Art Eyewitness Companions

Since the 1960s, prices for works of art have escalated and are now greater than at Viewing the Mona Lisa in her new setting To allow more people to see the world’s most famous paintin

can be viewed

The definitive visual guide

A unique aid to discovering, enjoying, and appreciating

Western art—the ideal museum and

gallery companion

Old masters, modern greats

From Fra Angelico to Zurbarán,

da Vinci to Damien Hirst, a who’s-who of the finest artists

through the centuries

The history of art

Essential insights into the key

movements and styles, from

Classical to conceptual art

1 5

Text previously published in ART: A Field Guide

First published in 2005 byDorling Kindersley Limited

80 Strand, London WC2R ORL

Penguin GroupFirst American Edition, 2005Published in the United States by

ISBN 0 7566 1358 2

A CIP catalog record for this book is available from

the Library of CongressColor reproduction GRB, ItalyPrinted and bound in China by L Rex

LONDON, NEW YORK, MUNICH, MELBOURNE, AND DELHI

Managing Art Editor

Executive Managing Editor

Editorial Director

Art Director Publisher

Design Editorial

Juliette NorsworthyFerdie McDonaldPeter LawsDavid John, Rob HoustonThomas Cussans

Sarah Smithies, Celia Dearing,Carlo Ortu

John GoldsmidRita SinhaDebra WolterPhil OrmerodLiz WheelerAndrew HeritageBryn WallsJonathan Metcalf

Laura Watson, Dawn Terrey,Sharon Rudd, Peter RadcliffeAaron Brown, Jennifer Close,Lorna Hankin, Clare Wallis

at Studio Cactus

HIGH RENAISSANCE AND MANNERISM

c.1500 –1700128

THE BAROQUE ERA

c.1600 –1700162

FROM ROCOCO TO NEOCLASSICISM

c.1700 –1800218

ROMANTIC AND ACADEMIC ART

c.1800–1900258

MODERNISM

c.1900 –1970340

CONTEMPORARY ART

1970 –448

GLOSSARY

478

INDEX

501

I N T RO D U C T I O N10

THIS BOOK HAS EVOLVED OVER MANY YEARS OF

LOOKING AT WORKS OF ART, OFTEN ON MY OWN, BUT PREFERABLY IN THE COMPANY OF OTHERS THE EYE IS THE SOVEREIGN OF THE SENSES, AND

TO SHARE LOOKING IS ONE OF LIFE’S GREAT

PLEASURES—IT INCREASES WITH AGE AND IS NOT CONFINED TO WORKS OF ART.

My first job in the art world was at the

Tate Gallery in London, as a new

member of a small team whose task

was to stand in front of the works on

display and explain them to the public.

I soon learned that four questions were

asked over and over again:

1 What should I look for? What

are the key features in a Picasso,

a Rembrandt, a Raphael, a Turner?

2 What is going on? What is the story?

Who is Hercules? What is the Nativity? Who is that girl with a broken wheel? Who is the man abducting the woman who looks like a tree? Does that big red square mean anything?

3 What is its value? Am I looking

at $10? $10,000? $1 million?

$10 million?

4 Is it any good? And, in front of a

pile of bricks or an unmade bed, am

I being taken for a ride?

I also found that most of my audience

seemed to enjoy getting involved in an

informed discussion or exchange of

opinions about a particular

work of art, or about

specific issues (especially

provocative or controversial

ones) and about what they

saw, thought, and felt.

In this book, I have tried

to capture that kind of

involvement and to

address the four basic

questions I have listed

above Also, I have been

part of the art world long

enough to know that when those of us

who work in it are “off duty,” looking

at art purely for pleasure, uninhibited

by the need to maintain professional

credibility, we often voice different—and

sometimes much more interesting—

opinions than we do when “on duty.”

The present-day art world is a huge industry of museums, teaching institutions, commercial operations, and official bodies, all with reputations

and postures to maintain They are often desperate to convince us

of the validity of their official messages

I understand the pressures that impel all these official art institutions to maintain a party line, but in the face

of all that vested interest there is a need for

self-a no-nonsense self-alternself-ative voice.

In the main section of the book, The

History of Art (pages 44–477), you will

POSTER FOR MIRÓ EXHIBITION

Hidden treasures, the Hermitage, St Petersburg

This photograph, taken in 1994, gives some idea of the vast quantities of works of art that are not on display, but are held in museum archives around the world.

I N T RO D U C T I O N 13

Twenty Marilyns Andy Warhol, 1962, silk screen,

Private Collection Since the 1960s, prices for works

of art have escalated and are now greater than at

Viewing the Mona Lisa in her new setting

To allow more people to see the world’s most famous painting, the Louvre created a special gallery costing over $6 million, which opened in April 2005

find painters and sculptors, from the

early Renaissance onward, arranged

as separate entries In these I have

indicated characteristics to serve as a

guideline when looking at their works.

My observations are entirely personal,

but I have tried to pick out qualities

that anyone with a pair of eyes can see,

and have pleasure in searching for.

Most of the entries were written, at

least in note form, while looking at the

works of art In fact, nearly everything

I have written in this book is what I

would say if we were standing in front

of a work of art In such a situation it

is, I think, better to say too little rather

than too much, so as to allow those

who are with me to make their own

discoveries and connections.

I have included record prices paid

for works by each artist because what

people pay for works of art is

fascinating, both in absolute terms and

comparatively Some works are worth

every penny of the vast sums of money

paid for them; some are ridiculously

overpriced; and some wonderful works

of art are almost given away because

they are out of fashion or overlooked.

