The History of the Landscape in Western Art

30,000 B.C. – 850 B.C. Historical Events

◦ 10, 000 – 8,000 b.c. - Ice Age Ends

◦ 8,000 b.c. – 2,500 b.c. - New Stone Age

Art Periods

◦ Stone Age – Cave paintings, (e.g. Lascaux)

megalithic structures(e.g. Stonehenge)

◦ Egyptian Art – Mostly backgrounds of tomb

paintings

850 B.C. – 476 A.D.

Landscape with scene from the Odyssey, Rome, c. 60-40 B.C.

Historical Events◦ To 404 b.c. - Peloponnesian Wars◦ 336-323 b.c. – Alexander the Great’s conquests◦ 476 a.d – Fall of Roman Empire

Art Periods◦ Greek and Hellenistic – Greek idealism, balance, perfect proportions – Parthenon◦ Roman Art – Realism, everyday scenes, mosaics

Roman mosaic. Landscape was a backdrop for figures and animals.

Middle Ages 500 - 1400 Historical Events

◦ 793 – 1066 – Viking raids on Britain◦ 1066 – Battle of Hastings◦ 1095 – 1204 - Crusades◦ 1347 – 1351 – Black Death plague 1337 – 1453 – Hundred Years’ War

Art Periods◦ Celtic Art – metal artefacts, illustrated religious books e.g. Book of Kells ◦ Carolingian – Mostly religious works created in monasteries◦ Romanesque – Mostly figurative decoration, landscapes only as backgrounds◦ Gothic – anti-classical e.g. Notre Dame de Paris

more secular art e.g. Giotto

St.Francis giving away his cloak, Giotto 1267 -1337

Notre Dame de Paris cathedral completed 1345

1400 – 1550 Early and High Renaissance Historical Events

◦ 1447 – Gutenburg invents movable type◦ 1453 – Turks conquer Constantinople◦ 1492 – Columbus lands in New World◦ 1517 – Martin Luther and beginning of Protestantism 1520 -22 – Magellan circumnavigates globe

Art Periods◦ Renaissance – Rebirth of classical culture. Spreads from Italy to France, Netherlands,

Poland,Germany and Britain ◦ Artists include - Botticelli, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Bellini, Titian, Durer, Bosch,

Jan van Eyck, Roger van der Weyden

Leonardo da Vinci “Virgin of the Rocks” c1483-1486

Jan van Eyck (1390 – 1441), Adoration of the Lamb

Landscape with Charon Crossing the Styx (1515 -24) by Joachim Patinir, Flemish artist

1527 – 1750 Mannerism & Baroque Historical Events

◦ 1543 – Copernicus proves the Earth revolves round the Sun

◦ 1558 – 1603 – Elizabeth I was Queen of England

◦ 1618 – 1648 – Thirty Years’ War between Catholics and

Protestants

Art Periods

◦ Mannerism – Succeeded Renaissance. Favours compositional

tension and instability rather than the balance and clarity of earlier Renaissance painting. Artifice over nature

◦ Artists – Tintoretto, El Greco, Bronzino, Cellini, Breugel

◦ Baroque – Uses exaggeration and clear detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, architecture, literature, dance, and music. The style began around 1600 in Rome spreading later to most of Europe. Favoured by Catholic church to communicate religious themes.

◦ Artists – Reubens, Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Claude Lorrain, Nicolas Poussin

“The Harvesters” by Pieter Breugel 1565.

Landscape with Apollo Guarding the Herds of Admetus – Claude Lorrain 1645

Landscape with Orpheus and Euridice by Nicolas Poussin 1650

1750 – 1850 Neo-Classical Historical Events

◦ 18th Century - Enlightenment intellectual movement

◦ 1760 – 1850 - Industrial Revolution

◦ 1775 – 1783 – American Revolution

◦ 1789 – 1799 – French Revolution Art Periods

◦ Neo-Classical – Art that aims to recreate Greco-Roman classicism. Landscapes were mostly just backgrounds for historical themes

◦ Artists – David, Ingres, Greuze, Canova, Robert

Roger rescuing Angelica, 1819 - Ingres

'The Landing Place' by Robert, 1788

1780 – 1850 Romanticism Historical Events

1803 –Napoleon crowned Emperor of France 1833 – Abolition of Slavery in British Empire 1837 – Victoria ascends to throne of Britain

• 1840 - Penny post established in UK• Spread of railways and Industrial Revolution in Britain

Art Periods

◦ Romanticism – The triumph of imagination and individuality

◦ Artists – Caspar Freidrich, Gericault, Delacroix, Constable, Turner

The Raft of the Medusa, 1818 – 1819 by Gericault

The Haywain, 1821 by Constable The New Moon, 1840 by JMW Turner

1848 – 1900 Realism Historical Events

• 1848 – European democratic revolutions• 1851 – Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace,; photography included• 1854 – Start of Crimean war• 1861 – 1865 American Civil War• 1863 – Emancipation of US slaves• 1870s – Advent of telephone, phonograph and tram • 1885 – First motor car (Benz)

Art Periods

◦ Realism – Rustic painting “en plein air” . Barbizon school. Celebration of working class and peasants. Inspiration directly from nature.

