In Chapter 3 of Looking at Art, Chase brings us on a journey through time as she discusses the evolution of landscape art. She confides that different areas of the world have varying styles of painting, and gives us many examples from ancient times to the 1900’s. Ancient Egyptians and Assyrians saw landscape as a profile with focus on objects instead of the environment as a whole. The work of Ancient Egyptians seemed more like a map than later landscape artworks.
Ancient Roman landscape artwork usually has the background and environment supplement its main focus. The main focus was often a hero coming back from war and depicted to make him look legendary. The Chinese believed that landscape art “suggested both the moods of man and the infinity of God.” (21) This is a much more complex philosophy behind art than the previous art that has been mentioned. The artwork was often accompanied by a poem and written on a long hand scroll.
Chase goes on to talk about Peter Brugel, a 16th century Flemish artist, and John Constable, a 19th century English artist. In their paintings, we can see the development of landscape art and the more intricate details that are now created. She then discusses American art after they gained independence from the British. American painters would create art of various mountains on their land, such as the Adirondack and Rocky mountains. As time went on, more and more artists decided to go outside and paint what they saw as well.
In Chapter 4, Chase discusses the evolution of art pertaining to people and space. Ancient Egyptians first drew people in 2 dimensional form with very little detail in the face in body. Ancient Greeks would draw in a similar profile fashion, but started to incorporate 3 dimensional techniques in the 5th century BCE. Both the Egyptians and Greeks enjoyed painting various activities that were commonplace in their time, such as wrestling.
Ancient Romans seem to be one of the first people to have used perspective in their paintings, giving their artwork much more depth and personality. The middle ages gave us great advancement in this particular style of art. Paolo Uccello many times used the phrase, “thou sweet Perspective” (47) to annoy his wife. In many paintings from this time, we can see the progression to multiple objects and individuals placed perfectly into perspective. One example is Hans Baldung’s “The Groom Bewitched,” where he places a knight lying on the ground with a horse in the background.
These 2 chapters in Looking at Art by Alice Elizabeth Chase give great insight to the history of certain types of art and its evolution throughout time. From the earliest forms of art done by the Ancient Egyptians to the art of Vincent Van Gogh, we can see how art has become much more complex. Whether the art is simple or complicated, it is all still beautiful in its own right.
