Architectural Painting

Architectural painting is a form of genre painting where the predominant focus lies on architecture, both outdoors views and interiors. While architecture was present in many of the earliest paintings and illuminations, it was mainly used as background or to provide rhythm to a painting. In the Renaissance, architecture was used to emphasize the perspective and create a sense of depth, like in Masaccio’s Holy Trinity from the 1420s.

Architectural painting is a genre in the art that has construction work, both exterior and interior, as the main motive. Art art was cultivated in ancient times, especially in the Romans (examples are murals in Pompeii), but not for self-purpose but for the purpose of creating a background for figure scenes or as a constituent of a landscape.

Architectural painting is a direction of painting that has the architecture of the subject; According to his subject, it soon depicts the interior and interior of the building, soon its exterior appearance and comes near the reproduction of major building complexes, neighborhoods similar to the landscape painting. As for architecture painting, in particular, to illustrate the architectural work not only by reliable perception of its style and character, but also by the clear presentation of its spatial unfolding, the perspective will play a major role in this art branch, line-as well as air perspective . A lively spotlight will often make it impossible for the image to appear as a schematic, dry architectural scratch, which contradicts the painter’s purpose of architectural paintings.

In Western art, architectural painting as an independent genre developed in the 16th century in Flanders and the Netherlands, and reached its peak in 16th and 17th century Dutch painting. Later, it developed in a tool for Romantic paintings, with e.g. views of ruins becoming very popular. Closely related genres are architectural fantasies and trompe-l’oeils, especially illusionistic ceiling painting, and cityscapes.

Western Architecture painting:
While architectural painting first emerges as a fully developed, independent art branch in the 16th century, it is far earlier as decorative art, thus in ancient art, what the Pompeiian murals bear witness. In the Middle Ages, it depicts religious painting, serving as its background for its representations, and seems to take its subjects less from the surrounding reality than from the theater scenes of the day.

Gradually, under the development of art gradually emerges with special attention, which is due, among other things, to the fact that the painters are often also masterbuilders. During the daunting Renaissance, therefore, it also takes a significant recovery within the counter that its servant relationship with the religious and historical image implies. Several painters from the period, such as Paolo Uccello, Piero della Francesca, Melozzo da Forli and Benozzo Gozzoli studied the perspective and used it extensively in their paintings. Andrea Mantegna painted several architectural perspectives in Padova. Albertis and Leonardo da Vinci’s geometric studies and picturesque company further developed the genre. Under Rafael (compare the architecture of Pietro Peruginos and the Raphael Trolovelsen, the school in Athens) and the Venetians reached architecture painting according to its culmination point as an ornamental joints, what a beautiful splendor and beauty.

The 16th century saw the development of architectural painting as a separate genre in Western art. The main centers in this period were Flanders and the Netherlands. The first important architectural painter was Dutch Hans Vredeman de Vries (1527-1607), who was both an architect and a painter. Students of Hans Vredeman de Vries, both in Flanders and in the Netherlands, include his sons Salomon and Paul, and Hendrik van Steenwijk I. Through them the genre was popularized and their family and students turned it into one of the main domains of Dutch Golden Age painting.

In the 17th century, architectural painting became one of the leading genres in the Dutch Golden Age, together with portrait painting and landscapes.

Architectural paintings, and the related vedute or cityscapes, were especially popular in 18th century Italy. Another genre closely related to architectural painting proper were the capriccios, fantasies set in and focusing on an imaginary architecture.

Among the Scandinavian representatives of the 19th century are Vincent Stoltenberg Lerche from Norway and the Danish painters Jørgen Roed, Constantin Hansen and Christen Købke.

The Danish architectural painting gained good living conditions during the Eckersberg era with its strong emphasis on safe design and thorough knowledge of the perspective of faith in faithful nature observation; The high warming interest of building art and its various historical forms also had to be fertilizing. Eckersberg himself has painted architectural images, Martinus Rørbye walked in his footsteps. Within the art circle, it is often non-professionals who have reached the highest level; Excellent samples of architectural painting are therefore due to Jørgen Roed (eg the Farm in Bargello, Frederiksborg Castle), Constantin Hansen (Temple of Pæstum) and Christen Købke (Aarhus Cathedral, etc.); Joakim Skovgaard and Kristian Zahrtmann have delivered skilled work from the Parthenon. Among the true architectural painters are Heinrich Hansen, who has gained great popularity in paintings (mostly Dutch renaissance) with bravur and disappointing resemblance reproduces accessories such as shiny floors, brilliant marble etc. Position has painted a lot of watercolors with interesting items, collected around Europe’s building art. Furthermore, Joseph Theodor Hansen, who is especially fond of Venice’s architecture, and among others, Niels Bredal, Peter Kornbeck, August Fischer, Adolf Hansen, Christian Vilhelm Nielsen and Carl Christian Andersen, are mentioned. Karl Jensen has reached a high level of picturesque effect and good line-up in pictures from Rosenborg, church interiors from Helsingør and Lübeck and more. Other well-known names are Tom Petersen, Johan Rohde, Gustav Vilhelm Blom, Malthe Engelsted, Vilhelm Hammershøi and Svend Hammershøi, Carl Martin Soya-Jensen, Charlotte Frimodt, Erick Struckmann, Marie Henriques, Augusta Thejll Clemmensen, and more.

Eastern Architecture painting:
In China, architectural painting was called “jiehua”, and mainly seen as an inferior type of painting. Known masters of the genre include the 10th century painter Guo Zhongshu, and Wang Zhenpeng, who was active around 1300.

jiehua is a kind of Chinese painting, that is, when drawing, it is used to draw the boundary line and draw objects such as buildings. The most famous boundary picture for the Ching Ming on the river map.

Using the rule compass, a technique to draw precisely the buildings such as castle towers and bridges, boats and Carriage.

The jiehua was already produced in the Jin Dynasty and has been developed quite well in the Sui Dynasty. The earliest existing large-scale boundary painting is the “Que floor map” in the tomb of Li Chongrun, prince of the Tang Dynasty.
Renowned artists in the painting industry included Yin Jizhao in the late Tang Dynasty, Zhao Deyi in the Five Dynasties, Guo Zhongshu in the early Northern Song Dynasty, Wang Zhenpeng in the Yuan Dynasty, Li Rongjin in the Yuan Dynasty, Yuan Ying in the Ming Dynasty and Yuan Jiang in the Qing Dynasty.