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Church- cathedral- and monastery architecture and religious art influenced
by Byzantine art, art from the period of the great migrations
and Roman style. The term Romanesque came from "Romania", the
name of The Old Roman Empire.
The style of architecture was developed in Italy and Western Europe.
The
Romanesque church was characterized by a use of round arches, heavy barrel
vaults, massive walls and piers, columns and pilasters.
The early church-building was a simple building with usually a long, high
and narrow nave, the ground plan
was that of a Latin cross. The church
towers were a symbol on strength,
power and authority.
In paintings and sculptors forms and shapes were simplified. Hierarchical
perspective was used e.g. most important historic persons were placed closest
to the figure of Christ.
The stiff, unnatural figures without individuality posed side by side without
contact with each other. The worth
of human beings were low, the eyes and hands were enlarged compared with
the rest of the body. Frescoes and sculptors were subordinated to
Architecture
The great monastic orders manifest itself in the period and became a important
weapon in the struggle for Christianity.
Saint Bernhard of Clairvaux (1090-1153),
the
Abbot of Clairvaux, founded
the Cisterian order.
He dominated Church and state from his Cisterian monastery and became the
advisor of popes and kings. He stated in an opinion that the
sculptural decorations of the churches could
tempt the churchgoers
"to read in the marble in stead of
reading the books". His "Sermons on the Song of
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Majestas
Domini (the glory of God). The Motif shows Christ as
heavenly judge frontal seated on a throne or rainbow with
the sphere as footstool. Christ sits within a mandorla (an
almond-shaped halo), that symbolizes that Christ has
ascended into heaven. He holds The Book of Life and raises
his right hand in blessing, representing his Second Coming
at the end of time. Christ can be surrounded by symbols of
the four evangelists, St. Mark's Lion, St. John's eagle,
St. Luke's ox and St. Matthew's angel. Majestas Domini is
a chief motive in both Byzantine, Romanesque and Gothic
Church Art. |
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Romanesque
Cathedrals of Europe e.g.: |
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Italy: |
Sant'
Ambrogio, Milan. The Cathedral
of Pisa. The Leaning Tower of Pisa,
Bell Tower - a separate campanile. Baptistery of San Giovanni
(Saint
John Baptistery),
Florence. |
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Germany: |
The
cathedrals of Speyer
and Worms |
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France: |
Saint-Sernin,
Toulouse,
Pilgrim
Church. The Cathedral of Autun, Bourgogne.
St. Etienne, Caen, Normandy, abbey church founded by Wilhelm the Conqueror.
The abbey-church in Murbach,
Alsace.
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Belgium: |
The
Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Tournai |
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Denmark: |
The
Cathedrals of Roskilde
and Ribe |
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England: |
The
Cathedral of Durham, one of the largest
Churches in the Middle Ages. |
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Gothic - church architecture,
murals, altarpieces, woodcarving, stained-glass painting, cathedral
sculptors, woodcut, handwritten books, miniatures. The choices of motifs
were primarily religious, profane motifs were seen in reliefs, painting
and book illustrations.
The term Gothic was a slighting name used in the Renaissance to describe
the barbarian, the uncivilized style of the Goths, disrespecting the
classical norms.
The style begun in France, the first Gothic church, St. Denis outside Paris,
was inaugurated in 1144.
The gothic church building was characterized by:
rib vaults,
(a framework of diagonal arched ribs carrying the cells which cover the
spaces between them to form an arched ceiling), flying buttress (a
free-standing buttress attached to the main structure by an arch or a
half-arch), buttress (a support, usually brick or stone, built
against a wall to support or reinforce it).
Slim tall spire
and large pointed arch windows, which could led the light into
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Light metaphysics
was important
to the Middle Age, the churchroom
should be filled with light - to understand God he must be acknowledged in every single
thing - the opinion of theologian of the age. God had set
paintings between himself and the humans, that is why, the churches were rich
decorated with mosaics, gold and precious stones, with frescoes and stained
glass. God is the light himself. To the honour of God, the cathedrals were "Gesamtkunstwerk" a
synthesis of elements of all branches of art.
