Alvan Fisher was born August 9, 1792 in Needham, MA. His first teacher was John Ritto Penniman, who began instruction with Fisher when he was twenty years old. Fisher started out as a portrait painter, then moved to painting country scenes, then back to portrait painting. Fisher exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1817. He was living in Boston. Fisher went to many places looking for commissions including Charleston, SC and Hartford, CN. For a year, between 1825 and 1826, Fisher studied in Paris and traveled in Europe. He returned to the U.S. in 1826 and made his permanent residence in Boston.
Fisher was made an honorary member of the National Academy of Design and frequently exhibited at various galleries including the Boston Athenaeum, the Pennsylvania Academy, the Maryland Historical Society and the Apollo Association. He died in 1863 in the town of Dedham, MA where he had spent his youth.
$#COLE, THOMAS
##Thomas Cole 1801-1848
Thomas Cole was born on February 1, 1801 in Bolton-le-Moor, Lancashire, England. At the age of 16 Cole was working as an assistant to an engraver in Liverpool. Approximately two years later (1819) his family moved to Philadelphia. He went with them and remained in Philadelphia when they moved to Steubenville.
Cole began working as a textile print designer and used his engraving skills to illustrate Bunyan's "Holy War". Cole journeyed to the West Indies in 1819. Upon his return to the U.S., he joined his family in Ohio, where he remained for the next four years.
Cole worked and studied with a German artist named Stein, painting landscapes, religious pictures and portraits. In 1823, upon leaving his family, he returned to Pennsylvania and took up studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where he had his first exhibit in 1824 Cole moved to New York City in 1825 and traveled throughout the Hudson River Valley. In 1826, he was elected to the National Academy of Design. He exhibited both at the National Academy and at the American Academy of Fine Arts. Inspired by James Fennimore Cooper's book, Cole painted his famous "Scene from 'The Last of the Mohicans'" in 1827. There were two versions of this painting.
Cole then returned to Europe in 1829, for 2 years where he studied the old masters. These studies influenced him considerably and led to a marked change in his painting style. He also exhibited in London at the British Institution and the Royal Academy. He then returned to the U.S.
Cole became disillusioned with the acceptance of his work in the U.S. and returned to Europe in 1841. There he wrote his famous essay, "Lecture on American Scenery". His most famous works were created from the principles he expounded in that essay and are considered to be milestones in American landscape. Cole was the founder of the Hudson River School, and is the major representative of the American Romantic movement in painting. He died on February 8, 1848 in Catskill, NY.
$#KING, CHARLES BIRD
##Charles Bird King 1785-1862
Charles Bird King was born on September 26, 1785 in Newport, RI. In 1789 his father was killed by Indians at Marietta, OH. This event was extremely significant in King's life, he went on to paint many pictures of Indians and became well known for his representations of them. King was instructed in art by two people as a child, his grandfather and a neighbor, whose name was Samuel King.
Between 1800 and 1805 King served an apprenticeship with Edward Savage. The following year he went to Europe, where he studied with Benjamin West in London. He met many other artists of American and British origin during this period. He returned to the U.S. in 1812 and took up residence in Philadelphia. The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts elected him to the position of academician.
In 1813 four of his paintings were exhibited there. King lived in Richmond, VA, Washington, D.C, and in Baltimore, MD over the next several years before settling permanently in Washington, D.C. late in 1818. In 1817 and 1818 King again exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy. He began painting Indian portraits in 1818 for the War Department. That commission lasted for the next twelve years on a regular basis and then continued infrequently for another twelve years until 1842. John Quincy Adams appointed King to a three-man board for the purpose of designing a sculpture for the Capitol Building in 1825. In 1827 the National Academy of Art elected him an honorary member.
King exhibited at the Boston Athenaeum in 1831-32. The two volumes of McKenney and Hall's "History of the Indian Tribes of North America", published in 1837-8 were illustrated with lithographs based on King's Indian Gallery. King opened a public gallery of art in his home in 1850, but it was soon discontinued. In 1854, the Danish National Museum acquired nine of his Indian portraits, and in 1858, his Indian Gallery was transferred from the Patent Office Building to the Smithsonian Institution Building.
King gave seventy-eight paintings to Redwood Library and Athenaeum, Newport, RI in 1858, and in 1861, gave the library another forty-two paintings, as well as books, maps, and engravings.
Charles Bird King died on March 18, 1862, in Washington, bequeathing another seventy-five paintings and three hundred ninety-five books and two years later, he was elected an honorary member of the National Academy of Design.
$#SARGENT, JOHN SINGER
##John Singer Sargent 1856-1925
John Singer Sargent was born on January 12, 1856, in Florence, Italy. Sargent journeyed throughout Europe, studying with Carl Welsh in Rome, the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence and Carolus-Duran in Paris, along with other Impressionists. In 1876 Sargent visited the United States for the first time. In 1877 one of his paintings was exhibited at the Paris Salon. He won an honorable mention. Another exhibit of his works was held at the National Academy of Design. In 1879 Sargent met Henry Adams in Spain Sargent took to the road during the years 1880 and 1883, visiting many places including Holland, Venice, London, Paris and Morocco.
At the Paris Salon Sargent's portrait of Madame Gautreau was exhibited, titled "Madame X". This painting of a fashionable, proud woman in a low-cut gown, unromantic and revealing of character, created a public scandal. The subsequent scandal resulted in his move to London and caused him to move to London, where he began exhibiting at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1887. He made his permanent residence in London in Whistler's old studio in 1885. Later that year, however, Sargent returned to the U.S.,where he painted his portrait of Isabella Stewart Gardner and other portraits of society leaders. Sargent traveled back and forth from the United States to Europe, and 1888 marked his first exhibition at the St. Botolph Club in Boston. The next year he was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in Paris; ten years later they accorded him the honor of officer. Sargent was a founding member of the National Society of Fine Arts in Paris in 1890.
He received a commission from the Boston Public Library in 1891 to paint murals which were completed in 1916. The National Academy of design elected Sargent associate in 1891 as did the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1894. Three years later in 1897, the former accorded him the title of academician. Nine of Sargent's paintings were exhibited at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893, and Sargent put on a one-man show in Boston at the Copely Galleries in 1899. Sargent's technique of softening edges, using brilliant light to obscure details and articulate shapes, along with his talent of skillfully composing unusual arrangements all contributed to his winning many awards and honors throughout his lifetime. Some of the awards include a medal of honor at the University Exhibition in Paris in 1900, a gold medal in Venice at the Biennial Exposition (1907), and a gold medal from the National Institute of Arts and Letters in New York in 1914.
In 1918 he became the official artist for the Imperial War Museum, London and in 1922, he painted the murals in Widenart Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. A retrospective exhibition was at the Grand Central Art Galleries, New York in 1924.
Sargent died in London on April 25, 1925.
$#CASSATT, MARY
##Mary Cassatt 1844-1926
Mary Cassatt was born May 22, 1844 in Allegheny City, PA near Pittsburgh. She and her family emigrated to Europe in 1851, first living in Paris and later settling in Darmstadt, When Mary was eleven, her family returned to the U.S. and settled in Philadelphia in 1858. She was brought up by her family to appreciate the French culture and European traditions. At the age of seventeen (1861) Mary enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and studied there until she was twenty-one (1865). The following year Cassatt returned to Europe where she studied the art of Europe at various museums. Cassatt finally took up residence in Paris, where she first exhibited in the Paris Salon (1872) under the name of Mary Stevenson. Her work caught the attention of Louisine Waldron Elder, who became her friend and patron. Later, she met Degas, who took her under his wing and introduced her to his Impressionist colleagues. With them she had several exhibitions starting in 1879. Cassatt painted many distinctive portraits of mothers and their children.
Cassatt had exhibitions at the Durand-Ruel Impressionist shows in London in 1883 and New York in 1886. She was commissioned to paint a mural for the Women's Building in 1891 for the 1893 Chicago World's Fair Mary Cassatt moved with her family to Paris in 1851. In 1895, her one-woman show appeared at the Durand-Ruel Gallery in New York. From 1871 until 1898 Cassatt lived in Europe. She finally returned to the United States in 1898, but only stayed for one year. 1904 marked the honor of her being named Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in Paris. She again returned to the U.S. in 1908 for her final visit. After travelling with her family to the Near East in 1910-11, Cassatt returned to Paris to be with her brother, who died in April of 1911. His death was a great sorrow to her, and she had a physical and mental breakdown as a result.
Finally, because of failing eyesight, her last pastels were done in 1913. Although she had several operations for cataracts, the last one left her nearly blind in 1921. She died five years later on June 14, 1926 at her home in Paris.
$#EARL, RALPH
##Ralph Earl 1751-1801
Ralph Earl was born in 1751, in Worchester County, MA. His family soon moved to Leicester, MA, where he grew up. Although it is not known what studies of art he did as a young man, he established a studio in 1774. Three years later he married Sarah Gates. They fled to Europe from the U.S. because of his Loyalist beliefs. It is believed that he studied with Benjamin West. Studying with West slightly softened his severe technique. Earl's paintings of the American countryside were some of the very first landscapes done in the U.S. He was divorced from Sarah and about 1784, he was married for the second time to Ann Whiteside, with whom he had two children. Earl returned to Boston in May, 1785, and in that same year, moved to New York City. Drinking and extravagance led him to debtor's prison. Earl died August 16, 1801, in Bolton, MA, the cause of death listed as "intemperance."
$#WEST, BENJAMIN
##Benjamin West 1738-1820
Born October 10, 1738, in Springfield, PA, Benjamin West's earliest art study was with William Williams, a minor portraitist working in Philadelphia. West was largely self-taught as an artist. In 1759, with the aid of Philadelphia patrons, he traveled to Italy, the first American-born artist to do so, where he remained in Rome until 1763. It was in Rome that West met Anton Raphael Mengs and Gavin Hamilton and became adept at the Neoclassical style of painting. West visited France and then England, where he settled permanently, soon becoming the leading history painter in England. In 1763, West started painting portraits and was very much in demand in that genre. The Royal Academy of Arts made him a charter member in 1768. His "The Death of General Wolfe", painted in 1771, established his reputation as a history painter, and it was in this field that West achieved his greatest notoriety. He was accorded the honor of becoming the "Historical Painter" to King George III from 1772-1811. Engravings after his paintings were widely distributed; they increased his popularity and income. Many visiting artists came to his studio and studied with him, including Charles Wilson Peale, John Trumbull, Washington Allston, and Gilbert Stuart. In 1780 he received a royal commission to paint biblical series for the private chapel at Windsor, but this commission was later cancelled. West succeeded Sir Joshua Reynolds as the second president of the Royal Academy in 1792. Benjamin West died March 10, 1820, in London, and he was buried there in St. Paul's Cathedral.
