Painterly ‘Rendering of the Country’ as Political Landscape? Trips in search of Native Character in German-speaking Countries of the Era of the Enlightenment
Andrzej Pieńkos
a.j.pienkos@uw.edu.plWarszawa, Instytut Historii Sztuki UW (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0630-3008
Abstract
The research into depicting landscape in the Enlightenment has developed dynamically as of the
1970s. The major focus is, however, on revolutionary in their impact open-air studies executed in
Italy by artists arriving from behind the Alps in the late 18th century and around 1800. Less attention is paid to the views of the Alps and the visual documentation of exploration trips. Interestingly, the least known and understood is the phenomenon of exploring one’s own country, the native land. The paper points to the examples of this tendency from e.g., France, Scandinavia, and Poland, nonetheless focusing on German-speaking countries. Definite examples of rendering native elements serve for the reflection on the concept of ‘political landscape’. Questions are posed on the essential motivations for the earliest visual depictions of a country or of a state: some initiatives came directly from rulers, in the majority of the cases, however, the motivation was a combination of various inspirations: political, literary, artistic, and mercantile. A factor, easily discernible, present in the majority of the analysed phenomena from the 18th century, is the attempt to imitate Dutch models from the 17th century.
Keywords:
landscape painting, nation, geographical discoveries, Enlightenment, plein-air studies, visual propaganda, political artReferences
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Authors
Andrzej Pieńkosa.j.pienkos@uw.edu.pl
Warszawa, Instytut Historii Sztuki UW Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0630-3008
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