History of Landscape, from the Renaissance to Contemporary Art
Storm, by Giorgione - 1508
The landscape theme was constantly related to the affirmation of the main artistic movements, especially from the Renaissance onwards. Over time, this genre, which depicts mountains, rivers, bridges or architectural spaces, has undergone changes in terms of artistic means and languages. Currently, its relevance in the field of fine arts is remarkable; however, for several centuries, for the academy, it was considered inferior in relation to other genres. In order to understand how artists represent this theme in contemporary times, we will approach the artistic idea of landscape, from the Renaissance, through the Baroque, Romanticism and post-war period.
Landscape with Hagar and the Angel, by Claude Lorrain - 1649
The Emergence of the Landscape Pictorial Genre
The term landscape is ambiguous: it simultaneously means the observed territory and its artistic representation. In the plastic arts, until the Renaissance, the landscape is present in a secondary way, serving as a prop to a mythological or religious narrative. These roles are reversed with the work Storm, by Giorgione (1470-1510), in which the landscape takes center stage. Although there are figures in this painting — a woman with her child and a soldier — the viewer is absorbed by the natural landscape: the bridge, the trees, the sky and the fortified city. During this historical period, the exploration of the idea of disinterested contemplation of nature and the discovery of the conical perspective grew, thus giving rise to the artistic theme of the landscape as we understand it today. The idea of an ideal and harmonious landscape with the sky, river and land is defined by the French painter Claude Lorrain.
View of Haarlem and the Haarlemmer Merr, inJan van Goyen - 1646
The growth of the landscape: the Dutch case
The landscape was always seen as inferior, in relation to religious, mythological or portrait paintings, however, in Holland, during the 17th century, there was an increase in commissions of this kind. Due to the recent formation of this country, there is a great need to portray the entire territory in an act of affirmation of its independence. In this republican and protestant state, artists, freed from religious representations, sought new themes in painting such as landscapes and still lifes, in order to satisfy the bourgeois taste. In these works, they explore the landscape in plastic terms, with the effects of light and shadow, simultaneously, representing with great fidelity the terrain, cities and towns of this country.
Walker on the Sea of Fog, by Caspar David Friedrich - 1818
The Landscape in Romanticism
With the political, social and artistic transformations of the 19th century, this artistic genre acquired a growing importance. In a new society governed by the principles of equality, fraternity and freedom and with the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the church and royalty lost their power. As happened in Holland, traditional religious representations become secondary due to the new themes and concerns of art.
In the Romantic period, artists represented nature as dominant and absolute before the small human being. An example of this are the paintings by the artist Caspar David Friedrich, which usually feature a human figure, in order to convey to the viewer a sense of the grandeur of nature in relation to the little Man.
spiral jetty, by Robert Smithson - 1970
Landscape in Post-War Art
In the vanguards of the 20th century, the theme of landscape is recurrent; however, it is in post-war art that this motto gains new power. With the emergence of Land Art, with artists such as Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer, the landscape ceases to be a representation of nature to become a process of artistic intervention in an ephemeral way. Due to these new transformations, there was a growing questioning regarding the boundaries between art, landscape and architecture. Rosalind Krauss deals with this issue of understanding these terms in the article Sculpture in thee expanded field.
A field after the harvest for the aesthetic delight of our body, by Alberto Carneiro
In Portugal, Alberto Carneiro, aware of international artistic productions,
works from a reflection on the landscape, in a sense of experimentation and research. This artist inspired an entire future generation in terms of artistic production. It is necessary to emphasize the ambiguity of his works and the way in which he manifested the presence of the landscape both in the exterior space and in the interior space (museum or art gallery). Through works like A field after the harvest for the aesthetic delight of our body, The sugarcane field: memory-metamorphosis of an absent body or A forest for your dreams, the artist transposed a natural or rural situation into a cultural universe.
In postwar art, the pictorial idea of landscape — sky, earth and river — is practically non-existent. Even so, we continue to see many artists working on this motto in different ways. It is the case of Noronha da Costa, who developed his landscapes from the use of photography and his technique with the spray gun. This method invented by the Portuguese artist himself creates the perception of a vision, deep down, unattainable.
Return of the Shower - Feel, inMota Urgeiro
Today, artists like António Neves, Mota Urgeiro It is Júlio Capela have portrayed this pictorial genre returning to the fundamental ideas of the ideal representation of the landscape, incorporating the influences of the artistic movements of the 20th century. From Coimbra to Lisbon, passing through Alentejo, these painters portray the spaces around them in a peculiar way, warning of their own aesthetic concerns.
Betting on the architectural representation of urbanizations, Júlio Capela has been exploring its aesthetics from geometry, abstractionism and expressionism in various methods, from watercolors and acrylic, also passing through printing techniques such as lithography. With subtlety and serenity, António Neves It is Mota Urgeiro trace Portuguese customs and peculiarities in vibrant, sweeping colours.
Through P55 you can find out more artists who have developed works of art based on the motto of landscape in different techniques and movements. It is the case of Mário Cesariny, Maria Fernanda Amado, Cruzeiro Seixas, María Ortega Estepa, Rafa Fernández, Tomás Serrano, between others.