In paintings the space were organized, simple shadows were seen
along the contours. The figures of Christ, in natural size,
became more present. The delineation of characters were measured
calm. An incipient naturalism were seen in e.g. plant
ornamentation in architecture and flowers in paintings. The
presentation of humans became dynamic, more realistic with gesticulations,
the physiognomies individual. The style was named "The beautiful
style". |
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Gothic
artists and architecture e.g.: |
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France |
The
Royal Abbey of St Denis,
Early Gothic. Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, Early Gothic. The
cathedral Notre-Dame in Chartres, south west of Paris, High Gothic -
the styles' most impressive church. The Cathedral of Reims, High
Gothic. Notre-Dame Cathedral in Amiens, Late Gothic.
Sainte-Chapelle,
Late Gothic.
Avignon-Pietá.
Jean Fouquet, court painter to Charles VII and later to Louis XI
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Italy |
Giotto,
a pioneer of linear perspective
(the
central perspective was an Renaissance-invention). Cimabue
Florentine painter, frescoes in Assisi. Duccio "The
announcement of Virgin Mary's dead", "Christ entry to
Jerusalem". Simone Martini, Madonna-fresco in the city hall in
Siena. Pietro Lorenzetti. Ambrogio Lorenzetti, landscapes and
architecture paintings.
Gentile
da Fabriano, the Cathedrals in Milan, Florence and
Siena. |
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the
Netherlands |
Hubert
and Jan van Eyck invented the oil-based painting.
Melchior
Broederlam. The Limbourg brothers, miniature painters. The Master of
Flémalle. Rogier van der Weyden. Hugo van der Goes. Hieronymus
Bosch. |
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Germany |
The
Cathedral in Cologne
(Köln Dom)
Martin Schongauer. Matthias Grünewald,
the Isenheimer altarpiece Musée
d'Unterlinded, Colmar. |
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Denmark |
Bernt
Notke, the
altarpiece
for the cathedral in Aarhus, the cathedral was dedicated to St.
Clement, the patron saint of sailors. Claus Berg the Late Gothic
altarpiece for the St. Knud's cathedral, Odense. See
also Aarhus Photos. |
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Switzerland |
Konrad
Witz, altarpiece of St. Peter in the cathedral of Geneva.
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International
Style or
Late Gothic
style 1400 |
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| By the end of the 14th century, a
simple dominant style arose all over Western Europe, a fusion of
North European and Italian traditions. The style was
characterized by bright colours, a chivalrous elegance, and a
naturalistic rendering of detail. Among the leading exponents of
the style were Simone Martini (Italy), the Flemish Limbourg
Brothers, Melchoir
Broederlam (Flemish) and Gentile
da Fabriano (Italy). |
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The
Greek word "protos" means first.
The artistic developments in Northern Italy,
during this period, were not exactly Romanesque or Gothic,
but have come to be classified as precursors to the
Renaissance style. The new pictorial style was
characterized by clear, simple structures and the artists
abilities to psychological penetration into the human soul
(e.g. Giotto).
Many influential writers begun to
create the Renaissance spirit that would influence later
Renaissance writers e.g.
Francesco Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio and Dante Alighieri although
his "Divine Comedy" belonged to the Middle Ages
in its plan and ideas, its subjective spirit and power of
expression looked forward to the Renaissance. |
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The style arose in Florence in the period in which
Florence, under the domination of the Medici
dynasty, reigned as the cultural capital of
Europe.
The Florentine sculptor and architect
Filippo Brunelleschi
(1377-1446) - the architect of the dome of the
cathedral of Florence,
Santa Maria del Fiore (1420-36),
developed the first correct formulation of
linear perspective about 1413 - a
mathematical system for representing
three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional
surface.
The Italian painter
Masaccio (1401-1428) also employed
linear perspective, which had been invented by
Brunelleschi.
The Italian painter
Cennino D'Andrea Cennini wrote "The
Craftsman's Handbook" ("Il Libro dell' Arte"). The
book described e.g. the making of glue,
gesso, paint and varnish, the drawing- and painting
techniques on wood, parchment, plaster and cloth.
