The History of the Landscape in Western Art

1. The History of the Landscape in Western Art

2. 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

3. 850 B.C. – 476 A.D. • 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. Landscape with scene from the Odyssey, Rome, c. 60-40 B.C.

4. 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 Notre Dame de Paris cathedral completed 1345 St.Francis giving away his cloak, Giotto 1267 -1337

5. 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 Landscape with Charon Crossing the Styx (1515 -24) by Joachim Patinir, Flemish artist Leonardo da Vinci “Virgin of the Rocks” c1483-1486 Jan van Eyck (1390 – 1441), Adoration of the Lamb

6. 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 Orpheus and Euridiceby Nicolas Poussin1650 Landscape with Apollo Guarding the Herds of Admetus – Claude Lorrain 1645

7. 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 'The Landing Place' by Robert, 1788 Roger rescuing Angelica, 1819 - Ingres

8. 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

9. 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 Peasant Woman with a Cow 1865-1870 by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot The Stone-breakers 1849-50 by Gustave Courbet

10. 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 The Cliffs at Pourville 1882 by Claude Monet Mont SteVictoire 1882 by Paul Cezanne Vincent Van Gogh 'Starry Night' 1889

11. 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, Marc The Bank. 1907. by Henri Matisse Der Blaue Reiter 1903 by Wassily Kandinsky The Bay of Angels, 1929, Raoul Dufy

12. 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 Landscape, 1908 by Pablo Picasso Le Viaduc de L’Estaque, 1908 by Georges Braque The Boulevard, 1911 by Gino Severini

13. 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 andexploring the unconscious • Artists – Duchamp, Dalí, Ernst, Magritte, de Chirico, Kahlo Nude in the Desert 1946 by Salvador Dali Le Plagiat (The Plagiary), 1940 by Rene Magritte The Entire City, 1935 by Max Ernst

14. 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 Convergence, 1952 by Jackson Pollock No. 2, 1962 by Mark Rothko, Sunrise, 1965 by Roy Lichtenstein

15. 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 March Heath, 1974 by Anselm Kiefer Landscape in Yorkshire, 2007 by David Hockney C-curve , 2007 by Anish Kapoor