“Looking At Art” is an illustrated book by Alice Elizabeth Chase. Beginning in Chapter 3, the author speaks of how we view scenary. From a height, we are able to see that surrounding objects are “big and clear”, but those objects that are distanced greatly from us appear smaller and more dull. Even the color we perceive mountains to be is due to the distance we see them from and dust particles which make them seem blue or lavender. It makes me think of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which now I believe are not blue at all.
She goes on to say that while a camera simply takes a picture of the exact way things are at a moment, artists are faced with the difficult task of confinement when painting a landscape, whether due to the dimensions of a canvas or a wall. He also has to make a landscape have a greater significance, which he can do however he pleases. I would be nervous that the things I find significant would not be significant to others.
While ancient Egyptians sometimes used landscape paintings as a map, other ancients used them for different things. Though they both use the technique of profile to express things, the Assyrians featured victorious events in their pictures, such a King killing a lion. The Greeks used landscape paintings to accompany their poems or stories, but sometimes they just enjoyed bringing the aesthetics of the outdoors indoors. The Chinese too used landscapes to accompany their poems. The use of a proper brush stroke and coloring technique helps to allow for a better scenery.
Originally in early medieval times, Western religious paintings featured Saints in front of a gold background but later, by the fifteenth century, people became much more aware of secular affairs and the gold background was replaced by settings off fields, mountains, and sky. In certain areas, the landscape in the background was simply a setting for the characters of a painting, but in other places the landscape was just as important as the subjects in it.
Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel in the 16th century was more concerned with men and their multiple activities were “merely an incident in a great and beautiful world”. In his painting, “Death of Saul”, the meat, if you will, of the horrific story in told by the figures in the foreground instead of the centered ones. The Dutch, in comparison, just enjoyed painting their countryside for their own pleasure. Whatever their motive was, they produced fine art. They were fascinated by the sky.
Artists began to develop formulas to paint landscapes, such as varying colors of different trees to make one’s eye jump from place to place to the horizon. In America, however, artists were very much disinterested in landscapes unless they were being used as backgrounds for portraits.
Chapter 4 goes on to speak of how “The Artist looks at People and Space”. While photographs can be cramped and crowded, artists have tried to develop techniques to avoid this crowded feeling. Some Ancient Civilizations such as those in Egypt and Mesopotamia used overlapping methods. They were painted in two dimensions as flat bodies, but in later Greek pottery dating about 4 B.C. we can see three dimensional etching occur.
