八爪鱼的日记

It is from the eighth century, and one of those touching New Jerusalem hymns which take their inspiration from the last chapter of St. John’s Apocalypse, and express the Christian’s home-sickness after heaven. The following is the first stanza (with Neale’s translation):

"Urbs beata Jerusalem, Dicta pacis visio,Quae construitur in coelo,Vivis ex lapidibus,Et angelis coronata,Ut sponsata comite."

Blessed City, Heavenly Salem, Vision dear of Peace and Love,Who, of living stones upbuilded, Art the joy of Heav'n above,And, with angel cohorts circled, As a bride to earth dost move!

 

所罗门的圣殿，又称第一圣殿，是指所罗门即位后兴建的耶和华圣殿。该殿建在耶路撒冷的锡安山上，历时七年才得以完工，完工时举行了盛大的仪式，成为以色列各部族朝觐的中心。据《旧约·列王记上》第6章载，该殿的外殿“长六十肘，宽二十肘，高三十肘”，“建殿是用山中凿成的石头”，墙上“刻着基路伯、棕树、和初开的花”，墙上和地板上贴满了金子，“在殿右边当中的旁屋有门，门内有旋螺的楼梯，可以上到第二层，从第二层可以上到第三层”。外殿中套着内殿，“内殿长二十肘、宽二十肘、高二十肘”，内中有两个橄榄木作的天使，翅膀各长五肘，庇翼着神圣的约柜和抬柜的杠。

所罗门圣殿矗立了约四百余年，公元前586被巴比伦尼布甲尼撒二世下令捣毁，此后屡建屡毁，而今唯余废墟，废墟上矗立之石墙，被犹太人呼之为哭墙，以纪念民族史中一段不幸的遭遇。在基督教世界中，所罗门圣殿被看作是与巴别塔相对立的象征物，它和圣城耶路撒冷一道，是虔诚的信徒日思夜想的“满是天国欢乐的城市”（urbs vivs ex lapidibus），上帝之城。

圣彼得堡（列宁格勒），俄国第二大城市也是最美丽的城市。座落在波罗的海芬兰弯东岸，涅瓦河缓缓地从她身边流过。城市由42座岛屿组成，三百多座桥梁将它们连接在一起，其中许多桥为吊桥。

难怪在《罢工》里看到了这样的一个桥，估计是架在涅瓦河上的，看字幕是工人区和中心区之间的通道，所以有战略意义。

17分钟－18分钟的经典段落，吊桥升起，庞大的、缓缓移动的机器，死马，女人。机器美学。

涅瓦河畔还有中国清政府赠送的镇河狮，在电影里是作为反面意象出现的。

十月革命一声炮响,这一炮就是从"阿夫乐尔"号巡洋舰上发出的.该舰长124米,宽16.8米,于1900年建造。"阿夫乐尔"一词源于希腊,意为"黎明"。1917年俄历10月25日早,该舰开至尼古拉耶夫桥边。早10时,列宁在舰上宣读了"告俄国公民书",并向全国广播。晚21时45分,"阿夫乐尔"号巡洋舰向冬宫发射了第一炮,揭开了俄国十月革命的序幕。"阿夫乐尔"号巡洋舰如今停泊在原地,舰艇被保养的很好,漆色如新。

 

A new decoration of the lower church in Assisi was undertaken connected to the first centenary of the death of St Francis. Franciscan authors attribute the fresco cycle on the ceiling of the north transept to Giotto. However, this attribution is not accepted by the majority of critics, they are thought to have been executed by collaborators and followers.

The fresco cycle on one side consists of large scenes from the life of the Virgin and the childhood of Christ separated by decorative bands with busts of Prophets, while the other side represents scenes from the Passion of Christ. The west wall is occupied by scenes representing the Miracle of St Francis in Sessa (in two parts) and the Annunciation.

