Winter landscapes of western art
The representation of winter landscapes in Western art begins in the 15th century. Winter and snowy landscapes are not seen in early European painting as most of the subjects were religious. Painters therefore generally did not depict landscapes. The first artistic representations of snow are from the 15th and 16th centuries.
Paintings that mainly show snow are mostly true-to-life or real landscapes, but some of these works contain landscapes influenced by religion or even fantasy landscapes. Most of these winter landscapes in art history are plein-air depictions of winter scenes that play with the texture of the gray winter light to create that special winter atmosphere. The depiction of snow in Europe is particularly widespread in northern European painting, as the frequent snowfall in northern European countries is part of winter. The first snow depictions therefore come from Northern Europe .
Early European painters generally did not depict snow as most of their paintings were supposed to conform to religious regulations.
literature
- Wolfgang Stechow : The Winter Landscape in the History of Art . In: Criticism . tape 2 , no. 2 , 1960, ISSN 0011-1589 , pp. 175-189 , JSTOR : 23090920 (English).