Old Man at the Seaside (The Interpretation of a Painting) Cover Image

Öregember a tengerparton. Egy festmény és magyarázata
Old Man at the Seaside (The Interpretation of a Painting)

Author(s): Sándor Radnóti
Subject(s): Cultural history, Visual Arts
Published by: Korunk Baráti Társaság
Keywords: Claude Lorrain; theme; narrative; beauty; parable; image

Summary/Abstract: Claude Lorrain was one of the first painters in the long march of art history to break away from literary (religious, mythological) themes and to veer in the direction of more open interpretations of meaning. Works by Claude that have positively identifiable themes are scenes of a narrative nature, yet the titles that were applied to such paintings – Landscape with Acis and Galatea, Seaport with Ulysses Returning Chryseis to Her Father – would have been inconceivable to members of earlier generations. In the paintings of Claude, the viewer could celebrate not only the embodiment of beauty but also the art of beauty. Instead of being treated as a parable, subject to constant reinterpretation in accordance with the concept of the idea, the image could now be seen simply as a visualisation of the ideal of the individual. It is the landscape that takes precedence over the events themselves. Nature is not subjugated to expressing or suppressing human passions; nature is never anything but beautiful and indifferent, a backdrop to human action.

  • Issue Year: 2017
  • Issue No: 06
  • Page Range: 54-63
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: Hungarian
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