dies from an
overdose of laudanum
1869 Begins affair with Jane
Morris, William's wife
1882 Dies aged 53

» The First Anniversary

of the Death of Beatrice
Beatrice is mourned by the
Italian poet, Dante (on the
right), after whom Rossetti
was named. 1853-54,
watercolour on paper, 42x 61cm, SHL
SALINW
Ashmolean, Oxford, UK

» Work Brown's ambitious

b CALAIS, 1821; dLONDON, 1893
painting is a sermon on the
Although he was never an official member of the value of labour. 1863, oil on canvas,
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Brown had close links 68x 99cm, Birmingham Museums
with them and shared many of their ideals. Much of his and Art Gallery, Birmingham, UK
childhood was spent on the continent where, among HL6L
AYNLN3
f= others, he was influenced by the Nazarenes. After CLOSERIook
Self-portrait settling in London, he began painting scenes from early
British history. Rossetti was sufficiently impressed by
these to ask Brown for lessons, and, although this arrangement soon
fell through, the two men remained good friends.
Later, Brown himself was influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites. This is
most evident in his best-known work, The Last of England (1852-55). a)

The modernity of the subject matter was typical of the group, as was BRAINWORK Brown included
the artist's unfailing attention to detail. In order to capture the wintry portraits of the philosopher
setting, Brown painted outdoors until his hands turned blue, while his Thomas Carlyle and the
=
wife bemoaned the fact that she had to go without her warmest shaw! Christian Socialist FD Maurice, a

for several months. as examples of “brainworkers”.

ag Clee

LIFEline » The Last of England {INcontext

This moving scene deals JOHN RUSKIN This English writer,
1821 Born in Calais, but his with the topical subject of
family later settle in Belgium draughtsman, and social reformer
emigration, showing an became the most respected and
1837-39 Trains in Antwerp
impoverished young couple influential critic of his day. Ruskin’s
1840 Marries his cousin,
Elizabeth Bromley
forced to leave their favourite artist was Turner, but he also
homeland. At the time, offered invaluable support to the
1845-46 Stays in Rome,
where his wife dies Brown was “very hard up Pre-Raphaelites in the early days, when
1853 Marries Emma Hill and a little mad” and was they were lampooned in the press. Like
1855 Completes The Last of himself thinking of them, he was a keen advocate of detail
England. Many would regard emigrating. 1852-55, oil on and truth to nature, as his meticulous
this work as his masterpiece panel, 83x 75cm, Birmingham drawings and watercolours confirm.
1861 Founder member of Museums and Art Gallery,
William Morris's company Birmingham, UK Portrait of John Ruskin by William
Collingwood (1897). This dates from Ruskin’s
1878 Paints murals in
final years, when he was mentally ill and
Manchester Town Hall living in seclusion in the Lake District
Ne
 » Derby Day William Powell
Frith, 1893-94. Victorian artists
such as William Frith enjoyed
great popularity with paintings
of social panoramas such as
this one painted in 1893-94.

Under Victoria the popularity of the . in Liverpool were formed around the throne, largely due to the efforts of
arts in Britain scaled new heights. The collections of wealthy industrialists. Wilkie. The key to his success lay in
During the lengthy reign of Royal Academy went from strength to the anecdotal detail of his paintings.
strength, regularly attracting more Subjects The public loved pictures that told a
Queen Victoria (1837-1901),
than a quarter of a million visitors to its The academic tradition remained one story. The tone of these stories varied
Britain enjoyed an unrivalled
annual exhibition. This remained the of the surest routes to success. This considerably. In the case of Wilkie’s
period of economic prosperity chief market-place for artists, although was maintained by artists such as Chelsea Pensioners the message
and political influence. These other sources of patronage were William Etty, Frederic Leighton, and was patriotic, but the Victorians were
favourable conditions helped to increasingly available. Queen Victoria Sir Edward Poynter (1836-1919), while equally fond of moral or sentimental
create an air of self-confidence. and Prince Albert were knowledgeable receiving an added stimulus from the themes. Above all, they enjoyed
collectors — Frith noted that “they competition to decorate the new seeing reflections of their own society.
The leading painters became
knew quite as much about art as most Houses of Parliament. New trends did This accounts for the popularity of
rich and famous, and many painters” — and there was growing Frith’s social panoramas, which can
emerge, not least in the field of genre
Victorians felt they were living interest from the middle classes. Both painting. This had enjoyed a surge in be described as the pictorial version
through a golden age in the arts. the Tate Gallery and the Walker Gallery popularity before Victoria came to the of a Dickens novel.

ART Victorian art

VICTORIAN

William Etty David Wilkie William Powell Frith

b YORK, 1787; d YORK, 1849 b CULTS, 1785; d AT SEA, OFF GIBRALTAR, 1841 b ALDFIELD, 1819; d LONDON, 1909
Pr E TT
Etty was known, above all, for his paintings of the female The son of a hotelier, William Powell Frith trained at
nude. He served a lengthy apprenticeship to a printer Sass's Academy and the Royal Academy Schools in
(1798-1805), before following his true vocation. He London. His early work consisted mainly of portraits and
CENTURY
19TH studied at the Royal Academy Schools in London under literary themes, but in the 1850s he turned to modern
leading portrait painter Thomas Lawrence, but the life subjects, which brought him fame and wealth.
greatest influence came from his grand tour of Italy His three masterpieces in this vein — Life at the
(1822-24). Venice, in particular, seemed like a second Seaside, Derby Day, and The Railway Station — all
home as he absorbed the rich hues of Titian and follow a similar pattern. They are large canvases,
Veronese. Etty concentrated on large-scale paintings of crowded with figures and incidents, portraying people
| literary or mythological subjects. The sensual colouring of from all walks of life. These proved hugely popular.
his nudes was sometimes denounced as indecent, but Indeed, when Derby Day was shown at the Royal
his career still thrived. He became a Royal Academician Academy, a barrier and policeman were required to
in 1825 and was later accorded the rare honour of a protect the painting from spectators.
retrospective exhibition at the Society of Arts in London. A Chelsea Pensioners Reading the
Waterloo Dispatch O/d soldiers receive the
news of Wellington's victory with patriotic pride.
1822, oil on wood, 97x 158cm, Wellington Museum,
London, UK

The Scottish artist David Wilkie was the finest genre

painter of his day. He enrolled at the Royal Academy
Schools in 1805, rapidly winning acclaim for his lively
peasant scenes. These showed the influence of early
Dutch artists, such as David Teniers the Younger and
Adriaen van Ostade. Wilkie’s pictures contained a blend
of good-natured humour and social analysis, but it was
their wealth of detail that the public loved. The most
popular of all was his Chelsea Pensioners, which struck
A The Railway Station Frith appears in the centre
a patriotic chord and, like Frith’s Derby Day, had to be of the composition, while on the right two detectives
protected from overenthusiastic admirers, when it was arrest a fugitive. 1862, oil on canvas, 117x256cm, Royal
shown at the Royal Academy. Holloway, University of London, UK
A Sabrina and her Nymphs Sabrina, the
goddess of the River Severn, is the heroine of
Milton's Comus. 1841, oil on canvas, 60x 80cm,
New Walk Museum, Leicester, UK
Edwin Landseer INcontext
v The Monarch of the Glen /his famous
~,wy b LONDON, 1802/03; d LONDON, 1873 THE NEW HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT
painting was commissioned for a refreshment
In 1834, most of the old Palace of Westminster
One of England's greatest animal painters, Landseer room in the House of Lords. Landseer thought
was destroyed in a fire. This disastrous event
was from a family of artists and revealed his own talent stags the noblest of animals, and a living symbol
provided a unique opportunity for many English
at a very early age. In 1815, he entered the studio of of the Scottish Highlands. 1851, oil on canvas,
artists as a host of artworks were commissioned
English Romantic painter Benjamin Robert Haydon and 164x 169cm, United Distillers and Vintners, Edinburgh
. a to decorate Charles Barry's new Houses of
EM
a { is said to have painted the ass in his Christ’s Entry into Parliament, which were completed in 1870.
Portrait by Jerusalem. |n the same year, he also exhibited at the
JC Watkins The Houses of Parliament under Construction by
Royal Academy and won a silver medal from the Society John Wilson Carmichael. Headed by Prince Albert, a
of Arts. Landseer's favourite subjects were animals. He committee was set up to provide high-quality British
sometimes adopted a sentimental approach, endowing the creatures art for the new buildings.
with human qualities, but he was equally capable of depicting their
most savage aspects. He was particularly impressed by stags, which
he featured in a number of heroic allegories. Landseer sketched them
on his frequent trips to the Scottish Highlands — an area that was
popularized by one of his chief patrons, Queen Victoria.
Landseer's most challenging commission was for the lion sculptures
at the foot of Nelson's Column in London's Trafalgar Square. He had no
experience in this field, so the task seemed especially daunting, but it
has become his most famous artistic legacy.

LIFEline
1802/03 Born in London, his
father an engraver
1816 Attends Royal Academy
Schools << Man Proposes, God
1824 First trip to Scotland Disposes /his gloomy scene
1831 Becomes a member of was inspired by Sir John
the Royal Academy Franklins fatal expedition to
1850 Receives a knighthood find the Northwest passage.
1866 Declines Royal Academy A telescope and gnawed human
presidency due to ill health remains were discovered in
1867 Trafalgar Square lions 1854. Landseer used the tragedy
are unveiled
as an illustration of natures
1873 Dies and is buried in destructive powers. 1863-64,
St Paul's Cathedral
oil on canvas, 91x244cm, Royal NVIYOL
LYV
Holloway, University of London, UK

Frede ric Leighton

b SCARBOROUGH, 1830; d LONDON, 1896 LIFEline
Painter and sculptor Frederic Leighton came from a 1830 Born the son of a doctor
wealthy family and spent much of his youth travelling 1846-48 Studies in Frankfurt
the continent with them for the sake of his mother's 1852-55 Based in Rome,
meets the Nazarenes
health. This, coupled with his own tours of the Middle HL6L
AYNLNA
East, exposed him to a wide range of influences. He 1859 Settles in London
1877 First sculpture exhibited
Portrait by settled in London in 1859, by which time he had sold a
Stanislas 1878 Elected President of the
painting to Queen Victoria. Leighton is best known for
Walery Royal Academy
his mythological subjects, although he also produced
1896 Becomes the first artist
dreamy mood paintings that link him with the Aesthetic movement, to gain a peerage
who maintained that art should be about visual pleasures rather than 1896 Dies and is buried in
moral messages. He enjoyed enormous success and was regarded as St Paul's Cathedral
the greatest artist of the day, but his reputation declined after his death.

L ET a we: 2

SKILLED ARTIST The reclining << The Garden of the Hesperides A Flaming June /nspired byamodel
pose of the central figure provides fi
In Greek mythology the daughters of who fell asleep in his studio, this is one of
an excellent example of Leighton’s Hesperus guarded the golden apples Leighton’ most sensual paintings. c1895,
skill at foreshortening. Her legs e that Hercules was ordered to steal. oil on canvas, 121x121cm, Museo de Arte,
h
appear far longer than her upper Le& It was often seen as the classical Ponce, Puerto Rico
torso, which tapers away. They equivalent of the Garden of Eden, an
also reflect the sunshine that analogy reinforced by the presence
illuminates a cluster of fruit, while of aserpent. c1892, oil on canvas,
the rest of the scene is in shade. diameter 169cm, Lady Lever Art Gallery,
Port Sunlight, UK
 modern subjects were frowned upon.
The question of “finish” was even
The Salon more crucial. academic artists
The main forum for academic art was ~ favoured a detailed, enamel-like finish,
the Salon in Paris. Named after its which appeared realistic, even when
original venue, the Salon Carré in the viewed close up. The most common
Louvre, this was France's official art criticism levelled against the
exhibition. Success at the Salon could Romantics and the Impressionists
secure an artist's reputation and lead was that their work was unfinished —
to lucrative state commissions. For that the painters in question were
much of the 19th century, the Salon exhibiting sketches and daubs.
had a conservative outlook, which
discouraged new trends. It stemmed
from a jury system that tended to |CURRENTevents
favour academic artists and hang their 1840 The body of Napoleon Bonaparte
French academic art used to | (1769-1821) is returned from St Helena
work in the best positions. Artists such and given a state funeral in Paris.
be viewed as the rather dull as Delacroix and Manet, however, | 1855 The Exposition Universelle
art of the establishment, were keen to make their mark there. A The Grand Staircase of the Paris Opera (World Fair) focuses attention on the
House (1861-75) With its marble steps and oxyx | achievements of French art. |
opposed to the experiments
Subjects and style banisters, this is the building's most spectacular feature. | 1870-71 France's defeat in the |
of the Romantics, the Realists, Franco-Prussian War is followed by the /
The most prestigious form of history. Landscapes, portraits, and creation of the Paris Commune.
and the Impressionists. In
academic art was “history painting” genre scenes (paintings of everyday 1875 Completion of the magnificent
recent years, opinion has This slightly misleading term life, such as suburban river scenes, | Opera House in Paris, now known as the
shifted somewhat, and auction encompassed religious, mythological, racecourses, and cafés), were Palais Garnier, after its architect Charles
Garnier (1825-98)
prices have risen steeply. and allegorical subjects, as well as deemed to be less important, while

ART
ACADEMIC
FRENCH
French academic art —
tYim} Thomas Couture Ernest Meissonier
b SENLIS, 1815; d VILLIERS-LE-BEL, 1879 LIFEline b LYONS, 1815; d PARIS, 1891
The reputation of Couture mirrors that of 1815 Born in Senlis, France Although relatively unknown today, Ernest Meissonier was one
French academic art as a whole. He was a 1827 Couture's family move of the most celebrated painters of his age, and his paintings once
celebrity in his own time, largely on the to Paris commanded record-breaking sums. He trained under Léon Cogniet
CENTUI
19TH strength of one painting — The Romans of 1837 Wins the Prix de Rome and began his career working as an illustrator, for a publisher named
the Decadence (1847) — but his work is 1847 Exhibits his Curmer. This helped him to develop the finicky attention to detail that
masterpiece, The Romans of
Self-portrait now frequently dismissed as sterile and
the Decadence, at the Salon
Self-portrait became a feature of his style.
overblown. A pupil of Antoine-Jean Gros 1850-56 Manet Is his pupil Meissonier specialized in military themes, many of which were set
and Paul Delaroche, Couture took three years to nostalgically in the 17th century or the Napoleonic era — although he was not averse
1879 Dies in his mid-60s
complete his enormous masterpiece. On one level, it to tackling modern subjects. His Barricade (1848), for example, provided a compelling
was meant to illustrate a quote from the Roman poet image of the workers’ riots of that year. The meticulous finish of Meissonier's pictures
v The Romans of the
| Juvenal: “Crueller than war, vice fell upon Rome and set him at odds with the Romantics and the Impressionists, although both Delacroix
Decadence /his huge painting
avenged the conquered world’’ However, Couture was and Degas were admirers of his technical skill.
caused a sensation when it was
also drawing a parallel with his own society, which had
exhibited at the Paris Salon.
recently been rocked by a series of political scandals.
1844-47, oil on canvas, 4.7x7.7m, LIFEline
Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France 1815 Born in Lyons
1831 Exhibits for the first time at the Salon
1848 Paints his masterpiece, The Barricade
1870 Joins Napoleon III's army, later
becoming a colonel
1889 Wins Grand Cross of the Legion of
Honour, the first artist to receive this award
1891 Dies in Paris in his 70s

» The Barricade, rue de la Mortellerie,

June 1848 Veissoniers impassive record
of a failed barricade, demolished by soldiers,
forms a stark contrast to Delacroix’s emotive
treatment of a similar subject (see pp.300-
301). 1848, oil on canvas, 29x22cm, Louvre,
Paris, France
 Jean-Léon Gér6éme
b VESOUL, 1824; d PARIS, 1904 LIFEline
The taste for classical subjects continued 1824 Born in Vesoul, near
William Bouguereau throughout the 19th century, particularly Besancon
in the 1840s, when there were new 1840 Moves to Paris, where
b LA ROCHELLE, 1825; dLA ROCHELLE, 1905 LIFEline he studies under Paul
archaeological excavations at Pompeii and
Delaroche and Charles Gleyre
Bouguereau was one of the most celebrated academic 1825 Born in La Rochelle, the Herculaneum. Inspired by these, Géroéme
1847 His painting The Cock
artists of his age. In 1850 he won the Prix de Rome and son of a local businessman Portrait by founded the Néo-Grec (New Greek) group Fight wins a medal at the
after returning from Italy in 1854 was soon launched on 1846 Studies with Francois- Aimé Morot in 1848. From 1854, he made several trips Paris Salon
Edouard Picot in Paris
a highly successful career, gaining commissions from to the Near East, which inspired several 1848 Helps found the Néo-
1850 Wins the Prix de Rome Grec group of artists
the Church, the State, and wealthy private patrons. He Orientalist paintings. Unlike earlier Neoclassical artists, he
1857 Receives a medal at 1884 Paints the controversial
received a string of honours and appointments, and he showed little interest in famous historical or mythological
the Salon A Roman Slave Market
had many admirers outside his own country (he was a subjects, preferring voyeuristic themes, such as slave
1876 Elected President of the
particular favourite with American collectors). Académie des Beaux-Arts auctions, gladiator combats, and bath house scenes.
Bouguereau is chiefly remembered for his female 1877 Death of his first wife
nudes, which were openly erotic but retained a veneer 1879 His Birth of Venus
of respectability because of their mythological subject- creates a stir at the Salon
matter. He also painted portraits and rather sentimental 1896 Marries his second
religious scenes. His reputation plummeted after his wife Elizabeth Gardner, a
former student
death but underwent a revival in the late 20th century.
1903 Made a Grand Officer
of the Legion of Honour
1905 Dies in La Rochelle

<The Wave Bouguereau

was over 70 when he painted
this remarkable picture,
confirmation that his powers
remained undimmed even
in old age. The subject is
reminiscent of the
mythological birth of Venus,
who rose out of the foaming
waves. 1896, oil on canvas, HINA
DIINAG
LYV
117x158cm, private collection

Henri Fantin-Latour
b GRENOBLE, 1836; d BURE, 1904
There was no firm dividing line between academic art and the
avant-garde. Fantin-Latour had close links with both the Impressionists
and the Symbolists, but also managed to sustain a successful career at
the Salon, exhibiting there regularly between 1861 and 1899. In HL6L
AYNLNAD
addition to his flower pieces, he produced fine portraits. His Homage
Self-portrait to Delacroix (1864), which featured the artists Whistler, Manet, and
Baudelaire, underlined his knowledge of the latest artistic currents.
Equally passionate about music, he produced a series of misty evocations of Wagner's
operas, which linked him with the blossoming Symbolist movement (see p.382). A A Roman Slave Market
Although this was a popular UNUSUAL VIEWPOINT
subject at the time, Géréme’s Géréme found a novel slant
LIFEline leering crowd caused on the common 19th-century
1836 Born in Grenoble, the controversy, undermining the @ theme of the slave market by
son of a portrait painter notion that bodily perfection viewing it from the podium.
1859 In England with could be viewed with a pure, He shows the scene through
James McNeill Whistler disinterested gaze. 1884, oil on the eyes of the next slave to
1862 Produces the first of canvas, 64x5/cm, Walters Art be auctioned off.
his Wagnerian pictures Museum, Baltimore, US
1864 Paints his Homage to
Delacroix
1875 Wins a second-class
medal at the Salon |INcontext
1899 First major exhibition NAPOLEON III (1808-73) A nephew
of his prints of Bonaparte, Napoleon III was elected
1904 Dies in his late 60s President in the wake of the 1848
revolution. He declared himself emperor
3 years later, retaining this position until
» Spring Bouquet Fantin- he was deposed in 1870. Napoleon had
Latours flower-pieces were conservative tastes in art. He struck one
hugely popular with collectors of Courbet's paintings with a riding crop
on both sides of the Channel. because it glorified the peasantry, but he
Although influenced by the was a keen admirer of Bouguereau’s work.
Dutch tradition of flower
painting, they displayed a Portrait of Napoleon III by William Holl. This
official portrait, showing the emperor wearing
freshness and vitality of
full military honours, is an engraving based on
their own. 1865, oil on canvas, a photograph by William Mackenzie.
46x 38cm, private collection
 The first half of the 19th century
was marked by the weakening of
the Tokugawa Shogunate and social
confusion. In 1868, a coalition of
samurai led a coup d'état and toppled
the government. The end of the
feudal society was followed by rapid
westernization of the country in
the second half of the century.
A Emperor Mutsuhito Returning to his Palace in
Tokyo Japanese School, late 19th century The Emperor
Origins and influences adopted Western-style uniform, had his hair cut, and
Subject matter
The Shogunate’s conservative travelled in a horse-drawn carriage. Western-style The last flowering of ukiyo-e
policy of isolation was increasingly stone architecture replaced the traditional wooden (woodblock prints) produced great
public buildings.
challenged by the outside world. images of landscape, warriors, and
Pressure from the US and Britain historical events. Some 19th-century
contributed to the collapse of the to Edo, which was renamed Tokyo prints were bizarre and macabre,
Woodblock prints were still Tokugawa regime, and the country (Eastern capital). The Meiji era (1868— reflecting the uncertainty and anxiety
the most popular form of art re-opened in the mid-19th century. 1912) was shaped by modernization of the age. Japanese prints were avidly
in Japan in the 19th century. The new Meiji government was of the country, carried out under the collected within the country and in
established by a group of radical slogan bunmei kaika (civilization and Europe. The interest in Japanese
The tireless public demand
politicians with the 16-yearold enlightenment). The whole nation art resulted in the French aesthetic
for novel images by the public Emperor Mutsuhito as the head of enthusiastically adopted Western movement Japonisme, while the
encouraged the development state. The imperial family moved from customs, fashion, and technology composition and subjects of ukiyo-e
of new subject matter. Kyoto, where they had lived since 794, for architecture, railways, and ships. prints influenced the Impressionists.

Japanese art
Katsushika Hokusai
b EDO (NOW TOKYO), 1760; d EDO, 1849 LIFEline v Studies of Gestures and Postures of
Wrestlers from Manga Hokusai designed ten
A towering figure in the field of ukiyo-e, Hokusai excelled 1760 Born in Edo
volumes of Manga from 1814 as a text book for
in all areas of painting and woodblock prints. His 1778 Becomes a pupil of
drawing. They contained 900 pages of human
outstanding images are known all over the world. He Katsushika Shunsho, given
professional name of Shunro » figures, animals, birds and flowers, insects
Gj
JAPANESE
ART
CENTURY
19TH started his career as a designer of prints depicting actors and fish, and all sort of objects. They were so
1814-19 Publishes ten
and beautiful women, but never confined himself to one volumes of Manga popular that they continued to be in print until
genre. He also illustrated books, produced privately 1830s Designs the series of the 1870s. c1849, page from the woodblock-printed
commissioned luxury paintings and prints, and designed single-sheet prints The Thirty- book, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
popular landscape prints. six Views of Mt Fuji
Hokusai was an eccentric man. He changed his 1840s Publishes One
professional name over 30 times, moved house 90 times | undred Views of Mt Fuji A Fuji in Clear Weather /he simple yet striking
and, despite his fame, was always poor. He left 30,000 1849 Dies, after a career image of Japan's most sacred mountain comes from
spanning over 70 years
designs including 250 books, 3,500 single-sheet prints, the series Hokusai designed aged 70. Hokusai made
and many original drawings and paintings. landscape prints popular as works of art in their own
right. c1830, polychrome woodblock print, 26x37cm,
British Museum, London, UK

CLOSERI|ook
HUMOROUS Ba! ST WwW
TRADITION ef
Hokusai's drawings ‘>
display his great sense
of humour. They belong
to the long tradition of
comical drawings in
Japan, the roots of
which go back to the
12th-century scroll called
ee Animals.

«<The Great Wave of Kanagawa With

his genius for dramatic composition, Hokusai
emphasizes the great power of nature and the
precariousness of human existence. 1831, from
Thirty-six Views of Mt Fuji, polychrome woodblock
print, 26x37cm, British Museum, London, UK
 Ando Hiroshige
b EDO, 1797; d EDO, 1858

The success of Hokusai's

landscape series inspired
his younger contemporary
artist, Ando Hiroshige, to
EN $ design the series Fifty-
Memorial by three Stations of the
Kunisada
Tokaido Highway. Travel
was tightly controlled by
the Shogunate during the Edo period,
and journeys were a rare treat for most
people. Travellers were required to stay
on the prescribed routes and had to carry
a personal identification document.
A Otsu (Fifty-three Stations of the
In 1832, Hiroshige travelled the Tokaido Highway) /mages of the
Tokaido highway (Eastern Sea Route) countryside and provincial towns kindled
from Edo to Kyoto as a member of the people's imagination, and Hiroshige first
Shogun’s envoy to present a gift of series was an immediate success. Prints
horses to the imperial court. He gained also offer an insight into ordinary people's
first-hand knowledge of towns and lives in the early 19th century. 1834,
villages along the way, and began polychrome woodblock print, 23.5 x36.cm,
publishing the images in 1833. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
The tremendous success of this xk JP a —
<( Sudden Shower at Ohashi
first series was followed by his further
Bridge at Ataka (One Hundred NEW BLUE The upper section of
landscape series, Sixty-nine Stations Famous Views of Edo) Hiroshige the sky is printed in Prussian blue,
of the Kiso Highway and One Hundred was keen to depict the effect of a new and intense chemical pigment.
Famous Views of Edo. His landscape weather conditions and the changing The technique of bokashi (gradation)
prints are characterized by lyrical seasons. Rain, wind, and snow feature is used to create a subtle atmospheric
romanticism and idyllic beauty, which prominently. 1857, polychrome woodblock effect by partly wiping the colour
made armchair travel a pleasure for his print, 35.5x24.5cm, Fitzwilliam Museum, before printing. ASANVd
LYV
many collectors. Cambridge, UK ees

Utagawa Kuniyoshi
b EDO (NOW TOKYO), 1797; d EDO, 1861 LIFEli < Mongaku Shonin under the
He Waterfall Mongaku, a 12th-century
Kuniyoshi is best known for his dynamic musha-e (warrior prints), which he produced 1797 Born in Edo warrior, became a Buddhist monk after
in triptych (three-part) format. In contrast to Hiroshige’s peaceful landscapes, €1820 Trains under Utagawa accidentally murdering his lover. The
Kuniyoshi's favourite subject matter was historical events featuring samurai and Toyokuni, the designer of
Kabuki actor prints
Buddhist deity Fudo Myoo appears at
monsters. He always chose the most dramatic, sometimes frightening or grotesque,
1827 Publishes the series
the top of the waterfall. c1851, poly- HL6L
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moment of the story. His figures are often caught in the midst of exaggerated Suiko-den featuring 108 chrome woodblock vertical triptych, each
movement, and the composition spreads across three sheets for maximum impact. heroes from Chinese novels panel 37.5x25.5 cm, private collection
Kuniyoshi was also an outstanding caricaturist and made candid portraits of Kabuki 1840s Designs a series of ~

actors as well as satirical prints criticizing the authorities. Kuniyoshi was very fond of revolutionary triptychs based CLOSERIook
cats and he made many humorous and charming designs of them, including some on historical figures
highly original prints of cats dressed as Kabuki actors. 1861 Dies after a 40-year
artistic career

¥ Mitsukuni Defying the Skeleton Spectre Kuniyoshi was inspired by a Kabuki

play based on the historical figure Mitsukuni from the 10th century. He is thought to
have studied Western medical books to depict the realistic skeleton. c1845, polychrome
woodblock triptych, each panel 37x 25.5 cm, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK

BIG SPLASH
Kuniyoshi shows Mongaku
doing penance under the
waterfall. The graphic
depiction of the splashing
water and animated
expressions of figures
suggest a similarity in style
| with today’s popular
Japanese manga comic
books.
 casual attitude to the laws of

:il
perspective prompted many
BF)&He
Weip painters to rethink their approach.
The Impressionists were also
influenced by developments in the
Origins and influences world of photography. Early motion
The Impressionists drew many of photography demonstrated precisely
their ideas from Gustave Courbet how humans and animals moved,
The Impressionists set out and his fellow Realist painters (see and had a huge impact, particularly
to paint the effects of light. pp.324-27). In the 1850s, these artists in the depiction of horse-racing
had campaigned against the influence scenes. At the same time, the
To this end, they used visible
of academic art (see p.336), with its random images produced by the
brushstrokes of pure colour,
emphasis on historical, religious,and latest “snapshot” cameras made
painting scenes of daily life mythological themes. some artists reconsider the very
around Paris. People at the time Visually, the Impressionist group, notion of composing a picture.
thought Impressionist pictures was inspired by two important factors.
They were particularly impressed Subject matter
looked unfinished and the
by the boldness and simplicity of In their revolt against academic art,
subject matter pointless. But
Japanese woodblock prints, which had the Impressionists developed their
the new artists spelt the end only recently reached the West. Their own subject matter, celebrating modern
A Takigawa from the Tea-House, Ogi Kitagawa
of a tradition that had held use of pure, bright colours, the lack of Parisian life. In place of morally uplifting
Utamaro, 18th century. /mpressionists were influenced
sway since the Renaissance. modelling in their figures, and their by bold Japanese colour woodblock prints. heroic stories from the past, the

TIMEline
863 _—
The roots of Impressionism date
back to the early 1860s, when
Manet burst onto the art scene.
By 1869, a group of artists were
IMPRESSIONISM
holding regular meetings,
staging their first exhibition in
1874. Of the group, though,
Monet was the only artist to
stick to painting light effects,
from Wild Poppies in 1873 until
the 20th century. By the time of
the eighth exhibition in 1886,
when Degas’ The Tub gained
great acclaim, Impressionism MONET Wild Poppies near Argenteuil
was becoming accepted. MORISOT The Cradle
CENTURY
19TH

Interpretations of their work. This was crucial since, as

avant-garde artists, they were effectively
The Impressionist movement originated and excluded from the Salon — the main, public
achieved its fullest development in France, exhibition in Paris and the traditional route
although its impact was felt throughout to artistic recognition. The first show was
the West. It was never a school in the held in 1874, when the group described
narrowest sense of the word, with a precise
manifesto and a common style. Instead,
it provided an invaluable forum for a group
of like-minded friends, enabling them to
exchange ideas and formulate their
pioneering techniques.

Impressionism in France
From the late 1860s, the French
Impressionists, including Monet, Pissaro,
Sisley, and Degas, used to meet up regularly
at the Café Guerbois to discuss their
controversial theories. More’significantly,
they also decided to organize an exhibition

< Waterlily Pond: Pink Harmony

Monet. Claude Monet painted series
of waterlilies in his garden at Giverny
to see how time of day and different
seasons affected the light. 1900, oil on a ae
canvas, 89.5x 100cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris ee

A Impressionist Exhibition /he 1874

exhibition that gave the Impressionists their
name was held in Paris at the studio of the
photographer Nadar.
 < Eugene Manet with His
Daughter at Bougival (detail)
Impressionists painted everyday Morisots short, loose brushstrokes
scenes of urban and suburban Instead of painting firm, well-defined of unmixed colour are typical of
pastimes, chores, and landscapes. contours, they conveyed their forms Impressionist techniques.

Tne subject matter was less important with short, broken brushstrokes and
than the way it was painted. For most vivid flecks of colour. Every item was /CURRENTevents—
Impressionists it was merely a vehicle condensed to its simplest visual form. | 1870 German troops
| besiege Paris as France
for showing how light sparkled and is defeated in the Franco-
changed, affecting colour with | Prussian War. Manet and
highlights and shadows. Degas join the national
guard; Monet, Sisley, and |
| Pissarro flee to England. |
Style and techniques
1871 Paris is rocked by
At some stage, all of the Impressionist the short-lived socialist
painters experimented with the practice | uprising of the Commune.

of plein-air (outdoor) painting, 1888 Eastman company |

| inthe US produces the |
completing entire — usually small - Kodak No1 camera and roll
pictures on the spot. This enabled | film, making photography |
them to capture the most fleeting | more accessible. |

sensations of the light and weather | 1889 The newly erected

A Eugéne Manet with His Daughter at Bougival Eiffel Tower is the star
conditions. To achieve this, the Berthe Morisot, c1881, oil on canvas, 73x 92cm, of the Paris World Fair.
Impressionists had to work quickly. Musée Marmottan, Paris, France

1876

INSINO

CASSATT Young Woman

RENOIR La Loge Sewing in the Garden
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itself as a “Limited Company”. Most of the the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. On his return
critics were merciless, but one of their jibes, to London, he helped to found the New
concerning Claude Monet's /mpression: English Art Club (1886), where the new
Sunrise, provided the style with a name. style was warmly received. Walter Sickert,
Between 1874 and 1886, there were a member of the Club, went so far as
eight Impressionist exhibitions. By this to organize a special exhibition, dubbed
stage, the initial furore had died down “the London Impressionists” (1889), for
and several members of the group were devotees of the movement.
beginning to achieve a degree of success. The style gained even greater support
Stylistically too, they were growing apart. in the US. Much of the groundwork
=Leute’ oe ‘ oe: Caaf 4
For painters such as Edgar Degas, the was carried out by the American-born
outdooor painting experiments were a Impressionist Mary Cassatt, who did her A Lady and Dog on the Beach Joaquin Sorolla y
phase, not a commitment. Even Renoir, best to find buyers for her friends’ work. Bastida The Spanish artist applied bright, light colour
Further inroads were made by Childe with a wide brush. 1906, oil on board, 15.9x22.2cm,
one of the keenest advocates of the
Leeds Museums and Galleries, Leeds, UK
practice, retained his admiration for the old Hassam, who had learned the latest
masters and some traditions. Only Monet techniques during a stay in Europe (1886-89). up camps in the bush to experiment with
remained loyal to the Impressionist Hassam belonged to The Ten, a group of the techniques of Monet and his colleagues.
philosophy till the end of his life. artists from Boston and New York who The results were shown at an Exhibition of
were influenced by the Impressionists. Impressions in 1889, in Melbourne, Australia.
Outside France Hassam specialized in city scenes In Germany and Spain, the impact of
For most of the 19th century, Paris was while, in Australia, Tom Roberts was more Impressionism was less marked, although
the capital of the art world and the focal taken with the notion of painting plein-air many artists lightened their palettes and
point of the latest trends, so ambitious landscapes. After touring Europe, he took a greater interest in atmospheric
painters frequently travelled there. Philip A Flags on 57th Street, Winter 1918 Childe Hassam became the leader of a group of artists effects. Foremost among them were the
Steer, from England, the Germans Max Scenes of rainy streets were his speciality. 1918, oil on canvas, known as the Heidelberg School. They set Spanish painter Joaquin Sorolla and the
94 x 63.5cm, New-York Historical Society, New York, US German Lovis Corinth, who had studied in
Liebermann and Lovis Corinth, and the
American Childe Hassam all gained first- Paris under French academic painter William
hand knowledge of Impressionism when Bouguereau (see pp.358-59).
they visited the city. Steer, for example,
was trained at the Académie Julian and
 | Edouard Manet
b PARIS, 1832; d PARIS, 1883 LIFEline
Manet was a reluctant revolutionary. Although he longed 1832 Born in Paris, the son
for official recognition, his irreverent use of Old Master of a senior civil servant
paintings and his switch to harsh contrasts in place of 1848 Enrols as a cabin-boy,
but later fails his naval exams
subtle shifts in tone created an outcry in 1863, when he
1850-56 Studies under
a>Rs was refused the chance to exhibit at the Salon. Yet, some Thomas Couture
Photograph aspects of Manet's education had been conventional. He 1863 Marries his long-term
by Paul Nadar trained under Couture, a successful academic painter, | mistress, Suzanne Leenhoff
and made a careful study of the Old Masters in the 1870 Joins the National
Louvre. But Manet was equally impressed by the innovations he saw in Guard during the Franco-
Japanese prints, as well as the theories of the poet and art critic Charles Prussian War
Baudelaire, who urged him to become a “painter of modern life” 1874 Paints with Claude
Monet at Argenteuil
Manet followed Baudelaire's advice and some of his early works were
1881 Awarded the Légion
effectively modern updates of traditional themes. These were mocked d'honneur
in official circles, but endeared him to a younger group of artists — the 1882 Produces his final
future Impressionists. Manet declined to exhibit with them, however, masterpiece, A Bar at the
believing that genuine success could only be achieved through the | Folies-Bergére
Salon. Nevertheless, he experimented with painting outdoors, and his | 1883 Dies of syphilis
emphasis on modernity became a guiding principle of Impressionism. Sos

» Boating Manet
preferred working in the
studio, but experimented
with painting in the open
air alongside Monet and
Renoir at Argenteuil. 1874,
oil on canvas, 97.2x 130.2cm,
Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York, US

Olympia Art lovers were only accustomed

to seeing female nudes in the guise of nymphs
or goddesses, so the blatant modernity of
Olympia caused a scandal. Critics interpreted
her as a prostitute. 1863, oil on canvas,
IMPRESSIONISM
130x 190cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France

CENTURY
1
H

ili

» The Execution of the

Emperor Maximilian /n a
composition inspired by Goya’s
¢¢ One must be of one’s The Third of May, 1808,
Manet highlighted a modern
time and paint what scandal: Maximilian had
one sees ”’ been installed as Emperor of
Mexico after a French invasion
EDOUARD MANET
and then abandoned when
the Mexicans rose against
him. 1867-68, oil on canvas,
252 x 305cm, Stadtische
Kunsthalle, Mannheim, Germany
 The Balcony Partly inspired by Goya’s
Majas on a Balcony, Manet’s picture baffled the
critics, who looked for a meaning or story (one
woman looks outside the picture, the other
prepares to leave), but Manet deliberately
avoided this. The seated woman is his sister-in-
law Berthe Morisot (see p.348) 1868-69, oil on
canvas, 170x124.5cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France

INSINOI

INcontext
SALON DES REFUSES
In 1863, a record number of pictures were turned
away by the Salon jury and, after numerous
complaints, an alternative exhibition was staged
for these rejected works (the “refusés”). The idea |
had been to vindicate the judges’ choice, but this
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plan backfired, as the ensuing scandal turned
Manet into an instant celebrity
Caricature of the First Impressionist Exhibition
in Paris by Cham, 1874 When the Impressionists.first
exhibited their work together outside the Salon, they
became targets for the mockery of cartoonists

a
: ed pal EXpos Sin
@| | Cohn

es ei ee rss
aa)
A A Bar at the Folies-Bergére /his is Manets swan song, CLOSERI|ook me
painted when he was seriously ill with syphilis. He no longer had
the strength to work in situ, so a bar was mocked up in his studio , Ke hentia cin tartsmarttE«
and one of the barmaids came to pose for him there. This explains Une ueNolition en hentia: tau Debute tn
why the foreground details are in sharp focus while the background,
of0:2auf de ba timed
painted from memory, is far hazier. Manet also employed a little
artistic licence, shifting the girl’s reflection to the right, so that it
could be seen more clearly. 1882, oil on canvas, 96x 130cm, Courtauld
Gallery, London, UK

CROPPED FIGURES As ina DISCREET SIGNATURE

modern snapshot, Manet's figures Manet painted identifiable brand
are often cropped at the picture's labels on some of the bottles, but
edge. Only the feet of a performing he replaced the details on one
trapeze artist are visible in the bottle of wine with his signature
top lefthand corner and the date
=

2
o
o
m7)
LW
ec
o.
=
 INSINOI

Déjeuner sur I'herbe Edouard Manet,

1863, oil on canvas, 208 x 264cm, Musée d'Orsay,
Paris, France >

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 CLOSERIook

Déjeuner sur I'herbe Edouard Manet

This is the picture that scandalized Parisian art lovers, turning
Manet into an overnight celebrity. The title translates as “The Luncheon on
the Grass“ The original idea came to him, after he saw some women bathing
in the Seine at Argenteuil. This reminded him of a picture in the Louvre, which
Composition
This picture is often cited as an early
he had copied during his student days. Manet submitted the painting to the example of the influence of Japanese
1863 Salon, but it was turned away. In this particular year, however, the jury prints on Manet’s work. The artist does
had been so severe that an extra exhibition was organized for the rejects. not employ traditional perspective, which
Manet's picture was shown at this Salon des Refusés, under the title of had been the cornerstone of Western art
since the Renaissance. Instead, the scene
Le Bain (“Bathing”). Here, it provoked a fierce reaction, most of it hostile.
is composed in bands, leading up to a
high horizon. There is no real sense of
A CONTRAST Manet liked using strong,
depth. The figures appear flat and the tonal contrasts. His forms are generally
Technique trees are used to form a screen, which shown in a bright glare of light or else
Much of the abuse directed against the Déjeuner curtains off the outside world, apart from in shadow, with little or no transition
related to its subject matter, but some critics were a tiny patch of sky. between the two.
equally scathing about the artist's technique. They
disliked the way that Manet abandoned the traditional
academic approach, with its subtle gradations of tone
and its enamel-like finish. In its place, they felt, he had
a “mania for seeing in blocks”, creating overpowering
contrasts between light and shade. This seemed to
give undue prominence to two of the most controversial aspects of the picture — the
nudity of one woman and the size of the other. Reviewers were also critical of the
disparity in the handling of the firmly contoured figures and the sketchy background.

™ =6~< STUDY Manet produced several

sketches and preparatory studies for
/ =
the Déjeuner. This one is particularly
interesting because the bather A SPATIAL GROUPING The figures are A DIRECTION Because none of the figures
is shown in the correct scale and formed loosely into the shape of a pyramid. are looking at each other, the scene has an air
perspective, which in turn suggests This is reinforced by the slanting, parallel lines of unreality. It gives the impression that Manet's
IMPRESSIONISM that the “mistakes” in the finished of the man’s cane, his male companion’s left figures are cut-outs taken from different sources,
version were entirely intentional. arm, and the nude woman's right leg. rather than a group of people at a genuine event.

CENTURY
19TH

Bi ¥ BS Po

A BRUSH STROKES Manet made little attempt to create

a sense of depth in this painting. His rendering of the foliage
is rapid and imprecise and, in places, his paintwork is thin
and feathery, prefiguring his work with the Impressionists

» LUSCIOUS PAINTWORK Even those critics who

poured scorn on the Déjeuner, found room to praise the
still life. Its execution is far more conventional than other
areas of the painting. The careful modelling and the skilful
use of light give the fruit and bread a convincing, three-
dimensional appearance
Characters and story
Manet took the overall concept of the Déjeuner
from Le Concert Champétre (“Rustic Concert”),
a famous picture in the Louvre, now generally
attributed to Titian. This painting featured a similar
combination of naked women with fully clothed
men, but its mood was very different. The Concert
was a pastoral idyll, rather than a real event, and
the women could easily be interpreted as nymphs
or muses. Manet's picture could not be viewed
in the same light. The modern attire seemed to
rule out any possibility of an allegory or an antique
idyll. Instead, many spectators were left with the
assumption that the women were prostitutes,
taking part in an immoral liaison with their clients.

}» THE FEMALE NUDE The nude

woman is Victorine Meurent, one of
Manet's favourite models, who had
already featured in several of his
paintings. She was a feisty character,
as her imperious gaze suggests. Her
complete lack of modesty fuelled the
claim that Manet was portraying her as a
prostitute. Victorine’s pose is extremely INSINOI
awkward, particularly as her elbow does
not rest comfortably on her knee.
< THE FINCH Like the
frog to the bottom left of
the painting, the bird was
a whimsical addition to the
composition. However, it
caused a certain amount
of controversy because its
position was reminiscent HL6L
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of the dove — the traditional
symbol of the Holy Ghost —
which was often shown
at the top of religious
paintings, hovering over
sacred events.

INcontext
THE OLD MASTERS |t was normal
practice for artists to borrow the poses
of their figures from classical statuary
or Renaissance masters. Indeed, the
ability of artists to quote from such
sources was viewed as a mark of their
knowledge and skill. Courbet and the
Realists had challenged this process in
ie era the 1850s, finding it absurd, and Manet
took their mockery a stage further. His
A THE WOMAN BATHING The bather creates
figures may echo the poses and
a jarring effect. She is too large, both in relation to
gestures of a Renaissance print but,
the boat and to the other figures. Her form is also ‘Ts ae ony!” <S/
taken out of context, they are
much too sharp and distinct. The Judgment of Paris Marcantonio Raimondi, (ci480- |
completely meaningless. The nudity
c1534). Manet borrowed his main figures from this |
» THE FROG [he little frog, tucked away in the was even more mischievous because engraving based on a lost painting by Raphael. Raimondi’s
bottom left corner of the picture, is a humorous Manet realized that it was open to figures were river gods, and both their poses and their
touch. It would be perfectly logical to find such a very different interpretations. nudity made far more sense in the print.
creature near a riverbank, but it undermines any
notion that this picture is a serious tribute to a
famous Old Master.
 Claude Monet
b PARIS, 1840; d GIVERNY, 1926 | LIFEline
Monet's career was central to the Impressionist movement, as 1840 Born in Paris, the son of
he kept faith with its practices and principles until the end of his | a grocer
working life. He spent part of his youth on the coast at Le Havre, | 1858 Meets Boudin and starts
| painting outdoors
where Eugene Boudin encouraged him to begin painting out
1859 Attends Académie Suisse
of doors. By 1859, Monet had moved to Paris, making contact
Berthe Morisot Claude with future members of the Impressionists at the Académie
in Paris
| 1862 Enters Gleyre’s studio
Monet Suisse and Charles Gleyre's studio. The 1860s proved to be an
b BOURGES, 1841; d PARIS, 1895 | 1865 Shares a studio with Bazille;
astonishingly fertile period for the development of his art, although his private exhibits at the Salon
One of the mainstays of the Impressionist movement, life was a disaster. He was constantly short of money and endured his family’s 1870 Marries Camille Doncieux
Morisot participated in all but one of the group's eight disapproval of both his career and mistress. 1874 First Impressionist exhibition
shows and often hosted meetings at her home. After a brief spell in London during the Franco-Prussian War, Monet settled 1879 Camille dies
She came from a prosperous family with distinguished in Argenteuil, near Paris, where he produced some of his finest work. By the 1883 Settles at Giverny
artistic connections (her great-grandfather was Rococo 1880s, the Impressionists were beginning to drift apart, but Monet pursued 1914 Builds new studio for his
artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard), and her varied education the group's original aims even more vigorously. This can be seen in his “series” | Waterlilies
included lessons from Corot. In 1868, she met Manet pictures — painting the same subject repeatedly, under different light conditions — | 1926 Dies at Giverny, by this time
and they felt an immediate rapport, each influencing the |wealthy and world-famous
and in his celebrated depictions of waterlilies, painted in his Japanese-style
other's work. It has often been suggested that it was garden at his home in Giverny. Se
Wan
ee
Morisot who persuaded Manet to try painting outdoors.
The ties between the two artists became stronger
after she married Manet's brother Eugéne in 1874.
Morisot is best known for her charming domestic scenes
of mothers and children, although she also produced fine
portraits and atmospheric marine pictures.

The Cradle Exhibited at the first Impressionist

show in 1874, this famous painting depicts Morisot'’s sister,
Edma. 1872, oil on canvas, 56x 46cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
a ; \
i “i

\ |

i
\

IMPRESSIONISM
.\|

CENTURY
19TH

1 Rae
A Pasie Sewing in the Garden at Bougival
Morisot produced some of her best plein-air (outdoor)
paintings during her three-year stay in Bougival. Pasie
was her daughters maid. 1881, oil on canvas, 81x 100cm,
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Pau, France
 v Wild Poppies Shown at the first Impressionist exhibition
in 1874, this painting demonstrates Monet's supreme skill at
depicting a figure or a flower with a few deft brushstrokes.
1873, oil on canvas, 50x65cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
— Ye IRS. Sg apie
aie
¢¢ Monet began
by imitating
Manet, and
Manet ended
by imitating
Vv The Waterlily Pond /n his Monet ”
final years, Monet painted GEORGE MOORE
almost exclusively in his garden (1852-1933)
IRISH NOVELIST
at Giverny. He liked to focus very
AND ART CRITIC
closely on his flowers, omitting
the sky entirely. 1899, oil on
canvas, 88x 93cm, National
Gallery, London, UK CLOSERIook
“

DIAGONAL STRUCTURE
The figures of Monet's wife,
Camille, and their son, Jean,
are repeated to emphasize
the strong diagonal at the
heart of the picture.
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A The Gare Saint-Lazare: CLOSERIook

Arrival of a Train /n 1877, ] FLEETING EFFECTS
Monet left Argenteuil and Railway stations provided ideal
briefly moved back to Paris. subjects for the Impressionists.
They were obvious examples of
After six years in the country,
modern city life, while swirling
he was anxious to produce city
4 = raat clouds of steam circulating under
views again, showing no fewer
A Rouen Cathedral, West Facade, Sunlight a glass roof offered ample
than eight pictures of this opportunity to capture the fleeting
Monet painted dozens of versions of this subject, station at the third Impressionist effects of light and colour.
depicting the stonework of the cathedral under exhibition during the same year.
different light and weather conditions. 1894, 1877, oil on canvas, 80x 98cm,
oil on canvas, 100x 66cm, National Gallery of Art, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, US
Washington DC, US
 Pierre-Auguste Renoir
eee ™ » LIMOGES, 1841; d CAGNES-SUR-MER, 1919
Today, Renoir is one of the best-loved artists of the 19th century, but success» Dance at Bougival
did not come easily to him. His family were poor and at the age of 13 he Dances were a favourite theme
began an apprenticeship as a porcelain painter. After this he took a job for Renoir. The model, Suzanne
decorating blinds before enrolling at the studio of Paris-based Swiss painter Valadon, later became a
Charles Gleyre (1806-74). There, he met the core of the future Impressionist distinguished artist. 1883, oil on
Self-portrait. |group. They learned little from their master’s polished, academic style, canvas, 182x98cm, Museum of
though Gleyre did encourage them to paint outdoors. By the late 1860s, Fine Arts, Boston, US
Renoir was doing this regularly, often painting by Monet's side. For a time, their subjects , I
and style were so similar that it can be hard to distinguish between their pictures. Vv Nude in Sunlight his
Renoir enjoyed some early success at the Salon (see p.336), but the financial rewards is one of several paintings
produced by Renoir in the
were meagre. Ironically, he painted some of his most joyous scenes at a time when he was
mid-1870s, showing the
struggling to survive financially. By the late 1870s, however, his fortunes began to change,
effects of sunlight filtering
as he found a supportive dealer and a number of loyal patrons. Gradually, Renoir abandoned
through trees. c1875-76, oil
his Impressionist roots, adopting a broader style that placed a greater emphasis on drawing
on canvas, 81x65cm, Musée
and structured composition. d'Orsay, Paris, France

LIFEline
1841 Born in Limoges, the son of a tailor | oy
1854-58 Apprenticed to a porcelain painter | | ie
1861 Enters Gleyre's studio, where he becomes
friends with Monet, Sisley, and Bazille
1874 First Impressionist exhibition
1881 Paints The Luncheon of the Boating Party
1882 Marries Aline Charigot
1903 Moves to the Riviera for his health
1919 Dies in Cagnes and is buried at Essoyes

VIRTUOSO COLOURING This

¢¢ |t is not enough for a study shows Renoir's tremendous
painter to be a clever skill as a colourist, as well as his
: incredibly free brushwork. Even so,
craftsman) he must some critics disapproved. One
love to caress his likened the “green and purplish
canvas too 2? blotches” on the model's skin to
IMPRESSIONISM the decomposing flesh on a corpse.
PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR

| INcontext
|MOULIN DE LA GALETTE Situated in the
|garden of a windmill in the Montmartre area
| of Paris, the Moulin de /a Galette took its name
| from its speciality, a type of cake known as a
|galette. It was Renoir's favourite venue. He took
19TH a Studio nearby and frequented the balls held
CENTURY
| | there every Sunday. He loved painting dancing
| scenes, they were perfect examples of Parisian
| life — a theme so dear to the Impressionists.

Moulin de la Galette (c7900). Renoir disliked using

professional models because their poses were too
mannered. Dance halls were good places for finding
natural-looking subjects.

es Sk

A The Bathers By the mid-1880s, Renoir was moving away from

Impressionism towards a more severe style. In this experimental
piece, the figures were obviously painted in the studio. The outlines
are carefully drawn and the lighting seems more artificial. 1887, oil
on canvas, 116x170cm, Philadelphia Museum of Art, US
¥ The Luncheon of the Boating Party 7he woman on the left
is Aline Charigot, Renoir’ future wife, and this restaurant was their
favourite meeting place. The other figures are their friends, who
posed separately for the picture. 1880-81, oil on canvas, 130x173cm,
Phillips Collection, Washington DC, US
2
Pa ath—— — as

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CLOSERIook
ee ey RAILWAY BRIDGE The
. J, =, modernity of the scene is
J underlined by this glimpse
" of the Seine and the railway
bridge at Chatou. The railways
ee
had turned this place into a
popular weekend spot, where
Parisians could go boating.
The Restaurant Fournaise was
a favourite with oarsmen —
hence the vests and boaters
aa worn by some of the figures.

shia et

A.La Loge /his picture of a theatre box was A The Path through the Long Grass Aenojr painted this at the
one of the few successes at the first Impressionist height of Impressionism, when he was working closely with Monet.
exhibition. 1874, oil on canvas, 80x 63cm, Courtauld — Their style and subjects were almost identical. 1876-77, oil on
Gallery, London, UK canvas, 60x 74cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
 Camille Pissarro
b ST THOMAS, VIRGIN ISLANDS, 1830; d PARIS, 1903 | LIFEline
While he may not be the most famous of the Impressionists, Pissarro | 1855 Moves to Paris while in
played a major part in binding the movement together. He provided a | his mid-20s
1859 Meets Monet; exhibits |
Frédéric Bazille link between the groups at the Académie Suisse (a private art school
at the Salon |
in Paris attended by Manet and Cézanne) and Charles Gleyre's studio
b MONTPELLIER, 1841; d BEAUNE-LA- 1863 His work is shown at the
(where Monet, Renoir, and Sisley studied). He was the only artist to Salon des Refusés
ROLANDE, 1870
Camille participate in all the Impressionist shows. Pissarro was revered as a 1870 Moves to London during
Bazille, “the forgotten Impressionist’ Pissarro great teacher, but he was equally willing to listen to younger painters, the Franco-Prussian War
was born into a wealthy wine-making and he continued to experiment throughout his career. Unlike other 1872 Settles in Pontoise
family. He moved to Paris in 1862 and Impressionists, his paintings were regularly accepted at the Salon in the 1860s, but the 1874 Participates in the first
enrolled in Charles Gleyre’s studio. There Franco-Prussian War intervened and while he was taking refuge in England, Prussian Impressionist show
he met Monet, Renoir, and Sisley. Bazille soldiers occupied his house in Louveciennes and used his canvases as duckboards, 1885 Meets Seurat and
experiments with pointillism
helped his friends financially and was destroying more than a thousand paintings. In the 1870s, Pissarro exchanged ideas
1892 Has his own exhibition
making great strides in his own career, with Cézanne, and over the course of the following decade he experimented with the
1903 Dies from blood
when the Franco-Prussian War broke out. pointillist technique after meeting Seurat and Signac. When ill health finally stopped poisoning; buried in Paris
He volunteered for the Zouaves, a famous him from working outdoors, he painted street scenes from hotel windows.
cavalry regiment, and was killed during a
minor skirmish — his career cut tragically » The Coach to Louveciennes
short before the Impressionist adventure This may well be the finest of
had really begun. Pissarro’ pre-war paintings. Rarely
has a rain-sodden atmosphere
v Family Reunion Painted near the family home been captured more evocatively.
in Montpellier, this picture shows the influence of As he did so often, Pissarro
Monet's Women in the Garden, which Bazille had anchored the composition around
recently purchased. 1867, oil on canvas, 152x230cm, a road leading into the picture.
Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France 1870, oil on canvas, 25x 35cm,
Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France

CLOSERIook |

IMPRESSIONISM
ees =

VANISHING The Impressionists

often used short, broken
brush-strokes to convey shimmering
reflections in water. Here, Pissarro
uses the technique to conjure up the (ieammamae lm
glistening surface of a muddy road.

CENTURY
19TH

Baa ie
Bac vi ae oe
A The Crystal Palace Pissarro » The Cote des Boeufs at
A The Pink Dress This js the lived in London during the Franco- I'Hermitage, Pontoise During
artists cousin, Thérése des Prussian War, staying fora time the late 1870s, Pissaro often
Hours, looking out over the in Norwood. The Crystal Palace, screened off his subject with
village of Castelnau-le-Lez. which had been re-erected in the a row of trees, rendering depth
Because he was based in the area, was an obvious subject fora through superimposed layers.
south, Bazille tended to use picture. 1871, oil on canvas, 47x73cm, 1877, oil on canvas, 115x88cm,
brighter colours than his Parisian Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, US National Gallery, London, UK
counterparts. The girl's averted —
gaze creates an air of mystery. CLOSERIook
1864, oil on canvas, 147x110cm, HIDDEN FORMS Human
Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France figures play a supporting
role in many of Pissarro’s
landscapes. These two
were formed with a few
simple brushstrokes, have
no facial details, and melt
into the background.
—
Alfred Sisley
b PARIS, 1839; d MORET-SUR-LOING, 1899
Sisley was a French-born painter with English parents. His father
ran a business exporting artificial flowers, but he supported his
son's decision to become a painter. In 1862, Sisley entered Charles
Gleyre’s studio in Paris, where he met other members of the future
Impressionist group. He joined their discussions and their painting
Photograph trips, although his early output was rather small. He survived by
by Clement _jiving off his allowance from his father, but this situation changed
eee dramatically after the Franco-Prussian War when the family
business collapsed and Sisley had to support himself. From this point on he
lived in extreme poverty, receiving virtually no recognition for his work.
He concentrated almost exclusively on landscapes, specializing in scenes of the
picturesque villages along the Seine. Sisley’s work is remarkably consistent with
a style that comes closest to that of Monet. Although his brushwork is generally
less adventurous than Monet's, his best paintings still have a quiet, lyrical appeal.

LIFEline
1866 |n mid-20s, has first painting
accepted by the Paris Salon
1874 Participates at the first
Impressionist show
1876 Paints the floods at Marly A The Flood at Port-Marly /his is
1883 One-man show in Paris one of Sisley’ finest pictures. When OBJECTIVE VIEW
1889 Exhibition in New York the Seine burst its banks in his local Sisley’s pictures on this
1899 Dies from throat cancer village, Sisley produced a series theme give no hint of any
of paintings of this street corner, > danger or inconvenience
> Snow Scene at Moret Sis/ey depicting the same view at different caused by the flood.
Instead, he focuses on its
loved painting snow scenes and times of the day. His brushwork is
picturesque possibilities,
continued working outdoors, even at its best here, particularly in the
including tiny “gondoliers”
in the depth of winter. c1894, pastel, reflections. 1876, oil on canvas, INSINO
in most of the scenes.
private collection 60x8icm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France

Gustave Caillebotte |Mary Cassatt

b PARIS, 1848; d GENNEVILLIERS, 1894 b ALLEGHENY, 1844; d CHATEAU DE BEAUFRESNE, 1926
Like Bazille, Caillebotte came from a wealthy family, and great This American painter and printmaker settled in Paris in 1874, the year that the first
emphasis is always laid on the financial support that he provided Impressionist exhibition took place. Cassatt met Degas three years later and, through
for his Impressionist friends. He qualified as a lawyer, but turned him, became a member of the group. She was a talented painter, specializing in
to art in the early 1870s, training under the academic artist Léon pictures of mothers with children, but she was an even greater graphic artist. AYNLNA
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Bonnat. Within the Impressionist group, Caillebotte was closest to Her coloured etchings appear deceptively sparse and simple, but were executed
Self-portrait | Degas. In his best works, he shared the latter's taste for unusual with an impressive blend of subtlety and delicacy. Cassatt came from a well-connected
viewpoints and unrehearsed poses. His choice of subjects was family and, in her later years, she did much to aid the Impressionists’ cause by finding
also very striking, particularly his urban views and interiors. American buyers for their works.
Caillebotte built up a sizeable collection of Impressionist paintings, which
he bequeathed to the State. However, at the time their work was still highly v Young Woman Sewing Cassatt exhibited
controversial, and not all the pictures were accepted. this painting at the final Impressionist show. The
steep background diagonal adds a modern note
to a traditional subject. c1880-82, oil on canvas,
92x 63cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France

ss Ne)

= i

A In the Omnibus From the Set of Ten,

a series of engravings displayed at Cassats
A The Floor Strippers /he influence of Bonnats meticulous one-woman show, the bold, spontaneous
approach is evident here. The asymmetrical composition, however, design of this picture betrays the influence
is more reminiscent of Degas’s style, while the modern subject is of Japanese prints. 1891, drypoint and soft-
entirely in keeping with Impressionist aims. 1875, oil on canvas, ground etching, 36x 26cm, Brooklyn Museum
102x146cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France of Art, New York, US
 Edgar Degas
zi
abet
b PARIS, 1834; d PARIS, 1917 | LIFEline
Degas was a hugely influential painter, printmaker, and 1834 Born a banker's son
sculptor. His artistic training was academic: he had lessons | 1854 Studies with Lamothe
from Louis Lamothe, a pupil of Jean-Auguste-Dominique | 1855 Enters the Ecole des
Ingres (see p.271), attended classes at the Ecole des | Beaux-Arts
| 1862 Meets Manet; produces |
Beaux-Arts (France's top official art school), and made INcontext
| his first horse-racing scene
Self-portrait an intensive study of the Old Masters. His art might EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE
1870 Serves in the artillery
have followed a traditional path, but a chance meeting during Franco-Prussian War (1830-1904) Muybridge was
with Manet in the Louvre made him alter direction. Degas did not share | 1872 Travels to America a major photographic pioneer
all the Impressionists’ concerns — he had little interest in landscapes, | 1874 Participates in the first who used a series of 24 cameras * oy
for example — but he became a devotee of modern-life subjects. Impressionist exhibition to analyse physical actions in
Unlike most of the Impressionists, Degas preferred working in the 1881 Exhibits Little Dancer minute detail. He also developed
the zoopraxiscope, a precursor
studio. He did try to capture the fleeting moment in his works, not by | 1912 Evicted from studio
of the movies.
studying changes in light conditions, but by mimicking the random | 1917 Dies, and is buried in the |
effects of photography. He laboured hard at this, admitting that | family tomb in Montmartre Galloping Horse by Eadweard
Muybridge (1887)
“no art was ever less spontaneous than mine”

¥ The Tub Degas’ approach to composition was highly audacious.

The viewer's attention on the bather is constantly diverted by the
plunging perspective and the distracting still life. 1886, pastel on
card, 60x 83cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France

IMPRESSIONISM

CENTURY
19TH

4 The Parade, or Race

Horses in Front of the
Stands Degas admired English
Sporting prints, which were
popular at the time, but his own
racing scenes flouted all their
conventions, deliberately
ignoring the “important”
elements of the actual race
1866-68, oil on paper, 46x 61cm,
Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France

» Little Dancer, Aged 14

This is the only sculpture that
Degas ever exhibited. The A The Dancing Class When artists depicted the ballet, they CLOSERIook
critics were shocked by its normally focused on actual performances. Degas, however, | CASUAL POSES Degas
unsettling realism. 1921, preferred the informality of backstage themes, such as rehearsals @ deliberately avoided the academic
bronze casting of a wax original and classes. 1873-76, oil on canvas, 85x 75cm, Musée d'Orsay, mart of borrowing poses from
(1879-81), height 98cm, Paris, France 5 classical statues or old master
private collection paintings. He loved capturing off-
} guard moments. Here, one dancer
reaches to scratch her back.
v In a Cafe, or Absinthe A/though this may seem like an
authentic portrayal of Parisian low-life, the picture was carefully
posed in the studio by an actress and a minor painter. The off-centre
composition, with a space on the left and the man’s cropped pipe, H enri de Toulouse-La utrec
lends the picture the spontaneous air of a snapshot. 1875-76, oil on
b ALBI, 1864; d CHATEAU DE MALROME, 1901
canvas, 92x 68cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
mae
Few artists have conjured up the bohemian lifestyle of
fin-de-siécle Paris as evocatively as Lautrec. Although
crippled as a teenager, he was determined that this
should not restrict his ambitions. He had a formal,
academic training, but was more influenced by the
Toulouse- example of Degas and Japanese prints. This is YW Dance at the Moulin
Lautrec, c1900 particularly evident in his ground-breaking posters, Rouge Lautrec’s picture used
where he combined basic linear forms with caricature. to hang behind the bar of this
After his arrival in Paris, Lautrec gravitated to Montmartre, where he famous nightspot. With typical
soon immersed himself in the heady night-life. His favourite models dark humour, he placed a
were singers, dancers, and prostitutes, many.of whom were his grinning skull amidst the
friends. Lautrec’s hectic social life took its toll, however, and his career revellers. 1890, oil on canvas,
was cut tragically short by the effects of alcoholism and syphilis. 116x150cm, Philadelphia Museum
of Art, Philadelphia, US

LIFEline
1864 Born into an aristocratic family,
descendants of Counts of Toulouse
1882 Studies in Paris under Bonnat
1883 Moves to Cormon’s studio
1884 Sets up studio in Montmartre
1888 Exhibits with Les Vingt in
Brussels
1889 Opening of the Moulin Rouge
1890 Paints Dance at the Moulin
Rouge
1891 First commission for a poster
1893 Health deteriorates; moves into
his mother's apartment
1899 Committed to a private
sanatorium at Neuilly
1901 Dies at his mother's home in
Malromé, France, aged 36
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DELIBERATE DISTORTIONS
Inspired by Japanese prints,
Lautrec distorted objects to suit
his decorative scheme. He was
particularly fond of depicting
stylized versions of a double-
bass, often using them to frame
his scenes.

“ “ ‘

A The Bellelli Family Even in this early painting

of his Italian relatives, Degas manages to make a
eo
highly structured composition seem spontaneous.
§ INNOVATION Lautrec created
i a textured, speckled effect by
His aunt Laure is in mourning for her father, whose
eA
} flicking ink on to lithographic
portrait hangs beside her. She poses formally with stone, a technique he described
one of her daughters, while the other figures as crachis (“spitting”).
appear momentarily distracted and the little dog Ds osedal ‘ il ll VA
scampers out of view. c1858-60, oil on canvas, A Le Divan Japonais This famous poster is an advertisement
200x250cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France for a Montmartre cabaret, fashionably decorated in the Japanese
style. One of Lautrec’s friends, the dancer Jane Avril, watches a
performance by the singer Yvette Guilbert. 1892, lithograph poster,
79x59cm, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France
 Auguste Rodin
b PARIS, 1840; d MEUDON, 1917 LIFEline
Auguste Rodin was the greatest sculptor 1840 Born into a working-
of his age. His achievements were all class family in Paris
the more remarkable, given the early 1875 Visits Italy, to see the
work of Michelangelo » The Gates of Hell
difficulties he faced. He was rejected by Commissioned for the entrance
| 1877 Exhibits for the first
the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and had to work time at the Paris Salon of anew museum, this
Photograph for years as a lowly artisan, producing 1880 Commissioned to ambitious project was
by Paul Nadar architectural ornaments. Rodin was in produce the Gates of Hell never finished. The design
his mid-thirties before the breakthrough 1884 Wins competition to represented Dante’s Inferno.
came — with a nude statue so realistic that some critics | commemorate The Burghers 1880-90, bronze, 637 x401cm,
believed he had cast it directly from the actual model. of Calais usée Rodin, Paris, France
This controversy was a foretaste of things to come. 1891 Receives commission
for a statue of Balzac
Even when his genius was recognized and important CLOSERI|ook
1898 Completes The Kiss
commissions came his way, patrons were shocked by
1917 Marries his long-term
the radical nature of Rodin’s designs. Major projects, | mistress, Rose Beuret; they
such as the statues of Balzac (1897) and The Burghers both die later that year
of Calais (1884-89), were delayed for years before they
were finally erected. Rodin’s great skill was to convey
complex ideas through minute details of the human
form. The complete absorption of The Thinker (1880-81),
for example, is underlined by his taut pose, distended
nostrils, and even his tightly clenched toes.
Fittingly, a copy of this statue was placed
over Rodin’s tomb.

» The Thinker On The Gates SOURCE OF

of Hell, this figure was probably
INSPIRATION The Gates
meant to represent the Italian of Hell proved an invaluable
poet Dante, but Rodin enlarged testing ground for Rodin’s
the figure and turned it into a later work. The Thinker,
timeless embodiment of shown left, and The Kiss,
thought and concentration. shown opposite, both
1880-81, bronze, height 69cm,
IMPRESSIONISM had their origins here.
Burrell Collection, Glasgow, UK

v Honoré de Balzac Aodins radical

vision of the French novelist aroused
immense hostility when the design
was revealed. The commission was
cancelled, and the full-size statue was
only erected in 1939. 1897, plaster,
height 2.7m, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
CENTURY
19TH

|IN context
| HONORE DE BALZAC
Widely regarded as one of France's
| most talented and prolific authors,
Balzac’s greatest achievement was
| La Comédie Humaine (The Human
Comedy). In this series of interlinked
novels, he aimed to produce a
panoramic portrait of French society
at every level. Balzac worked
incredibly long hours, driving himself
to an early grave, but was revered as
the nation’s supreme literary genius
A The Burghers of Calais Rodin won a competition to portray these
medieval heroes, who offered up their lives to save their fellow citizens
during Edward III's siege of Calais. The sculptor captured their differing
Balzac Reviewing a Parade of his emotions superbly, but the local authorities were disappointed by their
Characters ike a military commander,
Balzac surveys the rich array of characters
lack of nobility. 1884-89, bronze, height 200cm, Calais, France
he has created.

¢¢ The truth of my figures...

seems to blossom
from within to outside,
like life itself 9?
AUGUSTE RODIN, 1911
 » The Kiss Aodin produced the first version ys
of this famous sculpture for his Gates of Hell,
where it represented Paolo and Francesca,
the adulterous lovers from Dante's |nferno. \: Medardo Rosso
1888-89, marble, 182x112x117cm, Musée
Rodin, Paris, France b TURIN, 1858; d MILAN, 1928

Rosso's work has often been described as

CLOSERI|ook the sculptural equivalent of Impressionism.
Born in Turin, he spent much of his career
in Paris (1889-c1915). There, Rosso met
and exchanged work with Rodin, although
their friendship ended abruptly after he
accused the Frenchman of “borrowing” his
ideas for the statue of Balzac (1897). Rosso
blurred the boundaries between painting
and sculpture, abandoning firm contours
and smooth surfaces, to endow his pieces
with a sense of movement and change.
HIDDEN DETAIL Divorced from its original These qualities were to inspire the
context and renamed The Kiss, Rodin’s statue Futurists (see p.428).
now seems like a vision of universal love.
However, one detail of the original story fis v The Caretaker Aossos favourite medium was
remains. The couple had been reading about wax over plaster. The soft, pliable material enabled
Lancelot and Guinevere’s doomed affair and, him to create subtle, impressionistic effects in his
in Paolo’s hand, the book can still be seen. figures. Wax over plaster, Galleria d’Arte Moderna,
Florence, Italy

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A. Ecce Puer Jhis is a commissioned portrait of

a young boy, Alfred Mond. Rosso tried to capture
a specific moment as he watched the boy peering
through curtains. He exhibited it under the title
Impression of a Child. 1906, bronze, height 44cm,
Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
 Lovis Corinth
b TAPIAU, 1858; d ZANDVOORT, 1925 | LIFEline

Corinth was a versatile German painter | 1858 Born in Tapiau, East Philip Wilson Steer
and printmaker. He studied initially at the Prussia (now part of Russia)
K6énigsberg Academy, but received most 1884-87 Studies with BIRR EE Ans beta en OCn note
of his training in Paris, under William Bouguereau in Pats A leading pioneer of Impressionist painting in England, Steer had a conventional
1887-91 Works in
Bouguereau. His early taste was for a academic training in France, where his principal masters were Cabanel and
Konigsber: < 5 ‘ :
Self-portrait | rugged naturalism, inspired by Courbet ee ie the Munich Bouguereau. His own style, however, owed more to the influence of Whistler and
and Millet, as well as the Dutch Old Sezession Monet. On his return to England, Steer became one of the founding members of
Masters. There were also Symbolist overtones in some of 1900 Settles in Berlin the New English Art Club, a private society that was dominated by artists who had
his lush, sensual versions of literary and religious subjects. 1903 Marries Charlotte worked in France and were aware of the latest trends. Steer also participated in
Corinth’s style did not reach full maturity until his move —| Berend, one of his students a separate exhibition, The London Impressionists, which was staged in 1889.
to Berlin where, together with Liebermann and Slevogt, 1911 Suffers a major stroke Steer’s Impressionist period was comparatively brief, lasting from around 1887
he pioneered the German form of Impressionism. 1915 Succeeds Max to 1894. His finest pictures in this style were his beach scenes, which boasted
Corinth was prolific for the next decade, but in 1911 Liebermann as president the same sparkling colours and sheer exuberance as many of the canvases
of the Berlin Sezession ; :
he suffered a careerthreatening stroke. Gradually, he 1925 Dies of pneumonia produced by his French counterparts.
learned to paint again, though in a much looser manner in Zandvoort Eoland
that was admired by the Expressionists (see p.408). : W Hydrangeas /n a masterly demonstration of
LIFEline ae ‘ : ;
ome his skills as a colourist, Steer shows sunlight
1860 Born in Birkenhead, reflecting on pale fabrics. 1901, oil on canvas,
Merseyside, the son of a
portrait painter 85x 112cm, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK
te = rs a -
1882-84 Studies in Paris, at
the Académie Julian and the
Ecole des Beaux-Arts
1886 Founder member of the
New English Art Club
1889 Takes part in London
Impressionists exhibition
1889 Exhibits with Les Vingt
in Brussels
1893 Begins teaching at the
Slade School of Fine Art
1927 As eyesight deteriorates,
he switches to watercolours
1931 Awarded Order of Merit
1942 Dies of bronchitis at his
London home
IMPRESSIONISM

CENTURY
19TH

A Charlotte Corinth at Her A Children Paddling,

Dressing Table Light suffuses Walberswick Steer produced
the entire scene in this portrait his most overtly Impressionist
of Corinth’s wife. 1911, oil on scenes on the Suffolk coast, at
canvas, 120x 90cm, Kunsthalle, Walberswick, where he often
Hamburg, Germany stayed with friends. His
technique of using short dabs
«Carl Hagenbeck in his of contrasting colour helps to
Zoo A pioneer of modern zoos, create an atmosphere of hazy
Hagenbeck liked to pose with sunshine. 1891-94, oil on
his animals — in this case, a canvas, 64x 92cm, Fitzwilliam ’
walrus called Pallas. 1911, oil on Museum, Cambridge, UK OS sae
canvas, 200x271cm, Kunsthalle, SIMPLIFIED FIGURES REFLECTIONS Monet's
Hamburg, Germany Steer effortlessly conveys influence is evident in the
this extremely foreshortened sparkling water's surface,
pose with just a few deft with its glints of sunlight and
brush strokes. its shimmering reflections.
William Merritt Chase Joaquin Sorolila y Bastida
b WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA, 1849;
d NEW YORK, 1916
b VALENCIA, 1863; d CERCEDILLA, 1923
Tom Roberts
Sorolla was a prolific painter and
This versatile American painter and illustrator, and the leading exponent of b DORCHESTER, 1856; d KALLISTA, AUSTRALIA, 1931
teacher trained at the Royal Academy in Impressionism in Spain. After studying in
Munich from 1872 to 1877. After several Madrid and Rome, he enjoyed a lengthy
months in Venice, he returned to New stay in Paris. Here he was chiefly
Portrait by York in 1878 and in 1880 became Self-portrait influenced by the work of Bastien-
James Carroll president of the Society of American Lepage, who had made his name
Beckwith Artists. He resigned from the society in with a brand of Impressionism that was “corrected,
1902 to join The Ten, a breakaway group who considered sweetened, and adapted to the taste of the crowd”
the Society's exhibitions to be too conservative. Known and Sorolla soon followed this lead.
for his portraits, which highlighted his dashing bravura Sorolla’s brightly coloured beach scenes were hugely
technique, his Impressionist experiments are evident in popular. He won medals at the Paris Salon, and was
his landscapes, the finest of which were produced at also féted in the United States, where he won his
the Shinnecock Summer School, Long Island.

q
greatest commission — a series of 14 enormous murals ® 4a
=)4
representing the Provinces of Spain, to be installed in
the Hispanic Society of America in New York.

v People Sitting on the Beach Sorolla was known for

his beach scenes of the Costa Blanca, in which he combined § eS SE ake
intense colours with vigorous brushwork. 1906, oil on board, A A Break Away! A drover chases runaway sheep in this
16x22cm, Leeds Museums and Galleries, UK evocative slice of Australian rural life. 1891, oil on canvas,
137x168cm, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia

Roberts was born in England and trained at London's

Royal Academy (1881-84), but he spent most of his
career in Australia. In 1885, he settled in Melbourne,
» Dorothy Chase painted
several informal portraits of his where he became a founder member of the Heidelberg
daughter. His portrait style School. The group focused on the Australian bush,
was heavily influenced by a recording a way of life that was swiftly vanishing. The
fellow American John Singer results were shown at their Exhibition of Impressions
Sargent, as well as the (1892), where all the views were painted on identical
Belgian painter Alfred cigar box lids. Roberts’ iconic pictures of sheep-
Stevens. 1902, oil on canvas, shearers and farmers attracted little attention at the
183x91cm, Indianapolis Museum time, but have since been recognized as landmarks IWSIN
3AGIS
JINVY
of Art, Indiana, US in the development of Australia’s national identity.

es
Max Liebermann Childe Hassam INcontext
THE HEIDELBERG SCHOOL Named after
b BERLIN, 1847; d BERLIN, 1935 b DORCHESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, 1859; a village near Melbourne, this group of artists
d EAST HAMPTON, NEW YORK, 1935
A German painter and printmaker, Liebermann was the pioneered in Australia the Impressionist practice
first president of the Berlin Sezession (an alternative The American artist Childe Hassam developed an of painting in the open air. Led by Tom Roberts,
group to the formal Association of Berlin Artists). He interest in Impressionism during a three-year stay, Sir Arthur Streeton, and Charles Conder, they
worked together in camps at Box Hill
trained at Weimar, but also made extended visits to from 1886, in Paris, where he enrolled at the Académie AYNLN
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and Eaglemont.
Paris, where he met some of the Barbizon painters. Julian. On his return to the US, he settled in New York.
Self-portrait He developed a robust, naturalistic style that was It was here that he produced his most memorable Near Heidelberg
sometimes controversial (his Jesus in the Temple street scenes and later a series of flag paintings. Away Sir Arthur Streeton
(1890). Streeton
was criticized in the German Parliament for being “too Jewish”). from the city, Hassam also painted at Appledore, an became famous for
Liebermann's interest in Impressionism came to the fore in the 1890s, island off the New Hampshire coast, where he often his scenes of the
when he painted a series of outdoor scenes that demonstrated his stayed with the poet Celia Thaxter. In 1897, Hassam outback. The artists
skill at capturing light effects. He also built an important collection of became one of the founder members of The Ten — me of the Heidelberg
Wry ¥ School produced
Impressionist pictures, although this was dispersed after his death. an influential group of American artists, who were ; the first realistic
instrumental in bringing Impressionism to the US. portrayals of the
Australian landscape.
v Rain Storm, Union Square Hassams urban scenes portray
life in New York during the 1890s. He particularly loved to paint
glistening, rain-soaked streets. 1890, oil on canvas, 90x111cm,
Museum of the City of New York, New York, US

B CLOSERIook |

THE BIGGER PICTURE The

lady turns her head away. Is she
ee averting her gaze from the man by
| the fountain? In true Impressionist
A The Terrace at the Restaurant Jacob in = fashion, we only have a snapshot
Nienstedten on the Elbe Sun/ight filtering through ¥ of this unspoken drama.
leaves was one of Liebermann’ favourite themes. 1902, |
oil on canvas, 70x 100cm, Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
 use new styles of expression to reveal
a more personal or even spiritual
vision that had far-reaching artistic
consequences. Gauguin’s bold
Origins and influences experiments with colour had a
The terms Neoimpressionism and powerful impact on the Nabis (see
Postimpressionism refer to a 30-year ~ pp.380-81) and Expressionists, and
period of extensive artistic innovation van Gogh also produced work that
between 1880-1910 rather than to any appealed to the Expressionists.
single group of artists. However, it was Cézanne who exerted
Neoimpressionism and Post-
Although this new generation of the greatest influence on other
painters had started on the fringes of artists. His bold experiments with
impressionism were both an
Impressionism, many of them began composition and volume paved the
extension of Impressionism and to react against its preoccupation with - way for Cubism and the birth of
a rejection of its limitations. Neo- surface appearances. They pushed abstract art.
impressionism is characterized beyond the quest for naturalism and
sought to express feelings and ideas Subject matter
by the paintings of Georges
through a radically new use of colour, The subjects of Neoimpressionist and
Seurat and his use of dots of
brushstroke, and content. Postimpressionist paintings were A Michel-Eugene Chevreul, caricatured by
pure colour. The central figures Postimpressionist artists were keen as varied as the painters’ styles. T. Bianco, 1885-89. Chevruel was the French
chemist, physicist, and philosopher who
of Postimpressionism were van to break free from the constraints of Alongside nudes and harbour scenes, pioneered theories on colour which were put in
Gogh, Gauguin, and Cézanne. the Academy (see pp.336-37), and to Seurat worked on large, formal group to practice by Neoimpressionists such as Seurat.

Neo-andPostimpressionism |
TIMEline
From Seurat's Sunday Afternoon
on the Island of La Grande Jatte 1884-86
and Gauguin’s Vision after the
Sermon to Van Gogh's The
POSTIMPRESSIONISM
AND Starry Night, Cezanne’s The
NEO-
Large Bathers, and Signac’s
Entrance to the Port of
Marseille, the evolution of
Neoimpressionism and
Postimpressionism displays a
wide diversity of styles. Artists
experimented with every
SEURAT Sunday Afternoon on
aspect of their art, from colour the Island of La Grande Jatte
and brushstroke to form and GAUGUIN The Vision after the Sermon
subject matter. (Jacob wrestling with the Angel)
CENTURY
19TH

Schools
The two recognizable “schools” were based
on the theories of Seurat (Neoimpressionism)
and Gauguin (Postimpressionism). Whereas
Seurat sought to make the approach to light
and colour more rational and scientific,
Gauguin renounced naturalism to explore
symbolic use of colour and line.

Neoimpressionism
The term Neoimpressionism was coined by
the art critic Felix Fénéon in his review of
the final Impressionist exhibition of 1886.
Fénéon was referring to a group of paintings
based on Seurat's scientific principles of
colour and form. As he saw it, Divisionism
(or Pointillism) was a technique that pushed
Impressionism one stage further in its
depiction of light and colour.
Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on the Island
of La Grande Jatte (see pp.364-67) was the
painting that launched Neo-Impressionism.
After Seurat’s untimely death at the age of
31, his close friend Signac became the
Here, Cross uses Divisionist techniques to create an
A Gasometers at Clichy Paul Signac /n this painting, leader of the group, spreading the word
idyllic rural landscape. 1895, oil on canvas, 92x 65cm,
Signac depicts gas storage tanks entirely with small dabs through the publication of his treatise on Petit Palais, Geneva, Switzerland
of colour in the Divisionist manner. 1886, oil on canvas, Divisionism, From Eugéne Delacroix to Neo-
65x 81cm, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia Impressionism, in 1899. \ts huge influence
at the time can be gauged by the number
portraits. Many of his followers,
including Signac, moved to the south
of France, where they portrayed bold,
maritime landscapes.
Postimpressionists such as van
Gogh and Cézanne also chose to work
in the south of France, revelling in its
< Model from the Back (detail)
bright light and brighter colours. They Seurat highlights the top of the
focused on portraiture, still life, and woman's back and the nape of her
landscapes, while Gauguin chose neck using tiny dots of juxtaposed
pure colour.
religious, symbolic, or domestic
themes, depicting pious peasants, Cézanne's application of broken planes
“noble savages’ and the well- of colour marked a revolution in
furnished interiors of the bourgeoisie. perspective. Seurat carried out
investigations into complementary
Styles and techniques colours, developing a technique
In their determination to find a known as Divisionism (or Pointillism)
simpler, more authentic mode of in which he applied small, regular dots
representation, Neoimpressionists of pure colour to the canvas. These,
and Postimpressionists reinvented he hoped, would merge in the
A Model from the Back
the art of painting by emphasizing viewer's eye to create an optical mix
Georges Seurat, 1886, oil on panel,
geometric shapes, distorting forms, 24.5x 15.5cm, Musee d'Orsay, of colour. The technique attracted
and applying unnatural colouring. Paris, France many followers.

WSINO
-OAN
GNV

SIGNAC Sailing Boats and CEZANNE The Large Bathers

Pine Trees
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of artists (among them Pissarro, van Gogh, expression in the designs of Toulouse-
Matisse, and Kandinsky) who flirted briefly Lautrec’s posters.
with Divisionist painting before moving on Outside France, Postimpressionist artists
to work in other styles. Neoimpressionism were promoted by exhibitions orgaznized by
was also enthusiastically received in offshoots from the national académies
Belgium and in Italy, where Impressionism (similar to the French salon). From 1883,
had barely registered. Even the Cubists these splinter groups became the main
made playful use of its dotty style. innovatory force in art throughout Europe and
America, helping to spread new artistic
Postimpressionism ideas and influencing the careers of many
The leading Postimpressionist artists tended important 20th-century schools and artists,
to work in isolation, painting alone in Arles including the Fauves, the Expressionists,
(van Gogh) and Aix en Provence (Cézanne). and even the American Abstract Expressionists.
Only Gauguin could be said to have painted
in a group. Between 1886-89, he became
the unofficial leader of a group of artists
| CURRENTevents
based in the fishing village of Pont-Aven in | 1890 Oscar Wilde publishes The Picture
| of Dorian Gray —a key work of Fin de
Brittany — including Emile Bernard and Paul | s/écle literature.
Sérusier — who wanted more space to
| 1903 Marie and Pierre Curie share the
express personal feelings and ideas, and | Nobel Prize for Physics for their work
inspired the formation of the Nabis (see | on radioactivity.
pp.380-81) in Paris. Together, they worked 1908 The Ford Motor Company introduces
out a more simplified approach to. painting, the Model T — regarded by many as the
with little attempt at realism, that was | world’s first affordable car.
ae ol z
inspired as much by stained-glass windows A The Meal (The Bananas) Paul Gauguin This
as by Japanese prints. This more relaxed carefully composed still life was painted in the first
approach filtered into the graphic and months after Gauguin’s arrival in Tahiti. 1891, oil on
decorative arts, where it found its truest canvas, 73x92cm, Musee d'Orsay, Paris, France
 Paul Signac
b PARIS, 1863; d PARIS, 1935
Signac came from a prosperous family of shopkeepers,
which gave him financial independence. He originally
trained as an architect, but a visit in 1880 to an
exhibition of Monet's work persuaded him to become
an artist instead. In 1884 he became a foundermember
Signac, c1900 of the Salon des Indépendants, through which he met
Georges Seurat. They formed a lasting personal and
artistic friendship, and Signac became Seurat’s most devoted
advocate. An enthusiastic sailor, Signac painted a number of maritime
landscapes in a style characterized by tessellated daubs of bright,
luminous colours. After Seurat's death he was pivotal in spreading the
Neoimpressionist style beyond France, through criticism, exhibitions,
and his 1899 manifesto From Delacroix to Neoimpressionism.

LIFEline|
1884 Co-founder of Salon des
Indépendants; exhibits with
Seurat for first time
1886 In early 20s, exhibits at
last Impressionist show
1890 First foreign artist to join
Les Vingt (Belgium); spreads
Divisionism outside France;
paints Portrait of Félix Fenéon
1893 Moves to Saint-Tropez A Portrait of Félix Fenéon Against the CLOSERIook See te
1908 President of Salon des Enamel of a Background Rhythmic
Indépendants; promotes SYMBOLIC
Fauves and Cubists with Beats and Angles, Tones, and DECORATION
Colours Signac used a whirling, multi- The decorative petals,
coloured backdrop to express his art-critic stars, and spheres
friend's flamboyant personality. This is a
» Sailing Boats and Pine
Trees Signac painted many good example of the Neoimpressionist
denote a kimono sash,
the American flag, and
a
seaside landscapes at Saint- trend towards a flattened, decorative style the solar system,
Tropez. The ghostly sailing that owed much to contemporary posters, representing some of
boats contrast with the strong Japanese prints, and Symbolism. 1890, oil Fénéon’s interests.
AND lines of the pines. 1896, oil on
POSTIMPRESSIONISM
NEO- on canvas, 73x92cm, Museum of Modern Art,
canvas, private collection New York, US

Henri-Edmond Cross Giovanni Battista Segantini

Nb DOUAI, 1856; d LE LAVANDOU, 1910 b ARCO, 1858; d PONTRESINA, 1899
Born Delacroix, Cross changed his name to avoid confusion with Segantini was the only Italian painter of the late 19th century to enjoy
Eugéne Delacroix, the French Romantic painter. He studied law a consistent international reputation. He grew up in poverty in the
before attending art school in Lille and Paris. In 1881, Cross exhibited mountains, losing his mother when he was five before being
CENTURY
19TH at the Salon, but inspired by Monet he turned from Realism to abandoned by his father. Segantini taught himself to draw while herding
Ease! impressionism, lightening his palette at the same time. sheep, and after running away several times he finally settled in Milan,
rait by
Portrait b A co-founder of the Salon des Indépendants in 1884, Cross did Etching by attending classes at the Brera Academy and teaching art.
sapcret oa not adopt Divisionism until his move to the South of France in 1891. Ses From 1878, Segantini gradually replaced his academic manner with
However, he stuck to it until his death, exploiting the expressive egantini
a looser style. He relocated to Savognin and Maloja, now in the Swiss
freedom of the new technique more fully than either of its founders, Seurat or Signac. Alps, then in northern Italy. His Alpine landscapes of peasants going about their work
The freer, brighter, tessellated brushstrokes that he and Signac pioneered would later combined a close observation of nature with a new technique of his. Not unlike
be adopted by the Fauves. Divisionism, it used separate, fluid brush strokes of complementary colours to capture
the effects of the mountain light. In his later years, Segantini turned to Symbolism and
» The Golden Isles Crosss was strongly influenced by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.
sun-drenched paintings helped
to form the popular vision of the << Afternoon in the Alps Jhe
Mediterranean coast, none Alps were a constant inspiration to
more so than this “hymn of Segantini. He painted many Alpine
praise to colour and sunlight” scenes, including this one of a
depicting the Hyéres islands. young goatherd. His preferred
Cross‘s decorative treatment mountain backdrop provided him
of the spatial area suggested a with a setting for his paintings,
possible abstract direction for which he tended to interpret in
Neoimpressionism. 1891-92, oil strongly symbolic ways. 1893, oil
on canvas, 60x 55cm, Musée on canvas, private collection
d'Orsay, Paris, France
Georges Seurat
ee b PARIS, 1859; d PARIS, 1891 LIFEline
Georges Seurat had a brief but astonishing career, 1878-79 Aged 19, enrols at
devoting his main efforts to a few very large paintings. Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris
While studying at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he 1884 Exhibits at Salon des
Indépendants; meets Signac <The Circus /his dynamic
attempted to develop a theoretical system for painting
1886 Exhibits La Grande composition brought Seurat
that could take Impressionism to a new level and create Jatte at final Impressionist
Seurat,c1885 a template for future artists. his greatest success. It was
exhibition
widely praised by the critics
Seurat’s technique, which he called Divisionism (more 1887 First Neoimpressionist
exhibition in Brussels
for its “undulating music of
commonly known as Pointillism), was based on scientific principles of
lines”. Seurat used horizontal
colour complementarity. It involved applying small dots of primary colour 1889 Involved in second
Les Vingt exhibition; (calming), vertical, and
directly to the canvas, so that their exaggerated contrast would merge diagonal lines to convey
moves in with Madeleine
more vividly in the viewer's eye. All Seurat’'s paintings were based on Knobloch, model for Woman movement, danger, daring,
formal ideas of composition, and were prepared meticulously from Powdering herself, who bears social difference, and spatial
numerous studies. He completed around 60 studies for his masterpiece his child depth. 1890-91, oil on canvas,
Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (see pp.364-67). 1891 Dies of meningitis 186x153cm, Musée d'Orsay,
Paris, France

CLOSERIook

CLASSICAL PROPORTIONS Seurat based

his composition on classical principles, including
the golden section. The relaxed, immobile figures
recall those of Piero della Francesca (see p.100); SLSIN
the focal point that runs diagonally across the
picture is anchored by the large seated figure.

| SILHOUETTES
Seurat perfectly captures
the stillness of a hot
+ summer's day through
- tonal contrasts, spatial
organization, and
Impressionistic brush
_ strokes. He silhouettes HL6L
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the figures against the
water by balancing light
/ on one side, shown here
| by the white flecks
around the boy’s back,
with dark on the other.

A Bathers at Asniéres Seurats first

exhibited painting, depicting a setting opposite
Grande Jatte island and based on over 20
sketches, took nearly a year to complete.
Rejected by the official Salon, it was exhibited
at the Salon des Indépendants. Signac was
hugely impressed by its monumental ambition.
1884, reworked 1887, oil on canvas, 201 x300cm,
National Gallery, London, UK
<< Nude Seurat started his
artistic career perfecting his
chalk-and-charcoal drawing
technique. This glowing nude
demonstrates his skilful use of
conté crayon and charcoal on
pitted paper to produce a unique
grainy, luminous effect. 1881-82,
A Study for “The Channel at Gravelines, Evening” charcoal and crayon, Courtauld
Seurat’s use of mosaic-like blobs of colour is typical of his Gallery, London, UK
oil sketches and contrasts with the smaller dots used in the
final work. The shimmering surface and calming influence
of horizontal lines convey a strong sense of atmosphere.
1890, oil on panel, Musée de |’Annonciade, St Tropez, France
 NEO-
AND
POSTIMPRESSIONISM

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Sunday Afternoon on the

Island of La Grande Jatte
Georges Seurat
1884-86, oil on canvas, 207.6 x308cm,
Art Institute of Chicago, US >
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 CLOSERI|ook

La Grande Jatte
Georges Seurat
Seurat’s masterpiece caused a sensation when it Technique
was shown at the final Impressionist Exhibition of 1886, Seurat developed a new technique based on contemporary ideas about
and became one of the icons of 19th-century art. Featuring the science of colour. He was particularly influenced by Ogden N. Rood,
who proposed that when colours mixed in the eye rather than on the
contemporary Parisians at leisure on a little suburban island
canvas they created a more luminous effect. In 1885, Seurat reworked
on the Seine, it is a painting full of contradictions. Solemn yet his original painting using his ‘pointillist’ or ‘divisionist’ technique,
witty, busy yet “frozen’ it is a timeless image of modern life covering the entire canvas with regular dots and dashes of pure colour.
painted in an innovative technique, which harks back to the <IMPERSONAL CHARACTERS Having
ancient art of Greece and Egypt. initially completed La Grande Jatte in the
spring of 1885, Seurat set it aside until
October, when he painted over the original
Composition picture with uniformly sized, directional dots
Rejecting the sketchy, arbitrary nature of Impressionism, Seurat built and dashes of colour. The final technique
up his complex, monumental composition through a long, methodical complements and emphasizes the detached,
process. He began with on-the-spot oil sketches on cigar box lids, and impersonal nature of the figures.
spent two years working on the painting in his studio. His meticulous
preparations for the final work include about 28 drawings and 28 oil v BORDER Seurat painted the border using
sketches on panel as well as three larger canvases. Adjusting and parallel dashes and dots of red, orange, and
altering his studies, he removed some characters, and experimented blue paint. He varied the colour arrangement
in different sections to accentuate contrasts
with the relationships between figures as the image evolved.
with adjacent colours in the painting itself.
< LANDSCAPE SETTING, Ss ' f
Seurat does not show the
island as it actually was: he
left out the drinking and dining
establishments, and the nearby
shipbuilders’ yards and
factories. He made several
preparatory drawings of
landscape elements before
POSTIMPRESSIONISM
AND
NEO- painting this study. It appears
like a stage set on which he
would place his figures.

< CHANGING GROUPS

Numerous studies show Seurat
experimenting with different
figures and groupings. The five
figures clustered in the shadowy
foreground here eventually
CENTURY
19TH become three, while the isolated
woman and child are brought «MAGNIFIED DOTS
together to form a mother-and- This shows the seated
child unit. woman's skirt against the
sunlit grass. According to
» DISTORTIONS OF SCALE
the theory of divisionism,
Seurat painted La Grande Jatte in
these closely spaced,
a studio which his fellow-painter
almost circular dots of
Paul Signac noted was too small
paint appear more luminous
for such a large canvas — which
because they merge in
probably explains discrepancies
the eye rather than being
in the scale of the figures. If the
blended on the canvas.
painting is viewed at an angle,
the figures appear more {
(but not perfectly) in proportion. {

INcontext
IN THE STUDIO
Seurat includes a section of
La Grande Jatte in this painting A A COUPLE AND THREE WOMEN
of models in his studio, perhaps As he worked on his composition, Seurat
to show his dot technique made exquisite tonal drawings, using velvety
applied to both an interior and black conte crayon. He made numerous
exterior scene. He later took La 4 studies of the woman in the foreground,
Grande Jatte out of the frame = modifying the distinctive shape of her bustle
¢ / a Grande Jatte unrolls seen here, restretched the i aie a as he worked.
before you like some canvas and added a border The Models This is the /arge version of
of coloured dots and dashes. this composition. 1886-1888, oil on canvas,
myriad-speckled 200 x 250 cm, Barnes Foundation, Pennsylvania.

tapestry ”’
FELIX FENEON (1861-1944) ART CRITIC
 Characters/Story
Seurat has not created a realistic picture of individuals
enjoying a Sunday afternoon. Though he began with
sketches of figures he observed, he subsequently refined
and arranged his cast of characters in the studio. Rather
than individuals, he created “types” from different social
P classes. Their stylized forms and expressionless or
unseen fees have an impersonal, artificial quality. Although the painting appears to reflect
the ironies of modern city life, Seurat seems have chosen neither to create a “readable”
story nor to make clear, moralizing statements.

«(GROUP ISOLATION
These three figures from
different social classes — pipe-
smoking, muscular boatman,
genteel lady with her book, and
dapper, top-hatted “toff” with
cane — would have been an
unlikely group in reality. Despite
their physical proximity on the
canvas, the characters remain
psychologically isolated from
each other.

> FISHING AND SIN

In French, the verb to fish —
pécher — is very similar to the
verb to sin — pécher — and puns
on these words were popular in
Seurat's time. Painting a woman
fishing may be a visual pun by
which the artist identifies her SLSIN
as a prostitute.

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A CHEEKY MONKEY Monkeys

were fashionable pets at the time.
However, the monkey is also a
symbol of licentiousness, and the
word singesse (female monkey)
A TOY-LIKE SOLDIERS Reduced to the was contemporary French slang
simplified shape of toy soldiers, these distant for “prostitute”.
male figures may represent the potential
“catches” of the woman fishing in the < WET NURSE The distinctive
A FASHIONABLE COUPLE The woman in foreground (see above right). orange headscarf identifies this
a fashionable bustle, and her top-hatted partner figure, seen in back view, as
appear respectable, but the monkey on a leash a wet nurse. Reduced to a
may indicate she is a prostitute and he a client. geometric object, she has no
“character” or individuality.
 Pau| Cézanne
» b AIX-EN-PROVENCE, 1839; d AIX-EN-PROVENCE, 1906
One of the greatest of the Postimpressionists, Cézanne is regarded as
“the father of modern art’ The son of a wealthy hat-maker and banker,
he studied law before persuading his father to allow him to abandon his

A: Mi
Self-portrait
studies and train as an artist in Paris. His early works were dark, thickly
painted, and sometimes wildly erotic. But under Pissarro’s influence,
his palette and his touch lightened, and he turned to the study of nature. < The Temptation of St
Despite contact with the Impressionists, Cézanne’s abrasive intensity Anthony Jypical of Cézanne’s
and social awkwardness made him the outsider of the group. And where the early work, this painting
Impressionists were concerned with surface appearance, Cézanne was preoccupied features forceful, heavily
with structure, and with how to represent the solid, three-dimensional features of painted nudes in a dark, shallow
space. Compare this sexually
nature on the flat surface of a canvas.
charged scene with the calm,
Working painstakingly slowly, painting the same motifs over and over again,
formal balance of the nude
Cézanne developed an entirely original pictorial language in which depth andisolidity _
bathers below, painted some
are created not through conventional perspective and modelling, but by subtly varying
30 years later. 1869-70, oil on
colours, and by distorting and tilting forms. Cézanne’s work had a profound influence canvas, 57x 76cm, Buhrle
on 20th-century artists, paving the way for Cubism and abstract art. Collection, Zurich, Switzerland

LIFEline
1859-61 Studies law in Aixen-Provence
1861 |n early 20s, moves to Paris to become
an artist; meets Pissarro
1873 Paints House of the Hanged Man
while living in Auvers
1886 When his father dies, Cézanne inherits
his estate in Aix
1895 One-man-show in Paris establishes
reputation among artists
1906 Dies of pneumonia in Aix, aged 67

» The House of the Hanged Man /n the

early 1870s, Cézanne regularly painted in the
open air with Pissarro. This light-filled, tightly
constructed landscape reveals the profound
AND effect this had on his art. 1873, oil on canvas,
POSTIMPRESSIONISM
NEO-
55x66cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France

CENTURY
19TH

A Apples and Oranges Cézanne painted CLOSERIook

hundreds of still lifes, exploring spatial GEOMETRIC STABILITY
relationships by arranging and rearranging a This complex composition,
small set of household objects along with fruit with its tilted, precariously
and vegetables. This celebrated painting is one balanced objects, is given
of a series of six compositions featuring the stability by the underlying
same curtain, pitcher, white fabric, plates, and geometry created by the
fruit. c1899, oil on canvas, 74x 93cm, Musée edges of objects and the
d'Orsay, Paris, France bold zigzag of white cloth.
 V Mont Sainte-Victoire This rugged mountain near
Cézanne’s home in Aix was a constant source of
inspiration. He painted the “stunning motif” time and
again, with increasing freedom. In this late work, broad,
overlapping patches of colour suggest form and space.
> Still Life of Peaches
and Figs A celebrated
master of watercolour still-
life, Cézanne painted both
complex compositions and
simple arrangements such
as this. Exploiting the white
paper to create light and
space, Cézanne uses what
he termed “modulations” in
colour to depict the rounded
forms of the fruit. Graphite
and watercolour on paper, |
20x31cm, Ashmolean,
Oxford, UK

< Card Players One ofseveral

versions of the same scene,
this is among Cézanne’s most
popular images. Stripping away
detail, he evokes the tension
inherent in the card game.
Traditional perspective is
abandoned: the table appears
buckled, as if viewed from
shifting angles, and the men’s
knees appear flattened against
the picture surface. c1893-96, oil
on canvas, 47x5/7cm, Musée SLSINO
d'Orsay, Paris, France

< The Large Bathers /his huge canvas is the

largest and probably the last of an ambitious series
of paintings of monumental female nudes in a ¢¢ Treat nature by
landscape setting. Cézanne uses simplified forms, means of the
so that some of the figures appear to merge with the cylinder, the
landscape. Soaring tree trunks form an elegant arch, h
framing the view of the river and the opposite bank, sphere and the
where distant figures look towards the bathers — cone ”’ AYNLNS
HL6L
_ and the viewer. 1906, oil on canvas, 208x 251cm, PAUL CEZANNE, 1904
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, US

CLOSERIook
\

INTERLOCKING TRIANGLES SIMPLIFIED HEAD

Human and landscape elements Cézanne’s treatment of this
combine to create a harmonious, stable bather's head reflects his view
composition based on triangles. Beneath __ that “Painting stands for no
the triangular area of sky an inverted other end than itself. The artist
triangle is formed by the central figures’ paints an apple or a head: it is
outstretched arms. simply a pretext for line and
colour, nothing more.”
eae te a ) <The Infant Margarita
een if _ Teresa
of Spain Diego
ae © 4} Velazquez Daughter of King
Philip IV of Spain, the girl was
painted when she was about
_ Inart, childhood is not always a time of innocence. Before five years old. c1656, oil on
' the 19th century, children tended to be incidental inclusions in canvas, Lobkowicz Palace, Prague
portraits unless they were the offspring of royalty, rulers, or a Castle, Czech Republic
~ god.In formal family portraits, children were usually presented |
~— WChildren’s Games (detail)
TM aallalelUlcceave
Ul cow-Vantar-Meytar-lm late Kolm tal-Mcvoyolr-] sver-l(Mmeay]
(6¢-18) Pieter Bruegel the Elder The
could behave more naturally as the subject of genre scenes of bottom section of the painting
everyday life, particularly popular in the Netherlands. Things shows children playing leapfrog,
tug-of-war and using hoops and
changed in the 19th century, and children became the subject tops. 1560, oil on panel,
pof both formal and informal portraits. 118x161cm, Kunsthistorisches
Museum, Vienna, Austria

V Game of Chess Sophonisba Anguissola The artist

often painted her family. Here, her sisters Lucia, Minerva,
and Europa are playing chess. 1555, Museum Narodowe,
Poznan, Poland

a BS

ye

dren. wood,
ritish Museum,
eee Ss s

eae Pr eae Sa L¥ me

A Portrait of Giovanni de Medici AS s&sDy A

Agnolo Bronzino Depicted as an id Re Zzki ro
authoratitive figure even as a child, ; Os
Giovanni de Medici was only two years | » |
old when this portrait was painted. pews
1545, tempera on wood, 58x 48cm, Uffizi, |=
Florence, Italy
ed
.
AA School for Boys and Girls Jan Steen .
Famed for his humorous paintings of rowdy home
A The Spinario (copy of Greek life, Steen has here depicted a group ofchildren
original) Roman A young boy is ina school room. Many of them are misbehaving,
examining the sole of his foot to locate creating a lively scene. C1670, oil on canvas,
and extract a thorn. His expression 16x 25cm, National Gallery of Scotland,
conveys intense concentration. Edinburgh, UK
Ist century ce, marble, height 76cm,
British Museum, London, UK. > Lady Caroline Montagu
Sir Joshua Reynolds Thackeray
wrote that the child has a smile
“so exquisite that a Herod could
not see her without being
charmed”. 1776, oil on canvas,
144x112cm, private collection
-V Lending a Bite William Mulready The /rish-
born painter made a career out of painting scenes < Autumn Leaves Sir John Everett
of everyday life such as this act of guarded Millais The youthful beauty of the
generosity. c1820, oil on canvas, private collection children is in stark contrast to the heap
of dead leaves. The painting is a
reminder of the transcience of beauty
and certainty of death. 1856, oil on canvas,
104x 74cm, Manchester Art Gallery, UK

V Chasing Rabbits from the series

“Children’s Games” Kobayashi Eitaku
This is one of a series of Japanese V Baby Asleep Jacob
woodcut prints depicting children at play. Epstein Epstein produced
1888, colour woodcut, Central Saint Martins several bronze baby heads,
College of Art and Design, London considering it important as few
other artists had portrayed
babies, c1907, bronze, height
12cm, private collection

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aw

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A A Baby Dod Procter The lighting emphasizes

the dome of the baby’s head and its round
cheeks and throws the folds of the gown
into deep shadow. 20th century, oil on canvas,
private collection
A The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit John
Singer Sargent /n this unusual composition, the
subjects, although sisters, show no signs of
interacting with one another. They are also A Children Playing Oskar Kokoschka
dwarfed by a pair of huge Japanese vases. 1882, Kokoschka was criticized at the time for not
oil on canvas, 222 x223cm, Museum of Fine Arts, making the children look happier in his
Boston, Massachusetts, US portrait. Instead, he focuses on the concerns
of childhood. 1909, oil on canvas, 72x 108cm,
> The Sisters Mary Cassatt The artist applied Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, Germany
Impressionist techniques such as sketchy
_ brushwork to domestic subjects — children and
motherhood were favourite themes. 1885, oil on
canvas, 46x 56cm, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and
Museum, Glasgow, UK
 |Paul Gauguin
b PARIS, 1848; d ATUONA, MARQUESAS ISLANDS, 1903

Rejecting what he called “the disease of civilization’

Gauguin turned his back on life as a wealthy, respectable ae : :
stockbroker and family man to devote his life toart.Asa_ Y Martinique Landscape (or Tropical Vegetation)
painter, printmaker, ceramicist, and sculptor, he sought Gauguin painted this colourful scene on a visit to the
inspiration and solace among primitive communities in
Caribbean island of Martinique in 1887. He used small,
individual brushstrokes in the Impressionist manner to weave
Self-portrait Brittany and the South Seas.
together a harmonious, decorative composition. 1887, oil on
Gauguin had been a talented amateur painter and
canvas, 116x89cm, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK
collector of Impressionist paintings before he decided to become a full- &
time artist. Encouraged by Pissarro, he exhibited with the Impressionists,
but his aims ultimately differed from theirs. While they were concerned
with outward appearance, he wanted his art to express inner meaning.
Despite his self-belief, Gauguin suffered years of poverty and lack of
recognition: his reputation was only established after his death, with a
huge retrospective exhibition held in Paris in 1906. His bold paintings,
with their radical anti-naturalistic use of colour, had an immeasurable
influence on 20th-century art.

LIFEline Be Mysterious Gauguin started

1848 Born in Paris to a radical experimenting with imaginary exotic settings
| French journalist father and before his first trip to Tahiti. He was very pleased
half-Peruvian mother with this carving, and priced it at three times the
1849 Family travel to Peru, cost of his most expensive painting. 1890, carved
returning to France in 1855
limewood, 73x 95cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
1871 Gets job as stockbroker
1873 Marries Mette Gad, with
whom he has five children
1874 Meets Pissarro; sees
first Impressionist Exhibition
1888 Paints The Vision after
the Sermon in Brittany; stays
with Van Gogh in Arles
1891-93 First period in Tahiti
1895-1901 Second period
in Tahiti
1903 Dies in the Marquesas
POSTIMPRESSIONISM
AND
NEO-

CENTURY
19TH

%,
s § DIVIDING LINE Linked by
Mey the unrealistic red ground
ee (Signifying the mystical nature
| of the scene), the Breton nuns
and priest are separated from
@ the figures in the vision — Jacob
wrestling with an angel — by the
diagonal tree trunk.

A The Vision after the Sermon his painting

marks Gauguin’s break with Impressionism in both
content and style. He wrote: “The landscape and the 6¢ | have decided on Tahiti...
fight exist only in the imagination”. To evoke this and | hope to cultivate
visionary experience and create a symbolic rather
than naturalistic image, he simplifies line and my art reas
there in i be
Y e inthe wild A Breton Women by a Fence /he contours of the traditional
colour, creating bold areas of flat colour set within and primitive state ”” white headdresses and collars worn by Breton peasants appealed to
sinuous outlines. 1888, oil on canvas, 73x 92cm, PAUL GAUGUIN, 1890 Gauguin’ liking for both the decorative and the primitive. 1889,
National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK lithograph, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
 CLOSERIook

pas URES a rs Se

TAHITIAN TITLE To accentuate the

painting's exotic, mystical meaning,
Gauguin includes the Tahitian title Manao
Tupapau on the background. It also forms
part of the decorative scheme.

ee
NIGHT FLOWERS ‘
the decorative leads me to strew the
background with flowers”, Gauguin
wrote. Set against a “terrifying” violet,
these “tupapau flowers, phosphorescent
emanations” were signs of the spirits
of the dead. SLSIN

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A Manao Tupapat (The Spirit of ( Horsemen on the Beach

the Dead Keep Watch) Gauguin painted this harmonious
Gauguin’ fascination with Tahitian scene on the island of Hiva Oa,
beliefs and traditions is reflected in in the Marquesas, the year
his paintings. This extraordinary image before his death. There are
was inspired by returning home one echoes of the realism of Degas’s Nh
night to find his 13-year-old vahine racetrack pictures, but the 4 Woman with a Flower /n Noa, Noa,
(mistress) Teha‘amana lying naked on unrealistic pink of the sand Gauguin’ account of his life in Tahiti, he writes
the bed, terrified because the lamp had lends the picture its mood of that this was the first Tahitian woman to pose
gone out. She was convinced that mystery. 1902, oil on canvas, for him. Painted soon after his arrival in 1891,
without the light, she was prey to the Museum Folkwang, the magnificent portrait shows the young
tupapatis — the spirits of the dead. Essen, Germany woman wearing a high-collared Western
Blending the real and the imaginary, dress, reflecting the modest style of clothing
Gauguin paints the tupapat as introduced by European missionaries. The
Teha‘amana might have imagined it, flower she holds links her with the decorative
“like an ordinary little woman” at the background. 1891, oil on canvas, 70x 46cm,
foot of the bed. 1892, oil on canvas, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Denmark
73x92cm, Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo,
New York, US
 Vincent wan Gogh
ae b ZUNDERT,.BRABANT, 1853; d AUVERS-SUR-OISE, 1890 LIFEline
The son of a Dutch pastor, van Gogh worked for an 1869 Starts work at Goupil &
art dealer, as a teacher, and as an evangelical preacher Co, art dealers. Begins writing
to brother Theo
before devoting himself to art with the same zealous
1876 Teaches and preaches in
intensity that he had brought to his preaching. In a brief England
career lasting only about a decade, he created some 1878-80 Evangelist in
Self-portrait, | 1,000 paintings. He evolved a strikingly original style, in Belgium. Begins drawing
1887 which bold colours and forceful brushstrokes express 1880 Resolves to be an artist
< Head of a Peasant
intense emotions. One of the key figures of 1885 Paints his most famous
early work, The Potato Eaters
Woman /his sombre portrait
Postimpressionism, he had a huge influence on modern art.
of a Dutch peasant is one of a
Vincent's arrival in Paris in 1886 triggered a turning point in his 1886 Moves to Paris
number of studies for Vincent's
painting. Under the influence of Impressionism and Japanese prints, 1888 |n Arles; joined by
Gauguin. Mutilates ear most famous early painting, The
his dark pictures of peasants were replaced by the colourful paintings Potato Eaters. 1885, oi! on canvas
for which he is remembered. Van Gogh suffered severely from mental 1889 Enters St Rémy asylum
1890 Shoots himself dead on millboard, 46.4x35.3cm,
instability, and committed suicide at the age of 37 National Galleries of Scotland,
Edinburgh, UK

¢¢ Vell, my own work,

lam risking my
life for it and half my
reason has gone 9?
VINCENT VAN GOGH, IN HIS LAST
LETTER TO HIS BROTHER THEO, 1890

» The Bedroom at Arles /his painting shows

van Gogh's bedroom at the Yellow House, which
he rented in Arles. It was one of his favourite
compositions and he hoped it expressed “absolute
restfulness”. He painted three versions of it: the
first was made in 1888 as he awaited Gauguin'’s
arrival, while this is one of two copies made in
AND
NEO- St Rémy asylum. 1889, oil on canvas, 73x91cm,
POSTIMPRESSIONISM
Art Institute of Chicago, US

CLOSERI|ook
COLOUR AND ae! |
CONTOUR
The influence of
Japanese prints can
be seen in the way
van Gogh encloses
CENMUIRY
Li areas of flat colour
within bold outlines,
as in this detail of
the table leg.

eA

UNSETTLING PERSPECTIVE Despite van

Gogh's aim for a restful effect, the painting looks
distorted because of its exaggerated perspective:
the converging lines of walls and floorboards
seem to rush back into the painting's depth.
ie
< Pere Tanguy /he sitter ran an art supplies
shop in Paris. He admired and promoted van
Gogh's work. He sits in front of an array of
Japanese prints, which Vincent collected and
which greatly influenced his painting. 1887-88,
oil on canvas, 93x 74cm, Musée Rodin, Paris, France

<< Sunflowers During the summer

of 1888, while he eagerly awaited
Gauguin’ arrival in Arles, van Gogh
painted five canvases of sunflowers
as decorations for the Yellow House.
The paintings are created almost
entirely of yellow, a colour that
signified happiness for him and
embodied the sunshine and heat of
Provence. 1888, oil on canvas, 92x 73cm,
National Gallery, London, UK

CLOSERIook
TOUTE

BLUE SIGNATURE Background

and table are in flat colour, making
an interlocking pattern with the two-
tone jar. Contrasting with the
yellows, a blue line and signature
appear as naive pottery decoration. SLSI

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A The Church at Auvers After leaving St Rémy

asylum, van Gogh moved to Auvers, a village
north of Paris, in May 1890. He worked furiously,
averaging one painting a day, before shooting
himself two months later. This painting, with its
intense colours and twisted shapes, was one of
his final works. 1890, oil on canvas, 94x 74cm,
Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France

< Self-portrait with Bandaged Ear Painted

just two weeks after he had mutilated his ear, this
dignified self-portrait shows the artist resolved to
get back to work, wrapped up against the cold,
flanked by his easel and a Japanese print. 1889,
oil on canvas, 60x49cm, Courtauld Gallery, London, UK
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 SLSIN

The Starry Night Vincent van Gogh,

1889, oil on canvas, 73.7 x 92.1cm,
Museum of Modern Art, New York >

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 CLOSERI|ook

The Starry Night Vincent van Gogh

Stars explode like fireworks in a night sky that pulsates Technique » SURFACE PATTERN Using
Characteristically for a picture made near the end of van Gogh's a limited range of colours — blues,
with wave-like energy, while the twisted silhouette of a cypress
life, this Canvas is painted with vigorous, impasted (thickly layered), blue-greens, white, and yellow —
tree flames upwards from the landscape below. A mixture van Gogh paints the sky ina
dash-like brush strokes. Applying paint with a heavily loaded brush,
of observation, memory, and imagination, The Starry Night stylized pattern. Individual dash-
van Gogh creates stylized swirls and concentric circles that have a
expresses van Gogh's intense response to nature. The painting like brushstrokes are repeated to
powerful, overall effect. Colour is as forceful as the brushwork, form wave-like swirls and circles
contains elements of the actual French Provencal landscape, with bold contrasts of blue and yellow predominating. Van Gogh's that give the painting its forceful
but the village scene is an invention, with the church spire expressive technique gives the whole canvas a frenzied animation, energy, expressive impact, and
inspired by memories of van Gogh's native Holland. It is one which seems to reflect the artist's state of mind. pictorial unity.

of several “starry night” pictures that van Gogh painted.

Composition
Despite the asymmetry of the composition, and the busy arrangement of
stars dotted over the surface, the painting has an ordered simplicity, which
holds the frenetic energy in check and intensifies its impact. The layers of
= space — foreground, mid-ground, and sky — which exist in depth in nature,
” ippear vertically on the canvas as three areas. The dark cypress tree that
2 springs up from the bottom left is counterbalanced by the brilliantly
> DIFFERENT STROKES
Van Gogh uses distinctly
° luminous yellow moon in the top right. different techniques for the
"
2) dark cypress and the nearby
Ld
jem
white star. The cypress is
.
a. painted in long strokes of
= fluid paint, while the star
= has a textured halo created te
~*"*
dnpeO

Ww) by concentric dashes of thick,

ie) drier paint.
bet"
i3%2
ou.
a
2
<
©
WW
2 TIED TOGETHER The flame-like ROLLING ENERGY Contrasting with
cypress stretches from the bottom almost — the powerful vertical movement of the
to the top of the canvas — creating a cypress on the left, clouds roll and swirl
visual link that ties the three layers of horizontally across the canvas — like
space together waves, moving from left to right.

Fk INcontext
¢) | ST REMY ASYLUM While a
1 patient at the St Rémy Asylum,
= van Gogh often went into the
| countryside to paint. This sunny
landscape is a similar
composition (but reversed)
to The Starry Night. Once again,
it is dominated by the distinctive
shape of the cypress

A Wheatfield with Cypresses,

Vincent van Gogh, (1889)

*¢ Just as we take the train

to get to Tarascon or Rouen,
we take death to
reach a star ”’
VINCENT VAN GOGH, 9 JULY 1888

» DARK OUTLINES The

village buildings have the
bold outlines cha racteristic of
many of van Gog h’s paintings,
reflecting the inf uence of
Japanese art anc , perhaps, old
woodcuts. Small squares and
rectangles of yel ow, Indicating
lighted windows, create accents
of colour in the d ark landscape
and echo the yel OW stars above
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 “ arts as well as painting. The Nabis held
their first exhibition in 1889,
Origins and influences and went on to enjoy considerable
The Nabis were a group of rebellious success during the 1890s.
young artists who were inspired by
ideas developed in the Pont-Aven ~ Subjects and techniques
artist's “colony” in Brittany. Here, While many of the Nabis shared a
Paul Gauguin and the 20-yearold mystical Christian fervour, the two
Emile Bernard developed an most distinguished members of the
alternative vision of art, based on group — Bonnard and Vuillard — ignored
imagination rather than real life, pious themes. They focused instead
which aimed to capture an object's on treating contemporary, everyday
“essence” rather than its appearance. scenes in the new style — an approach
Inspired by stained glass windows, described as /ntimisme.
In the late 1880s, a group their new style, known as The Nabis emphasized the
Cloissonism, was characterized by the decorative element at the expense
of artists, known as the Nabis,
use of simplified forms and flat areas of artistic illusion. Many worked on
sought to revitalize painting. of vivid colour enclosed in strong lines. A The Talisman (Bois d'Amour) Paul Sérusier large-scale decorative panels and in
United by their contempt for In 1888, a landscape painted by (1888). Sérusier painted this abstract autumnal the graphic arts. Some, such as
Naturalism, they developed Paul Sérusier, under Gauguin’s landscape on the lid of a cigar box, using Vuillard and Bonnard, tried to meet a
exaggerated colours for greater effect.
a simplified, subjective vision, guidance, encapsulated a new sense demand for an all-embracing synthesis
of artistic freedom. On his return to of art forms by designing stage sets
inspired by Symbolism
Paris, it had a catalytic effect on his members, who included Paul Ranson, for small avant-garde theatres, as well
(see p.382) and Paul Gauguin.
student friends, who nicknamed it Maurice Denis, Pierre Bonnard, as posters and tapestries. In 1903 the
In this way they blurred “the Talisman’ They coalesced into and Edouard Vuillard, promoted movement broke up with the closure
the lines between fine a group, called Les Nabis, from the an all-inclusive vision of art that of the magazine, La Revue Blanche,
and decorative arts. Hebrew word for “Prophets” Its encompassed design and the graphic their main source of support.

The Nabis
NABIS
THE

Pierre Bonnard
b FONTENAY-AUX-ROSES, 1867; d LE CANNET, 1947

Bonnard studied law before turning to a career in art.

A gifted printmaker and designer, his first success
came with his influential France Champagne poster.
CENTURY
19TH Bonnard’s masterful use of colour came from his
experience of lithography and the strong influence
Self-portrait of Japanese prints. His palette became much richer
after 1900, following the break-up of The Nabis.
After moving to the south of France in the 1920s, Bonnard’s
subjects became limited to sun-lit landscapes or bright interiors,
often featuring his life-long model, his wife Marthe, bathing, dressing,
or sleeping. In these paintings, everything is subordinated to the
subtle rendering of light and colour effects, leading to him being
described as “the last of the Impressionists”

LIFEline
1867 Born into a wealthy
French family
1886-89 Studies law in Paris
before turning to art
1890 Shares a studio with
Denis and Vui lard, Co-founds
the Nabis
1893 First lith ographs appear A Nude in the Bath Bonnard painted what he CLOSERI|ook
in La Revue Blanche remembered as much as what he saw. In his world USE OF COLOUR Bonnard
1896 First so 0 exhibition his wife Marthe never aged — she was 60 at the time usually worked from a palette
1925 Moves to Le Cannet of this painting. Here, he imagines her as a youthful of eight vivid colours, which
in the South of France nymph, bathing in a room full of the vibrant light and he applied very thinly. The
1947 Dies in Le Cannet colour of southern France, and framed against a water here acts as liquid
rainbow of glass tiles. 1936, oil on canvas, 93x 147cm, light, smoothing Marthe's
Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France submerged body, which
appears to shimmer slightly.
A Intimacy The Nabis aimed to capture feeling
through the use of line, pattern, and colour. In this
asymmetrical composition, the smoke from the
pipes appears to blend into the wallpaper. 1891,
oil on canvas, 38x 36cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
 rd Vuillard
zry v Seated woman with a cup of coffee Many
» »b CUISEAUX, 1868; d LA BAULE, 1940 of Vuillard’s Intimist paintings possess dramatic
Edouard Vuillard is best known for his early intimate tension within their domestic setting. This portrait
domestic interiors, which often featured his family of awoman sitting alone is infused with a feeling
and friends, but he also experimented with other media, _2/melancholy. 1893, distemperoncard, 36x 29cm,
including lithography, stage sets, and decorative panels. _ Fit2william Museum, Cambridge, UK
Vuillard met his fellow Nabis while he was a student :
Self-portrait | at the Académie Julian. He is often linked with Pierre
Bonnard, with whom he shared a studio and style of
painting known as Intimism. Another long-term friendship, with the
editor of La Revue Blanche, Thadée Natanson, led to numerous
commissions from his wife Misia and their wealthy friends.
Vuillard’s pictures blended the flat colours and emphatic contours
of Gauguin with the shimmering Divisionism and careful surface
structure of Seurat. These mini-dramas, recreated from his memory
CLOSERIook
and staged against a backdrop of richly furnished interiors, used
pattern, texture, and colour to create a strong atmosphere. Vuillard’s
later, more conservative paintings never recaptured the achievements
of his 1890s work.

LIFEline Vv Pot of Flowers After 7900, Vuillard’s interest

4868. Born into a prosperous in photography and the Impressionists ledtoa
middle-class family. more realistic style, using light to create space
1888-89 Studies at the and volume. 1904, oil on cardboard, Scottish National
Académie Julian: meets the Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, UK
future Nabis ITT NE
1889 Exhibits at the Salon
for the first and last time
1890 Co-founder of the FOCUS ON PATTERN
Nabis; shares a studio with =| m Vuillard often focused on
Bonnard and Denis | | patterns and textures, such
1891 First solo show | as those found here in the
1900 Interest in photography | wallpaper, using them to
and Impressionism leads to “frame” a picture's mood. The
change in style dark wall hanging appears to
1940 Dies while fleeing from engulf the woman; only her
German troops pale face and hands stand out.
SISV
SHL

Maurice Denis Aristide Miaillol INcontext

LA REVUE BLANCHE [his magazine for
PGRANVILLE, 1870; d PARIS, 1943 b BANYULS-SUR-MER, 1861; d PERPIGNAN, 1944 avant-garde literature and art, published from
ROeS Lhe ar ey aly 254 Maillol, the son of a ship's captain, decided at an early age to become 1889 to 1903, was closely associated with the
. NY Pd feb a painter. In 1881, he moved from his home in southwestern France Nabis after 1891, when Thadée Natanson _
to Paris, where he met the Nabis. Encouragement from Paul Gauguin became its editor. Natanson and his beautiful
Franco-Polish wife, Misia, formed the heart of
led Maillol to open a tapestry workshop in Banyuls in 1893. The high- HL6L
AYNL
an active circle of artists and writers who they
quality work produced there gained him considerable recognition for
promoted through their journal, exhibitions, and
renewing this art form in France. commissions from their wealthy friends.
By 1900, Maillol had abandoned tapestry to concentrate on
sculpture, and the latter part of his life was devoted to sculpting Poster for La Revue Blanche by Pierre Bonnard
female nudes. His revival of classical
|
ideals
:
set a standard for. ‘
he Te Nabis valded le Graphite artsas muchas
painting and devoted much of their time to illustration,
monumental figure sculpture that lasted into the 1940s, and inspired posters, and theatre sets
the work of Henry Moore (see p.488).
PARAIT CHAQUE MOS
EN LIVRAISONS *8100 Paces
lew JP everue: bate,
On VENTE PART OUT

A The Fight Between Jacob and the Angel

This painting shows Jacob struggling with a
divine messenger to gain God's blessing. 1893,
oil on canvas, private collection

A leading Nabi theorist, Maurice Denis led the reaction

against Impressionism and later attempted to revive
the genre of religious painting.
Aged 20, he published a highly influential article, :
from which these lines would become a central creed : oom
of Modernism: “... before a painting is a warhorse, A Profile of a Young Woman From 1890 onwards,
a naked woman, or an anecdote, it is essentially a flat Maillol’s links with the Nabis produced many paintings
surface covered with colours arranged in a particular that emphasizedamore decorative aspect through the
way” Denis’ own art was highly decorative, with harmonious balance of line and colour. 1890, oil on canvas,
flowing lines and patches of colour. 73x 100cm, Musée Hyacinthe Rigaud, Perpignan, France
 Japanese prints and the revival
of interest in ancient Celtic patterns.
Origins and influences It was the first style to be promoted
Symbolism emerged as a reaction by mass communications.
against the naturalist movements —
Realism (see p.324) and Impressionism Style and subjects
(see p.340) — which had dominated Symbolists aspired to communicate
the progressive art scene after the through line, colour, and form, like
1850s. By concentrating only on what music or poetry. They did not use
the artist saw, naturalists had largely readily defined symbols, but opted
ignored the imagination, intellect, and instead for images that were richly
Symbolism and Art Nouveau
emotions. Symbolists aimed to rectify evocative. Symbolism was both
were international art this by producing pictures that evoked a literary and artistic trend, with
movements that flourished certain moods and feelings. a Manifesto written by the poet,
in the final decades of the 19th Although Art Nouveau shared with Jean Moréas, in 1886.
century. Symbolism sought to Symbolism the element of fantasy, Art Nouveau was a concerted
it was primarily preoccupied with attempt to create an international,
restore the role of imagination
decorative effect. It can be seen as A Oiwa Katsushika Hokusai, 1830. The sinuous, curved modern style based on decoration.
and ideas in the arts, while a response to William Morris's Arts lines of Art Nouveau were strongly influenced by
It is characterized by highly stylized,
Japanese prints such as Oiwa, from a famous Yotsuya
Art Nouveau fulfilled a more and Crafts movement, but was also Kaidan tale. Poisoned by her husband, she returns to flowing lines, and organic, plant-
decorative function. influenced by other styles such as haunt him in the guise of a lantern-headed ghost. inspired motifs.

SymbolismandArt Nouveau
TIMEline 1865
Symbolist trends evolved
gradually. Gustave Moreau’s
lyrical variation of the Orpheus
myth predates the formation of
NOUVEAU
ART the Impressionists,
AND
SYMBOLISM while a
Romantic influence can be seen
in the work of Arnold Bocklin
and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes.
Certainly, Symbolism was
in full swing by 1886, when
Jean Moréas produced the
movement's Manifesto, and PUVIS DE CHAVANNES
the first hints of Art Nouveau REDON
The Poor Fisherman
emerged a few years later, BOCKLIN The Isle of the Dead WATTS Hope The Closed Eyes
in around 1890. MOREAU Orpheus
CENTURY
19TH

Novements Art Nouveau Liberty — after the London department store

Art Nouveau took its name from a shop — while in Germany it was called Jugenastil,
The closing decades of the 19th century, in Paris, but was known differently in other after a fashionable journal, Die Jugend.
and the period leading up to the First parts of Europe. In Italy, it was the Stile Given its emphasis on decoration,
World War, were a time of unprecedented it is not surprising that Art Nouveau made
prosperity and modernity, often described its strongest impact on the applied arts.
as the “New Industrial Revolution”. From Its finest creations include the glassware
them sprung two new art movements. of Louis Comfort Tiffany and René Lalique,
Hector Guimard’s ironwork entrances
Symbolism to the Paris Metro, Mucha’s posters, and
The Symbolist movement developed the designs of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
in France, but found followers in most
of Europe. Its roots were in the Aesthetic CURRENTevents
A The Shell Odilon Redon Redon’s most overtly movement, which placed more importance 1875 Morris & Co is established in Britain,
Symbolist work was produced in monochrome, but in on evoking a mood with subtle colour promoting the Arts and Crafts movement. |
the 1890s he began using pastels, revealing his skill harmonies than telling a story. The tag of | 1895 Art dealer Siegfried Bing opens his}
as a dazzling colourist. 1912, pastel on paper, 52 x57.8cm, the Aesthetic movement was “art for art's new Parisian store called Art Nouveau.
Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
sake”. The work of James Whistler was 1895 First staging in London of the play
typical, demanding a response to its formal The Importance of Being Earnest, written
beauty rather than its subject matter by the leading literary figure and wit of the |
Aesthetic movement Oscar Wilde. |
Symbolism reached its peak during the
1880s, when certain types of imagery
became internationally common. These
included the pale, sexually ambiguous
figures popularized by Gustave Moreau and
Sir Edward Burne-Jones, menacing femmes
fatales who ensnared their victims with
A Salome with her Mother, Herodias Aubrey
their impossibly long tresses, and the
Beardsley One of 16 illustrations Beardsley produced for
severed head Oscar Wilde's play, Salome, its sinuous lines are typically
Art Nouveau. 1894, lithograph, private collection
Gustave Moreau Odilon Redon
b PARIS, 1826; d PARIS, 1898 ee) BORDEAUX, 1840; d PARIS, 1916
Moreau was one of the founding fathers Although Redon was briefly a student of
of Symbolism. He was influenced by Jean-Léon Géréme, his chief influences
the colouristic approach of Théodore Pierre Puvis de Chavannes were the botanist Armand Clavaud and

~~h
Chassériau and Eugéne Delacroix, the engraver Rodolphe Bresdin. The
as Well as the Renaissance masters b LYONS, 1824; d PARIS, 1898
former interested him in microscopy,
Self-portrait Mantegna and Leonardo. He made his The son of an engineer, Puvis trained Portrait by which inspired many of the germ-like
mark in the 1860s with a series of lyrical under French painter Henri Scheffer and Guy Mockel creatures in his works. With the latter's
fantasies loosely based on Greek mythology. It was his also studied briefly with Delacroix and guidance, Redon became a master of
paintings of Salome, shown at the Salon in 1876, that Couture. He made his mark painting lithography and charcoal — his favourite media until the
had the greatest impact. They featured in Huysmans's murals or, more precisely, large canvases 1890s. His images are simple but mysterious. “| place a
novel A Rebours (Against Nature) — a key Symbolist text Self-portrait affixed to walls. The finest of these is the little door there’ he wrote, “opening onto the unknown’
—and inspired a new generation of artists. He became cycle of paintings about St Genevieve
a professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1892. in the Pantheon, Paris. Puvis’s easel paintings often Y The Spider Fedons images can be
received a hostile reception at the Salon, but for the humorous as well as disconcerting. The spider
younger generation of artists, who were in tune with has human teeth and nostrils, but a charming
Y The Apparition Salome is confronted by a vision of
recent developments, they were highly influential. smile. 1887, lithograph, 30x 22cm, Haags
John the Baptist, the man whose head she asked for. Her
The Poor Fisherman, for example, was greatly Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, Netherlands
exotic robes, the crouching panther, and the dark, pagan
temple create an air of suffocating decadence. ¢1876, oil admired by Gauguin, Seurat, and Picasso.
on canvas, 56x47cm, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, US
W The Poor Fisherman /he bleak, colourless terrain echoes the
quiet desperation of a widower as he struggles to support his two
children. 1881, oil on canvas, 156x 193cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France

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> Orpheus /his melancholy
vision was a hitatthe Salon in
1866. Orpheus was an exquisite
musician who was torn limb
from limb after he shunned the
advances of Thracian maidens
following the death of this wife,
Eurydice. Here, a maiden carries
his head away on his lyre. 1865,
oil on canvas, 154x100cm, Musée
d'Orsay, Paris, France
A The Beheading of St CLOSERIook
John the Baptist Unlike
other Symbolist painters, Puvis
focused on John’s martyrdom
rather than on Salome. She
waits in the wings, holding the
platter for his head. 1869,
INcontext oil on canvas, 125x166cm, A Closed Eyes A giant head towers enigmatically
SALAMMBO Gustave Flaubert’s Barber Institute of Fine Arts, over a moonlit shore. The eyes may be closed in
Salammb6 (1862) was one of Birmingham, UK meditation, sleep, or death. The painting is believed
Moreau’'s favourite books. His to have been inspired by Michelangelo's Dying Slave
paintings of Salome were closely NO FEMME FATALE in the Louvre, but the model is Redons wife. 1890, oil
based on the author's descriptions By Symbolist standards, this on canvas, 44x 36cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
of the Carthaginian priestess. pensive Salome seems very
demure. The model is said
to be Princess Marie
Portrait of Gustave Flaubert
Cantacuzéne, who became
(1821-80) by Eugéne Giraud. One of
France’s greatest novelists, Flaubert Puvis's wife in 1897.
is best remembered for his study of
adultery in Madame Bovary (1857).
 Alphonse Mucha v Sarah Bernhardt as Medea
As well as posters for her
b IVANCICE, MORAVIA, 1860; d PRAGUE, 1939 performances, Mucha designed
One of the creators of the Art Nouveau style, Alphonse costumes and jewellery for this
Mucha worked initially as a decorative painter in the theatre, celebrated actress. 1898, colour
before completing his artistic education in Munich and Paris. lithograph, 207 x77cm, Mucha Trust,
Prague, Czech Republic
After settling in Paris, he was employed as an illustrator, until

aNEPEEm
’ he produced his first poster for the actress Sarah Bernhardt
Alphonse in 1894. This proved such a hit that he was flooded with
Mucha, c1925 other poster commissions. Mucha swiftly developed a
winning formula for these. He adapted Symbolist subjects, HEATRE. DE ARENALSSAl (a
removing their mysterious and sinister qualities, and introducing in their
place a mood of flirtatious gaiety. Instead of femmes fatales, he portrayed
cheerful chorus girls with cascading hair and floating draperies.
Although he is best known for his posters, Mucha also produced
designs for jewellery, calendars, and stained-glass windows. He was a
fervent patriot, too, designing new banknotes and postage stamps after
Czechoslovakia gained its independence, as well as a huge series of
pictures on Slavic history.

>

LIFEline . | > The Arts: Dance /n the 1890s, when posters were
1860 Born in Moravia, then ‘| __still a novelty, there was a craze for collecting themed
part of the Austrian Empire | sets. Mucha produced several series, including the
1887 Moves to Paris, to study | arts, the seasons, and wild flowers. 1898, colour
at the Académie Julian lithograph, 60x38cm, Mucha Trust, Prague, Czech Republic
1894 His first poster for Sarah
Bernhardt is a huge success CLOSERI00k
1903 First trip to the US
1906 Marries Marie Chytilova PONG Nn Gia
of fin-de-siécle art, long
inpitegue hair was associated by
1918 Czechoslovakia gains : .
independence the Symbolists with the
femme fatale, ensnaring
1928 Completes Slav Epic, a
her victims. But in Art
monumental series of pictures
of Slavic history Nouveau it became a
decorative accessory,
1939 |s arrested by the
Gestapo. Dies from a lung aiding the rhythm and
flow of the composition.
ART infection later that year
NOUVEAU
AND
SYMBOLISM

aide Bocklin
b BASLE, 1827; d SAN DOMENICO, 1901
Born in Switzerland, Arnold Bocklin trained with
Friedrich Wilhelm Schirmer in Dusseldorf and
concentrated initially on landscape painting. In
CENTURY
19TH 1850, his first visit to Italy proved a revelation,
B= =awakening a love of Renaissance art. Bocklin
Self-portrait | soon returned for a longer stay, from 1852 to
1857, and made significant alterations to his
artistic style. Increasingly, he turned to mythological subjects,
avoiding specific legends and focusing instead on imaginary
scenes of nymphs, satyrs, centaurs, and mermaids.
As he became aware of Symbolist developments, Bécklin’s
art assumed a darker tone. His masterpiece in this vein was
The Island of the Dead. The original was commissioned by
a woman whose husband had just died, but the funereal
theme haunted the artist and he produced no fewer than five
versions of it (1880-86). One of these was later owned by
Adolf Hitler, and the image was also adapted for the set of
one of Boris Karloff's horror films.

