Architectural painting (also Architecture painting) is a form of genre painting where the predominant focus lies on architecture, including both outdoor and interior views. 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.
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.[1][2] 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 artists specialized in architectural painting
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.[3] 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.
Andrea Pozzo (1642–1709), mainly illusionistic paintings
Luigi Quaini (1643–1717), not a pure architectural painter, but a contributor of architecture to other paintings
Netherlands
In the 17th century, architectural painting became one of the leading genres in the Dutch Golden Age, together with portrait painting and landscapes. Notable Dutch painter of the genre include:
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.
Dirck van Delen, A family beside the tomb of Willem I in the Nieuwe Kerk, Delft, 1645, Rijksmuseum
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.[4]
Hendrick de Keyser was a Dutch sculptor, merchant in Belgium bluestone, and architect who was instrumental in establishing a late Renaissance form of Mannerism changing into Baroque. Most of his works appeared in Amsterdam, some elsewhere in the Dutch Republic. He was the father of Pieter and Thomas de Keyser and Willem, and the uncle of Huybert de Keyser, who became his apprentices and all involved in building, decoration and architecture.
Events from the year 1649 in art.
Events from the year 1603 in art.
Pieter Fransz de Grebber (c.1600–1652/3) was a Dutch Golden Age painter.
Gerrit Adriaenszoon Berckheyde was a Dutch Golden Age painter, active in Haarlem, Amsterdam, and The Hague, who is best known today for his cityscapes.
Job Adriaenszoon Berckheyde was a Dutch artist of the 17th century, active in Haarlem, Amsterdam, and The Hague.
Flemish Baroque painting was a style of painting in the Southern Netherlands during Spanish control in the 16th and 17th centuries. The period roughly begins when the Dutch Republic was split from the Habsburg Spain regions to the south with the Spanish recapturing of Antwerp in 1585 and goes until about 1700, when Spanish Habsburg authority ended with the death of King Charles II. Antwerp, home to the prominent artists Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, and Jacob Jordaens, was the artistic nexus, while other notable cities include Brussels and Ghent.
Frans Francken the Younger was a Flemish painter and the best-known and most prolific member of the large Francken family of artists. He painted large altarpieces for churches as well as smaller historical, mythological and allegorical scenes. His depictions of collectors' cabinets established a popular new genre of art in the era. Francken often collaborated with other artists, adding figures and narrative elements to scenes created by specialists in landscape, architectural and floral still life paintings.
Hendrik van Steenwijck II (c.1580–1640) was a Baroque painter mostly of architectural interiors, but also of biblical scenes and still lifes.
Hendrik van Steenwijck I (also Steenwyck, Steenwijk) (c. 1550 – buried 1 September 1603) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, from early in the period, known mainly for his church interiors.
Pieter Neefs the Elder or Pieter Neeffs the Elder was a Flemish painter who specialized in architectural interiors of churches. Active in Antwerp, he was influenced by the works of the Dutch architectural painters Hendrik van Steenwijk the Elder and the Younger. His principal contribution to the genre were his nocturnal church interiors lit by two light sources.
Pieter Neefs the Younger or Pieter Neeffs the Younger was a Flemish painter who mainly specialized in architectural interiors of churches. Son of the prominent architectural painter Pieter Neefs the Elder he started out working in his father's workshop in Antwerp. He collaborated with various leading staffage painters to create lively church interiors.
The Haarlem Guild of Saint Luke was first a Christian, and later a city Guild for various trades falling under the patron saints Luke the Evangelist and Saint Eligius.
Hendrik Hondius I was a Flemish-born and trained engraver, cartographer, and publisher who settled in the Dutch Republic in 1597.
Paul Vredeman de Vries, was a Flemish painter and draughtsman who specialised in architectural paintings and, in particular, church interiors.
Roger de Piles's L'Abrégé de la vie des peintres...avec un traité du peintre parfait was a major art biography of painters. It was written by the French spy Roger de Piles. In 1692, during the War of the League of Augsburg, he was arrested in the Hague carrying a false passport and imprisoned for the next five years, where he wrote his L'Abrégé in 7 parts; 1) Sketch of the perfect painter, 2) Greek painters; 3) Painters from Rome & Florence; 4) Painters from Venice; 5) Painters from Lombardy; 6) Painters from Germany and the Low Countries; 7) Painters from France and ending with his famous "Balance of painters". The book was finally published in 1699 following his appointment as Conseiller Honoraire to the Académie de peinture et de sculpture in Paris.
Salomon Vredeman de Vries, was a Flemish painter and draughtsman who specialised in architectural paintings.
Pieter Stevens II or Peter Stevens II was a Flemish painter and draughtsman known for his landscapes. He left Flanders to work for the court of Emperor Rudolf II in Prague. The circulation of prints made after a series of romantic Bohemian landscape drawings by Stevens and other artists had an important influence on the development of Flemish and Dutch landscape art in the 17th century.
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