Research point 2- 17th century Dutch still life & flower painters & subsequent developments to the present day Project: Still Life The Dutch Golden Age of painting coincided with a period of stability and wealth in the newly independent Dutch Republic. The development of still life as a subject for painting arose through a shift away from classical and religious subject matter to genres more suitable for the homes of the newly wealthy merchant classes. One of these genres was the still life. Towards the end of the 17th century, an interest in secular, domestic subjects made household objects, bowls of fruit, musical instruments, fabrics, dead game animals and birds, bottles and glass bowls the subjects of the highest level of scrutiny and analysis. These paintings weren’t just technical exercises. The objects in a picture frequently had an underlying significance, perhaps relating to the role or status of the person who commissioned the work. (The description and interpretation of the content of images is called iconography.) Sometimes these paintings were meditations on mortality with the presence of a skull or other motifs representing death. Paintings of this sort are often known as ‘vanitas’ paintings. The Dutch masters used still life as a way to explore the technical and artistic possibilities of applying paint. Their hyper-real works are a celebration of the beauty of the external world. They pushed painting to new boundaries in their rendering of light on and through glass, in exploring colour, texture and tonal arrangements. Research point Look at the work of some of the 17th century Dutch still life and flower! painters. Make notes on paintings that you especially admire and find out more about the! techniques that were employed at that time. Research at least one painting that has! iconographic significance. Which of the objects depicted carry particular meaning and! what was that meaning?! Then explore the development of still life through the eighteenth, nineteenth and! twentieth centuries. For example, look at how traditional still life subjects were dealt with! in some early Cubist paintings by Braque and Picasso. Investigate how some! contemporary artists are interpreting this genre.! Academies for painting were established across Europe during the 18th century although they first arose in Italy in the 16th century. They replaced and supplemented the medieval painters' guilds. The single most influential academy, the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris, was founded in 1648. [source: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/glossary/academy ] Throughout the 'Academy' system of learning painting skills an official list existed which detailed which paintings were more important than others - "The hierarchy of genres". The term 'Academic Art' refers to painting and sculpture produced under the influence of the various Academies in Europe (especially in France - 19th century) where many artists received their formal training. [source: http://www.artcyclopedia.com/history/academic-art.html ] The hierarchy is as follows: • History painting (classical, mythological, literary and religious subjects and events) • Portriature (portrait painting) • Genre painting (scenes from everyday life - containing people, animals, still life objects, bits of landscape, although interior scenes were more common) • Landscape painting (wide-open vistas, but also included cityscapes, seascapes, waterscapes) - anything found in physical geography • Animal painting (such as horse paintings) • Still Life painting (containing no living objects [source: http://arthistory.about.com/od/academic-art-academies/tp/The-Hierarchy-of-Genres-in-Academic-Art.htm ] With particular regard to genre painting, the Phaidon Press (1994) The art book. London: Phaidon Press, p504 states that it is: 'Painting that depicts scenes of everyday life rather than idealised or religious subjects [as with history painting for example]. Genre painting was particularly popular in Holland in the 17th century, and artists often specialised in subjects such as tavern scenes (see Jan Steen), musical parties or simple interiors (see Jan Vermeer). The style became more prevalent elsewhere in the 18th century with the work of Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin in France, Pietro Longhi in Italy and William Hogarth in England.' It is interesting to note that in genre painting there were often compositions of every day items laid out in still life form. For example, Johannes Vermeer’s ‘The Milkmaid’ (1658-1660) shows a table laid out with jugs, bread basket and pieces of bread as part of the overall composition of the every day life of the milkmaid:
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