A The Island of the Dead

LIFEline
Bocklin called this haunting
1827 Born in Basle painting “a picture for dreaming
1845-47 Trains at the over”. 1880, oil on panel,
Academy in Dusseldorf 80x 154cm, Museum der Bildenden
1850 Makes the first of many Kiinste, Leipzig, Germany
visits to Italy
1860 Takes up a teaching post < Calm Sea Bocklin's mermaid
in Weimar pictures were often quaint or
1880 Paints first version of The sentimental, but this one has an
Island of the Dead air of menace. She is a femme
1894 Buys the Villa Belaggio in fatale, casting her spell on
San Domenico, Italy, where he TRANSPORTING THE DEAD The eerie,
hapless mariners. 1886-87, hooded figure standing in the boat carries
dies in 1901
oil on panel, 103x 150cm, echoes of Charon — the ferryman of the dead in
Kunstmuseum, Berne, Switzerland Greek mythology. The title of the painting was
provided by a Berlin art dealer in 1883
 James Ensor
b OSTEND, 1860; d OSTEND, 1949
A seminal influence on the Expressionists (see p.408) and the
Surrealists (See p.470), James Ensor was born in the seaside town of
Ostend in Belgium and spent most of his career there. Initially, his best
Ferdinand Hodler pictures were sombre interiors, tinged with Impressionist influences.
But by the mid-1880s, his palette had lightened, and there was a
b BERNE, 1853; d GENEVA, 1918
Self-portrait strong element of fantasy in his work. Much of this was inspired by
Ferdinand Hodler was born in Berne, the the outlandish, carnival-related items that his parents sold in their
son of a carpenter, but he spent most of souvenir shop. Ensor’s threatening images of animated masks and skeletons proved
his career in Geneva. He trained there too much for conventional exhibitions, but fortunately he gained a more positive
under Swiss painter Barthélemy Menn response from Les Vingt (The Twenty), an independent exhibiting body.
and initially concentrated on landscapes.
Self-portrait | However, his style altered dramatically LIFEline < Skeletons Fighting Over a
following a trip to Paris when he came Herring Ensor loved puns. Here,
1860 Born in Ostend, into an
into contact with Symbolist ideas. Hodler's best-known Anglo-Belgian family two critics (the skeletons) tussle
work in this style was Night (1890), which created a stir 1877-80 Studies at the over Ensors art (Art Ensor),
at the Salon and won him a gold medal in Munich. Many | Academy in Brussels which sounds like the Belgian
of his pictures had a quasi-religious feel, which led him 1882 Work is rejected by the name for smoked herring
to exhibit at the Rose-Croix Salon. Hodler also joined the | Antwerp Salon (hareng saur). 1891, oil on panel,
Vienna Sezession, an avant-garde group, which broke 1883 Becomes a founder 16x21cm, private collection
away from the Academy and organised its own member of Les Vingt
exhibitions. In 1904, he was honoured with a show 1888 Paints Christ's Entry V Christ's Entry into
into Brussels; starts affair Brussels /n Ensors largest and
devoted to his work at their international exhibition.
with Augusta Boogaerts most controversial painting,
: Saige: ; : 1929 |naugural exhibition at
tho Daleis tlos Beauwaneis Palm
: DeeSunday is transformed
ae into
v Night There is an indefinable air of menace in
Hodler’s most famous painting. Does the alarming devoted to his work Pe ee
shrouded figure represent death? 1890, oil on canvas, 1949 Dies in Ostend canvas, Zooxs 31cm, J raul betty
116x299cm, Kunstmuseum, Berne, Switzerland Museum, Los Angeles, US

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» Self Portrait with Masks

CLOSERIook
_——

Ensor drew inspiration from the

carnival masks and costumes in
his parents’ shop, bringing them
to life and often using them in
sinister tableaux vivants (living
pictures). Here, they are depicted
more conventionally. 1936, oil on
panel, 30x27cm, private collection
A The Dream /his picture is full of ominous
ambiguities. The naked dreamer is based on an
earlier picture, entitled The Dead Youth. The girl
holds a rose, a traditional emblem of love, but she SYMBOLISM Ensor liked to
is surrounded by poppies, which symbolize dreams place his own experiences at
or death. 1897-1903, watercolour, chalk, and oil on the centre of his art. Here,
board, 99x 70cm, Kunsthaus, Zurich, Switzerland Christ is shown with the
painter's features, taking part
in a political demonstration.

1
 Edward Burne-Jones
b BIRMINGHAM, 1833; d LONDON, 1898 | LIFEline
Max Klinger Edward Burne-Jones was an influential British painter | 1833 Born to a frame-maker
1857 Works with Rossetti on
and designer whose work provides a link between the
b LEIPZIG, 1857; d GROSSJENA, 1920 the Oxford Union murals
Symbolists, the Pre-Raphaelites (see p.332), and the
1861 Sets up firm with Morris
ax Klinger was a German painter, printmaker, and sculptor who trained Aesthetic Movement (see p.382).
1877 Exhibits to great acclaim |
in Karlsruhe under Karl von Gussow, an artist and teacher described by While studying at Oxford University in 1853 he met at Grosvenor Gallery, London
one critic as “Germany's most daring painter’ and with Belgian painter Portrait by William Morris, who became his lifelong friend and 1889 His international
GF Watts associate. They both admired the Pre-Raphaelites and
Emile Wauters in Brussels. He followed his studies with stays in Paris reputation grows after the
(1883-86), Berlin (1886-88), and Rome (1888-93), before returning to joined Dante Gabriel Rossetti in producing a series of Exposition Universelle in Paris |
his hometown of Leipzig. Klinger’s paintings were closest in spirit to Arthurian murals at the Oxford Union Society debating hall. \ —_— )
Arnold Bécklin, whom he met in 1887. In his mythological pictures, Burne-Jones and Morris retained their interest in romantic, :medieval
Klinger achieved an unusual blend of classicism and dream-like fantasy, subjects when they founded their decorating firm in 1861, and their v Laus Veneris /he worship
seen to best effect in an enormous version of The Judgement of Paris pioneering enterprise helped inspire the Arts and Crafts movement. of Venus is a classical myth
(1885-87). This caused a considerable stir when It was exhibited in In his work for the firm, Burne-Jones provided designs for tapestries, transformed here into a
Vienna in 1887. His creative peak however came as a printmaker. In stained glass, and book illustrations. He continued painting, conjuring medieval romance. 1873-75,
this field, his most celebrated work was a series of etchings entitled up a dream-world where pale, androgynous figures mingled with oil and gold paint on canvas,
Paraphrases on the Finding of a Glove (1878-80, first published in 1881). Arthurian knights and classical gods. 122x183cm, Laing Art Gallery,
na sequence of hallucinatory images, the glove became a fetish object, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
symbolising a young man’s lost love. This potent cocktail of sexual and
rrational imagery proved a major influence on the Surrealists.

The Seizure /his startling image comes from

Paraphrases on the Finding of a Glove, Klingers best-
known series ofprints. 1878, Indian ink wash and pen on
paper, 90x22cm, on loan to the Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
j A

SYMBOLISM
NOUVEAU
ART
AND

Fernand Khnopff
b GREMBERGEN, NEAR ANTWERP, 1858; d BRUSSELS, 1921

Khnopff was a founder member of Les Vingt, the main forum for
Symbolist art in Belgium. He trained at the Academy in Brussels, but his
style was shaped by Moreau and Burne-Jones, whose work he saw at
CENTURY
19TH the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1878. Khnopff later became friendly
with the Englishman, exchanging a number of drawings with him, and
his pictures feature a similar array of pale, otherworldly women. A
fellow artist quipped that he “had sunk himself into Burne-Jones's boots
up to his neck” Khnopff was a fine oil painter, but his most atmospheric
scenes were often produced in pastels, charcoal, or chalk.

‘ Who Shall Deliver Me? / 1s

Khnopff took both the title and the HIDDEN MESSAGE !n the
theme of this picture from a poem court of Venus, the goddess
by Christina Rossetti. An enigmatic reclines languidly while her ladies
woman, with flaming hair and a sing her praises. The title of the
haunted expression, is confined painting, taken from a Swinburne
ina prison of her own making. poem written four years earlier,
Characteristically, the artist has is written in the music book.
conjured up. a mood of dreamlike
mystery and underlying menace. \ The Dream of Sir Lancelot
1891, coloured chalks on paper, at the Chapel of the Holy
22x 13cm, private collection Grail /n the dream, an angel
tells Lancelot he will never see
the Grail, because of his adultery
with Guinevere. 1896, oil on
canvas, 139x 169cm, Southampton
City Art Gallery, UK

» Green Summer At first

glance, this scene appears idyllic,
even if the girls’ expressions are
rather sad. In an earlier version,
however, Death is unseen beside
them, waiting to break into their
circle. 1868, oil on canvas,
65x 106cm, private collection
George Frederic Watts
b LONDON, 1817; d LONDON, 1904 LIFEline
G F Watts was a versatile painter and sculptor, and one 1817 Born in London, the son of a piano maker
of the leading lights of the Symbolist movement in 1843 Travels to Italy, after winning a competition
England. His talent was recognized at an early age, but it to decorate the Houses of Parliament
was only in the 1880s that he attained popular success. 1867 Elected a member of the Royal Academy
This was achieved with a series of ambitious moral tales 1886 Completes most famous painting, Hope,
when nearly 70 years old
Photograph and visionary landscapes.
by Julia Although Watts’s work owed much to the Italian
“Hope /he blind figure of
Seen Renaissance masters, he reinvented their formulae in Hope perches forlornly on a
order to produce his “poems painted on canvas’ These had a huge globe but, in spite of her
impact at the 1878 Exposition Universelle in Paris and at the newly sadness, a single star still
opened Grosvenor Gallery in London, which became the main forum shines overhead and one lyre-
for the Aesthetic Movement. Watts was also a fine portraitist. string remains unbroken
1885-86, oil on canvas,
» Love and Death /nspired by the premature 150x 109cm, private collection
demise of a friend, Watts shows pale Death
advancing remorselessly towards the “House INcontext
ofLife”. c1874-87, oil on canvas, 249x 117cm, TRIAL OF OSCAR WILDE In 1895, the novelist,
Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, UK playwright, and wit Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was
convicted of gross indecency. The trial put his
CLOSERI|ook homosexual relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas
under the spotlight, scandalizing Victorian society.
Wilde served two years’ hard labour. Traumatized
by the experience, he went into self-imposed exile
after his release in 1897. He died three years later.

Oscar Wilde
A perceptive art critic,
m Wilde was closely
associated with the
Aesthetic Movement
and an admirer of
SYMBOL OF LOVE Watts’s work. He
A traditional emblem of love, m wrote a favourable
a dove watches helplessly as review of Watts’s
Love and Death
the wings of its “playmate” are
crushed against the door, trying
in vain to halt Death's progress. INSI
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Aubrey Beardsley Alfred Gilbert

b BRIGHTON, 1872; d MENTON,
Beardsley attended classes at the
1898 le Ca
OR 2 IN 83 b LONDON, 1854; d LONDON, 1934

British sculptor and metal worker Alfred

Westminster School of Art, but learned Gilbert is best known for the Eros statue
more from his contacts with Burne-Jones in London's Piccadilly Circus. Gilbert's
and Puvis de Chavannes. His use of work displays a blend of Symbolist and HL6L
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sinuous, decorative lines links him with Art Nouveau influences.
Photograph the Art Nouveau movement, but his taste In a remarkable series of nude self-
by Frederick —_for intense, often perverse imagery allies portraits he masqueraded as various
pelyer him far more closely with the Symbolists. mythological figures. He also created
Beardsley’s decadent style was typified by his
illustrations for Oscar Wilde's Salome. This play, which
featured an eroticised version of the biblical story, was
ate
aae:: startling interpretations of traditional
themes, most notably in his Virgin,
enmeshed in a rose bush.
particularly popular with Symbolist artists, because it CC
included two of their favourite themes — the femme
fatale and the severed head, Beardsley’s other work
was in a similar vein, leading the satirical magazine
Punch to give him the nickname Aubrey Weirdsley.

» The Climax Salome holds

LIFEline
up the head of John the Baptist,
1879 First diagnosed with whose death she has just
tuberculosis, aged 7 ordered. From his dripping blood,
1888 Begins work in an a lily sprouts up, symbolizing his
insurance office
purity. The scene is taken from
1892 Receives first major
commission to illustrate Oscar Wilde's Salome. 1893,
Thomas Malory’s Morte line block print, 34x 27cm,
dArthur private collection
1893 Produces his finest
drawings for Wilde's Salome
1894 Appointed art editor of “Eros Popularly known as
periodical The Yellow Book Eros, the correct name for this
1897 Moves to the Riviera, famous statue is The Angel of
as his health deteriorates Christian Charity. /t was made
1898 Dies of tuberculosis, in to commemorate The Earl of
a hotel in Menton, France, Shaftesbury and his charitable
aged 25 acts. 1893, aluminium,
Piccadilly Circus, London, UK
 ~The clear, Nordic light gave their
4 paintings a distinctively Scandinavian
feel, which suited the mood
Although the Scandinavian countries of patriotism and nationalism.
had a long and distinguished artistic French Realism and Impressionism
tradition and their own academies, were obvious influences, but later
until the mid-19th century many Scandinavians were influenced by
artists trained in Germany. As the more forward-looking movements.
century drew to a close, there was Munch, who also worked in Berlin,
an increasing mood of internationalism, discovered Post-Ilmpressionism and
and Nordic artists allied themselves Symbolism; and in the 20th century
to trends elsewhere. At the same Cézanne and the Cubists became
time, the political landscape'was important influences.
changing too, inspiring nationalist
movements, especially in Finland
CURRENTevents
and Norway as they moved towards A The Cycle of Life Gustav Vigeland Like many 1809-1917 Finland annexed by Russia,
independence after many years under Scandinavian artists, Gustav Vigeland studied abroad after centuries of Swedish rule.
In the latter part of the 19th before returning home to develop his individual vision.
Swedish, Danish, or Russian rule. | 1835-1836 Lénnrot publishes the first version |
century, Scandinavian artists | of Kalevala, the Finnish epic poem.
had shifted from, predominantly Origins and influences Fontainebleau, France. Other Swedish | 1891 Henrik Ibsen writes Hedda Gabler, )
Germanic tradition to a French- The first seeds of a Scandinavian style painters went to Paris to study, as did | and exiled in Italy and Germany, returns |
| to Norway. /
inspired model, establishing a came from France. Swedish landscape the Finn Akseli Gallen-Kallela, the Dane
painters discovered the Barbizon Peder Severin Kroyer, and a number of |1901 The first Nobel prizes awarded under |
Nordic style of plein air (outdoor) | the will of Alfred Nobel, the inventor of
school (see p.324), and in the 1880s Norwegians, and then they returned to | dynamite. |
painting in which nature was a group of Swedes including Carl set up schools in their native countries | 4995 Norway declares independence from |
often linked with states of mind Larsson set up a Summer painting using the plein air techniques they had |Sweden. |
and imagination. colony at Grez-surLoing near learned in France. WS e

ART Scandinavian art —

SCANDINAVIAN

Akseli Gallen-Kallela Peder Severin Kr@yer

b PORI, 1865; d STOCKHOLM, 1931 b STAVANGER, 1851; d SKAGEN, 1909
Regarded as Finland’s most celebrated painter and a driving force The most important Danish painter of light in the 19th century,
behind the creation of a distinctive Finnish style, Gallen-Kallela was Peder Severin Kroyer is probably best known for his Skagen
an important figure in the Art Nouveau and Symbolist movements. beach scenes, although his work covered a wide range of themes.
CENTURY
19TH He studied in Paris and travelled widely, but was increasingly inspired Raised in Denmark by foster parents, Kroyer studied at Copenhagen
by the haunting Finnish landscape, which he used as a vehicle to Academy and travelled extensively throughout Europe. In Paris, he was
explore issues of national identity. inspired by Impressionist p/ein-air painting, and thereafter he began
By the 1890s, Gallen-Kallela’s early Realism had developed into a to produce the complex light effects for which he became famous.
simplified style that used bold, often garish colours. He is best-known From 1882, Kroyer became a leading member of the Skagen Painters,
for his depictions of the epic folklore poem Kalevala, about Finland's a group of artists based at Skagen on the Jutland coast. His final
mythic origins, but he was also a versatile graphic artist and designer. decade was blighted by syphilis, mental problems, and failing eyesight.

r]

A The Anger of Kallervo, from

Kalevala [his litho-print is an
illustration from a 1908 edition
of Kalevala. The mythological
subject matter suited Gallen-
Kallela’s forceful style and
patriotic nature. Note the
strong outlines and somewhat
flattened forms. 1908, colour litho,
Bibliotheque des Arts Décoratifs,
Paris, France
‘a 2 i
A Summer Evening on the Skagen Southern Beach with Anna
tc See - Bim
=: Ancher and Marie Kroyer Krayer’s best-known and most popular
A Lake Keitele, 1905 /n this painting, inspired by the Kalevala epic, painting celebrates beach life at its relaxing best. It features his wife
Gallen-Kallela eloquently captures the haunting, silvery light on the lake, and a friend, both fellow artists. The luminous summer evening light and
the sweeping sense of space, and the silent grandeur of the landscape. the ghostly white of the sand and the women’s dresses create a dream-
1905, oil on canvas, 53x 66cm, National Gallery, London, UK like sheen. 1893, oil on canvas, 100x 150cm, Skagens Museum, Denmark
Richard Bergh
b STOCKHOLM, 1858; d SALTSJO-STORANGEN, 1919 LIFEline
Vilhelm Hammershoi
Richard Bergh became one of Sweden's foremost painters. Inspired by the Nordic 1858 Born in Stockholm to b COPENHAGEN, 1864; d COPENHAGEN, 1916
light, he drew on French plein air (outdoor) painting and Symbolism to form his affluent, liberal parents
Hammershoi, whose muted style has been described
distinctly Swedish style of Romanticism. He was also a talented portrait painter 1878-81 Studies at the
Stockholm Academy as “a weird fusion of Hopper and Vermeer’ has enjoyed
whose sitters included fellow artist Julia Beck and the poet Gustaf Froding. a resurgence of interest in recent years. He is best
1881-84 Lives in Paris
Bergh’s parents were artists and members of the cultural elite, so he was known for restrained interiors filled with melancholy and
1885 Founder member of the
introduced to art at an early age. While studying at the Stockholm Academy, where Artists’ Union, a liberal rival to light, but he also painted landscapes, portraits, nudes,
his father was a professor, he became interested in contemporary French painting. the Stockholm Academy and architecture. Hammershoi debuted with Portrait of
Bergh was active in political and social issues, and played an important part in 1887 Paints Hypnotic Seance a Young Girl in 1885, and his original style was viewed
Swedish artistic life. He set up a painting school, helping to develop a new generation 1905 Paints Portrait of August as controversial. He worked mainly in Copenhagen;
of painters, and wrote prolifically about art. He was also responsible for modernizing Strindberg his wife, Ida, features in many of his interiors.
the National Museum of Art in Stockholm where he was director from 1915. 1915 Made director of National
Museum of Art, Stockholm
Y Interior with the Artist's Mother /he bare,
>» Nordic Summer Evening ///uminated =~ colourless room with a single female figure
by the evening sun, this work typifies the conjures up a mood of solitude and introspection.
Nordic light paintings; the atmosphere is Hammershoi’s use of light and space was
still and melancholic, suffused with sexual influenced by Whistler. 1889, oil on canvas,
tension. 1899-1900, oil on canvas, 170x223cm, 59x51cm, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden
Goteborgs Konstmuseum, Sweden

SOMETHING IN THE AIR The

psychological tension between the couple
is emphasized by the physical distance
between them, and their outward gaze. NVIA
LYV
X

Carl Larsson Anders Zorn Gustav Vigeland

b STOCKHOLM, 1853; d FALUN, 1919 b MORA, 1860; d MORA, 1920 b MANDAL, 1869; d OSLO, 1943

The Swedish painter, printmaker, illustrator, and writer < Dagmar Zorn Vigeland, Norway's most celebrated sculptor, studied
was famous for his briefly under Rodin. He is best known for his allegorical
Carl Larsson is chiefly remembered for the country
voluptuous bathing series of monumental figures that he created for
house he created with his textile-designer wife, Karin,
nudes, which he often Frogner Park in Oslo —a mammoth project that
and the watercolours of his idyllic domestic life, which
painted outdoors in HL6L
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he shared in his illustrated books. His lasting legacy dominated much of his later life.
Impressionist style.
was the creation of a Swedish interior design style Vigeland studied art in Oslo and elsewhere in Europe,
The play of light on
that remains instantly recognizable today. but his early years were a struggle. Around 1900, his
skin and water, are
Born into poverty, Larsson enjoyed little professional both skilfully captured emotional, naturalistic early work evolved into a simpler
success until he met Karin, converted to plein-air here. 1911, oil on style that was influenced by medieval sculpture.
realism, and started working in watercolour. canvas, 88x 63cm, His portrait busts from 1900 to 1910 established
private collection him as the country's leading sculptor.

Swedish artist Anders Zorn is regarded as one of

Europe's most outstanding genre and portrait painters
of the late 19th century. Zorn travelled extensively,
spending time in Europe, North Africa, and the US.
An illegitimate child from a farming background, Zorn
studied at the Stockholm Academy.
A When the Children Have Gone to Bed His debut watercolour portrait, /n Mourning (1880),
Larsson described his art — like his home — drew acclaim, and Zorn gradually achieved an
as “modest but harmonious”. His watercolours international reputation. He began working in oils in
are full of light and cosy domesticity, with 1887, and was also an accomplished etcher and
influences ranging from Arts and Crafts to sculptor, He considered Midsummer Dance (1896),
Kate Greenaway. c1895, watercolour on paper, depicting life in Mora, as his best work. His home is
32x 43cm, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden now a museum housing his art.
This sculpture, executed in a simple style with minimal detail,
is one of a series in Frogner Park portraying the cycle of life
Granite, Frogner Park, Oslo, Norway
 Edvard Munch v Jealousy /his is a powerful visual narrative of
Munch’: inner turmoil about his lover, Dagny, typically
b LOTEN, 1863; d OSLO, 1944 LIFEline portrayed as the temptress, Eve. 1894-95, oil on canvas,
The Norwegian painter and printmaker is regarded as | 1863 Born in Loten, Norway 69x 100cm, Rasmus Meyers Samplinger, Bergen, Norway
one of modern art's most influential and electrifying 1885 First visit to Paris at the =

protagonists. Munch suffered from depression and age of 22

mental illness but used them to produce extraordinary, 1892-1908 Based mainly in
Germany. Produces The
often frenzied, work. His pessimistic view of life was Frieze of Life series
Self-portrait conveyed in bold colours and strong lines, anticipating 1893 Paints his most famous
Expressionism and opening up exciting new avenues for work, The Scream
art. He covered existential themes such as life, death, and despair in a 1908 Moves back to Norway
self-described attempt to “dissect souls* 1910-16 His Oslo University
Munch began painting in Oslo, but his sojourns in Paris exposed mural shows extrovert style
him to Post-lmpressionist and Symbolist influences, particularly the 1916 Settles at Skoyen, Oslo
work of Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin, and he began using 1940-42 Paints Between the
swirling brushwork, simplified forms, and non-naturalistic colour to Clock and the Bed
convey emotion. Although Munch realized that his genius owed much 1944 Dies in Oslo
to his turbulent mind, a breakdown in 1908 inspired a change of style,
as he determined to lead a calmer life. His output, however, remained
prodigious. Also an acclaimed printmaker, Munch's woodcuts — often
executed in colour — helped to revive the technique in the 20th century.

The Sick Child Munch

described this haunting painting
as “the breakthrough in my art”
and painted six versions of It.
Inspired by his sisters death, it
conveys the grief and stillness
of the sickroom. Munch
engraved the layers of paint
with a spatula to create the
effect of gazing through a film
oftears. 1885-6, oil on canvas,
120x119cm, Nasjonalgalleriet,
SCANDINAVIA
Oslo, Norway

CENTURY
19TH

:‘
A The Scream Munch’ most famous work is brilliantly CLOSERIook
composed to create maximum tension. The shrieking colours ADDING DRAMA The c
and violent juxtaposition of curved and straight lines all swirling brushstrokes of
As $9 ‘; ay ie
flow towards the central, screaming figure, as though the the sky and water are
A Madonna A compelling image of sensual ecstasy environment itself is expressing emotion through the distorted echoed by those of the iii.
and transcendence, Munch's masterpiece straddles death-head. The painting may have been inspired by the screaming head, creating SX ___
19th- and 20th-century art. Part of his Frieze of Life Krakatoa eruption of 1883, which Munch likened to “a great, a sense of anxiety. 7
series, it represents the miracle of life. Munch's aim infinite scream” passing through nature. 1893, oil, tempera, Tension is added by the \
was to portray Woman from a lover's viewpoint, at and pastel on cardboard, 91x 74cm, National Gallery, Oslo, Norway use of perspective in the ;
the moment of conception. 1894, oil on canvas, 90x71¢m, receding parallel lines of af
Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany the bridge.
 The latter part of the 19th century
saw artists in mainland Europe
searching for new means of
expression that would explode into
the revolutionary movements of the
early 20th century, but elsewhere,
particularly in Britain and the US,
French Realism and Impressionism
were still exerting a strong influence. The Lyceum 1901-02 Ramon
Casas Casas was a leading figure
of Modernisme, an art movement
Origins and influences centred in his native Barcelona that
Artists from all over the world made was essentially a Catalan version
their way to France to study and of Art Nouveau, but which also
blended elements from other
work throughout the 19th century, turn-of-the century trends.
taking the ideas of Realism and
Impressionism back to their native Singer Sargent, for example, made examples of how Realism and
countries. Although these styles were his name in Paris and London as well Impressionism invigorated the
Their subsequent reputations no longer at the forefront in European _as the US, and another American American tradition.
often eclipsed by the major centres of art, they made an impact as_ expatriate, James McNeill Whistler, In Europe, however, the influence
figures of the art world in they were adopted by comparatively evolved his idiosyncratic style in was more clearly apparent in
France, a number of painters conservative traditions elsewhere, self-imposed isolation in Britain. portrait painting — where realism is
practically a necessity — and genre
from other countries enjoyed paaioihe ies Oe UU Subjects
‘ many countries. painting, in particular the society
successful careers outside the As well as this dissemination of In the US, the genre paintings of painting that was popular with an
progressive artistic centres at trends from France, several artists Thomas Eakins and Winslow Homer's increasingly affluent and growing
the turn of the 20th century. decided to remain in Europe. John landscapes and seascapes are prime middle class.

End ofitheCentury — GNA

AHLA
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[Winslow Homer
b BOSTON, 1836; d PROUT’S NECK, MAINE, 1910 LIFEline
One of the leading American painters of his time, Winslow Homer was 1836 Born in Boston
an artist of great power and originality, whose portrayal of untamed 1855-57 Apprenticed to
a Boston lithographer
nature reflects his country’s pioneering spirit. The sea was his favourite
1861 Sent to the Front as
subject, but he was also a landscape and genre painter. He excelled an artist-correspondent for HL6L
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at illustration, watercolour, and oils, and he did much to establish Harper's Illustrated
watercolour as an important medium. 1866 Visits France
Homer was largely self-taught and came to art late, having started 1873 Begins his first series
out as a commercial printmaker. A visit to France introduced him of watercolours in Gloucester,
to Impressionism, although he himself conveyed light and colour Massachusetts
differently within a solid construction of clear outlines. He worked 1883 Settles in Prout's Neck,
Maine
prolifically from the late 1850s until his death, producing iconic images
1889 Makes the first of many
of 19th-century American life, as well as art that explored the struggle
painting and fishing trips to
between man and nature. His portrayals of the Maine coast, where he the Adirondacks
settled, are among his best-known works, recognized for their superb 1910 Dies in Prout’s Neck,
brushwork, emotional intensity, and hint of modernist abstraction. aged 74

CLOSERIook §

portrayals of outdoor pursuits in seascapes. Here, a man in heavy-weather

the Adirondack wilderness still gear struggles in the crashing surf to secure
influence sporting art today. He driftwood. Homer's work was characterized by
was able to isolate action with its directness, realism, objectivity, and superb
an almost photographic quality use of colour, and this — his final painting —
which appealed to popular is no exception. 1909, oil on canvas, 62x 72cm,
taste. 1894, watercolour over Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, US
COLOUR TECHNIQUE graphite pencil on paper,
Homer filled the paper with 38x 55cm, Museum of Fine Arts,
large areas of wash, then Boston, US
blotted or scraped back areas
to create a lively surface.
 James Abbott McNeill Whistler
b LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS, 1834; d LONDON, 1903 | LIFEline
| Thomas Eakins
A stylish American-born painter, designer, printmaker, | 1834 Born in Lowell
b PHILADELPHIA, 1844; d PHILADELPHIA, 1916 and wit, Whistler was a central figure in the Aesthetic 1854-55 Expelled from the
One of the most outstanding American Realist painters Movement. He was known for his paintings of night-time West Point Military Academy.
Learns etching as a navy
of the 19th century, Thomas Eakins was also a sculptor, London, his stylistic, full-length portraits, and his superb cartographer
a photographer, and an innovative teacher. Often etchings. His combative nature and dandyish ways also 1855-58 Studies art in Paris.
misunderstood and ignored during his lifetime, he is best Self-portrait kept him in the public eye. Whistler spent his life as an | Produces the French Set
known for his uncompromising portraits and his scenes expatriate, living mainly in London, although he also etchings
Self-portrait of contemporary American life. worked in France. Rejecting the artistic conventions of the time, 1859 Moves to London
While studying at the Pennsylvania Academy, Eakins he maintained that subject matter was secondary to evoking mood and | 1874 First solo exhibition at
creating harmonies of colour and composition. Likening his paintings to | the Flemish Gallery, London
unusually took classes in anatomy and dissection at Jefferson Medical
visual music, he gave them titles such as “symphonies” or “nocturnes” | 1879-80 Is bankrupted by a
College, which led to a lasting interest in scientific realism. He began
libel suit. Travels to Venice
teaching at the Pennsylvania Academy in 1876, and proved an Although he was a contemporary of the Impressionists, Whistler
| 1886 Elected president of the |
innovative modernizer, later introducing anatomy, dissection, and developed an individual style that combined French Realism, Japanese Society of British Artists
photography to the curriculum. Eakins’ work had great vitality and decorative influences, and Aestheticism. During his final two decades, | 1903 Dies at home in London
directness, with a strong sense of form and three-dimensional design. Whistler achieved recognition as an artist of international importance.
His portraits, in particular, showed acute insight; he refused to flatter, He was also influential in introducing modern ideas into British art.
seeking only to reveal the truth as he saw it.
v Red and Black: The Fan /his painting of
Whistlers stylishly-dressed sister-in-law reveals his
LIFEline Max Schmitt in a Single Scull Boating interest in womens fashions. He skilfully depicts
| and rowing were among Eakins’ favourite the fan's gauze fabric. 1891-94, oil on canvas,
1844 Born in Philadelphia
themes. Here, he depicts the rowing champion, 187x90cm, Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow, UK
1862-66 Studies at the
Max Schmitt, as a contemporary hero. 1871,
Pennsylvania Academy
oil on canvas, 83x 118cm, Metropolitan Museum
1866-70 Continues his studies
| in Europe of Art, New York, US
1876 Starts teaching at the
Pennsylvania Academy. First
| exhibition at the Centennial
| Exhibition in Philadelphia
1882 Appointed director of the
Pennsylvania Academy
1884-85 Paints The Swimming
Hole, his finest study of nudes
1889 Paints The Agnew Clinic
1916 Dies of heart failure
CENTURY
OFTHE
END

CENTURY
19TH
CLOSERIook
fly Gold, the Falling Rocket
Fireworks were considered
inappropriate for a painting and-
this work proved controversial.
Savaged by the critic John
Ruskin, Whistler sued for libel,
but was awarded derisory
damages and bankrupted. c1875,
oil on panel, 60x 47cm, Detroit
Institute of Arts, US

ABSTRACT COLOURS
This strongly Impressionistic
work is an example of
Whistler's philosophy of art
for art’s sake. The abstract
drift of orange and yellow
lights reflects Japanese
delicacy and helps to convey
the ephemeral quality of
the fireworks

The Gross Clinic When this picture was first shown,

its gory subject-matter created controversy, but it
established Eakins as a major figure in American Realism
A Symphony in White, No Ill /his painting is a
harmonious blend of colour, shapes, and composition
It shows the eminent surgeon, Samuel D Gross, operating
in front of students at Jefferson Medical College. 1875,
Translucent paint layering and delicate brushstrokes
add to the mood. 1865-67, oil on canvas, 51x 77cm,
oil on canvas, 244 x 198cm, Jefferson College, Philadelphia, US
The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham, UK
 Valentin Serov
b ST PETERSBURG, 1865; d MOSCOW, 1911
Although virtually unknown outside his native country, Santiago Rusinol
Valentin Serov was the leading Russian portrait painter
of his time, gifted at achieving a revealing insight into b BARCELONA, 1861; d ARANJUEZ, SPAIN 1931
Giovanni Boldini the character of his sitter. His best work ranks among One of the leading figures in Catalan Modernism
the cream of Russian Realist art. in the late 19th and early 20th century, Santiago
b FERRARA 1842; d PARIS, 1931
Self-portrait Serov studied at the St Petersburg Academy. From Rusihol was an outstanding Spanish painter and writer.
Italian artist Giovanni Boldini was one 1890 onwards, he concentrated primarily on painting He was based mainly in Barcelona, but lived in Paris
of the most celebrated society portrait portraits, producing a stunning record of the most prominent people when Impressionism was coming to the fore, which
painters of his era. He was best known in Russian society, business, government, and the arts. He undertook influenced his use of light and colour. Rusinol
for his portrayals of beautiful women, numerous Important commissions, including a portrait of Grand Duke introduced Symbolism and other modern French
but also painted Parisian street scenes. Pavel Alexandrovich (1897). influences to Spain. Although he was an acute observer
His style was reminiscent of his British At the turn of the century, Serov's style changed; Impressionistic of nature, Rusifol believed that painting was a vehicle
contemporary, John Singer Sargent. elements in his work were replaced by a Modernistic approach, for conveying emotion, rather than a medium that
Boldini travelled extensively, although although he remained committed to conveying the truth and realism reflected reality. During his lifetime, he was an eminent
he based himself mainly in Paris. During of his subject matter. During his later years, Serov painted a number art collector and his home at Sitges, near Barcelona,
his lifetime he enjoyed international of landscapes and also worked on classical mythology themes. iS Now a museum.
success, but his frothy style lost its
appeal after his death.

< The Blue Patio

This is one of a
« Madame number of patio
Charles Max /his pictures that Rusinol
expressive painting <( Girl with Peaches painted in the coastal
of a Parisian socialite Serovs luminous, town of Sitges. The
is typical of Boldini, impressionistic portrait of light palette and
who was known for Vera Mamontova — his mundane subject
his lively brushwork debut work — is probably matter pay homage
and ability to give his best-known painting, to the work of the
his subjects elegance and heralds the impending Impressionists.
and poise. 1896, move from Realism to 1892, oil on canvas,
oil on canvas, Modernism. 1887, oil on 68x53cm, Abadia
100x205cm, Musée canvas, 91x 85cm, Tretyakov de Montserrat, AHLA
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GNA
d'Orsay, Paris, France Gallery, Moscow, Russia Barcelona, Spain

John Lavery John Singer Sargent

b BELFAST, 1856; d KILMAGANNY, 1941 b FLORENCE, 1856; d LONDON, 1925
An Irish-born painter best known One of the most celebrated and financially successful
for his dashing portraits, John Lavery artists of his era, John Singer Sargent made his mark as
also painted interiors, landscapes, and a society painter. An outstanding portraitist, he brilliantly
outdoor life. After studying in Glasgow, conveyed the opulence of his subjects’ lifestyles, HL6L
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, London, and Paris, he was based mainly } although he was sometimes criticized for superficial
Portrait by in Glasgow between 1885 and 1896, John Singer — characterization. He also painted Impressionistic
WalterTittle then eventually settled in London. Lavery | Sargent landscape watercolours and urban scenes.
travelled widely, spending the winters in An American who lived in Europe, Sargent was a
Morocco, where he owned a house. supporter of the avant-garde and admired Monet, Manet and other
Despite a glittering career, Lavery evidently regretted contemporaries. He was also noted for his portrayal of the modern
playing it safe. He wrote in his autobiography, “! have woman, at a time when women were asserting their independence
felt ashamed of having spent my life trying to please and fighting for equality. His radical portrait of Mr and Mrs | N Phelps
sitters... instead of telling the truth” Stokes (1897) suggests that Mrs Stokes was the dominant partner.

< Anna Pavlova LIFEline

tetroecin |MI Sus

ae eee 1856 Born in Florence
two versions of tay

/lerina rehearsin
a Baccheiel is piegete oes 2 sca A Portrait of Katherine
This dramatic and Loca A feats Lae Chase Shapleigh his
expressive work ie4:i a La Impressionistic portrait was
challenged portrait society portraitist of choice painted in the United States.
conventions of the 1892 |s established as the The coo! white tones of
day. 1911, oil on canvas, most fashionable portraitist Shapleighs dress and flowers
198x145cm, Art in London and the luminosity of her
Gallery and Museum, 1907 Announces he is giving ni skin contrast with the dark
Kelvingrove, Glasgow, UK | up portraits to concentrate on : ae ear eage background. Sargent’ delicate
landscapes and murals A The Sitwell Family Sargent has brought handling oflight and skin tones
1916-25 Produces an a Baroque grandeur, reminiscent of Velazquez, are superb. 1890, oil on canvas,
important mural for the to this portrait of English aristocracy at home. 102x77cm, Worcester Art
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston | He skilfully projects an image of the dominant Museum, Massachusetts, US
1925 Dies in London patriarch, dutiful, beautiful wife, and obedient
—_—_————— _ children, surrounded by family heirlooms. 1900,
oil on canvas, 170x 193cm, private collection
 Subjects
There was a move away from
Neoclassicism towards a much more
romantic depiction of the individual,
whether fighting to defend the liberty
of the people, or in commemoration
of the dead. Literary allusions were
Origins and influences plentiful and sculptors made ready
The Ecole des Beaux Arts tradition reference to Dante, Shakespeare,
of training drew aspiring sculptors and Tasso or to the subjects of
to Paris. While the most ambitious contemporary novels.
students applied for the Prix de Rome, From 1848, many sculptors were
which enabled them to study in Rome employed by the state to ornament
The reputation of Paris as at the State's expense, there was only new buildings with stone or bronze
a centre for sculptors, and one place to ensure success as an statuary, and Paris also held its own
artist — the annual Salon exhibition, store of marble to be allocated for
especially for monumental
where sculptors competed for commissions. Major projects included
sculpture, blossomed in the
patronage. From 1855, Paris held an extension to the Louvre, new
19th century. It was a period A The Eiffel Tower Erected in Paris as a temporary
Expositions Universelles (World Fairs) structure for the Exposition Universelle of 1889, at 300m,
railway stations, stock exchange,
marked by revolution and to display French commerce and it was, in its day, the tallest building in the world. law courts, and the Garnier opera
growing republicanism allied to culture alongside pavilions from other house. After 1870, competitions
technical, industrial, and social countries. Sculpture was prominently and may be seen clearly in the were held to provide colossal public
featured to decorate both temporary statuary and facades of the World’s monuments intended to promote and
change. Aristocratic and state
structures and on permanent sites. Columbian Exposition in Chicago secure the republic. At the same time,
patronage provided much work in 1893. It is also evident in public new industrial processes allowed
As foreign students and artists
and the systems of technical returned from visiting Paris or Rome, sculpture as far afield as Buenos Aires smaller works to be reproduced more
support were well established. the Beaux Arts style went with them in Argentina and Melbourne, Australia. easily for the domestic market.

Sculpture
SCULPTURE

Francois Rude
b DIJON, 1784; d PARIS, 1855
<< The Departure of the
Volunteers in 1792 A/so
As a boy, Rude studied drawing in his hometown of Dijon. He later known as La Marseillaise
moved to Paris, where, in his twenties, he enrolled at the Ecole des and inspired by real events, this
Beaux Arts. In 1812, Rude was awarded the prestigious Prix de Rome, is one of four large sculptures
19TH but he was unable to take up the prize to study in Italy because of
CENTURY attached to the Arc de Triomphe.
the Napoleonic Wars. In 1815, after Napoleon's fall, he fled Paris for The relief idealizes men and
Brussels, living in exile for 12 years to escape the Bourbon restoration, boys in classical attire defending
when the Roman Catholic Church was restructured as a power in the Republic. They are urged
French politics. He returned to Paris in 1827 and became highly onwards by the mythical
successful. Rude’s greatest achievement is the 3m-high stone winged figure of Liberty.
sculpture The Departure of the Volunteers in 1792, also known as 1833-36, stone, height 3m,
La Marseillaise. One of four large sculptures attached to the Arc de Arc de Triomphe, Paris, France
Triomphe, it was unveiled in 1836.
CLOSERIook

LIFEline
1784 Born in Dijon, the son
of a metalworker
1809 Enters Ecole des Beaux
Arts in Paris
1812 Awarded the Prix
de Rome
1821 Marries Sophie Frémiet
1833 Exhibits at Paris Salon;
awarded Cross of Legion FACE OF LIBERTY
d'honneur; friezes and figure Along with equality and
group commissioned for the
fraternity, liberty was acclaimed
Arc de Triomphe
as one of the three great virtues
1836 La Marseillaise unveiled
of the republic. Derived from
to great public acclaim
the Roman goddess of war,
1838 Denied membership of
the Académie Bellona, this plaster study for
the main figure issues a
1847 Napoleon Awaking to
Immortality unveiled A Napoleon Awaking to Immortality This powerful call to arms.
1855 Dies in Paris, aged 71
sculpture of the Emperor throwing off his shroud
reflected the desire for change that eventually led
to the Revolution of 1848. 1845-47, bronze, length
3m, Parc Noisot, Dijon, France
Antoine-Louls Barye Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
b PARIS, 1795; d PARIS, 1875 LIFEline b VALENCIENNES, 1827; d PARIS, 1875
Barye spent much of his time as a young artist drawing 1818 |n his early twenties, Carpeaux’s abilities were nurtured from an early age. In 1854, he was
animals at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris; in doing so enrols at Ecole des Beaux employed as a sculptor to work on the renovation and expansion of
Arts, Paris
he developed the anatomical knowledge that informed the Louvre. Awarded the Prix de Rome in 1854, he spent three years
1848 Declared bankrupt
the often savage subject matter of his sculptures. in Italy and completed his sculpture Fisherboy Listening to a Seashell,
1848-50 Director of Casts and
Nicknamed the “Michelangelo of the Menagerie’ Models at the Louvre 3) =~which was purchased by banker and art collector Baron James de
Barye was a key figure in the Animaliers school of 1854-75 Professor of Drawings Photograph — Rothschild. In 1862, a bronze cast of his sculpture Ugolino and His
artists, known for their powerful, realistic animal at Museum of Natural History, by André Sons was placed in the Tuileries Gardens, Paris; a stone version was
sculptures. Although he gained royal and aristocratic in the Jardin des Plantes Distr later displayed at the 1867 Exhibition Universelle. In 1869, his relief
patronage, he was declared bankrupt in 1848 and 1867 Awarded Grand Medal The Dance was unveiled at the Garnier Opera house in Paris. Described as the most
forced to sell rights to make casts of his work. at the Exposition Universelle controversial sculpture of the 19th century, it was splashed with ink within a month.
It took Barye a decade to retrieve his rights. 1868 Elected to the Academy The original, replaced by a full-sized copy in 1969, is now in the Musée d'Orsay.
of Fine Arts
1875 Dies in Paris, having
v The Dance /his
p oduced no new work LIFEline
S ince 1869 Bacchanalian group, from
1827 Born in Valenciennes, to the facade of the Opera
a mason and a lace maker
oe
Garnier, is led by the Génie
1844-50 Studies under Rude de la Danse. 1865-69,
< Tiger devouring an at Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris
alligator A piece typical Echaillon stone, height 330cm,
1846 Expelled from Prix de
of Barye'’s romantic taste for Rome competition for cheating Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
the exotic. 1832, bronze, length 1854 \Wins Prix de Rome
05cm, Louvre, Paris, France 1856-61 Attends the French
Academy in Rome
1869 Completes The Dance
1875 Awarded Cross of
Legion d’honneur; dies in
Paris, aged 48
———
ee

>» Wolf Holding a Stag » Ugolino and His

by the Throat Vodelled Sons /n Dantes Inferno,
with scientific precision, Ugolino tells how his
Barye’s sculptures have children offered to
also been seen as a sacrifice themselves
metaphor for political life to keep their father
in his time. 1843, bronze, alive. 1857-61, bronze,
22x3/cm, Brooklyn Museum, height 194cm, Musée auNnL
New York, US d'Orsay, Paris, France

Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi Hiram Powers Constantin Meunier

b COLMAR, ALSACE, 1834; d PARIS, 1904 b WOODSTOCK, VERMONT, 1805; b BRUSSELS, 1831; d BRUSSELS, 1905
d FLORENCE, 1873
< Statue of Liberty /his Having studied sculpture in his youth, Meunier moved on to different
colossal figure was built in Initially trained as a clock and instrument | media, designing stained glass and fabrics, and painting religious and
sections in Paris in the 1870s maker, Powers turned to sculpture after historical scenes. In the early 1880s, a new subject presented itself —
and 1880s. Formed from discovering wax modelling while working | the expanding industrial world. He returned to working in clay, and a HL6L
AYNL
beaten copper sheets, the ina museum. He went on to acquire the | heroic romanticism characterizes his sculptures of miners, labourers,
statue is hollow, supported skills of casting and made a portrait head | and ironworkers in the great unfinished Monument to Labour, later
by an iron structure designed of President Andrew Jackson in 1835. acquired by the Belgian government and sited in Laeken. Meunier
by Gustave Eiffel. The face In 1837, Powers travelled to Italy and continued as both painter and sculptor, making life-sized bronze
is believed to be based on settled in Florence, establishing himself figures of working people — in stark contrast to much of the idealized,
that of Bartholdis mother. as the most successful American sculptor | allegorical, and symbolic sculpture of his day.
1874-86, copper, height 46.5m, of the 19th century, carving “ideal”
Liberty Island, New York, US neo-classical busts and figures.

< The Greek Slave

This sculpture,
Powers’s greatest
success, was inspired
by the contemporary
Greek struggles for
freedom from Turkish
domination in the War
of Independence
(1821-29). It is based
After studying architecture and painting, Bartholdi
on the most popular
became celebrated as a sculptor both in France and in
sculpture of its day,
the US. A designer of public statues and fountains, his the Venus de’ Medici
projects include the Lion of Belfort (1880), a massive in Florence (1st
pink-limestone work symbolizing the French resistance century BCE). 1847,
to Prussian assaults in 1870-71. Bartholdi is best known marble, height 166cm,
as creator of the Statue of Liberty—a gift from the Corcoran Gallery,
French nation to commemorate the first centenary Washington, DC, US
of the United States. Given to a “sister” republic, A Industry This was one of four reliefs
it represents republican virtues. From 1887 to 1889, created for Meunier’s unfinished project
he executed an extravagant lead fountain, The River Monument to Labour. c1897, bronze,
Saone and its Tributaries, for Lyons, based on Bassin 68x 90x 36cm, Musée D’Orsay, Paris, France
at Versailles by the Italian-born sculptor Tuby.
 In the 19th century, the African visual
arts were wholly integrated in daily life.
All objects were made for use, rather
than simply for viewing, and expressed
cultural meanings that were made
visible through their artistic rendering.

Influences
Trade over the centuries had brought
many influences. Arab aesthetics was
well established across the north of community values. Materials of every A Fulani Chieftan’s Blanket /he ski/fully rendered
motifs, colours, and patterns of this cotton and wool
the continent. European traders and kind and combination, from grass-fibre blanket express the “Fulani way” — consistency and
colonization by European powers led to gold, were employed for practical harmony, self-control and patience.
Africa is a vast continent with to a variety of western influences. and symbolic purposes.
In turn, African arts taken to Europe Africa’s holistic approach to To put across their society’s cultural
more than 900 distinct cultures.
ignited and directly influenced the art is also apparent in its interactive concepts and moral values, artists had
From musical instruments,
major artistic revolutions in 20th- “masquerades” These are cultural to achieve imaginative and evocative
clothing, and tools to religious century western arts. performances that are generally representation. Realism was not
statues and political insignia, associated with secular or religious effective. They therefore developed
all objects were infused with Forms and materials ceremonies. They interweave music, sophisticated visual vocabularies using
the community’s values, beliefs, African art could be seen in everyday oral literature, theatre, and dance with symbolism, abstraction, reduction,
forms. The weaver’s loom was carved. visual elements such as costumes, emphasis, and other devices to
and philosophy. Trained through
A useful and beautiful staff was made elaborate masks, and other objects maximize the impact of their work.
long, specialized apprenticeships, to convey ecological values and social that reflect and reinforce the important An immense diversity of styles and
artists were highly valued in principles. Woven textiles embodied cultural beliefs of the people of techniques evolved both within cultural
African cultures. a matrix of spiritual concepts and a particular community. groups and across the continent.

ARTAfrican art
AFRICAN

Pende Kota \Chokwe Yombe

SOUTH-WESTERN CENTRAL AFRICA WEST CENTRAL AFRICA CENTRAL ATLANTIC COASTAL REGION WESTERN CENTRAL AFRICA

| Expressed in many forms, including Kota artists are renowned for their The Chokwe were politically ascendant The art of the Yombe people includes
architecture, sculpture, furniture, and use of extreme abstraction. The in their region during the 18th and 19th a unique genre of “power figures”
divination (foretelling) instruments, sculptures that guard the relics of centuries and established an impressive that reveal the masterful confluence
CENTURY
19TH Pende art ranges from fairly naturalistic their ancestors eloquently embody tradition of courtly arts. of function, form, and meaning.
to highly stylized. Intended to promote their belief in the spiritual presence
understanding and compassionate and influence of the dead. » Seated Chief Ca/m » Nkisi Nkonde A /ega/ witness and
behaviour, the Pende's dramatic masks and introspective, this repository, this sculpture personifies
are often based on village characters. artwork embodies a community law. The metal
balance of refinement objects driven into the figure
and power. Strong publicly record oaths,
hands, firmly grounded contracts, or claims for
feet, and contained retribution. The figures
physical energy commanding stance, all-
complement the seeing stare, and torso
dynamic swirling bristling with “reminders”
headdress. The rising are centred ona dark
curves on the chiefs recess, referring to
headdress are echoed both conscience and
at the eyes, ears, and in fear in the pit of the
the musical instrument stomach. The visual
he holds, expressing his elements activate
expertise as a thinker, psychological
seer, listener, and forces to promote
communicator. Pre-1869, community, social
wood, cloth, fibre, and justice, and
beads, height 42.5cm, compliance. Wood
Metropolitan Museum with mixed media, height
A Mbangu Mask Fepresenting a disturbed of Art, New York, US 116.8cm, Detroit Institute
A Guardian Figure Finely carved and overlaid
man, the hooded inward-looking eyes and the of Arts, Michigan, US
with contrasting copper and brass, this sculpture
mask§ artistic elements — faceted surfaces,
combines shimmering surfaces, minimal depiction
distorted features, and divided colour — evoke
of physical features and body, and an imaginative
the experience of personal inner conflict. Picasso
elaboration of the head — the source of influence
copied a mirror image of this Pende mask in ‘Les and communication — to create a potent
Desmoiselles d’Avignon”. Wood, pigment, and fibres, yet ethereal presence. Wood and metals,
height 27cm, Africa Museum, Tervuren, Belgium
64x29.5x11.6cm, Musée du Quai Branly, Paris
 CENTRAL WEST AFRICA
Among the most admired of Bamana artworks are the elegant
headdresses worn in Ciwara masquerades to invoke fertility
of the land and celebrate nature’s abundance. Political and
WESTERN EQUATORIAL AFRICA social organization of Bamana society was closely related
The Fang conduct their lives according to principles drawn from their history — the to agricultural production, and the all-important relationship
experience of their ancestors. Many of their impressive artworks relate to memorials between man and nature is clearly reflected in their arts.
and the implementation of ancestral wisdom, which is consulted on all major issues
and Is the source of moral and political power. w Ciwara Headdress A complex balance of
straight, curving, horizontal, and vertical forms, this
naturalistic example combines notions of female
fecundity, animal strength, fluid energy, and the
interdependence of human and natural forces.
Wood, 57x 6.4 x 18cm, Musée du Quai Branly, Paris

A Ciwara Headdress /his fine sculpture

depicts the antelope, a metaphor for the Sun
and natural energy, and at its base is the
burrowing ant-eater, symbolizing hard work.
The graceful angles and forms of the head
and horns are superbly balanced by the arching
neck and skilful geometric patterning of
positive and negative space. Wood and metal, NVO1
LYV
94.5x47.5x7cm, Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, France
A Ngil Mask Worn with full
costume in a night masquerade
to settle disputes and quell Senufo
misbehaviour, this calm visage
WEST AFRICA
was terrifying to wrong-doers.
The distortion emphasizing With a capital city dating back to the 13th
brain, eyes, and nose implies century, nine major dialects and more than
extreme powers of insight and 30 sub-groups, the Senufo have a long and
discrimination. Varnished wood, diverse artistic tradition. Specialist castes HL6L
AYNLN
private collection provide skilled training in media such as
textiles and gold, and, for example, wood-
» Reliquary Figure
carvers produce richly symbolic carved
Surmounting a memorial
containing ancestral relics, this doors as well as sculptures.
sculpture embodies the balancing
of intellectual and physical
powers. The large head, with
its complex composition of
contrasting planes and forms,
elaborate hairstyle, and
emphasized eyes, indicates the
importance of knowledge and
insight. The fine straight torso
contrasts with the muscular limbs
suggesting controlled energy.
Tranquillity, equanimity, and
vitality — qualities esteemed in
Fang culture — are evoked by
minimal clarity, symmetry, and
juxtaposition. Wood and metal,
height 64.1cm, Metropolitan
Museum, New York, US

A Champion Cultivator Staff Awarded to

the most skilled agriculturalist, this figure from
the top of a staff portrays fecundity through
A Poro Mask Designed to pay homage to female the ideal attributes of femininity. The
ancestors, this masks serene dark oval face is prominent head symbolizes wise management;
offset by glinting brass, symmetrical extensions, the straight back, a noble attitude; and the full
and delicate patterns symbolizing wisdom and breasts and gently swelling belly, fertility and
beauty. Wood, metal, horn, cotton, feathers and fibre, success. Wood and mixed media, 102.9x9.2x
height 35.9cm, Metropolitan Museum, New York, US 8.6cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, US
 The first modern humans migrated
south into what is now southeast Asia
around 75,000 years ago, gradually
moving through Indonesia and across
the then land bridge into New Guinea
and Australia — which then were joined Aboriginals of New Guinea and the
— around 40,000 years ago. Rising sea Solomon Islands, the ancestors of
levels eventually turned Australia into modern-day Melanesians, in the east,
an island, leaving its inhabitants in the FijicSamoa—Tonga triangle, it
undisturbed to develop a distinctive developed into a Polynesian culture.
culture until European exploration and
settlement in the late 18th century. Polynesian navigators
The human settlement of the The Polynesians were highly skilled
A Ancestral guardians /he Asmat people of Irian
southeast Asian, Australian,
Lapita culture navigators, sailing their twin-hulled,
Jaya — the Indonesian, western half of New Guinea —
The settlement of the Pacific islands along with many other Indonesian islanders carved sail-powered canoes across the Pacific
and Pacific islands took place
was more complex. In around stylized, wooden figures of their ancestral guardians. in search of new lands with only the
over thousands of years. The stars, waves, winds, and wildlife to
3000 sce Austronesian speakers
art produced by the settlers from Taiwan migrated south into developed the Lapita culture — named guide them. They navigated huge
was immensely rich and varied, coastal Vietnam, the Philippines, and after the site in New Caledonia — distances, first reaching Tahiti around
its decoration or plain form Indonesia. From there they travelled which is noted for its use of shell tools 200 BcE. From here they sailed east to
often related to its function. east towards coastal New Guinea and and its distinctive pottery. This culture Easter Island around 300 ce, north to
the near Pacific islands, while one spread east to Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa, Hawaii around 400 ce, and south to
In the 19th century, knowledge
group crossed the Indian Ocean in the and Tonga by around 1000 Bce. Aotearoa (New Zealand) by around
of this art was largely based 1st century ce to settle in the island of Over the next millennium, this 1000 ce. It is possible that some
on artifacts collected by the Madagascar, off the east of Africa. cultural area split in two. In the west, Polynesians even made contact with
early explorers. Around 1600 sce the Austronesians it merged with that of the Australian the Americas.

Oceania
A OCEANIA
Australia and SE Asian islands
38,000 BCE ONWARDS
<< Trophy skull Head-
hunting was common on
Australian Aboriginals developed a highly Indonesian islands and
effective culture despite the limited survived in Borneo as late
resources of their environment and their as the 1930s. The Dayak
CENTURY
19TH isolation from the inhabited islands to the warriors who engraved this
north. Traditional Australian Aboriginal trophy acquired prestige
culture using wood and other natural through participating in the
materials reflected their belief in raids. Early 1900s, human
“dreamtime” ,a period when semi-human skull, height 16.5cm, Borneo
and semi-animal beings created the world
before changing themselves into rocks, » Ancestral guardian
waterholes, and other natural features. figure The Dayaks of
Despite their apparent differences, the Borneo carved figures with
southeast Asian islanders have the same
elongated limbs and bodies
to honour their-ancestral
Austronesian linguistic origin and a
guardians, using shells for
common artistic culture based on motifs
their eyes and iron wire for
inherited from the 1st-millennium sce
the looped earings. 1800s,
Dong-Son metalworking culture of wood, shell, iron, height
Vietnam. The motifs include boats, birds, 96.5cm, William Jameson
and trees, and reflect shared ideas of life, Tribal Art
death, and the universe related in myth
and expressed in art. Wood and stone,
both used for sculpture, were the main
materials used, but artisans also produced
fine textiles and gold jewellery.

» Bull roarer Engraved with carved, geometric

dreamtime motifs, the wooden bull roarer was
attached to a piece of cord and whirled round
the owners head in a circular motion to produce
a sacred whirring sound. 1800s, wood, length
29.5cm, Central Australia
c1000 CE ONWARDS c1000 BCE ONWARDS

Maori art was mainly created to indicate status, with high- Although racially and linguistically Melanesian, the Fijian islanders are
ranking individuals owning a wide range of bone, ivory, wood, Polynesian in culture. The mix produces some of the finest art found
stone, and jade implements and artefacts. Elaborately carved in the Pacific islands. Many artefacts are concerned with war, as the
meeting houses and war canoes expressed the power and islanders were obliged by custom to avenge killed or insulted
wealth of a Maori tribe and were a source of great personal and kinsmen, resulting in an almost constant state of warfare, some of
collective pride. Maori carvings are bold, detailed, and have a it cannibalistic in nature. Figurative sculpture is rare, although human
deep patina. They mainly consisted of spirals interspersed with and animals motifs appear in ritual objects used by chiefs and priests.
manaia motifs — mythical animal, bird, or human forms with a Necklaces, pendants, and pectoral disks were made from marine
reptilian character — and with tiki motifs — stylized human forms ivory and shell. Pottery vessels, made by women, were baked in open
representing family ancestors. Tiki motifs appear on almost all fires and glazed with pine resin while still hot.
types of object, notably on the hei tiki pendants that were
considered prized heirlooms, increasing in importance as they
passed down the generations.

<< Maori pendant A he/ tiki neck

pendant made from pounamu, a
hard, nephrite jade of varying colour A Cannibal fork Ceremonial
that is only found in the South attendants used this carved, wooden
Island. The eye colour is made with i-culanibokola to feed human flesh to
red wax. Pendants like this one holy men during religious rituals.
were worn by high-ranking men and 1800s, wood, length 45.75cm, Fiji
women. c1900, nephrite jade, height
11cm, Philip Keith private collection

> Maori wood panel A wooden » Tapa cloth /apa bark cloths,
panel carved with a tiki motif that stencilled and sometimes block-printed
was used to decorate a meeting in black with occasional red-ochre
house. Similar carvings appear on details, were worn by chiefs or used
gable masks, canoe prows, sterns, as bedding or to partition a house. This
paddles, bailers, treasure boxes, one was made as a sample of a larger
and musical instruments. c1870-80, dining cloth. 1900s, bark cloth, length VINV4
wood, height 182cm, New Zealand 47cm, Fiji

3000 BCE ONWARDS

The largest and most populated part of the Pacific region, Melanesia
lies in the western Pacific Ocean and consists of Irian Jaya, Papua New
Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and the Solomon Islands. The area
is racially and linguistically very heterogeneous, producing art that is HL6L
AYNLN
similarly varied and has great vitality and exuberance.
The main artefacts
are masks and carvings that either represent ancestral ghosts or provide
a home for them in live in. Belief in the power of witchcraft to cause
misfortune, illness, or death is widespread. The small-scale warfare that =
was common in the region has created many different types of shields,
clubs, bows, and arrows. Wood is the main material used, although bark
cloth, shells, and beads are also worked. \

» Ancestral figure.
This beautiful wooden
ancestral figure, almost ;
abstract in form, was =
carved in the Trobriand
(Kiriwina) Islands to
the southeast of Papua }
New Guinea. 1800s, f
}
wood, height 40.5em if
||

A Malaita shell pendant Shells like this one, which is engraved

with stylized fish and a frigate bird, were sometimes also overlaid A Ancestral skull By decorating the skull of an ancestor
in tortoiseshell. Such pendants were worn by Solomon Islanders. with feathers, beads, and seeds, the Asmat people of Irian
Late 1800s, clamshell, width 6cm Jaya showed their respect. Early-mid 1900s, skull, polychrome
beads, vegetal fibres, feathers, width 15.5cm
 Art changed completely in the 20th century. With
the birth of
Modernism, a rapid succession of “isms” follo
wed, movements
in which artists rejected naturalism — representi
ng the physical
world realistically — and academic art — with its
emphasis on
classical traditions. Instead, they experimented
with technique
and form, questioning the very nature of art and
humanity.

Early 20th
2 1900 1910 1920
FAUVISM 1905-1907 |pYAN by Wann met toys)

EARLY BRITISH MODERNISM 1900-c1915

VORTICISM 1914-1915

GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM c1900-1930s

BAUHAUS 919-1933

CUBISM 907-1920s

FUTURISM 1909-c1916

ORPHISM 1911-1914

RAYONISM 1912-c1914

CONSTRUCTIVISM 1915-mio 1920s

SUPREMATISM 11915-1920
The Fauves (“wild beasts”) gave rise to one of the first no longer existed. In Russia the Suprematists and
20th-century “isms” with their wild use of colour. German Constructivists also rejected the appearance of nature
Expressionists were equally unfettered in their colour in favour of geometry. The attempt to relate art to post-
schemes, using distorted shapes, a strident palette, and ig=We) (0)We )are]aVarsvevel(=1aval (exe mlatelaamComear-li{-)ale\-mareym[Ulsiait alc)
rugged brushwork to express their feelings and views of traditional forms but also the functions of art. Dadaists
society. Cubism, by contrast, was less a personal expression questioned the role of art by exploring the unconscious, as
than an attempt to break down the tradition of single-point did the Surrealists. Not everyone rejected realistic art — there
perspective by shifting viewpoints. Futurism added speed were figurative artists in the US and Europe, while in Mexico
Ele maareciaa\cialencomtar>mir-\e]antcialccve mce)aaa\swelm Oiele) ipa maVVall(s) huge historical murals were created to promote a cultural
abstract art shattered subject matter to the point where it and political identity.

century
1930 1940 1950 401

SURREALISM 1920-LaAteE 1940s

NEUE SACHLICHKEIT (NEW OBJECTIVITY) 1923-cr.y 1930s

 Origins and influences By 1906-07, the parameters of
Led by Henri Matisse, André Derain, Fauvism had shifted to include line
and Maurice de Vlaminck, the Fauves to define shape and larger blocks of
were a group of friends who sought more muted colour. The human form
amore dynamic way of depicting replaced landscape as the focal point
nature. They experimented with bold, of the paintings. Some of the Fauves,
non-naturalistic colour and applied such as Raoul Dufy and Albert
their paint in short, energetic strokes, Marquet, stayed with their original
A Collioure beach Jhis small fishing village in the
which prompted art critic Louis south of France, photographed here in 1890, was the style, but their approach was generally
Vauxcelles to dub them Fauves, or cradle of Fauvism. Here, Derain and Matisse created a ess daring.
new way of “seeing” nature.
Wild Beasts. For all the impression of
wildness, however, the Fauves soon France. In the dazzling Mediterranean
CURRENTevents
revealed they were more interested in light, they painted the tiny port from
1905 A law is passed guaranteeing the
solid, permanent structure than violent every angle. By the end of summer, separation of Church and State in France.
they had established a new style. The Church would no longer play an
expression or the Impressionist
Fauvism exploded onto the intrusive role in state education.
“fleeting moment’ and that Cézanne Pure colour — sometimes softened 1906 The political scandal known as the
Paris art scene in 1905. Its
and Seurat were as important as with a touch of white — was applied in Dreyfus Affair comes to an end. The Court
bright, pure colours, flattened of Appeal declares that the Jewish Army
influences as van Gogh. little dabs and strokes. The canvas
officer, Alfred Dreyfus, is not guilty of
perspective, and simplified was left bare in places to act as a state treason.
detail signalled a new era. Subjects and techniques colour itself. At the same time, 1907 French colonial policy in North Africa
Unwittingly, a small group of is endangered by an outbreak of factional
In the summer of 1905, Matisse and Viaminck, the most impassioned of
fighting in Morocco, and a number of
French artists had developed Derain worked alongside each other in the Fauves, was making similar French workmen lose their lives.
the first modern art movement. the village of Collioure, in the south of strides at Chatou, near Paris.

Fauvism
FAUVISM

Bis André Derain

(ue
= x
b CHATOU, NEAR PARIS, 1880; d GARCHES, 1954
b—

Fas
uw Abandoning his engineering studies for painting, André
O Derain enrolled at the Académie Camillo, Paris, in 1898
ale
= where he first encountered fellow student Henri Matisse.
o)
N Soon after, he met Maurice de Viaminck on a train and,
a discovering their mutual love of painting, they agreed to
a Derain, c1930 work together the following day. In February 1905, the art
<<
LW dealer Ambrose Vollard bought the entire contents of
Derain’s studio. In that summer, Derain went to Collioure to paint with
Matisse, and Fauvism was born. In 1906, he twice visited London to paint
scenes of the River Thames and the Houses of Parliament. Over the
following years, he focused on groups of figures, portraits, and still lifes,
with his work gradually adopting a more classical and sombre feel.

LIFEline
1880 Born, the son of a baker
1898 Enrols at Académie
Camillo where he is taught by
Eugene Carriére |
1904-05 Paints his first truly |
Fauvist picture The Bridge at
Le Pecq
1905 Paints in Collioure with
Matisse
1919 Designs costumes for
Diaghilev's Ballet La Boutique
Fantasque
1954 Dies in Garches, after
being hit by a car

A Barges on the Thames /n this

= painting of barges at a wharf on the MISTY BACKDROP (DETAIL)
A Harlequin and Pierrot /n the post-Fauvist years, south bank in London, Derain introduces The sense of spatial recession is
Derain toned down his bright palette and returned to elements of naturalism to his Fauvist achieved through an increasingly
using firm line, foreshortening, and perspective. This style; most notably, the shadows and “milky” effect towards Tower
double portrait of two pantomime characters evokes mistiness. 1906, oil on canvas, 81 x 99cm, Bridge. This contrasts with the
an 18th-century compositional style. 1924, oil on Leeds Museums and Galleries, UK firm line and colour of the
canvas, 176x 176cm, Musée de I'Orangerie, Paris, France foreground crane.
Henri Matisse
ig z
Be q b LE CATEAU CAMBRESIS, 1869; d NICE, 1954

Matisse once reflected on the significance of the years 1905-07

by saying, “Fauvism is not everything, but it is the foundation of
everything” Yet, in the years leading up to this breakthrough, he
had despaired of ever making a living from his art.
While completing his law studies, Matisse enrolled at the Ecole
Photograph des Beaux-Arts and joined the studio of Gustave Moreau. |In 1898, < Luxe, Calme, et
by Boris he travelled to Corsica, where he produced small, colourful works — Volupté /nfluenced by
Lipnitski
precursors of Fauvism — before returning to a darker palette. Paul Signacs Divisionist
Matisse worked alongside the Divisionist painter Paul Signac in St Tropez in 1904, style, Matisse depicts
where he produced sketches for his seminal painting Luxe, Calme, et Volupté (Luxury, nymphs and followers of
Serenity, and Pleasure), and with André Derain in Collioure during the “Fauve Bacchus in an idyllic
Summer” of 1905. Between 1906 and 1910, he created some of his most important setting. They pursue life's
pieces, affirming his belief in the importance of harmonious, brightly coloured pleasures against the
composition. Matisse frequently combined portraiture, still life, and landscape, in backdrop of the Gulf of St
a way not seen before. These elements occur together in his many interior scenes Tropez. 1904, oil on canvas,
in which an open window looks out on to the sea or a landscape. 98x 118cm, Musée d'Orsay,
Paris, France

LIFEline
1892 Moves to Paris to study
law. Enrols in drawing classes
1899 Marries Amélie Parayre 6¢ A work of art
1904 Works with Signac at must carry in Itself
St Tropez. Paints masterpiece,
Luxe, Calme, et Volupté its complete
1905 The Fauve Summer, significance and
followed by the sensational
Autumn Exhibition in Paris impose it upon
1921-25 French Government the beholder,
starts to buy Matisse's work. even before he
He is made Chevalier of the
Legion of Honour can identify the
1940s In failing health and subject matter 9?
severely arthritic, yet makes HENRI MATISSE
large cut-out paper pictures
1954 Dies in Nice

|
INSI
HLO?
AYNL
AlYVS

STE a

A Interior with Eggplants < Large Red Interior /n front of a

Background, foreground, and flat red background, Matisse’; still
sides are united in a single lifes provide the picture with a sense
frontal plane in this busy and of depth. Wittily, it is the picture on
fe colourful interior. The eye tries the wall that employs conventional
fey Ary,
in vain to decipher exactly
goes where the surfaces meet and
recession to give perspective. 1948,
oil on canvas, 146 x 97cm, Pompidou
how far back the open window Centre, Paris, France
is. The landscape visible through
A The Young Sailor! This was the first of the window is painted in much
two paintings Matisse made of the young the same palette as the interior,
mariner. The cool greens and blues, suggesting which leads the eye back into
the sea, and the dark solid bulk of his body the room. 1911, distemper on
show the influence of Cézanne. For Matisse, canvas, 212x246cm, Musée des
Fauvism was just the beginning of a long Beaux Arts, Grenoble, France
exploration of colour and form. 1906, oil on
canvas, 100x82cm, private collection
 sain Reel yieRaa
frac te ee

nd

2 FAUVISM
2)

CENTURY
20TH
XLY
EA

The Sadness of the King (La Tristesse du Roi) Henri Matisse,

1952, gouache and paper on canvas, 292
x386cm, Pompidou Centre, Paris, France
CLOSERIook

The Sadness of the King Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse’s life was Story
a continual search for a balance Matisse once said that he sought to create a serene, balancing
between colour and form. After art that would “soothe the brain”. This autobiographical portrait
— a poignant farewell to his favourite things (women, music,
traumatic surgery left him confined
and dance) — attempts to do just that. It has been suggested
to a wheelchair in 1941, he reinvented
that the subject is inspired by Rembrandt's David Playing the
himself by turning to découpage Harp before Saul and Baudelaire’s description of music soothing the poet's afflictions in
(cutting designs from paper), a form his poem La Vie Antérieure (from the anthology Les Fleurs du Mal, which Matisse had
he had first experimented with while illustrated in 1944): "... And there it was | lived ...[amid] perfume-saturated naked
working on the large commission slaves/ Who gently soothed my brow with fronds of palm.”

The Dance in 1930-33. Découpage » THE ODALISQUE fate

Matisse’s obsession with
allowed Matisse to “paint” with
voluptuous oriental women
scissors by cutting into colour and produced his Odalisque series
then grasping the picture’s elements of paintings (1920-25) after a
visit to Morocco. The odalisque
and manipulating them like a sculptor.
(a Turkish sultan’s slave),
wearing harem pants, is
Composition probably a percussionist,
Matisse once said: “The entire arrangement and the orange shape a drum. oy
A THE KING (SELF-PORTRAIT)
of my picture is expressive; the place
> >» THE DANCER The starkly The king's outline resembles a silhouette
occupied by my figures, the empty space contrasting black and white of Matisse in his wheelchair. Unconsoled
around them, the proportions, everything dancer is modelled on Delacroix’s by the sound of his own music, he is
has its share...” Here, he uses horizontal dancing slave in his Women of surrounded by his guitar notes, which
and vertical colour blocks to divide the Algiers in their Harem (1834). double up as tears.
space and provide a balance between the
figures (a positive physical presence) and
the field (the negative areas between). The Technique
interaction of flat, bright colours, shapes, For this large work, Matisse used < SHAPES Matisse delighted in
and small motifs gives the composition a découpage, a technique he had creating shapes, such as the lozenge-
a strong sense of rhythmic movement. perfected while he was working shaped leaves, that could be interpreted
on 20 colourful, small-scale as different things. The pattern on the
king's robe and his hands resemble the
INSI
“Improvisations” for a limited-
edition book Jazz (1947). Nearlly all the large scale work palm frond motifs of an earlier Polynesian
of the last years of his life used this method. Studio series (1946).
assistants prepared the large sheets of paper with gouache,
v¥ DECOUPAGE Découpage is the
a dense watercolour made from pigment, lime, and the
art of cutting designs out of paper and
thickener, gum arabic. Matisse cut his shapes from a palette pasting them on to a surface. Discovering
of 11 vibrant colours, including black, white, cobalt blue, a new freedom with colour and line,
cadmium yellow, red, and six secondary colours. He Matisse transformed this technique into
wanted his colours to “react on one another”. a novel art form.

A DIVISIONS The picture is divided into three

rectangular sections. Each is occupied by different AlYVa
HLO?
AYNL
figures. The viewer's attention is subtly drawn
to their different roles by the amount of space
around them.

A MOVEMENT The eye is drawn from right to

left by the tilting figures and the fluttering yellow
lozenges that appear to emanate from the right-
hand corner. The lozenges represent leaves, petals,
notes, or tears, depending on where they appear.

A LINES OF MOVEMENT
The black dancer's graceful
movements are suggested by
the clever use of snaking orange
and jagged-edged black curving
lines. These decorative patterns
curve around her mobile body
suggesting a circular motion
 Maurice de Viaminck
b PARIS, 1876; d RUEIL-LA-GADELIERE, 1958 LIFEline Georges Rouault
Maurice de Viaminck’s parents loved music, and performance was a 1876 Born in Paris, to parents
vital element to this largerthan-life character. Prior to meeting Fauvism who are both music teachers b PARIS, 1871; d PARIS, 1958
founder André Derain in 1900, he had been a boxer, a champion racing 1892-93 Moves to Chatou, A devout Catholic, Georges Rouault was obsessed with the subjects
a suburb of Paris; works as a
cyclist, and a café violinist. He also frequently contributed articles to mechanic; takes up painting of sin and redemption. One of the 20th century's most maverick
the anarchist newspaper Le Libertaire. 1900 Meets Derain and shares painters, he is difficult to bracket. In 1892, he studied alongside
Mostly self-taught, Viaminck came to see art as an outlet for a studio with him at Chatou Matisse and Marquet at the Ecole des BeauxArts, where he was
his revolutionary zeal. He was greatly influenced by the van Gogh 1905 Exhibits eight paintings Gustave Moreau's favourite pupil. Although he exhibited at the
exhibition of 1901, where Derain introduced him to Matisse. During at Autumn Exhibition in Paris Autumn Salon in 1905, Rouault had little in common with the other
the Fauve years, he mostly painted the landscape near his home at 1933 Retrospective of his Fauves, either stylistically or in terms of subject. Using a darker palette
Chatou. A collector of “primitive” art, Viaminck was also important in work in Paris and heavy outline, he painted clowns, prostitutes, and social misfits.
revitalizing the woodcut. He maintained his Fauvist palette until 1908, 1958 Dies, in his 80s From 1917, Rouault was promoted by French art dealer Ambrose
when his colours suddenly became much darker. Vollard, who exhibited his work and funded the publication of
Miserere — a collection of prints on the theme of death — in 1927.

< Head of Christ Rovaults

religious convictions led him to
depict Christ in paintings and
drawings. This tender image,
with Christ introspectively
looking down, has the quality
of a religious icon. 19339, oil
FAUVISM on canvas, 66x51cm, Hermitage,
St Petersburg, Russia

s. ce at ) ee ie

Re Sane
View of the Seine /his is one of numerous ut : “ % (a Pa es yan

paintings of the area around Chatou. Viaminck

was the most turbulent of the Fauves, and freely
admitted that painting saved him from “going to
bad". This ordinary scene is invested with a van
Gogh-like air of heightened drama. 1906, oi! on
canvas, 55x 66cm, Hermitage, St Petersburg, Russia

A Dancer at the Rat Mort A dancer at the

famous Paris cafe, Le Rat Mort, takes a break from
the night routine. Viaminck uses the meerest
outline to suggest her body and dress. 1906,
oil on canvas, 73x54cm, private collection

CLOSERIook

h mr = ~*~, ;A
ty, ;

\ * 4
, OF) ky

DABS OF PAINT Hundreds of dabs Be ee a

cover the canvas. Here, it is the A Prostitute from 1903, Rouault painted powerful
dancer's clearly defined legs that studies of prostitutes, aiming to shock the viewer
inform the viewer that the abstract into reflecting on society's degradation. 1905, oil
pattern is in fact her dress and gouache on paper, 28x 22cm, private collection
Albert Marquet Raoul Dufy
b BORDEAUX, 1875; d PARIS, 1947 b LE HAVRE, 1877; d FORCALQUIER, PROVENCE, 1953
Raised in Bordeaux, Albert Marquet was a shy man described as being Of all the Fauves, Raoul Dufy was the most attached to capturing
difficult to get to know. He moved to Paris in 1890 and enrolled in the fleeting light effects and to painting people at leisure. In fact, the
Ecole des Beaux-Arts, where he met Henri Matisse. scenes of strollers and sporting events that he painted from 1919
By 1898, he had adopted a bright palette, but he never fully applied onwards became his personal style. Dufy started taking painting
colour in a totally non-naturalistic way. Between 1904 and 1905, he lessons in Le Havre in 1892, before moving to Paris in 1900, where
painted alongside Raoul Dufy on the Normandy and Mediterranean Portrait by he studied at the Ecole des BeauxArts. He regularly exhibited in shows
coasts, producing pictures of ports and harbours. He also painted Laure at the Salons. His somewhat naturalistic style changed in 1905 when
Albin-Guillot
nudes and portraits. In 1908, he moved into a studio vacated by he saw Matisse’s painting Luxe, Calme, et Volupté (1904).
Matisse, where he worked until 1931. After this he adopted a brighter palette. Like Marquet, Dufy used vibrant colours
to depict vivid objects, such as beach umbrellas, flags, and clothing, naturalistically,
Y The Beach at Fécamp Stylistically between Fauvism and rather than reinventing the colour landscape as the other Fauves did. He also
Impressionism, Marquet’ coastal scene employs conventional perspective undertook a number of designs for the theatre.
but in an unconventional way, and uses a single light source and bold
contours. 1906, oil on canvas, 50x61cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
WRI GPE LIFEline W Still Life with a Fruit Bowl Depicted from above, this fruit
bowl set against a blue tablecloth is full of vitality. Its texture and
1877 Born in Le Havre, the sculpting is achieved by cross-hatching over flat colour. c1908, oil
eldest of nine children
on canvas, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
1892 Works for a coffee
importer and takes evening
art classes
1898 |Vloves to Paris. Enrols
at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts
1905 Visits the Autumn
Salon, but does not exhibit
1908 Spends the summer at
U’'Estaque with the Fauve
painter Georges Braque
1919 Starts producing his
leisure and sports pictures
1937 Makes a large mural —
The Spirit of Electricity—for
International Exhibition, Paris
1953 Receives the main prize
at the Venice Biennale; dies in
Forcalquier, having achieved
enormous popularity

Kees van Dongen

b DELFSHAVEN, NEAR ROTTERDAM, 1877; d MONTE CARLO, 1968
A student at Rotterdam's Academy of Fine Arts from 1894 to 1897,
van Dongen moved to Paris in 1900, where he made satirical
illustrations for the French press. In 1904, van Dongen exhibited at the
Salon des Indépendants (set up as a foil to the formal Salon shows),
where he met Viaminck and Derain, and in 1905 he exhibited at the
infamous Autumn Salon. In contrast to the other Fauves, van Dongen
specialized in nudes and portraits. His brightly illuminated cabaret A
INSI
AlYV
HLO?
AYNL
performers combine dynamic colour contrasts and eroticism, his
“ladies of the night” (prostitutes) are portrayed as pleasure-seekers
rather than as social victims. In 1913, a painting he showed at the
Autumn Salon was considered obscene by the police and removed.

<The Corn Poppy

Following World War I,
van Dongen’s work
reflected the carefree
spirit that pervaded
Europe. He focused his
attention on fashionable
society, particularly
glamorous women. c1919,
oil on canvas, 55x 46cm,
Museum of Fine Arts,
Houston, Texas, US

A Horses and Jockeys under the Trees Dufy CLOSERIook

enjoyed painting horses — either racing or at their OUTLINE ONCOLOUR &
ease. Here, it is the trees that create the sense of Dufy’s hallmark style was
movement, picked out against a mauve wash. a combination of vigorous
c1930, watercolour, 50x65cm, Galerie Daniel calligraphy with broad
Malingue, Paris, France strokes of brilliant colour.
This horse is drawn over a
shade of green echoed in the
trees and the grooms’ coats.
 What distinguished Expressionist
art was its emphasis on the highly
personal psychological and emotional Der Blaue Reiter
response of the artist to the subject, A few years later, another style of
and not the subject itself. Expressionism was being formed
in Munich by a group of artists that
Die Briicke included Wassily Kandinsky (see
It took a group of young architecture pp.435-39), Franz Marc, and Alexei
students from Dresden, led by Ernst von Jawlensky. They published an
Ludwig Kirchner, to make the decisive almanac called Der Blaue Reiter
move. Along with Karl Schmidt- (The Blue Rider), from which the

re P.
Rottluff, Erich Heckel, and Fritz Bley| group took its name. Believing that
(1880-1966), they formed Die Brucke creativity was not found in academic
(German for “The Bridge”). They chose art, they printed pictures of ancient
the name because they shared the Egyptian artefacts, children’s drawings,
In the early 20th century, the view of German philosopher Nietzsche A The Painters of Die Briicke, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and the newest artistic innovations
classical ideals of academies 1926. Expressionism was Germany's first modern art
— that man was a bridge to a better movement. It was created by four artists who were alongside each other.
and the rapidly ageing Art world — and because Dresden was known collectively as Die Briicke. Kandinsky, who went on to become
Nouveau (Jugendstil) style famous for its bridges. Working in a a pioneer of abstract art, and Marc
held artistic vision in Germany disused butcher's shop, they created when they moved their headquarters shared the view that the artist had a
a style that drew inspiration from to Berlin, the capital's street life. Their spiritual mission. Their art was less
in a stranglehold. Inevitably,
van Gogh, Edvard Munch, and old bright, acid colours — set against each frenetic than that of Die Briticke. They
any new movement would have German art of the time of Griinewald other to create a sense of edge — and sought to return society to a state of
to be violently different - that and Durer. They initially painted heavily distorted outlines pushed art harmony that they felt had been lost
movement was Expressionism. landscapes and nudes and, after 1911, decisively away from naturalism. in the process of modernization.

EXPRESSIONISM
GERMAN

il Nolde
b NOLDE, SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN, 1867; d SEEBULL, 1956 LIFEline
Born Emil Hansen, this introverted painter adopted the Li Born, the son of a
armer
name of his village at the time of his marriage in 1902.
1884-87 \Works as an
He served an apprenticeship as a cabinet-maker and
apprentice furniture designer
worked in furniture factories in Berlin and Munich. and cabinet-maker
From 1892 to 1902, Nolde taught furniture design and 1892-97 Teaches ornamental
Self-portrait pursued his own artistic studies. At least 15 years older design in Switzerland
CENTURY
20TH
EARLY than other members of Die Brucke, the usually reclusive 1906-07 Joins Die Briicke;
Nolde joined the group briefly in 1906-07. His art revolved around two meets Edvard Munch
primary themes: the local landscape on the north German coast and 1931 Made a member of
the interpretation of Biblical stories. He also made many woodcuts that Prussian Academy of Art
have a unique, painterly touch.

A Pentecost No/de was

intrigued by displays of PURPLE PATCH
spiritual fervour, although he In Judeo-Christian beliefs,
was not a devout Christian purple is traditionally
Here, the Holy Ghost is me associated with royalty.
descending on the Apostles As the flames hover over
the appointed leaders of
in the form of a flame. 1909,
A The Dancer Fascinated by “primitive” A Marshland Farmhouse Nolde painted many 3 the new church, the
oil on canvas, 87x 107cm,
and pagan rites, Nolde aimed to show: humanity landscape watercolours. He was banned from practising reflections are depicted
private collection @ in their enraptured faces
transported to another level of consciousness, his art by the Nazis in 1941, but he defied them by
as depicted in this vibrant print. 1912, colour painting tiny landscapes on small pieces of paper.
lithograph, 54x69cm, Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany 1947, watercolour on paper, 34x 46cm, private collection
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
b ASCHAFFENBURG, 1880; d FRAUENKIRCH, 1938
Kirchner’s art is at the centre of German Expressionism. His dynamic, acerbic > Standing Female Nude /he Briicke artists were
fascinated by so-called “primitive” art from Africa
canvases have both great visual appeal — Kirchner distributed colour and composed
and Oceania. Like certain Fauve painters, they avidly
so confidently — and a hard-hitting edginess. During the Dresden years (1905-11),
studied and collected such work. This nude is a
he painted his city, friends and models, and the surrounding countryside. In 1911,
wholly Western Expressionist take on a primitive
the Die Brucke artists moved to Berlin, and this is where he met Erna Schilling, who woodcarving. 1914-15, oil on painted hardwood,
Self-portrait became his model and life-long companion. Kirchner’s new subjects included the 97x16 x2cm, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Ohio, US
city's streetwalkers and fashionable women — often depicted in a surprisingly similar a
way. After suffering a breakdown during World War |, Kirchner left Germany for Switzerland, where
he lived until he committed suicide in 1938.

LIFEline << Self-Portrait with a

Model Painted in daring
1880 Born, the son of blocks of primary colour, the
an industrial chemist
artist and mode! look back at
1901 Studies architecture
the viewer. 1907, oil on canvas,
in Dresden
150x100cm, Kunsthalle,
1903-04 Studies at
Debschitz and Obrist art Hamburg, Germany
school, Munich
1905 Gains architecture CLOSERIook
degree. Co-founds the
Brucke group of artists
1911 Moves to Berlin and
sets up modern painting
schoo! with Max Pechstein
1913 His criticisms of Die
BrUucke leads to the group's
break-up
1917 |n poor health, he
moves to a village near BRIGHT COLOURS The
Davos, Switzerland wide blue and orange stripes
1937 Branded a on the artist's dressing gown,
“degenerate” artist by the the touch of red paint on his
Nazis; his work is removed A Woman on the Street /n contrast to the Dresden
paintbrush, and the green
from public places paintings, Kirchner’ Berlin style was more angular
buttons announce Kirchner’s
1938 Shoots himself in and darker in tone, and the paint was worked over
intention to challenge
Frauenkirch
conservative tastes. with cross-hatching. 1915, oil on canvas, 126 x 90cm, NVIN
INSIN
Briicke Museum, Berlin, Germany

Erich Heckel Karl Schmidt-Rottluff

<< Man on a Plain
b DOBELN, NEAR DRESDEN, 1883; d RADOLFZELL AM BODENSEE, 1970 b ROTTLUFF, 1884; d BERLIN, 1976
This lonely figure in
Abandoning the study of architecture to join the Brucke group of a landscape, raising A school friend of Heckel’s, and an original
artists, Erich Heckel became the group's unofficial manager. He found his hands to his head member of Die Brucke, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff
their studios, mounted their exhibitions, and organized their summer in pain as much as suggested the name for the group of artists.
painting holidays. His contact with Franz Marc made sure the group reflection, shows Initially, he concentrated on landscape, and was
was included in The Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider) almanac. In 1909, the influence of influenced by the passion of van Gogh and the
he toured Italy's artistic centres and was particularly influenced Norwegian artist brilliant colour of Fauvism. By 1912, he was
Edvard Munch on painting in an expressive angular manner that
by Etruscan art. AIYVA
HLO?
AYNL
Heckel's main themes were landscape and scenes of men and Heckel and other reflected his admiration for African art.
Briicke artists. 1917, He moved to Berlin in 1911 with the Brucke
women bathing. He initially painted in thick primary colours squeezed
woodcut, 38x 27cm, City
straight from the tube, but around 1908 he started applying larger group, and it was at his suggestion that the
Museum, Leicester, UK
sections of a single flatter colour, which the Brtcke artists often diluted Briicke Museum was founded in Berlin in 1964.
with petrol to help speed up the drying process.

< Lake near

LIFEline Moritzburg
1901 Becomes friends with Like other Briicke
Schmidt-Rottluff at secondary artists, Heckel did not
school in Chemnitz
employ conventional
1904-05 Studies architecture,
perspective, and this
but quits to join Die Brucke
shows most clearly in
1909 Travels to Italy, spends
summer at Moritzburg Lakes their landscapes. They
with Kirchner sought a heightened
1912 Makes friends with reaction to their work
Franz Marc by using colour and
1914 Volunteers for military representation in an
service in the medical corps extreme way, believing
1918 Returns to Berlin that in time audiences
1949-55 Works as professor would also share their
of fine arts at Karlsruhe vision. 1909, oil on
1970 Dies in Radolfzell am canvas, 60x 71cm,
Bodensee National Museum Pans
Cardiff, UK
A Pensive Woman /he patterned dress
emphasizes the nakedness of the womans
upper body, as she cradles her face in her
hands, deep in thought. 1912, oil on canvas,
Brlicke Museum, Berlin, Germany
 Kathe Kollwitz
b KONIGSBERG, 1867; d MORITZBURG, 1945
Trained in Munich and Berlin, Kathe Kollwitz chose to devote
herself to drawing and printmaking. Vehemently opposed to
the social conditions she witnessed in the poorest quarters
of Berlin, where she lived and worked alongside her doctor
husband, she placed the oppressed at the centre of her
Kathe Kollwitz work. In numerous drawings and prints she portrayed both
their personal tragedy and their suffering. She visited the
Soviet Union in 1927, Deeply concerned with women’s rights, she
contributed drawings to a society protecting unmarried mothers. In 1913,
she helped found Berlin's Women’s Art Union. Though she was opposed
to Nazism, the regime did not declare her work degenerate, but used it
to promote their own cause, having first removed her name.

LIFEline
1867 Born Kathe Schmidt, in
what is now Kaliningrad, Russia
1885 Enrols atWomen's
Academy Berlin
1891 Marries Dr Karl Kollwitz,
and has two sons Peter and Hans
| 1909 Takes up sculpture after a on a
visit to Rodin’s studio in 1904
1919-33 |s the first female A March of the Weavers /his etching CLOSERIook
| professor at the Prussian Academy is the fourth of six in a series entitled = REVOLT This is not an image of
A Weavers’ Revolt and was based on =. workers resigned to their fate, but
the social drama The Weavers (7892), . of insurrectionary weavers armed
by German author Gerhart Hauptmann. ™ with picks and axes. Kollwitz
Death Seizing a Woman A It depicts an uprising of Silesian workers F captures their grim determination in
| mother clings to her child to save rf the gaunt and furrowed expressions.
during a famine in 1844. 1897, etching,
it from death. Kollwitz lost a son in weg The Berlin Salon jury wanted to
27x36cm, Stadtmuseum, Munich, Germany
=1 award her the Gold Medal but they
World War | and often saw death
were forbidden by Kaiser Wilhelm Il.
| and despair in her husband's surgery.
EXPRESSIONISM
GERMAN
| 1934, lithograph print, private collection

Ernst Barlach Wilhelm Lehmbruck

b WEDEL, NEAR HAMBURG, 1870; d ROSTOCK, 1938 b DUISBURG, 1881; d BERLIN, 1919
After completing a course in decorative arts, Lehmbruck attended
Dusseldorf's Academy of Fine Arts from 1901 to 1907 As a young man
his ideas were shaped by the literature of left-leaning writers such as
Emile Zola and by Kathe Kollwitz’s highly political art. Stylistically, he was
influenced by Rodin (see pp.356-57) and Gothic art, and by his contact
with Matisse and Brancusi, whom he met on a visit to Paris in 1910.
CENTURY
20TH
EARLY In 1911, he made Kneeling Woman, which was singled out for
praise at an exhibition in Cologne the following year. With his
reputation enhanced, a book was published about him in 1913 and
he had one-man show in Paris. During World War | he worked in a
hospital for the wounded and found the experience deeply disturbing.
He committed suicide in 1919, leaving behind four children.

LIFEline
1881 Born the son of a miner
in German industrial heartland
A The Avenger Barlach’s sculpture has a highly expressive 1901-07 Studies at the
Dusseldorf Academy
inner force and represents the might of the German army during
1904 Impressed by Rodin
World War |.1917, bronze, height 43cm, private collection retrospective in Dusseldorf
After pursuing art studies in Hamburg and Dresden, TOA Mists Talis ania teeie
Ernst Barlach attended the Académie Julian in Paris from Westisso abel Bernas |
1895 to 1896. A trip to Russia in 1906 persuaded him to _| '919 Dies in Berlin
take up sculpture — his theme on his return being
Russia's overburdened rural poor. » The Prayer /his sculpture
In 1907 Barlach’'s financial position was secured when of a naked girl rapt in prayer is
the art dealer Paul Cassirer started paying an annual fee both sensual and serene. Like
for his work. Also a novelist and playwright, Barlach a statue on a Gothic cathedral,
published his first play, The Dead Day, in 1912, her angular form suggests the A Kneeling Woman Her elongated body, tilted
accompanied by a collection of his prints heaven-bound direction of her head, and aura of modesty and calm create a
thoughts. 1918, stone, captivatingly Expressionist form, which hovers
83x51x34cm, Kunsthalle, between the classic and modern. 1911, cast stone,
Hamburg, Germany 177x142x69cm, MoMA, New York, US
Franz Mare
b MUNICH, 1880; d NEAR VERDUN, 1916 LIFEline

For Franz Marc, art was a spiritual force that should oppose the corrupting nature 1880 Born in Munich,
of modern industrial society. He studied theology and philosophy before enrolling the second son of a painter
at Munich's Art Academy. Following visits to Paris between 1903 and 1907, Marc 1903 Visits Paris to study
new art trends i
August Macke
became influenced by van Gogh and the Post-Impressionists. In 1909, he moved to
1909 Moves to Sindelsdorf, b MESCHEDE, WESTPHALIA, 1887;
Sindelsdorf in the Bavarian countryside, where, surrounded by nature, he confirmed Upper Bavaria, where a small
d NEAR PERTHES-LES-HURLUS, CHAMPAGNE, 1914
his belief that only animals possessed the qualities of purity and beauty he found artists’ colony forms
lacking in his fellow human beings. Marc invested colour with a specific significance — 1910 Art dealer Bernhard August Macke’s art did not have the edginess of
red for domination and yellow for sensuality, for example. He gradually simplified his Koehler guarantees Marc Die Brucke or the spiritual quest of Der BlaueReiter.
style to a few bright colours and uncluttered composition. From 1911 to 1913 he was CLD INCOME Instead, he portrayed affluent and fashionable middle-
a leading member of the Der Blaue Reiter group. His work became more complex 1916 Dies in World War| class society in and around Munich. His work quite
in construction after 1914 showing the influence of the Futurists and Cubism. LatWerdun often possessed a whimsical quality, such as in his
pictures of bowlerhatted men feeding animals in a
» The Red Bull Living close zoo, or of a finely dressed woman staring longingly
to animals, Mare observed and at a display of hats in a shop window.
sketched their mannerisms.
Colour and shape are reduced v The Garden /he delicate use of colour and
to bare essentials, with a series the criss-cross pattern suggest air and light, and
of curved lines defining the bull are typical of his watercolour technique. 1914,
and the surrounding trees. 1912, watercolour on paper, private collection
oil on canvas, 34x 43cm, Pushkin ae J
useum, Moscow, Russia vr

CLOSERIook

SEEING RED For Marc, every NVIN

INSIN
colour had significance, with red
representing not only the material
world, but male domination —
a fitting colour for a bull. Alexe! von Jawlensky
b TORZHOK, 1864; d WIESBADEN, 1941
A captain in the Russian army, Alexei von Jawlensky
studied art part-time while a soldier, and made friends
with Kandinsky before leaving to study art in Munich
in 1896. He exhibited his work alongside the Fauves
in 1905 and worked in Matisse’s studio in 1907 From
1909 to 1914, he was based in Munich and painted
landscapes while staying with Kandinsky in Murnau. AYNLN
AIYVS
HLO?
Althought he did not exhibit with Der Blaue Reiter,
he was broadly sympathetic to their aims.

A Elephant, Horse, and Cow By 1974, Marcs

work had become influenced by Delaunay’ type
of abstraction — Orphism. Here, the animals serve
A Fate of the Animals /n this haunting more as a device for abstract patterning than
image of pain and fear, depicting all of suggesting emotionally expressive states. 1914,
nature succumbing to an apocalyptic 6¢ |s there any more oil on canvas, 85x 79cm, private collection
destructive force, the fragmented forms mysterious idea
show the influence of the Futurists. The
right-hand section was repainted by Paul
for an artist than the
Klee after the work was damaged by fire. conception of how
1913, oil on canvas, 196x266cm, Offentliche nature is mirrored
Kunstsammlung, Basel, Switzerland in the eyes of an
animal? ””
FRANZ MARC

A Head of a Man (Alexander Sacharoff) Drawn with a bold,

black outline, the subject's glance animates an almost sculptural
portrait. Works like this replaced landscape as von Jawlensky’s
central theme. c1911, oil on board, 54x 50cm, private collection
 A pulsating metropolis of nearly two events abroad, and, most probably,
million inhabitants, many of whom the controversial ideas of Viennese
had come from across the empire to neurologist and founder of
find work in the thriving industrial psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud.
sector, Vienna was also a deeply Upright Viennese society believed
divided city.While the poor were Freud's theories concerning primal
packed into tenement buildings, the sexual urges and the meaning of
aristocracy, barons of commerce, and’ dreams were immoral. It was in the
senior civil servants lived in splendid realm of sex and nudity that artists
A Secession Building, Vienna, Austria Designed and
apartments. built by Joseph Maria Olbrich, a student of Austrian architect would also have their battles with
Otto Wagner, the Secession Building is a striking example of Viennese notions of decency.
Jugendstil style Viennese Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) architecture.
By 1900, an extensive programme of CURRENTevents
At the turn of the 20th century public works had been completed, Working alongside architects, leading 1848-1914 Vienna's population booms
Vienna was an epicentre for providing an underground railway artists decorated interiors with from 400,000 to over two million.
music, literature, and the visual system, new tramways, public Symbolist motifs, such as elegant floral 1897 Karl Lueger, the openly anti-Jewish
buildings, and electric street lighting. patterns and sinuous female forms. politician, is elected the city’s Lord Mayor.
arts. The city became a magnet
The first-ever international automobile 1908 Vienna is shocked by the first
for free-thinking artists from Café culture Kunstschau (art show) where Klimt and
rally was held in the city in 1899. others show provocative new work.
across Europe. At times, this Above all, Vienna was a vibrant café
Much of the new construction was 1911 Death of the leading Modernist
cultural environment led to designed in the Jugendstil, the society, where artists and their friends composer Gustav Mahler.
conflict and scandal. German term for Art Nouveau. met to discuss projects, artistic Se

Pre-war Vienna
VIENNA
PRE-WAR

Oskar Kokoschka Egon Schiele

b POCHLARN, 1886; d MONTREUX, 1980 b TULLN, NEAR VIENNA, 1890; d VIENNA, 1918
An artist, playwright, and illustrator, Oscar Kokoschka An expressive and brilliant draughtsman, Schiele gained
was still a student at Vienna's School of Arts and Crafts v Adolf Loos /he architect renown for his erotic and somewhat tortured portrayal of
when he gained immediate notoriety in 1908 at the Adolf Loos was Kokoschka’s the naked body. He also painted still lifes and the local
newly conceived Kunstschau, where he exhibited a great friend and supporter, who countryside, which he liked to visit by train on day trips.
painted skeletal head in blue wash, a screaming self- introduced the artist to other Schiele portrayed the uneasy relationship he had with
Photograph portrait bust, and a group of violent illustrations for his prominent Viennese Self-portrait his mother in acutely melancholic pictures such as Dead
CENTURY
20TH
EARLYby Lotte play Murderer, Hope of Women. intellectuals. Kokoschkas Mother (1910). In April 1912, he was arrested on the
Meitner-Graf
Kokoschka went on to paint portraits of many of depiction of Loos shows the grounds that children visiting his studio had, when viewing his art, been
Vienna's leading intellectuals, exposing them to his frank, psychologically nervous energy of sitter and exposed to pornography. He was imprisoned for 26 days. The scandal
probing brushwork. He later developed a fascination for cityscapes artist alike. 1909, oil on canvas, only enhanced his reputation and his work gained many new followers.
which he addressed with the very same insight and energetic handling. 74x 93cm, Staatliche Museen,
Berlin, Germany » Self-Portrait Nude Schiele
drew and painted his naked form
at least 100 times, closely
exploring his most private desires
and sexual urges. Typically, his
body is set against an empty
monochrome backdrop, to stress
the sense of fragility, and at an
awkward angle to heighten the
sense of tension. 1910, watercolour
and gouache on paper, Graphische
Sammlung, Vienna, Austria
Gustav Klimt
b BAUMGARTEN, NEAR VIENNA, 1862; d VIENNA, 1918
Fusing Symbolist imagery, a gentle impressionism, and boldly
designed patterns, Gustav Klimt created a highly distinctive
and sensual style. His decorative art came to typify the spirit
of progress and luxury in Imperial Vienna prior to World War |,
and he himself had an enormous appetite for life. Klimt was
Photograph generous to his fellow artists, who affectionately dubbed him
by Moritz “Der Konig” (The King). He won important commissions from
pane the Viennese authorities and was awarded the Emperor Prize
in 1890 and the Gold Prize at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900.
At times, Klimt’s frank, realistic portrayal of nudity and unconventional
compositions led to fierce criticism and scandal and accusations that his
work was pornographic. Klimt also painted many fine landscapes, but is
renowned for his portraits of beautiful, aristocratic, and wealthy women. << Emilie Floege /his /uscious
Many of his drawings were considered too erotic to show in public. portrait of Klimt’s sister-in-law
and close companion signals a
marked shift in his portraiture.
LIFEline Vv Fable Klimt’ technical ability impressed the The former mild impressionism
Viennese art establishment and won him important is replaced by a flatter, more
1862 Born, an engraver's son
commissions. This classical scene illustrates the geometric style. Richly coloured
1876-83 Attends Vienna's
School of Applied Arts artist's grasp of the dynamic use of dark and light. patterns and strong design
1886-88 Works on paintings 1883, oil on canvas, 85x 118cm, Historisches Museum dominate, yet the viewers gaze
for Vienna's Burgtheater der Stadt Wien, Vienna, Austria is drawn to his model's tender
1894 Commissioned to paint expression. 1902, oil on canvas,
three Symbolist panels for 181 x184cm, Historisches Museum
Vienna University der Stadt Wien, Vienna, Austria
1903 Visits Italy to study
ancient Byzantine mosaics
CLOSERIook
1905 Returns fee for panels
to Vienna University following
scandals over nudity
1907-08 Paints The Kiss
(see pp414-15)
1909-11 Paints friezes for
Stoclet Palace, Brussels
1918 Dies from pneumonia

A
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» Judith /n the biblical tale,
the brave and beautiful Jewish
widow Judith beheads the
drunken Assyrian tyrant
Holofernes after a banquet. The
choker across her neck reminds
Bi
us that her pleasure stems from
the beheading. 1901, oil on » ABSTRACTION Klimt's
canvas, 84x 42cm, Osterreichische » repeated ornamental motifs
Galerie, Vienna, Austria © allowed him to revel in what in
time would develop into almost HLO?
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| abstract designs. Here, the
CLOSERIook ; H artist's use of deep blues,
mauves, and pure gold oblongs
make for stunning effect.

< Danae Klimt’ depiction of

the mythological story of Jupiter
ravishing Danae in the form of
a shower of gold caused an
unfortunate scandal. Many
were offended by the figures
openly sexual position and her
expression of dreamy ecstasy.
1907-08, oil on canvas, 77x
CAUGHT IN THE ACT
83cm, private collection
Surrounded by golden fig trees
and grapevines reminiscent of
ancient Assyrian times,
Judith’s face — with lips parted
and eyes closed — reveals her
at the height of her inner 6¢ All art is
excitement after the deed. erotic ”’
GUSTAV KLIMT
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CLOSERIook

The Kiss Gustav Klimt

There is perhaps no other painting in Western art so celebrated for Composition
its depiction of sensual love. The image is not just an intimate moment, but a The two figures are depicted against a tall wing-backed
universalized embrace between the sexes. Of the couple’s bodies we see only chair, which is not always noticed by the viewer. Only
the diminution of the roundels (circles) towards the top
the man’s head and neck, and the hands that encourage his lover's lips towards
of the canvas gives a hint of depth to the chair. Some
his own. Of the woman, we are shown only her face, arm, hands, and feet. commentators have interpreted the man, woman, and
The pictorial space is dominated by elaborate decorative motifs made up of chair as forming a phallic shape, suggesting sexual
geometric patterns and flowers. It is astonishing that with so little of the couple conquest. Another argument is that the lovers are set
depicted, Klimt so readily convinces us of their intimacy. inside a “golden bell” — symbolizing the couple’s isolation
from the outside world as they are lost in their embrace.

Technique rt
In The Kiss Klimt uses both matt and shiny gold leaf, wv

silver leaf, and silver thread (on the woman's robe).

Gold dust covers the umber background. The raised spiral
shapes on the robes are gesso-covered in gold. Klimt had
studied the decorative arts as a student and was versed
in gilding and mosaic work and had visited Ravenna’s
churches with their Byzantine mosaics. Here, the mosaic
is mostly painted effect, but there is some raised
ornament. The flowers and flesh are oil paint.
Y DETAILED DECORATION The symbolic
element of the decoration is exemplified in the
pattern on the robes. The man’s is more angular,
comprising black, silver, and white rectangles and
squares. The woman’s robe (below) has coloured
roundels representing flower heads.
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A FLOWERS The painted naturalistic bed of A LOVERS Both lovers wear flowers in their hair
flowers on which the couple kneel provides an reminiscent of a nimbus (halo) found in Byzantine
essential counter-weight to the stylized clothing icons. Klimt focuses the viewer's attention on the
and chair. It also serves to anchor this almost recipient of the kiss. The woman is portrayed
mystical description of love on to the material world.. submissively, rather than as the femme fatale AlYV3S
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so typical of much of Klimt’s work.

INcontext
THE SUBJECT OF THE KISS At the beginning
of the 20th century, artists began to explore the
nature of intimacy between the sexes. Two
masterpieces of modern sculpture, by Constantin
Brancusi and Auguste Rodin, were on the theme of
the kiss, while at the same time Norwegian artist
Edvard Munch depicted the darker side of intimacy.
The Kiss Edvard Munch
The young woman's
N head is obscured by the
shadowy male figure,
and her body, painted in
pearly tones, suggests an
) innocence that is about
to be taken. c1910,
5 oil on canvas, 59.5x45 cm,
| private collection
A BACKGROUND Klimt uses shiny gold dust
on top of a warm red umber for the painting's
background. The flatness and neutrality does
not add depth, but complements the costumes,
the couple, and the flowery clifftop.

A TENSION The woman's toes curling

to grip the earth suggest that she, at least,
senses the precariousness of the relationship.
 Origins and influences Style and technique
By the beginning of the 20th century, Most Cubist painting used a limited
Europe’s most advanced painters were range of colours (and at one stage
becoming less concerned with creating was replaced by collage), preferring
an illusion of depth and volume in their to concentrate on the analysis of form.
work. Artists had grown increasingly Rather than seeing the subject from a
aware of alternatives to the Western single point of view, painters combined
tradition — the art of Africa, for instance, different angles and aspects of a
challenged Western art's ideas of subject. The images created have to
In the space of just a few
naturalism and beauty. By playing with be deciphered, requiring the viewer
years, Cubism overturned to become an active participant.
representations of objects and space,
many of the visual conventions Cubism broke down these conventions.
that had dominated western The originators of Cubism were Subject matter
art since the Renaissance. Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, Picasso and Braque focused on still
although their concern with technical life and the figure, taking their subjects
Initially the project of a
innovations meant their paintings were A The Modern School Luc Metivet, 1911 “Whats from Parisian café culture. The “Salon
handful of painters working
sometimes hard to decipher. “Salon this?” “A Cube as a model since you're a Cubist now.” Cubists" painted many multi-figure
in Paris, it laid the groundwork Cubists” like Albert Gleizes and Roger “Well, |never thought that's how it’s done.” Cubism was subjects, possibly because their works
just coming out of artists’ studios into the public domain
for innovative art for over de la Fresnaye worked on a larger when this was published. It is more a satire on the were less stylistically complex and
50 years. scale, with more easily legible subjects. eagerness to follow a new trend than on Cubism itself. designed to appeal to a wider public.

Cubism
1912
TIMEline 1907
Picasso's Les Demoiselles
d’Avignon (1906-07) is usually
considered the first real Cubist
painting. Although seen by few
CUBISM
at the time, it set a challenge to
all young advanced painters in
Paris. First, in 1907, Braque
painted a large nude under its
influence, then other painters,
such as Gris and Léger, became
associated with the movement.
In 1912, the first book on the
subject was published. Its a
eae

authors were the “Salon GRIS Breakfast

Cubists” Gleizes and Metzinger. PICASSO Les Demoiselles BRAQUE The Portuguese
d’Avignon GLEIZES The Bathers

Development planes of colour. The subject is suggested

CENTURY
20TH
EARLY by abstract forms, meaningless except in
Although Picasso and Braque left little the context of the painting. This lack of
verbal explanation of what they were concern for subject-matter has led to
trying to do, art historians have identified Cubism being described as an attempt
some clearly defined phases in the to achieve a kind of “pure visual music”.
development of Cubism. This was the argument of Picasso’s friend,
In the period between 1907 and 1909, the writer Guillaume Apollinaire, and leads
sometimes called the “Negro Mask” directly to abstract art.
period, Picasso and Braque defied Western During this period, pasted papers, such
traditions of beauty by representing the as fragments of newspaper or wallpaper,
subject in terms of block-like forms. It was were added, bringing the worlds of
this that gave rise to the name “Cubist”, commercial culture and politics into the
assigned by the critic Louis Vauxcelles. painting. These flat planes are also found
in a revolutionary series of sculptures
Early Cubism made from cut-out cardboard by Picasso.
The early examples of the movement
are described as Analytic Cubism, and Late Cubism A Pierrot Juan Gris Gris painted a series of
the paintings of the years 1909-12 are the In 1914, Picasso's paintings became more pierrots (sad clowns). This work breaks down the
most complex and fragmented. Forms are colourful and exuberant. Cubism was now a figure into a collection of geometric shapes. 1919,
A Seated nude (study for Les Demoiselles) Pablo oil on canvas, 90 x 70cm, Musee National d’Art
Picasso Picasso spent six months preparing his shattered and reconstituted on the picture licence for freedom rather than a restraining
surface. Stencilled letters sometimes give Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
revolutionary work. On seeing it, Braque was so discipline. Some Cubists, including Braque,
overwhelmed thathe told him “. . itis as if you want us cryptic clues as to meaning. found it hard to follow.
to exchange our usual diet for rope and kerosene!” 1907, A more accessible kind of painting, During World War | many, but not the the means of representation, and the
oil on canvas, 60.5 x 45,5cm, Musée Picasso, Paris, France Synthetic Cubism began to evolve from Spaniard Picasso, served in the French process whereby a picture represents
1912 onwards, and employed simple flat army. Following the war, there was a the world. This impact was felt not only
widespread reaction against Cubism — in painting and sculpture, but also on later
sometimes called the “Return to Order” — developments in design and architecture.
but Cubism had left its mark, revolutionizing
G eorges Braque < The Studio IX Jhe nine paintings in
The Studio series are seen as self-portraits
b ARGENTEUIL-SUR-SEINE, 1882; d PARIS, 1963 with the artists studio visited by a bird. In
Georges Braque trained as a house decorator before moving to Paris this, the final piece, the bird is an abstract
in 1900 to continue his apprenticeship and study art. By 1906, Braque collection of shapes. 1952-56, oil on canvas,
was involved with the Fauve movement, but two events were to lead 146x 146cm, Pompidou Centre, Paris, France
to a drastic change of style. In 1907 he was impressed by Cézanne’s
retrospective at the Salon dAutomne and he met Picasso, in whose v Bottle, Newspaper, Pipe and Glass
Georges studio he saw Demoiselles dAvignon (see p.418). Braque introduced wallpaper and trompe
Braque, c1945 l'oeil effects during Cubism’s Synthetic
Braque began collaborating with Picasso on a new approach to
phase (1912-14). The mix of real objects
painting, a process that lasted for over five years. Their new style —
(newspapers) with drawn and printed
Cubism — was based on collapsing perspective into overlapping planes. On reaching
objects (wood panelling) added multiple
the threshold of abstraction, they played with ideas of illusion through the introduction layers of illusion. 1913, charcoal and collage
of recognizable elements. Many of their innovations — such as lettering, papiers collés on paper, 48x64cm, private collection
(collage using decorative or printed paper), trompe /’oeil (literally, deceives the eye, a
device used to trick the viewer), and paint thickening — came from Braque’s training as
a decorator. The partnership ended with Braque’s conscription during World War I.
After recovering from a head wound, Braque briefly returned to Cubism in 1917
before moving on to a more personal style. This continued his investigations into
space and the relations between objects by seeking a Zen-like balance between
colour, texture, and design. This more meditative approach is evident in his Table,
Billiard, and Studio still lifes and in his repeated treatment of a bird motif.

LIFEline
1907 Creates Cubism
with Picasso
1915 Suffers head wound
in World War |, spends two
years in convalescence
1920s Table series are first
major paintings in new style
1949-56 Studio series
1953 Becomes only living
artist to exhibit at the Louvre
1963 Dies in Paris; and is
given a state funeral INSIS

» Le Portugais (the << Canephora After World War |,Braque,

Emigrant) This portrait like many other painters, was associated
of a guitarist seated in the with a classical revival. Many paintings of
window of a harbour café- the period have a gritty surface and fluid
bar is one of the most handling that evoke the musical paintings
sophisticated works from of antiquity. The monumental nudes of
Braque’s Cubist period. Its Renoir were in vogue with collectors,
innovative use of lettering following a memorial retrospective of his
paved the way for the use work in 1920. This massive treatment of
of other creative elements the female figure is characteristic not just
in Braque’s work, such as of Braque but of other European artists of AlYV3
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trompe l'oeil and collage. the post-war years. 1922, oil on canvas,
1911, oil on canvas, 181x73cm, Pompidou Centre, Paris, France
117x82cm, Kunstmuseum,
Basel, Switzerland = CLOSE Rlook )
wc FERTILITY SYMBOLS
| One of the woman's arms
Bea) Is like a trunk, with a
® gnarled hand that
appears to be growing
into the fruit basket
rather than simply
| reaching into it. The
figure is rooted to the
ground by her robes and
feet. This association of
woman with the
TYPOGRAPHY Lettering and numbers provide fecundity of the earth
clues to deciphering this picture. “D BAL” is a reflected France's desire
fragment of a poster advertising a Grand Bal(a to re-populate after the
dance), while the numbers “10.40” are from a bar devastation of war.
bill; both elements suggest the setting is a cafe.
This text plays with the perceptions of two- and
three-dimensional space by providing a contrast
with the “solid” objects in the space behind.
 Pablo Picasso
b MALAGA, 1881; d MOUGINS, 1973 | LIFEline |
The prodigious career of painter and sculptor Pablo 1901-04 Produces his |
“Blue Period” paintings
Picasso provides the backbone of 20th-century art.
1904 Settles in Paris
His fame owed as much to his constant innovation
1904-06 Works on “Rose
as to the critical and financial success he enjoyed. Period” paintings
=v Picasso proved a precocious art student, winning 1906-07 Paints Les
Pablo Picasso, academic competitions by the age of 15. As a young artist, | Demoiselles dAvignon
1950s he moved to Barcelona before settling in Paris. There, he | 1907-14 Develops Cubism
mixed in bohemian circles and met the artist Georges | with Georges Braque
Braque. Between 1909 and 1914, the two of them were the leading | 1917 Meets his first wife,
figures in the development of Cubism — they took.further than any of their | Olga Kokhlova
contemporaries the fragmentation of form, the collapsing of perspective, 1920s Neoclassical phase
Il
real and illusion,
and the playing with h reality hich were were allall aspects o f
which Surrealist exhibitichin first
1925 Participates
this complex and enormously influential movement. For a while after as :
; 4 : ee | 1937 Paints Guernica (see
World War |, Picasso took part in the widespread revival of classicism, 0p.422-25)
a tendency usually associated with political and artistic restraint. He 1944 Joins Communist Party
surprised again in 1925 when he associated himself with the Surrealists, in wake of the liberation of _ |
then the most extreme wing of the Parisian avant-garde. After World War __| Paris. Remains loyal member
|| he settled in Vallauris, where he took up ceramics. for the rest of his life
Notorious for his womanizing, Picasso made his wives and mistresses | 1947 Moves to Vallauris in
a frequent subject for his art. His work went through several recognizable ie sea or rane ,
phases, often triggered by his mood or environment. Never adopting a oe z bea ena and is
style or movement for long, Picasso cannibalized ideas from everywhere )
— medieval and African art, bullfights, mythology, Old Masters —
reprocessing them through his uniquely humorous and original vision.

La Vie This deeply personal and symbolic » Les Demoiselles d’Avignon /his disturbing depiction
| painting entitled Life is haunted by the suicide of of prostitutes in a brothel in Avignon, Barcelona's red-light
Picasso close friend, Casagemas, over an unhappy district, proved to be one of the most notorious pictures of
affair. It offers a commentary on love, death, and the 20th century and was a precursor of Cubism and modern
relations between the sexes. 1903, oil on canvas, art. Its collapse of perspective and combination of geometric
= 196x 129cm, Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, US and primitivist styles — inspired by Iberian sculpture and
2 IK Zi es African art — were a reinvention of the possibilities of art.
ie) 1906-07, oil on canvas, 244x234cm, MoMA, New York, US
=
) CLOSERIook
ANGULAR FORMS ee. ian
Broken, jagged, intersecting e
lines dominate the picture,
making the eye leap from
one jutting, angular form
to the next. The fusion of
figures and background was
inspired by Cézanne's Bathers
paintings (see p.369).

CENTURY
20TH
EARLY

CLOSERI|ook
TRAGIC POSES This
painting dates from
Picasso's “Blue Period”
He chose blue to evoke
a mood of melancholy. In
the background, two sets
of figures crouch in tragic
poses, as if on paintings
propped up against the
wall. The upper figures
huddle together in despair
_ A Violin and Sheet Music Cubist stil! lifes included
— —_—_— — many references to music and instruments. The latter were
often chosen because of their resemblance to a woman's
body. Made entirely from cut-out, painted paper, this
6¢ Art is a lie that makes
work introduces layers of illusion. 1912, paper, 78x 64cm, US realize the truth ”’
Musée Picasso, Paris, France PABLO PICASSO
 WSIGN

re
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—

ai
as
ep)
A,Woman with Guitar /he stencilled /etters, Ma Jolie Mm
Ze
(My Pretty One), at the bottom of this portrait are an 4

affectionate reference to Picasso's lover, Eva Gouel. 1911, ce

a
oil on canvas, 100x 65cm, MoMA, New York, US <

A Still Life with Chair Caning /he first Cubist collage, this
picture subverts artistic illusion by introducing a real element to
represent a chair, while choosing an oval rope frame to suggest
a tabletop. 1912, oil and oilcloth on canvas with rope, 27 x35cm,
Musée Picasso, Paris, France
 Women Running on the Beach After World War |,
Picasso adopted a classical style. The exuberance of these
competing women is conveyed by their distorted limbs. 1922,
gouache on plywood, 33x 41cm, Musée Picasso, Paris, France

» The Three Dancers

This painting heralded a new
freedom of expression for
Picasso, transforming the flat
patterning of late Cubism into
amore colourful, Surrealist style.
The distorted pose of the crazed
dancer on the left marked the
start of increasingly violent
dissections of the human form,
provoked by Picasso’ worsening
relationship with his wife Olga.
1925, oil on canvas, 215x 142cm,
Tate, London, UK
v Figures at the Seashore
Picasso endlessly transformed
the human body, fragmenting it
into its bare components. This
aggressive image is charged
with sexual friction, and pushes
his representation of the human
form to its limits. 1931, oil on
canvas, 130x195cm, Musée
Picasso, Paris, France

CLOSERIook
ia

CUBISM

>

ac
=)
=
Fu | BATTLE OF THE SEXES At first sight, the
Lu jumbled mess of brown, bony lumps locked in
O
a embrace appears barely human. But the clues jim
a
rsa are all there: the spherical breasts and closed
oO
N eyes of the woman and the dominant arm,
phallic nose, and open eyes of the man
a
o
6
WwW

| INcontext
| ART DEALERS From the start of his career,
Picasso found people who supported him,
| and he was always astute in his business
dealings. Wealthy patrons bought his works
|direct, but he was also sustained by a
| number of art dealers. Competition between
| them, often encouraged by Picasso, brought
|| him considerable success, while numerous |
| exhibitions spread his fame

Kahnweiler and Picasso //e German art critic

| Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler was a dealer in Paris
| He was the first person to exhibit Cubist works,
| and remained a close friend of Picasso's
 ¥ Woman ina Garden Working
» Portrait of Dora Maar Picasso met the with Gonzalez, Picasso evolved a
photographer Dora Maar in 1936. She soon new kind of open-work sculpture
appeared in a number of portraits, including the in welded metal. It leant itself to
Weeping Woman series. Doras elegant pose fantastic transformations that also
contrasts strikingly with the violent distortions of appealed to the Surrealists. This
some of his other female portraits. 1937, oil on piece was inspired by his fascination
canvas, 92x 65cm, Musée Picasso, Paris, France with the myth of Daphne, who was
transformed into a tree. 1929-30,
_CLOSERIook welded and painted steel, 206x117x
85cm, Musée Picasso, Paris, France

SIMULTANEOUS VIEWS Dora's face is

shown in front and profile views, with her eyes —
made livelier by the contrasting use of red and
green — looking in both directions. Bright colours
and angular forms suggest a strong temperament,
but the striped background traps her in a cage.

INSIG

— © Le Déjeuner sur I’herbe, after Manet /n his /ater years, Picasso was
re not afraid to compare himself to the great artists before him. He produced
numerous interpretations of famous works, including this one, which allowed
him.to revisit a favourite theme — the artist and model. 1960, oil on canvas,
130x 195cm, Musée Picasso, Paris, France
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Guernica Pablo Picasso

1937, oil on canvas, 350 x 780cm,
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina
Sofia, Madrid, Spain
 CLOSERIl|ook

Guernica Pablo Picasso

Some critics consider Guernica to be the greatest painting of the
20th century. It is certainly the most famous anti-war painting, becoming Technique
as much a symbol for the misery of modern war in general as for atrocity From the start, Picasso conceived his painting
in the Spanish Civil War. In January 1937, Picasso was commissioned by in shades of grey, drawing inspiration from both
the expressive possibility of Goya's Disasters
the Republican government to produce a mural for the Spanish Pavilion at
of War etchings (see p.303), and the distressing
the Paris World Fair. Initially he had planned a studio scene, but the bombing photographs he had seen in newspaper reports.
of Guernica three months later changed everything, providing Picasso with The absence of colour, irregular perspectives, and use of dark and light areas unrelated
his theme. On first showing, it came under severe criticism from fascists to any light source all serve to heighten the scene’s nightmarish quality. Picasso
(“degenerate”) and communists (“anti-social”) alike, besides baffling many _ borrowed from his armoury of artistic styles to express universal suffering, drawing
on his personal iconography and the Cubist and Surrealist traditions of distorting
critics and viewers
and fragmenting shapes.

f | | Composition
\ '
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\
Starting on 1 May 1937, Picasso took five weeks to
complete Guernica, which was staggeringly fast for
such a monumental work. Forty-five dated sketches
for the composition and figures show how it
‘A
evolved. By painting Guernica as an allegorical
history, Picasso was drawing on an established,
traditional genre (especially Rubens’s The Horrors
of War), to which he added a frieze-like, triptych
structure and seven figures drawn from a
combination of art tradition and his own highly
personal stock of imagery

i: =<
PICASSO WORKING ON
GUERNICA The canvas was so high
CUBISM
that Picasso had to slope it against the
wall at one end of his studio to fit it into
the space. Picasso used a ladder and
brushes strapped on to sticks to reach . TRIANGULAR STRUCTURE
RY the top part of the painting The painting is divided into three parts
united by a triangular structure. The two
diagonals (from the table on the left and
the woman’s head on the right) meet at
the lamp. This composition also draws the
¢¢ The bulll is not viewer's attention to the screaming horse.
CENTU
20TH fascism but It is
INcontext
ARLY
brutality and
SPANISH CIVIL WAR Violence erupled in 1936
fosCe
darkness... the following a military coup against the newly elected
| Republican government. The war devastated Spain between
horse represents July 1936 and March 1939. Society divided into those
the people... the supporting the rebels, led by Franco, and the Republicans
who supported the government. Artists such as Picasso,
Guernica mural Is | Mir6, and Dali produced works on the atrocity of the war.
symbolic ”’ General Franciso Franco /n
PABLO PICASSO, 1945 4 July 1936, General Franco led
} the army ina rebellion against
the Republican government. | A UNDERDRAWING The ambivalent
@ After leading the Nationalists bull/minotaur figure obsessed Picasso
to victory Franco became head and was a regular theme in his work.
® ofstate of all Spain in 1939 Here, the visible presence of a faded
and remained so until his third eye shows how Picasso continually
death in 1975. The Fascist reworked this painting. The final version
regime he established had far-
shows the helpless bull confronting the
reaching effects on the art and
culture in this period. viewer with two human eyes

» DISTORTING HUMAN FORM

The bare-breasted lady was one of
the first figures to appear in Picasso's
studies, and remained virtually
unchanged. Her floating, elongated
head and the breasts squeezing her star-
shaped hand borrow from his surrealist
experiments in distorting human form
 Story
On the afternoon of 26 April 1937, < TOILET INTERRUPTUS
the Basque town of Guernica was The semi-clothed figure, who
devastated by German bombers dashes out from the right,
and fighters from the Condor desperate to know what is
happening, stares blankly at
Legion acting on Franco's orders.
the blazing bulb. Oblivious of
The bombardment lasted three hours, destroyed half the town, and left
her state of undress, she seems
over 1,600 defenceless civilians dead. When Picasso started painting to have been interrupted in her
Guernica, many of its motifs - such as the horse and bull —- were personal, actions. Picasso sometimes
ambivalent symbols related to the corrida (bullfight), which had been illustrated her plight to visitors
running through his work for years. to his studio by pinning toilet
tissue to her left hand.
» THE WOUNDED HORSE
Originally, Picasso drew a boldly » HIDDEN BULL’S HEAD Taken Ra ae
raised arm with a clenched After erasing much of his overtly {iu uyuaune '
first (the familiar salute of the symbolic imagery, Picasso could SN edabarte
Spanish Republican forces) as not resist leaving several hidden j,i bitin
the painting's focal point. motifs within the painting. These
However, unhappy with its included a second bull's head,
obvious symbolism, Picasso formed by the horse’s bent, front
replaced the raised arm with right leg, which appears to be
the twisted features of the horse, nuzzling the statue's hand. While
whose spiked tongue evokes the the bull appears to be neutral, \ HIDDEN SKULL Picasso
primal scream (of pain) of the it could be goring the horse included several subliminal
innocent victims of war. from underneath. motifs of death, including this
skull, formed out of the horse’s
Wyant Eee jv at
é
Cred WAT nostrils and upper teeth
iyi
i 1 phhet ACL
ail Another larger skull in profile
[5] is concealed in the horse's body,
forming the lower jawbone out
of its bent knee.

PIETA The image of the grief-stricken mother

holding her dead child echoes a familiar pose of
suffering in art, most famously in Michelangelo's
INSIS
Pieta. Picasso distorts the mother’s body —
splayed fingers, arched neck, and gaping mouth —
to heighten the emotional impact.

¥ SUN/LIGHT Picasso originally painted a sun

before converting it into an eye with a lightbulb.
The Spanish word for lightbulb is bombilla, which
is similar to bomba, the Spanish word for bomb.

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A LADY HOLDING THE LAMP This ghostly

figure holding a lamp, who appears to float
through a window, illuminates the chaotic scene.
This allegorical motif — the most famous of which
is the Statue of Liberty in New York — was a
recognized symbol of enlightenment.
 Juan Gris
b MADRID, 1887; d BOULOGNE-BILLANCOURT, 1927 LIFEline | |Fernand Léger
Generally considered to be the “third man” of Cubism, 1906 Moves to Paris
1912 Exhibits Cubist works at b ARGENTAN, 1881; d PARIS, 1955
Juan Gris was a Spanish illustrator who moved to Paris at
the age of 19. He soon became friends with Picasso, and Salon des Indépendants with Fernand Léger used his art to create a vision of the future, taking the
the Puteaux Group
from 1911 he engaged with Cubism. Gris proved himself objects and materials of modern, urban life as his subject, and the
1913 Visits Picasso in Céret,
adept at the new idiom, bringing a rigour — in particular in the French Pyrénées; relationship of humans with technology as his theme. The son of
Photograph relating to the space between objects — a clarity, and a adopts bright colours Normandy farmers, Léger trained as an architect's draughtsman before
by Georges colourful touch all his own. He also attracted the attention 1915 Visits Collioure, France; moying to Paris in 1903 to study art. He used the language of Cubism
Duthuit of dealers such as Kahnweiler, the first person to exhibit meets Matisse to depict his interest in the materials of modern life. His early “tubist”
Cubist works. Gris’s early works are constructed with the precision 1923 Stages his first major style, with its disjointed, curvilinear forms, became increasingly
of an engineer's diagram: objects are arranged on a grid according one-man exhibition in Paris abstract, and eventually evolved into a simpler “machine aesthetic”
to strict mathematical relationships. After 1915, his mastery of the 1924 Designs costumes and in which Léger deliberately adopted the bold, flat colours and lines of
sets and for Diaghilev's
painterly possibilities of collage, using combinations of cut-outs, Ballets Russes. Lectures at commercial art for his depiction of people in the mechanized city.
superimpositions, and folded planes, demonstrated a real understanding the University of Paris
that marked him out from the other Salon Cubists (see below).
LIFEline )
1906 Discovers Paul
» Landscape at Céret /n the Cézanne's work
summer of 1913, Gris joined Picasso 1911 Nudes in the Forest has
in Céret, France, and started composing a huge impact when exhibited
with areas of bright colour. He 1913 Contrastes de Formes
replaced the linear framework he had series brings him close to
used with overlapping planes borrowed abstraction
from the papiers collés (a type of 1919-30 Makes murals for
collage) of Synthetic Cubism. 1913, oil architect Le Corbusier
on canvas, 100x64cm, private collection 1940-45 Lives in the US
during World War ||
CLOSERIook 1944 Joins Communist Party

» The Wedding /éger uses

the fragmented forms of metallic
shapes to depict a wedding
procession. The curved,
interlocking white planes evoke
a bridal gown. 1911-12, oil on
CUBISM canvas, 257 x206cm, Centre
Pompidou, Paris, France

OVERLAPPING PLANES
Gris used a system of opaque,
overlapping planes to provide the
picture's spatial structure. Each
plane is differentiated from the
others by tone and texture, and so
takes its place in front of or behind
the surrounding planes.

20TH Breakfast Cubism stylistic

CENTURY
EARLY
devices are represented here by
different colour planes, on which
objects are drawn (bowl, glass),
coloured (sky), fragmented (coffee pot),
or “metamorphosed” (coffee grinder).
1915, oil and charcoal on canvas,
92x73cm, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

INcontext
THE PUTEAUX GROUP Sometimes called the
Salon Cubists or Section d'Or, the Puteaux Group
were a collection of artists who worked in the
Parisian suburb of Puteaux. The diverse members
included Gleizes, Léger, and Metzinger.
The three Duchamp brothers — (from /eft) Marcel,
Jacques, and Raymond — were at the heart of a group
of artists whose work was influenced by Cubism.

A The Mechanic /n the 1920s, Léger shifted his

focus to the mechanized city and the relationship of
people with their environment. 1920, oil on canvas,
116x89cm, National Gallery, Ottawa, Canada
 Jean Metzinger
Albert Gleizes
b NANTES, 1883; d PARIS, 1956
b PARIS, 1881; d AVIGNON, 1953
One of the leading Salon Cubists, Jean
Roger de La Fresnaye Metzinger studied art in Nantes, before
moving to Paris in 1903. After dabbling
b LE MANS, 1885; d GRASSE, 1925
with Impressionism and Fauvism, he
Roger de La Fresnaye, an academically trained painter, turned to Cubism in 1908, showing work
applied a Cubist-influenced style to monumental scenes at the first Cubist exhibitions and with
of contemporary life. More concerned with colour than the Puteaux Group (see p.426). His co-
many Cubists, he produced a kind of painting that was authorship of Du Cubisme with Gleizes
less fragmented and more easily legible than Picasso, brought fame beyond his paintings.
Braque, and Gris. Originally influenced by the Nabis (see
p.380), La Fresnaye was drawn into the Puteaux Group
(see p.426) after meeting one of the Duchamp brothers,
Raymond Duchamp-Villion, in 1910.
Changing his style under the influence of Cézanne,
he exhibited at Puteaux exhibitions, but his Cubism was
more decorative than structural. After World War |, he
abandoned Cubism for a more linear style. = 2

A The Bathers Gleizes often united past traditions (here, bathers

in the style of Cézanne) with the modern world (belching factories)
This ambitious picture uses a rhythm of forms and colours to flatten
aan the space and unify the composition. 1912, oil on canvas, 105x170cm,
* <( Sketch for the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France
' Conquest of Air La
Fresnaye's best-known
Albert Gleizes came from an artistic background, and his early work
work is a tribute to
was inspired by the Impressionists. In 1906, he founded a short-lived
flight and open-air life.
utopian community for artists and writers at the Abbaye de Créteil.
In the finished painting,
two figures, rather than After moving back to Paris in 1909, he met Jean Metzinger and Robert
three as in this sketch, Delaunay and started to apply a geometric style to his painting.
discuss Frances Gleizes exhibited his first Cubist works in 1910, and soon became
aeronautical triumphs one of the leading Salon Cubists, exhibiting with the Puteaux Group
below disc-like clouds (see p.426) and at The Armory Show in New York, which introduced A The Knitter Jechniques of Synthetic Cubism,
and a small balloon. Cubism to the US. He co-authored, with Metzinger, the influential, if combining different shapes and textures, are
1913, oil on canvas, partial, guide to the movement's history and principles, Du Cubisme used here while showing Metzinger on the point
94x 72cm, Musée d'Art (1912). In 1926, he moved to Isére, France, where he founded a of adopting a greater naturalism. 1919, oil on IWWSI
Moderne, Troyes, France community of religious painters and artisans. canvas, 117x81cm, Pompidou Centre, Paris, France

Alexander Archipenko Jacques Lipchitz Henri Laurens

b KIEV, 1887; d NEW YORK, 1964 b DRUSKININKAI, 1891; d CAPRI, 1973 b PARIS, 1885; d PARIS, 1954
The innovative work of Alexander Archipenko played an < Seated Man with The self-taught Henri Laurens is considered one of the
important role in the evolution of modern sculpture. He Guitar Lipchitzs sculptures most important Cubist sculptors. A trained stonemason,
grafted the tradition of the Russian icon, with its deep are probably the closest in he turned to Cubism after meeting Braque in 1911.
frame and applied incrustation, on to Cubist sculpture, spirit to Cubist paintings. Unfit for military service, Laurens remained in touch
while assimilating influences of Primitivism and collage. Figures and heads are with Picasso and Gris during World War |, absorbing
After studying art in Kiev, he moved to Moscow, and reduced to faceted surfaces their influences into his work.
then to Paris where he soon associated with Cubists, and tall, rectangular planes Laurens produced collage constructions, made from AlYVS
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becoming preoccupied with the problems of volume, developed around a vertical wood and sheet metal. They cleverly mirrored the
space, and movement. He lived in Berlin from 1921 to axis and linked in a jaunty techniques of Synthetic Cubism in three dimensions,
rhythm of curves and evoking likeness and volume through a carefully
1923, before moving to the US where he remained until
angles. 1918, bronze, height
his death. His exploration of concave and convex forms, conceived structure of painted planes. Laurens later
77cm, private collection
the relationships between solid and void and sculpto- turned to carving directly into stone or plaster.
painting left a lasting legacy.
a Tae Bigs |
| < Amphion /n the 1930s,
» Woman with a Fan Laurens was working ina
Archipenko experimented monumental, classical style.
relentlessly with new Amphion is typical of the way
techniques and materials in he mixed classicism with Cubist
an attempt to find his own ideas of metamorphosis to create
style. This painted bronze something that is simultaneously
relief juxtaposes stylized a female figure, a vase and a
The Lithuanian sculptor Jacques Lipchitz was an
abstract forms (planes, cones, musical instrument. 1937, bronze,
engineering student before arriving in Paris in 1909 to
and cylinders), made from height 347cm, Pompidou Centre,
study art. He was one of the earliest sculptors, along
glass, metal, wood, and Paris, France
papier-maché, againsta flat with Laurens, to understand how to apply the principles
background. 1914, polychrome of Cubism to three dimensions. Starting with a
bronze, height 108cm, private naturalistic approach — Sailor with Guitar (1914) — that °
collection employed a stylized combination of flat planes and
faceted surfaces, he extended his range of Cubist
expression in a more abstract sense, often evoking
architectural forms to emphasize their mass and create
a harmonious whole. From the 1920s, he used the
imaginative vision of Cubism to experiment with more
abstract, open-work forms (transparent sculptures) and
bronze figure compositions. In 1941, like many Jews
during World War II, he fled to the US.
 Futurism emerged at a time when
Italy was undergoing a difficult period
of social and political adjustment, ;
caught between the outdated
social structures of its past and the < The Futurists in Paris (79/2) Gino
Severini introduced the Futurists to the
modernizing challenges of the present. Paris scene. From left to right: Luigi
Russolo, Carlo Carra, FT. Marinetti,
Origins and influences Umberto Boccioni, and Gino Severini.
In the years before World War |
In his founding manifesto, printed
in Europe, the Futurists, the on the cover of France’s Le Figaro Severini, Carra, and Russolo. Inspired reproduce on canvas shall no longer
Orphists, and the Rayonists newspaper in 1909, Filippo Marinetti's by the ideas of the French philosopher be a fixed moment... It shall simply
all believed that a new form glorification of technology, speed, Henri Bergson, they saw dynamism as be the dynamic sensation itself”
dynamism, and war signalled the the principal force behind everything. Futurists aimed to connect with as
of art was needed for changing
birth of one of the noisiest and most many people as possible by creating a
society. Although their theories Subject and technique
aggressive avant-garde movements. barrage of constant publicity through
were not the same, they all Its call to arms based on “Art + Action The Futurist manifestos outlined a manifestos, lectures, exhibitions, and
pushed painting in the direction + Life = Futurism” attracted a nucleus desire to capture this invisible energy: “happenings a form of performance
of totally abstract art. of painters, including Boccioni, Balla, “.. the gesture which we would intended to provoke the audience.

