by David Clayton on February 11, 2011
Matera is in southern Italy (just inland from the arch in the boot-shaped country). In the later classical period and through to the Middle Ages it has been occupied by Romans, Lombards, Byzantines, Germans and Normans and the handover was usually less than peaceful. The area is known for its underground churches, rather like the [...]
by David Clayton on June 28, 2010
John Singer Sargent (1856 – 1925) may well be the last great artist in the academic tradition. He was an American, born in Florence in Italy and who spent much of his life in Europe. He was prolific, painting hundreds of oil paintings and thousands of watercolours and sketches. Painting alongside the Impressionists (and sometimes [...]
by David Clayton on June 17, 2010
I can only marvel at the work of French artist Corot (1796-1875). He follows that baroque format of variation in focus rendering much of out blurred and out of focus. In this respect some might liken him to the Impressionists who followed him. But to my eye he differs in that he retains the sense [...]
by David Clayton on June 9, 2010
For the next few weeks I am going to feature individual artists from the 19th century. I pointed out in earlier articles two difficulties with baroque landscape. First was the inclination in the 17th century baroque to represent those areas where the colour is muted in sepia. This meant that they very often gave the [...]
by David Clayton on June 2, 2010
It might seem contradictory that the landscapes of the Romantic movement (with which William Turner’s work is usually associated) are so beautiful. The Romantics of the 18th and 19th century were responsible in many ways for destroying the traditional forms that preceded them and opened the way to ugliness of modern art. Their emphasis on [...]
by David Clayton on May 26, 2010
This is the second in the series about baroque landscape…and its not about baroque landscape, but bear with me. It is relevant to the topic. I am fascinated by the beauty of Chinese landscape. Once I started to learn about the baroque style I noticed that the same basic features are present in the form [...]
by David Clayton on May 19, 2010
This is the first in a series of articles that I will be writing about landscape. I have written here about how baroque sacred art declined, in my opinion, after the 17th century. However, landscape is aspect of baroque art that not only did not decline, but actually developed in a way that was true [...]
by David Clayton on April 27, 2010
James Gillick is an English artist based in Lincolnshire in England. He is a Catholic and largely self taught (although he has the advantage of coming from a family of working artists). His Catholicism informs his work and he consciously paints in the baroque style . I am particularly fond of his still lives. When [...]