The Italian painter, poet, architect et cetera
Leon/Leone Battista Alberti (1404-72)
wrote about architecture, light and perspective -
"De picture" ("Della pittura"/"On
painting"), 1435, which contained the first
scientific study of perspective. The Italian
translation "Della pittura" was dedicated to
Brunelleschi.
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The golden ratio
(or
golden mean,
golden section, golden number, divine proportion)
- a line which has been divided into two segments
the larger of which has a ratio to the smaller of
approximately 1,618:1. Shapes defined by the golden
ratio have been considered aesthetically pleasing in
western cultures, reflecting nature's balance between
symmetry and asymmetry. The golden ratio has been used
over the centuries (and is still used frequently in art
and design) by architects, musicians, mathematicians and
artists (e.g. Botticelli
"The Birth of Venus", 1485).
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The
Virgin Mary with the Infant Jesus and Saint Anne, Loenstrup
Church, North Jutland, Denmark.
Photo: Niels Clemmensen.
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The motif
"St Anne Selfthird" - The
Virgin Mary with the Infant Jesus and Saint Anne
(the Virgin's mother) arose in the 14th century. The
Danish name for the holy group is "Anna Selvtredje"
and in the Netherlands the group is called "Anna-te-Drieën"
or "Annatrits".
In
the early fifteenth century
the works of the Egyptian astronomer, geographer and mathematician
Claudius
Ptolemy was rediscovered, he had published a star catalogue
in the 2nd century containing over 1000 stars in 48 constellations
explaining the Ptolemian system, where the Earth was stationary
and the worlds centre, he believed the sun, moon and other
planets circled the Earth.
The Roman architect and engineer Marcus Vitruvius
Pollio (80-20 BC), wrote "De Architectura Libri", the
10 books about architecture influenced the architects of the
Renaissance, the books were translated in 1415.
The philosopher Marsilio Ficino (1433-99),
the chief ideologist of Neoplatonism wrote "Theologia Platonica", 1474,
the Bible of Neoplatonism. |
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Artists:
Sandro
Botticelli
(1444-1510),
Fra
Filippo Lippi (1406-1469),
Piero
della Francesca (c.1410-1492),
Hieronymus
Bosch (c.1450-1516),
Filippo Brunelleschi
(1377-1446),
Donatello
(1386-1466), Masaccio (Tommaso di Giovanni di
Simone Guidi) (1401-1428),
Fra Angelico
(c.1400-1455), Domenico
Veneziano (c.1410-1461), Paolo Ucello (c.1397-1475), Andrea
del Castagno (1421-1557), Leone Battista Alberti (1402-1472),
Andrea Mantegna (c.1431- 1506), Giovanni Bellini (1431-1516),
Piero di Cosimo (1462-1521),
Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455), Domenico
Ghirlandaio
(1449-1494), Pietro Perugino (1445-1523),
Luca Signorelli (1450-1523). |
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The Renaissance style
arose in Italy around the year 1400. Florence was breeding
ground for art at the time, and an important commercial centre,
the Medici Family, a merchant- and banker-family, was
predominant in Florence in two periods from 1434-1494 and from
1525-1737. Until the late 1400s Florence and Venice played an
essential role as the leading artistic centres of Italy, the
country consisted of small duchies and family dynasties.
Rome's position as artistic centre was established around 1508 -
in Raphael's time The Papal State ruled central Italy. Pope
Julius II (reigned 1503-13) was a great admirer of art, he
planned rebuilding and decoration of St.
Peters Basilica and invited famous artists to Rome
e.g. Raphael,
Michelangelo,
Bramante and Leonardo
da Vinci. The
most cultivated personalities visited the Pope's apartments,
their philosophy of life was "Universalia sunt rem"
meaning that the earthly objects was an embodiment of the Divine
principle.
The word Renaissance (French for rebirth) i.e. rebirth of the
classic Greco-Roman culture and art with its self-expression,
beauty, harmony, symmetry and clarity.
The true, the good, the beautiful were identically with the
expression of the Renaissance. The artists strived to express
ideal beauty which was divine and unchangeable. The art was a
microcosmos of the macrocosmos created by God.
