Peter Brueghel the Elder

Popular Landscape

Specializing in landscapes populated by peasants, Brueghel is often credited as one of the first landscape artists to paint landscape for landscape's sake rather than focus on religious or historical themes. Due to his detailed depictions of common life among the peasantry, Brueghel distinguished himself from contemporaries who tended to focus on aristocratic and/or religious activities. His earthy, unsentimental portrayals provide excellent records of village rituals such as agricultural practices, hunts, meals, festivals, dances, and games. In a sense, Brueghel's work provides a visual 'ethnography' of vanished folk cultures in terms of both physical and social aspects. In this work, Brueghel depicts about 100 identifiable Netherlander idioms including some shared in English such as "swimming against the tide," "big fish eat little fish," "banging one's head against a brick wall," and "armed to the teeth." A comprehensive record of geography, culture, and folk practices, Brueghel maps out a peasant universe in this comprehensive work.

Albrecht Altdorfer

Dominant Landscape

In his work The Battle of Issus (or Alexander), Altdorfer's depiction of the famous battlefield is unequivocally dominated by the landscape rather than the human element. But, the historical content and warrior action are not central to the painting's composition. In fact, figures of soldiers are represented in miniscule scale and appear as extensions of the landscape rather than foci for the viewer. Considered to be one of the foremost painters of pure landscape, Altdorfer employed the Danube valley as inspiration for his lush forest scenes and gently rolling hills. This unusual painting was commissioned by William IV, Duke of Bavaria as one of a suite by various artists. Considered to be one of his most famous and best works, Altdorfer's chosen perspective takes a hypothetical view of the whole Mediterranean from modern Turkey to include the island of Cyprus and the mouths of the Nile and the Red Sea (behind the isthmus to the left). It is thought to be the earliest work of art to document the curvature of the Earth from a highly elevated vantage point.

Lucas Cranach

Universal Realism

In his masterpiece The Stag Hunt of the Elector, Cranach employs an aerial perspective reminiscent of Patinir's bird's-eye view. His realistic depictions of flora, fauna, and practices associated with hunting provide a comprehensive record of game hunting in the 16th century. In the distance, Cranach hints at an urban setting, and a castle looms over the entire scene validating the authority of the royal hunt. Cranach's rich use of geographical detail is apparant in the effusive portrayal of thick forests and river currents. The subject of a royal hunt is holistically documented in the artist's fastidious attention to detail.

Joachim Patinir

World Landscape

In his painting Landscape with Charon Crossing the Styx, Patinir employs a bird's-eye view over an expansive landscape encompassing both heaven and hell. This type of composition is known as a Weltlandschaft ("world landscape.") Patinir depicts the famed boatman of Virgil's Aeneid and Dante's Inferno as he ferries a dead soul across the river Styx. Patinir symbolizes heaven and hell through his color choices. On the lefthand side, heaven is represented in vivid blue skies, sparkling turquoise rivers, and green, lushly forested hills. On the righthand side, a dark sky filled with ominous clouds and fiery flames hints at the horrors waiting behind the gates of Hell guarded by the sleeping three-headed dog Cerebus. The placement of Charon's boat in the center of the painting emphasizes the uneasy fate of the passenger caught between these two worlds. Based on observations of landscapes native to Patinir's native homeland the Netherlands, this work represents a synthesis of the local, national, and universal.

Cosmography & Autopsy

In his essay collection entitled Geography & Vision: Seeing, Imagining and Representing the World, Denis Cosgrove explores the historical linkages between geography and cosmography. Cosmography is the science of mapping the universe and attempts to describe both the heaven and the earth. According to Cosgrove, "Cosmographers mapped spaces well beyond the surface of the earth, recognizing the inseparability of terrestrial and celestial forms and patterns" (34). By the end of the Renaissance, a rise in technologies (e.g. the camera obscura and optical lens) and new empirical ways of viewing the world led to a crisis in cosmology. On one hand, religious critics argued that cosmographers were attempting to raise themselves to the level of the Creator in their ambitious pursuit of knowledge, not unlike the Biblical caution against hubris depicted in Brueghel's Tower of Babel to the left. On the other hand, since certain aspects of cosmography (such as the study of heaven) were based on second rather than firsthand knowledge, cosmography fell outside the range of what was construed to be scientific and verifiable. Cosgrove calls the new eyewitness approach "autopsy." Interestingly, he notes, "those who came closest to achieving such a cosmographic autopsy were not the scholars but the painters" (42).

Placing Music

"Toute musique qui ne peint rien n'est que du bruit."

-Jean Le Rond d'ALEMBERT,

Encyclopédie, Discours préliminaire, première partie

D'Alembert's quote translates as: "Any music that paints nothing is only noise." This very enlightened, rational concept of music's role is also surprisingly unassuming when juxtaposed against grandiose theories of Absolute Music, music that stands alone and independent of any imagery, stories, or other "non-musical" considerations. Brahms was a big proponent of this. Personally, I throw in with D'Alembert. As a musician, I simply can't believe that music needs to exist in some autonomous, abstract state devoid of interpretation and meaning in order to be True Music. In fact, what enhances the experience of music is each listener's ability to assign personal meaning and visualizations to the auditory revelation of a performance. For example, this week I'm practicing in the evening with the Reno Philharmonic. We're polishing up Brahms' First Symphony at the moment. Every time that I play it, I come away with a different set of inner dialogues and imaginings. But, there is still the same overriding emotional impression - a pulling away of the soul to infinite heights. (Sorry, maybe that's a BIT over the top!)

Anyway, this blog has been created for the purposes of GEOG 701H and will explore issues related to Advanced Cartography as well as my own academic struggles toward placing music.