UNIT 3
European Painting of 17th-18th centuries
The latter part of the sixteenth century marked the decline of Italian painting. The men that came after Michelangelo and Tintoretto could only repeat what the others had said or recombined the old thoughts and forms. This led inevitably to limitation and resulted in mannerism and affectation. These men are known in art history as the Mannerists. Large crowded compositions were produced with striking effects of light. The Renaissance elegance was affected, their sentiment forced, their brilliancy superficial glitter.
As Mannerism faded, three artistic trends supplanted it: the so called academic movement, Baroque and Caravaggism. The artists of the first trend sought to revive art by correcting the faults of the mannerists.
Opposing to it was the Neopolitan School of Naturalists led by Caravaggio and his pupils. Caravaggio modified his style with an early naturalism using for his strongly-felt religious subjects characters who appeared to have walked in straight from the streets, the spiritual meaning of the narrative heightened by dramatically theatrical chiaroscuro. The large size of canvases and their monumental character compositions, a total lack of interest in landscape, interiors, or any other sort of background, the prevalence of religious subjects – realistically treated and permeated with the democratic spirit, with ordinary people as models – and dramatic situations, powerful feelings, these are the elements that make up what is known as Caravaggism.
In the seventeenth century a radical new style, Baroque, developed. Rome was the most important centre of patronage at this period and the return to compositional clarity was facilitated by a renewed interest in the antique and High Renaissance. Works of various painters of the time were characterized by monumentality, balance and harmony deriving directly from Raphael. The baroque trend was to have a profound effect not only in Italy but throughout Europe as well. Rich aristocratic families employed artists to proclaim their divine rights to power in ceiling paintings of their palaces. Colbert, chief minister to Louis XIV in France, was instrumental for the adoption of Baroque in France for the sole purpose of exalting the reign of Louis XIV. Consequently, Versailles is one of the most grandiose of Baroque palaces. Indeed, French Baroque is political propaganda, characterized by a certain pomposity. In Flanders the supreme exponent of the baroque movement was Rubens, who produced religious and secular works with equal success. His compositions were immersed in a warm heavy atmosphere with theatrical poses, violent movement and dynamic effects. Flemish artists such as Rubens and Van Dyck glorified the Catholic Church and monarchy with grandiose themes, lively compositions, and vivid colours. During the 18th century, Baroque gradually gave way to the lighter, more decorative Rococo style.
The emergence of the Dutch school of painting in the early seventeenth century is one of the most remarkable phenomena in the history of the visual arts. Dutch painters like Rembrandt conveyed moral and religious messages through concealed symbolism in landscapes, still-lives, and scenes of daily life.
The period from Hogarth to Constable and Turner, that is, the period between the 1730’s and 1830’s, is rightly considered to be the “golden age” of English painting. Never at any other time did so many first class English masters work side by side. Never at any other age did England contribute so much to the history of world art. This flowering of painting was not a chance one. It was at that time that England embarked on the path of rapid capitalist development marked by an unprecedented growth of its economic might and by the general advance of its national culture and art. It was in this period that English art attained a distinct national character. Before it art in Britain had been dominated largely by foreign painters, mainly by old Italian and Flemish masters. It should be recalled that in the seventeenth century Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck worked at the English court and their artistic manner and patterns were blindly followed by English painters.
In the early 18th century, although influenced by Continental movements, particularly by French rococo, English art began to develop independently. William Hogarth was the first major artist to reject foreign influence and establish a kind of art whose themes and subjects were thoroughly national.
Certain features of the development of English society determined the peculiarities of English art at that time. Contrary to France where the court and the Catholic Сhurch were always the principal bodies that gave artists commissions for a piece of work, right from the very beginning English artists worked almost exceptionally for some private person. It was because of this that quite definite genres such as the portrait, the landscape and genre-painting (that is the portrayal of scenes from ordinary life) evolved here. For a long time portrait painting was the principal, the national genre of the English school. The rich English nobility proud of its power and might considered their portraits as a way of showing and affirming their superiority, so to speak.
Throughout the 18th century portrait painting continued to take a leading role in English art. The landscape that began to attract the attention of the most outstanding English painters did not win the sympathy of the general public for a long time. It began to flourish in the first half of the 19th century.
It is considered that the formation of the English national school had been completed by the 1750’s. The decades that followed were the age of its flowering when a galaxy of brilliant masters made English painting one of the foremost among the European art schools of the time. Hogarth was followed by a row of illustrious painters: Thomas Gainsborough with his lyrical landscapes, “fancy pictures” and portraits; the intellectual Sir Joshua Reynolds, who painted charming society portraits and became the first president of the Royal Academy; and George Stubbs, who is only now being recognized as an artist of the greatest visual perception and sensitivity.
Britain has produced few great painters of international fame. In fact, the British has always been more interested in literature than in art. It was not until 1830s, when Turner began to paint his incredible pictures of sea and sky, that British art produced a genius.
The British have not always been great painters, but they have always been great collectors. Through the centuries, the kings and queens of England have bought some of the finest pictures of their time. The Queen has one of the best art collections in the world. Other rich and noble families did the same, and many wonderful pictures found their way into English country houses. Some of these now belong to the nation and can be seen in the National Gallery in London, one of the world’s finest art museums. But many priceless works of art still belong to private owners. Slowly they are being sold. Some are bought for the national collection, but many go abroad. Sotheby’s and Christie’s, the two big art dealers, are often in the news when great works of art are sold.