The classical columns (Tuscany, Doric, Ionian, Corinthian and
Composite) were among the main architectural elements. There
were some basic similarities between the churches of the period
and old Christian basilica's, where the middle nave of the
central building was carried by columns. The ground plan of the
central building was the Greek Cross with arms of equal length.
France, Germany and the Netherlands and also the Danish art of
painting were influenced by the Italian Renaissance.
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The
palace architecture of the Renaissance with interior
yards, arcades and loggias were simple and outwardly
closed. In the townsman houses the classical
influence was more obvious. The German poet Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) had described the
architecture as "Frozen music", that is the
style in a nutshell.
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The Renaissance style, particularly
the High Renaissance style, was perfect symmetry, the right proportions
- nothing could be subtracted or added without spoiling the
whole. The Renaissance room was logical, ornaments
disturbed, the light was static - an equal amount of light everywhere.
The sculptor imitated nature - idealized without being
unrealistic, the sculpture was liberated from its marble
prison.
The portrait painting was invented in the Renaissance.
The artist was not regarded as a craftsman any longer, he became
an independent artist with commission and patrons - rich merchants and
nobilities. The artist's role as creator, was almost similar to
God's sovereign role as Creator.
The artist was born as artist, the painter a dumb poet, the poet
a painter of oratorical gifts.
High
Renaissance in Italy
1500-1525,
the High Renaissance painting style arose in Rome. The height of the
Renaissance was between 1480-1520.
The art that illustrated harmony was not based on harmony in the society, perhaps
the disintegration of society had created the artistic perfection. The
High Renaissance
artists did not portrayed old people, they were ugly and in contrast to the
understanding of the human beauty at the time.
The central
perspective was predominant, perfect symmetry
and balance, proportion and discipline - a geometrical system for construction of
perspective on a flat using vanishing points. The naturalistic art was
dominated by the central perspective.
Raphael's
"The School of Athens", 1518, was
an example of architectural perspective with a central vanishing
point.
The chiaroscuro (Italian:
light-dark) was developed during this period - a technique of modelling form by gradations of light and
dark - particularly applied within Baroque paintings e.g. Caravaggio.
Selected
artists:
Leonardo
da Vinci
(Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci)
(1452-1519), Raphael
(Raffaello Santi or Sanzio/Sanzi)
(1483-1520), Michelangelo
Buonarroti (Michelagniolo
di Lodovico Buonarroti-Simoni) (1475-1564),
Tizian/Titian
(Tiziano Vecellio/Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio/Vecelli Di Gregorio)
(1477 or c.1488/90-1576), Giorgione
(1478-1510).
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Renaissance
in Europe outside of Italy (the Netherlands, Germany and
France).
The Northern art and architecture were different from the
Italian Renaissance style. The Northern style was more
Gothic-like. The north had fewer centers of free commerce than Italy
did have - Italy had a numerous Duchies and Republics which gave
rise to a wealthy merchant class that often spent considerable
funds on art.
In the Burgundy region of France, the dukes were patrons of art.
Their interests were illuminated manuscripts, tapestries and
furnishings, in Italy the patrons were interested in paintings,
sculpture and architecture.
Dutch
Renaissance - a style within architecture, which arose in the
late 1500s in the Netherlands - each of the Dutch cities
developed its own version of the style (e.g. the Harlem and the
Amsterdam style). Numerous of townsman houses in Dutch
Renaissance style were built in the Netherlands and Belgium. The
style spread from here to England and Scandinavia.
The Northern style was characterized by e.g. red bricks, simple
stepped gables, windows with semicircle arches, large numbers of
small blocks
of white sandstone used as ornaments, stained glass
windows, details in painting. The greatest
Flemish artist of the 15th century
Jan van
Eyck (c.1389-1441) had been credited with the invention of the
oil paints.
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The austere style
of the early Renaissance used simple artistic effects and sometimes
the characteristics of the Gothic. In Germany, Denmark and
Norway and to some extent in Sweden the Baroque/auricular
style* followed
the Renaissance, e.i. the Mannerism
style has not been used in these countries. (*In
the first half of the 17th century Dutch goldsmiths, such as the
van Vianens and, later, Johannes Lutma the Elder of Amsterdam,
developed a fleshy form of ornament known as auricular, which
became common in northern Europe, including England.