$#SULLY, THOMAS
##Thomas Sully 1783-1872)
Thomas Sully was born on June 19, 1783, in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, England. His parents were actors and emigrated to Charleston, SC in 1792. There, Sully studied art with his schoolmate Charles Fraser, brother-in-law Jean Belzons, and brother, Lawrence Sully who all became miniature painters. He, too, began as a miniaturist. Until his brother's death in 1803, they painted together. In 1805 he married his widowed sister-in-law, and moved to New York. The following year, he received patronage from acquaintances in the theater. Sully studied briefly with Gilbert Stuart in 1807 in Boston. He moved permanently to Philadelphia, where he soon became a leading portraitist. Funded by his patrons in Philadelphia Sully spent nine months in London in 1909, studying under Thomas Lawrence.
His early style is shown in his portrait of "Samuel Coates" (1812) and reflects less spontaneity than his later work. He was elected academician at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1812. After the death of Charles Wilson Peale in 1827, Sully became the pre-eminent portrait painter of Philadelphia, replacing Gilbert Stuart in that role. He held this position for the remainder of his life. Sully painted portraits of almost every president from Washington to Lincoln, as well as painting Benjamin Franklin, Daniel Boone, Edgar Allan Poe and Washington Irving, among others. His portrait of Queen Victoria received rave reviews in London in 1837-8. He turned down the presidency of the Pennsylvania Academy in 1843, because of his continuing travel to other cities to execute portraits. In all, Sully completed over 2,600 paintings
His register of commissions lists over 2,600 paintings. Thomas Sully died November 5, 1872, in Philadelphia.
$#PEALE, RAPHAELLE
##Raphaelle Peale 1741-1827
Born February 17, 1774, in Annapolis, MD, Peale was the son of Charles Wilson Peale, who sired sixteen other children. His sons Raphaelle, Rubens, Titian, and Rembrandt Peale all became artists as well. Raphaelle studied with his father and collaborated on several portraits with him.
In 1792, Raphaelle made a trip to South America to collect specimens for "Peale's Museum", located in Philadelphia. Peale's portraits and paintings were exhibited at the Columbianum, Philadelphia in 1794. His specialty was still lifes, and unfortunately, he was ahead of his time and received little recognition. His paintings were frequently exhibited between 1814-18. His only financial success came with the physiognotrace, a profile-making machine invented by John Isaac Hawkins of England. In August of 1808, Raphaelle was hospitalized for alcoholism. Additionally, he suffered severely from gout, and by 1813 was only able to walk with the aid of crutches. Raphaelle depended upon his father for money during much of his life.
Peale died in Philadelphia on March 5, 1825.
$#STUART, GILBERT
##Gilbert Stuart 1755-1828
Gilbert Stuart was born on December 3, 1755, in North Kingstown Township, RI. He studied with the artist Cosmo Alexander, who also took him to South Carolina and later to Scotland (1771). Upon his return to the U.S. in 1772, he began painting portraits in the Colonial manner. In 1775, Stuart traveled to London at the outbreak of the American Revolution, where he became a student under the tutelage of Benjamin West. "The Skater" (1782) established his reputation when it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in London. After marrying Charlotte Coates in 1786, the Stuarts moved to Dublin in 1787. It was there that Stuart's portraits earned him much acclaim. Stuart returned to the U.S., to New York in 1793, and Philadelphia in 1794, with the intention of painting a likeness of President Washington, who was a difficult subject. Not completely satisfied with one version, Stuart painted three portraits of Washington between 1795-96: "Vaughan", a half-length portrait; "Athenaeum", a head portrait; and "Lansdowne", a full-length painting. In 1796 he moved to Germantown, PA; in 1803, to Washington, D.C., and finally, in 1805, to Boston, where he lived until his death on July 9, 1828.
$#CATLIN, GEORGE
##George Catlin 1796-1872
Born July 26, 1796, in Wilkes-Barre, PA, George Catlin spent his childhood there and in rural New York. He studied at Litchfield Law School in Connecticut from 1817-18, and practiced law from 1818-21. During this time, Catlin began painting, primarily miniatures, and he exhibited his work at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1821. By 1826 Catlin was in New York City, and he became a member of the National Academy of Design in New York. He traveled to upstate New York, making landscape lithographs and portraits. Catlin was inspired by Charles Wilson Peale's portraits of Indians and decided to travel West to paint and chronicle Indian tribes still on their lands. So began his enchantment with the Indians. This subject occupied him during his life and art until he died. His first Indian portrait was completed in 1826. Two years later he married Clara Gregory and received the commission for a full-length portrait of New York's Governor DeWitt Clinton. Catlin also completed the Group portrait of the 101 delegates to the Virginia Constitutional Convention, painted in 1829-30. Catlin traveled frequently to the West, South and Mid-West and by 1937 had collected enough works to hold an exhibition. This exhibition took place in New York's Clinton Hall. In 1838 Catlin sailed to Charleston, SC, to paint and interview captured Seminoles, including Osceola. Catlin tried to convince the U.S. Government to purchase his Indian Gallery, but was unsuccessful. He toured with the exhibition to Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston and New York between 1938 and late 1939. He left for Europe in 1839, touring England in 1842-43 with mock-Indian dancers; and, in 1843-45 with Ojibwa and Iowa Indians. In 1845, he exhibited at Louvre, and during this year his wife died. The Indians traveling with Catlin returned home in 1846. Heavily in debt, Catlin was jailed in 1852, and American manufacturer Joseph Harrison paid his debts in exchange for the Indian Gallery. From 1853-70, Catlin traveled in South America, North America and Europe. He painted a second Indian collection, largely duplicating the first. In 1870, he returned to the U.S., and in 1872 moved to Washington, D.C. where he exhibited and lived in the Smithsonian Building. George Catlin died in Jersey City, N.J., on December 23, 1872.
$#DURAND, ASHER BROWN
##Asher Brown Durand 1796-1886
Asher Brown Durand was born August 21, 1796, in Jefferson, NJ. Durand's early education consisted of being apprenticed to an engraver between 1812-20. In 1821, Durand married Lucy Baldwin, and was hired by John Trumbull to engrave the Declaration of Independence, which established his reputation as a printmaker. He continued with engraving as his main source of income until he was nearly forty years old. From 1812-20, he served first as apprentice, then partner, to an engraver copying English book illustrations. In 1821, Durand married Lucy Baldwin, and was hired by John Trumbull to engrave the Declaration of Independence, which established his reputation as a printmaker. Widowed in 1830, Durand remarried in 1834 to Mary Frank. After journeying to Europe between 1840-41, Durand returned to the U.S. with his reputation as the foremost landscape painter firmly established. During the early 1830's he painted portraits of the presidents. Durand also began to work in landscape and traveled in the White Mountains and Adirondacks. In 1840-41 he traveled to Europe with John Frederick Kensett and others, visiting England, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. On his return to the U.S., he painted landscapes almost exclusively. From 1845 to 1861, Durand served as the second president of the National Academy of Design, New York. In 1849 he painted "Kindred Spirits", representing Thomas Cole and William Cullen Bryant. Durand published his "Letters on Landscape Painting" in 1855 in "The Crayon", an influential journal published by his son, John. He retired to Jefferson, N.J. in 1869, but continued to paint until 1878. Asher Brown Durand died in Jefferson NJ on September 17, 1886.
$#DURRIE, GEORGE HENRY
##George Henry Durrie 1820-1863
George Henry Durrie was born on June 6, 1820, in Hartford, CN. Prior to 1839, being self-taught as an artist, Durrie painted portraits. In 1839 Durrie studied with Nathaniel Jocelyn, an engraver and painter of portraits and miniatures. After traveling between Connecticut and New Jersey, Durrie finally settled in New Haven, leaving only for trips to paint in other states. At the age of thirty, Durrie began painting rural genre scenes and landscapes in winter. Ten prints of his paintings were produced by Currier and Ives beginning in 1860. Durrie died in New Haven on October 15, 1863.
$#MAYER, FRANK BLACKWELL
##Frank Blackwell Mayer 1827-1899
Frank Blackwell was born December 27, 1827 in Baltimore, MD Alfred Jacob Miller, a family friend, encouraged Blackwell to become a painter. About 1844, he studied drawing with J. Prentiss. In 1847 Mayer helped to establish the Maryland Art Association. Mayer studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and completed some lithographs for a Philadelphia painter between 1847-8. He returned to Baltimore in April, 1848 and worked as a librarian at the Maryland Historical Society. It was here that he started painting small genre and history scenes. He studied painting with Ernst Fischer, a European immigrant artist. In 1850, he illustrated a book about Mexico. Mayer journeyed to the Minnesota Territory frontier in 1851 to study and paint Indians. Mayer also founded the Allston Association in 1860 and the Artists Association of Maryland in 1855. After the Civil War broke out in 1862, Mayer went to Paris. There, he studied with Ernest Meissonnier, Charles Gleyre and Gustave Brion. His work was exhibited in annual Salons in 1865, 1866, 1868, 1869, and 1870. At the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Mayer once again returned to the U.S. In 1876 he established his permanent residence in Annapolis, MD. Mayer was commissioned to paint two huge historical paintings for the State House in Annapolis in 1893. Four years later (1897) Henry Walters of Baltimore commissioned Mayer to paint sixty-three watercolors based on the sketches he had made of Indians in 1851. The sketches had never been published, and Mayer was able to complete thirty of the watercolors before he died in Annapolis in 1899.
$#WHITTREDGE, WORTHINGTON
##Worthington Whittredge 1820-1910
Thomas Worthington Whittredge was born on May 22, 1820, near Springfield, OH. At the age of seventeen, Whittredge moved to Cincinnati where he began to learn sign painting from his brother-in-law. He started studying art, grinding colors and preparing canvases for Chester Harding. His first exhibition was held at the Cincinnati Academy of Fine Arts in 1839. The next year he trained as a daguerreotypist and moved to Indianapolis where he started a business which failed. Henry Ward Beecher commissioned the young artist to paint portraits of his family. Whittredge then began painting landscape scenes, which became his speciality. Whittredge's exhibitions included: Cincinnati Academy (1841); National Academy of Design, NY (1846); and the American Art Union, NY (1847). He sold several paintings to the Western Art-Union, Cincinnati. In 1849, he traveled to Europe, where he remained for the next ten years. Whittredge became close friends with Emanuel Leutze, William Haseltine, Albert Bierstadt and Sanford Giffordand while in Europe. In 1859 he returned to the U.S. and opened a studio in New York the following year (1860). Among honors accorded Whittredge were: Associate Member, then Academician at the National Academy ((1860-61); Member, Century Association (1862); President, National Academy (1875-6); Bronze Medal, Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia (1876); First prize, National Academy Annual (1883). He was awarded the silver medal at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, NY, in 1901. 1904 marked an exhibition of 125 of his paintings at the Century Association. Whittredge's work spans a wide range of stylistic and thematic interests, and reveal the artist's substantial talent. Whittredge finished his autobiography in 1905, and died on February 25, 1910, in Summit, NJ.
