At the Colosseum by the British painter Harold Hume Piffard (1895-1938). Piffard depicts here an elegant Roman noblewoman watching comfortly the bloody spectacle below. A well constucted contrast indeed.
Bizarre, isn't it? How a beautiful, apparently gentle woman can tolerate cruelty and bloodlust. Yet the painting shows no cruelty or blood at all. The viewer has to imagine the contrast.
History painting dates back to the Renaissance and was long considered to be the "grand genre". Nevertheless it has its peak in the 19th century forged by Neoclassicism and Romanticism. There it became the artistic contribution in the process of the construction of National Identities of the European and American nations.
At the same time history painting under the influence of historism pretended to be "realistic", to show history how it has been. Above all it was this pretension that led to the great failure of History painting AND Realism at the end of the century.
When artists and their public realized that telling history always will be subjective and a painting will always be an illusion Realism and history painting lost their ground to modern painting.
Thank you.
ReplyDeleteBizarre, isn't it? How a beautiful, apparently gentle woman can tolerate cruelty and bloodlust. Yet the painting shows no cruelty or blood at all. The viewer has to imagine the contrast.
Absolutely. It's an intelligent painting, not as cheap as these blood and sand paintings normally were.
ReplyDelete