end notes
Art as a barometer of climate changes
To return to your place in the text, just click your Back button
1. Timothy Foote et al, The World of Bruegel, Time-Life International, London 1977 at 18-19. Of course, other non-climate factors were also relevant. These included the fact that small illuminated manuscripts such as Books of Hours were so influential in the development of Flemish art; and that for a considerable period in some Protestant countries, religious art in churches was firmly discouraged.
1A. Sometimes even seasonal variations can be identified. For example, the winter coat of horses in the Chauvet Cave in southern France includes a much shorter beard than its northern cousins, indicating a milder winter: R Dale Guthrie, The Nature of Paleolithic Art, Univ of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2005 at 74.
2. Joseph Stromberg, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/cavemen-were-much-better-at-illustrating-animals-than-artists-today-153292919/?no-ist 5 December 2012.
3. Paul G Bahn, The Cambridge Illustrated History of Prehistoric Art, Cambridge University Press, 1998 at 231.
4. Bahn, op cit at 177.
5. These seem to appear more frequently in the more modern sites. They are sometimes indicated by their more stylised and repetitive appearance.
6. Bahn, op cit at 180.
7. Bahn, op cit at 177, citing N W G McIntosh, “Beswick Creek Cave: Two Decades Later”, in P J Ucko (ed) Forms of Indigenous Art, London, Duckworth, 1977.
8. Bahn, op cit at 221, citing Patricia Vinnicombe, People of the Eland, Pietermaritzburg, Natal University Press, 1976.
9. Guthrie, op cit.
10. Annette Laming, Lascaux: Paintings and Engravings, Penguin Books, Hammondsworth, 1959, at 126.
11. Laming, op cit at 127-8.
12. Unless it is assumed that those animals had simply adapted to a more temperate environment: Laming, op cit at 144, 149.
13. Before about 10,000 BCE: Guthrie, op cit at 22.
14. Bahn, op cit at 192. On the absence of children generally, see Guthrie, op cit, ch 3.
15. See Kieran D O’Hara, Cave Art and Climate Change, Archway Publ, 2014 for the view that cave art and climate change are even more inextricably linked.
16. Michael E Mann, “Little Ice Age”, in Encyclopedia of Global Environmental Change, Vol 1, p 504.
17. Timothy Foote, The World of Bruegel, Time-Life Books, Inc, 1971 at 176, 178.
18. H H Lamb, Climate, History and the Modern World, London, XIX, 1982, cited in Franz Ossing, “Paintings as a Climate Archive?” GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences.
19. J Walsh, “Skies and reality in Dutch landscape”, in D Freedberg and J de Vries (Eds) Art in history: history in art; studies in seventeenth-century Dutch culture, Univ. of Chicago Press, 1991 at 95-117; Ossing, op cit.
20. Mann, op cit.
20A. Dalva Alberge, "Climate change ravages Turner's majestic glaciers" The Guardian, 6 January 2019.
21. Acronym for Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico. Aptly, “Mose” is also the Italia name for Moses, who famously parted the Red Sea.
22. Justin Demetri, “Venice is Drowning”, 12 May 2015 http://www.lifeinitaly.com/tourism/veneto/sinking-venice.asp
23. Darlo Camuffo et al “The extraction of Venetian sea-level change from paintings by Canaletto and Bellotto”, ch 16 in Flooding and Environmental Challenges for Venice and its Lagoon (C A Fletcher et al), Cambridge University Press, 2005 at p 129; Darlo Camuffo et al, “Sixty cm submersion of Venice discovered thanks to Canaletto’s paintings”, Climate Change, June 2001 Vol 58, Iss 3, pp 333-343; Darlo Camuffo, “Canaletto’s paintings open a new window on the relative sea-level rise in Venice”, Journal of Cultural Heritage Vol 2 Iss 4, Oct-Dec 2001 227.
24. The eleven paintings ultimately used in the study were Canaletto’s Punta Dogana (1727), Grand Canal: the Rialto Bridge from the North (1727), The Grand Canal from Balbi Palace to Rialto (1730/1), The Grand Canal from Campo San Vio (1732), Entrance to Cannaregio with S Geremia Church (1735), The Grand Canal at S Maria della Carita looking S Vio (1735), The Grand Canal from Grimani Palace to Foscari Palace (1735), The Grand Canal from S Sofia Church to the Rialto Bridge (1758); and Bellotto’s The Grand Canal near S Stae Church (1740), Campo S Giovanni and Paolo (1741) and The Grand Canal from Flangini Palace to Vendramin Colergi Palace (1741).
25. See authorities collected in C S Zerefos et al, “Atmospheric effects of volcanic eruptions as seen by famous artists and depicted in their paintings”, Atmos Chem Phys 7, 4027-4042, 2007.
25A. See generally Gillen D'Arcy Wood, Tambora: The Eruption that Changed the World, Princeton University Press, 2014.
