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Anthology: Art & Music
May 29, 2015 June 11, 2015 Elise Janes Leave a comment
The seasons have long inspired artists across all disciplines, both singularly and as a complete cyclic whole. Here is a representation of some of those sets from visual artists and composers around the world and from the Renaissance period through to the Twentieth Century.
Giuseppe Arcimboldo
(1526-1593) Italian
Arcimboldo's portraits are among today's most recognisable Mannerist paintings, particularly his portrayal of the Four Seasons, two of which are on display in the Louvre. Mannerism was an artistic movement that straddled the Renaissance and Baroque periods and focused on the connection between humans and nature.
Spring (1563) Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando
Summer (1572) Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Austria
Autumn (1573) Louvre Museum, Paris
Winter (1573) oil on canvas, Louvre Museum, Paris
"Arcimboldo also tried to show his appreciation of nature through his portraits. In The Spring, the human portrait was composed of only various spring flowers and plants. From the hat to the neck, every part of the portrait, even the lips and nose, was composed of flowers, while the body was composed of plants. On the other hand, in The Winter, the human was composed mostly of roots of trees. Some leaves from evergreen trees and the branches of other trees became hair, while a straw mat became the costume of the human portrait." (from Wikipedia)
Painted only 100 years after Arcimboldo's portraits, between 1660 and 1664, Poussin's series portrays the seasons through allegorical landscapes, focusing on the grandeur of nature and it's power over man rather than the Mannerist depiction of intimate connection. Commissioned for the Duc de Richelieu, the nephew of Cardinal Richelieu, Poussin's series symbolises the seasons through Old Testament episodes.
Spring (The Earthly Paradise)
Summer (Ruth and Boaz)
Autumn (The Spies with the Grapes of the Promised Land)
Winter (The Flood)
Composed a half-century after Poussin's series, Vivaldi's The Four Seasons (Le quattro stagioni) are arguably the most recognisable pieces of Art music in the world today. The suite is a set of four violin concertos, each representing a sonnet describing one of the four seasons. Firmly Baroque in style, the concertos are balanced, evocative and virtuosic.
(1921-1992) Argentinian
Contrasting in style to Vivaldi's concertos, Piazzolla's Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas, also known as the The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, is a modern chamber music suite representing the season's in Piazzolla's native Argentina. Composed in the twentieth century, the suite is a set of four tango compositions scored for Piazzolla's quintet of violin (viola), piano, electric guitar, double bass and bandoneón.
Elise Janes
See the Anthology of Poetry.
Music, Visual Arts & DesignArcimboldo, Argentina, art, Art music, autumn, bandoneon, Baroque, Buenos Aires, classical music, composition, concerto, contemporary, French, Italian, landscape, Louvre, Mannerism, Music, nature, Piazzolla, portraits, Poussin, Renaissance, seasons, series, set, sonnet, spring, suite, Summer, tango, twentieth century, violin concerto, visual art, Vivaldi, winter
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