UC Davis is home to such well-known artists as Wayne Thiebaud, Roland Peterson, and Roy de Forest. Their work helped to define a new West Coast style. Attending the annual conference at UC Davis is the only way to interact with such masters in person. However, attending a conference in a traditional venue may not be an option. For those interested in attending an art history conference, you might want to consider attending one online instead.
Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch painter who lived in Delft. He had many children, and he often painted subjects that involved his family. One of his best-known paintings is The Art of Painting, one of over thirty-five works attributed to him. This painting is a large canvas measuring around 130 cm by 110 cm, and it is now on display at the Museum of Vienna.
After Vermeer’s death, the painting was one of the few pictures to survive the artist’s death. As such, it was valuable to his family, and Catharina transferred it to Maria, so that it would not be sold in bankruptcy. However, an agent acting on behalf of Vermeer’s creditors tried to sell the painting for the purpose of raising money. This left the painting’s fate uncertain for over a century.
The history of painting is as ancient as mankind itself. Paintings of mythological figures on pottery, scenes from the life of Buddha, and Biblical scenes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel are some of the earliest paintings known. The oldest known figurative painting is a bull, which was painted in an Indonesian cave 40,000 to 52,000 years ago.
The study of beauty and art was an important topic for 18th and nineteenth century philosophers. Plato and Aristotle both disregarded the work of painters, stating that they can only represent a shadow of reality. They also argued that painting is a craft. Similarly, Leonardo da Vinci said, “a painting is a thing of the mind.”
Oil painting is a type of painting that uses pigments bound in a drying oil. Linseed oil was widely used in early modern Europe. This oil was usually boiled with resin, and was prized for its gloss and body. As oil paint became increasingly popular, it gradually replaced tempera paints as the medium of choice for artworks. By the height of the Renaissance, oil paints were commonly used in most of Europe.