26. See generally Simon Winchester, Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883, HarperCollins, New York, 2003.The invention of the telegraph in 1830 and the spread of the international cable network meant that when Krakatoa erupted, the news spread quickly, resulting in it becoming the first worldwide news story (Winchester, at 6). In contrast, word of the earlier 1815 Tambora eruption, which was many times larger, travelled no faster than a sailing ship, so limiting its popular news impact.
27. Richard Hamblyn, “The Krakatoa Sunsets”, Public Domain Review, 28 May 2012 http://publicdomainreview.org/2012/05/28/the-krakatoa-sunsets/
28. “Descriptions of the Unusual Twilight Glows in Various Parts of the World, in 1883-4” in The Eruption of Krakatoa, and Subsequent Phenomena: Report of the Krakatoa Committee of the Royal Society (1888) (Ed. G J Simmons).
29. New York Times, 28 November 1883, cited in Russell L Doescher, Donald W Olson and Marilynn S Olson, “When the sky ran red: the story behind The Scream”, Sky & Telescope. 107 2 (Feb. 2004) p 28.
30. 29 November 1883.
31. Hamblin, op cit; Richard D Altick, “Four Victorian Poets and an Exploding Island”, Victorian Studies 3 (March 1960), p. 258. Hopkins prepared a detailed report on the phenomenon which was published in the journal Nature, January 1884.
32. Hamblin, op cit.
33. Doeschler, op cit.
34. C S Zerefos et al, “Atmospheric effects of volcanic eruptions as seen by famous artists and depicted in their paintings”, Atmos Chem Phys 7, 4027-4042, 2007; C S Zerefos et al, “Further evidence of important environmental information content in red-to-green ratios as depicted in paintings by great masters, Atmos Chem Phys 14, 2987-3015, 2014.
35. Hans Neuberger, “Climate in Art”, Weather, 25, 2 46-56; cited in Ossing, op cit.
36. Ossing, op cit.
37. Zerefos, op cit.
38. As adjusted for the solar zenith angle for each painting (R/G). This ratio is evidently stable irrespective of the age of the painter.
39. As a separate finding, paintings created in non-volcanic years also demonstrated a general background increase over the period from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century.
40. Zerefos, op cit.
© Philip McCouat 2015, 2016, 2019
This article may be cited as “Art as a barometer of climate changes”. Journal of Art in Society, www.artinsociety.com
If you enjoyed this article you may also enjoy:
The emergence of the winter landscape
Bernardo Bellotto and the reconstruction of Warsaw
Return to the Journal’s table of contents at HOME
1. Timothy Foote et al, The World of Bruegel, Time-Life International, London 1977 at 18-19. Of course, other non-climate factors were also relevant. These included the fact that small illuminated manuscripts such as Books of Hours were so influential in the development of Flemish art; and that for a considerable period in some Protestant countries, religious art in churches was firmly discouraged.
1A. Sometimes even seasonal variations can be identified. For example, the winter coat of horses in the Chauvet Cave in southern France includes a much shorter beard than its northern cousins, indicating a milder winter: R Dale Guthrie, The Nature of Paleolithic Art, Univ of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2005 at 74.
2. Joseph Stromberg, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/cavemen-were-much-better-at-illustrating-animals-than-artists-today-153292919/?no-ist 5 December 2012.
3. Paul G Bahn, The Cambridge Illustrated History of Prehistoric Art, Cambridge University Press, 1998 at 231.
4. Bahn, op cit at 177.
5. These seem to appear more frequently in the more modern sites. They are sometimes indicated by their more stylised and repetitive appearance.
6. Bahn, op cit at 180.
7. Bahn, op cit at 177, citing N W G McIntosh, “Beswick Creek Cave: Two Decades Later”, in P J Ucko (ed) Forms of Indigenous Art, London, Duckworth, 1977.
8. Bahn, op cit at 221, citing Patricia Vinnicombe, People of the Eland, Pietermaritzburg, Natal University Press, 1976.
9. Guthrie, op cit.
10. Annette Laming, Lascaux: Paintings and Engravings, Penguin Books, Hammondsworth, 1959, at 126.
11. Laming, op cit at 127-8.
12. Unless it is assumed that those animals had simply adapted to a more temperate environment: Laming, op cit at 144, 149.
13. Before about 10,000 BCE: Guthrie, op cit at 22.
14. Bahn, op cit at 192. On the absence of children generally, see Guthrie, op cit, ch 3.
15. See Kieran D O’Hara, Cave Art and Climate Change, Archway Publ, 2014 for the view that cave art and climate change are even more inextricably linked.
16. Michael E Mann, “Little Ice Age”, in Encyclopedia of Global Environmental Change, Vol 1, p 504.
17. Timothy Foote, The World of Bruegel, Time-Life Books, Inc, 1971 at 176, 178.
18. H H Lamb, Climate, History and the Modern World, London, XIX, 1982, cited in Franz Ossing, “Paintings as a Climate Archive?” GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences.