$#FRANCIS, JOHN F.
##John F. Francis 1808-1886
John F. Francis was born in Philadelphia, PA. He was living Philadelphia in 1840-41 when he held his first exhibition at the Artists' Fund Society. Francis kept ties with Philadelphia, but traveled widely in Pennsylvania for twenty-five years, painting in Pottstown, Harrisburg, Lewisburg, Milton, as well as in Delaware, Washington, D.C., and Nashville. About 1886, he settled in Jefferson, PA., where he died on November 15, 1886.
$#SPENCER, LILLY MARTIN
##Lilly Martin Spencer 1822-1902
Lilly Martin Spencer was born on November 26, 1822 in Exeter, England. The family moved to the U.S. in 1830, lived in New York for three years, and finally settled in Marietta, OH in 1833. At the age of nineteen, Spencer held her first exhibition at the Rectory of St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Marietta, OH. She then moved, with her father, to Cincinnati to pursue her career. Nicholas Longworth offered to send her to Europe to study; she refused, and in 1842 exhibited at the Society for the Promotion of Useful Knowledge. She studied with John Insco Williams. She married Benjamin Rush Spencer in 1844, and one year later she bore the first of their eight children. In 1846 Lilly Martin Spencer visited Columbus, seeking commissions, and in 1847, exhibited at the Western Art Union's opening exhibition. Between 1848-54 Spencer exhibited at the National Academy of Design, New York. She sold two paintings to the American Art-Union and moved to New York. In 1850 she was elected an honorary member of the National Academy, where she had been studying. Spencer's exhibitions included the Boston Athenaeum (1856,1861); the National Academy (1856,1858,1868,1886); Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (1862); Brooklyn Art Association (1865,1867); and the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia (1876). The Philadelphia Art Union and the American Art Union both purchased her paintings in 1851. Spencer moved to Highland, N.Y. in 1879-80. Spencer's husband died in 1890, and in 1900, she moved back to New York. Lilly Martin Spencer died on May 22, 1902, in New York City.
$#MARTIN, HOMER DODGE
##Homer Dodge Martin 1836-1897
Homer Dodge Martin was born on October 28, 1836, in Albany, NY. He had little formal training, having started as a draftsman for an architect. Erastus Dow Palmer, the sculptor, gave Martin encouragement to become an artist, but his only formal direction came from James MacDougal Hart, the landscape artist, and this training was only for a short period of time. Martin began selling a few paintings by the age of sixteen. He traveled widely through the mountains in the northeastern United States, sketching constantly. At the age of twenty-one, Martin held his first exhibition at the National Academy of Design (1857). His early paintings reflect the influence of Thomas Cole, Samuel Palmer, and Claude Lorrain. Martin married Elizabeth Gilbert Davis in 1861. He shared studio space with James Smillie between 1862-3 and moved his family to New York City in 1865. The Century Club in New York elected him a member in 1866; the National Academy granted him associate membership in 1868 (full membership came in the 1870's). John La Farge and Winslow Homer's studios were in the same building as Martin's in 1868. Martin made his first trip to England in 1876, where he met and maintained a close relationship with James Whistler, who was a great influence on Martin's work. He began sketching in charcoal rather than pencil, and the coloring of his drawings became less subdued. He returned to the U.S. for a short time, but in 1879 once again traveled to England, where he remained for the next eight years, living in Brittany and Normandy. Century Magazine had sent him to England to sketch the country of George Eliot after having seen the illustrations which he did for Frank B. Sanborn's "The Homes and Haunts of Emerson". Martin returned to the U.S. in 1887, where his eyesight deteriorated. In 1892 his wife suffered a nervous breakdown, moved to St. Paul, MN. Martin joined her there and contracted cancer of the throat. In 1895 Martin painted "The Harp of the Winds", a painting which showed his rejection of the objectivity of the Hudson School. He died in St. Paul on February 12, 1897.
$#BIERSTADT, ALBERT
##Albert Bierstadt 1830-1902
Albert Bierstadt was born on January 7, 1830, in Solingen, Germany. The family emigrated to the New Bedford, MA in 1832. It is not known if he received any early training. By the age of twenty he was painting landscapes and advertising his services as a teacher of charcoal, pencil and crayon drawings. Between 1851 and 1853, Bierstadt held his first exhibitions in Boston. He journeyed to Dusseldorf, Germany in 1853, where he studied and traveled with Worthington Whittredge, Stanley Haseltine and Sanford Gifford for the next four years. In 1857 Bierstadt returned to the New Bedford. In the fall of 1857, he returned to New Bedford, CN. He exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1858, and in the summer of 1859, journeyed to the Rocky Mountains with the surveying expedition of Colonel Frederick W. Lander. Upon his return, Bierstadt painted from sketches and photographs. In 1863, he traveled west again, visiting Yosemite Valley, Oregon, and San Francisco, returning to New York in December 1863. His reputation was established with the exhibition of "The Rocky Mountains" at the New York City Metropolitan Fair in 1864. In 1866 Bierstadt married Rosalie Osborne Ludlow. In 1867 Napoleon III awarded him the Legion of Honor. Bierstadt traveled frequently, both abroad and in the U.S. His " The Discovery of the Hudson" was completed for the U.S. Capitol in 1876. The government also purchased his "Expedition Under Vizcaino Landing at Monterey, 1601" in 1878. Bierstadt enjoyed less popularity and acceptance of his work in his later years. After his wife's death in 1893, Bierstadt remarried a wealthy widow, Mary Hicks Stewart. However, he declared bankruptcy in 1894, just one year later, and died in New York City on February 18, 1902.
$#WHISTLER, JAMES ABBOTT MCNEILL
##James McNeill Whistler 1834-1903
James McNeill Whistler was born on July 11, 1834, in Lowell, MA. Whistler's parents wanted him to pursue a military career as had his father. The family moved to Russia in 1843. It was there that he received his first formal training in art. Whistler lived with his sister for a period in 1848; however, upon his father's death (1849) he returned to the U.S. with his family and enrolled at West Point in 1851. He remained at the military academy for three years, but was discharged in 1854. He then worked for the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in Washington, D.C., where he learned etching. Whistler moved to Paris in 1855, and in 1856, studied with Charles Gabriel Gleyre, and spent much of his free time at the Louvre. Whistler's work was influenced by Gustave Courbet, to whom he had been introduced by Henri Fantin-Latour. He exhibited with the latter in Francois Bonvin's studio in 1859. His "At the Piano" (1859) is considered his first important painting. He moved to London, where he exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1860, and in 1863 his work was included in the notorious Salon des Refuses, Paris. Whistler met Monet in 1865; it was during this time that Whistler's lifelong interest in Far Eastern culture began. The influence of the Japanese and Chinese civilizations can be clearly seen in such compositions as "Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Old Battersea Bridge" (1872-5) and "Rose and Silver: La Princesse du Pays de la Porcelaine". He also became associated with the Pre-Raphaelites, especially Dante Gabriel Rossetti. In 1867 he exhibited at the Salon des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and also at the Exposition Universelle, American Section. He exhibited "Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1: The Artist's Mother" at the Royal Academy, London, and was commissioned to decorate the Peacock Room for the Frederick Leyland house, London (now in the Freer Gallery, Washington, D.C.). From 1877 he exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery, London. Whistler "won" a libel suit against John Ruskin in 1878: as a result of the high legal costs, he was forced to declare bankruptcy and later to leave England. During 1879-80 he worked in Venice. In 1884 he became a member of the Society of British Artists and he became president in 1886; however, in 1888, he was voted out of office. Whistler was included in the Symbolist exhibitions of Les XX, Brussels, in 1886 and 1888, when his"Ten O'Clock Lecture" was published. In 1889 he was awarded the Legion of Honor in and was made an officer in 1891. Whistler resided in Paris from 1892-1902, and from 1898-1901, directed his own art school, the Academie Carmen, Paris. From 1898-1903 he was president of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters, and Gravers, in London. He received the Grand Prix for Painting and Etching, at the Exposition Universelle, Paris in 1900. James McNeill Whistler died on July 17, 1903, in London.
$#MORAN, THOMAS
##Thomas Moran 1837-1926
Thomas Moran was born January 12, 1837, in Bolton, Lancashire, England. He and his family moved to the U.S., where he received his first instruction from a wood engraver. He and his brother Edward shared a studio, where Moran began painting first in watercolors and later in oils. Marine painter James Hamilton was one of his earliest advisors. In 1862 Moran went to England, where he was particularly influenced by the later works of J.M.W. Turner. That year he also married one of his pupils, Mary Nimmo. For the next five years, Moran traveled through Europe. In 1871 he was invited to join F.V. Hayden's U.S. Geological Expedition to Yellowstone. This was the first of several government expeditions in which he took part. These trips provided the inspiration for Moran's most famous works. The Grand Canyon, the Rocky Mountains and the Grand Teton Mountains were all subjects for his paintings. In 1876 his work won a medal at the Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia. Two panoramas, "Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone" (1872) and "Chasm of the Colorado" (1873-74), the earliest painted records of the territory, were purchased by Congress for the U.S. Capitol. Moran, Teton Range, WY and Moran Point, AZ were both named after him. Moran lived in the cities of Philadelphia, Newark, NJ, New York City, and East Hampton, Long Island, NY in the 1870's. In the 1880's, he traveled to Europe, Mexico and the Pacific Coast. The National Parks were established partly as a result of the interest generated by Moran's works. The British Society of Painter-Etchers elected him membership, and in 1916, he settled in Santa Barbara, CA, where he lived until his death on August 25, 1926.
$#THAYER, ABBOTT HANDERSON
##Abbott Handerson Thayer 1849-1921
Abbott Handerson Thayer was born in Boston, MA, on August 12, 1849. A local artist instructed him as a child, until he enrolled in the Brooklyn, NY Art School and the National Academy of Design School in 1867 at the age of sixteen. Each year, he exhibited two or three paintings, and, by the time he married Kate Bloede in 1875, Thayer had already established quite a reputation as a painter of animals. Thayer and his wife traveled to Paris, where he took further instruction from Henri Lehman, and later with Jean-Leon Gerome between 1875 and 1876. After traveling through Germany, Thayer returned to the U.S. in 1879, taking up residence in New York City. His two sons died, one in 1880 and the other in 1881. These deaths contributed to his wife's mental illness, which started in 1884 and lasted until she died in 1891. Thayer was first vice-president and then president of the Society of American Artists between 1882-3. One of his best known paintings, "The Sisters", was completed in 1884. He also started painting murals in the late 1890's. His knowledge and theories of animal colors in nature became the basis for the military's use of camouflage. Charles Lang Freer and John Gellatly were his patrons. Later in life, Thayer began to paint landscapes, for example, "Winter Sunrise, Monadnock" (1918). His one-man show was held at Carnegie Institute in 1919. Thayer died in Monadnock, NH on May 29, 1921.