In Denmark during Christian 4, many of the country's churches
were adorned with furniture in the ornamented style known as the
auricular style).
In Denmark the style arose during the reign of King
Christian 4. (1577-1648)
and got the name Christian 4. style (Dutch
Renaissance) - in Copenhagen
were built e.g.: Rosenborg Castle, Boersen (The Stock
Exchange), Nyboder (rows of yellow houses for sailors in the Kings
fleet), the Royal Arsenal Museum, the
royal brewery of Christian IV, Holmens Church, The
Trinitatis Church with the Round Tower, Regensen
(The Royal Collegium), The Caritas
fountain in Gammel Torv/the Old Square, on special occasions,
the fountain is provided with golden apples - a figure
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1525-1600. The
mannerist were breaking the classical High Renaissance rules of
painting and architecture.
The bearing constructions in architecture were
unclear and there were a spatial confusing, space could be
ambiguous, columns carried nothing, ceiling-frescos tumbled down
over the heads of the visitors (Palazzo del Te in Mantua in
Italy by Guilio Romano, mannerist architect and painter). Compositions
had no focal point (Raumflucht). The
elements were hurled to the periphery of the paintings (Centrifugal force).
The mannerists sought instability, wrong proportions,
nonsymmetry, and restlessness.
Figures were characterized by an athletic bending and twisting
with distortions, exaggerations, and elastic elongation of the
limbs, bizarre posturing on one hand, graceful posturing on the
other hand, and a rendering of the heads as small and oval.
The colors were garish, which was unlike the balanced, natural,
and dramatic colors of the High Renaissance.
The first generation of mannerist
Painters were Pontormo, Rosso and Parmigianino.
Michelangelo had influenced for example Rosso (The
Deposition, 1521), and he himself had been influenced by the
younger generation of mannerist painters in his fresco in The
Sistine Chapel, The Last Judgment (1536-1541).
Michelangelo was not a thoroughgoing mannerist, because in his
paintings were elements from the High Renaissance and Baroque
tendencies at the same time.
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One of Parmigianino's
most famous paintings "The Madonna with the Long
Neck", 1534-40, Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence. |
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The style had its heyday in the 17th century and the early 18th
century and was associated with the power of the absolute monarchy,
the style attached importance to the grandiose in architecture,
sculpture, painting, decoration and gardens.
The style arose in Italy - in the architecture by Michelangelo's successors, in
the art of painting by the artists, who reacted against the
anti-naturalistic Mannerism.
The term Baroque was used in a disparaging way - the
Italian word baroco means stumbling block, the word
was used to characterize art and architecture
experienced as bizarre and exaggerated. In the 17th
century the style was spread from Italy to other
European countries, everywhere it got a local
elaboration.
The Renaissance style was balanced, serene, reserved,
strict and spoke to the intellect directly and simply
- the Baroque style was quite the opposite.
Some general characteristics of Baroque art: Baroque spoke
to the senses and the fantasy, it wanted to bewitch,
the style was motions, dynamics, contrasts (using
concave and convex forms), a play between light and
dark (chiaroscuro), theatrical, dramatic, outré,
Baroque was Gesamtkunstwerk (total artwork), all
branches of art made an appointment with each
other - the room architecture, paintings, stucco,
carved furniture, tapestries and artistic marble
created a multicoloured and mutifarious whole. The
mirrors opened the room, blur the clarity, they were
often placed in the corners to round off and create
light. The style's great intention was to create an
illusion of unending space. The Baroque ground plan was
the ellipsis and the oval. The building was regarded as a
coherent mass, it could be shaped as needed. The space was
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continuum. The monumental and magnificent buildings
never lost their plastic wealth. Columns and pilasters
carried nothing, they were decorative. The architecture
was rhetorical, the facades should be active into
surrounding space. The baroque sculpture was dramatic, the position of the figure was contrapposto
(graceful posture of a figure with all the weight balanced on one leg).
The German churches maintained a low profile opposite the Italian
churches.
Originally the new St. Peters Basilica was in Renaissance Style, when it was finished it was a Baroque
church - Baroque church architecture was born with St. Peters
Basilica.
