Besides Raphael and Van Gogh, what other paintings have moved you? [Take You to See Exhibition] 70 paintings strung together from 6 centuries in Tyson | Museum | Raphael

Recently, "The Great Master of 600 Years: A Masterpiece from the Thyssen Bonemisa National Museum" is being exhibited at the Pudong Art Museum in Shanghai. 70 classic paintings present the development of Western painting art from the 15th century to the 20th century.

What are the ways to appreciate art exhibitions with a large time span? Please follow the journalist's footsteps to explore together.

Looking at the "Grand Exhibition" from a Different Perspective

Shanghai, which embraces all rivers, has an art exhibition that embraces all rivers. After the Shanghai Museum held the "From Botticelli to Van Gogh - National Gallery of Fine Arts Collection Exhibition" in the first half of this year, international art exhibitions have flooded in.

At present, there are four world-class art exhibitions in Shanghai that are highly favored by audiences, including the upcoming Baolong Art Museum's "Western Figure Painting 400 Years: Fine Works from the Fuji Art Museum in Tokyo", Dongyi Art Museum's "Botticelli and Renaissance", Pudong Art Museum's "600 Years of Mastery: Masterpieces from the Tyson Bonemsa National Museum", and UCCA Edge's "Modernist Stroll: Collection Exhibition at the Berlin National Museum of Botticelli Art".

In the near future, the West Coast Art Museum and Jiushi Art Museum will also exhibit a batch of heavyweight Western painting works.

Each art institution has its own unique collection perspective, telling stories to the audience with different themes and unique curation ideas. The artistic quality of the exhibits, the unique features of the exhibition, the viewing experience, and many other factors collectively determine the audience appeal of an exhibition. The exhibitions being held in Shanghai can be said to have their own characteristics, leading the audience from different perspectives to open the door to art and enter the history and culture carried by the works.

Raphael and his assistant's Portrait of a Young Man, from around 1518 to 1519, in the collection of the National Museum of Tyson Bonemisa

The collection of the Madrid Thiessen Bonemisa National Museum began with Heinrich Thiessen, son of German entrepreneur August Thiessen. He completed his first important purchase in 1926 and has since continued to purchase classic masterpieces from different schools of classical literature. After his death, his son Hans Heinrich took over this business. In 1992, the Thyssen Museum opened in Madrid, and soon after its collection was purchased by the Spanish government. The Thyssen Museum, along with the Prado Museum and the Sofia Queen National Art Center Museum, is known as the "Golden Triangle of Art" in Madrid, Spain.

The upcoming exhibition of "Six Hundred Year Masters" in Shanghai is the first time that the Tisen Museum has showcased its collection of authentic paintings on a large scale outside of Spain. The exhibition showcases a total of 70 classic Western paintings spanning six centuries, covering themes such as portraits, landscapes, still life, and customs. The eight exhibition spaces present a scroll of European and American painting art from the Renaissance period to modern times in chronological order.

Art has never had a standard answer, and the way you watch exhibitions can also change according to your heart. After browsing through the important exhibits in chronological order in the exhibition hall, the reporter then used the two largest themes in the exhibition - portrait painting and landscape painting - as the route, breaking the time module provided by the curator, and experiencing the changing history of portrait painting and landscape painting over the past 600 years.

From Painting Gods to Painting People

If portrait painting is the first route to watch this exhibition, then the first stop is to see figures from the Renaissance period.

Raphael was one of the "Three Heroes of the Renaissance", and his "Portrait of Young Men" left the deepest impression on people with his pale pink clothes, matching pink cheeks, and the man's gaze. This late work is believed to have been completed by Raphael with the assistance of his closest collaborators. Raphael pursued the ideal beauty in his paintings throughout his life, and now it seems that this kind of beauty is still timeless.

Paintings from the German Renaissance period are rarely seen in Shanghai. The Portrait of Charles V is a wooden oil painting created in 1553. The painter Lucas Kranagh was a leading figure in the German Renaissance, and he showcased Charles V's position at that time through details, especially the prominent Golden Fleece Medal chain on his chest related to the Habsburg dynasty. The artist used a realistic style to recreate the emperor's face, especially the chin and lower lip, which are unforgettable.

Peter Paul Rubens Venus and Cupid, circa 1606-1611, in the collection of the National Museum of Thyssen-Bonemisa

Rubens' Venus and Cupid is an important work of this exhibition. The beauty of Baroque differs significantly from the artistic style of the Renaissance. Rubens excels at creating tension and rich colors with dazzling brushstrokes. Venus and Cupid, originating from mythology, is a representative work of Rubens' narrative painting that is full of vitality and richness. In the painting, Venus, the goddess of love, gazes at herself in the mirror in Cupid's hand. Legend has it that she was accidentally shot by her son Cupid's golden arrow, which immediately awakened love. This wound also triggered Venus's love for Adonis.

It is worth mentioning that on the side of the painting, the curator enlarged and displayed the four parts of the picture, and interpreted them. For example, the pearl adorned on Venus' right wrist symbolizes the birth of the goddess in the ocean. The mirror in the picture not only creates multiple perspectives, but also extends the space of the picture. Cupid's wings symbolize the fleeting moment of love.

