European Painting Research Articles

Porte-chaises and Gazebos in the Traditions of European Horse-Drawn Transport of the Baroque Era

The aim of the article is to determine the constructive, compositional and artistic features of porte-chaises and gazebos in the European proto-design of the Baroque era. Results. It has been found that among the horse-drawn transport of the Baroque period in European proto-design, a special place was occupied by carriage carriers, which were carried by special porters, following the example of ancient oriental prototypes. The author reveals that this tradition was initiated under the influence of interaction with the Indian Raj and other representatives of the Eastern establishment and developed among the high society circles of nobility in England, Spain, Italy, and France as a reflection on colonial ambitions in society. The scientific novelty of the study is related to the analysis of constructive, compositional and artistic features of gazebos and porte-chaises in the European tradition of horse-drawn transport of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries on the example of monuments that have been preserved or recorded by artists. Conclusions. It has been proved that the production of baroque portable carriages such as porte-chaises and gazebos was carried out by individual specialists-woodcarvers. They knew how to combine metal and wooden structures of the product’s frame, as well as how to design the “salon-cabin” using different types of leather and drapery fabrics. The ways of external decoration of such objects with a representative heraldic coat of arms compositions, bouquets of flowers, and plot motifs are outlined. The article illustrates the varieties of porte-chaises, gazebos, sedan chairs, palanquins, and sigettes (sigetter, “vastasi di cinga”) typical of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the works of European painters.

Features of Societal Culture in Modern Painting

Culture in all its forms is the integrated fabric or system that contains the manifestations of life in its entirety, as well as its forms of knowledge, arts, beliefs, behaviors and prevailing values, a set of features that distinguish one society from another. Therefore, the concept of culture in its societal boundaries was characterized by keeping pace with all the variables taking place in society or the environment with its political, economic, social and cultural limits, which is a manifestation of civilization and a form of culture and for the early days of the first expression of the culture of peoples, whether in music, art or drama. The importance of this study comes from the fact that it deals with the subject of (features of societal culture in modern painting). Which made him of great importance in influencing the productions of artists, as he helped to study the characteristics of community culture in: 1- Returning to the features of the ancient societal culture and drawing inspiration from its vocabulary in contemporary works of art. 2-Identify the features of culture in European painting. 3-Shedding light on some artists in the field of European painting, whose artworks were associated with their social culture. The current study aims to identify the features of societal culture in modern painting and features of societal culture in modern painting at the period 1888-1937 in Europe.

EMERGING TRENDS IN CHUARCHITRARANGAL - TRADITIONAL MURAL ART OF KERALA

The south Indian state of Kerala is home to charismatic murals painted between 9th and 18thcentury CE and are proudly known as Chuarchitrarangal. These paintings adorn the walls of Shrikovil – the sanctum sanctorum of Hindu temples all over Kerala that narrates stories of God and Goddesses. Kerala murals have largest collection of secco, based on ancient Indian mythological stories.This study aims to identify, analyse and document the emerging trends in Kerala Mural Paintings. Also, it will make an effort to forecast the future trends. Primary data of renowned artists and secondary data of ancient murals will be referred for the study. 7 temples which hold the best condition murals will be included in the research. The medieval era (9th to 12th century CE) saw the height of this art. The entry of European art into academia in the 19th century, hampered the local art and Kerala murals began to face a significant decrease. Because of the realistic finish of European painting and the use of new convenient oil paints, local traditional art styles were no longer recognized and respected. The Kerala mural tradition had already faded into history by the end of the 1900s. Currently Kerala has a decent number of professional muralists who work extensively in conventional and contemporary methods. This art is being revived steadily. New generation artists are experimenting to keep up with the pace and preferences of new world. Getting inspired from various genres, creating novel styles yet keeping the conventional value intact has become a major trend in Kerala mural art.

Provenance of Some Iconographie Patterns of Christ’s Passion in Medieval Wall Painting in Slovakia and the Czech Republic

In the depictions presented in the article the gesture of raised hands expresses either Mourning or the feelings connected with Entombing, whose image is supplemented by the gesture of raised hands from the scene of Mourning, among others. The main source of illustration in these works seems to be Italian art, present in Western European painting. Its basis are iconographic solutions of the Byzantine art.