Preview	Picture Data	File Info	Comment
	View of the north transept (1) - - Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi	810*1101 True Color 183 Kb
	View of the north transept (2) - - Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi	810*1113 True Color 193 Kb
	Vault of the north transept (3) - Fresco Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi	868*1176 True Color 181 Kb
	The Visitation 1310s Fresco North transept, Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi	1030*822 True Color 122 Kb
	Nativity 1310s Fresco North transept, Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi	1030*823 True Color 147 Kb
	The Adoration of the Magi 1310s Fresco North transept, Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi	1030*813 True Color 134 Kb
	Presentation of Christ in the Temple 1310s Fresco North transept, Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi	1030*819 True Color 149 Kb
	The Massacre of the Innocents 1310s Fresco North transept, Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi	1030*827 True Color 140 Kb
	The Flight into Egypt 1310s Fresco North transept, Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi	1030*820 True Color 127 Kb
	Return of Christ to Jerusalem 1310s Fresco North transept, Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi	1030*825 True Color 151 Kb
	Christ Among the Doctors 1310s Fresco North transept, Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi	1030*822 True Color 164 Kb
	Crucifixion 1310s Fresco North transept, Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi	1030*850 True Color 138 Kb
	The Death of the Boy in Sessa 1310s Fresco North transept, Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi	1093*800 True Color 133 Kb
	Raising of the Boy in Sessa 1310s Fresco North transept, Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi	1109*800 True Color 158 Kb

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Summary of paintings by Giotto

Frescoes in the San Francesco, Assisi

Legend of St. Francis | New Testament scenes | Lower Church

Frescoes in the Arena Chapel, Padua

Life of Joachim | Life of Virgin | Life of Christ | Last Judgment | Angels | Decoration

Frescoes in the S. Croce, Florence

Frescoes in the Peruzzi Chapel | Frescoes in the Bardi Chapel

Panel paintings

Crucifix | Maestà and others | Polyptych | Srefaneschi Altarpiece | Baroncelli Polyptych

Miscellaneous works

The Navicella mosaic | The Campanile of the Florence Cathedral

Paolo Veronese was an Italian Renaissance painter; one of the great masters of the Venetian school. Originally named Paolo Caliari, he was called Veronese from his native city of Verona. He learned painting in Verona from Antonio Badile, a capable exponent of the conservative local tradition. That tradition remained fundamental to Veronese's style throughout his career, even after he moved to Venice in 1553.

Early Work

The painters of Verona between about 1510 and 1540 favored firm, regular volumes, strong colors that function largely in terms of contrasts, and conventionalized figures. Veronese combined these elements of the local High Renaissance style with Mannerist elements, including complex compositional schemes that often employ a “worm's-eye view” perspective and Michelangelesque figures in powerful foreshortened or contorted poses. The resulting amalgam was handled with increasing mastery in the Temptation of St. Anthony, done for the Cathedral of Mantua in 1552 (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Caen, France), and ceiling paintings (1553-54) for the Palazzo Ducale, Venice.

Mature Style

The first phase of Veronese's artistic maturity, about 1555-65, is well represented by his many canvases for the Church of San Sebastiano in Venice. Their high-keyed interweavings of brilliant, luminous hues are harmonies of contrast in the tradition of Verona rather than Venetian harmonies of tone. The striking compositions often involve multileveled settings and dramatically steep perspectives, especially effective in the ceiling paintings. From this period comes Veronese's fresco decoration (circa 1561) of the Villa Barbaro at Maser, the one such cycle by him to survive. Here he extended the actual architecture of the villa (1555-59) built by Andrea Palladio with painted illusory architecture and populated these illusions with both mythological personages and fictional equivalents of the villa's real inhabitants.

Veronese's growing interest in scenographic architecture, inspired partly by the real architecture of such contemporaries as Palladio and partly by contemporary stage settings, is spectacularly evident in the vast Marriage at Cana (1562-63, Louvre, Paris), virtually a cityscape with incidental figures. It initiated a series of paintings of biblical feasts, which Veronese represented in terms of opulent Venetian patrician life; actual portraits are included.

The work of Veronese's full maturity, from about 1565 to 1580, is marked by quieter, more classical compositions, an even greater ceremoniousness of tone, and still more dazzling light and color harmonies. This resplendent style is occasionally modulated into a lowered tonality, as when the artist dealt with subjects such as The Crucifixion (circa 1572, Louvre). Such paintings, in which a new emotional commitment to the subject appears, multiplied toward the end of his career. By about 1583, luminous twilight replaced noonday splendor as the norm, and festivity was replaced by seriousness. The moonlit Pietà; (circa 1585, Hermitage, Saint Petersburg) is an extreme example. From this period, however, comes the most overwhelming of his ceilings, The Triumph of Venice in the Palazzo Ducale. Here, Venice, personified, floats on clouds halfway up a towering, two-tiered architectural construction thronged with people, all seen from below in steep perspective against a sapphire sky.