◦ Artists – Corot, Courbet, Daumier, Millet

The Gleaners, 1857 by Jean-Francois Millet

The Stone-breakers 1849-50 by Gustave Courbet

Peasant Woman with a Cow 1865-1870 by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

1865 – 1910 Impressionism & Post-Impressionism Historical Events

• 1870 – Franco-Prussian war• 1874 – First French Impression exhibition in Paris• 1901 – Queen Victoria dies• 1905 – Japan defeats Russia

Art Periods

◦ Impressionism– Capturing the fleeting effects of natural light

◦ Artists – Monet, Manet, Renoir, Pisarro, Cassatt, Morisot, Degas

◦ Post-Impressionism– A movement which extended the horizons of Impressionism but rejected its limitations especially in terms of subject matter. The Post-Impressionists used distortion, emphasized geometric form sand used unrealistic colours.

◦ Artists – Van Gogh, Gaugin, Cezanne, Seurat

Mont Ste Victoire 1882 by Paul Cezanne

The Cliffs at Pourville 1882 by Claude Monet

Vincent Van Gogh 'Starry Night' 1889

1900 – 1935 Fauvism, Expressionism Historical Events

• 1900– Boxer Rebellion in China• 1914 – 1918 Word War I

Art Periods

◦ Fauvism – Uses bright colour and flat surfaces, distorted perspectives.

◦ Artists – Matisse, Kirchner, Dufy

◦ Expressionism– Forms distorted by emotion

◦ Artists – Kandinsky, MarcThe Bank. 1907. by Henri Matisse

Der Blaue Reiter 1903 by Wassily KandinskyThe Bay of Angels, 1929, Raoul Dufy

1905 – 1930 Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism Historical Events

• 1917 – Russian Revolution• 1925 – Hitler publishes Mein Kampf• 1929 - The Stock Market crash, The Great Depression of America

Art Periods

◦ Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism – Pre– and Post–World War 1 art experiments: new forms to express modern life

◦ Artists – Picasso, Braque, Leger, Boccioni, Severini, Malevich

Le Viaduc de L’Estaque, 1908 by Georges Braque

Landscape, 1908 by Pablo Picasso

The Boulevard, 1911 by Gino Severini

1917 – 1950 – Dada and Surrealism

Historical Events

• Post World War I disillusion• 1929 – 38 - The Great Depression • 1939 – 45 World War II • Rationing and austerity after WWII

Art Periods

◦ Dada and Surrealism – Unexpected art, painting dreams and exploring the unconscious◦ Artists – Duchamp, Dalí, Ernst, Magritte, de Chirico, Kahlo

The Entire City, 1935 by Max Ernst

Nude in the Desert 1946 by Salvador Dali

Le Plagiat (The Plagiary), 1940 by Rene Magritte

1940s-1960s – Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art Historical Events

• Cold War – Russia suppresses revolts in Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968)• 1965 – America involved in Vietnam War• 1968 – Student revolts in Paris

Art Periods

◦ Abstract Expressionism – Pure abstraction ; expression without form

◦ Artists – Gorky, Pollock, de Kooning, Rothko◦ Pop Art – reflection of consumerism

◦ Artists – Warhol, Lichtenstein, Riley

No. 2, 1962 by Mark Rothko,

Convergence, 1952 by Jackson Pollock

Sunrise, 1965 by Roy Lichtenstein

1970 –Postmodernsim and Deconstructivism Historical Events

• End of Cold War • Collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and USSR• Boom and bust economical cycles

Art Periods

◦ Postmodernism /Deconstructivism – Art without a centre ;

reworking and mixing past styles

◦ Artists – Anish Kapoor, Anselm Kiefer, Cindy Sherman,

◦ David Hockney

Landscape in Yorkshire, 2007 by David Hockney

March Heath, 1974 by Anselm Kiefer

C-curve , 2007 by Anish Kapoor