The dialogue between languages of painting and cinema in The Age of Innocence by Martin Scorsese

After a short survey of the key theories that define the intermediality of film and the relationship between cinema and painting, the paper focuses on the case study of The Age of Innocence, a film by Martin Scorsese that exemplifies the transformations cinematic imagery may undergo under the influence of painting. Methodologically grounded in the linguistic theory of correlation between objective and subjective language systems, which cooperate in producing each utterance, the research approaches painting as a multifaceted objective language that cinema employs to reference specific worldviews or models of the world. Comprehension of the analogies between painting and film sheds light on how and why cultural patterns from other art are recreated in new media, and how the subjective language of the work of cinematic art is formed in relation to the objective languages of other visual arts. The results of the analysis reveal the film as an intertext with various genres and styles of European painting embedded into its visual language system. Specifically, the paper reveals how the Netherlands’ Golden Age portraiture, landscapes, and still-lives, together with several forms of the Impressionism and Art Nouveau styles, compose the objective language of the film. This research contributes new empirical ground to the theoretical studies of the interconnectedness of cinema and painting, providing a wider perspective on the universal language of visual art.

Vagueness and volume: Testing the perception of depth in images with linear, sharp, or blurred contours.

In European painting, a transition took place where artists started to consciously introduce blurred or soft contours in their works. There may have been several reasons for this. One suggestion in art historical literature is that this may have been done to create a stronger sense of volume in the depicted figuresor objects. Here we describe four experiments in which we tried to test whether soft or blurred contours do indeed enhance a sense volume or depth. In the first three experiments, we found that, for both paintings and abstract shapes, three dimensionality was actually decreased instead of increased for blurred (and line) contours, in comparison with sharp contours. In the last experiment, we controlled for the position of the blur (on the lit or dark side) and found that blur on the lit side evoked a stronger impression of three dimensionality. Overall, the experiments robustly show that an art historical conjecture that a blurred contour increases three dimensionality is not granted. Because the blurred contours can be found in many established art works such as from Leonardo and Vermeer, there must be other rationales behind this use than the creation of a stronger sense of volume or depth.

Romanticised image of Esmeralda in the European painting of the 19th century

Romanticised image of Esmeralda in the European painting of the 19th century

THE URBAN TENDENCY IN IMPRESSIONIST PAINTING

Urbanism is a human tendency towards development, cognitive growth, progress and creativity in various fields, and it has an active presence in the physiological structure of humans in general and the artist in particular. Urbanism is an obsession that expresses the artist’s interest in lifestyle, movement and daily interaction. The research study included four chapters: (The first chapter) contained the methodological framework of the research, which consisted of the research problem, its importance, and its goal represented by (revealing the urban tendency in Impressionist painting). (The second chapter) dealt with the theoretical framework of the research, which consists of three sections: (The research study The first) aesthetic approaches to the concept of urbanity, and (the second section) included representations of the city in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and Classicism, and (the third section) dealt with urban features in contemporary European painting. (Chapter Three) included research procedures that consisted of a research community of (20) models, and the researcher used the structural (descriptive) analysis method in analyzing (the research sample) of (3) pictorial models of Impressionist school paintings. (Chapter Four) discussed the research results and conclusions, and the study also reached some recommendations and proposals

The Convergence of Slobozhanska Iconography in the Discourse of Western European Baroque

Based on the analysis, generalization and systematization of documents, some well-known to researchers and others not so much investigated, this article studies the influence of Western European Baroque art on the iconography of the region of Slobozhanska (Ukraine) during the 17th and 18th centuries. It is argued that the use of Western European religious themes by Slobozhanshchyna icon painters, in combination with previous iconographic traditions and their transformation to the spiritual and religious features of the region, contributed to the development of a regional iconographic art, a process that could be regarded as a unique phenomenon in the history of Ukrainian culture. As the text will highlight, the stylistic program of Slobozhanshchyna iconography of the Baroque period was influenced by symbolic and emblematic Western European collections that inspired icon painters to create new iconographic subjects. To that aim, the article analyses the artistic and figurative system of iconography, considers its characteristic stylistic features, and draws attention to the borrowing of elements of Western European painting and graphics in Orthodox iconography.

Time-of-day perception in paintings.