Veronese died in Venice on April 9, 1588. Although highly successful, he had little immediate influence. To the Flemish baroque master Peter Paul Rubens and to the 18th-century Venetian painters, especially Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, however, Veronese's handling of color and perspective supplied an indispensable point of departure.

VERONESE, Paolo (b. 1528, Verona, d. 1588, Venezia)

Feast in the House of Levi 1573 Oil on canvas, 555 x 1280 cm Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice Send this picture as postcard Friendly format for printing and bookmarking This work, painted for the Dominican order of SS. Giovanni e Paolo to replace an earlier work by Titian destroyed in the fire of 1571, is the last of the grandiose "suppers" painted by Veronese for the refectories of Venetian monasteries. The sumptuous banquet scene is framed by the great arches of a portico. Against the pale green shotsilk effect of the background architecture, the figures on either side of Christ move in a turbulence of polychromatic splendour and interaction of pose and gesture. We seem to see here the sublime notions of form and colour of Piero della Francesca. The interaction of form and colour is calculated to contain the monumental figuration within the terms of a fascinating and imaginitive decorative painting. The expressive hedonism so alien to the religious context - the subject in fact appears to be a purely pagan one in exaltation of love of life in 16th century Venice - aroused the suspicions of the Inquisition. On July 18th 1573 Veronese was summoned by the Holy Office to appear before the Inquisition accused of heresy. If the questions of the inquisitors show the first signs of the rigours of the Counter-reformation, Veronese's answers show clearly his unfailing faith in the creative imagination and artistic freedom. Not wishing to yield to the injunction of the Inquisition to eliminate the details which offended the religious theme of the Last Supper, he changed the title to "Feast in the House of Levi", a subject which tolerated the presence of fools and armed men dressed up "alla tedesca".

波希米亚位于捷克共和国的中西部，历史上是一个多民族的地区，是吉普赛人的聚集地。追求自由的波希米亚人，在浪迹天涯的旅途中形成了自己的生活哲学。如今的波希米亚不仅象征着流苏、褶皱、大摆裙的流行服饰，更成为自由洒脱、热情奔放的代名词。

　　波希米亚覆盖包括首都布拉格在内的捷克中西部大片土地，与东部的摩拉维亚地区共同构成现今的捷克版图。在捷克语里，波希米亚人常常是捷克人的同义词，事实上波希米亚就是捷克民族文化的核心之一，在19、20世纪尤为突出。蜚声世界的捷克民族作曲家斯梅塔纳和德沃夏克，正是用音乐表达对故乡波希米亚深沉的热爱。

　　波希米亚这个名称最早来源于“Boii”，是公元1世纪当地的凯尔特人部落的名称。后来日耳曼人占据了此地，但这个名字却留了下来。公元5世纪，从东部迁来的斯拉夫人建起波希米亚王国并繁衍出灿烂的文化。“百塔之城”布拉格的兴盛就是这一时期的杰出代表。另一位诞生于此的伟人是宗教改革家扬·胡斯，他是后来马丁·路德宗教改革运动的先声，胡斯塑像今天就矗立在布拉格老城广场中心，每日游人如织。

　　谈及波希米亚，就不能不提到吉普赛人。15世纪，很多行走世界的吉普赛人都迁移到捷克的波希米亚，所以许多文学作品里都模糊地界定：波希米亚人就是吉普赛人。之后，他们又以流浪的方式周游欧洲，依靠手艺无拘无束地谋生。然而好景不长，不信奉上帝的吉普赛人被看作异教徒而遭到歧视，从而开始了他们长达4个世纪的悲惨命运。也正因如此，吉普赛人作为主角频频出现在欧洲各国文学作品中。梅里美笔下可爱执著的卡门和雨果《巴黎圣母院》里能歌善舞的爱斯梅拉达，都是家喻户晓的艺术形象。在《巴黎圣母院》音乐剧中，爱斯梅拉达介绍自己身世时唱的那支曲子，名字就是“波希米亚”。她们身上那种纵有苦难也执著无悔的人生态度，让人充分感受到波希米亚式的迷人性格，也给后人留足了演绎的空间。