The style was representative - extending the power of the court culture
(e.g. Versailles, King Louis 14).
The Counter-Reformation in Italy had influenced the style, particularly the art
of painting - the Counter-Reformation's theorists demanded religious
motifs easy to understand, furthermore an increased
religious feeling arose supported by the mystics of the time.
The Baroque church architecture became the artistic tool of the Roman Catholic
church in a time, where the church tried to convert heretics back to Rome and
to strength
the followers in their belief.
In the Netherlands genre pictures, landscapes, still-lifes and biblical
scenes play a great role, and the oil painting made its breakthrough. The Dutch landscape
painters often used schlagbaum's (a perspective
creating element, e.g. a tree) and the Vanitas motif, a
still-life with symbolic content - everything
was temporal, the Vanitas motif used elements as hourglass,
human skulls, The Bible, candles and mirrors. The
Vanitas motif was also a type of painting executed by Spanish baroque
artists.
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The Würzburg Residence, Bavaria, Germany, 1720-44, the building of this
Baroque/Rococo palace started on request of Bishop
Johann, designed by
Baltazar Neumann.
It was made of yellow sandstone, which provided a golden
glow. The residence
was added to Unesco's World
Heritage List in 1981.
The stamp shows the main staircase and the
fresco executed by
Tiepolo.
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The style arose in France in the 1720s as a continuation of the Baroque, the solemn and grandiose Baroque forms were transformed into a decorative
style.
At the Court of Louis 15 the graceful ornaments was developed to create a
sense of intimacy and freedom from worries.
The Rococo style spread from decoration art to architecture and the art of
sculpture. The countries outside France became interested in the style,
which mainly became a court style. The rational Rococo belonged to France,
the irrational to Southern Germany.
Outside France the style played the biggest role in Germany - in Southern Germany
churches and palaces were imaginative worked out and the interior
decorated with frescoes and ornaments.
The royal palace in Copenhagen, Amalienborg,
was one of the finest Rococo buildings in Europe influenced by the French
Baroque e.g. Place Vendôme in Paris and Place
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The rocaille, a French invention from about 1740, was the seminal idea
behind the style, the word derived from the French word
rocaille, a chased or engraved decoration involving
shell-like swirling forms - irregular and non-geometric. Rococo
decorations appeared weightless and blurred. The rocaille crept in everywhere
in all sizes for all purposes - also the hair-fashion.
Posterity considered Rococo as a superficial style.
Keywords characterizing the style: Weightlessness. Non-contrast.
The room was a synthesis of light, colour and motion.
Polish floors. Crystal grinding. Smooth bright silk. Light wood panels.
Lacquer. Plaster of Paris. Stucco. Porcelain rooms. Absence of seriousness.
Irony. Giddiness. Rocaille. Asymmetric. Ornamentation often gilded.
Religious motifs often secularized. Incorrect historical descriptions. The
painting lost its substance (Guardi). Bright colours, pastels. Pastorale (Jean
Antoine Watteau). Mythological scenes (Fr. Boucher). Pastel portraits. Gesamtkunstwerk
(German for total artwork - a term coined by Richard
Wagner to describe the synthesis of all the arts music,
poetry, drama, visual spectacle in his late operas). Non-representative architecture. Mirrors blur
the room.
The house was unstable, it should create an illusion, fragility - paradoxical that the
house kept upright.
In furniture design a new type of furniture was designed e.g. the writing bureau,
chest of drawers with thin golden legs or Chinese lacquer work. The Rococo
chair became the pasts armchair and the chaiselong became the forerunner
of the sofa.
The divergence of the Rococo style was an exterior and interior which did
not correspond to each other, it was not possible to read something
about the interior at the façade.
In the German Rococo palaces the staircase became the centre of the plan disposal
(e.g. the Würzburg Residence).
Masions de plaisance - a summer residence for the royals and the
nobles.
In the
Rococo garden were cavegrottoes, fountains and ruins, the
intention was to create a picturesque
impression, copies of classical sculptures were placed in the
garden.
The Salon
the intimate room of the Rococo - in the salon people conversed.
