Painting: The Reformation

Painting: The Reformation
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Painting: The Reformation
The lesson's set of examples (from architecture to a triptych to a panel painting) appear to follow a structural logic similar to one another. There is a profound growth in style and content throughout the tripartite schemes. For instance, the emotionless, universal, and rigid postures of the Archaic period developed to the romanticized beauty and blossoming realism of the Classical period and eventually to the dynamism and naturalism of the Hellenistic period (Adam, 1966). This same artistic shift can be observed between early renaissance sculptures to those of the high renaissance and the baroque periods. The pursuit for perfection in the appearance of columns is evident from the Doric order to the Iconic order to the Corinth order: the first order is largely simplistic with few decorations above the columns, the second-order takes a more delicate female form with oval decorations and volutes, while the third is by far the most ornate with two tiers of wavy leaves.
The same development can be observed in the Gothic typologies where Early Gothic with its basic Romanesque proportions gave way to the elaborate decorations of High Gothic, which developed into the overly refined and sophisticated forms of Late Gothic. Similarly, a logical development is observed between Early Renaissance art, High Renaissance art, and Baroque art: the first phase focused on three-dimensionality and symmetry. It gave way to the second phase, where realism and dramatic use of Christianity and science were underlined. The Baroque art period was far developed in its use of ornate details and capture of human emotions.
The Harvesters and the Hunters in the Snow by Pieter Breughel share formal and subject matter elements. They both shift away from the religious subject matter and gravitate toward secular subject matter (McCouat, 2014). Rather than rely on a church-based compositional approach, Breughel decides to focus on folklore, humanism, and landscape. In both paintings, the painter blends sweeping landscapes with intimate portrayals of the peasant condition itself, all while situating these in the daily activities and traditions of the communities presented.
For instance, the Hunters in the Snow shows a bird's view of the North European winter landscape (bare trees, jagged snow-covered mountain peaks, blue-grey sky) teeming with life (hunters, ice skating peasants, and families busy with the preparations of the cold weather). Unfortunately, the hunt was unsuccessful, with ties with the magpie flies situated in the upper center of the scene indicating an ill-Omen in Dutch folklore. Similarly, The Harvesters depicts the late summer harvest with all the activities representative of the 16th-century peasant life and the characteristic landscape of Belgium. Like the Hunters in the Snow, where muted whites ...