Futurism, Orphism and Rayonism

TIMEline 1914
1909-11 1916
Early futurist art, such as
Giacomo Balla’s Street Lamp,
shows the influence of
Neoimpressionist artists Seurat
and Signac. By 1912 French
artists like Robert Delaunay
were conveying the dynamism
of modern life, while the
Rayonist Mikhail Larionov was
trying to depict not so much
objects but the relations between
them. Later Futurist paintings, eS a
such as Umberto Boccioni’s
DELAUNAY
Charge ofthe Lancers, were BOCCIONI The Charge of the Lancers LARIONOV Rayonist
BALLA Street Lamp Windows Open
strongly influenced by Cubism. Simultaneously CARRA Interventionist Composition
Manifestation

Interpretations death of some of its leading members in the

a ORPHISM,
RAYONISM
AND
FUTURISM,
CENTURY
20TH
EARLY war, the movement fizzled out, although a
As the art capital of the world, it was no second wave of Futurism — which had always
surprise that Paris was the city in which praised violence and war — was closely
Futurism emerged, nor that its development associated with Fascism.
overlapped with that of Cubism, with which
it broke away from traditional methods of Orphism
representation. Across Europe, exposure Orphism was a term coined by the critic
to these new styles provoked a flurry of Guillaume Apollinaire in 1912, after the poet
other avant-garde movements, including Orpheus, to describe a more colourful and
Rayonism in Russia, and Vorticism in Britain. abstract form of Cubism associated with
music, that presented “... new structures
Futurism out of elements that... have been created
A Development of a Bottle in Space Umberto The Futurist painters proclaimed themselves entirely by the artist himself”. It referred
Boccioni As the title of this 1912 work suggests, “the primitives of a new and transformed mainly to the work of Robert Delaunay
Boccioni’s sculpture is preoccupied with the interaction sensibility”. Since their early technique was and his wife Sonia, who were inspired by
between objects and the space around them. 1912,
incapable of portraying the dynamic, modern complementary colour theory to develop
bronze, height: 38 cm, Mattioli Collection, Milan, Italy
world they lived in, they combined some increasingly abstract paintings based around
elements of Neoimpressionism — such as colour blocks and discs. Seen as a key
pointilist brushwork — with photographic advance towards abstraction, it was a major A Les Tours de Laon Robert Delaunay The vibrancy of
analysis and the fractured forms of Cubism. influence on Der Blaue Reiter in Germany: this work is typical of early Orphism and very different to
the Impressionist paintings of the cathedral that Delaunay
Replacing the Cubists’ static subject matter
had produced only a few years earlier. 1912, oil on canvas,
with city life, nightlife, and movement, they Rayonism Pompidou Centre, Paris, France
added their own pictorial devices, such as Rayonism was a short-lived Russian
unnaturalistic colour to heighten the impact movement founded by Mikhail Larionov art. Wishing to present the dynamic energy
of the work on the viewer, and “force-lines” and his partner Natalya Goncharova, which “ ..which may arise from the intersection
to convey movement and draw the viewer in attempted to synthesize the discoveries of reflected rays [of light] from different
to the picture. In the later, more abstract of Cubism, Futurism, and Orphism into a objects”, their paintings were characterized
phase (1913-1916), the Futurists turned to single artistic language. It provided a crucial by rhythmically interacting shafts of colour.
sculpture and collage sculptures. With the step in the development of Russian abstract
Giacomo Balla
b TURIN, 1871; d ROME, 1958 LIFEline
Giacomo Balla was the oldest, most naturally inventive, 1871 Born in Turin
and least bombastic of the Futurists. After staying in 1895 Moves to Rome; works
Paris at the end of the 19th century, where he was as an illustrator and painter ¢¢ The gesture
influenced by the Neo-Impressionists, Balla moved 1900-01 Exhibitions in Italy which we would
and Germany; moves to Paris
to Rome, where his pupils included Severini and reproduce on
1901 Settles in Rome;
Giacomo Boccioni. His continually evolving style progressed
Balla
teaches Severini and Boccioni canvas... shall
via Divisionism and “dynamism” towards increasing 1909 Produces the first
abstraction and expansive plastic forms, which,
simply be the
Futurist painting, Streetlight.
according to the Futurist Manifesto, were “inspired by the dynamic 1910 Signs Futurist manifesto dynamic
forces of the universe” after 1915. Balla’s growing obsession with new 1912 Paris show Dog ona Leash sensation itself ””
technology, in particular stop-motion photography, led to a series of 1914 Starts sculpting; explores MANIFESTO OF FUTURIST
quasi-scientific studies of movement. These involved repetition and more abstract colour forms. PAINTERS, 1910
superimposition of the image, like successive stills from a film. 1958 Dies in Rome

» Swifts: Paths of Movement + Dynamic

Sequences /his painting belongs to a series
in which Balla set out to capture the “dynamic
sensation” of bird flight. It represents a more
fluid expression of movement than his earlier
work. 1913, oil on canvas, 97x120cm, MoMA,
New York, US

CLOSERIook
INFLUENCE OF P ee = ie fi
PHOTOGRAPHY ) i , ZB ‘ ~
Balla recreates the birds’
speed and movement by
tracing out complex lines of
flight, which snake across the
canvas against an architectural
A. Street Light Inspired by Rome’: first electric
backdrop. The closely spaced
sequences of repeated arcs, street lamps, Balla took Marinetti's words to
representing each wing-flap, heart about killing the moonlight. Here he replaces
are based on the stop-motion dots with brightly coloured chevrons in order to
“chronophotography” of contrast the forceful rays of electric light with the
Etienne-Jules Marey. feeble glow of the moon. 1909-11, oil on canvas, INSIY
175x115cm, MoMA, New York, US

|Carlo Carra Gino Severini

b QUARGNENTO, 1881; d MILAN, 1966 b CORTONA, 1885; d PARIS, 1966
Carlo Carra left home at the age of 12 to work as a mural decorator. After spending Gino Severini was a former pupil of Giacomo Balla. Based in Paris from 1906, he
time in Paris and London, he enrolled at Milan’s Brera Academy in 1906. In 1910, he became the vital bridge between the Cubists and the Futurists. Severini's figurative
helped draw up the Manifesto of Futurist Painters, which saw the beginning of his paintings from the Futurist period, portraying dynamic subjects such as busy streets,
most popular and influential phase of painting. dancers, and trains, are characterized by their Cubist fragmentation and use of strong
Early works, such as the heartfelt Funeral of the Anarchist Galli (1911), combined geometric shapes and colours.
a Futurist dynamic with a Cubist feel for structure. His Futurist phase ended during After 1913, Severini's work became more abstract and lyrical as he moved towards
World War |, when he met the painter Giorgio de Chirico and discovered metaphysical a more Orphic approach based on the abstract possibilities of Divisionism. Paintings HLO?
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painting. Carra later turned his back on the avant-garde completely, advocating the such as the Centrifugal Expansion of Light (1914) used contrasting colour forms
support of Fascism through art. to convey impressions and trigger memories. During the 1920s, Severini's style
became more traditional.
> Interventionist Manifestation
The virtuoso collage, intended as a
“plastic abstraction of civil tumult”,
was originally published in the
Futurist journal Lacerba in August
1914, as part of Futurism’s campaign
for Interventionism, urging Italy to
enter World War |. 1914, collage on
cardboard, 39x 30cm, Peggy Guggenheim
Collection, Venice

ROTATING TYPE Carra A Pan-Pan at the Monico /his painting of a dance hall was
incorporated newspaper cuttings and one of the sensations at the Futurist exhibition in Paris in 1912,
other typographical fragments into a and was the perfect subject for a Futurist-styled exploration of
whirl of “liberated words” inspired by
movement and rhythm. The original painting was destroyed in
Marinetti’s own linguistic experiments,
the war and later recreated by the artist. 1959-60, oil on canvas,
placing “Italia” at the centre.
280 x400cm, Pompidou Centre, Paris, France
 Umberto Boccioni
b REGGIO CALABRIA, 1882; d SORTE, 1916 LIFEline
Umberto Boccioni was the most loyal supporter of | 1882 Born in Reggio Calabria
Filippo Marinetti (opposite), the founder of Futurism, and | 1901-02 Becomes student
of Giacomo Balla in Rome
probably the most naturally gifted Futurist artist. As adept » The Street Enters
1910 Co-writes Manifesto of
in sculpture as in painting, Boccioni created some of Futurist Painters; becomes the House Boccionis
the movement's most enduring art. His early work was the main théorist of the aim was to recreate the
Self-portrait influenced by Divisionism (he was a pupil of Balla) and Futurist movement sensation one would
Symbolism. In 1910, Boccioni focused on depicting 1910 Paints the first major experience on opening
the raw energy of the city — a theme that gave him the subject for Futurist work, The City Rises a window and having “all
Futurism’s first major painting, The City Rises (1910). Around this time 1912-13 Produces major life and the noises of the
Futurist sculpture, Unique street rush in at the same
he came up with his theory of “lines of force’ a device for linking up
Forms of Continuity in Space time”. He describes these
objects and drawing the viewer into the centre of the picture. 1914 Publishes Futurist
Boccioni then turned away from social themes to focus on illustrating principles of spatial
Painting and Sculpture, a
his numerous theories, especially concerning dynamism. Boccion! was interpenetration and
comprehensive survey of
the movement disruption in his Technical
an enthusiastic advocate of World War | and volunteered in 1915, but
1916 Thrown off a horse and Manifesto. 1911, oil on
was killed in a riding accident while training.
The Futurists never
killed during military training canvas, Niedersachsisches
recovered from his death.
Landesmuseum, Hanover,
Germany

FUTURISM
z
& =)

ENTURY

20TH
EARLY

\ States of Mind: The Farewells Boccioni’s States CLOSERI|ook

of Mind triptych was the first great statement of Futurist painting, | EXPRESSIVE FORMS
synthesizing its theoretical interests in Cubism, the ideas of : Boccioni wanted to
influential French philosopher, Henri Bergson, and individual capture the essence of
experience. Farewells, which forms the central panel, is concerned emotion by forcing
with the emotions of parting. The painting can be read as a “colours and form... to
hieroglyph that combines flashes of memory, feelings of separation, express themselves”. The
and the anticipation of travel into a wholly heightened sense of swirls of smoke from the
train‘s funnel merge with
consciousness. 1911, oil on canvas, 71x 96cm, MoMA, New York, US
disc-shaped clouds and _ ee
pulsing radio signals to LINES OF FORCE Curving
heighten the confusion lines are used to exaggerate the
of departure emotional states of the embracing
figures that they surround J
 Luigi Russolo
b PORTOGRUARO, 1885; d CERRO, 1947
Luigi Russolo was the most literal-minded and least
innovative exponent of Futurism until he transferred
his energies from painting to composing. His work
was often characterized by its clumsy use of bold
colours and forms. He acted like a prototype Futurist
should, dabbling in all the arts until he found success
as a musical theorist and composer. Russolo invented
new noise-making instruments known as intonarumori
(sound boxes). In 1913, he published his The Art of
Noises manifesto, which called for a new awareness
of the sonic possibilities of the city. He attempted to
incorporate the sounds of gurgling pipes and jolting
<< Unique Forms of Continuity trams into some of his musical scores.
in Space /his is possibly the : , ode
most successful realization of the | ¥ Revolt Russolo described this work as the “collision of two
Futurist aesthetic in any medium: forces” — revolution versus inertia. It addresses the potential
Its modern, abstract form seems unrest arising from the clash between rapid industrialization and
to explode outwards into the an outdated social structure. 1911-12, oil on canvas, 150 x 230cm,
surrounding space. A number of Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, Netherlands
bronze castings were made after
the artists death. The Tate, London,
and MoMA, New York, both own
versions, 1912-13, 118 x 88 x 37cm,
bronze, Mattioli Collection,
Milan, Italy

INSIH

| RED WEDGE A crowd

ie advances as a red wedge.
| Buildings seem to retreat,
pushed back by pointed
| red “lines of force”.
| Garish colours enhance
the sense of aggression.

INcontext
MARINETTI’S MANIFESTO Filippo Tommaso Marinetti HLO?
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AlYV3
(1876-1944) was born in Alexandria. He studied law in Paris
before moving to Milan. On 20 February 1909, this ambitious poet
published his remarkable The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism
on the cover of the prestigious French newspaper Le Figaro. His
rejection of the past and glorification of war, machines, and speed
immediately attracted followers to his standard.

Marinetti (photograph by E 0
Hoppe, 1913) In his first Manifesto,
Marinetti described a “roaring car”
as “more beautiful than the Victory
of Samothrace”. A superb publicist
and provocateur, his Futurist
“spectacles” caused riots wherever
he went. Marinetti’s ardent
patriotism and disdain for tradition
led to a friendship with Mussolini
and his becoming a fascist in 1919.

A The Charge of the Lancers

Boccioni was an ardent supporter of war,
yet his only major war image was this
collage made just before Italy entered
the conflict. Over newspaper cuttings
describing French advances, cavalry
attackaGerman trench. 1914-15, oil and
collage on cardboard, 32 x 50cm, Civica
revelations on to canvas to produce a series of analytical studies of
Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Milan, Italy
human movement that proved his most abstract paintings. Shifting
planes of colour and structural contrasts to fuse the figure into its
surroundings, conveying the idea of a cyclist moving through space
and time. 1913, oil on canvas, 70x95cm, Mattioli Collection, Milan, Italy
 Robert Delaunay
b PARIS, 1885; d MONTPELLIER, 1941 | LIFEline
One of the first purely abstract painters in Europe, Robert Delaunay 1906-08 Serves asa
developed the style that the poet Guillaume Apollinaire (below) regimental librarian in Laon
fr eli See es F : 1908-12 Moves towards
dubbed “Orphism’’ which was a personal interpretation of many apstraction in whatnot
of the elements of Cubism. his “destructive” period
F After his parents divorced, Delaunay was brought up by his uncle. ~ _| 4949 Marries fellow artist
Robert He took an interest in painting at an early age and, despite the derisive Sonia Terk < The Eiffel Tower
Delaunay attitude of his uncle towards modern art, he adopted an Impressionist 1912-14 Enters his One of a series of Cubist-
style as a teenager. In 1906, military service took him to Laon, where “constructive” period of, Eos “es
a produced hisa first
fi mature work. On his return to Paristei in 1908, hisfpaint
painting took a
virtually abstract
eet
painting
:
inspired paintings of the
Eiffel Tower, this shows
new direction when he saw the Cubist paintings of Picasso and Braque. A series of oe ai aoral : Delaunay’s preoccupation
paintings of cathedrals and the Eiffel Tower followed, in which he adopted the Cubist fcuraive seed with composition rather
style, but with his own sense of vivid colour and movement creating tensions and 1929 Returns to France, and than representation.
harmonies through contrasting colour planes. Delaunay’s Orphism influenced -| resumes abstract painting He concentrates on
Kandinsky’s Der Blaue Reiter group (see p.408) and his use of the spectrum of colours | 1940 Moves to the Auvergne juxtapositions of colour
to achieve brilliant effects was taken up by his wife Sonia, in her painting, fabric, and to avoid the Nazi invasion; and shape to achieve
fashion design. It was a short step to completely non-representational paintings, which bakin Montpellier the movement and tension.
both Delaunays produced for the rest of their lives. The style celebrated technology COE 1911, oil on canvas,
and modern life, as opposed to the still life preferred by Picasso, Braque, and Gris. 201 x 138cm, Guggenheim
Museum, New York, US

» La Ville de Paris Delaunay

continued to aspire to make
the big public painting that had
been a feature of 19th-century
academism. Here, he brings
together the Eiffel Tower, a
symbol of modernity, with the
Three Graces, derived from an
antique fresco. 1910-12, oil on
canvas, 267 x406cm, Pompidou
Centre, Paris

-CLOSERIook
Loan eal
lp
FUTURISM

SHARDS OF COLOUR
Combining an Impressionistic
fascination for light with the
fragmentary approach of
Cubism, Delaunay reduces the
elements of this scene to a
collection of separate shards
CENTURY
20TH
EARLY of colour.

» Windows Open Simultaneously

INcontext
(First Part, Third Motif) By the time
of the Simultaneous Windows series, APOLLINAIRE The poet and writer Guillaume
Delaunay had virtually abandoned Apollinaire also worked as an art critic and had many
artist friends. He coined the term “Orphism” to
figurative painting. In this
describe the style of Delaunay and his followers after
groundbreaking abstract work, he takes
Orpheus, the poet and musician of Greek mythology.
the elements of Cubism to extreme,
using luminous colours in a prismatic
effect that diguises representational Portrait of Guillaume Apollinaire Here an unknown
French photographer captures Apollinaire reclining (c1910)
images beyond recognition. 1912,
oil on canvas, 46x 38cm, Tate, London, UK

6¢ In order that Art attain the limit of

sublimity, it must draw upon our
harmonic vision: clarity ””
ROBERT DELAUNAY, 1912
Frantisek Kupka
b OPOCNO, 1871; d PUTEAUX, PARIS, 1957 Natalia Goncharova
After studying in his native Bohemia, and then in Prague and Vienna, Frantisek Kupka
b NEGAYEVO, 1881; d PARIS, 1962
moved to Paris in 1895, where he made his name first as an illustrator, but later as
an innovative abstract painter. In the early years of the 20th century, Natalia Goncharova established herself as a
Kupka’s early paintings were in a Symbolist style, making use of mythological and leading member of the Russian Neo-Primitivist movement. She later adopted a more
mystical imagery, but at the beginning of the 20th century he began to study colour avant-garde approach, and, with her long-term partner Mikhail Larionov, developed
theory and the depiction of motion, combining these with his background in Czech the principles of Rayonism. The two met at the Moscow School of Painting,
folk art and an interest in science. By 1912, Kupka had evolved a unique vocabulary Sculpture and Architecture, where Goncharova studied.
of shape and colour, quite different from that of his Cubist contemporaries. In the Goncharova’s early work was influenced by Russian folk art as well as French Post-
purely abstract paintings that followed, he developed this compositional style, using Impressionism. In around 1910, however, she adopted elements of Futurism and
vertical and diagonal strips of colour or swirling circular forms. Kupka’s work often Cubo-Futurism into her paintings, joined the Der Blaue Reiter group, and gained an
contains allusions to science and music theory, as well as to his own theories on international reputation. As a designer for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, Goncharova
the conceptual nature of visual art. travelled around Europe, eventually settling in Paris in 1919 and becoming a French
citizen in 1938. She and Larionov married in 1955. By this time, they were both in
poor health and living in poverty, but she continued to paint until her death in 1962.
v Compliment Kupka believed that abstract painting was
analagous to musical composition, and strove to achieve harmony and
rhythm in his work. Here, basic motifs are repeated, but also go through ¥ The Cyclist Painted during the most productive period of her life, this is
a process of development and transformation, like the unfolding of a piece the best known of Goncharovas Russian Futurist paintings. She uses splintered
of music. 1912, oil on canvas, 89x 108cm, Pompidou Centre, Paris, France geometric shapes and repetitions to convey a sense of dynamic movement.
£ om , 1913, oil on canvas, 78x 105cm, State Russian Museum, St Petersburg, Russia

COLOURS IN HARMONY
The shapes are rounded and
have a sense of solidity, unlike
the fragments of flat colour
favoured by the Cubists. They
are arranged in groups with
colours from the same part of
the spectrum.
INSIHd
GNV
INSIN

Mikhail Larionov
b TIRASPOL, 1881; d FONTENAY-AUX-ROSES, NEAR PARIS, 1964
A maverick figure in the Russian avant-garde, Mikhail Larionov was a leading figure
in a series of avant-garde groups of artists at the beginning of the 20th century, and
the initiator of the style known as Rayonism.
Starting in an Impressionistic style while still a student in Moscow, Larionov was
anxious to incorporate the latest Fauvist and Expressionist ideas into his work, and
he was particularly attracted to Italian Futurism. From these, he developed a Neo-
Primitivist style, in about 1912, and the first of his non-objective Rayonist paintings. AIYVA
HLO?
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He travelled with his long-term partner Natalia Goncharova to France, and became
an important member of the Ecole de Paris, as well-known for his stage design and
writings on art as for his painting.

» Rayonist Composition
In Larionov’s early Rayonist
paintings, the subject was
fragmented by the depiction of
interesting rays of light reflected
from it, but he soon moved
towards a purer, more abstract
interpretation. From about 1913,
he produced non-objective
compositions, such as this one, in
which the reflected and refracted
light entirely replaced any subject.
1916, gouache on paper, 56 x 45cm,
private collection

A Peasants Picking Apples A/though Goncharova often worked at the cutting-

edge of the avant-garde, she continued to paint figurative scenes inspired by folk
art. Her depictions of peasants at work show the influence of \ubok prints (simple,
colourful prints from wood cuts or copper engravings) and medieval Russian
statues, but also of Gauguin, Cézanne, and Matisse. 1911, oil on canvas, 104x 98cm,
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
 Origins and influences Artists instinctively knew that the
In the first decade of the 20th century, foundation of art was reproducing
Fauvist and Expressionist artists had some facet of the world as the artist
removed the connection between the saw it. It would be no simple matter
colours they used to represent nature for painters and sculptors to take
and nature itself. The Cubists had the decisive step to abstraction —
divided objects into multiple planes, A Schroeder House Dutch architect Gerrit Rietveld art without representation.
designed this house with abstract concepts in mind, such
challenging dimensions of space,
Art without subject matter was as the floating white plane and pronounced vertical and CURRENTevents
and the Futurists challenged concepts horizontal lines. 1923-24, Utrecht, Netherlands
a revolutionary concept in the of time. Certain artists had painted 1910 German bacteriologist Paul Ehrlich
develops the cure for syphilis. The disease
early 20th century. Out went portraits of rare psychological Cubism, turned away from non- ruined many lives, not least among artists.
identifiable people and objects. intensity. Many frontiers had been representational art. Their canvases 1913 Russian composer Alexander
In came floating shapes - some crossed, and the art-going public had had always included a subject — it had Scriabin wrote his symphonic piece The
trouble keeping abreast of events. just become harder to identify it. Poem of Fire for orchestra and light show,
resembling creatures, others believing that each musical sound had its
Until 1910, these artists had kept own colour and could be played as ight.
geometric - blocks of colour Removing subject matter
within the bounds of concrete reality — 1924-25 Photographs were transmitted
so big that they filled an entire they had depicted recognizable The biggest leap of all — removing any across the Atlantic for the first time by
canvas, and vertical and subjects. Even Picasso and Braque reference to the world of identifiable wireless telegraph. The following year the
first transatlantic broadcast took place.
horizontal lines. had, in the final stages of Analytical objects — proved stubbornly elusive.

Birth of Abstract art

TIMEline
Kandinsky hovered on the brink
1909 1928-1932
of abstraction with The Blue
Rider. Mondrian’s The Gray Tree
(see p.444) has the merest
ART
ABSTRACT
OF reference
BIRTH to its title, moving
closer to the abstract ideal of
Composition with Red, Black,
Blue, and Yellow. \n 1915,
Malevich launched his brand of
abstraction on the public with
Suprematist Composition.
Brancusi’s Mademoiselle
Pogany pares portrait art down KANDINSKY Der Blaue Reiter BRANCUSI MALEVICH
to the essence of a face. (The Blue Rider) MALEVICH Mademoiselle KANDINSKY Yellow, Red, Blue Three Little Girls
Suprematist Pogany
Composition

Object-free art had taken to reach their individual abstract

CENTURY
20TH
EARLY styles, they were united by one urge. They
Abstract notions were not entirely new. wanted to oppose the self-limiting material
JMW Turner's landscapes and seascapes, values that they felt dominated society with
painted in the 1830s and 40s were often a new, profound set of spiritual ideals.
a whirl of atmospheric colours and abstract These artists wanted to do the impossible
elements — although the viewer eventually — turn back the clock by leaping into the
identifies a cow in a pasture or ship at sea. future and create an art that was equal to
The Impressionists had loosened any art of the past, each piece containing
Realism’s grip on the physical world and its Own inner universe.Their approach to
at times approached the abstract. Monet's creativity was steeped in ancient philosophy,
Waterlilies (begun 1899) or misty Haystacks esoteric Eastern beliefs, and new mystical
series (1890-91) are examples. Significantly, writings. They wanted their art to offer
A Composition 17 Theo van
Doesburg Sharing Mondrian’ vision,
all the pioneer abstract painters went the viewer a rationale for an ordered, van Doesburg excluded more and
through an impressionistic phase. spirit-enhancing life. more colours from his work. 1919,
A Suprematism Kasimir Malevich and El Lissitzky
In the decorative arts there had always oil on canvas, 50x 50cm, Haags
Malevich collaborated on projects with Lissitzky, who
was developing a new approach to design that fused been abstract patterns in ceramics, wall- The importance of music Gemeentemuseum, The Hague,
architectural forms and painting. This is a sketch for a hangings, and furniture design. Art Music provided a guide for abstract artists. Netherlands
theatre curtain. 1919, pencil, watercolour, and ink on paper, Nouveau, in all its national variations, had Composers had long managed to sweep
45x62.2cm, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia seen such decoration brought into painting. the listener into other worlds without
More than anyone else, Gustav Klimt (see needing to represent nature directly.
pp411-13) had placed abstract decorative Instruments did not imitate cocks crowing
motifs at the centre of his works of art — or babies chuckling. Yet the concert-goer
The Kiss would have been unthinkable if the readily imagined the countryside or memories
couple had been wearing everyday clothes. of childhood. If music could be abstract,
ordered, and emotionally charged,
Spiritual ideals then so too could art.
By whatever route the abstract pioneers
Wassily Kandinsky, Kasimir Malevich,
Constantin Brancusi, and Piet Mondrian
Wassily Kandinsky
v Winter Landscape Showing the influence of
b MOSCOW, 1866; d NEUILLY-SUR-SEINE, 1944 LIFEline Fauvist colour in his early work, Kandinsky includes
One of the pioneers of abstract art, Wassily Kandinsky 1866 Born in Moscow, the strong line and contour, the essential elements of
has some claim to being the first completely non- son of a wealthy tea merchant his later pure abstract works. 1909 , oil on canvas,
1886-96 Studies and teaches 76x98cm, Hermitage, St Petersburg, Russia
representational painter to achieve complex
law at Moscow University
compositions with only barely recognizable objects.
1895 Sees Monet's
Aided by his father’s funds, he organized artists’ groups, Haystacks in an exhibition
Photograph by taught art, and travelled extensively with his lover, the and is deeply impressed
Boris Lipnitski painter Gabriele MUnter. In 1908, they moved to 1896 Moves to Munich and
the country, at Murnau in Germany. Kandinsky’s style studies at the Academy
developed towards abstraction from a colourful Expressionist manner, 1911 Founds Der Blaue Reiter
and his work is the starting point for the kind of abstraction concerned with Franz Mare (see p.408)
above all with emotion rather than geometry and order. In 1912, he 1915-17 Separates from
Munter; marries Nina von
published On the Spiritual in Art, in which he argues that colours and Andreevsky in Moscow
form can communicate without reference to subject matter. In Russia 1921 Leaves Moscow,
during the Revolution, he helped re-organize art education in Moscow disillusioned with Soviet arts
for the Soviet government before returning to Germany in 1921, when 1944 Dies, a French citizen
he started work at the Bauhaus (see p.482).

< Yellow, Red, Blue /n Kandinsky notion

of form and colour, each of the “primary”
shapes has its corresponding colour — yellow
triangle, red square, and blue circle. Here,
Kandinsky elaborates on variations on this
theme. 1925, oil on canvas, 127 x200cm,
Pompidou Centre, Paris, France

+» CLOSERIook

| GRID MOTIF Kandinsky first

) introduced the sloping grid into
his work with the painting Black
Grid (1922). Here, the grid is less
dominating partly because it
comprises all the colours that
surround it in the picture.

EH
AO
LOVY
HLYIG
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> Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider)
The process of removing narrative and
objective content from his work was
gradual — a rider and blue horse are clearly
discernible. This painting gave its name to the
association of artists that Kandinsky formed
in Munich in 1911. 1909, oil on canvas,
94x 130cm, Pompidou Centre, Paris, France

6¢ Abstract art places a

new world, which
on the surface has
nothing to do with
reality, next to the
A Sky Blue /t is likely that these puzzling
real world ?? floating shapes are Kandinsky’s depiction of the
WASSILY KANDINSKY microscopic sea creatures that fascinated him on
trips to the Normandy coast. 1940, oil on canvas,
100x73cm, Pompidou Centre, Paris, France
AIYVS3 HLOZ AYNLN3AD
 HLYIa
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Composition VII Wassily Kandinsky

1913, oil on canvas, 200x300cm, Tretyakov Gallery,
Moscow, Russia

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 CLOSERIook

Composition VII VVassily Kandinsky

Painted between 1910 and 1939, Kandinsky’s 10 large-scale
Compositions were his most complex and ambitious works. A seemingly
indecipherable vortex of shapes and colours, Composition Vil reflects
Kandinsky’s quest to affirm the need for spiritual awakening in art, as in Technique
Preparatory work for the painting
society, and places biblical references at its core. Its apocalyptic themes — took two months and involved
the Deluge, Resurrection, and Day of Judgement — are not expressed in a making sketches, diagrams, and
narrative but in a rising and plummeting Universe in which identifiable objects watercolours. Certain drawings
are almost totally subsumed by some greater force. Composition Vil was ’ have areas labelled “discontinuity”,
a é “abyss”, or “genesis”. Kandinsky’s
completed between 25 and 28 November 1913. It is the largest of all
companion Gabriele Minter took photographs of the work in progress.
Kandinsky’s paintings. The photographs show that Kandinsky initially drew in core shapes at
the centre, and plotted a series of lines and forms radiating out
Composition towards the picture's edge. He then applied colour over.a small
At first glance Composition Vil seems central section, moving out along the initial lines.
a product of spontaneous creative
Vv COLOUR QUALITIES For Kandinsky, colours
energy, but is in fact meticulously
have their own qualities; a vermilion red with a
constructed. There is a powerful
fiery tone implies a spiritual vibration such as a
diagonal thrust towards the upper right- flame or, depending on its context and intensity,
hand corner, and a further sense of blood and pain. Dark yellow has a musical quality
fracture between the picture's left and dark rose madder evokes a soprano’s voice.
er OS 2 525 Tega
and right sides. On the left, the jagged
lines and array of jostling coloured
forms suggest an epoch of collapsing be|
structures and turmoil. To the right, j
the lighter, flatter forms and calmer it .
rhythms symbolize the Garden of Eden. ASKETCH 1 The work includes biblical themes
On the far right, the silhouette of a blue that are more evident in the studies and drawings
rider provides hope of spiritual renewal. _'" which angels blowing horns are painted inthe
pest folkloric style of /ubki— brightly coloured religious
Say pictures found in Russian peasant homes.
<i

ART
ABSTRACT
OF
BIRTH

is

A DEPTH AND SPACE There is no

conventional perspective in Composition Vil, but
the strong dynamics provide a sense of depth
and space. Initially the viewer is drawn to the —-—.
centre, the eye of the storm, but then the A SKETCH 3 Many of the oil studies Kandinsky made
EARLYattention is drawn to the sides in all directions.
CENTURY
20TH for Composition Vil can be considered as complete
artworks in themselves. With such methodical
groundwork, the spontaneous and free handwork
of the finished painting is all the more astonishing.

INFLUENCES
MUSIC Kandinsky first realized the
emotional power of music when he
attended a performance of Richard
Wagner's opera Lohengrin in the 1890s.
Years later, he became a friend of the
Austrian composer Arnold Schénberg,
whose 12-tone method of composition
was a turning point in 20th-century music.
Schdnberg, whose works are associated
with early 20th-century Expressionist
movements, allowed sounds to remain
dissonant and unresolved and rejected
conventional structures to give a
composition meaning. In a similar way
Kandinskyi replaced
: representation with Musical score Arnold Schénberg's music for Two Songs, op. 1,
abstraction in his art. for Baritone and Piano was composed in 1898
 << THE LADDER Besides being
an attractive pattern, this
brightly coloured ladder alludes
to musical notation and the keys
of a piano. It may also have a
particularly Russian significance:
according to Orthodox belief and
imagery, the ladder represents
the perilous path that the godly
must climb to reach salvation.

» PATTERN This striated

pattern of dune-like forms in
ochre and raw sienna suggests
a desert landscape.

< DIRECTIONAL
SIGNIFICANCE Even the
direction of a line possessed
an inner significance
for Kandinsky: verticals
represented warmth and the
positive; horizontals the cold
and negative. This blue shape
may represent a biblical horn.

8
HLYIG
AO
LOVY
Luv
HLO?
AYNLN
AlYVS

A ANGLES Kandinsky saw the acute angle (less

than a right angle) as warm and yellow because
it occurs abundantly in nature (as in the branches
of trees). He believed the right angle to be a cold
man-made contrivance, because it does not occur
in nature, and painted it a crimson red.
 Kasimir Malevich Vv Three Little Girls /he title is ironic, for these
b KIEV, 1878; d ST PETERSBURG, 1935 LIFEline simplified female forms hardly suggest childhood.
Returning to representational art in 1928, Malevich
In his early teens Kasimir Malevich attended drawing 1878 Born near Kiev, son
of a sugar refinery manager revisited many of his former themes. He challenges
classes in Kiev before moving to Moscow for further our sensory perceptions as the “girls” seem to
academic training in 1904. Painting initially in an 1895-96 Attends Kiev School
of Drawing advance as we look at them. 1928-32, oil on board,
Impressionistic style, he found influences in Symbolism, 57x48cm, State Russian Museum, St Petersburg, Russia
1905-10 Works in the
Cubism, and Russian folk art. He exhibited extensively Moscow studio of painter
Self-portrait in group shows in Moscow and St Petersburg between Fedor Rerberg
1908 and 1912. In 1910, he met Larionov and Goncharova 1917-18 Joins Leftist artists’
(see p.432), and, impressed with Rayonism, exhibited in their Donkey’s group during the Revolution
Tail show. Malevich also met the composer Mikhail Matiushin and began 1919 Moves to Vitebsk and
collaborating on the opera Victory over the Sun. His colourful sets and teaches at the art school
costumes made of geometrical shapes caused a sensation. In 1915, 1929 In a reaction against
abstraction, the director of
Malevich exhibited 39 non-representational pictures at 0.10 The Last
Kiev Art Gallery is imprisoned
Futurist Exhibition, which announced the arrival of Suprematism for showing “bourgeois”
(Russian abstract art). The Russian Revolution promoted abstract art works by Malevich
and Malevich gained important teaching posts. In 1919 Moscow's State 1935 Dies in St Petersburg,
Exhibition was entirely devoted to his work. city council pays for funeral

ABSTRACT
OF
BiRTH
ART

< Taking in the Rye

Malevich frequently adapted
URY his style. The previous year
he had painted full-length
portraits of ungainly workers
—a style known as Neo-
Primitivism. Within months,
these lumbering figures
were transformed into neat,
tubular forms with a metallic
CENT
20TH
EARLY sheen. 1912, oil on canvas,
72x75cm, Stedelijk Museum,
Amsterdam, Netherlands

» Black Square When

it was first shown in 1915, j
Black Square was hung high
up in the corner opposite the
entrance, the place
traditionally reserved for
Orthodox holy icons.
Malevich seems to be
saying, “Welcome to your
new spiritual home”. 1915,
oil on canvas, 106x106cm,
State Russian Museum,
St Petersburg, Russia
Suprematist Composition Malevich believed
that white represented the concept of infinite space
better than blue. He used white as a background ‘¢ The appearances of natural objects
against which he placed coloured lines and masses
are in themselves meaningless ”
These shapes seem to defy gravity by both rising and
KASIMIR MALEVICH
sinking simultaneously. 1915, oil on canvas, 70x 48cm,
Museum of Art, Tula, Russia
Constantin Brancusi
- Tena ) bHOBITZA, 1876; d PARIS, 1957

The importance of Constantin Brancusi to sculpture is comparable

to that of Picasso to painting, although in contrast to the flamboyant
and multi-faceted Spanish painter, Brancusi endlessly refined a single
artistic practice and lived simply in his studio.
e i Born in Romania, Brancusi was already an accomplished artist when
Constantin he arrived in Paris in 1904. Like many younger sculptors, he challenged
Brancusi the dominance of Rodin and was drawn to the practice of “direct
INcontext |
carving’, as opposed to the mechanical reproduction of plaster models
BALKAN WARS In the early 1910s, ;
in stone, which was usual at the time. For Brancusi, sculpture in any medium — be it the Ottoman Empire was being
bronze, wood, or stone — had to respect the character of the material. pushed back to the Turkish borders by
He confined himself to relatively few themes, usually drawn from the natural world, a nationalist upsurge in the Balkans,
that he simplified to an essential ideal form. Sculptors since have been attracted by and there were disputes over territory
his emphasis on sculpture as an object. He left most of his work to the French state, between the Balkan States. Two wars
and to this day a re-creation of his studio can be seen at the Pompidou Centre, Paris. ensued, in 1912 and 1913, the latter
also involving Romania. However, the
developing international turmoil did
LIFEline not impede the work of the Bucharest
1876 Born in Hobitza, the Salon, who awarded Brancusi the
son of peasants first prize for his Study (Torso ofa ae ,
1886 Leaves school and Girl) in 1912. Peace was restored Wounded Bulgarian soldiers
works as a shepherd in August 1913 with the signing of during the Balkan campaigns,
1894 Enrols in Craiova School The Treaty of Bucharest. artist unknown (20th century).
of Crafts
1898-1902 Studies at School
of Fine Art, Bucharest <The Kiss /his is a cast of » Bird in Space Brancusi made
1904 Moves to Paris, walking one of Brancusi’ first “direct more versions of this subject than
most of the way from Munich carvings” and the start of one any other. He sought not merely
1907 Makes first “direct of his most important series. to describe the shape of a bird in
carvings” The two figures are united in flight but to invoke the “essence of
1912 Carves first portrait a single block. Brancusi made flight”. His underlying theme was
1926 Bird in Space arrives in a full-length version, which the conquering of space. As the
New York for an exhibition. stands as the gravestone of a sculpture’s highly polished bronze
Customs don't believe it is young Russian suicide, Tatiana catches the light, moving around the
an art object and levy tax
Rachewskala, in Montparnasse object gives the viewer the feeling
1937-38 Erects 96ft-high
cemetery, Paris. 1907/08, stone, of a bird soaring upwards. 1940,
Endless Column in Romania
26 x26 x 22cm, Kunsthalle, bronze, height 193cm, Pompidou AO
LOVY
HLYIG
Luv
1957 Dies, aged 81, in Paris
Hamburg, Germany Centre, Paris, France

» Mademoiselle Pogany
Margit Pogany was a young
Hungarian painter who
Brancusi befriended in Paris.
She was the subject of at least
six sculptures in marble and
bronze. In each, her facial
characteristics are
encapsulated by the large
round eyes, small, thin nose,
and tiny mouth. c1920, bronze, AlYVA
HLO?
AYNL
height approx 45cm, Pompidou
Centre, Paris, France

A Head This is a piece of an earlier sculpture called

Little French Girl Il that Brancusi destroyed around
1918. However, he liked the expressive oak head,
which he kept and adapted to become a separate new
sculpture that is a construction of solid interlocking
masses. (1919-23, oak, 29x19x21cm, Tate, London, UK
 V The Fisherman Charles
Wo ik Napier Hemy Hemy made his
name with finely executed
Work became an important theme for art in the 19th century when aniina see
socialist sympathies encouraged the celebration of the experiences and 91x 137cm, private collection
struggles of the ordinary person. Manual effort lent itself to heroic treatment, :
vate tarchelole MUVoli <clmelmtatcMaallalcimceltl(co-M-Manlolel-1am (c1Kel0] (cM si-1OlCMualcit VVWoman Weaving _
: a ! if a Kitagawa Utamaro The artist's
time, daily life, although depicted, was usually seen as “lower” than the great draftsmanship lend an elegance
subjects of history and mythology. It remains to be seen whether or not ee Stes siasiaie Gaunt to this woman's work. 18th
i
contemporary artists justi
willi be able to do justice j
to a world of work iin which e The
bearers wieLender
Money and ater
cneglett Quentinin
Wife beak
his irase century,
Guimet Paris ER print, Musée
woodblock

the keyboard is a more vital tool than the pick axe. favour of the gold and jewels held by her husband
is Massys’s comment on the dangerous allure
of riches. 1514, oil on panel, 70.5x67cm, Louvre,
{
Paris, France
V Pavement Detail of a Builder Baran /
Byzantine School Byzantine art is 4 oer ae HH
predominantly symbolic rather than a s “s a
naturalistic. 6th century, mosaic, Church of
V Farmers at Work Northern Song Dynasty St Cosmos and St Damianus, Jerash, Jordan
3%
The murals of the Mogao Caves cover a huge
number of subjects, including Chinese agriculture.
_ 960-1279, wall painting, Mogao Caves, Dunhuang,
_ Gansu Province, China

ART
MES.IN

~ e Bz) 2

OXNUS undnns
near, 21!
A Sheep Shearing English
School The small sketches in
the border of this page from an
A Loading a Ship Roman This scene of labour English illuminated manuscript
is a tiny detail from the narrative of war sculpted are a regular feature of these
in low relief on Trajan’s Column. c110-120, plaster, books. 15th century, vellum,
Museo della Civilta Romana, Rome, Italy British Library, London, UK
54 a ae ek ae
eae A The Forge Le Nain-
» The Butcher's: Pig Meat Brothers The formal ae
Italian School The bold colours composition imbues Le Nain’s * ¢
in this scene of everyday life are forge-workers with dignity.
typical of the rich palette used 1640, oil on canvas, 69x57cm,
by medieval artists. 14th century, Louvre, Paris, France
vellum, Osterreichische
Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, Austria > The Pharmacist Pietro
Longhi Longhi’s work is
dominated by scenes from
the everyday lives of .
Venetians. 1752, oil on canvas, ‘
60x 49cm, Galleria dell’
Accademia, Venice, Italy
 V Lloyds Edward Bawden The
> Inthe Garden at Pontoise:
high viewpoint contrasts the size
A Young Woman Washing
of the building with the people
Dishes Camille Pissarro The
within it, at work in the City of
French Impressionist turns a
London. 1963, lithograph, Fry Art
household chore into a scene
Gallery, Saffron Walden, UK
filled with light and colour.
1882, oil on canvas, 82x 65cm,
Fitzwilliam Museum,
Cambridge, UK V Iron foundry Graham Sutherland
Sutherland's background as a railway
VY Work Ford Madox Brown Jeeming with engineer was reflected in his interest V Deadline PJ Crook
life, this scene depicting the installation of in industrial scenes. He painted many The strong colours and
sewage works emphasizes the necessity of them when he was an official war frenzied composition
and vitality of labour. 1863, oil on canvas, artist during World War Il. 1945, make this. scene
88x 99cm, Birmingham Museums and Art private collection grotesque. 1995, acrylic
Gallery, UK on canvas on wood,
127x178cm, Morohashi
Museum of Modern Art,

=
fe)
Fs
z

SAWSH
NI
LuV

A Weaving Cloth for the

People Chinese School Used
A Sheep Shearing Natalia Goncharova as propaganda, this image
Goncharova’s blocks of colour elevate the work idealizes the role of the worker
- of sheep-shearing from the mundane. 1907, in society. 1970, colour lithograph,
oil on canvas, Museum of Art, Serpukhov, Russia private collection

< Butcher's Shop No.1

Peter Coker Coker’s realistic
> The Dressmaker presentation of unglamorous scenes
North Wall (Detail)
William Roberts A/though led to him being described as a
Diego Rivera Rivera
usually associated with “kitchen sink” artist. 1955, oil on
considered this huge fresco
the Vorticists, Roberts board, 190x 129cm, Sheffield Galleries
sequence — capturing the
developed a more and Museums Trust, UK
main industries of Detroit— ee
representative style in
the finest work of his F gla
his later depictions of
career. 1933, fresco,
urban life. 1931, oil on
1310x2040cm, The Detroit
canvas, 51x41cm, Victoria
Institute of Arts, US
Art Gallery, Bath, UK
 Piet Mondrian
b AMERSFOORT, 1872; d NEW YORK, 1944 LIFEline
An abstract artist whose instantly recognizable style 1892-97 Attends Amsterdam
emerged only after years of searching, Mondrian trained Academy of Fine Arts
1911 Sees Cubist works
at Amsterdam's Academy of Fine Arts. He initially painted
1915 His Pierand Ocean
still lifes and rural scenes in a naturalistic Dutch style,
paintings signal a switch from
but became influenced by Impressionism and van Gogh. Cubism to abstract art
Piet Mondrian Despite his upbringing in a strict Protestant home, 1917 Co-founds De Stij/
Mondrian’s interest in eastern beliefs and theosophy (the 1920 Writes Neo-Plasticism,
study of religious philosophy) came to play a significant role in his art. an essay on art theory
Between 1906 and 1907, he painted a series of “evening and night 1926 With patron Katherine
landscapes” in which all details dissolve into contours and masses. Dreier begins to achieve
success in the art world
An interest in Cubism spurred him to move to Paris in 1912, where he
1938 Moves to London
painted numerous “tree” pictures in which natural forms splinter into
1940 Moves to New York
rhythmic patterns of curved lines. His distinctive abstract style — which and joins American Abstract
combines areas of solid colour with austere vertical and horizontal lines Artists
— emerged around 1920. Although he constantly adapted these forms, 1942 First solo show
he remained faithful to them until his death.
ie MSs

A The Grey Tree 1911 /n a series of around

20 paintings made between 1909-13, Mondrian
explored the shape of a single tree, using the
subject as a means of transforming natural
forms into abstract patterns. Influenced by
Cubism — which he saw before moving to Paris
—he drastically reduced the range of colours
in these works. Oil on canvas, 79x 108cm,
Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, Netherlands

¢¢ The truly modern

artist is aware of
abstraction in an
ART
ABSTRACT
OF
BIRTH emotion of beauty ”’
PIET MONDRIAN

2 :y

CENTURY
20TH
EARLY

aa

err? ee am G@

a2 = 8 | ae | a. 8

A Broadway Boogie Woogie 1942-43

In Mondrian’ last completed work, the asymmetry,
pulsating lines, and solid white squares create
strong directional forces that impress themselves
on the viewer. An homage to New York, his home
during World War II, the painting pays tribute to
the dance-hall jazz Mondrian loved so much.
Oil on canvas, 127x127cm, MoMA, New York, US

A Tableau 1/ Composition No 1/ Compositie 7 1914 Mondrian is

at the very edge of total abstraction here. The painting is still, at some
distance, derived from the complex pattern of Parisian roofs. Only with
the aid of a preliminary drawing it is possible to identify the church
facade in the lower right of the painting. Oil on canvas, 120.6x100.3cm,
Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, US
 HLYIG
AO
LOVYU
LYV

AlYV3A
HLO?
AYNLN

MOANDR/AN
Sen dna ti a Daddies seen
A Composition with Red, Black, Blue, and Yellow 1928 Mondrian images ©2008 Mondrian/Holtzman Trust, c/o HCR International Warrenton, Virginia, USA
Limiting his palette to black, white, grey, and the three primary
colours, Mondrian constantly explored the possibilities of line,
colour, and mass. Oil on canvas, 45x45cm, Wilhelm-Hack-
Museum, Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany
 geometrical images, and Jacob Epstein
‘and Henri GaudierBrzeska’s sculpture
was reduced to simplified forms.
The boldness of British Modernism,
however, was shattered by the war, and
Origins and influences GaudierBrzeska died in the conflict.
Virtually the whole generation of With few exceptions, the work of this
British Modernists were educated at generation of Modernists declined
the Slade School of Fine Art in London. = markedly after World War I.
Founded in 1871 by Felix Slade, it A The British ModerniSts This photograph, taken
in France in 1911, features some of the leading British
overtook the Royal Academy as the
At the turn of the century,
most important art school in the
artists of the period, including Walter Sickert (back row,
third from left), Charles Ginner (back row, right), and
[CURRENTevents
what Percy Wyndham Lewis 1901 Queen Victoria dies, bringing
country. Even so, it was artistically Percy Wyndham Lewis (front row, third left).
an end to her 63-year reign over the
called the “dramatic winds” conservative, with an emphasis on United Kingdom.
of modernism swept over the draughtsmanship, especially life Subject matter 1914 The assassination of the Austro-
English Channel. This excited drawing. Its foremost tutor, Henry British Modernism reached its height Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by
Tonks, famously said, “! don’t believe just before World War |. Conventional Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb, starts
a generation of British painters World War |. The conflict extends across
| really like any modern developments” subject matter began to be superseded Europe, and continues until 1918.
and sculptures, and revitalized
More influential were Camden by abstract painting and sculpture. 1917 Vladimir Lenin leads a popular
the London art scene - before Town Group leader Walter Sickert, Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant made revolution against the Provisional
World War | destroyed the spirit Bloomsbury Group member Roger Fry, non-representational easel paintings, Government in Russia, bringing about
| Bolshevik rule.
of optimism. and Vorticist pioneer Wyndham Lewis. David Bomberg produced colourful,

Early British Modernism

TIMEline 1913 1918-19
7
Sickert's Mornington Crescent c1907
Nude — with light skimming ay
across the model and her ;
bed — shows the influence
MODERNISM
BRITISH
EARLY
of Impressionism on modern
British art of the period.
Augustus John’s paintings were,
like his life, bright and colourful,
as the vibrant portrait of the
flamboyant Marchesa Casati
(right) shows. In contrast,
Wyndham Lewis's A Battery
Shelledis a grimly depressing SICKERT Mornington GILMAN Girl by a WYNDHAM LEWIS A Battery Shelled
depiction of the devastation Crescent Nude, Contre-jour GAUDIER- Mantlepiece
wreaked by World War I. BRZESKA Red AUGUSTUS JOHN
Stone Dancer The Marchesa Casati

Schools streets and gardens of London, shabby

CENTURY
20TH
EARLY domestic interiors, and women in their
There were three major schools of British beds or at their toilet.
Modernism — the Camden Town Group, The group lasted until 1914, by which
Bloomsbury Group, and the Vorticists. time many of the artists — including
Ginner and Gilman — were painting in a
The Camden Town Group Postimpressionist style, with thick textured
The Camden Town Group was formed in brushwork. In 1913, the London Group
1911. It emerged from an informal Saturday formed from members of the Camden
afternoon meeting of artists organised by Town Group and smaller arts clubs.
Walter Sickert, and was set up as a rival
exhibiting society to the conservative New Bloomsbury Group
English Art Club. The Bloomsbury Group comprised friends —
Members of the Camden Town Group mainly writers and artists — who lived in
included Harold Gilman, Spencer Gore, London's Bloomsbury from 1904 to the A People at Play William Roberts Having seen active
Charles Ginner and, importantly, Lucien 1930s. It contained some of the most service in World War |, Roberts went on to make pictures
Pissarro, son of the French Impressionist, important cultural figures in modern British of people playing. They seem to be a reaction to his
experience of the carnage of war. Private collection
Camille. Their first exhibition was in 1911 life, including the economist John Maynard
at the Carfax Gallery in St James’s, London. Keynes and the writer Virginia Woolf.
In many respects, the group represented Before 1910, literature and philosophy Vorticists
a late flowering of French Impressionism. dominated the Bloomsbury Group, but after The Vorticists were London-based artists
Influenced by Pissarro and Sickert, they that it was associated with painting. Roger and writers, including the artist Wyndham
painted with deft dabs of paint, paying Fry joined the group in 1910 and organized Lewis and the American poet Ezra Pound.
particular attention to the quality of light two large and influential Postimpressionist The term Vorticism was coined in 1913 by
ina scene. And, like the Impressionists, exhibitions in 1910 and 1912. He also set Pound, who drew on the idea of a vortex —
they focused on the contemporary, urban up the Omega Workshops, a decorative a whirlpool of energy with a still centre. The
A Maternity Jacob Epstein This deliberately unfinished
world. Favourite subjects included the arts company that made abstract designs Vorticists were influenced by Futurism, but
sculpture accentuates the effects of pregnancy and
demonstrates Epstein’s decision to allow the raw rock to for craftware, such as ceramics. The artists were less figurative in style. The movement
help determine the shape of the sculpture. 1910, stone, Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant were lasted until 1915.
height 203 cm, Leeds Museums and Galleries, UK co-directors of the Omega Workshops.
Walter Sickert
\'
Ly
b MUNICH, 1860; d BATHAMPTON, SOMERSET, 1942 LIFEline
A printer, etcher, teacher, and art critic, Walter Sickert 1860 Born in Munich, son of Harold Gilman
was probably the most important Briton in the art Danish-German artist, Oswald
1868 Family moves to England b RODE, SOMERSET, 1876; d LONDON, 1919
world at the end of the 19th century. He was central
1881 Enrols at The Slade Harold Gilman was a key figure in Walter Sickert's Camden Town
in disseminating French avant-garde ideas in Britain,
School of Fine Art
ideas he used to create his own distinctive social-realist Group of artists. When he met Sickert in 1907, his painting was similar
1882 Leaves The Slade and
Photograph _ Style of painting. In 1882, Sickert studied under James becomes assistant to James in style and subject matter to Whistler's, but it evolved rapidly. Gilman
a mek McNeill Whistler, although Edgar Degas, whom he met McNeill Whistler soon adopted working-class subject matter, as favoured by Sickert,
eaton
in 1883, was a greater influence. Like Degas, Sickert 1883 Meets Edgar Degas and a colourful, sparkling Impressionist technique employed by,
used photographs as reference, created compositions from unusual 1905 Moves to Mornington among others, Lucien Pissarro. In 1910, after travelling to Paris
vantage points, and painted figures with a sketch-like immediacy. Crescent, Camden, London with fellow artist Spencer Gore and seeing the work of the
1911 Becomes leader of Postimpressionists, Gilman began to use thicker areas of paint,
artist collective, Camden flatter colour, and much more rigid compositional designs.
Yv Mornington Crescent Nude, Contre-Jour Sickert’ “iron Town Group
bedstead” work typically showed nudes in the dark interiors of 1938 Addresses the Euston
cheap rented houses. In most of these paintings the model is Road School group of artists W Leeds Market /he vibrant, working-class life
LIFEline
backlit (contre jour). 1907, oil on canvas, 50x61cm, Art Gallery 1942 Dies in Somerset of the market provided the subject matter for several
of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia 1896 Attends Hastings
School of Art
Camden Town painters. Here, Gilman works in a Post-
impressionist style, using small but thick brush strokes
1897-1901 Studies at
The Slade School of to create a heavily textured surface. The composition,
Fine Art as in many of Gilmans paintings, is tight and structured.
1907 With Walter Sickert c1913, oil on canvas, 51 x61cm, Tate, London, UK
and Spencer Gore, he Aah ely

starts the Fitzroy Street

Group to discuss and
sell paintings
1911 Founder member
of Camden Town Group
of artists with Sickert
and Gore
1913 First president
of London Group, an
exhibiting society of
British artists
1919 Dies in London,
a victim of the Spanish
flu epidemic
AlYV4
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INSIN

AYNLN
AlYV3
HLO?
>» Ennui Sickert invites the
viewer to speculate on the
couple's relationship. Despite
their proximity, they face in
opposite directions, seemingly
trapped like the stuffed birds
in the bell-jar on the chest of
drawers. C1913, oil on canvas,
76x56cem, Ashmolean, Oxford, UK

A Girl by a Mantelpiece Gi/man used broken

FACIAL EXPRESSIONS colours and Impressionist techniques to paint the
While the wife looks at the mirror, face, and skirt. The wallpaper design is
wall, the husband stares at sketched with rapid and lively brushstrokes and the
the ceiling, their faces seeming bright highlights on the earrings, and the glass on
to sum up the ennu/ (intense the mantelpiece sing out. 1914, oil on canvas, 40x30cm,
boredom) in this painting's title. Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, UK
 Vanessa Bell
b LONDON, 1879; d CHARLESTON, SUSSEX, 1961
Charles Ginner
Born Vanessa Stephen, Bell was a founder of the
b CANNES, 1878; d LONDON, 1952 Spencer Gore Bloomsbury Group. In 1904, she and her three siblings
Charles Ginner is best known for his urban street scenes, b EPSOM, SURREY, 1878; d RICHMOND, SURREY, 1914 (including writer Virginia Woolf) moved to 46 Gordon
paintings of buildings, and landscapes. He grew up in Square, in Bloomsbury, London, from where Bell ran
France, where he studied art and worked in an architect's the Friday Club meetings of artists. Bell's own painting
office, before settling in London in 1910. His paintings << Spring in North — initially full of bright, bold designs — grew increasingly
show the dilapidated corners of his adopted city, as well London — 2 Houghton abstract. By 1914, it was entirely non-representational,
as its colour, bustle, and brashness. Ginner was good Place /he pinks and influenced by the theory of “significant form” espoused
friends with fellow Modernists Spencer Gore and yellows of this rooftop by her husband Clive Bell and her friend Roger Fry. This
Harold Gilman before he arrived in London, and in 1911 scene are typical of theory stressed the pre-eminence of form over subject.
he became a founding member of the Camden Town Gore’s palette. They The simplicity of her art is also evident in her textile
Group. By this time, Ginner had established a distinctive contrast with the bluer designs for Fry's Omega Workshops and her book
style, using thick regular brushstrokes to create a shadow tones, creating jackets for Virginia and Leonard Woolf's Hogarth Press.
heavily textured surface and a sense of solidity. This an air of optimism. Dabs
style changed little, and he was the main upholder of sap-green capture the
of the Camden Town tradition after World War |.
tree in first leaf. 1912,
oil on canvas, 51x41cm,
Whitworth Art Gallery,
anchester, UK

Spencer Gore was a central figure in British Post-

< Gardens along Impressionism. He painted a wide range of subjects,
Victoria Embankment including, like his Camden Town contemporaries, urban
Ginner creates a bold,
and music-hall scenes and figures in interiors. Between
lively pattern by reducing
1896 and 1899, Gore studied at The Slade School of
forms to flat blocks of
Fine Art in London, where he met Harold Gilman, who
colour with curved
outlines. The clouds became a close friend. In 1905, he visited Walter Sickert
serve to frame the top in Dieppe and persuaded him to return to London,
of the picture, while the where in 1911 Gore became president of the Camden
shrubbery’ strong tonal Town Group of artists, which formed around Sickert in
contrasts help pull the north London. He was influenced by his friend Lucien A Bathers in a Landscape Bel! produced this
eye towards the centre. Pissarro, whose broken brushwork Impressionist screen for Roger Fry's Omega Workshops, which
1912, oil on canvas, technique he adopted. However, Gore was best known designed ceramics, textiles, dresses, and furniture.
MODERNISM
BRITISH
EALRY 66x 46cm, Anthony d’Offay for using boldly simplified forms and large, flat blocks The simplified, outlined figures are influenced by
Gallery, London, UK of colour in bright, decorative patterns. Matisse. 1914, gouache, private collection

vi
Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson | Stanley Spencer
b LONDON, 1889; d LONDON, 1946 b COOKHAM, 1891; d COOKHAM, 1959
P i Bm és Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson was a British pioneer of Futurism One of the most individual British painters of the 20th century, Stanley Spencer
eg -& _—s— (see p.428). In 1912, he met many.of the leading lights of the Futurist exhibited at the Second Post-Impressionist exhibition of 1912 in spite of the
‘ Ae MF movement, including Gino Severini, and first used their “broken plane” disapproval of his tutors at The Slade School of Fine Art. In World War | he served
~agf techniques to depict tube trains, traffic, and crowds in London. as a medical orderly and an infantryman. At his first solo exhibition in 1927 he
r At the start of World War |, Nevinson worked as a Red Cross showed The Resurrection, Cookham, a vast painting in which the dead awaken in
Self-portrait | ambulance driver. His paintings of the war are bleak. He uses the the churchyard of his home village on the Thames in Berkshire. This mixture of the
CENTURY
20TH
EARLY Futurist “lines of force” to help show a relentless conflict performed visionary and the everyday was typical of Spencer and has been compared to William
by dehumanized soldiers. When he received an official commission to document the Blake and the Pre-Raphaelites. In 1931 he completed a series of murals for a chapel
aerial fighting, his vision softened and he depicted fields in beautiful patterns beneath in Burghclere, commemorating the dead of World War | by juxtaposing scenes of the
the planes. In 1919, he renounced Futurism and began to paint more naturalistic daily life of soldiers with a massive image on the end wall of the dead taking up their
pictures. However, these were still distorted with lively, angular lines. crosses. Spencer brought a precise technique and observation to his landscape
paintings, which he frequently found easier to sell than the religious works on
<< La Mitrailleuse Unlike the Italian which his fame rests. He was knighted in 1958.
Futurists, Nevinson was quickly
disillusioned by World War |. This <The Centurion’s Servant
ff
picture, named after the machine- Based on the New Testament
gun, does not have the energy usually story, Spencer had originally
associated with Futurist paintings. intended to provide a second
Instead, soldiers are shown trapped painting showing the arrival of
| in a tight, claustrophobic composition Christ. He placed the scene in
yi: >
under a barbed-wire sky. Reduced to the maid's bedroom in the attic
a series of angular planes, they have of his home in Cookham and was
no individual characteristics and seem inspired by his mother’s account
TLL? to have become machines. 1915, oil on of villagers praying around the
canvas, 61 x51cm, Tate, London, UK bed of a dying man. When first
exhibited, the picture was
misread as children frightened
by an air raid. 1914, oil on canvas,
115x115cm, Tate, London, UK
Gwen John
b HAVERFORDWEST, PEMBROKESHIRE, 1876; d DIEPPE, 1939 | LIFEline
Gwen John was one of the foremost British artists of 1884 Her mother dies and
the early 1900s. In contrast to her flamboyant brother, she moves to Tenby
Augustus, she led a reclusive life and had only one solo ee ee
exhibition in her lifetime. At her death, she was largely ;
; 3 i
unknown, but her reputation revived in the 1960s.
1904 Settles in Paris
1911 Moves to Meudon, Augustus John
Portrait by John's work consisted mainly of quiet, contemplative on the outskirts of Paris b TENBY, PEMBROKESHIRE, 1878:
a iese studies of women and girls in interiors, but she also 1913 Converts to d FORDINGBRIDGE, HAMPSHIRE, 1961
cEvoy . nee oe . A
painted the simple, unadorned rooms she lived in; Catholicism, saying “My A
: ; : ae ugustus John, younger brother of Gwen, was one
suffused with soft light, these have been read as self-portraits. religion and my art, these g Pag
of the most gifted artists of his generation. In the
She also created stark, uncompromising female nudes, painting her are my life"
i ; : : 1926 Holds her only solo 1890s, he established his reputation as a brilliant
ee i er ea apple ato fon avomale figure. exhibition, at the New draughtsman at The Slade School of Fine Art. By the
At the beginning of her career she painted in glazes (transparent layers | Chenil Galleries, London Ray "1900s, influenced by Postimpressionists, he was
of paint) with flowing brushstrokes, often on large canvases. However, 1939 Dies in Dieppe Meena eeiccoloutUknantingsseenecsiy ontigures

site later perfected a style eng dabs of dry, opaque paint in small, in the landscape. John’s lifestyle was as colourful as his painting.
intimate pictures. These paintings have a muted palette and wonderfully Fie diaienetd womanized! and grew.4 long beard
subtle transitions of tone. Intrigued by gypsy culture and the Romany language, he lived in
caravans with his wife Ida, mistress Dorelia, and his children from
both partners. After World War |, John became Britain's leading society
» A Lady Reading Gwen portraitist, but as his fame grew, his creativity declined.
John was deeply spiritual,
and this painting is full of
LIFEline
religious overtones. The figure
— shown in full-length with 1878 Born in Tenby,
Pembrokeshire
long, loose hair, reading by
1894 Enrols at Slade School
a window — is similar to the
depiction of the Virgin Mary 1898 Wins Slade Prize for
Moses and the Brazen Serpent
in many northern Renaissance
1899 First one-man exhibition,
pictures of The Annunciation. at London's Carfax Gallery
John wrote that she originally =
1914 Becomes official war
wanted to base this woman's artist for Canadian army
head on an Albrecht Durer 1928 Elected to Royal Academy
painting of the Virgin. 1909- 1961 Dies in Fordingbridge,
11, oil on canvas, 40x 25cm, Hampshire AlYV3
HSILIY
INSIN
Tate, London, UK
tr
a
eer
ee
ca
aas

» The Marchesa Casati

CLOSERI|ook
Like John, the Italian heiress
Luisa Casati led a licentious
life. Here, John portrays her
F as a glamorous yet slightly
t
\y
sinister character. 1918-19, oil
ay
on canvas, 96x6/cm, Art Gallery
es
of Ontario, Toronto, Canada

Al¥VA
HLOZ
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STRONG CONTRAST
The curtain‘s bold colour
and pattern provide a strong
contrast with the subtler
colours in the rest of the
painting. Its curved shape,
however, is echoed in the
face and skirt of the model.

INcontext
SLADE SCHOOL OF FINE ART
A Dorelia and the Children at Martigues Unlike his sister
At the end of the 19th century, London's
Gwen, Augustus usually painted his figures in the landscape.
*¢ In 50 years time | liberal, fee-paying Slade art see aos This work, almostasketch in oils, is typical of his exuberant
shall be known as . saya ae at al for Sy style. The bold, flat colours and outlined figures show the
the brother of G sig see heae eh ae a te ‘ influence of Paul Gauguin and Henri Matisse. 1910, oil on
Gwen John 9? panei nee and Mpaaeet ve : { panel, 23x 33cm, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK
AUGUSTUS JOHN, 1942 Gwen John all studied there. Z bs i), \)

At The Slade School of Fine Art Life

drawing was placed at the centre of teaching.
Women as well as men attended life classes.
 |Wyndham Lewis
b NOVA SCOTIA, 1882; d LONDON, 1957
Painter, writer, and polemicist, Wyndham Lewis was
an unlikely foundermember of the Camden Town Group
. in 1911, and worked for Roger Fry's Omega Workshops in
1913. He rapidly fell out with both groups, considering
them old-fashioned. Instead, with American poet Ezra
Portrait by Pound, he founded his own movement, Vorticism,
Augustus which lasted from 1913 to 1915.
John
Lewis adopted the violent rhetoric of the Italian
Futurisists in his publication Blast, although his style was closer to the
French Cubists. Vorticism combined the two movements and resulted
in the first British contribution to Modernism. It celebrated the modern
world, its machines and high buildings, often seen from unusual
viewpoints. During the 1930s, Lewis ran into widespread opposition
to his authoritarian political views and his sympathies with fascism.

LIFEline ;
1898-1901 Studies at Slade
aye nt Artin nd
School of Art in London
| 1915-17 Serves with the
| Royal Artillery inWorld
War |
1917-18 Works as an official |
| war artist
1939-45 Lives in the US
| 1946-51 Works as art critic for a wy oe
The Listener magazine, London
“A Battery Shelled lewis combined the CLOSERI|ook
1951 Goes blind | SOMBRE SCENE The
geometrical stylization of Vorticism with
figurative elements to create a modern, palette is sombre and the
Workshop /his epitomizes disturbing vision of war. Produced for the figures, with their stiff
Lewis's Vorticist style, using British War Memorials Committee in 1919, Vorticist jaggedness, seem
harsh colours, sharp angles, and almost mechanical, as if
this painting was criticized for its bleak vision.
shifting diagonals to suggest the
made out of metal tubing.
A group on the left impassively observes the
This picture is a long way
geometry of modern buildings devastation of the war. 1919, oil on canvas,
| from Lewis's energetic
and the discordant vitality of 183x318cm, Imperial War Museum, London, UK pre-World War | i
the city. c1914-15, oil on canvas,
77 x 61cm, Tate, UK

Henri Gaudier-Brzeska
b ORLEANS, 1891; d NEUVILLE-ST VAAST, 1915
Henri GaudierBrzeska was born in France, but spent most of his
tragically brief sculpting career in London. He died in World War |,
aged just 23, and yet he still left an impressive body of work.
GaudierBrzeska began to establish himself as a sculptor in 1912,
while working for a timber importer in London. He made figure studies
in the manner of Rodin, including theatre, ballet, and wrestling subjects.
20TH| Brzeska, c1910
A MODERNISM
BRITISH
CENTURY
EARLY
EARLY His work rapidly evolved as he became less concerned with careful
modelling and instead began to respond to subject matter and materials
emotionally. He spoke of his work as an abstraction of instinct and feeling. He met
Jacob Epstein (see opposite) in 1912 and became a pioneer in the revival of carving
in sculpture. However, he was most closely associated with the Vorticists, signing their
manifesto and contributing articles to their magazine, Blast.

LIFEline
1907 Wins scholarship to study
at the Merchant Venturers
Technical College in Bristol
1909 Returns to France
1910 Meets long-term partner
Sophie Brzeska
1911 With Sophie, moves to
London, adopting the surname
GaudierBrzeska “ Hieratic Head of Ezra Pound
1911-13 Works as a foreign- The Vorticist writer Ezra Pound
language clerk for a timber commissioned this portrait, presenting
importer in the City of London Gaudier-Brzeska with a block of marble.
1914 Elected to the London Pound was delighted with the result —
Bird Swallowing Fish Red Stone Dancer /his
Group. Returns to France and the sharp-edged, geometric forms
enlists in the army
Gaudier-Brzeska made several exemplifies Gaudier-Brzeska’s
animal and bird sculptures,
were in keeping with the Vorticists’
1915 Is killed by a bullet and abstract style, with a triangle
machine-age aesthetic. 1914, marble,
buried in a military cemetery based on zoo sketches. The fish imposed on the featureless face
is jammed into the bird's mouth 91 x46x49cm, Nasher Sculpture Center,
and shapes on the breasts
and the two combatants seem Dallas, US
The figure defies anatomical
to have been transformed into convention, as it twists and
armoured creatures. 1914, bends in the dance. c1913, red
plaster, 33x61 x 28cm, Mansfield stone, 43x23x 23cm,
University of Cambridge, UK Tate, London, UK
Sir Jacob Epstein
b NEW YORK, 1880; d LONDON, 1959 LIFEline
William Roberts
Jacob Epstein was one of the foremost — 1896 Attends art classes at
the Art Students League in b LONDON, 1895; d LONDON, 1980
and most controversial — sculptors of
New York
the 20th century. Rebelling against pretty Y Torso in Metal from “The The painter and teacher William Roberts studied at the
1905 Settles in London
art, he made bold, massive forms from Rock Drill” Epstein initially set Slade School of Art in London from 1910 to 1913. He
1907 Becomes a British
bronze or stone, and his work is marked citizen
this figure on top of a pneumatic then worked briefly for Roger Fry's Omega Workshops,
Photograph by its vigorous, often aggressive, 1912-13 Meets Modigliani, rock drill, and even considered decorating furniture with Cubist-inspired designs. By
ae approach. Epstein championed many Picasso, and Brancusi in Paris adding a motor to make the 1914, he had moved over to the Vorticists, signing their
of the principles central to Modernist 1913 Becomes a founding piece move. After World War | manifesto, Vital English Art. Roberts saw active service
sculpture. He carved directly into stone, respecting member of the London Group however, he “emasculated” the in World War |, and later became an official war artist.
1953 A retrospective of his work, removing the drill and
the original blocks he used, and sought to reveal their In the 1920s, he applied his distinctive style of simplified
work is held at the Tate, UK cutting the figure to half-length.
properties in his final sculptures. tubular figures to observation of contemporary life.
1954 Receives a knighthood 1913-14, bronze, 72x58x 46cm,
Epstein’s work caused outrage, especially the nude
1959 Dies, aged 79 Tate, London, UK
statues he designed for the British Medical Association v Bank Holiday in the Park After World War
building in London, and the debauched-looking angel on |, Roberts painted groups of figures arranged in
his Memorial for Oscar Wilde in Paris (1912). The WH energetic compositions. This example, full of
Hudson Memorial (1925) was tarred and feathered in gesticulating hands and humour, is typical.
1929 and defaced with paint in 1930. 1923, oil on canvas, private collection

v W. H. Hudson Memorial Dedicated to the writer and

naturalist William Hudson, this scupture depicts Rima, one of
his most famous characters, surrounded by birds. The figure’s
nudity caused massive controversy and had to be guarded by
the police after its opening. 1925, stone, Hyde Park, London, UK

=) oe Se \e

ATYV4
HSILI
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451
David Bomberg Edward Wadsworth
b BIRMINGHAM, 1890; d LONDON, 1957 b CLECKHEATON, 1889; d LONDON, 1949
The fifth child of 11 born to a Jewish Polish immigrant Edward Wadsworth was a successful and versatile
leatherworker, David Bomberg spent his youth in painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. He studied at
poverty in Birmingham and the Whitechapel area of the Slade School and had his first solo show in 1920.
London. However, with the help of John Singer Sargent, His reputation is based on his pioneering work as a
he secured a place at the Slade School of Art. Vorticist, his post-war ink-and-wash drawings of Black
Self-portrait Bomberg's painting reached a creative high just Country industry, and his seaside paintings. The latter
before World War |. He interpreted Jewish and East were made with tempera — the pigment being mixed HLO?
AYNLN
AIYVA
End subject matter in a modern manner, using angular, clearcut forms, with egg yolk rather than oils.
charged with enormous energy. Wyndham Lewis was taken with his
work and encouraged him to join the Vorticists, but Bomberg resisted.
World War | brought a profound change to Bomberg's outlook.
The mechanized slaughter and his brother’s death destroyed his faith
in machine-age abstraction. He turned instead to an expressionist
figurative style, painting mainly portraits and landscapes. He produced
some of his best work in Spain between the wars, and on trips to
Cornwall in 1947 and Cyprus in 1948.

4 The Dancer Bomberg

LIFEline developed a unique style, using
1911-13 Studies at the Slade sharp-edged shapes and limited
School of Art colours. This image appears
1913 Travels to France with to be abstract, but it is in fact
Jacob Epstein; meets Derain, based on drawings of a dancer.
Modigliani, and Picasso Victoria & Albert Museum,
1916 Marries; sent to the London, UK
front line in France
1945-53 Teaches part-time < Trendrine, Cornwall /n
at Borough Polytechnic, August 1947, Bomberg visited
London; students include Cornwall and produced a series
Frank Auerbach of semi-abstract landscapes
1957 Dies in London, aged 67 alive with exuberant colour and uy See Z Os iN
expressive brushwork. 1947, oil ar IWS: i
on canvas, 81x107cm, Arts Council A The Offing The unreal, dream-like clarity and
Collection, UK surprising changes in scale in this picture are
clearly influenced by Surrealism. 1935, tempera on
panel, 89x 64cm, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, UK
 Ashcan School
Around 1900, America experienced
Towards abstraction
rapid population growth and By the 1920s, a number of American
urbanization. City life became the artists had been influenced by the
central theme for a group of young most advanced European tendencies.
realist painters led by Robert Henri What appealed most was the way in
They became known as the Ashcan which the forms of Modernist art
School because they depicted the could be equated with the machines
unglamorous side of street life. that were transforming American life.
Their recognition that the American The fragmentation in the paintings
city and its inhabitants provided a new of artists such as Max Weber and
subject for art made them the first Charles Demuth reflect the hectic
representatives of US Modernism, bustle of the cities, while Marsden
although their style was conservative” Hartley and Arthur Dove were
By the end of the 19th century, by European standards. influenced more by Kandinsky and
Many American artists went to Expressionism and sometimes came
the US had forged its own
Paris or Rome to study fine arts. They close to total abstraction.
history, both bloody and proud,
were drawn by the thorough training,
and writers such as Herman but also by the opportunities to see / CURRENTevents
Melville and Walt Whitman great art galleries and artists’ studios. 1915 DW Griffiths’s Civil War movie Birth
had succeeded in creating a Visiting exhibitions played a key role A Chrysler Building (1930) Modernism influenced of a Nation leads to riots, as it condemns
architecture as well as art. Designed by William Van the emancipation of the slaves and praises
distinctive American voice. in changing the American art world. Alen (1883-1954), this New York skyscraper embodied the Ku Klux Klan
The photographer and gallery owner the Modernist spirit through its Art Deco styling.
To do the same for painting, 1917 The US declares war on Germany,
Alfred Stieglitz exhibited works by hastening the end of World War |
artists opted to engage with
Matisse, Picasso, and Brancusi in American Modernist artworks under | 1925 F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great |
the new realities of city life New York. In 1913, an exhibition held one roof. The Armory Show went on c
Gatsby shows the excesses of the upper
classes during the “Jazz Age”
and the challenging artistic in New York City’s 69th Regiment to visit Boston and Chicago, attracting
ideas coming from Europe. Armory united 1,600 European and a total of 300,000 visitors in all.

Early US Modernism
Robert Henri John Sloan
—
George VVesley Bellows
| b CINCINNATI, 1865; d NEW YORK, 1929 b LOCK HAVEN, 1871; d HANOVER, 1951 b COLUMBUS, 1882; d NEW YORK, 1925
|

Robert Henri was an inspirational teacher and a member George Wesley Bellows produced his greatest works
| of
of TThe
Ashcan School whose dark, brooding urban while still in his 20s. His paintings primarily depict the
scenes were first shown at the Macbeth Gallery, New raw vitality and survival instincts of New York's lower
A US
MODERNISM
EARLY
CENTURY
OTH York, in 1908. Henri studied art in Pennsylvania and Paris, classes and, by association, modern America.
v)
| where he spent much of the 1890s before settling in Bellows trained under Robert Henri and followed his
| New York in 1900. His paintings were influenced by 17th- teacher's advice “to express the spirit of the people
| ce
EARLYjC entury Dutch realism and the bold, daring brushwork of today’ His monumental works include Pennsylvania
| Edouard Manet's Spanish pictures Excavation (1909) and other powerful urban landscapes.
After teaching at the New York School of Art between He applied the same bold brushwork to gutsy portrayals
902 and 1909, Henri founded his own art school, and in of private boxing matches, such as Both Members of
0 was the driving force behind the first US Exhibition This Club (1909). Bellows's gift was to see great human
| of Independent Artists. Although fearful of “extremes” in drama in the lives of ordinary people.
painting, he encouraged his pupils to visit the Armory
Show and to keep an open mind when seeing the works
| of Picasso or Matisse

“ Snow in New A McSorley’s Bar /he sense of quiet intimacy in this subtly
York /his almost composed and lit picture of a New York bar recalls the domestic
monochrome scenes found in 17th-century Dutch painting. 1912, oil on canvas,
cityscape is divided 66x 81cm, Detroit Institute of Arts, US
evenly between the
dark tones of the
John Sloan attended art classes at the Pennsylvania
architecture, the
Academy while working as an illustrator in Philadelphia
wintry sky, and the
He took up painting seriously in 1896, and moved to
snowbound street
New York in 1904. Fascinated by features of the urban
1902, oil on canvas,
81x65cm, National
landscape such as elevated trains, buildings, and street
Gallery of Art, lighting, Sloan adopted the city as his central theme. He
Washington, DC, US could evoke both atmospheric intensity, as in The Wake
of the Ferry (1907), and intimate domesticity, as in The
A A Day in June Bellows fuses an “Impressionistic” day out
Cot (1907) — a study of a woman stepping into bed with the atmosphere of a féte champétre — a grand garden party.
Sloan, along with other pre-World War | artists, It is an elegant departure from his earthy city scenes of the same
lightened his palette and broadened his subject range period. 1913, oil on canvas, 107 x122cm, Detroit Institute of Arts, US
in response to the Armory Show. Yet, it proved difficult
for him to adapt to the highly conceptual ideas behind
European Modernism
 Charles Demuth
|b LANCASTER, 1883; d LANCASTER, 1935
Having trained at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
from 1904 to 1911, Charles Demuth spent the years
leading up to World War | in Europe. His mature style
was influenced by Marcel Duchamp’s simplified pictures
of machines, as well as by the abstract Cubism of
Marsden Hartley, with whom Demuth went on a
painting trip to Bermuda in 1917 Here, he laid the
groundwork for the cool-toned, detailed, and objective
painting style called Precisionism, or Cubist Realism.
Demuth painted machines, industrial sites, and
agricultural architecture, with his landmark work, My
Egypt (1927), painted at his parents’ home in rural
Pennsylvania during one of the bouts of illness that
plagued his final years. He instils in his subject — grain
elevators common to any arable farm — a sense of
architectural grandeur, and alludes in his title to both the
ancient pyramids and to his own “captivity” in provincial
America. He also created “poster portraits’ in which
he characterized his friends in words and objects.

LIFEline > | Saw the Figure Five

1883 Born the son of a wealthy in Gold /his painting — one
tobacco merchant of the most recognizable
1905-11 Studies at Pennsylvania images of American
Academy of Fine Arts Modernism — alludes to a
1907-08 Makes the first of poem of the same name by NUMBER 5 As the fire engine
several visits to Europe
Demuth’ close friend, speeds through the New York streets
1915 First one-man show with “gong clangs, siren howls, and
William Carlos Williams, who
1917-20 Develops the style wheels rumbling” (from Williams's
describes a red fire engine
that leads to Precisionism poem), the number emblazoned on its
hurtling down the street.
1927 Paints My Egypt rear is depicted getting smaller,
1928, oil on composition board,
1935 Dies, from complications creating a sense of constant recession.
due to diabetes 91 x76cm, The Metropolitan SN
INSIN
AlY¥Vv4
Museum of Art, New York, US

Arthur Dove Marsden Hartley Max Weber

b CANANDAIGUA, 1882; d HUNTINGTON, 1946 b LEWISTON, 1877; d ELLSWORTH, 1943 b BELOSTOK, 1881; d GREAT NECK, 1961

Marsden Hartley studied at the Cleveland School of Art < Composition with Three
and at New York's Academy of Design. The early works Figures Weber gained much
of this passionate, self-conscious, and remote artist from seeing Picassos bold
were bold landscapes executed in short, nervy strokes figure compositions of 1907—
and broken colour, for which photographer and gallery 08. Here, the three female
owner Alfred Stieglitz gave him his first one-man show figures seem hewn out of rock,
in 1909. Three years later, Hartley went to Europe and the angles of their joints knife- AlYVA
HLO?
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settled in Berlin. Under the influence of Expressionism, sharp, and their mood one of
deep repose, almost eternal
he developed a distinctive style using bold, brightly
sleep. 1910, watercolour and
coloured, symbolic shapes. Hartley returned to America
gouache on cardboard, 119x 59cm,
in 1916, but continued to travel extensively, including to
Ackland Museum, The University
Mexico. After settling in Maine in 1934, he found new of North Carolina, US
inspiration painting rugged coastal scenes.

A Reflections /n muted greys, blues, and turquoise, Dove

depicts a swirling abstract landscape in which two trees seem to
huddle together in front of a celestial revelation. 1935, oil on
canvas, 38x 53cm, Indianapolis Museum of Art, US

Arthur Dove worked as a newspaper illustrator prior to

moving to Paris in 1907, where he exhibited his Fauvist
paintings at the Salon des Indépendants in 1908-09.
Once back in America, he bought a ramshackle Max Weber emigrated to the US from Russia with his
Connecticut farmstead and immersed himself in nature. Jewish parents when he was 10. Between 1905 and
A pioneer of American abstraction (he produced his 1908 he studied at both the Académie Julian and the
earliest abstract works in 1910), Dove derived his Académie Matisse in Paris. As the only American artist
abstract compositions from natural forms. He simplified to have fully and naturally assimilated both Fauvist and
these forms down to their essence, in what he called Cubist ideas, he found his art was widely criticized on
his “extractions” Dove was fascinated by synaesthesia his return to the US. His large-limbed nudes, with their
— sounds experienced as colours or shapes. He explored sharp, intersecting outlines, are somewhere between
this in Foghorns (1929), picturing blaring siren sounds as A Painting, Number 48 /nfluenced by both Fauvist Kasimir Malevich's Primitivist figures and Picasso's
rhythmically expanding concentric forms in pinks. and Expressionist concepts, Hartley created a Les Demoiselles dAvignon, as in Weber's Composition
distinctive style, strangely reminiscent of both floral with Three Figures. After 1917 Weber took a more
design and military pageantry. 1913, oil on canvas, naturalistic approach, introducing Jewish themes from
120x120cm, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, US his Russian childhood into his work.
 Subjects and technique
Unlike many 20th-century artists,
Naive painters are often motivated by
their interest in a Subject. Frequently,
there is a nostalgic preoccupation with
Naive painting, sometimes confusingly the past, as with Wallis and his sailing
known as Primitive art, can be loosely ships, and André Bauchant and
defined as the work of artists with peasant festivals. Although some,
little or no formal art training. It does A So Long Previously dismissed as unsophisticated, such as Henri Rousseau, have aspired
not, however, imply an amateur, or untutored artists such as Grandma Moses (1860-1961) to emulate academic painters, the
“Sunday painter” status. When this Welk Onlypropeliy apiavetae diane 2OUT sity common stylistic elements come from
style entered the mainstream of fine noticed by the young Picasso, and their lack of training in conventional
art, it was also adopted by formally the art critic Wilhelm Uhde began to techniques. The composition, for
With the revolutionary changes educated artists such as LS Lowry (see collect French Naive paintings. The example, is simple and instinctive,
i p. 495) who might be more properly vogue for Naive art spread to Britain sometimes to the point of being wildly
in art at the start of the 20th labelled “pseudo-” or “fauxnaive” and the US in the 1930s, with the unstructured.This unsophisticated
century came a reappraisal of discovery of Alfred Wallis and quality is intensified by a lack of
previously dismissed genres, Origins and influences Grandma Moses, while the Centre scientific perspective.
including Naive painting. The There have, of course, always been dArt, established by DeWitt Peters in Naive paintings are also frequently
lack of training of Naive artists untrained artists — not only amateurs, — Port-au-Prince, brought the work of crowded with detail — especially
” but also folk artists and the art of Haitian artists to worldwide attention. | awkwardly drawn figures — contrasting
was recognized as a strength Sah eC Mies : : ; ; i
. primitive” cultures outside the Naive artists were largely with flat areas of paint. Combined
rather than a shortcoming, Western tradition. Appreciation of untouched by trends in the art world. with a tendency to use bright,
giving their work a refreshing their talent only came in the 20th Their influence on mainstream art, unnaturalistic colours, this gives Naive
spontaneity and directness. century, when Henri Rousseau was however, has been considerable. art vitality and a childlike innocence.

Naive painting
Alfred Wallis
b DEVONPORT, DEVON, 1855; d MADRON, CORNWALL, 1942 LIFEline
Although one-time fisherman and marine scrap merchant Alfred Wallis 1855 Born in the port of
Devonport
only began painting in his late sixties, he influenced a generation of
c1875 Marries Susan Ward
British painters in the 1930s. Brought up in south-west England, Wallis
1890 Gives up fishing, moves
first went to sea aged just nine and spent his entire life in and around to St Ives, and opens marine
| the fishing boats. Even after his shop “Wallis, Alfred, Marine Stores scrap business
| Dealer” closed in 1912, he remained in St Ives doing odd jobs in the 1922 Takes up painting
| NAIVE
PAINTING
CENTURY
20TH
ARLY
Ei town, and only took up painting after the death of his wife. 1928 Painters Ben Nicholson
His untrained, naive style caught the attention of painters Ben and Christopher Wood found
Nicholson and Christopher
Wood in 1928. He was introduced to several _| 4” artists’ colony in St Ives and
discover his work
of the major painters of the time, including Jim Ede, who championed
1942 Dies in Madron
his work in London. Yet, despite this recognition, Wallis sold only a few
Workhouse, Cornwall
paintings and died in poverty in 1942.

» The Island, St lves Many of Wallis’s

townscapes seem flat and map-like, with a high
viewpoint and a naive perception of perspective.
Objects are arranged side by side rather than
overlapping, their size determined by relative
importance rather than their distance from the
viewer. Oil on board, 28x 24cm, Whitworth Art
Gallery, Manchester, UK

«Land, Fish, and Motor Vessel Lack of CLOSERIook

money led Wallis to paint with very few colours, : LIMITED COLOURS Wallis's
often on pieces cut from cardboard boxes. typically restricted range of
colours emphasizes the separate
Despite these limited means, and an unorthodox
areas of land and sea, and
approach to scale and perspective, he effectively
enhances the dramatic effect of
captured the essence of his subject. Oil on buff
the very high viewpoint. The
card, 38x37cm, University of Cambridge, UK viewer's attention is drawn
upwards over an expanse of
ground to the coast, where houses
are perched at the water's edge,
and then to the ships floating on a
featureless grey sea.
Henri Rousseau
b LAVAL, 1844; d PARIS, 1910 LIFEline
Ridiculed in his own lifetime, but posthumously achieving his ambition of having his ne Born in Laval, in the Loire
work exhibited in the Louvre, Henri Rousseau is nowadays considered a talented alley
1863-67 Serves in the infantry
Naive painter. He had no formal training, and for much of his life he worked as a tax
1868 Moves to Paris and
collector at the Paris tollgates, earning him the nickname Le Douanier (the customs
works as a civil servant
officer). Rousseau often painted huge, brightly coloured fantasies set in exotic jungle 1885 Exhibits at the Salon for
Self-portrait | scenes —all the more remarkable because, despite his boasts to the contrary, he the first time
i never left France. He had an unshakeable belief in his own talent, which led him to 1893 Retires from the toll-
exhibit almost every year in the Salon des Indépendants, an alternative group that allowed artists to service to paint ThallanHouce Cancd ic Rousceall
show their work outside the formal constraints of The Salon. Rousseau’s paintings were later 1905 Shows The Hungry Lion was working as a customs officer, this is a
i
discovered j
by artists such as Pablo Picasso and Constantin Brancusi, but iit was too late to bring him
i t theGe
fall Salon of d dA\
ee | apesview of an unremarkable f scene. He
startling
the success he craved. His work anticipated and influenced several 20th-century styles: paintings ee nba uses colour rather than perspective to give depth
such as The Snake Charmer (1907) and The Dream (1910) presage Surrealism in particular. |
Necker, Paris to the separate picture planes, drawing the eye
towards the strangely flat building and the two
» The Snake Charmer /he awkwardly posed figures. c1890, oil on canvas,
exotic imagery and style are a 41 x33cm, The Courtauld Gallery, London, UK
characteristic of Rousseaus SIE E, me

Jungle scenes. The dream-like

subject is painted in lush, vivid
colours in a bold composition,
yet the individual elements —
the snake charmer, the bird,
and the jungle itself — are
quite stiffly depicted, with a
curious lack of depth. 1907, oil
on canvas, 169x 189cm, Musée
d'Orsay, Paris, France

CLOSERIook : Sea) it H

H
AAIVN
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The Walk in the Forest Early in
his career, Rousseau painted several
woodland landscapes, which are
remarkable for their fine detail. In many
JUNGLE LEAVES The of them he added a figure — as here —
foliage is painted with an Claiming to have invented a new genre
unusual flattened perspective; of “portrait-landscape”. The effect was
the almost two-dimensional that the subject often seemed
leaves overlap to give an overwhelmed by the sheer weight of
impression similar to collage. the background. 1886-90, oil on canvas,
70x60cm, Kunsthaus, Zurich, Switzerland AlYV3S
HLO?
AYNLN

A War or The Ride of Discord Rousseau depicts a nightmarish vision

of war with childlike straightforwardness. The central figure (reminiscent
of Struwwelpeter, a scruffy character from a German children’s story), his
horse, and the victims are grotesquely posed and proportioned, while the
leafless trees and oddly solid clouds are portrayed with little regard for
perspective. 1894, oil on canvas, 114x195 cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
 André Bauchant
b CHATEAU-RENAULT, 1873; d MONTOIRE-SUR-LE-LOIR, 1958 | LIFEline
Despite taking up painting comparatively late in life, André Bauchant c1914-18 Serves in the
French Army
Séraphine de Senlis
forged a successful career as a painter and his output was prolific. He
| 1919 Takes up painting full b ARSY, 1864; d CLERMONT, 1942
had little formal education and followed in his father’s footsteps, working
time
as a market gardener. Yet he was an avid reader, especially of classical Séraphine Louis, better known as Séraphine de Senlis, was working
1921 His work is shown at
history and mythology, and discovered his talent for drawing during | Salon dAutomne, Paris as a housekeeper when the art dealer Wilhelm Uhde saw her work in
World War |. Bauchant served in the French Army, at first in Greece and 1927 Designs sets and a neighbour's house in Senlis in 1912. He immediately bought several
then in France, where he trained as a map-maker. Shortly after the war, costumes for Diaghilev’s of her extraordinary, visionary paintings. Séraphine was inspired with
he began his career as a painter, and his naive paintings of flowers and ballet company a religious zeal bordering on fanaticism, and was committed to a
scenes from history and mythology were soon noticed by collectors. 1937 Exhibits in the Maitres psychiatric hospital in the 1930s. She lived, institutionalized, in
Populaires de la Réalité show Clermont, France, until her death in 1942.
Championed by Swiss architect and painter Le Corbusier and the art
in Paris
dealer Jeanne Bucher in the 1920s, Bauchant built an enviable
reputation and worked well into his old age. » The Tree of Paradise
Séraphine used enamel
Country Reunion Bauchant painted some historic scenes and a few,
paints, shellac, oil, and
such as this one, of everyday life. These often took the form of landscapes
even gold to achieve rich
with a rudimentary perspective, peopled with his typically simple figures.
and brilliant colours. Her
1953, oil on canvas, 43x 74cm, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lille, France
G AE meinen s
compositions of flowers and
trees contain petals and
leaves fantastically
transformed into feathers,
eyes, shells, and animals.
¢1929, oil on canvas,
195x130cm, Pompidou Centre,
Paris, France

NAIVE
PAINTING

Wilson Bigaud
b PORT-AU-PRINCE, 1931 LIFEline
Encouraged by his neighbour, the artist Hector Hyppolite, Wilson Bigaud took up 1946 Hyppolite takes him
CENTURY
painting as a teenager and built an international reputation while still in his to the Centre dArt
twenties. Born the son of a farmer in Port-au-Prince, Bigaud has lived in Haiti all 1950 Wins second prize for
Paradis at an international
his life and his paintings are crowded with details of everyday Haitian scenes. exhibition, Washington DC
In 1946, Hyppolite took the young Bigaud to the Centre dArt in Port-au-Prince, 1951 Paints Marriage at
which had been established by the American artist DeWitt Peters. This inspired Cana for the Cathedral of
20T
EARLYBigaud to make a career in painting, and provided the contact to exhibit and sell Sainte Trinité
his work. From then until mental illness prevented him from painting in 1957, 1957-61 Suffers a series
Bigaud produced some of his finest work: lively pictures of carnivals and dances; of breakdowns and stops
painting
biblical scenes, such as the mural Marriage at Cana (1951) in the Episcopal
1958 MoMA, New York,
Cathedral; and depictions of rites from the Haitian religion of Vodoun, a form of
buys his Paradis Terrestre
Voodoo. He returned to his art in 1962, and lives and works in the small town
1962 Resumes painting at
of Petit-Goave. his house in Petit-Goave

CLOSERIook §

< Bal Militaire Bigaud A Zombies Dramatic contrasts of colour

achieves a feeling of depth highlight the symbols of the Haitian religion
in his paintings through the Vodoun in this moonlit scene. The pale zonbi
SPIRIT OF THE DANCE use of colour, rather than (Creole for “zombie”, a body without a soul) are
The lively atmosphere is perspective. Here, the controlled by a benign-looking farmer who is
captured by the detailed
golden background helps carrying a chicken and, at the centre of the
portrayal of members of the picture, a bottle of protective magic. 1953, oil
project the more boldly
band in active poses, picked on masonite mounted on wood panel, 25x 23cm,
coloured figures forwards.
out in black and white against Figge Art Museum, Davenport, US
c1950, watercolour on paper,
the colourful background
39x48 cm, private collection
Grandma Moses
$ , b GREENWICH, 1860; d HOOSICK FALLS, 1961
After a lifetime spent working on farms, » Home of Hezekiah King,
Anna Mary Robertson Moses — or Grandma 1776 One of five paintings of
Moses as she became known — was already her great-grandfather’s home,
in her seventies when she began her this was not painted from
remarkable artistic career. Widowed in memory, as the house burned
Grandma 1927, she started making embroidered down in 1800, but presents
Moses, 1961 pictures, and soon after, when arthritis an idealized view of Moses
made this difficult, turned to painting.
family history in an idyllic
setting. 1943, casein on
At first her work appeared only locally, but in 1938 an
masonite, 49x 60cm, Phoenix
exhibition in a Hoosick Falls drugstore was noticed by art
Art Museum, Arizona, US
collector, Louis J Caldor. This led to three of her paintings
being shown at the Contemporary Unknown American v Summer Party Vosess
Painters exhibition at MoMA, New York, in 1939. From then landscapes depict changing
on, she became a household name and enjoyed success seasons as she recalled them
as a leading “American Primitive” painter, famous for her on her farm. c1940s—50s oil on
nostalgic and lyrical landscapes and scenes of everyday life. masonite, 45x65cm, Museum
of Fine Arts, Houston, US

LIFEline
1860 Born in Washington
County, New York
1887 Marries Thomas
Salmon Moses, moves to
Virginia
CLOSERIook
1905 Returns to New York PRIMITIVE FIGURES The figures
his
1939 Featured in the in Moses’s landscapes, such as this
“Contemporary, Unknown horse-drawn cart, often nostalgically
Painters” exhibition at the
evoke a bygone era. Simply depicted
Museum of Modern Art,
with dabs of paint, they were added
New York
after the more naturalistically
1940 Has first one-woman
show in, New York painted sky and landscape had
been completed.
1961 Dies aged 101

3
SAIVN
ONILN
Beryl Cook Hector Hyppolite INcontext
VODOUN AND ART Vodoun, a variant of
b EGHAM, 1926 ; d PLYMOUTH, 2008 b SAINT-MARC, 1894; d PORT-AU-PRINCE, 1948 Voodoo, was brought to Haiti by slaves from
Using a paintbox bought for her young son, Beryl Cook western Africa and, despite efforts to suppress
discovered a gift for painting when she was in her it, remains the faith of many ordinary Haitian
forties, and went on to become one of Britain's most people. Like other religions, Vodoun has inspired
many works of art, and its imagery, rites, and
popular painters. After leaving school, she worked as
legends figure largely in the work of Haitian
a showgirl and shorthand typist, and in the 1960s ran a artists such as Bigaud and Hyppolite.
pub and boarding house in Devon. It was here that
guests discovered her playful paintings, leading to an Entrance to a Haitian Vodoun Shrine Shrines are HLO?
AYNLNS
AlYV3
exhibition in 1975 and international recognition. decorated with paintings, murals, wallhangings, and
artefacts depicting symbols of the Vodoun religion.

A Monument Dumarsais Estimé Hyppolite had a

spontaneous style offset by symmetrical composition.
Here, naked figures bowing beneath crossed swords,
held in disembodied hands, add to the totemic quality.
1945-47, oil on masonite, 73x 58cm, private collection

Hector Hyppolite was a priest of Vodoun (see right),

and its symbolic imagery inspires much of his work.
He worked as a shoemaker and housepainter in
A The Lockyer Tavern Cook's humorous paintings Saint-Marc, in western Haiti, until 1945, when he
are peopled with well-observed and sympathetically moved to Port-au-Prince. It was here, in the remaining
portrayed characters at leisure. She is best known for three years of his life, that he started painting. In 1946,
her depictions of flamboyant and independent “fat an exhibition in Paris, organized by French surrealist
ladies”. c1974, oil on panel, 77x 61cm, private collection André Breton, brought his work to a wider public.
 Background
~< Le Dome café, Paris
There had not been an artistic hub like Artists of the Ecole de
Paris since Renaissance Florence. Paris regularly gathered
at artists’ studios and
Foreign painters, sculptors, art dea lers;
cafés such as Le Déme
and publicists began to descend o n in the Montparnasse
the city, some with financial means, district of the city.
others with barely their train fare.
Certain artists, such as the suave was not an art movement linked by a Making a reputation
Certain cities act as cultural Most artists arrived to make their
Amedeo Modigliani, were already manifesto, training, or shared political
magnets, drawing in talent, fluent in French; others, including views. Rather, it was a group of artists reputations. Of all European cities,
innovation, and diverse Chaim Soutine, had to learn quickly. who were united by a desire to follow Paris had by far the largest art market
opinions. From 1904 to 1929, These newcomers from abroad settled a bohemian lifestyle, share their with upwards of 100 private galleries.
the most important artistic among the resident French artists, experiences, and choose, if they Then there were the art dealers —
both native Parisians and those who wanted, to attend Paris's numerous many of who were often foreigners
centre was Paris. In time, the
had arrived from the provinces. art academies and open studios. In themselves. Two such men, Léopold
notion of a specifically Parisian Journalist André Warnod first this way Cubists, Futurists, Abstract Zborowski and Daniel-Henri Kahnweiler,
artistic phenomenon arose: an described the multi-national mix as an artists, and figurative painters found would grant fortunate artists an annual
Ecole de Paris (School of Paris). “Ecole” in 1925. However, this school common ground. income in exchange for their work.

Ecole de Paris
Maurice Utrillo Jules Pascin
o>! |b PARIS, 1883; d DAX, 1955 LIFEline b VIDIN, 1885; d PARIS, 1930
Amid bouts of depression and addiction to alcohol, Utrillo found 1883 Born in Paris Born into a well-off family of shopkeepers in Bulgaria, Julius
a distinctive way of depicting Parisian streets, landmarks, and 1903-05 Starts painting and Pincas studied art in Vienna, Berlin, and Munich before moving
churches. The illegitimate son of the French painter Suzanne produces over 150 canvases to Paris in 1905 and changing his name to Jules Pascin. His
and drawings
Valadon, he was dismissed from school for drinking when just work was initially influenced by Fauvism and Cubism, but his
1907-10 Paints impasto
16, and, on the advice of a physician, he was encouraged to
cathedrals and street scenes;
developed style was figurative and somewhat impressionistic,
Maurice paint. His first works were impressionistic in style. exhibits at Autumn Salon with light outlines, pastel shades, and a gossamer touch.
fyECOLE
PARIS
DE
20TH
EARLYUtrillo
CENTURY Between 1907 and 1910, Utrillo's paintings of Paris and the Pascin’s subjects included his family, cabaret artistes, and
1922 Exhibits work with his
surrounding villages developed their own unique style, both mother Suzanne Valadon nudes. Occasionally, he made large paintings on biblical
architecturally strong and atmospheric. The period between 1910 and 1916, 1928 Awarded the Legion of themes. Pascin’s death came by his own hand on the
considered Utrillo’s finest, was known as his “White Period’ since he painted Honour opening day of an important exhibition of his work.
in shades of white mixed with plaster and glue to give texture to his buildings. 1955 Dies of pneumonia
Around 1919, Utrillo began to gain recognition, but his life was beset by periods
of hospitalization for alcoholism and depression.

» Montmartre Utrillo painted this

view of the infamous Lapin Agile
cabaret in Montmartre about 100
times. C1913, oil on canvas, Pompidou
Centre, Paris, France

A The Two Sleepers Pascin was an expert draughtsman,

and the drawing visible in his paintings is always light and
economical. There was also an ever-present eroticism in the
way he posed and dressed his women. ¢1926-28, oil on
canvas, Pompidou Centre, Paris, France
 Tamara de Lempicka
b WARSAW, 1898; d CUERNAVACA, MEXICO, 1980
In 1918, de Lempicka and her Russian socialite husband
Y To Russia, Asses and Others /he cow, Tadeusz fled the Russian Revolution for Paris. She soon
Marc Chagall milkmaid, and church in this Cubist-influenced, gained success painting high-society portraits. Her art
dream-like scene are symbolic of village life. owed a little to Fernand Léger, but it fitted in well with
b VITEBSK, BELARUS, 1887; d ST PAUL-DE-VENCE, 1985 c1911, oil on canvas, 157x152cm, Pompidou the prevailing Art Deco style, since it exuded stylishness
Born in Belarus (then part of the Russian Empire), into a poor Centre, Paris, France and finesse. By the 1950s, her work had fallen out of
Jewish family, with nine brothers and sisters, Marc Chagall fashion, but in recent years it has found a new audience.
had a happy childhood. His mother had particularly high
hopes for him and managed to get him accepted into a good
school that was normally reserved for non-Jews. Chagall
Marc Chagall studied art from 1906 to 1910 in Vitebsk and St Petersburg.
In 1910, he arrived in Paris and moved into a building
known as La Ruche (the Beehive) because of its honeycomb network of
artists’ studios. There he became friends with the avant-garde painters
Robert Delaunay and his wife Sonia, who was herself Russian.
Chagall’s work developed under the influence of Fauvism and Cubism.
He created a unique narrative style in which the dominant elements were
Jewish folklore and beliefs, together with the village life of his Russian
childhood. By the 1930s, he had achieved a worldwide reputation, and over
the decades, he won many prestigious commissions. He illustrated books,
made ceramics, designed for theatre, and made stained glass — most
notably the 12 tribes of Israel for a Jerusalem synagogue.

LIFEline
1887 Born at Vitebsk, in Belarus
1906-10 Studies art in St Petersburg
1910 Moves to Paris; finds studio in La Ruche
1915 Marries Bella Rosenfeld
1918 Made Vitebsk’s Commissar for Art during
the Russian Revolution
A Kizette en Rose /his ski/fully composed
1923 Returns to France; begins series of
etchings, including Ma Vie portrait of the artists 10-year-old daughter
1937 Takes French citizenship fills every available centimetre of canvas.
1926, oil on canvas, 116 x 78cm, Musée des
1985 Dies at St Paul-de-Vence, near Nice
Beaux-Arts, Nantes, France

H
sluvd
31093
30
» The White Crucifixion /his depicts the
horrors of persecution: a synagogue burns, an old
Marie Laurencin
man flees, and a group of Jewish elders bemoan b PARIS, 1885; d PARIS, 1956
their fate. At the centre is the crucified Christ —
himself a Jew, and a universal symbol of suffering.
It was as if Chagall had foreseen the catastrophe
awaiting Europes Jews. 1938, oil on canvas,
155x 138cm, Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, US

CLOSERIo
NAZI ATTACK This a Zita HLO?
AYNLN
AlYVa
depiction of a uniformed
Nazi setting light to a
synagogue refers to the
events of a night in 1938,
when drunken Nazis

A Apollinaire and Friends /his is a copy of a painting

< The Poet Reclining INcontext called Group of Artists, which Laurencin made as a gift for
The reclining figure is
ART DECO In style, Art Deco was her companion Apollinaire. The first version was bought by
Chagall who was also an
luxurious, sleek, and angular, employing the American art collector and writer Gertrude Stein. 1909,
accomplished poet. He
expensive materials such as jade, chrome oil on canvas, 130x194cm, Musée Apollinaire, Stavelot, Belgium
lays hisae on his : lacquer, and ivory. Art Deco was popular
anusts pa atts, OXBFESSING. |)in both Europe and the US, and on the
the notion of his dual Having come last in all her subjects at school, Marie
j : 5 i ocean liners that travelled between them.
identity. This harmonious Laurencin decided to study porcelain-painting at the
picture was painted while Paris Art Deco Exhibition, 1925 /his factory in Sevres. When she returned to Paris, she
he and Bella Rosenfeld exhibition was important in showcasing attended Académie Humbert to complete her art
Art Deco design internationally.
were on honeymoon. education. She became an important figure in the Paris
1915, oil on millboard, avant-garde, producing paintings, drawings, and prints.
77x77cm, Tate, London, UK A friend of Picasso and companion of poet Guillaume
Apollinaire, Laurencin was at the centre of the creative
set she painted in Group ofArtists (1909). That same
year she posed with Apollinaire for Henri Rousseau’s
picture The Muse Inspires the Poet.
Laurencin painted and illustrated with pastel colours
and a fine wispy line. Her subjects were nearly always
women — whether in portraits, as ballet dancers, or just
shown relaxing.
 Amedeo Modigliani
b LIVORNO, ATALY, 1884; d PARIS, 1920
Amedeo Modigliani's deceptively simple style owes
much to his deep understanding of art history. His work
focuses almost exclusively on the female form and his
modern, forthright nudes, for example, echo the great
masters he so admired —Titian, Ingres, and Francisco de
Self-portrait Goya. His full-frontal portraits are instantly recognizable
by their staring, often quizzical expressions.
Modigliani contracted tuberculosis as a child and the illness
persisted throughout his adult life. He studied art extensively in Italy
before moving to Paris in 1906, where he worked as a painter initially.
He took up sculpture from 1909 to 1914, before returning to his easel
to produce the finest works of his short, turbulent life. Modigliani was
gregarious, and prone to alcohol and drug abuse, but he was intensely
private and dedicated when at work.

LIFEline
1884 Born the fourth and youngest
child of a well-to-do Jewish family |
1902-03 Studies art in Florence
and Venice; sees the work of
Toulouse-Lautrec |
1906 Moves to Paris, and sets up
studio in Montmartre
1912 Exhibits series of sculpted heads
at Salon dAutomne (Autumn Salon)
exhibition
1914-15 Gives up sculpture and |
vigorously affirms his talent as a painter |
1917 Meets Jeanne Hébuterne, who
gives birth to a daughter, Giovanna, the |
following year. |
1919 Returns to Paris after a prolonged A Caryatid A womans body twists under
stay in Italy due to ill health
|
a heavy burden — one of many drawings,
1920 Dies of tuberculosis on 24
watercolours, and sculptures on the theme.
January; Jeanne commits suicide |
PARIS
ECOLE
DE the following day 1913-14, oil on cardboard, 60x 54cm,
u —— Pompidou Centre, Paris, France

CENTURY
20TH
EARLY

|
ne eT Ie Be one mS
a = A Nude with Necklace With
INcontext her arms behind her head, the
OTHER CIVILIZATIONS Like many Parisian woman poses displaying her
| artists, Modigliani was interested in so-called glowing flesh and, shockingly
“primitive” objects from Africa or Oceania, but for the time, her pubic hair. A Jeanne Hébuterne Just 19 when she met CLOSERI|ook
he was also deeply immersed in the art of the Modigliani, Hébuterne embarked on a turbulent OVAL FACES
Modigliani’s nudes exude a
| ancient world. His modernist sculptures bear love affair with the artist. Pregnant with their Modigliani’s painting was
vibrant sexuality, of which they
a remarkable resemblance to those made by second child, she is portrayed here with great § deeply influenced by his
are keenly aware. He had only
the ancient Greeks, Etruscans, and Egyptians tenderness. Her simple pastel clothing suggests ) sculpture. His subjects’
one solo exhibition during his | oval faces can convey both
lifetime — it was closed down a poor farm girl, rather than the lover of Pariss
Bust of Amenophis IV a mask-like indifference
§ Modigliani frequently on the grounds of indecency. sophisticated wild man. 1919, oil on canvas,
| and subtly incisive
sketched the statues and 1917, oil on canvas, 73x 116cm, 127x81cm, private collection
characterization
friezes on display in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
Egyptian department of
the Louvre in Paris. The
New York, US ELONGATED SHAPES
power of their simplicity Stylized forms, a twisted
greatly influenced his or elongated body for
sculpture, as well as the example, are often used
EF painting of his final years.
to stress traits of a sitter's
personality, such as
arrogance, aloofness,
or, as here, gracefulness
 Chaim Soutine
b SMILOVICHI, BELARUS, 1893; d PARIS, 1943 LIFEline
Julio Gonzalez Chaim Soutine, a Lithuanian Jew from an impoverished family of 11 1893 Born in Smilovichi, Belarus
children, chose to contravene the Orthodox ban on image-making and 1907-12 Studies art and design
b BARCELONA, 1876; d ARCUEIL, NEAR PARIS, 1942 in Minsk and Vilnius, Lithuania
became a painter. After studying art at Minsk and Vilnius, he moved to
1913 Takes studio in Paris
The pioneering semi-abstract sculptures created by Julio Gonzalez Paris in 1913, staying at low-cost artists studios La Ruche. He worked |
1915 Meets Modigliani,
stemmed from his apprenticeship as a metalworker in his father's solely in oils, developing an impassioned style that unified bold colours, Chagall, and the sculptor
forge in Barcelona. He subsequently took up painting and became strongly directional brushwork, and thick surface texture. He is most Jacques Lipchitz
friends with Picasso before moving to Paris in 1900. There, he associated with portraits of Paris's working class, such as porters, hotel 1919-21 Works at Céret
earned his living making jewellery and selling the occasional painting or maids, bellboys, and cooks. He was a shy, mistrustful man, and these 1922-23 Albert C. Barnes
drawing. Gonzalez was deeply affected when his painter brother, Joan, were perhaps the people with whom he felt most at ease. buys over 50 paintings
died in 1908. It took him almost two decades to find his niche, but in Between 1919 and 1921, Soutine worked extensively at Céret, in 1927 First solo exhibition
1927 he wholeheartedly devoted himself to metal sculpture. Gonzalez the south of France, where he painted more than 100 canvases, many 1928 Paints portrait Madame
made many important works, including the uncharacteristic Montserrat. of which he later destroyed. In 1923, the American pharmaceutical Madeleine Castaing
He collaborated with Picasso between 1928 and 1932, providing the millionaire Albert C. Barnes visited Paris. He discovered Soutine’s work 1937-38 Second and final
public exhibition, in Paris
technical expertise for Monument to Apollinaire (1928-32). His and bought 52 pictures, changing the artist's fortunes at a stroke.
1943 Dies in Paris
influence on subsequent generations of sculptors was enormous.

LIFEline
1876 Born in Barcelona, the son
of a goldsmith and metalworker
1891 Begins apprenticeship
under his father's tutelage < Landscape at Céret
1897 Meets Picasso A Soutine landscape has an
1900 Sets up studio in Paris extraordinary, almost vertigo-
1908 His brother Joan dies inducing energy. Here the
1918 Works at Renault's houses, stormy sky, and rock
Boulogne-Billancourt factory, forms reel across the canvas,
in the welding shop bending the horizon in all
1922 Exhibits paintings, directions. Despite the
sculptures, and jewellery dynamism, there is a sense
1927 Takes up metal sculpting of his isolation and loneliness,
fulltime
which was heightened by the
1937 Exhibits Montserratat
Paris World Fair
death of his friend Modigliani.
1920-21, oil on canvas,
1942 Dies, near Paris
91x112cm, Tate, London, UK

A
31094
3G
Slu¥Wd
» Woman Arranging Her >» Woman in Red Soutine
Hair /ron had become had no desire to ridicule his
associated with weaponry and sitters. The womans twisted
death. Gonzdlez's answer was body, her battered hat curving
to transform the metal into down to where her mouth
witty and touching human attempts to curve up, and her
forms. He learnt the new skill wandering eye are a tribute
of oxyacetylene welding while to his subject’ individuality.
working at Renaults Boulogne- The abundant red — a symbol
Billancourt factory. Employing of intense passions — reminds
this industrial technique, he the viewer of the passing of AIYVS
HLO?
AYNLNS
revolutionized sculptural art. time, like an expressionistic
1929-30, iron, Pompidou Centre, memento mori. 1922, oil on
Paris, France canvas, 91x62cm, private
collection
 Origins and influences < OBMOKhU
Exhibition At an
Constructivism can be traced back exhibition in Moscow
to Vladimir Tatlin’s visit to Picasso's in 1921, Alexander
studio in Paris early in 1914. Tatlin’s Rodchenko and his pupils
achievement was to transform the explored Constructivism’s
: : major preoccupations —
painted planes of the Cubism that the structural properties
he saw there into “real materials in of materials and forms.
real space” He began by making
wall-mounted “painted reliefs”: Far from believing in art for art's sake, Communist Party’s backing. By
When the Russian Revolution paintings in form, but employing metal, they thought such forms could be of 1920-21, however, a political division
4 string, and wood projecting out from use in building a new society. developed in Constructivist circles
took place i191 7 thee the surface. By 1915, he was creating between those who believed that
already an advance guard of free-hanging sculptures, in which Subjects artists should maintain a personal
progressive artists prepared to natural materials were used for their The emphasis on materials became involvement with the creative process,
help build a new communist qualities of colour, texture, and shape. | more meaningful after the workers’ and those who believed that artists
society. Such a task required a “tthe same time, artists like Alexander state had been established. Wood, were “intellectual workers -This led to
new artistic language that could Rodchenko and El Lissitzky were ; metal, glass, and plastics were used in some artists leaving Russia for the
: strongly influenced by the Suprematist industry, so when artists used these West to make “pure art’ while those
encapsulate the ideals of the movement developed by Kasimir materials, they were cementing their who stayed placed their talents at the
revolution - that “language” Malevich (see p.440). They hadavery bond with the working people. By service of the new regime’s economic
was Constructivism. different purpose in mind, however. 1919, Constructivism had gained the and political requirements.

Constructivism
CONSTRUCTIVISM

Viadimir Fatiin
b MOSCOW, 1885; d MOSCOW, 1953
While training as an artist, Vladimir Tatlin worked as a merchant seaman, a circus
wrestler, and a busker. In 1914, he visited Pablo Picasso's Parisian studio, where he
saw “constructed objects” such as Guitar (1912-13), as well as Cubist paintings.
Tatlin's response to these was his “painted reliefs” and free-hanging “constructed”
sculptures. They formed the Constructivist ethos that the inherent qualities of a
material — its suppleness, texture, colour, and hardness — should define its potential
EARLYusage in a construction. Committed as he was to the aims of the Russian Revolution,
CENTURY
20TH
Tatlin’s next step was to use this idea to aid factory production of everyday objects.
Accordingly Tatlin designed an efficient heating stove and warm winter clothing.
He also made designs for grand projects, such as The Monument to the Third
International (1919-21) and a man-powered flying machine.

LIFEline )
1902-13 Works as a merchant
seaman, but studies and paints
during home leaves
1914 Travels to Paris via Berlin,
and visits Picasso's studio
1915 Participates in 0.10, The
Last Futurist Exhibition
1919-21 Designs Monument to
the Third International A Corner Relief 7his reconstruction of one of Tatlin’s sculptures
from 1914-15 appears free-hanging, but is attached to two

\
1921 Teaches sculpture at
Petrograd Academy of Arts adjoining walls with wires. Made from industrial materiak, It
1953 Dies in Moscow, aged 67 emphasizes their natural colours and textures and creates a
strong sense of spatial dynamics. 1993, steel, aluminium and paint,
96 x94x230cm, Kunsthalle Diisseldorf, Germany
<< Monument to the Third
International Had it been built,
A The Fishmonger Jatlin admired those who earned their living this vast structure would have been
from the sea, and he frequently painted sailors and fishermen. twice the height of The Empire State
This work shows the Primitivist influence of his friend Mikhail Building and housed the HQ of
Larionov (see p.433). 1913, glue-based paint on canvas, 77x 99cm, international communism — the
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia Comintern. The model toured the
country as a symbol of Soviet
aspiration. 1919-21
 Antoine Pewsner
Naum Gabo b OREL, 1886; d PARIS, 1962 LIFEline
Influenced by his love of Byzantine art, Antoine 1886 Born in Russia
b KLIMOVICHI, 1890; d WATERBURY, 1977 LIFEline | Pevsner attended Kiev's School of Fine Arts from 1902 1911-14 Makes lengthy visits |
1890 Born in Belarus to 1909. He also studied at the St Petersburg to Paris, and becomes friends
Born Naum Neemia Pevsner, Gabo adopted a new
with Modigliani
name to distinguish himself from his older brother, 1910 Begins studying Academy, but left in 1911 to visit Paris, where he
medicine at Munich University, 1915-17 Lives with his
the artist Antoine Pevsner. Gabo studied at Munich painted in a Cubist style. He returned to Russia in brother, Naum Gabo, in Oslo,
but changes to engineering
University, where he met Wassily Kandinsky. 1917 and taught at the Moscow School of Painting, before returning to Russia
and natural sciences
In 1914-15, he visited his brother in Paris, producing his own neo-abstract work. With his 1920 |ssues The Realistic
1915 World War | begins;
experienced Cubism first-hand, and saw fellow Russian flees to Oslo, where he brother Gabo, he issued the Realistic Manifesto Manifesto with his brother
Alexander Archipenko’'s glass and paper assemblages. makes geometrical sculptures (1920), which outlined their non-Marxist Constructivist 1923 Leaves Russia for Paris
Gabo and his brother returned to Russia in 1917, where 1920 Issues the Realistic ideals in the form of a poster. Their declaration 1930 Becomes a French
Manifesto with his brother mocked Italian Futurism — and by association certain citizen
Gabo’s method of constructing his sculptures led to
1922 Leaves Russia for pro-Futurist Russian artists — for its idolization of all 1962 Dies in Paris, a year
the coining of the term “Constructivism” In 1920, they
Berlin, where he lives for after being awarded The
issued the Realistic Manifesto — so-called to contradict things modern. Pevsner left Russia in 1923 and Legion of Honour by the
ten years
critics who labelled their work abstract. In 1922, Gabo settled in Paris, where he took up sculpture. French state
1946 Settles in the US, where
visited Berlin with an exhibition of Russian art. He he receives many public
stayed in the West, sensing that the Russian regime's commissions
» Meeting of Planets
liberal attitude to the arts would soon change.
Pevsner began constructing
sculptures after leaving Russia
in 1923. Prior to that he had
explored Constructivism in
painting. In this late work
Pevsner returns to paint to
explore the relationship
between space and form, with
the added ingredient of
prismatic colour. 1961, oil on
canvas, Musée d'Art Moderne
» Construction: Stone
de la Ville de Paris, France
with Collar /his is one of
five constructions Gabo made CLOSERIook
on the theme. It was probably
conceived and executed in
Paris, and introduced direct
carving into his work. 1933-35,
stone, metal, and plastic, Tate, INSIA
London, UK

PLANET OR SPACECRAFT?
This discus-shaped object seems
to.be in orbit around the light
source, and the red planet.
In the year this picture was
painted, the Soviet Yuri Gagarin
became the first to orbit the
Earth, in the spacecraft Vostok 1.

AIYVA
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BOE

A Linear Construction in Space Number1 Gabo explores the

A Head Exploiting plastic’s transparency and
interface between space and solid in this fluid, non-geometric
pliability, this focuses the attention on internal and
sculpture. The transparent quality of the plastic gives the central
external surfaces simultaneously. The two bisecting
hallow space a strong three-dimensionality. 1944-45, plastic,
plastic planes, which serve as the neck, also
30x30x6cm, University of Cambridge, UK
resemble a throat when seen from certain angles.
1923-24, plastic, 77x59x 92cm, Tate, London, UK
 'Alexander Rodchenko
b ST PETERSBURG, 1891; d MOSCOW, 1956
From 1910 to 1914, Alexander Rodchenko attended Kazan
Art School where he met his wife and lifelong artistic
collaborator, Varvara Stepanova. His early painting
showed the strong influence of Cubism, but, from
1916, he moved towards abstraction. Rodchenko was CLOSERIlook
A
Portrait by a founder member of Moscow’s Institute of Painterly oN
Nikolai Culture (1920) and advocated utilitarian or “production
Afanasyevich < Oval Hanging
art” to satisfy the needs of society. In 1921, he exhibited
Construction, Number 12
three monochrome paintings in the primary colours, entitled The Last
This is made from a single
Painting. Rodchenko was at odds with Kasimir Malevich's abstract sheet of plywood, cut in
spiritualism. This was apparent in the transition towards Constructivism concentric bands from the
where he argued his paintings were “constructions” since they were outer circumference to the
made from real materials — canvas, wood, tacks, and pigment in oil. centre. Tiny threads of wire
Rodchenko worked with Wassily Kandinsky in setting up regional SILVER PAINT Rodchenko maximized the hold the ovals in place. When
art museums that would promote progressive art outside Moscow impact of these shapes by painting one side
closed, the structure forms a
silver. He applied the paint to each oval slightly
and St Petersburg. In 1925, he designed an entire room of a working- flat, oval plane. 1920-21, painted
differently, so the reflections would change as
men’s club, complete with folding chairs and tables, just for show at plywood and wire, 83x 59x 43cm,
the construction gently moves in the light
the International Exhibition of Decorative and Industrial Design in Paris. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia

LIFEline > White Circle Rodchenko

called his Circle series
1911-14 Attends Kazan
School of Art
Concentration of Colour. /n
1916 Moves to Moscow
it he explored how different
1917 Arrives at abstraction in
colours react in conjunction
his Lines and Circles series with different backgrounds and
1923-25 Designs forms. In White Circle, an optical
propaganda posters, conflict occurs as the viewers
photographic montages, and eye tries to determine which
advertisements for industry of the two circles should hold
1929 Designs costumes and precedence. 1918, oil on canvas,
sets for The Bedbug, a play
CONSTRUCTIVISM 89x72cm, Russian State Museum,
by Vladimir Mayakovsky
St Petersburg, Russia

CENTURY
20TH
EARLY

A Illustration for the poem Pro Eto by Vladimir Mayakovsky

Rodchenko was also an innovative photographer and developed the
technique of photomontage. In this book dedicated to Mayakovsky’s
poem, Rodchenko’ collages brilliantly mirror the poet's text. 1923,
collage, 48x 33cm, Russian State Library, Moscow, Russia
E| Lissitzky
b POLCHINOK, NEAR SMOLENSK, 1890; d MOSCOW, 1941 LIFEline
Lazar Lissitzky, better known as El Lissitzky, grew up in Vitebsk, in Russia, but studied 1909-15 Studies architecture
engineering and architecture in Germany. In 1919, Mare Chagall, who was director in Darmstadt, Germany
of the Vitebsk Art Institute, appointed him as professor of graphics and architecture. 1919 Creates the Proun
project and produces Beat the
Joaquin Torres-Garcia
Within months, El Lissitzky had abandoned his formerly figurative style in favour Whites with the Red Wedge b MONTEVIDEO, 1874; d MONTEVIDEO, 1949
of geometric abstraction. Fellow artist Kasimir Malevich also taught at the institute, 1919-21 Teaches art in
and the two worked together designing propaganda for the revolution. Vitebsk; works alongside In 1891, Joaquin Torres-Garcia moved from his native
From 1921, El Lissitzky took a post at Moscow's Higher State Artistic Workshops, Kasimir Malevich Uruguay to Barcelona. There, he enrolled at the city’s
which resembled the Bauhaus School of Art and Design. El Lissitzky was the creator 1922 Travels to Berlin, and academy and joined the bohemian set which included
of Proun — an acronym meaning “Project for the Affirmation of the New” — which meets leading Dada artists the young Pablo Picasso. From 1903 to 1907, he
synthesized Suprematism (see p.462) and architectural drawing. A “Proun Room” 1930-40 |s the leading Soviet designed stained-glass windows for Antoni Gaudi,
graphic artist
was a major installation at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition of 1923. including those for the Sagrada Familia Cathedral
1941 Dies, aged 51
in Barcelona. In the late 1920s, Torres-Garcia
developed a more geometric painting style that
» Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge
he called “Constructive Universalism’ and in 1930
This street poster applies Suprematist forms
he became a founder member of the abstract group,
to revolutionary propaganda. Its aim was to
Circle and Square. |n 1934, he returned to Uruguay,
convey the message that the red wedge of
where he became the spokesperson for Latin
Bolshevism would shatter the white circle,
which represents the old order. 1919, poster, American Modernism and set up his own art school.
Stedelijk van Abbe-Museum, Eindhoven, Netherlands

CLOSERI|ook

TYPOGRAPHY Many Constructivist artists

were influenced by Dadaist use of typography
and photo-montage. Here, El Lissitzky includes
the poster's title in the image. WSIAI

A. Cover of Raison et Nature /n 1926,

Torres-Garcia wrote a theoretical treatise
entitled Reason and Nature. The text was his
personal take on Constructivism, and served
as a manifesto for his humanistic approach to
design and architecture. 1932, private collection

INcontext
AGITPROP POSTER
Agitation propaganda, AlYVA
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(agitprop) posters were
crucial to the Bolsheviks
after they seized power in
Russia in 1917. During the
social reconstruction that
followed the Revolution,
these posters relayed
everyday information and
political news to a mostly
illiterate population.

A Abstract Composition in Grey, Yellow, Russian Railway

and Black Jhis deceptively concrete form is Advertisement by Viadimir
| Mayakovsky (1921)
constructed from geometric shapes in contrasting
colours. The architectural quality of the design is
animated by two figures, like those of Malevich,
wearing top hats. c1920, litho, Gemeentemuseum,
The Hague, Netherlands
¢¢ Structure means
<< Construction Proun 2 F/ Lissitzkys Proun recognition that unity
explored the formal properties of colour, shape,
line, transparency, and opacity. His chief is at the foundation
innovation was to take Malevich's geometric
shapes and distribute them as if they were
of everything ”?
JOAQUIN TORRES-GARCIA
organic elements within complex structures.
1920, oil, paper, and metal on wood, 60x 40cm,
Philadelphia Museum of Art, US
 Origins and influences
Berlin, and Hanover. Finally, Dada
grew in Paris, where Marcel Duchamp
and Man Ray, already active in New
York, had recently settled. By 1921,
o oO =) most of the important Dadaists had
gathered in the French capital around
arcel Janco the poet and critic André Breton.
: : and Richard Huelsenbeck. They chose
Dada was a richly subversive the name Deda — French for “hobiy Subjects
art movement that developed horse” — randomly from a French- Dada challenged the rules of art.
at the time of World War I as Everyday objects as art, political
a protest against bourgeois collage, the use of chance, a playful
conventions and the folly of metaphysics — all these techniques
energized the movement.
war. The aim of the Dadaists
More than any previous art The Dada group dissolved
was to destroy traditional
movement, Dada rejected established acrimoniously in 1921 amid violent
values in art and to create institutions. When the war ended, the arguments and nots. Many of the
new art to replace the old. Dada spirit spread quickly to Cologne, _ artists went on to become Surrealists.

Dada
DADA

Pa ee i » Front cover of Dada 4-5

> PARIS, 1879; c PARIS, 1953 Divide ilk elects Rada
ICAOIe S WIK OFAWING Ai
Sancis Picabie trained as anartist from
2 vour nd by | venti Clock 1 featurd on the cover of

QMenrmMented wih reuvsem FR wnsmM IOS anG rMNst na e 6 CIOCK 10

estik arch for his own lan Around 1911. he met Mar rint t S original &
buchen. eit bacerne & Fy In 109 imé our lithograph,
a er ae en " 19cm, Bibliotheque Littéraire
ECR aE Le EE I GT EN Sees Jacques Doucet, Paris, France
Ork Y Girl Born without a Mother
0 make this work Picabia painted
~ ie in ?
over an illustration of a steam Q a
engine to create" an ironic
, phor for human life. 1916-17
S c > gouache and metallic paint on printed
xisted paper, 50x65em, Sc ationa
Gallery of Modem Art, Edinburgh, UK
Marcel Duchamp
b BLAINVILLE, 1887; d NEUILLY-sur-SEINE, 1968] LIFEline
Born into an artistic family, Marcel Duchamp __| 1913 Exhibits Nude
was an accomplished painter from an early eae ee pees
age. Around 1912, he began to rethink first ready-made exhibit,
accepted notions of “art” and “non-art” Bicycle wheel
alongside Francis Picabia and the poet and 1915 Begins The Large Glass
Photograph _ art critic Guillaume Apollinaire. In New York in New York
by Arnold during and after World War |, he became 1923 Leaves The Large Glass
Newman actively engaged in the Dada movement, in a “state of incompletion”
:
with gently ironic projects involving ready-made objects, 1926 The Large Glass is
: : ‘ badly broken on return from
word games, optical experiments, and metaphysical exhibition in Brooklyn
speculation. He made creative use of chance, language, and | 4954 {Marries Alexina (Teeny)
ephemera such as dust and shadows and created a playful Sattler 2
alter ego called Rose Sélavy. In 1920, Duchamp exhibited 1968 Dies. The room-sized ve ae sata
with the Dada group in Paris before returning to New York installation Etant Donnés is e Bride Stripped Bare
by Her Bachelors, Even
to complete The Large Glass. It was widely believed he had _| discovered
This piece poetically explores
ceased to make art after abandoning this unfinished work. the relationship between the
Only on his death in 1968 was a further grand project sexes — man is the lower half
revealed — a room-sized mixed-media installation, called Etant and woman the upper half in
Donnés, which is now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. the work. The original was
badly damaged and several
reconstructions have been
made, including this one by
Ulf Linde (1961). 1915-23,
mixed media, 272x170cm,
original in Philadelphia Museum
of Art, US
v Fountain Duchamp
submitted an upturned urinal
signed R. Mutt to a New York
exhibition where he was on the
organizing committee. Despite
the exhibition's rule of non-
selection, it was rejected. 1917,
glazed ceramic replica (original vava
lost), 36x48x 61cm

< Nude Descending a Staircase, No.2

The dynamic energy of the figure is shown
through repeated lines and planes as it moves
downwards in space and time. This is similar
to early photographic experiments by Etienne-
Jules Marey, who captured sequences of the
figure in motion, which Duchamp had first
seen in 1971. 1912, oil on canvas, 147x89cm,
Philadelphia Museum of Art, US

CLOSERIook Al¥Va4
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INcontext
WORLD WAR | Eight million people died in
The Great War (1914-18). Artists on both
sides became actively involved, and many were
killed at a young age. Some of the survivors
expressed their sense of devastation and horror
ci 2 ay o through semi-abstract paintings. Others, highly
DESCRIPTIVE PAINTING The viewer's critical of the war, resorted to artistic anarchy.
eyes follow the lines, shapes, and surfaces The Dada movement grew from this discontent.
from left to right, as they describe the
Soldiers Eating in an Advanced Post in the
moving body. In describing his work, Champagne Region, Jacques Moreau (1976)

\
Duchamp spoke of “de-composing” forms.

¢ | have forced myself

to contradict
myself in order to
avoid conforming
to my own taste %
MARCEL DUCHAMP
 « Terrestrial Forest Form
In contrast to his earlier
geometric works, here Arp
createss forms that are freely
drawn to echo nature and its
processes. Natural elements,
such as twigs, pebbles, or
leaves, are simp! lified ina
series of layered asymetric
painted reliefs. 1917, painted
wood, 85x 60cm, private collection

1230; ¢ PARIS, 1976 < Rayogram/Rayograph

Many of Man Ray's images
were self-portraits, in this case
@ mannequin with pencils in
hand (suggesting an artist), and
CENTU
OTH
witha dri | pointing aat his heart
L) 1923 photographicprint,
\t
4g x 40cm, private collection

CLOSERIook

LIFEline
1290 2 . Pussian—Je
nemara MYSTERY SHAPES These
1297 = —s curved shapes, perhaps created
1929 2 . 4 using shirt collars or tags, could
suc of Ne Je -ecezre represent the photographic film
1921 es tp Ps of Man Ray the society and
1938-31 oe —— fashion photoograpner.

1349 Hi
1351 Fe P2
1976 Dies in Pz 0s
Kurt Schwitters
b HANOVER, 1887; d KENDAL, 1948 LIFEline ¥ Cover of Die Kathedrale This is froma
The German artist Kurt Schwitters is associated with the term Merz, 1909-14 Studies at Dresden volume of Schwitters’s lithographs to which he
his highly personal and unofficial form of Dada in which he used Kunstacademie added a printed anti-Dada sticker when efforts
scrap materials for artistic creation, giving them equal status to paint.
1917 Works as a military had been made to exclude him and Merz from
draughtsman the Berlin Dada group. 1920, lithograph with
Schwitters met the Berlin Dadaists in 1918, but he had little time for
1923-37 Creates Merzbau collage, 22x! 4cm, private collection
their political aspirations. He was interested in pure art and was

DIE SILBERCAUE
installation in Hanover
encouraged by Hans Arp — a pioneer in the medium of collage — to 1924 Starts an advertising
make highly concentrated, delicate, and disciplined collages. His agency

MERZ
works, especially between 1919 and 1923, included printed ephemera 1937 Exhibits in the Munich
and other discarded materials. Schwitters worked across many Entartete Kunst exhibition;
disciplines. He was a designer and publisher, producing a Merz emigrates to Norway
1940-41 Is interned on the
magazine for over 9 years, and also experimented with poetry, abstract
Lofoten Islands
drama, photography, typography, music, and cabaret. His Merzbau
1945 Moves to the Lake
(1923-37) was the first of three “architectural” projects. Built in District, England, where he v Untitled. Assemblage from
Hanover over a period of 13 years, the constructions occupied eight dies in 1948 a hand mirror Schwitters used
spaces in his house. Abandoned in 1936 when Schwitters fled to the back of a mirror as the basis
Norway, the Merzbau was later destroyed in Allied air raids. of this construction, so making a
found object form the basic shape
of the work. 1920-22, Musée d'Art
Moderne de Ia Ville de Paris

Lirt.s voll
KuRt. Sc WATERS
"oa OTEE,EManVERUGHeur
<{ Merzbarn Constructed on the wall of a
barn in the Lake District, this work is made
from materials found on country walks. He
made this harmonious abstract assembly
avoiding overt political, literary, or narrative
references. 1947-48, mixed media, Hatton vava
Gallery, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

John Heartfield
b BERLIN, 1891; d BERLIN, 1968
<< On the Crisis Party
Congress of the SPD /n 1931,
Born Helmut Herzfelde, John Heartfield is famous for his powerful more than 4 million Germans
anti-Nazi imagery. His early work consisted of montages, produced in were unemployed. The Social
collaboration with George Grosz and other Dadaists. Photomontage Democratic Party was in crisis
was a Dadaist invention. By juxtaposing images and text, they believed after expulsions, resignations,
that a wholly new or provocative set of ideas might emerge. In and sustained challenges from
Heartfield’s hands, this technique was frequently directed towards the Nazi Party. Here, the SPD
deflating pomposity and questioning propaganda. is portrayed as a tiger roaring, HLO?
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In 1918, Heartfield joined the Communist Party and co-founded a but with few teeth. 1931,
publishing company. Much of his work was mass-produced, either in photomontage, 38x27cm,
satirical Communist Party journals or, as Hitler’s plans became clear, in private collection
cover drawings for the weekly left-wing newspaper Arbeiterl//ustrierte
Zeitung. His most potent images were made in the 1920s and 1930s,
but in later life he continued to argue against exploitation and war.

LIFEline
¢¢\\e are
1907-11 Studies poster soldiers of
design in Munich
1918 |s founder member
peace. No
of Berlin Dada DER SINN DES nation and
1924 Produces first HITLERGRUSSES:
politically motivated posters no race is
1938 Moves to Prague to
escape Nazi censorship
our enemy ”
WIELAND HERZFELDE,
1961 Awarded the GDR
BROFHER OF JOHN
Peace Prize
HEARTFIELD

» Millions Stand behind

Me Heartfield used Nazi
statements, but subtly altered
their meaning. Hitler's claim
to popularity is here subverted
to expose his financial nn
backing from German STEMEN
industrialists. 1932, lithograph,
Kleiner Mann bittet um groBe Gaben
ZUM KRISENPARTEITAG DER S.P.D.
private collection
 abstract design, but for the way
they fragmented the body to create
fantastic figures. Giorgio de Chirico’s
Origins and influences strange vistas and the Dadaists’ use of
The Surrealist movement was started found objects also provided inspiration.
in Paris by the poet and critic André
Breton, who published the first Styles
Surrealist Manifesto and launched the Although there was no single style of
journal La Révolution Surréaliste in Surrealist art, there are two dominant
1924. Influenced by Sigmund Freud’s strands: dreamlike paintings, and
work on psychology and dreams and those using free association, which
by the political writings of Karl Marx, the Surrealists called automatism. The
Surrealism started as a literary Breton and his fellow writers wanted latter was achieved by such means as
and political movement but to free the imagination by tapping into- Staring at a pattern until a hallucination
had a profound effect on the unconscious mind. They tried to occurred. The Surrealists sometimes
art, photography, and film. achieve this by using automatic incorporated photography in their work
Influenced by the work of writing, a process of free association, as they were able to link the real and
in their poetry and prose to produce surreal by manipulating photographic
Freud, it aimed to uncover the
unexpected imagery and ideas. A La Révolution Surréaliste Published in 1924 by techniques, or simply using it to isolate
subconscious, using dreamlike Breton found support for his ideas in André Breton, this journal helped spread the Surrealist
the unexpected. Taboo-breaking images
philosophy. Its scandalous first issue (above) included
imagery that challenged the visual arts. He admired the Cubist features on suicide, death, and violence, all dealt with of sexuality, violence, and blasphemy
perceptions of reality. paintings of Pablo Picasso, not for their in a pseudoscientitic style. were also common.

TIMEline
1924-25 1933
Starting with the prescient early 1914
works of Giorgio De Chirico,
Surrealism continued until the
death of René Magritte, a
lifelong practioner, but it mainly
flourished between 1924 and
1945, notably in the works of
ai
SURREALISM
Max Ernst, Joan Mir, and
Salvador Dali. After 1945 the
principal artists had gone their
separate ways and Surrealism
was overtaken by the
DALI The Persistence of Memory 4)"
development of Abstract DE CHIRICO
Expressionism. MIRO Harlequin’s Carnival MASSON Antilles
Mystery and Melancholy MAGRITTE The Human
of a Street Condition

Interpretations is in fact contradictory. Salvador Dali also CURRENTevents

CENTURY
20TH
EARLY moved to Paris in 1929 and started working 1900 Sigmund Freud
André Breton was fascinated by Freud’s in a similar vein, using dreamlike imagery to publishes /nterpretation of
theories of a repressed unconscious. For create disturbing paintings. Although based Dreams. The ideas in the
Breton, this had a political as well as a in France, part of the strength of Surrealism book influence the art of
the Surrealists.
psychological significance: the society was the way in which it could accommodate
responsible for this repression had been the nationalities of the artists drawn to it. 1919 The magazine
Littérature, edited by
badly tarnished by World War |. The Max Ernst’s work had strong roots in
André Breton and Louis
Surrealists saw art as a means of challenging German Romanticism, while Miré and Dali Aragon, includes the work
bourgeois assumptions about the nature of drew on their Spanish and Catalan heritage. of the 19th-century poet
reality. Artists who had lived through World Comte de Lautréamont,
War | wanted to discover new ways Of life America a source of inspiration to
the Surrealists.
and new forms of art beyond nihilistic Dada. At the outbreak of World War II, most of the
1929 The Surrealist film
Surrealists left Paris for New York. André
Un Chien Andalou by
Europe Breton arrived in America in 1941 and, with Luis Bunuel is released.
Paris was the centre of Surrealism until Marcel Duchamp, organized the First Papers
1939 World War || breaks
1945. Max Ernst, André Masson, and Joan of Surrealism exhibition in 1942, involving out. Many artists leave
Mir6 were joined in 1929 by René Magritte, nearly 50 artists from Europe and the US. Europe for New York.
who moved to Paris from Brussels and Notable American Surrealists included Arshile 1942 First Papers of
A Illustration from La Femme 100 Tétes Max Ernst
This was the first in a series of collage novels using became a leading figure in the movement. Gorky and Roberto Malta. Surrealism exhibition
His detailed depiction of strange objects in Automatism had a powerful impact on in New York
illustrations cut out of old magazines and catalogues.
The title refers to the heroine who represents womanhood, dreamlike settings create a hallucinatory post-war American painting. More broadly,
with no single face but one that constantly changes. 1929, effect, where everything looks normal but Surrealism has had a lasting influence on
steel engraving, 25cm, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France advertising and cinema, to such an extent
that the word “surreal” has come to mean
anything fantastic or dreamlike.
Max Ernst
yi b BRUHL, NEAR COLOGNE, 1891; d PARIS, 1976 LIFEline

Max Ernst first experienced hallucinations as a 1914-18 FightsinWorld

child and began painting when he was a philosophy War | as field artillery soldier
student at the University of Bonn. Through the
ar ; :
1918 Marries Luise Straus.
She dies in Auschwitz in 1945
writings of Sigmund Freud he became interested 1922 Moves to Paris
a = in the unconscious and the art of mental patients. 1927 Marries Rae mie
eae Byy 1920, en
Ernst was actively yitinvolved with the Dada i
Marie-Berthe Aurenche :
a eae movement in Cologne, then in 1922 he moved to 1939 Is interned twice as an ‘ <3
Paris, where he joined Paul Eluard, André Breton, enemy alien ee
and the other Surrealists. Ernst developed a number of unusual 1941 Moves to New York Ba
painting techniques, which were intended to reveal his own 1942 Marries wealthy US art
unconscious responses. These included frottage and decalcomania — collector, Peggy Guggenheim | A Murdering Airplane /his postcard-sized image
methods that involved the discovery of imagery within a patterned 1946 Marries his fourth wife conflates an early bi-plane with the arms of ayoung
surface. Using printed catalogues, technical and scientific textbooks, ee teas, Ec ele erat this
and other neglected ephemera, Ernst created rich, Surrealist collages. Wirarelracicerintene Bx dem, Menil Collection. Housten, Texas, US

; ie RE
NCOMFORTABLE
at * j
STARE Ernst pictures the
ie
f
a
sf
I
i
| bride beneath an imperious
| owl-headed cape. Her face
A Oedipus Rex /n this work, Ernst’s bird-man figure # is almost completely
has its head removed from its body, representing obscured, but the owl's
Sigmund Freud's theories on man’s detachment from @ piercing eyes stare straight
feeling and a true comprehension of life. 1922, oil on at the viewer.
canvas, 93x 102cm, Collection of Claude Herraint, Paris, France

S|
INSIT

TEARS OF LOSS A HLO?

