History painting i

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbZ_MOWLMu8&list=PLuV1jGdFccmgyt5uGmd99XQjO12XqqSM0

6:21 
"helping them to reveal themselves to you, not just by observing them, but by also considering their context & their intended function"

Liked that quote bc thinking a lot about context & function lately in terms of my essay.

- Subject matter
- Narrative subjects

Across 4 centuries painting in its highest form was used to tell stories
Like writing an opera, play.

HISTORY PAINTING
- a species of narrative painting
- defined during renaissance
- had the highest purpose and value at the time.

LEON BATTISTA ALBERTI
- established history painting as a concept
- his treatus 'De Pictura' (1435) on painting. A how-to book for artists. explained perspective and other tools of the trade and also a rule book on correct ways to do things
- He wrote that was he called 'Histora' are pictures based on texts - Greek, Roman, & Christian

Tapestry, relief sculpture

More than a century b4 alberti defined history painting, a monumental narrative painting had been made in padua 
Giotto, Scrovegni Chapel, Padua 1302-05

Another Florentine -- Antonio de Pollaiuolo 
140yrs after giotto. 
pushes expressive possibilities further
Hurcules & Deianira

Rogier van der Weyden 
A contemporary of Alberti

Soon narrative scenes are inventing ways to suggest a more complex inner life for the actors.

Venice 1500s painters showing states of min that hadnt been seen in painting before; ambiguous, shift, dreamy, unknowable
less defined settings, and more atmosphere

History painting gives us work to do.
we need to look carefully, making sense of it is akin to reading
everyone sees history paintings differently.

Artists can put us in the picture bt including our alter egos.

A device Alberti recommended to painters saying its good to include somone in the picture looking out at the spectator.
there as a witness to an important event and invites us to too.

Can Dyck - Belisarius Begging Alms?

Romand general Belisarius
Recognised one of his former soldiers . 
The soldier makes it moral and plays role of spectator - he's completely absorbed in what hes seeing 
Absorbing and learning moral of the story.

Learning has always been a primary purpose of most history paintings.

Narrative pictures need to be compared with others - thats how we understand better what the artist added to the representation of the same subject or altered or just borrowed.

-- Art history THRIVES on comparisons

Differences of form and meaning

history painting always has an intended motive and messages

Mixture of facts and fiction.