From Raphael to van Gogh, masterpieces from London's National Gallery land in Korea

Sir Thomas Lawrence's "Portrait of Charles William Lambton" (1825), nicknamed "The Red Boy," is one of 52 European masterpieces from the collection of Britain's National Gallery that has arrived at the National Museum of Korea in central Seoul for the special exhibition, "Eyes on Us: Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London." Courtesy of the National Gallery, London

By Park Han-sol

With the advent of the Renaissance in the 14th century in Western Europe came a profound shift in how Europeans viewed themselves in relation to God.

Armed with revived interest in the Classical antiquity of the Greco-Roman world, humanist thinkers began steering away from divine-centered medieval Christian dogmas and instead turned their focus to the individual nature and capabilities of men.

Simply put, the movement ushered in the subsequent era of the "shift from God to Man." And artists were one of the leading players who put this philosophy into practice.

What better way to trace such a sweeping cultural transformation in the history of Western art than to view it through the tours de force of Old Masters?

Fifty-two European masterpieces from the Renaissance through the Baroque to the Post-Impressionism of the early 20th century ― all hailing from the collection of Britain's National Gallery ― have landed at the National Museum of Korea (NMK) in Seoul for the first time.

The exhibition, "Eyes on Us: Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London," organized as part of the collection's first Asian tour and curated by the NMK's Sun Yu-ee, is indeed a feast for the eyes, dazzling the audience with names like Botticelli, Raphael, Caravaggio, Velazquez, Rembrandt, Constable, Monet, Renoir, Gauguin and van Gogh.

Raphael's "The Garvagh Madonna" (1510-11) / Courtesy of the National Gallery, London

The show opens with the period of the Italian Renaissance when artists began to move beyond the awkward- and unnatural-looking depictions of holy figures ― which served as visual reminders of the Church's teachings during the Middle Ages ― and instead veered toward lifelike representations of human forms achieved by linear perspective, use of light and ideal bodily proportions.

Raphael's "The Garvagh Madonna" (1510-11) embodies such characteristics of Renaissance paintings.

Its naturalistic portrayal of the Virgin Mary and the infant Christ within the landscapes inspired by the real, observable world stands in stark contrast to medieval art featuring oddly posed characters against flat golden backgrounds.

In addition to bringing stylistic changes to religious paintings, creators during this time introduced new humanist subjects to their works. Portraitures, like Jacopo Tintoretto's "Portrait of Vincenzo Morosini" (1575-80), captured the distinct appearance and personality of the individual sitter, while depictions of Greco-Roman mythological narratives featured deities expressing human emotion, as in Damiano Mazza's "The Rape of Ganymede" (1575).

Damiano Mazza's "The Rape of Ganymede" (1575) depicts a scene from Greek mythology, when Jupiter abducts the handsome youth Ganymede while in the guise of a black eagle. Yonhap

It was during the Renaissance that the Reformation came to take place, bringing about the schism of the Western Church into Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.

By the 17th century, the contrasting worldviews espoused by the Catholic and Protestant Churches began to manifest in art as well.

Baroque paintings, characterized by dramatic lighting, dynamic compositions and emotional exuberance, developed alongside the Catholic Church's aim to evoke a sense of wonder and reverence in its believers through art.

Caravaggio was a trailblazer of the Baroque movement, whose intense chiaroscuro (contrast between light and dark) technique and dramatic staging inspired a string of painters across Europe. His "Boy Bitten by a Lizard" (1594-95) on view vividly captures the moment of a young man recoiling in pain after a salamander's surprise attack.

Such theatrical lighting is also witnessed in Sassoferrato's stirring imagery of "The Virgin in Prayer" (1640-50) and Guido Reni's "Saint Mary Magdalene" (1634-35).

Caravaggio's "Boy Bitten by a Lizard" (1594-95) / Courtesy of the National Gallery, London

In contrast, Protestant art, which flourished in Northern Europe, decidedly leaves out divine subject matters on canvas ― for fear that people would idolize the painted holy figures rather than having an individualized relationship with God.

Artists instead turned their gaze to simple scenes of daily life ― contemporary landscapes and everyday portraits ― as sources of inspiration.

Albrecht Altdorfer's "Landscape with a Footbridge" (1518-20) reflects the beginning of creators' growing interest in pure landscape that is devoid of humans or explicit narratives as an independent subject of art.

Jan Steen's "The Interior of an Inn ('The Broken Eggs')" (1665-70) depicts a raucous drinking scene at a tavern filled with sexual innuendos ― as a pictorial moral tale beneath the humor.

Visitors look at landscape paintings produced by the likes of John Constable and Joseph Mallord William Turner in England during the 18th and 19th centuries, June 1. Yonhap

Portrait and landscape paintings continued to gain popularity in England during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Before the invention of photography in the mid-1800s, painted portraits were what served as a true-to-life visual record of an individual's life.

Sir Thomas Lawrence's "Portrait of Charles William Lambton" (1825) portrays a young sitter, aged six or seven, in a loose red velvet "skeleton suit." Also nicknamed "The Red Boy," the image of a boy lost in contemplation within the wondrous nature became so iconic that it was the first to be reproduced on a British postage stamp in 1967.

Meanwhile, landscape paintings during this time aimed to document the natural and urban sceneries both before and after the Industrial Revolution.

As witnessed in "Stratford Mill" (1820) on display, John Constable took influence from the romantic natural environment of his native Suffolk countryside before it underwent the transformative changes of modernization.

The English painter's close study of outdoor nature and luminous use of color eventually came to inspire French Impressionists of the late 19th century.

Edouard Manet's "Corner of a Cafe-Concert" (1878-80), left, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir's "A Bather" (1885-90) / Courtesy of the National Gallery, London

Impressionism ― characterized by efforts to capture the transient, emotive effects of light according to the passage of time and movements ― emerged after the invention of photography when artists were freed from the need to document the subject exactly as it appeared before their eyes.

In other words, art was now finally able to move beyond the original premise that it should represent its subject matters in lifelike, realistic details ― an unspoken principle that had been put in place since the Renaissance. Rather, the creators were given the liberty to choose their motifs and interpret them with original compositions and striking colors.

The celebrated Impressionists and Post-Impressionists form the highlight of the exhibition ― Pierre-Auguste Renoir's female nude "A Bather" (1885-90); Edouard Manet's "Corner of a Cafe-Concert" (1878-80), a snapshot view of a bustling modern Paris cafe; Vincent van Gogh's "Long Grass with Butterflies" (1890), an expressive portrayal of a patch of meadow completed just months ahead of his suicide; and Claude Monet's "Irises" (1914-17), painted in his garden at Giverny.

Vincent van Gogh's "Long Grass with Butterflies" (1890) / Courtesy of the National Gallery, London

Ultimately, the NMK's show takes the form of a "National Gallery miniature," according to Christine Riding, the head of the curatorial department at the London gallery.

Through 52 masterpieces selected from some 2,600 works in its collection, it aims to "show all the major trends, the major artists, but also a journey that Western art has gone on ― from a focus on the elite and religion towards something that was much more democratic, much more open," she noted.

"Eyes on Us" runs through Oct. 9 at the NMK.

A visitor views Rembrandt's "Self-Portrait at the Age of 63" (1669) exhibited at the National Museum of Korea, June 1. Yonhap