$#COX, KENYON
##Kenyon Cox 1856-1919
Born October 27, 1856, Warren, OH, Kenyon Cox studied at the McMicken Art School, Cincinnati, from 1870-73, under Frank Duveneck. He enrolled in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1876, after visiting the Philadelphia Centennial. From 1877-82, Cox worked in the studios of Carolus-Duran and, at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Cabanel and Gerome in Paris. His first exhibition was at the Paris Salon in 1879. He exhibited there again in 1882, and the following year, he returned to New York. While teaching at the Art Students League from 1884-1909, he illustrated Rosetti's "Blessed Damozel" (1886). In 1892 Cox married Louise Howland King, who was also a painter. He created murals for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago the following year. From 1896 on, he painted numerous murals for, among others: the Library of Congress; the Walker Art Building, Bowdoin College, Main; the Minnesota State Capitol; Wisconsin State Capitol; the Appellate Court House, New York; and the Iowa State Capitol. He was a Member of the Society of American Artists, and was elected an associate of the National Academy of Design in 1900, and a full member in 1903. Cox was awarded medals at the Universal Expositions of 1889 and 1900. In 1910 he received the Medal of Honor for mural painting from the Architectural League of New York. Cox also published numerous articles and books, notably "The Classic Point of View" in 1911. He was a Member, American Academy of Arts and Letters. Kenyon Cox died March 17, 1919, in New York City.
$#HOMER, WINSLOW
##Winslow Homer 1836-1910
Winslow Homer was born February 24, 1836, in Boston, MA. In 1854 or 1855 Homer was apprenticed to a Boston lithographer, J.H. Bufford. In 1857 he was working at free-lance illustration. He contributed his first drawing to Harper's Weekly, and continued to draw for Harper's until 1875. He also did drawings for another periodical, "Ballou's Pictorial". In 1859 Homer moved to New York in 1859 and studied at a drawing school in Brooklyn for the next two years. In 1861 he attended the National Academy of Design night school. He visited Washington to cover Lincoln's inauguration and Army of the Potomac, which was camped nearby in 1861, and there he studied painting briefly with Frederick Rondel. Homer accompanied the Peninsular Campaign in Virginia in 1862, having received the assignment from Harper's. It was there that he painted his first oils. He continued to make periodic trips to the front from 1863-65, where he worked on Civil War illustrations and paintings. Then, in 1864, Homer started painting country scenes. In 1864 the National Academy elected him associate; the next year he was elected academician. In 1866 Homer painted "Prisoners from the Front", which he took to France late that year, where it and one other work were exhibited at the Exposition Universelle in 1867. Late in the year 1867, he returned to New York, where he pursued a dual career as illustrator and painter, often summering in the White Mountains or Adirondacks. In 1873 he began his first series of watercolors at Gloucester, MA. The 1880's marked another change in Homer's style: he began painting large works, many of them having the ocean as subject. He traveled between England and the U.S. for a period, finally settling in Prout's Neck, ME in 1883. Traveling to Nassau provided the inspiration for his watercolors of the West Indies, for example, "Rum Cay" (1898-9). Until 1908, when he suffered a paralytic stroke, Homer divided his time between the West Indies and the Andirondack Mountains, turning more and more to watercolor as a medium. Homer produced no new works from the fall of 1905 to the fall of 1908, working on his last works in 1909. Winslow Homer died September 29, 1910, in Prout's Neck, ME.
$#LEIGH, WILLIAM ROBINSON
##William Robinson Leigh 1866-1955
Born September 23, 1866, in Berkeley County, WV, William Robinson Leigh was the son of impoverished southern aristocrats. He was privately educated, and from 1880-83, studied art with Hugh Newell at the Maryland Institute, Baltimore. Leigh traveled to Munich studying at the Royal Academy from 1883-4, with Nicolas Gysis from 1885-86, with Ludwig von Lofftz in 1887, and with Lindenschmit from 1891-92. Between 1891-96 Leigh produced six cycloramas. In 1896 he returned to New York and he worked as an illustrator for Collier's and Scribner's. He painted landscapes, portraits, and animal and figure compositions but had little commercial success. The Santa Fe Railroad traded Leigh transportation to the Western U.S. in exchange for a painting in 1906. The railroad company then commissioned five more paintings. After a sketching trip through Arizona and New Mexico, Leigh devoted much of his career to representing the West in his work. Later, after taking two expeditions to Africa, Leigh was commissioned to paint cycloramas for the American Museum of Natural History in New York (1926,1928). Finally, in the 1940's, Leigh began to receive the recognition he deserved. He was elected to the National Academy of Design in 1955. He died on March 11, 1955 in New York, and the contents of his studio, which consisted of more than five hundred oils, were given to the Gilcrease Institute, Tulsa, OK.
$#BEAUX, CECILIA
##Cecilia Beaux 1855-1942
Cecilia Beaux was born in Philadelphia, PA in 1855. She studied drawing with the Dutch artist Adolf van der Whelen. In 1875 she was commissioned to do fossil drawings by the U.S. Geological Survey. Beaux studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts between 1877-79, having her first exhibition in 1879. Beaux traveled to Paris in 1888, where she studied at the Academie Julian. Subsequently, Beaux worked in Concarneaux, Brittany, traveled in Italy, and in 1889, returned to Philadelphia. She was elected to the Society of American Artists in 1893. Beaux taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts between 1895-1915. In 1896 Beaux again traveled in France and England, exhibiting at Champs-de-Mars, Paris. The Pennsylvania Academy awarded her the Gold Medal of Honor in 1898. She exhibited frequently and was in much demand as a portrait painter, receiving many notable commissions. Although Beaux painted very little after 1930, 1935 marked her largest exhibition, held at the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Cecilia Beaux died September 7, 1942, in Gloucester, MA.
$#HASSAM, CHILDE
##Childe Hassam 1859-1935
Born October 17, 1859, in Dorchester, MA, Childe Hassam was apprenticed to a Boston wood engraver in 1876. He began work as an illustrator. Between 1877-79 he studied in the life class at the Boston Art Club with William Rimmer and Ignaz M. Gaugengigl. Hassam toured Europe in 1883. During that year he also held a large exhibition of watercolors in Boston. He married Kathleen Maude Doane in 1884. Hassam went to Paris for three years in 1886, where he studied briefly at the Academie Julian. From 1887-88, he exhibited at the Paris Salon. Hassam was awarded the bronze medal at the Exposition Universelle, Paris in 1889, then in New York the same year. In 1890 he made a summer trip to Gloucester and the Isles of Shoals. He received the bronze medal, Internationalen Kunstaustellung, Munich in 1892. In 1895 Hassam traveled to Havana, Cuba, where he received the Webb Prize, Annual Exhibition, Society of American Artists. Hassam made his third trip to Europe in 1897 (Italy,France,London). He was also a founding member of the Ten American Painters group, and taught at the Art Students League, New York. Hassam received more critical acclaim and was more successful during his lifetime than many painters. He received numerous honors and awards, including the following: 1899, the Temple Gold Medal at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts annual exhibition; 1900, Silver Medal, Exposition Universelle, Paris; 1901, Gold Medal, Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo; 1902, elected associate, National Academy of Design; and 1904, Gold Medal, Universal Exposition, St. Louis. Hassam's first one-man show was held in 1905 at the Montross Gallery, New York. He continued to exhibit there for the next thirty years. The following year (1906), he was elected academician, National Academy of Design. Hassam made his first trip to the West Coast in 1908, and in 1910, his last trip to Europe (France and Spain). He was awarded the Sesnan Gold Medal from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and in 1913, exhibited in the Armory Show, New York. Hassam was among the twelve American painters asked to exhibit at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, which was held at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco in 1914. The next year (1915) Hassam started etching again, spending much time over the next several years using this medium. In 1917-18, Hassam began a series of patriotic flag paintings marking the American involvement in World War I. Hassam held major exhibitions at the Worcester Art Museum, the Chicago Art Institute, and the City Art Museum of St. Louis. Hassam showed a retrospective exhibition at the Macbeth Gallery, New York in 1919, and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1920. In 1926, another retrospective was held at the Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York. He received the Gold Medal, Philadelphia Sesqui-centennial Exposition, and in 1929, held exhibitions at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, and the Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo. In 1934, he was awarded the Gold Medal for Distinguished Services to the Fine Arts by the Association of American Art Dealers, New York. Childe Hassam died August 27, 1935, in East Hampton, NY.
$#SAYEN, H. LYMAN
##H. Lyman Sayen 1875-1918
H. Lyman Sayen was a scientist/inventor as well as a painter. Born Henry Lyman Sayen, April 25, 1875, in Philadelphia, PA, the artist graduated from Central Manual Training School in 1891. He worked for a manufacturer and importer of scientific equipment, and in 1893, received a citation from the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, for his design of a large induction coil. During 1895-6 he worked as a designer of precision instruments and electrical circuitry for the production of X-rays. He became Secretary of the Electrical Section of the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, and in 1897, designed and patented a self-regulating X-ray tube. At the University of Pennsylvania laboratories of physics, Sayen worked to perfect techniques for medical diagnostic radiography. In 1898 he was awarded the John Scott Medal, Franklin Institute. He enlisted for service in the Spanish-American War, and was placed in charge of medical X-ray laboratory at Fort McPherson, GA, where he contracted typhoid fever. After a long convalescence Sayen enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts where he studied with Thomas Anshutz in 1899. There he won several prizes for posters. He continued to work while studying art, doing illustrating, commercial art, and designing electrical instruments. In 1901 Sayen received the Silver Medal at the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, for improved design of his X-ray tube. He developed a device to permit the use of roetgenography in the treatment of the eye in 1902. Sayen married Jeannette Hope, designer and illustrator, in 1903. He won a national competition for the design of four lunettes for a room in the U.S. Capitol, which he completed in September, 1905. From 1904-6 he worked with Anshutz, experimenting with the fabrication of pastels and paints. The Sayens were commissioned by Rodan Wanamaker to go to Paris in 1906 to design catalogs and posters for his department stores. The next year he met Leo and Gertrude Stein. Sayen studied with Matisse, with whom he shared a studio from 1907-8. During the years 1909-13, he showed annually at the Salon d'Automne. In 1912 he was elected a societaire of the Salon d'Automne, and in 1914 he returned to Philadelphia, where he held his first one-man show at the Philadelphia Sketch Club. Sayen was included in the annual Philadelphia Water Color Exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy from 1915-17. He had another one-man exhibition, Philadelphia Sketch Club in 1916. With Morton Schamberg, Sayen organized and showed in Philadelphia's First Exhibition of Advanced Modern Art, at the McClees Galleries. In 1917 he was included in the annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Art, Peabody Institute Galleries, Baltimore. H. Lyman Sayen died April 27, 1918, in Philadelphia.