All prices are “hammer” prices, that

is the value called out at auction when

the item is “knocked down” to the

bidder The actual price paid by the

successful bidder will be increased by

the addition of a premium charged by

the auction house (the amount varies

between auction houses) Prices are

given in US dollars, with no allowance

for inflation Where the sale was made

in another currency, the price paid has

been converted at the exchange rate at

the time You will see that a record price is not given for all artists Works

by many of the old masters rarely come onto the market because most now are in public collections I would like to thank Duncan Hislop of Art Sales Index Ltd., 54 Station Road, Egham, Surrey, TW20 9LF, UK

(www.art-sales-index.com), for his generous help in providing the information on prices

I hope this book will prove to be a friendly companion, an entertaining and practical aid for looking at art If it fulfills its goals, it will provoke you, make you question your own opinions, cause you to stop, think, and, I hope, smile too It should also encourage you to believe what you see, rather than what you are told and make you go back to a painting or sculpture and see aspects of

it you had not perceived before My first wish is to increase the pleasure you get when looking at a work of art.

ROBERT CUMMING

London, May 2005

INTRODUCING

Very few artists fit the stereotype of suffering for their art, starving in an unheated garret, producing one unrecognized masterpiece after another, and finally achieving recognition on their deathbed The image of the artist as a lonely, neglected genius is attractive but misleading The reality is much more prosaic.

Most artists are skilled in

their trade, hard-working,

professional, and aware of

their business potential, often running

busy, well-organized studios with

assistants, not unlike a modern

architectural practice The artist

whose talent goes unrecognized in his

or her lifetime is rare Much more

common is the artist who attracts

lavish praise and recognition in his

or her lifetime only to sink into

irrecoverable obscurity, a footnote in

art history rather than a chapter

THE ARTIST THROUGH HISTORY

This is not to say that the role of the

artist does not change It is possible to

pinpoint three turning points when

the role of the artist and his and her

relationship with the rest of societyaltered significantly In Ancient,Classical, and Medieval times, artistswere essentially skilled craftsmenworking for an employer such as amonarch, the Church, or a corporateorganization Their activities weresupported and regulated by aprofessional body or guild

At the beginning of the 16th century,Leonardo da Vinci argued that theartist should be treated as the socialand intellectual equal of aristocratsand scholars The great artists of theHigh Renaissance shared thisaspiration, and the majestic flowering

of their art proves how successful theywere in establishing this role It suitedboth artist and patron and enduredright up to the end of the 19thcentury It allowed artists to play the fullest possible role in society,becoming the confidants of kings andpopes, and sometimes even acting asdiplomats and courtiers

WHAT IS

ART ?

Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View Cornelia

Parker, 1991, mixed media, London: Tate Modern.

Cornelia Parker is one of the current stars specializing

in installations for museum settings In the art history of

the future, will she merit a chapter or just a footnote?

wished to establish a new art thatwould address issues at the heart

of industrial society and the newawareness of human relationshipsand emotions that were

revealed, for example, byFreudian analysis It was

a necessary condition for the development

of Modern Art,and led to a rarechapter in thehistory of art inwhich the primemotivation

Francis I Receives the Last Breaths of Leonardo

da Vinci Ingres, 1818, oil on canvas, Paris: Musée du Petit-Palais Ingres, a painter firmly in the Classical

tradition of the Renaissance, presents the image of the artist as intellectual giant, the equal of kings.

Andy Warhol and friends

In the 1960s Warhol commented

on his era through images of products such as Coca- Cola and iconic figures such as Marilyn Monroe

In the 1970s his art increasingly featured images

of himself and his followers.

RADICAL CHANGE

The French Revolution of 1789

ushered in profound political and

social changes The privileged world

of monarchy and aristocracy began to

wane With a new sense of individual

liberty in the air, art attracted new

personalities who previously would

have ignored an artistic life The

Romantic spirit exploited this freedom

to express individual emotions, and to

create art about personal experiences

The Classical tradition, with its

admiration for antiquity and

disciplined professional training,

continued to flourish alongside

Romanticism, but it was in decline

This spirit of independence led to

a turning point in the second half of

the 19th century, and to a new role

for the artist The change was most

forcibly expounded by the radical

French painter, Gustave Courbet, who

argued that the true artist should be

an outsider to the rest of society, free

of all normal social conventions and

at liberty to set his or her own rules

The idea was potent, particularly to

the disaffected young, many of whom

enthusiasm The artist today is often

a successful businessman or woman (in itself not that new a concept)

of a managerial role—where the artist does notcreate a work of art inthe traditional manner,but promotes an idea

or concept, often incollaboration with othercreatives, and thenmanages it as a project

or installation, delegatingthe physical manufacture

or assembly of components to select subcontractors

PATRONS AND PATRONAGE

A patron is someone who provides thenecessary financial assistance for anartist to create a work from scratch

of the artist was not widespread

recognition, professional advancement,

riches, or social success, but a desire

to reform society and

human relationships and

literally to change the way

we see the world

THE ARTIST TODAY

The most recent turning

point occurred in the

1960s and the most

articulate advocate for

another role for the artist

was Andy Warhol, who

found the image of

the artist as penniless

reformer outdated and

unattractive He wanted

artists to share in the

material benefits of the postwar era

and argued that they should have a

role in society akin to that of Madison

Avenue advertising executives or

businessmen If you look at the

lifestyle and careers of most young

artists born since the 1960s, you can

see that they have, by and large,

embraced Warhol’s ideas with

Caricature of Gustave Courbet 1868 The French art

establishment hated Courbet because of his radical political and aesthetic doctrines.