The scale of "Scratching Itch" is not large, but it is very interesting. This painting was created in 1755 by Petro Longi, a painter from the Rococo period. This Italian painter is famous for depicting daily family life, and he recorded the social customs of the time through delicate depictions of characters and indoor scenery. The walls and curtains in "Scratching Itch" are all green, revealing tranquility and peace. The girl in the center of the screen scratched the cheeks of the young man next to her with her feather in her hand, while the maid watched from the side. The painter illuminated the characters and captured this interesting moment by contrasting colors.

Petro Longi's "Scratching Itch" Exhibition Hall Scene

Manet is hailed as the pioneer of Impressionism, and his "The Knight" is an important collection of the Tyson Museum. This is an unfinished painting, which Manet originally hoped to bring to the exhibition in 1883, but unfortunately he passed away before he could finish it. The background of this painting is drawn with loose, overlapping pigments and almost abstract strokes. The female knight wore a black high hat, exuding a heroic demeanor. Her black riding attire fully reflected Manet's extraordinary expression of black. A brooch has only a few strokes, and its luster is fully displayed. The leather gloves of the female knight were also very unique, and it is said that they were very fashionable at that time.

The oldest portrait in this exhibition is De Weiden's "Portrait of a Man" written in 1464, while the most recent one is Raphael Sawyer's "Self Portrait" in 1980. Over the course of over 500 years, portrait painting has evolved from its initial portrayal of mythology and recording of reality, step by step, to the reproduction of the artist's personal will and ideas.

Edward Manet's "The Knight Woman", around 1882, in the collection of the National Museum of Tyson Bonamisa

The inner scenery is the most touching

If you follow the second route of landscape painting to watch this exhibition, it is not difficult to see that over time, painters have transformed from depicting mythological stories to depicting natural scenery, and then to conveying inner scenery.

"Resting and Scenery on the Escape to Egypt" was written from 1518 to 1524. This small painting exudes a strong sense of history, and the author Joachim Patinier was an important promoter of 16th century landscape painting. The characters are located at the center of the painting, but the painter has made them very small. What truly attracts people is the surrounding scenery, with overlapping horizontal lines alternating between grasslands, mountains, water bodies, small buildings, and dense forests. The painter also enriches the composition of the painting with vertical elements such as tree tops, trunks, and mountains. The use of cool blue and green tones highlights the depth of field in the background plane.

Le Isdar's "The Road Across Farmland near the Sud Sea", in the collection of the National Museum of Tyson Bonemisa

Leys Dahl was one of the representative figures of Dutch landscape painting in the 17th century. He was skilled in painting the sky and clouds, and had a profound influence on later generations. In "The Road Across Farmland near Sudehai", he depicts a village near a bay in the Netherlands, with a serene path leading to the village creating a perspective effect and a tower clearly visible in the distance. The artist exquisitely processed the light, alternating the shaded areas with the illuminated ones, and it is these contrasts that make this painting full of poetry.

Canaletto's "Gazing at the Grand Canal from Saint Vio in Venice" depicts the grandeur of 18th century Venice and is also one of the most impressive landscape paintings in this exhibition, presenting a grand and expansive beauty from color to composition. This painting is set against the backdrop of the Grand Canal scenery leading to St. Mark's Square, with the Balbarigo Palace in the right foreground and the dome of the Church of Our Lady of Ankang and the Customs Building Museum in the background. On the left side of the screen, the artist detailed the Grand Cornell Palace. This work fully showcases Canaletto's expertise in high angles and superb techniques.

Scene of the exhibition hall of Prendergast's "Slavic Embankment"

There is also a work depicting Venice in this exhibition, which is "Slavic Embankment" painted by Prendergast in 1898. This watercolor and pencil work on paper depicts a mosaic like scene using post impressionist techniques, with bright and warm colors. The characters in the picture are outlined by fast and short strokes, and although their faces cannot be seen clearly, one can still feel what they are doing.

Courbet was a representative painter of French realism in the 19th century. He once said that he did not believe in the only beauty or the sublime, but instead relied on his encounter with nature as his sole source of inspiration. The "Stream" exhibited in Shanghai this time depicts a small stream near Orr, France. Kurbet conducted a detailed study on the effect of sunlight passing through branches and sprinkling on the surface of the pond, vividly depicting the atmosphere of this area known as the "black well". He used a paintbrush dipped in paint to apply thick layers on the surface of the canvas, and even used a paintbrush to apply paint in some places, ultimately creating a simple, rough yet vibrant painting.

Georgia O'Keeffe, From the Great Plains II, Tyson-Bonemisa National Museum

As the exhibition arrived in 1954, the scorching colors in Georgia O'Keeffe's "From the Great Plains II" were dazzling. It is said that O'Keeffe wanted to present the scene of herds of cows passing by on the vast and arid plain, but she did not use thick paint to apply and meticulously depict it, but simplified the entire picture to the extreme. The artist described his creation as follows: "These colors are just squeezed out of the paint tube, from red, orange to lemon yellow, which shocked me. I don't know what it will look like." In the end, every viewer who sees this painting will associate it with a magnificent sunset.