19. J Walsh, “Skies and reality in Dutch landscape”, in D Freedberg and J de Vries (Eds) Art in history: history in art; studies in seventeenth-century Dutch culture, Univ. of Chicago Press, 1991 at 95-117; Ossing, op cit.
20. Mann, op cit.
20A. Dalva Alberge, "Climate change ravages Turner's majestic glaciers" The Guardian, 6 January 2019.
21. Acronym for Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico. Aptly, “Mose” is also the Italia name for Moses, who famously parted the Red Sea.
22. Justin Demetri, “Venice is Drowning”, 12 May 2015 http://www.lifeinitaly.com/tourism/veneto/sinking-venice.asp
23. Darlo Camuffo et al “The extraction of Venetian sea-level change from paintings by Canaletto and Bellotto”, ch 16 in Flooding and Environmental Challenges for Venice and its Lagoon (C A Fletcher et al), Cambridge University Press, 2005 at p 129; Darlo Camuffo et al, “Sixty cm submersion of Venice discovered thanks to Canaletto’s paintings”, Climate Change, June 2001 Vol 58, Iss 3, pp 333-343; Darlo Camuffo, “Canaletto’s paintings open a new window on the relative sea-level rise in Venice”, Journal of Cultural Heritage Vol 2 Iss 4, Oct-Dec 2001 227.
24. The eleven paintings ultimately used in the study were Canaletto’s Punta Dogana (1727), Grand Canal: the Rialto Bridge from the North (1727), The Grand Canal from Balbi Palace to Rialto (1730/1), The Grand Canal from Campo San Vio (1732), Entrance to Cannaregio with S Geremia Church (1735), The Grand Canal at S Maria della Carita looking S Vio (1735), The Grand Canal from Grimani Palace to Foscari Palace (1735), The Grand Canal from S Sofia Church to the Rialto Bridge (1758); and Bellotto’s The Grand Canal near S Stae Church (1740), Campo S Giovanni and Paolo (1741) and The Grand Canal from Flangini Palace to Vendramin Colergi Palace (1741).
25. See authorities collected in C S Zerefos et al, “Atmospheric effects of volcanic eruptions as seen by famous artists and depicted in their paintings”, Atmos Chem Phys 7, 4027-4042, 2007.
25A. See generally Gillen D'Arcy Wood, Tambora: The Eruption that Changed the World, Princeton University Press, 2014.
26. See generally Simon Winchester, Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883, HarperCollins, New York, 2003.The invention of the telegraph in 1830 and the spread of the international cable network meant that when Krakatoa erupted, the news spread quickly, resulting in it becoming the first worldwide news story (Winchester, at 6). In contrast, word of the earlier 1815 Tambora eruption, which was many times larger, travelled no faster than a sailing ship, so limiting its popular news impact.
27. Richard Hamblyn, “The Krakatoa Sunsets”, Public Domain Review, 28 May 2012 http://publicdomainreview.org/2012/05/28/the-krakatoa-sunsets/
28. “Descriptions of the Unusual Twilight Glows in Various Parts of the World, in 1883-4” in The Eruption of Krakatoa, and Subsequent Phenomena: Report of the Krakatoa Committee of the Royal Society (1888) (Ed. G J Simmons).
29. New York Times, 28 November 1883, cited in Russell L Doescher, Donald W Olson and Marilynn S Olson, “When the sky ran red: the story behind The Scream”, Sky & Telescope. 107 2 (Feb. 2004) p 28.
30. 29 November 1883.
31. Hamblin, op cit; Richard D Altick, “Four Victorian Poets and an Exploding Island”, Victorian Studies 3 (March 1960), p. 258. Hopkins prepared a detailed report on the phenomenon which was published in the journal Nature, January 1884.
32. Hamblin, op cit.
33. Doeschler, op cit.
34. C S Zerefos et al, “Atmospheric effects of volcanic eruptions as seen by famous artists and depicted in their paintings”, Atmos Chem Phys 7, 4027-4042, 2007; C S Zerefos et al, “Further evidence of important environmental information content in red-to-green ratios as depicted in paintings by great masters, Atmos Chem Phys 14, 2987-3015, 2014.
35. Hans Neuberger, “Climate in Art”, Weather, 25, 2 46-56; cited in Ossing, op cit.
36. Ossing, op cit.
37. Zerefos, op cit.
38. As adjusted for the solar zenith angle for each painting (R/G). This ratio is evidently stable irrespective of the age of the painter.
39. As a separate finding, paintings created in non-volcanic years also demonstrated a general background increase over the period from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century.
40. Zerefos, op cit.
© Philip McCouat 2015, 2016, 2019
This article may be cited as “Art as a barometer of climate changes”. Journal of Art in Society, www.artinsociety.com
If you enjoyed this article you may also enjoy:
The emergence of the winter landscape
Bernardo Bellotto and the reconstruction of Warsaw
Return to the Journal’s table of contents at HOME