$#ALTDORFER, ALBRECTt
##Albrecht Altdorfer 1480-1538 ca
Albrecht Altdorfer was an important representative of the Danube School. He has been called a pupil of Durer whose influence is apparent in his work. He is also distinguished as an engraver on both copper and wood.
Characteristics: A great love for the fantastic and the fabulous runs through his work. His feeling is poetic and his coloring is excellent. He seldom painted other than very small figures. From the excellence of his landscapes he has been called the creator of German landscape painting. In later life he was influenced by Italian methods. He is one of the best of the "German Little Masters", so called from the smallness of their prints and cuts.
$#ANGELICO, FRA GIOVANNI DA FIESOLE
##Angelica, Fra Giovanni da Fiesole 1400-1456 ca
Fra Angelico, often called Il Beato (The Blessed) by the Italians, was for about thirty years a monk in the monastery of San Marco, Florence. His name owes its high rank (among the painters of his time) to the religious sentiment of his work. Today, however, his innovative style, influenced by Masaccio, and his welcoming of the new ideas of the Renaissance are recognized as most important and influential on the course of Italian painting.
Characteristics.--His most frequent subjects represent the lowliness of soul of God's servants and the devout beauty of angels. His figures are peculiarly quiet; many have passive, folded hands. The motion of his angels, dancing in Paradise, is a most gentle motion, which in no way disturbs the draperies. His execution is elaborate, sometimes almost miniature-like in delicacy. His coloring is most pure and simple and has been little affected by time. His latest works in Orvieto and Rome show the influence of the dawning Renaissance in a better drawing of the figure.
$#ANTONELLO DA MESSINA
##Antonello da Messina 1430-1479 ca.
Antonello was born in Messina. His family were painters for generations under the name of the Antonio. His grandfather and uncle are mentioned in the "Momorie de' Pittori Messinesi", and his father, Salvadore d'Antonio, was an architect and painter. The latter was his first instructor, and sent him as a young man to Rome to complete his studies. From Rome he went to Palermo, and then he went to Messina, and painted (as is believed) at this time the "Virgin and Child", in tempera, on panel, now in the Museo Peloritano of that city. He next went to Naples, probably about 1438, and became the pupil of Colantonio del Fiore. Here he was exposed to the work of Van Eyck, Patrus, Christus and other Netherlandish artists, which influenced his own work. In Venice he was employed, and painted many portraits. His work shows him to have acquired Flemish finish and execution. From this time his Italian tendencies seemed to strengthen as his later works show. In 1465 Antonello returned to Messina, where he received pupils, the best of whom was his son or nephew, Salvo d'Antonio. About this time he executed his most important works. In 1473 he went again to Venice and received important commissions. He was at one time in Milan, but when is not precisely known. He was also in Treviso in 1490, but returned to Venice where his genius had its most profound and lasting influence on the next generation of great Italian painters, including Mantegna and Carpaccio.
$#BARTOLOMMEO, FRA (BACCIO DELLA PORTA)
##Fra Bartolommeo 1472-1517
Fra Bartolommeo (Bacio della Porta), born near Florence, was a monk in the monastery of San Marco, the same to which Fra Angelico belonged. He had already won considerable fame as a painter under his real name, "Baccio", when the shock produced by the martyrdom of his friend Savonarola caused him to renounce painting and enter the monastery, which he did under the name of Fra Bartolommeo. After six years of utter seclusion, at the urgent entreaty of friends, he resumed his brush. About this time Raphael visited Florence, became strongly attached to Bartolommeo, learned from him his method of coloring, and, in return, gave him instruction in drawing. Both artists seem to have profited by their friendship. Bartolommeo's rank among Italian painters is high, and he is considered a key figure of the Renaissance in Florence in the early 16th century.
Characteristics.--His composition is simple, almost architectural in its masses; his favorite form is the pyramid, within whose outline he has grouped few figures. Types of figures and faces tend to be abstract and contain little individuality. His figures are clothed with heavy masses of drapery, which is quite elaborate. He is said to have been the first artist to use the lay-figure. In many pictures of the Madonna little boy angels are introduced, sitting at her feet and playing musical instruments, or otherwise occupied in ministry. Raphael borrowed this fancy. His color is finer than usual with Florentine painters, but injured by the use of black pigment in shadows. His management of chiaroscuro shows the influence of Leonardo da Vinci.
$#BELLINI, GENTILE
##Gentile Bellini 1429-1507
Gentile Bellini, elder son as well as pupil of Jacopo Bellini, went from Padua to Venice as a young man and gained great honor in that city. When Sultan Mahomet applied to Venice for a good painter in 1479, Gentile was sent to Constantinople, where he painted a portrait of the Sultan. Upon returning to Venice he painted a series of large pictures in the Council Hall of the Ducal Palace, representing scenes in Venetian history, all of which were destroyed by the great fire of 1577.
Characteristics.--Gentile Bellini depicts in his work the contemporary life of Venice as has no other artist or historian. He represented the architectural Venice of his day and against it pictured processions and masses of people clad in rich costumes and painted in a careful, exact manner with full, warm, harmonious color.
$#BELLINI, GIOVANNI
##Giovanni Bellini 1430-1516 ca.
The natural son of Jacopo Bellini, Giovanni came to Venice from Padua as a boy. He spent the remainder of his long life there. He was taught by his father and became a greater painter than either his father (Jacopo) or his brother (Gentile). He was a continually growing artist, and painted his best pictures when aged. Mantegna (Paduan School) was his brother-in-law and friend, and some of his earlier pictures can hardly be distinguished from those of that master, while his later ones are filled with the perfection of beauty that marks the High Renaissance. He attained high rank as a portrait painter. He had many pupils, among them Giorgione and Titian. His work was influenced by Piero della Franesca, and it was during his lifetime that Antonello da Messina introduced the use of oil painting to Italy. His best and all his latest works are painted in oils.
Characteristics.--Subjects are mostly religious, and often have landscape backgrounds, for which he evinced great love. His figures possess much dignity and serenity; his best Madonnas are really majestic as they lift the "column of their throats" and hold forth the Divine Child to the worship of the world. His earlier works show a certain hardness: the drapery is angular; the anatomical joinings evident in hands and feet. In his later works all these defects disappear. His color is true Venetian, flooded with golden light. He paid great attention to the detail of costumes and also of landscape, picturing with fidelity the undulating forms of distant hills and all the minutiae of weeds and stones in the foreground.
$#BELOTTO, BERNARDO
##Bernardo Belotto 1720-1780 ca.
Belotto Bernardo, was born in Venice, 1720 and died in Warsaw about 1780. Belotto was a painter and engraver and nephew and pupil of Antonio Canal (called "Canaletto"). He worked in Canaletto's studio beginning in 1735. His work is distinguished from Canaletto's by a tendency toward naturalism. He lived in Germany, and etched, from his own designs, views of Vienna, Dresden, and Warsaw. He was a member of the Academy of Dresden, and many of his works are in the gallery of that city. They are called by the name of Canaletto, which he assumed. He signed some of his works Bernardo Belotto detto Canaletto.
$#BERNINI, GIAN LORENZO
##Gian Lorenzo Bernini 1598-1680
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who was born in Naples, 1598 and died in Rome, 1680, was known as early as his tenth year as a prodigy in art. At this time his father took him to Rome. Pope Paul V became interested in him, as did Cardinal Barberini, who assisted him in his studies. He was always fortunate, and, although he lived during nine pontificates, the favor of the reigning Pope was always his. His fame extended to other countries, and he was invited to France, where he went when sixty-eight years old, accompanied by one of his sons and a large retinue. He received large sums of money and valuable presents. He held several benefits at Rome, and his son was Canon of Santa Maria Maggiore. He was buried in Maria Maggiore, and left an immense fortune of 400,000 Roman crowns. He had a versatile talent, remarkable imagination perceptive power, and a marvelous facility of execution. It has been said that marble was like clay, or wax, beneath his hand. He believed and constantly said that one must be above rules in order to excel. There is a fascination in the sound of this maxim, but Bernini's own works prove that its practical application is difficult. In short, his desire for picturesque and unusual effect detracted from his art. Some of his most important works were executed in the time of Urban VIII. For Charles I of England he executed a statue. For this purpose the king sent him three portraits by van Dyck, and the likeness was so satisfactory that, in addition to the 6,000 crowns paid for the statue, Charles sent him a ring worth much more. The colossal equestrian statue of Louis XIV, executed by Bernini, was afterwards converted into Macus Curtius, and was sent to Versailles.
$#BLAKE, WILLIAM
##William Blake 1757-1827
William Blake (1757-1827), born in London, was trained as an engraver which influenced his style as an artist, giving it sharpness and precision. An early quarrel with Sir Joshua Reynolds president of the Royal Academy engendered Blake's dislike of institutions in general. His favorite subjects were drawn from the Bible and literature, possessing a strong allegorical quality. His invention was endless, his designs extravagant, but often fine, even grand in composition. Most of his figures are superb in sweep of line and force of action. Many of his works are hand colored relief etching, though he also painted in tempura and watercolor. Also a writer of prophetic books, Blake illustrated his own literary works. Visionary describes both style and subject of Blake's masterpieces.
$#BOTTICELLI, ALESSANDRO
##Alessandro Botticelli 1444-1510 ca.
Alessandro Botticelli called Botticelli from the name of a goldsmith to whose service he was bound when a boy, was a pupil of Fra Filippo Lippi, and is one of the most important among the fifteenth-century painters. Botticelli was closely associated with the Medici and his fortune paralleled theirs. The death of Lorenzo ended the world in which Botticelli had found honors and fame. Before him the old masters had drawn the inspiration for their works from the Bible; the great mass of pictures had been painted in the service of the church. Botticelli's nature was imaginative: he delighted in myths, fables, and poetry, and freely introduced into his painting all kinds of fanciful creations. Others were beginning to widen the field of art a little, but Botticelli was the first to step boldly forth and make his painting a means for the delight of the secular as well as the religious world. He was a leader in the great movement in the history of art in Florence that led to the protest by Savonarola against the "corrupting influence" as he called it and "of profane pictures". He became an ardent disciple of this great prophet. When Savonarola demanded that bonfires should be made of these "profane" works of art, Botticelli contributed many of his pictures to the burning pile.
Characteristics.--While Masaccio had taken a long step in advance of former artists by making humanity rather than events the chief center of interest in his works, Botticelli pictured not merely humanity, but also human feelings. We see this particularly in his sad-faced Madonnas, whose expressions seem born of a prophetic sorrow, sometimes further denoted by the introduction of the crown of thorns into the picture; it is also seen in the eager, sympathetic countenances of those who surround her. He created a type of face and figure that is most easily recognizable. His figures are unusually tall and graceful, often shown through almost transparent garments; the limbs are slender, the hands long and nervous. His faces are long and thin, with prominent, round chins and very full lips. His style of painting shows early training in the goldsmith's shop; he loved to elaborate with gold-painted embroideries and jewelry, and even gilded the lights upon the heavy locks of hair. His representation of figures in motion is far beyond anything that preceded him and has never been excelled.
