![]() 1826, via Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut Nature and Meaning Parham Mill, Gillingham by John Constable, c. ![]() The twisted or dying tree became a favorite of Sublime landscape painters, but it also appears as a vanitas element in less dramatic scenes. In particular, notice the broken tree trunk in the center of the composition and the bare, pale tree in the right foreground. However, some of the trees are dying, even as they overcome the graveyard. Trees, grass, and shrubs have begun to overtake these monuments, perhaps showing humanity’s helplessness in the face of natural phenomena. The tombs are falling apart, and their pale marble has become discolored. It’s a graveyard that is being reclaimed by nature. Jewish Cemetery isn’t simply a graveyard, as though that weren’t a symbol of mortality enough. Jewish Cemetery (detail) by Jacob Isaaksz van Ruisdael, 1654 or 1655, via Detroit Institute of Arts This should not come as a surprise, however, since vanitas in still life was an invention of the Dutch Golden Age. We’re less likely to think of vanitas in landscape painting, but that’s exactly what we find in this painting. ![]() In brief, this is the inclusion of transient and sometimes decaying objects in still life paintings, which call to mind the impermanence of life and the frivolity of its worldly cares and preoccupations. Many of us are familiar with the idea of vanitas in still life painting. Since the painting features a series of tombs within a crumbling cemetery, it’s fairly obvious that death and decay are big themes in Jewish Cemetery. It’s no wonder that Ruisdael became an inspiration for later Romantic landscape painters. Although the idea of Sublime landscape painting was not yet current – the term wouldn’t even enter common parlance for another century – it’s difficult not to think of that word when faced with this imposing and ominous painting. In reality, only the tombs are faithful to those at Beth Haim all the rest of the scenery was invented. However, Ruisdael heavily manipulated its appearance to create a more impactful image. ![]() The painting depicts the Beth Haim cemetery, which still exists today, near Amsterdam. Jewish Cemetery, one of Ruisdael’s most famous paintings, is full of drama and symbolism. Jewish Cemetery Jewish Cemetery by Jacob Isaaksz van Ruisdael, 1654 or 1655, via Detroit Institute of Arts He made snowy winter scenes, populated city scenes, paintings of wheat fields, rustic cabins in the forest, ships on the water, old castles, and more. He employed all different settings, moods, seasons, and more. However, Ruisdael painted all sorts of different landscape paintings, not just calm scenes of Dutch cities and countryside. While these features don’t have symbolism per se, we should read them as manifestations of Dutch nationalism. Common motifs in Dutch Golden Age landscape painting include the Netherlands’ flat topography, windmills, bleaching fields (fields where the dampened cloth was laid out in the sun), and iconic Dutch city landmarks like the church of St. In fact, this connection between nationalism and landscape painting would reoccur throughout art history. They particularly flourished when portraying scenes of the native Dutch landscape, playing into their nation’s pride in its recent prosperity and independence. By contrast, Ruisdael and fellow Dutch landscape painters, including his uncle Salomon Ruysdael, allowed the natural world to take undisputed center stage. Ruisdael’s French counterparts Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) and Claude Lorrain (1600-1682) infused their landscape paintings with elements of Biblical stories, classical history, and myth, in order to make them desirable to learned audiences. It’s no coincidence that all these genres flourished during the Dutch Golden Age.Ĭoast View with the Abduction of Europa by Claude Lorrain (Claude Gellée), 1645, via J. Instead, they were more likely to purchase landscape painting, still life, and genre scenes. Their mainly middle-class buyers did not share other Europeans’ interest in highbrow history paintings. Instead, they painted for an early version of the art market. Because their country was a Protestant republic, without extravagantly-decorated churches or a noble ruling class, Dutch artists did not rely on elite religious or secular patronage like their colleagues in France or Italy. ( Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer, and Frans Hals were three others.) This was the period in which the Netherlands won independence from Spain and flourished as a prosperous mercantile nation. Ruisdael was one of many now-famous artists who worked during the so-called Dutch Golden Age. 1670, via Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Landscape Painting in the Dutch Golden Age Wheat Fields by Jacob van Ruisdael, c.
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