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many-breasted, pregnant
hermaphrodite (person
with male and female
sexual organs) sheds a tear
for sexual freedom lost by
the forthcoming marriage.

A Zoomorphic Couple Ernst identified strongly

with the bird-man figure, here tied in a possibly uneasy
relationship. The image has clearly been drawn into or
has emerged from the loosely textured background.
1933, oil on canvas, 92x73cm, Peggy Guggenheim
Foundation, Venice, Italy
A The Robing of the Bride Beneath a mighty red cape, the bride is
reflective. It is thought that Ernst based her on his companion at the time,
Leonora Carrington. The bird-man to her left — a stork, a symbol of fertility — se Th us I obtained a faithful fixed
is perhaps Ernst himself. A second naked figure, eyes closed, is brushed aside image of my hallucination and
while the arrow, a familiar phallic symbol, directs the viewers gaze. 1940, transformed into revealing dramas
oil on canvas, 130x 96cm, Peggy Guggenheim Foundation, Venice, Italy my most seeret desires 99

MAX ERNST (ON COLLAGE), 1936

 'Joan Miro
b BARCELONA, 1893; d PALMA DE MALLORCA, 1983 LIFEline
While best known for his large, colourful, and witty 1911 Takes up a book-keeping
paintings developed from doodles, Joan Mird also job at his parents’ insistence
excelled as a sculptor and graphic artist. 1926 Collaborates with Max
Ernst on the set designs for
He was inspired by the Catalaa culture into which
Diaghilev's Romeo and Juliet
he was born, and his early work was influenced by 1928 Visits Holland and is
Self-portrait Fauvist and Cubist painting. Mird visited Paris in 1919 influenced by Vermeer's work
where he met other young artists, such as the Surrealist 1929 Marries Pilar Juncosa
ré Masson and Picasso. Much of his work is a classic example of 1930 Works with a range of
Surrealist automatic drawing. This attempt to set on paper the media, including lithography,
mysterious workings of the unconscious mind was initiated by Masson. etching, sculpture, and collage
Miré developed a pattern of spending the winter in Paris and the 1940 Leaves-Paris for Spain
summer at his family's farm near Barcelona. In 1936, with the onset of before the Nazis arrive
the Spanish Civil War, he settled in Paris where his imagery briefly 1974 Major retrospective of
his work is held at the Grand Painting 1925 Late in MiroS life, drawings were
became more brutal. Although Miré has often been identified as a light-
Palais, Paris discovered showing that apparently spontanéous paintings
hearted artist, there is a strong element of savagery in his work, and at
like this were in fact carefully planned. 1925, oil on canvas,
|one time he declared an almost Dadaist ambition “to destroy painting” 146x 155cm, Peggy Guggenheim Foundation, Venice, Italy

Harlequin’s Carnival A
party of imaginary beasts takes
place within the confines of a
room with a window opening
out to a night sky. 1924—25, oil on
canvas,
SURREALISM cm, Albright Knox
Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, US

CLOSERI|ook

CENTURY
20TH
EARLY

MALE FIGURE Complete

| with moustache and pipe,
a traight at the
riking a melancholy
mong the party revellers
 G lOrglo de Chirico v Old Horses near a Lake /n his /ater works,
b VOLOS, 1888; d ROME, 1978 de Chirico abandoned experimental art and
returned to a more mainstream style. He painted
Giorgio de Chirico is best remembered for his ability to make the a series of horses on beaches amid classical ruins.
viewer take a fresh — and disturbing — look at the familiar. Instead of c20th century, oil on canvas, 40x50cm, private collection
ae people, he painted tailors’ dummies, faceless statues, and silhouetted
¢¢| was living on a few dry figures, placing them in harshly lit, unnervingly empty streets.
figs a day. Harlequin’s His early art education took place in Athens and Florence. In 1906,
c he went to the Munich Academy, where he was influenced by the
Carnival was the product philosopher Nietzsche and the paintings of Swiss Symbolist Amold
of hallucinations Bocklin. After moving to Paris in 1911, de Chirico met Picasso and the
brought on by hunger 99 poet and art critic Apollinaire, who supported his work. De Chirico’s
paintings had a powerful effect on writers and artists who were later
JOAN MIRO to become, like himself, key figures in the Surrealist movement.
From 1910 to 1920, he shared Surrealismn’s passion for the city as
an eerie but seductive labyrinth. But de Chirico was increasingly drawn
to classical painting, and his former fellow Surrealists criticized his later
work as conventional and slick.

LIFEline V The Mystery and Melancholy of a Street

De Chirico was a master at giving an everyday
1888 Born in Greece of Italian
scene — here a row of shops closed for the day
parents
agt0 Moves to Florence and as shadows lengthen and people go home — an
produces the first of his unsettling twist. 1914, oil on canvas, 87x 71cm,
town-square paintings private collection
1911 Moves to Paris
1915 Returns to Italy, where
he is conscripted into the army
1917 Launches Metaphysical
Painting as a movement with
Futurist artist Carlo Carré
1978 Dies in Rome, aged 90

A
Wsii
CLOSERI|ook

HLO?
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AIYVA

CONTRASTS Extremes of
light and shade and steep
perspective make a common-
place street look disturbing.

me

SHADOWS On the face of it

just a child rolling her hoop on
the way home, the silhouetted
girl is destined to cross paths
with the looming shadow at
the end of the otherwise
| emoty street.
 André Masson Salvador Dali
b BALAGNY, 1896; d PARIS;1987 b FIGUERES, CATALONIA, 1904; d FIGUERES, 1989

After being seriously wounded in the World War |, André With his hyperrealist style, dreamlike landscapes, and
Masson was left emotionally scarred, suffering insomnia Y¥ Antilles Made during Massons eccentric public persona, Salvador Dali has remained
and nightmares, and subject to fits of rage and violent stay in America between 1941 and the best known of the Surrealist artists. As a child,
emotional states. In 1924, he met André Breton, and 1945, the figure merging into the he was precocious, but given to violent, hysterical
became closely involved with the Surrealist moveme nt. vibrant, energized background was outbursts — a subject he explored in his later works.
He evolved automatic drawing as a means of working inspired by women in Martinique, Salvador Dali Dali moved to Paris in 1929 and became actively
beyond conscious control and in paintings he used which he visited on his way to involved with the Surrealist group. He was deeply
sand and oil to create random shapes to stimulate his
the US. His paintings had an influenced by André Breton's writings on the work of Sigmund Freud,
important influence on Abstract the father of psychoanalysis, and his work on the unconscious.
imagination. In 1929, he fell out with Breton and left the
Expressionism. 1943, oil, tempera, He sought to tap into a seemingly limitless source of fantastic and
Surrealist group, although their friendship was revived in
and sand on canvas, 128x84cm,
1936. In 1941, he took refuge from World War II in the dreamlike imagery, which he believed would revolutionize modern life.
Musée Cantini, Marseille, France
US. Upon arrival in New York, five of his drawings we re He invented a means of generating images that he called paranoiac-
destroyed because customs deemed them pornogra phic. critical activity, which involved staring intensely at one set of objects
until he could see others. He explored subconscious secret desires
and his works reveal sexual anxiety, paranoia, and disgust.
His best work was produced before 1939, when he was expelled
from the Surrealist group because of his support for Franco after the
Spanish Civil War, but he continued to work in a Surrealist manner.
In later years, he transformed a theatre in Figueres into a museum
and art gallery dedicated to his own work.

LIFEline
1904 Born the son of a notary
1914 First drawing lessons
1928 Meets Picasso and Miré
1929 Joins Paris Surrealist
group led by André Breton.
Makes the first Surrealist film
Un Chien Andalou
1940-48 Moves to the US
hl Atm Keg x 1941 Major retrospective at
MoMA, New York
A The Earth Part dream and part fantasy, this oil and sand-
1942 Publishes his
inspired work Is an erotic reflection coupled with violence as autobiography, The Secret Life
the red claw attacks the breast. 1939, sand and oil on plywood,
SURREALISM of Salvador Dali
43x 53cm, Pompidou Centre, Paris, France 1974 Opens Theatro Museo
Dali at Figueres
1989 Dies of heart failure
Paul Delwaux Meret Oppenheim
b ANTHEIT, 1897; d VEURNE, 1994 b BERLIN, 1913; d BASLE, 1985

Meret Oppenheim grew up in Switzerland and » Christ of St John of the

southern Germany. Her father, a doctor, was Cross Dali claimed this image
interested in the theories of influential Swiss came to him in a “cosmic
psychiatrist Carl Jung. In 1932, she went to Paris dream” although it also relates
to study art, meeting André Breton and many
to a drawing made by the
Spanish friar St John, around
other established Surrealists. A free spirit, she
1575. 1951, oil on canvas, 205x
CENTURY
20TH
EARLY modelled for Man Ray, and, encouraged by
116cm, Kelvingrove Art Gallery
Giacometti, made her first sculpture.
and Museum, Glasgow, UK
Everyday objects were a feature of Surrealist
art of the time, often used in combinations that
confounded logic or suggested unconscious or
poetic connections. In 1986 Oppenheim made
“< Gradiva Rediscovers
her best-known work — the furcovered cup,
the Anthropomorphic
saucer, and spoon.
Ruins — Retrospective
Fantasy Gradiva (Latin
A Sleeping Venus /n this skilfully painted, dreamlike, for “The one who walks“)
classical setting, Venus is surrounded by troubling figures appears in several
and a skeleton. 1944, Oil on canvas, 173x 199cm, Tate, Surrealist works. It was
London, UK also the artist's nickname
for his wife, Gala. In this
Paul Delvaux’s name is associated with the dream landscape, a
Belgian Surrealists, although he was never a woman embraces the
participating member of the group. From early shell of a man in front of
naturalistic landscapes, he developed a new style enticing ruins. 1931, oil on
around 1933, influenced by the metaphysical canvas, 65x 54cm, Thyssen-
paintings of Giorgio de Chirico. He made his first Bornemisza Collection,
Surrealist works around 1935, inspired by fellow Madrid, Spain
A Object Oppenheim was inspired by Picasso,
Belgian painter René Magritte. who commented that “one could cover just
In the early 1930s, he visited the Brussels Fair about anything with fur”. The work is also called
where skeletons and a mechanical Venus figure Luncheon in Fur. 1936, fur-covered cup, saucer,
made a strong impression. Childhood memories and spoon, height 7cm, MoMA, New York, US
of reading Jules Verne continued into his mature
paintings, as did frequent images of mesmerized
naked women in dream landscapes or classical
plazzas. He described his aim as “poetic shock“
 Soft Construction with
Boiled Beans: Premonition
of Civil War Completed six
months before the outbreak
of the Spanish Civil War, this
painting graphically depicts a
gigantic agonized body at war
with itself. On the ground are a
handful of beans. Dali explained
that, “one could not imagine
swallowing all that unconscious
meat without the presence
(however uninspiring) of
some mealy and melancholy
vegetable.“ 1936, oil on canvas,
100x 100cm, Philadelphia Museum
of Art, Pennsylvania, US

6¢ | cannot
understand why
man should be
capable of so
little fantasy ”’
SALVADOR DALI E
ATHVS
HLOZ
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INSII

» Lobster Telephone (INco ntext

Several versions of the classic |FREUD AND DREAMS The psychologist
Surrealist object exist, one |Sigmund Freud, who founded psychoanalysis,
being made for the important eres The Interpretation of Dreamsin 1900.
British collector of Surrealist art |He believed people’s unconscious thoughts and |
in the 1930s, Edward James. OaEe could be brought to consciousness with
Both hard-shelled objects, | free association and by analysing their dreams.
lobsters and telephones held
Sigmund Freud
powerful sexual associations
|(1856-1939) Seen
for Dali. In 1938, he proposed |here in 1931, Freud
a “Téléphone Aphrodisiaque “. |believed “a dream
1936, mixed media, 15x 30x 17cm, |is a (disguised)
Museum Boymans van Beuningen, fulfilment of a
|| repressed wish”.
Rotterdam, also at Tate, London,
| He also identified
and Edward James Foundation, | the sexual instincts
Sussex, UK and the importance
of their role in
| human behaviour.
SURREALISM

ENTURY
a Lu

20TH
EARLY

The Persistence of Memory Salvador Dali

1931, oil on canvas, 24.1 x33cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York, US
CLOSERI|ook

The Persistence of Memory Salvador Dali

In his autobiography, Jhe Secret Life of Story
Salvador Dali (1942), the artist describes working There has been much
on a painting of a landscape near Port Lligat, in speculation on the
symbolism of this small
northeast Spain, “with rocks lit by a transparent and =
and intense picture. It is INFLUENCES
melancholy twilight — in the foreground an olive tree
one of a series of sparsely DESERTED LANDSCAPES Ihe desolate deep perspectives of
with branches cut’ He relates how, after ending his populated landscape Dalf became something of a cliché among painters in the 1930s and
evening meal with strong Camembert cheese, he paintings from the 1930s. In contrast to the sunlit and 40s. There was an international fashion for barren spaces, usually
“meditated on the philosophic problems of the specific outer world of sea and cliffs, the dreamlike with picturesque ruins. The experience of war gave their air of
foreground represents a timeless and nameless inner devastation a new resonance.
super soft” before going to look for one last time
space. The watches clearly allude to time passing,
that day at the work in progress. It was then that memory, and decay. The softness of the instruments
Figure in a Deserted
Landscape John Minton,
the image of two soft watches, one hanging from for measuring time, however, renders them unreliable. 1942. The young man seems
a branch of a tree, occurred to him. Just two hours Psychological analysis suggests the limp watch in a reflective mood — an
may symbolize the return to a state of amorphousness idea reinforced by the ruined
later, he says, “the picture was complete.” building and leafless trees
or a remembrance of the period of time before birth. em [he artist committed suicide
Other critics have interpreted it as expressing a = in 1957, aged 39.
Technique fear of impotence — Dali's sexual anxieties are well-
Dali brought his fantasies and visions to life with a
documented elsewhere.
meticulous painting technique and attention to detail.
He described the results as “hand-painted dream
photographs”. He was indebted to the traditional
techniques of earlier times — especially the skills of early
Flemish and Venetian painting. It is thought that he used
fine sable brushes and a jeweller’sglass for close work,
and built up the layers of paint gradually.
>» LIMP HEAD A dormant
v MELTING CLOCK FACE Softened or melting, head lies slumped across the
the watch no longer appears to be rational or familiar. small stone ridge. It is thought
The hands emphasize the folded face, and the construct to be Dali’s own face in
of time itself is undermined. profile, its shape deriving
from a large standing rock
near the coast at Cadaqués.
It had already appeared
in earlier works, notably
The Great Masturbator
and The Enigma of Desire, EI
Wsiv
both from 1929. The long
eyelashes and tongue-like
protuberance heighten the
erotic feel of this creature.

v INSECTS For Dali, insects

were associated with decay.
Here, together with the fly,
they act as memento mori,
reminding him of a childhood
experience of finding a dead HLO?
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lizard being eaten by ants.
& ‘3 Bers

A TREE A single, apparently dead

olive tree underlines the dreamlike and
desolate character of this landscape.
Traditionally the olive branch is a symbol
of peace, purification, and plenty. Olive
groves are a common sight in the region
of Catalonia where Dali grew up.
 René Magritte
b LESSINES, 1898; d BRUSSELS, 1967 LIFEline
Belgian painter René Magritte was a leading figure | 1910 Magritte's mother
in the Surrealist movement. His alter ego, who commits suicide
: f 1916-18 Studies at
ZN frequently appears in his pictures, was an Académie Royale des
anonymous bowlerhatted clerk, who lived — as Beaux-Arts, Brussels
1 e MAM \\agritte did -ina Brussels suburb. 1922 Works briefly as a
Photograph Magritte’s artistic hero was the influential Italian wallpaper designer
by Daniel painter Giorgio de Chirico, although his own images 1927 Moves to Le < This is not a Pipe
Frasney seem to inhabit a more commonplace world. In PerreuxsurMarne, near Paris Also known as The
1927 he moved to Paris, where he met members of the Surrealist 1930 Returns to Belgium Treachery of Images or
group, including André Breton, Jean Arp, Salvador Dali, and Joan 1936 Exhibits at the Fantastic | The Air and the Song,
Miro. He returned to Belgium in 1930. Art, Dada, Surrealism show at this image seems
MoMA in New York
Magritte’s paintings explore a dream-like irrationality, where contradictory, but is,
1951-53 Produces murals
positive becomes negative, glass holds the image seen through | for Knokke-le-Zoute casino, | inreality, exactly what
it, and different realities collide. He reveals the slippery nature of Belgium ; it says. 1928-1929, oil
language, challenges solidity and scale, and queries the | 1965 First visit to NewYork | { "OC nN Opt nar Une jUfre ; i i.res: ee.
relationship between art and the visible world. | for a retrospective of his work ; os Angeles County
ESE Museum of Art, US
—

SURREALISM

CENTURY
EARLY
20TH

<The Empire of Lights /n A The Human Condition Here, Magritte

this, one of three versions of this plays with relationships between art and
painting, day and night are visible nature, inside and outside, solid and
simultaneously, creating a typically transparent, coincidence and design. The
dream-like and irrational Surrealist tree is seen in the picture in the room and,
scene. 1953-54, oil on canvas, one assumes, in the landscape, too. 1933,
195x131cm, Peggy Guggenheim oil on canvas, 100x81cm, National Gallery of
Collection, Venice, Italy Art, Washington, DC, US

CLOSERIook

NIGHT OR DAY? This is a play

on our usual expectations of day
and night, but the glow of the street
light and from within the house
seem to confirm that it is after dark
Maria Martins Vv The Great Jungle or Light in the Forest Lam, who
observed ceremonies of the Santeria religion at first hand,
b CAMPANHA, 1894; d RIO DE JANEIRO, 1973
portrayed ecstatic bodies in the process of transformation
Marfa Martins, a Brazilian diplomat, was married to Witredo Lam and merging with the lush surrounding foliage. 1942, oil on
Brazil's Ambassador to the US. During the 1940s, she paper laid on canvas, private collection
had great success as a Surrealist sculptor in Paris and b SAGUA LA GRANDE, 1902; d PARIS, 1982 co SES ar

New York, and her work was bought by important Cuban-born artist Wifredo Lam lived in Europe for 15
museums. She became the lover of artist Marcel years where he absorbed Cubism and Surrealism and
Duchamp, and was the inspiration for his last major befriended Pablo Picasso. After returning to his native
work, Etant Donnés. Executed in a variety of materials, island in 1941, Lam immersed himself in his Afro—
Martins’s own work draws upon Amazonian Indian Cuban cultural heritage, spending the next decade
mythology and possesses a wild and erotic energy. exploring the spiritual traditions of the Santeria religion
within a modernist style.
v Impossible III Her best-known work, this sculpture depicts In Lam’s Santeria paintings, devotees give offerings
male and female characters locked in perpetual opposition. Their and perform rituals as they wait to be mystically united
heads have been morphed into a menacing series of tentacles that with their deities (orishas) by means of sacred trance.
simultaneously touch and threaten each other, expressing the Breaking apart form in a Cubist manner, Lam imbues
irresistible attraction an insurmountable incompatibility between the primitivism of Picasso with a new and vibrant
men and women. 1946, bronze, 80x 83x 53cm, MoMA, New York, US
spiritual energy.

HEAD START The crescent FERTILITY The prominent

shapes and multiple eyes on breasts resemble ripe fruit and
Lam's figures reflect the process thus function as bodily offerings
of trance. The African-based to the gods. On another level
Santeria religion believes gods they hint at fertility, revealing
enter the head first, “mounting” humanity's natural place within
their believers like horses. the fecundity of nature.

Ey
INSIT
Remedios Varo INcontext
INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT In contrast
b ANGLES, 1908; d MEXICO CITY, 1963 to most other avant-garde movements, Surrealism
The Spanish artist Remedios Varo began her involvement with involved artists of many nationalities and did not
the Surrealists in Paris in the 1930s as the companion of the poet prescribe one style. This internationalism was
supported by the publication of journals, Surrealist
Benjamin Perét. Due to the political turmoil in Europe, the couple
movements springing up in different countries, and
emigrated to Mexico in 1941, where Varo would remain for the rest of
by artists and writers moving from place to place.
her life. In Mexico she began a close friendship with the British painter
The home of Surrealism remained Paris, however.
Leonora Carrington, and together they studied alchemy and other
mystical traditions. Her paintings often portray women in dream-like André Breton HLO?
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© The writer and poet
settings, embarking on journeys of exploration both mythical and
André Breton (1896—
scientific. Riding atop fantastical vehicles of transit, Varo’s haunting 1966) was one of several
female characters also sport a sly humour. European Surrealists
who spent time in Latin
America. He visited

|
oe Mexico in 1938, declaring
it a Surrealist country. In
A Invasion of the Night Echaurren likened the turn, many artists from
inner workings of the human psyche to the fiery and Latin America visited the
seismic eruptions of volcanoes. 1941, oil on canvas, “Surrealist capitals” of
Paris and New York.
96 x153cm, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, US

In autumn 1937, Chilean-born Matta Echaurren met

<< Tiforal Between 1942 and
André Breton and joined the Surrealists. He absorbed
1949, Varo supported herself by
two important innovations, biomorphism and
doing commercial illustrations
automatism. Biomorphism (creating abstract art that
for a pharmaceutical firm in
evokes organic forms) enabled him to develop an Mexico. Done under the
organic and semi-abstract pictorial language, while pseudonym “Uranga”, these
automatism (a kind of free association) gave his brush small gouaches gave her the
strokes a spontaneity he believed sprang from his opportunity to develop her
subconscious. Echaurren’s art conceptually fused personal Surrealist style.
subject and process. He poured, wiped, and sponged 1947, gouache, 24.5x32cm,
thin glazes of colour to build up a multi-layered private collection
translucent surface.To Echaurren, his works were
“inscapes” or “psychological morphologies” — analogies
for states of consciousness in perpetual transformation.
Echaurren moved to New York in 1939, where he
had a significant impact on the developing Abstract
Expressionist movement (see pp.502-09).
 Also known as the New Realism,
Neue Sachlichkeit was characterized
by a new-found attention to the
realistic representation of objects in a
detailed way. The term was first used
by GF Hartlaub who was director of
the Mannheim Art Museum. Two
years later he mounted a major such as Max Beckmann painted with
exhibition of the artists he considered the desire to reveal what they felt was
had “remained true or have returned a deeper truth behind surface
to a positive, palpable reality.” appearances. His art possesses a
sense of nostalgia, almost melancholy,
Reactionary movement in his arrangements of classically
There was no specific style, nor even posed figures.
a shared political perspective; though
certain artists were deeply angered by A Germany in the 1920s The decade after World War | CURRENTevents
brought unprecedented artistic freedom to German cities
society's callousness and wished to like Berlin, where the visual arts thrived amid a world of
1924 American banker Charles G Dawes
place their art at the service of their agrees to loan Germany $88 million to
cabarets, nightclubs, and salons. relieve financial crisis. Resulting economic
When Expressionism’s passion indignation. However, New Objectivity boom is synonymous with the Jazz Age.
was nearly spent, and angry is perhaps best seen as an art Social commentary 1924-28 Berlin becomes Central Europe's
Dada risked becoming merely movement in reaction to what had Both Otto Dix and George Grosz cultural centre with the publication of
gone before. The unifying subject New made searing social commentaries Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain, Fritz Lang
chic entertainment, German art makes Metropolis, and Bertold Brecht
Objectivity artists were concerned by juxtaposing individuals of radically directs Threepenny Opera.
= had to take a long hard look
with was people. They painted either different social status in the same 1929 The German airship.Graf Zeppelin
~~ i i ; E ;
z at itself and the role it played portraits with a cool, analytical, frame: Grosz to show his disgust with offers travellers a new way across the
© society. Neue Sachlichkeit (New detachment or groups of figures, social division, Dix to share his disgust Atlantic. In 1929, it flies to Friedrichshafen
| from New York in just over 55 hours.
= Objectivity) was just that look. often at social gatherings. with human rottenness. Other artists
O
<q
77)
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7:weue
Ww
2 vacniic el
80
> |George Grosz Christian Schad
— | b BERLIN, 1893; d BERLIN, 1959 b MIESBACH, 1894; d STUTTGART, 1982
mee : - fers
iu =| Grosz was first and foremost a graphic artist, whose biting Schad was encouraged to follow a career in art by his
L | satire tore into respectable bourgeois society. A member of father, who was a lawyer. He briefly studied at Munich
- | the Communist Party,-Grosz had little time for the art market Academy and when the war broke out, avoided military
&_ | and believed that a modern cult of artistic individuality had service by feigning a heart condition. He then moved to
> | been fabricated by art dealers to improve their profits. Zurich and Geneva (1915-20) where he became
es Having been active in the Dada movement, in the early 1920s involved in Dada. Schad moved to Berlin in 1928 and
uj__| Grosz increasingly turned to oil painting “to show the oppressed became a leading force in the Neue Sachlichkeit
the true faces of their masters.” His satire and moral outrage at movement. His portraiture’s suprarealism and icy
capitalist society's corruption shows Grosz’s admiration for not sentiment made him the movement's most extreme
only Hogarth and Goya, but also to the cruel and hallucinatory representative. His themes were café life, homosexual
| world of Hieronymous Bosch. clubs, and sexual encounters.

LIFEline » The Pillars of Society his shows « Agosta the

a Nazi, a Nationalist, a Social Democrat, Pigeon-chested
1893 Born a publican’s son
a Judge, and a militarist — Grosz’ alliance Man and Rasha
1907 Expelled from school
of “respected” citizens. 1926, oil on canvas, the Black Dove
1909-16 Studies art in Berlin
and Dresden
200x 108cm, Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany Meticulously
1917-22 Leading Dada artist executed, frank
1928 Put on trial for pictures of deformity
blasphemy, wins case and black identity
1933 Emigrates to America were taboo subjects,
with Nazi's coming to power but would soon be
1959 Returns to Berlin, dies forbidden. 1929, oil
three months later on panel, 120x 88cm,
private collection

» Coffee House 2 frenetic

lines and superimposed images
of drinkers, a dog, and a nude
mirror the frenzied hedonism
of Berlin in the years after the
Great War. 1918-20, Indian ink
on paper, 45x 38cm, Kunsthalle
Hamburg, Germany
Max Beckmann
b LEIPZIG, 1884; d NEW YORK, 1950 LIFEline
Both of Beckmann’s parents died before he was ten and the 1884 Born in Leipzig
themes of loss and nostalgia resound in his painting. In 1906 1900-03 Studies in Weimar
he painted his mother’s dying in Great Scenes of Death. \ts 1914-15 Works in medical
painful honesty is reminiscent of Munch. Before the war, corps,aves
arid suffers
to aFranturt
breakdown
Beckmann became known for his large-format disaster 1947 Emigrates to teach
paintings in which he depicted either contemporary events in US
such as in The Sinking of the Titanic (1912) or allegorical 1950 Dies in New York
scenes as in The Flood (1908).
Between 1918 and 1923 he focused on aspects of life in
Berlin, in claustrophobic and nightmarish scenes. Then, in the W Night A scene of torture and sexual
mid-1920s, Beckmann’s style became less hallucinatory, the violence as a family receive a visit from
figures more joyful and composed, and his themes infused the bailiffs. 1919, oil on canvas, 133x154cm,
with a visionary quality and mythological content. Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen,
Diisseldorf, Germany

ORDER FROM CHAOS There is

a clearly ordered framework to this
nightmarish scene. Beckmann has
constructed a grid of perpendicular,
horizontal and diagonal lines over a 5 ~ Beene
Bae poten fa A The Little Fish In Beckmann's allegorical later
provide a chilling sense of cohesion paintings, the motif of a fish can represent the
to this scene of rape and torture. phallus, the mystery of life, and also Christ. 1933, oil
on canvas, 135x115cm, Musée National d'Art Moderne, ANAN
LISMH
{ Centre Pompidou, Paris

Otto Dix
—
b UNTERMHAUS, THURINGIA, 1891;
d SINGEN, 1969

Although Dix’s early works were

influenced by Cubism, by the early
1920s he was painting like an Old
Master. Grosz called him Hans Baldung
Photograph Dix, after the 16th-century painter.
by Hugo It was only after the war, and his HLO?
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Erfurth
involvement in Dada, that Dix's mature
style emerges. A fluent draughtsman, etcher,
watercolourist, and oil painter, Dix’s 50 etchings in
the War series (1924) are a harrowing commentary
on violence and death. These two themes, coupled
with sex, are the driving force behind Dix’s painting.
As a portrait artist Dix was brutally revealing — yet
he frequently received commissions. Notorious for
his frank portrayals of prostitutes, he also painted ite

the habitués of night clubs and aging lovers. A Metropolis /he triptych, CLOSERIook >
associated with altarpieces, ] FAMILIAR FACES
is an ironic dig at the sanctity Dix modelled a number
LIFEline of the characters on real
of Weimar society. The gaiety
1891 Born, the son of a of the club contrasts with the personalities from
foundry worker 66 | didn’t paint war grim reality depicted in the Dresden’s social set, who
1905-09 Apprenticeship as pictures in order were also his friends. The
decorative painter flanks. 1928, mixed media on
violinist, for example, is
1909-14 Studies at Dresden to prevent war. wood, 181x402cm, Galerie der
the painter Gert Wollheim,
School of Applied Arts | would never Stadt, Stuttgart, Germany and the man wearing the |CABARET IN BERLIN In the late
1914-18 Volunteers for have been so monocle has been 1920s, Berlin's cabaret scene was a mix
military service ; identified as the then of eroticism, political satire, music, and
1920 Participates in the first presumptuous. director of architectural theatre. This in turn influenced
international Dada Fair | painted them to studies at Dresden playwright Bertold Brecht and opera
1927-28 Professor of Art exorcise war. A\|| Academy, Wilhelm Kreis. composer Kurt Weill to write the satirical
at Dresden Mahagonny Songspiel.
1933-45 Avoids Nazi art is exorcism 9? a)

persecution by painting OTTO DIX

landscapes
1962 Dies in Singen
 Origins and influences In 1928, Gropius resigned and was
Bauhaus, which means “Building replaced by Bauhaus architect Hans
House’ was the vision of the Meyer. He had produced the first pre-
modernist architect Walter Gropius. fabricated housing and stressed the
Established in the city of Weimar, need to design for people's needs. He
Bauhaus aimed to overcome the resigned in 1930 due to his left-wing
prejudice that raised high art over views. His replacement, Mies van der
lowly design. A Staatliches Bauhaus Gyopius designed the Rohe, would go on to design New
Classes were held in workshops _ Bauhaus building in Dessau. Built between 1925 and York's Seagram Building. By 1931,
1926, it comprised workshops, lecture, rooms and, as
with apprentices taking a compulsory Nazis had gained Dessau and, in 1932,
seen here, ultra-modern students’ quarters.
preliminary class before moving on Bauhaus made its final move to Berlin.
after six months to train in the field of acclaim, the Bauhaus was forced to
Founded in Germany in 1919,
their choice. The school’s first teacher leave Weimar for Dessau in 1925. In CURRENTevents
was Johannes Itten, who taught colour the new Bauhaus the emphasis was 1919 With Germany shamed and defeated
the Bauhaus School of Art and in World War |, society teetered on the
theory and practical use of materials. on industrial rather than craft design.
Design survived shortages of edge of chaos. In both Berlin and Munich
His successor, Laszl6 Moholy-Nagy, there were failed leftist insurrections.
funds, political instability, and was as much scientific inventor as Subjects and techniques
1922 The direction that much of Europe
occasional internal divisions. artist. He taught draughtsmanship, New products, such as ceiling lamps, would take was signalled when Mussolini
painting, and photomontage. cantilever chairs, and furniture suitable seized power in a coup d'état, and Italy
It was twice forced to relocate became a fascist state.
Under political pressure to justify its for office or home, were designed by
and produced just 500 1930 A critical year for Germany, as
funding, Gropius staged an exhibition Bauhaus technicians and produced the international banking crisis polarized
graduates in 14 years, yet it of Bauhaus designs — kitchenware, by companies who owned large-scale political opinion. With a quarter of the
was the 20th century’s most tables, and textiles — in a purpose-built factories such as that of Standard- population unemployed, it became difficult
for moderate voices to be heard.
influential school of design. show house. Despite international Mobel furniture.

BAUHAUS

Lyonel Feininger
b NEW YORK, 1871; d NEW YORK, 1956

Although he was a gifted musician, Lyonel Feininger chose a career

in art and studied in Paris and Berlin. A successful graphic artist, he
secured contracts with publications in both Germany and the US.
Feininger turned to painting in 1907, when he was posted to Paris
for two years. On his return to Germany he specialized in landscapes.
The turning point came in 1911, when he encountered Cubism and
EARLYhis work developed the splintered prismatic forms of Orphism, in
CENTURY
20TH
which light is as important as mass. In 1917, a successful exhibition
established his reputation. He was Gropius’s first appointee at the
Bauhaus in Berlin, where he headed the print workshop from 1919
to 1925. It was in this capacity that he developed his students’
interest in the art of printing from woodcuts.

LIFEline
1871 Born in New York;
moves to Berlin when 16
1887 Leaves Germany to
study music, but embarks
on art studies within a year
1888-93 Studies at art
institutions in Hamburg, << Tower | Monumental A Sailboats Jhis image
Berlin, and Paris and luminous, Feiningers captures the sense of speed,
1907-11 Concentrates on townscapes often feature a light, and airinvolved in sailing.
painting, and is influenced
by Cubism church tower. Painted as if the Clearly defined shapes drawn
light were shining from within, with the lightest touch link the
1919 Founder and longest
serving member of the his towers came to symbolize boats, sea, and sky in a network
Bauhaus rebirth in the years after World of interlocking planes. Witha
1937 Returns to New York, War |, 1923-26, oil on canvas, minimum of colour, Feininger
paints and teaches 61x48cm, Kunstmuseum, Basel, has arrived at an almost ,
Switzerland naturalistic scene. 1923, oil mw — -
on canvas, The Detroit Institute DYNAMIC MOVEMENT Upward: and
of Arts, Detroit, US downward-pointing triangles cut across the
canvas to represent the sails and rays of light.
This, coupled with the movement from left to
right, creates a sense of constant progress
 Laszlo Moholy-Nagy
b BACSBOROD, 1895; d CHICAGO, 1946
Hungarian artist Laszld Moholy-Nagy studied law at
Budapest University. He took up painting while he was
be - convalescing from a war wound. He was mostly self-
‘ ‘ha taught and was influenced by Constructivism, creating
photograms (photographs made by exposing objects
< Kinetic Construction
Portrait by to light on photo-sensitive paper), photomontage, and
This design shows the intended
Hugo Erfurth collage. In 1922, he exhibited at the Sturm Galerie
effect of one of Moholy-Nagys
in Berlin and was Walter Gropius’s choice to replace
machines. His aim was to
Johannes Itten to teach on the Bauhaus preliminary course.
project the theatrical action at
Light, its effects and creative potential, was the core of much of the spectator and remove the
Moholy-Nagy's work. He taught in a scientific way and was the first barrier between stage and
artist to work with electricity creatively. He constructed rotating light audience. ¢1925-30, working
machines for what he called The Theatre of Totality, aiming to create sketch, Magyar Nemzeti Galeria,
a new theatrical experience in the process. Budapest, Hungary

CLOSERIook
LIFEline
1895 Born in Hungary
1917 Turns to art while v Z8 Moholy-Nagy was interested in illusory
convalescing effects, particularly the three-dimensionality
1919-21 Moves to Vienna of apparently flat objects. 1935, oil and galalith
and then Berlin, where he on board, 73x87cm, private collection
meets Russian Constructivists (oP EEE ROE —
Malevich and El Lissitzky
1923-28 Appointed at the
Bauhaus where he teaches in
the metal workshop initially
1928 Becomes a stage
designer for Berlin avant-
garde theatre GRAND AMBITION The size
1936 Designs the sets for of the figure shows the scale of
sci-fi film The Shape of Things the artist's vision. After years
to Come of experimenting with rotating
1939 Founds his own schoo! lights and shadows, he made his
of design in Chicago Light Space Modulator machine,
1946 Dies in Chicago which made him feel like the
“sorcerer’s apprentice”. SNVH

|Josef Albers |Oskar Schlemmer

b BOTTROP, GERMANY, 1888; d NEW HAVEN, 1976 b STUTTGART, 1888; d BADEN-BADEN, 1943

Working intermittently as a schoolteacher, Josef Albers studied art in Berlin, One of the Bauhaus School of Art and Design's most influential teachers, Oskar
Essen, and Munich from 1913 to 1920. He then enrolled at the Bauhaus, Schlemmer trained in marquetry before enrolling at the Stuttgart Academy from 1906
where he was the first graduate to join the staff. From 1923 to 1933, he to 1911. His artistic career was varied: he painted, sculpted, designed for the stage, and
worked in the stained-glass, typography, and furniture design workshops. wrote on art theory. At the Bauhaus, at both Weimar and Dessau, he worked in the
He also co-ran the preliminary course with Moholy-Nagy. In 1933, he moved metalwork, sculpture, and stage design workshops. His Triadic Ballet, a Constructivist
to the US and took up oil painting. From 1949 until his death, he painted tour de force with music by Paul Hindemith, was first staged in Stuttgart in 1922 and
variations on a series of precise, formal, abstract pictures entitled Homage the following year at the Bauhaus. Schlemmer remained a figurative painter believing AYNL
AlY¥VA
HLO?
to the Square. From 1950 to 1959 he taught design at Yale University and that pure abstraction had a tendency to be soulless. His own work retains a cool and
published his theoretical essay /nteraction of Colours. detached quality, however.

A Four Figures and a Cube Schlemmer

combines illusional shapes with human forms.
A Homage to the Square Albers sought to explore spatial dynamics The viewer is drawn into the distance, where A Three Girls (and a Head in Profile) Schlemmers
and colour combinations in a format removed from any reference to the the smallest figure stands. The juxtaposition most important theme was the human figure in space,
natural world. Since there are no right angles found in nature, Albers of figures and cube has a strangely disarming either moving or stationary. In this painting of three girls
chose to focus his studies on the square — four consecutive right angles. feel. 1928, oil on canvas, 246 x 160cm, it is the sense of stillness that holds the viewer. c1926-29,
c1960, oil on masonite, Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, Netherlands Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany oil on paper, 64x 48cm, Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
 Paul Klee
b MUNCHENBUCHSEE, NEAR BERNE, 1879; | LIFEline
d MURALTO, NEAR LOCARNO, 1940 | 1898 Moves to Munich
An accomplished violinist, Paul Klee decided to forego a musical career to study ci ae
to study art. He moved to Munich in 1898 and enrolled at the academy. 1906 Marries pianist
it was there that he studied under the rigorously classical Franz von Stuck. _| Llly Stumpf
ha
But from the very beginning, Klee’s' work defied
; :
convention. Between ‘ 1914 Visits
maior Tunisia,onwhich
influence has
his work
Paul Klee, 1903 and 1905 he produced a series of bitterly satirical monochrome AQIG His close thane
1921 etchings called Inventions, which featured disturbingly distorted figures. Marc dies. Klee is conscripted |
He moved from a graphic to a painterly style in 1914 following a trip | 1920 Joins the Bauhaus
to Tunisia. Klee’s child-like creations and whimsically titled pictures draw on every 1924-25 Holds his first show
conceivable influence from Cubism, ancient hieroglyphs, and Mozart operas to Baroque | in New York; a year later he
art. In 1920, Klee joined the Bauhaus School of Art and Design where he established _ | contributes to an exhibition
an enduring friendship with Kandinsky and created a vast number of works, each of | of Surrealist art in Paris
; 1931-33 Leaves the Bauhaus;
which he carefully annotated. joins the Disseldort Academy
; ; until forced to flee Nazi
V Street Cafe in Tunis, (no 55) Klee accompanied fellow artists August Germany
Macke and Louis Maillot on a painting trip to Tunisia, where he produced 1940 Dies of heart failure
30 watercolour sketches. 1914, watercolour and pencil on card, 10x22cm,
Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg, Berlin, Germany <== =a

|CENTURY
BAUHAUS
20TH
EARLY

A Senecio /his brightly coloured face, made up of

gentle geometric shapes, is named after a genus
of plants, perhaps because it resembles a seed head.
The quizzical head has a totemic quality — a focus
for adoration as much as for amusement. 1922,
oil on canvas, 41x38cm, Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland

A Untitled (Signs of Growth) Around 1937, Klee’ line

became much heavier and his colours more basic. In 1935 he
had been diagnosed with the fatal disease scleroderma, and
it is probable that he simplified his approach so he could work
more rapidly, aware that time was short. 1937, oil on paper,
63x 48cm, Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
 << Red Balloon, (no 179)
The lightness of touch and
uncluttered composition
of Klee’s Tunisian paintings
gradually took on a more precise
edge. The viewer can tell this is
a townscape even though it is
veering towards abstraction.
Paradoxically, it is the red
balloon that acts as the visual
anchor and unites the different
elements. 1922, oil on muslin on
cardboard, 32x31cm, Guggenheim
Museum, New York, US

CLOSERIook
—s
J
*

TECHNIQUE The sky is the

thinnest of oil washes under
which the chalk-primed muslin
can still be seen. Against this
misty background the balloon,
with its thick red pigment,
appears even more dominant.
SNVH

6¢ What is really
essential, really
productive, is
the Way - after
all, Becoming
iS Superior to
Being ??
PAUL KLEE
HLO?
AYNLN
AlYVA

INcontext
WORTHLESS CURRENCY In 1923, Germany
defaulted on war debt repayments, and Belgium
and France occupied the Ruhr. Astronomical
inflation ensued, and within weeks the German
mark became worthless. High-denomination
notes were rushed out, including one designed
by Bauhaus professor Herbert Bayer.
Fifty billion mark banknote Even multi-billion
mark notes had little value.

WIT 427:
 but found inspiration in natural forms —
Origins and influences sea-smoothed pebbles, rolling hills,
Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth and animal bones. Sutherland painted
were at the forefront of the British landscapes suffused with feeling.
avant-garde movement. They married Two American artists — Alexander
in 1933 and travelled through France, Calder and Stuart Davis — were also
visiting artists such as Pablo Picasso, connected to the European avant
Constantin Brancusi, and Jean Arp. A Hepworth and Nicholson /he couple were central garde. Both artists lived in Paris in
Along with Henry Moore, they figures in what the critic Herbert Read called “a nest of the late 1920s and Calder extended
helped establish Unit One in 1933, the gentle artists” who lived close together in Hampstead, his stay into the 1930s. The random
London and brought advanced artistic ideas from Europe.
first British modernist movement to motion of Calder’s steel and wire
embrace art, design, and architecture. sculptures was influenced by Dadaists
Other members included Paul Nash continued the tradition of British and Surrealists. But his sculptures
and Edward Wadsworth. Unit One landscape art. In the 1930s, were also indebted to American folk
organized exhibitions across Britain, Hepworth’s sculpture drifted away art — he began as a maker of toys,
which sparked debate and polarized from recognizable human forms and including a whole circus of animals.
Between the wars, Britain Opinion on modern art. became more severe and geometrical. Davis was inspired by Cubism but
and America produced a variety In 1939 Hepworth and Nicholson his subject matter was distinctly
of avant-garde artists. They Subjects moved to Cornwall and the landscape American. Unlike his British
The British avant-garde artists became an important representational contemporaries, he celebrated the
looked to Paris and European
eschewed the urban subject matter element in their work. urban world in joyous, decorative
modernism for inspiration, but paintings that depicted modern
and naturalistic style of Sickert's Moore and Graham Sutherland
they produced art that reflected Camden Town Group. Instead, they were also affected by a love of buildings, neon lights, street signs,
their own national backgrounds. tended toward abstraction — but also landscape. Moore sculpted figures posters, and commercial packaging.

US Avant Garde in Britainandthe US

ANDTHE
BRITAIN
IN
GARDE
AVANT

43

Ben Nicholson
b DENHAM, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, 1894; d LONDON, 1982 LIFEline (1933 (guitar) By using an
oddly shaped piece of wooden
The son of painter Sir William Nicholson, Ben Nicholson was one of the most 1910-11 Studies at Slade board rather than canvas,
influential British abstract artists. He began painting in his father’s style — with a School of Art
Nicholson created a work
1920 Marries the artist Winifred
great sense of order and sureness of touch. Nicholson's work was influenced by that lies somewhere between
Roberts
Cubism, and in particular the genre of still life. He painted his first abstract painting painting and relief. He admired
1924 First solo show at the
in 1924 and nearly a decade later produced his most innovative work — austere Twenty-one Gallery, London “naive” painters — such as
geometric paintings and reliefs. In this later work, Nicholson shifted between 1933 With Hepworth, joins the retired seaman Alfred Wallis —
CENTURY
20TH
EARLYabstraction and representation, often in same picture. He cut, painted, and Paris-based Abstraction-Création and the simplicity of the
assembled flat boards into elegant abstract reliefs and also made big, freestanding group; produces first geometric materials and the style here
reliefs, including one in marble in the garden of Sutton Place, Surrey. and abstract reliefs shows their influence. 1933,
Although Nicholson admired the work of “naive” painters (including Rousseau 1938 Marries Hepworth oil on board, 83x 20cm, Tate,
and St Ives painter Alfred Wallis), his was always an art of high aestheticism and 1951 Divorces Hepworth London, UK
formal rigour rather than instinctive expression. 1958 Moves to Switzerland
1974 Returns to London CLOSERIlook

1935 (white relief) /n

1933, Nicholson began
making abstract reliefs
and by 1935 he had
banished all colour. This
was seen by some critics
as a cold, mechanisitic
SSS ) f
extreme of abstract art.
This piece, however, TEXTURED SURFACE
was made from an old Nicholson created a lively
tabletop found in a junk surface texture by adding
a layer of plaster to the board
shop so it had a worn,
and then cutting into it while
“lived-on” surface. 1935,
it was still wet.
painted wood, 102x 166cm,
Tate, London, UK
Barbara Hepworth
b WAKEFIELD, 1903; d ST IVES, 1975 LIFEline
Barbara Hepworth was the most important British female artist of the 1920-21 Studies sculpture at
20th century. Her sculpture — in stone, wood, and bronze — is suffused Leeds School of Art 66 |n the contemplation
1921-24 Wins county
with a romantic feeling towards nature and landscape. Indeed her
scholarship to the Royal of nature we
artworks, with their smooth, rounded forms, almost look as if they College of Art, London are perpetually
have been left to the sea and wind. 1925 Marries artist John
Hepworth pioneered the technique of direct carving — working
renewed, our sense
Skeaping and moves to Rome
without a preliminary model or drawings of what the finished sculpture 1926 Returns to London of mystery and
will look like. She was also the first British sculptor to introduce the 1933 Divorces Skeaping our imagination
hole into work, in her 1931 piece, Pierced Form. During the late 1930s 1938 Marries Nicholson is kept alive °
and 1940s, she began to concentrate on the counterplay between 1939 Moves to St Ives at
the outbreak of World war II BARBARA HEPWORTH, 1934
mass and space in sculpture. By the 1950s, she was one of the
most respected sculptors in the world and won a stream of important 1943 First major solo
commissions including the memorial to Dag Hammarskjold, Single exhibition, in Leeds
Form (1963), at the United Nations in New York.

< Doves For centuries,

exquisitely detailed Italian
sculpture has been made
from fine white parian
marble. Hepworth makes
this tradition modern by
simplifying and smoothing
the form of the doves. She
learnt to carve marble
while living in Rome. 1927,
parian marble, 29x33x 22cm,
Manchester Art Gallery, UK
A Three Forms By the mid-1930s, Hepworths A Curved Form (Trevalgan) Jrevalgan
sculpture was becoming increasingly abstract. is the name of a hill near Hepworth’s
Here, she uses the simplest forms and eliminates home. There, Hepworth wrote, “the cliffs
all colour. The work can be read representationally, divide as they touch the sea facing west”.
as a landscape, or as the head, back, and legs of a As well as divided cliffs, this piece reminds
reclining female nude. Perhaps the three forms also the viewer of antlers or trees next to a
refer to the triplets Hepworth had in 1934. 1935, pond. 1956, bronze, 90x60x67cm, Tate,
marble, 21x53x34cm, Tate, London, UK London, UK LNVAV
3GYVD
NI
NIVLI
SHLG
SN

» Pelagos Meaning “sea” in

Greek, Pelagos was inspired by
a view of the bay at St Ives in
Cornwall, where two arms of land
reach out into the sea. The
sculptures sensuous curves also
recall other natural forms — a shell,
a wave, or the roll of a hill. The
strings remind us of a musical
instrument and also of the oft-
cited maxim that all abstract art PAINT AND STRINGS AlYV3
HLO?
AYNLN
aspires to the condition of music. Hepworth used paint and strings
1946, part painted wood and strings, in many of her sculptures of the
43x46 x39cm, Tate, London, UK 1940s. She spoke of the colour
of the paint as “plunging me into
the depth of water, caves and
shadows” and the taut strings
as expressing “the tension | felt
between myself and the sea,
the wind or the hills”.
 Henry Moore
b CASTLEFORD, YORKSHIRE, 1898; LIFEline
d MUCH HADHAM, HERTFORDSHIRE, 1986 “<The Warrior ade in
1917-19 Serves in the army;
gassed in World War | 1946, this piece seems to be
Born into a mining family as the seventh of eight children, Moore's response to the
Henry Moore would become the most famous British 1921-24 Studies at Royal
College of Art; teaches there horrors of the war. Precariously
sculptor of the 20th century. He gained his reputation until 1931 perched on a plinth, with limbs
by staying true to his materials, making sculptures by | 1928 First one-man show at amputated and head gashed,
Photograph carving stone and wood and trying to establish an active the Warren Gallery his warrior does not seem to
|by Marino relationship with the material. He rejected classical and 1932-39 Head of sculpture at be much of a hero. He appears
| Marini Chelsea School of Art
Renaissance ideas of beauty, and instead looked to the to hold his shield up to ward
vitality of ancient and “primitive” sculpture for inspiration. Two subjects | 1940 Moves from London to off more suffering. 1946,
| kept recurring in his work — the mother and child, which he rendered Much Hadham, where he bronze, Kunsthalle Mannheim,
lives for the rest of his life
without sentimentality, and the female figure, which usually undulated Germany
1951 First retrospective held |
like a landscape. During the war, he was appointed as a war artist, at The Tate
creating moving drawings of people sheltering in London's Tube 1976 Establishes The Henry
stations. After the war he started working in bronze. This made possible | Moore Foundation |
a new range of forms, the later work often has a new expressive power, 1986 Dies, aged 88
and also enabled him to keep up with the increasing number of public
commissions that resulted from his international reputation.

Figure in a Shelter During

| World War I, Moore made a > Mother and Child /nspired
| series of drawings showing by non-Western sculpture,
Londoners sheltering in Tube Moore rejects tradition in this
| stations. They are bleak images depiction of maternal love. In
of underground existence — this line with his “truth to materials”
ghostly figure under a shroud is philosophy, he has carved
particularly despairing. Yet the directly into the stone. And
| drawings were seen as the figures have been imbued
| metaphors for the stoic with the solidity and strength
| resistance of the British people associated with stone. Moore
As a result, they were exhibited wrote in 1934 that stone “should
at the National Gallery, London, not be falsified to look like soft
in 1941. 1941, pencil, ink, wax flesh... It should keep its hard
crayon, and wash, 38x 56cm, tense stoniness”. 1925, Hornton
US Wakefield Museums and Galleries,
ANDTHE
BRITAIN
IN
GARDE
AVANT stone, 64x41 x 36cm Manchester
Nest Yorkshire, UK Art Gallery, UK

6¢ The sensitive Four-Piece Composition: Reclining

observer of Figure A/though the title refers to a figure, ROCK CARVINGS
Moore evokes natural forms — animal bones The curves of the
sculpture must and a landscape. He wrote: “The human figure incised lines,
also learn to is what interests me most deeply, but | have reminiscent of
feel shape as found principles of form and rhythm from the | prehistoric stone
study of natural objects, such as pebbles, rocks, carving, echo the
shape, not as
bones, trees, plants.” 1934, Cumberland * undulations of the
CENTURY
20TH
LY description or alabaster, 18x 46x 20cm, Tate, UK four forms.
> \
| reminiscence 9?
EAR HENRY MOORE, 1937
Stuart Davis
b PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, 1892; d NEW YORK, 1964

Davis made idiosyncratic abstract paintings that captured the vitality of American life — b LONDON, 1903; d LONDON, 1980
its cities, Its street life, advertising, and neon lights. He was, in effect, the first Pop Sutherland was one of the most important and versatile modernist
artist. In the 1930s, while most of his contemporaries were painting realist images, he artists to emerge from Britain. Not only a painter, he was a printmaker
developed a new style — contrasting geometric areas of flat colour with objects clearly and designer of ceramics, stage costumes, and posters. In 1921, he
defined in linear perspective. These images possess a wit and gaiety. The bright, abandoned a railway engineering apprenticeship to study etching and
dissonant colours and lively, repetitive rhythms can be seen as analogous to jazz engraving. For ten years, he worked as a printmaker. His late 1930s
music, which Davis loved. He was recognised in his lifetime with retrospectives at the Photograph by paintings of South Wales were mysterious landscapes of light and dark.
Museum of Modern Art in 1945 and the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1957 Roland Haupt They were far removed from the clarity and simplicity of abstract artists
and heralded a romantic revival in British art, which dominated the next
¥ Visa Davis used advertising imagery years before the Pop artists. Here, a lively decade. An official war artist, he was shocked by photographs of Nazi concentration
jumble of letters and shapes creates a painting that grabs you as a poster would. camps and took up religious painting after the war. His expressionist portraits often
1951, oil on canvas, 102x132cm, MoMA, New York, US caused controversy — Lady Churchill destroyed his portrait of Winston Churchill.

v Welsh Landscape with Roads Sutherland uses unnaturalistic

colouring and low-key tones to create a threatening atmosphere in this
landscape. He wrote that paintings like this expressed the “intellectual and
emotional” essence of a place. 1936, oil on canvas, 61 x91cm, Tate, London, UK
CLOSERIook

ANCIENT PAST
Sutherland conjures
up a sense of the
landscape’s history
through the inclusion of
the animal skull in the
foreground.
SN
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3GYV
NI
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AHLG

439

b PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, 1898;

d NEW YORK, 1976

Calder revolutionized sculpture by

inventing “mobiles” — a term coined by
French artist Marcel Duchamp in 1931.
His delicately balanced constructions
Calder, c1975 consist of abstract shapes suspended
from wires and moved by air currents. AYNLN
AlYVS
HLO?
Calder himself described them as “four dimensional
drawings" He spent much of his thirties in Paris where
» Mobile /his is a typical example of
he became friends with, many of the avant-garde artists, Calder’s mobiles. The suspended shapes look /
including Piet Mondrian and Joan Miro. Indeed, with like natural forms, petals, and berries, and
their colourful shapes, Calder’s mobiles look like are attached to wires that resemble the
animated versions of Miro’s paintings. Later in his branches of a tree. French philosopher Jean-
career, Calder produced huge mobiles for public Paul Sartre called Calder’s mobiles symbols
commissions, including Kennedy Airport, New York, of nature, “abruptly causing a thousand
(1957) and the UNESCO headquarters, Paris, (1962). butterflies to take wing”. c1932, metal, wood, ee
Some are motorized — like the 14m-wide Red, Black, wire, and string, approx. 150x200
x 200cm, |
and Blue at Dallas Airport (1967). Tate, London, UK

LIFEline
1923-26 Studies at Art
< Black Widow Calder also
produced large static sculptures,
= 7
which French sculptor Jean Arp
Students League, New York
called “stabiles”. These were
1926 Makes small animated
animals in wood and wire
made of bolted sheets of metal.
The bold curves are similar in
1928 First one-man exhibition
at the Weyhe Gallery, New shape to the mobiles. They
York; moves to Paris invite the viewer to walk around
1931 Joins the Abstraction- them, implying the idea of
Creation group movement. 1959, painted sheet
1933 Returns to US, lives | steel, 233x434 x226cm, MoMA,
mainly in Roxbury, New York, US
Connecticut
1944 First major
retrospective at Museum of
Modern Art in New York
 Far from being anachronistic, many
20th-century figurative painters were
very much of their time — not only in
their choice of subject matter, but also
in the various styles they adopted — Style and subject
continuing a tradition of representational Many of these figurative artists had
art through to the present day. previously experimented with Cubism
and other avant-garde styles, and
In the1920s and 1930s, a
Origins and influences A Breton Woman at Prayer Christopher Wood 1930 some had also worked as commercial
number of artists resisted Breton subjects had been popular with artists since the
artists or photographers — inevitably
The realist and figurative painting of
late 19th century. This fishing region in North France with
the trend towards abstraction, this period had two principle sources. this influenced their representational
its ancient history and traditional costumes was viewed
preferring to work more One was the 19th century social as a kind of refuge from the modern world. style. As well as nostalgic rural genre
conventionally while still realism of artists, such as Courbet and paintings and landscapes, there
reflecting contemporary life. Millet, who were concerned with the Europe following World War |, a was an emergence of realistically
representation of everyday working tendency associated with nationalism depicted urban scenes and interiors
Figurative painters in Europe
life. This was especially significant and political conservatism.
This did reflecting an ever increasing
and America continued the for American painters such as Edward not exclude an element of social industrialized environment, and often
tradition of Realism, but in Hopper and Grant Wood. The other commentary or even a poetic and portraying the psychological tensions
several diverse styles. was the revival of the classical style in symbolic dimension. of the modern world.

Realism and Figurative painting

TIME/|\ine 1930
1942
After World War I, figurative ;
painting enjoyed a revival. The
American regionalists, such as
Grant Wood, emerged in the
PAINTING
FIGURATIVE
AND 1920s and 1930s,
REALISM while in Europe
there was a renewal of the
Realist tradition with artists like
Fausto Pirandello. The 1940s
saw Edward Hopper reach the
peak of his achievements with
atmospheric works such as
Nighthawks. Laurence Lowry,
who had been painting seriously LOWRY An Island
PIRANDELLO Interior in
from the 1920s, only achieved HOPPER Nighthawks
WOOD American Gothic the Morning
recognition in the 1950s.

Interpretations influenced by photography, but alongside

CENTURY
20TH
EARLY her landscape painting developed a
Both painting styles portray social reality naturalistic, rather than realist, style: studies
and truth rather than aesthetics and ideals. of sun-bleached bones and extreme close-
In the US these paintings were the first ups of flowers also give an impression of
expression of American-born painters abstraction.
attempting to interpret American life.
Europe
America Representational painting in Europe also had
The realism of the Ashcan school was regional variations, but some form of realism
followed by a gentler and more nostalgic continued into the 20th century across most
figurative style during the Depression years of the continent. The Realist tradition of
— seen in the work of the American social commentary survived too: overtly with
regionalists, predominantly Thomas Benton, artists such as Solana, whose depictions of
John Curry, and Grant Wood, but this realism Spanish working-class life carried a strong
resurfaced in New York with Hopper’s bleak political message, but less obviously in
portrayals of urban life. Although distinctly other figurative painting of the period.
different in character, the regionalists and Pirandello, for example, adopted a form
Hopper shared a background in commercial of “poetic realism”, distorting perspective A The Washer Women José Gutiérrez Solana
illustration that informed their painting and and introducing irrational elements into The subject matter of figurative painters such as
contributed to its local flavour. otherwise mundane domestic scenes, Solana, working people in everyday situations,
Steam Turbine Charles Sheeler The geometrical Also working in the 1920s and 1930s which introduced a metaphorical as well places them firmly in the Realist tradition,
shapes of urban and industrial scenes, meticulously but recognisably 20th-century in style. 1931,
were Precisionist painters such as Charles as social tone to his work; and Balthus took
depicted by Sheeler and other Precisionists, echo elements private collection
of Cubism and Abstract art as well as the more obvious
Sheeler, who was also a commercial on some of the allegorical mannerisms of
influences of photography and commercial illustration photographer. His paintings of cityscapes Surrealism in interior paintings that are
1939, oil on canvas, 56x 45.7cm, Butler Institute of American and the machinery of modern technology dreamlike and often disturbingly erotic.
Art, Youngstown, Ohio, US are almost photographic in their realism, yet Yet another interpretation of Realism can
the mainly figureless scenes and geometric be seen in the very English industrial
shapes verge on the abstract in their landscapes of LS Lowry, who affected
composition. Georgia O'Keeffe was similarly a simplified, faux-naive style.
Georgia O’Keeffe
=
b SUN PRAIRIE, 1887; d SANTA FE, 1986 LIFEline
In a career that spanned much of the 20th century, 1887 Born on a dairy farm Charles Sheeler
Georgia O'Keeffe combined both the figurative and the 1905-06 Studies in Chicago
b PHILADELPHIA, 1883; d DOBBS FERRY, 1965
abstract in her paintings of flowers, bones, and shells. 1907-08 Studies at the Art
Her works present their subjects in exquisite detail, as Students League in New York A leading figure in American Modernist painting, Charles Sheeler was
abstract images with symbolic connotations. They are 1916 Her work is exhibited in also a highly respected photographer, which undoubtedly influenced
Alfred Stieglitz’s 291 Gallery the smooth, sharply defined Precisionist style that he used to capture
hotograph often suggestive of female genitalia, although O'Keeffe
1924 Marries Stieglitz
by Alfred denied that they had any feminist subtext. the modernization of the US. He studied both industrial design and art
Stieglitz 1929 Spends first of many
Born in rural Wisconsin, O'Keeffe took an interest in Philadelphia before travelling to Europe, where he came across work
summers in New Mexico
in art at an early age and left home in 1905 to study in Chicago and 1946 Stieglitz dies by Cézanne and the Cubists. On his return to the US in 1912, Sheeler
New York. For a while, she worked as a commercial artist, but then 1949 Moves to Abiquiu, near earned his living as a commercial photographer, but continued to paint,
abandoned art to became a teacher. In 1915, however, she produced a Santa Fe, New Mexico mainly urban and industrial scenes, and in an increasingly photographic
series of abstract charcoal drawings that launched her career. They 1971 Goes blind; takes up manner. In the 1940s, his work started to become more abstract,
were shown at a gallery in New York run by the photographer Alfred pottery although it was no less meticulously painted. Following a stroke,
Stieglitz, who continued to show her work regularly, and whom she 1986 Dies, aged 98 Sheeler retired from both painting and photography in 1959.
eventually married in 1924. Her works began to command high prices,
and she became one of the US’s most successful living artists.

<< Upper Deck Sheelers work

» Red, White, and as a photographer affected his
Blue A sun-bleached choice of subject. He mainly
cows skull was a concentrated on factory scenes,
recurrent subject for urban landscapes, and domestic
O'Keeffe. Here, set | interiors, subjects that allowed
against the blue of New him to explore geometric shapes
Mexico skies, between in a Cubist-influenced style.
red borders, there is also a Upper Deck can be seen as a
sly reference to the Precisionist representation of
American flag. 1931, oil
I\
Hei
machinery, but it is also a study
on canvas, 101x91cm, in colours and forms. 1929,
Metropolitan Museum of
a
| oil on canvas, 73x 55cm, Harvard JAILV
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Art, New York, US University Art Museums, US
vy My Autumn /n the
late 1920s, O'Keeffe
began a series of paintings
John Steuart Curry
of flowers and plants in b DUNAVANT, 1897; d MADISON, 1946
extreme close-up. The
cropped images and often With Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry led
enormous scale force the the Regionalist movement of the 1930s, a collection of artists depicting
viewer to examine the scenes from the Midwest. He was one of the great American scene
subject more closely, painters, showing life in his native Kansas, even though much of his
seeing it for what It is own life was spent outside the state. Before settling in New York,
rather than as an element Curry studied in Chicago, and later Paris, and from 1936 he worked
within a composition. as artist-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin. Murals for the HLO?
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1929, oil on canvas, Kansas State Capitol building, now considered to be his masterpiece,
102x 76cm, private collection aroused much controversy at the time and were left uncompleted.

v Baptism in Kansas Curry made his name with this rural Kansas
scene, painted from memory in New York. It is typical of his folksy
narrative style, which was popular with East Coast urbanites. 1928,
¢¢ Nothing is less oil on canvas, 102x127cm, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, US
real than realism... Se ARS EF

It is only by selection,
by elimination, by
emphasis that
we get at the real
meaning of things ”
GEORGIA O'KEEFFE, 1922
 Edward Hopper
|Grant Wood b NYACK, NEW YORK, 1882; d NEW YORK, 1967 | LIFEline
| b NEAR ANAMOSA, 1891; d IOWA CITY, 1942 Edward Hopper’s atmospheric portrayals of East Coast 1882 Born in Rockland
County, New York State
With the phenomenal success of American Gothic, Grant Wood scenes have made him the best-known American
1899-1906 Studies
became probably the best known of the American Regionalist painters. Realist painter of the 20th century. He was trained and
illustration and painting
Born on a farm in lowa, he spent his teenage years in Cedar Rapids, worked as a commercial illustrator, but achieved the 1906 Makes the first of
then travelled and studied in the US and Europe before returning to success he yearned for as a painter in the 1920s when several trips to Europe
his home state in 1932. He joined the staff of the University of lowa’s Photograph by House by the Railroad became the first painting bought 1910-24 Works as an
School of Art in 1934 where he taught painting. Oscar White by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. illustrator in New York
| Much influenced by Netherlandish Renaissance oil painting, Wood This was a turning point in Hopper's career, enabling 1923 Paints The Mansard
developed a boldly realist style in his depictions of the Midwest, which him to concentrate on painting in the introspective, melancholic style Roof, which is bought by the
Brooklyn Museum
are often tinged with a wry humour. He continued painting and teaching that had evolved from his earlier Impressionistic work. He and his wife
1925 Paints House by the
until his death from liver cancer, the day before his 51st birthday. took painting trips to rural New England, where he produced numerous
Railroad, the first of his
5e)ictures of typically American architecture. During the 1930s, Hopper mature works
I American also began to depict urban scenes with bright lights and intense 1942 Paints Nighthawks,
Gothic Named after shadows peopled with solitary figures. Towards the end of his life, his most famous work
the architectural when abstract art became fashionable, Hopper’s work was unfairly 1967 Dies in New York
style of the window dismissed as “illustrative’ a term he loathed.
in the background,
Wood portrays an Evening Wind Many of Hoppers early Nighthawks Hopper’s best-known work is a powerfully
enigmatic, impassive etchings featured female figures in urban New evocative depiction of urban alienation. The desolate mood of the
farming couple in York settings, anticipating the lonely figures in his almost empty diner and deserted streets is enhanced by Hoppers
affectionate detail. later paintings. 1921, etching, 18x 22cm, Whitney impassive Realist style and the simplicity of the composition
1930, oil on board, Museum of American Art, New York, US 1942, oil on canvas, 76x 152cm, Art Institute of Chicago, US
74x 62cm, Art Institute
of Chicago, US.
All rights reserved by
the Estate of Nan Wood
Graham/Licensed by VAGA,
New York, NY

PAINTING
FIGURATIVE
AND
REALISM

Thomas Hart Benton

| b NEOSHO, 1889; d KANSAS CITY, 1975

Haystack
Benton’s historical
murals and
Midwestern scenes
CENTURY
20TH
LY1 were not simply
z narrative, they were
\R
EAI also social comment,
that reflected his INNER LIGHT SOURCE The brightly it diner
populist Marxist throws the street outside into gloomy, film-noir-
style shadows, making the diner an island of light
views. 1938, tempera
in a dark streetscape. This contrast forces the
with oil glaze on linen
viewer's attention to the interior scene, starkly
on panel, 61 x 76cm,
illuminated by an overhead light on the right —
Museum of Fine Arts, the only light source in the painting
Houston, US
FOCAL POINT At the
centre of the diner, the
woman's red dress and
auburn hair stand out
The son of a US congressman, Thomas Hart Benton rejected the
from the muted colours
family’s traditional career of politics in favour of art. He studied at the around her, intensifying
Art Institute of Chicago, and also in Paris. On his return to the US, he the anonymity of the
moved to New York, where he painted in a Modernist, sometimes male customers. All of
abstract, style. However, he found it increasingly difficult to reconcile them appear to be
the elitism of this style with his notions of the artist's place in society, contained in a glass-
and eventually abandoned Modernism absolutely sided case with no exit
During the 1920s and 30s, Benton's realist paintings and murals of
rural life established him as a leading Regionalist painter. Appalled by
the politics of the New York art world, he left to teach at the Kansas City
Art Institute in 1935, where Jackson Pollock was one of his students
He was dismissed in 1941 for his controversial leftist views and spent
the rest of his career painting public murals in the Midwest
 The Mansard Roof /o begin with, Hopper
only used watercolour for his illustrative work,
but, encouraged by his colleague and future
wife Jo Nivison, he began to use the medium
for seascapes and architectural paintings. 1923,
watercolour over graphite on paper, 36x51cm,
Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, US

Room in Brooklyn Hoppers

paintings often depict scenes of
solitude or detachment. There is
seldom any interaction between
his characters, and often only a
single figure. This feeling of
isolation is emphasized by his
predilection for harsh, one-
directional light and sharply
defined shadows. 1932, oil on
canvas, 74x 86cm, Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston, US

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 |Balthus
b PARIS, 1908; d ROSSINIERE, 2001
Known by the childhood nickname “Balthus? Balthazar Klossowski
de Rola exhibited alongside the Surrealists although his work was
6¢ Vy paintings
always distinguished by traditional painting skills. He achieved public have many
recognition only later in life, and some notoriety, for his disturbingly layers of
erotic depictions of childhood and adolescence.
Photograph Balthus painted from an early age, encouraged by family friends, meaning, José Gutiérrez Solana
esmete
ipnitski
such as Rainer Maria Rilke and André Gide. In 1934, he had his first vanishings In b MADRID, 1886; d MADRID, 1945
one-man show in Paris, and then established himself as a portrait and
landscape painter. He continued to explore the erotic and surreal elements of his early the canvas ”? A respected artist and writer, José Gutiérrez Solana
maturity, culminating in his masterpiece, The Room (1952-54). BALTHUS was a major figure in the revival of Spanish culture at
the turn of the 20th century. He studied at the Academia
de Bellas Artes in Madrid from 1900-04, and then
LIFEline became involved with writers of the “Generation of
1908 Born in Paris to Polish parents 1898" a mainly literary movement trying to restore
1914 Moves with his family to Berlin cultural life after the disastrous Spanish-American War.
1924 Returns to Paris As a painter, Solana was greatly influenced by Goya
1937 Marries Antoinette de Watteville and the Spanish Baroque masters. He painted mainly
1961-77 Serves as director of the urban scenes, depicting the darker side of life in Madrid
French Academy in Rome — prostitution, alcoholism, grief, and tragedy — in sombre
1962 Travels to Japan, where he meets
colours. He exhibited frequently in Spain and won
his second wife
several awards for his painting, but, because of his
1977 Moves to Rossiniére, Switzerland
cynical outlook, lived an isolated and reclusive life.

The Room /n this erotic and

dreamlike painting, Balthus explores
psychologically unsettling subject
matter with traditional techniques.
1952-54, oil on canvas, 271 x335cm,
private collection

PAINTING
FIGURATIVE
AND
REALISM

A The Clowns Solana‘ typically sombre colours and oppressive

setting are apparently at odds with the gaiety of this subject, but
very effectively convey the bleakness of the characters behind the
greasepaint — the tragic “tears of the clown”. 1920, oil on canvas,
98 x 124cm, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
~\

CENTURY
20TH
EARLY INcontext
CLOWNS IN PAINTING The emotional
ambiguity of traditional clown characters,
such as Harlequin and Pierrot, appealed to
many artists in the first half of the 20th century.
The melancholy underlying their comic antics
was a powerful metaphor, particularly in a time
of discovery in psychology and psychoanalysis.

A The Mediterranean Cat As a teenager, Balthus CLOSERI|ook

produced an album of drawings of the adventures IMPASTO In later work, Balthus
Circus Clown Popular in circuses and music halls,
of the cat Mitsou, and cats feature in many of his used an impasto technique,
clowns inspired artists such as Solana, Georges
subsequent paintings. He sometimes referred to himself building up thick layers of paint to
Rouault, Raoul Duty, and Bernard Buffet
as “His Majesty, King of the Cats”. 1949, oil on canvas, give an impression similar to that
private collection of fresco painting. He also tended
towards warm and bright colours,
increasing the resemblance to
Italian Renaissance frescoes.
 Fausto Pirandello
b ROME, 1889; d ROME, 1975 LIFEline
LIFEline The son of the Nobel-Prize-winning dramatist, Luigi 1889 Born in Rome, the son
Best known for his paintings of industrial 1887 Born in a middle-class Pirandello, Fausto Pirandello studied first as a sculptor, of dramatist and novelist Luigi
area of Manchester Pirandello
Manchester and Salford, Laurence but made his name as a painter in the 1920s. His early
1905 Takes evening classes at 1919-20 Studies sculpture
Stephen Lowry came to prominence late influences included Gaugin and Van Gogh. During a with Sigismondo Lipinsky
the Municipal College
in life, and continued to work as a rent period living in Paris, from 1927-31, he became part of 1927 Moves to Paris
1909 Moves to Pendlebury,
collector even when he was one of the the /taliani di Parigi (Italians of Paris) group and adopted 1929-30 Exhibits in Paris and
an industrial part of Salford
LS Lowry most popular painters in England. 1910-52 Works as a rent
some elements of Cubism. Vienna
However, Lowry was by no means an collector Back in Rome in the 1930s, Pirandello developed 1931 Returns to Rome, and}
amateur painter: he studied in the evenings for more 1915 Studies part-time at a very individual realist style, incorporating irrational shows Interior in the Morning
Salford School of Art subjects and dramatically skewed perspective. He had at the Sindacale Romana
than 20 years at art colleges in Manchester and Salford.
1921 Has his first exhibition considerable success in Italy and abroad with dreamlike 1933 Paints Luigi Pirandello,
In his twenties, Lowry moved to Pendlebury, where
in Manchester a portrait of his father
he spent much of the rest of his life and drew depictions of everyday life, such as The Staircase
1934 |s elected to the Royal 1951 First retrospective at
inspiration from the mills and factories. From his first (1934), and incisive portraits such as the 1933 one Palazzo Barberini, Rome
Society of British Artists
exhibitions in the 1920s, he built a reputation gradually, of his father. His later works became more abstract, 1975 Paints Bathers, his last
1948 Moves to Mottram-in-
only achieving popular success when he was in his Longdendale, Cheshire
influenced again by Cubism, and he continued to paint major work; dies in Rome
sixties, and continued to live a simple and private life. 1962 |s elected to the Royal
until his death in 1975.
Academy
1976 Dies of pneumonia Y¥ Interior in the Morning /n the 1930s, Pirandello painted scenes of
working-class life in a starkly realist style, but included almost surreal
details, such as the picture-frame around the head of the central figure.
1931, oil on board, 178x151cm, Pompidou Centre, Paris, France
<< An Island A/though he often
depicted industrial cityscapes
with some affection, Lowry also
conveyed a sense of their
bleakness. He invariably used
drab colours to portray grimy
urban buildings and overcast
skies, dominated by ever-present
smoking factory chimneys.
1942, oil on canvas, 46x 61cm, NVad
WSIT
GNV
JAIL
OSNIL
Manchester Art Gallery, UK

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A Coming out of School /ypical of Lowrys

MATCHSTICK MEN
urban landscapes, this is a vivid record of life
Lowry’s spindly figures
in industrial northern England. The playful
have become the best-
figures leaving the redbrick school, next to a
known feature of his
terrace of small houses, are overshadowed by work. In early paintings,
the huge factory buildings and a lowering sky. each “matchstick” figure
1927, oil on wood, 35x 54cm, Tate, London, UK was carefully and
individually depicted.
From about 1930, they ¢¢ He has a personal impact
became less distinctive
— anonymous members
of his own... You may accept
of the crowd. or refuse the painter Pirandello,
but you cannot ignore him ”’
VIRGILIO GUZZU, ART CRITIC
 American Indian holidays, costume,
and folk art became a source of
Origins and influences inspiration. These scenes were often
Mexican art is a rich blend of diverse mixed with references to ancient gods
sources that reflect the complex and religious practices. The distinctive
historic and social forces underlying Mexican landscape also featured. In a
the formation of its national identity. gesture of cathartic political purging,
European influences, dominant from artists also portrayed the cruelties and
colonial times onwards, became a injustices of the Spanish Conquest.
point of contention at the beginning
Fuelled by social protest
of the 20th century as the Mexican Style
brought on by centuries of Revolution challenged its citizens to Although no one style was ever
colonial occupation, Mexican form their own vision of themselves ~ ae promoted or followed, Mexican art
art in the 20th century often as a nation. Looking at their Pre- A Mexican Muralism David Siqueiros painted retains a distinctive look that is due
Columbian past and indigenous this mural on the Polyforum Cultural Siqueiros in in part to its diverse sources. For
focused on the formation of Mexico City, built 1964-71.
a new national identity. From populations with a fresh eye, free of example, a unique colour palette often
European value judgments, Mexican reflects indigenous aesthetics, the
panoramic murals to modest Subject
artists began to enthusiastically abstracted form is reminiscent of
still lifes, Mexico’s people and incorporate the nature, people, and Art that focused on Mexicanidad (all archaic monumental sculpture, and
culture were at the ideological culture around them, instead of things Mexican) became an important the satiric commentary comes from
centre of art production. emulating foreign trends. part of the search for national identity. popular graphics.

Mexican art
TIMEline
The popular graphic artist
José-Guadalupe Posada
lovingly critiqued the passions
and foibles of Mexicans ofall
classes in cheap and widely
distributed broadsheets. The
muralists José Orozco, Diego
8 MEXICAN
ART Rivera, and David Siqueiros
created murals on government
buildings that were meant to
educate Mexicans on their
history, from the grandeur of
past civilizations to the heroic
battles of the revolution. POSADA La Catrina TAMAYO The Dancers
KAHLO What the Water RIVERA Great City of Tenochtitlan (detail)
Gave Me

aa |
executed some of their best work in the CURRENTevents
CENTURY
20TH
EARLY US and their innovative painting techniques 1910 The decade-long
Orozco, Rivera, and Siqueiros were the helped to pave the way for Abstract Mexican Revolution
most important muralists and came to be Expressionism (see p.502). begins; oil is discovered
known.as Los Tres Grandes (The Three on the Gulf Coast.
Great Ones). Each had his own distinct Other visions 1917 A radical new
style, technique, subject matter, artistic Mexican artists have also followed more constitution is formed.
influences, and even political beliefs. individual paths of self-expression. The 1920-24 Alvara Obregon
is made president, ushering
Studying in Europe for over 13 years, wife of Rivera, Frida Kahlo, was a tireless
in calm; a programme of
Rivera was highly influenced by both promoter of mexicanidad; with her husband, social reforms begins.
Cubism and Italian Renaissance murals. she amassed important collections of Pre-
1926 Church strike due
Orozco shunned Rivera's didactic Marxism Columbian antiquities and folk art, which to anti-clerical policies.
and had a vision of humanity that was they later donated to the people of Mexico. 1929 The National
darker and more complex; his messages She painted intimate portraits of herself and Revolutionary Party is
tend to have more universal appeal. An loved ones, which explored themes of founded; it retains power
ardent revolutionary who fought in the illness, love, and psychological suffering. for 71 years and leads to
Mexico becoming a one-
Spanish Civil War and in other revolutionary Her work displays aspects of Surrealism, a
party democracy.
battles, Siqueiros was the most experimental movement.she was peripherally involved in.
1938 The holdings of
in terms of composition and technique and Rufino Tamayo was a subtle and lyrical
foreign oil companies are
has had the most lasting influence on future colourist, whose work explores his nationalized — a major
generations of artists. Other talented and American Indian origins. Like Kahlo, he was economic turning point.
visionary artists also painted murals in also influenced by Surrealism. Part of the
Mexico, but not exclusively. generation that began to pull away from the
The far-reaching influence of Mexican political themes of the muralists, Tamayo
muralism on artwork created all over used myth and abstraction to convey a more
the world cannot be underestimated. universal search for meaning.
Throughout Latin America, Mexican art led
4 The Flowered Canoe Diego Rivera, 1931 /n a utopian
the way to developing mature and unique
mingling of the classes, urban mestizo (European—Amerindian)
tourists float down rural canals on boats at Xochimilco. political expressions. The Mexican muralists
Diego Rivera
b GUANAJUATO CITY, 1886; d MEXICO CITY, 1957 LIFEline

Diego Rivera was one of the greatest 20th century Mexican artists, gaara Studies in Spain, settles
In Fars
and his public persona matched his legendary large physical size. CLOSERIook
He was Classically trained, but absorbed Modernism during a 13-year 1922 Begins to participate in Mexico's
S25, CAUSEWAYS The
mural programme
stay in Europe. Rivera returned to Mexico after the revolution to work on eg ¢ Aztec capital was built
1929 Marries Frida Kahlo
mural programmes run by the Minister of Education, José Vasconcelos, on an island in Lake
1930-33 Paints murals in San
in Mexico City. From this point until his death, he would be a central and Texcoco. Causeways
Francisco, Detroit, and New York
controversial figure in Mexican painting and culture. led from the ceremonial
1937 Leon Trotsky deported from
Along with his wife, the artist Frida Kahlo, Rivera promoted a form weg centre to other cities
Soviet Union; he and his wife arrive in
Mexico and live with the Riveras @ along the shore, each
of cultural nationalism known as Mexicanidadin his murals, paintings,
with its own pyramid-
and lifestyle. His collection of Mesoamerican Art, along with Anahuacalli, 1954 Death of Frida Kahlo
= shaped religious

it
his Pre-Columbian-inspired studio, was donated to Mexico when he died. = structures.
During his stay in the US (1930-33), Rivera painted significant murals i a
and influenced a generation of American artists. However, in 1933 his pee
mural Man at the Crossroads provoked international scandal when it
was was destroyed at the Rockefeller Center, New York City, due to its
depiction of Lenin.

<The Tortilla Maker Jhis

depiction of monumental Indian
women, kneeling in front of stone
metates (corn grinders) that have
remained unchanged since pre-
Hispanic times, suggests the
antiquity and enduring nature of
Mexican indigenous culture. 1925,
oil on canvas, 122x97cm, University
of California, San Francisco, US

» The Great City of

Tenochtitlan Aivera’s panoramic
murals of Pre-Columbian
civilizations are committed to
authentic detail, but give an
idealized view of ancient Mexican
life. 1945, fresco, 4.9x9.7m, Palacio
Nacional, Mexico City, Mexico

§
NVOIX
LYV
José Clemente Orozco José Guadalupe Posada
b CIUDAD GUZMAN JALISCO, 1883; d MEXICO CITY, 1949 b AGUASCALIENTES, 1852; d MEXICO CITY, 1913
One of the “Great Ones” of Mexican muralism, Orozco was also
an expressive painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. Critical of
the Mexican Revolution and scornful of propaganda in art,
Orozco's examination of history was a complex attempt to get at
the truth. His work addressed universal social concerns, such as
the role that technology played in war and the subjugation of
peoples. One of his favourite themes was the Greek myth of AlYVA
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Prometheus, who he recast as “the Man of Fire’ This figure
served as a metaphor for the artist's role in society as the self-
sacrificing harbinger of change, hope, and salvation.
Early in his career, poverty forced Orozco to work in the US
for a number of years, where he executed important mural
commissions. When he returned to Mexico, with a more firmly
established reputation, he painted numerous murals in sporting an ornate and pretentious hat has become a
Guadalajara and Mexico City. beloved emblem for Mexicans, who often incorporate
it into altars, crafts, and costumes for the Day of the
Dead. 1913, zinc relief etching, 12x 16cm, private collection
» American Civilization —
Ancient Human Sacrifice A master of popular engraving, José
Orozco’s mural at Dartmouth Guadalupe Posada captured the spirit of
is one of the most
Mexican society under the dictator Porfirio
spectacular examples of
Diaz (who ruled from 1884 to 1911). After the
Mexican art in the US. Epic
revolution, contemporary artists revived his
in scope, the fresco cycle
reputation and celebrated his work as being
portrays the dualities of the
Indian and European authentically Mexican.
historical experience in Posada specialized in illustrations for
North America. 1932, fresco, newspapers that avidly fed the public appetite
305 x302cm, Dartmouth for sensational news. With a deft hand and a
College, New Hampshire, US 4 joyous love of gruesome detail, he portrayed
A The Spanish Conquest of Mexico Situated ina the notorious crimes of his day. Religious
deconsecrated church, this mural is widely considered scenes, bullfights, popular heroes and bandits,
Orozco’s greatest work. Seeking to create a balanced political portraits, and natural disasters were all
view of history, Orozco depicts both the negative and part of his repertoire. However, he is best
positive aspects of the Spanish Conquest. 1938-39, known for his images of skeletons produced
fresco, Hospicio Cabafias, Guadalajara, Mexico for the Day of the Dead celebration.
 Rufino Tamayo
b OAXACA, 1911; d MEXICO CITY, 1991 LIFEline |
Rufino Tamayo was part of the generation of artists that followed the 1911 Born in Oaxaca, but is
Mexican Muralists, and although he painted a number of important sent to Mexico City to live
with relatives
murals both in Mexico and the US, he was an outspoken advocate of
| 1920s Influenced by Mexican |
David Alfaro Siqueiros greater expressive freedom. Rejecting traditional descriptive realism, | Muralism, but rejects its
Tamayo fused figuration and abstraction to create a bold personal style, | dogmatic nationalism
b CAMARGO, 1896; d CUERNAVACA, 1974 which he deemed more in keeping with Modernist formal 1926-1928 Lives in New York |
A member of the legendary “The Great Three’ along with Rivera experimentation. 1934 Marries Olga Flores
and Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros was the youngest of this group. Utilizing a brilliant colour palette, along with the flat planes and Rivas Zarate
A militant social activist, he frequently participated in demonstrations, shallow space of Cubism, Tamayo painted with a raw and expressive 1936-49 Lives intermittently
power, often inspired by the pre-Columbian and folk arts of his country. in New York and teaches art at |
strikes, and other revolutionary activities and was involved in the first, the Dalton School, Manhattan
bungled assassination attempt on Leon Trotsky. The forms of his figures consistently drew upon Mesoamerican
1950 Represents Mexico at
Although he was primarily a muralist, Siqueiros broke away from pottery and sculpture, which he avidly collected and eventually left the XXV Venice Biennale |
the traditional use of fresco and experimented with new techniques to a museum he established in his native Oaxaca. Tamayo refused to 1964 Retrospective of his
and materials, often taken from the industrial world. He applied paint confine his work to nationalistic statements, however, and insisted on work is held in Mexico City
with a commercial airbrush and often used Duco paint (an automobile placing Mexican and Latin American art within the discourse of 1991 Dies, aged 80
lacquer), and other plastic media. In the 1930s, he headed an international Modernism.
experimental workshop in New York, which was to prove influential
for future generations of American artists, such as Jackson Pollock. <The Dancers Aich,
exuberant colour, combined with
a sculptural use of form, lends a
la CLOSERIook
H _

powerful emotional charge to

ely these monumental dancers.
/
- al F Tamayo balances hot and cool
= 4
colours, and pairs movement
with frozen gestures. Enveloped
in a fiery red background, these
iconic and abstracted female
figures evoke a timeless and
universal sense of vitality.
1942, oil on canvas, 117x92cm,
private collection
BALCONY FIGURES
Attired in finery with military
and ecclesiastic emblems of
office, the balcony contains
ART
MEXICAN
the aristocratic, wealthy,
and powerful of this unholy
congregation. In a satirical
quotation from Leonardo's
last Supper, Siqueiros has
placed a presidential couple
in front of an arched window
) and blue sky.
RESTRICTED COLOURS
\ The Devil in the Church Tamayo felt that the more limited
Passionately dedicated to the use of colour, the more
Marxism, and a political significant were its expressive
possibilities. The violent contrast
activist all of his life,
CENTURY
20TH
EARLYSiqueiros probably meant of the different ranges of reds,
blues, and blacks in this scene
this as an anticlerical
succeeds in evoking an
statement. The monstrous
emotional intensity.
creature tearing through the
roof is evocative of evil and
the Antichrist. 1947, enamel
on celotex, 214x 154cm,
Museo de Arte Moderno,
Mexico City, Mexico

A Watermelons Jamayo painted many still

lifes with watermelons and other fruits,
perhaps evoking his childhood selling fruit at
his aunt's market in Mexico City. The vibrant
4 Zapata A talented printmaker, Siqueiros here colour and sinuous lines were inspired by
offers an iconic representation of the revolutionary the folk art of his native Oaxaca. 1968,
leader Emiliano Zapata. This transfer lithograph on 130x 195cm, oil on canvas, Museo Tamayo
zinc reveals a bold handling of light and dark that Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City, Mexico
suited the artists political zeal. 1931, lithograph,
53x 40cm, private collection A Two Lovers Contemplating the Moon Humans
contemplating the cosmos, and perhaps their place in it,
was a favourite theme for Tamayo. Resembling ancient
Mesoamerican ceramic figures, his lovers seem to defy
gravity by floating in space while gazing at the moon.
1950, oil on canvas, 81x 100cm, private collection
Frida Kahlo
y+
fed b COYOACAN, 1907; d COYOACAN, 1954 LIFEline

Raised in the shadow of the Mexican Revolution, 1914 Contracts polio, which
Frida Kahlo was an ardent supporter of social damages her right leg
justice who, together with her husband Diego 1925 Is severely injured in
Rivera, promoted a greater appreciation for the a bus.accident
complex culture, history, and peoples of her Rene Piego'Rivera
Photograph country. A hallmark of all her work is the inclusion 1930-33 Travels to the US
by Di if; ae references, including 3 (
Boa of specifically Mexican artistic 1937 The Bolshevik
Aztec sculpture, colonial religious art, and folk art. revolutionary Leon Trotsky
Much of Kahlo’s work is biographical in nature, exploring her and his wife move into
emotional and psychological states of mind, yet it often Frida's house
transcends the personal by questioning gender roles and the 1939 Exhibits in the Mexique
power relations between individuals and nations. Kahlo’s oun as F ;
distinctive public persona can also be considered a type of Ae EN Ms SS
early performance art, aimed at challenging the status quo.

» The Suicide of Dorothy

Hale Kahlo based this
composition on Catholic ex-votos.
Produced in thanks for
miraculous salvation, they
typically show terrible events.
In this emotionally intense work,
Hale is shown as a tragic figure
who does not survive her
anguish. 1938-39, oil on
hardboard with painted frame,
50x 41cm, Phoenix Art Museum, US

H
NVOIX
LYV

A What the Water Gave Me /he bath-water HLO?

AYNLN
AldVa
reflects an odd assortment of objects and people that
fi
v
have significance for the artist. Kahlos parents, her
favourite dress, and cacti, float on the surface. 1938, i
oil on canvas, 91x71cm, private collection i
INcontext
MEXICAN REVOLUTION
1910-20 This bloody civil
war sought to correct the gross
social inequalities between
the small landholding élite and
the poor landless peasants,
who were primarily of Indian
or mestizo (mixed) descent.
Emiliano Zapata [he
revolutionary leader became an
iconic hero figure, repeatedly
portrayed by the Muralists and
other Mexican artists.

A The Two Fridas /his double self-portrait reveals Kahlos

painful sense of a divided self. The dualities of her mixed ~ 5 BLEEDING HEART The heart
European and Indian heritage are shown in the costumes, ! on Kahlo’s “unlovable” European
but the figures are united by an artery connecting the two half is shown exposed, as an
hearts. 1939, oil on canvas, 174x173cm, Museo de Arte artery from it drips blood on
to her dress. This may be a
Moderno, Mexico City, Mexico
reference to Catholic images
of the sacred heart of Mary,
common in Mexico.
 Before World War Il, the Surrealists had used images
of dreams to mock bourgeois conventions. After the War,
artists were more concerned with the opposite: to find
general truths in the unconscious mind that would piece
society back together. In the US, the Abstract Expressionists
flouted traditional painting techniques in an effort to find
and express common human ground.

(505 1945 1955 1965

_ ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM 1940s-.ate 1950s

MINIMAL ART wip 1960s-1980s

POP ART Late 1950s-LATE 1960s

KINETIC ART 1960s

The vast size of Abstract Expressionist works was copied
in Minimal art. Art objects were deliberately simple and
geometric as well as huge. They stood for themselves, visual effects to make a flat image seem to vibrate and
not for something else in the real or subconscious world. shimmer. Kinetic sculptures really did move, either
In the 1960s, the next generation of artists reacted against mechanically or in air currents. Conceptual art presented an
what they saw as the sterile and stuffy atmosphere of idea rather than an object, while Superrealism went back to
abstract art, whatever it was or was not expressing. representational art but, in an unsettling twist, made it look
Pop music, comic strips, packaging, and advertisements more real than the real thing. Neo-Expressionism was
provided the raw material for Pop art. It was swiftly likewise a figurative reaction to abstraction, and looked
t(er-] -]neae[0]00-10 m@)om-laemUvalleame-\i(-1e mela
ie)|(e\=10 MO)Vae) OL deliberately crude in technique and materials.

role
ae ks
1985 | 1995 2

CONCEPTUAL ART ate 1960s—LaTe 1970s

SUPERREALISM ote 1960s-Late 1970s

NEO-EXPRESSIONISM wip 1970s-tate 1980s

YOUNG BRITISH ARTISTS (YBAs) ‘ate 1980s onwarps

NEW CHINESE ART arte 1980s onwarps

 The term Abstract Expressionism was ~~~ Abstract Expressionism was also
first used in connection with modern a response to post-war American
American painters in 1945 by Robert society. In a conservative, and
Coates, art critic of The New Yorker, increasingly homogenized culture,
but it had also been applied to the artists felt a need to communicate
work of Wassily Kandinsky in the 1920s. their innermost feelings and
By the 1950s the term was in experiences. In doing so, they created
common currency, even though the first American art movement
some Abstract Expressionists, such to achieve worldwide influence.
as Willem de Kooning, did not produce
abstract work.
“CURRENTevents _
Abstract Expressionism 1944 Wassily Kandinsky, considered the
founder of modern Abstract
flowered in the 1940s and Influences a =
Expressionism, dies at Neuilly-sur-Seine.
A New York replaced Paris as the world capital of
‘50s in New York. It covered a The Surrealists were a major influence 1941 US enters World War Il.
contemporary art after World War Il thanks to the
variety of painting styles, but on the Abstract Expressionists. Their emergence of Abstract Expressionism. 1942 The Art of This Century gallery,
all its practitioners conveyed ideas of unleashing the power of displaying abstract art, is opened by Peggy
the unconscious and painting that evoke living things. Most of the Guggenheim in New York.
a strong emotional content, 1948 The Cold War between the US, and
automatically were adopted by the Abstract Expressionists — including
emphasized the sensuousness its allies, and Russia, and its allies, begins.
Abstract Expressionists — as was its two best-known artists, Pollock
1950 United Nations building completed
of paint, and generally worked biomorphism _a style of painting based and Rothko — began painting ina in New York.
on large canvases. on non-geometric shapes and motifs biomorphic style in the 1940s. : = a

Abstract Expressionism
TIME\|ine 1952
Abstract Expressionism grew
out of Surrealism, Gottlieb’s
Eyes of Oedipus and Pollock's
Eyes in the Heat retain the non-
EXPRESSIONISM
ABSTRACT
geometric biomorphic imagery
favoured by the Surrealists
David Smith's sculpture, created
from agricultural implements,
suggests action suspended
By the mid-1950s Rothko had
established his Colour Field style
and Borduas was pursuing his
“all-over” painting. De Kooning GOTTLIEB DE KOONING TWOMBLY Achilles Mourning the
carried Abstract Expressionism Eyes of Oedipus POL Woman | ROTHKO Death of Patroclus
into the 1960s Eyes in the Heat SMITH Agricola Vill Unititled

Interpretations Rosenberg summed up Action Painting:

"What was to go on canvas was not a
Abstract Expressionists can broadly be divided picture but an event”. Pollock’s work,
into two groups. The Action painters, a term in particular, looked forward to the
coined by the critic Harold Rosenberg in performance art and happenings of the
1952, included Jackson Pollock, Willem de 1960s. Look at a Pollock and you have a
Kooning, and Franz Kline. Their paintings are record of his “performance”.
full of drama, with the paint applied urgently
and passionately. The Colour Field painters, Colour Field painting
championed by critic Clement Greenberg, Where Action painting was bold and
include Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, and assertive, Colour Field painting was
Clyfford Still. Their paintings are quieter and contemplative and carefully constructed.
emphasize the emotional force of colour. The works consist of large expanses of
A 1955-D Clyfford Still was one of
colour, often without strong contrasts
the leading Colour Field painters of
Action painting of tone or obvious focal points. the 1950s. This large, single-colour
In Action painting, the “act” of painting Many Colour Field paintings were painting provokes a sense of awe in
becomes the content of the work — so the intended to create transcendental feelings the viewer. 1955, acrylic on canvas,
& The Plough and the Song Archi/e Gorkys fluid Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
image reflects the raw emotions held by of awe and wonder. Newman said his art
expressive brushstroke and sinuous linework anticipate
the Action Painting of Pollock and de Kooning. 1947, the artist while creating it. Action painters was “religious” and concerned with the
oil on canvas, 128x 159m Allen Memorial Museum, poured, dripped, and spattered paint on “sublime”. Rothko said his work was
Oberlin college, Ohio, US to the canvas. Hans Hoffman was among about “the basic human emotions — tragedy,
the first to do this, but Pollock took the ecstasy, doom”. The huge size of many
technique to its logical conclusion — he of these paintings does seem to overwhelm
abandoned the restrictions of brushes the viewer, inducing a feeling of isolation
and upright easels to create images that in a limitless world.
he described as “energy and motion made If Action painting was the result of a
visible”, These pictures, full of restlessness heightened state of consciousness on the
and flux, with no one part of the picture part of the painter, Colour Field painting
more important than another, were said was intended to create a heightened state
to be “all-over” in style of consciousness on the part of the viewer.
 Vv Eyes in the Heat (Sounds in the Grass Series) [his work,
Jackson Pollock made a year after Pollock moved to Long Island, looks forward to his
drip paintings. Instead of using a brush, he applies the pigment on
b CODY, 1912; d NEW YORK, 1956 LIFEline to the canvas directly from the tube, pushing and smearing it with
Jackson Pollock was a leading exponent of Action 1929-31 Studies at the Art blunt instruments to create a thick, textured crust. 1946, oil on
Painting and Abstract Expressionism. Fellow Abstract Students League of New York canvas, 137x109cm, Peggy Guggenheim Foundation, Venice, Italy
under Thomas Hart Benton
Expressionist Willem de Kooning said, “He broke the
1937 Begins treatment for
ice for the rest of us” alcoholism
Pollock began making his drip paintings in 1947. They 1943 First solo exhibition at
Jackson established his reputation and completely revolutionized Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of
Pollock, 1949 the way a painting was supposed to be made. Instead the Century gallery
of using an easel, Pollock laid the canvas on the floor. 1945 Marries the painter Lee
Instead of using brushes, he poured the paint from a can and dripped it Krasner and moves to East
Hampton, Long Island, where
from sticks. He also revolutionized the idea of composition. Pollock he works in a barn
moved over and sometimes through the canvas with free, dance-like 1947 Begins drip paintings
gestures. This created an “all-over” style, where no part of a picture 1949 Featured in an article in
was more significant than any other. The composition had no focal Life magazine that asks “Is he
points, and often the centre was no more important than the edges. the greatest living painter in
They were pictures, Pollock said, with “no beginning or end’! the United States?”
The drip paintings earned Pollock notoriety as well as acclaim. 1951 Abruptly abandons drip
style, returning to the use of
Dubbed “Jack the Dripper” by Time magazine, he was the first figurative elements
American painter to become a star, and he lived up to the reputation, 1954 Stops painting entirely
drinking hard and living recklessly.

< Number 14 /his is one of

a series of black and white
paintings Pollock embarked on
after his drip phase. Figures
reappeared in these paintings,
but his technique remained
unconventional. Working on the
floor, he applied the paint with
sticks and basting syringes,
which his wife, Lee Krasner,
said he wielded “like a giant
fountain pen". 1951, enamel paint
on canvas, 147x270cm, Tate, LOVY
INSI
London, UK

» Man with Hand Plow

In the 1930s, Pollock painted
the rural West where he
grew up. The energetic
rhythms in these paintings
suggest the turbulence of
the Great Depression. They
also look forward to the SV6L
SCYV
energetic patterns of his
drip paintings. c1933, oil on
canvas, 59x69cem, Museum
of Fine Arts, Houston, US

CLOSERIo0k

alee

BRUSHWORK The road

and field are registered
with little detail. Instead,
the emphasis is on the bold
brushwork, and areas are
almost abstract.

INcontext
PEGGY GUGGENHEIM [he renowned art
collector was one of the first champions of the
Abstract Expressionists, in particular Pollock. In
1943, she gave Pollock a contract that enabled him
to concentrate on painting. In the same year, she
held his first one-man show at her Art of this A Moon Woman /n the early 1940s, Pollock was influenced
Century gallery. His second show there in 1945 by Surrealism and he made many paintings and drawings of
led critic Clement Greenberg to hail him the
American Indian mythic figures, especially the moon woman.
“strongest painter of his generation”.
Here, he paints living forms and primitive symbols. Other shapes
Peggy Guggenheim, photographed by Frank emerge as a result of the free handling of the paint. 1942, oil on
Scherschel in 1953.
,
Se canvas, 175x109cm, Peggy Guggenheim Foundation, Venice, Italy
 Sr6L SCGYVMNO LOVYLSAV INSINOISS3Y¥dX4

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Autumn Rhythm (Number 30) Jackson Pollock

1950, enamel on canvas, 266.7 x525.8cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, US
 CLOSERI|ook

Autumn Rhythm Jackson Pollock

Pollock had been painting in the drip style
for three years before he made Autumn Rhythm.
It represents the high point of his drip paintings;
soon after he returned to more figurative work. The
colossal scale and intricacy of the painting engulf
the spectator, what Pollock called being “in the
< POLLOCK AT WORK
image” The gaze is carried along dramatic paths Pollock made his drip paintings
of paint that rise and fall and double back over the in a barn at his East Hampton
home. The size of the barn
entire canvas. The viewer is also drawn into the
allowed him to paint from all
painting — the black lines seem to come forward four sides. He worked rapidly,
while the brown, white, and grey marks sit back. stepping up to or on to the canvas
again and again, swinging the
The restless, eddying energy suggests music or
paintstick with dance-like
dance, and the vast size hints at heroic landscapes flourishes and flicks of hand,
of the American West, where Pollock grew up. arm, and body.

Technique
Pollock was influenced by Surrealist automatism - abandoning conscious
control of the picture, and instead allowing the unconscious to guide the
hand. Pollock stated, “When | am in my painting, I'm not aware of what
| am doing.” So when painting Autumn Rhythm, Pollock did not have an
image in mind. Instead he had an encounter with the canvas. The painting
became a record of that encounter — part spontaneous, part considered.
When asked if he painted from nature, Pollock replied, “| am nature.”

EXPRESSIONISM
ABSTRACT

ONWARDS
1945

* Ful ha

1 e “bb eet

A LAYERING OF COLOUR >» LIMITED PALETTE

Pollock first applied black paint in (Actual size) On top of the
complex linear swirls to his unprimed, initial application of black,
unstretched canvas. This created a Pollock weaves an intricate
“skeleton” over which he added the web of white, brown, and
other colours. Pollock used enamel turquoise-grey lines. The
house paint becaus e traditional oil colours evoke the autumn
paints were not flui d enough. of the painting's title and their
energetic application suggests
» MARK MAKIN G The variety of trees in an autumnal gale.
marks creates whir ing visual rhythms
and sensations. Elegant, curving lines
of dilute black paint contrast with the
tick-like marks made with thicker
brown and white paint. Colours collide,
creating thick textural areas, and
spattered paint ensures every area
of the canvas is filled with activity.
Some marks are the result of careful
choreographed movement, others ¢¢ The modern painter cannot
the result of chance; some suggest express his age, the airplane, the
chaos, others order
atom bomb, the radio, in the old
forms of the Renaissance or of any
other past culture. Each age finds
its own technique ”’
JACKSON POLLOCK, 1950
 Arshile Gorky
MM > KHORKOM, ARMENIA, 1904; d CONNECTICUT, 1948 LIFEline
Gorky played a key role in modern art, providing a link between European Surrealism 1916 Family flees Turkish
~ and American Abstract Expressionism. Born Vosdanig Manoog Adoian, he changed invasion ofArmenia
_ his name after emigrating to the US — taking Arshile from the Greek hero Achilles | 1920 Joins relatives in US
and Gorky (“bitter one” in Russian) from left-wing author Maxim Gorky. 1926-31 Teaches at Grand
In the 1920s and 1930s, his painting was derivative of Cezanne, Kandinsky, and Central
ArtSchool, Henn
Photograph _ Picasso. By the 1940s, he had evolved a distinctive style. Under the influence of te ee aa a
by Gjon Mili Surrealists Andre Breton and Roberto Matta, he began painting in a free, arbitrary AGAR Rresee neckonica Y Diary of a Seducer Taking
a cue from
manner, setting dream-like doodlings against a background of melting colours. The crash: later commits suicide the title, it is possible to see the whole of
fertility of nature and human sexuality were major inspirations. this painting as a representation of the act of
Gorky's painting became increasingly abstract with colour becoming decorative not descriptive. copulation. It has a rolling rhythm and, in the
He thinned paint so it dripped uncontrollably and thickened it to reveal gestural brushstrokes. This darkness, you can make out genitalia and the
delight in paint for paint's sake looks forward to the Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s. swelling forms of buttock and breasts. 1945,
oil on canvas, 127x 158cem, MoMA, New York, US

CLOSERIlook

AMBIGUITY |s this shape

an ear, an insect, or a water-
borne organism? Gorky
leaves all forms deliberately
E ambiguous, as they reflect
© his dream-like imagination.

EXPRESSIONISM
ABSTRACT

ONWARDS
1945 SEXUAL FORM At the
heart of the picture, the eye
is drawn to a form that
resembles a labia. It is
almost as if the viewer is
implicated in the seduction
of the title.

< Virginia — Summer Gorky produced

many graceful and fluid drawings of the
Virginia landscape, which reflect a day-
; / dreaming mind. 1946, pencil and crayon on
Ns 5 - 5 paper, 48 x62cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston,
45 wan | a ey os am Uae OP Texas, US
j : Ne (

1.\ =~ | ‘ 3 : $ (D> > Water of the Flowery Mill This picture

= - depicts the remains of an old mill and bridge
segs me * on the Housatonic River, near Gorky’s home in
ney Sherman, Connecticut. And yet the real
ess subject seems to be paint itself — thin brilliant
= ( ; washes of colour overflow and overlap in a
style that looks forward to fully fledged
‘ Abstract Expressionism. 1944, oil on canvas,
5 zi 107x124cm, MoMA, New York, US
Adolph Gottlieb
b NEW YORK, 1903; d NEW YORK, 1974 Willem de Kooning
Gottlieb adopted the term “pictograph” for paintings he
b ROTTERDAM, 1904; d EAST HAMPTON, NEW YORK, 1997 LIFEline
created in the 1940s to suggest something between
Along with Pollock and Rothko, de Kooning is the most celebrated 1916 Apprenticed to a firm
image-making and writing. Like Rothko and Newman,
Abstract Expressionist. His brushwork was bold and spontaneous and, of commercial artists
he was fascinated by myth and sought a kind of painting
by painting without using preliminary studies, he gave his pictures a 1926 Enters US asa
that was “timeless and tragic’ The figurative elements stowaway, settles in New
were not related rationally. He wrote: “| take the things | thrilling physical immediacy.
know — hand, nose, arm — and use them in my paintings Swit S Throughout his career, de Kooning was happy making abstract and met Works on Federal
after separating them from their associations as Photograph by figurative work. He is best known for a series of provocative paintings Arts Project
anatomy’ The later series, the exhilaratingly explosive TonyVaccaro of women (Women nos I-VI) he made in the early 1950s. With their 1943 Marries artist Elaine
‘Bursts’ (1957-74) are closer to the popular image of toothy snarls, pendulous breasts, and vacuous eyes — all rendered with __| Fried
slashing, impassioned brushstrokes and dripping paint — these women were crude, 1948 First one-man show in
Abstract Expressionist wildness.
ferocious, and comical. This non-traditional way of depicting women shocked the New York consists of black-
and-white compositions
public and some critics, while fellow Abstract Expressionists considered de Kooning’s
1950-51 Teaches at Yale
use of figurative representation to be regressive. School of Art
In the late 1950s, de Kooning painted a series of landscapes. These evolved from 1968 Visits Netherlands for
complex exercises in composition and colour to images of broadly painted simplicity. his retrospective at Stedelijk
By the 1960s, he was showing women in the landscape with flamboyant, liquid 1969 Begins sculpting
brushstrokes, revealing a painter at peace in his new Long Island home.

» Painting De Kooning stated “even

abstract shapes must have a likeness”,
and here the tense curves suggest the
forms of breasts, torsos, and buttocks.
1948, enamel and oil on canvas, 108x143cm,
MoMA, New York, US

W Woman | /he first of a series of

paintings of women, Woman | went
through 2 years of transformations before
it was finished. Throughout,
ae oi ies 2 is
de Kooning painted the woman
A Eyes of Oedipus /his is vigorously, almost violently, reversing
from Gottlieb’s Pictograph traditional female representations, which
series. 1945, oil on canvas, he summarized as “the idol, the Venus,
91x 70cm, Israel Museum, the nude”. 1950-52, oil on canvas, LOVYL
INSIN
Jerusalem, Israel 193x147cm, MoMA, New York, US

| Lee Krasner INcontext

HAROLD ROSENBERG Art critic
Harold Rosenberg was highly influential
in the success of Abstract Expressionism.
He coined the term “Action Painting”
in a 1952 article in Art News as a
response to the work of Pollock and de
Kooning. He celebrated Action Painting | SV6L
SCGYV
as a means of unleashing artists’
instinctive creative forces, and as a
dialogue between painter, materials,
and the canvas.
Harold
Rosenberg
(1906-78)
Renowned for
his fiercely
intellectual
criticism of art,
Rosenberg also
A Gothic Landscape /his is one of Krasner paintings used these
made in the aftermath of her husband's and her mothers skills to write
about politics
deaths. The violent and expressive gestural brushstrokes and society.
can be seen as reflections of her grief. 1961, oil on canvas,
177x238cm, Tate, London, UK

Abstract Expressionist Lee Krasner was better known

for being the wife of Jackson Pollock. In the 1930s, she
worked for the Federal Art Project, and was rapidly
promoted to supervisor in the mural division. However,
it was under German painter Hans Hofmann that her
painting flourished, and she began creating abstract
still lifes and diagrammatic figure studies.
In the 1940s, Krasner socialized with the first
generation of Abstract Expressionists in New York,
marrying Pollock in 1945. Her Abstract Expressionism
varied from “all-over” work — with repeating rhythms
of hieroglyphic-type signs — in the late 1940s, to bold,
gestural work in the late 1950s and 60s.
¥ War <The Burning of “The Royal
The representation of war in art is judged by criteria that may not be those
James” at the Battle of Sole
of the artist. The pacifist demands an adequate representation of war's horrors. Bank, 28 May 1672 Willem van de
lat-Wanlilieclavael=\ant-larecmants1e(er0]
(010 cur-\oror0]¢-(enalame) celeoars)[alii |me(-1¢-ll Me mUlaicoliaalelale| Velde, the Younger The artists
aces: equipment. The politician will demand that the balance of heroism and atrocity be practised depiction of maritime
scenes led to him painting sea battles
% ! weighted to the needs of propaganda. Despite all this, some artists have risen to
from an English perspective for Charles
the challenge of representing the effects and experiences of war in various ways IL king of England. 17th century, oil on
— through symbols (like Rubens or (€foNy7-) ul ov colaer-lavtrclcolamelament=- elle laiaelm iar) canvas, 106x 153cm, private collection
individual (Géricault) or by implication through the impact on the land (Paul Nash).
V The Consequences of War
As well as any eye)tter=] ela ethical issues, the presentation of large numbers of Peter Paul Rubens Rubens contrasts
figuresinaction presents the artist with a formidable technical challenge. the sumptuousness of his execution
with the tragedy of his subject matter.

V Relief Depicting Two Soldiers 1637-38, oil on canvas, 206 x342cm,

Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy
Carrying the King’s War Chariot Y The Alexander Mosaic Roman /his mosaic
depicts Darius Ill at the Battle of Issus (333 BCE),
e Palace
ofSargon Il, Khorsabad, where he fought against Alexander the Great. It is
aq. 8thcentury BCE; gypsum, height composed of over a million tesserae — small,
27 uvre, Paris, France coloured tiles. 1st century BCE, mosaic, 342 x529cm,
Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, Italy

School This scroll illustrates the “dega eS

i 4: SRR — Dy
Heiji Disturbance, a conflict
A The Arrival of the Allied Army at Itapiru,
between two Japanese warrior
_ Paraguay Candido Lopez Lopez was a soldier,
clans in 1159. 13th century, ink
and war is a recurring subject of his work. The
and colour on paper, 41 x670cm,
panoramic nature of this painting demonstrates the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, US
A 5
magnitude of this conflict between the triple
> The Siege of Jerusalem yet alliance of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay against
by Nebuchadnezzar Jean € i, = Paraguay (1864-1870). 1866, oil on canvas, Museo
Fouquet Fouquet was one of 4 ae Historico Nacional, Buenos Aires, Argentina
the most prominent painters te)
of the 15th century, and this <The Wounded Cuirassier Theodore Géricault
colourful biblical scene is The ominous clouds in the background add to the
typical of his illuminated emotional intensity of the scene. This painting is a
fine example of Gericault’s work, and of the
manuscripts. Bibliotheque
Nationale, Paris, France és Romantic sensibility. The anonymous character is
thought to represent the defeat of Napoleon's army.
1814, oil on canvas, 358 x294cm, Louvre, Paris, France
 V We Are Making a New World Paul Nash,
The blithe optimism of the title sits in bitter
contrast to the barren landscape, ravaged by the
efffects of war. Nash's depictions of conflict were
> The Carnivorous Vulture, Plate 76 of influenced by Vorticism. 1918, oil on canvas, 71x91cm,
“The Disasters of War" Francisco de Goya Imperial War Museum, London, UK
Goyas dark series of etchings, inspired by the
Spanish War of Independence, is a disturbing V The Battle of Midway
insight into the horrors of war. 1810-14, etching,
lan Hamilton Finlay The
18x 22cm, private collection
artist created this tableau
V Balaclava Lady Elizabeth Butler This realistic
with the help of James.
Stoddart and James Boyd.
presentation of the effects of war on its
as a memorial to those lost
participants was controversial when first
in what became the most
exhibited, not least because it was painted by
influential battle for
a woman. 1876 oil on canvas, 59x 76cm, Manchester
supremacy in the Pacific
Art Gallery, UK
during World War II. 1977,
mixed media, Chateau d'Oiron,
Loire Valley, France.

yuVvM

SAWSH
NI
LYV

mi, oe at
: eae Wa. hs as |
OY ae
ez, A The Defence of Sevastopol Aleksandr
ei
5 ala
P a Bas wa
2 . BO
Aleksandrovic Dejneka Dejneka gained the
approval of the Soviet political establishment with
his idealized representations of Russian soldiers
in World War Il. 1942, oil on canvas, 200x 400cm,
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

< Blue Baby, Blitz Over Britain Edward Burra

A Barricade in the Rue de la Mortellerie , Even in his representation of the destruction of
June 1848 (Memory of Civil War) Ernest war, Burra retains a macabre sense of humour
Meissonier The realistic observation of this scene that is characteristic of his work. 1941, watercolour
— from the detailed cobblestones to the limp, on paper, 69x 102 cm, private collection
lifeless bodies — is notable for its emotional
detachment. 1849, oil on canvas, 29x 22cm, Louvre,
Paris, France
 Mark Rothko
b DVINSK, 1903; d NEW YORK, 1970
» Untitled Jo create
The Russian-born painter, Mark Rothko, was a leading his famous Abstract
Abstract Expressionist whose emotionally resonant Expressionist images,
use of colour led him to be categorized as a Colour Rothko worked on untreated,
Field painter (an abstract style characterized by its use unprimed canvases. He
of large expanses of solid colour). In the 1930s, Rothko applied repeated thin layers
Portrait by painted in an Expressionist manner, but in the early of pigmentation with light,
Ben Martin 1940s, like many of his fellow Abstract Expressionists, fast brushstrokes, so that
he adopted a Surrealist style, drawing upon the myths underlying layers showed
of antiquity and using calligraphic, biomorphic imagery. He began to through. The result was
develop the distinctive style for which he is best known — featuring a painting of great
large blocks of colour — in the late 1940s. By the end of the 1950s, his transparency and luminosity.
work had earned him international acclaim. Despite this, he became 1955, acrylic and mixed media
increasingly depressed, and eventually took his own life in 1970. on canvas, 138x 70cm, Israel
Museum, Jerusalem, Israel

LIFEline ¥ Slow Swirl at the Edge of the Sea. CLOSERIook

1913 When he is 10, Rothko's_ | This image, from Rothko’s Surrealist period,
family emigrate from Russia shows two sinuous creatures that seem to
to the US | float between sea and sky, surrounded by
1921-23 Studies liberal arts | arabesques, spirals, and stripes that can be
at Yale University | read as musical notation. 1944, oil on
1925 Moves to NewYork, and | canvas, 191x215cm, MoMA, New York, US
studies at the Art Students :
League under Max Weber pa
1.
1933 First one-man \ spt,
exhibition, at the Portland Art | 4 Ke ag? gst
Museum ‘ =
1948-49 Helps run The i, SOFT EDGES Rothko
Subjects of the Artist art 2 aN
generally painted his
school with Baziotes, Hare, ¥
Aotherwell, and later w,
rectangles with soft,
ewman #5 uneven edges. As a result,
1951-54 Teaches in the art they seem to be gently
department at Brooklyn | hovering or floating over
College, New York the canvas — even when
1961 Retrospective of his | the rectangle is of a cool,
work at the MoMA, New York recessive colour, as the
EXPRESSIONISM
ABSTRACT blue is here.

ONWARDS
1945

* eg z3 Cake

“No. 5/No. 22 /n this early

example of his abstract
painting, Rothko uses hot,
intense colours that give an
air of exuberance and vitality.
In the early 1950s, his palette
often contained vibrant reds,
oranges, and yellows. 1950,
oil on canvas, 297 x272cm,
MoMA, New York, US

» Untitled /his dark,

sombre work is typical of the
paintings Rothko produced
in the last two years of his
life, Lonely, suspicious, and
separated from his second
wife, he drank, smoked,
and took prescribed drugs
to excess. His paintings
became gloomier and more
mysterious, and used browns,
greys, and dark blues, or reds
and black. 1969-70, synthetic
polymer paint on canvas, 198x
168cm, MoMA, New York, US
Barnett Newman
b NEW YORK, 1905; d NEW YORK, 1970 LIFEline
After Rothko, Barnett Newman was the pre-eminent Colour Field 1905 Born in New York, the Clyfford Still
painter (see p.502). He became famous for his “zip” paintings, in son of Russian Jewish
immigrants b GRANDIN, NORTH DAKOTA, 1904; d BALTIMORE, 1980
which he used thin stripes of colour against a plain background. He
1948 Paints first of his “zip”
saw the zip as a way of expressing the sublime, and recognized that it paintings A pioneering Abstract Expressionist, in the mid-1940s Clyfford Still
was capable of endless explorations. Indeed, he continued to paint zips 1950 First one-man became one of the first artists of the New York School to paint on a
for two decades — changing their colour, width, and the way the paint exhibition, at the Betty large, “heroic” scale, and one of the first to ignore representational
was applied, so that each painting had a unique personality. Parsons Gallery, New York subject matter. Still’s work married the two strands of Abstract
Unlike his fellow Abstract Expressionists — Pollock, Rothko, and de 1958-62 Paints in black and Expressionism. Like the Colour Field painters, he was concerned
Kooning — Newman was largely ignored by the art world in the 1950s. white with the emotive power of colour. Like the Action Painters, he was
His reputation was only cemented in 1960s, when Miminalists such as 1965 Begins making steel interested in the expressive possibilities of brushwork, typically using
sculptures
Don Judd admired the way in which he derived his composition from a heavily loaded brush to create jagged, impasto forms.
1970 Dies, aged 65
the shape of the canvas. In turn, Newman's late work was influenced In the early 1950s, Still severed ties with commercial galleries and
by Minimalism, with his zips becoming crisper and less expressive and worked in increasing isolation. His uneasy relationship with the art
in the 1960s he started making equally simplified steel sculptures. world, and his reluctance to exhibit, meant that he did not receive
the acclaim given to his contemporaries.
v Uriel Named after the archangel of light, this is the last and largest of a
group of pale turquoise paintings. While the vast turquoise expanse seems
to enfold the viewer, the dark tones provide a kind of visual anchor. 1955,
oil on canvas, 244x549cm Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany

Untitled Here, Stil/’s

Jagged flashes of colour give
the impression that a layer of
colour has been torn off the
painting. The palette and the
emptiness of this painting is
evocative of the bleak and
vacant landscapes of his
native North Dakota. 1953,
oil on canvas, 277 x234cm, LOVYL
INSIN
Kunsthalle Hamburg, Germany

Hans Hofmann
b WEISSENBURG, BAVARIA, 1880; d NEW YORK, 1966
r

SGYVM
SV6L

The Veil in the Mirror

This painting, juxtaposing
strongly coloured rectangles,
is characteristic of Hofmann'’s
Abstract Expressionist style.
There is feeling of depth, as
the hot colours — especially
the pink rectangle in the top
right corner and the yellow
in the bottom right corner —
appear to loom forwards.
Hofmann termed this the
“push and pull” effect. 1952,
~ MoMA, New York, US

Hans Hofmann was an influential Abstract Expressionist artist, and

A Adam From the mid-1940s, Newman was preoccupied with an important, highly respected teacher. Trained in Munich and Paris,
the Jewish myths of Creation, and his zips may relate to artistic Hofman emigrated to America in 1930, and ran an art school in New
A Onement 1 This painting was Newmans traditions that present God as a single beam of light. The name York from 1934 to 1958. There, he taught many of the younger Abstract
artistic breakthrough — the first time he used his Adam derives from the Hebrew word adamah, meaning “earth”, Expressionists, including Lee Krasner and Helen Frankenthaler. The
signature mark, the zip. Newman applied the and the relationship between the brown and red here may degree of contact he had with European artists was rare and much
light cadmium red zip on a strip of masking tape, symbolize man’s intimacy with the earth. 1951-52, oil on canvas, valued among the New York School.
creating a thick, irregular band on the smooth 243x203cm, Tate, London, UK Hofmann developed a highly distinctive form of abstraction, based
field of Indian Red. 1948, oil on canvas and oil on patches of vivid colour. The dense surfaces, which were often
on masking tape, 69x41cm, MoMA, New York, US vigorously and impulsively painted, linked his work to the Action
Painters, yet his painting was closer to the Colour Field painters. He
sought to create a tension between the flatness of an abstract painting
and the illusion of depth in a representational painting. The result, he
declared, was a pictorial space that was “alive, dynamic, fluctuating,
and ambiguously dominated by forces and counterforces”
 David Smith Philip Guston
< fl
b DECATUR, INDIANA, 1906; d NEAR BENNINGTON, VERMONT, 1965 |LIFEline b MONTREAL, CANADA, 1913;
d WOODSTOCK, NEW YORK, 1980
David Smith is regarded as America's greatest post-war sculptor. | 1925 Works as a welder and
| riveter at the Studebaker Guston had an extraordinarily varied career. In the
The son of an engineer, he sculpted by welding iron and steel —
|automobile plant in South Bend, 1930s, he was a socially and politically committed
marrying these modern American industrial materials with the | Indiana. artist. He made drawings that satirised the Ku Klux
aesthetic developments of the leading European avant-garde artists. |1926 Moves to New York, studies Klan and from 1934 to 1942 worked as a mural painter
Smith trained as a painter but turned to sculpture in the 1930s | painting at Art Students League
(largely for the Federal Art Project) in Los Angeles and
Photograph after seeing Picasso's and Julio Gonzalez’s welded metal pieces. 1942-44 Works during World
by Arnold In 1940, he found the perfect place to work at Bolton Landing in New York. In the 1950s, however, painterly concerns
| War Il as welder of tanks and
Newman locomotives in a defence plant displaced political ones. He turned to Abstract
the Adirondack Mountains, upstate New York. He developed a deep
| 1948 Teaches in New York, Expressionism, creating paintings of shimmering and
affinity with the place, spending hours arranging and photographing his sculpture
| Vermont, and other schools luminous colour. By the 1970s, however, he was again
in the fields around his studio. Smith evoked the landscape through his sculptural
| 1950 Awarded a Guggenheim addressing social issues, becoming one of the few
method of “drawing in space” From the late 1950s, his sculpture became Foundation fellowship, which
increasingly monumental. He joined cubes and cylinders together at dynamic
Abstract Expressionists to return to figurative painting.
| freed him from having to teach
angles so they reached out into space. Intended for the outdoors, they were |1965 Dies in car crash, aged 59

a
enhanced by the effect of the light on their polished or painted surfaces. v Legend Superficially, Guston’s paintings look like Pop art.

n e
However, they are not a celebration of modern society; instead

Pe 5a )
UT
they show violence, alienation, and emptiness. With the broken
glass and truncheon, this looks like the scene of a fight. 1977,

KI
oil on canvas, 175x200cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, US

Hudson River Landscape

This piece is created from a series
of drawings made on train journeys
beside the Hudson River. Smith
used the tensile strength of steel!
EXPRESSIONISM
ABSTRACT
and his welding skills to create a
beautiful, weightless, “drawing in
space”. 1951, welded painted steel
and stainless steel, 126x187 x42cm, |Ad Reinhardt
Whitney Museum, New York, US
b BUFFALO, 1913; d NEW YORK, 1967
A Zig IV Zig was Smiths
abbreviation of ziggurat, the Reinhardt was a pioneering abstract painter. As a
terraced pyramid-like temples member of the American Abstract Artists (1937-47),
of ancient Babylon. The complex, he painted crisp, geometrical images. He adopted an
ONWARDS
1945 shifting planes of the sculptures Abstract Expressionist style in the late 1940s. It was
are also reminiscent of early for his one-colour paintings, however, that he became
Cubism. Smith painted this piece famous. He worked in blue and red in the early 1950s,
with automobile enamel and then in black from the mid-1950s. The paintings were
mounted it on wheels so it became purged of subject matter and painterly expression.
independent of a plinth or base. He declared, “| am simply making the last paintings
1961, painted steel, private collection that can ever be made." In fact, they inspired a new
generation of painters — the Minimalists (see p.529).

\ Agricola VIII “Agricola” is Latin

for farmer and Smith made a series
of sculptures from welding together
agricultural implements, many of 6¢ \\/hat associations It (steel)
which he found near his home. Like possesses are those of this
many Modernist artists, Smith saw
century: power, structure,
beautiful forms in functional
objects. 1952, bronze and steel, movement, progress,
painted brown, private collection suspension, destruction,
brutality 9?
DAVID SMITH, 1952 A Abstract Painting At first glance, this is simplyablack
painting. In fact, the picture is made up of squares that have
extraordinarily subtle changes of hue and texture. These subtleties
are lost in reproduction — as Reinhardt knew they would be. 1956,
oil on canvas, 203x 178cm, private collection
Paul-Emile Borduas Cy Twombly
b SAINT-HILAIRE QUEBEC, 1905; d PARIS, 1960 LIFEline b LEXINGTON, VIRGINIA, 1928
Borduas was the most influential Canadian abstract painter. In the early 1923 Enrols in School of Fine Arts, Montreal Twombly is a painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. He
1940s, influenced by the writings of Surrealist André Breton, he formed 1928 Moves Paris grew up as part of the Abstract Expressionist scene; in
a group called the Automatistes, who published their manifesto Refus 1930 Returns to Canada, as church decorator the early 1950s, he studied at Black Mountain College
Global in 1948. |t attacked Quebec's conservative art world and the 1937 Appointed professor of drawing and under Motherwell and Kline, and travelled to Europe and
decoration at the Ecole du Meuble, Montreal
Catholic church and led to Borduas losing his job as a teacher and North Africa with Rauschenberg. Twombly, however,
1946 Borduas's Automatistes group holds
emigrating to the US. His two years in New York were productive. One developed an idiosyncratic style, based on scribbled and
exhibitions in a series of makeshift galleries
of the first paintings he made there was called Les Signes S’envolent 1953 Emigrates to US, lives in Provincetown graffiti-like marks, worked in chalk and pencil as well as
(The Signs Disappear), which summed up his new style. He eliminated then New York paint. He is inspired by classical art and mythology and
objects and used knives to apply paint. Borduas spent his last years in 1955 Moves to Paris in 1957 settled in Rome. Many of his paintings have the
Paris where he concentrated on geometric composition. 1960 Dies in Paris of a heart attack look of ancient walls and tablets, often with numbers
and words appearing in spiky, hesitant hand.
» Painting /his picture is
typical of Borduas’s “allover” Achilles Mourning the Death of Patroclus /he vigour of
style: no part of the picture is the mark-making here verges on a scrawl. It shows the influence
more important than another. of Action Painting — the act of painting becomes the subject of
He painted it in Paris where the image. Here, the turbulence of the marks with their deep
he increasingly began to use colour suggests grief, explaining the mourning in the title. 1962,
white. 1956, acrylic on canvas, oil and graphite on canvas, 259x302cm, Pompidou Centre, Paris, France
13x 17cm, private collection

applied paint with a knife

and then dragged it across
the canvas creating lively,
blade-like marks. Colours
combine in unexpected ways
and exciting textures emerge. LOVY
INSIN

Jean-Paul Riopelle Franz Kline Robert Motherwell

b MONTREAL, QUEBEC, 1923; b WILKES-BARRE, PENNSYLVANIA, 1910; b ABERDEEN, WASHINGTON, 1915;
d ILE-AUX-GRUES, QUEBEC, 2002 d NEW YORK, 1962 d PROVINCETOWN, MASSACHUSETTS, 1991

Riopelle was a leading post-war Canadian abstract Until the end of the 1940s, Kline was a representational Motherwell was one of the youngest Abstract
artist. In 1943 he enrolled at the Ecole du Meuble painter, most notably of urban landscapes. In 1950, Expressionists. While the others painted in a realist
in Montreal, where he formed a close association however, having seen some of his drawings enlarged style in the 1930s, he was studying philosophy. He
SV6L
SGYV
with his instructor Borduas, and with other Canadian by a projector, he began to make vigorous, large-scale started to paint full-time after moving to Greenwich
avant-garde artists who had formed the Automatistes calligraphic abstract paintings in black and white. His Village in 1941, and by 1944 he was exhibiting at Peggy
group. Riopelle settled in Paris in 1947, and became first one-man exhibition at the Egan Gallery, New York, Guggenheim’s Art of This Century gallery. He is most
involved in the Lyrical Abstraction group. in 1950 quickly led to his recognition as one of the famous for his Elegies to the Spanish Republic series,
During the 1960s, Riopelle worked in a variety of leading Abstract Expressionists. From 1958, he started in 1949. Executed with rapid brushstrokes, they
media including ink on paper, watercolours, lithography, occasionally introduced strong colours into his works. integrate accidental effects, such as spattered paint. In
and collage, as well as oils. He wanted materials to free addition to oils, Motherwell also worked in collage and
him, to dictate the art he would make. In 1969, he also ¥ Meryon /hese bold marks are characteristic was the only one of the original Abstract Expressionists
started making sculpture. of Kline's work with a strong architectural sense. to embrace printmaking.
This work relates to an engraving of a clock
tower by French artist Charles Meryon. 1960-61,
oil on canvas, 236x 196cm, Tate, London, UK

4 Iberia No. Il Motherwell saw this image as a

bullfight — the ochre paint representing the sand
of the bullring and the black symbolizing the bulls.
1958, oil on canvas, 120x204cm, Tate, London, UK

A The Hour of the Mad Spirit /n the 1950s, Riopelle made many
paintings like this — they have been called his “grand mosaics”. He
used a spatula to create an image that resembles an aerial view of
a landscape. 1956, oil on canvas, 46 x 55cm, private collection
 After the exhilaration of victory there Style and subject
was a long period of uncertainty. The idea of the transformation of the
The atrocities of the war created an body — as in the forms of Germaine
existential crisis in France and artists Richier — was of continued significance.
across the continent struggled with The work of sculptors such as Henry
the same issues. Art represented Moore was thought to mirror the fears
political freedom and contemporary of the time, especially the threat of
work became a matter of national nuclear war. The critic Herbert Read
prestige. Success in exhibitions such referred to it as the “geometry of fear’
as the Venice Biennale was sought by
governments as well as by artists. | CURRENTevents
1946 Prominent leaders of Nazi Germany,
Influences including Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess, are
World War II decimated much prosecuted at the Nuremberg Trials.
The Surrealist movement (See p.470) -
1947 The Marshall Plan, a US programme
of Europe, leaving it politically attracted fewer followers, but had the for rebuilding the allied countries of
greatest influence of all the prewar art | Europe, is implemented. |
divided and economically
devastated. In western Europe movements. Many leading figures of | 1948 David Ben-Gurion becomes the first |
the post-war period, notably Alberto Prime Minister of the new state of Israel.
post-war art reflected the social | 1949 The North Atlantic Treaty |
Giacometti and Jean Dubuffet, had
unease of the period, and A Libération Marianne Paul Colin Post-war art |Organization (NATO), a military alliance of
been linked to Surrealism in their 12 nations including the US, the UK, and
mirrored the preoccupations of the times. In this 1944 print,
political factors were central youth, and automatism was central to Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic, is pushing France, is established.
to its development. the abstractions of artists such as Wols. back the past and looking towards the future.