$#BOUCHER, FRANCOIS
##Francois Boucher 1703-1770
Francois Boucher, born in Paris, Boucher was one of the most mannered of French painters. Boucher was a member and director of the French Academy and was appointed principal painter to Louis XV in 1765. He had great success during his lifetime, enjoying royal patronage and friendship. He was also superintendent of the tapestry manufactory at Beauvais. His pictures are of a decorative type. In his own style, highly finished, refined and sensual, he could scarcely be equaled, and his influence was strong, judging from the number of painters who imitated him. His form and color were weak, and yet, for decoration on tapestry, his works have much beauty. His pastoral subjects were his best, and he thoroughly mastered the mechanism of art. He left several etchings along with his mythological works on his very beautiful portraits.
$#BRONZINO, ANGELO DI COSIMO
##Angelo Bronzino 1503-1572
Angelo Bronzino was a pupil of Pontormo, friend of Vasari, and the devoted admirer of Michelangelo. His works were very unequal, but he had remarkable ability in drawing and painting. He was employed in many important works, and after the death of Pontormo, finished the Chapel of San Lorenzo at Florence. His frescoes which remain are injured , but he was most important as a portrait painter, and he painted many illustrious persons of his time. His portraits have green backgrounds, and in style might be called Italian Holbeins. He was fond of rich garments, furs, etc., but managed them so as not to interfere with the dignity of the portrait. He had a habit of throwing a strong light and a golden tone on the face, while keeping the rest of the work dark. The somewhat chilly perfection of his figures identifies him with the mainstream of Tuscan mannerism, of which he was a notable representative.
$#BROWN, JOHN GEORGE
##John George Brown 1719-?
John Brown was born in Oxford, 1719 and became an eminent engraver of landscapes. He copied the works of great masters, and his plates were executed in a masterly manner.
$#BRUEGHEL THE ELDER, PIETER
##Pieter Brueghel the Elder 1525 ca.-1569
Pieter Brueghel the Elder, called Peasant Brueghel, was named Master in the Antwerp Guild in 1551. Probably an apprentice of Pieter Coecke van Aelst, Brueghel visited Rome in 1553; and died at Antwerp 1569. He represented scenes from peasant life, and was the first to apply himself to those subjects particularly. Influenced by the Netherlandish style, Brueghel evolved. Unique viewpoint in his landscapes, compositions, and a satirical treatment of the figures, he is now recognized as one of the most innovative and original of the Netherlandish masters in the wider world of the history of art.
$#BRUNELLESCHI, FILIPPO
##Filippo Brunelleschi 1377-1446
Filippo Brunelleschi, born in Florence, was a great architect who is known as the father of the Renaissance. His father, Filippo Lapi, intended him to be a lawyer or physician, but his love for mechanical pursuits was so great that he was placed with a goldsmith. He gradually came to be an architect and was the first Florentine who applied geometrical rules of the ancient Greeks to that branch of art. Masaccio and Benedetto da Majano profited by his example in the application of the rules of perspective to their pictures and mosaics. It is said that Brunelleschi spent much time in Rome studying the remains of ancient architecture and making drawings from them. In 1420 the Signoria of Florence called together the architects of all countries, to consider the completion of the dome of the Cathedral. Brunelleschi presented himself, armed with well-digested plans, and, although sneered at and opposed, the work was at length committed to him. He completed it, and, in spite of great trials and hindrances of every possible kind, he produced one of the greatest and boldest masterpieces of the world in any age. The church of San Lorenzo (1425) is a specimen of his designs; the Capella Pazzi, in the courts of Santa Croce, is a proof of his ability to design the graceful and elegant. The Badia of Fiesole, and the Hospital of the Innocenti are also fine examples of his work. In secular architecture he excelled, as may be seen in the Palazzo Pitti.. Brunelleschi was also a sculptor and a worker in bronze.
#CANALETTO,
##Giovanni Antonio Canaletto 1697-1768
Canaletto (Antonio Canale) was born in Venice and became a pupil of his father, Bernardo Canale, who was a scene painter for the theater. He went to Rome at an early age, where he carefully studied the ruins of the ancient city. Returning to Venice, he astonished his countrymen by his magnificent views of the palaces and edifices of their city, and by his representations of festivals and carnival scenes, in some of which there are at least 200 figures. He went twice to England, where he was much patronized. His interior views were excellent. However, it is in his Venetian pictures that the gondolas, with their gold and festive decorations, give the brightness to the scene as his figures were often done in neutral tints. He acquired a fortune. His works were very numerous. Some of his followers imitated him so closely that their works are sometimes mistaken for his own, and, indeed, there are large numbers of pictures similar to those of Canaletto.
$#CARAVAGGIO, MICHELANGELO MERISI DA
##Michelangelo Caravaggio 1569-1609
Considered a revolutionary painter, Caravaggio was the chief master of the Naturalistic School, noted by its direct anti-humanism of common life. Claiming that nature was his teacher, he was nevertheless a conscious participant in the movement. He gave the same dramatic significance to the depiction of every day events as he gave to biblical events. This lack of a hierarchy of values was truly revolutionary and with his dramatic use of light and dark, led to such bold and powerful masterpieces as "The Calling of St. Matthew" and "The Conversion of St. Paul." The realism of these other works, along with his own somewhat dissolute and violent lifestyle, outraged contemporaries and caused him to flee Rome and live in hiding for a time. The contrast, even the battle between light and dark is descriptive of both his work and his personal life. Caravaggio's iconoclastic influence achieved a renewal in art and radically changed ideas about artists and their relationship painting in the 17th century. He remained faithful to the vision of the great spirituality and nobility to be found in the humble aspects of life. He died tragically, during his wanderings following a sea crossing, October 1600.
##CARRACCI, ANNIBALE
##Annibale Carracci 1560-1609
Annibale Carracci was born in Bologna (1560-1609). He was the most distinguished of his family. His earlier works show his study of Correggio and Paolo Veronese; but after he went to Rome he developed new power under the influence of the antique, and of Michelangelo and Raphael. He excelled in his painting of romantic landscapes as well as historical subjects, and in some cases the attention is much divided between his figures and the background. He was a prolific artist. It is said that he painted very little during the last five years of his life. He died at Rome, and was buried in the Pantheon, near Raphael. Annibale excelled in small compositions of the Madonna and Holy Families. His pictures in the Farnese Palace are generally considered his greatest works, and are a good example of the school of the Carracci.
$#CARRACCI, LODOVICO
##Lodovico Carracci 1555-1619
Born in Bologna, Lodovico Carracci is considered the founder of what is called the School of the Carracci, the most important of the eclectic schools of Bologna. Lodovico was a pupil of Prospero Fontana, and afterwards of Tintoretto. He studied with more system and devotion to the principles of art than was the custom of his time. Although he incurred much criticism in his day, it only served to convince him that there was a need of reform in the study and practice of painting. He was assisted by his two cousins, Agostino and Annibale, in the formation and conducting of his school. Carracci advocated the selection of the chief points of excellence from various masters, i.e., the color of Lombardy, the truth and nature of Titian, the design of Rome and so forth; all of these were to be united to the study of Nature. But although this doctrine was the foundation of the school of the Carracci, Carracci and his nephews soon went beyond it, and became independent artists, guided by their own genius. Their school was most prosperous, so much so that all other schools in Bologna were closed. They furnished casts, models, and drawings, as well as living subjects for study, and paid a great deal of attention to their pupils. They also gave theoretic instruction in anatomy, perspective, etc. He seems to have been the first to depict the pathos of sorrow, and his example resulted in the almost numberless sorrowing feeling in his works which raises him above his own school. It is said that when the scaffoldings were removed in the Cathedral of Bologna, Lodovico discovered some errors in the "Annunciation", which could not be remedied than and that his disappointment hastened his death. There are a few plates engraved by Lodovico from his own designs, in a masterly style. They are first etched and then finished with the graver. Though his school was influential in the education of artists his cousin Annibale exceeded him in fame and influence.
$#CASTAGNO, ANDREA DEL
##Andrea Del Castagno 1423-1457
Andrea del Castagno painted pictures full of force and energy, which give evidence of considerable study of the human figure. He excelled in showing movement and expression, and his work is characterized by vigorous drawing. They mark a step in the gradual evolution of Florentine art, since each figure seems distinct with individual character. Major works include "The Crucifixion with Saints" and "The Last Supper", both at the Church St. Appollonia, and the completion of "Scenes from the Life of the Virgin" left unfinished by Domenico Veneziano whom Andrea was falsely believed until the last century to have murdered.
$#CAVALLINI, PIETRO
##Pietro Cavallini 1250-1330 ca.
Cavallini was a leading painter at the end of the 13th century and beginning of the 14th century and was comparable in importance to Cimabue and Duccio. It is certain that in 1308 he was employed by Robert of Naples, but his works of that time do not exist, or are unknown. He was a pupil or follower of Giotto, and had probably been instructed by the Cosneati. The oldest of his surviving works in Rome is the mosaic in the apse of St. Maria in Trastevere depicting six scenes from "The Life of the Virgin". At San Grisogono, at Rome, there is a mosaic, undoubtedly his, which represents the Virgin enthroned, with the Child giving the benediction; Saints James and Chrysogonus are also in the same work. Perhaps his most important work is "The Last Judgment" in the Church of St. Cecilia in Trastevere. His expressive and real faces imbue his work with great power and poetry.
$#CELLINI, BENVENUTO
##Benvenuto Cellini 1500-1571
Benvenuto Cellini was born in Florence. The life of this great sculptor was full of change and incident. Very early in life he desired to be a sculptor, but his father was determined he should be a musician; and his first fifteen years were divided between the two pursuits. Then, against the will of his father, the son established himself with a goldsmith. His temper constantly led him into difficulties. Pope Clement VII employed him both as sculptor and musician. At one time he was under sentence of death from the Pope but was later pardoned. His life was a melodramatic mixture of violent quarrels, passion and betrayal. He became known to Michelangelo in Florence. By invitation of the Pope he went again to Rome, and was appointed engraver of the mint. He was later dismissed from this position, and then reinstated to it by the next Pope. Cosmo de' Medici gave him a studio in Florence where he began his celebrated "Perseus." He then went to Venice where he became acquainted with many distinguished artists. Returning to Florence he finished the "Perseus," which obtained such great honors for him that he made a pilgrimage to Vallombrosa and Camaddoli in order to express his gratitude. He was then employed on various important works, and contended with Bandinelli for the commission of a statue of Neptune. Catherine de' Medici wished him to go to France to erect a monument to her husband, but the Grand Duke required his services, and he left Italy no more. His "Perseus", in the Piazza del Gran Duca, Florence, established him as a foremost sculptor. He executed many portraits, and large numbers of dagger-hilts, medals, coins, clasps, etc. His works are not as numerous now as might be expected. One great reason for this is the fact that he often worked in the precious metals, and they have been destroyed for the sake of their intrinsic value, regardless of their merits as works of art. He wrote a treatise on his art, which is praised by Vasari. He died at Florence and was buried in the Annunziata with great pomp.