20 W H A T I S A R T ?

nominate a godfather figure it could

be Cosimo I de’ Medici (1519–74).Cosimo used art to consolidatecommercial and political power,but he also collected forpleasure Collecting is thus

an aspect of that concept

of individual personalitywhich lies at the heart

of much Western art andthought Cosimo was alsoinfluenced by his love

of antiquity Seeking toemulate the ambitions

of Classical Greece andRome, he discovered howthe Romans had beenpassionate collectors andbought and sold works

of art at auction Private collectors,dealers, and auctioneersflourished in the newmercantile Dutch Republic in the17th century Much of the framework

of today’s art market was establishedthen, but the golden age for thedealer was the 19th century and theearly 20th century Many of today’sfamous firms were founded then, andmany great works of art, intended for

a particular setting in a church orpalace, were torn from their originalcontext, sold by dealers to privateclients, and have eventually come

In the early Renaissance, the patronage

of one of the noble courts or the

Church was the essential framework

within which an artist was

obliged to operate, and

the influence of a creative

and imaginative patron

was immense Any

self-respecting monarch was

now expected to be a

patron of the arts, and

this tradition continued

even into the 20th

century Europe’s rulers

consciously used works

of art to increase their

prestige, credibility, and

political power The

Church employed art in a

similar way to spread the

Christian message and

to promote its influence

Without such patronage,

the great artists of the Renaissance

and the 17th century, such as

Michelangelo and Rubens, could

never have created their masterpieces

COLLECTORS AND DEALERS

Collecting works of art without

patronage is a different matter

It presupposes collecting the art of

the past as well as

that of living artists

If one had to

Cosimo I de’ Medici Baccio Bandinelli, marble relief, Florence:

Museo del Bargello A reflection

of Cosimo’s self-image as a noble Roman in the mold of Caesar.

In the late 19th century, as the artist found

greater freedom to express a private vision,

rather than one shared by, or demanded by,

a patron, modern art dealers became a

necessary intermediary between the artist

and collector Indeed, without the courage

of a few adventurous dealers, such as

Paul Durand-Ruel, Ambroise Vollard,

and Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, the

Impressionists and great masters of

Modernism would have found it impossible

to survive economically, and would have

lacked a valuable source of intellectual and

of the Post-Impressionist era, organizing the first one-man shows by Cézanne, Matisse, and Picasso

to grace the National Galleries of the

world Other dealers effectively acted

as patrons for young artists

The art market used to be rather

secretive However, the rise of the

international auction house since the

1960s and the buying and selling of

works of art in full public view, has

fueled popular interest in

record-breaking prices In relative and

absolute terms, major works of art

now command more money than ever

before This is partly because of their

increasing scarcity in the market place,

for once they enter a public collection,

it is most improbable that they will

come back on the market And it is

also because rich people are prepared

to go to almost any lengths to obtainthe rarest of the rare

The figures given here are the prices paid

at the time (in US dollars) with no accounttaken of subsequent inflation

Massacre of the Innocents $68m, 2002

Sir Peter Paul Rubens

Rideau, cruchon et compotier $55m, 1999

RECORD PRICES FOR ARTISTS’ WORK

Fountain of Apollo Jean-Baptiste Tuby, 1670, gilded lead, Versailles.

Louis XIV commissioned statuary glorifying himself as the “Sun King.” Such patronage created an industry

to supply art for his palaces.

it is possible to fill a space very well,

enhancing life with beauty and style

Moreover, the works of art of a

period—their subject, size, style,

appearance—are influenced by the

spaces they are expected to fill The

characteristic public spaces of the

Renaissance were churches, and

quantities of altarpieces were required

to fill them The finest of these now

reside, paradoxically, in the secular

public spaces of galleries, revered as

icons of art history But a visitor to

Italy, making a tour of churches,

will soon suspect that such

life-changing icons are rare and that

most Italian religious art does

little more than fill spaces

The monarchs of the 17th

century quite literally created

industries to produce works of art

to fill their vast palaces They

required large sizes and complex

mythological iconographies to

proclaim their message of

absolute temporal authority

By contrast, the newly established

Dutch Republic haddifferent spaces to fill.Wealthy merchants wanted

to fill their townhouseswith images of theirnewfound politicalfreedom and prosperity—small-scale, meticulouslycrafted landscapes,portraits, domestic genrescenes, and still lives.Eighteenth-centuryBritain created yet anothernew space, the countryhouse In addition to fillingthem with old art broughthome from the Grand Tour, ownersfilled them with the art of their ownday which seemed to them mostrelevant and desirable, namelylandscapes and portraits

GALLERIES AND ACADEMIES

The idea of a NationalGallery—a public spacecontaining works ofart that somehow

Grand Gallery of the Louvre Hubert Robert,

1796, 44 1/4 x 56 1/4 in (112.5 x 143 cm), oil on canvas,

Paris: Musée du Louvre Robert was curator of the

collection, which opened to the public in 1793

Santa Trinità Altarpiece Fra Angelico, c 1434,

69 1/4 x 72 3/4 in (176 x 185 cm), tempera and gold on panel,

Florence: Museo di San Marco Altarpieces of this high

quality were rarities even in Renaissance Florence.

define a nation’s cultural identity—

was a legacy of the Napoleonic era

But these spaces held only historic art,

never the work of living artists In the

19th century the major spaces for

the display of contemporary art were

controlled by the Academies These

powerful institutions trained young

artists and put on regular displays

prepared by their members Although

their intentions were worthy, the

Academies became obsessed with

rules and internal politics and this

is reflected in the increasingly

ostentatious, but vacuous works of

art created to fill their spaces

One of the unique characteristics of

the art of the early Modern Movement

is that it was not created to fill public

spaces Detested by the Academies,

ignored by private collectors, and with

no museum willing to house them,

many of the avant-garde works

of art produced by

young artists, such

as Picasso, neverleft the privacy of

GREAT ART GALLERIES

Museo del Prado, Madrid

Spain’s national gallery of fine art opened to the public in

1819, when Ferdinand VII transferred the royal collection

to a fine Neo-Classical building in the center of Madrid.