Post-war Europe
TIMEline 1946 1961
The immediate angst of the
post-war years, as expressed by
Wols’s ambiguous image of
1946, Bernard Buffet’s bleakly
EUROPE
POST-WAR
realistic scene of 1948, and
Kenneth Armitage’s faceless :
walking statue of 1952, gradually i
gave way to a less intense, more
colourful approach, as expressed
by Yves Klein in 1961. The
subdued colours and limited
palette of the earlier period
were replaced by a more
expressive use of colour
BUFFET The Net
and more direct imagery. WOLS The Blue Grenade ARMITAGE friends Walking KLEIN |mprint
ONWARDS
1945

Interpretations Painters such as Antoni Tapies explored

texture, while artists such as Nicolas de
The artistic climate of post-war Europe was Stdel made works halfway between
one of rigour, with artists engaging with the abstraction and landscape. In Britain, Henry
political and philosophical issues of the Moore's abstract sculptures inspired
time. The art scene started up again in Paris younger sculptors, such as Kenneth
in autumn 1944 with a retrospective of Armitage, to break away from realistic
Picasso's work at the Salon de la Libération, representations of form. Modern sculpture
but the break with the past was evident in was now used in public spaces. The 1951
an exhibition the following year by Jean Festival of Britain, a vast open-air exhibition
Dubuffet, Jean Fautrier, and Wols. Attacking in London, which celebrated the end of the
the traditional values of art, Dubuffet and war, was distinguished by large-scale
others developed Art Brut (Raw Art), a sculptures that would have only been seen
rough form of art that drew on the work of in avant-garde work previously.
those considered marginal to society.
Existentialism
Abstract versus figurative The existentialist philosophy, popularized
The choice between abstract or figurative by the French writers, Albert Camus and
work took on a different flavour in the post- Jean-Paul Sartre, influenced artists all over
war climate. Figurative painting was often Europe. It promoted freedom, stating that
associated with the political left, partly humans had to be responsible for their own
because it claimed to address social issues values in an absurd world. The isolated
and partly because modernist art was figures in Bernard Buffet's paintings did not
A Batons Rompus Nicholas de Staél /mmediately after A Man Pointing Alberto Giacometti
still discouraged in the eastern European just represent the hard living conditions of
the war, de Staé/ expressed his feelings with abstract Giacometti's elongated, almost featureless
compositions and a dark palette, peppered with patches Communist countries. In France, Italy, and the post-war years, but stood for the sculptures, whether single or in groups, are
of bright light, as shown in this composition. He /ater Britain there was still a strong current of loneliness of the human condition. Sartre existential masterpieces, summing up the
lightened his palette and returned to more figurative realist art, which was interpreted by some thought Alberto Giacometti an existentialist despair of modern existence and forming an
work, 1947, oil on canvas, 81x 65cm, private collection as politically motivated. hero, grappling with the uncertainty of how anguished response to loneliness and death.
1947, bronze, 178x95x52cm, Tate Liverpool, UK
Abstract art abandoned the geometric to make an honest image of another person.
purity of work from the interwar years.
 Jean Dubuffet
b LE HAVRE, 1901; d PARIS, 1985 LIFEline
Jean Dubuffet was not only fascinated by the work of 1918 Begins studies at
children and amateur painters, but that of psychotics Académie Julian, Paris, but
leaves after 6 months to paint
Jean Fautrier and others considered marginal by society. He called on his own
their work Art Brut (rough or raw art), and used aspects 1924 Gives up painting to run
b PARIS, 1898; d CHATENAY-MALABRY, NEAR PARIS 1964 LIFEline of it in his own, considerably more sophisticated his father's wine business
Described as a pioneer of Art /nformel (a movement 1908 Moves to London aged paintings. For Dubuffet, “real art is always lurking 1933-37 Returns to art;
consisting of related types of Abstract painting), Fautrier ten; later studies at both the where you don't expect It, where nobody's thinking makes marionettes
Royal Academy and Slade 1944 Holds his first solo
resisted the label, as he did all others, and insisted his about it, or mentions its name.”
School of Art exhibition, in Paris
work was based in reality. That reality was often harsh: 1927 Holds his first major Dubuffet incorporated informal and ephemeral
his studio at Chatenay-Malabry was near a wood 1945 Starts to collect Art Brut
exhibition, in Paris elements into his work, including grass, dirt, writing, and
1947 Shows crude Portraits
where, during World War II, the Nazis executed 1943 |s arrested and briefly graffiti. He composed in a naive way, with a childlike,
series of Parisian avant-garde
prisoners each night. Their screams haunted Fautrier, detained by the Gestapo often crude simplicity. This approach appeared 1948 Forms Compagnie de
who conveyed his feelings of helplessness and terror in 1945 Exhibits his Otages to be a radical and subversive challenge to mainstream IArt Brutto collect and show
his Otages (Hostages) series of paintings and series in Paris culture and to the production of art itself, emphasizing, the art of the mentally ill
sculptures. After the war, Fautrier developed haute pate 1950 Creates limited editions as it did, spontaneity while refusing to comply with 1950-51 Works on his Corps
of his work, with some de Dames series, derived
(high paste), a multi-layered, almost sculptural painting accepted techniques and principles.
success from graffiti
technique. The works show a restrained and subtle of 1960 Awarded first prize for
eroticism, shot through with pain and tragedy. painting at Venice Biennale y Le Voyageur sans Boussole /rans/ated as Traveller without
1964 Dies in his house at a Compass, this is one of a series that the artist called
v The Jewess /he French critic André Malraux described the Chatenay-Malabry “landscapes of the brain”. Typical of Dubuffet is the sense there is
Otages (Hostages) series, of which this is a part, as a “hieroglyph little distinction to be made between the human figure and base
of pain”. This painting pays homage to a murdered Jew, its pinkish materials. 118x155cm, oil on hardboard, Pompidou Centre, Paris, France
hue suggesting her beauty. 1943, oil on canvas, 116 x 730cm, Musée Ress

d'Art Moderne de la Ville, Paris, France

YVM1L
43d0uN

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A Jazz Band (Dirty Style Blues) The

elongated forms, simplistic technique, lack
of perspective, and limited, muddy palette
are all in keeping with Dubuffets work. This
sextet of jazz musicians is presented face
on, as they might appear to a child. 1944,
oil on canvas, 97x130cm, private collection

» Le Métafisyx /his deliberately crude

painting of a woman, one the Corps de
Dames series, is influenced by the graffiti
Dubuffet saw on walls around Paris. The
A Symmetries /he thick surface of Fautriers representation is basic and scatological,
post-war paintings is achieved by applying layers and suggests scribbles on a lavatory wall,
of paint and pigment to the canvas. He then with the harsh lines scratched roughly FACIAL FEATURES
scored these to break up the surface. 1957, into the thick paint. 1950, oil on canvas, j The staring eyes, bared
oil and pigment, 53x 71cm, private collection 116x89cm, Pompidou Centre, Paris, France teeth, and pointed nose
» set ina skull-like face
are not meant to be
realistic. Instead they
may reduce her to a set of
mS basic attributes
=<
 Alberto Giacometti
b BORGONOVA, 1901; d CHUR, 1966
Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti is best known for his
Nicolas de Staél sculptures of thin, elongated human figures. However,
b ST PETERSBURG, 1914; d ANTIBES 1955 |LIFEline his first sculptures were flat, almost two-dimensional,
and showed his interest in primitive art. By 1930 he had
Exiled from his native Russia as a child following the revolution, Nicolas | 1914 Born into an aristocratic
become a Surrealist, attempting to evoke fantastic
| Russian family
de Staél travelled widely before finally settling in France in 1938. His Photograph by images from his unconscious. From the mid-1930s, he
1919 Family exiled and
work was initially representational, but by the 1940s it was increasingly Pierre Vauthey went back to working from models, representing the
moves to Brussels
abstract and violently expressive in its dynamic approach, reflecting the t exterior rather than interior world. Finding it difficult to
1933 Studies at the Belgian
dramas of everyday life and death. Dense, sombre areas of paint were Royal Academy translate reality into sculpture, he increasingly worked from memory,
pierced with sharp edges of light to create a surface of strong contrasts. | 1938 Settles in Paris with his figurines becoming smaller and smaller. He spent World War |!
De Staél was trying to transfer his own experiences into paint, using a 1939-40 Serves in the in Switzerland, but returned to Paris in 1945 and renewed friendships
non-figurative structure based on Cubism. French Foreign Legion with Picasso, author Simone de Beauvoir, and philosopher Jean-Paul
From 1948 onwards, de Staél's palette lightened considerably and 1944 Holds his first solo Sartre. His work epitomized the existentialism of post-war Paris, his
soon became brilliant in its use of reds and yellows. Four years later, he exhibition, in Paris. Becomes |
friendly with Georges Braque
elongated figures an anguished response to solitude and death.
reintroduced figures, although their presence in his essentially abstract
1952 His exhibition in London |
world provided some serious challenges for him. By now, de Staél was
is enthusiastically received |
LIFEline
enjoying considerable success, exhibiting in London, Paris, and New
1955 Kills himself in Antibes |

York, but he remained a troubled man and eventually took his own life. 1901 Born, the son of painter
Giovanni Giacometti
1922 Moves to France in his
Abstract Composition Painted just
early twenties
as he was lightening his palette, this is
1941-44 Stays in Geneva,
typical of de Staél’s abstract work. Dark Switzerland, for three years,
areas of paint are set against contrasting before returning to Paris
lighter patches, while the entire painting 1962 Wins main sculpture
is built up with strong textures. 1949, prize at the Venice Biennale
oil on canvas, 162x114cm, Pompidou Centre,
Paris, France
» The Table Giacomettis
hated lite interest in Surrealism is evident
in this bronze sculpture. Its
disembodied figure, severed
hand, and elongated furniture
are all typical of Surrealist art.
1933, bronze, height 143cm,
EUROPE
POST-WAR Pompidou Centre, Paris, France

HEAVY APPLICATION
For most of his career, de
Staél applied paint to his
canvases in thick layers, using
the palette knife or trowel
more than the brush.

ONWARDS
1945

< Les Toits De Staé/s

later pictures are more
representational. The
broad patches of paint in
this painting of roofs are
delineated by contrasting
frames and the wash of
colour indicating a Parisian
skyline. 1952, oil on canvas,
200x 150cm, Pompidou
Les Indes Galantes De Staé/ was a Centre, Paris, France
music-lover and was frequently inspired
by it. This work was the result of a visit to
a ballet set to music by the 18th-century
composer Jean-Philippe Rameau. 1953,
oil on canvas, 155x 118cm, private collection

A Caroline /his is typical of Giacometti’s portraits — the elongated

figure sitting face on, her face partly hidden and with a haunted
expression, the background only roughly filled in. 1962, oil on canvas,
100x81cm, Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland
 Hans Hartung
b LEIPZIG, 1904; d ANTIBES, 1989

Born into a musical and medical German Germaine Richier

family, Hans Hartung studied at Dresden b GRANS, 1904; d MONTPELLIER, 1959
Bernard Buffet Academy before moving to France in
1926. His work in oil painting, Professionally trained by a one-time assistant of
b PARIS, 1928; d TOURTOUR 1999
watercolour, and sculpture is almost Rodin, Germaine Richier initially produced classical
Bernard Buffet spent World War II in great poverty in occupied Paris. entirely abstract and dynamic, although sculptures. After World War II, her work portrayed
In 1948, he held his first solo exhibition there, and in the same year in later years it became more static and disturbing people and creatures, often showing the
he also exhibited with other young Realists. meditative. violence of nature she had observed as a child in
The preface to the catalogue of the show, written by French art critic Provence. Her Christ, commissioned for Le
Jean Bouret, states that, “painting exists to bear witness, and nothing Vv T-54-16 The Tof the title stands for toile Corbusier's church at Assy in 1950, depicted him as a
that is human can be foreign to it’ Buffet’s work uses traditional (canvas), while the numbers indicate that this is tortured, suffering figure, and created such a scandal
imagery to show the horrors of the period. His portraits are bleak the 16th canvas Hartung produced in 1954. Its that the Church authorities removed it.
and unforgiving in their despair. strong lines are set against a more harmonious
background. 1954, oil on canvas, 142x186cm,
Pompidou Centre, Paris, France » Tauromachie /his
W The Net Buffet turns this picture of a person mending a fishing depiction of a bullfight is
net into an image of tension and suppressed violence. The verticals typical of Richiers vision of
and horizontals are elongated to dramatic effect. 1948, oil on canvas, decay, perhaps especially
200
x308cm, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France disquieting for observers of
the period in being the work
of a female artist. 1953,
bronze, 115x99x 55cm, Musées
Royaux des Beaux-Arts,
Brussels, Belgium

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Antoni Tapies (Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze) Wols

b BARCELONA, 1923 LIFEline b BERLIN, 1913; d CHAMPIGNY-SUR-MARNE, 1951

The best-known Spanish artist of his generation, Antoni Tapies Ne Holds his first exhibition, The son of an authoritarian chancellor of the German state of Saxony,
initially studied law for three years before devoting himself to art in Barcelona Wols studied briefly at the Bauhaus School of Art and Design before
in 1943. He helped to co-found the Dau al Set (Seven-sided Die) 1958 Receives painting prize at spending a year in Paris in 1932, where he worked as a photographer.
Venice Biennale
movement in 1948, which had affinities with both Surrealism and The following year, he emigrated to Spain, but he returned to France,
1966 Arrested and fined for his SV6L
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Dada. His early works were influenced by Joan Mirdé and Paul where he was interned as an enemy alien at the beginning of World
political, anti-Franco activities
Klee, but in the 1950s he began the abstract and semi-abstract 1970 Complements painting with War II. While in various prisonerof-war camps, Wols drew strange,
paintings for which he is known. Their rich, scarred surfaces work on “object-sculptures” using claustrophobic watercolours. His post-war oil paintings symbolize
evoke walls and doorways marked by weathering and graffiti. He everyday items explosion and disintegration and are disturbingly ambivalent in their
made “object-sculptures’ which are related to Arte Povera of the 1990 The Fundacié Antoni Tapies, references to both inner and outer worlds. However, their sensitive
late 1960s (Italian for “Poor Art” which used cheap, accessible a centre dedicated to the study of use of brilliant colour, and the violent working of the paint, make Wols
modern and contemporary art,
materials). Tapies’s work became a symbol for Catalan one of the greatest Art /nformel (abstract) painters.
opens in Barcelona
nationalism, repressed by the reactionary Franco regime in Spain,
and inspired a generation of Spanish abstract painters. 4 «<The Blue Grenade
The violence of this
<< Le Chapeau painting and its unsettling
Renverseé A wide effect are typical of Wols’s
variety of mixed post-war work. 1946, oil on
media, including oil, canvas, 46x 33cm, Pompidou
glue, and marble dust, Centre, Paris, France
have been used in
this painting of an
upside-down hat.
1967, mixed media
on canvas, 98x 162cm,
Pompidou Centre,
Paris, France
 Yves Klein
b NICE, 1928; d PARIS, 1962 | LIFEline
Yves Klein first began to paint while he was a student in the 1940s. |1928 Born the son of two
painters
Kenneth Armitage
He travelled widely in Italy, Britain, Spain, and Japan from 1948 to
1952 before settling in Paris in 1955. In 1960, with the critic Pierre
1942 Begins his studies at b LEEDS, 1916; d LONDON, 2002 | LIFEline
the French merchand navy
Restany, he founded the New Realism movement, which consisted A student of both Leeds and the Slade, | 1934-37 Studies at Leeds
| 1947 Composes his first
of a group of artists who rejected traditional easel painting. | symphonie monotone Kenneth Armitage initially carved his | College of Art
Most of Klein's early paintings were monochrome in a variety of (monochrome painting) sculptures, although after World War II | 1937-39 Studies at the Slade |
| School of Fine Art, London
colours (one of his first acts as an artist was to “sign” the brilliant 1948-52 Travels widely in he destroyed all his pre-war carvings
Europe and Asia
| 1946 Head of Sculpture at
blue sky of the French Riviera, calling it his “first and biggest and began to use plaster, later cast into | Bath Academy of Art
monochrome”), but by the late 1950s they were almost all deep 1955 Settles in Paris, where bronze. He created groups of figures
he holds a solo exhibition at
| 1958 Wins best young
blue, a colour he eventually patented as International Klein Blue (IKB), involved in such everyday activities as | sculptor at Venice Biennale
the Club des Solitaires
although it was never produced commercially. going for a walk or sitting on a bench, 1970 Works as visiting
1960 Founds New Realism
As well as conventional paintings, Klein also used models covered movement ~ the bodies appearing as flat sheets professor at Boston University
in paint and laid upon or dragged across the canvas as “living 1962 Dies of a heart attack with projecting limbs. | 1972-73 Arts Council holds a |
brushes” a technique he called anthropometry. In 1958, Armitage was one of the touring exhibition of his work
three British representatives at the = a
Venice Biennale exhibition; the critic
Imprint One of Kleins Herbert Read coined the term v Figure Lying on its Side
anthropometry works, this “geometry of fear” to describe his (No 5) The prone figure appears
piece was created by placing and others’ work. The human figure to be struggling to get up, her
a model on an enamel sheet continued to form the basis of his thin arms and legs in motion
and then spraying International work until the late 1970s when, in his as they try to lever the body
Klein Blue paint around her. Richmond Oaks series, he turned to non- off the ground. 1957, bronze,
1961, spray paint on enamel, figurative subjects. Although most of his 38x83x 22cm, Arts Council
private collection works are in bronze, he also worked in Collection, Hayward Gallery,
wood, plaster, paper, and fibreglass. London, UK
CLOSERIook

EUROPE
POST-WAR

POOLS OF COLOUR The

blue spray paint has pooled in
places on the enamel, appearing
almost black in its depth. At its
edges it blurs imperceptibly into
the enamel background
ONWARDS
1945 =

Ci-git I'Espace The name of

the work recalls the inscription
on French tombstones (ci-git. ../
here lies...) Klein, before his
death, was photographed
beneath the work, suggesting
the possible futility of his
spiritual aspirations. 1960,
monogold on wood, dry pigment in
synthetic resin on sponges, and
artificial roses, 125x 100cm,
Pompidou Centre, Paris, France

A Friends Walking Armitage achieves the feeling of

movement and great vitality in these walking figures, despite
¥ a
their monolithic shared body and spindly legs. 1952, bronze,
uv v 55.9x 62cm, private collection
v uv
\ '
wv WN

A Fire Painting The scorch marks on this

painting were created by burning the surface of
it with a gas burner, either breaking through it
completely or merely scorching. 1961, burnt paper
on wood, 139.5x 102cm, Kaiser Wilhelm Museum,
Krefeld, Germany
 Karel Appel
Pierre Soulages
b AMSTERDAM, 1921; d ZURICH, 2006
b RODEZ, 1919
After studying in Amsterdam, Karel
Often known as “the painter of black” Appel moved to Paris, where, in 1948,
because of his interest in that colour, he became one of the founder members
Soulages held his first exhibition in Paris of the Cobra group (see right). At this
Asger Jorn in 1947. He has also worked as a set stage he was making sculptures
designer and from 1987 to 1994 assembled from discarded objects,
b VEJRUM, 1914; d ARHUS, 1973 produced 104 stained glass windows but he then turned to reliefs inspired
for the abbey church in Conques, France. by children’s drawings. They were made
In 2001, Soulages became the first from pieces of wood sawn at random
living artist to exhibit at the Hermitage and violently coloured. His later paintings
Museum in St Petersburg. became expressionistic and dynamic.
INcontext
v Peinture 1956 A special quality of COBRA GROUP Founded in 1948, the Cobra
Soulagesspaintings is the way he makes movement took its name from the initials of
black appear luminous. 1956, oil on canvas, the members’ home cities: Copenhagen (Co),
195x 130cm, Pompidou Centre, Paris, France Brussels (Br), and Amsterdam (A). The group
held two large exhibitions and was primarily
concerned with semi-abstract paintings of
A. Letter to My Son Painted during a period in brilliant colour and violent brushwork inspired
which Jorn firmly established an international by primitive art and folk art.
reputation, this is one of his most ambitious and Hanging Day Members of Cobra bring their work
impressive pieces. 1956-57, oil on canvas, to the first international exhibition of experimental
130x 196cm, Tate, London, UK artists, held at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam,
in November 1949.

Asger Jorn first visited Paris in 1936,

frequenting Fernand Léger’s studio. In
1937, he created a monumental fresco
for Le Corbusier's building Le Pavillon
des Temps Nouveaux, taking a child's
drawing as a starting point. In Denmark
from 1938, he returned to France in 1947
and became a founder member of the A Fear Appels expressionist portraits feature
Cobra group (see right). In his work, his crudely drawn figures painted in vivid colours
concern was to restore culture to its with a loose handling of drips and trickles, as
authentic origins and to promote the if they had been painted by a child. 1952, oil on YWM1
4adOU
sense of sensual expression. canvas, private collection

Ossip Zadkine Pierre Alechinsky

b VITEBSK, BELARUS, 1890; d PARIS, 1967 b BRUSSELS, 1927

Born in Russia of Jewish and Scottish extraction, Ossip Zadkine went Pierre Alechinsky studied illustration techniques, printing, and
to art school in London and then settled in Paris in 1909. He first photography in his native Brussels and, in 1945, discovered the work
sculpted elongated figures with simplified features in a lyrical and of Jean Dubuffet. A founder member of the Cobra group (see above),
expressive style, but subsequently developed an original style with a he participated in both their exhibitions and then moved to Paris in
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more angular approach that was strongly influenced by Cubism and the 1951 to study engraving. He held his first exhibition in 1954 and started
primitive arts. Zadkine was drawn to the expressiveness of Rodin, and to become interested in oriental calligraphy, which he studied in Japan.
so combined Cubist geometric forms with dramatic emotionalism. In their use of bright colours, playful images, strong brushwork, and
Faced with the likelihood of war in Europe, Zadkine decided to leave distorted forms, his paintings are related to French abstract painting
Paris in 1937 for New York, where he taught, before returning to France (tachism), Abstract Expressionism, and lyrical abstraction styles.
in 1945. His mature work uses convex and concave shapes, lines, and
parallel planes to achieve a sense of rhythm and unity.

A The Destroyed City /he

ruins of the bombed city of
Rotterdam, which Zadkine
visited in 1946, made a deep
impression on him and inspired
A Odalisque /he Cubist influence on this monument, in which the A Parfois C’est I'Inverse /his painting of
Zadkine’s work is evident in the multifaceted arms of the figure, with a hole people running, sitting, bathing, and throwing,
shapes and imagery of this piece. 1936, is set above a series of small illustrations that
torn in its body, are stretched
polychrome wood, Musée Reattu, Arles, France out in horror. 1953, bronze, height are arranged like a crazy strip cartoon. 1970,
acrylic on paper, 18x 30cm, Musée d‘Art Moderne,
6.5m, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Brussels, Belgium
 Reg Butler Jean Robert Ipoustéguy Eduardo Chillida
b BUNTINGFORD, 1913; b DUN-SUR-MEUSE, 1920; d DUN-SUR-MEUSE, 2006 b SAN SEBASTIAN, 1924; d SAN SEBASTIAN, 2002
d BERKHAMSTEAD, 1981
Born Jean Robert, he later adopted his mother's At one time a goalkeeper for Real Sociedad, San Sebastian's football
Originally trained as an architect, Butler maiden name as his nom d’artiste. He trained as a team, Eduardo Chillida trained as an architect before taking up
worked as a blacksmith during World painter and made stained glass but abandoned painting drawing. He became a sculptor after seeing ancient Greek sculptures
War II, and he drew on this experience of in favour of sculpture in 1949. in the Louvre in the early 1950s. His work in iron, steel, and stone has
forging iron in his early sculptures. In 1953 At first his forms were abstract and geometric but always been abstract — his first exhibition in Madrid in 1954 was the
he achieved international fame when by 1955 they became lumpier and as he became more first abstract sculpture exhibition in Spain — but he rejects the label
he won first prize in a competition for and more concerned with the human figure. Inspired of abstract and prefers to call himself a “realist sculptor”
a monument to the Unknown Political by surrealism, themes of life and death continue to be Although many of his works are monumental, they all suggest
Prisoner. His later work was his chief concern. tension and movement and are characterized by his respect for his
in bronze and generally materials. Many are inspired by his Basque upbringing.
concentrated on the human
<< La Terre /postéguys
figure. In the 1970s he
first life-size sculpture of
made a number of
a human figure was soon
realistically painted nude followed in 1963 by
figures in provocative poses. another, entitled ‘Homme.
1962, bronze, 188x69x
«< Woman /his 54cm, Tate, London, UK
sculpture reflects
Butler's background as
a blacksmith but also
his interest in Picasso
and Surrealism. The
process of forging
enabled him to turn iron
into organic forms.
1949, forged and welded
iron, 221x71x48cm,
Tate, London, UK

eye: 5

A Mesa de Omar Khayam II Chillida is best known for his

work in steel. This is typical of the organic ribbon-like forms he
achieves, which is quite unlike the more mechanistic
appearance of sculptures created by those who work in welded
EUROPE
POST-WAR metal, such as Anthony Caro. 1983, steel, 50x 157.5x307cm,
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain

Eduardo Paolozzi
=
b LEITH, SCOTLAND, 1924; d LONDON, 2005

After training in Edinburgh and London, Eduardo Paolozzi

moved to Paris in 1947. His collage of the same year,
| Was a Rich Man's Plaything is viewed by some critics as
ONWARDS
1945 the first true example of Pop Art, although he has always
described his own work as surrealist.
| Paolozzi, 1924 In 1952 Paolozzi was founder member of the
Independent Group of artists that met in London for
three years and is seen as a precursor of the 1960's British Pop Art
movement. His early sculpture was described by the critic Herbert Read
as an example of “geometry of fear’ because of its reflection of post-
war anxiety. Later sculptures by Palozzi were more colourful and playful
and have sometimes been associated with Pop Art.
Paolozzi is best known for his public sculptures, which were often
largely life-like statues with elements added or removed, or were the
human form deconstructed in a Cubist manner. He also created the
mosaic patterned walls of Tottenham Court Road tube station in London.

LIFEline
1924 Born the eldest son of
Italian immigrants
1943 Studies at Edinburgh
College of Art, then in London
at St Martin's and Slade
1947 Works in Paris
1952-55 A founder member
of the Independent Group «< Metalisation of the A Large Frog, Version II Pao/ozzi CLOS ERlook
1984 Completes the mosaics
Dream For artists of Paolozzi’s worked closely with “Brutalist” ath ' oem TEXTURE
in Tottenham Court Road generation, print was a way of architects who believed that raw Paolozzi created the
underground station, London reaching a wider public. concrete was a suitable material for craggy surfaces in
1995 His bronze statue Newton Although 40 examples were mass housing in a consumer society. this sculpture by
is placed outside the British made, each is printed in The “Brutalist” aesthetic was also impressing machine
Library in London different colours. 1963, screen identified with sculpture such as this. parts into wax, and
print, 50.5x48.5cm, Victoria & 1958, bronze, height 68cm, width 81cm, casting the results
Albert Museum, London, UK Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, UK in bronze
 For artists working in America in the
early 1950s, Abstract Expressionism Style and Technique
was the dominant influence, yet Frankenthaler’s new soak stain
some were already looking for new technique was simple, but radical:
ways of interpreting abstract painting. pouring very diluted oil or acrylic paint
Experimenting with highly diluted oil directly on to unprimed canvas and
From the Abstract Expessionism and acrylic paint, they developed a allowing it to soak in. The idea was
of postwar America, a second distinctive and purely abstract style. similar to Pollock’s action painting,
but the results completely different —
generation of abstract artists Origins and Influences large areas of flat, translucent colour,
emerged, using innovative Helen Frankenthaler was a pioneer of A In Britain, the leading interpreters ofthe bonded into, rather than applied on to,
techniques in a less subjective movement that became known as “post-painterly
this new abstraction, influenced by the the canvas. Other artists took up the
abstraction” were the New Generation sculptors who
style and avoiding painterly techniques of Jackson Pollock's action exhibited at London's Whitechapel Gallery (above) technique of this colour field painting,
gesture. Often on a huge scale, painting and the large blocks of colour in 1965. In the US, the movement was primarily and the purity of its abstraction led
in work by Mark Rothko and Robert concerned with painting. to an interest in simple geometric
their work was absolutely
Motherwell. Her “soak stain” shapes and bold colours in the work
non-representational and
technrque eliminated brushstrokes fields of colour, and was soon taken of Ellsworth Kelly and Kenneth Noland,
characterized by clarity of and surface texture, placing more up by other artists looking for an for example, which in turn inspired a
composition and colour. emphasis on the form and shapes of alternative to Abstract Expressionism. similar movement in abstract sculpture.

Abstract painting and sculpture

TIMEline 1957
1959
In the early 1950s, Helen WN
Frankenthaler’s new “soak
stain” techniques were
adopted by artists such as
Morris Louis and Jules Olitski. S3YNL
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The pure abstraction of this
colour field school evolved into
the hard-edge abstracts of
Kenneth Noland and Ellsworth
Kelly, which inspired many
British sculptors in the 1960s,
and were taken a stage further TUCKER Thebes
in the shaped canvases of KELLY
Al Held and Frank Stella. Broadway STELLA Cricche, Crocche e
FRANKENTHALER Lorelei NOLAND Half Manico D’Uncino

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Interpretations Washington Colour School) explored

geometric shapes and bolder colours, in
The techniques developed by American various series of stripes, circles, chevrons
abstract painters in the 1950s resulted in and so on, which developed into the “hard-
a wide variety of interpretations, from colour edge” style; and Frank Stella and Al Held
field paintings through hard-edge geometric worked on irregularly-shaped canvases and
compositions to complex mixed-media introduced three-dimensional elements,
work, but they had one thing in common — while retaining the dispassionate style.
the avoidance of painterly gesture.
Sculpture
Painting Post-painterly abstraction was initially an
Helen Frankenthaler exhibited the first American movement, and as the name
major painting using soak stain technique, suggests concerned almost exclusively
Mountains and Sea, in 1952. This not only with painting. Its influence, however, soon
launched her career, but also provoked a spread elsewhere, most importantly to
reaction to Abstract Expressionism with its Britain, and manifested itself in a school
unemotional style and gentle colours. As of abstract sculpture. Anthony Caro and
other painters experimented with her his students at St Martins School of Art in
techniques, different styles began to evolve London began using industrial materials
in the early 1960s, and the critic Clement such as sheet metal and plastic to create A Twin Peaks Anthony Caro British artists,
Greenberg coined the term “post-painterly abstract forms, painting them in flat, bold particularly sculptors, were also inspired by the
abstraction” for an exhibition in Los Angeles primary colours. In the US, meanwhile, clarity of American “post-painterly abstraction”.
in 1964 as a general description of the painters including Ellsworth Kelly and Frank Among them was the influential teacher
Anthony Caro, whose students in the “New
interpretations of the style. Among the Stella were branching out from the purely
Generation” further developed the style of
artists included were Jules Olitski and colour field style, and as well as producing abstract sculpture during the 1960s. 1977-78,
Ellsworth Kelly, who simplified composition, mixed-media two-dimensional work began bronze, 96.5x48.3x41.9cm, private collection
A Spawn Morris Louis Colour field painting, using the new often taking the principles of colour field to adapt their styles to sculpture. Like their
acrylic paints and innovative techniques for applying it to the
painting to extremes with canvases of a paintings, these sculptures were often on
canvas, arose in the US in the 1950s. Its purity of colour and
form was in distinct contrast to the Abstract Expressionism single colour; Morris Louis and Kenneth a massive scale, requiring industrial
that preceded it. Acrylic on canvas, private collection Noland (leading members of the so-called equipment to cut and assemble.
 Morris Louis
Helen Frankenthaler b BALTIMORE, 1912; d WASHINGTON DC, 1962
b NEW YORK, 1928 After moderate success as a Cubist painter, Morris Louis completely
One of the leading figures to emerge from post-war changed direction at the age of 40, adopting Helen Frankenthaler's
Abstract Expressionism, Helen Frankenthaler pioneered “soak stain” technique (see left), and becoming a leading figure in the
the technique of Colour Field painting (see p.523), in Washington Color School. Born Morris Louis Bernstein (he dropped the
elegantly simple compositions with luminous colours. surname in 1938), he studied in his home town of Baltimore from 1927-
Frankenthaler studied at the Dalton School in New 1932, before joining the Works Progress Administration Federal Art
York and at Vermont's Bennington College, and then project in New York. At the end of the 1940s, Louis began using the new
became involved with the New York School of abstract oil-based acrylic paints, and after seeing Frankenthaler’s Mountains and
painters, which included Willem de Kooning, Jackson Sea (1952), he embarked on a series of abstract paintings in the Colour
Pollock, and her future husband Robert Motherwell. Field style (see p.523). By this time, he had moved to Washington, DC.
Attracted by Pollock's method of painting on Along with like-minded painters, including Kenneth Noland, he
unprimed canvases, Frankenthaler took the technique established a group in response.to the Abstract Expressionism of the
a step further, allowing thinned paint to soak into the New York School. Louis's work in the 10 years before his untimely death
raw canvas. Mountains and Sea, which used this “soak from lung cancer is divided into three distinct series of paintings, with
stain” technique, brought about her breakthrough self-explanatory titles: Veils, Unfurleds, and Stripes.
in 1952, and she has since developed the idea in
increasingly abstract and uncomplicated compositions. LIFEline
1912 Born in Baltimore
Lorelei /n the 1950s, Frankenthaler produced a number of huge 1936-40 Lives in New York 6¢ Louis's paintinas don’t
paintings by her “soak stain” technique. Using heavily thinned oil 1952 Moves to Washington, p g
paint allowed the texture of the unprimed canvas to show, and gave DC shout, but neither do
an impression similar to a watercolour. 1957, oil on unprimed canvas, 1953 Sees Frankenthaler's they whisper... yet they
179x220cm, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, US
Pe EIS transform their surroundings
“Sea. * | 1954 Begins a series of Veils 99
paintings as only great art can
1955-57 Destroys much of TERRY FENTON, ARTIST AND WRITER
his earlier work and resumes
work on the Veils series
1959-61 Paints the
Unfurleds series of paintings » No. 182 Painted in the last two years of his life,
1961 Begins the Stripes the Stripes series explored the impact of pure colours
series of paintings
in vertical columns on a neutral background. By
1962 Dies in Washington,
carefully pouring thinned acrylic down a suspended
DC, aged 50
canvas, Louis achieved a remarkable clarity of
SCULPTURE
AND
PAINTING
ABSTRACT colour and texture. 1961, acrylic on unprimed canvas,
J) 209x84cm, Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, US

ONWARDS
1945

A The Bay Adapting her technique to the newly developed acrylic

paints, Frankenthaler explored simpler forms in her paintings during
the 1960s, juxtaposing large areas of intense, contrasting colours
This huge canvas is divided into only four areas of colour. 1963,
acrylic on canvas, 205x208cm, The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, US
 Kenneth Noland
.
INcontext b ASHEVILLE, 1924 LIFEline
ACRYLIC PAINT Acrylic paints first went on sale in Painter and sculptor Kenneth Noland studied in his native North 1946 Studies at famous
the late 1940s, originally in an oil-based form known as experimental institution,
Carolina and in Paris before settling in Washington, DC. There, he
Magna, and later in a water-based version. Their main

hc
Black Mountain College,
became a member of the Washington Color School (see p.523), and, North Carolina
advantage is that they are faster-drying than oils. Artists
in the 1950s soon discovered that acrylics could be with his sharp contours and flat colour, was a leading exponent of Hard 1948-49 Studies in Paris
thinned and used in innovative ways — soaked into Edge painting. Initially influenced by Klee, and then the work of Picasso, 1949 Moves to Washington
canvas or even sprayed on — or mixed with other media Photograph by Mird, and Matisse during a year in France, Noland discovered Jackson 1953 Visits Frankenthaler’s
Christopher Pollock and Abstract Expressionism when he returned to the US in studio with Morris Louis
to give different textures.
Felver
1949. He befriended Morris Louis in Washington DC, and together they 1956 Paints the first of his
visited Helen Frankenthaler’s New York studio, which inspired them to experiment circle paintings
with new techniques of Colour Field painting (see p.523). 1961 Moves to New York
In the mid-1950s, Noland reacted against the unfocused composition of Abstract 1962 Begins a series of
chevron paintings
Expressionism culminating in a series of paintings of concentric circles set centrally
1970s Explores irregular
in square canvases. These clearly defined shapes evolved gradually into ellipses, and
shaped canvases, and makes
were then replaced by chevrons, stripes, and grids, often in lozenge-shaped or sculptures
irregularly shaped canvases. Around 1967, Noland also began working as a sculptor,
influenced and encouraged by his friend Anthony Caro. ee eee

Nes

v Gamma Epsilon /n his Unfurleds paintings, Louis began to use

colours that were much more intense and opaque, but applied more
sparingly. Gamma Epsilon, like all the works of this series, contrasts
diagonal stripes of poured acrylic on the left and right of an empty
canvas. 1960, acrylic on unprimed canvas, 86x192cm, private collection

LOVYL
ONILN
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aYNLd

Blue Veil The watercolour

like translucence of the “soak
stain” technique inspired Louis
to begin his Veils series. Extremely
diluted acrylic paint poured on
to enormous unstretched and
unprimed canvases produced
paintings that give the impression Sr6L
SGYVM
of folds of gauzy cloth. c1958-59,
acrylic resin paint on unprimed
canvas, 233 x396cm, Harvard
University Art Museums, US

CLOSERI|ook

A Sarah's Reach /n New York,

<( Half Noland’ series of circle
Noland embarked on a series of
paintings evolved during the
Hard Edge chevron paintings.
late 1950s from indistinct rings
The first of these were
to precise, target-like images of
symmetrical compositions of V
concentric circles with sharply
shapes, appearing to hang from
defined edges in contrasting
the top edge of an otherwise
colours. 1959, acrylic on canvas,
bare canvas. 1964, acrylic on
174x174cm, Museum of Fine Arts,
canvas, 238x233cm, Smithsonian
Houston, US
American Art Museum,
SMOOTH FINISH By
Washington DC, US
literally pouring the thinned
paint on to canvas, Louis
eliminated any surface texture
and painterly gestures such as
brushstrokes. The free flow of
the paint creates an illusion of
three-dimensional depth.
ES
 Ellsworth Kelly
A| Held b NEWBURGH, NEW YORK, 1923
Although never a member of any particular school, Ellsworth Kelly has been a major
b NEW YORK, 1928; d TODI, 2005
influence on the post-war American abstract movements of Colour Field painting,
A leading Hard Edge painter, Al Held studied in Paris for three years, where he Hard Edge painting, and Minimalism.
came across the modern European masters, but turned to abstract painting on his Kelly's studies as a technical artist were interrupted by World War II. After his
return to New York in 1952. He developed his idiosyncratic style during the 1950s discharge from the army, he studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts from 1948 to 1949,
as a reaction to the painterly style of Abstract Expressionism. living in Paris for a total of six years as he developed an original style of abstract
His first abstract works were in an Impressionistic, watercolourlike style of early painting. Returning to New York in 1954, Kelly produced a number of large paintings
Colour Field painting (see p.523), but he later adopted the clean lines and flat with blocks of flat colour, and experimented with different-shaped canvases. This
colours of the Hard Edge school. In the late 1960s, frustrated by the lack of spatial emphasis on geometrical shapes has continued throughout his career, and is also
depth in his work, Held introduced elements of illusionist perspective — geometric, apparent in his sculptures made of sheets of metal.
and sometimes irrational, figures — intuitively placed on his often circular canyases.
These black-and-white “spatial conundrums” were gradually replaced with coloured
LIFEline
shapes in his later work.
1941-43 Studies at the Pratt
Institute, in Brooklyn
» Skywatch II Placed apparently
1943-45 Serves in the army
at random on this huge circular
1945 Studies in Boston
canvas, cubes, prisms, and hoops
1947-48 Studies in Paris
are depicted diagrammatically and
1954 Returns to the US
with an ambiguous perspective.
1970 Paints a series of
1971, synthetic polymer paint on
pictures of curves in two
canvas, diameter 183cm, National colours
Gallery of Australia, Canberra 1973 First retrospective of his
work, at MoMA in New York
2008 Works on commissions
6¢ | like to make for US embassies in Berlin
structures that and Beijing

| can't imagine. —————eEeEeEy~zEEmHPHIm9AR

aaa

lf | could imagine » Broadway Using

them in my mind featureless geometric shapes
there'd be no and primary colours, Kelly
suggests a feeling of depth in
reason to make a patently flat picture plane.
them
PAINTING
SCULPTURE
ABSTRACT
AND
?? 1958, oil on canvas, 198x
AL HELD 177cm, Tate, London, UK

|'Jules Olitski
b SNOVSK, 1922; d NEW YORK, 2007

Like many American artists of his generation, Jules Olitski studied in Paris after World
War II, before establishing himself as a painter and sculptor in New York. Originally
named Jevel Demikovsky, he was born in Soviet Russia just after his father’s political
1945 execution, and emigrated with his family to New York as a baby.
ONWARDS
He became an American citizen and adopted his stepfather’s name while serving in
the US army. Olitski’s early work was brightly coloured and dramatic, often employing
experimental techniques such as painting blindfolded, but this was supplanted by
monochrome paintings after his return to the US. In the 1960s, he stained and
spray-painted canvases with acrylic, using techniques he learnt from Kenneth Noland.
Latterly, he explored the textures of thickly applied paint and sculpture.

A Green Black A recurrent theme in Kelly's work from the

1960s onwards is the juxtaposition of panels painted in bold
single colours. These can be rectangular shapes joined
together — and sometimes displayed diagonally, as here — or
composites of irregularly shaped canvases. 1988, oil on canvas
(two joined panels), 259x 333cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, US
A Instant Loveland After working with “soak stain” techniques, in
the 1960s Olitski adopted a method of spray-painting thinned acrylic
to achieve subtle colour variations. Paintings such as this present a
monochrome, all-over composition, with fine gradations of tone.
1968, acrylic on canvas, 295x646cm, Tate, London, UK
Frank Stella
b MALDEN, MASSACHUSETTS, 1936 LIFEline
Frank Stella has been one of the most influential figures 1950 Studies painting and art
in American Abstract Art. His technically inventive work history at Phillips Academy
Andover, in Massachusetts
has ranged from an austerity close to Minimalism in his
1958 Graduates from Princeton
early pinstripe paintings to the multi-coloured and moves to New York
three-dimensional exuberance of his later work. 1966 Begins the /rregular
Frank Stella Stella first attracted attention in the late 1950s, when Polygons series
his so-called Black Paintings were exhibited at the 1967 Produces his first abstract
Museum of Modern Art in New York. During the 1960s, he prints
experimented with shaped canvases and different materials, a process 1967-71 Paints series of
that culminated in his massive and colourful Protractor paintings. At Protractor paintings
the same time, he was exploring various methods of printmaking — 1970-73 Experiments with
different materials and relief in
screenprinting, etching, and offset lithography — and had begun to use the Polish Village series
wood and aluminium as a base for his painting. More recently, Stella 1982-83 Resident at the
has introduced elements of relief and collage, to the extent that many American Academy in Rome
of his paintings might better be considered as sculpture. 1986 The Charles Eliot Norton
lectures he gave at Harvard are
published as Working Space A Cricche, Crocche & Manico D'Uncino Fealizing a work
v Agbatana II Perhaps the most striking of Stella’s paintings, and the 1992-93 Designs the decorative like this, which features high-relief and collage techniques,
most radical departure for him in terms of the bold colours used, were the scheme for Princess of Wales often entailed using industrial metal-working equipment and a
Protractor Paintings. Characterized by interlocking arcs and square borders, Theatre in Toronto
team of assistants. 1986, mixed media on canvas, 434 x 452x77cm,
they were named after Middle Eastern cities he had visited. 1968, oil on
private collection
canvas, 305x45/cm, Musée d’Art et d'Industrie, St Etienne, France
MY CLOSERIook

LOVYL
ONILN
GNV
S3YNL

BARE CANVAS The bands

of colour in the Protractor
Paintings are separated by
SV6L
SCYV
fine lines of raw canvas, a
technique Stella developed in
the early 1960s.

v Empress of India During

the 1960s, Stella experimented
with aluminium and copper
paints and elaborately shaped
canvases. This work is formed
of four chevron-shaped panels
Joined together. 1965, metallic
powder in polymer emulsion paint
on canvas, 196 x549cm, MoMA,
New York, US

6¢ You can't shake your own

sensibility. No matter what
the concept is, the artist's
eye decides when it's right
... which is a notion of
sensibility 9?
FRANK STELLA
 Anthony Caro
< Tundra /rregular metal sheets and
b NEW MALDEN, SURREY, 1924 offcuts are welded together in massive
r of his generation, and an inspiring teacher, Anthony vertical planes, and coated with clear
g abstract style following a vist to the US in the late varnish to show the colour and texture of
work of David Smith and Kenneth Noland. Caro had the metal. 1975, metal, 272x579x 132m,
figurative style, influenced by the time he had spent Tate, London, UK
istant ; ¥ Midday Caros most important
started workon a series of large-scale sculptures innovation was dispensing with a plinth
ary colours and, significantly, placed on the ground and placing his sculptures directly on the
these evolved into massive constructions of less ground. Midday was constructed from
unpainted. From around 1980, he was increasingly industrial metal parts welded into a light
und objects as well as sheet metal, and his work and open composition, which belies the
s trend continued into the 1990s, eventually weight of the material. 1960, painted steel,
est in figurative forms and some smaller scale works 233 x 95x370cm, MoMA, New York, US

The Soldier's Tale Deriving its title from a piece of music

theatre by Stravinsky, this work is composed of pieces of scrap
from a dockyard. The central bow! shape, suggesting an open
urrounded by a frame-like structure of steel sheets. 1983
| 1951-53 We 183x208x 135cm, Tate, London,UK

SCULPTURE
AND
PAINTING
ABSTRACT

C Re} William Turnbull Phillip King William Tucker

1D\
b DUNDEE, 1922 b KHEREDINE, 1934 b CAIRO, 1935

London inthe 1950s_ | 4 ; Born in Egypt to an English family, William Tucker made
sculptor. After serving in his name as part of the “New Generation” of British
t I he studied at the Slade sculptors in the mid 1960s. He later moved to the
School in London, then worked in Paris for two years US and has now taken American citizenship. Tucker
ONWAT
1945
n, he shareda studio with graduated in history at Oxford University in 1958, and
duardo Paollozzi. The late 1950s proveda turning point then went on to study sculpture at the Central School
n Turnbull's career, when he saw exhibitions of modern and St Martin's in London. His early work, influenced by
d visited the US for thefirst time. As } Anthony Caro and contemporaries such as Phillip King,
ecame completely abstract and was marked by simplicity of form and brightly painted
olour Field artists (see p.512—-13) : 3 geometric shapes in wood, sheet metal, or fibreglass.
culpture, Turnbull began to adopt
A Slant Chevron shapes cut from a cardboard cone provided the Later sculptures, particularly those made after his move
ch, but returned to a more figurative | pattern for the six overlapping elements in this work, which were _| to the US in 1977, show a move to more organic forms,
made from sheet plastic. It was originally painted green, but and even some figurative elements.
repainted when shown on grass at an exhibition in rico
| Battersea Park. 1966, arborite (plastic sheeting), 214x548x19

| One of the “New Generation” of British sculptors of

the 1960s, Phillip King studied at St Martin's School
| of Art in London. After working for a year as Henry
Moore's assistant, he returned to St Martin's, where
he taught with Anthony Caro. King worked in a loosely
figurative style until 1960, but made the fundamental
hange to abstraction at much the same time as his
mentor, Caro. Influenced initially by the simplicity of
| Greek architecture, King also discovered the work of
American abstract artists, which prompted brightly
painted sculptures in fibreglass and sheet metal
| exploring simple geometric forms. His later works, A Thebes Jucker replaced the severe straight lines favoured by
using a wide range of materials, have become more many of his contemporaries with gently rounded shapes. He also
A 5x1 In the po Turnbull produced a number of painted intricate in composition and smaller in scale rejected the identical repetition of Minimalism in favour of an
steel sculpturesoH in which he reduced the composition to most narrative variation of colours and positioning of elements.
essential geometric shapes Mary, like5x 1, involve the 1966, painted wood, 122x137 x203cm Hayward Gallery, London, UK
repeti ition of ide
1,
simple form. 1966
painted st
va S$tee
 Minimal art was usually on a large,
imposing scale. This was not just to
impress and awe. The combination
of simplicity and size was designed Expressionism, they took the sense
to draw attention to the space around of scale and, from Jackson Pollock
the work, and to make the spectator especially, the idea of revealing the
engage with the work as a real object, performance in the making of art.
rather than an image of something From Jasper Johns and Claes
else. In earlier abstract art, there is Oldenburg they took the idea of
always the sense of an imaginary art as an object.
world inside the picture frame, or
Donald Judd, a leading on the plinth. In Minimal art, the Subject and interpretation
proponent, described Minimal object stands only for itself. For many commentators, Minimal art
art as “neither painting nor was the most abstract art yet, but for
Origins and influences others, it represented a complacent
sculpture”. This style, which
Minimal art was the product of a acceptance of the world of industrial
is most associated with generation of artists who were, by
A.5 Cubes with Hidden Cubes Sol Le Witt (1968).
production.
Like much Minimal Art, Le Witt’ constructions and
American artists of the 1960s and large, university trained and drawings were worked out following predetermined Minimal art was sometimes
and 1970s, used basic, simple enormously aware of the history systems in an attempt to avoid the exercise of “taste”. found threateningly aggressive and
forms. Minimal artists often of modern art. Behind its apparent masculine, while the critic Michael
simplicity, there lay a complex web They drew on the tradition of Fried attacked the way in which,
used geometric shapes, but
of influences and ideas. Donald Judd Geometric and Constructivist instead of becoming involved in what
the work was far from the
and Robert Morris — two leading Abstraction (pp.462-65), but they was happening inside the work, the
world of earlier geometric Minimal artists — were prolific writers viewed it through the recent history attention of the spectator was drawn
abstract artists. and theorists as well as practitioners. of American art. From Abstract to the context outside.

Minimal art TVIAIN

LYV

Lucio Fontana Tony Smith

b ROSARIO (SANTA FE), 1899; dCOMABBIO, 1968 b ORANGE COUNTY, 1912; d NEW YORK, 1980 [INcontext
The son of a Milanese sculptor, Fontana moved from his native As a child, while isolated from other children because MASS PRODUCTION Siegfried Giedion’s
famous book Mechanization Takes Command
Argentina to Milan with his family in 1905. His early sculpture, now of tuberculosis , Smith made models from cardboard
(1948) presented a history of mass production,
lost, was figurative, but in the 1930s he made engraved abstract boxes. He trained and worked for many years as an
which showed how it could be both a liberating
sculptures under the influence of Surrealism and semi-abstract architect, although he was friendly with leading Abstract
and an oppressive force. The Minimalist use of SGYVM
SEL
sculptures in coloured ceramic, as well as making more conventional Expressionists, including Jackson Pollock and Barnett industrial material often invoked the dirt and
public work for the Fascist regime. Newman. A serious road accident in 1961, and grease of the factory floor, rather than the
Fontana returned to Argentina in 1940, where he published with frustrations with his architectural practice led him to clean high precision of industry as seen from
his students the White Manifesto (1946). Its demand that “art have take up sculpture. Smith's boxlike forms, fabricated the design office.
its own values, free from the style of representation’ and its attack on industrially in steel and based on plywood models,
At the Rambler plant assembly line Minimal
traditional forms of painting and sculpture foreshadowed the theory were the first real American Minimal art, although they
art could suggest mass production, through its use
and practice of the Minimalists of the 1960s. He returned to Milan in led to less austere works on an environmental scale. of industrial processes and materials, such as steel
1947 and achieved an international reputation for his slashed and and aluminium, and by its repetition of identical
punctured monochrome canvases. He also worked with installations forms — a feature shared with the Pop works of
Andy Warhol.
in neon light and collaborated with architects on exhibition pavilions.
PS

<< Spatial Concept

“Waiting” Fontana’ slashing
and piercing of the surface of
the canvas, always carefully
premeditated, was less an act of
violence than an attempt to draw
the viewer into the surface of the
painting and establish a sense
of space. 1967, oil on canvas,
Museo Revoltella, Trieste, Italy

< Die This simple cube was

deliberately scaled to be neither an
object nor a monument. It is constructed
to “float” just above the floor, so it can
be imagined from all sides. 1962, steel,
183 x 183x183cm, Whitney Museum of
American Art, New York, US
 Robert Morris
b KANSAS CITY, 1931

An involvement with avant-garde theatre and avant-garde Fluxus

performance art inspired Robert Morris‘s classic 1960s Minimalist
works. Simple geometrical constructions had served him as props,
and he saw their potential as sculptures in their own right. Placing large,
| plywood polyhedrons in a gallery led to what Morris called an “extended
| situation” ~ rather than bec oming engrossed in the detail and formal
relationships within a work, the viewer would become aware of their
relationship to the objects in space and time. They would see how the
sculptures are perceived differently depending on the spatial context,
the lighting, and their own position in the gallery. This “embodiment” of
the viewer had a profound influence on contemporary art. Extending the
situation of art still further, Morris has gone on to produce “anti-form”
sculptures and Land Art

LIFEline
1960 Moves to New York

1964 His geometrical objects

| #76 Shown ina So0lo e@xnibition |
’ ; (;alla Ne
it Ine Green Ganery Yew |

« Untitled (Felt Tangle) CLOSERI|ook

| 1968 ° nt-form” felt Morris experimented with FLUID FORM
| vorks at Leo Castelli gallery, soft materials, such as felt, Morris's Fe/t Triangle
New York | pioneering what he termed falls to the floor in a
“anti-form”. Slashed and heap, its exact shape
| 1971 Large-scale exhibition | A Untitled (1967-8) This piece is hungat the
beyond the artist's
| at the late, London, 1s closed average spectators line of vision, exactly how a pinned to the wall, Morris
control. His interaction
| Gue tO
7
NUMEOUS VIeWe
viewer sees it will depend on their height. This let the material fall, and
with the material is
sad | kind of interaction with the body of the spectator accepted the final shape as
not expressive but
is typical of Morris. 1967-68, plastic, a work ofart. 1967, felt and mechanical: nailing
ART
MINIMAL 46x 244x244cm, Tate, London, UK metal eyes, 190 x 400 x 220cm, and cutting.
Kunsthalle Hamburg, Germany

‘Donald Judd
< Untitled This is one of
b EXCELSIOR SPRINGS, 1928; d NEW YORK, 1994 | LIFEline
Judd’s “stacks” — wall-mounted
| Donald Judd’s far-reaching contribution to the development of modern 1948 Studies at the Art works in which his famous
Students League, New York
art was to conceive of a type of artwork that was neither a painting nor aphorism “one thing after
a sculpture, but what he termed a “specific object” Such a work would 1949-53 Studies philosophy another” is most literally
at Columbia University
be an organization of shape and colour and yet, unlike painting, it manifested. Each unit is
1957 Holds his first solo
would declare its literal quality as an object existing in space. For Judd, identical in size, and they are
exhibition in New York
who started out-as a painter, the problem with even totally abstract spaced equal distances apart,
1959-65 Writes criticism for
paintings was that they remained both illusionistic, suggesting a spatial Arts Magazine suggesting the possibility of an
depth that was not actually there, and compositionally balanced, 1965 Publishes his seminal ongoing, perhaps endless
| implying an underlying order that did not exist in the real world, His essay Specific Objects series. 1980, steel, aluminium,
| solution was to utilize industrial materials, such as copper, aluminium, 1968 Retrospective of his and perspex, 23x 102x 79cm (each
and Plexiglas, as elements brought together in simple, geometric, and work at the Whitney unit), Tate, London, UK
Museum, New York
symmetrical arrangements, Every part would retain its own sensual
integrity, while cohering together as a whole 1979 Buys land in Texas, to
house a collection of his work

» Untitled Like other

Minimalist artists, Judd used *¢-Actual space
the simple form of the cube to
| explore spatial volumes and is intriniscally
the relation between the viewer more powerful
and the object. This factory
manufactured work may be and specific
spare, but, like much of the
artists output, it is highly
than paint on a
sensual. 1972, copper, enamel flat surface %?
and aluminium, 92x 156 x 178cem DONALD JUDD, 1964
Tate, London, UK
Carl Andre
b QUINCY, 1935

Carl Andre is best known for floor pieces consisting of arrangements

of pre-formed, common construction materials such as metal tiles
and bricks. Influenced by the sculptures of Brancusi, particularly his Dan Flavin
Endless Column (1938), Andre began to make work with repeated
patterns, chiselling notches and cutting shapes into timber beams. b NEW YORK, 1933; d NEW YORK, 1996 LIFEline
Andre's breakthrough came when he realized that, rather than the After starting his career as an abstract painter, Dan 1957-59 Studies art history
artist cutting into the material, the material itself could be thought of Flavin moved on to create more object-based wall at Columbia Uni versity
as cutting into space. Following this revelation, he preferred to use pieces. Then in the early 1960s, he began attaching 1961 Marries hi S first wife
solid, interchangeable units, laying them in neat grids. The orderly, light bulbs and tubes to monochromatic hardboard Begins attaching lights to wall-
mounted boxes, calling them
geometrical blocks that result hug the ground and give the impression boxes. It was only in 1963, however, that he had the “icons”
of a volume of space being displaced. Working with rather than Photograph idea of taking a solitary fluorescent tube and attaching 1962 Flavin's twin brother
against gravity, and keeping his works low and horizontal rather than by John it diagonally to his studio wall. From that moment on, dies. An “icon” s dedicated
Jonas Gruen
reaching skywards, Andre has spoken of his desire to make art that the fluorescent light became Flavin's exclusive artistic to him
resembles roads more than buildings. medium. It was an elegant solution to artistic problems of the time. 1964 First exhibition of his
On the one hand, the fluorescent tube is a mass-produced, industrial new fluorescen works takes
place in New Yo k
object in the tradition of Duchamp’s “readymades” On the other hand,
LIFEline v 144 Magnesium Square the effect produced by pulsating light can be highly atmospheric and, in
1992 Marries hi s second
Towards the end of the 1960s, wife, Tracy Harri s, amidst his
1935 Born in Quincy, the case of coloured fluorescence, sensuous and beautiful. In Minimal own installation at the
Andre made squares from steel,
Massachusetts Art terms, Flavin follows the path of literalness — his fluorescent tubes Guggenheim, ew York
copper, aluminium, magnesium, and
1960-64 Works as a railway with their casing, wall fittings, and power supply are undisguised 1996 Dies after complications
other industrial materials. Here,
freight conductor objects; simultaneously, he makes the viewer aware of the gallery from diabetes
tiles are laid flat on the gallery floor
1966 Shows his first brick space by filing it with diffused light.
where they may be walked upon.
works at the Tibor de Nagy
Gallery, New York Rising just a centimetre off the
1976 Equivalent Vil] causes ground, the work can go unnoticed, < Monument” for V Tatlin
controversy when it is shown while remaining a solid presence. Flavin admired the revolutionary
at the Tate Gallery in London 1969, magnesium, 1x366 x366cm, artistic ideas and plastic
Tate, London, UK innovations of the Russian
Constructivists. He made many
versions of this work, arranging
fluorescent tubes in an
approximation of Vladimir Tatlin’s
model for a proposed Monument
to the Third International (see
p.462) . 1966-69, mixed media,
305 x 58 x 9cm, Tate, London, UK TVINI
LYV

SEL
SGYV

4 Diagonal of May 25, 1963 /his was Flavins

first work to use an industrial fluorescent tube not
as an appendage attached to another form, but as
the sole art object itself. This literalness is
reflected in the title, which designates the date of
Flavin'’s eureka moment as well as the angle at
which it is attached to the wall. 1963, fluorescent
tube, 244cm, Tate, London, UK

A Equivalent VIII, 1966 This is one of a series of works, each

consisting of 120 firebricks stacked two deep and arranged to
form grids of varying widths and lengths. This piece caused an
outcry over “wasted” taxpayers’ money when it was bought by
the Tate, and became known in the media as “the bricks”. 1966,
firebricks, 13x69x229cm, Tate, London, UK
 ‘Eva Hesse
b HAMBURG, 1936; d NEW YORK, 1970 LIFEline
| Eva Hesse became something of a heroine to the burgeoning women’s 1939 Family moves to London, INcontext
then New York, to escape Nazi
art movement. She came to stand for an opposition to the rigid SOFT FORMS Morris and Hesse
persecution of the Jews Vv Accession Il Hesse counted 50,760 holes
geometry of some Minimal Art by her use of floppy, physically unstable applied the pared-down aesthetic
1963 Exhibits drawings based on in this box, each of which had to be threaded
materials, such as latex. Although this has been interpreted as a kind of of Minimalism to soft and flaccid
machine parts in New York
feminist resistance to a male-dominated modern art, she was influenced by hand with plastic tubing. The Minimalist forms, which had a very different
1964 Works in Germany, making cube was disrupted and made visceral and
by the felt work of Joseph Beuys and by Robert Morris's concept of effect on the viewer to the rigid
constructions from materials
| found in a factory erotic by all these additions. Works like this geometrical shapes and pristine
“anti-form” (see p.530). Hesse’s choice of materials has created great
1966 Work included in Eccentric
one led the critic Robert Pincus-Witten to factory-made look more typical
challenges for museum conservators, and she even thought of writing
Abstraction exhibition, New York coin the phrase “Post-Minimalism”. 1968-69, of Minimalism. For Serra, the
to collectors of her latex works to warn them that they would not last.
1970 Dies from a brain tumour galvanised steel and plastic, 78x 78x 78cm, process by which materials such
Hesse once described her subject as “the total absurdity of life” Detroit Institute of Arts, US | as steel rusted and changed
Indeed, it is possible to see Minimal Art in general as rational only in the appearance over time became an
most superficial sense. On examination, the art reveals how chance and integral element of his work
the unpredictable disrupt the apparent order of things.
Soft Engine Parts No. 2 by Claes
|
Oldenburg (1965). Morris and Hesse
were influenced by Oldenburg’s
4 sameness . 4 neurotic soft sculptures.
e mm iat |3
fo ‘ {

Pi
Hang up Hesse called
this “the most ridiculous
| structure | have ever made
and that is why it is good”.
Like much Minimal Art,
| /t is neither painting nor
| sculpture. 1966, ac
cloth cord, and steel
seatsx?
ART
MINIMAL _ Art Institute

2DS
b SAN FRANCISCO, 1939

Of all the major Minimalist artists, Richard Serra evokes the world of
NWAF
industry and the factory most, through his use of materials such as lead
and rusted steel. Some of his work has been described as “Process Art’’
O
1945 in that its form is derived purely and simply from the way that it is made.
Serra's sculpture frequently depends on its exact relationship to its site
Richard for its effect and meaning. When his controversial sculpture Tilted Arc
|Serra, 1992 (1981) was removed from its place in Federal Plaza, New York, Serra
claimed that to remove it was to destroy it. There has sometimes been
an element of political protest in his art. In the 2006 Whitney Biennial exhibition, for
| example, Serra showed a drawing attacking the ill-treatment of Iraqi prisoners by
|American troops in the Abu Ghraib prison

LIFEline

dat YaleU
y) ity

1968 Takes part in the

Art exniditio

Tilted

Arc is erected in New York.

It was ren ved in 1989
1987 Fulcrur

« One Ton Prop (House of Cards) /his is one A The Matter of Time his installation in steel
of a series of propped lead sculptures made by was commissioned for the Guggenheim Museum
Serra. The components have not been welded in Bilbao. Serra provides an experience that is only
together, but stand up by virtue of the weight available at first hand to the visitor prepared to
and softness of the material. 1969, lead plates, negotiate the passages created by the structure
height 122cm, MoMA, New York, US 2005, steel, Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain
 Style and subjects
Rejection of the painterly techniques
Origins and influences of Abstract Expressionism prompted
The term “Pop art” was first used in Pop artists to return to a figurative
the mid-1950s to describe a group of style and adopt the clean lines and
young British artists and soon caught flat colours of Hard-Edge painting
on in the US as well as in Britain. (see p.523). The bold, stylized imagery
As a reaction against the “art for of commercial art led to a detached
art's sake” philosophy of post-war and sometimes ironic style, with
abstract art, Pop art can be seen as connotations of mass production
having its roots in Dada and Marcel A Swingeing London 67 Richard Hamilton The rock rather than individuality.
Duchamp’s ready-mades (see p.467). star Mick Jagger and Hamilton's art dealer Robert Fraser As well as portraying mundane
Pop art challenged the were arrested on drugs charges. This painting was made
However, the striking imagery of from a news photograph. 1968-69, 67 x85cm, acrylic, images of everyday life in the style
distinction between “high” popular culture that young artists saw collage, and aluminium on canvas of advertising billboards and comic
and “low” art and became the all around them, in Hollywood movies, strips, some artists, such as
dominant art movement of in the graphics used in advertising and Richard Hamilton, Eduardo Paolozzi, Rauschenberg in his combine
the 1960s and 1970s in Britain packaging, comic strips, cartoons, and Lawrence Alloway) in London at paintings, incorporated the objects
and television, provided the bold new the same time — but autonomously — themselves into their work. Others,
and the US. Drawing its
iconography they needed to debunk that the Americans Jasper Johns and notably Andy Warhol, adopted
imagery from popular culture the stuffiness of the art world. techniques such as screenprinting,
Robert Rauschenberg were starting to
made it accessible, popular, Pop art emerged from meetings of incorporate elements of commercial art creating by implication a marketable
and commercially successful. the Independent Group (which included into their work. product rather than a work of art.

Pop art
TIMEline 1964
1963
Pop art first appeared in the
mid-1950s, when Jasper Johns

Campbalh
started incorporating everyday
objects and elements of
popular culture into his work, dOd
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as in Target with Plaster Casts.
CONDENSED
It reached its peak in the 1960s,
when the rise of an affluent
consumer society and mass
media provided both a wealth
of imagery and an appreciative
market for American and
British Pop artists such as
Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, JOHNS farget with JONES Man Woman
and David Hockney. Plaster Casts WARHOL Campbell's Soup Can LICHTENSTEIN
Anxious Girl
SV6L
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Interpretations made huge comic strip scenes, and Andy

Warhol produced flamboyant screenprinted
More than any other movement in modern pictures of celebrities and consumer
art, Pop art achieved widespread public products in his studio, aptly named “The
appreciation and considerable commercial Factory”. The Pop artists’ work was often
success, largely because it used familiar characterized by humour and satire,
iconography in a figurative style. Despite its exposing the consumerist values and
popularity, it was very much a British and obsessions of contemporary society.
American phenomenon, although related
movements appeared elsewhere. Britain
British Pop artists were a less unified group
The US than the Americans and many of them
American Pop art had its beginnings in later rejected the label altogether. Richard
4 Family | Sigmar Polke Cheap,
Robert Rauschenberg’s combine paintings, Hamilton was perhaps the first to use the mass-produced comic strips inspired
in collages or assemblages made from imagery of popular culture, and, together artists such as Roy Lichtenstein and
magazine cuttings, and objects such as with Peter Blake and Eduardo Paolozzi, Sigmar Polke to experiment with
Coca-Cola bottles, which symbolized the paved the way for the group of Royal techniques that replicated the off-
A Lipsticks in Piccadilly Circus, London College of Art graduates whose 1961 Young register effect of dawnmarket
consumer society. At the same time, Jasper
Claes Oldenburg This was the artist's irreverent proposal printing processes and to blow
Johns, already a successful commercial Contemporaries exhibition first brought
up images to a large scale. Polke
to replace the statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus with a
artist, was producing pictures of familiar Pop Art to the attention of the public. increased the size of this family
giant lipstick sculpture. Mass-produced objects and
images often feature in Pop art. 1966, mixed media on objects in paintings of flags, targets, and The style of the British artists, although snapshot to 160x 125.5cm. 1964,
board, 254 x 203mm, Tate, London, UK typographic symbols. figurative and heavily influenced by graphic dispersion colour on canvas, on loan
A later generation of Pop artists rejected design, was less glossy and glamorous to Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
the painterly style of these artists, but than American Pop art, and members of
retained the commercial imagery: Claes the group, including Patrick Caulfield, Allen
Oldenburg created enlarged replicas of fast Jones, and David Hockney, soon developed
food and soft sculptures, Roy Lichtenstein diverging styles of their own.
 Peter Blake
b DARTFORD, 1932
¥ Adonis in Y-Fronts /his iconic image
Richard Hamilton incorporates classical references (Greek god, Painter, sculptor, and designer Peter
Adonis) and consumer culture (Y-fronts were then Blake is often described as the godfather
b LONDON, 1922 considered sexy), showing how new fashions can of British Pop art. He was determined to
A British painter, printmaker, teacher, exhibition organizer, and writer, be advertised to appeal to the masses. 1962-63, make art accessible, and a fascination
Richard Hamilton is regarded as one of the pioneers of Pop art. He silkscreen, 61x 82cm, Pallant House, Chichester, UK “«% with popular culture forms the basis for
is famous for his montages reflecting contemporary culture and Portrait by his work. Blake’s use of imagery, from
advertising. In fact, Hamilton worked in advertising and commercial art Adam pin-up magazines to advertisements,
Birtwistle
before turning to painting. He also had a successful career as a teacher captured the mood of the swinging 60s.
and organised a number of exhibitions, notably The Almost Complete He works across many different media and also
Works of Marcel Duchamp at the Tate, London, in 1966. produces graphic art, notably album covers. Blake often
Hamilton's paintings and prints have explored various aspects of plays on the difference between reality and illusion,
popular culture, as well as the relationship between mass-produced combining paint and collage so it is difficult to decide
and handmade imagery. His style has been criticized as austere and which is which.
self-conscious, but he is generally noted for his wit, technical innovation,
and intellectual sophistication. Hamilton has had a significant influence
LIFEline
on many British artists, including David Hockney. Y Siriol, She-Devil of
1951-53 Does his Nationat
Service in the RAF Naked Madness Fake
1953-56 Studies at the Royal gems adorn this collage of
LIFEline
College of Art, London a hermaphrodite-type figure,
1922 Born into a working- which was inspired by the
1962 Has his first solo show at
|
|
class family in London
the Portal Gallery, London billboards used to advertise
1938 Studies at the Royal
Academy Schools, London
1983 Retrospective of his work | circus freaks — a popular
1948-51 Following World
is held at the Tate, London
| theme in Blake's work. 1957,
oil on canvas, 75x 22cm, Pallant
War Il and National Service,
continues his studies at The
2002 Receives a Knighthood
| House, Chichester, UK
Slade School of Art
1952 Joins the Independent
Group, a collection of artists
and writers instrumental in the
development of Pop Art
1953 Lecturers at King’s
College, Durham, until 1966
1970s Enjoys international
acclaim with major exhibitions
of his work around the world
ART
POP

> Just What Is it That

Makes Today's Homes
So Different, So Appealing?”
Hamilton's most famous work
marks the birth of British Pop
Art. Made up of advertising
images, the photomontage is
ONWARDS
1945 a Satire on consumerism and
suburbia. It was produced for
the This ls Tomorrow exhibition
held by the Independent Group
at Whitechapel Gallery, London,
which explored the themes
of technology and consumer
culture. 1956, collage, 26x 24cm,
Kunsthalle, Tubingen, Germany

THE LOLLIPOP The over- THE JAZZ SINGER The living- THE PORTRAIT A painting
sized American Tootsie lollipop room window looks out over the of Victorian art critic John
has the word “Pop” across its street where a cinema advertises Ruskin is a reference to the
wrapper, a reference to the a screening of Al Jolson’s The relationship between fine art
artist John McHale, who Jazz Singer, the first part-talkie. and consumer culture. He
collaborated on the work, and It signifies technological believed art should tell the
is said to have coined the term progress and innovation truth and also encompass the
Pop art in 1954 artist's moral outlook
Robert Rauschenberg
Y Tracer One of a series of silkscreen paintings Rauschenberg created
b PORT ARTHUR, TEXAS, 1925; d FLORIDA, 2008 LIFEline between 1963 and 1964, this alludes to the Vietnam War and features a
1948 Studies art at the bald eagle and helicopters — symbols of patriotism and war. 1964, oil and
Together with fellow painter Jasper Johns, Robert
Académie Julian, Paris silkscreen on canvas, 214x152cm, Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, US
Rauschenberg was one of the most influential figures
in the move away from Abstract Expressionism. He is 1948-52 Studies at famous
experimental institution, Black
best known for the creation of “combine painting’ an Mountain College, North
art form in which he combined an often bizarre mix Carolina, and in New York
Photograph of images and media, such as oil painting with 1958 Holds first solo show
by Bob Berg screen-printed images and three-dimensional 1964 Controversially awarded
consumer objects. During the 1960s, Rauschenberg Grand Prize at Venice Biennale
began working in two dimensions, using collages of news images to 1970 Sets up studio in
create silkscreen prints. Although seemingly abstract, viewed close up, Florida, where he still lives
the images relate to each other and he used them to illustrate a point 1998 The Guggenheim, New
York, holds a retrospective
about modern life. During the 1980s and 90s, he focused on collage,
finding novel ways to transfer photographic images.

dOd
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SEL
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$e vk
A Monogram Fauschenbergs most famous “combine painting” A
consists of a colour-splashed wooden platform featuring a stuffed INcontext
goat wearing a tyre. It is thought to be a reworking of the religious TELEVISION The 1950s were a time of great
masterpiece The Scapegoat by Pre-Raphaelite William Holman optimism and consumer confidence, when
Hunt. 1955-59, mixed media, 107 x 160x 162cm, Moderna Museet, increasing numbers of products were mass-
Stockholm, Sweden marketed and advertised. Television was an
exciting new medium that beamed entertainment
and advertising messages into millions of homes,
all of which had a huge impact on Pop art.
6¢ Painting relates to both art and life. Advertisement for Philips Colour Television,
A pair of socks is no less suitable published in Réalité Magazine in September 1967.
to make a painting than wood, nails,
turpentine, oil, and fabric?”
ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG

A Canto XXXI This is one of a series of illustrations of the 14th-century allegory

Dante's \nferno, in which Dante and Virgil tour Hell. Rauschenberg used images
transferred from print media to represent characters in the allegory; here, the
Guardians of Hell are portrayed as Olympic athletes. 1959-60, solvent transfer,
pencil, gouache, and colour pencil, 37x 22cm, Neuberger Museum of Art, New York, US
LuV dOd
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ON ELT SDE OD
St6L

EIT
EIT
OO NWN, PSA
2
eee
f

Canyon Aobert Rauschenberg

1959, combine on canvas, 207.6x177.8x60.9cm,
private collection
CLOSERI|ook

Canyon Robert Rauschenberg

Rauschenberg’s Canyon is one of the most Story
celebrated of his “combine paintings”
The artist was Any reading of Rauschenberg should take account of
on the verge of international celebrity when he made his love of the accidental during the working process.
It is also likely that his homosexuality led him to conceal
it, but at the time the work of painters such as de
some of the meanings in his work. Nonetheless, Canyon
Kooning was still far better known. Works such as suggests two distinct story lines. One is America in the
Canyon, which bridged painting and sculpture, space race. The other is a retelling of the classical legend
seemed to offer a way forward just when Abstract of Ganymede, who was seized by an eagle to be cup
Expressionism (see p.502) had stopped attracting bearer for Jupiter, the King of the Gods.
promising younger painters, and its language of
expressive gesture was becoming conventional.
"TE &eae < SOURCE MATERIAL
Rauschenberg’s use of second-hand images and : any Rauschenberg sometimes chose
images of personal significance.
real objects was to inspire the Pop artists who This is a photograph of his son
emerged on the New York scene soon afterwards. Christopher.
Av AMERICAN POWER The eagle (above)
and the Statue of Liberty (below) are both v SPACE RACE The image
Composition symbols of American power. They linked flight of the night sky could represent
The critic Leo Steinberg has argued that Rauschenberg’s with national identity at a time when the US both the heavens into which
methods of composition represent a fundamental shift in was engaged in a space race with the USSR. Ganymede is raised and a symbol
Part of the function of the pillow might be to for the aspirations to travel into
art, moving away from the idea of the painting as a vertical
symbolically ensure a soft landing. outer space.
surface towards what he called the “flatbed picture plane”
on which objects or images could be scattered. This concept
applied regardless of whether the paintings were displayed
on the wall or the floor.

~<"COMBINES” By the
time he produced Canyon,
Rauschenberg had been
working on his “combine
paintings” for several years.
Combine paintings lie
somewhere between painting
and sculpture: some works dOd
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hang on the wall but also [ INFLUENCES
rest on the ground; others, REMBRANDT’S GANYMEDE
like this one, have elements In his depiction of The Abduction of
that exist in real space such Ganymede, Rembrandt painted the
as the eagle, or are subject boy being grapsed by an eagle.
to actual gravity (the The buttocks in Rembrandt's
hanging pillow). version are echoed by the hanging
pillow in Canyon. Another of
Rauschenberg’s works, Pail for
Ganymede, comments on the
¢¢ When working the artist must urination of the boy in the painting. St6L
SGHYV
know that he is doing it for the
The Abduction of Ganymede
first time ”’ Rembrandt, 1635
ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG

Technique
Rauschenberg’s materials frequently included stuffed
animals which he collected for his work, usually without
first knowing exactly how he would use them. The eagle
was purchased at the auction of the estate of a deceased
sculptor. This was in contrast to the Dadaist Marcel
Duchamp’s preference for mass produced objects
or to Pop Art's concentration on consumer culture.

«< COLLAGE AND LETTERING

Picasso and Braque were the first to
use stencilled lettering in their Cubist
paintings. Rauschenberg's use of the
device showed how Cubist influence
not only served as a path to abstraction
but also contributed to a new painting
of modern life.

» ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM
INFLUENCE Rauschenberg, who
once made an artwork by erasing a
de Kooning drawing, was ambivalent
about Abstract Expressionism. He
adopted its vigorous brushwork without
its sense of emotional commitment.
These marks owe as much to accidents
of gravity as to personal passion.
 | Jasper Johns
b AUGUSTA, GEORGIA, 1930 LIFEline
Jasper Johns is a prolific painter, sculptor, and | 1954 Settles in New York and
printmaker. He influenced the course of American art paints his first flag picture
in the late 1950s by challenging the dominant Abstract | eras umber
Expressionist style with images of familiar, recognizable | 1958 ee first ae
, objects. Flag (1954-55) was a key work — a flat, literal ShanininanNore < Target with Plaster Casts
Targets, like flags, were ordinary
Photograph representation of the Stars and Stripes that was the start | 4959 Paints False Start
objects that made an early
by CFelver of a series of paintings of flags. Such works by Johns and | 1974 Begins making abstract appearance in Johns’s work. He
his close friend Robert Rauschenberg paved the way for work with dense cross- used them repeatedly with many
Pop art, although Johns has never shared Pop’s obsession with modern _ | hatchings variations: Here, the prednce
commercial culture. In his hands, what seem like copies of objects are 1985 Creates a series of the plaster casts of body parts in
f tisticall dified, with textured surfaces for example, and prints entitled Seasons
Reco eas ledaon toae
subsequently long 5
series of related images varying in form, 2006
milen False
es Startsells
oes for $80_| compartments that open and
stu adele an enigmatic nes
colour, or media. Ordinary objects freshly perceived have also been the __ | dainting by adiving artist 1955, encaustic and collage on
basis for sculptures, collages, and prints. In his later work Johns has | | canvas, 75x66cm, MoMA, New
continued to strike out in new directions. \ é me York, US

(vawerrererar
| IRA: 5 3

ART
POP

FO A Ade
TAKARA IK
DAA AAI IK
ONWARDS
1945
Tk tbede
pA
 << Numbers in Color Beginning in
1955 with works in the form of a
single digit, Johns created dozens
of number images, including this
¥ Three Flags ore elaborate than the original large, game-like grid, rendered in a
Flag, this consists of three canvases of different sizes, colourfully rough, patchy manner.
each painted with the Stars and Stripes. By putting 1958-59, encaustic and newspaper on
them together, Johns transforms them into a single canvas, 169x 126cm, Albright-Knox Art
three-dimensional work. 1958, encaustic on canvas, Gallery, Buffalo, New York, US
78x115cm Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, US
v Painted Bronze II: Ale Cans Johns has made
sculptures of objects such as paint pots, metal cans,
and shoes. They may be real objects sprayed to give
a metallic finish, or, as with this, cast in bronze and
painted. One of the cans is solid (full) and one hollow
(empty). 1964, painted bronze, private collection

dOd
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<< Field Painting Apart from the vertical

lines of stencilled lettering, this painting
harks back to Johns’s youthful Abstract
Expressionist style. Among the objects
attached to the canvas Is a battery-
operated neon “R”. 1963-64, oil on canvas
and attached objects, artist's collection
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_ MIXING DIMENSIONS Embedded

into the two-dimensional surface of
Field Painting is a three-dimensional
- object of personal significance: a Savarin
coffee tin. Johns used it in his studio to
_ hold brushes and it was also the subject
~ of one of his sculptures.

6¢ Sometimes I see it and

then paint it. Other times
I paint it and then see it.
Both are impure situations,
and I prefer neither”’
JASPER JOHNS
 Roy Lichtenstein
Claes Oldenburg b NEW YORK, 1923; d NEW YORK, 1997
An American painter, printmaker, and sculptor, Roy
b STOCKHOLM, 1929 LIFEline Lichtenstein is famous for his highly distinctive work
One of the most influential and original artists working in the US, | 1929 Born in Stockholm, based on cartoons and advertising. He magnified his
Swedish-born sculptor and graphic artist Claes Oldenburg is famous the son of a consular official : images to a grand scale, re-creating the garish, primary
for his giant sculptures of food and his soft sculpture of typically rigid 1946-50 Studies art and -_ colours, black outlines, flattened forms, and Benday
literature at Yale University
objects such as typewriters. His art is sometimes whimsical, often Photograph by dots of mass-produced printing processes. Although his
1953 Becomes a US citizen
provocative, and is influenced by Dada and Surrealism. Ray Fisher art reflects popular culture in a humorous, often ironic
| 1956 Moves to New York
After settling in New York in the mid-1950s, Oldenburg came into e way, he presents it in a detached, deadpan manner.
1959 Stages his first
contact with artists such as Allan Krapow, whose theatrically orientated exhibition at the Judson Lichtenstein‘s preoccupation with Pop art is reported to have begun in
work offered an alternative to Abstract Expressionism. Oldenburg | Gallery, New York City the early 1960s when one of his children pointed to a comic strip and
helped create props and costumes for performance art, sparking an 1961 Opens The Storein said, “| bet you can’t paint as good as that” By the mid-60s, he was
interest in three-dimensional work. Later, he focused on creating his New York studio, selling producing screenprints and also Pop parodies of famous paintings by
colossal art projects for several cities, such as Lipsticks in Piccadilly everyday objects made of artists such as Mondrian. Lichtenstein’s work has enjoyed worldwide
painted plaster
Circus (1966). In 1995, the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC critical acclaim and has an enduring popular appeal.
1969 His colossal
and the Guggenheim in New York held retrospectives of his work. monument, the iconic
Lipstick (Ascending) on
LIFEline
Floor Burger /his giant hamburger is an early example of Oldenburg’ Caterpillar Tracks is initially
installed at Yale University 1923 Born in New York
soft sculptures. His first wife, Patty Muscha, sewed the canvas cover and
1949 Graduates from the
Oldenburg painted it with delicate washes of colour. He uses everyday objects
School of Fine Arts, Ohio
to explore the different identities a form assumes through changes of scale,
1962 Holds his first one-man
material, or environment. 1962, acrylic on canvas, filled with foam rubber and show of Pop Art, in New York
cardboard boxes, 132x213cm, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada 1963-65 Produces paintings
based on war and romance
comics
1966 Becomes first American |
to exhibit at The Tate
1970s His work expands to
include sculpture mostly in
polished brass with an art
deco influence
1995 The Los Angeles A Sandwich and Soda During this period,
County Museum launches a Lichtenstein was experimenting with high art
travelling exhibition covering
two decades of his prints subjects such as still life, recreated in a
1997 Dies from viral mechanical style using unrealistic colours.
ART
POP pneumonia, aged 73 1964, screenprint, 56x61cm, Fred Jones Jr.
Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma, US

ONWARDS
1945

CLOSERIook
%

DISPARITY By invoking sensations

of touch and taste, Oldenburg
highlights the disparity between
the subject and the material. This
is in distinct contrast to traditional
still life, which tries to overcome A Toy Box Oldenburg
the distinction between the subject used familiar objects such
and the material as children’s toys and
recreated them using
» Three-Way Plug, Model painted fabric. 1963,
The incongruity of the size of this wooden box and 21 objects
giant sculpture of an electric plug of fabric and paint,
and the fact that it is suspended like 24x91x61cm, Kunsthalle
a mobile is typical of Oldenburg'’s Hamburg, Germany
quirky humour. 1969, wood and
masonite, 150x 99x 72cm, Kunsthalle
Hamburg, Germany
» Anxious Girl From a series of
(ee
paintings featuring close-ups of girls in
distress, Lichtenstein transformed the
comic image into something much more
personal. His use of Benday dots and
black-outlined forms is part of his
distinctive style, along with the use of
stereotypical female subjects from
comic strips, such as this all-American,
blue-eyed blonde. 1964, private collection
a
CLOSERI|ook
> a

DOTS/PIXELS Lichtenstein re-created

the effect of Benday screening by using
a technique that simulated the mass-
produced, cheap printing typically used
for comics. In the late 60s, he began to
make the dots larger in proportion to the
size of the canvases.
dOd
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ee eevee >.
e@ooveveeed Coseoeooreeny

< Reflections on Crash INcontext FANTASTIC 1950s EC COMICS!

Lichtenstein began his Reflections
series in the mid-1980s. It reveals his
concern for composition and form, in
COMICS Mass-produced, cheap,
and highly visual, comic books were a =WEIRDE :
another aspect of popular culture that S
which he combines the abstract with
had a great impact on the development Gi E:NCE:
his comic images. 1990, lithograph, of Pop Art in the 1950s and 60s. sill ee
woodcut, screenprint, and collage on 5 ae)
Their garish colours, simplistic forms, <a
paper, 165x202cm, Delaware Art melodramatic narrative, and immediacy F
Museum, Wilmington, US were used to reflect society, often in
an ironic or humorous way.
Pop art used imagery from popular comic
strips of the 1950s and 60s
So ee ass =
 Andy Warhol
b PITTSBURGH, 1928; d NEW YORK, 1987 LIFEline
Born Andrew Warhola to Czech immigrant parents, 1928 Born in Pennsylvania » Brillo Boxes /hese
Warhol worked as an award-winning commercial artist 1941 Begins his career as screenprinted boxes
from the 1950s, before becoming a Pop Art pioneer. a commercial artist marked Warhols move > .
His art embraced the popular culture of mass media, 1961 Creates his first artwork, into sculpture with the ny sv" oKGS.
celebrity, and consumer goods, with imagery ranging
Campbell's. Soup Cans 200 mass reproduction of 4 GIANT
1963 Founds The Factory the packaging for popular
Andy Warhol, from the banal (repeated rows of Coke bottles) to the
1964 Exhibits at The American brands, such as Brillo, Heinz, Mire
1983 glamorous (portraits of Hollywood stars) and the GIANT size P
macabre (car crashes and suicide). It deployed the
Supermarket show
1966 Directs his best-known
and Del Monte. The 1964
New York show The
KaS, ff
distinctive visual language of modern advertising with its use of film, Chelsea Girls American Supermarket, at
garish colours, simplified imagery, and repetition. 1968 Is shot and wounded which they were exhibited
Setting himself up as businessman first and artist second, Warhol nearfatally by former
employee Valerie Solanas
(and sold for $350 each), Lo
devoted an enormous amount of time and skill to the cultivation of was a pivotal event in the \ew
publicity in order to raise his profile and thus his prices. At the same 1973 Founds Interview
magazine acceptance of Pop Art in
time, he turned his “art” into a successful enterprise with the use of the USA. 1964, enamel on
1987 Dies from a heart
mechanical printing processes, such as serigraphy (silk screens) to allow attack, leaving an estimated plywood, 43x51 x43cm,
the rapid production of (almost) identical images. He deliberately removed $100,000,000 Allen Memorial Art
all traces of involvement by the artist by employing assistants to realize Museum, Ohio, US
his ideas and by not signing his work.
A key figure in 20th-century art, Warhol, like Picasso before him,
represented a turning point for the role of artists and their way of doing
things. He also pursued parallel careers as a film-maker, fashion
designer, promoter, and publisher.

ART
POP

CONDENSED

ONWARDS
1945

“ Campbell's Soup Can » Marilyn Diptych When the actress Marilyn

This iconic image of consumerism Monroe committed suicide, she was already a
(and a favourite food of Warhol's) legend — her combination of glamour and tragedy
created a sensation when it was made her the perfect subject for Warhol. His
first exhibited. Warhol adopted Marilyn portraits — based on a famous publicity
the bold, direct techniques of still — of which he produced many variations,
commercial art, using a stencil introduced a radical new technique (serigraphy)
to help him apply the paint and to the traditional genre of portraiture. Marilyn's
give it the appearance of a status as a star shared by millions but known by
billboard with its bright, flat none is reinforced by the image's repetition, while
colours and clean lines. 1962, the contrast between the gaudy glamour of the
screenprint, 51x 41cm, Saatchi left against the fading tones of the right mirrored
Collection, London, UK her own mortality. 1962, acrylic on canvas,
145x205cm, Tate, London, UK
¥ Flowers A photograph of hibiscus flowers on
a green background was overlaid with endless
different vibrant colour combinations and
produced in vast numbers. The effect was to
transform the flowers into a kind of psychedelic
decor. 1966, silk-screen print, 208 x357cm,
Saatchi Collection, London, UK

<The Electric Chair Warhols

fascination with death found
expression in his Death and Disaster
series, with its indifferent images of
suicide, car crashes, and the electric
chair. He used repetition and colour
washes to distance the viewer from
the subject, thereby reducing It to
a decorative object. 1967, acrylic
and silk-screen enamel on canvas,
137x185cm, private collection

~] CLOSERIook

b Poa “

YELLOW BRUSHSTROKES SCREEN PRINTING An excess of black

Six colours were applied to the paint occasionally obliterates or spoils the
left side with the help of a stencil. image. These deliberate variations highlight
In each panel, Marilyn's portrait is the technical process behind its production.
subtly altered by variations in
pigment. The use of wide yellow
and orange brushstrokes Is visible. dOd
LUV

Mao Tse-Tung /n 1972,

Warhol decided to celebrate an
easing of relationships with
China by creating a series of
portraits of Chairman Mao.
Painting different colours over
the same iconic photograph, he
transformed a mass-reproduced SV6L
SCYVM
state image into art, while
simultaneously subverting its
original propaganda message
with a tone of high camp. The
squiggles around the head were
hand-drawn by the artist. 1972,
silk-screen print, 92x 92cm,
private collection

INcontext
THE FACTORY In 1963, Warhol painted his
| Greenwich Village studio silver and renamed it
¢¢ Making | The Factory in homage to his business model of
mass-producing art. He was also heavily involved
money is there producing “underground” films, such as
art, and Chelsea Girls (1966), and music, including the
Velvet Underground.
working Is Andy Warhol with |
art, and good Actors at “The
Factory” The most
business © famous workers at

is the The Factory were its

superstars — the

best art ”’ polysexual actors

featured by Warhol
ANDY WARHOL, 1975 (left) in his films.
 David Hockney
b BRADFORD, 1937
With his trademark shock of white hair and glasses,
David Hockney has been a colourful and familiar public
figure since the 1960s. By his mid-20s, this British
painter, draughtsman, printer, photographer, and
designer had already achieved international success,
David and he has gone on to become the most famous British
Hockney artist of his generation.
Hockney is probably best known for his California
swimming pool paintings, his huge double portraits of friends, and his << American Collectors /his
photographic collages. The main characteristics of his work include his double portrait of Marcia and
Fred Weisman has come to
treatment of colour and light, and his ongoing battle with the
epitomize American art
conventions of perspective. Hockney’s work is often autobiographical,
collectors. Standing in intense
and sometimes homoerotic. Witty, versatile, and inventive, he has
Californian sunlight, the couple
experimented with many media, including acrylics in the 1960s, Polaroid
seem unaware of each other
film in the 1970s, and digital art in the 1990s. He is also a brilliant graphic and of their collection. Their
artist, a stage designer, and a respected art commentator and writer. rigid stance and form is echoed
variously in the art. 1968, acrylic
LIFEline on canvas, 213x305cm, Art
v Ron Kitaj Reading An artist and close friend
Institute of Chicago, US
1959-62 Studies at the Royal of Hockney’s, Ron Kitaj was well-known for his
College of Art, London love of books; his studio was also a library. Here,
1963 Holds first solo exhibition Hockney experiments with perspective by placing
1964 Moves to Los Angeles Kitaj as a large, vertical form in the foreground
and produces his first against the background bookcase — a grid of
swimming pool paintings smaller vertical and horizontal lines. 1974,
1970 First retrospective is held coloured crayons, 43x 71cm, private collection
in London. Paints Mr and Mrs
Clark and Percy, the best-
known of his double portraits
1982-84 Makes first
composite Polaroids and
photographic collages
1990 Creates 40 Snaps of My
House, one of his first works
with digital photography
2003 Receives Lifetime Career
ART
POP Award at the Florence Biennale

ONWARDS
1945

A RAKES PROGRESS
LONGON
MineYORK|ert
tous) Horne
Denar

A Sunbather Part of the famous California swimming pool series,

A Meeting the Other People from A Rake’s Progress this painting shows Hockney'’s move from Realism to Naturalism, WATER In California,
Hockney first set of prints was based on etchings by English when he started painting specific people and places. It also Hockney began using
artist William Hogarth forARake’s Progress. Hockney'’s version is illustrates his preoccupation with perspective; here, he juxtaposes acrylics, applying them
a semi-autobiographical series of 16 prints set in New York. Here, flat and deep space. There is often a homoerotic quality to his as a smooth surface of
the formerly successful young man is destitute, and about to be ; intense, flat colour that
work, as in the muscular, bare buttocks of the male figure. 1966,
consigned to the mindless masses, the “other people”. In the final helped to emphasize the
acrylic on canvas, 183x 183cm, Ludwig Museum, Cologne, Germany
print, Bedlam, he stands side by side with identical figures. Having bright sunlight on the
lost his sense of identity, he is only distinguishable by a red arrow 4 water. The wavy lines
above his head. 1961-62, etching and aquatint on zinc, red and black are used to show the
ink on paper, 31x40cm, Yale Center for British Art, US hypnotic effect of the
°¢ Surface is illusion, pool's ever-changing,
reflective surface.
but so is depth?
@ DAVID HOCKNEY
 Allen Jones
Eduardo Arroyo Mel Ramos
b SOUTHAMPTON, 1937
b MADRID, 1937 b SACRAMENTO, 1935
The Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, and stage designer Eduardo Arroyo often A hugely popular American artist, Mel
uses Imagery in the Pop Art style to satirize and provoke. Largely self-taught, he went Ramos is best known for his jokey nude
to Paris in 1957 to avoid military service, and first showed there at the Salon of Young or scantily clad “pin-ups” He says of his
Artists around 1960. His work is representational and figurative, often alluding to work, “| always make sure that my
clichés, historic events, and public figures to tell a story or to criticize — usually pictures are not too erotic and that they
controversially. A retrospective of his work was held in Paris in 1982, and in the same have a trace of humour’ This is usually
year he was presented with the National Award for Fine Arts by his native Spain. The reflected in his titles, such as You Get
following year, France made him a Knight of the Arts and Literature. More Spaghetti with Giacometti.

« Blue Rider on the Canabiere ¥ Vinaburger Ramos’ pin-ups are draped over
Typically colourful and ironic, oversized commercial items from popular culture,
this work is characterized by such as this hamburger, to parody the supposed
flattened perspective and a lack glamour of advertising. 1965, colour litho,
of spatial depth. 1987, oil on 48 x38cm, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, UK
canvas, 220x 186cm, Musée
Cantini, Marseilles, France
a
Man Woman /nspired by German
CLOSERIook
philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, Jones made
or
a series of paintings showing fused couples as
metaphors for creativity — a perfect marriage
between masculine and feminine sides. 1963,
oil on canvas, 215x 189cm, Tate, London, UK

An English painter, sculptor, and

printmaker, Allen Jones Is a leading
figure in Pop Art. He received the Prix
des Jeunes Artistes (The Young Artist
Prize) at the 1963 Paris Biennale, and
moved to New York the following year.
Jones is best known for his controversial
COLOUR The simplification portrayals of women, based on the
of areas of colour on the central
fetish magazines of the 1940s and 50s,
male figure’s face brings Arroyo's
including his sculptures in which female dOd
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work closer to abstraction.
figures double as pieces of furniture.

Sigmar Polke
b OELS, GERMANY, 1941 LIFEline INcontext The Hidden
1965 His Girlfriends painting THE RISE OF POP ART Persuaders
Sigmar Polke is considered one of the most important German Vance Packard
questions the authority of the coincided with increasing public
painters of the post-war generation. Marked by irreverence for
printed image anxiety about the manipulative
traditional painting techniques and materials, his work has an power of the advertising industry,
1977-91 Made professor at
anarchic element, which has seen him described as a “visual the Academy of Fine Arts, whose images were a source of SEL
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revolutionary’ Polke uses Pop Art-related images in unexpected, Hamburg inspiration for Pop artists. There
often contradictory combinations to encourage the viewer to 1981 Untitled - Referring to was a feeling that the ordinary
question conventional methods of art evaluation. His series of Max Ernst commentates on consumer was no more than a pawn.
Grid Pictures, for example, was painted with the aid of other paintings
2002 The Hunt for the Taliban Vance Packard's book /he Hidden
projectors. Persuaders (1957) lifted the lid on the
andAl Qaeda shows his
Polke’s paintings usually take the form of commentaries on newly developed technique of techniques used by advertisers to
other works of art and employ humour to parody artistic control the desires of their audience.
machine-painting
pretentiousness, particularly concerning modern art.

» Moderne Kunst /n this parody of

1950s expressive gestural abstraction,
Polke creates patterns similar to those
of artists such as Soulage and Hartung.
1968, artificial resin and oil on canvas,
150x125cm, on loan to the Kunsthalle,
Hamburg, Germany

SOMME F) >ZF

4 George and Gugu Polke combines signs and techniques to provoke

and intrigue, r@ther than to tell a story. The shadowy figure on the right is
PARODY Polke exaggerates
modern; those on the left are clowns, probably from the commedia dell’
the expressive brushwork that
characterizes informal abstraction, to
arte, evoking a contrasting historical era. 1968, acrylic on fabric, 60x 220cm,
parody what he views as the artistic on loan to the Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
pretentiousness of modern art.
ees Moderne Kunst
: | p t \ t

_ Portraiture played an important role in ancient

Greek and Roman art, but for centuries fe[UlaTare mente)
: Y Mona Lisa Leonardo da Vinci The enigmatic
Middle praes ie was of only minor significance, expression of the Mona Lisa is attributable to the : are
confined mainly to coinage and tomb statues. From artist's use of sfumato, a subtle blurring of colours co prions Eee
the Renaissance portraiture. once again developed —_and tones. c1503-6, oil on panel, 77x53cm, Louvre, ogarth Hogarth s vivid sketc
. Paris, France has a freshness and vitality
“into a major artistic practice,broadening iTamsexe) e\=) ; whohcladod hia iniore
“asit embraced various levels ofsociety. In the 19th formal portraits of the wealthy
century, photography powerful challenge and powerful. c1745, oil on
“to the traditional documentation of portraiture, but canvas, 63.5x50.8cm, National
Gallery, London, UK
Be. many modern lat sts,EW, shown fresh ways of
Vv Family Group ina
Landscape Frans Hals Hals’
charming depiction of a family
is set against a background
painted by another, unidentified
artist. 1647-50, oil on canvas,
149x251cm, National Gallery,

A Portrait of Margaret van Eyck Jan van Eyck

The subtle detailing of the subject's face helps
create the realism for which van Eyck’s portraits
are noted. 1439, oil on panel, 33 x26cm,
Groeningemuseum, Bruges, Belgium ‘
A Elizabeth |, Armada Portrait English School
This portrait is a celebration of English sea power
as well as an idealised image of the monarch, and
so funcions as propaganda on two levels. c1588,
oil on panel, 111x127cm, private collection
A Mrs Sarah Siddons, the Neston Thomas
< Miniature portrait of Mrs Pemberton Gainsborough The rich, dramatic colours of this
Hans Holbein the Younger Holbein’s miniatures portrait reflect Siddons’ status as the leading
embody the power and detail of larger portraits
: in tragic actress of her age. 1785, oil on canvas,
a smaller form. c1535, vellum mounted on playing card, ;
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK I2B.R 0c, Nation Saker, LNIOB e
 > A Woman Holding a Dog
in her Arms, from “Five V Portrait of Guillaume Apollinaire
Physiognomies of Beauty” Giorgio de Chirico The poet Apollinaire’s likeness
Kitagawa Utamaro Delicately is seen only in the dark and in profile. The more
rendered female forms are a recurring prominent head with dark glasses is a symbol of
‘subject of Utamaro’s work. c1804, researches into the unknown. 1914, oil on canvas,
woodblock print, 39x 26cm, School of 815x650 cm, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre
Oriental and African Studies Library, Pompidou, Paris, France
London, UK

V Willhemina Cotta Christian V Girl with Roses Lucian Freud Translucent skin, .ace
Gottlieb Schick This formal” stark backgrounds, and troubled expressions
are all
composition is typical of Schick’s hallmarks of Freud's portraiture. 1947-48, oil on canvas,
classical approach to portraits. 106x 75cm, British Council, London, UK
GEESE Ten ae
1802, oil on canvas, Staatsgalerie,
Stuttgart, Germany

e
SLIVH

SAWS
NI
LuV

A Self Portrait Jenny

Saville This is a typical
A Arrangement in Grey and example of Saville’s large,
Black No.1, Portrait of the fleshy depictions of
Artist's Mother James McNeil : i
women. ¢1991, oil on
Whistler A/though one of the most A Portrait of Ambroise Vollard (1868-1939) canvas, 204 x204cm, private
popular images of motherhood, for Pablo Picasso /n this portrait of his dealer, collection
“Whistler this was primarily an Picasso demonstrates an extraordinary virtuosity
exercise in colour and tone. 1871, by producing an image of a curved and bald head <I Gilbert and George,
oil on canvas, 144x 163cm, Musée entirely out of jutting angles. 1909, oil on canvas, The duos photo-montages
d'Orsay, Paris 92 x65cm, Pushkin Museum, Moscow, Russia often feature an element
of self-portrait, and are
> Portrait of Ambroise Vollard frequently set behind
Pierre-Auguste Renoir Renoir’ fine grids, giving the
brushstrokes and subtle colouring appearance of stained
complement Vollard’s reflective glass. 1986, paper,
expression. 1908, oil on canvas, 242 x 202cm, Whitworth Art
82x65cm, Courtauld Gallery, Gallery, Manchester, UK
London, UK
 hanging mobiles, and a few years later,
_ members of the Bauhaus explored
projection techniques to develop light
Op, or optical art, is painting or and movement. The word “kinetic”
sculpture that utilizes the illusions was first used in reference to art by
and optical effects that our eyes Gabo and Antoine Pevsner in 1920, but
perceive. Kinetic art refers to works . it was the publication of a chronology
that have real or apparent motion. of kinetic art in 1960 by the film-maker
Wolfgang Ramsbott that established
Op art the movement in its own right.
Op art as a term was first used in an
unsigned article in Time magazine on CURRENTevents
23 October 1964, but its origins can 1961 John F Kennedy is elected president
During the 1960s, Op art and A The Responsive Eye /he survey of Op art held at of the US.
be found both in the use of ornament, the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1965 entitled
kinetic art became immensely anamorphosis (visual distortion), and > “The Responsive Eye” did much to popularize Op art.
1963 March against racial discrimination
led by Martin Luther King, Jr takes place
popular and, in the case of trompe l'oeil effects in art history, in Washington.
Op art, the subject of much and the coloured and graphic effects Kinetic art
1964 The “British Invasion” of the US
of Post-Impressionists, Futurists, Kinetic art first developed in the years begins with the first visit by the Beatles.
commercial interest and
Dadaists, and the Bauhaus artists. 1913-20 when artists such as Marcel 1964 US Congress approves war
exploitation. Both had their with Vietnam.
It also has links with psychological Duchamp, Naum Gabo, and Vladimir
origins in the early years of the research into the relationship of the Tatlin began to emphasise mechanical 1969 The first people set foot on the
moon watched by an estimated 700
20th century, and retain their mind to the eye and to the nature movement in their work, Man Ray and million television viewers around the world. |
importance today. of perception itself. Aleksandr Rodchenko first made

Op artandKinetic art
TIMEline
1954
Op art's quick development from 1963 1972
black and white geometry to 1963-66
colour manipulation can be seen
in these works by Vasarely and
KINETIC
ART
AND Riley,
OP painted only seven years
apart. Both are precisely
planned and produce the same
illusory effect of depth. Kinetic
art's evolution can be seen in the
early mechanical works of Jean
Tinguely, through the use of
wood and wire by Jésus Rafaél SOTO Large Writing

g
Soto and to the large-scale VASARELY
AGAM Salon Agam
mural installation in the Elysée TINGUELY Meta Mindoro Il AILEY
Palace in Paris by Yaacov Agam. Mecanique a Trepied

ONWARDS
1945

Development curator of the groundbreaking “The

Responsive Eye” exhibition (see above);
The first works of modern Op art were it was held in New York in 1965 alongside
produced by Victor Vaserely in the 1950s. a commercial, sell-out show in the Richard
At the same time, Jean Tinguely started to Feigen Gallery. Riley had two paintings in
create the first modern works of kinetic art. the exhibition, which launched her as an
international artist, but she disliked the
Modern Op art appropriation of her and other's work
Op artists use colour, line, and shape to for commercial uses later in the decade,
produce shimmering, shifting, sometimes when Op Art was adopted as part of the
dazzling surfaces that lend the work the 1960s’ counterculture movement in
appearance of motion. Both the geometric music, fashion, and design.
images and colours are worked out in
advance to achieve the intended effect, Modern kinetic art
A Untitled (Winged Curve) Bridget Riley Riley's use of which is often produced by studio assistants The development of Kinetic art during the
a series of differently spaced and thickened curved lines rather than the artist, as technical rather 1960s followed either the Constructivist
creates the illusion of a three-dimensional moving object than artistic skills are required. tradition (see p.462), in which the work
despite its two-dimensional, static state. 1966, screenprint Initially working in black and white, was technological or natural in origin,
on paper, 57.8x62.5cm, private collection Vaserely’s introduction of colour transformed or the Dadaist tradition (see p.466), in
his work, as the addition of a differently which the work was conceived within an
coloured geometric form to the basic environment or required human
structure began to explore the full extent of intervention and participation. ai
optical, two-dimensional art. Bridget Riley Kinetic art is a diverse form, using paint, A Wackel-Baluba Jean Tinguely The impact of
also first started with black and white fluorescent strip lights, reflecting surfaces, and Surrealism is evident in this kinetic construction
designs, but introduced colour in the found materials and much more, whether by Jean Tinguely, the chimp on top echoing King Kong
mid-1960s, again expanding the range as individual pieces or large-scale astride the Empire State Building, New York, in the 1933
of optical illusions she produced. installations, to achieve its effects. It classic horror film. 1963-72, mixed media, 182x75x75em,
private collection
Riley preferred to use the term declined in importance during the 1980s,
“perceptual abstraction” to describe but retains its influence today in works
her art, as did William Seitz, who was requiring audience participation.
Jean Tinguely
b FRIBOURG, 1925; d BERN, 1991
Jean Tinguely began experimenting with mechanical
sculptures when he was a teenager, hanging objects
from the ceiling and using a motor to make them rotate.
He went on to produce his first abstract, spatial
constructions in 1953. These early machines, which he
JeanTinguely, termed “meta-mechanical devices’ were equipped with
1986 moving mechanisms that could be set in action by the < Meéta-Mécanique a
viewer and were characterized by their use of
Trépied A small electric
motor drives the wheels,
movement as a central part of their construction.
arms, and counterweights of
In the mid-1960s, Tinguely started to produce large-scale works
this construction set on top of
welded out of scrap metal, and subsequently turned his attention to
a simple tripod. The piece was
fountains, the most notable of which is the Stravinsky Fountain (1982) designed around movement
outside the Pompidou Centre in Paris. A series of three-part altars, and cannot properly be
called Poja (1982-84), suggests a religious aspect to his work. In 1986, assessed when stationary.
he introduced another new theme, death, in Wengele — a danse 1954, mixed media, 100 x90 x 30cm,
macabre in the form of a mechanical theatre. private collection

CLOSERIook
LIFEline v La Bascule VII Jinguely’s use of scrap
materials animated by an electric motor can be
1945 Paints in a Surrealist
seen in this playful representation of a seesaw,
style, but soon abandons this
to concentrate on sculpture which rocks from side to side. 1967, iron, wood,
1953 Moves to Paris steel, rubber, and electric motor, 123 x 82x 205cm,
1955 Participates in Le Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, US
Mouvement, an exhibition of
Kinetic Art in Paris
1960 Co-founds the Nouveau
Réalisme movement
mid-1960s Produces his WHEELS IN MOTION
first monumental works for The use of wire to make the
urban settings wheels, struts, and cogs, rather
mid-1970s Designs than factory-manufactured
fountains for public places ) gears and other parts, gives
1986 Produces 16 Mengele the machine an uneven,
sculptures on the theme mechanistic movement.
of death dO
GNV
SILAN
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Yaacov Agam Julio Le Pare Hélio Oiticica

b RISHON-LE-ZION, 1928 b MENDOZA, 1928 b RIO DE JANEIRO, 1937; d RIO DE JANEIRO, 1980

Yaacov Agam studied at the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem in 1946, H6lio Oiticica emerged during the 1950s as one of
and, from 1951, at the Atelier dArt Abstrait and the Académie de la Brazil's most innovative artists, liberating colour from
Grande Chaumiére in Paris. He claimed that his one-man exhibition two-dimensional painting into three-dimensional
at the Galerie Craven in Paris in 1953 was the first ever exhibition of pe Le artworks. His first paintings were solid-colour abstracts,
ST6L
SCYV
Kinetic Art and that he was the first optical-kinetic artist. These claims en eh oe QO but in the Metaesquemas series of 1957-58 he sought
have been disputed. Agam was, however, among the first artists to ay i 49 we to dissolve the two-dimensional picture and its grid
encourage spectator participation, allowing people to arrange the stucture with a dynamic combination of squares and
various elements of the /ransformable Pictures series (1951-53) and » 6p & oN 6 oe rectangles outlined in various colours. He followed this
the sonic elements of Sonore (1961), which he described as a tactile . with a series of white-on-white paintings, Série Branca
painting with acoustic effects. His later works are as much optical as a Te = es (1958-59), in which he experimented with layering and
kinetic in their effect. oN NS eee brush techniques to maximize the effect of light on
rs colour. These experiments led him to produce three-
if Nes dimensional works that hung from the ceiling or stood
on the floor, forcing viewers to walk through them.

A Continual Mobile, Continual Light White

light reflects off the polished metal pieces in the
centre of this piece to produce a sensation of
continuous movement. 1963, mixed media,
60x60x 1cm, Tate, London, UK
n
PEELE
T ees
" One of the most active of the South
American Kinetic artists working in Paris
at
TE
TAURI
9
SBA
sep in the 1950s, Le Parc played a major role
in launching Kinetic Art in Europe. In
1960, he joined the French art group,
Groupe de Recherche dArt Visuel, where
his theoretical rigour established his
reputation. In 1953 he began working on rt.

two-dimensional compositions in colour A Grande Nucleo (Grand Nucleus) /he

A Salon Agam Agam produced this light installation in the Elysée Palace or black and white, but later developed luminous yellows of the outer panels give way to
for President Georges Pompidou. The walls are covered with polymorphic a series of works that made use of violet tones at the centre of this vast open maze,
murals of changing images, while the ceiling and carpet are kinetic. The “skimming” light, reflected and broken giving the piece vibrancy and life. 1960-66,
scene changes according to the spectator’s position and point of view. up by polished metal surfaces. oil and resin on wood fibreboard, César and Claudio
1972, mixed media, 470x548 x622cm, Pompidou Centre, Paris, France Oiticica Collection, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
 Victor Vasarely Jesus Rafael Soto
b PECS, 1908; d PARIS, 1987 b CIUDAD BOLIVAR, 1923; d PARIS, 2005

Vasarely studied at the Budapest Academy of Painting and the MUhely Academy, known Soto's early style was influenced by Cézanne and Cubism, and he was
as the “Budapest Bauhaus’ There, he became aware of the geometrical language used also aware of the Soviet Constructivists, through reproductions of their
by the main teachers of the original Bauhaus, such as Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee. work, In 1950, he moved to Paris, where he began to produce abstract
He moved to France in 1930, and in the 1940s developed a geometric abstraction paintings with repeating geometric forms that suggested movement.
based on Mondrian and Malevich. Vasarely paid tribute to the latter in his series He produced his first kinetic work, Spiral, in 1955.
Homage to Malevich (1952-58), using his black square on a white background, but Soto preferred to work with modern and industrial synthetic materials,
turning it on its axis so that it became “dynamized" Vasarely used illusory effects like such as nylon and steel, but in the early 1960s he investigated the textures
this to transform structures into vibrant forms that could dazzle the spectator's eye. of found objects, such as old wood, rusty wire, and rope. His kinetic
sculptures create an opposition between dynamic and static elements,
in his large installations blurring the distinction between reality and illusion.
» Mindoro II Vaserelys debt to

4
His work usually exploits the “moiré patterns” created when objects are
Malevich is evident in the black and
white geometric abstraction of this placed above repeated thin lines.
work, in which two overlapping
rectangles are pulled apart to create
a kinetic impact. c1956, oil on
canvas, 130.x195cm, Pompidou Centre,
Paris, France

¢¢ Every form is
a base for colour,
every colour
is the attribute
of a form %?
VICTOR VASARELY

A Large Writing Soto’ use of wire and wood in this kinetic work sets up
a dynamic between the various elements that invites the viewers visual and
ART
KINETIC
AND
OP intellectual involvement in understanding the piece. 1963-66, wire and wood,
104x 170x 16cm, Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona, US

Bridget Riley
b LONDON, 1931

One of the most celebrated exponents of Op art, Bridget Riley became

interested in optical effects through her early study of Pointillist technique.
Her first Op art paintings in the early 1960s were black and white and
ONWARDS
1945 used simple, repeating shapes, but she distorted them in every way. Riley
turned to colour in 1966, painting mainly horizontal or vertical stripes that
Bridget Riley, contrasted one colour against a complementary colour to heighten or dull
1979 it. By now she was attracting considerable interest in her work, winning the
international painting prize at the Venice Biennale in 1968. Later variations
in her style include the use of diagonal lozenges and flowing curves. Riley’s work shows
a complete mastery of Op art, using subtle variations in shape, size, colour, and location SeEDS
™ATS
ST
Rm
LE
of the repeating images across the work to create a dazzling vibration.

LIFEline \\ i
1952-55 Studies at the Royal |
College of Art, London
:
1961-65 Paints black and
white geometric forms
1966 Introduces colour; paints
mainly in stripes
1979-80 Visits Egypt and
later introduces new colours
reeeeeey
pina
ater
paren!
SRSA
pe">
to her palette
1986 Breaks up her vertical
—=-==>=
stripes with diagonal lozenges
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1963, emulsion on hardboard, A Achaean A visit to Egypt inspired Riley to develop her “Egyptian palette”
141x140cm, Tate, UK — colours of greater intensity than she had used before. This coincided with
her decision to change from acrylic to oil paint, and to return to painting
stripes rather than curves. 1981, oil on canvas, 239x 202cm, Tate, UK
 Origins and Influences
Artworks made from found objects
appeared as early as 1936 in the work hybrid three-dimensional forms by
of Joseph Cornell, and by the time assembling discarded objects and
Jean Dubuffet coined the term scrap materials in boxes, free-standing
“assemblage” in 1953, it had become constructions, or installations.
an established art form. Collage was Sometimes they even presented the
an influence on early assemblages, objects without modification, but in a
Although using found objects
and there was also a precedent in the new setting, out of context.
in artworks was by no means
“ready-mades” of Marcel Duchamp — Land art (also known as Earth art)
a new idea, it gave rise to an idea taken further in Robert developed in the 1970s and drew
distinct genres in the 1960s Rauschenberg’s combine paintings, inspiration both from the natural
and 70s, making it a very for which the critic Lawrence Alloway environment and its raw materials.
creative period. There were coined the term “Junk art” in 1961. Rather than depicting a landscape,
A Wrapped Cans. Part of Inventory Christo (Christo Land artists worked directly on the
also some sharp divisions in Techniques Javacheff), 1959-60. At the forefront of the Junk art landscape itself, sculpting it to make
the art world, with a gulf Moving away from the traditional movement, Christo began wrapping everyday objects,
earthworks, or building structures and
such as these enamel paint tins, in the late 1950s, and
widening between “popular” genres of painting and sculpture, installations with natural materials,
later adapted his wrapping techniques to create large-
and “serious” culture. assemblage and Junk artists created scale Land art. such as branches or rocks.

Assemblage, unkandLand art

TIMEline
1964
Joseph Cornell produced his
first boxed assemblages in the
1930s, but it was another two
decades before the genre
was established. Elements of
collage reappeared in early
Pop artin the late 1950s and
developed further in the 1960s
in Kienholz’s tableaux, then in
the Junk art sculptures by
César Baldaccini and John
Chamberlain. In the 1970s Land estas
KIENHOLZ While visions of GOLDSWORTHY CHRISTO AND J
artists such as Smithson left
sugar plums danced in their heads Spherical Leafwork Wrapped Reichstag
the studio and worked on the
CORNELL The Sixth Dawn LONG Sahara Line
land to create artworks.

et
1d
‘S
WASS
INNS
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GNV1
LYV
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Art of recycling the Arte Povera (Poor art) movement in Italy
was similar in philosophy, influencing
Because they were made from everyday Alberto Burri, Pino Pascali, and Mario Merz,
materials and bits of rubbish, assemblage and in France, César was producing scrap-
and Junk art sometimes evoked a mood of metal sculpture along much the same lines
nostalgia, but they also highlighted the as John Chamberlain in the United States.
wastefulness of consumer society and
rejected the commercialism of Pop art. Land art
This implicit social commentary became In some ways, Land art was an even less
more overt throughout the 1960s and 70s. conventional movement, creating art
Land art, in particular, also sought to raise outside galleries or public spaces, in the
awareness of man’s place in both the context of the natural world. Often this was
natural and urban environments. done on a massive scale, particularly in the
open spaces of North America where it
Assemblage and Junk art could only be seen properly from the air, but A Compression César (César Baldaccini) /n contrast to
A Stones and Stars 2003 Working outdoors and using The terms “assemblage” and “Junk art” it was also taken up by European artists the recycled ephemera and trivia of assemblage, Junk
the raw materials of the landscape itself, Land artists are to some extent interchangeable, but such as Andy Goldsworthy in the more art uses waste material as its basic medium, especially
such as Richard Long reflect the continuing concerns of generally speaking refer to stages of the intimate settings of woodland and seashore, the discarded debris of industrial society, such as the
the environmentalist movement of the 1970s and 80s. same movement — the principle of using leaves, twigs, and stones. Land artists crushed car parts of César’s Compressions series. c1960,
2003, phototograph and text, 87.5 x 129cm mixed media, Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany.
arranging found objects and debris remained also occasionally produce their work in
essentially the same. Primarily an urban galleries, by creating installations made
artform, assemblage had its roots in New from materials taken from the landscape. Land art explores the effects of time and
York, where Joseph Cornell's idea of boxed An urban variation of Land art can be decay: many of these ephemeral creations
objects was adopted by Louise Nevelson seen in the work of Christo and Jeanne- have disappeared due to natural erosion.
and extended in Edward Kienholz’s Claude, whose Nouveau Réalisme The impermanence of Land art, which
tableaux. Junk art, meanwhile, spread technique of wrapping household objects mainly survives only in photographs or video
quickly from New York across America, and progressed to wrapping up historic records, links the movement to similar ideas
appeared in Europe at about the same time: buildings, and then parts of landscapes. in Conceptual and Process art.
As well as challenging the notion of art as
exhibits divorced from the outside world,
 Christo and Jeanne-Claude v Wall of Oil Barrels (Iron Curtain) 7he
"7 CHRISTO: b GABRAVO, 1935 artists’ first major public intervention was an
s JEANNE-CLAUDE: b CASABLANCA, 1935 unauthorized protest against the Berlin Wall,
1 which had been built the previous year. Two
e ee Christo escaped from Bulgaria while visiting hundred and forty oil barrels createdawall of
, nh 2 > f Prague, eventually settling in Paris where, in 1958, coloured circles across the narrow Rue Visconti
; Give Me =he met Jeanne-Claude. Since 1961, the two of in Paris, blocking traffic for eight hours. 1962,
of ftAE them have worked on a number of ambitious, 3 oil barrels, Paris, France
Portrait by Bruni Meya large-scale works of art, which often involve years
of negotiation and planning, and the collaboration
v Surrounded Islands
of many workers and agencies. They commonly use fabric to create forms that
Christo and Jeanne-Claude
interact with an already existing environment — for example, by wrapping
have said that they wish to
buildings or bridges. Projects may take years and much effort to realize, but the
create works of art of joy and
works themselves are always temporary, making them unique but ephemeral, beauty. In this aesthetically
aesthetic, and interactive experiences, rather than enduring monuments. Unlike exuberant piece, 11 small
most Land artists, Christo and Jeanne-Claude do not work in remote locations, —_js/ands in Biscayne Bay,
but in populated areas where their art will be experienced first-hand and free of | Yjiami, were surrounded by
charge by large numbers of people. luminous, shiny, pink, floating
fabric. 1983, Miami, US
LIFEline
1935 Christo and Jeanne-
Claude are born on the same
day — 13 June
1957 Christo, studying in
Prague, escapes Communist
Europe in a medicine truck
1958 Christo and Jeanne-
Claude meet in Paris
1961 First collaborative work,
wrapping oil barrels with
tarpaulin in Cologne harbour
1968 The couple wrap their first
public building, the Kunsthalle
n Berne
1985 Pont Neuf bridge in Paris |
is wrapped in fabric
1995 Their 24-year project
to wrap Berlin's Reichstag
LAND
AND
JUNK
ASSEMBLAGE,
ART is realized

«< Wrapped Reichstag

The project to wrap Berlins
Reichstag began in 1971, but
was not finally realized until
1995, about midway between
Germanys reunification and the
re-use of the building as the
ONWARDS
1945 seat of parliament. Over a
two-week period, five million
visitors experienced the enigma
of this familiar landmark
transformed into a solid
abstraction of flowing drapery.
1995, fabric, Berlin, Germany

¢¢ We only
create joy
and beauty.
We have
never done a
sad work ”’
CHRISTO, 2002
Richard Long Vv Sahara Line A/though he is a quintessentially English artist in
many ways, Long has walked all over the world, from Lapland to the
b BRISTOL, 1945
Andes. Here, scattered rocks are arranged to constitute an obviously
Richard Long has based his art around a single activity: walking. He human intervention, creating a juxtaposition with the monolithic
undertakes solitary journeys on foot, often across hundreds of miles desert backdrop. 1988, rocks, 114x83.5cm, Sahara desert, Africa
eeraat
of landscape. The walks themselves are structured around certain
limits, usually communicated in the title of the work. These include a
starting point and destination, of course, but also boundaries of time,
as in A Thousand Miles in a Thousand Hours (1974), or poetically
suggestive actions, such as collecting water from each river crossed Vv Geneva Circle Two As ey
to be poured into the next one, as in Water Walk (1999). On the way, well as temporary works created |
Long sometimes creates ephemeral, geometric forms from sticks, on location, Long also makes
sculptural works and wall
stones, and other objects. His walks are represented in photographs
paintings for galleries. Universal
and maps, often accompanied by evocative texts.
shapes such as circles and lines
Long is keen to differentiate his own practice from American Land
are used, suggesting a link
Art, which for him is obsessed with imposing gestures demanding between the ancient and the
money and industrial machinery. By contrast, Long's own encounter contemporary. Site specificity is
with the landscape is marked by subtlety, simplicity, and a perceptive important, and these stone slabs
readiness for what it offers up. would have come from a local
Swiss quarry. 1987, stone,
diameter 500cm, private collection
LIFEline
1945 Born in Bristol, UK
1962 Attends the West of
England College of Art;
creating work which engaged
directly with the surrounding
landscape
1967 While a student at St
Martins College, undertakes
his first walking work, A Line
Made by Walking
1968 Solo exhibition of his
work at the Konrad Fischer
Gallery, in Dusseldorf
1976 Represents Britain at
the Venice Biennale exhibition
1989 Wins the Turner Prize on
his fourth nomination 1S
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Robert Smithson
b PASSAIC, 1938; d AMARILLO, 1973
Of all the American artists of the 1960s, Robert Smithson perhaps best
embodied the trajectory away from traditional disciplines and formalist
notions of what art should be. Best known for monumental land
pieces, such as the iconic Spiral Jetty (1970), Smithson’s thinking went
beyond the visual aspect of his work, to also offer a philosophical
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reflection on man’s place in nature. He challenged human-centred
ideas — represented in the “picturesqueness” of landscape painting,
a tradition he saw persisting in Abstract art — with an appeal to
“inhuman” concepts that diminished mankind's self-importance:
geological time, the crystalline structure of minerals, and entropy (the
physical law of increasing disorder). Smithson saw art less as a unique,
finished object and more as a dynamic, social, physical, and mental
process that could take multiple, interacting forms.

LIFEline
1938 Born in Passaic,
New Jersey
1957 Moves to New York
1966 Shows his work at the
legendary Minimal Art
exhibition Primary Structures,
held at the Jewish Museum
1967 Solo show at Dwan A Spiral Jetty Located in a remote region of CLOSERIook
Gallery, New York Utah's Great Salt Lake, this work was built from ie, ee § CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
1970 Obtains lease for an six and a half tons of rock and earth. The spiral Pe bcm, Sy Smithson intended saline
area of land on the Great Salt shape is a reference to a mythical whirlpool at the | crystals from the water to
Lake, in Utah; constructs bottom of the lake, and to the circulation of blood form on top of the rock
Spiral Jetty in six days in the body (the water has a reddish tint). 1970, | surface, and this has
1973 |s killed in a plane crash, 4 indeed happened, creating
black rock, salt crystals, earth, red water (algae),
aged just 35, while surveying A Mirror Stratum /n the mid-1960s, a white halo that contrasts
land for an earthwork in Texas 4.6mx450m, Great Salt Lake, Utah, US
Smithson’ sculptural works adopted the pared- } with the pinkish water.
down geometries of Minimalism, but displayed
a deliberate connection to physical processes,
such as the stratification of rocks. 1966, mirrors,
36x 36x 15cm, James Cohan Gallery, New York, US
 VValter De Maria
b ALBANY, 1935

Best known for his celebrated Lightning Field (1977), Walter De Maria began
his artistic career making witty sculptures, creating musical pieces, and taking
part in “happenings” under the influence of the avant-garde composer John
Cage. In 1968, he produced two significant Land Art works: Mile Long Drawing
Dennis Oppenheim consisting of two parallel chalk lines in the Mojave Desert in California, and
Earth Room at the Heiner Friedrich gallery in Munich, where he filled the
b ELECTRIC CITY, WASHINGTON, 1938 pristine space with soil, which could be viewed from behind a glass barrier.
L
Oppenheim’s work has spanned land
art, performance, video art, and sculpture,
and is based on a questioning of the
traditional art object. For him, art is
an action in real time, not a timeless
precious object, and the photographic
record he makes merely documents a
moment in the process. The ploughing
of a field, the suntanning of a body, and
even the consumption and digestion of
a gingerbread man are all material. His
objects are unconventional and often
disturbing, even when he makes them
| for museum display. In Attempt to Raise
Hell (1974), a metal head is struck by a
bell every 60 seconds.

66 An artist Cancelled Crop /his picture represents just one

stage in the artistic process, as Oppenheim himself
works throu g h explains. “The route from Finsterwolde (location of
exposed wheat field) to Nieuwe Schans (location of storage silo)
ds ”” was reduced by a factor of 6x and plotted on a A Lightning Field This field contains 400 steel rods, spaced at 67m intervals
wounds 154x267m field. The field was then seeded following and set in the ground so that the tops of them are at an even height to create
DENNIS OPPENHEIM this line. In September the field was harvested in the an enormous grid in the desolate landscape. The work’s title suggests the
ART
LAND
AND
JUNK
ASSEMBLAGE, form of an ‘X’. The grain was isolated in its raw state, awesome and potentially threatening encounter with nature to be had when
further processing was withheld”. 1969, Netherlands experiencing it first-hand. 1977, steel rods, New Mexico, US

Andy Goldsworthy
b CHESHIRE, 1956 LIFEline

Andy Goldsworthy is part of the lineage of Land 1956 Born in Cheshire, son of
artists who move beyond the gallery and the saleable _|@ Professor of mathematics
object to make transient interventions in non-urban 1969 From the age of 13, he often
: | works as a farm labourer in the
environments. These interventions take the form of Yorkshire countryside
ONWARDS
1945
HIN delicate and beautiful structures made from material 1975-78 Studies fine art at
Photograph found close to hand. Preston Polytechnic
oes Goldsworthy’s work follows the Minimalist ethic 1996 Begins work on Sheepfolds
of presenting the material as it is, using it neither for in Cumbria
representational nor abstract purposes, and of revealing the means 2000 Awarded the OBE
of its construction. However, unlike Minimalism, with its industrial, 2003 Frozen sculptures, including
factory-made aesthetic, Goldsworthy's objects are a result of hands- Icicle Star, are used to illustrate
Royal Mail Christmas stamps
on communication with nature. Leaves, stones, flowers, snow, and
2007 A retrospective of his work
| twigs are some of the typical materials he uses, arranging and is held at Yorkshire Sculpture Park |
attaching them in patterns that mimic natural forms: spheres, spirals,
and lattice shapes. The ephemerality of these sculptures reminds us
that death and decay are an integral part of nature. Soret te ee J

Spherical Leafwork
Goldsworthy adopts natural
materials, not only as formal
elements, but also tools that
hold new shapes together, for
example using thorns as a
pinning device in this structure
Leaves are a familiar sign of
passing time, turning brown
and disintegrating with the
Icicle Star Goldsworthy’ sculptures often appear so exquisite
changing seasons — a process
because they utilize the very forms produced by natural processes
the artist embraces through the
to create new and suggestive objects. Part of the charm of this
sculptures themselves. 1988,
piece lies in the contrast between the modesty of the material —
leaves, City Art Gallery, Leeds, UK
mere water — and the exuberance it seems to express, and
between its actual coldness and the burning heat of the star
it resembles. \ce, Dumfriesshire, Scotland
Joseph Cornell
b NYACK, 1903; d FLUSHING, 1972 LIFEline
The American artist Joseph Cornell is best known today for his pioneering of 1917-21 Studies at Phillips
Assemblage Art, but he also made numerous collages and worked as a film-maker Academy in Andover
and writer. His work in all genres was very much influenced by Surrealism, without 1921-31 Works as a textiles
salesman
espousing the Surrealists’ ethos, and paved the way for Pop and Installation Art.
1925 Joins the church of
Apart from five years studying at Phillips Academy in Andover, Cornell lived in his
Christian Science
native New York City, for most of the time in a working-class part of Queens. He 1932 Shows collages in an
worked in the textile industry until 1940 to support his mother and disabled brother. exhibition in New York
During a period of unemployment in the Depression, he made contact with Julian 1936 First boxed assemblage,
Levy, who in 1932 included Cornell’s collages in an exhibition of Surrealists at his Untitled (Soap Bubble Set)
gallery. Cornell had his own one-man show later that year. Over the following decades __| 1939 First film, Rose Hobart
he succeeded in establishing a reputation for himself by making boxed assemblages 1940 Fulltime artist and writer
and collages from found items — not junk, but objects that had at one time been 1972 Dies in New York, almost
someone's treasured possessions. unknown outside the art world

CLOSERIook

“ Soapbubble Variant Vany A The Sixth Dawn Cornells

of Cornell’ boxed assemblages collages were inspired by those
appear in a series of similar of Max Ernst. Unlike Surrealist
works. He produced “variants” collages, they did not represent
NOSTALGIC IMAGES of the original 1936 Soapbubble the darker side of imagination.
Among found bric-a-brac items, Set, partly because he was The Sixth Dawn has an air of
Cornell pasted and hung photos
fascinated with the objects, child-like innocence. 1964, collage
and pictures from bygone
but also to satisfy demand for on paper mounted on masonite,
eras, evoking a mood of both
his work. c1956, mixed media, 44x 37cm, The Israel Museum, 1S
‘S
NASS
INNS
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nostalgia and surreal fantasy.
24x 38x 10cm, private collection Jerusalem, Israel

John Chamberlain Louise Nevelson

b ROCHESTER, 1927 b KIEV, 1899; d NEW YORK, 1988

Best known for his constructions of crumpled automobile parts, the sculptor and The daughter of a Jewish timber merchant, Louise Nevelson was born Leah Berliawsky
painter John Chamberlain has combined in his work the methods of Junk Art in Kiev, but moved with her family to Rockland, Maine, as a child. She grew up playing
and the aesthetic of Abstract Expressionism. with wood in her father’s lumberyard, and had early ambitions of becoming a sculptor.
Indiana-born Chamberlain was raised in Chicago and studied at the Art Institue She moved to New York after marrying Charles Nevelson in 1920 and began to
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of Chicago and Black Mountain College, before settling in New York in 1957. It was teach herself art. She later studied sculpture at the Arts Students League and
there that he started welding together car parts to create striking, dynamic, and with Hans Hofmann in Munich, going on to assist Diego Rivera and teach at the
implicitly violent compositions that became his trademark. He continued to develop Educational Alliance School of Art in Manhattan. In the 1940s, Nevelson exhibited
the idea in the 1960s, using a range of motor and industrial objects, sometimes for her assemblages and collages of wooden objects. Her international reputation was
social comment — such as his recurrent use of oil barrels during the US fuel crisis. secured in 1958 with a major one-woman show at the Grand Central Moderns Gallery,
He also made several filfns and experimented with Action Painting using car spray in New York, which featured her distinctive monochrome walls of boxed assemblages.
paint; which led to much of his later sculpture being spray-painted in vivid colours.

CLOSERIook
< Untitled With his later
car-sculptures, assembled
from scrapyard materials,
Chamberlain brought the
spontaneity and dynamic
colour of Abstract
Expressionism to Junk Art.
In particular, the sense of
frozen movement, achieved
as much by his handling of INSIDE THE BOXES The
the materials as by their scraps of wood in each box
association with motor are of all shapes and sizes;
vehicles, can be seen as a some are purely abstract
three-dimensional form of Cubist or primitive motifs,
Action Painting. Sheet metal, others are more figurative
Galleria Nazionale d’Arte
Moderna, Rome, Italy \ Tropical Garden II A series of tall, thin boxes joined
together form the wall-like structure of Tropical Garden II. Each
one contains found wooden objects. The whole is painted black,
unifying the disparate components and disguising their origins.
The enclosed compositions are revealed only by their shadows.
1957-59, painted wood, 180x330cm, Pompidou Centre, Paris, France
 Edward Kienholz
Alberto Burri rr |b FAIRFIELD, 1927; d HOPE, 1994 | LIFEline
Edward Kienholz used his environmental assemblages | 1927 Born, the son of a farmer
b CITTA DI CASTELLO, 1915; d NICE, 1995 (“tableaux”) as social or political comment, and juxtaposed 1953 Moves to Los Angeles
The Italian painter and sculptor Alberto Burri trained as a macabre, erotic, and everyday items to often shocking effect 1962 Creates Roxy’, his first tableau |
doctor, but took up painting while in a POW camp in the to make his point. 1966 A retrospective at LA County
: : F Museum causes outrage
US. On his return to Italy, he became a leading figure in Kienholz was born and brought up in rural Washington state, ee
ae g 1972 Meets Nancy Reddin, his future
the Art Informe! movement, which paved the way for Edward and although he was keen on painting as a teenager, he had ite and collaborate
Arte Povera (see p.551), the Italian minimalist style. Kienholz, 1965 no formal training in art. Drifting in and out of jobs and college | 1973 Moves to Idaho
In the late 1940s, Burri moved from an expressionist courses, he worked for a while in a psychiatic hospital, and 1973-94 Regular trips to Berlin to work
to a purely abstract style, rejecting any metaphorical ended up in Los Angeles in 1953, where he took an interest in sculpture. His with his wife
references in his work. A series of paintings and sculptures first pieces took the form of roughly painted wooden relief panels, but in the 1994 Dies in Hope, Idaho, aged 67
with titles such as Tars, Sacks, Irons, Combustions, late 1950s he began working with assemblage. L )
Clays, and Woods explored unorthodox materials and
techniques such as collage, burning, and cutting. >» While Visions of Sugarplums ee |
Danced in Their Heads /his
assemblage of an intimate bedroom scene
is disturbing in its matter-of-fact depiction
of mundane, respectable, suburban life.
Sacco IV Burri 1964, mixed media, 183x366 x274cm,
embarked upon his Pompidou Centre, Paris, France
Sacchi (sacks) series -
of collages in 1950. CLOSERI|ook
Various theories have
been suggested to
explain the choice of
medium, but Burri
simply stated, “The
poorness of a medium
is not a symbol: it is a
device for painting”. IN THEIR HEADS The couple making
love are lost in their own thoughts, their
1954, burlap, cotton, glue, it
“faces” turned away from one another.
silk, and paint on black = Inside the bulbous heads are miniature
cotton backing, 114x76cm, §
tableaux of naked Barbie and Ken dolls
LANDDenney Collection,
ART
AND
JUNK
ASSEMBLAGE, acting out their private fantasies.
Toulouse, France ee

Pino Pascali Mario Merz

b BARI, 1935; d ROME, 1968 b MILAN, 1925; d MILAN, 2003
< Cannone Semovente Starting as a painter in the Art Informel style, Mario Merz turned to sculpture in
(Mobile Cannon) /n 1965, | the 1960s as a rejection of the notion of representing images in favour of presenting
Pascali made a number of the objects themselves. Initially using ready-made objects and employing the
life-size replicas of cannons techniques of Arte Povera (see p.551), he soon realized their shortcomings for his
ONWARDS
1945 and big guns using scrap philosophy of portraying the inherent social and scientific connotations of abstract
metal, wood, and rubber, and concrete images.
which he then painted a
The most striking of his innovations in the late 1960s was the use of neon lighting,
military green. The largest
sometimes with glass panels, as an integral part of his sculpture. When juxtaposed
of these, Cannone
with constructions such as igloos, which feature in many of his pieces, the lighting
Semovente, /s disturbingly
life-like, and as well as its provided a metaphor for old and new, poverty and progress.
contemporary reference to
the war in Vietnam, it << Homage to Arcimboldo /he
echoes Pascali’s childhood three main elements — neon lights,
memories of World War Il. a crocodile, and a structure based on
1965, wood, scrap metal, and the Fibonacci mathematical sequence
wheels, 251 x340x246cm — were recurrent themes in Merzs
work. Rather than contrasting these
disparate images, he points to their
connections: the mathematical
structure of natural patterns such as
In his tragically short career, Pino Pascali was a prominent member of the Arte the crocodile’s scales, the modernity
Povera movement (see p.551), working as a sculptor, set designer, and conceptual of primeval symbols, and the
artist. His experiences as a child in Italy and occupied Albania during World War II continuum from past to future. 1988,
were a significant influence on his art and political stance. mixed media, Nationalgalerie, SMPK,
During the 1950s, Pascali studied at the Liceo Artistico, Naples, and the Berlin, Germany
Accademia di Belle Arti, Rome, followed by four years as a television set designer
before embarking on his career as an artist. In the short time before his death in a
motorcycle accident in 1968, he achieved remarkable success, first as a painter and
then for his “happenings” in Rome, but most importantly for his large-scale sculptures
and installations. Often using unorthodox materials, Pascali captured the mood of the
times: the series of big guns made of scrap metal coincided with the Vietnam War,
and the massive and disturbing 7rap appeared amid the student unrest of 1968.
 Origins
The term “concept art” was first Some Conceptual artists, such as
used in 1961 by the American anti-art Joseph Beuys, created performance
activist Henry Flynt to describe his art to make statements about the
performance art. The term was pain of human existence or man’s
extended to “Conceptual art” by the EVERYTHING IS PURGED FROM THIS PAINTING
BUT ART, NO IDEAS HAVE ENTERED THIS WORK. relationship with nature. Others turned
American artist Sol LeWitt in his 1967 to Land art, making artworks directly
article “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art” in the landscape (see p.551).
for Artforum magazine. This article Conceptual art was a reaction
recognized that a generation of artists against Abstract Expressionism, which
was creating a new form of art and dominated the art world in the 1950s.
popularized the term. Whereas Abstract Expressionists
In Conceptual art, the idea or
sought to express their emotions and
concept behind the work experiences in large, heroic paintings,
is as important as the work Conceptual art revolutionized the the Conceptualists were often cool
itself. Marcel Duchamp way we appreciate art. To Conceptual A Everything is Purged from this Painting John and cerebral. Piero Manzoni, one of
artists, a work of art was primarily Baldessari, 1967-68. Much of the Conceptual art of the the first Conceptual artists, began his
made the first examples of 1960s relied primarily on verbal and intellectual rather
for intellectual — not aesthetic — than visual means of communication. series of Achromes in 1957. In these
Conceptual art before World
stimulation and was no longer a works he soaked the canvases
War I, but it only became beautiful, hand-crafted object. It did photograph, a film, or an installation. in kaolin, a white clay, to produce a
recognised as a distinct art not have to take the traditional form of It could be made from found objects, “white surface that is simply a white
form in the 1960s. painting or sculpture, but might be a or produced by the artist's assistant. surface and nothing else”

Conceptual art
TIMEline
1994
In 1961, Piero Manzoni started 1961 1968-71
signing humans to create
living works of art. Each
person was given a certificate
of authentication. Letters and TVWN
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words are important elements
of Marcel Broodthaers’ Pipe
Alphabet (1968-71) and On
DEC12.1979
Kawara’s date paintings.
Mona Hatoum’s 1994 Corps
Etranger shows a video made
from an endoscope travelling KAWARA Wednesday, Dec.
into her intestines. IZMTS
MANZONI BROODTHAERS Pipe Alphabet
Living sculpture HATOUM
Corps Etranger
St6L
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Interpretations 1969, “The “value” of particular artists after CURRENTevents

Duchamp can be weighed according to how 1959 The first “happening”
The pioneer of Conceptual art was the much they questioned the nature of art.” takes place at the Reuben
French artist Marcel Duchamp (see Many Conceptual artists began to rely on Gallery in New York.
p.467). In 1913, he began exhibiting his language to convey their message, rather 1961 Yuri Gagarin
readymades, industrially manufactured than the visual image or object. Kosuth becomes the first man
objects that he had decided were works of produced large photocopies of the dictionary in space; the Berlin Wall
is constructed.
art. As there was little or no craft involved definitions of common words and On
1963 US President John
in making them, Duchamp was explicitly Kawara painted calendar dates, aiming to
Kennedy is assassinated.
questioning the nature of art. By putting his complete each painting on the date shown.
1965 American students
readymades in galleries, Duchamp was also John Baldesarri painted statements from
demonstrate against
questioning the institutions that legitimize contemporary art theory — then decided the bombing of North
art for the public. to remove all work by his own hand Vietnam. Britain passes
Another important artist in the completely and employed a sign painter the Race Relations Act,
development of Conceptual art was the to paint the lettering. prohibiting discrimination
on grounds of race.
American Robert Rauschenberg (see
The role of museums 1967 The Summer
pp.535-37), who worked with found
of Love begins in
objects. Rauschenberg recognized the Conceptual art also questioned the role San Francisco.
importance of the concept that underpinned of galleries and museums in presenting
1968 In Paris, students
a “work of art”. To demonstrate this, artworks, particularly the way in which they demonstrate against the
he acquired a drawing by the Abstract legitimize and sanctify objects traditionally government, leading to a
Expressionist Willem de Kooning in 1953, considered to be art. Joseph Beuys used general strike.
erased it, and then exhibited the result. museum-like glass display cases to show 1969 Neil Armstrong
“valueless” objects, such as felt, fat, or becomes the first man
A The Pack (Das Rudel) Joseph Beuys, 1969. The role of art to walk on the moon.
rubbish swept up from the street. Christian
The installation, an arrangement of objects in a given
Conceptual art questions our assumptions Boltanski used display cases in a similar
space, became an important medium for Conceptual
artists. Here Beuys has positioned 24 sledges, not only about what qualifies as art, but fashion to show children’s toys. Marcel
resembling a pack of dogs, so they seem to tumble what the function of the artist should be and Broodthaers went even further, converting
out of the back of a Volkswagen van. what our role as spectators should involve. his own house into a museum as a
Conceptual artist Joseph Kosuth wrote in comment on the institutionalization of art.
 Joseph Beuys
b KREFELD, 1921; d DUSSELDORF, 1986 | LIFEline
Charismatic and unconventional, Joseph Beuys was a leading political 1921 Born in Krefeld, in
northwest Germany
artist and teacher. He strongly believed that his art, which he called |

“social sculpture” had the power to shape a better society and, as 1940 Joins the Luftwaffe
part of his artistic career, he became increasingly active in politics, 1943 Involved ina plane crash |
campaigning for educational reform, grass-roots democracy, and in the Crimea
the Green Party. 1945 Spends time in a British
prisonerof-war camp
In his sculptures and installations, Beuys deliberately used non-art
1946-51 Studies sculpture at
materials, including fat, felt, earth, stones, food, and copper and iron
Dusseldorf Academy of Art
sheets. As his reputation grew, he was invited to create evermore 1961 First one-man
ambitious projects. He made room-sized installations, and eventually exhibition, in Kleve; returns to
his work spilled out of the museum into activist events, such as his Dusseldorf Academy of Art
tree-planting, 7000 Oaks (1982-87). | to take up professorship
Importantly, Beuys also pioneered the idea that the artist could | 1962 Participates in the
intermedia Fluxus movement
communicate through “actions” — performances, public discussions,
1979 |s one of 500 founding
and political campaigning — as well as artefacts. In his most famous
members of the German
“action, performed in New York in 1974, he spent three days in a room Green Party. Retrospective
with a coyote. The title of the work, / Like America and America Likes | held at New York's
Me, |s ironic — Beuys opposed the war in Vietnam and his work | Guggenheim Museum
challenged the hegemony of American art. —_ a ——

Earth Telephone /his piece

is influenced by Marcel
Duchamp'’s “ready-mades” —
artistic constructions made from
manufactured objects to provoke
thought. Here, by connecting a
telephone to earth and grass,
Beuys perhaps underlines his
belief that art should be
connected with the wider world.
CONCEPTUAL
ART 1968, mixed media, 20x 47 x 76cm,
Kunsthalle Hamburg, Germany

A How to Explain
Pictures to a Dead Hare

Flicskpo Paver pt tng

Pees
In this piece, Beuys walked
around an exhibition with
his face covered in honey
and gold leaf, while lovingly
carrying a dead hare in his
ONWARDS
1945 arms. He looked at pictures
and explained them to the
hare. By using a dead
animal and disfiguring his
face, Beuys seemed to
allude to the serious injuries
he suffered several times
during World War II. 1965,
performance, Schmela Gallery,
Dusseldorf, Germany

< Action Piece Beuys

toured the world giving
lectures, which he called
“actions”, on sculpture,
democracy, and green
politics. His teaching was
closer to performance art
than academic lectures, and
the blackboards he covered
in diagrams and slogans
have come to be regarded
as works in their own right.
1972, lecture at the Tate,
London, UK
Piero Manzoni
b SONCINO, 1933; d MILAN, 1963 | LIFEline
Manzoni was a Milan-based conceptual artist who made witty, | 1951-55 Starts career
painting landscapes in a
provocative art, designed to both mock the art establishment and Merda d’Artista Manzoni made 90 tins
traditional style
question the artist's role in a capitalist, commodity-driven era. purporting to contain his own faeces. Although
Manzoni believed that everything was art — humans, whom he 1956 Produces images by
dipping keys, scissors, pliers, Manzoni said his aim was to expose “the
signed; human waste, which he canned; and even the whole world, and pincers in paint and gullibility of the art-buying public”, London’s Tate
which he pretended to mount on a plinth. He attacked the pomposity impressing them on canvas Gallery and New York's MoMA have bought tins.
of angstridden artists, especially the Abstract Expressionists, by 1957 Begins to make They now seem doubly gullible, as Manzoni’s
posing for photographs with a smiling face, with his cans of excrement Achromes — textured white fellow artist, Agostino Bonalumi, has since
or his signed humans. He satirized Minimal art by painting lines on paintings. First one-man claimed that the tins contain plaster. 1961, MoMA,
exhibition in the foyer of the
scrolls of paper, then putting them away in tubes and canisters. He New York, US
Teatro delle Maschere, Milan
also poked fun at the overinflated art world in his Artist's Breath series, 1963 Dies in Milan of
which involved blowing up balloons, attaching them to plinths, and cirrhosis of the liver, aged 29
then letting them deflate.

f : ‘
et CONSERVATArec
At Y
Me: “ PRODOTTA EDAnscAt?
“NEL maccio

« Achrome Manzoni wanted to banish narrative

content from painting — this meant removing even
colour. To get to his desired “nothingness”, he
soaked his canvases in kaolin, a soft china clay.
The weight of the material caused it to sag,
creating folds across the canvas. 1959, kaolin on
canvas, 61x61cm, Kunsthalle Hamburg, Germany TWNL
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bg ( Living Sculpture Beginning in January
1961, Manzoni started signing people to
create “living sculptures”. Each person was
given a mock bureaucratic certificate of
authentification. Manzoni continued to sign
people on his travels around cities in Europe
until June 1962, when the writer Umberto
Eco became his last sculpture. The publicity
for a solo show at a gallery in Copenhagen
declared, “hecome a living work of art”. St6L
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1961, Piero Manzoni Archive

66 Are not fantasizing,

abstraction, and
self-expression
empty fictions’
There is nothing to
be said: there is
only to be,
to live ””
PIERO MANZONI,
FREE DIMENSION ESSAY,
(1960)

A Magic Base /n January 1961, Manzoni made his first

“magic base”, explaining that as long as any person or
any object stayed on this base he, or it, was a work of art.
The base had handy footprints on which the user could
place his feet. Here, Manzoni himself was photographed
on the plinth. 1961, performance, Kopecke Gallery, Denmark
 Marcel Broodthaers
b BRUSSELS, 1924; d COLOGNE, 1976 LIFEline
Broodthaers was a poet, who at 40 became a visual artist. 1940 Becomes a poet
In a short, but influential, artistic career he was particularly 1957 Makes his first film, La
concerned with the museum's place in contemporary Clef de I’Horloge (The Key to
culture, and how art is presented to the public.
the Clock)
1958 Starts to publish articles
Sol LeWitt
In 1968, Broodthaers converted the ground floor of his illustrated with his own photos
Brussels house into a “Museum of Modern Art” In his b HARTFORD, 1928; d NEW YORK, 2007 LIFEline
Photograph 1963 Decides to become
by Platen first exhibit, he showed empty packing crates from the an artist LeWitt's sculptures and installations, 1945-49 Studies Fine Arts
Palais des Beaux-Arts and postcards of 19th-century 1964 First one-man exhibition camposed of cubes and other austere at Syracuse University
French paintings from the Louvre. The exhibition questioned the nature at the Galerie St Laurent, geometric forms, came to the public 1949 Moves to New York
and validity of art, and the difference between an artistic masterpiece Brussels attention in the mid-1960s. Many critics 1962 Makes abstract black
1968 Establishes the Musée and white reliefs
and a commercial souvenir. Broodthaers's work also examined the described him as a Minimalist. However,
dArt Moderne (Section XIXe 1965 First one-man exhibition
relationship between language and the objects it describes. In 1974 siecle), Département des
LeWitt denied this association and
in New York
he produced Les Animaux de la Ferme, a parody of educational posters, Aigles [Eagles] in his house in instead, in 1967 coined the term 1967 Writes the influential
showing different types of cow labelled with the names of cars. Brussels “Conceptual art” to describe his work, article, Paragraphs on
1972 Exhibits 266 objects explaining that he started with an idea, Conceptual Art
¥ Pense-Béte Sroodthaers made this work by dunking 50 unsold copies all containing representations rather than a form. ;
of his own book of poetry into wet plaster. The title Pense-Béte means “a of an eagle at the Stadtische To stress the importance of the idea in
Kunsthalle in Dusseldorf
reminder”, but if the words are taken literally it could mean a wild or art, LeWitt made several works in which Y Serial Project, | (ABCD)
stupid thought. 1964, books, plaster, and rubber ball, SMAK, Gent, Belgium the end products were non-visible — LeWitt worked in simple
including a metal cube buried in the forms, such as open or closed
CLOSERIook cubes, to create structures in
ground in Holland, entitled Box in the
Hole (1968). This piece was documented a pre-determined, logical
by a series of still photographs, but the system. This piece presents
exact location of the work has never combinations of squares and
cubes, laid out on a grid. 1966,
been disclosed.
mixed media, 51 x399x399cm,
MoMA, New York, US

UNREADABLE BOOKS
The plaster makes the poetry
in the books unreadable, but
Broodthaers seems to be asking
whether the artwork produced
CONCEPTUAL
ART as a result is readable itself.