The spectral shape, irradiance, direction, and diffuseness of daylight vary regularly throughout the day. The variations in illumination and their effect on the light reflected from objects may in turn provide visual information as to the time of day. We suggest that artists' color choices for paintings of outdoor scenes might convey this information and that therefore the time of day might be decoded from the colors of paintings. Here we investigate whether human viewers' estimates of the depicted time of day in paintings correlate with their image statistics, specifically chromaticity and luminance variations. We tested time-of-day perception in 17th- to 20th-century Western European paintings via two online rating experiments. In Experiment 1, viewers' ratings from seven time choices varied significantly and largely consistently across paintings but with some ambiguity between morning and evening depictions. Analysis of the relationship between image statistics and ratings revealed correlations with the perceived time of day: higher "morningness" ratings associated with higher brightness, contrast, and saturation and darker yellow/brighter blue hues; "eveningness" with lower brightness, contrast, and saturation and darker blue/brighter yellow hues. Multiple linear regressions of extracted principal components yielded a predictive model that explained 76% of the variance in time-of-day perception. In Experiment 2, viewers rated paintings as morning or evening only; rating distributions differed significantly across paintings, and image statistics predicted people's perceptions. These results suggest that artists used different color palettes and patterns to depict different times of day, and the human visual system holds consistent assumptions about the variation of natural light depicted in paintings.

Collection of the Chelyabinsk Regional Art Gallery of the 1930s–1940s: Documentary evidence about the fate of the first collection

The article examines the history of the collection of the Chelyabinsk Regional Art Gallery in the period from 1938 to 1947. The collection was formed in the late 1930s and early 1940s in three ways: through the acquisition of works of art from private individuals, through the city’s existing collection of paintings from traveling exhibitions, and through transfers from major art museums (in particular, from the State Russian Museum). Thus, by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the fund of the Chelyabinsk Art Gallery consisted of works of domestic and Western European painting and graphics, objects of decorative and applied art. However, with the closure of the gallery in the summer of 1941, the collection was distributed among city institutions and by the time the museum was restored after the war, a significant part of it had been lost. The research is based on data from archival materials stored in the United State Archive of the Chelyabinsk Region (Chelyabinsk), and also proceeds from the current state of the collection of the Chelyabinsk State Museum of Fine Arts, the successor of the gallery. We analyze archival documents in order to restore the chronicle of losses and acquisitions of gallery exhibits in the 1940s. Based on the lists attached to the acts of transfer and inspection of exhibits from the 1940s, the most complete list of works of art that were owned by the Chelyabinsk Regional Art Gallery before its liquidation in the summer of 1941 was compiled. The article is accompanied by a table indicating the names of the works, their authorship and source of origin, known pre-war registration numbers of the works, and also, if available, the registration numbers of the Chelyabinsk State Museum of Fine Arts.

A Machine Learning Paradigm for Studying Pictorial Realism: How Accurate are Constable's Clouds?

The British landscape painter John Constable is considered foundational for the Realist movement in 19th-century European painting. Constable's painted skies, in particular, were seen as remarkably accurate by his contemporaries, an impression shared by many viewers today. Yet, assessing the accuracy of realist paintings like Constable's is subjective or intuitive, even for professional art historians, making it difficult to say with certainty what set Constable's skies apart from those of his contemporaries. Our goal is to contribute to a more objective understanding of Constable's realism. We propose a new machine-learning-based paradigm for studying pictorial realism in an explainable way. Our framework assesses realism by measuring the similarity between clouds painted by artists noted for their skies, like Constable, and photographs of clouds. The experimental results of cloud classification show that Constable approximates more consistently than his contemporaries the formal features of actual clouds in his paintings. The study, as a novel interdisciplinary approach that combines computer vision and machine learning, meteorology, and art history, is a springboard for broader and deeper analyses of pictorial realism.

Rewolucja i reakcja

The article is a Polish translation of a chapter from a book titled Rediscoveries in Art. Some Aspects of Taste, Fashion and Collecting in England and France. The Wrightsman Lectures delivered under the auspices of the New York University Institute of Fine Arts (Cornell University Press: Ithaca, New York 1980; first edition: Phaidon Press Limited 1976) by Francis Haskell (1928–2000), a renowned art historian, the author of classic studies on artistic patronage, the history of taste, and collecting. The subject of the essay is changes in tastes, particularly the increased interest in Italian and Northern European painting at the turn of 18th and 19th centuries and the consequences of this phenomenon for the British and French collections of painting created at that time (as well as the diverse political and social turbulences that occurred in the wake of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars).