their studios Their principal purposewas to change the way we see theworld or to express a deep privatepersonal sensibility It was a rare andunusual interlude Today, filling spaceshas returned as a dominant influence

in contemporary art

The idea of a public place dedicated

to a permanent display of work byliving artists and of “Modern Art”

in particular was pioneered byMOMA in New York in 1929 Notmuch imitated at first, in the last

50 years the idea has spread like wildfire Museums dedicated to the display of Modern and contemporary

Listed below are some of the world’s largestand most famous public collections of art

Galleria degli Uffizi Florence, Italy 1591

The Medici art collection, viewable on request from

1591, bequeathed to the city of Florence in 1737

Musée du Louvre Paris, France 1793

Originally the gallery of the royal palace; opened

to the public by the revolutionary government

Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain 1819

The creation of King Ferdinand VII, encouraged byhis wife, Maria Isabel de Braganza

National Gallery London, England 1824

Moved in 1838 from its initial home in banker JohnJulius Angerstein’s house to a specially built gallery

Gemäldegalerie Berlin, Germany 1830

Originally the royal collection; finally reunited, afterseveral name and location changes, in 1997

Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia 1917

Declared a state museum in 1917; began in 1764

as the private collection of Empress Catherine II

National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1941

Specially built gallery designed by John Russell Pope

art are now to be found in every city

in the world They have large spaces

to fill, and an enormous industry has

grown to supply them Just as churches

required works that were identifiably

“religious” and “Christian,” so these

spaces require works that are “modern”

and “contemporary,” which is often

interpreted as shocking and provocative

As the spaces become larger and more

architecturally spectacular, so, in order

not to be overwhelmed, do the works

of art All of which begs the questions:

Which came first? The altarpiece

or the church? The museum ofcontemporary art or the installation?

ART HISTORY

There are many ways of looking atand talking about art When QueenVictoria and Prince Albert wanted todevelop their appreciation of art, they

Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao

Since it opened in 1997, the spectacular museum of Modern and contemporary art designed by Frank Gehry has been the city of Bilbao’s main tourist attraction.

Critic and connoisseur Bernard Berenson

An expert on Italian Renaissance art, whose opinions

are often still valid, American Berenson (1865–1959)

authenticated paintings for collectors and museums.

The natural habitat of the art historian

is the library and archive, the museum

and the lecture hall; that of the art critic

is the media, the studio and art school,

and the dinner table The connoisseur

is likely to be found in the auction room,

the dealer’s gallery, or in some long

neglected attic The connoisseur combines

the best of the art historian and art critic

with something extra—a discrimination

and an instinctive eye for real quality plus

a knowledge that comes from years of

looking at works of art first hand

ART HISTORIANS, CRITICS, AND CONNOISSEURS

followed the fashion of their day and

took drawing and painting lessons

Today they would sign up for an art

history course Art history as an

academic subject effectively began in

Germany at the end of the 19th

century It has brought discipline,

rigor, and objectivity to a notoriously

fuzzy topic It has rescued many

reputations and even proved the

existence of forgotten artists

But art history also has a downside

Works of art are not just historical

documents Art has the ability to

engage with individuals and create

experiences that can range from tears

to ecstasy At its worst, art history can

reduce even the greatest works of art

to a tedious list of facts There is a

danger that one can become so

obsessed by “history” that everything

“old” comes to be blindly revered like

the bones of long dead saints

ART CRITICISM

Good art criticism respects facts and

history but is principally concerned

with value judgments It questions and

probes an artist’s purpose, intentions.and technical ability, asking whetherthe final outcome delivers what theartist has set out to do Equally, in ahistoric display of art, such as anexhibition, the critic should examinethe validity of the curator’s

interpretation For contemporary art the critic ought to cut through the lavish rhetoric, which is oftenheaped on it by curators and dealers,

to determine the true merit of what

is being promoted

Many reputations and much money ride on the current boom

in contemporary art and there is

a dangerous temptation, fueled

by the supremacy of art history,

to treat every new manifestation and star name instantly as historicallysignificant This is disingenuous since, in any field of human endeavor, whether what happenstoday will have any significance in the longer term depends almostentirely on what happens tomorrow,and that is completely unpredictable and unknowable

Christ in the House of Martha and Mary Jan Vermeer, c 1654–56, 63 x 56 in (160 x 142 cm), oil on canvas, Edinburgh: National Gallery of Scotland (above).

The Dutch forger Han van Meegeren painted

“Vermeers” that were authenticated by leading figures in the art world He produced

The Disciples at Emmaus (left) c 1936–38.

There is a distinction between the two words,

fake and forgery A fake is a work of art made

or altered so as to appear better, older, or

other than what it is A forgery is something

made in fraudulent imitation of another thing

Throughout history people have produced

what they claim to be lost paintings by

Leonardo or Vermeer, for example, which they

have created with great skill in their studios

Such works are not fakes but forgeries

FAKES AND FORGERIES

THE MASTERPIECE

Is the idea of a “masterpiece” valid

today? The term implies excellence

and the desirability of the pushing of

individual technical skill, ideas, and

innovation to their limits Ultimately

it suggests the identification of

those few works that have the

ability to inspire emotion

and communicate

meaning long after their

creation Many works of

art speak powerfully

to the generation for

which they were

created, but very

few have the power

dates back to when

artists were considered

to be craftsmen It was

the piece the artist

presented to the guild to

prove his ability and gain

the coveted rank of

“master.” When the

guild system became

obsolete and the role of

the artist changed, the

word lost this meaning

and became attached

to those outstanding

works in which an artist is

judged to display the full

range of his or her powers Yet the

word is overused History is littered

with the names of artists who have

been hailed as the “Michelangelo of

our times,” but now barely merit a

mention Equally, the geniuses, such

as van Gogh, who were neglected

in their lifetimes only for their

masterpieces to be found after their

deaths, are surprisingly few and far

between And there are those

interesting second-rate artists who

manage to produce just one or twooutstanding works worthy of thedescription “masterpiece.”

