aerial versus linear perspective:

Atmospheric perspective (or aerial perspective) refers to the phenomenon of colours and contrasts shifting as things recede into the distance.  The principle behind linear perspective is that parallel edges receding away from the picture plane will appear to converge at a common point (vanishing point).

 

Baroque perspective in contrast to Renaissance: * see Endnote <A>

The treatment of the elements of perspective & light in painting was of particular concern to 15th-century Florentine painters.  Uccello was obsessed with trying to achieve effective optical perspective; his solutions can be seen in his masterpiece the Battle of San Romano (1460).  Another pioneer was Piero della Francesca who made systematic & scientific studies of both light & linear perspective.  He uses these studies in his fresco cycle of The History of the True Cross in San Francesco, Arezzo.  The architects Brunelleschi and Alberti both theorised about the subject. 

Baroque painting extended linear perspective into space, literally breaking free of architectural limits.  Quadratura was a popular Baroque treatment of Italian ceilings & is tied to 17th-century theories of perspective and the representation of architectural space.  It unites architecture, painting & sculpture and gives a more overwhelming impression of illusionism than earlier examples. Baroque church ceilings presented views of the infinite & directed the senses upwards to heaven.  Baroque painting also moved towards atmospheric perspective.  The rise of science & global exploration led to increased interest in nature.  The Copernican revolution (displacement of the Earth as the centre of the universe) led to a sense of human insignificance in the face of a complex & infinite nature.  In 17th-century landscape painting humans are frequently portrayed as minute figures in a vast natural setting, reflecting this changing awareness of the human condition.

 

Leonardo (intense depth effect): * see Endnote <B>

Leonardo advanced the study and painting of "atmosphere".  In his Mona Lisa (1503-17) and Virgin of the Rocks (1483-86) he used light & shade with such subtlety it became known as Leonardo's "sfumato" or "smoke". He exhibited a revolutionary use of colour by defining the transition between figures by colour modulation instead of with lines. His work invited the viewer into a mysterious world of shifting shadows, chaotic mountains and whirling torrents.

 

Guercino (intense depth effect): * see endnote<C>

1591-1666, Italian Baroque painter & draftsman from northern Italy (near Bologna), active in Rome & Bologna. The vigorous naturalism of his early manner contrasts with the classical equilibrium of his later works; his many drawings are noted for their luminosity and lively style.

 

Albani (intense depth effect): * see endnote<D>

1578-1660, Italian Baroque painter; in Rome he worked on the fresco decoration of the Palazzo Farnese (being completed by the studio of Annibale Carracci); his best frescoes are those on mythological subjects; his best sacred subjects are a St Sebastian and an Assumption of the Virgin, both in the church of San Sebastiano fuori le Mura in Rome. He never acquired the monumentality or tenebrism found in the best Baroque art & he is often derided for his lyric, cherubim-filled sweetness, often with too much mannerist elegance.

 

Ruysdael (intense depth effect): * see EndNote <E>

1629-82, Dutch painter, draughtsman, and etcher; considered the pre-eminent landscape painter of the Dutch Golden Age, a period of great wealth and cultural achievement when Dutch painting became highly popular.

 

Hobbema (intense depth effect): * see endnote<F>

1638-1709, a Dutch Golden Age painter of landscapes, specializing in views of woodland, a pupil of Ruisdael (the pre-eminent landscape painter of the Dutch Golden Age), and in his mature period produced paintings developing one aspect of his master's more varied output, specializing in "sunny forest scenes opened by roads and glistening ponds, fairly flat landscapes with scattered tree groups, and water mills".  The majority of his mature works come from the 1660s.

 

Poussin (intense depth effect):

See page 220 above

 

Claude Lorrain (intense depth effect):

see Chapter VI page 184

 

Watteau (intense depth effect): * see endnote<G>

Critics have seen in his treatment of landscape background & the atmospheric surroundings of the figures, the germ of Impressionism. His influence on later generations of painters may have been less apparent in France than in England, where J.M.W. Turner was among his admirers.

And see Chapter III page 108

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Corot (intense depth effect): * see endnote<H>

1796- 1875, French landscape and portrait painter as well as a printmaker in etching; pivotal figure in landscape painting and his vast output simultaneously references the Neo-Classical tradition and anticipates the plein-air innovations of Impressionism.

 

Goethe (Farbenlehre):

German for Theory of Colours, 1810, expresses the poet's views on the nature of colours and how these are perceived by humans; contains detailed descriptions of phenomena such as coloured shadows, refraction, and chromatic aberration.  The work originated in Goethe's occupation with painting and mainly exerted an influence on the arts (J. M. W. Turner, the Pre-Raphaelites, Kandinsky). The book is a successor to two short essays entitled "Contributions to Optics".  Although rejected by physicists, a number of philosophers and physicists have considered it.

 

phallus-symbol (red): * see Endnote<I>

colour psychology associates this (not exclusively) with passion, desire, and love; also may relate to sexuality and lust.

 

Madonna's mantle (pure blue): * see Endnote <J>

The colour blue is elusive & rare & this made it valuable. The earliest blue was made from lapis lazuli, mined in Afghanistan 6,000 years ago. For a millennia, blue has been a sacred, costly hue, more valuable than gold.  It was reserved for the most elevated of virgins.  As early as the 2nd century the Virgin was worshiped with the same intensity as the Trinity; initially painters often depicted Mary in a red gown or wrapped in a pink mantle.  Blue began to replace red as the colour of choice, a shift which went hand in hand with the rise of Mariology & the cult of the Virgin.  In 1431, the divine motherhood of Mary was declared dogma at the First Council of Ephesus; Mary became the “Queen of Heaven, Spiritual Mother, and Intercessor.”  Marian blue became the official colour of Jesus’s mother.  It is bright & vivid, a Mediterranean blue, a stony-jewel blue.  Artists started creating even more portraits of the holy mother, usually shown dressed in Marian-blue cloth against a flat backdrop of gold leaf, serenely holding the infant Jesus.  Artists used lapis lazuli  or azurite (less expensive mineral, common secondary product found in copper mines).  This tradition continued into the Renaissance, when the Madonna enthroned and the adoring Madonna became 2 major modes of art.

 

celibate priests (violet):

Violet is one of the most common liturgical colours in the Roman Church; violet or purple is used during Advent and Lent as a sign of penance, sacrifice, and preparation.  Purple vestments may also be used for the Feast of All Souls, Masses of Christian Burial, and Masses for the Dead.

 

Venetian…Spanish…high personages (black or blue):

Spanish high society imposed a style dominated by decorum & formality.  Their rigid black garments became a symbol of power & nobility; European courts & American viceroyalties began “dressing Spanish”.  Black was the symbol of a privileged social class because of the quality of the dye, called “raven’s wing”.  It made its way from America, specifically from Mexico & its high cost made this colour a luxury that many desired but few could afford. It was Philip II who decreed this austerity by law for moral and economic reasons –a style that lasted until Philip III and Philip IV.  Throughout the 17th Century, French fashion began replacing Spanish fashion (reflecting the changing global political scenario). Black, however, continued dominating in Spain and the Netherlands, where it became a symbol of austerity as a result of the Puritan Revolution.

Classical Fatum (the point existence):

Destiny or fate, a specific & characteristic feature of Apollonian Culture

 

entoptic colours:

visual effects whose source is within the eye itself; vision tell us about the world beyond ourselves, but sometimes what we see is caused by the visual apparatus itself.  Because they come from “inside” they are called “entoptic” phenomena.

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Griinewald (dusky green): * see endnote<K>

See above page 240