The easel, or studio, picture was a form developed during the Renaissance with the establishment of the painter as an individual artist. Its scale and portability enabled European artists to extend the range of themes, previously restricted to those suitable to mural decoration. Easel and panel forms include still life, portraiture, landscape, and genre subjects and permit the representation of ephemeral effects of light and atmosphere that the more intimate forms of Asian art had already allowed the painters of scrolls, screens, and fans to express. Although easel paintings are occasionally commissioned for a special purpose, ... (100 of 18,976 words)Easel and panel painting
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Family Group"/> Family Group, oil on canvas by Frederick R. Spencer, 1840; in the Brooklyn Museum, New York. 74 × 91.4 cm.
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Virgin and Child with St. Anne"/> The interwoven, linear pattern of Leonardo da Vinci’s panel painting Virgin and Child with St. Anne, c. 1502–16; in the Louvre, Paris. 1.68 × 1.3 metres.
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Virgin and Child with St. Anne, oil on wood panel by Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1502–16. In the Louvre, Paris.
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Colour(Left) Colour wheel made up of the primary colours and their basic secondary and tertiary mixtures. (Right) Colour wheel with approximate, inherent tonal values.
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An example of the early oil method of (left) colour glazing a (right) monochrome painting.
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Coloured afterimagesIf a person stares for about 30 seconds at the coloured disk under a clear light and then fixes upon the empty space of the adjacent circle, coloured afterimages will appear.
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Optical colour change(Top) By complementary action, the same gray pigment will appear greenish when adjacent to red but reddish if adjacent to green. (Bottom) A green hue will seem cool if surrounded by yellow but warm when surrounded by blue-green.
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Emotive colour relationshipsAn identical pattern of shapes may express a different emotional mood through each colour variation.
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Opening out the picture spaceThe movement of shapes in Morris Louis’s acrylic painting Alpha-Phi, 1961, directs the spectator’s eye outside the picture surface. In the Tate Gallery, London. 2.59 × 4.58 metres. In contrast, Vermeer’s design is contrived to hold the spectator’s attention within the frame.
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Virgin and Child"/> The flat pattern design of the anonymous Spanish panel painting Virgin and Child, 12th century; in the Museo Arqueológico Artístico Episcopal, Vich, Spain.
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Madonna of the Harpies, tempera on wood by Andrea del Sarto, 1517; in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence. 2.07 × 1.78 m.
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Mont Sainte-Victoire, Seen from the Bibemus Quarry, oil on canvas by Paul Cézanne, 1897; in the Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
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Renaissance cassone, painted and gilded wood, Florence, 15th century; in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
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Banquet scene with musicians, tempera painting on gesso from the tomb of Nebamun at Thebes, 18th dynasty (c. 1400 bc); in the British Museum, London.
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Christ Discovered in the Temple"/> Christ Discovered in the Temple, egg tempera on panel with gold leaf by Simone Martini, 1342; in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. 49.5 × 35 cm.
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The Annunciation"/> Detail of The Annunciation, tempera on wood by Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi, 1333; in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
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Madonna Rucellai, tempera on wood by Duccio, 1285; in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
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Cave painting of a bull and a horse; in Lascaux Grotto, near Montignac, France.
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Magdalenian cave painting of a bison, Altamira, Spain
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Plato and Aristotle surrounded by philosophers, detail from School of Athens, fresco by Raphael, 1508–11; in the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican.
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The Creation of Adam, detail of the ceiling fresco by Michelangelo, 1508–12; in the Sistine Chapel, Vatican City.
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Detail of Renaissance sgraffito on the walls of the Březnice Château, Czech Republic.
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Crucifixion, oil on wood panel, by Giovanni Bellini, 1465; in the Louvre, Paris.
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Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, oil painting by Titian, c. 1550; in the Prado, Madrid.
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The Last Supper, fresco by Leonardo da Vinci, 1495–98; in Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan (in situ; prerestoration).
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The Monumental Turf"/> The Monumental Turf, watercolour painting by Albrecht Dürer, 1503; in the Albertina, Vienna. 41 × 31.5 cm.
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The Lauerzersee with Schwyz and the Mythen"/> The Lauerzersee with Schwyz and the Mythen, pencil, pen, ink, and watercolour on paper by J.M.W. Turner, c. 1848.
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Woodcutter Gazing at Waterfall"/> Woodcutter Gazing at Waterfall (detail) by Hokusai, ink and colour on paper scroll, 1798; in the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford, California.
