Javascript must be enabled to continue!
‘Colouring’ — Material Depiction in Flemish and Dutch Baroque Art Theory
View through CrossRef
Seventeenth-century painters were masters at painting objects and beings that seem tangible. Most elaborate was painting translucent materials like skins and pulp: human flesh and grapes, for instance, require various surface effects and suggest the presence of mass below the upper layers. Thus, the viewer is more or less convinced that a volume or object is present in an illusionary space. In Dutch, the word ‘stofuitdrukking’ is used: expression or indication of material, perhaps better understood as rendering of material. In English, ‘material depiction’ probably captures this painterly means best: it includes rendering of surface effects, while revealing the underlying substance, and it implies that weight and mass are suggested. Simple strokes of paint add up to materials and things that are convincingly percieved. At first glance, material depiction hardly seems a topic in early-modern art theory, yet 17th-century painters are virtually unequalled as regards this elaborate skill. Therefore, 17th-century written sources were studied to define how these might discuss material depiction, if not distinctly. This study concerns one of many questions regarding the incredible convincingness of 17th-century material depiction: besides wondering why the illusions work (Di Cicco et al., this issue) and how these were achieved (Wiersma, in press), the question should be asked why this convincingness was sought after. Was it mere display of ability and skill? And how was material depiction perceived, valued and enjoyed? First, contemporary terminology is determined: the seemingly generic term ‘colouring’ signified the application of convincing material depiction especially — which is not as self-evident as it sounds. Second, and extensively, the reader will find that convincing or appealing material depiction was considered a reference to religion and natural philosophy.
Title: ‘Colouring’ — Material Depiction in Flemish and Dutch Baroque Art Theory
Description:
Seventeenth-century painters were masters at painting objects and beings that seem tangible.
Most elaborate was painting translucent materials like skins and pulp: human flesh and grapes, for instance, require various surface effects and suggest the presence of mass below the upper layers.
Thus, the viewer is more or less convinced that a volume or object is present in an illusionary space.
In Dutch, the word ‘stofuitdrukking’ is used: expression or indication of material, perhaps better understood as rendering of material.
In English, ‘material depiction’ probably captures this painterly means best: it includes rendering of surface effects, while revealing the underlying substance, and it implies that weight and mass are suggested.
Simple strokes of paint add up to materials and things that are convincingly percieved.
At first glance, material depiction hardly seems a topic in early-modern art theory, yet 17th-century painters are virtually unequalled as regards this elaborate skill.
Therefore, 17th-century written sources were studied to define how these might discuss material depiction, if not distinctly.
This study concerns one of many questions regarding the incredible convincingness of 17th-century material depiction: besides wondering why the illusions work (Di Cicco et al.
, this issue) and how these were achieved (Wiersma, in press), the question should be asked why this convincingness was sought after.
Was it mere display of ability and skill? And how was material depiction perceived, valued and enjoyed? First, contemporary terminology is determined: the seemingly generic term ‘colouring’ signified the application of convincing material depiction especially — which is not as self-evident as it sounds.
Second, and extensively, the reader will find that convincing or appealing material depiction was considered a reference to religion and natural philosophy.
Related Results
Game Theory in Business Ethics: Bad Ideology or Bad Press?
Game Theory in Business Ethics: Bad Ideology or Bad Press?
Solomon’s article and Binmore’s response exemplify a standard exchange between the game theorist and those critical of applying game theory to ethics. The critic of game theory lis...
Ary Scheffer, een Nederlandse Fransman
Ary Scheffer, een Nederlandse Fransman
AbstractAry Scheffer (1795-1858) is so generally included in the French School (Note 2)- unsurprisingly, since his career was confined almost entirely to Paris - that the fact that...
On Borges’s B/baroque
On Borges’s B/baroque
Abstract
This article examines Jorge Luis Borges’s ingenious, largely dehistoricized interpretations and imitations of seventeenth-century writers typically called B...
Le Baroque érotique chez Michel Tournier
Le Baroque érotique chez Michel Tournier
Le baroque érotique chez Tournier délimite un espace de plaisir original où corps textuel et langue des héros se croisent en écho et jouent d'effets spéculaires qui relèvent d'une ...
Tempo in Baroque Music and Dance
Tempo in Baroque Music and Dance
Growing interest in studies on the relationship between music and movement has given rise to many paradigms and theories, including embodied approaches that provide interesting met...
« Puissance baroque » dans les nouveaux médias. À propos de Prospero’s Books de Peter Greenaway
« Puissance baroque » dans les nouveaux médias. À propos de Prospero’s Books de Peter Greenaway
Dans une situation de crise historique, la culture baroque a développé une remarquable puissance esthétique, souvent instrumentalisée par des projets de ...
Small head movements increase and colour noise in data from five video-based P–CR eye trackers
Small head movements increase and colour noise in data from five video-based P–CR eye trackers
AbstractWe empirically investigate the role of small, almost imperceptible balance and breathing movements of the head on the level and colour of noise in data from five commercial...
Between Art and Gameness: Critical Theory and Computer Game Aesthetics
Between Art and Gameness: Critical Theory and Computer Game Aesthetics
This article argues that the computer game can be a locus of aesthetic form in contemporary culture. The context for understanding this claim is the decline of the artwork as beare...
Recent Results
Native Species, Human Communities and Cultural Relationships
Native Species, Human Communities and Cultural Relationships
Species are ordinarily conceived of as being native or non-native to either a geographical location or an ecological community. I submit that species may also be native or non-nati...
Comparison of A-weighted sound pressure level (dB(A)), loudness-level weighted sound pressure level (dB(EQL)), and loudness with respect to environmental noise assessment.
Comparison of A-weighted sound pressure level (dB(A)), loudness-level weighted sound pressure level (dB(EQL)), and loudness with respect to environmental noise assessment.
A pair of related tools useful for environmental noise assessment are time-varying psychoacoustic loudness, and an expression of sound pressure level in dB[SPL] weighted dynamicall...
Learning from Henry Mayhew
Learning from Henry Mayhew
The almost forgotten ethnographer, Henry Mayhew, is shown to be of methodological relevance to contemporary ethnography in the context of current hesitations, doubts, and rejection...
Raw potato, SEM
Raw potato, SEM
False-coloured scanning electron micrograph of raw potato. Raw potato reveals a structure made up of smooth ovals that look like miniature potatoes which conform to a fractal-like ...