ONWARDS
1945

A Two Open Modular CLOSERIlook

K ES M N 0
Cubes leWitt once declared THE IDEA LeWitt
that the most interesting thing had his work fabricated
a 5 about the cube was that it was industrially. However
relatively uninteresting. This material was just the
meant that the spectator would vehicle for an idea,
think about the system and basic bringing him much
closer to the realm
A Pipe Alphabet /his work is clearly a homage to the Belgian unit employed, rather than units
of Conceptual art.
Surrealist artist René Magritte and his famous painting The Treachery used to express that system.
of Images (1928-29), which shows a painted picture of a pipe and the 1972, enamelled aluminium,
inscription ‘Ceci n'est pas une pipe” (this is not a pipe). 1968-71, 160 x 305 x 233cm, Tate,
painted plastic, 84x 119cm, Galerie de I’Art Moderne, Paris, France London, UK
 Daniel Buren
b BOULOGNE-BILLANCOURT, PARIS, 1938

Buren is a French conceptual artist who is sometimes classified as an abstract

minimalist. He came to fame in the 1960s, by painting stripes across urban
environments in unauthorized, bandit-style acts. The stripes are based on a popular
French awning fabric — they are always 8.7cm wide, and white is always alternated
On Kawara with another colour. At his first solo exhibition, Buren blocked the entrance of
the gallery with stripes. In 1986, he created a controversial sculptural installation,
b AICHI-KEN, 1932
entitled Les Deux Plateaux, in the great courtyard of the Palais Royal. It consisted
The Japanese conceptual artist On Kawara has lived in New York since 1965. His work of truncated columns painted with black and white stripes.
deals with the largest subjects — our conception of time and place, life and death — in
a deceptively simple manner.
In the 1960s, Kawara began to dispassionately record his life. He made maps of his
daily walks and cab rides, and lists of the people he met. He sent telegrams to friends
with the words, “| am still alive - On Kawara’ and postcards from wherever he was,
each rubberstamped with his temporary address and the time he got up. He is most
famous for his date paintings. Sometimes Kawara makes several date paintings on
one day, sometimes none at all. If he doesn't finish a painting by midnight, he
destroys It. The paintings are sometimes exhibited together — often thematically,
for example all from one year, or all from a particular day of the week.

< Wednesday, Dec. 12,

1979 On 4 January 1966,
Kawara began a series of
date paintings, which he
called the Today Series.
Each painting consists of

DEC.12.1979
the date it was made,
hand painted in white on
a dark-toned canvas. The
white letters can be seen
as symbolizing daytime,
the dark canvas night-
time. 1979, synthetic A Striped posters flyposted on billboards Buren applies stripes
polymer paint on canvas, over posters, in metro stations, on steps, plinths, and benches, as well
46 x62.5cm, MoMA, as in museums. By pasting up his stripes like wallpaper, he makes the TWNLd
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New York, US viewer look again at the urban environment. 1968, posters, Paris, France

|Hans Haacke Joseph Kosuth

b COLOGNE, 1936 b TOLEDO, OHIO, 1945 LIFEline
The German conceptual artist, Hans Haacke, creates incisive, forthright Joseph Kosuth creates conceptual art, inspired by philosophy and 1965 Moves to New York;
political art that exposes power and privilege. His early work focused linguistics. Precocious and provocative, he had produced some of his attends Schoo! of Visual Arts
most celebrated works by the age of 20. Kosuth summed up his ideas 1967 Founds the Museum of
on natural processes. Rain Tower (1962), Condensation Cube (1963-65)
Normal Art in New York — it
and Grass Cube (1967) allowed for interactions between animals, in the 1969 essay Art after Philosophy, writing, “Being an artist now hosts his first solo show SV6L
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plants, water, and wind. He also made forays into Land art. means to question the nature of art... If you make paintings you are 1969 Becomes editor of the
In the 1970s, Haacke’s work became overtly political. His targets already accepting (not questioning) the nature of art’ Kosuth’s Journal of Art and Language,
included governments, multinational corporations, property preferred medium was language. Words displaced images, while for British and American
developers, and museums. Haacke argues that, whether intentionally intellectual stimulation replaced the contemplation of aesthetic objects. artists interested in linguistic
and Marxist analysis of art
or not, all art plays a role in the socio-political environment in which it This idea was exemplified in First Investigations (1966), a series that
1981 Major retrospectives at
is produced and seen, and therefore affects the Zeitgeist and has included photostats of the dictionary definitions of “water” “idea’
Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart, and
political consequences. “meaning, and other words. These images were accompanied by Kunsthalle in Bielefeld
instructions, indicating that the works could be remade. In this way, 1986 Produces Zero and Not,
< GERMANIA This was Kosuth undermined the preciousness of the unique art object, and comprising words printed on
presented in the German sought to demonstrate that the “art” is not located in the object itself, paper then partially obscured
but in the concept. by tape
pavilion at the Venice
Biennale. Entering the
pavilion the visitor was
< One and Three Chairs
“greeted” by a photograph of
Here, Kosuth presents a chair,
Hitler during his visit to the
with a photograph of a chair,
same pavilion in 1934. Upon
and a dictionary definition of the
the dictators orders the
word “chair”. Kosuth is asking
pavilion’s parquet floor was
“What is art?”. Can a chair be
later replaced by marble
art, in the same way that Marcel
plates. Hitler had planned to
Duchamp said a urinal was art?
rename Berlin “Germania” —
And can descriptions of the
after his expected victory in
chair —a photograph and a
World War Il. Above the
verbal definition — be art? 1965,
entrance, where the Nazi
mixed media, chair 82x 38x 53cm,
insignia had been displayed,
MoMA, New York, US
Haacke affixed an enlarged
replica of a 1 Deutsch
Mark coin with the minting
date of 1990, the year of
German reunification. 1993,
temporary installation, Venice
Biennale, Italy
 Christian Boltanski
b PARIS, 1944 | LIFEline
Mona Hatoum Boltanski is a French artist whose artworks and 1944 Born in Paris, toa
installations have huge emotional power, often Jewish father
b BEIRUT, 1952 | LIFEline
inspiring meditation and reverence. Boltanski left school | 1968 First solo exhibition
The Palestinian-born artist Mona Hatoum
| 1970-72 Attends Beirut 1969 Publishes first book,
| University College aged 12, and started painting in 1958. In 1967 he began
has worked mainly in London and Berlin. | a fictional autobiography
| 1975-79 Studies at the to explore his own personal history, assembling
She works in many media, producing 1970 Starts Reference /
Byam Shaw School of Art documents and photographs from his family albums. Display Cases series
performance and installation pieces, video 1979-81 Studies at the Christopher In Three Drawers (1970), he made plasticine sculptures
Felver
1977 Starts Compositions
art, photography, and sculpture. Slade School of Art of a child’s possessions, which remind us of the series of colour photographs
Her work is unsettling — the familiar | 1989-92 Teaches at Cardiff inconsequential treasures we cherished as children. 1984 Retrospective at the |
becomes grotesque, and the grotesque Institute of Higher Education
Boltanski's other great subject is death, and in particular the Pompidou Centre, Paris
familiar. A necklace looks as if it is made 1994 Solo exhibition at the 1986 Exhibits in an old prison
Pompidou Centre, Paris Holocaust. In Chases School (1986-87), he created an altarlike
from large, decorative, brown beads, construction by placing framed photographs of Jewish schoolchildren at the Venice Biennale
1995 |s short-listed for the
but turns out to be an eerie combination on top of tin boxes. In 1988, in his Reserve series, he lined a whole 1998 Last Years exhibition at
Turner Prize
of wood, leather, and human hair. A the Pompidou Centre, Paris -
room with musty, hand-me-down clothes — stimulating the sense of designed as a single walk-
“welcome” doormat is actually made of smell as well as sight. The room resembled the warehouses in which through piece
steel pins. Hatoum’s work often concerns the Nazis stored the belongings of the deported.
the human body and elicits a visceral 66 | saw
response in the viewer Sometimes, there endoscopy as...
is even a Suggestion of violence. the ultimate in
the invasion
Corps Etranger This video installation of one’s
immerses viewers in amplified recordings of human
boundaries ””
| internal organs. The images, from an endoscope,
MONA HATOUM
are of the artists own insides. 1994, installation at
the Pompidou Centre, Paris, France

ART
CONCEPTUAL

ONWARDS
1945

A The Shadows /n the early 1980s, Boltanski made

small marionette-like figures and photographed them.
These photos led to kinetic installations, in which the
boldly lit figures create a mysterious environment of
silhouettes in movement. 1984, collection FRAC Bourgogne
» Reserve of Dead Swiss With its thin corridor of
boxes, this installation looks like a crematorium or a
crypt. The lamps resemble the blinding lights used by
interrogators, and add to the unsettling effect. 1990,
Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany

f CLOSERIook
aN ‘ q

CLOSERIook
LOOKING INTO
THE ABYSS The
video unfolds on the
floor. As the camera
goes down the .

intestine, viewers PHOTOS OF THE DEAD On the boxes

look down into a are photographs of dead people, taken
swallowing hole from a Swiss newspaper's obituary
column. Some smile incongruously.
 a
25.)

< The Life Room

\I
Be
mae
———- (Norwich School
of Art) John Wonnacott,
1977-80. One of Britain's
leading portraitists and
Origins and influences figure painters, Wonnacott
The London-based American artist, usually shows his figures
in context, depicting their
RB Kitaj, coined the phrase “School environment in perfect
of London” in 1976 for a generation of proportion and perspective.
British figurative painters, comprising
Kita} himself, Francis Bacon, Lucian Subject matter London’s National Gallery to make
Freud, Leon Kossoff, Frank Auerbach, The six artists mainly painted the drawings after their favourites such
and Michael Andrews. This “school” human figure and its environment, asTitian and Poussin.
During the post-war period was held together by friendship, and often sat for one another. Bacon's After 1945, the US also produced
abstract painting was often rather than stylistic similarities. portrait of Freud and Freud's painting realist figurative painters — although the
seen as the logical development The painter David Bomberg was of Auerbach are now considered critics often ignored them in favour of
for art. Yet figurative painters an important influence on the group. significant works. These artists all Abstract Expressionists and Minimal,
After the war, he taught at Borough derive strength from the old masters. Pop, and Conceptual artists. Stylistically,
have not simply rested on
Polytechnic in south London, where The knowing spectator can see they were disparate. Pearlstein and
tradition; they have produced
his students included Auerbach and echoes of Van Eyck, Ingres, and Katz both produced unsentimental
challenging images of the human Kossoff. Bomberg stressed the sense Watteau in the work of Freud. Kossoff figure studies, while Andrew VWeth
condition in a changing world. of touch as well as sight. and Auerbach constantly return to made more emotional paintings.

Figurative painting JAILV

ONIL

|Francis Bacon
b DUBLIN, 1909; d MADRID, 1992, <¢ Study for Bullfight No1
LIFEline
This is one of three paintings
Francis Bacon was the most celebrated British painter 1914 Bacon's family move Bacon made of toreadors
of the 20th century. He produced dramatic paintings from Dublin to London
grappling with bulls. Perhaps
focused on the figure, which he distorted to express 1928 Starts work as an
Bacon is painting his own
interior decorator in London
isolation, brutality, and terror. He first gained notoriety struggle with his demons —
1949 Starts Screaming Popes SEL
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in 1945, when he exhibited Three Studies for Figures series — nightmarish versions he drank, gambled, and
Francis at the Base of a Crucifixion, a horrific triptych depicting of Velazquez’s famous portrait had to deal with societys
Bacon, 1984 half-animal, half-human creatures, writhing in anguish. of Pope Innocent X attitude to his homosexuality.
Most of Bacon's paintings, even his portraits, were 1954 Represents Britain at The bold, hot palette is
based on photographs. The photograph was a starting point, then a the Venice Biennale suggestive of Spanish light
fervid imagination and a skilled oil technique took over. Bacon smeared 1962-63 Retrospectives at and landscape, but aslso
the Tate Gallery, London and suggests passionate
and smudged the paint so that his subjects were often transformed into Guggenheim, New York
nightmarish, ill-formed, slug-like creatures. Many of Bacon's figures
struggle. 1969, oil on canvas,
1971 Retrospective at the 198x 148cm, private collection
seem to have their faces turned inside out and many are isolated — Grand Palais in Paris
trapped by geometric or cage-like constructions.

» Three Studies for a

CLOSERI|ook
Crucifixion Bacon painted
many idiosyncratic versions of
the crucifixion. Here, he uses the
triptych format associated with
Renaissance altarpieces. By
depicting butchered bodies,
misshapen figures, and
spattered blood, Bacon seems
to be subverting the format to
show the evils of man, rather
than the virtues of Christ. 1962, } DARK SHADOW
oil on canvas, 198 x 45cm, Paintings of the crucifixion
Guggenheim, New York, US often had saints at the foot
of the cross. Here, there is
a dark, mysterious shadow
before the “crucifixion” in
the right panel. It suggests,
perhaps, that there is no
salvation, just death
)
2
=
e
<a
Lu
>
-
Fi
co
=)
o
es

Study After yoleaiued s Portrait of Pope Innocent X Francis Bacon

1953,oil on canvas, x 118cm, Des Moines
Art Center,
US
CLOSERI|ook

Study After Velazquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X

Francis Bacon
Bacon's screaming pope, seething with anger and pain, Composition
is one of the greatest — and most troubling — British paintings. The composition is full of dynamic
It is an explicit reworking of Diego Velazquez's 1650 painting of diagonals that seem to underline the
Pope’s rage. In the lower half of the
Pope Innocent X. Bacon's papal portrait is an attempt to reinvent
painting, bold yellow diagonals of the
Velazquez’s painting in a way that would be valid for the mid-20th throne are prominent. In the upper half,
century. The result is a devastating depiction of existential angst and two diagonals formed by the arms
an apparent rejection of the power of faith in the modern world. and sloping shoulders lead us to the
screaming head. The dynamism of
the composition is echoed by the
Story aggressive brushwork.
Bacon started painting interpretations of Velazquez’s
portrait of Pope Innocent X in 1951 and over the next >» GOLDEN THRONE Rather than sitting on
14 years he returned to the same subject again and a throne, Bacon's Pope seems to be imprisoned
again, creating around 50 paintings. He acquired a in a cage-like structure. Indeed it almost looks
large collection of books, catalogues, and postcards as if he is manacled to an electric chair, and is
with reproductions of the portrait. Despite spending being jolted into life for the last time.
et Ses three months in Rome in 1954, he apparently never
saw the original painting. Throughout his career Bacon made “religious” Technique
paintings. It was as if he saw it as his mission to subvert the hierarchical The rage of the Pope is reflected
order and spiritual authority embodied in traditional religious painting. in Bacon's bold and energetic
»® CLENCHED HAND In Velazquez’s application of paint. The paint is
portrait the Pope comfortably rests smeared and spattered onto the
his arms on the chair, reflecting his canvas. The brushstrokes are free
confident, composed bearing. In and emphatic. The curved white
Bacon's picture, the Pope's arms are 4 brushstrokes used to render the
tense and the hands grip the chair in white tunic and the brown vertical brushstrokes in the
panic and desperation.
background are particularly vigorous — like the subject,
¥ MOUTH AND EYES The face is they “scream out” at the viewer. Bacon seems to have
been engaged in a passionate, emotional struggle — not SAILV
ONILN
an image of terror. The mouth is a black
hole, and blood seems to drip from an dissimilar, perhaps, to the one he depicted.
eye. Nothing is defined — the glasses \ TRANSPARENCY
are created with dabs of white paint; Dry brushwork lets underlying
while the lips and flesh tones are layers of paint shows through.
suggested with touches of local colour. The technique is known as
scumbling and creates broken
colour effects. While Velazquez’s
Pope is a solidly modelled, flesh-
and-blood person, Bacon's
becomes a ghostly apparition.
Sté6l
SGHYV
( COLOURS The yellow and
purple immediately catch the
eye. As complimentary colours,
they come alive when used next
to each other. The drama is
enhanced by the strong contrast
between the white of the Pope's
smock and the dark background.

INFLUENCES
VELAZQUEZ AND BATTLESHIP
POTEMKIN |n Velazquez’s portrait, Pope
Innocent X looks commanding and composed
—a fitting portrayal of a man renowned for his
vigour and iron grip. Bacon's Pope is the exact
opposite — unhinged and tyrannical, terrifying
and terrified. The artist seems to want to
undermine the traditional conception of him.
Bacon often used images from films.
One that obsessed him was the nursemaid’s
scream in Battleship Potemkin (1925), where
the woman's open mouth forms an “O".

Pope InnocentX Diego Velazquez, 1650 While

Veldzquez's Pope exudes power, Bacon’s Pope
seems possessed with impotent anger. Velazquez
portrays the Pope’s public image, whereas Bacon
seems to delve into his Pope's private psychosis.
 Lucian Freud
b BERLIN, 1922 LIFEline
The grandson of the psychologist Sigmund Freud, Lucian Freud came 1933 Freud's family flees the
Nazis and moves to Britain
to Britain as a child as a refugee from the Nazis. With Francis Bacon,
he is considered the leading 20th-century British painters of the figure. 1939 Becomes British subject Philip Pearlstein
Freud's early work was meticulously painted in flat, thinly applied oils 1941 Serves on North Atlantic b PITTSBURGH, 1924
with finely pointed sable brushes. Smooth and linear, the style has often convoy for three months
1972 Begins a series of A leading American painter of the nude figure, Philip
Self-portrait been compared to the work of the 19th-century French painter Ingres.
paintings of his mother, Pearlstein helped pioneer a return to figurative painting
However, in the mid-1950s, Freud's work started to become looser and which he continues until the in the 1960s.
more energetic. He began to use stiffer hogs’-hair brushes and to work standing up. mid-1980s t
Pearlstein started his painting career as part of the
Since the mid-1960s, Freud has focused more and more on the nude — using coarse, 1974 First retrospective, at
the Hayward Gallery, London Abstract Expressionist generation of the 1950s, and
broad brushstrokes to give the illusion of the suppleness of flesh. In the mid-1970s,
2000-2001 Paints Queen his work was characterized by vigorous handling. By
he began using a heavy, granular pigment called cremnitz white, which allowed him
Elizabeth II and receives the late 1950s, he began concentrate on landscapes.
to build up flesh tones with bold impasto effects.
critism of his portrayal from In rocks and cliffs he found cracks and smooth
Freud mostly paints people he knows and often makes them sit for many days. the British press rotundities that looked like features of the nude body.
He says he underplays facial expression because he “wants expression to emerge 2002 Retrospective at Tate By the 1960s, he was painting nude figures — mainly
through the body” Nevertheless, his sitters often have a hunted look and appear to Britain, London
females — at first with a creamy broken surface, but
be in spiritual — if not physical — pain.
from the mid-1960s with a clinical precision.
Pearlstein’s sitters are unidealized — there is none of
the sensuousness traditionally associated with the
nude. In fact, Pearlstein tries to eliminate his emotional
response to the model. He has spoken of rescuing the
body from “its tormented, agonized condition given it
by the Expressionistic artists”

LIFEline v Two Female Models, One

on Floor, One on Iron Bench
1943-46 Serves in US army
Pearlstein often shows his
1949 Moves to New York to models from unusual angles,
study history of art
cropping off parts of the body.
1958 Paints landscapes in
Italy on a Fulbright grant The sitters, like the woman on
1959 Returns to New York the bench here, are frequently
City; begins to paint the put in uncomfortable poses. The
human figure resulting pictures seem physically
1983 Retrospective at the intimate, yet emotionally remote.
PAINTING
FIGURATIVE Milwaukee Art Museum 1973, oil on canvas, 153x 183cm,
private collection

ONWARDS
1945

A Annie and Alice his painting

is typical of Freud's work at the
height of his powers in the 1970s.
INcontext
It is an unsentimental, some would
FIGURATIVE ART AS PROPAGANDA
say unsettling, depiction of nude
Debates about figurative art in the West were
figures. The vigorous, thickly
often complicated by the association of realism
applied brushstrokes, which
with political propaganda, especially as used in
perfectly capture the sponginess
Communist countries such as China.
of flesh, and the earthy colours
are characteristic of his The Rent Collector's Courtyard A celebrated
uncompromising style. 1975, oil on example of “socialist realism” is this reconstruction
of a tableau about the brutality of landlords in
canvas, 23x 27cm, private collection China during the Cultural Revolution, made by
Cai Guo-Qiang for the Venice Biennale in 1999.
» Wasteground with Houses,
Paddington Freud Jooks at the city @&
with the same lack of sentiment
and objectivity as he does his
A Girl with Beret Unti/ the mid
nudes. Here, he spends as much
1950s, Freud worked in a tightly-
attention on the rubbish-strewn
focused style. This head-and-shoulders
backyard (and its fight with the
format and the composed expression
plant life) as he does on the elegant
show the influence of Northern
townhouses. 1970-72, oil on canvas,
Renaissance portraitists, especially
168x 101cm, private collection
Jan van Eyck. 1951, oil on canvas,
36x 26cm, Manchester Art Gallery, UK
Andrew Wyeth Sidney Nolan
b CHADDS FORD, 1917; d CHADDS FORD, 2009 LIFEline b MELBOURNE, 1917; d LONDON, 1992 LIFEline
The son of a celebrated illustrator, Andrew Wyeth was an 1936 First show, at the Art Australia's most acclaimed modern 1940 Holds his first one-man
enormously popular artist. His Christina's World (1948) Alliance of Philadelphia exhibition, in Melbourne
painter, Sidney Nolan was a prolific artist.
rivals Edward Hopper's Nighthawks (1942) and Grant 1948 Christina's World is 1945 Produced his first Ned
He worked in a variety of styles and
bought by MoMA, New York Kelly paintings and drawings
Wood's American Gothic (1930) as the most iconic image media, experimenting with fabric dyes,
1963 Becomes first painter to 1955 Moves to London
of 20th-century America. receive the Presidential polyvinyl acetate, and ripolin (a fluid, fast- 1956 Visits Turkey, which
Photograph Wyeth first made his name with colourful, exuberant Freedom Award drying, high-grade commercial enamel). inspires a series of paintings
by Richard watercolours of the Maine coast. But his reputation was 1967 His exhibition at the He travelled extensively across the world, 1958 Travels across the US
Schulman
established by his meticulously painted images in Whitney, New York sets new and also worked as a draughtsman, 1981 |s knighted
tempera, in which pigment is mixed with egg yolk, then thinned with musuem attendance record printmaker, stage and costume designer.
water. Unlike oils, tempera cannot be applied quickly — it demands a 1971 Starts long-term series In his painting, Nolan focused on the
slow, precise approach. Wyeth explained, “Oil is hot and fiery, almost like of portraits of his neighbour,
Helga Testorf, who posed in figure and landscape. Using a fast
v Carcass /n 1953, Nolan was
a summer night, where tempera is a cool breeze, dry, crackling like secret painterly style, he captured the fierce commissioned by an Australian
winter branches blowing in the wind” 1987 Shows Helga pictures at light and rugged character of the newspaper to make a series of
Most of Wyeth's paintings have a wintry feel. They show weathered the National Gallery of Australian outback. He often used drawings of the drought in the
barns and farmhouses, bleak landscapes and lonely people who stoically American Art, Washington, DC radically simplified forms — most Northern Territory. This painting,
endure a hard existence on the margins of society. The pictures are often famously in his depictions of the black with its contorted carcass and
meditations upon the frailty of life and the imminence of death. armour of the 19th-century outlaw Ned parched-soil palette, was made
Kelly. Nolan's “Kelly” paintings developed from those drawings. 1953,
into poignant meditations on the themes, ripolin paint on hardboard,
of injustice, love, and betrayal. 91x 121cm, private collection

» Winter 1946 Wyeth

painted this image just after
the death of his father. He
explained that the hill became
a symbolic portrait of his
father, while the figure of the
boy running aimlessly “was
me, at a loss”. The unusual
vantage point, high up and
distant, helps emphasize the
boy’ alienation. 1946, tempera
on composition board,
80x 122cm, North Carolina JAILL
ONIL
Museum of Art, Raleigh, US

SEL
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A Christina’s World /he girl CLOSERI|ook

is Christina Olson, a neighbour PRECISE DETAIL Every
in Maine, who suffered from blade of grass, and every
polio. She is painfully pulling strand of hair, is defined
herself up the hillside with her individually. For months,
arms. Wyeth explained, “The Wyeth worked on the grass in
challenge... was to do justice to a struggle that echoes the he, =
her extraordinary conquest of a endeavour of his subject on
life which most people would the hill. When he started the A Kelly and Armour /n 1945, Nolan began painting Ned
consider hopeless”. 1948, figure, “| put this pink tone on Kelly, an idealistic 19th-century Irish-Australian outlaw
tempera on gessoed panel, her shoulder — and it almost who was hanged for murder. Generally, Nolan shows him
82x121cm, MoMA, New York, US blew me across the room”. in his home-made black armour, starkly simplified against
the Australian bush. Here, however, his armour lies
discarded, and Kelly appears as a mortal not the myth.
1962, oil and enamel on board, 122x 153cm, private collection
 Alex Colville
b TORONTO, 1920
The painstaking realism and formal composition of Alex
Colville’s work have made him the foremost Canadian Fernando Botero
figurative painter of the postwar period. Not only did
b MEDELLIN, 1932 | LIFEline
he work outside the mainstream of abstract painting,
he also broke with the Canadian landscape tradition. Although he is now a cosmopolitan figure with an international 1944 |n his teens, attends
‘ reputation, Fernando Botero described himself as “the most | a school for bullfighters
After studying at Mount Allison University, Colville
Pe Colombian of Colombian artists” when he came to prominence | 1951 Moves to Bogota and
served as an Official war artist during World War II —
| has his first one-man show
an experience that shaped his artistic principles of yr" | in the late 1950s.
1952-54 Travels around
accurately observing and recording significant events. Born and brought up in Medellin, Botero embarked on his career as Europe
Taking many months to plan and complete each Self-portrait an artist at the age of 16, when he exhibited at a show of local artists. | 4956 Marries Gloria Zea and
individual painting, Colville presents images from his After high school, he moved to Bogota, where he became involved moves to Mexico
personal experience in precisely worked-out geometric with the artistic community centred around the Café Automatica. He spent much of 1960 Divorces Gloria and
structures that reflect his existentialist philosophy. the 1950s travelling, before eventually settling in New York. During this period, | buys a studio in New York
Botero’s painting developed from a Picasso-influenced style to the neo-figurative | 1973 Moves his studio
portrayals of rotund figures that are characteristic of his mature work. to Paris
Horse and Train /nspired by the lines, “Againstaregiment| Although Botero’s paintings and sculptures are not intended as caricatures, the 1974 His fouryearold son |
oppose a brain, And a dark horse against an armoured train” by poet | is killed ina motor accident |
exaggerated proportions of the figures are good-humoured. Much of his work also
Roy Campbell, this painting depicts with meticulous realism the 1983 Settles in Tuscany, Italy
has an element of social commentary — sometimes indirectly, but recently overtly in |
confrontation of man and nature. 1954, glazed tempera on hardboard,
his paintings of the Medellin drug cartels and the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. | ene
41 x54cm, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Canada

PAINTING
FIGURATIVE

Alex Katz
b NEW YORK, 1927

The detached, “modern realist” style of Alex Katz's

mature work — often associated with Pop Art, but in fact
pre-dating it — evolved from his attempts to reconcile
1945 elements of Abstract art with his representational works.
ONWARDS
Studying in New York and Skowhegan, Maine, from
1946 to 1950, Katz was influenced by Abstract
Expressionism. In the 1950s, however, he painted a
series of portraits of his friends and family in which he
developed a figurative style, with flat planes of colour
and simplified figures. During the 1960s, Katz also
produced a number of lithographs and screenprints in
this simplified style, and some figures painted on
free-standing wooden or metal cut-outs.
After being outside the mainstream of modern art
for many years, Katz gained critical and popular success
in the 1980s thanks to the somewhat impersonal
atmosphere and smooth finish of his paintings.

A Our Lady of Fatima /n a highly unconventional handling of the

subject, Botero portrays the Virgin Mary in what was to become
his trademark “fat lady” style. The work shows the influence of 6¢ | describe in a realistic form a
Picasso in the childlike simplicity of the figures, and of Abstract nonrealistic reality. When
‘ “ ct, * Expressionism in the texture of the brushwork. 1963, Museo de Arte
A Summer Picnic Katz's reputation was largely established Moderno, Bogota, Colombia you start a painting, it is
with his portraits, many of his wife Ada and son Vincent and their somewhat outside you. At the
friends, often in a domestic setting. Reducing both figures and conclusion, you seem to move
background to simple, flat planes gives the scene a cool and
dispassionate mood. 1975, oil on canvas, 198x366cm, private collection inside the painting ””
FERNANDO BOTERO
 Frank Auerbach
Mae. fF bBERLIN, 1931

v The Dressmaker As well as many slightly satirical portraits Frank Auerbach was sent to Britain from
of pompous middle-class figures, Botero painted still lifes and Germany by his parents, who later died
scenes of everyday life. This dressmaker, for example, is more in a Nazi concentration camp. After
sympathetically portrayed: although still amply proportioned, she World War II, he studied at Borough
is less of a caricature, and the tools of her trade not only help Polytechnic under David Bomberg, and
define her character, but play an important role in the composition. Portrait by at St Martin's School of Art and the
private collection. Lucian Freud Royal College of Art.
A one-man show in 1956 established
his reputation, but also gained him some notoriety for
his technique of very heavy impasto — so thick on some
paintings that they were laid flat rather than hung —
which gives his work an almost sculptural quality.
Auerbach often limits his palette to earth colours and
even monochromes, and has restricted his subjects to
close friends and family and his surroundings in London.

LIFEline
1931 Born into a Jewish
family in Berlin
1939 |s sent to England to
escape the Nazi regime
1947 Moves to London and
studies at St Martin's and the
Royal College of Art Li , ie
1956 Has his first exhibition,
IMPASTO Building up layer
at the Beaux Arts Gallery,
London on layer of paint, and reworking
2001 The Royal Academy it at each stage, Auerbach
stages a major retrospective creates an unusually thick
of his work impasto that gives his painting
its characteristic texture.
Yo

» JYM in the Studio VII Auerbach prefers to paint subjects he

knows well, especially portraits of his wife Julia, lover Stella, and
the model Juliet Mills — the JYM of this painting's title. 1965, oil on JAIL
ONIL
board, 93x 45cm, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, UK

Jack Vettriano Michael Andrews

b FIFE, 1951 b NORWICH, 1928; d LONDON, 1995

A former mining engineer, Scottish painter Jack

Vettriano was born Jack Hoggan, but adopted his
mother’s maiden name after the success of his work in
the late 1980s. Entirely self-taught, he started painting
SEL
SGYV
as a hobby in his twenties, and first exhibited at the
Royal Scottish Academy annual show in 1988.
Vettriano’s work was an instant popular success,
leading to exhibitions worldwide during the 1990s.
His paintings attracted celebrity buyers and
unprecedented prices, and reproductions of his work
became best-sellers. Despite his commercial success,
Vettriano's realist style and romantic, or mildly erotic,
subjects remain controversial in the academic art world.

A Melanie and Me Swimming Andrews

most popular painting is an unusually personal
image. It was painted after the first of several
family holidays to Glenartney, in Scotland. 1978-79,
acrylic on board, 183x 183cm, Tate, London, UK

Michael Andrews studied at the Slade School of Art

with William Coldstream, whose theory that all artists’
marks should relate to something seen, made a
profound impression on him. Afterwards he became
A Society Lady (Woman on Balcony with Gloves) associated with the group of figurative painters loosely
This portrait affectionately pokes fun at the pretensions of the
known as the School of London. Fellow members
bourgeoisie —a recurrent theme in Botero’s painting. Despite the
included Auerbach, Lucian Freud, and Francis Bacon.
sophisticated technique and attention to detail, the curtain and
During the 1960s, Andrews painted a series of party
the plump figure retain his characteristic flat perspective,
A The Singing Butler Set on a wind-swept beach, Vettrianos scenes that captured the mood of the time. He followed
emphasizing the irony of the image. 1995, oil on canvas,
132x 102cm, private collection most popular work is typical of his style. The subject appeals to these with his Lights series of aerial views. A trip to
nostalgia, while his evocation of atmosphere is skilful. 1992, oil on Uluru (Ayers Rock) in Australia in 1983 inspired a new
canvas, 71x 91cm, private collection spiritual context for much of his later landscape painting.
 Superrealism is a style of art based
on imitating photographs in paint, «< Supermarket Shopper
Duane Hanson, 1970. Hanson's
and imitating real objects in sculpture. people sculptures are wonderful
The name was coined by Malcolm examples of Superrealism. They
Morley, the pioneer of the genre, in are so lifelike, they often initially
fool the viewer into thinking they
1965. Other terms used to describe
are real people.
this movement are Photorealism
and Hyperrealism. example, look like photographs that
have been cheaply reproduced, while
Origins and influences Richard Estes's paintings of the wide
The obvious forerunner to Superrealism cityscapes of New York look like
was trompe I’oeil (to fool the eye) panoramic photographs. Superrealists
painting, in which the artist tried to usually try to remove emotion from
convince the viewer that what they their paintings, thus replicating the
were seeing was not a painting of apparent detachment of mechanically
objects, but the objects themselves. produced images.
Superrealist artists work This genre originated in the Superrealist sculptors strive to
with unnerving precision, Renaissance and flourished in Dutch Subjects mimic real objects, especially the
confounding the viewer's painting of the 1600s and American Superrealist painters usually try to human figure. The two most famous
expectations of art by painting of the 1800s. mimic the unique qualities of a Superrealist sculptors — John DeAndrea
F > The highly finished surfaces of photograph — the way the image falls | and Duane Hanson — cast directly
phere RI 17th-century Dutch painting, which in and out of focus, the way the lens from the human body. They work in
unsettlingly, truer than true. are especially evident in Vermeer’s distorts features, and the way the polyvinyl, which gives a smooth, flesh-
The style flourished in the US work, were also influential on many shutter freezes motion. Malcolm like finish and allows for detailed
in the late 1960s and the 1970s. Superrealists, especially Richard Estes. |Morley’s paintings of ships, for painting of the surface.

SUPERREALISM

Malcolm Morley
b LONDON, 1931

In over 50 years as a painter, Malcolm Morley has refused to settle into

/ asingle style. His work has covered Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, » Wall Jumpers Morley
recently returned to
and Conceptual Art. But he is most famous for helping to initiate two
Superrealism, creating what he
influential art movements: Superrealism and Neo-Expressionism.
ONWARDS
1945 calls “fidelity” paintings. Here,
In the 1950s, Morley was entranced with Abstract Expressionism,
the subject matter is troubling
Photograph creating paintings with black and white horizontal bands, not dissimilar
eee — Palestinians leaping over a
2 the work of Barnett Newman. In the mid-1960s, he pioneered wall into Israel
—and yet
uperrealism and painted ships, using postcards as reference. To avoid Morley paints a sensuous
painterly expression and emotional responses, he would often turn both the canvas image, full of colour and
and postcard upside down while he painted. The result was a picture faithful to the look —_ath/etic movement. 2002, oil on
of mass-produced photographic imagery. In the early 1970s, Morley produced canvas, 229x175cm, Musée d'Art
Conceptual Art, but by the 1980s he had turned to Neo-Expressionism, and his work Moderne et Contemporain de
was full of loose, robust brushwork and sensual colour. Strasbourg, France

LIFEline
1952-53 Attends
Camberwell School of Arts
and Craft in London
1954-57 Studies at the Royal
College of Art, London
1958 Moves to New York
1965 Begins Superrealist
style, painting warships and
ocean liners
1972 Becomes Professor
at the State University of
New York CLOSERI|ook
1975-76 Produces pictures IMITATING THE PHOTO The
depicting scenes of disaster
original photo was taken with a
1984 Becomes first winner telephoto lens.This creates a shallow
of the Turner Prize
depth of field, with only a narrow
A Farewell to Crete /his painting, from Morleys Neo-Expressionist
section of the view in focus. Morley
phase, is made up of pairs of images — two fertility goddesses, two
has imitated this effect, showing the
naked couples, a bull and a horse. It is one of a series of paintings of
wall and figures in focus, but letting
Greece and Crete that explore myth and reality, and the ancient and the background slip out of focus
modern worlds. 1984, oil on canvas, 203x 417cm, private collection
 Y Alex /his picture of the painter Alex Katz was created while Close
Chuck Close was paralyzed from the neck down. It consists of easy-to-make shapes
— circles, diagonal lines, lozenges — and, as a result, appears looser and
b MONROE, WASHINGTON, 1940
more painterly than his early work. The effect is like looking through
Chuck Close uses Superrealism to create mural- hammered glass. 1991, 71x59cm, Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford, UK
sized portraits. He works meticulously from CLOSERIook ra
photographs, drawing a grid over the photograph
before drawing a grid over the canvas and copying
the photograph, square by square.
Photograph by Close took up Superrealism in 1967, spending
James Leynes 30 months creating eight huge, black and white
airbrushed portraits. In the 1970s, he moved on
to colour. He also started making “fingerprint” portraits by
inking his finger and making impressions on the gridded surface
of the paper. Other portraits were created from small paper
disks, of varying colours and shapes, glued to a gridded canvas.
Close chooses his subjects from among his friends, including
TINY PAINTINGS Using a brush
the artists Richard Serra, Roy Lichtenstein, and Robert strapped to his hand, Close painted
Rauschenberg. He does not take commissions, saying, “Anyone little shapes inside each square of the
vain enough to want a nine-foot portrait of themselves would grid. “I saw that each grid was in fact
want the blemishes removed” a tiny painting”, he said.

LIFEline » Linda Jo make colour

portraits like this one, Close
1958-64 Studies at the University
of Washington, then atYale
imitated the mechanical
1967 First solo exhibition, at the
reproduction techniques used
University of Massachusetts; begins by a printer — applying first
painting in Superrealist style cyan (blue), then magenta, then
1969 His work is included in the yellow. This mural-sized
Biennial Exhibition at New York's painting of the writer, Linda
Whitney Museum Rosenkrantz Finch, took Close
1988 A blood clot in his spinal column 14 months to finish. It is
leaves Close paralyzed, initially from the amazingly detailed — individual
neck down hairs, eyelashes, and pores can
1989 Begins painting again - at first be seen. 1976-78, acrylic and
by holding a brush between his teeth
pencil on canvas, 274x213cm,
1998 Major retrospective of his work
Akron Art Museum, Ohio, US
is held at MoMA, New York
WSIT

John DeAndrea Audrey Flack Richard Estes

b DENVER, 1941 b NEW YORK, 1931 b KEWANEE, ILLINOIS, 1932
The American sculptor John DeAndrea makes polyviny| Estes studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, then
(PVC) casts of the human figure, usually nude. The moved to New York in 1956. Around 1967, he began to
figures are astonishingly realistic. He sets hair into paint New York street scenes in a Superrealist manner,
plastic scalps a few strands at a time. He paints the working freehand from his own colour photographs.
SV6L
SGYV
PVC not just with flesh tones, but also with moles, tiny Estes rarely reproduces his photographs faithfully —
veins, and scars. Even pressure marks on the flesh he subtly alters details or, by using two or more
made by clothing are preserved by the casting material. photographs, completely reinvents the world he
depicts. He focuses obsessively on reflections. They
appear boldly in puddles and panes of glass and unfold,
like oil slicks, on the shiny, curved surfaces of cars.

the objects remind the viewer of the transience of life. This is a

vanitas for the modern age, with the pink hour glass suggesting
passing time, and the cut fruit hinting at the inevitability of decay.
1977, oil over acrylic on canvas, 244x244 cm, artist's collection
Audrey Flack came to prominence in the 1970s with
a series of Superrealist still-life paintings showing
A Clothing Store Estes /oves to depict reflections in shop
“feminine” subject matter — jewels, cosmetics, cut
windows. As the objects inside are obscured by reflections from
A Couple (Man Clothed) DeAnareas life-size glass, cream cakes. Unlike many Superrealists, who
the outside, wonderfully mysterious, complex compositions arise.
sculptures often take the viewer by surprise. At dispassionately render photographs, Flack aims to
The result in this instance is an almost abstract arrangement of
first glance, these figures, designed to lean against stimulate an emotional response in the viewer. She hard-edged shapes. 1976, acrylic on board, 51 x56cm, private collection
a wall, might easily be taken for real people. 1978, works by projecting a slide on to her canvas and then
cast PVC painted in oil, life size, private collection painting the projected image.
 Origins and influences
Inspired by the Women's Movement
of the late 1960s, many women artists
began to incorporate social and political
themes of feminism into their work.
This new generation of feminist artists
wanted to express the experience of
women on their own terms. As well Women’s liberation /he
as producing works of art that were Womens Liberation movement
emerged in the late 1960s. Womens
recognisably “female” some ‘created a
identity and experience were the
platform exclusively for women artists issues Feminist artists felt compelled
— notably the groundbreaking Feminist to address.
Art Program set up by Judy Chicago
and Miriam Schapiro at the California often sexual, but challenges the bound up with male dominance and
Until the 20th century, women
Institute of the Arts in 1971. stereotype of woman as an object alternatives need to be found.
artists had been effectively
of male erotic desire or fantasy. Certain Feminist artists have
excluded from the art world, Subjects adopted the devices of the mass
and even by the 1960s only a Not all women artists can be labelled Style, medium, genre media to present their message in an
few had achieved recognition. “Feminist” — it is the subject matter No specific style, medium, or genre is immediate, accessible form. Feminist
In the following decades, the that distinguishes Feminist art from associated with Feminist art, although art has also emphasized needlework,
other contemporary movements: more avant-garde forms have tended ceramics, and other crafts traditionally
diverse work of some women
issues of discrimination, oppression, to predominate. Some Feminist art associated with women, and not
artists to counter this male criticism of patriarchy and male uses the traditional media of painting previously regarded as “fine art’
domination has become violence, and celebration of female and sculpture. However, it is argued exemplified by Judy Chicago's
known as Feminist art. sexuality. The imagery is necessarily that the prestige these forms carry is The Dinner Party (1974-79).

ART Feminist art

FEMINIST

DS
|Barbara Kruger Jenny Holzer
>1
b NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, 1945 b GALLIPOLIS, OHIO, 1950
v Inflammatory Essays /n
Barbara Kruger is best known for her photo-based work, which Originally an abstract painter and printmaker, Jenny Holzer became
this site-specific installation,
combines her background as a graphic designer with an interest in interested in conceptual art as a postgraduate student in 1975, and
texts from several of Holzers
poetry and the influence of contemporary mass media. After studying has concentrated on works using text as art in public places since her series are displayed on an LED
1945 at Parsons School of Design, New York, Kruger went on to become the
ONWAR move to New York in 1977 Holzer introduced texts into her abstract signboard around a spiral ramp.
chief designer at Mademoiselle magazine, before moving to California paintings gradually, but they have now entirely replaced images. The statements, in different
in 1976 to concentrate on her art and poetry. In Truisms (1977), they took the form of posters of aphorisms coloured lights, are
Having already designed several political book covers, Kruger displayed in public places. Subsequent versions of this and other proclamations of Feminist
continued to tackle subjects of social commentary, in particular issues works have included texts on LED billboards, projected on to buildings, ideology. 1990, LED electronic
of misogyny and abuse of power. Using the visual language of and printed on stickers, T-shirts, and even condoms. display signboard, Guggenheim
advertising and the mass media — on posters, billboards, and even Museum, New York, US
Tshirts, as well as in galleries — she subverts the iconography of the
consumer society to act as a vehicle for her messages.

Untitled (Your Comfort is

My Silence) Presented with
the scale and immediacy of
billboard advertising, Kruger’
tabloid-style texts superimposed
on an enlarged black-and-white
photo have an unsettling impact.
A terse statement such as
“Your comfort is my silence”
accompanied by a shadowy
image forcefully conveys the
anti-sexist message. 1981,
photo work, 142x 102cm, Daros
Exhibitions, Zurich, Switzerland
 Judy Chicago
Louise Bourgeois b CHICAGO, 1939
| Born Judy Cohen, but later adopting the name of her native city, Judy
b PARIS, 1911 LIFEline Chicago has been at the forefront of American Feminist art since the
The parents of sculptor and painter Louise Bourgeois restored 1926 Studies mathematics 1970s. She left Chicago in 1957 to study in Los Angeles and has been
tapestries in Paris and encouraged their daughter to assist them by at the Sorbonne based in California as a teacher and artist ever since. She co-founded
providing designs for missing or worn sections. Although she initially 1938 Marries Robert the Feminist Art Program at the California Institute of the Arts and the
Goldwater, moves to New York Feminist Studio Workshop in Los Angeles in the 1970s. Chicago's
studied mathematics, she went to the Ecole du Louvre and Ecole des
1938-40 Studies painting at political commitment has always figured largely in her art, and the
Beaux-Arts, Paris, and for a time worked as the assistant to painter and New York Art School Art
designer Fernand Léger. In 1938, Bourgeois met and married the art Students League
themes of feminism and oppressed minorities have inspired many of
historian and critic Robert Goldwater and moved to New York, where 1949 Stages her first her most important works. The success of The Dinner Party (1974-79)
she first exhibited her prints. exhibition of sculpture and Holocaust Project (1993) has established her as one of the major
She moved from printmaking to sculpture in the 1940s, but did not 1973 Goldwater dies figures of contemporary American art.
adopt the abstract style of her contemporaries. Instead, she created 1974 Creates Destruction
stylized figures with symbolic significance (often with ambiguously of the Father sculpture ¥ The Dinner Party Consisting of ahuge triangular table, laid
1993 Represents the US with place settings for 39 women guests, standing on a
sexual images) and used unusual materials. After the death of her
at the Venice Biennale
father and her husband in the 70s, Bourgeois’s work became overtly porcelain-tiled floor inscribed with the names of 999 other women.
1999 The first artist to exhibit
feminist, notably in Destruction of the Father (1974), and she gained this work was produced under Chicago's direction by a team of
in the Turbine Hall of Tate
considerable critical and public acclaim. She has continued to work Modern, London several hundred women volunteers. 1974-79, installation, Elizabeth
into her 90s, producing popular large-scale sculptures. A Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum, New York, US

6¢ |t is a great << The Blind Leading the

privilege to Blind One of a series of similar
sculptures of the 1940s
be able to
portraying a row of pairs of
work with, stylized legs, their individual
and | suppose instability countered by a
work off, my horizontal beam — symbolizing
the collective strength of
feelings through women working together.
sculpture ”” 1947-49, painted wood LSINI
LYV
LOUISE BOURGEOIS construction, 179x246 x 44cm

PLACE SETTINGS [he 39 place

SSS= settings each have a plate and
S tablecover, individually embroidered
eS with motifs associated with a SV6L
SCYV
particular woman. Chicago purposely
chose ceramics and needlework,
~ because these are crafts traditionally
= associated with women.

INcontext
SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR [he
French author and philosopher
was a seminal figure in European
feminism, whose analysis of }
I
women’s oppression in /he
Second Sex (1949) became a
cornerstone of feminist
philosophy in the 1960s and
70s. Her existentialist thesis that
A The Destruction of the Father CLOSERIook “one is not born a woman, but
a5
Bathed in a macabre red light, the EXPRESSION OF ANGER becomes one” prompted a
menacing and ambiguous dome-like On a dinner table in a cave-like revolutionary reassessment of
shapes convey the mood of anger interior, the domineering womanhood as a social construct.
Bourgeois felt about her father’s infidelity. patriarch, cast in latex from
This work marked the beginning of a lamb and chicken bones, is Simone de Beauvoir,
~~.
torn apart and cannibalized photographed in 1945.
period of more explicit feminism in her
by his tyrannized children.
work. 1974, plaster, latex, wood, fabric,
and red light, 237.8 x 362.2 x 248.6cm
 . Many Neo-Expressionists set out to
shock with unconventional techniques
Origins and influences and media. From 1969, the German
The Neo-Expressionists rejected Georg Baselitz began to hang his
the austere, cerebral work of the paintings upside down to emphasize
Minimalists and Conceptual artists the passionate brushwork rather than
of the 1960s and instead returned the subject matter. In New York in the
to figurative painting as their primary 1970s, graffiti artists transformed the
medium of expression. By the 1980s, city with their colourful, spray-painted
Neo-Expressionism had become the artwork. They “bombed” subway trains,
A Merlin’s Hat Joe Zucker The artists colourful so their art travelled through the city.
dominant style of avante-garde artists paintings of the late 1970s typify the exuberance
The Neo-Expressionists
in the West. Much of this work was of Neo-Expressionism.
emerged in the 1970s in the
of dubious quality but it helped fuel /CURRENTevents
US, West Germany, and Italy, a feverish art market, especially Style and technique 1979 Margaret Thatcher is elected the
producing bright, figurative n New York. Neo-Expressionism was characterized first female Prime Minister of the UK.
The Neo-Expressionists drew by style rather than subject. The work 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the
paintings, often using unusual
Soviet Union, announces the policies of
techniques. In the 1970s in New their inspiration from many sources — was dramatic, with distorted subject glasnost and perestroika, signalling the
including the work of the German matter and strong contrasts of colour last phase of the Cold War.
York graffiti art thrived, and by
Expressionists of the 1910s and and tone. The paint was often applied 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the
the 1980s many of its exponents 1920s, the Abstract Expressionists of in thick impasto with aggressive Soviet Union (modern Ukraine) explodes,
were exhibiting in galleries, causing a massive release of radioactivity.
the late 1940s and 1950s, and the late brushwork, giving the appearance of
rather than in the streets. aggressive paintings of Pablo Picasso. spontaneous execution.

Neo-Expressionismand Graffiti art

TIMEline
Jorg Immendorff's Café
Deutschland series of the late 1984-86
1970s and early 1980s comprised
colourful paintings of an
ART imaginary café and highlighted
GRAFFITI
AND
NEO-EXPRESSIONISM
the divisions and insecurities in
German society. Julian Schnabel's
massive The Student of Prague
contains found objects such as
broken crockery. Jean-Michel
Basquiat's Pyro is full of crudely
drawn images of violence and KIEFER Faith, Hope, Love
‘ AY
angst, while Anselm Kiefer’s
IMMENDORF Café Deutschland | SCHNABEL The Student ofRae
Belief, Hope, Love is a more
conceptual piece.

ONWARDS
1945

Interpretations the 1970s. Kiefer’s large canvases are

now regarded as seminal early works
There were three main centres of Neo- of Neo-Expressionism.
Expressionism — Italy, West Germany, At the beginning of the 1980s, a new
and the US. generation of German artists emerged — the
Neue Wilde ("new wild ones"). In Berlin,
Italy artists such as Rainer Fetting and Helmut
Italian Neo-Expressionists became known Middendorf based their works on the city’s
as the transavantgarde ("beyond the avant punk and new wave sub-culture. In Cologne,
garde"), a term coined by art critic Achille a group of artists — including Hans Peter
Bonito Oliva. The main artists in the group — Adamski and Walter Dahn — rented a studio
Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente, Enzo to make witty, ironical pictures. In Hamburg,
Cucchi, and Mimmo Paladino — were all artists such as Albert Oehlen reacted against
interested in myths, legends, and art history. the era’s political apathy and brash affluence.
Their styles, however, were very different,
from Clemente’s meditative work, which was
influenced by Asian spiritualism, to the classic The American artists Julian Schnabel, Keith
Expressionist style of Paladino, who declared Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, made
that his work comes from a psychic explosion their name in New York. Haring and Basquiat
that he carries directly on to the canvas. started as graffiti artists, but when they began
exhibiting in galleries their work changed
Germany dramatically. Basquiat’s paintings were highly
The revival of figurative painting in Germany emotional, full of violent brushwork, while A Untitled Keith Haring The artists mixture of doodle-
was led by Georg Baselitz in the 1960s and inspired imagery and crude writing evolved from his work
Haring’s work was playful, his bold designs
as a graffiti artist. 1982, acrylic on tarpaulin, Deichtorhallen,
by Anselm Kiefer and Jorg Immendorff in equally at home on T-shirts as on canvases. Hamburg, Germany
These two artists followed in the wake of the
“ Untitled (Figure with Raised Arm) Georg Baselitz
Neo-Expressionism’s characteristic energy and passion Puerto Rican born, New York graffiti artist
can be seen in Baselitzs crudely modelled and painted Lee Quinones, whose 1979 exhibition at the
sculptures. 1982-84, painted wood, 253x71x 46cm, Galleria Medusa in Rome introduced New
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, UK York street art to the rest of the world
 Vv Two Meissen Woodmen /his painting is Jorg Immendorff
one of five similarly sized paintings of woodmen.
The series developed following the first b BLECKEDE, NEAR LUNEBURG, 1945; d DUSSELDORF, 2007
appearance of Der Neuer Typ (the new man) — The German Neo-Expressionist Jorg Immendorff sought to instigate
Georg Baselitz in Baselitzs work in 1965. 1967, oil on canvas,
Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany
political debate and change. “| am for a form of art;’ he said in 1976,
“that sees itself as one of the many means through which human
b GROSSBASELITZ, 1938
society can be changed.”
Georg Baselitz’s work is raw, unsettling, In the 1960s, Immendorff was inspired by the “happenings” of
and uncompromising. In both his the conceptual artist Joseph Beuys. He developed his own form of
painting and his sculpture, he uses a politicized, absurdist performance art — christening it “Lidl” a nonsense
vigorous — even violent — technique to word based on the sound of a baby’s rattle. He formed a “Lidl
provoke visceral emotions in the viewer. Academy"— a utopian vision of a professorfree art school. In the late
Photograph In his early work of the late 1950s 1970s, Immendorff began his Café Deutschland paintings. Set in an
by Roland and early 1960s, Baselitz rebelled against imaginary nightclub, they ask questions of a Germany traumatized
Weihrauch
the dominance of Abstract Painting, by post-Nazi guilt, dominated by consumerism and totalitarism, and
proposing in Its place a very personal and expressive threatened by nuclear destruction. In his last years, Immendorff was
figurative art. This was often brutally erotic, and confined to a wheelchair and had to direct assistants to complete
apparently influenced by art produced by the mentally works following his instructions.
ill. His work was the antithesis of the detached work
of the Pop Artists and Minimalists, who dominated the v Yellow and White Baby /n the /ate 1960s,
LIFEline
1960s art world. For inspiration, Baselitz looked back Immendorff painted a series of Buddha-like babies
to the rebels of art — the Expressionists of early 20th- 1963 Enrols at the
Wi eraicadennio ih Dileseldort in lurid tones. 1967, oil on canvas, 142x144cm,
century Germany and the Mannerists of 16th-century boconieeneudentor Joseph Museum Kuppersmuhle, Duisburg, Germany
Italy. In the 1980s, he was widely acknowledged as a Beuys Ee
father figure of the Neo-Expressionist movement. late 1970s Starts his Café
Deutschland paintings
1982 First large show, at the
LIFEline » Model for a Sculpture his Kunsthalle in Dusseldorf
is one of the first of Baselitzs 1997 Awarded the Marco,
1965 Studies at Villa Romana,
monumental wood sculptures, the world’s most lucrative art
in Florence, and is inspired
by Mannerist paintings there in which he used axes and prize, worth $250,000, by the
chainsaws to attain a raw, Museum of Contemporary
1977 Made Professor of Art in Monterrey, Mexico
painting in Karlsruhe uncompromising look. Here, he
shows a human torso, seemingly 1998 Awarded Germany's
1980 Shows at the Venice Order of Merit, the
Biennale exhibition; his Nazi giving the Nazi Sieg Heil salute Bundesverdienstkreuz
imagery causes controversy while rising from a block of
2005 His 60th birthday is
1983 Teaches at the wood. 1980, painted limewood, marked with a retrospective :
Hochschule der Bildenden 178x147 x244cm, Ludwig at Berlin's Nationalgalerie | ‘ x INSIN
KUnste in West Berlin Museum, Cologne, Germany

1 rca! | CLOSERIook
*

SGYV
Sr6L

ae

| UPSIDE DOWN By painting

j his pictures upside down,
Baselitz stresses the formal
qualities of the painting — the
colour, tonal contrast, and
the texture of the brushwork.

A Café Deutschland |
6¢ |'m a Mannerist Immendorff's most celebrated
in the sense that accomplishment was his Café
| deform things. Deutschland series. The café is
A Die Madchen von Olmo II Baselitz rebelled against Abstract a fantasy world populated by
Art, but he also despised paintings that passively accepted l'm brutal, naive, historical characters, imaginary
external appearances — especially Pop Art. As a result, in 1969 he and Gothic ”’ events, and Immedorff himself.
began to paint upside down. Ironically, by inverting the image In the café, we see both real
GEORG BASELITZ, 1995
he encourages the viewer to look at his paintings as abstract walls and people with “walls”
arrangements of shape and colour. 1981, oil on canvas, 250 x249cm, in their heads. 1978, oil on
| Pompidou Centre, Paris, France canvas, 280x320cm, Museum
Ludwig, Koln, Germany

in front of the Berlin Wall, his hand stretched

through a hole towards his friend the painter
AR Penck, seen in reflection on the other side.
 Sandro Chia
Anselm Kiefer
b FLORENCE, 1946
FY 7 + vonavescuincen,
1945 | LIFEline The Italian artist, Sandro Chia, first made his name in
Anselm Kiefer has created art in a vast variety of media, and addressed | 1966 In his 20s, abandons the late 1960s and early 1970s as a conceptual and
diverse subjects. But his main concern, especially during the 1970s, has law studies to pursue art
installation artist. In the late 1970s, however, he turned
been German history and, in particular, the tragedy of World War || and 1969 Produces Occupations
to figurative painting — celebrating human sensuality and
| photos, showing himself
the role of Nazism in that conflict. saluting like Hitler animal vitality in large, vibrantly coloured oils. Chia was
In 1969, Kiefer produced a series of photographs of himself giving the _ || 1970 Becomes a student of a leading artist in Transavanguardia, a group of Italian
Photograph Sieg Heil salute. From 1975, he concerned himself with the Nibelungen | the conceptual artist Joseph painters who sought inspiration in myths, legends, and
by Bertrand legends, pointing beyond the original German epic to its adaptation by | Beuys in Dusseldorf: the great masters.
Guay 1971 Paints his first large-
Richard Wagner and the Nazis’ use of it for nationalistic purposes. In the
1970s, he also began painting a series of highly worked, burnt German landscapes. || scale landscapes
| 1973 Starts paintings of v Water Bearer Chia often shows male figures bound
These images suggest destruction, but also the possibility of new growth, intimating
| melancholy wooden interiors — | on some unidentified mission. This painting recalls a story
that there is redemption and healing for Germans who feel guilty about their past. from the Apocrypha about Tobias, who was told to take a
| 1991 One-man show at the
Kiefer often worked on these images with a blowtorch, and embedded straw, lead, - | National Gallery in Berlin large fish with him on his journey to find a bride. 1981,
clay, and ashes into the canvas. 1992 Moves to Barjac in oil and pastel on canvas, 207 x170cm, Tate, London, UK
In 1991, the year after Germany's reunification, Kiefer left his homeland. He settled in | southern France *

the south of France in 1992. This change had a marked effect on his style and themes,
which ranged from the sunflowers of Arles, to the Chinese leader, Chairman Mao. \

Faith, Hope, Love /he three blades of this propeller

sculpture are inscribed with the three virtues —faith, v The Sorrow of the Nibelungen Kiefer made a series
hope, and love. Are these virtues simply aspirations? of paintings alluding to Wagners opera, The Ring. Here, he
The lead propeller, after all, will never rise above the smeared blood above each name in the Nibelungen narrative.
earth. 1984-86, mixed media, 280x380 x 75cm, Art Gallery 1973, oil and charcoal on burlap, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, US
of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia ~S : Z ELLE IN ZZ ae

NEO-EXPRESSIONISM
GRAFFITI
AND
ART

Julian Schnabel
b NEW YORK, 1951

Schnabel rose to fame at the end of the 1970s, with

paintings that incorporated objects such as stags’
antlers and tree branches. In 1979, he started using
ONWARDS
1945 broken crockery. He wanted to shock — the works were
big and brash, and plates would occasionally crash to
the floor. He also used unconventional supports, such
as tarpaulin, animal hides, and Japanese theatre
screens. He is now well known as a film-maker.

Vv The Student of Prague Schnabel has added crucifixes over

broken china vessels, but there is little suggestion of spiritual
succour. The painting is a troubling vision of a broken world. 1983,
mixed media, 295x579cm, Guggenheim Museum, New York, US

} 3"tak @ x
$ 96

ete os

lead books, each weighing 300 kilos, on PAGES OF THE PAST

two steel bookshelves, leant against each other, Most viewers never get to open
but separated by a panel of heavy glass. Through the books and see the images 6¢ My paintings take up room, they
this installation, Kiefer communicates the weight within. They contain weathered make a stand. People wil! always
that knowledge of German history has on him and damaged photographs of
landscapes and natural objects react to that. Some people get
1985-89, mixed media, 400.x 800 x 100cm,
private collection like seeds inspired, others get offended.
But, that’s good ”?

J
JULIAN SCHNABEL, 2003
 Banksy Keith Haring
b BRISTOL, 1974? b READING, PENNSYLVANIA, 1958; d NEW YORK, 1990 LIFEline
Britain's most celebrated graffiti artist, Banksy creates witty and gently Haring was a New York-based artist who believed that art should be 1976 Enrols at lvy School of
subversive stencilled images — often with political messages. His work integrated in the life of the city. In 1980, he began to create drawings Professional Art in Pittsburgh
has appeared in the streets of cities across the world, but as graffiti is in subway stations, using white chalk on unused advertising panels 1978 Moves to New York
generally illegal, he rigorously maintains his anonymity. covered with black paper. Haring produced hundreds of these 1982 Makes his SoHo gallery
debut with an acclaimed
Banksy's work includes subversive stunts. In 2004, “Banksy of rhythmical drawings, saying the subway was a “laboratory” that one-man show at the Tony
England” issued ten-pound notes with Princess Diana's head replacing helped him to evolve his spontaneous, free-flowing style. He also drew Shafrazi Gallery, New York
the Queen's and, in 2006, he put a life-sized replica of a Guantanamo on objects he found in the street — fridge doors, discarded cribs, or 1989 Establishes the Keith
Bay prisoner, wearing an orange jumpsuit, into Disneyland. He also stuffed animals. In 1986, Haring opened the Pop Shop in SoHo, selling, Haring Foundation to fund
produces new versions of famous artworks, such as Monet's The at a low cost, Fshirts, toys, posters, and magnets bearing his images. AIDS organizations
Waterlily Pond— with shopping trolleys dumped in the water. Haring was diagnosed with AIDS in 1988 and died in 1990, aged 31.

¥ Stencilled Image Banksys stencils make a point about

life and art from their being placed in a real space rather than
within a picture frame. Should we find more interesting the
bored warder or the precious framed painting? Near Arsenal
Emirates Stadium, North London, UK

=q iN < ~,
Si LD RY oN eal
~ c\ ine :@
7 AROS AQ at! a

A. Untitled Much of Haring'’s work has a childlike appeal. This image, with
its lively surface pattern, bold colour combinations, and comically fearsome,
human-capturing monsters, looks as if it could be an illustration in a ILIdd
LYV
children’s book. 1983, silkscreen, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany

Jean-Michel Basquiat
po?
b NEW YORK, 1960; d NEW YORK, 1988 CLOSERIook
Born to a Haitian father and Puerto Rican mother, Basquiat
was brought up in New York. He had a troubled childhood —
his parents separated when he was seven and he lived with
his father, but often ran away. As a child he learnt Spanish, SV6L
SGYV
French, and English and frequently visited New York's
museums.
Basquiat first gained notoriety for his cryptic graffiti
messages in SOHo in Manhattan. His rise to fame was quick
— Village Voice interviewed him about his graffiti in 1978, he
began painting on canvas around 1980, and by 1983 he was
good friends with Andy Warhol and included in the Whitney
Museum's Biennial. Basquiat's painting consciously evoked
the unfinished look of graffiti — and sometimes incorporated
materials scavenged from the streets. His subject matter
was autobiographical, with references to art history, sports
legends, hip-hop and jazz music, and racism.

LIFEline » Pyro Jhis seems to refer to a a)

car crash in which Basquiat, then
1974-75 Aged 14, moves PAGODA Basaquiat's inclusion
aged seven, broke his arm and
with his father to Puerto Rico of a pagoda in this scene is
suffered internal injuries. Here, the
1977 Signs graffiti in mysterious. It speaks of a
Manhattan, using the figure’s face is contorted with pain, spiritual solace and peace that

L
pseudonym SAMO his internal organs exposed, and he rarely depicted in his work,
1978 Leaves home, earns his left arm depicted with slashing or found in his life, but maybe
money selling collage strokes. 1984, mixed media on
LJ envisaged in his death.
canvas, 218x172cm, private collection
id
postcards and painted T-shirts
1982 First one-man show in Ss = EEE See

New York Benoa tt,

~ ke
1985 Works with Warhol on ~‘*Vf

a show at Bischofberger's
1988 Dies of a drugs " BIG PAGODA ra
overdose
 Traditional materials and techniques them. Using photography, film, and
are far from having been abandoned, video — technologies that record
but today’s artists no longer define impressions of actual, physical reality
themselves primarily in terms of — the lives of ordinary people can be
disciplines. They have embraced relayed in recorded images.
new technologies as a means of Common themes include people’s
expressing, reflecting upon, and interactions with their environment,
competing with the new cultural relationships with one another, their
landscape of mass communication hopes, fears, and self-image. People
and entertainment. have also become not simply the
subjects, but active participants in
Origins and influences the creation of the works.
Early avant-garde movements made A Four Knights Gilbert&George have adopted New.Media art draws attention to
use of non-conventional materials and — Photography to depict gritty scenes of urban life, the artifice of its own construction,
Art today is characterized
non-traditional media in order to attack Presentedaslarge collages. Their images appear ang to the spatial, cultural, and
by its vitality and diversity. strikingly new, while alluding to the age-old ; ; : = toh ae
the exclusive status of art and the tradition ofstained glass. historical context in which it exists.
Contemporary artists utilize unique, precious character of the art Allusions to past works of art and
a whole range of media and object. With the institutional physical space in which art was placed movements are frequent, and
methods to explore the world establishment of contemporary art, lead to artists making “installations” techniques of framing, editing, and
around them - everything boundaries could be crossed without for specific spaces and occasions. digital manipulation are not hidden but
from hybrid paintings using this being a negation of art as such. i revealed. It is this reminder of the
al : is The 1960s witnessed a far-reaching Subjects artificiality of all images that allows
unfamiliar material, to digitally reappraisal of what art could be. New Media artists have moved away = contemporary art to engage with
manipulated photographs and Pioneers utilized the new video from abstraction and towards an mass visual culture, while maintaining
video works. technology, while an interest in the engagement with the world around a critical attitude towards it.

MEDIA
NEW New Media
Jeff Wall
| b VANCOUVER, 1946 |LIFEline |
| A contemporary incarnation of what the poet Baudelaire |1970s Attends London's
NWARDS
| called “the painter of modern life” Jeff Wall reveals | Courtauld Institute ofArt
| aspects of today’s world through a deep engagement | 1977 Produces his first | < Insomnia Here, the glow
pS aeeceare transparencies in lightboxes
945
O
|
~
AD
| with the enduring qualities of art of the past. l'n078 Creates hietictmeior of Wall's backlit transparency
Wall's images are backlit transparencies. This | work, The Destroyed nhs seems to reflect the coldly lit
| illumination gives them an intense, cinematic quality,
| emphasizing the collision of old and new, documentary
|1990s Starts photomontages
—_| 2905 Major retrospective at
| claustrophobia of the scene.
The man on the floor is awake,
| and artificiality. The photos may have a look of “real life” | Tate Modern, London
| and yet seems absorbed in
| reportage, but they are in fact meticulously composed. |2007 Major exhibition at | some inner anxiety, oblivious
In spite of their staged and self-reflexive nature, Wall | MoMa, New York to the room around him. 1994,
remains a realist, expressing social truths in enigmatic hot Sessa Ae —— transparency in lightbox,
scenes condensed from the flux of life. 174x214cm, Kunsthalle,
Hamburg, Germany

Milk A carton of milk is crushed in a moment of frustration «< The Destroyed Room /he
and a dramatic arc of white explodes against the rigorously theme of artifice is embedded in
perpendicular wall behind. Wall often makes carefully composed this work. The chaotic scene is
reconstructions of everyday mini-events, where violence erupts in really artfully composed. 1978,
a social setting. 1984, transparency in lightbox, 187 x 229cm, transparency in lightbox, 159 x 234cm,
Collection FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims, France National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

CLOSERI|ook

AY
(; \
UG)
y

ARTIFICE REVEALED The

constructed, set-like nature of
the room is exposed by the struts
visible through the doorframe
 Gilbert & George ¥ The Singing Sculptures /n this, their most famous early
performance work, Gilbert & George became what they called
GILBERT: b SAN MARTIN, ITALY 1943; GEORGE: b DEVON 1942 LIFEline “living” or “human sculpture”. Covered with metallic paint, the pair
Since they met at St Martins School of Art and decided to become 1967 Gilbert Proesch and moved slowly to a recording of the music hall favourite, Underneath
“living sculptures’ Gilbert & George have exchanged their individual George Passmore meet while the Arches. 1970, performance
studying sculpture at St
personae for a singular identity, and transformed their lives into an
Martins in London
ongoing work of art. Instantly recognizable in matching suits, the pair 1969 Make the short film
seem both serenely removed from and emphatically grounded in The World of Gilbert & George
real life. Their imagery is rooted in the material, and even, by certain 1970 Perform together as
standards, in the vulgar. From grimy street scenes depicting drunks The Singing Sculptures
or graffiti, to pictures of naked bodies, human excrement, and bodily 1980 Begin to apply bright
fluids (often their own), their work has caused controversy. As Gilbert colours to their photo works
& George see it, their role as artists is to represent and celebrate life 1986 Win the Turner Prize
in all its forms, including the seedy and the corporeal. Sex, death, love, 1987 Major exhibition at the
Hayward Gallery, London
hope, fear, and the search for meaning: these are a few of the universal
1994 Naked Shit works
human themes the artists communicate in a life and work that
2007 Large retrospective held
discovers the sacred in the profane. at Tate Modern in London

v Attacked Here, the artists appear miniaturized in fleshy coloured

suits, and stand erect on the tips of a pair of tongues — that place
where the viscous interior of the body interacts with the outside
world. Fears of contagion are expressed in this alien and frightening
53x497cm, private collection
>}

MAN
VIG3I

Andreas Gursky
ee
SV6L
SCYV
b LEIPZIG, 1955 LIFEline
Andreas Gursky documents our massively populated, urban-centred, 1980 Gursky begins studying
global world as if with the detachment of an extra-terrestrial visitor. photography at the renowned
Kunstakademie in Dusseldorf
What he appears to find is a vast mechanism or organic system, within
1988 Holds his first solo show
which humans appear as tiny, anonymous elements. Gursky uses a
2001 A retrospective of his
large format, wide-angle camera, enabling him to capture the awe- work is held at MoMA in
inspiring massiveness of the contemporary landscape, while New York
simultaneously revealing every detail in sharp focus. This technique 2007 Gursky's 99 Cent
accounts for the non-heirarchical quality of the image: because it has becomes the most expensive
no central focus, it invites the viewer to scan it in an almost forensic photograph in the world when
it is sold for over $3 million
manner. The hyperealism is heightened by the large scale of the works,
at auction
allowing the viewer to imaginatively step into each scene.

A Union Rave Seldom have the tensions

» 99 Cent Viewed with
between individualism and collectivity been
Gursky’s alien-eye objectivity
better expressed than in Gurskys photos of
and detachment, the everyday
raves. Scanning this image, we can identify
activity of shopping begins to
individual personalities, dressed uniquely and
look distinctly strange. Gazing
doing their own thing; and yet they have joined
coldly at this supermarket
together, as if in one body, for an ecstatic,
scene, we are confronted with
collective celebration. 1995, photograph,
a contradiction: on the one
186 x305em
hand, the choice of goods
appears to be limitless; on the
other, everything is reduced to
the level of sameness — each
item is a standardized multiple,
and even the price is the same.
1999, photograph, 207x337cm,
private collection
 Stash) Sherman —
b GLEN RIDGE, NEW JERSEY, 1954
v Untitled No. 412 This work
The photographic work of Cindy Sherman arose at a time when « Untitled No. 225 Sherman exemplifies Sherman’ interest
postmodernism and feminism had turned attention to questions of produced a number of “History in the grotesque. The clown is
identity. She has explored many visual genres, including horror, Portraits”, using herself as a a particularly potent image of
pornography, and Old Master paintings, and makes use of props and model in parodies of Old Master collective nightmares, perhaps
prosthetics in ways that are often both disturbing and humorous. paintings. Here, she plays a because it collapses boundaries
| Self-portrait Sherman's work shows how mass visual culture ingrains certain Renaissance Virgin Mary. The between adult and child, male
representations and character types in our collective consciousness. false breast estranges the and female, real person and fake
Yet, it also suggests how artificial and unstable these identities are if one person — viewer from the sacred beauty appearance. 2003, photograph,
Sherman — is able to assume so many of them convincingly. Sherman makes visible of the scene. 1990, photograph 142.2x101.6cm
the way female identity is constructed, but she does this by reproducing mass cultural
| imagery and making herself the object of voyeuristic desire. As a result she has been
criticized for reinforcing gender stereotypes. Ultimately, however, it is this very conflict
of opposing ideas that gives her work its fascination.

: =H
LIFEline
1977 Begins her Untitled Film
Stills series
1985 Starts the Fairy Tales
series

1992 ‘Sex Pictures|USES dolls

\ograpl c images
| 1997 ne the horror film
Vir
Office Killer

Untitled Film Still No.53

This is one of many “film stills”
n which plelan uses herself
as model. She assumes many
roles, fromfemme fatale to
secretary, and though the various
characters seem familiar, they do
not refer to specific films. 1980,
gelatin silver a t,66x97cm, Allen
MEDIA
NEW
Memorial
Art Museum, Ohio, US

'Nam June Paik Sam Taylor-Wood

b SEOUL, 1932; d MIAMI, 2006 b LONDON, 1967

Renowned as a pioneer of video art, Paik Sam Taylo-Wood presents life condensed into singular moments
went on to explore its potential amid of intensity and theatricality. One such example was famously CLOSERIook
changing technology. He started out as a presented in the artist's video, David (2004), an hourlong single ; "7 ONE CHARACTER
ONWARDS
1945 musician, and this interest is apparent in take of the footballer David Beckham sleeping, with the work's title | Taylor-Wood creates a sense of
works such as TV Cello. In the 1960s, he referring to Michelangelo's icon of male beauty. The images Taylor | self-enclosed narcissism in this
moved to New York and became involved Wood creates have a contrived sense of casualness, but are in fact carefully arranged scene.
carefully composed. They seem equally inspired by allegorical Although they are surrounded by
with Fluxus — a cross-disciplinary avant-
other people, each larger-than-
garde art movement, influenced by artist paintings as by fashion photography and operatic stage sets. She has
> life character seems absorbed
Marcel Duchamp and composer John also moved beyond the gallery to theatre itself, for example designing \ in their own thoughts, locked in
Cage. Paik’s video installations and the video installation backdrop for concerts by the British pop music their own pose, and blissfully
performances question perception in duo the Pet Shop Boys. unaware of what is around them.
an idiosyncratic and humorous way.

Five Revolutionary Seconds XI Many of the images

taken in Taylor-Wood's converted loft space, often use actor- INcontext
friends as models, and convey a sense of bored decadence IMAGES OF WOMEN Like Pop art from the
and narcissism. Here, the space becomes a panoramic stage 1960s, much contemporary art is concerned with
set, an effect created using a 360° rotating camera. 1997, reflecting and exploring the world of mass media
colour photograph on vinyl with sound, 72x757cm, White Cube imagery, especially that used in advertising. For
gallery, London, UK Pop artists this had to do with juxtaposing high and
low culture. Today, female artists approach the
mass media — and particularly the portrayal of
women — as a powerful ideology that needs to be
TV Cello /his work, consistingof three TV highlighted and challenged
sets stacked in the shape of acello, was made Persuasive pictures Advertisers draw on our unconscious
for a performance with cellist and collaborator desires to persuade us to buy their products. The
Charlotte Moorman. As she drew her bow along prevalent image of women as narcissistic sexual objects
has an influence on the real lives of both women and men
the sculpture, she produced video images on the
screens. 1971, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, US
Gillan Wearing Pipilott: Rist
b BIRMINGHAM, 1963 b GRABS, 1962
In her photographic and video work,
Bill Viola Pipilotti Rist approached the mass visual culture of
Gillian Wearing pursues an endless b NEW YORK, 1951 television and popular film not as something to be
fascination with people — their deconstructed, but as a common language, available
appearance and projected self-images, for use and experimentation. Filters, overlays, and
their thoughts and desires, and their other special effects constitute an electronic palette
need to tell their own story. She is also with which Rist creates exuberant, colourful, and
interested in how social conventions surreal images in time. Her works resemble pop
determine the way we behave and act videos and are often accompanied by a song.
differently in public and private. However, unlike the slick, professional videos used by
the music industry, Rist’s are quirky, awkward, and
v Confess All On Video. Don't Worry, You cheaply produced, flaunting the home-made aesthetic
Will be in Disguise. Intrigued? Call Gillian of video-editing software in the DIY spirit of punk.
Wearing put this advert in a London listings
magazine. Thirteen people responded and, Ever is Over All A two-screen video installation juxtaposes a
behind the anonymity of masks and disguises, tranquil field of flowers with an exuberant fantasy of transgression
revealed a fascinating variety of transgressions. and excess, in which the artist skips down the street in a dress
1994, video installation, Tate, London, UK and heels, cheerfully smashing car windows with a flower-like
iron wand. 1997, video installation, MoMA, New York, US
A Quintet of the Silent With the dramatic lighting and
composition of an Old Master painting, five figures move in
extreme slow motion and absolute silence. 2001, video installation,
Indianapolis Museum of Art, US

The technology of video has been accused of spawning a superficial

and disembodied virtual reality. In an extraordinary reversal of this, Bill
Viola has embraced video technology to create vivid visual experiences
that explore the great mysteries of the human condition — love, pain,
meaning, and mortality. Viola’s video installations often involve multiple
projections, and act on the viewer visually, aurally, in space, and over
time. The experience is intensified by special effects, such as
superimposition and extreme slow motion, opening up perceptions
that transform our normal view of reality. Archetypal symbols, such as
fire and water, recur in his work, while passageways and thresholds
suggest the boundary separating life from death. Video operates in
Viola's work not as an artificial disconnection from reality, but as a MAN
VIG3
reconnection with the essential spiritual dimension of human life. |
i
#

Tracey Emin
b CROYDON, 1963 LIFEline My Bed A graphic
illustration of themes of
Tracey Emin makes work that is autobiographical and 1963 Born, one of twins
conception, sex, loss, iliness,
directly emotional. Her art is bound up unashamedly with her 1987 Studies painting at the
Royal College of Art, London and death, this work quickly
personality and life experiences, and so the popular notoriety gained media-notoriety,
1994 Major solo exhibition at
of her work has turned Emin herself into something of a representing for many the
the White Cube gallery SV6L
SGHY
!& media celebrity. Emin’s art is confessional, relating — and in vulgarity and lack of skill of
1995 Makes Everyone | have
Tracey Emin, Some way coming to terms with — intimate, often traumatic Ever Slept With 1963-1995 contemporary artists. The bed
2008 experiences, such as being in love, abandonment, abortion, 1999 Nominated for the was unmade and appeared
and rape. Her childhood and adolescence, spent in the seaside town of Turner Prize. Although she used, with crumpled, stained
Margate, have been a recurring theme and are the subject of two of her films. does not win, her work, My sheets surrounded by, among
Art was in many ways an escape from that oppressive environment, and Bed, makes headlines other things, dirty underwear,
2004 Top Spot, Emin's condoms, and cigarette
even seems to have satisfied a spiritual need. Emin has used a variety of
feature film, is released packets. 1998, mattress,
media — everything from ready-made elements and photo documentation,
2007 Emin represents Britain bedding, and ephemera,
to embroidery and neon — a common quality of the work being that it at the Venice Biennale
combines mechanistic technique with a candid exposure of feeling. Exhibition 79x211x234cm, The Saatchi
Collection, London, UK
Everyone | Have Ever
Slept With 1963-1995
This work brought Emin to
public attention. It consists of
a tent, which the viewer may
peek or crawl into to see the
appliquéd names of lovers,
friends, and family members
—all Emin’s intimate sleeping
partners, including herself
and two aborted fetuses
1995, appliquéd tent, mattress,
and light, 122x245x215em

A Terribly Wrong Emin’ monoprints seem to reveal fragility in

their shaky expressivity. They often depict the artist in a vulnerable
or awkward pose, accompanied by text which relates to the image
as a memory or obsessive thought. 1997, monoprint on paper,
58x 81cm, Tate, London, UK
 |Damien Hirst
b BRISTOL, 1965
In the 1990s, the name Damien Hirst quickly became synonymous with
the brash provocation and media furore that defined Young British Art.
Since that time, Hirst has gone on to become one of the most famous,
and expensive, of living artists. He was instrumental in creating Young
British Art, organizing Freeze —a now legendary exhibition of student :
Photograph work in a disused Docklands building — whilst still studying at Goldsmiths
by Rune College. It was attended by the collector Charles Saatchi, who later * eS < Untitled A/ongside his spectacular
Gallsatae funded The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone three-dimensional work, Hirst has
Living—a shark in formaldehyde that made Hirst a household name in the UK. produced a large number of “spot
Mortality is a subject that Hirst has continued to explore, using materials such as paintings” and “spin paintings”.
dissected cows and maggot-infested meat, which some have taken as a deliberate Although instantly recognizable, these
provocation. His formaldehyde-filled tanks actually resemble the austere shapes of pictures are made according to a
minimalist sculpture, while his appropriation of items such as toy figurines, as well random process, and usually produced
as his employment of assistants to produce his multi-coloured “spot” and “spin” not by Hirst himself, but by assistants.
paintings, show Hirst's work to be indebted to Pop Art and the legacy of Andy Warhol.
Colour print, 86x 62cm, City Art Gallery,
Leeds, UK

LIFEline << For the Love of God /his work

consists of a platinum skull, complete
1988 While still a student, with real teeth, and adorned with
organizes Freeze exhibition
over 8,000 diamonds. This literally
1993 Shows Mother and
Child Divided at the Venice dazzling object combines to an
Biennale extreme the two things Damien Hirst
1995 Wins the Turner Prize is most famous for: an obsession with
2007 For the Love of God death and the market value of his
sells for £50 million work. 2007, platinum, diamonds, and
human teeth, life-sized

< Prodigal Son After the 66 You kill things

O shark, Hirst went on to use other to look at
S animals, sometimes sliced in 99
half like this calf, and displayed them
= like museum exhibits or medical DAMIEN HIRST
2 | specimens. 1994, steel, glass, calf,
_ | and formaldehyde, 99x 150x 48cm

Rachel Whiteread Chris Ofili

b LONDON, 1963 b MANCHESTER, 1968
| Rachel Whiteread's sculptures are memorials to lived time. Combining the decorative with the figurative, Chris Ofili’s large works
She makes casts, usually not of objects themselves, but of feature swirling patterns and pulsating colours and exude a celebratory
the space surrounding them: beneath chairs and tables, excess through imagery rich with cultural associations. Layers of
paints, resin, collage, glitter, and other media, combined with areas of
1945 behind bookshelves, within rooms. These are the spaces
ONWARDS
that our bodies inhabit and move around in, inside the uniform tone, lend Ofili's figures a flatness, rather than a realistic
homes where much of our lives are spent. In Whiteread’s depth, and turn them into icons. However, these symbolic
| work, existence is marked not by possessions or likenesses representatives derive as much from modern pop mythology as from
of people, but by a materialized absence, which reminds us traditional religious images. Black culture is central to this vision, most
of how these solidified and now impenetrable spaces were obviously in the influence of 1970s blaxploitation and contemporary
once occupied. Her work includes signs of the passage of gangsta rap, which the artist utilizes to communicate a confident
time and the presence of individuals — scratches and exuberance, but also to confront racial stereotypes.
indentations picked up from furniture or flooring, or traces of
wall paint adhering to the casts. Whiteread has also been < Blossom /his is one of the
commissioned for several large-scale public art projects, artist's most richly colourful
including the temporary work Plinth in London’s Trafalgar paintings. An image from a
Square, and the Holocaust Memorial in Vienna. pornographic magazine
becomes a celebration of
A House Jhis is a cement cast of the last fertility and sexuality. Ofili has
remaining Victorian house on an East London said that his work “allows you
street. On full public display, this striking and to laugh at things which are
curious monolithic memorial provoked potentially serious”. 1997,
thoughts on subjects such as homelessness acrylic and oil paint, polyester
and gentrification, and became something of resin, paper collage, glitter,
a cause célébre before it was demolished by map pins, and elephant dung
the local council in the following year. 1993, on canvas, 244 x 183cm,
cement, life-sized. Contemporary Fine Arts,
Berlin, Germany
“ Untitled (Freestanding Bed)
Mattresses, or the spaces under beds, are
a favourite subject for Whiteread. Yellowing
dental plaster here turns a soft mattress
into a solid memorial to the human bodies
that have /ain on it. 1991, dental plaster,
104x182cm, Southampton City Art Gallery, UK
 Understanding of the roles of
Origins and influences sculpture in modern society, new
What static imagery is appropriate technical possibilities, and enlightened
for a digital age — an era of speed and patronage have all played a part in
change? This is the challenge for the re-vitalising the medium. At the same
contemporary sculptor. time there has been a revival of
For the last 25 years, urban interest in traditional processes such
regeneration has been a strong as bronze casting and stone carving.
catalyst in creating a wider acceptance
of new commemorative or celebratory li ak WO) Materials
sculpture, along with sculpture parks, Hb halle RINSE RAIIE Ba laa Ma LA MA ce aba
Contemporary sculpture is a broad
In the 21st century sculpture art trails, and outdoor exhibitions. A Alison Lapper Pregnant Marc Quinn, 2005. field — urban or rural, temporary or
Regeneration has led to greater Displayed on the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, permanent, public or private, large
remains a vital and strong art London, which has hosted a series of temporary
public involvement. scale or intimate. In practice it involves
form with renewed popular installations, this has proved an important testing ground
a myriad of individuals and the subject
for the idea of impermanence in the public domain.
appeal. Great commissions Exhibition spaces matter is as diverse as the interests of
and modern exhibition spaces Leading sculptors are part of an are also exhibiting in unconventional artists and commissioners.
challenge the adventurous international art scene that generates spaces beyond galleries or museums. Each new work explores the nature
exhibitions and commissions Innovative temporary projects, such as of sculpture. The sheer variety of
artist. However, the realisation
worldwide. In London, Tate Moderns Rachel Whiteread’s House (1993) ona contemporary practice is exhilarating
of major works can be as slow Turbine Hall installations have involved park site in London's East End, gain and opportunities for the sculptor
and dedicated today as in any major international stars like Louise international attention and extend our today are greater than for over a
previous century. Bourgeois and Bruce Nauman. Artists thinking about public art. hundred years.

Contemporary Sculpture | | | |
AYVY
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Antony Gormley
b LONDON, 1950
An established and prolific sculptor, Antony Gormley has worked
extensively with the human figure throughout his career. By making
direct plaster moulds and casts of his body, or by computer scanning,
he has used his own figure to explore aspects of experience, such as
SEL
SGYV
space, memory, and presence. There is a theatrical character to his
installations, in which pose, gesture, scale, and location have all been
used to great effect.
Gormley has a particular interest in the relationship of art to its
audience, and has been very persuasive in securing numerous large-
scale commissions. The very large work Field for the British Isles
(1993), later remade in different locations worldwide, directly involved
local communities in making hundreds of small standing clay figures
to densely fill a gallery floor. A recent and popular work, Another Place
(1997), consists of 100 cast iron figures sited along a three-kilometre
tidal foreshore, near Crosby on Merseyside.

LIFEline
1968-71 Studies archaeology,
anthropology and history of
art at Cambridge
1971-74 Travels in India
1977-79 Studies at the Slade
School in London
1994 Wins the Turner Prize (Seeing and Believing) A The Angel of the North Situated near the A1
1997 Receives OBE for Quantum Cloud XX his is one motorway and the main east coast railway line in
services to sculpture of a series of at least 36 similar the north of England, this enormous sculpture is
1998 Best-known work, sculptures, made between 1999 passed by 90,000 people daily, and is said to be
Angel of the North and 2002. A figure materializes one of the most viewed artworks in the world.
2003 Elected to the Royal in a haze of energetic lines, 1998, COR-TEN steel, height 20m, wingspan 54m,
Academy which give the appearance of a Gateshead, UK
forcefield. 2000, stainless steel
bars, 233x 149x 121cm, Nasher
Sculpture Center, Texas, US
 Anish Kapoor Vv Marsyas Named after a satyr who
was flayed alive by the god Apollo in Greek
b BOMBAY, 1954 mythology, this is thought to be the largest
Tony Cragg indoor sculpture ever made. 2002, PVC and
Anish Kapoor has said that he does not want to make steel, 35x 23x 155m, temporary installation at
b LIVERPOOL, 1949 sculptures about form, but about experience that is
Cragg's earliest sculptures used found materials arranged outside material concern — “| am really interested in the
ma
by colour, size, or character. The groups of objects were ‘non-object’ or the ‘non-material’ ” Accordingly, there is
i a transcendent quality, especially to his later sculptures,
given a unifying painted or drawn surface. His later, richly
idiosyncratic, cast sculptures take the form of large Photograph which use reflective surfaces to incorporate the
by Brad Barket surroundings and undermine their physicality.
vessels and spun columns and stand as unique forms.
Cragg is a considerable draughtsman and has used From a rich cultural heritage — his father was a Hindu and
computer software in the development of his ideas. his mother an Iraqi Jew — Kapoor explored abstract, organic, and
When young, Cragg worked as a laboratory technician geometric forms in his early sculptures. Many are coated with brightly
at the Natural Rubber Producers’ Research Association. coloured pigments — an echo of his Indian upbringing. He progressed to
Some of his recent large bronzes appear deceptively using sizeable stone blocks, and cutting into the surface. His sculptures
rubberlike in the flexibility of forms — stretched, curved, rely on opposites: interior and exterior, solid and transparent, presence
and twisted. In 1988, Cragg represented Britain at the and absence. Sometimes Kapoor challenges the structure of the gallery
43rd Venice Biennale exhibition and won the Turner Prize. itself, letting vortexlike holes into the floor, or making walls bulge out. In
recent years he has undertaken very large, site-specific works.

<< §-Curve The highly polished

LIFEline
concave and convex surfaces of
1973-77 Attends Hornsey this S-shaped wall show the
College of Art
surrounding space in distorted
1977-78 Studies at Chelsea
reflection. This has the effect
School of Art
of dematerializing the weighty
1980 Holds his first solo
exhibition, at Patrice object, and disrupting the
Alexandre, Paris viewers connections to it.
1982 Is Artist in Residence at 2006, polished steel,
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool 217x975x 122cm, Regen Projects,
1990 Represents Britain at Los Angeles, US
the Venice Biennale exhibition
2002 Designs Marsyas for
Tate's Turbine Hall
\ Here Today Gone Tomorrow Computer-generated and
2004 Cloud Gate unveiled at
made by machine, these sculptures change dramatically as the Chicago's Millennium Park
viewer walks round them. The unbalanced stacks stretch, blend, 2006 Sky Mirror installed,
and merge to reveal facial silhouettes from certain angles. 2002,
SCULPTURE
CONTEMPORARY Rockefeller Center, New York
stone, height 4.5m, Cass Sculpture Foundation, Goodwood, UK

Richard Deacon Jeff Koons

b BANGOR, 1949 b YORK, PENNSYLVANIA, 1955 LIFEline
Once described as the “postmodernist king of kitsch’ 1963 Copies and signs
old-master paintings for sale
Koons is a commercially successful designer of
1972-76 Attends Maryland
paintings and three-dimensional objects. At Jeff Koons Institute College of Art,
ONWARDS
1945 Productions, Inc., his New York studio, a large group of Baltimore
assistants work on his behalf. He says that he is the 1977 Moves to New York
idea person — “I'm not physically involved in the 1980-86 Works as a
production. | just don’t have the necessary abilities” commodity broker on Wall
Koons's early works placed domestic equipment in Street
Perspex boxes, seemingly with little intervention. Later 1992 Installs 12m-high Puppy
at Documenta in Kassel
works, such as the Banality series (1988) and the Made
1998 Produces sculpture of
in Heaven series (1991) rely on great craftsmanship, and Michael Jackson and Bubbles
allude to consumerism, advertising, and wealth. Koons A Popples /his sculpture is
2002 Named as Chevalier of part of Koon’ Banality series,
has many detractors, who question the apparently the French Legion of Honour
featuring pop-culture icons. The
soulless and superficial character of his work.
character is based on one of a
series of soft toys used as a TV
\ Kiss and Tell /hese two large, contrasting forms — one rough CLOSERIook marketing tool by American
and open, the other smooth, rounded, and closed — depend on each Greeting Cards and Mattel.
other to stand securely in space. 1989, epoxy, timber, plywood, and 1988, porcelain, 75x60x 40cm,
steel, 175x233 x 162cm, Hayward Gallery, London, UK Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
~< Small Vase of Flowers
Richard Deacon's sculptures are developed from low- This work from the Made in
tech materials and are essentially hand-made. Typically, Heaven series, which includes
they involve linear elements, silhouettes, or larger open erotic sculptures of Koons with
structures that form elegant, decorative drawings in his then wife, was described by
space, They make reference to the human body and the artist as “very sexual and
to relationships. Deacon describes himself as a IN BLOOM No fewer than fertile”. 1991, wood and paint,
fabricator’ and his larger pieces are often made by 140 flowers were carved in 95x 140 x95cm, Kunsthalle,
assembling repeated smaller units. wood for this piece. Koons Hamburg, Germany
Deacon has exhibited widely. He won the Turner Prize often plays with the tension
in 1987 and was elected a Royal Academician in 1998. between the beauty of the
He received a CBE in 1999 and represented Wales at the making and the vulgarity of
the effect.
Venice Biennale exhibition in 2007. Since 1999, Deacon
has also been a professor of sculpture at the Ecole des
Beaux-Arts in Paris.
Ron Mueck
b MELBOURNE, 1958 v Pregnant Woman Mueck’s Bill Woodrow
After working in children’s television, special effects, sculptures have presence. He
and advertising for 20 years, Mueck started making says: “Ilnever made life-size b HENLEY, 1948
sculpture in 1996, when he collaborated on a project figures. It never seemed Like many artists of his generation, Bill
with Paula Rego (see p.589). He gained international interesting, we meet life-sized Woodrow used cleverly transformed
attention with his poignant, half-sized sculpture Dead people every day.” 2002, resin on junk in his early works. Saucepans,
Dad, which was included in the Sensation exhibition fibreglass, 252x 78x 72cm, National
shopping trolleys, and bicycle frames
Gallery of Australia, Canberra
at London's Royal Academy in 1997. It was typical of were “deconstructed” Manufactured
Mueck’s smaller works — striking for its concentrated objects generated surprising hand-made
hypernaturalism. companions, and suggested narrative
Mueck has since made several oversized figures, connections. Woodrow’s sculptures
including the crouching Boy (1999) for the Millennium have grown more substantial over time —
Dome in London and Untitled (Big Man) (2000). and more frequently bronze-cast — but he
Modelled in clay and cast in resins and silicone, these has retained this playful approach, both
figures achieve a striking realism through Muerck’'s to materials and imagery. Poetic stories
attention to surface detail. They are not alive, but when abound,
‘ } especially in small and highly “Regardless of History Jendrils of tree roots
seen up close it is almost possible to suspend disbelief. inventive crafted models. There are grip the fallen head of a statue and a book of
echoes of Surrealism, and his later works knowledge and ideas, as nature triumphantly
have perhaps become darker. If there is reclaims the classical plinth. 2000, bronze,
v Man in a Boat Naked, alone, and adrift — powerful a recurrent theme, it is the resilient 9.6x5.4x2.5m, for the Fourth Plinth project,
symbolism surrounds the plight of this diminutive figure,
power of nature over intellect. Trafalgar Square, London, UK
who looks askance at what lies ahead. 2002, mixed media,
422x140x122cm, private collection

Seychelles Evaluator
& A, This is one of a series of
sculptures in which bronze-
cast branches form skeletal
creatures. Each one holds
its own coloured territory,
containing a watery or
muddy bronze pool. 2005,
mixed media, 88x 179x 115cm,
Waddington Galleries, AYV
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London, UK

David Mach Peter Randall-Page Doris Salcedo

b FIFE, 1956 b ESSEX, 1954 b BOGOTA, 1958
Since his student days, Randall-Page has worked In past works, Salcedo has transformed mundane domestic furniture
prolifically as a stone carver. He was briefly assistant to into powerfully felt and deceptively simple objects and installations
the sculptor Barry Flanagan, and for a year worked on that evoke the violence of modern-day Colombia. Of working in a
the conservation of 13th-century sculpture at Wells country in turmoil she says: “Every work of art is political, is breaking
SV6L
SCY
Cathedral. His work has always been informed by new ground, and is against the status quo.”
observation and study of nature, and has moved from Sometimes the setting is crucial — in her work Noviembre 6 y 7
literal interpretations of specific botanical forms to a (2002), wooden chairs were lowered down the facade of the new
closer look at underlying principles, such as the Palace of Justice in Bogota on the anniversary of an earlier violent
Fibonacci mathematical sequence. Resilient outdoors, seizure of the Supreme Court. In challenging our expectations of
his sculptures are frequently sited in either natural or farniliar objects, with utmost simplicity Salcedo memorializes people
man-made landscapes. caught up in the drugs wars and civil unrest.
For the new Education Resource Centre at the Eden
Project, he worked closely with architects and structural << Shibboleth /ntended to
engineers to ensure the patterns underlying both nature encourage reflection on the
and his sculpture were integrated into the building. place and experience of
immigrants, a dramatic crack
A Polaris This submarine, made of 6,000 car <( Seed At the heart in the gallery floor suggests a
tyres, “surfaced” on London's South Bank. One of the Eden Project's structural collapse. 2007, length
person died trying to set it on fire. 1983, tyres, Education Centre, away 167m, temporary installation at
temporary installation for the Hayward Gallery, from the bustle of Tate Modern, London, UK
London, UK visitors, a massive
sculpture derived from CLOSERI|ook
David Mach is an assembler of discarded seed-heads, pods, and
mass materials, magazines, wire coat cones stands as a
hangers, car tyres, and Scrabble blocks. symbolic object for
He is a figurative artist for whom contemplation. 2007,
sculpture takes many different forms: Cornish granite, 4x3x3m,
“The artist must be an ideas-monger, the Eden Project, near
responding to all kinds of physical St Austell, UK
location, social and political environments, IN THE CRACK Steel mesh in
to materials, to processes,’ he says. the crack refers to fences as a
Recently, Mach has turned to collage, way of excluding other people.
exploiting its subversive possibilities. Eventually, the crack will be
re-filled, but a “ghost” of the
work will remain.
 Australian Aboriginal painting has
always been closely linked with their
society and mythology. The arrival of
the Europeans disrupted this culture
and dispersed the Australian
Aboriginals, forcing them to adopt
alien lifestyles. In some cases,
however, traditional culture was
retained, forming the basis of modern
Australian Aboriginal art.

The new art

A Uluru /he largest freestanding
During the 1930s the Aranda school of rock in the world, Uluru lies in the
watercolourists at the Hermannsburg local artists to paint with acrylic on centre of Australia and has been
ission in central Australia produced canvas and board, rather than using home to the Anangu people for at
drawings in the European manner. vegetable dyes on sacred objects such least 22,000 years. The rock is
one of the most sacred sites for
Albert Namatjira (1902-59) developed as stones or wooden slabs. At first Australian Aboriginals.
this style, becoming the first Australian such paintings were realistic in their
In the last 40 years, Australian representation, but soon dots and geographical location associated with
Aboriginal painter to attract widespread
Aboriginal art has undergone attention. At the same time, bark dabs of acrylic paint were used in either a mythological event or person.
a transformation in both style paintings continued to be produced increasingly abstract ways. Such works are produced for the
and medium, keeping to a in commercial quantities, using both western art market, but are painted
ritual and more representative imagery. Dot paintings by Australian Aboriginal artists across
traditional iconography but
The big change in Australian This new style of “dot paintings” central and northern Australia who
transforming it in innovative
Aboriginal art came around 1971, incorporate symbolic motifs — curved remain very much a part of their own
and radical ways. Australian when the art teacher Geoffrey Bardon, and wavy lines, and concentric circles communities and retain their links
Aboriginal art is now highly ‘working at the Papunya settlement — marked out in highly decorative to the sacred lands in which they
prized and much sought after. west of Alice Springs, encouraged the patterns of dots to depict a particular have traditionally lived.

ART
Australian Aboriginal art —
ABORIGINAL
AUSTRALIAN

Emily Kame Kngwarreye Ginger Riley Munduwalawala

b ALHALKERE, c1910; d ALICE SPRINGS, 1996 b LIMMEN BIGHT, NORTHERN TERRITORY, c1936; d BORROLOOLA, 2002

Living In relative isolation in central Australia, Emily Born on the Limmen Bight River in Arnhem Land in the Northern
Kame Kngwarreye only began work in her 70s, Territory, Ginger Riley Munduwalawala spent most of his adult life as
producing batiks from 1981 and then paintings from a cattle drover and stockman. He did not begin to paint until he was
almost 50, after he had met and was inspired by his fellow landscape
1945 1989 onwards. She held her first solo exhibition in
ONWARDS
Sydney in 1990, received an Australian Artist Creative artist Albert Namatijira in Alice Springs.
Fellowship in 1992, and was included in the national Munduwalawala's work was inspired by the bark paintings of his
pavilion in the 1997 Venice Biennial. area but he soon developed his own distinct style based on bold and
Her work is very influential, for it defies the traditional colourful depictions of his native landscape and the mythological
symbolic iconography of Australian Aboriginal paintings beings that brought it into existence. Dubbed by the Australian artist
and uses instead massed dots and loose, layered webs David Larwill as the “Boss of Colour” he helped to break down the
in a vibrant abstraction of pigments. Her paintings are distinctions between Australian Aboriginal and contemporary art.
directly related to Australian Aboriginal women's
ceremonies and to her sense of her country, Alhalkere. < Limmen Bight
River Country
» Bush Yam Awelye Kngwarreye first Munduwalawala always
produced colourful silk and cotton batiks. She returned to the subject
used their shimmering colours and shapes that of his home river, painting
merge into each other when she later started its valley with bold
to paint on canvas. 1990s, acrylic on canvas, colours and an almost
118x 48cm, private collection childlike but highly
effective simplicity. 1992,
CLOSERIook synthetic polymer paint on
A LOOSE WEB , canvas, 243.5x243.5em,
Pinks, pale oranges, Collection: Art Gallery of
and a range of other New South Wales, Sydney,
hues emerge through Australia
the web of bright red,
the edges of each
colour loose and
blurred
Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri
b NAPPERBY, NORTHERN TERRITORY, c1932; LIFEline
d ALICE SPRINGS, 2002
€1932 Born in Napperby,
A stockman until he was 36, in the 1960s Northern Territory
Tjapaltjarri began painting watercolours in 1968 Ends work as a
the Aranda-school style. He also became an stockman, by which time
he has begun painting
R : expert wood carver of boomerangs, snakes, watercolours
Clifford Possum 2nd other tourist items. Around this time he 1972 Joins the Papunya
Tjapaltjarri, lost the sight of one eye in a riding accident. settlement artists
1999 In 1972 he was one of the last and c1978 Adopts his dot-art
youngest people to join the founding group of artists at the technique to large-scale
Papunya settlement. One of the most talented members, works
his knowledge of the sacred lands was his subject matter. mid-1980s Leaves the
Papunya artists and works
By the late 1970s, he adopted his dot-art, acrylic on canvas
independently on the
technique to produce large-scale canvases. Later, smaller outskirts of Alice Springs
works incorporate elements such as fire, water, kangaroos, 1990 Becomes the first
and possums. One of the most visionary and collected Aboriginal artist to be received
Australian Aboriginal artists, he died the day he was to by the Australian head of
receive the Order of Australia and a medal in honour of his ea Elizabeth II, in London
contribution to the Australian Aboriginal community.

( Narripi (Worm) Dreaming

The underlying representation of the
individual dreaming is almost over-
whelmed by the perfection of palette,
spatial design, and technical virtuosity.
1987, acrylic on canvas, 90x120cm, Corbally
Stourton Contemporary Art, Australia
» Corkwood Dreaming Painted after
ae Tjapaltjarri had moved into Alice Springs
and begun to work independently of
the Papunya collective, the previous
dynamism is now broken with paths and
blocks of single, complementary colours.
1992, acrylic on canvas, 164x128cm, Corbally NVII
IVNI
LYV
Stourton Contemporary Art, Australia

Joseph Jurra Tjapaltjarri Rover Thomas Joolama

b KIWIRRKURA, WESTERN AUSTRALIA, c1952 b WESTERN AUSTRALIA, c1926;
d WESTERN AUSTRALIA, 1998
Born in Western Australia, Joseph Jurra Tjapaltjarri was brought with
his family to Papunya, northwest of Alice Springs, in 1964 after being Rover Thomas lived in the bush until his mother
sighted by a welfare patrol. He started painting in 1986 and since 1987 __| died, when he was around 10, and was then
has painted for the Papunya Tula Artists. His work has been exhibited initiated into traditional law before working as
widely around the world and is in many important collections. a jackaroo or trainee stock worker. He later SEL
SGYV
Tjapaltjarri has produced woodcuts, but his main work is with worked as a carpenter's assistant building
synthetic polymer paint on linen. Painting mainly bold abstractions, he community housing.
uses a monochrome colour — often a pinkish-red or dark grey — over a Moving to Warmun, Western Australia in
different coloured base, notably in the dotted meanderings he has 1975, he became the Dreamer or vehicle of the
featured in recent years: GurirrGurirr ceremony — a dance cycle of songs
and images. The images were based partly on a
dream Thomas had following the death of an
old woman in a car accident and also on
Cyclone Tracy, which devastated Darwin in
1974. He and his uncle Paddy Jaminji painted a
series of plywood boards that were carried on
the shoulders of participants in the cycle, each
ochre board complementing a specific verse.
From there he began to paint on canvas. His
often sombre paintings express the landscape
of the Kimberley Plateau of Western Australia
as well as both real and mythological events in
history. In 1982 he began a series of paintings
based on Kimberley rock art. Roads Cross, a
major retrospective of his work, was held by
the National Gallery of Australia in 1994.
» Ord River, Bow River, Denham
River /hree rivers converge in the
Australian outback. Both rivers and
the surrounding land are portrayed
using simple ochre colours, the rivers
delineated by lines of little white
A Untitled The meandering, dotted subject matter in monochrome dots. 1989, acrylic on canvas,
colour over a different-coloured base is typical of the artist's recent 180x90.2cm, Musée du quai Branly,
work. 2003, synthetic polymer paint on linen,121x121cm Paris, France
 European art exists in an increasingly’
globalized art scene, created by the < The Guggenheim Foundation
From its origins in New York in the
internet and cheaper easier travel.
1930s, the Guggenheim Foundation
developed to a multi-national
Changing roles corporation for collecting and
In spite of enormous support from displaying modern art. Frank Gehry’s
dramatic design for the foundations
the French government, including the branch in Bilbao, which opened in
building of the Pompidou Centre, Paris 1997, has attracted as much
has never quite recovered the role it attention as the art inside
played in the development of modern
art up to the mid-20th century. Ever country of origin. So Tuymans is clearly passions. Artists who are stylistically
since the international success of Neo- a Belgian artist who looks back to and technically very different may
Expressionism, Germany has become Ensor and Magritte, while Richter has nonetheless be united by common
From the 1980s onwards
increasingly important in the art world. reflected on the political traumas of themes. The three women artists
European art regained some For earlier generations of artists a West Germany. shown here are a painter and two
of the prominent position in considerable career could be built on installation artists. However, Annette
the world it had lost to the a local reputation, and many figures Common themes Messager is far closer to the painter
US. The dramatic and sudden celebrated in their own countries had One feature of the contemporary Paula Rego in her critical look at
little following outside them. Now it scene is that many of the old conflicts feminine identity and her exploration
collapse of Communism at
seems that it is vital to establish an are no longer of such importance. of the power of childhood memory.
the end of that decade tended international audience. What plays Abstract versus figurative, or Sylvie Fleury, by contrast is, at least on
to re-establish a sense of best on the world stage is frequently conceptualism versus painting and the surface, a “post-feminist’ exulting
European unity. that which clearly belongs to its sculpture, no longer arouse such in the rich woman's joy in shopping.

Europe today
TODAY
EUROPE

b DRESDEN, 1932 LIFEline

Gerhard Richter is both one of the great technical virtuosi 1952-56 Studies at
of contemporary painting and one of its most intelligent Hochschule fur Bildende
Kunst, Leipzig
and thoughtful practitioners. He was trained in former
1961 Moves to Diisseldorf,
East Germany where painters were required to produce then in West Germany.
ONWARDS
1945
a realist art that supported the propaganda requirements Influenced by the work of
Photograph by of the state. When he moved to the West he developed Bacon and Giacometti.
Christopher a style that was an alternative both to realism and 1962 Produces first paintings
Felver based on blurred
abstraction by working from photographs. However, the
photographs.
intention was not to achieve greater realism. Instead, Richter’s paintings
1985 Receives Oskar
tend to emphasise the imperfections of the photographic process and
Kokoschka Prize in Vienna
question our use of it as a source of information about the world. When
1991 Retrospective exhibition
Richter came to work as an abstract painter he, by contrast, introduced at Tate Gallery, London
a high level of illusionism into the work.

Y¥ Untitled One of a series of large paintings, the effect was

achieved by scraping across several layers of wet paint. There is a
suggestion of dim, unidentifiable images in a dirty mirror, but when
the original work is seen the viewer is continuously brought back
to the paint itself. 1989, oil on canvas, Kunsthalle,

A S. with Child Even in an intimate scene such as this, the

A The Schmidt Family /ypica/ of the Richter’s
artists wife with her new born child, we see it second hand
paintings from the 1960s, this was painted from a
through an imperfect photograph. Richter has made a number
snapshot rather than from life. 1964, oil on canvas,
of portraits of his family using the snap shot as a basis. 1995,
125x 130cm, Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany (loan)
oil on canvas, Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
Paula Rego
b LISBON, 1935 LIFEline
Paula Rego is a painter who has continued to place 1952-56 Studies painting at
narrative at the centre of her art. Her art draws upon fairy Slade School of Art, London
tales, legends, popular cinema, and cartoon strips. She 1957-75 Lives between
Portugal and London. Her
has often been described as a “feminist painter’ a term paintings frequently satirise
. that she does not refute. Her work frequently addresses the conservatism of
Photograph by topics such as the subjugation of women and violent Portuguese society
Charles Sturge relationships between the genders. Although she has 1976 Settles permanently in
worked in London for many years and is now regarded as London following the fall of
the Fascist Salazar regime.
one of the leading figures in British art, much of her work still reflects her
1989 “Nursery Rhymes”
response to the highly repressive atmosphere of the Portuguese society in
etchings published
which she grew up. She has developed from a semi-abstract manner
1998 Produces a series of
close to the Cobra group (p.521) to the figurative manner for which she is prints protesting Portugese
best known but her work reminds us that tradition is significant in art in so abortion laws
far as it illuminates the present.

» The Artist in her Studio /he painting is heir to a whole

tradition of representations. Here the artist is both dreamer
and controller declaring her command of the space by her
strident posture, black boots,and, above all, by her pipe, a
sign associated customarily with the potent male artist.
1993, acrylic on canvas, 180x 130cm, Leeds City Art Gallery, UK

CLOSERIook
ee
STUDIO PROPS
Rego plays with the
power of painting to
simultaneously suggest
dead and living matter.
This threatening hybrid
of dog and cat, one of
many plaster casts
A The Vivian Girls with China he Vivian girls were the within the artist's
creation of an obsessive American artist called Henry Darger. |Studio, provides a
That a childs toy, a cuddly bear, should be involved in their protective resting place
violent world, is typical of Rego’s work. 1984, acrylic on paper, for a little girl. AVGO1L
Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, UK

Luc Tuymans Sylvie Fleury Annette Messager

b MORTSEL, 1958 b GENEVA, 1961 b BERCK, 1943
Like many painters today, the Belgian artist Messager describes herself as both artist and collector.
Luc Tuymans depicts the world as seen through She makes installations from old clothes, toys, and
photographs. However, these are not the high focus, books, which are frequently prodded into startling, jerky,
colourful, paintings of the photo realists but images life. The inclusion of the ordinary and everyday was
SEL
SGYV
fading into mystery. The handling of paint is highly partly inspired by her participation in the revolutionary
sensitive and poetic. student movements of 1968 as it was something that
Characteristically Tuymans uses very pale colours opposed the elitism of “great art” She has taken a
and sometimes cracks are deliberately induced in critical look through photographs from women’s
the painting's surface. There is often a suggestion magazines of the pressures to conform to a standard
of violence and pain, and his imagery is frequently of female beauty. Her work mixes the disarmingly
inspired by published photographs of war and brutality. innocent with the downright sinister. Appropriately,
It is as though the painting is a beautiful cover for the one of the entries in her biography is participation in
secrets of a half-forgotten atrocity. A Untitled The consumer products that are Fleury’s raw a “festival of sorcery” in Castres.
materials are laid across a carpet. “| think shopping is never
complete unless you buy at least one pair of shoes”. She has
» Illegitimate III said that she always buys her size “in case the sculpture is
Tuymans often uses titles never sold”. 1992, mixed media, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany
to suggest readings of
images. This one Sylvie Fleury’s world is that of the female consumer. In
inevitably colours our an assault on both the politically high minded feminism
understanding of this pale t of an earlier generation but also the sober austerity
headless figure. The of much abstract art produced by male artists, she
abuse of children is a 5 celebrates the act of shopping. Unlike the Pop artists
theme that is frequently she focuses unashamedly on luxury branded goods.
suggested by the artist , She once exhibited 100 bottles of an expensive
but in a cryptic way that i perfume at an art fair. They were all stolen by the end
mirrors the silence J of the opening night. If there is any irony in her attitude
around it. 1997, oil on é towards her material she is meticulous in not allowing
canvas, 161 x 137cm, Tate, it to show. If the sociologists who see branding as our
London, UK contemporary religion are right then she is a religious ny
artist for our time. A Hanging Installation Co/ourful padded letters
are hung from the ceiling confronting the visitor with a
confusing maze. Messager values the engagement of
the spectator above the preciousness of the art object.
1995-97, mixed media, Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
 in and adapting European trends
‘of realism, picture-making, and
naturalistic representation. African
artists’ traditionally open approach to
form and media, seen in their use of
everyday materials, found objects, and
mixed techniques, has successfully
Extreme change and upheaval absorbed the potential of two-
characterized African cultures and dimensional media, photography,
their art-making during the 20th and video. In addition, there is marked
century. Differing colonizing powers re-invention in historically important
imposed varied foreign art values and African fine arts such as textiles and
systems. Local patronage systems multi-media performance.
were disrupted; so-called superior
artworks were imported; and aspects Concept and content
of Western art-market and museum Evolving within established African
systems introduced. examples of politically relevant and
With progressive attainment of socially engaged art-making,
self-government and freedom from contemporary artists are primarily
The contemporary art scene concerned with ongoing struggles
foreign rule, the fundamentally altered
in Africa is highly diverse, A Diverse expression Artists from across the
African cultures began the task of continent at the opening of 100% Africa exhibition for more humane societies. Their
experimental, and idiosyncratic. reclaiming and re-shaping their at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain in 2006. artworks deal with both everyday
A myriad initiatives scattered societies. The colonially defined realities and profound philosophical
borders had split or forced togethter Styles and media concepts. Touring exhibitions such as
over a vast area, it is not
more than 900 culturally distinct Today's artists draw freely on Africa Remix (starting in Dusseldorf,
constrained by any monolithic
groups, resulting in multicultural the continent's stylistic traditions Germany in 2004), and participation
art history or theorizing, and populations and highly varied post- of abstraction, psychological in international biennales, have only
not standardized by conformist colonial artistic contexts in today's expressiveness, and symbolic recently begun to reveal the global
art education. 53 independent nations. representation, as well as bringing relevance of contemporary art in Africa.

Africa today
TODAY
AFRICA

Abdoulaye Konaté E| Anatsui

b MALI, 1953 b GHANA, 1944
Painter, graphic designer, and director of Bamako's Conservatoire for Professor of Sculpture at the University of Nigeria, El Anatsui is one of Africa's outstanding artists.
Arts and Media in Mali, Abdoulaye Konaté has increasingly worked An intellectual and a mastercraftsman, his works embody historical and cultural meanings
in textiles, one of Africa's signature media. Diverse traditions and through skilful manipulation of material, process, and form.
techniques are drawn together: appliqué figures, patchwork, flags, Materials such as discarded milk tins and cassava graters, used printing plates, broken pots,
ONWARDS
1945
rags, embroidered symbols, and specific archetypes such as gris-gris or English railway sleepers made from African hardwoods, carry evidence that challenges
(tightly sewn bundles containing talismans that ward off evil) and established Western discourse on relations between Africa and the rest of the world. His work
hooded cloaks (worn by the griot, spiritual leader of Islamic African questions memory and the stereotypes of tradition and modernity. Recently, Anatsui has been
societies). Cotton, which Konaté uses, is highly significant as a crop making wall-hung metal sculptures that reference the significant role of textiles in Africa's
made profitable by the slave trade and a key product in Africa‘s current interactions with the rest of the world. Beautiful to look at, they carry layers of cultural meaning.
battle for equitable trading.
» Flag for a New World Power a ae
Konaté's works highlight the need for contemplation, measured use
The bold colours trumpet pride, and F .
of power, the well-being of all humanity, and respectful co-existence. glinting surfaces fall like silk. Beneath
the superficial richness, however, the
material recalls the exchange of alcohol
for slaves and modern economic
iniquities. 2005, metals, artist's collection

CLOSERI|ook

Illusion of wealth This shimmering

emblem representing wealth and power
A Le Dos Ime Dark, roughly formed landscape with figures bearing is, in reality, made out of the poor and
symbols of various human political and religious systems protected humble: used bottle-tops, collected from
by rows of gris-gris (talismans) woven into the white background. alcohol distributors, cut, beaten, pierced,
2008, cotton, artist's collection and stitched together.
—
|Jane Alexander Samuel Fosso
b SOUTH AFRICA, 1959 b CAMEROON, 1962

Figurative art always mirrors humanity and the viewer is unavoidably implicated in Samuel Fosso uses photographic self-portraits to explore subjects such as the
Jane Alexander's enigmatic tableaux and photomontages. Through a finely calibrated quest for personal beauty, vulnerability in war situations, the constructions of
mix of realism, symbol, and nightmare, the artist makes aspects of the human psyche identity, propaganda, self-invention, and African representation. Aged 13 he set
and pathologies visible. Damage caused by mental states of fear or aggression, and himself up as a passport photographer and quickly recognized the camera's
knowledge or memories of brutal acts, “appear” in the flesh of perpetrator, victim, potential to create desirable self-images. His study of cool poses and fashion
and bystander. The altered yet undeniably human figures suggest ambiguous trends evolved into a deep fascination for the meanings conveyed by the
narratives, eliciting a personal, often visceral, response and deeply shocking recognition. costumes and props of popular personas. Fosso’s superbly composed self-
portraits as pirate, English golfer, and liberated American woman, among others,
v The Butcher Boys, Life-size, repulsive, sinister, waiting. Mutants, play with the reflective ambivalence, intrinsic critique, and subtle wit possible in
without ears, their eyes are dark, opaque; their lips merged solid, assuming alternative identities. Strangely disconcerting, they reveal photography
beneath flattened snouts. Horns grow from misshapen skulls; chests are as an agile tool for masquerade, lending “truth” to manipulated images, and
slashed, stitched up; genitals grown over; backs slit open. The “butcher refuting common notions of “documentary” veracity.
boys” embody the ugly psychological deformities of a degraded society —
the inhumanity not only of apartheid South Africa but also of brutal and
repressive systems in the world today. 1985-86, mixed media, dimensions
1285x2135 x885cm, South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

< Le chef qui a vendu

l'Afrique aux colons
Fosso represents himself
ina cleverly detailed
parody of notions of the
African chief. Obviously
theatrical, it challenges
the viewer to discern
fiction, reality, difference,
and prejudice. 1997, VOIH
AVGO
photograph, 100x 100cm

Romuald Hazoumé C héri Samba

b BENIN, 1962 b DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, 1956

Mundane objects are skilfully appropriated as vessels of Visual delights and critical social messages characterize Chéri Samba’s art.
significant meaning in the work of Romuald Hazoumé. Starting at an early age, he learned his skills on the street and actively sought

7
In particular he has transformed one of Benin‘'s most inspiration in comics, films, and advertising. He was a pioneer of the unique local
common items — the plastic jerry can. Altering the genre known as the Congolese School of Popular Painting, which has roots in
African traditions of dramatic storytelling, masquerade, and art as a medium for
SGYV
SEL
distinctive form with cuts and additions, Hazoumé
Romauld fashioned a series of striking masks, individual portraits Chéri Samba social engagement: intended to reach the widest possible audience, stimulate
Hazoumé of local characters, quirky protagonists in a modern public debate, and educate through entertainment.
masquerade depicting harsh economic realities. Both Employing precise draughtsmanship, striking colour, and symbolic imagery, Samba
form and content echo older histories and reflect on resourceful or transforms current issues into bold visual narratives that are a pleasure to look at and easy to
desperate survival strategies. This work evolved into composite groups understand. Fact and reality combine with imaginative or fantastical elements, often laced with
—a pile of skulls, mass transportation — photographic studies, and large- humour, epigrams, or surprising graphic twists, to clearly convey his messages. Appropriating
scale installations combining sound, video, and other sensory elements. western graphic techniques and materials, he continues the local use of dynamic and evocative
Although primarily African, many works deal with the effects of visual language to engage people in the dilemmas and problems of living in modern times.
globalization, international power relations, and the dehumanizing
view of people as commodities in today’s exploitative labour markets. CLOSERI|ook
Boo SN

SYMBOLISM Reprising
Africa's symbolic emphasis on
the human head and highlighting
the essence of the problem,
A La Bouche du Roi Composed as a slave ship, each mask representing @ Samba’s graphic inventiveness
a trapped individual, this installation is titled after a place from where 3 encapsulates the mental state
thousands of slaves were transported. It evokes the horrific conditions of the superpower psyche.
Agi
through sounds and smells, and juxtaposes modern forms of slavery in
video clips. 1999-2004, mixed media, 10x2.9m, artist's collection A Aprés 11 Sept 2001 This protagonist is no superhero, just a fleshy
body, impelled by a head full of aggression, leaving mounds of dead bodies
in his wake. The otherwise clear sky swirls and darkens with his destructive
minions. 2002, oil on canvas, 200x350cm, Contemporary African Art Collection
 Since the early 20th century, certain
Asian artists have made a career in the
West while retaining elements of their
national traditions. Charles-Hossein
Zenderoudi from Iran, for instance, < Novel art gallery Artin
worked successfully in the post-war China, fuelled both by foreign
Ecole de Paris (pp.458-461), while collectors and wealthy Chinese,
has made possible enterprises
the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama such as this contemporary
was part of the New York art scenein art space in an abandoned
the 1960s. Such a move is no longer electronics factory.
necessary to reach a worldwide
public, due to ease of travel and further in becoming part of mass painters who reflect the contemporary
communication and internationally- culture than even the Pop artists life of the country or revisit old political
minded critics. envisaged. icons with irony and scepticism.
Up to the mid-1980s Chinese art
The Far East was controlled by the Communist The Islamic world
Chinese artists have been Contemporary Japanese art collapses Party who imposed a populist The use of decorative script — the
especially visible in recent the distinction between fine art and propaganda art that drew on both strongest tradition in Islamic art — is
popular culture. The most successful Western academic styles and a key feature of contemporary work
years, but throughout Asia
artist in Japan today, Takashi traditional folk sources. Today, some of and has a certain affinity with Western
artists are providing a
Murakami, has a corporation that the biggest names, including Xu Bing, abstract art sense and emphasis on
perspective on the world disseminates not only his own work outside China itself. Chinese art the “artist’s handwriting”. Political
that is quite distinct from images, but those of a whole stable includes challenging performance and art looks at issues such as the role
Western traditions. of protégés. Art has gone much video art, but there are also many of women and the Palestinian conflict.

Asia today
TODAY
ASIA

Charles-Hossein Zenderoudi Shirin Neshat

b TEHRAN, 1936 b QAZVIN, IRAN, 1957
Zenderoudi graduated from Tehran's High School of Arts in 1958. In 1974 Neshat moved to the United States to complete
He Is one of the principle exponents and founders of the Saggakaneh her education. The Islamic Revolution of 1979 meant
movement in Iranian art. Saggakaneh literally means “water fountain” that she was unable to return to Iran until 1993. In that
1945 and makes specific reference to public drinking fountains, the erection
ONWARDS year she resumed the artwork that she had given up
of which has a religious significance in Shi'a Islamic culture. The artists for years while working at Storefront, an alternative art
use traditional symbols such as calligraphy to communicate specifically space in New York. Since then she has lived and worked
to Iranians. In spite of these origins, Zenderoudi's art has been in both Iran and America, although she was only able
acclaimed in the Western, as well as the Islamic, world. The emphasis to exhibit in Iran during a period when the regime was
on calligraphy is traditional to Islamic culture but also has affinities with comparatively liberal. She has worked with photography
leading Western modern artists such as Twombly (see p.515). Since and film to explore the role of women within Islam and
1961 Zenderoudi has lived in Paris but he had a retrospective exhibition Western perceptions of these roles from, what she
at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art in 2002. He has also made herself describes as, the point of view of an exile. As
tapestries and paintings for Riyadh and Jeddah airports. with many contemporary artists working with film, she
often uses a multi-screen format. Collaborators have
Untitled The calligraphy included the composer Phillip Glass.
in this print is taken from
the opening of the Qur’an
and is in a decorative
script favoured by Iranian
calligraphers. At the same A Allegiance with Wakefulness /n 1993
time the accumulation of Neshat began a series entitled Women of Allah.
layers in different colours These were photographs of women in Islamic
gives the work an abstract dress with Farsi texts written across their skin.
appeal in addition to its Neshat has said that the “female body seemed
religious significance. 1986 to become a canvas for a particular intersection
Silkscreen on paper 66x 50cm between sexuality, politics and violence”. 1994
British Museum, London, UK Offset Print, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel

A Passage This video was filmed in Morocco in a coastal town

with scenery similar to Iran. In it men carry a body wrapped in white
across a beach, intercut with scenes of women digging a grave with
their hands and a child arranging a stone circle. 2001, video and sound
installation, Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York, US
Liu Xiaodong
< Three Girls Watching TV
b JINCHENG, NORTHERN CHINA, 1963 LIFEline
Depicting three girls in a
Liu Xiaodong's paintings are vivid and haunting 1988 Graduates from Central brothel in Singapore, the theme
documents of a China undergoing headlong Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, is unexpected in a
China
economic and political transformation. He draws contemporary Chinese painter.
1989 Takes part in Chinese
on photography but only as source material, not Avant-garde art exhibition, 2001, oil on canvas, 130x 150cm,
a like the Photorealists as something to transcribe Beijing private collection
Photograph by literally. For him what painting loses in terms of 1998-1999 Academy of
JiGuogiang —_—_details of the objective world, it makes up for Fine Arts, University of Vv Three Gorges: Newly
in psychological observation. Although there is Complutense, Madrid, Spain Displaced Population
not the element of ironic political satire found in some other 2001 Trip to Singapore to Liu’s paintings of the Chinese
research series of paintings government's project for the
Chinese painters there is nonetheless in his work, a scepticism
on the theme of prostitutes Three Gorges demonstrate the
towards official mythologies. He has stated that it is his aim to and transvestites
show the “humanity” that has been devalued in China at the disaster for the two million
2006 Exhibits paintings on
expense of grandeur and heroism. His sympathy, as illustrated theme of Three Gorges whose homes and livelihoods
Project are destroyed. 2004, oil on
in the series of paintings based on the Three Gorges dam
canvas, 270x900cm, Mary Boon
project, is with the victims of ruthless social change.
Gallery, New York, US

Hy
AVGOLV
Xu Bing Takashi Murakami Yayo! Kusama
b CHONQUING NEAR BEIJING, 1955 b TOKYO, 1962 b MATSUMOTO, 1929

Xu Bing is one of the most important artists to have Murakami studied at the Tokyo National University of
come out of China in recent years. As a young man Fine Arts and Music. He gained a PhD in Nihonga, a
he was sent to the countryside as part of the Cultural mixture of traditional Japanese painting and Western
Revolution. He now lives and works principally in the styles, but decided to make an art that would be more
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SGYVMN
United States. His work has been preoccupied with accessible to contemporary audiences and successful
words and language. A section of his installation A Book in today's market place. His art draws on the Japanese
from the Sky was first seen in Beijing in 1988 and gave popular forms of manga (comics) and anime (animated
him international attention. A case Study of Transference films), what is sometimes called otaku culture after
was an installation in which a male and female pig had, the obsessive kind of fan who lives entirely by it. He
respectively, Chinese and English characters printed on developed this art through a company he called Kaikai
them. They went on to produce piglets. Kiki, which employs more than 100 people in Tokyo,
Saitama, and New York.

< Napping This is Mr

A Soul under the Moon Kusamas environments
Oval, one of the many
engulf the viewer, so they can share in her hallucinations.
characters created by
2002, mirrors, ultraviolet lights, water, plastic, nylon thread,
Murakami. He based this
timber, and synthetic polymer paint, 340x 712.1 x600cm,
giant sculpture on Humpty
Queensland Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia
Dumpty at the suggestion
of the fashion designer
Issey Miyake. These Kusama moved to New York from Japan in 1958 and
colourful images can be became involved in the avant-garde art scene of
merchandized in many happenings and anti-war protest art. Her trademark
forms. 2002, inflatable became the repeated use of coloured spots, not only
on paintings but on objects, environments, and even
clothing. These relate to a personal obsession. On one
occasion she recalls that while painting she imagined
her own hands covered with the dots. In spite of
becoming famous in the New York art world, she
A A book from the sky 1987-91 /his installation consists returned to Japan in 1973 and, in 1977, voluntarily
of sheets of 4,000 characters, all of them invented by the entered a psychiatric institution where she has lived
artist, while bound books cover the floor. It recalls the wall ever since, although she has continued to work
newspapers pasted up for the Chinese to read, and comments prolifically as an artist.
on the collapse of political dialogue. Woodblock print, wood,
leather, ivory, Four banners: 103x6x8.5cm (each, folded): 19 boxes:
49.2x33.5x9.8cm (each, containing four books)
 In the early 1990s, installation art and
video appeared to hold sway in the
< US World Studies II
North American art scene — today, In this painting de Balincourt
however, diversity reigns. shows an inverted US as an
island, with mixed up states,
Painting and performance surrounded by the dark
nations of the rest of the
By the late 1990s, critics were pointing world. It llustrates America’s
to the re-emergence of figurative internal disunity and uneasy
painters, in particular John Currin, relationship with the rest of
the world after the invasion
Elizabeth Peyton, and Lisa Yuskavage, » of Iraq in 2003
who are all concerned with the way
beauty is constructed in contemporary has often collaborated with Californian- Marshall creates a superhero comic
culture. Of the three, Yuskavage is the based artist Paul McCarthy, whose book for the 21st century in which
Today’s North American art
most controversial. Her female nudes performances feature psychopathic some ancient African sculptures come
embraces a huge range of children’s television heroes and sets
are exquistely painted yet borrow to life and fight a cyberspace elite that
media and styles - from collage from soft pornography — their brash, covered with ketchup, mayonnaise, is losing touch with traditional culture.
to conceptual pieces, painting vulgarity quintessentially American. mustard, and chocolate sauce as Many black female artists, such as Kara
to performance. It also The North American art scene is substitutes for blood, sperm, sweat, Walker and Kenyan-born Wangechi
addresses a wide variety of no longer centred on New York. Mike and excrement. Mutu, tackle gender and sexual
Kelley works in Los Angeles drawing identity along with racial identity. Since
issues, including consumerism
inspiration from punk and teenage African-American voices 9/11, much art has been political, such
and popular culture, racial and Increasingly African-American voices
culture. His work, which is musical, as the paintings of Jules de Balincourt
gender identity, and post-9/11 theatrical, and visual, combines are being heard in the art world. In that bleakly expose the divisions in
and post-lraq war tensions. elements of high and low art. He “RYTHM MASTR'’ Kerry James American society.

