Although it was Leon Battista Alberti, in the southern Renaissance, who first developed the subject of composition in […]
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From an elevated viewpoint, finely detailed, great depth, figures and buildings tiny in the immensity of the view, far distant horizon – it’s a World View.
From Botticelli’s map of Dante’s ‘Inferno’ to Vermeer’s fine-detailed depictions of decorative wall hangings.
How northern landscape painting was taken to Italy, and started its long journey to acceptance, and eventually Impressionism.
The earliest landscape paintings – and very many since – have fundamentally been visual records of the world.
No matter how old and jaded you get, you can always appreciate the breath-taking view from the top of a hill, as the earth sweeps out in myriad details, as far as the distant horizon.
I am going to try getting inside the artistic imagination of important landscape painters, and discovering the vision that each had of the landscape. Here are some hors d’oeuvres.