The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (105 page)

 
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classicism
.

Term that, with the related words ‘classic’ and ‘classical’, is used in various (and often confusing) ways in the history and criticism of the arts. In its broadest sense, classicism is used as the opposite of
Romanticism
, characterizing art in which adherence to recognized aesthetic ideals is accorded greater importance than individuality of expression. The word often implies direct inspiration from
antique
art, but this is not a necessary part of the concept, and according to context the word might be intended to convey little more than the idea of clarity of expression, or alternatively of conservatism. In the context of Greek art, the term ‘Classical’ (with a capital C) has a more precise meaning, referring to the period between the
Archaic
and
Hellenistic
periods, when Greek culture is thought to have attained its greatest splendour. The term ‘classic’ is used to refer to the best or most representative example of its kind in any field or period. This is what
Wölfflin
meant when he gave the title
Classic Art
to his book on the Italian High
Renaissance
. Thus, in this sense, it would be legitimate, if wilfully confusing, to refer to
Delacroix
as the classic Romantic artist. The three terms ‘classic’, ‘classical’, and ‘classicism’ are, then, often not used with discrimination or exactness, the conflation of historical term and value judgement reflecting the idea (dominant for centuries) that the art of the Greeks and Romans set a standard for all future achievement. To clear up (or perhaps add to) the confusion, the rather ungainly words ‘classicistic’ and ‘classicizing’ have also entered the lists—they convey the idea of dependence on ancient models but without any sense of qualitative judgement.

 
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(1604/5?–82).
French painter, often called Le Lorrain (in France), or Claude Lorrain(e) (in the English-speaking world), after his place of birth, but usually referred to simply as Claude, a familiarity reflecting his enormous fame as the most celebrated of all exponents of
ideal landscape
. When about 12 years old he moved to Rome, where he is said to have entered the household of Agostino
Tassi
as a pastry-cook (a favourite trade of Lorrainers), then become his studio assistant. Around 1620 he made a two-year visit to Naples, where he studied with the obscure German-born landscapist Goffredo Wals and was deeply impressed by the beauty of the Gulf of Naples; he used the coastline in his paintings to the end of his life. In 1625 he returned to Lorraine, and worked at Nancy with the court painter Claude Deruet (1588–1660), but in 1627 he was back in Rome, where except for local journeys he remained for the rest of his life.
In Tassi's decorative paintings he came into contact with the conventionalized late
Mannerist
style of landscape painting. The influence of the two leading exponents of the style,
Bril
and
Elsheimer
, comes out in the lively paraphernalia of architectural fragments, figures, and animals that often animates the foreground of his early paintings (
The Mill
, Mus. of Fine Arts, Boston, 1631). But his profound sensitivity to the tonal values of light and atmosphere lent an unpremeditated classical harmony to his pictures which matured with the years. During the 1630s he became well known and successful, working for illustrious patrons, and as early as 1634
Bourdon
had thought it worthwhile to pass off a painting of his own as a work by Claude. To combat such forgeries Claude began to compile his
Liber Veritatis
(Book of Truth) in 1635–6; it contains drawings of virtually all his paintings made from that date, making his
œuvre
exceptionally well documented. It is now in the British Museum, which also has the greatest collection of Claude's drawings from nature, works that often show a freedom of brushwork that has led them to be compared with Chinese art. Claude was also an accomplished etcher, but not nearly as prolific as he was as a painter and draughtsman.
From 1640 to 1660 Claude developed steadily towards the mature style of the poetic landscapes on which his enormous reputation was built. His painting shed the affectations of Mannerism and became an expression of his deep feeling for the beauty of the Roman countryside with its rich associations of
antique
grandeur. He used this landscape not to create a heroic vision of ancient Rome, as did his friend
Poussin
, but to evoke a sense of the pastoral serenity of a Golden Age. The ostensible subjects of his pictures, taken frequently from the Bible, Virgil, Ovid, or medieval epics, are subordinate to the real theme, which was the mood of the landscape presented poetically in terms of light and colour. In his earlier paintings Claude, like Elsheimer , used light for the sake of dramatic effects; as his style matured he began to use it for its own sake, letting it play on forms and explore their texture. In the landscapes of the last two decades of his life everything was depicted in terms of light: the eye-level was raised and the view kept as open as possible so that the eye can roam at will over a spacious panorama to the distant horizon and beyond it into infinity. Forms melt and lose their material solidity and the figures become unnaturally elongated and insubstantial, as in
Ascanius and the Stag
(Ashmolean, Oxford, 1682), his last painting.
Claude has nowhere been more admired and more influential than in England. Not only were his works keenly sought after by late 17th- and 18th-cent. collectors, but they had great influence on such artists as
Wilson
and
Turner
. His name became virtually synonymous with the ideals of the
Picturesque
, he inspired a revolution in English landscape gardening about the middle of the 18th cent., and much descriptive verse paid tribute to the ideal of beautiful natural scenery which derived from him.

 
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Claude glass
.

A small black convex glass used for reflecting landscapes in miniature so as to show their broad tonal values, without distracting detail or colour. It was popular in the 17th and 18th cents., and not only with artists, for the poet Gray carried one with him in his travels round Britain in search of the
Picturesque
.
Claude Lorraine
was said to have used such a glass and in the 19th cent. the device was used by
Corot
, who regarded tonal unity in painting as supremely important.

 
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