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“At the Palais de Justice,” gouache on paper by Honoré Daumier; in the Musée du Petit Palais, Paris
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Mummy portrait of a young girl, encaustic painting from Al-Fayyūm, Egypt, 2nd century; in the Louvre, Paris.
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Le Luxe II"/> Le Luxe II, casein painting by Henri Matisse, 1907–08; in the Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen.
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Fall"/> Fall, by Bridget Riley, 1963; in the Tate Gallery, London.
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Mother Combing Sara’s Hair, pastel on paper by Mary Cassatt, c. 1901; in the collection of Christie’s, London.
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Young Lady of the Leblond Family"/> Young Lady of the Leblond Family, pastel drawing by Rosalba Carriera, 1730; in the Accademia, Venice.
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John Keats, miniature oil on ivory by Joseph Severn, 1819.
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Tokugawa-period writing box of black lacquered wood decorated in gold paint, inlaid lead, and pewter, attributed to Ogata Kōrin (1658–1716).
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Navajo man creating a sand painting.
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Silhouette portrait by Charles Willson Peale; in the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
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Murals depicting scenes from the afterlife, in the Tomb of Sennedjem, Thebes, Egypt.
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The Annunciation, fresco by Fra Angelico, 1438–45; in the Museum of San Marco, Florence.
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The Soldiers of Zapata, detail of a mural by David Alfaro Siqueiros, 1966, Cuernavaca, Mex.
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Re-creation of an untitled mural by Keith Haring on the corner of Houston Street and Bowery in New York City.
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A Young Man Among Roses"/> A Young Man Among Roses, watercolour miniature by Nicholas Hilliard, c. 1588; in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
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Las cántigas de Santa María"/> Detail from “The Book of Dice,” in Las cántigas de Santa María (“The Canticles of the Virgin Mary,” 1280–83), by King Alphonso X of Castile (1252–84).
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The aṣṭamaṅgalas, or eight auspicious Jaina symbols, seen above and below the seated image of the Jina (saviour), miniature from the Kalpa-sūtra, 15th century; in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
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The Admonitions of the Court Instructress"/> The Admonitions of the Court Instructress, detail of an ink and colour on silk hand scroll, attributed to Gu Kaizhi, possibly a Tang dynasty copy of a Dong (Eastern) Jin dynasty original; in the British Museum, London.
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The Chinese Beauty Yang Guifei, ink scroll painting by Hosoda Eishi, c. 1800–20. 43.9 × 60.3 cm.
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Genji monogatari: Miotsukushi, centre detail of left screen of a pair of sixfold screens by Sōtatsu, colour on gold-leafed paper; in the Seikado Bunko Art Museum, Tokyo.
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Vernis Martin fan with mother-of-pearl guards, French, early 18th century; in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
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“Monogram,” combine painting (mixed media) by Robert Rauschenberg, 1959; in the Moderna Museet, Stockholm
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Peasant Dance, oil on wood by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, c. 1568; in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
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“The Temptation of St. Anthony,” triptych, interior of left panel, oil painting by Hiëronymus Bosch, middle period; in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon
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Click on image for enlargements of panels. “Garden of Earthly Delights” triptych, oil on wood by Hiëronymus Bosch, c. 1505–10; in the Prado, Madrid
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Kelly, oil painting by Sir Sidney Nolan, 1954; in a private collection.
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Self-Portrait at the Age of 34, oil on canvas by Rembrandt van Rijn, 1640; in the National Gallery, London. 102 × 80 cm.
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Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry"/> The illustration for January from Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry, manuscript illuminated by the Limburg brothers, 1416; in the Musée Condé, Chantilly, France.
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Young Woman with a Water Pitcher, oil painting by Johannes Vermeer, c. 1664–65; in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. 45.7 × 40.6 cm.
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“Waterfall,” oil painting by Jacob van Ruisdael, c. 1670?; in the Uffizi, Florence
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The Doges’ Palace and Piazza San Marco, Venice, oil on canvas by Canaletto; in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
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The Trinity, oil on canvas by Tintoretto, 1564; in the Galleria Sabauda, Turin, Italy. 122 × 181 cm.
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Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhana, Mewār miniature painting, early 18th century; in a private collection
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Various types of artist’s brushes.
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The paintings on ancient Greek pottery give evidence of how people of the time understood their shared narratives of myth and religion.
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Artist Chuck Close, in conversation with Anna Deavere Smith, discussing his creative process and explaining that using a grid system helped him overcome his dyslexia, Aspen Ideas Festival, Aspen Institute, Colorado, July 1, 2009. Click here to view the video at Fora.tv.