The Birth of The Cityscape

The earliest Western  Renaissance renditions of Cityscapes begin in
Italy. I credit Giotto with rendering a premature form of linear perspective with a
mildly persuasive sense of three dimensional space by our standards.  At the time  his system was groundbreaking and, seen as miraculously lifelike . He found a system which appeared to generally move to a central vanishing point. He composed with two exterior flanks leaving a central open territory for the subject, a zone for the mind’s eye to feel space. (see  example) By the 17th century artists were still using this reliable stage-set formula, also exemplified in the free-standing triptych altarpiece model as a way of organizing  paintings with a central  primary panel and two flanking panels carrying the viewer into space and the subject.  Landscape painting had long used the notion of two framing side forms or curtains composed of foliage which were known as the coulisse, as a way to frame the motif and evoke a feeling of deep space. Look into this 17th Century painting of Claude Gellee’s and observe how the foliage of a framing tree keeps our attention from wandering out of the picture plane.  Historical models can be re-tuned by
assimilating contemporary conventions.  Today, I borrowed his compositional form, heated up the palette with yellow and red, and blurred the visual information to heighten both ambiguity and a sense of motion.  You can see this in my example,
a small oil on linen 18×18″. In the 18th century, accompanied by their omnipresent camera obscura machines, artists like  Bernardo Bellotto would explore scenes (  vedute ) of Rome. He had been  sent  to
Rome by his uncle, Canaletto, to transcribe views with the aid of  his uncle’s camera obscura. Bellotto later painted  some of his observations as you see here.  These vedute were later recomposed by
Canaletto in the studio using the same root architectural information but, altered
to become a different scene.  See  example.  By the early 19th century artists like Francois Marius Granet were painting small plein air works in the Roman countryside. Like Bellotto, Canaletto,  Claude, and Giotto,  Granet composed with two flanking framing forms revealing space, a vista,  between
them.  Corot would borrow  the example as well on his trips to
Rome.  The two vertical rock walls frame  a view of a distant city between them. They
function just as the Canaletto’s arch and walls did.  I too borrowed from this tradition when painting an urban motif like New York’s Times Square.  The two framing side walls of the buildings enfold a vertex of space. Initially I painted this first version with an emphasis on atmospheric perspective to help create mood and space as you see in this example.  By my next painting of Times Square I switched from aluminum to anodized white enameled aluminum to heighten  the colors. Again, I began by relying  on
atmospheric perspective but, after reconsideration I decided to make the
painting noisier, more cacophonous which required a greater variety of shapes and colors
and, a less misty atmosphere.  You can see how they changed here in version 1 and version 2  I soon tried  another version  but, this one began on straight aluminum with a darker mood.  After reviewing this beginning I missed the
noise, the rhythmic unfolding of vibrating colors and forms.   I stripped away the feeling of vague atmosphere in favor of urban chaos with clusters of a varieties of vibrating shape
and color notes.  I may yet paint a red glaze over the entire field. I’ll keep you posted. It’s still Giotto at heart.