The style was contemporary with the Age of Enlightenment, brilliancy was, for wealthy townsmen and artists,
the ticket to the salons - the conversing people should be quick at repartee or witty. The conversation
was an art form - Voltaire wrote that the speech should flow like paintings
with pastel chalk. Diderot was the philosopher of the time, he was master of the salon dialogue.
People became experts
in a non-boring life style - the homo ludens (the playing human) - much of
pastime was arranged e.g. feasts, parties, fireworks,
dance and carnival. The musical instrument was the cembalo, the rococo
dance the minuet.
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The Würzburg Residence,
Bavaria, Germany, 1720-44, the building of this
Baroque/Rococo palace started on request of Bishop
Johann, designed by
Baltazar Neumann.
It was made of yellow sandstone, which provided a golden
glow. The residence was added to Unesco's World
Heritage List in 1981.
The stamp shows the main
staircase and the fresco
executed by Tiepolo.
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Sanssouci
(carefree), 1745-47 in
Potsdam the former eastern
Germany, build for Friedrich
2. About 1750 the France
writer and philosopher
Francois de Voltaire
(1694-1778) lived in the
palace.
The palace was added
to Unesco's World Heritage
List in 1997.
The Munich Opera House
(1750-53) by the architect
Francois
Cuvilliés the elder.
Pilgrimage churches in
Southern Germany e.g.
Die Wies c.1750 by
Dominikus Zimmermann,
Vierzehnheiligen c.1743
by Baltasar Neumann,
Steinhausen c.1730 by
Zimmermann and
Birnau c.1747
by Peter Thumb - in the
Birnau church the ground
plan was more simple than in
other pilgrimage churches,
the church room was
rectangular with suggestion
of a transept, a so-called
"Maria Aula", the church
room was Maria's/Mary's
bosom. |
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Romanticism in painting arose
in France and Germany as a reaction against Neo Classicism.
Romanticism most often had been described as a spiritual sentimental
style, an escapism, which emphasized the emotional, the mysterious,
the weird, the romantic dramatic, the exotic, the occult, the
remote. The Romantic art-movement often manifested itself in
landscape painting, worshiped nature as wild, unbounded and
ever-changing.
Particularly the term "Romanticism" was used to refer
to German, French and English painting after 1800.
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The style's practitioners were for example:
The German painters: Caspar
David Friedrich, Carl Blechen. "The
Nazarens": Wilhelm Schadow,
Philipp Veit and Schnoor von Carolsfeld. "The Nazarens"
were a German religious romantic art movement founded in 1809.
The French painter:
Camille
Corot, Antoine-Jean Gros,
Theodore Gericault, Theodore Chasseriau, Eugène Fromentin.
The English painters: John
Constable, William
Turner, John Ruskin, George Stubbs, Thomas
Gainsborough, Joseph Wright of Derby, John Martin.
In the USA the leading Romantic movement was "The
Hudson River School". Many painters
of this school were influenced by Archibald Alison's book"
"Essay on the Nature and Principles of Taste", where
the author claimed that the beauty and magnificence of unspoiled
nature could inspire good moral qualities.
The American landscape artists were for example Thomas Cole,
Asher Brown Durand, John William Casilear, Thomas
Moran,
Jasper Francis Cropsey, Frederick Edwin
Church,
Albert Bierstadt. |
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refers to styles that draw their
inspiration from copying historic styles or artisans.
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The style arose in France in
the late 1860s based on some tendencies in Realism. The
artists had begun to leave the realistic representation
for describing their impressions of the effects of light
and colour.
Impressionism's theories, developed during the 1860s, were
contrary to the accepted Salon painting. The
impressionists avoided dark colours, they used light
colours placed side by side in clear brush strokes. The
artists sought to intercept the constantly changing
character of the landscapes, they preferred the
birds-eye-view, and used colours to emphasize shadows -
e.g. the shadow of a green hat was painted red - that is
complementary colours/contrasts: red/green,
yellow/violet, blue/orange, (Ittens
color circle).
