¶ … art historian W.J.T. Mitchell asserted that there is no doubt that the classical and romantic genres of landscape painting evolved during the great age of European imperialism but have since been retired, accepted as part of the common repertory of kitsch.
In their induction in the quotidian consciousness of art, the seemingly simple representations provided by landscape paintings garnered acclaim for their ability to explore a dual metaphoric and physical reality, portraying not only the ideological concerns that exist outside the painter but also his interpretation of them. From the 17th Century to the 20th Century, landscape paintings changed in image, representation, popularity, and style, but from Poussin to Kiefer, the import of cultural encoding remained.
Like his contemporary Lorrain, Nicolas Poussin preferred the late afternoon light, drifting across his pastoral canvas with the golden solace of the fading sun. A precursor to the great age of Neoclassicism, for Poussin, the landscape painting was a vital tool in creating the desired ideal out of the basic ingredients of reality. The highest aim of painting was to recreate serious and noble actions, not with the actual, marred occurrence, but rather to do so with manufactured perfection.
During his lifetime, a self-created perfection on canvas was the closest Poussin and his peers would see.
The 17th Century was a time of great tumult throughout the Western world, and was a century of war within Europe. Wars of conquest and liberation, civil discontent, and religion colored the burgeoning modern world with the cloak of the past, as it moved away from its recent history of middle aged darkness, Renaissance, and brutally struggled into the world of powerful nation-states it would become. Until that point, wars would edge out amicable relations between countries, and great rivalries spawned of a pre-nationalist era consumed Europe.
While Poussin was just a young man, the Thirty Year's War began, consuming much of his adult life. Strife was alive outside of Britton as well, and the steady military engagement produced the decline of the great Spanish empire and the rise of France. Meanwhile, trade blossomed; imperial endeavors brought new and unseen riches to the shores of Europe, where bright new colors mixed with the old, fostering a new energy that lead not only to great rivalry but also the search for perfection Poussin so encompassed.
In an epoch rich with tumult, Poussin frequented Rome, the great Holy Catholic city-state firmly built upon savoring the past. He too carried a wanton desire for the days gone by; as the Church looked to Christ, society to days of cultural awakening and social peace, he returned to the antique in form and thought, aiming his paintings for intellectual stimulation instead of the senses.
His dedication to mental infatuation through art was embodied in the Funeral of Phocian, embodying his love of antique virtue and landscape.
Melancholia pervades the painting, as the good General Phocion, wrongly accused by the Athenians, is sent to his death. Poussin forces the observer to step out of the familiar confines of the usual landscape and examine the scene his portray, one of politics, grievance, and tragedy. Delving into the roots at the heart of Western tradition, he questioned the commonly held ideals of virtue and power, in their peril and injustice. "By placing tragic figures," like Phocion, of great historical importance and modern relevance, "into richly interesting and complexly constructed landscapes, Poussin produced two of the most intellectually demanding and satisfying landscape paintings in the Western tradition."
The great mass of paintings from Poussin's era neglected the inquisition and challenging that he demanded of his observer. Gloria Phares elaborates, "although it is easy to dismiss such attitudes as the unenlightened views of the 16th and 17th centuries, recent history shows that artists are not immune from those who consider blasphemous the use of religious symbols in artistic expression."
While, like religions symbol, addressing the intellectual audience was not in line with the conceptual mores of the time, Poussin's unique motivation in landscape painting was carried on a hundred years later by Fragonard, whose erotic passion coursed though The Swing like a life-blood.
The Swing is the embodiment of love's luxuries, symbolized by the rising tide of passions in the impatience of Venus' water chariot in the lower center of the landscape. Above a lock of tangled flora holding her young lover captive is a girl in a swing, both hidden away in a secret garden of chaste preservation and social expectations that passion overcame. He is thrilled; reaching out with his hat, the young...
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