In the book “Believing is seeing: Creating the culture of art”, Staniszewski considered art in many aspects. There are some here: (1) Art, like photography and popular culture, is a field of representation that is unique to modernity, and it is meant to augment out understanding of cultural creations both different and including our own. (2) Art is an original creation, produced by an individual gifted with genius. This creation is primarily an object of aesthetic beauty, separate from everyday life. (3) Art develops in conjunction with a revolutionary transformation of the way in which an individual conceives humanity in Western culture.
I never fail to agree with the idea of author because art, itself abstract, is difficult to make a clear definition, as it has infinite understanding that is no right or wrong, but I want to express my understanding specifically. My definition of art for landscape painting especially, is that it should emphasize on observing the beauty of the nature scenery and objects, and simultaneously, expressing the combination of understanding, ideals and emotions of the aesthetic subject. Although the painter has the freedom to create their own technique of painting, what they depict must be authentic and conform to visual reality. From spiritual level, landscape paintings always present local culture, contemporary life style of people, social atmosphere, historical background, human’s desire to the nature, painters’ or protagonists’ emotion and situation expressed through the painting and the relationship between human and nature. Landscape painting can also depict the architectural style sometimes, and represent the painting style and people’s pursue to art at that time.
The first painting is called “European Scene with Stone Bridge” [Fig 1] by Joseph Hidley in the 1860s, picture from Albany Institute of History and Art. As the name suggests, the painting depicts the scenery of Europe that contains a remarkable stone bridge in the middle, a large body of water (seems like creek afflux into a big lake) as the main background, two people (maybe knights or cavaliers) on the horses facing with each other at one side of the bridge. On the far sides are romanticized castles that represent typical European style of castle. Details are also delineated quite elaborately, such as large groups of clouds in the sky blew by wind unregularly, image of castles in the water, small stones and ducks staying in the creek, the flowing stream under the bridge and how it rushed downwards to hit the stones. This painting accords with my definition of art about the authenticity of the content. We can find that images of objects, shape of the clouds, direction of the waterflow all satisfy natural phenomena. The painting also represents contemporary culture and humanity by its appearance of castles and people on the horses that corresponds with the “European Scene”, because castles are very common in Europe, they do symbolize nobleness, wealth and places where nobility live, but their popularity among rustic areas make castles symbols when depicting European culture on the painting. The stone bridge which is the “theme” of the painting, also evokes people’s association with European style. The position of the bridge suggests its function in the painting that serves as the “backbone” of the print which makes it more vivid.
The second painting is called “Washington’s Headquarters, Newburgh, New York” [Fig 2], attributed to Raphael Hoyle in 1836, and it was a gift to Jane Rosell to Albany Institute of History & Art in 1987. Used by George Washington as his headquarters from April 1982 to August 1983, this house in Newburgh, New York originally belonged to Jonathan and Tryntjc Hasbrouck. Washington stayed at this headquarter longer than any other during the eight and a half years of American Revolution. Washington rejected the idea of an American monarchy here; he created the Badge of Military Merit which was a forerunner of the Purple Heart; he also wrote a letter to state governors outlining key principles for the new republic, and he ended the war by proclaiming the Cessation of Hostilities. The Schuylers and their family were believed to be frequent guests of the headquarter as they had compact relationship with George Washington, as we can see in the painting, two people were talking at each other on the path in front of the headquarter, and might be used to depict the scenery of the reception of guests (probably Schuylers) by Washington. This painting corresponded to my understanding of art that it expressed the political situation of the protagonist and political background of that era. It seemed to depict the architecture of the headquarter itself, with dense trees, grass, mountain and water surrounded, but its motif was to reflect Washington’s political success during the American Revolution, and the wonderful view of the nature and livestock on the grass in front of the house might symbolized his aspiration towards freedom and democracy of United States as he rejected the American Monarchy.
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The third painting is called “Venetian Twilight” [Fig 3], by Walter Launt Palmer in 1896, with watercolor, gouache, and crayon on composition board, and it was a gift of Beatrice Palmer to Albany Institute of history & Art in 1942. This painting depicted the nightfall of Venice: watercourse (inner part of Adriatic Sea) which is the symbol of Venice was presented in the front of the painting, with several boats on the water surface; on the far side was night scene of city Venice, incorporated the famous towel and the brightly lit scene of downtown along the water, reflecting the prosperity of Venice. This painting also fits my definition of art in that it expressed the combination of understanding and ideals of the aesthetic subject. Though at the first glance the painting aimed at revealing the beauty of Venice, if viewers enjoy carefully, they would have an immersed sense as if they were really in the painting, sitting on the boat flowing on the water surface, enjoying the twilight of Venice. The slightly floating rippling, gold colored light reflecting on the water, azure sky, and feeble sunset glow on the far side constituted a dreamy and visionary entirety. Though it was a twilight scene, the color was partially bright which made views pleased and comfortable, that quite accorded with aesthetic view, visual reality and natural phenomena (authenticity).
