3.3.08 – Looking like a photograph

VERISIMILITUDE: HAND-MADE AND MACHINE-MADE

One very important trend in Western Art has been to make paintings increasingly life-like – increasingly like photographs. This has never been the sole preoccupation. Other considerations have predominated in most periods: for example, artists have wanted to make their paintings more decorative or rhythmic, or to make their subjects more expressive of character or emotion. But, even if not always given the highest priority, an intention to increase verisimilitude has often been present. It has waxed and waned, reaching a peak in the 17th century, and again in the 19th century.

The most famous practitioners in the 17th century were perhaps Velasquez (1599-1660) and Vermeer (1632-75), but many others produced paintings which look very like photographs, at least at first sight. Van der Helst is an example (top).

After this 17th Century peak artists tended to attach less importance to the goal of imitating a mirror. One might have expected that Spanish artists, would have carried on in the same direction as Velasquez, seeking to outdo him. Velasquez’s own son-in-law, del Mazo (1612/16 – 67), was exceptionally well-placed to do this, having been trained by the master himself, (many of del Mazo’s paintings may be mistaken for those of Velasquez himself) but, when striking out on his own, del Mazo chose to depict unusual perspectives, exploiting the wide-angle view in a way which had not been done before. This made his paintings look less true-to-life than those of his father-in-law. It was as if Velasquez had gone so far in the direction of naturalism that no further progress was possible. The seam had been mined out. If an artist were to make a name for himself, he would have to find another way.

This was true even a century and a half later, with the works of Goya (1746-1828) – the greatest Spanish artist to come after Velasquez. He made an impact in yet a different way. He exaggerated the characterisation of his drawing, and the drama of his tonal contrasts. Where Velasquez had stayed in the real world as firmly as his commissions would allow, Goya took off into the world of myth and fantasy.