Religious and Historical Paintings

RELIGIOUS AND HISTORICAL PAINTINGS

When the Roman Catholic Church replaced the Roman Empire as the power behind Western Europe, they used the Roman’s love of mosaic and fresco to produce the first Roman Catholic religious art. By the time of the barbarian invasions of Western Europe, Catholic monks resided within monasteries, copying and writing books that were illuminated by glorious illustrations and left another example of European religious art.

In the decades just preceding the Renaissance, another wave of religious art swept Europe. This time it came in two waves, one from the north and one from the south. In the north, oil painting developed, as the flax plant was used to produce both the oil that binds the pigments and the linen that the paintings were painted upon. In the south, a whole new way of thinking developed as the ancient Greek and Roman texts, long lost or buried in the monasteries, came back into the hands of the Europeans once Muslim translations resurfaced. The writings of the ancient Roman and Greek scientists, mathematicians, philosophers, historians and artists opened the minds of the 15th century Italians and launched the Renaissance.

Between the world of Northern Europe and Southern Europe, a world of new art appeared. The economy, revitalized after centuries of barbarian invasions, poured money into the art world and stunning works appeared. The Renaissance introduced Leonardo de Vinci, Michelangelo, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Raphael, and Botticelli, to name a few. De Vinci’s Last Supper, Michelangelo’s Last Judgment and Raphael’s Sistine Madonna are among the most well known religious paintings in Western art.

In Northern Europe, the artistic Renaissance was less religious as the Protestant revolution looked down upon iconography and the independent religions that arose did not provide financial support for religious art. Instead, wealthy patrons with religious fervor commissioned works such as Rembrandt’s Descent From The Cross or the frightfully busy paintings of Hieronymus Bosch.

Religious paintings continued to be the strong suite of the Italians such as the Mannerists and the famous Baroque religious paintings of Caravaggio but by the 18th century, secular subjects were crowding out the work of the religious. One rising art style was historical paintings.

Long before the History Channel, there was an interest in recreating history using a visual style. Historical paintings were deeply influences by the large-scale religious paintings that preceded them. Da Vinci may have painted a microcosm of the Battle of Anghiari for Soderini and Machiavelli in the city of Florence, but the work no longer exists.

The style may have reached it peak at the time of Napoleon, when Jacque-Louis David painted a series of works celebrating the Emperor, including his crossing of the Alps and his consecration as Emperor. 19th century France was filled with historical paintings and the decline of that style may have been one reason for the artistic reactions of the Impressionists.

While many of the larger historical paintings can seem cluttered or even overwhelming in their visual complexity, some are very well known, such as Emanuel Leutze’s Washington Crossing The Delaware. A wealth of historical information can be found within these paintings and the scale of some of them can even bring you into another place and time.

Other works of Fine Art you may enjoy:

The Connections Of Mary Cassatt

Bend In the River, an oil painting

Silence In the City, a cityscape painting