The Goodies Vault: Painting: What's it all about?
The Goodies Vault
Painting, What's It All About?

Old Masters - Scaling the Heights of Technical Accomplishment.
The Art of Painting is perhaps the most dazzling of Man's spiritual endeavours towards the creation of something that transcends the mere physical boundaries of this world and projects some cosmic relevance, and has of course been going on for years. Indeed the origins of painting are lost in the mists of antiquity, but nevertheless, enough masterpieces have been handed down over the years to provide a lifetime of study for the scholar, or joy for the connoisseur, and you've got to admit that most of them are pretty easy on the eye. And it soon becomes clear that the Old Masters of theArt scaled amaxing heights of Technical Accomplishment.

Inspiration - or Tricks of the Trade?
However, it must be said that the technique of painting is based on a few simple rules, and a brief study of the history of Art will serve to show the reader how true this is.
Mary Tudor, blurred

It's Easel-y done!
Not so much a mistake this time - just sheer bad luck. The besbangled girl in the picture is one Mary Tudor and it is just too bad for Antonio Moro that Mary blinked and moved her head just at the very instant her portrait was being painted.

 The Betrothal of Arnolfini, lopsided

There's a Lot of It about, Grandma!
Johannes van Eyck, the noted Flemish painter, ran into problems with his picture of "The Betrothal of Arnolfini" which he could have easily avoided by just following the basic rules. Carelessness in lining up the canvas has resulted in the picture being on the slant - and he's even cut off one of his subject's heads! A little practice should be all that's necessary for the novice to achieve a good result.


Mona by Flashlight.
But in the art world nothing stands still for long. New innovations come, and old innovations go, and of course it wasn't long before good old Leonardo da Vinci was muscling in on the act. His most notable contribution to painting was the invention of the Flash Picture. Leonardo had a device fitted to his palette which consisted of a very bright magnesium flare which could be let off to illuminate the subject, which could then be painted very quickly by the artist. This meant that indoor subjects, previously too dark to paint, could now be captured by the use of Leonardo's flash technique. The only drawback, as the old man himself discovered, was that the subjects were sometimes dazzled so that a relaxed and natural expression was not easy to achieve. Sadly Leonardo abandoned his experiments, and devoted his energies to inventing the telephone.

 Mona by Flashlight

(Incidently, Leonardo da Vinci did sucessfully invent and build the first telephone - but of course it was useless until years later Alexander Graham Bell invented the other one. Sadly, when Bell eventually called him, leonardo had already been dead for over three centuries, and was unable to come to the phone. All this is fascinating you will agree but has little to do with painting.)

Botticelli's Venus sequence, Frame 1 Botticelli's Venus sequence, Frame 2 Botticelli's Venus sequence, Frame 3

It Moves - It Moves!
Painting was growing up. And it is Botticelli we owe thanks for the development of what he called 'Motion Paintings' - pictures that for the first time actually moved, and which were later, of course, to be completely forgotten. Unfortunately, all that remains of this great artist's work are a few frames like the three illustrated above from his famous "Venus" sequence. It must be admitted that his Motion Paintings were not an unqualified success. He achieved the effect of movement by painting a series of canvasses in which th positions of his subjects, were slightly altered. These canvasses were then hung, in correct sequence, down the side of the leaning tower of Pisa. To experience the illusion, the observer would then have to jump off the top of the tower, looking at the pictures as he fell, but only opening his eyes momentarily as he passed each one, thus seeing a sequence of images giving the impression of continuous motion. It was not as popular an attraction as Botticelli hoped. Nevertheless, this fine painter and supreme showman will always be remembered, for he, like Walt Disney, did not invent the telephone.


Brueghel's 'A Country Wedding', Custard Pie Sequence

And Brueghel came too.
It is said that another painter who experimented with moving pictures was none other that Pieter Brueghel (and if you're having trouble with that name, it's pronounced Peter). His masterpiece "A Country Wedding" was justly famous, and ran for twenty minutes with a special sound accompaniment by Cipriano de Rore. Alas, only a single frame survives, showing the peasants gathered round the table just before the celebrated custard pie sequence.


Renoir's impression of Queen Victoria


Strength to Strength.
And so painting went from strength to strength. But the old order changethed, and new stars began to appear in the firmament. At the end of the 19th century the Art world was shocked by the advent of the impressionists - Manet, Sisley, Degas, and of course Renoir, seen here doing his notorious Impression of Queen Victoria. When asked why he did it, he invariably replied "I'm only in it for the Monet". He was best known as a painter.

 Paul Cezanne: Post Impressionist


The Post-Impressionists.
Not surprisingly, the Impressionists were soon followed by the Post-Impressionists - nost notably Paul Cezanne - shown, in this portrait by Van Gogh, doing an inpression of a post.

 Paul Klee Photograph


Photography.
At last, Photography eventuated. The new art form was to supercede painting. Now it was a simple matter to capture the subject in detail, realistically and with absolute precision, as we can see from this photograph os a painting by Pail Klee