The Impressionists wanted to re-create the optical
impression, to show the objects as they saw them, a
Naturalism built on personal visual impressions and
experiences, not a photographic Naturalism. (Realism
contained a social aspect, Naturalism experimented with
an objective imitation of nature). The Impressionist
often painted their subjects more than once at different
times of the day. In the early
1860s a group of young artists,
Monet,
Renoir,
Pissaro and
Sisley, filled with
enthusiasm about the Realism,
Courbet and the
Barbizon School, made common cause against the official
academic education (Barbizon School: French landscape
artists who worked near Barbizon, France between
1835-1870). The Realist were of the opinion that the art
should represent
"la Vie Moderne" (the Modern Life), and they had first
and foremost been intensely concerned about the shady
side of life, the social aspect did not interest the
Impressionist, they painted the unproblematic life in
Paris and people in nature. From the Barbizon School the
artists learned the plain air painting (painting in the
open air). The elder painters had painted outdoor
sketches and completed the real paintings in the
studios. Artists as
Degas and Cézanne were
attached to Monet, Renoir, Pissaro and Sisley and
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Claude Monet
"Impression-Soleil Levant" (Sunrise) (1872),
gave name to the style.
Monet's painting was exhibited at
the first so-called impressionist exhibition
in 1874, where the new style was ridiculed
by the critics, and they created the word
Impressionism after Monet's painting.
Musée Marmottan, Paris
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The First Impressionist
Exhibition in 1874 was held outside the Salon. Seven
Impressionist exhibitions were held until 1886,
afterwards the style had lost its meaning, it was
continued by Monet and Renoir.
The French painters Claude Monet and
Paul Cézanne
were the most important influence on the artist in
the 20th century - the
Impressionism became great influence for the
development of modern art until the Fauvism.
Selected artists:
Claude Monet,
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley,
Edgar Degas,
Mary Cassatt,
James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Jacob
Camille Pissarro, Thomas Eakins and Theodor
Philipsen. |
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Postimpressionism was a style that
came after the Impressionism and were influenced by
Impressionism. The Impressionist were interested in expressing
their pure impressions, the Postimpressionist were intensely concerned
about emotional and symbolic values. It was the English artist
and critics Roger Fry, who in 1910 introduced the concept of
Postimpressionism as a term for different styles originated from
Impressionism - a style clearly contrasted with the naturalistic
tendencies in Impressionism, and was applied to the group Les
Nabis (a rebellious group of young artists, Nabi was derived
from the Hebrew word for prophet. The artists were e.g. Bonnard
and Denis).
The most significant Postimpressionists were Cézanne,
Gauguin,
van
Gogh, Seurat,
Denis, Bonnard and Toulouse-Lautrec,
they had different ideas about their art, and in common a
non-academic view on art.
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Symbolism flourished in France and
Belgium. The Symbolist painters were anti-naturalist and anti-realists,
the reacted against Realism, Naturalism and
Impressionism. The symbolists were interested in existential questions
(e.g. Munch
was depicting existential angst), they used symbols to
represent or allude to something, the reality was as a symbol of a higher world,
their motifs often included interest in occultism, religion,
dreams, mysteries, dead, sex, and they used the femme fatale motif (fatal woman) - a sensuous alluring
woman, who is fateful to men. They used colours as symbols to create a
personal statement rather than using the colours of nature.
Sometimes angels, snakes, doves and churches were the
symbolic elements - well-known Christian symbols.
Some of the symbolist paintings anticipated many of the
characteristics of
Expressionism and Surrealism - e.g. the expressionists use of powerful colours
and the surrealists unreal compositions.
The Symbolists interest in mysticism continued the biblical visions of
Romanticism - The Nazarens, German religious romantic
art movement founded in 1809. In the period there was
some interest in psychology, Sigmund Freud's "The
Interpretation of Dreams" was published in 1900. The painting technique and the way of painting varied, to
paint was about understanding of existence, the meaning of life and
conception of art.
The symbolic literature reacted against Naturalism, the writers
wrote about the existence by using the language in an expressive, absurd
and associating way - in France
Baudelaire,
Verlaine, Mallarmé, Rimbaud, in Germany Stefan George and in Denmark Johannes
Joergensen, Sophus Claussen, Viggo Stuckenberg and
Helge
Rode. |
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