On 28 May, the University of Amsterdam’s Down to the Ground project team hosts a public lecture on technical and stylistic developments in early 17th century Dutch landscape painting, by Dr. Melanie Gifford.
For five years, the Down to the Ground project sponsored by the NWO has gathered art historians, conservators and scientists to study the impact of colored grounds on Dutch paintings between 1550 and 1650. In this lecture, organized on the occasion of an international Down to the Ground expert meeting, Dr. Gifford will talk about her ongoing research into Dutch seventeenth-century landscape paintings, with emphasis on the role of the color of the preparatory layer applied below the paint layers.
Public Lecture by Melanie Gifford
This lecture explores how the artist’s choice of a ground layer evolved: from the white grounds used by the earliest landscape specialists in the sixteenth century to a wide range of colored grounds available to seventeenth century painters. It also looks at the consequences of this development for the appreciation of these landscapes. Different grounds created different visual qualities, nuances that must have appealed to specific groups of art lovers: from collectors seeking refined views of far-off lands, to those who appreciated the immediacy of a quickly noted local scene.
Dr. Gifford will argue that the quick sketchy painting technique, which exposed the entire painting process from ground to final touches, was meant to imply that the artist had worked on-site in locales art lovers would have recognized from their own wanderings. Highlighting a shift in the appreciation of the virtuoso, this also marked a new pride in the landscape of an emerging nation and a fascination for the newly emerging reality-effect that was considered as something typically Dutch.
Program and registration
The program is as follows and can be attended free of charge:
- 16:00 – 16:15 Arrival with coffee/tea
- 16:15 – 17:15 Introduction and public lecture
- 17:15 – 18:15 Drinks in the Doelenzaal foyer
Visit the website of the University of Amsterdam to read more and register for the lecture.