Master Impressions from the UAMA Collections: Landscapes
May 5, 2008 - September 22, 2008
Thomas Gainsborough,
The Gipsies (also, Wooded Landscape with Gypsies Round a
Campfire,
c. 1754-1764
etching and engraving on paper
Museum Purchase with funds provided by the Edward J. Gallagher, Jr.
Memorial Fund
1991.022.004
Landscape representation in the Western world has its origins in
Greco-Roman art, although few examples remain. The Romans developed a
particular interest in landscape painting, especially as illusionistic
wall decoration, and they promoted two major notions of landscape --
the pastoral (the life of shepherds) and the Georgic (the life of
agricultural laborers). The Roman attitude toward and interest in nature
and the landscape re-emerged during the Renaissance, as artists depicted
landscapes as places of pleasure, beauty and peace; still, most
depictions of natural scenery served primarily as backdrops to religious
and mythological scenes.
During the 16th century, artists (particularly Netherlandish and
Venetian painters) began to depict the landscape as a central motif, and
by the 17th century, landscape art flourished in much of Europe,
reaching heights with the French painter Claude Lorrain, the first
artist to specialize exclusively in landscapes and seascapes. Even so,
landscapes, along with still lifes and genre scenes, were considered
inferior to religious, historical and portrait painting. It was not
until the 19th century, under the influence of Romanticism and theories
of the sublime, that landscape achieved a place of dominance among
artists.
The prints presented here highlight aspects of landscape representation
in Western art, from the pastoral scene by 16th-century Italian artists
Giulio and Domenico Campagnola to the sweeping vista of the 19th-century
British landscape master J. M. W. Turner.
- Susannah Maurer, Assistant Curator
Master Impressions from the UAMA Collections:
This series of small, rotating presentations showcases the exceptional
breadth and depth of the UAMA Old Master print collection. These
selections offer focused consideration of a particularly significant
artist or theme, and elucidate some of the most influential developments
in the Western printmaking tradition.