Taste and perception also change.Few would deny that for us,

Botticelli’s Birth of Venus is one of the

early Renaissance masterpieces Yet

in his own lifetime, Boticelli’s stylewas condemned as old-fashioned, andhis name lapsed into obscurity untilhis works were rediscovered at theend of the 19th century

HARMONY AND IDEAS

So what makes amasterpiece? Perhaps thereare two things to look for First, a complete unitybetween subject, style, andtechnique Raphael’s paintings

of the Madonna and Child are a good example Raphael’sharmonious, graceful style andflawless technique perfectlycomplement the qualities

he seeks to portray in hisdivine subject Second, and equally familiar toRaphael, is the beliefthat art should express

an idea greater than art itself Without such

a belief, and

a commitment

to communicate that idea to others,all art, howeveraccomplished technically,

is confined to decorationand illustration Technical skill can fill and decorate spaces, but only anidea connects at a deeper level withthe needs of others and can changethe way we see things Artists live and work in a world peopled bypatrons, collectors, dealers, artinstitutions, and fellow artists Tostand out from the crowd requirescourage and individuality Only thoseendowed with a depth of visionbeyond the ordinary, and who use

David Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1501–04, height 161 in (410 cm), marble, Florence: Galleria dell’Accademia

This tiny painting was to

be an object of intense and

private contemplation for

a young widow who was

entering a nunnery to take

up a life of Christian devotion

Raphael’s complete mastery

of the technique of oil painting with rich colors, subtle gradations, and fine detail such as fingernails, honors the spiritual profundity of his subject

The playful activity and darting

eyes of the Christ-child contrast with the stillness and lowered eyes of the Virgin; his naked maleness contrasts with her modesty and sweet femininity

For Raphael, beauty was

an essential element in the search for ultimate truth—

an inspired vision was more important than doctrine

The two figures together

form a triangle filling most of the picture space It suggests stability, permanence, dignity, and seriousness

The Madonna of the Pinks Raphael, 1507–08,

11 1/4 x 9 in (30 x 23 cm), oil on canvas, London: National

Gallery An example of Raphael’s skill and engagement

with beauty and faith, this painting was unrecognized

from 1855–1991, but recently sold for $39 million.

art, not as an end in itself or as a

means of personal and commercial

gratification, but as a means of trying

to tell a greater human or spiritual

truth, are those who will succeed

in creating masterpieces that cansurvive the judgment of the sternest critic of all—time

Artists have always enjoyed appropriating, devising, and combining new media in pursuit of visual expression, from the rudimentary materials of charcoal, chalk, wood, and stone, to paint in the form of

pigments and binders, through to the contemporary

technology of digital editing

The first artists collected and

manipulated simple, basic

materials to achieve a likeness

or design As tools and technologies

developed, artists progressed from

carving bone, wood, and stone to

manipulating and firing clay

Sculptors later appropriated the

technology of the forge and foundry

to make bronzes Painters, meanwhile,

explored the environment for suitable

pigments: chalk, charcoal, the dye of

berries, crustaceans, and minerals

extracted from the ground For these

materials (pigments) to be formed into

paint, they needed to be mixed with a

medium to bind them as a liquid

Effective media were resins, gums—

such as gum arabic, still used to bind

watercolors today—and wax A

tempera paint made from egg was the

dominant medium in the MiddleAges until the 15th century, when oilpainting came to the fore Oils andwatercolors dominated until theadvent of acrylic in the 1940s.Artists have often combined media,for example, in the 20th-centurypractice of collage Contemporaryartists often juxtapose incongruousimages and materials in installationsand land art, as a means ofchallenging our conceptions ofboth the world around us and theaesthetics of art

REPRODUCING ART

Printing allows multiple images to begenerated, for example, by usingwoodcuts, engraved copper plates,and by plates etched with acids Theother major means of reproduction isphotography Most recently the advent

of computer technology has allowedartists an unprecedented level ofimage manipulation and editing

Oil paintwas, and continues to be, widely used for

many reasons: flexible, durable, easily manipulated,

it offers rich colors and can carry the personal style

of the individual artist’s hand.

MEDIA AND MATERIALS

Drawing is the most immediate form of artistic expression Before the

Renaissance it was rarely valued as an art form in itself, but was seen as thepreparatory design for a work in another medium Cennini (c 1370–1440) gave

it a certain status, calling it “the triumphal arch” to

painting, but the first artists who really exploited

drawing as an independent expressive medium

were Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo

Drawing

White chalk was originally used to addhighlights to other drawing media and wasparticularly effective on toned papers.Pigments such as iron oxide were added tochalk to make the red chalk characteristic ofthe drawings of Renaissance artists Chalksare now produced in a full range of colors.Pastels, made of powdered pigments lightlybound in gum tragacanth, became popularwith portrait artists in the 18th century Withsoft pastels, the pigment is imparted to thepaper by the slightest touch and can beblended in the manner of painting

to create gradations of subtle,vibrant color Hard pastels, bound

in a higher concentration of gum,are more suitable for drawing

CHALKS AND PASTELS

Michelangelo, 16th century, charcoal on paper, Florence: Gallerie degli Uffizi.

