At the end of the Middle Ages, some of the most active centers of painting were in the Netherlands, also known as the Low Countries, an area comprising present-day Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of France. Artists here rivaled even well- known Italian masters. Rich patrons, foremost among them the ruling house of Burgundy but also religious orders and private citizens of the prosperous towns of Ghent, Bruges, Brussels, and Tournai, commissioned paintings, sculpture, tapestries, vessels of precious metal, jewelry, and illuminated books.

One of the most renowned Netherlandish artists, Jan van Eyck, revolutionized painting by substituting the oil medium for tempera. He was court painter to the duke of Burgundy, but his religious subjects and portraits were also in great demand among the merchants and bankers of Bruges. Painters such as Robert Campin and Rogier van der Weyden continued to produce works rich in detail and symbolism as foreign artists flocked to the region, eager to learn the new oil-painting technique. In the sixteenth century, Antwerp gradually took over from Bruges to become the leading art center and the wealthiest city of all Europe, attracting talented painters such as Gerard David and Jan Gossaert.

Most Netherlandish artists showed great respect for tradition. Hieronymus Bosch was exceptional for his extraordinary independence and flights of imagination. Pieter Bruegel the Elder later incorporated many of Bosch's fantasies into his work, some of which reflected the political unrest and religious troubles of his own day.

Given Germany's large size and-throughout history-its territorial and political divisions, it is no wonder that German art is marked by strong regionalism. During the second half of the fourteenth century, a major school of art developed in Bohemia, centered in the university city of Prague and patronized by King Charles IV (1316-1378). This style, as seen in the diptych The Death of Saint Clare, shares many traits with the International Gothic style imported by French and Italian artists.

The sixteenth century was a heroic age of German art; the best known and arguably the greatest German artist, Albrecht Durer, was born in Nuremberg in 1471. His trips to Italy, where he became acquainted with Giovanni Bellini and with theories of perspective and proportion, were of inestimable importance for the history of northern European art.

The intensity of religious sentiment that preceded the Protestant Reformation, as well as the upheaval of the Reformation itself, had a decisive impact upon German life. The Small Crucifixion is a tangible expression of the faith of Matthias Grunewald, an artist known for mysticism and genius as a colorist. Lucas Cranach the Elder was a close friend of Martin Luther, and The Crucifixion with the Converted Centurion, alluding to salvation by faith alone, may be considered a Protestant subject. Hans Holbein the Younger was one painter who did not thrive in post-Reformation Germany; he left for England in 1526 and eventually became portraitist to King Henry VIII.

Labels: European Painting

Sophisticated Europeans from the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries deemed "history of painting" to be the supreme achievement in the visual arts. In addition to imaginatively re-creating actual events from the past, history of paintings also illustrated heroic or moralizing episodes from religion, mythology, and literature.

The central challenge of history painting lay in selecting a particular subject that could engage the heart and instruct the mind. In devising appropriate figures, the painter demonstrated his mastery of anatomy and expression. Grand settings and symbolic accessories proved the artist's grasp of perspective depth and still-life draftsmanship. Compositions and color schemes had to be carefully conceived to accentuate the principal characters and to clarify the meanings of the incidents.

In depicting significant events that appealed to the conscience, history painting deserved its reputation as the most demanding and rewarding form of art - both for the creator and the viewer. The same desire for profundity in narrative pictures often invested portraits and landscapes with allegorical meanings and poetic overtones.

Labels: British and American History Paintings of the 1700s

As an artist, Sidney Nolan (1917 - 1992) is best known for his depictions of the Australian outback, and for his historical paintings 'well known for dramatic shifts between dark, moody themes and bright uplifting creations' (Eva Breuer). In 1946 he began a series of paintings on the theme of the bushranger Ned Kelly and other historical figures such as Eliza Fraser and Burke and Wills. Nolan is attributed with giving the Australian stories of exploration and other 'legends of failure', including Gallipoli, a timeless and definitive quality.

Nolan was born in Melbourne and studied intermittently at art school. During World War II he was conscripted and served at Dimboola in the Wimmera District of Victoria from 1942-5. Sidney Nolan rejected the academic traditions of his short art training. Instead, his main influence was the radical poetry by the poets Rimbaud and Rilke. This love of literature is seen as visually evident in Nolan's work. Other key influences were the modernist artists such as Paul Cezanne, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Henri Rousseau. Locally the arrival of the Russian artist Danila Vassilieff in Melbourne, with his simple and direct art, was significant for Nolan.

Nolan spent his final years in London where, in addition to painting, he illustrated books and designed sets for the ballet and opera. Sidney Nolan is held by many to be Australia's most internationally famous artist and is referred to as one of the major artists of the twentieth century in Western art. Much of his work is on display in the National Gallery of Victoria. In 1974, Nolan donated 24 of his works to the Australian public, held as the Nolan Gallery's Foundation Collection at Lanyon, ACT.

Labels: Sidney Nolan Artist