Looking At Art by: Elizabeth Chase
Whether or not we are aware of the fact, we live in a relentlessly artistic world. From the shaded canopies of intersecting treetops on a residential street to the snow falling thick across a cornfield on a frigid December evening, landscapes are an artistic form with which most people are familiar. Landscape artists attempt to capture what the eyes see day after day, while adding ideas based on personal interpretation to the details of their pieces. Historically speaking, landscapes have changed considerably through the centuries (and through the millennia). Ancient Romans used landscape artwork to transport themselves to unfamiliar environments. To these city dwellers, the country was a “bright and happy world remote from turmoil.” On the other hand, the ancient Chinese used landscapes to suggest “the moods of man and the infinity of God”. These landscapes were black and white and were often accompanied by poems in the form of long hand scrolls.
By the 15th century, artists in Northern Europe began to emphasize backgrounds in their artwork where, prior, their artwork focused on narratives told through figures. This was due to the fact that the medieval thinker had begun to see “the presence of God in every detail of nature” and therefore thought it integral to emphasize these details. Eventually, as with Pieter Bruegel’s Death of Saul, the monumental narratives became mere backdrops for elaborate scenes of nature. Three centuries later, artists established a “formula” for landscapes, allowing them to circumvent the studying of the effects of light and air on a landscape. While most of these changes were happening in Europe, landscapes didn’t become popular in the United State until the 19th century. Towards the mid-19th century, wide landscapes began to be replaced by more intimate views of specific landscape features. Eventually, artists began to realize that art is “more than merely a record of what one sees.” Thus, they began to incorporate ideas into their art (for instance, Van Gogh’s Starry Night). Today, landscapes tend to represent the artist’s own perspective of the landscape in addition to the landscape itself.
Similarly, the artist’s representation of the perspective has evolved significantly over time. Originally, the lack of perspective was most apparent in ancient depictions of the human form. The Ancient Egyptians depicted people 2-dimensionally and from their profiles. While inaccurate, their representations of people coupled with hieroglyphics were enough to show what was going on. These early artists had generally not thought of representing space visually. However, by the 5th century B.C., bodies were being drawn in 3 dimensions in Greece. In the 2nd or 1st century B.C., Italian mosaics and paintings modeled figures in light and shade. In fact, there is evidence that the Greeks were responsible for the beginning of modeling in light and shade. As is evident, the ancients likely observed perspective but did not incorporate it into their art. It was only in the 15th century that artists began studying vision scientifically.
The way one looks at art is certainly tied to the way that art is created and to what has been an influence on that particular piece of art. Therefore, it is important to recognize the differences between different works of art. Although landscapes and perspective are important aspects of art to study, there are countless other details that can be observed and analyzed.