Gender Specifics of European Iconography at the Beginning of the 19th Century: Problem of Analysing the Images of Maria Szymanowska

The purpose of the article is to analyse the iconography of Maria Szymanovska in the context of gender specifics of European painting at the beginning of the 19th century. The research methodology consists in the application of the comparative method, which made it possible to compare the images of Maria Szymanowska in the early and late periods of her work; to compare the portraits of the artist with typical images of European women of the studied era, in order to establish the degree of conventionality/originality of her visual image. The historical method and the method of cultural commentary made it possible to analyse and determine the place of Maria Szymanowska's iconography in the panorama of European portrait painting at the beginning of the 19th century. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the understanding of the visual image of Maria Szymanowska through the prism of the gender characteristics of the time. Three unknown portraits of Maria Szymanowska are being published for the first time – finds from the archive of the Vasyl Stefanyk National Scientific Library of Ukraine, which expand the understanding of the iconographic image of the artist throughout her creative biography, and also complement the understanding of the gender specificity of the images of women in European iconography, in particular, women female artists of the analysed period. Conclusions. The analysis of Maria Szymanowska's iconography made it possible to characterise the visual image of the artist as one that fits into contemporary European ideas about fashion, social presentation in the community (in the case of Szymanowska, it is a conscious desire to get closer to the aristocracy) and a romantic type of femininity as a certain aesthetic and worldview ideal. The existing iconography of Maria Szymanowska in its various artistic manifestations (lithographs, watercolours, oil paintings, sculpture) allows us to talk about compliance with the gender norms of the time regarding the proper – and therefore attractive, empathetic, comfortable and, most importantly, socially acceptable – appearance of a woman.
 Keywords: Maria Szymanowska's iconography, cultural methodology of gender analysis, painting, European portrait painting of the 19th century, gender studies.

Trauma & Hysteria in Fin De Siècle European Culture (Part 2).

The purpose of the article is to analyse the reasons for the actualisation of the issues of trauma and hysteria in the European culture of the fin de siècle; to identify the role of aesthetisation, theatricalisation and photography in the commodification of mental illness. The research methodology includes the general scientific principles of systematisation and generalisation of the problem under study, which made it possible to identify and scientifically substantiate existing theories and conceptual approaches to understanding the content of the concepts of "trauma", "psychological trauma", "hysteria", "mental illness". The application of the axiological approach made it possible to identify interdisciplinary nature and personalised cultural scientific positions in the theories under consideration. The use of the analytical method led to the establishment of conceptual foundations for further scientific perspectives on the problematisation of trauma, psychological trauma, hysteria as mental illnesses in the optics of cultural knowledge. The scientific novelty lies in the implementation of cultural reflection to clarify the socio-cultural determinants of the spread of hysteria and psychological trauma as mental illnesses. Conclusions. The article deals with the issues related to the understanding of the content of hysteria and trauma in the culture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries not as purely medical, but as socio-cultural phenomena. The aestheticisation, theatricalisation, and commodification of mental illnesses, initiated by the example of J.-M. Charcot's hysteria, actualised and stimulated their discussion from new perspectives, opened up new discursive spaces of research: psychoanalytic, social, artistic, aesthetic, which did not exist in their pure form but were combined with each other. In the fin de siècle culture, hysteria and trauma are embedded in the structure of the subjective and are defined through processes, events and human perception as a special idea of internalising the world, where the thanatological problematic represents a fundamental feature of culture associated with the anticipation and expectation of the approach of death, with being within the "finitude of human life"; and artistic representations of a split, "hysterical", traumatised personality are embodied in the works of European painters, sculptors, and writers. Photography, as a new way of seeing the world, social and individual existence, symbolised and expressed the connection between science and art, expanded the range of human emotional states and contributed to the commodification of hysteria in the "theatrical spectacles" presented at the Salpetriere Hospital.
 Keywords: trauma, hysteria, problematisation of trauma & hysteria, mental illness, aestheticisation, theatricalisation, photography, commodification, European culture, fin de siècle.

The art of rivalry

Abstract In the years just before the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the American banker and philanthropist Jules S. Bache (1861–1944) built a collection of European paintings and decorative art which, in the 1930s, was located at a crossroads in collecting practices and museum growth in the United States. His offer of the collection as a gift to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, made in 1936 on condition that it be separately named and housed, was at first rejected. He next opened his home to the public as a museum, burnishing his holdings with frequent exhibitions and publicity. In 1943 the Second World War forced Bache’s museum to close but brought the collection on loan to the Met, which had put its own masterworks into protective storage. Acquisition of Bache’s collection was now ‘imperative’, and the parties agreed on terms. At his death he contributed fifty-eight paintings together with items of sculpture, Georgian silver, enamel work, porcelain, tapestry, and furniture. Their transfer to the Met illustrates the competitive forces – personal, financial, institutional and geopolitical – that brought private collections to public museums in the USA before and during the years of global war.