Michelangelo drew in many differnt media: pen and ink, pen and wash, charcoal, and red and black chalks.

Blue Dancers Edgar Degas,

c 1899, pastel on paper, 25 1 / 2 x 25 1 / 2

in (65 x 65 cm), Moscow: Pushkin

Museum Degas’ practice was to

develop the drawing in charcoal and

then to apply layers of soft pastel to

create a vibrant optical mixture of

color Other well-known exponents of

pastels include Mary Cassat, Odilon

Redon, Picasso, and R B Kitaj

SOFT PASTELS

MODERN CHALKS

Charcoal is one of the oldest drawing mediaand remains popular with artists to this day

It is made from twigs of willow and created

by a slow burning process that reduces thewood to carbon It is available in varyingthicknesses, ranging from thevery thick scene-painters’

charcoal to medium and thinsticks used for more detaileddrawings It is commonly used for drawing underpainting since it is easilyoverpainted withoutdiscoloring the overlaid paint

Charcoal drawings can beedited very easily by means of

a brush, putty eraser, or evensoft doughy bread

PEN AND INK

PENCIL

The “lead” in pencils is actually graphite (a form of carbon) Inthe 16th and 17th centuries the only source of solid graphitewas Borrowdale in the English Lake District In the late 18thcentury the French devised a method of combining crumbly,amorphous graphite with clay This mixture, encased in wood,

is the pencil we are familiar with today The use of graphitepencils thus became widespread in the age of Ingres, Turner,and Constable Many artists today prefer to work with either asolid graphite stick or leads of variable width and density oftone, held in pencil holders The term “pencil” is used for manygraphic media, including compressed charcoal, chalks, and wax,that can be encased in wood like a pencil Some use water-soluble pigments

that can bereworked with awet brush

The pen evolved as an alternative to the brush

as a means of controlled line drawing The

advantage of inks over dry drawing media was

the precision and permanence of the line Inks

have been made from a diversity of sources,

ranging from sooty carbon-based materials (bister)

to dyes derived from berries, oak galls, insects,

cuttlefish, and crustaceans Water-soluble inks

are more prone to fading than the more

permanent waterproof inks such as Indian

ink prepared with gum or shellac The dip

pen was the mainstay of graphic art for

generations and evolved into the fountain

pen, felt-tip pen, and technical drawing pen

MODERN COLORED INKS

DIP PEN WITH ASSORTED NIBS

REED PEN

FOUNTAIN PEN

PENCIL GRAPHITE

Industrial buildings in a northern English town by an unknown artist, pencil on paper Private collection

MONET’S

QUILL

PEN

All paints require a binding medium that can hold pigments in suspension andpermits successful application to prepared supports—walls, wood panels, vellum,paper, or stretched fabric (canvas) Early forms of paint consisted of pigmentbound by a water-based glue called size, made from animal skins Alternativeswere gums and resins extracted from trees, the white and yolk

of eggs, and beeswax From the 15th to the 20th century the

dominant medium was vegetable—usually linseed—oil

Painting

Encaustic (wax) painting is a very durable medium that was

one of the principal techniques of the ancient world, used

by the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans to paint

images on panels and walls The word “encaustic” comes

from the Greek and means “burned in.” Artists would apply

the paint using brushes and spatulas to create the image,

and on completion they would run lit torches across the

surface of the mural to reheat the wax, causing the wax

and pigment to be absorbed permanently into the lime

surface of the wall Wax can also be added to oil paint to

aid the separation of clear

areas of color, a process

used most notably by

van Gogh This ancient

medium was surprisingly

revived in the latter half of

the 20th century by Jasper

Johns (pages 442–43),

who used encaustic paint

for a series of images of

the American flag

Medieval painters of illuminated manuscripts used beaten egg white

in a form of paint called clarum or glair Painters on panel, on the

other hand, used egg yolk mixed with pigment and a little water—egg

tempera This was the principal painting medium before the advent of

oil paint Although tempera is quick-drying, building up the colors of a

painting was a slow process

Panels were prepared with layers

of gesso, a mixture of size and

chalk to form a smooth surface

The paint was applied over a

prepared drawing Gradations of

color had to be built up slowly,

by means a series of carefully

juxtaposed applications of paint

WATER

Encaustic portrait from Egyptian tomb

Some of the best ancient encaustic paintings to have survived are mummy-case portraits from the 2nd century CE

Entombment of Christ Russian

icon, 15th century, 18 x 13 in

(45 x 32 cm), tempera on panel.

Tempera was used for most

medieval Byzantine and

Russian icons.

EGG YOLK

with turpentine, to thick impasto.

It can be worked when wet formuch longer than any other form

of paint, allowing the artist tocreate subtle blending effects, orbuilt up in layers according to theartist’s favored technique The

masters of the 16thand 17th centuries,from Titian (pages143–145) toVelasquez (pages187–190), exploitedthe new medium tocreate astonishingnew effects of colorand light

FRESCO

OILS

33

VERMILION PIGMENT

The Creation of Adam (detail) Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1508–12, fresco (prerestoration), Rome: Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museums.

ROUND HOG

FILBERT HOG

SHORT FLAT HOG

ROUND SYNTHETIC

FLAT SYNTHETIC

The Arnolfini Portrait with detail, Jan van

Eyck (see page 109) Van Eyck’s mastery of oils

produced remarkably fine detail and subtle

gradations of color in the dress and draperies

Oil paintersemploy a wide range of techniques.