$#CHARDIN, JEAN BAPTISTE SIMEON
##Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin 1699-1779
Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin was born in Paris in 1699 and was received as a master painter in the Academie de St. Luc in 1724. His early success came from still life and he went on to paint genre scenes in the Dutch manner. There is a lightness and grace in his female figures, and he gave a richness of effect to his works by a variety of colors. These works depicted faithfully and great charm and feeling the quiet, familiar everyday life. Though his popularity waned toward the end of his life, Chardin continued to paint and work in pastel leaving over 1000 canvases when he died in 1779.
$#CHURCH, FREDERICK EDWIN
##Frederick Edwin Church 1826-1900
Frederick Edwin Church was famous for his portrayal of mountain scenery and the grand in nature. Of the American landscape artists of the 19th century, his art best typifies the American idea of westward expansion. Though seeming to represent nature with great fidelity, Church painted with great expressiveness and interpretation. The resulting works, peculiarly American in their vision, identified with the American spirit of independence and heroic grandeur.
$#CLOUET, FRANCOIS
##Francois Clouet 1505-1572 ca.
Francois Clouet was the son of Jean Clouet, a court painter whom he succeeded as court painter, a position he occupied under four kings. He painted a number of portraits, which are marked by expansive finish and a careful imitation of nature, after the Flemish method. Those painted by Francois have been often attributed to Holbein (German painter). His brother Jean also a painter.
$#CLOUET, JEAN
##Jean Clouet 1486-1546
Jean Clouet, though probably of Flemish origin, became a painter at the French court during the reign of Louis XII, and continued under Francis I. He enjoyed considerable fame and wealth during his lifetime. Though few of his portraits have survived, a number of drawings made as preliminary sketches for paintings and miniatures help document his career. He was succeeded as Painter to the King upon his death in 1541 by his son Francois.
$#CONSTABLE, JOHN
##John Constable 1776-1837
Though his genius was only recognized late in his life, Constable's position as an English landscapist is rivalled only by Turner. Unlike Turner, however, his work is distinguished by his direct studies of nature and the laborious efforts he made to develop a sense of immediacy and a spontaneity in his work. Constable pursued a career which finally achieved a measure of success and he was made an A.R.A. in 1819. In France, however, he achieved greater acceptance. In was in France that his work would influence the romantics and later, the Barbizon painters.
$#COPLEY, JOHN SINGLETON
##John Singleton Copley 1738-1815
The first American artist to achieve an international reputation while working in America, he very astutely studied engraving of English portraiture and adapted the style to his own work. He further refined his style after visiting London where he began painting historical scenes as well. The sharp observation and techniques evident in his earlier portraits causes these to be the more popular and highly regarded of his work.
$#COROT, JEAN BAPTISTE CAMILLE
##Jean Baptiste Camille Corot 1776-1875
Jean-Baptist Camille Corot is known as one of the greatest landscape painters at the time of the transition from classic to romantic painting. Corot studied in Italy as a young man, and from the beginning his work had a fresh vision and mature mastery of style technique. He worked at Barbizon, and the school of art which arose. There he was devoted to the study of light, color and impression. Corot was independent, however, bringing his Italian experience together with the light of his French studies. Corot was too popular, his great number of collection-pleasing works bringing disfavor of the critics. Though he was openly copied, and many forgeries of his art exist, he produced nearly three thousand works. He combined in his work, realism and lyricism, sober composition and a delicate, dream-like quality touch. A true original, he had less influence than the brilliance of his work deserved. In his work many details are suppressed; he endeavored to interpret the impression received from viewing a landscape, and his strongest excellence is the suggestiveness with which he accomplished this. His management of light and atmosphere was inimitable, especially when he represented early morning and twilight. His colors were cool and silvery--pale greens and grays and browns.
$#CORREGGIO, ANTONIO ALLEGRI DA
##Antonio Allegri da Correggio 1494-1534
Antonio Allegri da Correggio, so called from his birthplace, a little town near Modena, is an artist about whose youth and study is little known, although much has been said. He is considered to have been a pupil of Bianchi Ferraro at Modena, and later to have entered the studio of Costa and Francia at Bologna, but his early influence was that of Mantegna. He became one of the greatest Italian Masters of painting, and his best pictures were as much sought after as those of Raphael and Titian. He led a singularly quiet and restricted life, wholly separate from all competition with other masters of his time. Many of his notable religious paintings were executed in Parma, where he went by invitation. Afterward he returned to the little town where he was born, and died there. Though the style of Correggio had much influence upon the art of northern Italy, he does not seem to have had any very distinguished students. They all, striving to paint like their master, without possessing his genius, were unable to match his style well. Every important European gallery has examples of his work.
Characteristics.-- Correggio's subjects were religious and mythological; his composition quiet and simple, save in large church pictures, where it is somewhat conventional. Correggio was a worshiper of physical beauty, particularly that of women and children, and no one can study his pictures without feeling that, whatever the subjects, they were painted, first of all, to express this beauty. His goal was to portray charm, not character, causing him to be more closely allied to the Venetian School than to any other school (Giorgione and Titian). His figures always express joy; they are in motion, or just on the verge of it. In this grace of motion he surpasses all other masters. His chiaroscuro rivals that of Leonardo da Vinci. His flesh shadows are so transparent that one seems to look through them and see the very texture of the flesh. His color vies with the Venetian in beauty, but is more Ferrarese in pure, simple brilliance; he was very fond of a certain beautiful blue, which marks many of his pictures. His type of faces recalls that of Leonardo. He was no deep student of human nature. His women's hands are peculiarly beautiful, slender, and restless. His children's heads have usually an exaggerated forehead and an abundance of curly hair.
$#PIETRO DA CORTONA, (PIETRO BERRETTINI)
##Pietro Berrettini 1596-1669
Pietro da Cortona's work was marked by his fascination with classical antiquity, and his ability to infuse life into the flamboyant mythological world he created. Influenced by the work of Rubens and especially of Titian, Pietro adhered to the new Roman High Baroque; filling his work with passionate emotion and a new awareness of nature. The frescoes he painted for the Church of St. Bibiana in Rome brought him his first real fame; and he painted the ceiling of the Palazzo Barberini at the height of his powers from 1636-1639, in which he creates the marvellous illusion of celestial beings hovering in a vast open sky. He turned to architecture toward the end of his life, though in his vault of the nave in the Chiesa Nuova, he created a masterpiece of illusion which anticipates the work of Tiepolo.
$#PIERO DI COSIMO
##Piero di Cosimo 1462-1521
Piero di Cosimo was a pupil of Cosimo Rosselli, and accepted his Master's name. Although little is known about his life, about 50 paintings are attributed to him, including the altarpieces and devotional paintings. The influence of Filippino Lippi is clear in his early work, and as later works show the signs of Leonardo in the use of color, as well as Raphael's use of space and composition. Though his work reflects diverse influence, Piero was an artist of brilliant imagination and originality, and in his work he reworked impressions and made them his own. His unique character is especially clean and unravelled in his secular works. He was a painter of great originality and was the first real landscapist among the Florentines, and placed some of his mythical scenes in the midst of truly delightful landscapes. He painted the background in Cosimo Roselli's fresco, "Sermon on the Mount", in the Sistine Chapel, Rome. He was also a portrait painter of considerable note.
$#COURBET, GUSTAVE
##Gustave Courbet 1819-1877
Courbet Gustave scorned both the classic and the romantic schools, using only nature as a subject. He worked in a variety of genres, including portraits, landscapes and religious and allegorical compositions. Though he scorned romanticism, there was a strong romantic vein in his early works, especially in his self-portraits and in his female figures. He visited Holland in 1847 and this was to be a turning point, for he found in the works of Rembrandt the way to realize his depth of realism. Courbet's uncompromising view of his subjects, especially his nudes, outraged the public. His personal life was adversely affected by his bragging and undiplomatic political opinions and propagandizing and he was eventually exiled in 1873. The physical and mental suffering and loss of his property and prestige brought on a decline in his genius and he died in Switzerland in 1878.
$#CRANACH, LUCAS
##Lucas Cranach 1472-1533
Lucas Cranach, who was born in Kronach, in Franconia, from which he took his name, settled in Saxony, where he became famous as a court painter to the Elector, Frederick the Wise. He was an intimate friend of Martin Luther, but continued to accept commissions from Cardinal Albrecht von Bradenburg.
Characteristics.-- His favorite subjects were religious and mythological, together with realistic scenes, such as hunts of wild animals. He also painted portraits. His pictures of Christ are thoroughly Protestant, and generally treat the fall and redemption of mankind. He was fond of introducing the nude figure. His power of invention was remarkable. His pictures were often humorous and sometimes seem to be parodies of great subjects; this is especially true of mythological scenes. His composition was Gothic in style. His color was clear and varied, being most brilliant in his early pictures. The flesh tints in these were delicate, like those of infants' flesh. The dynamic quality of his early work declined in the height of his career, a tendency of isolation overcoming the early, more aggressive style.
$#CRESPI, GIUSEPPE MARIA
##Giuseppe Maria Crespi 1665-1747
Crespi, known as "Lo Spagnuolo", was a pupil of Cignani and later of Burrini. He was influenced in his early work by the Bolognese Tradition, especially the work of Guercino and of Carracci. Some of his most important works include the frescoes in the Palazzo Pepoli Campogrande in Bologna, and such paintings as "The Girl with a Dove", "The Musician", and The Education of Achilles". His famous "Fair of Poggio a Caiano" reflects the influence of Dutch genre painting and his masterpiece is generally agreed to be a group of seven paintings, "The Sacraments".
$#CRIVELLI, CARLO
##Carlo Crivelli 1430-1495 ca.
Carlo Crivelli was born in Venice. His earliest known work is dated 1468, and his latest, 1495. He was one of the best of the tempera painters of Venice. His pictures were well executed. He was fond of painting garlands of flowers or fruit on gold grounds as ornaments to his pictures;there was a certain rigidity in his representation of these items. When his works are chronologically studied, one can see obvious changes in his manner. The honor of knighthood was conferred on Crivelli in 1490 by Prince Ferdinand of Capua. A "Pieta" of 1493 was his best and probably last work. He had much talent. His works were very numerous, and are in many collections and in the churches of Massa and other places.