The fourth painting is called “The Hay Wain” [Fig 4], by John Constable in 1821, now in National Gallery, London. It is from the Gardner Textbook. This painting portrayed the idyllic scenery during the Romanticism period. The most remarkable object of this painting was in the middle of it, that a man led a horse (or ox) and a wagon filled with hay, going forward slowly in the shallow crook. Background was common landscape of countryside, incorporated an austere cottage, grassland, trees, gold leaves that fell on the grass and in the water, blue sky, and whimsical clouds. This painting corresponds with my definition of art in that it ostensibly depicted the tranquil atmosphere of the village life of rustic residents and labors, but it reflected some deep meaning hard for viewers to observe which referred to social atmosphere, political issues and historical background here. The painter used the painting to cherish the fleeting memory of rural pastoralism, and to reflect the civil unrest of the agrarian working class and the resulting outbreaks of violence and arson. The worker in the middle of the painting symbolized how labors of the working class and the peasant class pursue freedom and nature at that social background, yearning for working in peaceful atmosphere in the village. In addition, this painting also reflected the thought of Romanticism, that was desire for freedom in multiple aspects like politics, feelings, thoughts, etc, which paralleled to my definition of art about contemporary painting style and art style.
The fifth painting is the notable one, “Impression: Sunrise” [Fig 5], by Claude Monet in 1872, now in Marmottan Museum, Paris. It is from the Gardner Textbook. The scene was quite familiar, which depicted the sunrise of a normal day at the port, and the boats in the middle of the picture departed very early for fishing or other purposes. The biggest difference of this kind of painting between others was that it was the work of impressionism, as the painter Monet captured the important function of light and color in delineating nature that finally appeared in viewers’ eyes. Monet painted the landscape emphasizing on transitory and momentary. Newly appearance of pigments also served as a significant factor impacting Monet’s idea of painting in that Monet had multiple choices of colors so that he could utilized the chromatic aberration to portray and emphasize all tiny subjects in the painting, like the sun, reflection of sunlight and boats on the water, rippling, the port, etc. This painting accorded with my definition of art as it reflected the contemporary style of art and painting, that was impressionism here. Definitely Monet was the founder of the art movement, of which brushstrokes were undecorated and apparent, composition was broad and boundless, focusing on switch of shadow and light, and impression of time.
The sixth painting is called “The picture of Xiaoxiang” [Fig 6], by Dong Yuan, China, during Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (AD. 907-979), and it is in Palace Museum, Beijing, China. Xiaoxiang refers to Xiao River and Xiang River in Hunan Province which afflux into Dongting Lake, and the painting depicted the area full of river and lake, and mountain. I chose a Chinese painting here to make a brief compare with western ones. It is obvious that the painting looks quite different with others, and the disparities can be concluded from several aspects such as color, idea of creation, utilization of space. As we can see the color used in Chinese landscape painting was mainly ink, which was in line with modesty, plainness and clear-mind in Chinese culture. In addition, Chinese painting focused on the creation method and mentality of harmony between nature, heart and mind, regarding it as the highest realm of painting, so painters used curves and lines to express such idea. This also conforms with my definition of art, as Chinese paintings emphasize on observing the beauty of the nature scenery and objects, and guarantee authenticity and visual reality at the same time. It also embodies the core idea of Chinese culture as I stated in the description above as well as definition in the very beginning of the paper.
In conclusion, art, whatever how much freedom it advocates which can be embodied in its technique expression, or how much imagination it exerts incarnated in its idea of creation, or how eastern and western culture show their difference, should always follow the rules of emphasizing observation of beauty of nature but guarantee authenticity and visual reality, expressing the social background, local culture and life style of people, emotion of author or protagonist, and corresponding to the contemporary art style. All the 6 landscape paintings (3 from Albany Institute of Art & History, 2 from the Gardner Textbook, 1 from the website of Palace Museum) reveal their relationship with my definition of art.
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