How Did Henri Matisse Use The Fauvist Approach To Art?
In the century preceding the Renaissance, landmark artists Cimabue and Giotto made an important stylistic shift that signaled the beginning of a new kind of art. They rejected the ethereal, flattened world that had dominated Italo-Byzantine painting for centuries; and in its vacancy they created believable visual illusionism—a depiction of space, volume, and the observable world. This artistic development was built upon by Renaissance artists like Fra Angelico who championed the use of scientific perspective. Similarly, work by Da Vinci and Raphael owes much of its potency to an organic, realistic treatment of space and the human figure, directly influenced by this growing convention of depicting a world that behaves visually like our own.
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Henri Matisse led one of these styles, known as Fauvism, even further away from loyalty to visual illusionism by proposing that painting was an end unto itself. The Fauvist approach to art can be summed up in Matisse’s own words: “Why must a painting imitate nature, when painting can be nature?” In the eyes of the Fauvists, art had become passive and lifeless—but once it was infused again with vitality, art could become its own natural context. In short, art for art’s sake. In his piece Calm, Luxury, and Voluptuousness, Matisse exemplified this Fauvist rejection of visual illusionism, through his treatment of color, space, and brushstroke. The high-toned, unnatural colors in this piece represent an aggressive break from depicting visual illusionism—they leap out from the frame into our world and confront the viewer, demanding an unfiltered, spontaneous response. The over-stated artificiality of Matisse’s color choices immediately informs the viewer that they are not looking at art intended to imitate nature. Rather, Matisse’s decision to paint with such violent color was an attempt to infuse life back into art, by keeping the viewer’s eye active and unsettled as they regard his unblended forms. Like Fiorentino and Ingres, Matisse also collapsed the space of this scene into a two-dimensional, pictorial world that abandons scientific perspective and resemblance to the observable world. And in a move distinctly influenced by his 20th century predecessors like Cézanne and Serrault, Matisse uses a rapid, but obsessive brushstroke in composing his world, that fractures it into tiny pieces. This
Henri Matisse led one of these styles, known as Fauvism, even further away from loyalty to visual illusionism by proposing that painting was an end unto itself. The Fauvist approach to art can be summed up in Matisse’s own words: “Why must a painting imitate nature, when painting can be nature?” In the eyes of the Fauvists, art had become passive and lifeless—but once it was infused again with vitality, art could become its own natural context. In short, art for art’s sake. In his piece Calm, Luxury, and Voluptuousness, Matisse exemplified this Fauvist rejection of visual illusionism, through his treatment of color, space, and brushstroke. The high-toned, unnatural colors in this piece represent an aggressive break from depicting visual illusionism—they leap out from the frame into our world and confront the viewer, demanding an unfiltered, spontaneous response. The over-stated artificiality of Matisse’s color choices immediately informs the viewer that they are not looking at art intended to imitate nature. Rather, Matisse’s decision to paint with such violent color was an attempt to infuse life back into art, by keeping the viewer’s eye active and unsettled as they regard his unblended forms. Like Fiorentino and Ingres, Matisse also collapsed the space of this scene into a two-dimensional, pictorial world that abandons scientific perspective and resemblance to the observable world. And in a move distinctly influenced by his 20th century predecessors like Cézanne and Serrault, Matisse uses a rapid, but obsessive brushstroke in composing his world, that fractures it into tiny pieces. This