Here an artist exploits the texture of the canvas

in a technique known

as “scumbling.”

Paint brushes are traditionally made from animal hair, stiff brushes from hog’s bristles, finer ones from squirrel or sable hair Both kinds are

Vegetable oil—principally walnut, poppy, and

linseed—had been used as a medium for painting

for some time before the Renaissance, but was

more popular in northern Europe than in Italy It was

the skill of Flemish painters such as Jan Van Eyck

(page 110) at the beginning of the 15th century

that convinced the Venetians and subsequently

other Italians and the rest Europe that

oils were the best medium for easel

painting, especially portraits The

advantages of oil paint are its strength

and flexibility The paint can be applied

in many ways from thin glazes, diluted

MODERN OIL PAINTS

Fresco (the Italian word for “fresh”) denotes the method of

painting in which pigments, mixed solely with water, are

painted directly onto a freshly laid lime-plaster ground The

liquid paint is absorbed into the plaster and as the plaster

dries the pigments are bound within the fabric of the wall

surface Fresco was practiced by the Minoans, the ancient

Greeks, and the Romans long before its use by Michelangelo

(page 136) and other painters during the Renaissance

Both watercolor and gouache paints are bound in

gum arabic, the difference being that watercolor is

transparent, while gouache, through the addition of

white chalk, is opaque Watercolor uses the

brightness of the paper or other support to generate

a distinctive luminescence Light passes through

overlaid transparent washes and is reflected back

from the support—for example, white paper

The opacity of gouache,

also known as body

color, makes it ideal

for overpainting and its

capacity for continuous tone makes it suitable forbold design and flat color work Watercolor as aspecialized medium was raised to new heights in18th- and 19th-century Britain, most notably in theworks of J M W Turner (pages 281–83 ) Morerecent exponents of watercolor include Emil Nolde(page 362) and Paul Klee (page 387), who exploitedthe medium’s luminosity and ethereal properties

WATERCOLOR AND GOUACHE

GUM ARABIC TUBE COLOR

MASKING FLUID PAN COLORS

FLAT SYNTHETIC BRUSH

of color laid over the toned ground of the paper.

Watercolor can be appliedin a series of overlaid washes or, as here, using a wet-into-wet technique in which the colors bleed and merge.

ROUND SABLE BRUSH

SYNTHETIC FAN BLENDER

FINE ROUND SABLE BRUSH

Collage is an assembly of assorted materials—

printed matter, pieces of fabric, even solid objects—

stuck onto a support to form a composition Early

exponents were Picasso (pages 396–97) and Braque

Acrylics were developed in the 1940s and adopted by many modern

artists for their fast drying and permanence Pioneers included

Mexican muralists Orozco (page 402) and Siqueros (page 402)

The advantage of acrylics is that they are water-soluble when

wet, but dry quickly to a durable surface They can be used in

transparent applications like watercolors or in thick,

impasto applications like oil paints

84 x 60 in (213.3 x 152.4 cm), collage,

Minotaur Pablo Picasso, 1933, collage with paper, foil, and leaves, New York: Museum of Modern Art One of Picasso’s

own drawings of the minotaur

is incorporated into a collage

Tree Harvey Daniels (contemporary artist), acrylic

on paper, 36 1 / 4 x 19 1 / 4 in (92

x 49 cm), Private Collection.

The inert properties of acrylics mean they are not susceptible to cracking

or darkening in the manner of oil paints.

ACRYLIC BRUSH STROKE

PAINTING KNIFE

PALETTE KNIFE

PALETTE WITH ACRYLICS

(page 351), who in their Cubist works (page 350)frequently combined pieces of newspaper and other objects with paint The German Artist KurtSchwitters (page 368) did most to develop the use

of collage, incorporating bus tickets and all manner

of litter from the streets in his poetic compositions.Other notable exponents were the German artistMax Ernst (page

369) and theAmerican JosephCornell (page 406),who extended theidea of collage tothree dimensionalbox constructions

What was at firstsomething of anovelty was soonaccepted as arespectable form ofartistic expression

techniques of lithography and silkscreen

Printmaking

In Europe the great age of woodcuts was the late 15th century,

when printing spread across the continent from Germany To make

a woodcut, a V-shaped chisel is used to remove the negative

areas of the design, the raised positive areas of the block are

then inked over, a sheet of paper is laid onto the inked block, and

pressure applied by using either a screw- or lever-operated press

More sophisticated halftones aregenerated by engraving finer lines

in the manner of hatching Thegreatest master of the art wasAlbrecht Dürer (pages 126–127)

The Japanese artists of the 18thand 19th centuries perfected theart of multicolored prints,overprinting several woodblocks insuccession with the final blockapplying a black line drawing

Engraving and etching are related intaglio

techniques that produce a finer line than is

possible in woodcuts In the process of

engraving a diamond-shaped tool called a burin

is used to inscribe a precise line in either a

tight-grained wood such as boxwood or a soft metal

such as copper plate Etching differs from

engraving in that acid is used to “bite” a line The

copper plate is first coated in a thin layer of wax,

called an etching ground, to resist the action of the

acid The wax isinscribed using a

WOODCUTS

Of What Ill Will He Die?

plate 40 of “Los Caprichos,”

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, 1799, etching, burnished aquatint, drypoint, and burin, Private Collection.

Goya combined a number

of engraving techniques

to produce his striking

Woodblock of a hussar on horseback c 1850This simple design for the amusement of children shows the raised positive areas that receive the ink to make a print.

