The Ruin of Holyrood Chapel- Louis Daguerre
Hellooo everyone :)
I've decided to base this post on The Walker mainly because its the most visited art gallery I've been to ever since starting my History of Art course but also because I love The Walker in particular and this painting above all.
Most of my discussions will be taken from my personal research on the painting and research given from my presentation of 'My Favourite Artwork'.
Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre is perhaps best known for
his contribution to the history of photography. He invented the first
photographic process, the daguerréotype in 1839. He worked in the studio of the
stage designer for the Paris Opera, Ignace-Eugene-Marie Degotti as well as
assisting Pierre Prévost in designing panorama paintings for public
entertainment.
Daguerre established his reputation as a stage designer for Parisian theatres, especially with the development of dioramas. These were buildings designed by Daguerre for displaying his and Charles-Marie Bouton's huge paintings. Most of the themes of the paintings were landscapes, chapel interiors and volcanoes.
Daguerre's fascination with dioramas stemmed from his interest in finding appropriate ways of capturing light and atmospheric effects in painting, as well as making perspective an expressive and dramatic medium. The increasing taste for travelling and particularly visiting ruins and picturesque sites in the 18th century made Daguerre's dioramas particularly popular among the people of his time. For those who did not have the chance to travel, dioramas offered an experience close to a real visit, while for the privileged it helped revive their memories.
The painting was made with oil onto thin linen and then stretched onto a canvas. Lighting was used at the back of the picture to distinguish gradual passage from natural to evening light.
His techniques to create the general effect of light and shadows is distributed with using many layers of oil paint on a dry brush for the refined pile and detached parts of the Gothic architecture. You can see that light is perceived through blobbing the white paint of areas in which the moonlight falls upon. He also uses oil paint thinly as a wash to illustrate the dark clouds being illuminated by the moonlights flash effect on the right hand side of the picture.
Perhaps the moonlight scene is better calculated than any other to calculate to display the ingenious application of the scientific principles upon which the diorama is constructed, from its harmony with the tone of coldness and transparency.
The chapel is a oblong Gothic pile, which originally formed the ancient abbey.
The under range of the flying buttresses at the south side still remains, as well as the more upright ones, with canopied niches and pinnacles on the north wall.
At the extremity of the picture is a large eastern window, which occupies the only remaining one of the four large arches that once supported the central tower of the church, and behind which the moon rises, and lights apart of the picture.
Through the arches are the corners of the Southern bile, the windows which overlook the cloister, and an arcade of small pillars and pointed arches speak for themselves of Gothic exterior. This confined pile still contains in many of its detached parts some elegant remains of Gothic Architecture.
The skillful manner in which the lights fall upon this picture, brings out in detail the most interesting parts of the view, and particularly broken pillars which stand in the center of the dilapidated pavement.
In order to give you more interest in the picture you have to vary the effects of light. This, though a legitimate object in art, in aiding reality of the scene, for when exploring these desolate ruins could ever fancy you should find an illustration of these beautiful eastern fiction among the tombs of these Scottish chieftains?
I repeat that the general effect of Daguerre's "Ruin of Holyrood Chapel" is beautiful owing to the care and skill of distribution of the light and shadows and one of my favorite pieces of art!
Daguerre established his reputation as a stage designer for Parisian theatres, especially with the development of dioramas. These were buildings designed by Daguerre for displaying his and Charles-Marie Bouton's huge paintings. Most of the themes of the paintings were landscapes, chapel interiors and volcanoes.
Daguerre's fascination with dioramas stemmed from his interest in finding appropriate ways of capturing light and atmospheric effects in painting, as well as making perspective an expressive and dramatic medium. The increasing taste for travelling and particularly visiting ruins and picturesque sites in the 18th century made Daguerre's dioramas particularly popular among the people of his time. For those who did not have the chance to travel, dioramas offered an experience close to a real visit, while for the privileged it helped revive their memories.
The painting was made with oil onto thin linen and then stretched onto a canvas. Lighting was used at the back of the picture to distinguish gradual passage from natural to evening light.
His techniques to create the general effect of light and shadows is distributed with using many layers of oil paint on a dry brush for the refined pile and detached parts of the Gothic architecture. You can see that light is perceived through blobbing the white paint of areas in which the moonlight falls upon. He also uses oil paint thinly as a wash to illustrate the dark clouds being illuminated by the moonlights flash effect on the right hand side of the picture.
Perhaps the moonlight scene is better calculated than any other to calculate to display the ingenious application of the scientific principles upon which the diorama is constructed, from its harmony with the tone of coldness and transparency.
The chapel is a oblong Gothic pile, which originally formed the ancient abbey.
The under range of the flying buttresses at the south side still remains, as well as the more upright ones, with canopied niches and pinnacles on the north wall.
At the extremity of the picture is a large eastern window, which occupies the only remaining one of the four large arches that once supported the central tower of the church, and behind which the moon rises, and lights apart of the picture.
Through the arches are the corners of the Southern bile, the windows which overlook the cloister, and an arcade of small pillars and pointed arches speak for themselves of Gothic exterior. This confined pile still contains in many of its detached parts some elegant remains of Gothic Architecture.
The skillful manner in which the lights fall upon this picture, brings out in detail the most interesting parts of the view, and particularly broken pillars which stand in the center of the dilapidated pavement.
In order to give you more interest in the picture you have to vary the effects of light. This, though a legitimate object in art, in aiding reality of the scene, for when exploring these desolate ruins could ever fancy you should find an illustration of these beautiful eastern fiction among the tombs of these Scottish chieftains?
I repeat that the general effect of Daguerre's "Ruin of Holyrood Chapel" is beautiful owing to the care and skill of distribution of the light and shadows and one of my favorite pieces of art!
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