The Use of Smalt in the Japanese Folk Paintings, Doro-e and Megane-e (Vue d'Optique)

ABSTRACT Doro-e refers to a genre of Japanese folk paintings: it is a group of works, likely to be produced from the mid-eighteenth to the nineteenth century, that emerged during a time when some of the techniques of European paintings, such as vanishing point, perspective, and mirror image were being incorporated into traditional Japanese paintings. Indeed, doro-e paintings played an important role in familiarising the Japanese public with these new techniques. However, the process of painting doro-e including materials and painting techniques used has not been interpreted, and the definition of doro-e remains elusive. This article begins by exploring Kamigata doro-e, particularly megane-e (vue d'optique), which was painted in the initial period of doro-e works. Materials analysis indicates the use of smalt, which is not often found in traditional Japanese paintings. Indigo was also used to depict landscapes, indicating that traditional blue dye was still the preferred colour for European-influenced paintings during the Edo period (1603–1868). This study also discusses the application of gold-coloured outlines identified as brass. A diversity of colourants and techniques was used in doro-e, a fact that is not reflected in the current definition regarding doro-e, and is discussed in this article.

Japanese engraving from the 18th-19th centuries in the collection of the National Art Museum of Moldova

The National Art Museum of Moldova keeps in its funds a collection of about 400 Japanese stamps, made in the 18th-19th centuries, this being one of the most numerous collections in the neighboring regions. These prints were acquired by the museum in the years 1973-1987 from private collectors and from some antique shops and private owners in Moscow. Two periods marked the evolution of Japanese engraving - the Ukiyo-e and Meiji eras, which identified the difference between medieval and modern Japan. Made in the color woodcut technique of the ukiyo-e (World in Motion) era, this technique saw its peak development in the Edo period (1614-1868), decisively influencing the development of painting and graphics. Famous representatives of this era were Kitagawa Utamaro, Utagawa Hiroshige, Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Kunisada. During the Meiji period or the Period of the Enlightened Kingdom (1868-1912), Japanese woodcuts reflect the social and historical modifications that took place in Japan, by changing the subjects and the motifs of the prints with scenes of gatherings, battles or processions, making the appearance of diptychs, triptychs and even polyptychs , which are dispersed in the museum collection, The most illustrious artist was Toyohara Chikanobu (1838-1912). In the West, Japanese engravings had a major influence on the subsequent developmental trend of European painting, being found in the works of Claude Monet or Vincent van Gogh, who were conquered by the fineness of shadow-light gradation. The art of the impressionists and post-impressionists had been transformed and it proved that simple themes from the daily life of the changing world could be presented in an attractive way.

Representations of the ruling icon in modern European painting

The research dealt with the topic representations of the ruling icon in modern European painting which concerned the issue of ruling icons through their employment and uses in European painting, and included four chapters: the first of which concerned the methodological framework of the research, and contained the research problem in which light was highlighted on (the ruling icons in Modern European painting), and the research problem was identified by answering the following question: What are the ruling icons in modern European painting? As for the second chapter, it included the theoretical framework, which contained two sections, the first included the concept of the ruling icon, while the second chapter included the ruling icon in modern European painting, while the third chapter was concerned with the research procedures, and the fourth chapter contained results and conclusions, including: The icon in European painting relied on the emotional impact of colors and shapes, and the artist used a way to communicate their inner feelings such as fear and sadness, and their works became . Contemporary painters added the religious figure in their works, and this employment came to bear key characteristics . The icon took its place in the contemporary arts, which were able to develop forms that carry iconographic connotations with religious dimensions, in principle, to serve the secrets of the faith or to simplify its concepts and consolidate them in the minds of the societies that we see to this day as a system immortalized by legends.

Technical Imaging for Private Practice Conservators

ABSTRACT Technical imaging is a powerful group of tools and techniques that allow a work of art to be visually recorded under various wavelengths of light to document the current condition, detect restoration and alteration, identify condition issues, characterize materials and their location, and create a visual baseline for future study. Museum conservation laboratories have a long history of technical imaging, and its products are equally valuable for artworks outside museum collections. This article explains how private practice conservators can carry out advanced technical imaging like their museum counterparts with robust, reliable, and accessible tools. In this practical guide to imaging techniques for the private practice conservator, commercially available equipment and methods used by conservation professionals are examined; visible, ultraviolet, and infrared imaging methods are the primary topics. The article describes the components and function of a general technical imaging system, reviews the major technical imaging techniques and modes, discusses the equipment currently used in the field based on the results of a survey distributed to AIC members, and makes recommendations for equipment and methods for private practice conservators. Imaging examples include a painting attributed to Jean-Michel Basquiat, a seventeenth-century European painting, and a Liquitex acrylic paint color chart from 1989.