19TH-CENTURY ENGRAVING TOOLS

The Engraver published by Hartman Schopper, 16th century, engraving, Private Collection.

point to draw the imageand where the wax isdisplaced the acid bites aline Areas of tone can becreated using a processcalled aquatint Thisinvolves dusting resin powder onto the plate andheating it to make the resin adhere When the plate

is etched, the acid bites around each grain of resinand when inked produces a subtle uniform tone

ENGRAVED COPPER PLATE

Lithography is a planographic (flat-surface) method of printing, which

works on the principle of the mutual repulsion of oil and water The

process was invented in 1798 by Aloys Senefelder, a Bavarian

playwright A drawing design is applied to a prepared limestone or

ground litho plate The unique attribute of lithography is the

directness with which either drawing or painterly technique can be

applied using either a brush, pen, or crayon to apply a greasy ink

Lithography also facilitates the building of an image in multiples of

overlaid colored printing The plate is kept damp with a dilution of

gum arabic and a mild etch to assist both the resistance to the ink in

the undrawn areas and the takeup of

the oil-based ink to the drawn areas

of the lithograph

Silkscreen printing or serigraphy was developed out of stencil

printing, primarily used for commercial textile printing In the 1930s,

particularly in the United States, it became popular as a means of

creating commercial prints in vivid opaque color As in the process of

lithography, a design can be drawn or painted directly onto the

screen in an oil-based medium and then the undrawn areas sealed

using a glue or varnish Oil-based ink is then squeegeed through the

mesh of the silk screen onto paper Stencils can be used to mask

areas of the print Alternative methods of transferring an image to

silkscreen are the use of photo stencils Andy Warhol (page 444)

popularized the technique using a combination of photo-silkscreen

and painting in his multiple portraits of 1960s celebrities

US’s leading fine art lithographer.

Silkscreen printing on material

Ink is forced through the fine mesh of the silk screen with a squeegee The masked areas form a stencil preventing

686 Good Morning City Friedensreich Hundertwasser, 1969–70, 33 1 / 2 x 21 3 / 4 in (85 x 55.5 cm), silkscreen Silkscreen

works tend to feature clear shape and areas of flat color

A lithographic printis lifted from a

litho stone As in all printing processes

where the image is lifted directly from

the stone, block, plate, or screen the

print is a mirror image of the original.

The first and most ubiquitous form of artistic expression The earliest sculpturesappear to have been created by modifying found objects that suggested eitheranimal or human forms As tools and technologies developed, artists progressedfrom carving bone, wood, and stone to manipulating and firing clay, then to casting

in bronze While we are familiar with the bleached remnants of Greek and Romansculpture, Classical statues were, in fact, rarely left uncolored, as artists appliedpigments and precious stones to decorate or enhance the realism of their work

Sculpture

BRONZE

Rodin in his studio

Rodin (pages 318–319) had

several hundred copies cast

of his great works such as

The Kiss and The Thinker.

Pouring molten bronze

The funnels are created by the

lost-wax process along with the mold.

The wax form of a solid statuette with two runners is created in a mold in the first stage

of the lost-wax process.

Sculpting in bronze is a complex process that was developedindependently by many cultures—in South America, China, AncientEgypt, and in West Africa Bronze casting involves the modeling of aform in clay, plaster, or wax The earliest bronzes were solid andsmall, created by means of a sand casting In the lost-wax processtwo molds are usually made First a mold is made of the originalsculpture—nowadays using latex and plaster This is used to makethe wax form To this is attached a funnel shape and gates or ducts,also made of wax The wax form is covered in heat-resistant plaster,and the whole is placed in an oven During heating, the plasterhardens and the wax melts and runs out through the ducts Theplaster mold is now inverted and packed in sand and molten bronze ispoured into the funnel The mold is subsequently chiseled away andthen the gates chiseled and chased from the surface of the bronzecast When creating a large statue the mold of the original model

has to be cut into two or morepieces to make a wax shell, from which

a hollow bronze can

be cast

Prehistoric man first produced small-scale portable

figures such as the Willendorf Venus (page 48) before

progressing to freestanding figures The Greeks adapted

the stance of the striding figure from the Egyptians to

create the stylized but expressive kouros (page 53) They

subsequently developed the art of stone-carving to

achieve astonishing degrees of naturalism This was

achieved through techniques of carving, pinning, drilling,

and polishing The most prestigious stone for sculpture

since Greek times has been marble, which is very hard

and difficult to carve Alabaster, which can give a similar

effect, is much softer Limestone, granite, and sandstone

are also popular media In imitation of the Greeks

and Romans, the Italian Renaissance

revived the practice of creating large,

freestanding sculptures of

idealized human forms The

great innovator of the High

Renaissance period was

Michelangelo (pages

136–137)

Carving in wood is common to all cultures worldwide It flourished in

medieval Europe, and the carvings of the Romanesque period are

particularly expressive In medieval and Baroque workshops the

wood was frequently coated in plaster stucco and painted, a practice

that goes back to Ancient Egypt The carving of wood requires an

awareness of the flow of the grain This respect for the natural form

of the wood was a notable feature of the work of the

British sculptors Henry Moore (page 399) and

Barbara Hepworth (page 400) The

woodcarvings of Brancusi (page 356) are

outstanding for their simplicity and elegance

WOODCARVING

SCULPTING IN STONE

Lamentation over the Dead Christ

(detail), woodcarving, German school, early 16th century, Venzone Cathedral, Italy The

work shows traces of the paint and gilding with which it was originally decorated.

Woodcarving tools

Today there are of hundreds of differently shaped carving tools available, suitable for work on any scale.

Sculptor in his studio

There are two methods

of stone-carving: directly carving into the stone or using mechanical means such as calipers to scale

up from a smaller model made of clay or plaster According to Pliny, this process was in use in the 4th century BCE