　　上世纪60年代，“波希米亚”一度成为欧洲青年向循规蹈矩的中产阶级主流生活挑战的招牌。不过这种对立关系在大卫·布鲁克斯的《天堂里的布波族》一书中碰撞并融合在一起，定义出一个新兴上层精英阶层――“布尔乔亚波希米亚人”，简称为“布波族”。波希米亚在这里被解释成追求自我、实现心灵满足的生活态度。到了21世纪初，或许是人们厌倦了工业化冰冷的直线条以及过于严谨、精致的现代生活，时尚舞台上猛烈吹起了被定义为随性不羁、温暖热烈的波希米亚风：层叠蕾丝、蜡染印花、皮质流苏、手工细绳结、刺绣和珠串，都是波希米亚风格的经典元素。无领裸肩的棉质短上衣、低胯的叠纱大摆长裙，还有满是绣花、钉珠、流苏等繁复装饰的皮靴、挎包，连续几季流行于潮流巅峰。

　　这种丰富多彩的波希米亚风格，应该归功于吉普赛人在流浪中善于收集当地特色的做法：亮片、彩石的首饰大概来源于印度；小花边、多褶大摆裙是斯拉夫和俄罗斯民族的特色；而流苏和坠饰则可能出自中东的伊朗和北非的摩洛哥。难怪世界各地的服装设计师沉醉其中，不能自拔。而对于向往着波希米亚式自由生活的都市人，“波”式装扮也确实可以在8小时之外让人轻松一下，圆圆自己的“流浪”梦。▲

　　<<环球时报>>  2005年11月23日 第二十一版

这两天晚上看美国ABC公司2005年出品的电视剧lost（第一季），看得有些欲罢不能。悬念太多了，而且都是走的逻辑，逼得观众也跟着编剧情。比如说，有一个论坛上不知从哪儿转载了一个网友的剧情大猜想：

偶认为小岛具有某种神奇的魔力，类似于神秘北纬30度，船、飞机都容易在此神秘失踪，
这也就是为什么从几个世纪前的海盗船，到贩毒者的飞机都在此出现的原因，科学家也许
正是看中这点，觉得小岛的安全有了一个天然的屏障，所以在此建立科研基地，也许是核
反应堆之类，但是由于实验失败，五六十年代的计算机技术又很落后，所以不得不靠不断
录入那组数字，来关闭每隔180分钟就会自动启动的核反应。为了将这项工作长久进行下去
，必须不断培养新的接班人，于是他们抓小孩，为了补充现有的一支常规驻扎部队，他们
抓身体健壮的成年人过去。而岛上的怪兽也许是遭受意外核辐射后基因突变而成的，这个
类似于侏罗纪公园。

抛砖引玉，呵呵

我和回帖子的朋友们一样，认为这种猜想不成立，不可能。

In a letter describing his impressions of the Cologne cathedral, Hegel wrote:

Cologne is huge. I searched out the Cathedral right away. The majesty and gracefulness of it, or of what exists of it [building had just recommenced], the slender proportions, the elongation in them, which do not so much give the impression of a rise as of upward flight, are worth seeing and are wholly admirable as the conception of a single human being and the enterprise of a single city. In the Cathedral one vividly beholds in every sense a different dimension, a human world of a quite different sort, as also of another time. There is no question here of utility, enjoyment, pleasure, or satisfied need, but only a spacious ambling about enveloped by high halls that exist for themselves, and, as it were, simply do not care whether people use them for whatever purpose. An empty opera house, like an empty church, has something lacking in it. We encounter here a tall forest, though admittedly a spiritual forest full of art, standing for itself, existing there regardless of whether people crawl around down below or not. It could not care less. What it is, it is for itself. It is made for itself, and whatever ambles or parades about within its walls‹or tours about in it with a green oilcloth knapsack and an admittedly still unlit pipe in the mouth‹is, along with the caretaker, simply lost in it. All this‹standing and walking around in it‹simply vanishes in it. (Letter #436, Hegel to his Wife, from Cologne, September 28, 1822, HTL 585 )

Such a romantic building relates to its particular parts in ways beyond explanation through relations of the understanding such as part and whole, or function and means. Such buildings are

als schlechthin zweckgemäss, aber ihr eigentlicher Charakter liegt gerade darin, über jeden bestimmten Zweck fortzugehen und als in sich abgeschlossen für sich selber dazusein. Das Werk steht da für sich, fest und ewig. Deshalb gibt kein bloss verständiges Verhältnis mehr dem Ganzen seinen Charakter. (A 14.331/2.684)

entirely suitable for [their functional goals], but their real character lies precisely in the fact that they transcend any specific end and, as perfect in themselves, stand there on their own account. Therefore no simple relation of the understanding determines the character of the whole.