North America today

TODAY
AMERICA
NORTH

Bruce Nauman
b FORT WAYNE, INDIANA, 1941 | LIFEline
Nauman works in a wide range of media — including | 1964 Graduates from the
sculpture, video, film, printmaking, performance, and | University of Madison
\ os installation — but It is ideas, not medium, that governs 1965-66 University of
California; begins to make
his work. He is concerned with how an activity or
ONWARDS
1945 performance pieces and films
process can become a work of art and is inspired by the 1966 Moves to San Francisco;
| Photograph by activities, speech, and materials of everyday life. In the first one-man exhibition, of
Horst Ossinger late 1960s, he moulded sculptures from parts of his fibreglass sculptures
body and filmed himself pacing about the studio and 1979 Moves to a ranch in
performing repetitive activities. New Mexico
He is fascinated with space, and the ways it can alter our behaviour 1999 Videos himself doing
| repetitive tasks on his ranch
and self-awareness, and in Walk with Contrapposto filmed himself in an
2005 In the Tate Modern he
uncomfortably narrow corridor to elicit physical and emotional responses | shows Raw Materials, an
| from the audience. He displays words and phrases to question language aural collage created from
as a means of communication and tool of control — often using wordplay playing 22 spoken texts
and neon, a medium that calls attention to the object-like quality of
words rather than their meaning.

< Anthro/Socio (Rinde Spinning)

In 1990, Nauman started making “video
sculptures “of stacked monitors and related
wall projections. He began by videoing
himself but in this piece uses an actor. The
work questions the role of language and the
spectators’ involvement in the installation
experience. 1992, video installation, Kunsthalle,
Hamburg, Germany
A Marching Man /n this playful yet explicit piece
CLOSERIook in neon, a man continuously walks while getting an
UNSETTLING EXPERIENCE erection. The shock value of the work, however, is
In icy green-blue light, a close-up undermined by endless repetition. 1985, Neon tubes
suspended head aggressively on aluminium panel, Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
spews forth the same sounds
and phrases. It is an unsettling
experience, visually and aurally
|Norval Morrisseau John Currin
b FORT WILLIAM, ONTARIO, 1931; d TORONTO 2007
Jimmie Durham b BOULDER, COLORADO, 1962
A self-taught painter, Morrisseau was a deeply spiritual b WASHINGTON, ARKANSAS, 1940 Currin creates fabulously accomplished, satirical
First Nations Ojibwa. He signed his paintings Copper Durham is a Wolf Clan Cherokee who has worked as an figurative paintings — mainly of women and family life.
Thunderbird, the name a medicine woman gave him. artist, essayist, poet, and political activist for American He often distorts the female body, elongating limbs and
His early work evokes ancient symbolic etchings on Indians. He studied at ’Ecole des Beaux-Arts, enlarging breasts, which has led some critics to claim
birchbark and tackles traditional spiritual knowledge Switzerland, before his involvement with the American his work is sexist, others that It critiques modern-day
(he was originally criticized for disclosing this by his Indian Movement brought him back to the US in 1973. notions of beauty. His paintings enchant and repel —
community). Initially, he painted on any material he As an artist in the 1960s and 1970s, Durham focused their refined surfaces and graphic rhythms are seductive
could find — including birchbark, moose hide, and on theatre and performances. Since the 1980s he but they often show clichéd subjects with an almost
cardboard — but as his style evolved, he generally has used detritus and other found objects to create caricaturist style. Currin’s delight in artifice and stylistic
worked with acrylics on canvas or paper. His palette sculptures that radically challenge conventional extravagance is that of a modern-day Mannerist.
became progressively brighter, and by the 1980s and representations of American Indians. In the 1990s and In 1989, he held his first major New York show —
1990s it obtained a neon-like brilliance. The themes also 2000s, he made work that questions the establishment portraits of girls based on high-school yearbook
changed and he started depicting his own personal and their triumphant architectural symbols: Arc de photographs. He has had retrospective exhibitions at
struggles rather than traditional myths. Triomphe for Personal Use, Turquoise (2003), for the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum
example, is the antithesis of monumental architecture. of Contemporary Art, Chicago. In the 2000s, Currin has
Y Storyteller of the Ages Bold colours and strong outlines are varied his subject matter — from explicitly erotic pictures
typical of Morrisseau, and the closeness that he saw between the to mail-order porcelain.
human and animal world is explicit: the storyteller has a fish’s
head and the listeners are associated with birds. 1970, acrylic on
canvas, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma, US
‘Wa BasGeesfaa < Thanksgiving
This painting is rather
unsettling. In the
foreground, the
turkey and flowers
are faithfully and
lovingly rendered.
In the background,
however, the figures,
captured in an
unlikely pose, seem
A Flower of the Death of Loneliness A /arge stone, painted to be the subject
with a crude, mad-eyed face, has crashed on to a mirror on the of Currins satire.
gallery floor. The face stares up from the shards, creating a 2003, oil on canvas,
work that is at once funny and alarming. 2000, mixed media, 172.9x132.3cm, Tate HLYON
AVGOL
90x
90x 25cm, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK Gallery, London, UK

Matthew Barney Kara Walker Maya Lin

b SAN FRANCISCO, 1967 b STOCKTON, CALIFORNIA, 1969 b ATHENS, OHIO, 1959
After his graduation from Yale, Barney gained instant Walker is an African-American artist who employs an
success and controversy in the art world. In 1991, aged old Victorian medium — silhouettes — to address
only 24, he had a solo exhibition at the San Francisco contemporary issues, such as gender, sexuality, and
Museum of Modern Art, and in 1993 and 1995, was race. She generally works by displaying cut-out paper
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SCYV
included in the Biennial at New York's Whitney Museum. figures on walls in room-sized installations. These
Barney is best known as the creator of the five figures fornicate and fight, and through them Walker
visually lavish Cremaster films. They are a mix of history, challenges racial myths and stereotyping. The paper
autobiography, and mythology and feature Barney in Walker uses to cut out most of the images is black so
many roles, including a satyr, a magician, a ram, Harry rendering her figures “black” — the race of each
Houdini, and even the infamous murderer Gary Gilmore. character only visible through stereotype and caricature.
Each film is packed with symbols and actions that In 1994, Walker graduated from the Rhode Island
suggest sexual reproduction — the title of the films School of Design and had an acclaimed exhibition at the
refers to a muscle that raises and lowers the testicles Drawing Center in New York. In 1997 she showed at \ F
according to temperature, external stimulation, or fear. the Whitney Museum Biennial exhibition, and in 2002
A Civil Rights Memorial Commissioned in 1988, this work was
represented the US in the Sao Paulo Biennial. the first to commemorate the victims of the Civil Rights Movement.
The wall is inscribed with words Martin Luther King often quoted:
V Section of artwork by Kara Walker (part of the Artes “until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a
Mundi Prize) Here Walker seems to invert racial stereotypes. The mighty stream”. Water cascades over the granite, inviting the
animal-like figure with a tail and monkey face is cut out in white, spectators to touch it. 1989, black granite, Montgomery, Alabama, US
while the southern belle he appears to be ravishing is cut from
black. From an exhibition at National Museum Gallery, Cardiff, Wales, UK Maya Lin is a Chinese-American artist who creates
sculptures, parks, and monuments. She was catapulted
into the limelight in 1981 when, as a student atYale,
she won a national competition to design the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial in Washington DC. The memorial,
which initially met fierce criticism, consists of two black
granite walls inscribed with the names of the fallen. It is
a place of quiet remembrance that visitors descend into,
not a proud, heroic monument.
A The Cabinet of Baby Fay La Foe For each Cremaster film, Another notable work is the Wave Field (1995) at
Barney produces a group of objects and a book of still images. This the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in which earth is
piece shows objects associated with a character in Cremaster 2 shaped like the sea. Lin draws inspiration from many
(1999): a stylized séance table, barbells cast in solar salt, and a culturally diverse sources, including Japanese gardens,
veiled top hat filled with honeycombed beeswax. 2000, Mixed media Hopewell Indian earthen mounds, and works by
149.8 x242.6x97.2cm, MOMA, New York, US American earthworks artists of the 1960s and 1970s.
 Glossary
Conceptual art Art in which an idea is at least
A Briicke, Die Association of German
promoted craftsmanship and simplicity of
design in the late 19th century. The movement expressionists that formed in Dresden in as important as the physical artwork. The term
had no distinctive style but its leading figures 1905 and disbanded in 1913. They produced was coined in 1967 by American Conceptual
Abstract Expressionism A style of painting
stressed the “honesty” in producing artistic landscapes and figure studies in strong colours artist Sol LeWitt.
that emerged in New York in the late 1940s and
objects that clearly showed what they were with simplified and angular forms. Constructivism An art movement, originating in
continued to dominate the American art scene
made of and how they worked. Byzantine art Art of the East Roman Empire Russia around 1914, characterized by abstraction
through the 1950s. Abstract Expressionists
usually worked on large canvases and Ashcan School Early 20th-century school of from the 5th century AD to 1493. Byzantine and the use industrial materials, such as glass
emphasized the sensuousness of paint. American realist painters interested chiefly in artists did not usually aspire to individual and standardized metal parts. Constructivist art
the depiction of everyday New York scenes, expression but conveyed Christian theological was intended to meet social needs, especially
Abstraction Non-representational art.
often showing social deprivation. The school meaning according to accepted conventions. after the Revolution in 1917.
Academic art Art produced by artists trained at was not an organized group and the name Contrapposto A term used to describe poses in
professional schools. Their aim was to produce
highly educated artists, usually versed in
was only used retrospectively. Cc which one part of a figure turns or twists away
Classical art, life drawing, and anatomy.
Assemblage The use of three-dimensional from another part.
Camden Town Group A group of London
found objects to create artworks. This technique Cubism A radical and highly influential style
Acrylics An emulsion paint made from artists who in 1911 set up a rival exhibiting
was popular in the 1940s and 1950s. of painting from 1907 to 1914 in Paris. It
synthetic acrylic resin. First used in the 1940s, it society to the conservative New English Arts
has proved a convenient alternative to oil paints
Assumption Mary's elevation into heaven, often Club. They worked in an Impressionist and abandoned the traditional fixed viewpoint
seen as a symbol of the promise made by Jesus Postimpressionist manner, often painting the that had dominated western art since the
as it dries quickly, is soluble in water, and can be
to all Christians that they too will be received streets and interiors around the run-down Renaissance. Instead subject matter, most
used on a variety of supports.
into paradise. Camden Town area of London. They disbanded often still life, was shown from many sides
Aerial perspective A method of creating the simultaneously.
illusion of depth in a painting by making distant Atelier A term, derived from French, for an in 1914.

objects paler and bluer. It imitates the way we artist's studio or print-maker's workshop. Camera lucida A camera obscura with a prism
perceive objects through the dust and large Automatism A technique involving using the to concentrate and project the light.
moisture particles in the atmosphere. “automatic” use of the brush, without rational Camera obscura A darkened box with a hole Dada Dada, from the French word for
Aesthetic Movement A British and American control and thus attempting to encourage the or lens in one side which casts an image of the hobbyhorse, is the deliberately meaningless
artistic movement, that emerged in the expression of subconscious impulses. objects in front of it onto a ground glass screen name given to the first anti-art movement.
second half of the 19th century and covered Avant-garde Seeming to be ahead of its time. or a sheet of paper at the back of the box. This Dadaists intended to offend, not to please.
literature as well as painting and the decorative cast image can then be traced. Many artists They celebrated the role of chance in artistic
Aztec Civilization that thrived in the 15th and
arts. The leading figures of the Aesthetic used the device to make preliminary drawings production. The movement began in Zurich
early 16th centuries in ancient Mexico. In the
Movement believed the arts should provide for paintings. around 1915, but spread to New York, Berlin,
arts, Aztecs are famed for their elaborate
refined sensuous pleasure, without necessarily temple sculptures. Canton School Chinese artists who worked in Paris, and elsewhere.
conveying moral, political or religious messages. a European style for European patrons in the Danube School A loosely associated group of
Altarpiece A devotional piece of art placed late 18th and early 19th century. Subject matter artists active in the German territories near the
on, above or behind the altar in a Christian included views of Canton, botanical drawings, Danube in the first half of the 16th century. They
GLOSSARY
church. It can be painted or sculpted, often Barbizon School A group of French landscape and studies of agriculture and industry. often depicted mountainous landscapes with
contains multiple scenes and usually represents painters who, from around 1830 to 1870, Cast An art object — for example a medal or thick forests.
scriptural episodes and sacred people. worked near the village of Barbizon, south- plaster cast — made by running liquid material Decoupage The process of cutting designs
American Scene Painting American figurative east of Paris. Their choice of rural imagery into a mould. out of paper and applying them to a support to
painting of the 1920s and 1930s that depicted represented a reaction to the rapid urban
Cherub A type of angel, usually represented make a collage.
ART contemporary American life, usually of small
growth of Paris.
in art as a chubby child with wings. Often, Diptych A picture consisting of two different
town and rural life. Often called Regionalism. Baroque The prevailing artistic style from the particularly in Baroque art, Cherubs are more or panels, often hinged together.
Anamorphosis A two-dimensional artwork, or late 16th century to the end of the 17th century. less indistinguishable from infant Cupids.
The style is usually associated with dynamic Distemper Waterbased paint that generally
more usually a figure in an artwork, which seems Chiaroscuro Term referring to the effects of
movement, emotional intensity, and theatrical uses glue as a binder. Often used for wall
distorted when looked at from a frontal position light and dark in a painting, especially when they
effects. decoration or stage scenery.
but assumes the normal proportions when are strongly contrasting.
looked at from one side or in a curved mirror. Bauhaus A pioneering modernist design school Drip painting The technique in which paint is
Classical
The term has many meanings. It dripped — not brushed — on to the canvas.
Annunciation The archangel Gabriel's revelation founded by architect Walter Gropius in Weimar
refers to the art and architecture of Greek and
to Mary that she would conceive the son of in 1919. It promoted functional design and Dry brush (painting)
The use of thick, dry paint
Roman antiquity. In its broadest sense, classical
God. It was one of the most popular subjects collaboration between architects, fine artists, so colour only adheres to parts of the support
art is the opposite of romantic art. It describes
in Medieval and Renaissance painting. and applied artists. and creates broken brushstrokes (in contrast
art that is rationally rather than intuitively
Biennale An international art exhibition held to a smooth wash of paint).
Appliqué A method of decoration in which created, in which adherence to aesthetic ideals
work is applied to, or laid over, another material. every two years. The earliest, and most famous, take precedence over personal expression. Dry plate process Photographic process,
Commonly used in lacework and metalwork. is the Venice Biennale, first held in 1895. invented in 1871 by Richard Maddox, that uses
Cloisonnism A style of art characteristic of
Biomorphic art A style of painting based on light-sensitive gelatin emulsion to record an
Aquatint A specialised etching technique that Postimpressionist painting, in which flat colours
curves and motifs that refer to, or evoke, living image. This replaced the wet-plate process,
involves using a metal plate coated with porous are surrounded by strong dark outlines. It was
things. which required light-sensitive collodion liquid
resin to create a granulated effect. developed by Emile Bernard and takes its name
to be poured on to the photographic plate.
Blaue Reiter, Der A group of Munich-based from its similarity to cloisonné enamel.
Art Informel Term coined by the French critic
expressionist artists who formed from 1911 Dry point The printmaking technique of
Michel Tapie to describe the spontaneous COBRA A group of European artists founded
to 1914. The name is German for “Blue Rider” engraving directly on copper with a sharp
abstract painting popular in Europe in the 1940s in Paris in 1948 who aimed to revive
They produced lyrical, mystical expressionist needle.
and 1950s expressionism. The name derives from the
paintings, often semi-abstract with bright initial letter of the capital cities where important
Art Nouveau A decorative style that spread
colours. members of the group lived - COpenhagen,
throughout Europe at the end of the 19th
Blot drawing A technique, described by English BRussels, Amsterdam.
century and in the first decade of the 20th Ecole de Paris Originally used for figurative
century. It makes use of curved shapes derived watercolourist Alexander Cozens in 1786, that Colour field painting Painting that uses large painters, often Jewish, working in Paris in the
from tendrils, plant stems, flames, waves, and proposed that an image be developed from an areas of more or less unmodutated colour, early 20th century. Later used for the whole
flowing hair. The name was taken from a shop accidental blot or mark. with no strong focal points or marked tonal Paris-based modern movement in the first half
in Paris that opened in 1895. Blue Rose group A group of Russian painters contrasts. of the 20th century.
Arte Povera A style of art popular in Italy in the active in the first decade of the 20th century, led Combine painting A term invented by Robert Encaustic A painting technique, originating in
1960s and 1970s in which humble, commonly by Victor Borisov-Musatov. They were influenced Rauschenberg to describe the assemblage ancient times, in which pigments are mixed
available materials are used, including by the Symbolists and to a lesser extent the works he made in the 1950s. with hot wax.
Fauves.
Sticks, stones, rope, sand, wood, metal, and Complementary colours Pairs of colour that sit Engraving A printmaking process in which
newspaper. The term, means “poor art” in Bodegon Spanish for tavern, the term bodegon on opposite sides of the colour wheel. When a design is incised on a metal plate (usually
Italian and was coined by art critic and curator, has been in use from the late 16th century for used next to each other in a painting, each copper). The plate is then inked up, wiped
Germano Celant in 1967 paintings depicting scenes involving food and complementary colour appears to be stronger clean, and so only the ink in the incised grooves
Arts and Craft Movement A very broad, drink, especially in kitchens. and more vibrant. makes a mark on the paper in the printing press.
loosely structured British movement, chiefly Bottega The workshop of an established Italian Composition The arrangement of elements in The technique was first developed in the early
in architecture and the decorative arts, that medieval or Renaissance artist a painting or other work of art. 15th century.
Etching A printmaking process in which a action painters and of European artists working Impasto Thick, textured brushwork applied Modelling In painting, creating the illusion of
design is bitten into a metal plate with acid. The in the same vein. with a brush or a knife. Many of Rembrandt's three-dimensional form.
plate is covered with an acid-resistant ground, Glaze |n ceramics, a vitreous coating designed paintings contain impasto passages.
Modernism A style of architecture, inspired
which is drawn into with an etching needle. to make the pot impervious to water and also Impressionism An art movement and style of by Le Corbusier, in which form follows function
The plate is then dipped in an acid bath, which serving as decoration. In painting, a transparent painting that started in France in the late 1860s. and decoration is kept to minimum. Ina
corrodes the exposed areas, creating furrows to layer of paint applied over another layer to The Impressionists rebelled against painting broader sense, Modernism is used to describe
hold the ink. After the ground is cleaned off, the modify its colour and tone. promoted by the academies. Rather than avant-garde 20th-century arts.
etched plate is inked and printed in the same
Gothic The style of art and architecture that producing detailed and highly finished paintings,
manner as an engraving. Multimedia An artwork made in more than
flourished in western Europe from the 12th they painted with a freshness and spontaneity,
one medium.
Etruscan art Art produced by the people of century to the 15th century. Gothic architecture, using broken brushwork.
Etruria (today’s Tuscany) from the 7th to the Mural A picture painted directly on a wall.
best exemplified in the cathedrals of northern International Gothic A style in painting,
3rd century BCE — notably ceramics and bronze, France and England, is characterized by sculpture, and the decorative arts — prevalent
and terracotta sculptures. flying buttresses, pointed arches, and from c1375 to c1425 — characterized by its
Euston Road School A schoo! of London elaborate tracery. elegance and delicate, naturalistic detail. Nabis A group of artists who in the 1890s
artists, that lasted from 1937 to 1939. The Gouache Opaque version of watercolour, International Style Named given to pre-World were inspired the work of Paul Gauguin. The
artists eschewed abstraction and instead also called bodycolour. War || European modernist architecture by name, coined by the poet Henri Cazalis, is
looked back to Walter Sickert and the Camden historian Henry-Russell Hitchcock and architect Hebrew for “prophets” .
Graffiti art A movement that emerged in
Town Group for inspiration. Their painting was Philip Johnson. Sometimes used in reference
New York in the 1970s. Originally graffiti artists Nanga School A school of Japanese painting
naturalistic, often with subdued colour and to 1920s architecture only.
spray-painted the streets and subway trains which flourished from the end of the 17th
unobstrusive brushwork.
of New York, but by the 1980s many were century to the late 18th century. Its members
Existentialism A philosophy concerned with
the existence of the free individual in an absurd
showing in its galleries. | imitated the “literari painting” practised in
Grand tour A tour of Italy to see the classical China from the 13th century onwards.
or meaningless universe. Jugendstil German and Austrian form of
and Renaissance art and architecture, generally Art Nouveau. Neoclassicism A style of decoration based
Expressionism Art in which the artist's undertaken by the British aristocracy in the Ancient Greek and Roman art and architecture,
subjective reactions and emotions take Junk art Deliberately anti-aesthetic art
18th and 19th centuries. which appeared in the 1750s as reaction to the
precedence over observed reality. Colour
composed of humble objects — first used by
Graphic art Art that involves designing of the critic Lawrence Alloway to describe the excesses of the Rococo. It is characterized by
and form are often exaggerated or distorted. a preference for the linear and symmetrical.
text and artwork. combines produced by Robert Rauschenberg.
More specifically, expressionism refers to two
Greek revival An architectural style, inspired Neo-Expressionism A style of painting,
German movements at the beginning of the
by classical Greece, started in the mid-18th popular in the 1970s and 1980s in the US,
20th century — Die Briicke and Der Blaue Reite.
century by Scottish architect James Stuart. West Germany, and Italy. Neo-Expressionists
Kalighat painting An Indian school of popular created dramatic figurative paintings, usually
By the end of the 18th century, the style was
painting associated with a temple built in 1809
widely adopted in urban planning schemes with distorted subject matter and strong
at Kalighat, south of Calcutta. From c1832, the
Fauves An early 20-century art style of and new public buildings of Europe and the US. contrasts of colour and tone.
school mass-produced bold, rough watercolours
painting in France, characterized by fierce, The style continued to c1840 in Britain as devotional images for poor pilgrims. Neoimpressionism A style of painting
expressive colour. The name Fauves, French for and longer in the US. that uses vibrant dots of pure colour, which
“Wild Beasts” was coined by art critic Louis
Kinetic art Art which incorporates an element
Grotesque A kind of ornament, derived from when seen from a distance appear to blend
Vauxcelles at the first Fauve exhibition in 1905.
of movement. Also used to describe art that
ancient Rome, composed of loosely connected together. Using dots of pure colour is known
gives the illusion of movement .
Féte champétre A type of early 18th-century motifs, including human figures, realistic and as pointillism or divisionism and the blending
Rococo painting, found chiefly in France, in
which small figures are seen in parkland setting.
fantastic animals, and scrollwork. Grotesque
decorations were first found in subterranean L perception is known as optical mixing.
Neoimpressionism emerged in the 1880s.
AY¥VS
It literally means “pastoral or outdoor feast’ ancient ruins in Rome and Naples at the end Landscape format A picture that is wider than Neo-Plasticism A term coined by the Piet
It is sometimes called Féte galante, “feast of of the 15th-century. it is high. Mondrian to describe his severely geometrical
courtship” . : Ground A surface specially prepared for abstract art.
Limner Name for artist used in Britain in
Figurative art Representational art. painting, often made with-gesso. 15th and 16th centuries. Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) A LYV
Finial Ornament (often floral) at the top of an Guild In medieval times an association of style of painting from 1920s Germany, in which
Literati painting Painting done by Chinese
architectural feature — for example, a gable. artists or craftsmen, organized along strictly men of letters. It began in the 13th century and
subject matter was rendered in matterof-fact
hierarchical lines —a member served as an flourished during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). detail.
Fin de siécle French for “end of century”,
fin de siécle is a loose term for the decadence apprentice, before becoming a master Literati painters revealed their inner character New York School Alternative name for the
found in much of the art and literature at the through the depictions of nature, man, or objects. Abstract Expressionists.
end of 19th century, specifically the decade Lithograph A print made by drawing on fine- Nouveau Realisme French movement
of 1890s. grained limestone (the term literally means (meaning new realism) founded in 1960 by
Hard-edge painting A term coined by the
Focal point The area in a pictorial composition Los Angeles critic Jules Langsner to describe “writing on stone”). After the drawing is made, the critic Pierre Restany and artist Yves Klein.
to which the eye returns most naturally. abstract painting in which flat areas of colour
the stone is wetted and greasy lithographic ink The movement sought to bring life and art
applied.
The lithographic ink only adheres to closer together using a wide variety of media,
Fontainebleau Schoo! A group of Italian, are defined by clean, hard edges.
the drawn lines and is transferred to paper in including painting, assemblages, installation,
French, and Flemist artists working from c1530 High Renaissance
The period from c1500 to a press. Lithography was invented in 1798 in and happenings.
to c1560 in a Mannerist style on Francois I's c1520 when the great Renaissance painters Munich by Aloys Senefelder.
palace at Fontainebleau, south-east of Paris. Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo were
Foreshortening The technique of depicting an all working.
object lying at an angle to the picture plane by History painting Painting in which the subject Olmec culture Civilisation in ancient Mexico
means of perspective. is taken from classical, mythological, or biblical Magic Realism Term coined by the German which flourished from c1200 to c400 BCE
Fresco Painting done by applying pigments events (or historical events of the near past). art critic Franz Roh to refer to the more — famous for their stylized statuary and small
mixed with water to wet lime or gypsum plaster. conservative element of Neue Sachlichkeit jadework.
Hudson River School A term applied to
(New Objectivity) movement of the 1920s.
Frottage The technique of reproducing a texture a group of American landscape painters Op Art An abbreviation of “optical art’ op art
by laying a piece of paper over an object and working in the Hudson River Valley and the Mandala A diagrammatic design of the was a 1960s abstract art movement that used
making a rubbing with a crayon or pencil. The Catskill Mountains of New York state from universe used in Hinduism and Buddhism as hard-edged flat areas of paint to simulate the
technique was often used by the Surrealists. c1825-c1875. a focus for contemplation. eye and create an impression of movement.
Futurism An artistic movement founded in 1909 Hyperrealism Alternative name for Mannerism A 16th-century style of painting Optical mixing The process by which the eye
by the Italian writer FT Marinetti. The Futurists Superrealism between the Renaissance and the Baroque blends discrete touches of pure colour placed
celebrated the modern world, especially its characterized by imbalance and distortion. next to each other so that they appear to create
machines and technology. Michelangelo's later works and Parmigianino new colours.
elegantly elongated figures are typical of
Orphism Term coined by Guillaume Apollinaire
Icon An image of a saint or other holy person the style.
in 1913 to describe a Cubist-inspired abstract
on panel produced for the Byzantine, Russian, Miniature A small portrait, popular in Europe art that employed overlapping planes of bright,
Genre painting A painting that shows a or Greek Orthodox churches. from the 16th century to early 19th century. contrasting colours. Robert Delauney was a
scene from daily life, particularly popular in Illuminated manuscript A handwritten vellum Miniatures were originally painted in watercolour leading figure.
17th-century Holland. or parchment book, common in the Middle or gouache on vellum or ivory.
Geometric art Greek art from c900 to Ages, illustrated with images, usually in gold Minimal art A type of abstract art that
c700 BCE when pottery was covered with and rich colours. flourished in the 1960s, characterized by
geometric patterns. Illusionism The use of pictorial devices, chief simplicity of form and deliberate lack of Performance art Style of art, originating in the
Gestural painting A general term for the among them perspective and foreshortening, expressive content. Most minimal art was 1960s, which combines elements of theatre,
work of leading Abstract Expressionist to heighten the illusion of reality in a picture. three-dimensional. dance, and music with visual art.
 Perspective The method of representing
solid objects on a two-dimensional surface in
Ready-made Term coined by Marcel Duchamp
to describe a pre-existing, everyday object
Secondary colour The three colours made by
mixing pairs of the three primary colours — that
T
order to give the correct impression of their that he accorded the status of a work of art. is, green (blue and yellow), purple (red and blue), ** Tachisme An alternative name for Art Informel.
height, width, depth, and position in relation Duchamp exhibited his first ready-made in 1913. and orange (yellow and red).
Tempera A medium used to bind pigments
to one another. Realism A mid-19th century French movement, Sfumato An Italian term, meaning smoky, used — most commonly made from egg yolk, but
Photogram A photographic print made in which contemporary subject matter, including to describe transitions of tones so subtle they also from milk or various glues and gums. In
by placing an arrangement of objects on urban and rural life, was painted in a detailed, seem imperceptible. Italy, egg tempera was the standard medium
photosensitive paper. The paper is exposed to accurate, and sober manner. used for panel paintings from the 13th to the
Sgraffito The technique of scratching through
light and developed, resulting in an image of Regionalism Alternative name for American one layer to reveal another layer of contrasting 15th century.
the objects’ shapes. scene painting colour. The term is used most commonly in Tertiary colours Colours — tending to be
Photorealism Alternative name for Superrealism Relief A sculpture made so that all or part of it reference to pottery — but also to painting. shades of brown, black, and grey — produced
Photomontage A picture created by arranging projects from a flat surface. Silverpoint A method of drawing with a by mixing two of the three secondary colours
and pasting down existing photographs. Renaissance A rebirth of the arts and learning metal rod of silver on a paper surface specially (green, orange and purple).

Pictogram A picture representing a word, sound that occurred from end of the 14th century to prepared with white pigment. Minute particles Triptych A picture consisting of three panels,
or idea. Also called a pictograph. the end of the 16th century, especially in Italy, of silver are left in the paper surface, producing usually hinged.
the Germanic states, and Flanders. |t was agreyish line that darkens with time.
Picturesque, the |n late 18th century and early Trompe l'oeil French for “fool the eye’ the
inspired by the classical cultures of Rome and Socialist Realism The name for the official art
19th century Britain, the picturesque referred term refers to paintings, usually still lifes, which
Greece, and informed by scientific advances, of the Soviet Union instigated in the late 1920s.
specifically to a landscape full of variety, curious persuade viewers that they are looking at actual
especially in anatomy and perspective. In Italy, Naturalistic in style, Socialist Realism glorified
details, and interesting textures. Medieval ruins, objects. Popular in 17th-century Dutch art.
the period is usually divided into the Early
country cottages, winding paths, and partly manual work and celebrated Soviet cultural and
Renaissance until c1500, the High Renaissance
kept woodland were typical of the picturesque technological achievements.
until C1520, and the Late Renaissance until
landscape. Solarization Solarization is the result of
c1580. Ukiyo-e Japanese for “pictures of the floating
Picture-plane The imaginary plane occupied by exposing a black-and-white photographic
Rococo A lighter and more playful version of world” ukiyo-e were a popular art from the
the physical surface (eg the canvas) of a picture. negative or print to light during its development,
the Baroque that dominated the arts from c1700 17th to 19th centuries. They depicted transient,
causing a partial reversal of light and dark values.
Pieta Italian for “pity”, pieta is a term applied to until Neoclassicism came into vogue in the everyday life including theatre scenes, geishas,
Also known as the Sabattier Effect.
a painting or sculpture showing the Virgin Mary 1750s and 1760s. and the nightlife of Edo (as Tokyo was then
supporting the body of the dead Christ. Soft style A German version of the International called) as well as landscapes and scenes from
Romanesque Term coined around 1825 to
Plastic arts Art that involves modelling in Gothic, flourishing in the late 14th and 15th historical legends.
describe the pre-Gothic art and architecture
three dimensions — for example, sculpture and
centuries, characterized by harmonious
from the close of the tenth century to the Underdrawing A preliminary drawing for a
ceramics; also used for two-dimensional art that
compositions, with flowing, softly folding
12th century. In architecture, it is typified by painting, often done in charcoal, which is then
strives to convey an illusion of depth.
draperies and delicate, refined figures (often the
the round arch and heavy construction. painted over.
Virgin Mary). Sometimes called the “sweet style”
Pointillism A technique of painting with dots of Romanticism A broad term generally referring
pure colour that when viewed from a distance
appear to merge together to create a new
to a style in the visual arts, music, and literature
in the late 18th century and early 19th century.
Soft-ground etching A printmaking technique
that reproduces the effect of a chalk or pencil
Vv
colour. Also called divisionism. Romantic artists reacted against the reason drawing. The design is drawn onto a sheet of Vanitas An allegorical still life — popular in 17th-
and intellectual discipline of Neoclassicism and paper placed over an etching plate prepared century Holland — in which the objects, such as
Pop Art Art which makes uses the imagery of
the Enlightenment. Instead they celebrated with a soft ground that includes tallow. The an hourglass or a human skull, were meant to
popular culture — for example, comic strips and
individual experience and expression, and often pressure of the pencil or chalk clears a path be reminders of the transience of human life.
GLOSSARY
packaging. Pop Art began in Britain and the US
to the ground.
in the 1950s and flourished in the 1960s. sought inspiration in nature and landscape. Vienna Secession The artists and architects,
Standing stones Solitary stones set vertically in led by Gustav Klimt, who broke away from the
Portrait A painting, photograph or other likeness
the ground by Neolithic civilizations, common official academy in Vienna in 1897 They opened
of an actual person; usually commissioned.
in Western Europe, especially Britain. their own craft studio in 1903, the Wiener
Portrait format A picture that is higher than it Sacra conversazione Italian for “holy Werstatte.
ART Stijl, De Dutch for “the style” De Stijl was
is wide conversation, the term refers to depiction of
a loose association of artists, named after a Vorticism A London-based literary and artistic
Postimpressionism Term coined by British the Virgin and Child surrounded by saints, all
magazine set up by Theo van Doesburg in 1917 movement. Influenced by Italian Futurism and
of whom are engaged in dialogue or, at least,
critic and artist Roger Fry in c1914 to describe Their art was generally austere and abstract French Cubism, the style was energetic and
artistic developments arising from and after aware of one another's presence. It first evolved
and ranged from painting and sculpture, to divided into planes.
Impressionism.
in Florence in the mid-15th century.
architecture, to graphic and furniture design.
Postmodernism The term Postmodernism St Ives painters A loosely connected group of
British artists who lived in the Cornish coastal Stupa A dome-shaped monument containing
came into use in the 1970s with reference sacred relics, found in both Buddhist and Jain
village of St lves from the 1940s to the 1960s. Watercolour A type of transparent paint in
to architecture. It describes architecture religious architecture.
that borrows from classical, vernacular, Salon, the An official French painting exhibition, which watersoluble pigments are combined
and commercial styles. Since the 1970s, first held in 1667 In 1881, the government Superrealism A style of art based on imitating with a binder — usually gum arabic. Watercolour
postmodernism has been applied to all branches withdrew support and thereafter it began to lose photographs in paint and real objects in was a favoured medium of the British landscape
of the arts. It describes art that is inventive, prestige to independent exhibitions — including sculpture. It was popular in the late 1960s and artists of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
playful, and borrows from eclectic sources. Salon dAutomne, Salon des Indépendants, and 1970s. The term was coined by Malcolm Morley,
Wet plate process Photographic process,
Salon des Refusés. the pioneer of the genre, in 1965.
Post-painterly abstraction Term coined by invented by Frederick Scott Archer in 1851,
critic Clement Greenberg in 1964 to describe Salon d'Automne An annual exhibition first held Suprematism Art movement, devised by in which a light-sensitive collodion solution
painters who created abstract paintings with in Paris in 1903. It held the first Fauve exhibition Kazimir Malevich in 1915, which used simple was poured over a glass plate. The plate was
large unmodulated fields of colour. in 1905. abstract forms such as the square, triangle, exposed to light in the;camera and developed
and circle. while still wet.
Precisionism A 1920s school of American Salon des Indépendants An annual exhibition
painters who depicted industrial and architectural first held in Paris in 1884. It showed important Surrealism An artistic and literary movement, Wood engraving A printmaking technique
scenes — such bridges, barns, and factories — in Neoimpressionist and Postimpressionist works. founded by the poet André Breton in 1924, that developed from the woodcut. Wood engraving
a clean, simple, and sharply defined manner. Salon des Refusés An exhibition held in Paris flourished in the late 1920s and 1930s in Paris. uses hardwood sawn across the grain — rather
in 1863 on the orders of Napoleon III to show Some surrealist artists sought to access to the than along it as in the woodcut. This gives a
Predella A long horizontal painting placed
works rejected from the official Salon — including subconscious while they painted — a technique harder, smoother surface to help give finer,
beneath the main scene or main series of
Eduoard Manet's Déjeuner sur |’‘Herbe and known as automatism. Others sought to paint more detailed prints.
panels in an altarpiece.
works by James Whistler and Camille Pissarro. the dream-like worlds of the subconscious with
Primitivism Art inspired by so-called primitive Woodcut A print made from a block of wood,
a superreal clarity.
art — usually understood to mean the art of Sand painting A technique of making designs parts of which are cut away leaving the design
Africa and the Pacific Islands in different colours of sand, practised among Symbolism Loose term for a late 19th-century standing proud to receive the ink. The technique
others by American Indians and Australian artistic and literary movement. Artists favoured is thought to have been invented in China.
Process art Art of the 1960s and 1970s subjective, personal representations of the
Aboriginals.
where the process of creation becomes the
world, and were influenced by religious
subject matter Sassanian art The art of Iran, Iraq, and
mysticism and primitive art.
neighbouring areas under the Sassanid dynasty
(224-651 CE). There was an emphasis on Synchronism American version of Orphism, Zen art Zen is a mix of Buddhism and Taoism.
which arose in 1912. The Zen artist usually works with a horsehair
metalwork, often with stylized hunting scenes.
brush, black ink, and either paper or silk and tries
Rayonism Art movement and style of Screenprinting A printmaking technique in Synthetism A term, adopted by Paul Gauguin, to suggest by the simplest possible means the
painting featuring beams of colour, influenced which printing ink is pressed through a screen Emile Bernard, and their followers at Pont Aven
essential qualities of his subject matter.
by Cubism, Futurism, and Orphism. It was with a rubber blade onto paper. Different in the late 1880s. It described their philosophy
practised from 1912 to 1914 by Russian painters coloured inks are applied individually, with of synthesizing their impressions and painting
Mikhail Larinov and his wife Natalia Goncharova, different parts of the paper masked each time. from memory rather than from life.
 Angkor 76, 77 artists The Baptism of Christ
An Angler (Amaral) 153 identifying 35 (Piero della Francesca) 100
Anglo-Saxon art 69 workshops 105 Baptism of Christ (Giotto) 24
Anguissola, Sophonisba 370 The Artist's Studio (Courbet) 327 Baptism of Christ (Patinir) 156
Animaliers school 395 The Arts: Dance (Mucha) 384 Baptism in Kansas (Curry) 491
In this index, names of works are given in italics with artists names in
animals 260-61 Arts and Crafts movement A Bar at the Folies-Bergére
brackets. Page references in bold type refer to main entries.
cave art 38-9 332, 382, 386 (Manet) 342-3
Celtic art 63 The Ascension, Liber The Barbadori Altarpiece

