A Closer Look Series

What is still life? We are familiar with the objects portrayed but have difficulty explaining the essence of this popular art form. Erika Langmuir examines the special fascination of still life, and what distinguishes it from other categories of painting. She discusses its evolution from the trompe l’oeil wall paintings of antiquity, through its revival in the age of Caravaggio and Velázquez, and again in the works of Cézanne and Picasso. Originally published as Pocket Guide Still Life, this eloquent survey benefits from a wider format, new reproductions, and updated references.

Published by National Gallery Company/Distributed by Yale University Press

Allegory

by Erika Langmuir

Published 5 September 1997

Landscape

by Erika Langmuir

Published 5 September 1997

Landscape is probably the most popular type of painting. This guide examines how artists in past centuries translated outdoor space and light into paint, and how landscape imagery evolved from ornament into a visual metaphor of the human condition. The text begins with Roman mural decoration, through the Renaissance transformation of landscape into a vehicle for feelings and ideas, and continues through to the Impressionist "revolution" and beyond. The continuing relevance of art to how we see the world, and our place in it, is demonstrated through a practical discussion of optics of real and painted landscape, illustrated with works from the National Gallery.

Saints

by Erika Langmuir

Published 10 June 2001

Drawing on the National Gallery's comprehensive collection of religious images, this Pocket Guide explains the importance of saints and their role in the history of European painting.Erika Langmuir describes how saints became part of the institutions of the Christian church, the different types of saints, and the increasing importance of saintly relics in the Middle Ages. She also explains the way in which saints were created -- the process of canonization and the promotion of candidates by religious orders. And she provides an introduction to a wide variety of personalities, from the ambiguous penitent Mary Magdalen to such internationally celebrated figures as Saint Jerome or Saint Francis of Assisi. Langmuir underlines the fundamental importance of saints in many paintings, where they may appear as heavenly sponsors or patrons of donors, and explains the sometimes puzzling conventions for identifying saints by their attributes, with examples of works by Raphael, Durer, and Crivelli, among others.

Angels

by Erika Langmuir

Published 20 July 1999