Romantic architecture goes beyond the relations of the understanding and gives us a presentation of spirit, whose turn inward is also a rising to the universal. But this is not spirit in its full being-for-itself, since the externality of architecture cannot capture that movement. The universal that this movement expresses is in is in its way more Spinozistic than Hegelian:

Es ist die Substzanz des Ganzen, welche sich in unendliche Teilungen einer Welt individueller Mannigfaltigkeiten auseinanderstellt und zerschlägt, aber diese unübersehbare Vielheit einfach sondert, regelmässig gliedert, symmetrisch verteilt, zu befriedigendster Eurhythmie ebenso bewegt als fest hinstellt und diese Weite und Breite bunter Einzelheiten zu sicherster Einheit und klarstem Fürsichsein ungehindert zusammenfasst. (A 14.331f/2.685)

The substance of the whole is dismembered and shattered into the endless divisions of a world of individual variegations, but this incalculable multiplicity is divided in a simple way, articulated regularly, dispersed symmetrically, both moved and firmly set in the most satisfying eurhythmy, and this length and breadth of varied details is gripped together unhindered into the most secure unity and clearest independence.

The classical is the realm of organic totality, where parts have a precise function in terms of the self-referential function of the whole. The romantic expresses a unity that includes and goes beyond functional divisions. It expresses both the particularity of the individual parts (the statues, the arches, the plan) and the life of the substantial whole which moves beyond them.

We recall that symbolic architecture comes before explicit function; it is all function, and all means, and all independent construction. Romantic architecture refuses to be determined by the functions it nonetheless fulfills. Only classical architecture is dominated by function, but that is the second level self-showing. So architecture in general refuses to be reduced to pragmatic function.

奥托王朝以后,从10世纪中期至15世纪末,德国虽名 义上是神圣罗马帝国的中心，但封建割据严重，各公爵、 主教拥地自立，中央政府形同虚设，也没有固定的首都。 但各地文化和美术还保持一致，先后经历了罗马式美术 （11～12世纪）和哥特式美术（13～15世纪）两个主要 阶段。德国罗马式美术直接继奥托美术发展而来，中心 在莱茵河流域一带。罗马式建筑的代表可举施派尔和沃 尔姆斯的大教堂以及马利亚·拉赫的修道院教堂。施派 尔大教堂初建（约1030）时只有木构屋顶，1080年改成 石造的交叉拱券屋顶，形成完整的罗马式风格。它的主 厅拱顶高达32.6米，是欧洲罗马式教堂之冠；外部东西 门面共有4座高塔,益增其壮伟。其他两座教堂也以结构 严谨著称。 　　德国哥特式美术首先在建筑上受法国影响而发展起 来。科隆大教堂在1248年失火被毁，它的彻底重建为采 用哥特式风格提供了良好机会，而这时的法国哥特式已 有多年发展而臻于完善，因此科隆大教堂就按最优美的 法国模式建造起来，成为哥特式建筑的一大杰作。它的 建造也历时最久：1248～1322年间只完成了东部祭台和 横厅,主厅和西部高塔在以后几百年间一直未能完工,19 世纪初发现了1320年间画下的相当完备的西部门面设计 图样，才根据原样使全部工程完成，高塔尖顶的最后完 工已在1880年。它的尖拱屋顶高达45米，主厅和祭台全 用高窗、列拱组成，高耸通透，达到哥特式建筑理想的 极致，西部两个高塔也是同类建筑中最称完美的。德国 哥特式建筑的独创则在于发展了宽厅式教堂，即主厅与 侧厅同一高度,整个教堂属于一座宽敞的大厅,其代表是 马堡的圣·伊丽莎白教堂(1235～1283)。虽然这种教堂 的整体高度受到一度限制,内部空间却开阔朗爽,更有利 于宣讲活动，在德国各地流传甚广。

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巴黎圣母院 格拉尼卡修道院 比萨教堂建筑群 科隆大教堂 亨利七世礼拜堂 洪尼·特利尼提大教堂 拉·多尼教堂 乐托·达姆·克拉达教堂 乐托·达姆修道院 鲁昂市政厅 马利亚·那赫修道院 米兰大教堂 契巴依大教堂 莫地那大教堂 圣彼尔大教堂 圣基里科斯教堂 圣米盖尔教堂 圣莫特教堂 斯比牙大教堂 圣索菲亚教堂