A agitprop propaganda 465 nomadic art 62 Evangelicorum 67 (Filippo Lippi) 102

Agony in the Garden (Mantegna) 106 prehistoric figurines 40 Ashcan School 452, 490 Barberini family 204
Agosta the Pigeon-chested Man Anna and Tobit (Dou) 232 Asian art 74-9, 590-93 The Barberini Ivory (Byzantine) 65
The Abduction of Ganymede
and Rasha the Black Dove Anna Pavlova (Lavery) 393 Ashoka Pillar (Indian) 50 Barbizon school 234, 324, 328, 329,
(Rembrandt) 537
(Schad) 480 Annie and Alice (Freud) 566 Asmat people 398, 399 359, 388
Aboriginal art 23, 39, 398, 586-7
Agricola VIII (D Smith) 514 The Annunciation Assemblage 32, 551, 555-6 Bardon, Geoffrey 586
Abstract art 434-89
Agris Helmet 63 (Agostino Carracci) 197 Assumption of the Virgin Bare Willows and Distant Mountains
Abstract Composition (de Stael) 518
Akbar, Emperor 290 Annunciation (Andrea del Sarto) 122 (Lanfranco) 203 (Ma) 79
Abstract Composition in Grey,
Akkadian art 42-3 The Annunciation (Campin) 141 Assumption of the Virgin Barges on the Thames (Derain) 402
Yellow, and Black (Lissitzky) 465
Alaux, Jean 298 The Annunciation (Fra Angelico) 99 (Riemenschneider) 174 Barlach, Ernst 410
Abstract Expressionism 502-15, 523,
Albers, Josef 483 The Annunciation (Grunewald) 170 The Assumption of the Virgin Barney, Matthew 595
537,538; 557
Albert, Prince Consort 311, 335 The Annunciation (Titian) 130, 131 Barocci, Federico 179
Abstract Painting (Reinhardt) 514
Alberti, Leon Battista 15 (Leonardo da Vinci) 112 The Assumption of the Virgin Mary Baroque art 194-241
Abstract painting and sculpture
Albertinelli, Mariotto 123 The Annunciation (Lotto) 125 (Stoss) 174 Dutch Baroque 195, 228-41
19, 523-9
Albin-Guillot, Laure 407 The Annunciation (Martini) 87 Assyrian art 44, 128, 510 Flemish Baroque 195, 224-7
academic art, French 336-7, 340
Alechinsky, Pierre 521 The Annunciation and Visitation Ast, Balthasar van der 240 French Baroque 194-5, 210-15
Académie Royale 212, 245, 247, 249
Alex (Close) 571 (Dijon Altarpiece) (Broederlam) 140 Athens 52, 55 Italian Baroque 194, 196-207
Acanthus wallpaper design
Alexander
VI, Pope 169 Anthro/Socio (Rinde Spinning) atmospheric perspective 20 Spanish Baroque 195, 216-23
(Morris) 332 (Nauman) 594
Alexander, Jane 591 Attacked (Gilbert & George) 579 The Barricade, rue de la Mortellerie,
Accession I| (Hesse) 19, 532 Anthropomorphic mask
Alexander the Great 58 Auerbach, Frank 25, 563, 569 June 1848 (Meissonier) 336, 511
Achaean (Riley) 550 (Teotihuacan) 81
Alexander the Great Restoring the Augustus, Emperor 61 Barry, James 264
Achilles at the Court of Lycomedes Antilles (Masson) 474
Throne Usurped from Abdolonimus Augustus at Prima Porta (Roman) 61 Bartholdi, Frédéric-Auguste 395
(Batoni) 253 The Antiquities Gallery of the
(Strozzi) 205 Aurangzeb, Emperor 291 Bartolommeo, Fra 122, 123
Achilles Mourning the Death of Academy of Fine Arts
The Alexander Mosaic Aurora (Guercino) 202, 203 Barye, Antoine-Louis 395
Patroclus (Twombly) 515 (Mikhailov) 331
(Roman) 58, 510 Aurora (Reni) 203 La Bascule VII (Tinguely) 549
Achilles Slaying the Amazon Queen, Antonello da Messina 93, 102
Alexander Pope (Rysbrack) 264 Australia 39, 398-9, 586-7 Baselitz, Georg 574, 575
Penthesilea (Greek ) 52, 54 Antwerp 165
Alfred Jewel 69 Austro-Hungarian Empire 412 Basire, James 312
Achilles Tending the Wounded Anxious Girl (Lichtenstein) 541
Algardi, Alessandro 201, 207 automatism 479 Basquiat, Jean-Michel 574, 577
Patrocles (Greek) 54 Apollinaire, Guillaume 416, 428, 432,
Alison Lapper Pregnant (Quinn) 583 Autumn (Arcimboldo) 184 Bassano, Jacopo 137
Achrome (Manzoni) 559 Allegiance with Wakefulness 459, 467, 473, 547 Bastien-Lepage, Jules 359
An Autumn Landscape with a View
Acropolis, view of 52 (Neshat) 592 Apollinaire and Friends The Bather (Falconet) 249 =
of Het Steen in the Early Morning
acrylic paints 32, 525 Allegory of Divine Providence and (Laurencin) 459 The Bathers (Gleizes) 427 a
(Rubens) 224
Action painting 502, 503, 509, 513, 515 Barberini’s Power (Cortona) 204 Apollo and Daphne (Bernini) 201 The Bathers (Renoir) 350 ie}
Autumn Leaves (Millais) 371
Action Piece (Beuys) 558 Allegory of the Immaculate Apollo and Daphne (Dossi) 123 Bathers at Asniéres (Seurat) 363 i}
Autumn Mountains (Wang Hui) 282
Adam (Newman) 513 Conception (Vasari) 178 Apollo Conducting Beatrice of Bathers in a Landscape (Bell) 448
Autumn Rhythm (Number 30)
Adam and Eve (Durer) 168 Allegory of True Love (Pourbus) 314 Burgundy to Frederick Barbarossa Batoni, Pompeo 243, 253
(Pollock) 504~7
Adam and Eve (Titian) 56 An Allegory with Venus and Cupid (Tiepolo) 254-5 Batons Rompus (de Staél) 516
Avant Garde 486-9
Adam and Eve Banished from ~ (Bronzino) 178, 314 Apollo Tended by the Nymphs Battersea Shield 69
The Avenger (Barlach) 410
Paradise (Masaccio) 92 Allori, Alessandro 178 (Girardon) 214 A Battery Shelled (Lewis) 450 Be
The Avenue, Middelharnis
Adam and Eve in Paradise (Scorel) 164 Alloway, Lawrence 533 The Apotheosis of the Emperor Battista Sforza and Federico ra
(Hobbema) 234
Adamski, Hans Peter 574 Allston, Washington 322 Charles VI (Troger) 250 da Montefeltro
Avercamp, Hendrick 233
Adirondack Guide (Homer) 391 Alt, Theodor 324 The Apotheosis of Homer (Piero della Francesca) 100
The Awakening Slave
Adolf Loos (Kokoschka) 412 Altaic art 62 (Ingres) 271 The Battle of /ssus (Altdorfer) 171
(Michelangelo) 29
Adolphine Kobke (Kobke) 274 Altamira 38 Apotheosis of St James the Greater The Battle of Midway (Finlay) 511
Aztecs 128, 190, 191
Adonis in ¥-Fronts (Hamilton) 534 Altarpiece of San Giobbe (Maulbertsch) 251 Battle of San Romano (Uccello) 98
The Adoration of Christ (Lochner) 166 (Giovanni Bellini) 126 The Apparition (Moreau) 383 The Battle of Trafalgar, 1805
The Adoration of the Golden Calf Altarpiece of St Zeno of Verona Appel, Karel 521 (Stanfield) 320
(Poussin) 212 (Mantegna) 106 Apple Picking at Eragny-sur-Epte A Baby (Procter) 371 Bauchant, André 454, 456
The Adoration of the Kings Altarpiece of the Seven Sacraments (Pissarro) 23 Baby Asleep (Epstein) 371 Baudelaire, Charles 327, 337, 342,
(Bassano) 137 (Weyden) 147 Apples and Oranges (Cézanne) 368 Babylonian art 45 405, 578
The Adoration of the Kings Altdorfer, Albrecht 139, 171 Apres le 11 Sep 2001 (Samba) 591 Bacchus and Ariadne (Titian) 26 Bauhaus 482-5, 548, 550
(Bruegel) 163 f Ama no Hashidate (Sesshu) 188 Archipenko, Alexander 427, 463 Bacchus, Ceres, and Cupid Bawden, Edward 443
Adoration of the Magi (Bassano) 137 Amaral, Tarsila do 153 Architectural Capriccio with Obelisk (Hans von Aachen) 184 The Bay (Frankenthaler) 524
Adoration of the Magi The Ambassadors (Holbein) 173 (Robert) 247 Baciccio see Gaulli, Giovanni Battista Bazille, Frédéric 352, 353
(Gentile da Fabriano) 89 American art see United States Architectural study (Cano) 222 Bacino di San Marco (Canaletto) 256 Be Mysterious (Gauguin) 372
Adoration of the Magi (Giotto) 86 of America Arcimboldo, Giuseppe 175, 184 back lighting 22 The Beach at Fécamp (Marquet) 407
Adoration of the Magi (Gossaert) 154 American Civilization — Ancient Arion’s Sea Journey (Runge) 309 Bacon, Francis 563-5, 566 Beardsley, Aubrey 382, 387
Adoration of the Magi (Lochner) 166 Human Sacrifice (Orozco) 497 Armitage, Kenneth 516, 520 Bal Militaire (Bigaud) 456 Beat the Whites with the Red
Adoration of the Magi (N Pisano) 84 American Collectors (Hockney) 544 The Arnolfini Portrait Balaclava (Butler) 511 Wedge (Lissitzky) 465
The Adoration of the Magi American Gothic (G Wood) 492 (Van Eyck) 143, 144-5 balance, narrative paintings 17 Beaton, Cecil 447
(Overbeck) 310 American Revolution 279 Arp, Hans (Jean) The Balcony (Manet) 343 Beatrice of Burgundy 254-5
The Adoration of the Shepherds Amphion (Laurens) 427 466, 468, 469, 478, 489 Baldessari, John 557 Beauvoir, Simone de 518, 573
(Le Nain brothers) 211 Amulet (Egyptian) 46 An Arrangement in Grey and Black Baldinucci, Filippo 200 Becket, St Thomas a 83
Adoration of the Shepherds Analytical Cubism 416, 434 No. 1, Portrait of the Artist's Baldung, Hans 139, 171 Beckford, William 252
(Ribera) 217 anamorphosis 173 Mother (Whistler) 547 Balincourt, Jules de 594 Beckmann, Max 480, 481
Aegean cultures 53 Ananda Temple 76, 77 Arrest of the Governor of the Bastille Balkan Wars (1912-13) 441 Beckwith, James Carroll 359
Aelst, Willem van 240 The Anastasis (Descent into Limbo) (Janinet) 269 Ball, Hugo 466 The Bedroom at Arles
aerial perspective 20 (Byzantine) 65 The Arrival of the Allied Army at Balla, Giacomo 428, 429, 430 (Van Gogh) 374-5
Aeschylus 273 Anatsui, El 590 Itapiru, Paraguay (Lopez) 510 Balthus 490, 492 Beheading of St John the Baptist
Aesthetic Movement 382, 392 Anavysos Kouros (Greek) 54 Arroyo, Eduardo 545 Balzac, Honoré de 356 (Caravaggio) 198-9
Afanasyevich, Nikolai 464 The Ancient of Days (Blake) 312 Art Brut 516, 517 Bamana art 397 The Beheading of St John the
African art 396-7 Andre, Carl 531 art dealers 420 Bamboo and Rocks (Zhengxie) 284 Baptist (Puvis de Chavennes) 383
African-American art 594 Andrea del Sarto 122 Art Deco 459 Bank Holiday (Strang) 315 Beheading of St Paul (Algardi) 201
African art today 590-91 Andrews, Michael 563, 569 Art Informe! 517, 556 Bank Holiday in the Pattrk Bell, Clive 448
cave and rock art 39 Angel Holding a Candle (Robbia) 95 Art Nouveau 382-4, 387 388, 412, 434 (Roberts) 451 Bell, Vanessa 446, 448
influence of 460 The Angel of the North (Gormley) 583 The Art of Painting (The Artist's Banksy 577 The Bellelli Family (Degas) 355
Afternoon in the Alps (Segantini) 362 Angelico, Fra 16, 89, 92, 99, 310 Studio) (Vermeer) 238-9 Banquet of Herod (Masolino) 97 Bellini, Gentile 106, 127
Agam, Yaacov 548, 549 The Angelus (Millet) 325 Arte Povera 551, 556 Banquet of the Officers of the St Bellini, Giovanni 93, 102, 106, 125, 126
Agamemnon 53 The Anger of Kallervo from Kalevala The Artist in her Studio George Civic Guard Company Bellini, Jacopo 89, 106
Agbatana I/ (Stella) 527 (Gallen-Kallela) 388 (Rego) 589 (Hals) 15, 228 Belliniano, Vittore 126
Bellori, Giovanni Pietro 203 Botero, Fernando 568-9 Burne-Jones, Edward 332, 333, 382, Carracci, Ludovico 197, 197 Chillida, Eduardo 522
Bellotto, Bernardo 257 Both, Andries 233 386, 387 Carriera, Rosalba Giovanna 14, 244 Chinese art 128, 208, 260, 442, 443
Bellows, George 452 Both, Jan 233 The Burning of “The Royal James” Carrington, Leonora 479 Chinese art today 592-3
Benedetto Portinari (Memling) 148 Botticelli, Sandro 92, 103, 104, 107-11 at the Battle of Sole Bank, 28 May The Carrying of the Cross early art 51
Benton, Thomas Hart 490, 491, 492 Bottle, Newspaper, Pipe and Glass 1672 (van de Velde) 510 (Bosch) 156 14th century art 78-9
Berchem, Nicolaes 233, 236 (Braque) 417 Burial Suit of Princess Dou Wan Caryatid (Modigliani) 460 Ming dynasty 185-7
Bergh, Richard 389 La Bouche du Roi (Hazoumé) 591 (Chinese) 51 Casas, Ramouh 391 Neolithic pottery 40
Bergson, Henri 428, 430 Boucher, Francois 17 56, 242, 243, 245 Burra, Edward 511 Cassatt, Mary 341, 353, 371 Qing dynasty 2814
Berlin Sezession 359 Boudin, Eugéne 348 Burri, Alberto 551, 556 Castagno, Andrea del 103, 116 Chirico, Giorgio de 21, 470, 473, 547
Bermejo, Bartolomé 150 Bouguereau, William 337, 341, 358 Bush Yam Awelye (Kngwarreye) 586 Catherine the Great, Empress Chirk Aqueduct (Cotman) 276
Bernard, Emile 361, 380 Boulonois, Esme de 146 Bust of Queen Nefertiti 45, 48-9 of Russia 267 The Choice of Hercules
Bernini, Gianlorenzo 194, 200-201, Bourgeois, Louise 573, 583 The Butcher Boys (Alexander) 591 Catholic Church Counter (Flaxman) 273
204, 206, 207, 249, 264 Bouts, Dieric 149 The Butcher's: Pig Meat * Reformation 137, 194, 195, 199 Chokwe art 396
Bernward of Hildesheim 67 A Boy Bringing Pomegranates (Italian School) 442 Caulfield, Patrick 209, 533 Chola dynasty 75
Berruguete, Alonso 182 (de Hooch) 236 Butcher's Shop No. 7 (Coker) 443 Cavalcade (Greek) 55 Christ and the Adulteress
Berry, Duke of 89 Brabazon, Hercules 30 Butler, Lady Elizabeth 511 cave art 38-9, 260 (Poussin) 213
Bessanone, South Tyrol (Cozens) 276 Bramante, Donato 93, 123 Butler, Reg 522 Cayambe (Church) 153 Christ Appearing to St Peter on the
The Betrayal of Christ (Guercino) 194 Brancacci Chapel, Santa Maria del Byron, Lord 300. Celestial Glory and the Triumph of Appian Way (Annibale Carracci) 196
Beuys, Joseph 530, 532, 557, 558, 575 Carmine, Florence 96 Byzantine art 64-5, 84, 442 the Habsburgs (Giordano) 206 Christ Carrying the Cross (Lotto) 125
Bewick, Thomas 264 Brancusi, Constantin 410, 434, Cellini, Benvenuto 92, 175, 177 Christ in the Wilderness
Bianco, T 360 441, 531 Cc Celtic art 62, 63, 69-71 (Kramskoi) 331
Bierdermeier paintings 324, 329 Braque, Georges 209, 416, 417, 418, Central American art 80-81 * Christ of St John of the Cross
Bierstadt, Albert 322 434, 516, 537 Cabanel, Alexandre 34, 358 Central European Rococo (Dali) 474
Bigaud, Wilson 456 A Break Away (Roberts) 359 The Cabinet of Baby Fay La Foe 242, 250-51 Christ taking Leave of His Mother
biomorphism 479 Breakfast (Gris) 426 (Barney) 595 The Centurion’s Servant (Altdorfer) 171
Bird in Space (Brancusi) 441 Breakfast at the Café (Menzel) 330 Café Deutschland | Museum (Spencer) 448 Christianity
Bird Swallowing Fish Bresdin, Rodolphe 383 (Immendorf) 575 ceramics Celtic art 69-71
(GaudierBrzeska) 450 Breton, André 457, 466, 470, 474, Cai Guo-Oiang 566, 592 Greek 53 early Christian art 64-5
Birds on a Lake Rock (Zhu Da) 283 478, 479, 508, 515 Caillebotte, Gustave 353 Islamic 73 Christina's World (Wyeth) 567
The Birth of Venus (Botticelli) 107 Breton woman at prayer Cain and Abel (Ghiberti) 94 Japanese 189 Christo 551, 552
Birth of Venus (Cabanel) 34 (C Wood) 490 Calais Pier (Bonington) 301 Moche culture 80 Christ's Entry into Brussels
The Birth of the Virgin Breton Women by a Fence Calavera Catrina (Posada) 497 Neolithic pottery 40-41 (Ensor) 385
(Ghirlandaio) 105 (Gauguin) 372 Calder, Alexander 486, 489 Turkish 288 Christ's First Appearance to the
Birth of the Virgin (Uccello) 98 Bridge of Sighs, Venice (Canaletto) 35 calligraphy, Islamic 72 Ceres and Stellio (Elsheimer) 25 People (lvanov) 311
Birtwistle, Adam 534 Brillo Boxes (Warhol) 542 Calm Sea (Bocklin) 384 César 551 Christus, Petrus 148
ack and white 26 Britain Calvary (The Antwerp Crucifixion) Cézanne, Paul 21, 129, 153, 209, Church, Frederic Edwin 153, 322
lack Square (Malevich) 440 Anglo-Saxon and Celtic art 69-71 (Antonello da Messina) 102 360-61, 368-9, 388, 402 The Church at Auvers
lack Widow (Calder) 489 Avant Garde 486-9 Cambodia 76, 77 Chagall, Marc 459, 465, 516 (Van Gogh) 375
ake, Peter 533, 534 Baroque art 195 Camden Town Group 446, 447, 448, chalk drawings 26 Churchill, Winston 489
ake, William 296, 297, 312, 313, 448 early Modernism 446-51 450, 486 Cham 343 Ci-git l’Espace (Klein) 520
er Blaue Reiter 408, 409, 411, 428,
UDNDAOS English Visionaries 297, 312-13 The Camera degli Sposi Chamberlain, John 551, 555 Cimabue 85, 86
432, 433 Impressionism 341 (Mantegna) 106 Champaigne, Philippe de 211 Cione, Andrea and Jacopo 27
er Blaue Reiter (Kandinsky) 435 Modernism 447-9 camera obscura 239, 256 Champmol, Chartreuse de 140 Circle and Square 465
echen, Karl 309 Neoclassicism 266-7, 275 Cameron, Julia 387 Le Chapeau de Paille (Rubens) 224 The Circus (Seurat) 363
eyl, Fritz 408 Pop Art 533 Campbell's Soup Can (Warhol) 542 Le Chapeau Renverse (Tapies) 519 city guilds 94
he Blind Girl (Millais) 332 Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood 332-3 Campin, Robert 138, 140, 141, charcoal 30 Civil Rights Memorial (Lin) 595
YHDWH
he Blind Leading the Blind Rococo 243, 258-65 146, 166 Chardin, Jean-Siméon 208, 245, 246 Claesz, Pieter 233, 240
(Bourgeois) 573 Romanticism 297, 316-21 A Canal near the Arsenale, Venice The Charge of the Lancers Clark, Kenneth 15
ies) oemaert, Abraham 233 Victorian art 334-5 (Turner) 317 (Boccioni) 431 Clarke, Brian 28
Bloomsbury Group 446, 448 watercolourists 276-7 Canal Scene by Moonlight Charlemagne, Emperor 66 Classical ideal 123
Blossom (Ofili) 582 Broadway (Kelly) 526 (van der Neer) 233 Charles |, King of England Classical Landscape (A Cozens) 276
Blue Baby, Blitz Over Britain Broadway Boogie Woogie Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal) 195, 226, 241 Classical Landscape (Dughet) 18
(Burra) 511 (Mondrian) 444 35, 242, 243, 256-7 Charles | on Horseback (Van Dyck) 226 Classical philosophy 121
Blue Dancers (Degas) 26 Broederlam,; Melchior 140 Cancelled Crop (Oppenheim) 554 Charles II, King of England 195, Claude Gellée (Claude Lorraine)
The Blue Grenade (Wols) 519 broken brushwork 34 Canephora (Braque) 417 235, 241 18, 22, 195, 213
The Blue Patio (Rusinol) 393 bronze Cannone Semovente Charles II, King of Spain 206, 223 lavaud, Armand 383
Blue Red (Kelly) 23 Ottonian bronze-casting 67 (Mobile Cannon) (Pascali) 556 Charles || and His Court Adoring the ement VII, Pope 119, 176
Blue Rider on the Canabiere sculpture 33 Cano, Alonso 222 Host (“La Sagrada Forma”) ement XIII, Pope 274
(Arroyo) 545 Bronze Age 68 Canova, Antonio 35, 267, 272, 273 (Coello) 223 emente, Francesco 574
Blue Veil (Louis) 524-5 Bronze Soldier (5th century BCE) 15 Canto XXXI (Rauschenberg) 535 Charles IV, Emperor 138 he Climax (Beardsley) 387
Boatbuilding near Flatford Mill Bronzino, Agnolo 92, 175, 178, Canyon (Rauschenberg) 536-7 CharlesV,Emperor 93, 119, 130, 182 oissonism 380
(Constable) 316 314, 370 Cappelle, Jan van de 233 Charles V, King of France 138 Oa
OQ
OOSose, Chuck 571
Boating (Manet) 342 Broodthaers, Marcel 557, 560 Caprice with Ruins (Guardi) 257 Charles VI, King of France 151 losed Eyes (Redon) 383
Boating on the Seine (Renoir) 27 Brotherhood of St Luke Los Caprichos (Goya) 302 Charles VII, King of France 151 = he Clothed Maja (Goya) 302
9
The Boatmen on the Volga see Nazarenes Caravaggio, Michelangelo Merisi da Charles X, King of France 300 lothing Store (Estes) 571
(Repin) 331 Brouwer, Adriaen 227, 235 23, 194, 198-9 Charlotte Corinth at Her Dressing ouet, Francois 180, 181
Boccioni, Umberto 428, 429, 430-31 Brown, Ford Madox 333, 443 Carcass (Nolan) 567 Table (Corinth) 358 ouet, Jean 181
QEwoG)
Bocklin, Arnold 382, 384, 386, 473 Die Brucke 408, 409, 411 Card Players (Cézanne) 369 Chase, William Merritt 359 The Clowns (Solana) 492
The Body of the Dead Christ in the Brueghel, Jan 227 The Card-Players Chasing Rabbits (Eitaku) 371 The Coach to Louveciennes
Tomb (Holbein) 173 Bruegel, Pieter the Elder 128, 139, (Lucas van Leyden) 155 Chassériau, Théodore 301, 383 (Pissarro) 352
Boilly, Louis-Léopold 248 162-3, 370 Carderera y Solano, Valentin 216 Chauvet 38 Cobra group 516, 521, 589
Bol, Ferdinand 241 Bruges 148 Cardinal Francois de Mies Presented Chavin culture 80 Coello, Claudio 223
Boldini, Giovanni 393 Brunelleschi, Filippo 92, 94, 95, 96, to the Virgin and Child (Witz) 166 Le chef qui a vendu /Afrique aux Coffee House 2 (Grosz) 480
The Bolt (Fragonard) 246 97, 103 Cardinal Paolo Emilio Zacchia colons (Fosso) 591 Cogniet, Léon 336
Boltanski, Christian 562 brushstrokes 34-5 (Algardi) 201 Chelsea Pensioners Reading the Coker, Peter 443
Bomberg, David 446, 451, 563, 569 Bucher, Jeanne 456 The Caretaker (Rosso) 357 Waterloo Dispatch (Wilkie) 334 Coldstream, William 569
Bonington, Richard Parkes 301 Buddhist art 74, 76 Carl Hagenbeck in his Zoo Chen Hongshou 187 Cole, Thomas 297, 322, 323
Bonnard, Pierre 14, 380, 381 Buffet, Bernard 516, 519 (Corinth) 358 Chevreul, Michel-Eugéne 360 Colin, Paul 516
Bonnat, Léon 353 Bull-Leaping Fresco (Knossos) 53 Carmichael, John Wilson 335 Chia, Sandro 574, 576 collage 28
A book from the sky Buren, Daniel 561 Caro, Anthony 523, 525, 528 Chicago, Judy 572, 573 Collage with Squares Arranged
(Xu) 593 The Burghers of Calais (Rodin) 356 Caroline (Giacometti) 518 A Chicken Cockscomb, and According to the Laws of Chance
The Book of Kells 69, 70-71 Burgundy, Philip the Bold, Carolingian art 66 Chrysanthemum (Chinese) 30 (Arp) 468
The Bookworm (Spitzweg) 329 Duke of 140, 150 Carpaccio, Vittore 127, 260 children 370-71 The Collector of Engravings
Borduas, Paul-Emile 515 Burial at Ornans (Courbet) 326-7 Carpeaux, Jean-Baptiste 395 Children Paddling, Walberswick (Daumier) 325
Borghese, Cardinal Scipione 201, 203 The Burial of the Count of Orgaz Carra, Carlo 428, 429 (Steer) 358 Colleoni, Bartolommeo 104
Borobudur 76 (El Greco) 183 Carracci, Agostino 152, 197, 202 Children Playing (Kokoschka) 371 Collingwood, William 333
Bosch, Hieronymus 138, 156-61, 480 Burke, Edmund 264 Carracci, Annibale 179, 194, 196, Children's Games Collot, Marie-Anne 249
Boshier, Derek 533 Burma 77 197, 202 (Bruegel) 162-3, 370 Colombe, Jean 89
The Colosseum (Piranesi) 252 Couture, Thomas 336, 383 Davis, Stuart 486, 489 The Dinner Party (Chicago) 573
The Colossus (Goya) 303 Cox, David 20, 277 A Day in June (Bellows) 452 Dioscorides 73
colour Cozens, Alexander 276 de Heem, Jan Davidsz 240 diptychs 16 Eagle Brooch (Ottonian) 67
coloured lighting 23 Cozens, John Robert 276 de Hooch, Pieter 232, 236 The Disasters of War Eakins, Thomas 391, 392
pigments 26 The Cradle (Morisot) 348 de Kooning, Willem 502, 509, 537, 557 (Goya) 303, 424, 511 Early Morning (Palmer) 313
technological advances 27 Cragg, Tony 19, 209, 584 De Maria, Walter 554 Discobolus (Myron) 55 Early Spring (Guo) 79
Colour Field painting 502, 512, 513, Cranach, Lucas 128, 139, 172 Deacon, Richard 584 Disderi, André 395 The Earth (Masson) 474
523, 524, 526 Crane, Walter 18 The Dead Christ (Mantegna) 20 Disquieting Muses (Chirico) 21 Earth art 557
Colville, Alex 568 The Creation of Adam (Michelangelo) The Dead Christ Supported by an distortion, spatial 21 Earth Telephone (Beuys) 558
comics 541 26, 118-19 Angel (Antonello da Messina) 93 Le Divan Japonais East Asia 78-9
Coming Home from the War Creation of Eve (Quercia) 95 Dead Christ Tended by Angels (Toulouse-Lautrec) 355 Easter Island statues 14
(Waldmiuller) 329 Crete 53 (Donatello) 97 Divisionism 360, 361, 362, 363-7 Ebbo Gospels 66
Coming out of School (Lowry) 493 Cricche, Crocche e Manico D’Uncino Deadline (Crook) 443 381, 403, 429, 430 Ecce Homo (Massys) 155
Compliment (Kupka) 433 (Stella) 527 DeAndrea, John 570, 571 Dix, Otto 480, 481 Ecce Puer (Rosso) 357
composition 14-19 Cromwell, Oliver 241 The Death of Lucretia (Hamilton) 275 Dobson, William 195, 241 Echaurren, Matta 479
Composition (Kandinsky) 435 Crook, PJ 443 The Death of Marat (J-L David) 269 Doesburg, Theo van 19, 434 Eckersberg, Christoffer Wilhelm 273
Composition VII (Kandinsky) 436-9 cropping, portraits 14 Death on the Pale Horse (West) 278 The Doge Leonardo Loredan Ecole des Beaux Arts 354, 356, 394
Composition 17 (Doesburg) 434 Cross, Henri-Edmond 360, 362 The Death of the Virgin (Giovanni Bellini) 126
Composition with Red, Black, Blue,
Ecole de Paris 433, 458-61
Cross (Godefroid de Huy) 83 (Christus) 148 Dolci, Carlo 99, 205
and Yellow (Mondrian) 445
L’Ecorché (Flayed Body)
The Cross in the Mountains Death Seizing a Woman (Kollwitz) Dolfin family 254
Composition with Three Figures
(Houdon) 248
(Friedrich) 308 410 Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem 72, 73 Ecstasy of St Margaret of Cortona
(Weber) 453 Crowning Victors at Olympia December, Hunting Wild Boar Domenichino (Domenico Zampieri) (Lanfranco) 203
Compression (César) 551 (Barry) 264 (Limbourg brothers) 89 128, 197, 202, 203 Ecstasy of St Theresa (Bernini) 200
Conca, Sebastiano 253 Crucifix (Giotto) 86 The Declaration of Independence Domenico Veneziano 101 Ede, Jim 454
Conceptual art 551, 557-62 The Crucifixion (Fra Angelico) 99 (Trumbull) 280 Donatello 92, 95, 97, 103, 106, 177 Edo period 285-7
Concert Champétre (Titian) 130, 347 The Crucifixion (Heemskerck) 164 découpage 405 Dong Oichang 187 The Education of Love (Falconet) 248
Conder, Charles 359 Crucifixion (Perugino) 104 The Defence of Sevastopol Dong Yuan 79 Edward the Confessor
Confess All On Video (Wearing) 581 The Crucifixion of Christ (Dejneka) 511 Dongen, Kees van 407 (Giambologna) 179
Confucianism 285 (Tintoretto) 136 Degas, Edgar 15, 20, 30, 261, 336, Dorelia and the Children at Edward Grimston (Christus) 148
The Consequence of War Crucifixion of St Peter 340, 341, 354-5 Martigues (A John) 449 Egbert, Archbishop of Trier 67
(Rubens) 510 (Caravaggio) 198 Déjeuner sur I‘herbe (Manet) 344-7 Dorothy (Chase) 359 egg tempera 24
The Continence of Scipio The Crystal Palace (Pissarro) 352 Le Déjeunder sur I‘herbe, after Le Dos Ime (Konaté) 590 Egyptian art 46-9, 460, 546
(Poussin) 17 Cubism 361, 388, 416-27, 434, Manet (Picasso) 421
Dossi, Battista 123 Egyptian Set Design for Act // of The
Constable, John 18, 152, 276, 296, 462, 551 Dejneka, Aleksandr Aleksandrovic 511
Dossi, Dosso 123 Magic Flute (Schinkel) 309
297, 316, 317 Cubist Realism 453 Delacroix, Eugéne 261, 296, 297,
Dou, Gerrit 232, 235 Eiffel, Gustave 395
Constant, Henri-Joseph 328 Cucchi, Enzo 574 300-301, 336, 405
Double Portrait of Madame Rigaud Eiffel Tower, Paris 394
Construction: Stone with Collar cuneiform writing 44 Delaroche, Paul 22, 336
(Rigaud) 215 The Eiffel Tower(
(Gabo) 463 Cupid and Psyche (Canova) 35, 272 Delaunay, Robert 411, 427, 428,
Doughty, Thomas 323 Delaunay) 432
Construction Proun 2 (Lissitzky) 465 Cupid and Psyche (Gérard) 298 432, 459
Dou Vessel (Chinese) 51 Eitaku, Kobayashi 371
Constructivism 462-5, 483, 548 Cupids Making Gold (Roman) 60 Delaunay, Sonia 428, 432, 459
Dove, Arthur 452, 453 Eitoku, Kano 189, 285
Conté crayons 30 Currin, John 594, 595 Delft school 232, 236
Doves (Hepworth) 487 The Electric Chair (Warhol) 543
Continual Mobile, Continual Light della Quercia, Jacopo 95
Curry, John Steuart 490, 491 Drakensberg 39 Eleonora of Toledo and Her Son, XAGN
(Le Parc) 549 Curved Form (Trevalgan) della Robbia, Andrea 95
Draped Reclining Mother and Baby Giovanni de Medici (Bronzino) 178
The Conversion of St Paul (Hepworth) 487 della Robbia, Luca 95
(Moore) 29 Elephant, Horse, and Cow
(Parmigianino) 175 Cuyp, Aelbert 152, 235 Delvaux, Paul 474
drawings 30 (Marc) 411
Cook, Beryl 457 Cyclades Islands 53 Democritus (Ribera) 217
The Dream (Hodler) 385 Elijah in the Desert (Allston) 322
Copley, John Singleton 279 Cycladic kouros 56 Democritus in Meditation (Rosa) 205
The Dream of Constantine Elizabeth |, Armada Portrait (English LUV
copper, oil painting on 25 The Cycle of.Life (Vigeland) 388 Les Demoiselles dAvignon (Picasso)
(Piero della Francesca) 100 School) 546
Corday, Charlotte 269 The Cyclist (Goncharova) 433 416, 417, 418-19, 453
The Dream of St Ursula Elsheimer, Adam 25, 207
Cérdoba, Great Mosque 73 Cypress (Eitoku) 189 Demuth, Charles 452, 453
(Carpaccio) 127 The Embrace (Schiele) 315
Corinth, Lovis 341, 358 Denis, Maurice 380, 381
The Dream of Sir Lancelot at the Emilie Floge (Klimt) 413
Corkwood Dreaming Denmark, Neoclassicism 266
Chapel of the Holy Grail Emin, Tracey 581
(CP Tjapaltjarri) 587 Denning’s Point, Hudson River
Dada 465, 466-9, 470, 519, 533 (Doughty) 323 (Burne-Jones) 386 Emperor Justinian and Attendants
The Corn Poppy (van Dongen) 407
Dagmar (Zorn) 389 The Dressmaker (Botero) 569 (Byzantine) 65
Cornaro Chapel, S. Maria della The Dentist (Teniers) 227
Dahn, Walter 574 The Dressmaker (Roberts) 443 Emperor Mutsuhito Returning to his
Vittorio, Rome 200 Deogarh, Dashavatara Temple 75
Dai Jin 185 The Departure of the Volunteers in Drifting Smoke (Williams) 153 Palace in Tokyo (Japanese) 338
Cornelius, Peter von 310
Dali, Salvador 129, 470, 474-7, 478 1792 (Rude) 394 Driftwood (Homer) 391 Emperor Wudi of Northern Zhou
Cornell, Joseph 551, 555
Danaé (Gossaert) 154 The Deposition of Christ du Barry, Madame 249 Dynasty (Yan Liben) 78
Corner Relief (Tatlin) 462
Danae (Klimt) 413 (Pontormo) 177 Dubuffet, Jean 32, 516, 517, 521, 551 The Empire of Lights
A Cornfield with Cypresses
(Van Gogh) 378 Danae Receiving the Shower of Gold depth, landscapes 18 Duccio di Buoninsegna 24, 85, 87 (Magritte) 478
Coronation of the Virgin (Titian) 15, 93 Derain, André 402, 403, 406, 407 Duchamp, Jacques 426 Empress of India (Stella) 527
(Quarton) 150 The Dance (Carpeaux) 395 Derby Day (Frith) 334 Duchamp, Marcel 28, 466, 467, 470, The Engagement
Corot, Camille 324, 328, 348 The Dance (Matisse) 57 The Descent from the Cross 5837 5375480551 557) (Lucas van Leyden) 154
Corps Etranger (Hatoum) 562 Dance at Bougival (Renoir) 350 (Rubens) 224, 263 Duchamp-Villon, Raymond 426, 427 England see Britain
Correggio 22, 93, 124, 131, 176, 298 Dance at the Moulin Rouge Descent from the Cross The Duchess de Montejasi and engraving 31
Cortona, Pietro da 194, 204 (Toulouse-Lautrec) 355 (Weyden) 146 her Daughters Elena and Camilla Enlightenment 266
Cosimo | and His Artists (Vasari) 178 Dance of Death (Notke) 174 The Descent of Christ into Limbo (Degas) 15 Ennui (Sickert) 447
The Céte des Boeufs at |'‘Hermitage The Dancer (Bomberg) 451 (Bermejo) 150 Dufy, Raoul 402, 407 L’Enseigne de Gersaint
(Pissarro) 352 A Dancer at the Rat Mort The Destroyed City (Zadkine) 521 Dughet, Gaspard 18, 259 (Watteau) 244
Cotelle, Jean the Younger 214 (Viaminck) 406 The Destroyed Room (Wall) 578 The Duke of Wellington (Goya) 302 Ensor, James 385
Cotman, John Sell 276, 277 The Dancers (Nolde) 408 The Destruction of the Father Duquesnoy, Francois 207 Entombment Triptych (Campin) 141
Cotopaxi (Church) 322 The Dancers (Tamayo) 498 (Bourgeois) 573 Durand, Asher Brown 297, 323 Entrance to the Grand Canal, Venice
A Cottage in a Cornfield The Dancing Class (Degas) 354 Detroit Industry, North Wall Durer, Albrecht 31, 138-9, 168-9, (Bellotto) 257
(Constable) 152 Dante Alighieri 332, 333, 356, 357, (Rivera) 443 260, 408 The Epsom Derby (Géricault) 299
CounterReformation 119, 194, 199 394, 395, 535 Development of a Bottle in Space Durham, Jimmie 595 Epstein, Jacob 371, 446, 450, 451
Country Reunion (Bauchant) 456 Danube Schoo! 171 (Boccioni) 428 Dutch Baroque 195, 228-41 Equestrian Monument to
Couple (Man Clothed) Dau-al-Set (Seven-sided Die) The Devil in the Church Dutch Landscape with Skaters Bartolommeo Colleoni
(DeAndrea) 571 movement 519 (Siqueiros) 498 (Ruysdael) 21 (Verrocchio) 104
Courbet, Gustave 57 315, 324, 326-7, Daubigny, Charles 324 Diaghilev, Sergei 433 A Dutch Yacht Firing a Salute as a Equivalent VII (Andre) 531
340, 347, 490 The Daughters of Edward Darley Diagonal of May 25, 1963 (Flavin) Barge Pulls Away (Cappelle) 233 Erasmus 155, 173
The Course of Empire: Destruction Boit (Sargent) 15, 371 531 Duthuit, Georges 426 Erfurth, Hugo 483
(Cole) 323 Daumier, Honoré 324, 325, 328 Diana Kirke, later Countess of Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains Erminia Finds the Wounded Tancred
The Court Instructress Writing the David, Gerard 154, 156 Oxford (Lely) 241 (Huang) 79 (Guercino) 202
Admonitions (Gu) 78 David, Jacques-Louis 16, 266-7, Diary of a Seducer (Gorky) 508 Dyce, William 311 Ernst, Max 468, 470, 471
The Courtyard of a House in Delft 268-9 Diaz, Narcisse 324 Dyck, Anthony van see Van Dyck, Eros (Gilbert) 387
(de Hooch) 236 David (Michelangelo) 56, 93, 118, 177 Diderot, Denis 239, 247 Anthony Dynamism of a Cyclist Estes, Richard 570, 571
Coustou, Guillaume 249 David Hume (Ramsay) 259 Die (Smith) 529 (Boccioni) 431 etchings 27
Etienne Chevalier and St Stephen Ferrara, Dukes of 123 format A Game ofTric-Trac (Leyster) 16 Girardon, Francois 214
(Fouquet) 151 Festival of the Rose Garlands landscapes 18 Gamma Epsilon (Louis) 525 Giraud, Eugéne 383
Etruscan art 59 (Durer) 169 portraits 14 Ganymede and Jupiter Girl Born without a Mother
Etty, William 334 Fetting, Rainer 574 Fosso, Samuel 591 (Thorvaldsen) 273 (Picabia) 466
Eugéne Manet with His Daughter at Field Painting (Johns) 539 Fountain (Duchamp) 28, 467 The Garden (Macke) 411 Girl by a Mantelpiece (Gilman) 447
Bougival (Morisot) 341 The Fight Between Arjuna and Karna The Fountain of the Innocents The Garden at Arles (Van Gogh) 34 Girl with Beret (Freud) 566
European art (Rajput) 293 (Goujon) 180 Garden of Earthly Delights Girl with Peaches (Serov) 393
cave and rock art38 The Fight Between Jacob and the Fountain of Neptune (Bosch) 158-61 Girl with a Pearl Earring (Vermeer) 237
Europe today 588-9 Angel (Denis) 381 (Giambologna) 179 The Garden of the Hesperides Girl with a Red Hat (Vermeer) 22
Post-war art 516-22 The “Fighting Temeraire” Tugged to Fouquet, Jean 151, 510 (Leighton) 335 Girl with Roses (Freud) 547
Realism 494-5 her Last Berth to be Broken up Four Fathers of the Church The Garden of Wang Chuan's Girodet, Anne-Louis 23, 266, 267, 270
see also individual countries Turner) 318-21 (Giotto) 24 Residence (Qin Ying) 187 Girtin, Thomas 276, 277
Evans, Sir Arthur 53 Figurative painting 490-95, 563-9, 594 Four Figures and a Cube Garden Painting (Roman) 60-61 Gislebertus 56, 82
Eve (Gislebertus) 82 Figure in a Deserted Landscape (Schlemmer) 483 Gardens along Victoria Embankment Giulio Romano 92-3, 176, 181
Evening on Karl Johan (Munch) 17 Minton) 477 Four Knights (Gilbert & George) 578 (Ginner) 448 Glad Day or Albion Rose (Blake) 312
Evening Wind (Hopper) 492 Figure in a Shelter (Moore) 488 FourPiece Composition: Reclining The Gardens of the Villa d’Este, Tivoli glass, Islamic 73
Ever is all Over (Rist) 581 Figure in Fancy Dress Figure (Moore) 488 (Corot) 328 The Glass Wall (Clarke) 28
Everyone | Have Ever Slept With Fragonard) 246 The Four Rivers Fountain Gardner, Daniel 316 glazing 25
1963-1995 (Emin) 581 Figure Lying on its Side (No. 5) (Bernini) 194 The Gare Saint-Lazare: Arrival of a The Gleaners (Millet) 325
Everything is Purged from this Armitage) 520 The Four Tetrarchs (Byzantine) 65 Train (Monet) 349 Gleizes, Albert 416, 427
Painting (Baldessari) 557 Figure painting (Li Keran) 35 Fowling in the Marshes Garrick, David 263 Gleyre, Charles 348, 350, 352, 353
The Execution of Lady Jane Grey Figures at the Seashore (Egyptian) 47 Gasometers at Clichy (Signac) 360 ~ Glory of St Ignatius Loyola and the
(Delaroche) 22 (Picasso) 420-21 Fragonard, Jean-Honoré 242, 243, The Gates of Hell (Rodin) 356 Missionary Work of the Jesuits
The Execution of the Emperor figurines 246, 348 Gaudi, Antoni 465 (Pozzo) 206
Maximilian (Manet) 342 Neolithic pottery 40-41 framing, landscapes 18 GaudierBrzeska, Henri 446, 450 The Goatherd beside the Water
Exekias 54 prehistoric 40 France Gauguin, Paul 360-61, 372-3, 380 (Corot) 328
The Exhumation of the Mastodon Fiji 399 academic art 336-7, 340 Gaulli, Giovanni Battista 206 Goes, Hugo van der 147
(Peale) 280 The Finding of Moses (Poussin) 20 Art Nouveau 382-4 Geertgen tot Sint Jans 149 Goethe, Johannn Wolfgang 240
The Exposition of Moses Finlay, lan Hamilton 511 Baroque 194-5, 210-15 Gehry, Frank 588 gold 33
(Poussin) 212 Fire and Childhood (Lievens) 232 cave art 38 Geneva Circle Two (Long) 553 The Golden Isles (Cross) 362
An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Fire Painting (Klein) 520 Cubism 416 genre paintings 16, 154 The Golden Legend (Voragine) 147
Pump (Wright of Derby) 264 The First Anniversary of the Death of Ecole de Paris 458-61 Gent, Joos van 121 Golden Pheasant (Chinese) 26
Expressionism 358, 360, 385, Beatrice (Rossetti) 333 Fauvism 402-7 Gentile da Fabriano 88, The Goldfinch (Fabritius) 232
390, 434 Fischer, Johann Michael 242 Impressionism 340-57 Gentileschi, Artemisia 199 Goldsworthy, Andy 551, 554
Abstract Expressionism 502-15, Fischer von Erlach, Johann 250 International Gothic art 88-9 Gentileschi, Orazio 199 Goncalves, Nuno 150
523, 537, 538, 557 The Fisherman (Henry) 442 Mannerism 175 George, Prince Regent 265 Goncharova, Natalia 428, 433, 440, 443
German Expressionism 408-11 The Fishmonger (Tatlin) 462 Nabis 380-81 George III, King of England 259, 265 Gong Xian 281, 284
Neo-Expressionism 574-6 5 x 7 (Turnbull) 528 Neoclassicism 266, 268-71 George and Gugu (Polke) 545 Gonzaga, Federigo 176
Eyck, Jan van 25, 138-9, 142-5, 5 Cubes with Hidden Cubes Neo- and Postimpressionism 360-79 George Frederick Handel Gonzaga, Gianfrancesco 88
260, 546, 563 (LeWitt) 529 Realism 324, 325-9 (Roubiliac) 264 Gonzalez, Jules 421, 461, 514
Eyes in the Heat (Pollock) 503 Five Revolutionary Seconds X/ Rococo 242, 244-9 George Washington (Houdon) 248 Good Government in the City (A
Eyes of Oedipus (Gottlieb) 509 (TaylorWood) 580 Romanticism 296-7, 298-301 George Washington at Princeton Lorenzetti) 85
Flack, Audrey 571 Symbolism 382-4 (Peale) 280 The Good Shepherd
Flag for a New World Power Francis | and Alessandro Farnese Georgiana, Countess of Spencer, and (Early Christian) 64
(Anatsui) 590 Entering Paris in 1540 (Zuccaro) 179 her Daughter (Reynolds) 262 Gore, Frederick 300
Fable (Klimt) 413 The Flagellation of Christ Francis lll, Emperor 267 Gérard, Francois 298 Gore, Spencer 446, 447, 448, 449
Fabritius, Carel 232 (Piero della Francesca) 100 Franco, Battista 179 Gerard, M 246 Gorky, Arshile 502, 508
The Factory 533, 543 Flaming June (Leighton) 335 Franco, General Francisco 424, 425, Géricault, Théodore 30, 296, 297, Gormley, Antony 583
Faith, Hope, Love (Kiefer) 576 Flanagan, Barry 585 474, 519 298-9, 510 Gossaert, Jan (Mabuse) 154, 155
Falconet, Etienne-Maurice 243, Flanders 138-9 Francois |, King of France 112, 138, GERMANIA (Haacke) 561 Gothic art 82-9
248, 249 Flaubert, Gustave 383 175, 180, 181, 213 Germany International Gothic 88-9, 140
Fall (Riley) 550 Flavin, Dan 531 Bauhaus 482-5 stained glass 83
Frankenthaler, Helen 513, 523, 524
The Fall of the Giants Flaxman, John 267, 273 Expressionism 408-11 Gothic Landscape (Krasner) 509
Franklin, Sir John 335
(Giulio Romano) 176 Flemish paintings Impressionism 341 Gottlieb, Adolph 502, 509
Frasney, Daniel 478
The Fall of Man (Michelangelo) 119 Baroque 195, 224-7 Frederick Il, King of Prussia 249 Jugendstil 382 Goujon, Jean 180
The Fall of Man and the Redemption Renaissance 138-9 Nazarenes 297, 310-11, 333 Goya, Francisco de 56, 296, 297,
Frederick Augustus, Elector of
(Van der Goes) 147 Fleury, James Vivien de 167 Neo-Expressionism 574 302-7, 342, 424, 511
Saxony 251
Fall of the Rebel Angels (Floris) 165 Fleury, Sylvie 589 Northern Renaissance 139 Goyen, Jan van 233
Frederick Barbarossa 254-5
Family | (Polke) 533 Flight into Egypt Realism 324, 330 Gozzoli, Benozzo 99
The Freeing of St Peter from Prison
Family Group (Schrank) 329 (Annibale Carracci) 196 (Honthorst) 207 Renaissance 166-74 Gradiva Rediscovers the
Family Group in a Landscape The Flood (Baldung) 139 Rococo 242, 250-51 Anthropomorphic Ruins —
French Revolution 268, 269
(Hals) 546 The Flood at Port-Marly (Sisley) 353 Romanticism 296-7, 308-11 Retrospective Fantasy (Dali) 474
fresco 24
Family Portrait (Van Dyck) 15 Floor Burger (Oldenburg) 540 Gér6éme, Jean-Léon 337, 383 Graffiti art 574, 577
Freud, Lucian 15, 30, 57 547 563, 564
Family Reunion (Bazille) 352 The Floor Strippers Gersaint, Edmeé 244 The Graham Children (Hogarth) 258
Freud, Sigmund 412, 470, 474,
Fang art 397 (Caillebotte) 353 Ghe, Nikolai 331 Granada Cathedral 222
475, 566
Fantastic Landscape (A Cozens) 276 Florence 92 Ghent Altarpiece (Van Eyck) 142 Grand Tour 242, 252, 253, 256
Friedrich, Caspar David 20, 23, 274,
Fantin-Latour, Henri 337 Baptistery 94, 95, 99 Ghiberti, Lorenzo 94, 97 La Grande Jatte (Seurat) 26, 364-7
296-7, 308, 309
Farewell Paradise (Hoyland) 28 cathedral 92 Ghirlandaio, Domenico 15, 103, 104, Grande Nucleo (Grand Nucleus)
Friends Walking (Armitage) 520
Farewell to Crete (Morley) 570 Mannerism 175, 180 105, 147 (Oiticica) 549
Frith, William Powell 334
Farmers at Work (Chinese) 442 Palazzo Pitti, Sala di Apollo 204 Ghislandi, Giuseppe 254 The Grande Odalisque (Ingres) 56
front lighting 22
The Farnese Hercules Santa Maria del Carmine 96 Giacometti, Alberto 35, 474, 516, 518 Grant, Duncan 446, 449
Fry, Roger 446, 448, 450, 451
(Hellenistic) 58 Floris, Frans 165 Giambologna 175, 179, 184 Gravelot, Hubert 243, 263
Fuji in Clear Weather (Hokusai) 338
Fate of the Animals (Marc) 411 Flower of the Death of Loneliness Gibbons, Grinling 195, 241 The Great City of Tenochtitlan
funeral art, Egyptian 47
Fautrier, Jean 516, 517 (Durham) 595 Giedion, Siegfried 529 (Rivera) 497
Funerary Mask of TutanKhamum
Fauvism 402-7, 409, 411, 417, 434 The Flowered Canoe (Rivera) 496 Gilbert, Alfred 387 The Great Jungle or Light in the
(Egyptian) 46
The Faux Pas (Watteau) 314 Flowers (Warhol) 543 Gilbert & George 547, 578, 579 Forest (Lam) 479
Fuseli, Henry 129, 273, 296, 313
The Feast of Herod (Donatello) 97 Fluxus 580 gilding 27 Great Sphinx (Egyptian) 46, 48
Futurism 357, 411, 428-31, 433, 434,
Feathered Coyote (Aztec) 128 Flynt, Henry 557 Gill, Eric 33 The Great Wave of Kanagawa
440, 448, 463
Feininger, Lyonel 482 Fontainebleau 180-81 Gilles (Watteau) 244 (Hokusai) 338
Female figures and cherubs Fontana, Lucio 529 Gillot, Claude 244 El Greco 136, 175, 182-3
surrounding a painting of Alexander Fonte Gaia (Quercia) 95 Gilman, Harold 446, 447, 448, 449 Greece, ancient 52-8, 60, 370
the Great For the Love of God (Hirst) 582 Gabo, Naum 463, 548 Gin Lane (Hogarth) 258 Archaic Period 54
(Primaticcio) 181 foreshortening 20 Gainsborough, Thomas 152, 242, Ginner, Charles 446, 448 Classical Period 55
Feminist art 572-3 The Forest at Fontainebleau: 243, 263, 546 Giordano, Luca 206, 221, 223 and Neoclassicism 266
La Femme 100 Tétes (Ernst) 470 Morning (Rousseau) 328 Galle, Theodor 142, 155, 156 Giorgione 93, 130-31, 135 The Greek Slave (Powers) 395
Fénéon, Felix 360, 366 Forest of Pines (Tohaku) 189 Gallen-Kallela, Akseli 388 Giotto 24, 84, 86-7, 96 Greek War of Independence
Ferdinand |, Emperor 184 The Forge (Le Nain) 442 Galloping Horse (Muybridge) 354 Giovanna Tornabuoni née Albizzi (1821-32) 300
Ferdowsi 289 form, portraits 15 Game of Chess (Anguissola) 370 (Ghirlandaio) 105 Green Black (Kelly) 526
Green Marilyn (Warhol) 33 Head of a Girl (Scorel) 164 The Honourable Mrs Graham In the Omnibus (Cassatt) 353 Japonisme 338
Green Summer (Burne-Jones) 386 Head of a Man (Freud) 30 (Gainsborough) 263 Incas 190 Java 76
Gregory, St 66 Head of a Man (Alexander Sacharoff) Honthorst, Gerrit van 207 The Incredulity of St Thomas Jawlensky, Alexei von 408, 411
Gregory XV, Pope 202 (Jawlensky) 411 Hope (Watts) 387 (Caravaggio) 23 Jazz Band (Dirty Style Blues)
Greta Bridge, Durham (Cotman) 277 Head of a Peasant Woman Hopper, Edward 490, 492-3, 567 Independent Group 522, 533 (Dubuffet) 517
Greuze, Jean-Baptiste 247 (Van Gogh) 374 horizon, landscapes 21 Les Indes Galantes (de Stael) 518 Jealousy (Munch) 315, 390
Grey Container (Cragg) 19 The Head of Silenus with a Mask Horse and Groom in Winter (Zhao) 79 India Jeanne Hébuterne (Modigliani) 460
The Grey Tree (Mondrian) 444 (Roman) 60 Horse and Train (Colville) 568 Buddhist art 74 Jeanne-Claude 551, 552
Gris, Juan 416, 426 Head of a Young Woman with Horse Attacked by a Lion (Stubbs) 275 Hindu art 75, 292-3 Jerusalem, Dome of the Rock 72, 73
A Groom with Horses (Han) 78 Tousled Hair (La Scapigliata) horse racing 275 Mughal Empire 288, 290-91 jewellery, Ottonian 67
Gropius, Walter 482, 483 (Leonardo da Vinci) 112 Horse of Selene (Greek) 52 prehistoric art 50 The Jewess (Fautrier) 517
Gros, Antoine-Jean 266, 267 270, Head of a Youth Horsemen on the Beach Indonesia 398 The Jewish Bride (Rembrandt) 314
301, 336 (Annibale Carracci) 197 (Gauguin) 373 Industrial Landscape (Trevelyan) 32 The Jewish Cemetery (Ruisdael) 234
The Gross Clinic (Eakins) 392 Heartfield, John 469 Horses and Jockeys under the Trees Industrial Revolution 264 Joan of Arc 151
Grosz, George 469, 480 Heckel, Erich 408, 409 (Dufy) 407 Industry (Meunier) 395 Joash Shooting the Arrow of
Groupe de Recherche dArt Visuel 549 Heda, Willem Claesz 240 Houbraken, Arnold 235 The Infanta Margarita Teresa of Deliverance (Dyce) 311
The Groves of Versailles (Cotelle) 214 Heemskerck, Marten van 164 Houdon, Jean-Antoine 242, 248 Spain (Velazquez) 370 Joe's Black Dog (Weiss) 261
Grtinewald, Mathis 139, 170, 408 Heidelberg School 341, 359 The Hour of the Mad Spirit Inflammatory Essays (Holzer) 572 John, Augustus 446, 449, 450
Guardi, Francesco 35, 257 Held, Al 523, 526 (Riopelle) 515 Ingres, Jean-Auguste-Dominique 14, John, Gwen 446, 449
Guardi, Giacomo 257 Hellenistic art 58, 60 House (Whiteread) 582 56, 266, 267, 271, 296, 297, 563 Johns, Jasper 31, 529, 533, 535, 538-9
Guardian Angel (Pozzo) 206 Henri, Robert 452 The House of the Hanged Man LInitiation (Konaté) 590 Jones, Allen 533, 545
Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Henrietta Maria, Queen 226 (Cézanne) 368 ink drawings 30 Joolama, Rover Thomas 587
Barbieri) 56, 194, 202 Henry Vill, King of England 138, 173 The Houses of Parliament under Innocent X, Pope 201, 564-5 Jordaens, Jacob 227
Guérin 298, 300 Henry, Charles Napier 442 Construction (Carmichael) 335 Inquisition 137 Jorn, Asger 521
Guernica (Picasso) 422-5 Henry, Duke of Saxony (Cranach) 172 How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Insomnia (Wall) 578 Joseph Being Sold by his Brothers
Guggenheim, Peggy 503 Henry, Eighth Lord Arundell of Hare (Beuys) 558 installations 32 (Overbeck) 310
guilds 94 Wardour (Reynolds) 262 Howard, Henry 273 Instant Loveland (Olitski) 526 Joseph Recognised by His Brother
Guimard, Hector 382 Hepworth, Barbara 35, 468, 486, 487 Hoyland, John 28 Interior in the morning (Pirandello) 495 (Cornelius) 310
Guinea Fow!l (Pisanello) 88 Herculaneum 266 Huang Gongwang 79 Interior of a Kabuki Theatre Joshua Commanding the Sun to
Gundestrup Cauldron 63 Hercules and Lichas (Canova) 272 Huber, Wolfgang 171 (Masanobu) 286 Stand Still (Martin) 313
Gunther, Ignaz 251 Hercules, Deianeira, and the Centaur Hudson, Thomas 262, 264 Interior of St Peter's, Rome Josi, Christian 278
Guo Xi 79 Nessus (Spranger) 184 Hudson River Landscape (D Smith) 514 (Panini) 253 Ju Ran 79
Gupta Empire 75 Hercules slaying the Hydra Hudson River School 297, 322-3 Interior with Aubergines Judd, Donald 513, 529, 530
Gursky, Andreas 579 (Rottmayr) 250 Hughes, Arthur 129 (Matisse) 403 The Judgement of Paris
Gussow, Karl von 386 Herdsmen with Cows (Cuyp) 152 Hugo, Victor 301 Interior with the Artist's Mother (Cranach) 128, 172
The Gust of Wind (Renoir) 34 Here Today Gone Tomorrow Huizong, Emperor 78 (Hammershoi) 389 The Judgement of Paris
Gustavus III, King of Sweden 273 (Cragg) 584. The Hulsenbeck Children (Runge) 309 International Gothic 88-9, 140 (Raimondi) 347
Guston, Philip 514 The Hero Gilgamesh Holding a Lion The Human Condition (Magritte) 478 The Intervention of the Sabine Judith (Klimt) 413
Gutenberg, Johannes 139 that He Has Captured (Assyrian) 128 Humayan, Emperor 290 Women (J-L David) 268 Juel, Jens 266, 274
Gypsy Girl (Hals) 228 Hesse, Eva 19, 532 Hume, David 259 Interventionist Manifestation Jugendstil 382, 412
Hieratic Head of Ezra Pound Hummingbird (Nazca) 81 (Carra) 429 Julius Il, Pope 93, 118, 120
(GaudierBrzeska) 450 Humphry, Ozias 275 Intimacy (Bonnard) 380 Jung, Carl 474
The High Priestess (Kiefer) 576 The Hunt in the Forest (Uccello) 98 Invasion of the Night (Echaurren) 479 Junk Art 551, 555-6
Haacke, Hans 561 highlights 23 Hunt, William Holman 332, 333, 535 Invitation to Reclusion at Chaisang Juno and Jupiter (Hamilton) 266
Hadleigh Castle (Constable) 297 Hildesheim Cathedral 67 Jupiter and lo (Correggio) 124
Hunters in the Snow (January) (Shen Zhou) 185
Half (Noland) 525 Hilliard, Nicholas 14, 241, 276 “Just what was it that made
(Pieter Bruegel the Elder) 163 poustéguy, Jean Robert 522
Hallstatter-See (Waldmiller) 329 Hindu art 75, 292-3 Huy, Godefroid de 83 ran (Persia) 45, 288, 289 Yesterday's Homes so Different, so
Hals, Frans 15, 32, 194, 195, 228, 546 Hiroshige, Ando 339 Irises (Korin) 286 Appealing?” (Hamilton) 534
Huysmans, J-K 383
Hamangia culture 41 Hirst, Damien 261, 582 Iron Foundry (Sutherland) 443
Hydrangeas (Steer) 358 Justice (Vouet) 210
Hamilton, Gavin 266, 275 history painting 16, 336 The Justice of the Emperor Otto
Hyperrealism 570 sacks, Pieter 233
Hamilton, Richard 533, 534 Hitler, Adolf 384, 469 lsenheim Altarpiece (Grunewald) 170 (Bouts) 149
Hyppolite, Hector 456, 457
Hammershoi, Vilhelm 389 Hittite art 43 sfahan 65, 288, 289 JYM in the Studio Vil (Auerbach) 569
Han Gan 78 Hobbema, Meindert 234 slamic art 72-3, 288-91, 592
Hang up (Hesse) 532 Hockney, David 533, 534, 544 An Island (Lowry) 493
Hanging Installation (Messager) 589 Hodler, Ferdinand 385 / (Gilbert & George) 547 The Island of the Dead (Bocklin) 384
Hans von Aachen 184 A Hoeker alongside a Kaag at Anchor | Saw the Figure Five in Gold The Island, St Ives (Wallis) 454
Kahlo, Frida 496, 497, 499
Hanson, Duane 570 (van de Velde) 235 (Demuth) 453 The Israelites Gathering Manna Kahnweiler, Daniel-Henry 420, 426, 458
Hard Edge painting 525, 526, 533 Hofmann, Hans 502, 509, 513, 555 Iberia No. |! (Motherwell) 515 Kalf, Willem 240
(Poussin) 195
Haring, Keith 574, 577 Hogarth, William 242, 243, 258, Icicle Star (Goldsworthy) 554. Kandinsky, Wassily 361, 408, 434,
An Italian Landscape with Monte
Harlequin and Pierrot (Derain) 402 544, 546 ideal, classical 123 Socrate (Both) 233
435-9, 452, 502
Harlequin’s Carnival (Miro) 472-3 Hokusai, Katsushika 338, 339, 382 Illegitimate III (Tuymans) 589 Italy
Kandler, Johann Joachim 251
Harnett, William Michael 208 Holbein, Hans 138, 139, 173, 546 Illustration for the poem Pro Eto The Kangxi Emperor in His South
Baroque art 194, 196-207
Hartley, Marsden 452, 453 Holl, William 337 by Vladimir Mayakovsky early art 84-7
Inspection Tow (Wang Hui) 281
Hartung, Hans 516, 519 Hollyer, Frederick 387 (Rodchenko) 464 Kano school 189, 285
Etruscan art 59
Harunobu, Suzuki 287 Holm Oaks, Apremont (Rousseau) 328 Immaculate Conception (Murillo) 222 Kapoor, Anish 584
Gothic art 84-9
The Harvest Wagon Holy Family (Doni Tondo) Immaculate Conception and Six Mannerism 175-80
Kasatkin, Nikolai 324
(Gainsborough) 263 (Michelangelo) 118 Saints (Piero di Cosimo) 103 Neoclassicism 266
Die Kathedrale (Schwitters) 469
Hassam, Childe 341, 359 The Holy Family and St John the Immendorf, Jorg 574, 575 Katz, Alex 563, 568
Neo-Expressionism 574
Hatoum, Mona 557, 562 Baptist (Jordaens) 227 The Immortal Ge Changgeng Sitting Renaissance 92-137
Kauffmann, Angelica 60, 274
Haupt, Roland 489 The Holy Family with a Lamb on his Three-Legged Toad Rococo 242-3, 252-7
Kawara, On 557, 561
Hauptmann, |lvo 468 (Raphael) 92 (Tang Yin) 186 Keats, John 332
Stile Liberty 382
Having Coaxed My Lotus-Faced The Holy Family with St Elizabeth Immortals Celebrating a Birthday Itten, Johannes 482, 483
Kelley, Mike 594
Girl to Come Towards the Bed, and St John the Baptist (Chen Hongshou) 187 Ivanov, Alexander 311
Kelly, Ellsworth 23, 523, 526
| Eagerly Preapre to Undo Her (Primaticcio ) 181 Impossible III (Martins) 479 Kelly and Armour (Nolan) 567
Bodice, 293
Hawks in the Pine (Eitoku) 189
The Holy Family with Saints
(Pontormo) 177
Impressionism 34, 324, 336, 340-59,
382, 388, 391
J Khajuraho 75
Khnopff, Fernand 386
The Hay Wain (Constable) 316 Holy Inquisition 137 Imprint (Klein) 520 Jacob Ill de Gheyn (Rembrandt) 229 Kiefer, Anselm 574, 576
Haydon, Benjamin Robert 335 Holy Roman Empire 139 In a Café, or Absinthe (Degas) 355 Jacottet, Jean 213 Kienholz, Edward 551, 556
Haymaking (P Brueghel the Elder) 139 Holy Trinity with the Virgin, St John In a Shoreham Garden (Palmer) 313 Jahangir, Emperor 291 Kinetic Art 548-50
Hayman, Francis 243, 263 and Donors (Masaccio) 96 In Ictu Oculi (In the Blink of an Eye) James, Edward 475 Kinetic Construction
Haystack (Benton) 492 Holzer, Jenny 572 (Valdés Leal) 223 Janinet, Jean-Francois 269 (Moholy-Nagy) 483
Haystack, Hazy Sunshine (Monet) 153 Homage to Arcimboldo (Merz) 556 Industrial Landscape (Trevelyan) 28 Jansenists 211 King, Phillip 528
Hazlitt, William 258 Homage to the Square (Albers) 483 In Luxury, Look Out (Steen) 236 Japanese art The King of Brittany Receives
Hazoumé, Romuald 591 Home of Hezekiah King (Moses) 457 In the Garden at Pontoise: A Young Edo period 285-7 the English Ambassadors
Head (Brancusi) 441 Homer 273, 275 Woman Washing Dishes 15th and 16th centuries 188-9 (Carpaccio) 127
Head (Pevsner) 463 Homer, Winslow 391 (Pissarro) 443 Japanese art today 592, 593 King Priam Begging Achilles for
Head of Christ (Rouault) 406 Hongren 284 In the Luxembourg Gardens Neolithic pottery 40, 41 the Return of Hector’s Body
Head of Gerda Boehm (Auerbach) 25 Honoré de Balzac (Rodin) 356 (Menzel) 330 prints 338-9, 355, 374, 380 (lvanov) 311
Kirchner, Ernst Ludwig 21, 408, 409 Landscape After Wang Meng Lending a Bite (Mulready) 371 love 314-15 Maillol, Aristide 381
The Kiss (Brancusi) 441 (Wang Yuangqi) 282 length, portraits 14 Love and Death (Watts) 387 Maillot, Louis 484
The Kiss (Klimt) 414-15 Landscape at Céret (Gris) 426 Leonardo da Vinci 93, 112-17, 276, 546 Lovers from the Poem of the Pillow Majiayao culture 40
The Kiss (Masereel) 31 Landscape at Céret (Soutine) 461 Leoni, Ottavio 198 (Utamaro) 315 Malevich, Kasimir 434, 440, 462
The Kiss (Munch) 415 Landscape in the Riesengebirge Leopold Wilhelm, Archduke 227 Low Countries 139 Man in a Boat (Mueck) 585
The Kiss (Picasso) 315 (Friedrich) 20 Letter to My Son (Jorn) 521 Lowry, LS 454, 490, 493 A Man in a Turban (Van Eyck) 25
The Kiss (Rodin) 315, 356, 357 Landscape with Ascanius Shooting Lewis, Wyndham 446, 450, 451 Lucas van Leyden 154, 155 Man on a Plain (Heckel) 409
Kiss and Tell (Deacon) 584 the Stag of Sylvia (Claude) 213 LeWitt, Sol 529, 557, 560 Lucasz, Jan 164 Man Pointing (Giacometti) 516
Kitai, RB 544, 563 Landscape with the Ashes of Leyster, Judith 16, 314 Lucchesi, Matteo 252 Man Proposes, God Disposes
Kizette en Rose (Lempicka) 459 Phocion (Poussin) 212 Li Keran 35 Lucretius 110 (Landseer) 335
Klee, Paul 21, 484-5 Landscape with Bathers (Antonio Li Shan 281, 284 Ludovisi, Cardinal Ludovico 202 Man with Hand Plow (Pollock) 503
Klein, Yves 516, 520 Carracci) 152 Li Sixun 78 Ludovisi Sarcophagus (Roman) 61 Man Woman (Jones) 545
Klimt, Gustav 413-15, 434 Landscape with the Fall of Icarus Li Zhaodao 78 “Ludovisi Throne” 52 Mander, Karel van 155, 163, 198
Kline, Franz 502, 515 (Brueghel) 128, 163 Liberation Marianne (Colin) 516 The Luncheon of the Boating Party Manet, Edouard 27, 218, 336,
Klinger, Max 386 Landscape with Goats (Cross) 360 Liberty Leading the People (Renoir) 351 340, 342-7
Kneeling Woman (Lehmbruck) 410 Landscape with Hagar and the Angel (Delacroix) 300-301 Lundberg, Gustav 245 Mannerism 175-84, 194
Kneller, Godfrey 241 (Claude) 18 Lichtenstein, Roy 533, 540-41, 571 Lunetta con Constellazioni (Pezzo) 33 The Mansard Roof (Hopper) 493
Kngwarreye, Emily Kame 586 Landscape with Mountains, Rivers Lictors Bearing to Brutus the Bodies The Lute Player (Terborch) 236 Mantegna, Andrea 20, 106
Knight, TW 265 and Huts Among Trees of his Sons (J-L David) 16 The Lute Song (Wu Li) 283 manuscripts 99
The Knitter (Metzinger) 427 (Wang Jian) 281-2 Liebermann, Max 341, 358, 359 Luther, Martin 139, 172 The Book of Kells 70-71
knives, painting with 25 Landscape with Ruined Castle and Lievens, Jan 232 Luxe, Calme, et Volupté Carolingian 66
Knossos 53 Church (Ruisdael) 18 The Life Room (Norwich School of Art) (Matisse) 403, 407 Islamic 72
Kobke, Christen 274 Landscape with St George and the (Wonnacott) 563 The Lyceum (Casas) 391 Ottonian 67
Kokoschka, Oskar 371, 412 Dragon (Domenichino) 128 ight and shade 22-3 Lyme Regis, Dorset (Girtin) 277 Persian 289
Kollwitz, Kathe 410 Landscape with St Jerome Lightning Field (De Maria) 554 Lyrical Abstraction 515 Turkish 288
Konark, Sun Temple 75 (Patinir) 156 Limbourg brothers 89, 152 Lysippus 58 Manzoni, Piero 557, 559
Konaté, Abdoulaye 590 landscapes 18, 21, 152-3 Limmen Bight River Country Mao Tse-Tung (Warhol) 543
Kongo container of spirits (African) 16 Landseer, Edwin 261, 335 (Munduwalawala) 586 Maori art 399
Koons, Jeff 584 Lanfranco, Giovanni 203 Lin, Maya 595 Marat, Jean-Paul 269
Laocoén (Hellenistic) 58, 225 Linda (Close) 571 Ma Yuan 20, 79, 152 Marc, Franz 182, 261, 408, 411
Korin, Ogata 286
Lapita culture 398 Linear Construction in Space Mabuse see Gossaert, Jan Marching Man (Nauman) 594
Kossoff, Leon 34, 563
A Lapith Fighting a Centaur (Greek) 55 Number 1 (Gabo) 463 McCarthy, Paul 594 March: peasants at work on a feudal
Kostionki Venus 40
The Large Bathers (Cézanne) 368-9 linear perspective 20 Mach, David 585 estate (Limbourg brothers) 152
Kosuth, Joseph 557, 561
Large Bouquet of Flowers in a Lipchitz, Jacques 427 Macke, August 411, 484 March of the Weavers (Kollwitz) 410
Kota art 396
Wooden Tub (J Brueghel) 227 Lipnitski, Boris 403 Mackenzie, William 337 The Marchesa Casati (A John) 449
Kramskoi, lvan 311, 324, 331
Large Frog, Version II (Paolozzi) 522 Lippi, Filippo 102, 107 Mackintosh, Charles Rennie 382 Marie-Antoinette (Vigée-Lebrun) 270
Krapow, Allan 540
The Large Glass (Duchamp) 467 Lipsticks in Piccadilly Circus, London McSorley’s Bar (Sloan) 452 Marie de Meédicis Arriving at
Krasner, Lee 509, 513
Large Red Interior (Matisse) 403 (Oldenburg) 533 Madame Antonia de Vaucay Marseilles (Rubens) 224
Kriemhild Sees the Dead Siegfried
in a Dream (Fuseli) 129 The Large Spruce (Altdorfer) Lisboa, Anténio Francisco 223 (Ingres) 14 Marilyn Diptych (Warhol) 542-3
Larionov, Mikhail 428, 433, 440, 462 Lissitzky, El 434, 462, 465 Madame Charles Max (Boldini) 393 Marilyn (Vanitas) (Flack) 571
Krishna Fluting for Go Pas and Cows
Larsson, Carl 388, 389 ithographs 27 Madame Moitessier (Ingres) 271 Marinetti, Filippo 428, 430, 431
(Pahari) 293
Lascaux caves 38 Little Dancer, Aged 14 (Degas) 354 Madame de Pompadour Marini, Marino 488
Krishna Steals the Clothes of Gopies
(Pahari) 293 Last Communion of St Jerome The Little Fish (Beckmann) 481 (Boucher) 245 Marly Horse (Coustou) 249
Kroyer, Peder Severin 388 (Domenichino) 202 Liu Kuan-tao 260 Madame Récamier (J-L David) 269 Marquet, Albert 402, 406, 407
Kruger, Barbara 572 The Last of England (Brown) 333 Liu Xiaodong 593 Die Madchen von Olmo II Marriage a la Mode (Hogarth) 258
Kublai Khan 78, 79 The Last Judgement (Cornelius) 310 Living Sculpture (Manzoni) 559 (Baselitz) 575 The Marriage Feast at Cana
Kublai Khan Hunting The Last Judgement (Gislebertus) 82 Lloyds (Bawden) 443 Mademoiselle Pogani (Brancusi) 441 (Veronese) 137
(Liu Kuan-tao) 260 The Last Judgement = Loading Coal on Cargo Ships Madonna (Munch) 390: The Marriage of the Virgin
Kugelgen, Franz Gerhard von 308 (Lucas van Leyden) 155 (Bewick) 264 Madonna and Child (Perugino) 104 (Rosso Fiorentino) 180
Kuncan 284 Last Judgement (Scorel) 25 Loading a Ship (Roman) 442 Madonna and Child Crowned by Two Mars and Venus (Roman) 314
Kuniyoshi, Utagawa 339 The Last Judgement Lobster Telephone (Dali) 475 Angels (G David) 154 Mars and Venus (Sergel) 273
Kupka, FrantiSek 433 (Zimmermann) 250 Lochner, Stefan 166 Madonna and Child Enthroned with Marshall, Kerry James 594
Kusama, Yayoi 592, 593 The Last Supper (Bouts) 149 The Lockyer Tavern (Cook) 457 Angels and Saints (Fra Angelico) 16 Marshland Farmhouse (Nolde) 408
Kyoto, Ryoan-ji Temple 188 The Last Supper (Castagno) 103, 116 La Loge (Renoir) 351 Madonna and Child with Angels Marsyas (Kapoor) 584
The Last Supper (Ghe) 331 London Group 446 (Correggio) 124 Martin V, Pope 92, 166
L The Last Supper Long, Richard 153, 551, 553 Madonna and Child with Canon Joris
van der Paele (Van Eyck) 138
Martin, Agnes 28
(Leonardo da Vinci) 114-17 Longhi, Pietro 257, 442 Martin, John 297, 313
La Fresnaye, Roger de 416, 427 The Last Supper (Tintoretto) 136 Loos, Adolf 412 Madonna and Child with St John the Martini, Simone 86, 87
La Tour, Georges de 210 Lastman, Pieter 232 Lopez, Candido 510 Baptist (Botticelli) 107 Martinique Landscape (or Tropical
La Tour, Maurice-Quentin de 247 The Laughing Cavalier (Hals) 228 Lord Byron (Gore) 300 Madonna and Child with St John Vegetation) (Gauguin) 372
Laoco6n and His Sons (Greek) 52 Laura (Giorgione) 130 Lord John and Lord Bernard Stuart the Baptist and St Jerome Martins, Maria 479
The Ladies Waldegrave (Reynolds) 262 Laurencin, Marie 459 (Van Dyck) 226 (Parmigianino) 176 The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian
Lady and Dog on the Beach (Sorolla Laurens, Henri 427 Lord Torrington’s Hunt (Stubbs) 275 Madonna Enthroned (Cimabue) 85 (Pollaiuolo) 102
y Bastida) 341 Laus Veneris (Burne-Jones) 386 Lorelei (Frankenthaler) 524 The Madonna Enthroned (Duccio di Masaccio 92, 96, 99, 103
Lady Caroline Montagu Lavery, John 393 Lorenzetti, Ambrogio 84, 85 Buoninsegna) 85 Masanobu, Okumura 286
(Reynolds) 370 Lawrence, Sir Thomas 265, 334 Lorenzetti, Pietro 84, 85 Madonna of the Harpies Masereel, Frans 27
The Lady of Auxerre (Greek) 52, 54 Lazzarini, Gregorio 254 Lorenzo de’ Medici (Verrocchio) 104 (Andrea del Sarto) 122 Masolino 97
A Lady Reading (G John) 449 Le Brun, Charles 214, 215 Lorenzo de Medici, “The Madonna of Mercy (Quarton) 150 Masquerade at Persepolis
Lady with a Book of Verse by Le Corbusier 456, 519, 521 Magnificent” (Vasari) 178 Madonna of the Rocks (Primaticcio) 181
Petrarch (Andrea del Sarto) 122 Le Nain, Antoine 211 lost-wax technique, sculpture 33 (Leonardo da Vinci) 112 mass production 529
The Lady with the Ermine (Cecilia Le Nain, Louis 211, 442 Loth, Johann Carl 250 Madonna of the Rose Bower The Massacre of Chios
Gallerani) (Leonardo da Vinci) 113 Le Nain, Mathieu 211 Lotto, Lorenzo 125 (Schongauer) 167 (Delacroix) 300
Lake Keitele (Gallen-Kallela) 388 Le Notre, André 213 Lotus Flower (Yun Shouping) 281 Madonna of the Trees Masson, André 470, 472, 474
Lake near Moritzburg (Heckel) 409 Le Parc, Julio 549 Lotus Flower from an Album of (Giovanni Bellini) 126 Massys, Quentin 139, 155, 442
Lalique, René 382 Lebrun, Jean-Baptiste 270 Flowers (Yun Shouping) 283 Madonna Standing with the Child Master of Flémalle 141
Lam, Wifredo 479 Leda and the Swan (Cézanne) 129 Lotus, homage to Xu Wei and Angels (Massys) 155 Master of the Wilton Diptych 89
The Lamentation of Christ Leda and the Swan (Pontormo) 16 (Zhu Da) 283 Madonna with the Long Neck Maternity (Epstein) 446
(Giotto) 86-7 Leda Atomica (Dali) 129 Louis XI, King of France 151 (Parmigianino) 176 Matisse, Henri 57 361, 402,
The Lamentation over the Dead Leeds Market (Gilman) 447 Louis XIII, King of France 207, 213, Madrid 216 403-5, 516
Christ (Christus) 148 Legend (Guston) 514 214, 215 The Madwoman Afflicted with Envy Matta, Roberto 508
Lamothe, Louis 354 legends and myths 128-9 Louis XIV, King of France 194-5, 200, (Géricault) 298 The Matter of Time (Serra) 532
Land art 551, 552-4, 557 Léger, Fernand 426, 459, 521, 573 204, 214, 215 Maesta (Duccio di Buoninsegna) Matuishin, Mikhail 440
Land, Fish, and Motor Vessel! Lehmbruck, Wilhelm 410 Louis XIV (Rigaud) 215 85, 87 Maulbertsch, Franz Anton 242,
(Wallis) 454 Leibl, Wilhelm 324, 330 Louis XV, King of France 242, 245, The Magic Apple Tree (Palmer) 297 243, 251
Landscape (Ni) 79 Leighton, Frederic 335 247, 249 Magic base (Manzoni) 559 Maurice of Saxony 249
Landscape (Zhu Da) 281 Lely, Peter 195, 241 Louis, Morris 523, 524-5 Magritte, René 470, 474, 478, 560 Maurier, Clement 353
Landscape After Huang Gong Wang Lemoyne, Jean-Baptiste 249 The Louvre seen from the Pont Neuf Maholy-Nagy, Laszlé 548 Max Schmitt in a Single Scull
(Wang Shimin) 281-282 Lempicka, Tamara de 459 (Jacottet) 213 Maid Servant at a Window (Dou) 232 (Eakins) 392
Maximilian |, Emperor 169 Minton, John 477 Morot, Aimé 337 Nazarenes 297, 310-11, 333
aya culture 81 Miracle of the Cross at the Bridge of Morris, Robert 529, 530, 532 azca culture 80, 81
Mayakovsky, Vladimir 464, 465 San Lorenzo (Gentile Bellini) 127 Morris, William 297, 332, 333, Nazis 469, 517, 576
The Oath of the Horatii
The Meal (The Bananas) (Gauguin) 361 Miracle of the Dragons (Cione) 27 382, 386 Near East, ancient art 42-5
(J-L David) 268-9
The Mechanic (Léger) 426 The Miracle of St Mark Freeing a Morrisseau, Norval 595 Near Heidelberg (Streeton) 359
Object (Oppenheim) 474
Medea (Sandys) 129 Slave (Tintoretto) 136 mosaics 64—5, 73 eer, Aert van der 233
Obmokhu
media 24-9 The Miraculous Draught of Fishes Mosan School 83 efertiti, Queen 48-9
(Society of Young Artists) 462
Medici, Cosimo | de’ 177, 178 (Witz) 166 Moses, Grandma 454, 457 Nemesis (The Great Fortune)
Oceania 398-9, 460
Medici, Cardinal Giulio de’ 125 Mird, Joan 470, 472-3 Moses (Michelangelo) 118 (Durer) 27
The Odalisque (Matisse) 405
Medici, Lorenzo de’ 104, 110, 178 Mirror (Schwitters) 469 Moses and the Daughters of Jethro Neoclassicism 266-75, 394
Odalisque (Zadkine) 521
Medici family 92, 99, 102, 104, 118, Mirror Stratum (Smithson) 553 (Rosso Fiorentino) 180 eo-Expressionism 574-6
Ode to the Pomegranate and Melon
WS, 179, 204 Mr and Mrs Andrews Mother and Child (Moore) 488 é0-Grec group 337
Vine (Shen Zhai) 185
The Mediterranean Cat (Balthus) 492 (Gainsborough) 263 Mother and Children (Yoruba) 370 eo-lmpressionism 360-67,
Oedipus Rex (Ernst) 471
Meenakshi Temple (Hindu) 292 Mr and Mrs Ralph Izard (Copley) 279 Mother Catherine-Agnés Arnault and 428, 429
Oehlen, Albert 574
Meeting of Planets (Pevsner) 463 Mrs James Warren (Copley) 279 Sister Catherine de Sainte-Suzanne Neo-Primitivism 433, 440
The Offing (Wadsworth) 451
Meissen 251 Mrs Sarah Siddons, the Actress de Champaigne (Champaigne) 211 eolithic pottery 40-41
Ofili, Chris 582
Meissen Figure of a Poultry Seller (Gainsborough) 546 Motherwell, Robert 515, 523, 524 Neptune and Amphitrite oil painting 25, 33
(Kandler) 251 Mrs Siddons as the Tragic Muse Moulin de la Galette, Paris 350 (Gossaert) 154 Oiticica, Hélio 549
Meissonier, Ernest 330, 336, 511 (Reynolds) 262 Mountain Landscape, after Huang Neptune Offering Gifts to Venice Oiwa (Hokusai) 382
MeitnerGraf, Lotte 412 Mithras Sacrificing the Bull Gong Wang (Shitao) 283 (Tiepolo) 255 O'Keeffe, Georgia 490, 491
Melanesia 399 (Roman) 128 Mountain View (Chinese) 18 Neptune's Horses (Crane) 18
Olbrich, Joseph Maria 412
Melanie and Me Swimming La Mitrailleuse (Nevinson) 448 Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus 205, 309 Neshat, Shirin 592
Old Elms in Prater (Waldmiller) 324
(Andrews) 569 Mitsukuni Defying the Skeleton Mucha, Alphonse 382, 384 The Net (Buffet) 519 The Old Farmer (Leib!) 330
Melville, Herman 452 Spectre (Kuniyoshi) 339 Mueck, Ron 585 Netherlands Old Horses near a Lake (Chirico) 473
Memling, Hans 148 Mobile (Calder) 489 Mughal Empire 260, 288, 290-91, 292 Dutch Baroque 195, 228-41 An Old Man anda Boy (Ghirlandaio) 15
Memmi, Lippo 87 mobiles 489 Mulready, William 371 Neue Sachlichkeit 480-81
Old Models (Harnett) 208
Mengs, Anton Raphael 259, 266, 274 Moche culture 80 multiple portraits 15 eue Wilde 574
Old Pine Tree (Wen Zhengming) 186
Las Meninas (Picasso) 220 Mockel, Guy 383 Mummy Case of Nespanet evelson, Louise 551, 555
The Old Testament Trinity
Las Meninas (Velazquez) 219-21 The Mocking of Ceres (Elsheimer) 207 Jerenpeere (Egyptian) 46 evinson, Christopher 446, 448, 449 (Rublev) 65
Menn, Barthélemy 385 Model for a Sculpture (Baselitz) 575 Mummy Portrait of aYoung Man New English Art Club 341, 358, 446 An Old Woman Cooking Eggs
Menss Dreaming (Tjapaltjarri) 19 Model from the Back (Seurat) 361 Wearing a Golden Wreath New Generation sculptors 523 (Velazquez) 23, 218
Menzel, Adolph 324, 330 The Models (Seurat) 366 (Egyptian) 546 ew Media 578-82 Oldenburg, Claes 529, 533, 540
The Merciful Christ (Montanhes) 216 The Modern School (Metivet) 416 Munch, Edvard 17 315, 388, 390, New Objectivity Olitski, Jules 523, 526
Mercury and Psyche (Vries) 184 Moderne Kunst (Polke) 545 408, 415 (Neue Sachlichkeit) 480-81 Olmec culture 40, 80
Mercury Attaching his Winged Modernism 391 Munduwalawala, Ginger Riley 586 New Realism movement 520 Olympia (Manet) 342
Sandals (Pigalle) 249 British Modernism 446-51 Murakami, Takashi 592, 593 New Stones — Newton's Tones Omega Workshops 446, 448, 450, 451
Merda d’artista (Manzoni) 559 US Modernism 452-3 Muralists, Mexican 496 (Cragg) 209 Omer Talon (Champaigne) 211
Merlin's Hat (Zucker) 574 Modigliani, Amadeo 57 458, 460, 461 Murdering Airplane (Ernst) 471 New York School 513, 524 On the Crisis Party Congress of the
Meryon (Kline) 515 Mohenjo-Daro 50 Murillo, Bartolomé Esteban 195, 217, New Zealand 399
SPD (Heartfield) 469
Merz 469 Moholy-Nagy, Laszl6 482, 483 222, 223 The Newborn Child (La Tour) 210 One and Three Chairs (Kosuth) 561
Merz, Mario 551, 556 Moliére (Le Brun) 214 Music (Falconet) 243 Newman, Barnett 502, 513, 529, 570 One Hundred Butterflies, Flowers
Merzbarn (Schwitters) 469 Momus Criticizes the Work of the Music under the Cherry Tree at Ueno Ni Zan 79 and Insects (Chen Hongshou) 187
Mesa de Omar Khayam II Gods (Heemskerck) 164 (Moronobu) 286 Niagara Falls, from the American
144 Magnesium Square (Andre) 531
(Chillida) 522 Mona Lisa (Leonardo da Vinci) 113, 546 Mutu, Wangechi 594 side (Church) 322
One Ton Prop (House of Cards)
Meso South America 190-91 The Monarch of the Glen (Landseer) Muybridge, Eadweard 354 Nicholas of Verdun 83
(Serra) 532
Messager, Annette 589 261, 335 My Autumn (O'Keeffe) 491 Nicholson, Ben 454, 486 Onement 1 (Newman) 513
Méta-Meécanique a Trépied Mondrian, Piet 19, 434, 444-5 My Bed (Emin) 581 Nicholson, William 486 Op Art 548-50
(Tinguely) 549 Monet, Claude 19, 27, 153, 340-41, Mycenaean culture 53 Nietzsche, Friedrich 362, 408, 473, 545 Ophelia (Millais) 332
Le Meétafisyx (Dubuffet) 517 348-9, 434 Myron 55 Night (Beckmann) 481 Opie, John 277
Metalisation of the Dream Monet in his Floating Studio The Mystery and Melancholy of a Night (Hodler) 385 Oppenheim, Dennis 554
(Paolozzi) 522 (Manet) 33 Street (Chirico) 473 Night Attack on the Sanjo Palace Oppenheim, Meret 474
Metivet, Luc 416 The Money Lender and his Wife The Mystic Marriage of St Catherine (Japanese) 510 The Oregon Trail (Bierstadt) 322
Metronome (Object to be (Massys) 442 of Siena with Saints (Fra The Night Watch (Rembrandt) 229 Orozco, José Clemente 496, 497
Destroyed) (Ray) 468 Mongaku Shonin under the Waterfall Bartolommeo) 123 Nighthawks (Hopper) 492-3 Orpheus (Moreau) 383
Metropolis (Dix) 481 (Kuniyoshi) 339 myths and legends 16, 128-9 The Nightmare (Fuseli) 313 Orphism 411, 428, 429, 432-3, 482
Metsu, Gabriel 235 Monogram (Rauschenberg) 535 99 Cent (Gursky) 579 Ortelius, Abraham 162
Metzinger, Jean 427 Monroe, Marilyn 542-3 1933 (guitar) (Nicholson) 486 Oseberg ship 68
Meunier, Constantin 395 Mont Saint-Victoire 1935 (white relief) (Nicholson) 486 Osen of the Kagiya Serving Tea to a
Mexican art 496-9 (Cézanne) 153, 369 Nabis 360, 361, 380-81 1955-D (Still) 502 Customer (Harunobu) 287
Mexican Revolution (1910-20) 499 Montanés, Juan Martinez 194, 216 Nadar 342, 356 Noah's Ark (stained glass) 83 Ostade, Adriaen van 227, 235, 236, 334
Meyer, Hans 482 Montefeltro, Federico da, Duke of ahr, Moritz 413 Nocturne in Black and Gold, the Otsu (Hiroshige) 339
Michelangelo 29, 30, 56, 92, 93, Urbino 100 aive painting 454-7 Falling Rocket (Whistler) 392 Otto | the Great, Emperor 67
118-19, 175 The Montefeltro Altarpiece (Piero The Naked Maja (Goya) 56, 302 ok figures 41 Otto Il, Emperor 67
Midday (Caro) 528 della Francesca) 101 Naked Woman on a Sofa (Freud) 15 Nolan, Sidney 567 Ottoman Empire 288
Middendorf, Helmut 574 Monticello, Charlottesville, Virginia 278 Namatjira, Albert 586 Noland, Kenneth 523, 525 Ottonian art 67
Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig 482 Montmartre (Utrillo) 458 Napoleon |, Emperor 248, 265, 268, Nolde, Emil 408 Our Lady of Fatima (Botero) 568
Mikhailov, Grigory 331 Monument Dumarsais Estimé 269, 270, 272, 298, 303, 306, 309 nomads 62 Our Lady's Shrine at Nétre-Dame de
Milk (Wall) 578 (Hyppolite) 457 Napoleon III, Emperor 337 Nordic Summer Evening (Bergh) 389 Tournai (Nicholas of Verdun) 83
The Milkmaid (Lucas van Leyden) 155 “Monument” for V. Tatlin (Flavin) 531 Napoleon Awaking to Immortality North America today 594-5 Ouro Préto, S. Francisco de Assis 223
The Milkmaid (Vermeer) 237 Monument to Lord Mansfield (Rude) 394 Northern Renaissance 138-84 Oval Hanging Construction, Number
Mill in the Valley near Amalfi (Flaxman) 273 Napoleon Crossing the Alps Notke, Bernt 174 12 (Rodchenko) 464
(Blechen) 309 Monument to Third International (J-L David) 269 Nouveau Réalisme 551 Overbeck, Friedrich 296, 310, 311
Millais, John Everett 332, 371 (Tatlin) 462 Napoleon on the Battlefield of Eylau Nude (Seurat) 363 Ovid 16, 110, 131, 201
Millet, Jean-Francois 324, 325, Monumental Landscape (Gros) 270 Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 The Oxbow (Cole) 323
328, 358 (Hungren) 284 Napoleon Visiting the Plague- (Duchamp) 467 Ozenfant, Amedee 209
Millions Stand behind Me Moon Woman (Pollock) 503 Stricken at Jaffa (Gros) 270 Nude Figure from Raratonga
(Heartfield) 469 Moore, Henry 29, 57, 488 Napping (Murakami) 593 (Cook Islands) 33
Milo of Crotona Attacked by a Lion Mor, Anthonis 164, 165 narrative paintings 17 Nude in Sunlight (Renoir) 350
(Puget) 215 Moreau, Gustave 129, 382, 383 Narriri (Worm) Dreaming (CP Nude in the Bath (Bonnard) 14, 380 Pacher, Michael 167
Milton, John 312, 313 Moreau, Jacques 467 Tjapaltjarri) 587 Nude, or Nude Seated on a Sofa Pacific islands 398-9
Mindoro |! (Vasarely) 550 Morghen, Rafaello 177 Nash, Paul 486, 511 (Renoir) 57 The Pack (Das Rudel) (Beuys) 557
Ming dynasty 185-7 Morisot, Berthe 340, 341, 348 Nativity (Bosch) 156 Nude with Necklace (Modigliani) 460 Packard, Vance 545
Miniature portrait of Mrs. Pemberton Morley, Malcolm 570 The Nativity nudes 15, 56-7, 135 Padua, Scrovegni Chapel 26, 28, 86
(Holbein) 546 Morning (Runge) 296 (Geertgen tot Sint Jans) 149 No. 5/No. 22 (Rothko) 512 Pagan 77
miniatures 14 Morning Prayer (Greuze) 247 The Nativity (Giotto) 86 Number 14 (Pollock) 503 Pahari painting 293
Minimal art 19, 513, 514, 526, 527, Mornington Crescent nude, Nativity Scene (Correggio) 22, 124 No. 182 (Louis) 524 Paik, Nam June 580
529-32, 554, 557 contre-jour (Sickert) 447 Nauman, Bruce 583, 594 Numbers in Color (Johns) 539 Painted Bronze II: Ale Cans
Minoan culture 53 Moronobu, Hishikawa 286 Navez, Francois 268 Numerals (Johns) 27 (Johns) 539
The Painter's Daughters with a Cat Perugino, Pietro 104, 148, 310 Portrait of Agnolo Doni (Raphael) 120 Portrait medal of Gianfrancesco
(Gainsborough) 263 Peter the Great, Tsar 62, 249 Portrait of Ambroise Vollard Gonzaga (Pisanello) 88
The Painters of Die Brucke Peter the Great (Falconet) 249 (Picasso) 547 portraits 14-15, 21, 169, 546-7., The Race Course (Degas) 20
(Kirchner) 408 Peters, DeWitt 454, 456 Portrait of Ambroise Vollard Le Portugais (the Emigrant) Radha and Krishna (Indian) 314
Painting (Borduas) 515 Petrarch 92 (Renoir) 547 (Braque) 417 Raeburn, Henry 265
Painting (de Kooning) 509 Pevsner, Antoine 463, 548 Portrait of Andrea Doria Posada, José Guadalupe 496, 497 The Raft of the Medusa
Painting (Soulages) 521 Peyton, Elizabeth 594 (Sebastiano del Piombo) 125 Postimpressionism 360-61, 368-79, (Géricault) 299, 300
Painting, 1925 (Mir6) 472 Pezzo, Lucio del 33 Portrait of Anna Cuspinian 388, 390, 411, 446, 448, 449 The Railway Station (Frith) 334
Painting, Number 48 (Hartley) 453 Phantom with Mask (Appel) 521 (Cranach) 172. post-painterly abstraction 523 Raimondi, Marcantonio 347
paints The Pharmacist (Longhi) 442 Portrait of Anne of Cleves Post-war Europe 516-22 Raimondi Stone (Chavin) 80
acrylics 32, 525 Philip Il, King of Spain 157, 165, (Holbein) 173 Pot of Flowers (Vuillard) 381 Rain, Steam and Speed — The Great
egg tempera 24 182, 216 Portrait of the Blessed John pottery see ceramics Western Railway (Turner) 317
oils 25 Philip IV, King of Spain 213, 217, 218 Houghton (Zurbaran) 195 The Poulterer’s Shop Rain Storm, Union Square
pigments 26-7 PhilipV, King of Spain 215 Portrait of a Boy (Carriera) 14 (Snyders) 227 (Hassam) 359
watercolour 30 Phillips, Peter 533 Portrait of an Elderly Woman, or The Pound, Ezra 446, 450 The Raising of Lazarus
Paladino, Mimmo 574 Phillips, Thomas 312 Falconer’s Wife (Floris) 165 Pourbus, Pieter 314 (Early Christian) 64
Palazzo Dario, Venice (Brabazon) 26 philosophy, classical 121 Portrait of the Countess of Clary Poussin, Nicolas 17, 20, 195, 212-13 Raising of Lazarus (Lievens) 232
Palma Vecchio 125, 127 photomontage 32, 469 Aldringen (Sargent) 14 Powers, Hiram 395 The Raising of Lazarus (Pacher) 167
Palmer, Samuel 297, 312, 313 Photorealism 570 Portrait of Dr Johannes Cuspinian Pozzo, Andrea 206, 251 The Raising of Lazarus
Pam-Pam at the Monice (Severini) 429 The Physical Impossibility of Death (Cranach) 172 Prague, Mannerism 175 (Sebastiano del Piombo) 125
Panathenaic Amphora Depicting a in the Mind of Someone Living Portrait of the Doge John Mocenigo The Prayer (Lehmbruck) 410 Raison et Nature (Torres-Garcia) 465
Boxing Contest (Greek) 56 (Hirst) 261 (Gentile Bellini) 127 Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood 107, 166, “Rajput art 293
Panini, Giovanni Paolo 243, 252 Piazzetta, Giambattista 250, 254, 256 Portrait of Dora Maar (Picasso) 421 311, 332-3, 386, 448 A Rake’s Progress (Hockney) 544
Panofsky, Erwin 144, 146 Picabia, Francis 315, 466, 467 Portrait of the Empress Josephine Preaching of the Antichrist Ramesses || Smiting his Enemies
panoramic format 18 Picasso, Pablo 220, 315, 416, 417, (Prud‘hon) 298 (Signorelli) 101 (Egyptian) 46, 49
Paolozzi, Eduardo 516, 522, 528, 533 418-25, 434, 462, 470, 516, 547 Portrait of Erasmus (Holbein) 173 Precisionism 453, 490, 491 Ramos, Mel 545
The Parable of the Blind (Pieter picture plane 20 Portrait of Father No. 3 (Kossoff) 34 Pregnant Woman (Mueck) 585 Ramsay, Allan 259
Bruegel the Elder) 162 Piero della Francesca 17, 92, 100-101 Portrait of Félix Fénéon Against the Prehistoric art 36-41 Randall-Page, Peter 585
The Parade, or Race Horses in Front Piero di Cosimo 103, 123 Enamel of a Background Rhythmic Presentation in the Temple Ranson, Paul 380
of the Stand (Degas) 261, 354 Pierre Outhe, Apothecary (Clouet) 181 with Beats and Angles, Tones, and
(Maulbertsch) 251 The Rape of the Daughters of
Parade Amoureuse (Picabia) 315 Pierrot (Gris) 416 Colours (Signac) 362
Presentation in the Temple Leucippus (Rubens) 224-5
Parade Shield (Flemish) 314 Pieta (Bellini) 93, 126 Portrait of George Washington
(Serpotta) 252 The Rape of a Sabine
The Parasol (Goya) 302 Pieta (Michelangelo) 118, 425 (Copley) 279 The Presentation in the Temple (Giambologna) 179
Parfois C’est I'Inverse (Alechinsky) 521 Pieter Jan Foppeszoon and His Portrait of Giovanni de Medici
(Vouet) 210 Raphael 92, 93, 120-21, 332
Paris 213, 336, 394, 458 Family (Heemskerck) 164 (Bronzino) 370
primary colours 26 Ratapoil (Daumier) 325
Paris Commune 327 Pigalle, Jean-Baptiste 248, 249 Portrait of Giovanni Gabrielli
Primaticcio, Francesco 175, 180, Rauschenberg, Robert 533, 535-7,
Parmigianino 137, 175, 176 pigments 32 (Agostino Carracci) 197
181, 184 551, 557
Parnassus (Mengs) 274 Pilgrimage to the Island of Cythera Portrait of Giuliano de’ Medici
Primavera (Botticelli) 108-11 Ray, Man 466, 468, 474, 548
Pascali, Pino 551, 556 (Watteau) 244 (Botticelli) 107
Primitive art (Naive painting) 454-5 Rayogram/Rayograph (Ray) 468
Pascin, Jules 458 The Pillars of Society (Grosz) 480 Portrait of Guillaume Apollinaire
Prince Hunting Antelope and Boar Rayonism 428, 432-3, 440
Pasie Sewing in the Garden at Pilon, Germaine 180 (Chirico) 547
(Rajput) 293 Rayonist Composition (Larionov)
Bougival (Morisot) 348 Pink Dress (Bazille) 352 Portrait of Gustave Flaubert
Passage (Neshat) 592 Pipe Alphabet (Broodthaers) 560 The Princesses Louisa and Friderica 428, 433
(Giraud) 383
pastels 30 of Prussia (Schadow) 273 Read, Herbert 520, 522
Pirandello, Fausto 490, 495 Portrait of a Halberdier
The Paterson Children (Raeburn) 265 prints 27 ready-mades 32
Piranesi, Giovanni Battista 242, (Pontormo) 21
The Path through the Long Grass 243, 252 Japanese 286-7, 338-9, 340 Realism 324-31, 382, 388, 391
Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Oudry
(Renoir) 351 Process art 551 French Realism 324, 325-9
Pisanello 88 (Perronneau) 247
Patinir, Joachim 155, 156 Pisano, Andrea 84, 94 The Procession of the Magi German Realism 324, 330
Portrait of John Ruskin
Pauline Borghese as Venus Pisano, Giovanni 84 (Gozzoli) 99 Russian Realism 324, 331
(Collingwood) 333
(Canova) 272 Pisano, Nicola 84 Procter, Dod 371 Superrealism 570-71
Portrait of Jorge Manuel
Pavement Detail of a Builder Pissarro, Camille 23, 340, 352, 361, Theotokopoulos (E| Greco) 183 Prodigal Son (Hirst) 582 20th-century 490-95 f
(Byzantine) 442 368, 443 Portrait of Katherine Chase Shapleigh The Prodigal Son in the Tavern Rearing Stallion Held by a Nude Man
The Payment of Taxes (La Tour) 210 Pissarro, Lucien 446, 447, 448 (Sargent) 393 (Rembrandt) 231 (Géricault) 30
Peaceful Landscape (Ruisdael) 234 Pittoni 250 Portrait of a Lady (Pisanello) 88 Profile of a Young Woman Reclining Figure No. 2 (Moore) 57
Peale, Charles Wilson 278, 280 The Plough and the Song (Gorky) 502 Portrait of Madame de Pompadour (Maillol) 381 Reclining Nude (Miss O’Murphy)
Pearlstein, Philip 563, 566 Poems of the Pillow (Utamaro) 287 Prometheus (Moreau) 129 (Boucher) 56, 245
(Boucher) 243
Peasant Family in an Interior The Poet Reclining (Chagall) 459 Portrait of Madame Récamier propaganda, agitprop 465 Reclining Nude from the Back
(Le Nain brothers) 211 Pogani, Margit 44 (Gérard) 298 The Proposition (Leyster) 314 (Modigliani) 57
Peasants Picking Apples Pointillism 360, 361, 363-7, 550 Portrait of a Man Proserpine (Rossetti) 333 Red and Black: The Fan (Whistler) 392
(Goncharova) 433 Polanzani, Francesco 252 (Antonello da Messina) 102 Prostitute (Rouault) 406 Red Balloon (Klee) 484-5
Peasants Quarrelling (Brouwer) 227 Polaris (Mach) 585 Portrait of aMan (Hals) 26 Proun 465 The Red Bull (Marc) 411
Peasants with Four Oxen and a Goat Poliziano 110 Portrait of a Man, aged 93 Proust, Marcel 245 The Red Dragon and the Woman
at a Ford by a Ruined Aqueduct Polke, Sigmar 533, 545 (Durer) 138 Prud’hon, Pierre-Paul 298 Clothed with the Sun (Blake) 312
(Berchem) 233 Pollaiuolo, Antonio del 59, 102 Portrait of Margaret Lindsay Puget, Pierre 215 Red Stone Dancer
Peeters, Clara 19, 208 Pollaiuolo, Piero del 102 (Ramsay) 259 The Punished Son (Greuze) 247 (GaudierBrzeska) 450
Pegwell Bay: A Recollection of Pollock, Jackson 502, 503-7, 523, 529 Portrait of Margaret van Eyck Puteaux Group 426, 427 Red, White, 'and Blue (O'Keeffe) 491
October 5th (Dyce) 311 Polyclitus 55, 273 (Van Eyck) 546 Putto with a Dolphin Redon, Odilon 382, 383
Pelagos (Hepworth) 487 Polynesians 398, 399 Portrait of a Married Couple (Duquesnoy) 207 Reeves 276
pencil drawings 30 polyptychs 16 (Roman) 60 - Puvis de Chavannes, Pierre 382, Reflections (Dove) 453
Pende art 396 Pompadour, Madame de 243, 245, Portrait of Napoleon III (Holl) 337 383, 387 Reflections on Crash
Peninsular War (1808-14) 303, 306 248, 249 Portrait of a Noblewoman with a Pygmies Hunting (Roman) 152 (Lichtenstein) 540-41
Pense-Béte (Broodthaers) 560 Pompeii 60, 152, 266 Puppy (Mor) 165 Pyramid Fountain (Girardon) 214 Reformation 92-3, 139, 172
Pensive Woman (Schmidt-Rottluff) 409 Pont-Aven 361, 380 Portrait of Princess Darya Lieven Pyro (Basquiat) 577 Regardless of History (Woodrow) 585
Pentecost (Nolde) 408 Pontormo (Jacopo Carucci) 16, 21, (Lawrence) 265 Regentesses of the Old Men’s Alms
People at Play (Roberts) 446 ASW HA Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci House (Hals) 228
People Sitting on the Beach (Sorolla y Pool, Juriaen 240 (Piero di Cosimo) 103 Rego, Paula 585, 589
Bastida) 359 The Poor Fisherman (Puvis de Portrait of Sir Charles Lucas Qing dynasty 281-4 Reinhardt, Ad 514
Pepys, Samuel 241, 276 Chavannes) 383 (Dobson) 241 Qiu Ying 187 Relief Depicting Two Soldiers
Pere Tanguy (Van Gogh) 375 Pop Art 489, 522, 533-45 Portrait of a Young Woman Quaker Girl (GC Smith) 14 Carrying the King's War Chariot
Péret, Benjamin 479 Pope Clement XIII (Mengs) 274 (Palma Vecchio) 127 Quarton, Enguerrand 150 (Assyrian) 510
Performance art 557, 594 Pope Innocent X (Velazquez) 565 Portrait of a Young Woman Queen Charlotte Relief of Eve (Gislebertus) 56
Perronneau, Jean-Baptiste 247 The Poplar Avenue (Cox) 20 (Stuart) 280 (Lawrence) 265 religious paintings 16
Perseus with the Head of Medusa Popples (Koons) 584 Portrait of a Young Woman Queen Mary | (Mor) 165 Reliquary of Charlemagne 66
(Cellini) 177 porcelain factories 248 (Vigée-Lebrun) 266 Quellin family 241 Rembrandt van Rijn 26, 31, 195,
Persian art 45, 288, 289 portable figurines 40 Portrait of a Young Woman in a Quince, Cabbage, Melon and 229-31, 314, 405, 537
The Persistence of Memory Port of Marseille (Vernet) 247 Pinned Hat (Weyden) 147 Cucumber (Sanchez Cotan) 216 Renaissance
(Dali) 476-7 The Portinari Altarpiece Portrait Bust of Cosimo | de’ Medici Quinn, Mare 583 Italian Renaissance 92-137
perspective 20-21 (Van der Goes) 147 (Cellini) 177 Quintet of the Silent (Viola) 581 Northern Renaissance 138-84
La Rencontre, ou Bonjour Monsieur French Romanticism 296, 298-301 St George and the Dragon Schongauer, Martin 138-9, 167 Serpotta, Giacomo 252
Courbet (Courbet) 324 German Romanticism (Uccello) 260 A School for Boys and Girls Serra, Richard 532, 571
Reni, Guido 197, 202, 203 296-7, 308-11 St George Rescuing the Princess (Steen) 370 Serre, Marie 215
Renoir, Pierre-Auguste 27, 34, 57, Nazarenes 297, 310-11 ofTrebizond (Pisanello) 88 The School of Athens Sérusier, Paul 361, 380
341, 350-51, 547 Spanish Romanticism 296-7, 302-7 St Jerome (Tura) 34 (Raphael) 120, 271 Sesshu Toyo 188
The Rent Collector’s Courtyard Rome 92-3 St Jerome in his Study School of London 563, 569 Setting out for Kawachi (Sotatsu) 285
(Cai) 566 Baroque art 194 (Antonello da Messina) 102 School of Paris 592 Seurat, Georges 26, 360-61,
Repin, llya 311, 324, 331 Four Rivers Fountain 201 St Jerome in his Study (Durer) 168 The School Master (Ostade) 235 363-7, 402
Representation of the Plague Galleria Farnese 196 St Jerome in his Study (van Eyck) 260 Schrank, Franz 329 Severini, Gino 428, 429
(woodcut) 171 Mannerism 175 St John in the Desert Schroeder House, Utrecht 434 Sevres porcelain 245, 248, 249
Reserve of Dead Swiss Neoclassicism 266, 267 (Domenico Veneziano) 101 Schuch, Carl 324 Seychelles Evaluator (Woodrow) 585
(Boltanski) 562 Piazza S. Pietro 201 St John the Baptist (A Pisano) 84 Schwitters, Kurt 469 Seymour, Jane 173
The Rest on the Flight into Egypt SS. Luca e Martina 204 St John the Evangelist (Cano) 222 Scorel, Jan van 25, 164, 165 Sforza, Duke Ludovico 113, 116
(Virgin with Partridges) S. Maria della Vittoria 200 St Luke (Domenichino) 202 Scott, David 311 sfumato 113
(Van Dyck) 226 S. Pietro in Montorio 123 St Luke Drawing the Virgin Scottish Enlightenment 265 Shabti figures (Egyptian) 47
The Resurrection (Bermejo) 150 Sack of (1527) 119 (Weyden) 146 The Scream (Munch) 390 shade and light 22-3
The Resurrection (Piero della St Peter's 200, 253 St Mark (Donatello) 97 screenprinting 27 The Shadows (Boltanski) 562
Francesca) 17 Romulus and Remus Given Shelter St Martin Shares his Cloak with a Scroll of Classical Poems Shah Jahan, Emperor 291
The Resurrection of Lazarus by Faustulus (Cortona) 204 Beggar (Martini) 87 (Sotatsu) 285 Shakespeare, William 312, 332, 394
(Geertgen tot Sint Jans) 149 Ron Kitaj Reading (Hockney) 544 St Matthew and the Angel (Reni) 203 Scrovegni Chapel, Padua 26, 28, 86 Shandaken Ridge, Kingston, New
Return of the Bucintoro on The Room (Balthus) 492 St Nicholas Delivers Three Unjustly sculpture 33 York (Durand) 323
Ascension Day (Canaletto) 257 Room in Brooklyn (Hopper) 493 Condemned Men from Death Abstract 523, 528 Sheeler, Charles 490, 491
Returning Home (Shitao) 283 Rosa, Salvator 205 (Repin) 324 Aztec 191 Sheep Shearing (English School) 442
Le Reveil du Lion (Spoerri) 209 Rosenberg, Harold 502, 509 Saint-Non, Abbé de 246 Constructivism 462-4 Sheep Shearing (Goncharova) 443
Revolt (Russolo) 431 Rosenquist, James 533 Saint Peter (Gunther) 251 Contemporary 583-5 The Shell (Redon) 382
La Revue Blanche 380, 381 Rosselli, Cosimo 103, 123 St Petersburg Academy 331 Egyptian 48-9 Shen Zhou 185
Reymerswaele, Marinus van 154 Rossetti, Christina 386 St Vincent of Saragossa Hellenistic 58 Sherman, Cindy 580
Reynolds, Joshua 262, 278, 370 Rossetti, Dante Gabriel 332, 333, 386 (Goncalves) 150 Neoclassicism 267 Shibboleth (Salcedo) 585
Rhinoceros (Durer) 260 Rosso Fiorentino 175, 180, 181, 182 St Wolfgang Altarpiece (Pacher) 167 19th century 394-5 Ship's figurehead (Swedish) 33
rhythm, narrative paintings 17 Rosso, Medardo 357 Salcedo, Doris 585 Oceania 398-9 Shitao 283
Ribera, Jusepe de 217 Rothko, Mark 502, 512, 513, 523 Salisbury Cathedral from the prehistoric figurines 40 Shiva Nataraja 75
Ribot, Théodule 222 Rottmayr, Johann Michael 250 Meadows (Constable) 18 Roman 61, 370 The Shrimp Girl (Hogarth) 546
Ricci, Francisco 137, 250 Rouault, Georges 406 Salome with her Mother, Herodias Superrealism 570 Sick Bacchus (Caravaggio) 198
Richelieu, Cardinal 210, 211, 214 Roubiliac, Louis-Francois 264 (Beardsley) 382 surface appearance 35 The Sick Child (Munch) 390
Richier, Germaine 516, 519 Rouen Cathedral, West Facade, Salome with John the Baptist's Head Scythians 62 The Sick Rose (Blake) 312
Richter, Gerhard 588 Sunlight (Monet) 349 (Berruguete) 182 Sea Form (Atlantic) (Hepworth) 35 Sickert, Walter 341, 446, 447, 486
Riemenschneider, Tilman 174 The Round Table (Braque) 209 Salon, Paris 296, 324, 328, 336, The Sea of Ice (Friedrich) 308 The Siege of Jerusalem by
Rietveld, Gerrit 434 Rousseau, Henri 261, 454, 455, 486 343, 394 Seal in the Form of a Qilin Nebuchadnezza (Fouquet) 510
Rigaud, Hyacinthe 215 Rousseau, Théodore 324, 328 Salon Agam (Agam) 549 (Chinese) 128 Signac, Paul 360, 361, 362
Rikyu, Sen no 189 Royal Academy 259, 262, 264 Salon Cubists 426, 427 Seal from Mohenjo-Daro (Indian) 50 Signorelli, Luca 101
Riley, Bridget 31, 548, 550 Rubens, Peter Paul 116, 194, 195, Salon des Indépendents 362 A Seaport (Claude) 22 The Simpson Chain
Rio dei Mendicanti (Guardi) 35 224-5, 510 Salon des Refusés 343, 346 Seaport with the Embarkation of St (Toulouse-Lautrec) 31
Riopelle, Jean-Paul 515 Rublev, Andrei 64, 65 Saltcellar of Francis | (Cellini) 177 Ursula (Claude) 213 Sinan 288
Rist, Pipilotti 581 Rude, Francois 394 Samba, Chéri 591 Seated Man with Guitar (Lipchitz) 427 The Singing Butler (Vettriano) 569
Riviére Ord, Riviére Bow, Riviere Rudolf-ll, Emperor 175, 184 Samuel Pepys (Kneller) 241 Seated woman with a cup of coffee The Singing Sculptures
Denham (Joolama) 587 A Ruin on the Bank ofa River San bushmen 39 (Vuillard) 381 (Gilbert & George) 579
Rivera, Diego 443, 496, 497, 499 (Hobbema) 234 Sanchez Cotan, Juan 22, 216 Sebastiano del Piombo 125 Siqueiros, David Alfaro 496, 498
Rivers and Mountains on a Clear Ruined gallery of the Villa Adriana Sandby, Paul 276 Secession Building, Vienna 412 Sir Galahad — the Quest of the Holy
Autumn Day (Dong Qichang) 187 (Piranesi) 242 Sandwich and Soda (Lichtenstein) 540 The Second Incarnation of Vishnu as Grail (Hughes) 129
The Road to Calvary (Tiepolo) 255 Ruisdael, Jacob van 18, 234 Sandys, Anthony Frederick Kurma ‘The Tortoise’ (Indian) 128 Sir Isaac Newton (Roubiliac) 264
Robert, Hubert 243, 246, 247 Runge, Philipp Otto 274, 296, 309 Augustus 129 secular themes, in Northern Sir Walter Scott (Raeburn) 265
Roberts, Tom 341, 359 Rusinol, Santiago 393 Sarah Bernhardt as Medea Renaissance 154 Siriol, She-Devil of Naked Madness
Roberts, William 443, 446, 451 Ruskin, John 332, 333 (Mucha) 384 Seed(Randall-Page) 585 (Blake) 534
The Robing of the Bride (Ernst) 47 Russian Realism 324, 331 Sarah's Reach (Noland) 525 (Seeing and Believing) Quantum Sisley, Alfred 340, 341, 352, 353
rock art 38-9, 260 Russian Revolution (1917) 440, 462 sarcophagi, Roman 61 Cloud XX (Gormley) 583 The Sisters (Cassatt) 371
Rocks at |'Estaque (Cézanne) 21 Russolo, Luigi 428, 431 Sargent, John Singer 14, 15, 371, Segantini, Giovanni Battista 362 Sistine Chapel, Vatican City 119, 196
Rocky Landscape with a Huntsman Ruysch, Rachel 240 391, 393 The Seizure (Klinger) 386 The Sistine Madonna (Raphael) 121
and Warriors (Rosa) 205 Ruysdael, Salomon van 21, 234 Sarmatians 62 Self-Portrait (Durer) 168 The Sitwell Family (Sargent) 393
Rocky Mountain Landscape Rysbrack, Michael 264 Sartre, Jean-Paul 489, 518 Self Portrait (Saville) 547 Six Kakis (Chinese) 208
(Bierstadt) 322 Sassetti, Francesco 105 Self-Portrait (Rembrandt) 230-31 The Sixth Dawn (Cornell) 555
Rococo 242-53, 267 Saturn Devouring One of His Self Portrait (Schiele) 57 Skagen Painters 388
British Rococo 243, 258-65 Children (Goya) 303 Self-portrait as an Invalid (Kirchner) 21 The Skate (or The Ray) (Chardin) 245
French Racoco 242, 244-9 S-Curve (Kapoor) 584 A Satyr Mourning over a Nymph Self-Portrait as a Young Man Skeletons Fighting Over a Herring
German and Central European S. with Child (Richter) 588 (Piero di Cosimo) 103 (Rembrandt) 231 (Ensor) 385
Rococo 242, 250-51 Sabrina and her Nymphs (Etty) 334 Saville, Jenny 547 Self-Portrait at the Window Sketch for the Conquest of Air
Italian Rococo 242-3, 252-7 Sacco IV (Burri) 556 Savonarola, Girolamo 103, 107, 123 (Rembrandt) 231 (La Fresnaye) 427
Rodchenko, Alexander 462, Sacred and Profane Love (Titian) 130 Saying Grace (Chardin) 245 Self-Portrait Nude (Schiele) 412 Skittle Players Outside an Inn
464, 548 The Sacrifice of Isaac (Brunelleschi) 95 scale, portraits 14 Self Portrait with Angelica Peale and (Steen) 236
Rodin, Auguste 315, 356-7, 410, The Sacrifice of Isaac (Ghiberti) 94 Scandinavian art 68, 388-91 Portrait of Rachel (Peale) 280 Sky Blue (Kandinsky) 435
441, 521 Saddle, Provisions, Tools for the The Scapegoat (Hunt) 333 Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear Skywatch II (Held) 526
Roman art 59-61, 62, 69 Primary Surveyor (Storrier) 28 Scenes of Hermit's Long Days in the (Van Gogh) 375 Slade School of Fine Art 446, 448, 449
frescoes 152, 208 The Sadness of the King Quiet Mountains (Tang Yin) 186 Self-Portrait with Gloves (Durer) 169 Slant (King) 528
mosaics 510 (La Tristesse du Roi) Schad, Christian 480 Self-Portrait with Gorget and Beret The Sleep of Endymion
and Neoclassicism 266 (Matisse) 404-5 Schadow, Johann Gottfried 267, 273 (Rembrandt) 231 (Girodet) 23, 267, 270
painting 60-61 Safavid Empire 288, 289 Schalken, Godfried 240 Self Portrait with Masks (Ensor) 385 The Sleep of Reason produces
sarcophagi 61 Saggakaneh movement 592 Schall, Roger 468 Self-portrait with a Model Monsters (Goya) 302
sculpture 61,128, 370, 442 Sahara Line (Long) 553 Scheffer, Henri 383 (Kirchner) 409 Sleeping Nymph (Canova) 267
Roman Ruins with Blind Belisarius Sailboats (Feininger) 482 Schick, Christian Gottlieb 547 Self-portrait with Wife The Sleeping Sportsman
(Panini) 252 Sailing Boats and Pine Trees Schiele, Egon 57 315, 412 (Rembrandt van Rijn) 27 (Metsu) 235
A Roman Slave Market (Signac) 362 Schinkel, Karl Friedrich 309 self-portraits 169 Sleeping Venus (Delvaux) 474
(Gér6me) 337 St Andrew (Duquesnoy) 207 Schirmer, Friedrich Wilhelm 384 Senecio (Klee) 484 The Sleeping Venus (Giorgione) 135
Romanesque art 82-3 St Christopher (Montanés) 216 Schlemmer, Oskar 483 Senlis, Séraphine de 456 Slevogt, Max 358
The Romans of the Decadence St Francis Receiving the Stigmata The Schmidt Family (Richter) 588 Senufo art 397 Sloan, John 452
(Couture) 336 (Barocci) 179 Schmidt-Rottluff, Karl 408, 409 Sergel, Johan Tobias 267, 273 Slodtz, Michel-Ange 248
Romanticism 267, 296-323, 336 St Francis Standing (Zurbaran) 217 Schmitzer, Johann 250 Serial Project | (ABCD) (LeWitt) 560 Slow Swirl at the Edge of the Sea
American Romanticism 297, 322-3 St George (Donatello) 97 Schnabel, Julian 574, 576 The Sermon on the Mount (Rothko) 512
English Romanticism 297, 316-21 St George and the Dragon Schoenberg, Arnold 435, 438 (Fra Angelico) 99 Sluter, Claus 138-9, 140
English Visionaries 312-13 (Donatello) 97 Scholar Viewing a Lake (Tan’yu) 285 Serov, Valentin 393 Small Naked Portrait (Freud) 57
 Small Vase of Flowers (Koons) 584 Statue of Chephren (Egyptian) 48 Study for the Head of Christ Tempietto, S. Pietro in Montorio, The Tortilla Maker (Rivera) 497
Smith, David 502, 514, 528 Statue of Gudea 42 (Barocci) 179 Rome 123 Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de 26, 27,
Smith, Grace Cossington 14 Statue of Horus (Egyptian) 49 Study of a Male Nude from Behind temple art, Hindu 292 57, 355, 361
Smith, Tony 529 Statue of Liberty (Bartholdi) 395, (Tintoretto) 136 Temple of the Jaguar, Tikal 81 Les Tours de Laon (Delaunay) 428
Smithson, Alison and Peter 522 425, 537 Study of aMan and a Woman for the Temptation of Adam and Eve Tower | (Feininger) 482
Smithson, Robert 553 Statue of Zeus or Poseidon Madonna della Misericordia (Masolino) 97 Toy Box (Oldenburg) 540
The Snake Charmer (Rousseau) 455 (Greek) 55 (Fra Bartolommeo) 123 The Temptation of St Anthony Train Landscape (Kelly) 19
Snow Covered Landscape Steam Turbine (Scheeler) 490 Sudden Shower at Ohashi Bridge at (Cézanne) 368 Tracer (Rauschenberg) 535
(Gong Xian) 281, 284 Steen, Jan 235, 236, 370 Ataka (Hiroshige) 339 The Temptation of St Anthony Transavanguardia 576
Snow in New York (Henri) 452 Steenwyck, Pieter van 25 The Suicide of Dorothy Hale (Schongauer) 167 The Transfiguration (L Carracci) 197
Snow Scene at Moret (Sisley) 353 Steer, Philip Wilson 341, 358 (Kahlo) 499 The Ten 341, 359 The Transfiguration of Christ
Snowdon from Llyn Nantlle Stella, Frank 523, 527 Sukhothai 77 Teniers, David 227, 334 (Duccio) 24
(Wilson) 259 Stencilled Image (Banksy) 577 Sumerian art 43 Tennyson, Alfred, Lord 332 The Tree of Paradise (Senlis) 456
Snyders, Frans 227, 240 Stieglitz, Alfred 452, 453, 491 Summer (Arcimboldo) 184 Teotihuacan 80, 81 Trendrine, Cornwall (Bomberg) 451
So Long (Moses) 454 Stile Liberty 382 Summer Evening on the Skagen Terborch, Gerard the Younger 235, 236 Trent, Council of (1545-63) 119, 199
Soapbubble Variant (Cornell) 555 Still, Clyfford 502, 513 Southern Beach with Anna Ancher The Terrace at the Restaurant Les Tres Riches Heures
Society of American Artists 359 still life 19, 208-9 and Marie Kroyer (Kroyer) 388 Jacob in Nienstedten on the Elbe (Limbourg brothers) 89
Society Lady (Woman on Balcony Still Life (de Heem) 240 Summer Party (Moses) 457 (Liebermann) 359 Trevelyan, Julian 28, 32
with Gloves) (Botero) 569 Still Life (Zurbaran) 19 Summer Picnic (Katz,) 568 Terracotta Army (China) 51 The Tribute Money (Masaccio) 96
Soft Construction with Boiled Beans: Still Life of Flowers and Dried Fruit Sunbather (Hockney) 544 La Terre (lpoustéguy) 522 The Trinity (El Greco) 182
Premonition of Civil War (Dali) 475 (Peeters) 19, 208 Sunday Stroll (Spitzweg) 329 Terrestrial Forest Form (Arp) 468 Triptych of St John the Baptist and St
Soft Engine Parts No, 2 Still Life of Flowers on Woodland Sunflowers (Van Gogh) 375 textiles 81, 190 - John the Evangelist (Memling) 148
(Oldenburg) 532 Ground (Ruysch) 240 Sunset after Rain (Cuyp) 235 texture 34-5 Triptych of the Sedano Family
soft forms 532 Still Life of Kitchen Utensils Supermarket Shopper (Hanson) 570 Thanksgiving (Currin) 595 (G David) 154
Solana, José Gutierrez 490, 492 (Chardin) 208 Superrealism 570-71 Thebes (Tucker) 528 triptychs 16, 160
Soldiers Eating in an Advanced Still Life of Peaches and Figs Supper at Emmaus Theophanes the Greek 64 The Triumph of Galatea (Raphael) 121
Post in the Champagne Region (Cézanne) 369 (Caravaggio) 199 The Thinker (Rodin) 356 The Triumph of Mordecai
(Moreau) 467 Still Life with Basket (Cézanne) 209 Suprematism 440, 462, 465 The Third of May, 1808 (Veronese) 137
The Soldier's Tale (Caro) 528 Still Life with Chair Caning Suprematism (Malevich/Lissitzky) 434 (Goya) 304-7, 342 The Triumph of Venus (Boucher) 17
Something is Terribly Wrong (Picasso) 419 Suprematist Composition This is not a pipe (Magritte) 478 Troger, Paul 250, 251
(Emin) 581 Still Life with Dead Birds, Fruit and (Malevich) 440 Thoma, Hans 324 trompe |’oeil 570
Le Sommeil (Courbet) 315 Vegetables (Sanchez Cotan) 22 Surikov, Vasily 324 Thomas William Coke (Batoni) 253 Tropical Garden II (Nevelson) 555
Song dynasty 78, 79 Still Life with Dishes (Ozenfant) 209 Surrealism 184, 385, 418, 420, 421, Thoré, Théophile 237, 239 Troyon, Constant 324
Songs of Innocence (Blake) 296 Still Life with Flowers (Juel) 274 468, 470-79, 502, 506, 518, 519 Thorvaldsen, Bertel 266, 267 273, 274 Trubner, Wilhelm 324
Sorel, Agnes 151 Still Life with Food and Drink Surrender of Breda (Velazquez) 218 Three Beauties of the Present Day Trumbull, John 280
Sorolla y Bastida, Joaquin 341, 359 (Heda) 240 Surrounded Islands (Utamaro) 287 The Tub (Degas) 354
The Sorrow of the Nibelungen Still Life with a Fruit Bowl (Dufy) 407 (Christo/Jeanne-Claude) 552 The Three Crosses (Rembrandt) 229 Tucker, William 523, 528
(Kiefer) 576 Still Life with Game Fowl, Fruit, and Susanna and the Elders The Three Dancers (Picasso) 420 Tundra (Caro) 528
Sotatsu, Tawarayo 285, 286 Cardoon (Sanchez Cotan) 216 (Guercino) 56 Three Flags (Johns) 538-9 Tura, Cosimo 34
Soto 548 Still Life with a Late Ming Ginger Jar Sutherland, Graham 153, 443, 486, 489 Three Forms (Hepworth) 487 Turkey 288
Soul under the Moon (Kusama) 593 (Kalf) 240 Sutton Hoo ship burial 69 Three Girls (and a Head in Profile) Turkey (Mughal Empire) 260
Soulages, Pierre 521
INDEX Still Life with Lemons, Oranges, and Swifts: Paths of Movement + (Schlemmer) 483 The Turkish Bath (Ingres) 271
The Source, or Bather at the Source a Rose (Zurbaran) 208 Dynamic Sequences (Balla) 429 The Three Hebrews in the fiery Turnbull, William 528
(Courbet) 57 Still Life with Peaches The Swing (Fragonard) 246 furnace (Early Christian) 64 Turner, Joseph Mallord William 129,
South Asia 74-5 (Roman) 61, 208 Swingeing London (Hamilton) 533 Three Little Girls (Malevich) 440 213, 276, 277, 297, 317-21, 333, 434
Southeast Asia 76-7, 398 stone, sculpture 33 Symbolism 332, 358, 380, 382-5, 387, The Three Marys at the Empty Tutankhamun, Pharaoh 46, 314
Soutine, Chaim 458, 461 The Stone Breakers (Courbet) 326 388, 389, 390, 412, 413, 430, 440 Sepulchre (Gaulli) 206 Tuymans, Luc 588, 589
Spain The Stonemason’s Yard symbols, Egyptian 48 Three Girls Watching TV TV Cello (Paik) 580
Baroque 195, 216-23 (Canaletto) 256 Symmetries (Fautrier) 517 (Xiaodong) 593 Twin Peaks (Caro) 523
Impressionism 341 Stones and Stars 2003 Symphony in White, No. III Three Gorges: Newly Displaced Two Boys Eating Melons and Grapes
Romanticism 296, 302-7 (Long) 551 (Whistler) 392 Population (Xiaodong) 593 (Murillo) 222
Spain Recognizing the Pre-eminence stories and action 16-17 Synthetic Cubism 416, 427 Three Studies for a Crucifixion Two Cut Sunflowers (Van Gogh) 209
of France in 1662 (Le Brun) 214 Storm at Sea (van de Velde) 235 (Bacon) 563 Two Female Models, One on Floor,
Spanish Civil War 424-5, 474
The Spanish Conquest of Mexico
The Storm on the Sea of Galilee
(Rembrandt) 229
T Three-Way Plug, Model
(Oldenburg) 540
One on Iron Bench (Pearlstein) 566
The Two Fridas (Kahlo) 499
(Orozco) 497 Storrier, Tim 28 7-54-16 (Hartung) 519 The Three Witches (Fuseli) 313 Two Lovers Contemplating the Moon
Spatial Concept “Waiting” Storyteller of the Ages The Table (Giacometti) 518 Three Women in Church (Leibl) 330 (Tamayo) 498
(Fontana) 529 (Morrisseau) 595 Tableau 1/ Composition No. 1/ Thutmose 49 Two Meissen Woodmen
spatial distortion 21 Stoskopff, Sébastien 208 Compositie 7 (Mondian) 444 Tiepolo, Giambattista 243, 254-5, 257 (Baselitz) 575
Spawn (Louis) 523 Stoss, Veit 174 Tabletop of the Seven Deadly Sins Tiffany, Louis Comfort 382 Two Open Modular Cubes
The Spear Carrier (Polyclitus) 55 Strang, William 315 (Bosch) 157 Tiforal (Varo) 479 (LeWitt) 560
Spencer, Stanley 448 Street Café in Tunis (no. 55) Tacca, Pietro 179 Tiger (Marc) 261 Two Scholars Playing the Qin and
Spherical Leafwork (Klee) 484 Taizong, Emperor 78 Tiger Attacking a Wild Horse Erhu Under a Pine Tree
(Goldsworthy) 554 The Street Enters the House Taj Mahal, Agra 291 (Delacroix) 261 (Qiu Ying) 187
Sphinx (Egyptian) 48 (Boccioni) 430 Takigawa from the Tea-House Tiger devouring an Alligator The Two Sleepers (Pascin) 458
The Spider (Redon) 383 Street Light (Balla) 429 (Utamaro) 340 (Barye) 395 Twombly, Cy 502, 515, 592
The Spinario (Roman) 370 Streeton, Sir Ernest Arthur 359 Taking in the Rye (Malevich) 440 Tiger in a Tropical Storm (Surprised!)
Spiral Jetty (Smithson) 553 Striped posters flyposted on The Talisman (Bois dAmour) (Rousseau) 261
The Spirit of the Dead Watches billboards (Buren) 561 (Sérusier) 380 Tikal 81
(Gauguin) 372-3 Strozzi, Bernardo 205 Tamayo, Rufino 496, 498 Tinguely, Jean 548, 549 Ubaldini, Lorenzo di Piero 103
Spitzweg, Carl 324, 329 Stuart, Gilbert 278, 280 Tang dynasty 78 Tintoretto, Jacopo Robusti 93, 136, 182 Ubbergen Castle (Cuyp) 235
Spoerri, Daniel Isaac 209 Stubbs, George 261, 266, 267, 275 Tang Yin 186 Titian 15, 26, 56, 93, 130-35 Uccello, Paolo 98, 260
Spranger, Bartholomeus 175, 184 Stuck, Fritz von 484 Tan’yu, Kano 285 Tittle, Walter 393 Ugolino and His Sons
Spring (Arcimboldo) 184 The Student of Prague Tapies, Antoni 519 Tjapaltjarri, Clifford Possum 19, 587 (Carpeaux) 395
Spring Bouquet (Fantin-Latour) 337 (Schnabel) 576 Tara Brooch 71 Tjapaltjarri, Joseph Jurra 587 Uhde, Wilhelm 454, 456
Spring in North London — 2 Houghton Studies of Gestures and Postures of Target (Johns) 538 To Russia, Asses and Others ukiyo-e (woodblock prints) 286-7,
Place (Gore) 448 Wrestlers from Manga Tassi, Agostino 199 (Chagall) 459 338, 340
Squarcione, Francesco 106 (Hokusai) 338 Tassili NAjjer 39 Tohaku, Hasagawa 189 Ulysses deriding Polyphemus
Sri Hanuman Temple (Hindu) 292 Studies of hands (Lely) 241 Tasso, Torquato 394 The Toilet of Esther (Chassériau) 301 (Turner) 129, 317
Staél, Nicholas de 516, 518 The Studio IX (Braque) 417 Tatlin, Vladimir 462, 531, 548 Les Toits (de Stael) 518 Union Rave (Gursky) 579
stained glass, Gothic 83 Study after Velaézquez’s Portrait of Tauromachie (Richier) 519 Tokugawa shogunate 285, 338 Unique Forms of Continuity in Space
Standing Female Nude Pope Innocent X (Bacon) 564-5 TaylorWood, Sam 580 The Toll House (Rousseau) 455 (Boccioni) 431
(Kirchner) 409 Study for an Apostle Technical Drawing from a Notebook Tomb of Henri Il and his Wife Unit One 486
Stanfield, Clarkson 320 (Leonardo da Vinci) 116 (Leonardo da Vinci) 112 Kunigunde (Riemenschneider) 174 United States 278-80
The Starry Night (Van Gogh) 376-9 Study for Bullfight No. 1 techniques 24-9 Tonks, Henry 446 Abstract Expressionism 502
Start 2000 (Riley) 27 (Bacon) 563 television 535 Torres-Garcia, Joaquin 465 American art today 594-5
States of Mind: The Farewells Study for “The Channel at tempera 24 Torso in Metal from “The Rock Drill” Avant Garde 486, 489
(Boccioni) 430 Gravelines, Evening” (Seurat) 363 The Tempest (Giorgione) 130 (Epstein) 451 Impressionism 341
 Modernism 452-3 Victorian art 334-5 Walpole, Horace 241 Whiteread, Rachel 582, 583 Wordsworth, William 297
Neo-Expressionism 574 Victory of Samothrace The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog Whitman, Walt 452 work 442-3
Pop Art 533 (Hellenistic) 58 (Friedrich) 308 Who Shall Deliver Me? (Khnopff) 386 Work (Brown) 333, 443
Realism 491-2 Video art 581 The Wanderers 324, 331 Wilberforce, William 311 Workshop (Lewis) 450
Romanticism 297, 322-3 La Vie (Picasso) 418 Wang Hui 281-2 Wild Poppies (Monet) 349 workshops, artists’ 105
Untitled (Chamberlain) 555 Vien, Joseph-Marie 268 Wang Jian 281-2 Wilde, Oscar 387 World War | 448, 467, 470
Untitled (Fleury) 589 Vienna 412-15 Wang Meng 79 Wilhelmina Cotta (Schick) 547 The Wounded Cuirassier
Untitled (Haring) 574, 577 Vienna Academy 250, 251 Wang Mo 78 Wilkie, David 334 (Géricault) 296, 510
Untitled (Hirst) 582 Vienna Sezession 385 Wang Shimin 281-2 Willemsz, Cornelis 164 Wrapped Cans (Christo) 551
Untitled (Judd) 530 View from Rhenen (van Goyen) 233 Wang Yuanqi 282 Willendorf, Venus of 40 Wrapped Reichstag
Untitled (Morris) 530 View in North Wales (Cox) 277 war 510-11 William Ill, King of England 241, 264 (Christo/Jeanne-Claude) 552
Untitled (Richter) 588 View of Delft (Vermeer) 237 War of the Austrian Succession illiam Gordon of Fyvie (Batoni) 253 Wren, Sir Christopher 241
Untitled (Rothko) 512 View of Salisbury Cathedral (1740-48) 256 William Penn's Treaty with the Wright of Derby, Joseph 264
Untitled (Still) 513 (Constable) 316 War or The Ride of Discord Indians (West) 278 writing, cuneiform 44
Untitled (Zenderoudi) 592 View of the Seine (Viaminck) 406 (Rousseau) 455 Williams, Fred 153 Wu Daozi 78
Untitled (Felt Tangle) (Morris) 530 View of Toledo (E| Greco) 182 Warhol, Andy 27, 533, 542-3, 577 Willows and distant mountains (Ma Wu Li 283
Untitled (Figure with Raised Arm) The View Towards the Fenderthal, Waernod, André 458 Yuan) 20, 152 Wu Zhen 79
(Baselitz) 574 Tyrol (Fleury) 167 The Warrior (Moore) 488 Wilson, Richard 259 Wyeth, Andrew 567
Untitled Film Still No, 53 viewpoint 14, 21 Warrior with a Shield (Moore) 29 The Wilton Diptych 89
(Sherman) 580 Vigée-Lebrun, Elisabeth 266, 267 270 The Washer Women (Solana) 490 ilton House from the South East Xx
Untitled (Freestanding Bed) Vigeland, Gustav 388, 389 The Washerwoman (Daumier) 325 (Wilson) 259
(Whiteread) 582 Viking art 68 Washington, George 248, 278, Winckelmann, Johann Joachim Xia Gui 79
Untitled No. 12 (Martin) 28 279, 280 266, 274 Xie He 35
Villanovans 59
Untitled No. 225 (Sherman) 580. Washington Color School 523, Windows Open Simultaneously Xu Bing 592, 593
La Ville de Paris (Delaunay) 432
524, 525 (Delaunay) 432 Xuanzong, Emperor 78
Untitled No. 412 (Sherman) 580 Vinaburger (Ramos) 545
Untitled (Signs of Growth) (Klee) 484
Untitled (Winged Curve) (Riley) 548
Vin_a culture 41
Les Vingt (The Twenty) 385, 386
Wasteground with Houses,
Paddington (Freud) 566
Wine Glasses (Caulfield) 209
Winter (Arcimboldo) 184 Y
Untitled (Your Comfort is My Silence) Viola, Bill 581 Water (Arcimboldo) 175 Winter (Houdon) 248 Yakshi Figure (Indian) 50
(Kruger) 572 Violin and Sheet Music (Picasso) 418 Water Bearer (Chia) 576 Winter (Kuncan) 284 Yamamoto Shoun 17
Untitled (Tjapaltjarri) 587 Virgil 213 Water of the Flowery Mill Winter, or The Flood (Poussin) 213 Yan Liben 78
Upper Deck (Scheeler) 491 Virgin and Child (Fouquet) 151 (Gorky) 508 Winter Landscape (Friedrich) 23 Yan Lide 78
Urban VIII, Pope 204 Virgin and Child (G Pisano) 84 watercolour 30, 276-7 Winter Landscape (Kandinsky) 435 Yaxchilan 81
Urbino 100 Virgin and Child (della Robbia) 95 Waterlilies and Reflections of a Winter Landscape (Sesshu) 188 Yellow and White Baby
Urbino, Guidobaldo II della Rovere, The Virgin and Child before a Willow Tree (Monet) 19 Winter 1946 (Wyeth) 567 (Immendorf) 575
Duke of 134 Firescreen (Campin) 141 The Waterlily Pond (Monet) 348-9 Winter Scene (Yamamoto Shoun) 17 Yellow, Red, Blue
Uriel (Newman) 513 Virgin and Child with the Infant St Waterlily Pond: Pink Harmony Winter Scene with Skaters Near (Kandinsky) 434, 435
US World Studies |! (Balincourt) 594 John the Baptist (Dolci) 205 (Monet) 340 a Castle (Avercamp) 233 Yombe art 396
Utamaro, Kitagawa 287, 315, 340, Virgin and Child with a Pear Watermelons (Tamayo) 498 Wintry Groves and Layered Banks Yoruba culture 370
442, 547 (Durer) 168 Watkins, JC 335 (Dong) 79 Young British Artists 582
Utrillo, Maurice 458 The Virgin of Chancellor Rolin Watson and the Shark (Copley) 279 The Wise and Foolish Virgins A Young Jockey (Stubbs) 275
(Van Eyck) 142 Watteau, Jean-Antoine 242-3, 244, (Cornelius) 310
V The Virgin of the Immaculate 251, 314, 563 The Witches’ Sabbath (Goya) 297
Young Man among Roses
(Hilliard) 14
Conception (El Greco) 183 Watts, George Frederic 382, 386, 387 Witz, Konrad 166 The Young Sailor (Matisse) 403
Valadon, Suzanne 350, 458 Wauters, Emile 386 Wolf holding a Stag by the Throat
Virginia — Summer (Gorky) 508 Young Woman Sewing (Cassatt) 353
Valdés Leal, Juan de 223 The Wave (Bouguereau) 337 (Barye) 395
Visa (Davis) 489 Young Woman Sleeping
Valeriani brothers 252 We Are Making a New World Wols 516, 519
The Vision after the Sermon (Rembrandt) 229
The Valpingon Bather (Ingres) 271 (Nash) 511 Woman (Butler) 522
(Gauguin) 372 Young Woman with a Parrot
Van Dyck, Anthony 15, 195, 226, 276 Wearing, Gillian 581 Woman | (de Kooning) 509
Vision of St Augustine (Tiepolo) 255
Van Gogh, Vincent 34, 153, 209, Weaving Cloth for the People Woman and Death (Baldung) 171
(Carpaccio) 260 Young Woman with a Water Jug
360-61, 374-9, 402, 408 Visionaries, English 297, 312-13 (Chinese) 443 Woman Arranging Her Hair (Vermeer) 195
vanishing point 20 Vispre, Francois 264 Weber, Max 452, 453 (Gonzélez) 461 Yuan An Sleeps Through the Snow
Vanitas (Steenwyck) 25 Vittala Temple The Wedding (Léger) 426 oman Bathing in a Stream (Dai Jin) 185
Vanitas Still Life (Stoskopff) 208 Wedgwood, Josiah 267, 273 (Rembrandt van Rijn) 32
(Hindu) 292 Yu Vessel (Chinese) 51
Varley, John 277 Wednesday, Dec 12th 1979 A Woman Holding a Dog in her Arms
The Vivian Girls with China Yuan dynasty 78, 79
Varo, Remedios 479 (Kawara) 561 (Utamaro) 547
(Rego) 589 Yun Shouping 283
Vasarely, Victor 548, 550 The Weighing of the Heart Against Woman in a Garden (Picasso) 421
Viaminck, Maurice de 402, 406, 407 Yuskavage, Lisa 594
Vasari, Giorgio 98, 101, 122, 142, the Feather of Truth (Egyptian) 47 Woman in Red (Soutine) 461
Vlieger, Simon de 235 Yvette Guilbert (Toulouse-Lautrec) 30
154, 155, 167, 175, 178 Vodoun 457 Weiss, Marjorie 261 Woman on the Street (Kirchner) 409
Vatican City 119 The Well (Piranesi) 252 Woman Putting on her Stocking
Vollard, Ambroise 402, 406, 547
Vaughan, William 265 Voltaire (Houdon) 248 The Well of Moses (Sluter) 140 (Toulouse-Lautrec) 57
Vauxcelles, Louis 402 Voltaire (Pigalle) 249 Welsh Landscape with Roads Woman selling Cupids (Roman) 60 Z8 (Moholy-Nagy) 483
The Veil in the Mirror (Hofmann) 513 Voragine, Jacobus de 147 (Sutherland) 489 Woman Weaving (Utamaro) 442 Zadkine, Ossip 516, 521
Velazquez, Diego 23, 195, 218-21, Vorticism 446, 450, 451 Wen Zhengming 186 Woman with a Fan (Archipenko) 427 Zao Wou Ki 592
370, 565 Vos, Cornelis de 227 Wessex Flint Line (Long) 153 Woman with a Flower (Gauguin) 373 Zapata (Siqueiros) 498
Velde, Esias van de 233 Vouet, Simon 210, 214 West, Benjamin 278, 279, 280 Woman with Guitar (Picasso) 419 Zapata, Emiliano 498, 499
Velde, Willem van de the Elder 235 , Le Voyageur sans Boussole Western Hills (Sutherland) 153 The Woman with the Pearl The Zaporozhye Cossacks Writing
Velde, Willem van de the Younger (Dubuffet) 517 Westminster Bridge with the Lord (Corot) 328 a Mocking Letter to the Turkish
235, 510 Vries, Adriaen de 184 Mayor's Procession (Canaletto) 257 Woman with Two Children Riding Sultan (Repin) 331
Vendel Treasure 68 Vuillard, Edouard 380, 381 Weyden, Rogier van der 138, 146-7, on her Back (Vigeland) 389 Zborowski, Léopold 458
Vendor of Love (Kauffmann) 274 Vulcan's Forge (Vasari) 175 148, 154 women, mass media images of 580 Zen Buddhism 188, 189
Venice 93, 242-3, 254-7 WH Hudson Memorial The Women ofAlgiers Zenderoudi, Charles-Hossein 592
Venice: Piazza San Marco (Epstein) 451 (Delacroix) 300 Zheng Xie 284
(Guardi) 257 What the Water Gave Me Women Running on the Beach Zhu Da 281, 283
Venus and Adonis (Titian) 131 Wackel-Baluba (Tinguely) 548 (Kahlo) 499 (Picasso) 420 Zig IV(D Smith) 514
Venus de Milo (Hellenistic) 58 Wadsworth, Edward 446, 451, 486 Wheatfield with Cypresses Wonnacott, John 563 Zimmermann, Johann Baptist 242, 250
Venus of Urbino (Titian) 132-5 Wagner, Otto 412 (Van Gogh) 153 Wood, Christopher 454, 490 Zombies (Bigaud) 456
Venus of Willendorf 40 Wagner, Richard 337, 438, 576 When the Children Have Gone to Wood, Grant 490, 491, 492, 567 Zoomorphic Couple (Ernst) 471
The Verduner Altar Waldmiller, Ferdinand Georg 324, 329 Bed (Larsson) 389 woodblock prints (ukiyo-e) 286-7, Zorn, Anders 389
(Nicholas of Verdun) 83 Waldo, SL 280 While Visions of Sugar Plums 338, 340 Zuccarelli, Francesco 259
Vermeer, Jan 22, 195, 237-9, 570 Walery, Stanislas 335 Danced in Their Heads woodcuts 27 Zuccaro, Federico 179
Verne, Jules 474 The Walk in the Forest (Kienholz) 556 Wooded Islands (Wang Yuanqi) 282 Zucchi, Antonio 274
Vernet, Joseph 247, 298 (Rousseau) 455 Whistlejacket (Stubbs) 261 Wooded Landscape with a Cottage, Zucchi, Carlo 252
Veronese, Paolo 93, 137, 254 Walker, Kara 594, 595 Whistler, James Abbott McNeill 382, Sheep, and a Reclining Shepherd Zucker, Joe 574
Verrocchio, Andrea del 104, 112 Wall, Jeff 578 391, 392, 547 (Gainsborough) 152 Zurbaran, Francisco de 19, 195,
Versailles 194-5, 214 Wall Jumpers (Morley) 570 White Circle (Rodchenko) 464 wooden sculpture 33 208, 217
Vertue, George 257 Wall of Oil Barrels (lron Curtain) The White Crucifixion (Chagall) 459 Woodrow, Bill 585
Vettriano, Jack 569 (Christo/Jeanne-Claude) 552 The White House at Chelsea Woolf, Leonard 448
Victoria, Queen of England 261, 335 Wallis, Alfred 454, 486 (Girtin) 277 Woolf, Virginia 446, 448
 Acknowledgments
Dorling Kindersley would like to thank the following for their assistance with the book: Kathryn Wilkinson, Angela Wilkes, Martha Fontainebleau, Seine-et-Marne, France, Lauros/Giraudon 181be; Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany, Wolfgang Neeb 33be, 574br,
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2008 459c; Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London, UK 209cra, 451bi, 520tr, 523cr, 528br, 584b|; Ashmolean Museum, Richter 588bc; Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany, 266cr, 308cra, 308t!, 309t!, 358cl, 384clb; Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg,
University of Oxford, UK 35tr, 50bce, 53cla, 57cra, 69fclb, 73crb, 73fcra, 98b, 121tl, 208tr, 212b|, 213br, 241bl, 255bc, 313bc, 313crb, Germany, © ARS, New York and DACS, London 2008 513t!, 530tr; Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany, © DACS 359bi, 559ca;
333cr, 333tr, 346cl; Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, UK, 243cl (Tiepolo), 369tl; Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany, © Munch Museum/Munch - Ellingsen Group, BONO, Oslo/DACS, London 2008 390;
Courtesy of Historical Society of Pennsylvania Collection 280t!; Bagan (Pagan), Myanmar (Burma), Giraudon 76t; Baker Library, Hanley Museum & Art Gallery, Staffordshire, UK 288cb; Hasht Behesht, Isfahan, Iran, 289tr; Hatton Gallery, University of Newcastle
Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, US, © DACS London 2008 497bI; Bamberg Cathedral, Bavaria, Germany, Lauros / Giraudon 174cla; Upon Tyne, UK, © DACS London 2008 469cla; Hebei Provincial Museum, Hebei Province, China, Lauros / Giraudon 51cla; Hermitage,
Baptistery, Castiglione Olona, Italy, Alinari 97cra; Baptistery, Florence, Italy 94c, 94clb, 94tl; Baptistery, Florence, Italy, Giraudon 84tc; St. Petersburg, Russia 31b!, 40ca, 62bce, 62b!, 62fcrb, 136ftr, 153cb, 175er (primaticcio), 181clb, 197bl, 226clb, 249t|, 265cerb, 2741;
Baptistery, Pisa, Italy, Alinari 82b|, 84b1; Bargello, Florence, Italy 201br; Basilica di San Marco, Venice, Italy 65br; Bayon Temple, Angkor, Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 209cla, 406t!, 406tr, 435tr; Hermitage, St. Petersburg,
Hi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ARTCambodia, Bildarchiv Steffens 77tr; Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece, Gift of Christos G. Bastis 53crb; Biblioteca Colombina, Seville,
Spain, Index 223tr; Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, Florence, Italy, Alinari 67br; Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, Spain, Index 216tr;
Russia, Giraudon 15ftr, 153bc; Herrgottskirche, Creglingen, Germany 174tr; © Damien Hirst. All rights reserved, DACS 2008 582tr;
Hospital de la Santa Caridad, Seville, Spain, Giraudon 223cra; © Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, UK / Wilson Gift through The Art
Biblioteca Nazionale, Turin, Italy 203tc; Bibliotheque des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France, Archives Charmet 535bc; Bibliotheque de Fund / © Richard Hamilton. All Rights Reserved, DACS, 2008 534tc; Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow, Scotland 392fer;
!‘Opera Garnier, Paris, France, Archives Charmet 309br; Bibliotheque de la Comedie Francaise, Paris, France, Peter Willi 248cla; Hyde Park, London, UK 451cla; Iglesia del Divino Salvador, Seville, Spain 216fbl; || Campo, Siena, Italy 95cra; The Israel Museum,
Bibliotheque de la Faculte de Medecine, Paris, France, Archives Charmet 270crb; Bibliotheque des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, France, Jerusalem, Israel, Vera & Arturo Schwarz Collection of Dada and Surrealist Art, © Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation/DACS,
Archives Charmet 266tc, 372tI, 388cb, 459bc; Bibliotheque Litteraire Jacques Doucet, Paris, France, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London/VAGA, New York, 2008 509cla; Imperial War Museum, London, UK 446fer, 450tr, 511tr; Indianapolis Museum of Art, US,
London 2008 466br; Bibliotheque Litteraire Jacques Doucet, Paris, France, Archives Charmet 479br; Bibliotheque Municipale, Epernay, Bequest of Mrs Enid Goodrich 185bc, 187bc, 281cr, 283b!, 284t!; Indianapolis Museum of Art, US, Caroline Marmon Fesler Fund 45361;
France, Giraudon 66b!, 66cb; Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France 32br, 168br, 177tl; Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France, Archives Indianapolis Museum of Art, US, Dan and Lori Efroymson Fund 581tc; Indianapolis Museum of Art, US, Gift of James W. Fesler 185bl;
Charmet 343erb; Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France, Giraudon 156tl, 256tl, 356clb, 510bI; Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France, Indianapolis Museum of Art, US, Gift of Mr and Mrs William H. Ball 280clb; Indianapolis Museum of Art, US, Gift of Mrs JamesW.
Lauros / Giraudon 242bI, 347br, 355crb; Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France, Lauros / Giraudon, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London Fesler in memory of Daniel W. and Elizabeth C. Marmon 240bI; Indianapolis Museum of Art, US, Gift of the Alliance of the Indianapolis
2008 470bi; Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France, Peter Willi 167tr; Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery 129ca, 332bI, 333bc, Museum of Art 285crb; Indianapolis Museum of Art, US, Gift of the Artist 359tl; Indianapolis Museum of Art, US, John Herron Fund
333crb, 386tc, 443cla; Bonampak, Chiapas State, Mexico, Alan Gillam/Mexicolore 81cla; Bourne Gallery, Reigate, Surrey, UK 167fbr; 359cl; Indianapolis Museum of Art, US, Mr and Mrs William R. Spurlock Fund 285b!; Iraq Museum, Baghdad 42t; lraq Museum,
Brancacci Chapel, Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, Italy 92bI, 96cb, 96cla, 97br; Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, UK © Paula Baghdad, Giraudon 43ca; Ireland, Ken Welsh 69t; Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA, US 229tc; Israel Museum,
Rego 589cl; Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, UK, © Estate of Edward Wadsworth/DACS London 2008 451br; British Council, Jerusalem, Israel, Anonymous gift, New York © Shirin Neshat 592br; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel / Gift of the Mark Rothko
London, UK 547cra; British Library, London, UK, © British Library Board. All Rights Reserved 287bI, 287fbl; British Museum, London, Foundation, © Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko ARS, NY and DACS, London 2008 502fer; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem,
UK 26br, 27clb, 42crb, 43clb, 44br, 44cra, 47clb, 47cra, 52clb, 52cr, 54cl, 55br, 55cla, 56fclb, 63cra, 63fcra, 69br, 69clb, 155bI, 168fbr, Israel, © DACS / Gift of the Mark Rothko Foundation, © Kate Rothko Prize! & Christopher Rothko ARS, NY and DACS, London 2008
229clb, 229cra, 277bI, 286br, 290cr, 291tr,312tc, 314 fclb, 317cl, 338crb, 370cla, 442cb; British Museum, London, UK, © British Library 512cra, 512tr; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel, Gift of Augusta and Arnold Newman, New York 467tl; The Israel Museum,
Board. All Rights Reserved 287cla; British Museum, London, UK, Archives Charmet 78bI; British Museum, London, UK, Flammarion Jerusalem, Israel, Vera & Arturo Schwarz Collection of Dada and Surrealist Art / © The Joseph and Robert Cornell Foundation/DACS,
42c, 44b!|; British Museum, London, UK, Photo © Boltin Picture Library 42fcl, 43bI, 43cla, 43t, 45br, 81tr, 370clb; British Museum, London/VAGA, New York 2008 551fcl, 555tr; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel, Vera & Arturo Schwarz Collection of Dada and
London, UK, Photo © Heini Schneebeli 16cra; Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, US 395cla; Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, US, Surrealist Art, © Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation/DACS, London/VAGA, New York 2008 502fcl; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem,
AlfredW. Jenkins Fund 8161; Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, US, Brooklyn Museum Collection Fund 493tl; Brooklyn Museum of IsraelVera & Arturo Schwarz Collection of Dada and Surrealist Art, © Succession Marcel Duchamp/ADAGP Paris and DACS, London
Art, New York, US, Dick S Ramsay Fund 453bce; Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, US, Dick S. Ramsay Fund 353br; Brooklyn 2008 467cr; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, US 21ca; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, US /Lauros / Giraudon, © DACS
Museum of Art, New York, US, Gift of William Augustus White 312clb; Brooklyn Museum of Art, NewYork, US, Purchase gift of Allan D. London 2008 385cr; Jefferson College, Philadelphia, PA, US, 392b!; Jerusalem, Israel, Bildarchiv Steffens 72t, 73tc; Johnny van Haeften:
Emil 523fcl, 524clb; Brucke Museum, Berlin, Germany 409cra; Brucke Museum, Berlin, Germany, © DACS London 2008 409br; Buhrle Gallery, London, UK 164bl; Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma, US, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. R. E. Mansfield, 2003 595c!;
Collection, Zurich, Switzerland, 368t!, 368tr; Burrell Colléction, Glasgow, Scotland, © Glasgow City Council (Museums) 356cl; Bury Art Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld, Germany, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 520c; Kariye Camii, Istanbul, Turkey, Bildarchiv
Gallery and Museum, Lancashire, UK, 273cla; Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH, US, Anonymous Gift 1961 323be; Steffens 65bc; Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge 450clb, 454b!; Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge, UK, The works of Naum
Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH, US, Gift of Joseph G. Butler Ill 1946 322cra; Butler Institute of American Art, Gabo © Nina Williams 463bI; Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh, India, Ann & Bury Peerless Picture Library 75br; Kimbell Art Museum, Fort
Youngstown, OH, US, Museum Purchase 1950 490bI; Ca’ d’Oro, Venice, Italy 88tc, 88tr; Ca” Rezzonico, Museo del Settecento, Venice Worth, Texas, US, © 2008 Mondrian/Holtzman Trust, c/o HCR International Warrenton, Virginia, US |; Knossos, Crete, Lauros /
257tc, 274tr; Calais, France, © DACS /Index 356cb; Calcographia dello Stato, Rome, Italy, Alinari 252bc; Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Giraudon 53be; Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, Belgium, Giraudon 102bi, 147tl, 151br, 154bl, 165br; Kosciol
Venice, Italy, © Sarah Quill 104clb; Capitol Collection, Washington, US 280br; Capponi Chapel, Santa Felicita, Florence, Italy 177r; Mariacki, Kracow, Poland, Lauros / Giraudon 174crb; Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany © Gerhard Richter 588br; Kunsthalle, Tubingen,
Capponi Chapel, Santa Felicita, Florence; Italy, Alinari 175cl (Pontormo); Casino dell’Aurora Ludovisi, Rome, Italy 202bI; Casino Germany / © Richard Hamilton. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2008 534c; Kunsthaus, Zurich, Switzerland 361 cr, 369tr; Kunsthaus, Zurich,
Pallavicini-Rospigliosi, Rome, Italy, Giraudon 203be; Catacombs of Priscilla, Rome, Italy, Photo © Held Collection 64b!; Cathedral of S. Switzerland, Giraudon 455br; Kunsthaus, Zurich, Switzerland, Lauros / Giraudon 385clb; Kunsthaus, Zurich, Switzerland, Photo© Held
Maria de la Asuncion, Seville, Spain 194c, 216cl; Cathedral of St. Lazare, Autun, France 56ca, 56cra; Cathedral of St. Maria, Hildesheim, Collection 129clb; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria 66br, 93br, 93cr, 124r, 130bI, 137cla, 147ca, 162b1, 162fbl, 162-163, 163br,
Germany, Bildarchiv Steffens 67bl; Caves of Lascaux, Dordogne, France 38br, 260cla; Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford, Bedfordshire, 164cla, 168tr, 175bc, 175er (Spranger), 177bc, 184cb, 227crb, 236tr, 238, 239bI, 239ca, 239cra; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna,
UK 571tr; Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford, Bedfordshire, UK, © DACS 381br; Cenacolo di Sant’ Apollonia, Florence, Italy 103br; Austria, 195fcr; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria, Ali Meyer 176t!, 370cra; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austra,
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London 252crb, 371ca; Chandigarh Museum, Chandigarh, Punjab, India, Ann & Bury Giraudon 156cla; Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland 171br, 173ca; Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland / Alinari, © ADAGR Paris and
Peerless Picture Library 128clb; Charlottesville, Virginia, US 278t; Chartres Cathedral, Chartres, France 9bl; Chartreuse de Champmol, DACS, London 2008 518br; Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland / Alinan, © DACS London 2008 482b!; Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland
Dijon, France, Lauros / Giraudon 140bl; Chartreuse de Champmol, Dijon, France, Paul Maeyaert 140br; Chartreuse de Champmol, /Lauros / Giraudon, © DACS London 2008 484clb; Kunstmuseum, Bern, Switzerland 209b!, 384bc; Kunstmuseum, Bem, Switzerland,
Dijon, France, Peter Willi 140cl; Chateau d’Oiron, Loire Valley, France 511cra; Chateau de Fontainebleau, Seine-et-Marne, France 180br: 385cl; Kunstmuseum, Bern, Switzerland, Photo © Held Collection 385tl; Kunstmuseum, Dusseldorf, Germany 310cla; Kunstmuseum,
Chateau de Fontainebleau, Seine-et-Marne, France, Lauros /Giraudon 180clb; Chateau de Versailles, France, Giraudon 210cla, 267fcl, Dusseldorf, Germany, 308ca; Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf, Germany, © DACS London 2008 481cla; Lady Lever
270cra, 270t!; Chateau de Versailles, France, Lauros 298clb; Chateau de Versailles, France, Lauros / Giraudon 214c, 214crb, 383bI; Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool 333cl, 335b!; Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Tyne & Wear, UK 386cr; Leeds
Chateau de Versailles, France, Peter Willi 214cra; Chateau du Grand Trianon, Versailles, France 214br: Chatsworth House, Derbyshire. Museums and Art Galleries (Temple Newsam House) UK 252cra; Leeds Museums and Galleries (City ArtGallery) U.K. 205te, 339t!,
UK, Giraudon 148clb; Chehel Sotun, or The 40 Columns’, Isfahan, Iran, Giraudon 289erb; Chelsea Arts Club, London, UK, 392tc; : 446bl, 551cr, 554bc; Leeds Museums and Galleries (City Art Gallery) U.K. © Paula Rego 589ca, 589tr; Leeds Museums and Galleries
Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museums, 240cb; Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museums, Gloucestershire, UK 232tI; Christie's Images, (City Art Gallery) U.K., 341 ferb, 359c, 524; Leeds Museums and Galleries (City Art Gallery) UK, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London
London, UK 189bI; Christie's Images, Photo © Christie's Images 26c; Christie's Images, Photo © Christie's Images, © 2008, Banco de 2008 402br; Erich Lessing 184br; Liberty Island, New York, US 395clb; Library of Congress, Washington D.C., US 296tr; Lobkowicz
Mexico Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico DF / DACS London 496c, 499cl; Church of San Marco, Florence, Italy Palace, Prague Castle, Czech Republic 139br, 370tr; Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence, Italy, Lauros / Giraudon 1771; © DACS London 2008
179¢la; Church of San Zeno Maggiore, Verona, Italy, Alinari 106tc, 106tr; Church of St. Cosmos and St Damianus, Jerash, Jordan, 465tr; Lords Gallery, London, UK 465br; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA, US / Lauros / Giraudon, © ADAGP Paris and DACS,
Giraudon 442cla; Church of St. Ignatius, Rome, Italy, Alinari 206br; Church of St. Peter and St. Guidon, Anderlecht, Belgium, Giraudon London 2008 478tr; Louvre, Paris, France 20ca, 23cb, 42cl, 43cra, 44tc, 45bl, 47br, 47cla, 88bi, 98tl, 112bc, 142tr, 168tl, 181cr, 217cra,
156cra; Circulo del Liceo, Barcelona, Spain, Index 391 tr; Clandon Park, Surrey, UK 251cra; Cleveland Museum of Art, OH, US, /
228cla, 244cra, 245clb, 261clb, 267c! (Canova), 267cla, 267cra, 270bc, 270br, 272cla, 296bI, 297c, 297 cl, 298bi, 299t, 300-301er,324fci,
Giraudon, © Succession Picasso/DACS London 2008 418clb; Co-Cathedral of St. John, Valletta, Malta 198-199; Collection Kharbine- 325tl, 328clb, 394br, 510bc, 510fcla; Louvre, Paris, France, Giraudon 15tr, 16tl, 35bi, 42b!, 56tr, 59bI, 65tc, 73cra, SBbc, SBcl, 1131, 121br,
Tapabor, Paris, France, 356tI; Collection of Claude Herraint, Paris, France, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 471cl; Collection of 130cra, 154clb, 173crb, 195cla, 195cra, 204bI, 211clb, 211tr,213clb, 215be, 222fcrb, 2291, 242cl, 244cb, 245cla, 245cra, 246tc, 246,
Mrs Sign Welhaven, Oslo, Norway, © Succession H Matisse/DACS 2008 403bI; Collection of Riccardo and Magda Jucker, Milan, Italy 247cla, 249bl, 267c, 267cr, 267tcr, 268fbI, 268tr, 268-269, 269br, 270cla, 2711, 274bI, 298cla, 299b!, 300be, 300c, 301br, 328, 328era,
428cr, 431be; Collection of the Earl of Leicester, Holkham Hall, Norfolk 253cr; Collection of the Earl of Leicester, Holkham Hall, Norfolk, 546ca; Louvre, Paris, France, Lauros 128fcla; Louvre, Paris, France, Lauros / Giraudon 8br, 19tr, 52cl, 54r, S8bi, 58t, 62tc, 73br, 102cra,
243fcr, 266crb; Collection of the Earl of Pembroke, Wilton House, Wilts. 155br, 217br; Collection of the Earl of Pembroke, Wilton 125cla, 136tl, 179tl, 181ca, 184cl, 210cra, 213cla, 215bl, 243br, 243cl (white statue), 249bc, 249tc, 271bI, 271 clb, 300t!, 301crb, 336br,
House, Wilts., John Webb 259clb; Collection of the New-York Historical Society, US 153bl, 297fcr, 323crb; Collection of the New-York 395cra, 442cra, 442crb, 511 clb; Louvre, Paris, France, Peter Willi 123cl, 137crb, 151t!, 197cib, 205ci, 211 br, 224be, 232cla, 235cra,
Historical Society, US, 323cra, 341bc; Collection of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre 313cl; Collegio del Cambio, Perugia, Italy, Alinari 247br, 314fcra, 395fcla; Louvre, Paris, France, RogerViollet, Paris 149b!; Ludwig Collection, Aachen, Germany, © Richard Hamilton.All
104tc; Cologne Cathedral, Germany 166bl; Convent of Sant’ Apollonia, Florence, Italy, Alinari 103cr, 116bl; Coram in the care of the rights reserved, DACS 2008 533tr; Ludwig Collection, Aachen, Germany, © Estate of Duane Hanson/VAGA, New York/DACS, London
Foundling Museum, London, 264cra; Corbally Stourton Contemporary Art, Australia 19bc; Corbally Stourton Contemporary Art, 2008 570t; Ludwig Museum, Cologne, Germany 544cr; Ludwigskirche, Munich, Germany 310ca; Lviv State Picture Gallery, Ukraine
Australia © The Estate of Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri licensed by DACS/AAA/VISCOPY 2008 587cl, 587tr; Jean-Pierre Courau /@ DACS 210b!; Machu Picchu, Peru, Bildarchiv Steffens 190t; Madrasa-yi Madari Shah, Isfahan, Iran, © DACS 288tr; Magyar Nemzeti Galeria,
London 2008 496t; © Samuel Courtauld Trust, Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery 455¢cr, 547bl; Czartoryski Museum, Cracow, Poland Budapest, Hungary, © Hattula Moholy-Nagy/DACS London 2008 483cra; Manchester Art Gallery, UK 227br, 334tr, 371tc, 488fcra,
113br; Dahesh Museum of Art, New York, US, 337tc; Dallas Museum of Art, Texas, US 23tc; David Lees, Florence 202cla: de 511cla, 566cb; Manchester Art Gallery, UK, ©The Estate ofl SLowry 2008 490fcr, 495cia; Maser, Treviso, Veneto, Italy, Giraudon 137te,
Masjid-iJomeh, Isfahan, Iran 73bl; Mattioli Collection, Milan, Italy 431b!, 431tl; Mattioli Collection, Milan, Italy / Lauros/Giraudon, © Massachusetts, US, William Francis Warden Fund 78t; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, US, William S. and JohnT.
DACS London 2008 428c, 429bI; Mattioli Collection, Milan, Italy, Lauros / Giraudon 428b!; Mauritshuis, The Hague, The Netherlands Spaulding Collection 287bc; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, purchase with funds from the Brown Foundation Accessions
9br, 231 fbr, 232br, 237tr; Mauritshuis, The Hague, The Netherlands, Giraudon 237cla; Meenakshi Temple, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India, Endowment Fund, © Ellsworth Kelly 526br; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, US 457ca, 580tl; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston,
Lauros / Giraudon 292bl, 292br; Melk Abbey, Austria 250bl; Memling Museum, Bruges, Belgium 148crb; Menil Collection, Houston, Texas, US © 2008 Agnes Martin/DACS 2008 28b!; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, US /Mr & Mrs Frank J Hevrdejs Fund, ©
TX, US / Lauros / Giraudon, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 471 tr; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, US 128ca, 139c, ARS, NY and DACS, London 2008 503cb, 503clb; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, US / Museum purchase with funds provided
172r, 182br, 392cl, 513br; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, US, 342c; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, US, © ARS, NY by Oveta Culp Hobby, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 508b!; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, US, © ADAGP Paris and
and DACS, London 2008 491cl; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, US, Giraudon 195crb; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New DACS, London 2008:549cla; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, US, © DACS 525bc; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, US, ©
York, US, Photo © Boltin Picture Library 323cr; Mezquita (Great Mosque) Cordoba, Spain 73cla; Mittelrheinisches Landesmuseum, DACS, London/VAGA, New York 2008 523c; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, US, Funds provided by the Alice Pratt Brown
Mainz, Germany 67cb; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden, © DACS, London/VAGA, New York 535cl; Moderna Museet, Museum Fund 514cra; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, US, Funds provided by the Caroline Weiss Law Endowment Fund
Stockholm, Sweden/Cameraphoto Arte Venezia, © Succession Marcel Duchamp/ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 467tr; Mogao 576ca; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, US, Gift of Audrey Jones Beck, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 407b!;
Caves, Dunhuang, Gansu Province, NW China 442fcla; Monasterio de El Escorial, E] Escorial, Spain, Giraudon 206cra; Monasterio de Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, US, Gift of Herbert Godwin 205cra; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, US, Gift of Mr Frank
E| Escorial, Spain, Giraudon 2231; Morohashi Museum of Modern Art, Koriyama-Shi, Japan 443cra; Mucha Trust 384cra, 384tc, 384tl; J Hevrdejs, ©T H Benton and R P Benton Testamentary Trusts/DACS, London/VAGA, New York 2008 492bI; Museum of Fine Arts,
Musee Archeologique et Historique, Angouleme, France 63bl, 63cl; Musee Bargoin, Clermont-Ferrand, France, Lauros / Giraudon Houston, Texas, US, Gift of Mrs. R. O'Connor in honour of L. Sarofim & M. Stude 40cra; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, US,
215tl, 274cb; Musee Cantini, Marseille, France, / Giraudon, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 470fcr, 474ca, 545tl; Musee Gift of Throckmorton Fine Art Gallery 499tl; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, US, Museum purchase with funds provided by the
Cernuschi, Paris, France, Bonora 51br; Musee Cernuschi, Paris, France, Lauros / Giraudon 78cb; Musee Cognaca-Jay, Paris, France, Museum Collectors 41tc; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, US, The Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg 280tc;
Lauros / Giraudon 247cra; Musee Conde, Chantilly, France 14cb; Musee Conde, Chantilly, France, 247tl; Musee Conde, Chantilly, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, US, The Dr. Gus K. Nicholson Collection 397br; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, US, The
France, Giraudon 8clb (Otto Il), 67tc, 89bl, 103cb, 147br, 152bc, 235cla; Musee Conde, Chantilly, France, Lauros
/ Giraudon 126tl, Target Collection of American Photography 491tl; Museum of Modern Art, New York, US 6-7, 360fer, 376-377, 378br, 378tr, 379;
150cra; Musee dArt et d'Histoire, Geneva, Switzerland 166cr; Musee dArt et d'Histoire, Geneva, Switzerland, Photo © Held Collection Museum of Modern Art, New York, US / Giraudon, © Succession Picasso/DACS London 2008 416fcl, 419tr; Museum of Modern Art,
166br; Musee dArt et d'Industrie, St Etienne, France / Lauros / Giraudon, © ARS, New York and DACS, London 2008 527c; Musee New York, US / Peter Willi, © DACS London 2008 428fcl, 429tr; Museum of Modern Art, New York, US, © DACS /Giraudon 362tr;
dArt Moderne de IaVille de Paris, Paris, France / J P Zenobel, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 463tr; Musee dArt Moderne Museum of Modern Art, New York, US, ©The Willem de Kooning Foundation, New York/ARS, NY and DACS, London 2008 502c,
de |a Ville de Paris, Paris, France / Lauros / Giraudon © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 407cra; Musée dArt Moderne de Ia Ville 509cb; Museum of Modern Art, New York, US, / Lauros / Giraudon, © Succession Picasso/DACS London 2008 10br, 418cl, 418-419;
de Paris, Paris, France, Lauros / Giraudon, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 517bI; Musée dArt Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Museum of the City of New York, US 359bc; Museum of the Holy Ma'sumeh Shrine, Qom, Iran 72crb; Museum voor Schone
Paris, France, Lauros / Giraudon. © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 380crb, 416cr, 427tc; Musée d/Art Moderne, Troyes France, Kunsten, Ghent, Belgium 138cr, 156br; Museum, Vienna, Austria 184fcl; Private Collection / Peter Willi, © Man Ray Trust/ADAGP Paris
Lauros / Giraudon 427t|; Musee d’Art Thomas Henry, Cherbourg, France, Giraudon 248tl; Musee d'Histoire Contemperaine, BDIC, and DACS, London 2008 468crb; Private Collection, © Agnew’s, London, UK 153clb, 184ca, 184tr, 241cra, 277br, 567br, 567 cra;
Paris, France / Archives Charmet 516t; Musee d'Orsay, Paris, France 20cra, 57cb, 57cla, 326-327cb, 341c, 353b1, 354cr, 355bl, 360fcr Stapleton Collection, UK, 335cl, 387fcr, 468; Muze) Kosova, Pristina, Serbia, Lauros / Giraudon 41br; Narodni Galerie, Prague, Czech
(1891-2), 362b1, 368cl, 372cla, 393fcl, 394bl; Musee d'Orsay, Paris, France, 341 fcr, 353bc, 354cla, 356br, 374tl, 375br; Musee d'Orsay, Republic, Giraudon 169bI, 169t; Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo, Norway, © Munch Museum/Munch - Ellingsen Group, BONO, Oslo/DACS,
Paris, France, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 407tl; Musee d'Orsay, Paris, France, © DACS /Lauros / Giraudon 362fclb; London 2008 390br, 390cla, 390t!; National Academy Museum, New York, US 392tl; National Archaeological Museum, Athens, Greece
Musee d'Orsay, Paris, France, Giraudon 34cr, 324cr, 325cla, 325clb, 327tl, 336bI, 340cl, 340cr, 340fer, 342clb, 344-345, 346br, 346clb, 53clb, S5ftr, 55tr; National Archaeological Museum, Athens, Greece, Giraudon 52fcl, 53tr; National Archaeological Museum, Athens,
347b, 347clb, 347crb, 347tr, 348cl, 349ca, 350ca, 351be, 352cl, 355tl, 361b, 369cr, 380tc, 382clb, 395br, 395fcra, 547clb; Musee Greece, Lauros / Giraudon 54b!, 56cla; National Gallery of Art, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008
d'Orsay, Paris, France, Giraudon, © Succession H Matisse/DACS 2008 408tr; Musee d'Orsay, Paris, France, Lauros / Giraudon 209clb, 426br; National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, US 22bl, 101tr, 349clb, 452b1; National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, US, Lauros/
261ca, 324fer, 325crb, 336cr, 340bI, 340c, 341 cl, 343cra, 352clb, 352cr, 353tr, 354clb, 357br, 361fel, 361t, 363tr, 368clb, 382cr, 382Fcl, Giraudon 211bl; National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, US, Lauros / Giraudon, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 470cr, 478cr;
382fer (1890), 383ca, 383clb, 383crb, 455bI, 455c; Musee d’Unterlinden, Colmar, France, Giraudon 139fcl, 170bI, 170br, 170c, 170crb; National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland 23br, 23crb, 187clb, 218ca, 245br, 259cr, 262clb, 263tr, 360cl, 370crb, 372clb;
Musee de |Annonciade, Saint-Tropez, France, Giraudon 363bl; Musee de |'lle de France, Sceaux, France 402clb; Musee de National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland, 322br, 372cra, 374tr; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia 14b!; National
\'Orangerie, Paris, France, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 402bl; Musee de |'Orangerie, Paris, France, Lauros / Giraudon Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, © DACS /Felton Bequest 360bI; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, Felton
31cra; Musee de la Marine, Paris, France, Lauros / Giraudon 247clb; Musee de la Ville de Paris, Musee Carnavalet, Paris, France Bequest 359crb; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, Presented through the NGV Foundation by Rio Tinto Limited/Estate
298cb; Musee de IaVille de Paris, Musee Carnavalet, Paris, France, Lauros 395tc; Musee de la Ville de Paris, Musee Carnavalet, Paris, of Fred Williams 153t; National Gallery, London (On Loan) UK 148te; National Gallery, London, UK 18br, 18tr, 22cl, 22cr, 25tr, 32bI, 34cl,
France, Lauros / Giraudon 327cra; Musee de |a Ville de Paris, Musee du Petit-Palais, France 325cr; Musee de la Ville de Paris, Musee 89br, 98cra, 100br, 102ca, 102cb, 103cla, 106b!, 125cr, 126bl, 128cra, 129cb, 138c, 139cr, 141cla, 149cl, 153tl, 163tr, 173be, 175c,
du Petit-Palais, France, Giraudon 231br, 315clb; Musee de Picardie, Amiens, France, Lauros / Giraudon 214tr; Musee des Antiquites 176be, 176crb, 178tr, 194cl, 196tr, 199tl, 205tl, 211 cla, 212tr, 213cra, 222tl, 224clb, 224crb, 226cla, 226r, 227tr, 233bc, 233br, 233cla,
Nationales, St. Germain-en-Laye, France, Lauros / Giraudon 63br; Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, France, Giraudon 289cl; Musée 234crb, 235ca, 236cla, 236crb, 242cr, 242fer, 256b, 257cra, 258cb, 260cb, 261 cb, 261cla, 268clb, 263crb, 264bc, 265be, 27 1cla, 297cl
des Beaux Arts, Lille, France, Lauros / Giraudon. © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 456tl; Musee des Beaux-Arts et (The Hay Wain), 302crb, 314cra, 316c¢, 317be, 317tr, 360cr, 363c, 378clb, 546cra, 546crb, 546tr; National Gallery, London, UK, 317tl,
dArcheologie, Besancon, France, Giraudon 246t|; Musee des Beaux-Arts, Arles, France, Peter Willi 210tl; Musee des Beaux-Arts, Arras, 348-349be, 352br, 375ca; National Gallery, London, UK, Photo © Christie's Images 23tl; National Museum and Gallery of Wales,
France, Giraudon 328t|; Musee des BeauxArts, Caen, France, Giraudon 206bI; Musee des Beaux-Arts, Caen, France, Lauros/ Cardiff, © DACS London 2008 409bI; National Museum and Gallery of Wales, Cardiff 18tl, 152br, 227bI, 259tl, 449ftl; National Museum
Giraudon 165bl; Musee des Beaux-Arts, Dijon, France, Lauros / Giraudon 140cr; Musee des BeauxArts, Grenoble, France/Peter Willi, of Ancient Art; Lisbon, Portugal, Giraudon 150cla; National Museum of Art of Romania, Bucharest, Romania, Lauros / Giraudon 41 tr;
© Succession H Matisse/DACS 2008 408cr; Musee des Beaux-Arts, Lyon, France 298br; Musee des Beaux-Arts, Lyon, France, National Museum of India, New Delhi, India 75bl, 293cra; National Museum of lran, Tehran, Iran 45fbr; National Museum of Ireland,
Giraudon 217bl; Musee des Beaux-Arts, Marseille, France, Giraudon 215tc; Musee des Beaux-Arts, Nantes, France / Giraudon, © Dublin, Ireland 69crb; National Museum of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland, Photo © Boltin Picture Library 71bc; National Museum of Karachi,
ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 459tr; Musee des Beaux-Arts, Orleans, France, Giraudon 245tl; Musee des Beaux-Arts, Pau, Karachi, Pakistan, Giraudon 50bl; National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan 79crb, 260be; National Trust of Scotland, Fyvie Castle Coll.,
France, Giraudon 348bl; Musee des Beaux-Arts, Rennes, France, Giraudon 210br; Musee des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, France, Lauros/ Scotland 253clb; Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany, © DACS London 2008 480be; Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany, Giraudon 154cb;
Giraudon 154tl, 298tc; Musee des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg, France 208bc; Musee des Beaux-Arts, Tours, France 213tc; Musee des Nationalgalerie, SMPK, Berlin, Germany 273crb; Nationalgalerie, SMPK, Berlin, Germany /Wolfgang Neeb © DACS, London 2008
Beaux-Arts, Valenciennes, France, Lauros / Giraudon 268ftl; Musee des Monuments Francais, Paris, France, Giraudon 180fcra; Musee 556br; Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen, Denmark, Ancient Art and Architecture Collection Ltd. 68br; Nationalmuseum, Stockholm,
Fabre, Montpellier, France, Giraudon 324t; Musee Fabre, Montpellier, France, Lauros
/ Giraudon 248tr; Musee Goya, Castres, France Sweden 17bl, 273clb, 389bI, 389cra; Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden, 273cra; Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria, Ali
302t!; Musee Guillaume Apollinaire, Stavelot, Belgium, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 459br; Musee Guimet, Paris, France Meyer 40bl; Nazca, Ica, Peru, Bildarchiv Steffens 81clb; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, US, / Lauros / Giraudon, © DACS,
282br; Musee Guimet, Paris, France, Giraudon 185t, 281br, 282t, 283br, 291ca; Musee Guimet, Paris, France, Lauros / Giraudon London/VAGA, New York 535tr; Neue Pinakothek, Munich, Germany 18cl, 33cla; Neue Residenz, Bamberg, Germany, Lauros/
442fcra; Musee Gustave Moreau, Paris, France 129cla; Musee Gustave Moreau, Paris, France, RogerViollet, Paris 383tl; Musee Giraudon 139tl, 139tr; New Walk Museum, Leicester City Museum Service, UK, 334bl; New Walk Museum, Leicester City, Museum
Hyacinthe Rigaud, Perpignan, France / Lauros / Giraudon, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 381be; Musee Hyacinthe Rigaud, Service, UK, © DACS London 2008 409clb; Nezu Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan, 286cl; Niedersachsisches Landesmuseum, Hanover,
Perpignan, France, Lauros / Giraudon 215clb; Musee Marmottan, Paris, France 19bl; Musee Marmottan, Paris, France, 352tc; Musee Germany 430tr; Norton Simon Collection, Pasadena, CA, US, 208cra; Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery 563t; Nottingham City
Marmottan, Paris, France, Giraudon 33tr, 341cra, 348tc, 353tl; Musee Nat. du Chateau de Malmaison, RueiltMalmaison, France, Museums and Galleries (Nottingham Castle), 259c; Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Denmark 373br; Oeffentliche
Lauros / Giraudon 269cb; Musee National dArt Moderne, Centre © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008Pompidou, Paris, France Kunstsammlung, Basel, Switzerland 411bl; On Loan to the Hamburg Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany 386cl, 532cra, 533fcrb, 545be,
4411; Musee National dArt Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France / Flammarion, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 434fcl, 545br; Onze Lieve Vrouwkerk, Antwerp Cathedral, Belgium 194cr (Rubens), 224cra; Oriental Museum, Durham University, UK 281 fcr,
435bc; Musee National dArt Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France / Giraudon 458br; Musee National dArt Moderne, Centre 284clb; Orsanmichele, Florence, Italy 97bl; Osaka City Museum, Osaka, Japan, Giraudon 79bl; Osaka Museum of Fine Arts, Japan
Pompidou, Paris, France / Lauros / Giraudon, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 474cla; Musee National dArt Moderne, Centre 281c, 283cra; Osterreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna, Austria 243c, 251bl, 329tc, 413bl; Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna,
Pompidou, Paris, France / Lauros / Giraudon, © DACS London 2008 547ca; Musee National dArt Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, Austria, Alinari 442bc; Osterreichisches Galerie, Vienna, Austria 315ca; Ottobeuren, Germany, Bildarchiv Steffens 242tc; Ouro Preto,
France/ Peter Willi, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 435cl; Musee National dArt Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France/
Peter Willi, © DACS London 2008 481 tr; Musee National dArt Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, © ADAGP Paris and DACS,
Minas Gerais, Brazil, Hugh O'Shaughnessy 223br; Palacio Nacional, Mexico City, Mexico, Sean Sprague/Mexicolore, © 2008, Banco
de Mexico Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico DF /DACS London 496fcr, 497cra, 497tr; Palazzo Altemps, Rome,
SLN
London 2008 429br; Musee National dArt Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, © Succession H Matisse/DACS 2008 11 fbl, Italy, Alinari 52crb; Palazzo Barberini, Rome, Italy 204r; Palazzo del Te, Mantua, Italy 176br; Palazzo Ducale, Mantua, Italy 106br, 106crb;
403br; Musee National dArt Moderne, Centre Pornpidou, Paris, France, Giraudon 416br, Musée National dArt Moderne, Centre Palazzo Ducale, Urbino, Italy 179cb; Palazzo Ducale, Venice, Italy 255crb; Palazzo Ducale, Venice, Italy, Cameraphoto Arte Venezia
Pompidou, Paris, France, Giraudon /© ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 517crb;, Musée National dArt Moderne, Centre 139cl, 155cla; Palazzo Farnese, Rome, Italy 196cla; Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, Florence, Italy 99cr, 99erb, 104cla; Palazzo Pitti, Florence,
Pompidou, Paris, France, Lauros
/ Giraudon 441ftl, 456tr, 460¢la, 551cl, 556cra; Musée National dArt Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Italy 122cla, 152t, 203cla; Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy, Alinari 120tr, 510cra; Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, Italy 83cra, 83tr, 85tr; Palazzo
Paris, France, Lauros / Giraudon, © ADAGP' Paris and DACS, London 2008 434c, 441bl, 4611, 516c, 516cl, 518bc, 518c, 519br, 519tc, Pubblico, Siena, Italy, Alinari 85cra; Palazzo Vecchio (Palazzo della Signoria) Florence, Italy 178bl; Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, UK /
519t!, 521cla; Musée National dArt Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, Lauros / Giraudon, © Foundation Antoni Tapies, Wilson Loan / © Peter Blake. Licensed by DACS 2008 534br; Paris, France, Giraudon 336tr, 394t; Paris, France, Lauros / Giraudon
Barcelone/VEGAP Madrid and DACS, London 2008 519bl;!Musée National dArt Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France. © ADAGP
Paris and DACS, London 2008 417tr; Musée National dArt Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France/Peter Willi, © ADAGP Paris and
180cra; Peale Museum, Philadelphia, PA, US 280cla; Peggy Guggenheim Foundation, Venice, Italy, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London
2008 471bl, 471 br, 471¢, 471cr, 478bI, 478br; Peggy Guggenheim Foundation, Venice, Italy, © ARS, NY and DACS, London 2008
LYV
DACS, London 2008 434cr; Musée National d/Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France/Peter Willi. © ADAGP Paris and DACS, 503br, 503tr; Peggy Guggenheim Foundation, Venice, Italy, © ARS, NY and DACS, London 2008 502cl; Pegay Guggenheim
London 2008 427br, 427tr, 433cla, 435br, 458bI, 479ca, 479cra, 479tr, 518cr; Musée National dArt Moderne, Paris, France, Lauros/ Foundation, Venice, Italy, Giraudon / © Succession Miro/ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 472tr; Pennsylvania Academy of the
Giraudon. © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 417bc; Musée National dArt Moderne, Paris, France, Peter Willi 416fcr, 426bI; Fine Arts, Philadelphia, US 278erb, 280tr; People’s Republic of China, Lauros / Giraudon 51t; Persepolis, Iran 42fcr, 45cr; Petit Palais,
Musee Naval, Toulon, France, Giraudon 215cla; Musee Picasso, Paris, France / Giraudon, © Succession Picasso/DACS London 2008 Geneva, Switzerland 360br; Petworth House, Sussex, UK 241cla; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, PA, US 350br, 361 fer,
419br; Musee Picasso, Paris, France /Peter Willi, © Succesion Picasso/DACS London 2008 420, 421br; Musee Picasso, Paris, France / 368-369cb; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, PA, US, © Salvador Dali, Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation, DACS, London 2008
Peter Willi, © Succession Picasso/DACS London 2008 315cra; Musee Picasso, Paris, France, / Lauros / Giraudon, © Succession 475t; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, PA, US, © Succession Marcel Duchamp/ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008
Picasso/DACS London 2008 418cb; Musee Picasso, Paris, France, © Succession Picasso/DACS London 2008 420-421, 421tc; Musée 467bI, 467cb; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, PA, US, Peter Willi 355cra; Phillips Collection, Washington DC, US 341cr,
Picasso, Paris, France, Giraudon 455t!; Musée Picasso, Paris, France, Giraudon, © Succession Picasso/DACS London 2008 416bl; 351t; Phillips Collection, Washington DC, US, © DACS London 2008 209ca; Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona, US, © 2008, Banco de
Musee Reattu, Arles, France, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 521b!; Musee Rodin, Paris, France, Peter Willi 356cra, 375tl; Mexico Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico DF / DACS, London 499tr; Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona, US, Bequest of
Musee Rodin, Paris, France, Philippe Galard 315tI, 357cl; Musee Toulouse-Lautrec, Albi, France, Giraudon 26crb; Musees Royaux des the Estate of Hugh Homer, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 548cr, 550tr; Phoenix Art Museum, Houston, Arizona, US, Gift of
Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels, Belgium 149c, 269t; Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels, Belgium, Giraudon 9cb, Mrs NA Bogdan, NY,in memory of Mr Louis Cates 457tr; Photo © Boltin Picture Library 527tI; Piazza della Signoria, Florence, Italy
128erb, 139fcr, 148cra, 163tl; Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, Italy 55ca, 60fbl, 152cla, 314fcla; Museo Archeologico Nazionale, 179tc; Piazza Navona, Rome, Italy 194tc, 201b1; Piazza San Pietro, Rome, Italy 201bc; Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, Italy 126ca;
Naples, Italy, Alinari 510cla,; Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, Italy, Giraudon 58br; Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, Italy, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, Italy, Alinari 1011; Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna, Italy, Alinari 197br, 197cr; Pinacoteca, Sansepolcro, Italy
Index 58cl; Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, Italy, Lauros / Giraudon 60t; Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, Italy, Photo © 17cla; Pisa Cathedral, Italy 82bc, 82cb, 84bc, 84cb; Place de la Concorde, Paris, France 249br; Plaza Mayor, Madrid, Spain, Index 216b!;
Held Collectio 208cla; Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, Italy, Photo © Held Collection 61t!; Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Polesden Lacey, Great Bookham, Surrey, UK, 265cra; Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka 74t; Prado, Madrid, Spain 15bl, 22bce, 25br, 56br, 92br,
Naples, Italy, RogerViollet, Paris 6Oclb; Museo Archeologico, Venice, Italy 128cla; Museo Capitolino, Rome, Italy 59t; Museo Civico 93t, 130te, 131crb, 138cl, 146b, 158-159, 160cl, 160cra, 160-161, 161bce, 161bl, 161cla, 161cr, 161crb, 182tr, 207tr, 216cra, 218bl, 221tr,
Rivoltello, Trieste, |taly, Alinari 529b!; Museo Civico, Recanati, Italy, Giraudon 125bl; Museo Civico, Treviso, Italy, Lauros
/ Giraudon 240cra, 296c, 302cl, 302clb, 303, 303crb; Prado, Madrid, Spain, 302; Prado, Madrid, Spain, Giraudon 19cla, 19cra, 25c, 92c, 99cl,
2441); Museo Correr, Venice, Italy, Alinfiri 12761; Museo Cristiano Lateranese, Rome, Italy, Alinari 64br; Museo Dali, Figueres, Spain, © 141tr, 154cla, 157t, 165tr, 169br, 195cr, 208cb, 216tl, 222b1, 302bc; Prado, Madrid, Spain, Index 56crb, 137bI, 156bI, 223tl; Private
Salvador Dali, Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation, DACS, London 2008 129fcrb; Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City, Mexico / Collection 14clb, 15br, 17tr, 18bl, 19crb, 20br, 20clb, 21cl, 23cra, 26bI, 26cla, 26clb, 27br, 28br, 28clb, 28cra, 29bI|, 29cb, 29ftr, 33br,
Photo: Jorge Contreras Chacel 498bc; Museo de Arte de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain, Photo © Held Collection 150bI, 150br; Museo 34be, 57tc, 96tl, 106t!, 107t!, 116crb, 119cra, 130tl, 151tr, 152bl, 171cra, 172be, 172bI, 173ftr, 241tl,248bI, 248br, 252clb, 258cra,
de Arte Moderno, Bogota, Colombia, Index 568r; Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, Mexico / Giraudon, © DACS London 2008 261crb, 263tl, 264erb, 265t!, 275br, 275cla, 277ca, 278clb, 301 tr, 313tl, 324c, 325fbr, 329clb, 332tc, 337br, 339br, 353cl, 353fclb, 354t,
498cla, 498fcla, 498ftl; Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, Mexico, Art Resource/Schalkwijk, © 2008, Banco de Mexico Diego 362cb, 366fcla, 366fcrb, 370br, 382fer, 387tl, 408crb, 409t|, 411 be, 411 br, 412, 413br, 424bc, 427bc, 429t!, 430t, 443ca, 443crb, 446br,
Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico DF / DACS London 499br; Museo de Bellas Artes, Seville, Spain 183tr,; Museo de Bellas 448cra, 450fclb, 450ftl, 451clb, 451tl, 460r, 462bc, 489clb, 489tc, 495tl, 511tc, 523bI, 525cla, 528cb, 542ftl; 544tl, 546cb, 548bI, 566cl,
Artes, Seville, Spain, Giraudon 218tl; Museo de Cadiz, Spain, 195bl; Museo de Santa Cruz, Toledo, Spain 183br; Museo del Banco 566clb, 566crb, 566tl, 569tc, 571, 571bl, 571br, 574t, 576clb, 579cla; Private Collection © Succession Picasso/DACS London 2008
Central de Reserva, Lima, Peru, Bildarchiv Steffens 80br; Museo dell’ Opera del Duomo, Florence, Italy 94br; Museo dell’Opera del 424tI; Private Collection / © Alan Cristea, Gallery, London, ©The Estate of Patrick Caulfield. All rights reserved, DACS 2008 209crb;
Duomo, Siena, Italy 83br, 83crb, 85crb; Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena, Italy, Alinari 83b!, 85bl; Museo della Civilta Romana, Private Collection / © Crane Kalman, London, © SODRAC, Montreal and DACS, London 2008 515bi; Private Collection / © Crane
Rome, Italy, Giraudon 442clb; Museo di San Marco dell’Angelico, Florence, Italy 99bI, 99br, 99tl; Museo di San Marco, Florence, Italy Kalman, London. © ARS, NY and DACS, London 2008 427bI; Private Collection / Giraudon, © DACS London 2008 498b!; Private
94tr; Museo Dolores Olmedo Patino, Mexico City, Mexico, Photo: Gabriel Figueroa, © 2008, Banco de Mexico Diego Rivera & Frida Collection / James Goodman Gallery, New York, US, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 574cr, 577b; Private Collection / James
Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico DF / DACS London 496bI; Museo e Gallerie Nazionali di Capodimonte, Naples, Italy, Giraudon 162tr; Goodman Gallery, New York, US, ©The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation/DACS, London/VAGA, New York 2008 555cla;
Museo Historico Nacional, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Index 510crb; Museo Lazaro Galdiano, Madrid, Spain 297t; Museo Lazaro Private Collection / Lauros / Giraudon /© ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 380clb, 516bI, 517cb; Private Collection / Lauros/
Galdiano, Madrid, Spain, Giraudon 154c; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain / Giraudon, © DACS, London 2008 Giraudon, © ARS, NY and DACS, London 2008 503t!; Private Collection / Marlena Eleini, © ARS, NY and DACS, London 2008 5271;
494tr; Museo Nacional de Antropologia y Arqueologia, Lima, Peru, Bildarchiv Steffens 80bl; Museo Nacional de Antropologia, Mexico Private Collection / Peter Willi, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 494be, 494clb, 518clb; Private Collection / Peter Willi, © DACS
City, Mexico 191br; Museo Nacional de Antropologia, Mexico City, Mexico, Jean-Pierre Courau 81br, 1911; Museo Nacional de London 2008 468tr; Private Collection / Phillips, Fine Art Auctioneers, New York, US/ © DACS London 2008 473tr; Private Collection /
Antropologia, Mexico City, Mexico, Photo: Michel Zabe / AZA 128tr, 191cr, 191tr; Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, Italy 94cr, Photo © Bonhams, London, UK, © 2008 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / DACS,
95b!, 95cla, 97tc, 177c; Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome, Italy 60-61; Museo Nazionale, Reggio Calabria, Italy 15bc; Museo Picasso, London 543er; Private Collection / Photo © Christie's Images, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 381tI; Private Collection / Photo
Barcelona, Spain, Lauros / Giraudon / © Succession Miro/ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 472t|; Museo Sorolla, Madrid, Spain, © Christie's Images, © DACS, London 2008 479be, 521 cra; Private Collection / Photo © Held Collection, © ADAGP Paris and DACS,
Index 359tc; Museu de Arte, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Giraudon 21bl, 460tl; Museu Picasso, Barcelona, Spain, © Succession Picasso/DACS London 2008 548br, 548fcl, 549cra; Private Collection / Photo © Lefevre Fine Art Ltd, London, © ADAGR Paris and DACS, London
London 2008 220fcla; Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany, © Man Ray Trust/ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 468bl; 2008 517tl; Private Collection /Dreamtime Gallery, London © DACS London 2008 586be, 586bIl; Private Collection, 258cla, 259tr,
Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands 232tr; Museum Carolino Augusteum, Salzburg, Austria, Interfoto 264clb, 3711, 387c, 393be, 408be; Private Collection, © 2008 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society
329cla; Museum der Bildenden Kunste, Leipzig, Germany 382cl; Museum der Bildenden Kunste, Leipzig, Germany, 384crb; Museum (ARS), New York / DACS, London 543tc; Private Collection, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 315be, 381clb, 406br, 428fcr,
Folkwang, Essen, Germany, Giraudon 373bc; Museum fur Volkerkunde, Vienna, Austria 191tc; Museum Narodowe, Poznan, Poland 433b!, 461br, 494cla, 516br, 516fcr; Private Collection, © Agnew’s, London, UK / 313bI; Private Collection, © ARS, NY and DACS,
370ca; Museum of Art, Serpukhov, Russia / Giraudon, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 443clb; Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, London 2008 491bl, 514br; Private Collection, © Barford Sculptures Ltd 523br; Private Collection, © Calder Foundation, New York/
US, Giraudon 35fcla; Museum of Art, Tula, Russia 434cl, 440cl; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, US, Abbott Lawrence DACS London 2008 31cla; Private Collection, © Chris Beetles, London, U.K. 26ca; Private Collection, © Christian Schad Stiftung
Fund, Seth K. Sweetser Fund 256tr; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, US, Anna Mitchell Richards Fund 51cra; Museum Aschaffenburg/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn and DACS, London 2008 480br; Private Collection, © Connaught Brown, London 516cr, 520br;
of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, US, Bequest of Mrs Alma H. Wadleigh 391bl; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, US, Private Collection, ©The Estate of Robert Smithson/DACS London 533cr; Private Collection/Giraudon © DACS, London 2008 385cra;
Bequest of Winslow Warren 279bI; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, US, Centennial Gift of LandonT. Clay 138fer; Private Collection/Index, © DACS 2008 490br; Private Collection, © DACS /Peter Willi 21cr, 361¢, 362cla; Private Collection, © DACS /
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, US, Denman Waldo Ross Collection 78br; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Photo © Bonhams, London, UK 33bl; Private Collection, © DACS London 2008 10tr, 385br, 469fcra, 470fcl, 473br; Private Collection,
Massachusetts, US, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation Grant 40br; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, US, © Estate of David Smith/DACS, London/VAGA, New York 2008 502cr, 514bl, 514ca; Private Collection, © Estate of Francis Bacon/
Edward Ingersoll Brown Fund 279br; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, US, Fenollosa-Weld Collection 510clb; Museum DACS London 2008 563crb; Private Collection, © Hattula Moholy-Nagy/DACS London 2008 483cla; Private Collection, © Jasper Johns
of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, US, Francis Bartlett Donation 291cla; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, US, Gift of /VAGA, New York / DACS, London 2008 533fcl, 538tr, 539bc, 539tr; Private Collection, © Michael Graham-Stewart 456bc; Private
Mary Louisa Boit, Julia Overing Boit, Jane Hubbard 15cla, 371clb; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, US, Gift of Mr and Collection, © Philip Mould Ltd, London 226tI, 241crb, 241tc; Private Collection, © Piano Nobile Fine Paintings, London 534tr; Private
Mrs Henry Lee Higginson 146tr; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, US, Gift of Mrs Frederick L. Ames 281t; Museum of Collection, © SODRAC, Montreal and DACS, London 2008 515tc; Private Collection, © The Estate of Roy Lichtenstein/DACS London
Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, US, Gift of Mrs Samuel and Miss Alice Hooper 322t!; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2008 541 tr; Private Collection, ©The Fine Art Society, London, UK 28cla, 371cra, 451tr; Private Collection, © The HeartfieldCommunity
Massachusetts, US, Henry H, and Zoe Oliver Sherman Fund and other funds 391crb; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, of Heirs/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn and DACS, London 2008 469bI, 469br; Private Collection, / Marlena Eleini, © ARS, NY and DACS, London
US, Keith McLeod Fund 283clb, 293br; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, US, Marshall H. Gould Fund, Frederick L. Jack 2008 523fcr; Private Collection, Alinari 102tl, 197tc, 204tI, 206clb; Private Collection, Ancient Art and Architecture Collection Ltd. 40cla;
Fund and 293bl; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, US, Picture Fund 350tr; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Private Collection, Archives Charmet 239fcra, 269cr, 338t, 340br, 342t!, 360t, 362t!, 417t!, 420bI, 432br, 441 tr, 470t; Private Collection,
Massachusetts, US, Robert Dawson Evans Collection 266bI; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, US, Ross-Coomaraswamy Copyright Richard Lond 2008 553cla; Private Collection, Courtesy of Simon Gillespie Studio, London 449tr; Private Collection, Courtesy
Collection 293cla; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, US, Special Chinese and Japanese Fund 79cla; Museum of Fine of the Procter Estate 37 1crb; Private Collection, Courtesy of Thomas Brod and Patrick Pilkington 21br; Private Collection, Elizabeth
Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, US, The Hayden Collection - Charles Henry Hayden Fund 208crb, 493tr; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Harvey-Lee 393fclb; Private Collection, Giraudon 15cra, 123tl, 197cla, 336cl; Private Collection, lan Mursell/Mexicolore 496cl, 497crb;
 Private Collection, Index 217t, 302cra, 303cra; Private Collection, James Goodman Gallery, New York, US 568tc, 569clb; Private 565cr, 565tl, 565tr; The Detroit Institute OfArts: Founders Society Purchase, Eleanor Clay Ford Fund for African Art. Photograph © 1998
Collection, Johnny Van Haeften Ltd., London 240cla; Private Collection, Ken Welsh 112tl, 118tl, 124t!, 199br; Private Collection, London, The Detroit Institute Of Arts 396fbr; DK Images: Judith Miller /Jo De Buck 399fcra; Judith Miller / JYP Tribal Art 398tc; Judith Miller/
UK / Peter Willi 411tl; Private Collection, Lucien Herve 458c!; Private Collection, Munch Museum/Munch - Ellingsen Group, BONO, Kevin Conru 399ca; Judith Miller / Philip Keith Private Collection 398bI, 399bI, 399fcla; Judith Miller /William Jamieson Tribal Art 398br,
Oslo/DACS, London 2008 415fbr; Private Collection, Peter Newark American Pictures 499bI; Private Collection, Peter Willi 262cla, 398cb, 399be, 399br, 399ftr; Penguin Books 545crb; DNP Archives.com: 188br, 286tr; The English Heritage Photo Library: Kenwood House,
362br, 386b!; Private Collection, Photo © Bonhams, London, UK 25bI, 35br, 250br, 285t, 300bI, 442ftr, 477tr; Private Collection, Photo London, UK/The lveagh Bequest 230, 231cla, 231clb, 231cr, 231fclb, 231ftr, 231tc, 231t!, 231tr; Ferens Art Gallery: Hull Museums & Art
© Christie's Images 9crb, 26fcr, 31br, 179bI, 186clb, 186cr, 186fcr, 187br, 187cla, 187cra, 224tI, 227clb, 253br, 260clb, 260cra, 264bI, Gallery: © Trustees of the Paolozzi Foundation, Licensed by DACS 2008 522crb; Figge Art Museum: 456br; © Fondazione La Biennale di
266fcr, 279fbr, 281 fer (chicken), 284br, 337cl, 354bI, 386br, 389cb, 454tc, 496cr, 498br, 498cra, 498fcra, 569cla; Private Collection, Venezia - ASAC: Photo: Giorgio Zucchiatti 566br; Frac Bourgogne: © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 562cr; Courtesy Gagosian
Photo © Crane Kalman Gallery, London, UK 57crb; Private Collection, Photo © Heini Schneebeli 411, 54tc, 128fbr; Private Collection, Gallery: © Pino Pascali 556clb; © Rachel Whiteread. Courtesy of Gagosian Gallery. Photo Sue Omerod 582cb; Galerie Loft: © Liu
Photo © Held Collection 208clb, 397fcla; Private Collection, Photo © Lefevre Fine Art Ltd, London 544cla; Private Collection, Photo © Xiaodong 593tr; Getty Images: 486tc, 535tI, 563clb, 584tc; AFP 576t!; Ray Fisher /Time Life Pictures 540tc; John Jonas Gruen 531 te;
Lefevre Fine Art Ltd., London 328ca, 337bI, 426c, 511be, 547crb; Private Collection, Photo © Rafael Valls Gallery, London, UK 510tr;
Lionel Healing / AFP 591 crb; Hulton Archive 428t; © DACS London 2008 558tr; Ben Martin/Time Life Pictures 512t!; ND/Roger Viollet
Private Collection, RogerViollet, Paris 328tr, 330tc, 350b!, 403tI, 418t!, 435ftl, 459tl, 474tr, 4941), 573br; Private Collection, The Stapleton
402t; Barbara Sax / AFP 591clb; Frank Scherschel/Time Life Pictures 503be; Art Shay /Time Life Pictures 529br; Time Life Pictures
Collection 105br, 138t, 142tl, 148br, 156tc, 162tl, 213tl, 2B0cb, 312tl, 325tr, 335tl, 354tr, 382br, 387be, 387fclb, 447tl, 4711; Private
Collection, The Stapleton Collection, © DACS London 2008 469cra; Private Collection, Wolfgang Neeb 485br; Private Collection¢ 556tc; © Gilbert &George: 578t, 579tr; Gladstone Gallery, New York: © Shirin Neshat 592bc; Andy Goldsworthy: 524br, 554br, Hans Haake:
Giraudon, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 406bI; Pushkin Museum, Moscow, Russia 17br, 26tr, 57clb, 330cr, 340tc; Pushkin Photo Roman Mensing © DACS, London 2008 561b!; Harvard University Art Museums: Fogg Art Museum, Anonymous Gift and the Kate,
Museum, Moscow, Russia / Giraudon, © Succesion Picasso/DACS London 2008 547cb; Pushkin Museum, Moscow, Russia, Giraudon Maurice R and Melvin R Seiden Special Purchase Fund in honour of Philip A and Lyn Straus, 1997.2. Photo: Imaging Department ©
20fclb, 214clb, 411 te; R.S.A, London, UK, 264cla; Rasmus Meyers Samlinger, Bergen, Norway, © DACS 17cra; Rasmus Meyers President and Fellows of Harvard College 25t!; Haunch of Venison, © Richard Long 2008 551c, 553cra; 551bl; Reproduced by permission of
Samlinger, Bergen, Norway, © Munch Musem/Munch - Ellingsen Group, BONO, Oslo/DACS, London 2008 390tr; Rasmus Meyers the Henry Moore Foundation: 29br, 29crb, 29fbr, 488b, 4881|; Courtesy of the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University: George and
Samlinger, Bergen, Norway, © Munch Museum/Munch - Ellingsen Group, BONO, Oslo/DACS, London 2008 315crb; Residenz, Mary Rockwell Collection 283cla; Hirshhorn Museum And Sculpture Garden: Regents Collections Acquisition Program with Matching
Wurzburg, Germany, 243fclb; Residenz, Wurzburg, Germany, Lauros / Giraudon 254-255; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Funds from the Jerome L Greene, Agnes Gund, Sydney and Frances Lewis, and Leonard C Yaseen Purchase Fund, 1989 573cla;
195fcl, 229br, 231 fbl, 237br, 314br; Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK 262tl; Royal College of Art, London, UK 27crb; Royal Imaginechina: 593t!; iStockphoto.com: Franky De Meyer 165fbr; Stephan Hoerold 179tr; David lliff 182b!; James Cohan Gallery, New York: ©
Geographical Society, London, UK 457br; Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, Surrey, UK 334br; Royal Holloway, University of Estate of Robert Smithson / DACS, London/VAGA, New York 2008 553b!; © Estate of Robert Smithson / DACS, London/VAGA, New
London, 335ca; Royal Pavilion, Libraries & Museums, Brighton & Hove 232bI; Royal Society of Arts, London, UK, 241br; Ruskin York 2008, Collection: DIA Center for the Artists, New York / Photo: Gianfranco Gorgoni 553br; Courtesy Jay Jopling /White Cube (London):
Museum, Coniston, Cumbria, UK, 333br; Russian State Library, Moscow, Russia, © DACS London 2008 464bI; Saatchi Collection, Courtesy Centre Pompidou, Paris / Photo: Phillipe Migeat 557fcr; © the artist 581crb; © the artist /Photo: Antony Oliver 582ca; © the
London, UK, © 2008 Andy Warhol Foundation / DACS, London. Trademarks, Carnpbell Soup Company. All rights reserved 533cl, 542cl;
artist /Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd 582cra; © the artist /Photo: Stephen White 580cb, 581b!, 583b!; © the artist / Photo:
Saatchi Collection, London, UK, © 2008 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / DACS,
Stephen White / Courtesy Jay Jopling/White Cube (London) 581crb; Kaikai Kiki New York LLC: Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin © 2002
London 543tl; Saatchi Collection, London, UK, © DACS 533cl; Samuel Collection, City of London 235bce; Samuel Courtauld Trust,
Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery 10clb, 141b, 155tr, 341 fcl, 342-343c, 351bl, 363bc, 375be; San Diego Museum of Art, US, Gift of Takashi Murakami 593bc; David King Collection: 462t; Konrad Fischer Galerie: © ARS, NY and DACS, London 2008 529t, Kunstmuseum
Anne R. and Amy Putnam 216crb; San Diego Museum of Art, US, Gift of the Baldwin M. Baldwin Foundation 27ca; San Francesco, Basel: Gift of Raoul La Roche 1952, Photo Martin P Buhler. © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 416c, 417cl; Kunstmuseum Bern: ©
Arezzo, Italy 92cr; San Francesco, Arezzo, Italy, 100tc; San Francesco, Lower Church, Assisi, Italy 87br; San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008. 438ca; Kurokawa Institute of Ancient Cultures: 79tc; Kyoto National Museum: 285br, Lisson Gallery,
Italy, Cameraphoto Arte Venezia 136c; San Giovanni, Siena, Italy 97c; San Lorenzo, Florence, Italy 180bl; San Michele Visdomini, London: Courtesy: Regan Projects/ Photo Joshua White, Los Angeles 584ca; Louis K. Meisel Gallery: 571cb; Marian Goodman Gallery:
Florence, Italy 177br; San Paolo Maggiore, Bologna, Italy 201cr; San Petronio, Bologna, Italy, Alinari 95tr; San Pietro in Montorio, Rome, 578bc, 578bl; Marlborough Gallery, Inc.. © DACS, London/VAGA, New York 2008 568b!; Mary Boone Gallery, New York: © Liu Xiaodong
Italy 123br; San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome, Italy, Alinari 118cl; San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy 65cl, 65cr; Sant’ Anastasia, Verona, Italy, Alinari 593c; Courtesy of the Artist and Metro Pictures: 580cra, 580tc; The Metropolitan Museum of Art: George A. Hearn Fund, 1957 (5792) © ARS
88crb; SantAlvise, Venice, Italy 255t; SantApollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, Italy, Giraudon 64cb; Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, Italy 198tr; New York and DACS London 2008 504-505, 506be, 506c, 506cla, 506-507r; Ministére de la Culture etde la Communication, DRAC Rhone-
Santa Maria della Grazie, Milan, Italy 114-115, 116cra, 116fcr, 117clb, 117crb, 117tr; Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome, Italy 200crb; Santa Alpes, Service régional d’archéologie: 38b|; Minneapolis Institute of Arts: Gift of Bruce and Ruth Dayton 284b; Gift of Ruth and Bruce
Maria della Vittoria, Rome, Italy, Alinari 2001; Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice, Italy, Giraudon 1311; Santa Maria Maddalena dei Dayton 281b!; MKM Museum Kiippersmiihle fiir Moderne Kunst, Duisburg: Sammlung Sylvia und Ulrich Stroher, © Courtesy Galerie Michael
Pazzi, Florence, Italy 104crb; Santa Maria Novella, Florence, Italy 86bce, 92cl, 96tr, 105b!, 105c; Santi Luca e Martina, Rome, Italy 204tr; Werner 575tr; MOCA The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles: Courtesy of LUX 572t; © 2008 Mondrian/Holtzman Trust, c/o HCR
Santo Spirito, Agrigento, Italy, Alinari 252cla; Sarnath, Uttar Pradesh, India 50br; Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin, Germany, © Foundation International Warrenton, US: 444tI; Monika Spriith - Philomene Magers Galerie: Courtesy: Monika Spruth Galerie, Koln/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn/
Oskar Kokoschka / 2008 DACS 412b!; Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin, Germany, Giraudon 244ca; Schloss Sanssouci, Potsdam, DACS, London 2008 579b, 579crb; Musee Renoir - Cagnes-sur-Mer: 34fcrb; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid: © Zabalaga-
Brandenburg, Germany, Alinari 23bl; School of Oriental & African Studies Library, Uni. of London 547tl; Schroeder House, built in 1923-
Leku, DACS, London 2008 522tr; © Succession Picasso/DACS London 2008 421tr; Museo Nacional Del Prado, Madrid: 219, 220-221 (Las
24 (photo), Rietveld, Gerrit (1888-1964) / Utrecht, Netherlands 434t; Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, UK 158cra,
574bI; Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, UK, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 381cla, 466bI; Scottish
Meninas details), 304-305, 306-307; Nasher Sculpture Center: RDN and PRN Foundation, Dallas /Photographer: David Heald 450br;
National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland 311tl; Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland, 259br, 265ca; Scrovegni National Gallery Of Australia, Canberra: © DACS, London/VAGA, New York 2008 526t!; Purchased with the assistance of Tony and Carol
(Arena) Chapel, Padua, Italy 86bl, 86tl, 86-87, 87bc, 87bl; Scrovegni (Arena) Chapel, Padua, Italy, Alim 86tc; Scrovegni (Arena) Chapel, Berg 2003, © Ron Mueck 585cla; National Gallery, London: 10b!, 24c, 24cr, 24cra, 24fer, 24fcra, 32cr, 32cra, 32fer, 33ca, 33eb, 33cl,
Padua, Italy, Alinari 24br, 32cla; Scrovegni (Arena) Chapel, Padua, Italy, GGiraudon 82br; Scrovegni (Arena) Chapel, Padua, Italy, 102br, 138fcl, 143, 144-145, 297cr, 318-319, 320-321 (The Fighting Temeraire), 388bI; Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK 97cla;
Giraudon 84br; Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni, Venice, Italy, Giraudon 260tr; Sheffield Galleries and Museums Trust, UK 443br; Nationalmuseet (National Museum Of Denmark): 41cra; Newspix Archive/Nationwide News: Leon Mead © The Estate of Clifford Possum
Skagens Museum, Denmark 388br; Society of Antiquaries of London, UK 164tl; Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York, US. Tjapaltjarri licensed by DACS/AAA/VISCOPY 2008 587tI; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh: Purchased with funds from the State of
460clb; Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York, US / Lauros / Giraudon, © Estate of Francis Bacon/DACS London 2008 563b; North Carolina, © Andrew Wyeth 567cla; October Gallery: © E| Anatsui 590br; Old Holland Classic Colours since 1664 www.oldholland.com
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, US / Giraudon, © DACS London 2008 484-485; Southampton City Art Gallery, +31 343-518224: 33cra; © Dennis Oppenheim: 554t|; PA Photos: Horst Ossinger/DPA 594cl; The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC; 524tr,
Hampshire, UK 153erb, 490t, 582b|; Southampton City Art Gallery, Hampshire, UK, 386crb; Sean Sprague/Mexicolore
/ ©DACS 497be; Private Collection: 457b|; Private Collection, UK: The Singing Butler © Jack Vettriano, courtesy the artist, www.jackvettriano.com 569be;
St Nicholas’ Church, Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn, Estonia 174bl; St. Bavo Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium, Giraudon 142b; St. Peter's, Projeto Helio Oiticica: Cesar Oiticica Filho 549br; Quattrone fine art photographers, Florence: © Antonio Quattrone 116cla; Peter Randall-Page:
Louvain, Belgium, Giraudon 149cra; St. Peter's, Vatican, Rome, Italy 118fcl, 200tr, 207bc; St. Petersburg, Russia, Lauros / Giraudon Photo: Ben Foster 585b!; Réunion des Musées Nationaux Agence Photographique: © CNAC/MNAM, Dist. RMN / © Adam Rzepka 575b!; ©
249tr; St. Sebastiano, Venice, Italy 137cra; St. Wolfgang, Austria 167bc; St. Wolfgang, Austria, Interfoto 167bl; St.Martin, Colmar, Photo CNAC/MNAM, Dist. RMN - © Jacqueline Hyde, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 548fcr, 549; © Photo CNAC/MNAM,
France, Lauros / Giraudon 167tc; Staatliche Gemaldegalerie, Berlin, Germany 164br, 207br, 212tI, 236clb; Staatliche Kunstsammlungen
Dist. RMN - ©Peter Willi, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 548cl, 550t!; Jean-Gilles Berizzi / Paris, Musée du Quai Branly ©
Dresden 537cr; Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Germany 310clb; Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Germany, Photo © Held Collection 54b;
Warmun Art Centre / Jane Yalunga 587br; Musée Guimet, Paris, Dist RMN - ©Ghislain Vanneste 282cla; © Photo CNAC/MNAM, Dist
Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany 483bc; Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany, © DACS London 2008 481 crb; Stadtische Galerie im
RMN / © Philippe Migeat. © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 426tr; © Photo CNAC/MNAM, Dist. RMN / © Droits réservés, ©
Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany / Peter Willi, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 31crb; Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus,
Munich, Germany, Interfoto 261tc; Stadtische Kunsthalle, Mannheim 488tr; Stadtmuseum, Munich, Germany / Giraudon, © DACS ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008, 520bI; © Photo CNAC/MNAM, Dist. RMN / Droits réservés © L&M Services B.V. The Haque
London 2008 410tr; State Art Gallery, Tchelyabinsk, Russia 464tI; State Russian Museum, St Petersburg, Russia, © DACS London 2008 20080305 432cr; Photo CNAC /MNAM, Dist. RMN - © Philippe Migeat 502fcr, 515tr (1962), 562bl; Photo CNAC /MNAM, Dist. RMN -
464br; State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia 324br, 331ca, 434fer, 440cra, 440tl; State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, © Philippe Migeat, © DACS, London 2008 495r; Photo CNAC/MNAM, Dist. RMN - ©Philippe Migeat 562cl; Photo CNAC/MNAM, Dist.
Russia, 331 br, 331clb, 393tc; State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 433cra; State RMN - ©Philippe Migeat, © DACS London 2008 490cl; Photo CNAC/MNAM, Dist. RMN / © Georges Meguerditchian / ©ADAGR Paris
Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia, © DACS 511crb; State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia, Giraudon 331c; State and DACS, London 2008 517tr; Photo CNAC/MNAM, Dist. RMN / Philippe Migeat ©Samuel Fosso 591 cra; © Photo RMN / © Michele
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia, RIA Novosti 440br; Statens Sjohistoriska Museum, Stockholm, Sweden 29tr; Stedelijk
Museum “de Lakenhal’ Leiden, The Netherlands 155crb; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands 440crb; Stedelijk Museum,
Bellot 556cla; RMN / ©Michel Urtado 281 fcl, 282cra; Reuters: 119b!; Rex Features: Tony Kyriacou / © DACS London 2008 557b!; Charles
Sturge 589tl; Rheinisches Bildarchiv KéIn: 574cl, 575, 575crb; Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels: © ADAGP Paris and DACS,
Ostend, Belgium / Lauros / Giraudon, © DACS London 2008 385tc; Stiftsmuseum, Klosterneuburg, Austria 251br; Sto Tome, Toledo, London 2008 519tr, 521br; The Royal Museum for Central Africa: 396fb|; The Saatchi Gallery, London: © Jules de Balincourt 594tc; ©
Spain 182t; Sun Temple, Konark, Orissa, India, Dinodia 75tc; Tarquinia, Lazio, Italy, Giraudon 59br; Tassili NAjjer, nr. Djanet, Algeria, Jimmie Durham 595c; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art: Bequest of Jacqueline Marie Onslow Ford, © ADAGP Paris and DACS,
Photo © Held Collection 39cb6; Temple of Borobudur, Central Java, Indonesia 76bl, 76br; Temple of the Jaguar, Tikal, Guatemala 81tc; London 2008 479clb; Photo Scala, Florence: © 2008. Digital Image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, © Calder Foundation, New
Teotihuacan, Valley of Mexico, Mexico, Sean Sprague/Mexicolore 80t; Terme Museum, Rome, Italy 61br; The Barber Institute of Fine
York / DACS London 2008 489bc; © 2008. Digital Image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, © 1998 Kate Rothko Prizel &
Arts, University of Birmingham 263ca, 392br; The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham, 383cb; The Barnes
Christopher Rothko ARS, NY and DACS, London 2008 512bI, 512br, 512cl; © 2008. Digital Image, The Museum of Modern Art, New
Foundation, Merion, Pennsylvania, US 57br, 129cra, 282bc, 366bc, 366fclb; The Board ofTrinity College, Dublin, Ireland 9clb, 70, 71cla,
York, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 508cl, 508cr, 508cra; © 2008. Digital Image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, ©
ART 7 1clb (materials), 71crb, 71fcla, 71fcr, 71r; The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham, UK 247be; The Chrysler Building,
New York, US 452te; The Crown Estate 320bc; The Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio, US, Gift of Mr and Mrs Harry S Price, Jr. 262r; The Willem de Kooning Foundation, New York/ ARS, NY and DACS, London 2008 509cra; 254tl, 314bc, 408t; Photo Art Resource/Scala,
The Detroit Institute of Arts, US, Bequest of Eleanor Clay Ford 104cra; The Detroit Institute of Arts, US, Founders Society Purchase Florence 492ca; © 2006. BI, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 459tc; Biblioteca Marucelliana 198tl; © 2008. Digital Image, The
322b!I; The Detroit Institute of Arts, US, Founders Society purchase and Julius H. Haass fund 164cr; The Detroit Institute of Arts, US, Museum of Modern Art, New York 410br, 430c, 479tI, 557cr, 561cla, 581cra, 595bl; © 2008. Digital Image, The Museum of Modern
Founders Society purchase with Mr and Mrs Bert L. Smokler 296fcl, 313cra; The Detroit Institute of Arts, US, Founders Society Art, New York, © Succession H Matisse/DACS 2008 57ca; Digital image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, © DACS London
purchase, Dexter M. Ferry Jr. fund 279tr; The Detroit Institute of Arts, US, Founders Society Purchase, Dr & Mrs Hilbert H DeLawter 2008 474bl|; © 2007. Image copyright The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 508br;
Fund 524bI; The Detroit Institute of Arts, US, Founders Society purchase, General Membership Fund 8crb, 42cr, 45cl, 452bc; The Musee du quai Branly, photo Patrick Gries/Bruno Descoings 397cra, 397tr; Musee du quai Branly, photo Patrick Gries/Valérie Torre;
Detroit Institute of Arts, US, Founders Society purchase, Mr and Mrs Edgar B. Whitcomb fund 185br; The Detroit Institute of Arts, US, 396bl; Musee National dArt Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, © L&M Services B.V. The Hague 20080305 428br; © 2008. Digital
Founders Society Purchase, R.H. Tannahill Foundation fund 278bl; The Detroit Institute of Arts, US, Founders Society purchase, W. Image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, © Andrew Wyeth 567clb; © 2008. Digital Image, The Museum of Modern Art, New
Hawkins Ferry fund 23cr; The Detroit Institute of Arts, US, Gift of Dexter M. Ferry Jr 392cr; The Detroit Institute of Arts, US. Purchased York, © ARS New York and DACS London 2008 561br; © 2008, Digital Image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, © ARS, NY and
with the Lizzie Merrill Palmer Fund 452br; The Illustrated London News Picture Library, London, UK, 393cb; The Maas Gallery, London, DACS, London 2008 513bI, 527b, 532bc, 557cl, 560cra; © 2008. Digital Image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, © DACS
UK 335br; The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, UK 446c, 447br; The Putnam Foundation, Timken Museum of Art, London 2008 410cla, 429ca, 468ca, 559tr; © 2008. Digital Image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, © Estate of Stuart Davis/
San Diego, US 148cla; The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin 72bl, 291bl; The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library,
DACS, London/VAGA, New York 2008 489cla; © 2008. Digital Image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, © Salvador Dali, Gala-
Dublin, 289fcrb; Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark 273bc; Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Madrid, Spain 105tr; Thyssen-
Salvador Dali Foundation, DACS, London 2008 470c, 476, 477bc, 477bI, 477br, 477cr, 477tc; © Barford Sculptures Ltd/ © 2008. Digital
Bornemisza Collection, Madrid, Spain, © Salvador Dali, Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation, DACS, London 2008 474br; Tokyo Fuji Art
Museum, Tokyo, Japan 205br, 338bI; Tokyo National Museum, Japan 188be, 188bl; Tokyo National University of Fine Arts, Tokyo, Japan, Image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York 528cra; Acquisition made possible through the extraordinary efforts of George and
Giraudon 188tc; Toledo, S.Tome, Spain 183b1; Toledo, S.Tome, Spain, Giraudon 175fcr, 1831; Tomb of Qin shi Huang Di, Xianyang, China, Zinaida Costakis, and through the Nate B and Frances Spingold, Matthew H and Erna Futter, and Enid A Haupt Funds. 1986. © 2008.
Bildarchiv Steffens 50t, 51bl; Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul, Turkey, Giraudon 288br; Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia 65bI, 3311l, Digital image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. © DACS London 2008 464tr; New York, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Given
393c, 393cr, 46251; Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia, 311cra, 434bI; Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia, © ADAGP Paris and DACS, anonymously. 346.1963.31. © 2008. Digital image, The Museum of Modern Art, Scala, Florence
/ ©DACS, London/VAGA, New York
London 2008 433crb; Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia, RIA Novosti 331cr; Trinita, Florence, Italy 105tl; Trinity College, Cambridge, UK 535br; The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York. Acc. n.: IN757.9 548t; New York Metropolitan Museum of Ant, Alfred Stieglitz
264tr; Trivandrum, Kerala, India, Dinodia 292t; UCL Art Collections, University College London, UK 273t!; Uluru National Park, Northern Collection, 1949. Inv. 49.59.1. © 2007. Image copyright
The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource/Scala/Florence 453te; The
Territory, Australia 586te; United Distillers and Vintners 261bI, 335tc; University of California, San Francisco, CA, US, Index, © 2008, Newark Museum/Art Resource 395be; A E Gallatin Collection, 1952. Acc.n.: 1952-61-72. © 2007. Photo The Philadelphia Museum of
Banco de Mexico Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico DF / DACS London 497cla; University of Liverpool Art Gallery & Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence 465b!; © 2008. Photo Smithsonian American Art Museum/Art Resource, © DACS, London/VAGA,
Collections, UK 276crb; van Haeften Gallery, London, UK 32cb; Vatican Museums and Galleries, Vatican City, Italy 8bl, 61tr, 118-119, New York 2008 525cr; The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource 283crb, 396br, 396tr, 397crb, 3971; Science Ltd: © Damien Hirst.
119br, 202tc, 203cr; Vatican Museums and Galleries, Vatican City, Italy, Alinari 55bl; Vatican Museums and Galleries, Vatican City, Italy, All rights reserved, DACS London 2008 261 cra; Peter Sharrock: 77cla, 77t; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York: Photograph by
Giraudon 93c, 120c; Vatican Museums and Galleries, Vatican City, Italy, Lauros / Giraudon 52fcr, 58c; Victoria & Albert Museum, Erika Barahona Ede, © ARS, NY and DACS, London 2008 532br; Gift, The Jerry and Emily Spiegel Family Foundation, 2007 574¢,
London, UK 14ca, 18bc, 257fcra, 276t, 287cra, 2901, 293tr, 296fer, 315bI, 316be, 316tl, 316tr, 335tr, 338br, 339bI, 339tr, 382t, 451cb,
576crb; Partial gift of the artist, 1989, © ARS, New York and DACS, London 2008 572br; Solomion R Guggenheim Founding Collection,
546bI; Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK, 267crb, 313br; Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK, © Trustees of the Paolozzi
Gift, Solomon R Guggenheim © L&M Services B.V. The Hague 20080305 432tr; Sonnabend Gallery: 557t; Courtesy Sonnabend
Foundation, Licensed by DACS 2008 522bI; Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK, The Stapleton Collection 314crb; Victoria Art
Collection © DACS, London/VAGA, New York 536, 537b!, 537br, 537c, 537ca, 537cla, 537clb, 537cr, 537cra, 537tc; South African
Gallery, Bath and North East Somerset Council 265clb, 443bI; Viking Ship Museum, Oslo, Norway 68bc; Villa dei Misteri, Pompeii, Italy,
Giraudon 60b!; Villa Farnese, Caprarola, Lazio, Italy 179br; Villa Farnesina, Rome, Italy 121tr;Villeneuve-les-Avignon (Hospice), Anjou, National Gallery: Iziko Museums of Cape Town / Cecil Kortjie © Jane Alexander 591cla; The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg:
France, Giraudon 150tr; Wakefield Museums and Galleries, West Yorkshire, Uk 488ca; Walker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool Photograph ©The State Hermitage Museum 266cl, 274cla; Steve Strike: 39tr; © Succession H Matisse/DACS 2008: 404, 405be, 405br,
129be, 212c, 275t|, 333clb; Walker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool, 195cl; Wallace Collection, London, UK 194fcr, 228r, 405ca, 405cl, 405cr, 405cra, 405fcl, 405fclb, 405ftr, 405tl; Tate, London: © 2008 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists
233cra, 234cra, 235b|, 236be, 243ca, 243cla, 314clb; Wallace Collection, London, UK, 243cr, 246crb, 328crb; Wallraf Richartz Museum, Rights Society (ARS), New York / DACS, London 543fcra; © 2008 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society
Cologne, Germany 56fcrb, 243fcl, 245bl; Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne, Germany 329b!; Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, US (ARS), New York / DACS, London 542-543, 543cra; 11 fbr, 311cl, 315t, 332crb, 410bI, 446cl, 446t, 447tr, 448b1, 448br, 450be, 450cla,
77br, 337¢F, White House, Washington D.C., US 322tr; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, US, © Jasper Johns /VAGA, New 451ca, 489cra, 522tl, 533c, 545tr, 548c, 550bce, 550br, 551t, 569crb, 581cla, 584tr; © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 441be,
York / DACS, London 2008 538-539; Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester 454crb; Whitworth Art Gallery, The University 459bl, 461tr, 463br, 522tc, 549bc; Bowness, Hepworth Estate 487b, 487tI, 487tr; © Doris Salcedo 585br, 585fbr; © Estate of Walter R
of Manchester, UK 27bl, 277tl, 296cl, 448tc; Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester, UK, 312cr, 387cl; Wien Museum Sickert/DACS 2008 447be; © Calder Foundation, New York / DACS London 2008 489crb; © Christo 551t © _Dedalus Foundation, Inc/
Karlsplatz, Vienna, Austria 329crb, 412cr, 413cla, 413tr; Wieskirche, Wies, Germany 250t; Wilberforce House, Hull City Museums and DACS, London/VAGA, New York 2008 515br; © Judd Foundation. Licensed byVAGA, New York/DACS, London 2008 530bI, 530br; ©
Art Galleries, UK 311 be; Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, Germany, © Foundation Oskar Kokoschka / 2008 DACS 371cb;
Donation Jorn, Silkeborg/DACS/2008 521tc; © L&M Services B.V. The Hague 20080305 428cl, 432bc; © DACS London 2008 474clb,
Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Lauros / Giraudon, © 2008 Mondrian/Holtzman Trust, c/o HCR International
Warrenton, Virginia, US 445; Wolseley Fine Arts, London, UK 448fcl; Wolverhampton Art Gallery, West Midlands, UK, © DACS, 558b; © DACS, London 2008 528b1; © DACS, London/VAGA, New York 2008 526b!, 531cla, 531clb, 533clb, 576cra; © Luc Tuymans
London/ 589bI; © ARS New York and DACS London 2008 509clb; © ARS, New York and DACS, London 2008 11tr, 513bc, 515be, 531be, 531r;, ©
VAGA, New York 2008 545tc; Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts, US 16bl, 235crb, 393ferb; Yale Center for British Art, New
Haven, US 19¢ca; Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, US 20cb, 152crb, 241 cb, 257bl, 258tl, 264tc, 275bl, 275cra, 276be,
ARS, NY and DACS, London 2008 508cla, 530cla, 560crb; © Estate of Gwen John. All Rights Reserved, DACS London 2008 449el;
277tr, 2971; Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, US, 266c, 301cr; Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund, US Presented by E J Power through
the Friends of the Tate Gallery, EK 166, © Elisworth Kelly 523cl, 526tr; © Salvador Dali, Gala-Salvador
;
277clb, 544bI; York Museums Trust (York Art Gallery), UK 31clb; The Trustees of the British Museum: 7Abe, 74br, 281 cl, 282b1 28Acra; © Dali Foundation, DACS, London 2008 475; © Barford Sculptures Ltd 528cla, 528tr; © Succession Picasso/DACS London 2008 4201r; ©
ADAGR Paris and DACS, London 2008 592bl; Buren Studio: © ADAGP Paris and DACS, London 2008 561 cra: C.AA.C. - The Pigozzi the Artist, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London 595cr; ©The Estate of L S Lowry 2008 495clb; The works of Naum Gabo © Nina Williams
Collection, Geneva: Patrick Gries © Cheri Samba 1br, 591br; Cass Sculpture Foundation: 584cla, 585ftr; Courtesy Cheim & Read, Galerie 463t!; © Angela Verren Taunt 2009. All rights reserved, DACS 486bc, 486b!; Through the Flower. © ARS, New York and DACS, London
Karsten Greve, and Hauser&Wirth: Photo: Rafael Lobato 573clb; ChinaFotoPress: 79br, 79tr; Christie's Images Ltd.: 457bc; © DACS/AAAY 2008 573cra, 573crb; Victoria‘Miro Gallery, London; Courtesy Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, © Chris Ofili 582br; Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo©
VISCOPY 2008 587bI; © Christo: Wolfgang Volz 551 fer, 552b, 552cla, 552cra; The Cleveland Museum Of Art: Andrew R and Martha Yayoi Kusama 593br; Waddington Galleries: Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates, London S85cra; Werner Forman Archive: 68; Courtesy
Holden Jennings Fund, 1964.43 186cl; Purchase from the J H Wade Fund, 1959.46 187bI; Collection Dia ArtFoundation: Photo: John Sperone Westwater, New York: 570; Courtesy the artist and Sperone Westwater, New York / Collection Musee dArt Moderne et
Cliett. © Dia Art Foundation 554tr; Collection Walker Art Center, Minneapolis: Formerly the collection of Otto Piene and Elizabeth Contemporain de Strasbourg 570crb; Whitechapel Art Gallery, Whitechapel Archives: Photo: Martin Koretz 523tc; Collection of Whitney
Goldring, Massachusetts. Collection Walker Art Center, T B Walker Acquisition Fund, 1992 580bI; Collection: Flemish Community on loanto Museum Of American Art, New York: Gift of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney 31.159 491br; Purchase 54.15, © Estate of David SmithYDACS
SMAK: Photography: Dirk Pauwels, 560c!; Corbis: Malcolm Lubliner, © Jasper Johns /VAGA, New York / DACS, London 2008 27cra London/VAGA, New York 2008 514cla; Purchase, with funds from the Louis and Bessie Adler Foundation, Inc., James Block, The
31 crb; Paul Almasy 518tr; BBC 29cla; Bettmann 410tl, 457t!, 480tc, 494br; Rudolph Burckhardt/Sygma © ARS New York and DACS Sondra and Charles Gilman, Jr Foundation, Inc., Penny and Mike Winton, and the Painting and Sculpture Committee 89.6 5296e;
London 2008 506te; Burstein Collection, © 2008 Mondrian/Holtzman Trust, c/o HCR International Warrenton, Virginia, US 444br
Courtesy Xu Bing Studio: 593b!
Philippe Caron/Sygma 554fclb; Christopher Felver 525tc, 532clb; Christopher Felver © Gerhard Richter 588cl; Rune Hellestad 582tI; E
O Hoppé 431br; Hulton-Deutsch Collection 458t, 551clb; Malcolm Lubliner 538t!; Francis G.Mayer 107bI, 151); Chema Moya/EFE ‘ Jacket images: Back: The Art Institute Of Chicago: ca; The Bridgeman Art Library: Louvre, Paris, France, Giraudan c; Tokyo Fuy Amt Museum.
590tc; National Gallery Collection; By kind permission of the Trustees of the National Gallery, London 171bI: Eric Preau/Sygma 549ftl Tokyo, Japan cl; Wallace Collection, London, UK cr; The Metropolitan Museum of Art George A. Hearn Fund, 1957 (5792) @ ARS New
Steve Schapiro 543br; Richard Schulman 567tI; Roland Weihrauch 575t!; Oscar White 492tc; Anthony d’Offay, London: 585fcla; Daros York and DACS London 2008 cra; Tate, London: © Salvador Dali, Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation, DACS, London 2008 clb.
Collection, Switzerland: 572b); Dean and Chapter of Westminster: 273tc; Des Moines Art Center, lowa: 564, 565b), 565cl, 565cla, 565clb, All other images © Dorling Kindersley For further information see: www.dkimages.com
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