painters perfected the technique of painting with an oil medium in netherlandish painting.
where did painters perfect the technique of painting with an oil medium?
netherlandish painting
the renaissance (french for 'rebirth'), a cultural movement roughly spanning the 14th through the mid-17th century, heralded the study of classical sources, as well as advances in science which profoundly influenced european intellectual and artistic life. in the low countries, especially in modern day flanders, a new way of painting was established in the beginning of the 15th century. in the footsteps of the developments made in the illumination of manuscripts, especially by the limbourg brothers, artists became fascinated by the tangible in the visible world and began representing objects in an extremely naturalistic way. the adoption of oil painting whose invention was traditionally, but erroneously, credited to jan van eyck, made possible a new verisimilitude in depicting this naturalism. the medium of oil paint was already present in the work of melchior broederlam, but painters like jan van eyck and robert campin brought its use to new heights and employed it to represent the naturalism they were aiming for. with this new medium the painters of this period were capable of creating richer colors with a deep intense tonality. the illusion of glowing light with a porcelain-like finish characterized early netherlandish painting and was a major difference to the matte surface of tempera paint used in italy. unlike the italians, whose work drew heavily from the art of ancient greece and rome, the northerners retained a stylistic residue of the sculpture and illuminated manuscripts of the middle ages (especially its naturalism). the most important artist of this time was jan van eyck, whose work ranks among the finest made by artists who are now known as early netherlandish painters or flemish primitives (since most artists were active in cities in modern day flanders). the first painter of this period was the master of flémalle, nowadays identified as robert campin, whose work follows the art of the international gothic. another important painter of this period was rogier van der weyden, whose compositions stressed human emotion and drama, demonstrated for instance in his descent from the cross, which ranks among the most famous works of the 15th century and was the most influential netherlandish painting of christ's crucifixion. other important artists from this period are hugo van der goes (whose work was highly influential in italy), dieric bouts (who was among the first northern painters to demonstrate the use of a single vanishing point), petrus christus, hans memling and gerard david.
history of painting
matisse once noted that an artist “must draw first to cultivate the spirit and that it is only after years of preparation that the young artist should touch color. . .” whether or not sanyu was aware of matisse's views, this was precisely the path he followed. all the sketching and drawing during his first eight years in paris served to prepare sanyu for his eventual foray into oil painting. his earliest oil painting is dated 1929, the year he met roché, who undoubtedly saw the future potential of the oil medium for sanyu and encouraged him to explore it. under roché's tutelage, sanyu gained entrance to the salon des tuileries in 1930 and for the first time exhibited an oil painting, instead of the nude and still life drawings selected for previous salon exhibitions. by the early 1930s sanyu was fully committed to oil painting, never revisiting printmaking and returning to drawings only as study sketches for his works in oil.
sanyu (painter)