众所周知，叔本华、尼采提出所谓音乐形而上学，鼓吹音乐是各门艺术应加以效仿的楷模。其实，在黑格尔那里，音乐已经是高于绘画的了，其理由在于，“由于运用声音，音乐就放弃了外在形状这个因素以及它的明显的可以眼见的性质，因此，要领会音乐的作品，就需要用另一种主体方面的器官，即听觉。听觉像视觉一样是一种认识性的而不是实践性的感觉，而且比视觉更是观念性的。”（黑格尔，《美学》，第三卷上册，朱光潜译，商务印书馆1996年，第331页）

有趣的是，黑格尔还认为，色彩高于素描，“绘画毕竟要绘”，“绘画毕竟要通过颜色的运用，才能使丰富的心灵内容获得它的真正的生动表现”（黑格尔，《美学》，第三卷上册，朱光潜译，商务印书馆1996年，第270，271页）。

不仅如此，黑格尔还提到一种越界到音乐领域的色彩魔术[这和后印象派鼓吹的色彩音乐何其相仿！]，在他心目中，这正是绘画艺术的至高境界，“这种魔术在于把各种颜色处理得当，从而产生一种色彩现象方面的本身无目的的游戏，这是色彩的一种飘忽荡漾的顶峰；这也是各种色调的互相渗透，一种许多返光的照耀，这些返光在许多其他发光体中照耀着，变得很精微，瞬息万变，生动热烈，以至开始越界到音乐的领域”（ 黑格尔，《美学》，第三卷上册，朱光潜译，商务印书馆1996年，第281页 ）。擅长这一魔术的是达·芬奇，考列基俄以及荷兰画家们。

黑格尔认为，色彩感是画家最珍贵的禀赋，“一般人通常以为绘画在颜色方面按照一些很明确的规则去办事就行。但是这种想法只适用于线形透视，因为线形透视完全是一种几何学的科学；即使在线形透视方面，也决不应拘守抽象的规则，否则就会破坏绘画性的效果。其次，连素描在透视方面就已经不应该拘守一般性的规则，着色更不宜如此。颜色感应该是艺术家所特有的一种品质，是他们所特有的掌握色调和就色调构思的一种能力，所以也是再现的想象力和创造力的一个基本因素”（ 黑格尔，《美学》，第三卷上册，朱光潜译，商务印书馆1996年，第282页 ）。说到这里，黑格尔讲了歌德的一个小故事，在这个小故事中，歌德在现实生活中看到了荷兰画家Adriaen Van Ostade在画中展现的光色游戏，从而立志于学习画家们卓越的“看自然的视力”。

Flemish School: (1600 - 1800)

The Flemish style of art began in the 15th century and was inspired by the manuscript illumination and art of the Burgundian court.

The first center of Flemish art was Bruges布鲁日[比利时西北部城市], recieving this reputation with the help of Hubert and Jan van Eyck in the 15th century. Paintings of this time were excuted in a realist style and often contained depictions of elaborate materials and fabrics and religious symbols.

In the 16th century, Italian influences appeared and the center of artistic production moved to Antwerp安特卫普市[比利时北部港口城市]. While some artists embraced the Italain style, others ignored the fashions and retained their indivdual style. The 17th century was marked by the influence of Peter Paul Rubens, the foremost Flemish artist. After the 17th century, Flemish art declined with the emergence of the French Rococo style.

Known for inventing oil painting, other characteristics of Flemish art included attention to detail, bright colors, and superior technique. It mainly dealt with religious subjects and was often set in contemporary landscapes, townscapes, and interiors. Other Flemish characteristcs included idealism and exploration of perspective.

Artists: (biography & artworks)

Alsloot, Denys van - 1570 - 1628
Balen, Hendrick van - 1575 - 1632
Berghe, Christoffel van den - 1617 - 1642
Bouts, Dieric - 1415 - 1475
Bouts the Elder, Dieric - 1415 - 1475
Brueghel, Pieter - 1520 - 1569
Jordaens, Jacob - 1593 - 1678
Memling, Hans - 1433 - 1494
Rubens, Peter Paul - 1577 - 1640
Van Dyck, Sir Anthony - 1599 - 1641
Weyden, van der - 1399 - 1464