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Brief History of the Landscape Genre
Roots in Antiquity
Artists have been painting the landscape since ancient times. The Greeks and Romans created wall paintings of landscapes and gardenscapes. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the tradition of depicting pure landscapes declined, and the landscape was seen only as a setting for religious and figural scenes. This tradition continued until the 16th century when artists began to view the landscape as a subject in its own right. The artistic shift seems to have corresponded to a growing interest in the natural world sparked by the Renaissance.
Rise of the Landscape in the Netherlands
The term "landscape" actually derives from the Dutch word landschap, which originally meant "region, tract of land" but acquired the artistic connotation, "a picture depicting scenery on land" in the early 1500s (American Heritage Dictionary, 2000). The development of the term in the Netherlands at this time was logical because the Netherlands was one of the first places that landscape had become a popular subject for painting. At this time, the rising Protestant middle class sought secular art for their homes, creating the need for new subjects to meet their tastes; landscapes helped fill this need.
Outside of the Netherlands, the genre, or subject, of landscape painting had yet to gain acceptance with the powerful art academies of Italy and France. The hierarchy of respectable painting subjects placed history painting, which included classical, religious, mythological and allegorical themes, above all other subjects. Portraits, genre (scenes of everyday life), still life, and landscapes were seen as inferior subjects for painting. Even as landscapes became acceptable as subjects in the 17th century, they were still often created merely as settings for biblical, mythological, or historical scenes.
Birth of the Classical Landscape
In the 17th century the classical landscape was born. These landscapes were influenced by classical antiquity and sought to illustrate an ideal landscape recalling Arcadia, a legendary place in ancient Greece known for its quiet pastoral beauty. The Roman poet Virgil had described Arcadia as the home of pastoral simplicity. In a classical landscape the positioning of objects was contrived; every tree, rock, or animal was carefully placed to present a harmonious, balanced, and timeless mood. The classical landscape was perfected by French artists Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain. Both artists spent most of their careers in Rome drawing inspiration from the Roman countryside. Italy, at this time, was the preferred location for many artists, who often traveled there with patrons on the Grand Tour. (Learn more in the presentation on this Web site from the past exhibition Italy on the Grand Tour.) Poussin, who in his early years focused his talent on history painting, came later in life to believe that landscapes could express the same powerful emotions as the human dramas depicted in history paintings. From that point on, he worked to elevate landscape to a higher status.
During the 18th century, Italy continued to be a popular source of inspiration for landscape artists, as the Grand Tour's popularity increased and peaked in the later half of the century. France and England became the new centers of landscape art, although the ideals of 17th-century Dutch and Italian landscapes—including the classical model—retained popularity. While landscapes were often commissioned by patrons, the subject remained low in the hierarchy of the academies, particularly at the Académie Royale in France—an incredibly powerful lorganization that set the standards for what was taught and exhibited in the nation.
The Seascape in XX and XXI Century
With the twentieth century, new trends arrive, the sea continues to be a source of inspiration, but now it becomes part of a concept, the sea itself is no longer the protagonist but the idea of what it represents, for this we have many painters surrealists who play with this in their works. There is no better surrealist than René Magritte, the Belgian painter takes the idea of the sea and gives it a complete twist, in his painting "The Wonders of Nature" the conventional form of the mermaid, a creature with a human torso and a fish tail, it is invested in the work forming a fantastic creature, even more unreal than the mermaid herself.
Now entering the 21st century we find a radical change when we think about the seascape, our blue source of inspiration has been threatened by human contamination and artists from all over the world are using their art to give visibility to the problem. But not only the concept of the sea has changed, but also the techniques used to create works that move us and create awareness.
In the end, the works and the artists evolve and respond to the time they are living, we can find the idea of the sea as a constant, but at each stage of its history it will provide a different inspiration to each artist.
The Seascape In Art
According to Yitzy Rosengarten, an American landscape painter, the sea has been a great source of inspiration for many artists throughout history, but where some have seen reasons for peace and tranquility, others have captured how violent and deadly it can be. At a time when many were engaged in maritime trade, the sea was portrayed as a place of care and a changing temperament, the paintings were a reflection of the fear of going out to sea and never returning, most of the paintings showed storms and boats being destroyed or fighting with the impossible waves that the sea gave.
“One might wonder, why would anyone want a painting that represents something so horrible? The answer lies in the victory over the sea, and that glory is something that everyone wanted in the room to be contemplated by their guests,” says Yitzy Rosengarten.
Yitzy Rosengarten indicates that by the end of the 19th century, the creation of new pigments gave artists the opportunity to leave their studios and paint in the open air. This, among other factors, gives rise to the arrival of impressionism, characterized by the attempt to capture light and the moment; the stories of shipwrecks and storms are left behind, and the artists paint what they see and feel in the moment, with a softer color palette and a technique without sharp lines. This new era brings us works of seascapes with concepts of peace and sobriety.
