Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice

Abstract

In the 1620s, a generation of Dutch

landscape artists began to work in a

naturalistic mode very different from

that of the earlier generation of

Flemish mannerist landscape artists, a

number of whom had recently emi­

grated to the Northern Netherlands.

The change from fantastic landscape

to representations of Dutch scenes

reflected political and economic

changes as the Northern Netherlands

established independence from Span­

ish domination. This stylistic change

is reflected in changes in the paint­

ing materials and practices of the re­

alist painters. In the 1620s, Dutch

painters of naturalistic landscape

adapted the efficient working prac­

tices of the Flemish landscape

painters. They replaced the refined

handling of paint and bright colors

of the mannerist painters with limit­

ed tonalities and an abbreviated han­

dling of paint to create convincing

views of the Dutch landscape.

140

Style and Te chnique in Dutch Landscape Painting

in the 1620s

E. Melanie Gifford

Scientific Research Depa rtment

National Gallery of Art

Washington, D.c. 20565

USA

Introduction

The early years of the seventeenth century saw a striking change of style in

landscape painting in the Netherlands. At this time, Flemish landscape spe­

cialists produced paintings characterized more by fa ntasy than by close ob­

servation of nature. In the 1580s and 1590s, large numbers of Flemish artists,

some of them landscape specialists, had emigrated to Holland to escape the

political and economic hardships of the rebellion against Spanish rule (1).

Around 1620, a very different, naturalistic style of landscape painting devel­

oped in the Northern Netherlands, particularly around Haarlem. These paint­

ings, often based on drawings after nature, created distinctive images of the

Dutch landscape (2, 3, 4).

Such a dramatic change of style raises fascinating questions about how style

develops. Was the new, naturalistic landscape style sparked by the arrival of

the Flemish immigrants, or does it reflect an indigenous artistic sensibility? Is

artistic style dependent on painting practice learned from other artists, or do

artists modifY their practice to meet the demand fo r new styles?

In an ongoing technical study, the author has been looking fo r material ev­

idence fo r landscape artists' artistic concerns (5). This study seeks to charac­

terize the differences of technique between Flemish mannerist landscapes of

the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, landscapes by Flemish

immigrants to the Northern Netherlands during the same period, and the

first naturalistic Dutch landscapes, which date from the second and third

decade of the seventeenth century (6). In defining the artists' choices of

working methods and painting materials, the study seeks to expand our

understanding of the motivations, both fo rmal and practical, behind the

development of the naturalistic Dutch landscape in the 1620s. The present

contribution centers on developments in the handling of paint in these land­

scapes. From the paintings studied to date, I have chosen five paintings as

illustration: a Flemish mannerist landscape, a mannerist landscape by a Flemish

immigrant, two naturalistic landscapes by Dutch artists, and a somewhat later

Dutch "tonal" landscape. A later, more complete publication will present full

analyses of the paintings' materials.

Flemish mannerist landscape

In the Flemish landscape painting tradition, space is defined by fo rmal con­

ventions that convey an illusion of recession. Dark and light passages alternate,

often with shadowed fo reground repoussoirs sharply outlined against a brightly

lit area beyond. Optical phenomena such as atmospheric perspective are rep­

resented not illusionistically, but almost symbolically, by a space organized into

three zones defined by distinctly different tonalities. The darkened fo reground

zone is typically a rich brown, the middle ground is green, and the distance

is a clear blue.

Study of the technique of Flemish mannerist landscapes reveals refined han­

dling combined with efficient working methods, which contributed to the

high output of busy workshops. The compositions were usually laid out with

a fairly complete underdrawing, most often including the figures, which were

planned as integral parts of the composition. With the underdrawing as guide,

Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice