A Christian’s cyber tour around the National Gallery
Interest in the visual arts and design consciousness are a major part of our present culture. Some understanding of these things may help us as Christians to engage with our thoughtful and sensitive neighbours. Kathryn Hitchings, an Art History graduate in membership at Cauldwell Hall Road Baptist Church, Ipswich, writes the following article.
My intention in this article is to encourage you to explore some of our country’s finest paintings, found within a fantastic collection. The advantage of now living within an internet community is that we can all explore paintings without even having to move from our desktop or library. However, the experience of seeing these paintings in the flesh can never be replaced by a quick perusal online. Hopefully reading on will stimulate you to do this as well.
Why look at paintings?
Many people, Christians or otherwise, would ask this question. Largely, it is because they think they have no artistic ability themselves, or they don’t know anything about art history. They are intimidated and put off. Some Christians may be driven away by the excesses and seeming godlessness of Modern Art. Yet good art is best approached with an open, uncluttered mind. Some of the most interesting and perceptive reactions I’ve heard to paintings have been by children, who speak what they see rather than spout their pretensions.
We are made in the image of a creator God, who delights in the work of his own hands. There is therefore within us a desire to create and represent. It is an innate part of our humanity, unique to human beings. It is a God given gift, which, at its best, is wonderful to behold. We should go and look at great art because it is beautiful, and our enjoyment will lead to the praise of God.
Secondly, this desire to create can also enable humans to reflect their inner thoughts and beliefs. The artist David Hockney said: ‘If you can draw, even a little bit, you can express all kinds of ideas that might otherwise be lost – delights, frustrations, whatever torments you or pleases you.’ It is for this reason that paintings are a great way to discover the mindset and needs of a particular age or culture. Some Modern Art may shock us, but it may also help us to understand the heart cry of our generation.
I have chosen seven paintings from the National Gallery, all of which can be found on their website under Collection//Collection Highlights. These paintings usefully illustrate key art movements and represent some of the greatest artists of all time. Together we will explore them chronologically, starting with:
‘The
Virgin of the Rocks’ 1491 Leonardo Da Vinci
The Virgin of the Rocks (with the Infant St. John adoring the Infant Christ accompanied by an Angel) c.1508 (oil on panel) by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
National Gallery, London, UK
Sadly in vogue because of Dan Brown’s theologically dubious novel, yet Leonardo is an undisputed artistic genius. The sheer beauties of his paintings clearly defy anyone to believe that man could create such works without the guiding hand of a transcendent God. One cannot think of an artistic rival to the serene beauty of this angel’s face. We can but wonder over how he achieved such fineness of her hair.
Leonardo was part of the Artistic movement known as The Renaissance. This word means literally, ‘rebirth’, and describes the changes that took place in European culture during the 15th and 16th centuries. The Middle Ages were left behind in favour of new ways of looking at the world. For artists this meant a seeking to make their paintings as close as possible to nature, to discover the laws of space and proportion. In fact, they even went beyond this, to instil their art with an ideal quality- they sought perfection, a kind of spiritual quality.
Leonardo engaged in experiments of all kinds, relentlessly trying to discover the laws governing nature. He said, ‘The first object of the painter is to make a flat plane appear as a body in relief and projecting down from that plane.’
He certainly achieves this objective. It is incredible to observe the way he uses light and shade to create such solid, perfectly formed figures.
‘Self Portrait’ 1640 Rembrandt
Rembrandt’s art, unlike the painters working in the Renaissance tradition, was part of the Protestant cultural heritage. This meant that their funding came from sources other than the established church and freed them up to paint everyday subject matter, not merely religious or Biblical topics. In fact ‘the mundane’ was celebrated by the Dutch Masters; God’s hand could be seen in all around. In fact, one of Rembrandt’s most experimental paintings is of a carcass of meat! (The Slaughtered Ox, 1643 – Glasgow, Art Gallery and Museum). However, Rembrandt did not shy away from biblical topics, he painted many. In fact several of his portraits are in the guise of biblical figures.
Yet it is Rembrandt’s technique that he is rightly remembered for. This artist paints with such tenderness and compassion. He uses dramatic areas of light and dark, and bold layers of paint, with sensitive attention to human expression. In this, one of many self portraits painted throughout his life, Rembrandt paints eyes with genius. Look deep into this face and you may understand why some believe that the eyes are the window to the soul.
‘Young Woman standing at a Virginal’ 1670 Vermeer
Vermeer, another great Protestant artist, celebrates everyday domestic interiors. His style could not be further apart from Rembrandt’s: he does not convey the emotion of the young girl. Instead she is an integral part of her calm and beautiful surroundings. Vermeer has a great mathematical mind; note the perfect use of corresponding shapes and angles. He is revelling in how the background detail corresponds with his sitter, whereas Rembrandt omits detail in order to focus on his face.
‘Whistlejacket’ 1762 Stubbs
George Stubbs, a British artist whose famous paintings are the subject of a recent National Gallery exhibition, expertly depicts the anatomy of horses. He clearly illustrates how art and scientific study can work so closely together, just as Vermeer married the disciplines of art and mathematics. In fact he was well known for his major publication ‘The Anatomy of the Horse’ of 1766.
Whistlejacket was a famous racehorse of the time. Note how Stubbs deletes background altogether in favour of focussing purely on the deep beauty of this creature; its glowing chestnut torso and frenzied expression. We fail to appreciate online the awesome effect created by the enormity of this work, a massive 292x246.4cm. Looking at this brings to mind the words of Psalm 147:10: His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man; the Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.
‘The
Haywain’ 1821 Constable
Known and loved particularly by our East Anglian readers, this painting is based on a site near Flatford. It is loved for its picture postcard charm and has indeed been recently short-listed as one of our nation’s ten best works of art. Constable’s world of landscape is calm and unthreatening; his scenes are idealised as they seek to create a sense of harmony. He never wished to leave England, unlike Turner who was constantly off in search of a dramatic landscape or weather effect.
‘Sunflowers’
1888 Van Gogh
Sunflowers, 1888 by Gogh, Vincent van (1853-90)National Gallery, London, UK
This work, another of the nation’s favourite ten, has also recently been preferred by a stranger group altogether:
‘According to a study, a selection of bumblebees alighted on the Dutch master’s Sunflowers at the expense of other equally vivid pictures… Professor Lars Chittka… suggested that the findings indicated that the bees had an innate attraction to flowers-and that the Van Gogh and Gauguin captured the essence of flowers, despite being highly expressive and emotive artists.’ (‘The Independent’ Mon 15 Aug 2005.)
Van Gogh is generally remembered as an artist who struggled under severe bouts of mental ill health. Yet, in spite, and possibly as a result of his condition, he was able to paint inanimate objects, such as sunflowers, with underlying feeling previously unknown in the art world. With lurid colour, simple forms and tortured strokes, his works were the inspiration for future Expressionists.
‘Bathers’ 1900-06 Cezanne
It is incredible to think that this painting is now one hundred years old yet it and others are the reason why Cezanne is known as the father of modern art. You may not view this as a particularly attractive view of women, yet it is groundbreaking in the way in which these forms are represented. The women’s features are omitted and their shapes are simple plains of blue and cream which correspond with the clouds above. Art was on its way to becoming abstract. In teaching Cezanne instructed that the painter ought to look for the cone, the sphere and the cylinder in nature. In future others were to take this literally.
We have come to the end of our quick tour of a few key works at The National Gallery. Hopefully you have understood and appreciated what you have seen. Perhaps you are even brave enough to look at others; even to embark upon discovering the next one hundred years!