The Franz Mayer Museum had another special exhibit when I was there earlier this week. It was a small collection of paintings that showed how landscape painting developed over time. Originally landscapes were simply the backdrop for the main subject although they were sometimes extremely detailed. It was not until later that landscape painting became a genre of its own. As someone who dabbles in landscape painting, I found this little exhibit quite interesting.
Notice the detailed landscapes in the backgrounds of these paintings...
A Flemish painting from around 1500
"Donor Accompanied by St. Elizabeth of Hungary"
A Flemish painting from around 1510
"St. Christopher and the Infant Jesus"
A "biombo" (folding screen) from late 18th century Mexico
"Country Scenes"
Spanish painter Francisco Zurbarán, around 1630
"The Departure of St. Peter Nolasco from Barcelona"
In these next two paintings you can see that the subject matter (a Bible story and a hunting scene) are dwarfed by the landscape...
16th century Flemish
"Laban Searching for the Household Idols in the Camp of Jacob"
Dutch painter Philips Wouwerman, around 1660
"The Boar Hunt"
Finally, the landscape itself emerged as the subject...
American painter Conrad Wise Chapman, around 1880
"View of the Valley of Mexico"
Chapman was a soldier in the Civil War, and after the war he devoted himself to travel and painting.
The German naturalist and geographer Alexander Humboldt,
lithograph of the "Volcano Cofre de Perote"
Finally, my favorite Mexican landscape artist, José María Velasco...
"View of the Valley of Mexico from the Peak of Tepayac"
around 1900
No comments:
Post a Comment