![]() Thanks to Duccio da Buonisegna, Cimabue, and, above all, Giotto di Bondone, European painting is “freed” from the rigid Byzantine tradition, renewing its soul and exploring new ways. In the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century, Western painting began to revive. The pioneers: from the Trecento to the High Renaissance.ĭuring the Middle Ages, partial representations of cities can be found as backgrounds in many illuminated manuscripts, without ever achieving a special role in the composition. Roman fresco depicting a coastal city, found in Stabiae In Stabiae, near Pompeii, some Roman frescoes partially depicting a coastal city have been found. Something similar happens in the “City Fresco”, an aerial view of a coastal city (real or imagined) found in 1997 at the Baths of Trajan, Rome (see image) which could be considered to be the first complete cityscape in the history of painting. In Akrotiri, on the Greek island of Santorini, it has been found an enigmatic fresco painting (known as the “Ship procession fresco” or “the flotilla fresco) representing a boat trip between two fortified cities, which nevertheless are not the protagonists of the composition. Just as there is no serious consensus about the exact date of birth of the first city (generally, that has been considered to be Ur or other Mesopotamian cities, but Çatalhöyük, in southern Anatolia could also claim such title), we cannot establish a precise birthdate for cityscape painting. But, when did this tradition begin? Who have been its main protagonists? This article proposes a journey through the history of cityscape painting, from ancient world to the beginning of the 21st Century. George Bellows – New York – 1911Īny modern or contemporary art lover would recognize that urban landscapes are quite a popular subject in modern art, from the impressionistic views of Paris by Camille Pissarro or Claude Monet to the realistic Madrid of Antonio Lopez, through the photorealistic New York of Richard Estes, or even the abstract landscapes by Willem de Kooning. ![]() ![]() Painting the city: the history of cityscapes The history of cityscape painting, from Lorenzetti to Estes, from antiquity to 21st century. Painting the city: the history of cityscapes
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