$#CUYP, AELBERT
##Aelbert Cuyp 1620-1691
Aelbert Cuyp was born in Dordrecht where he was a prominent citizen. His favorite subjects, landscapes with cattle and other animals, but he also painted biblical scenes, portraits and still lifes. He was remarkable for his atmospheric effects, his interest in natural light apparent especially in his landscapes, and as we look at his pictures we can almost feel the chill of the damp morning, or the heat of the high noon which he has painted. His colors, too, were managed with great skill; and the contrasts of light and shade, of dull and bright, were perfectly understood by him. His painting of animals were less fine, tending to be exaggerated and overlarge, but the peculiar stillness of these figures impart to his work a sense of calm and serenity. He was not appreciated for a long time, and his paintings had no large sale even at moderate prices. The English first gave them their proper value, when he was rediscovered in 1750, and most of them are in England, both in public and private collections.
$#LEONARDO DA VINCI
##Leonardo da Vinci 1452-1519
Leonardo da Vinci was born in Vinci, in the Val d'Arno, below Florence, and is considered to be one of the greatest masters in the history of painting. He was a pupil of Andrea del Verrocchio. Leonardo has been well called a "universal genius." He was painter, sculptor, architect, and engineer. He had a thorough knowledge of anatomy, mathematics, astronomy, and botany, and also was a poet and musician. It was his greatest delight to study the growth of plant life, the hidden laws that govern the mineral world, the movement of planets in the heavens, -- and this love for the deep things of nature he carried into his study of art. It is said that he always wore a sketchbook attached to his girdle, and would wander through the streets of Florence looking for some especially picturesque figure or some face possessing unusual subtlety of expression. He would excite the mirth of peasants so that he could study the line of their laughing faces. It is also said that he even followed criminals to their painful death so that he might gain some new experience that would aid his art. In this way he laid the foundation for the most eminent characteristics of his work. Yet, from the study of Leonardo's life, we must judge that he enjoyed more this study in and for itself than for its results, for he was never satisfied with his experiences when included them into one of his pictures. He was a most devoted and happy student and a most dissatisfied painter. Over and over again would he paint and then destroy his work. It is to this characteristic that the small number of his existing pictures is due. When Leonardo was about thirty, he went to Milan, where he worked, both in sculpture and painting, in the service of the reigning duke. He became master of the Milanese or Lombard school of painting. After many years of work he returned to Florence, and there, at one time, entered into a competition with Michelangelo in the decoration of the two end walls of the great Hall of the Council Palazzo Vechio. Leonardo chose for his subject "The Defeat of the Milanese by the Florentines at Anghiari"; Michelangelo chose "Pisan Soldiers Called Suddenly to Arms While Bathing in the Arno." The cartoons produced by the two masters mark an important epoch in Italian art. In them we find for the first time the human figure treated with all the truth and splendid fulness of expression of the High Renaissance. Neither picture was completed. A part of Leonardo's cartoon, called "The Battle of the Standard", is now known by an engraving after a copy by Rubens.
Characteristics.--In the latter half of the fifteenth century all the great principles which underlie the art of representation had been mastered. Each great preceding painter had made some important contribution to the general knowledge, until the artist found himself fully equipped for his work. Leonardo's greatest gift to painting was a perfected chiaroscuro. His treatment of this was a revelation to his contemporaries and followers, with his melting and mysterious shadows, and the bewitching way he illuminates his work with light. He used to say to his pupils, "Be as careful for the light in your picture as you would be of a rare jewel". His work shows how well he followed his own precept. His composition, seen at its best in the "Last Supper" was unsurpassed. His drawing is done extremely carefully, and his lines express wonderfully the subtlety of form. His color is clear and silvery, but has suffered very much from his habit of experimenting with technique. He used oils and painted and repainted, touched and retouched infinitely. His backgrounds show a mannerism that seems to have followed him from the studio of his master, Verrocchio: rocks and dark trees and running water, with diffused twilight mark nearly every one of his works. His ideal woman's face has dark eyes and hair, a long, slender nose, and a somewhat pointed chin, and is marked by a peculiar, languid, subtle smile, as is shown in his masterpiece, the "Mona Lisa".
$#DADDI, BERNARDO
##Bernardo Daddi 1280-1348 ca.
Bernardo Daddi was born at Arezzo, and became one of the leading Florentine painters. Some of his works remain in Florence, and his name is among those who approved the original statutes for the founding of the Compagni of Florence. The object of this society was the meeting together of artists to afford each other assistance, and to thank God for the prospered state of art at that time. It seems to have been largely a religious institution, and assembled in a chapel of Saint Maria Nuova. His work shows the influence of Giotto, and a certain affinity for the Sienese style of painting though no link is known for certain. Among the many works attributed to Bernardo are the frescoes of the "Martyrdom of SS. Lawrence and Stephen" in Santa Croce, Florence, and the polyptych with "The Crucifixion" and eight saints; dated the year of his death, 1348.
$#DAVID, GERARD
##Gerard David 1460-1523 ca.
His work is notable for his landscape backgrounds. These were painted with excessive fidelity to nature; even the methods of branching and leafage of trees have been studied and rendered. Considered the last of the Flemish primitives working in Bruges, opinion is divided on David's merits as an artist. To some, the conscious archaisms represent an uninspired eclecticism, while others see his efforts as an attempt to move the art of his time forward, out from under the domination of the tradition of Rogier van der Weyden and his followers and a return to the ideas of van Eyck and the Master of Flemalle. David's work features restrained, monumental figures and a preoccupation with the use of volume and space.
$#DAVID, JACQUES LOUIS
##Jacques Louis David 1748-1825
Jacques Louis David was a pupil of Vien, with whom he traveled to Rome. There he studied the antique marbles, abandoning the style of Boucher and embracing Neoclassicism. The military spirit of his time gave occasion for the heroic style of picture that he loved best to paint. His work became a form of realism, tinged with classicism. His politics adversely affected his career and he was at one time released from prison upon his promise to avoid politics, a promise he would be unable to keep. He became a friend of Napoleon Bonaparte, and painted many portraits of Bonaparte and members of his family. Some of his finest works commemorate scenes connected with Napoleon. His work is severe: many of his figures look more like marble statues than like living, breathing flesh. Indeed he was accustomed to paint first the nude figure, modelling it carefully as one would a statue, before painting garments upon it. He cared very little for color. In his later pictures there was slightly more sentiment and a softer expression. He painted many portraits. After the downfall of Napoleon he was exiled from France, but left there many able pupils who carried out his principles of work.
$#DELACROIX, FERDINAND VICTOR EUGENE
##Ferdinand Victor Eugene Delacroix 1798-1863
Ferdinand Victor Eugene Delacroix studied with Guerin, a classicist whose teaching had great influence on the romantic painters of the new France. Through Guerin's teaching, and his own studies at the Louvre, Delacroix would become one of the greatest names among the leaders of the romantic school of painting. He was impressed by the ideas and the stir of public event of his time and used his art to move men's feelings. He has been called the painter of the soul of his age. He was influenced by Gericault, of whom he was a companion in study. After the death of Gericault, Delacroix carried on with great ardor the reform begun by him. He met with scorn and censure from the adherents to the classic style, his drama and force of individuality scandalized the art public but he was followed with a sort of passion by his contemporaries who sympathized with him. His works show a most vivid power of imagination and strength of expression; they are indeed living dramas, and the forms are always subordinate to their color. It was his custom to study his subject until, as he said, he had learned it by heart, using models for this study, but totally discarding them when he painted his picture, for he felt that the actual copying of any model would inevitably lower the standard of his work. His most popular work, "Liberty Leading the People," painted in 1831, was modern in treatment and concept, and marked the beginning of a more quiet and monumental stage in his work. He was a great muralist, and his fascination with Oriental and exotic motifs and romantic and colorful scenes are evident in his very substantial body of work.
$#DOLCI, CARLO
##Carlo Dolci 1616-1686
Dolci's work ranged from portraits to religious and devotional subjects, all distinguished by his particular combination of precision and subtlety, and an exquisitely brilliant finish. Opinion is divided on this artist's quality. Some find his work characterized by excessive sweetness and self-conscious piety. This may have been due to his need to please his patrons who commissioned devotional paintings. His work also reflects vitality and originality, particularly his portraits at which he excelled.
$#DOMENICO VENEZIANO
##Domenico Veneziano 1405-1461 ca.
Domenico Veneziano was possibly born in Venice, but little is known of his early years. During four centuries Castagno, on Vasari's authority, bore the terrible accusation of having been the murderer of Veneziano through envy of the praises bestowed on the latter because of the beautiful results of his painting in the oil medium, which at this time, was being gradually introduced into Italy. It has, however, been conclusively proved that Veneziano did not die until several years after his alleged murderer. With regard to the use of oils, it is unlikely that Domenico was solely responsible for their introduction. His major contribution is in his lyrical use of color, a style which would influence and be formative for his greatest follower, Piero della Francesca. Though one of the outstanding personalities of his time, Domenico was not in the mainstream of painters in Florence, dominated at the time by Filippo Lippi and Andrea del Castagno. Very few pictures by Veneziano are now in existence. Of his few surviving works, the "Tabernacle of the Carnesecchi" in the London National Gallery, two versions of the "Virgin and Child," and the "Altarpiece of the Virgin and Child" painted for the church of S. Lucia de Magnoli (now in the Uffizi), are the most important.
$#DONATELLO, DONATO DI BETTO BARDI
##Donatello di Betto Bardi 1386-1466 ca.
Donatello (Donato di Betto Bardi) began his career assisting Ghiberti with the bronze doors for the Florentine Baptistry.. This sculptor was a close imitator of nature. He seemed careless of mere beauty, and his works are striking for their marked difference from those of his predecessors, especially in that he defined the forms beneath his draperies, made it possible to believe that the folds concealed the human figure. His work contained a powerful sense of movement, as in his marble statue of "St. George," and he became famous for the technique of "relievo schiaceiato" (flat relief) which he developed. Donatello was a giant among sculptors in Florence during the Quattrocento, and his influence on the early Renaissance in Italy is undisputed. Individualistic and dedicated, he invested his work with an overpowering sense of life and driving spirit. Donatello was buried in the Church of San Lorenzo with great pomp. His resting-place was near that of Cosimo de' Medici, so that, as he said, "his body might be near him when dead, as his spirit had ever been near him when in life."
$#DURER, ALBRECHT
##Albrecht Durer 1471-1528
Albrecht Durer, born in Nuremberg, is the most famous and perhaps the greatest painter of Germany. Early in his career he went to Italy, where he became acquainted with Bellini. Here he was warmly appreciated. Raphael became his admirer, and is said to have adorned his studio with what drawings by the German artist he could obtain. Durer's work shows that he was influenced comparatively little by Italian methods. He was a true German, a thinker who painted, instead of a painter who thought. He wrote many books, some of which deal with theoretical subjects, such as a discussion concerning subtile question of beauty; others treat of the proportions of the human body, etc. His subjects are chiefly religious, portrait, and imaginative. His wood engravings are very noted and numerous. He is also the reputed inventor of etching and of printing woodcuts in two colors.
Characteristics.-- Durer had a powerful imagination, great originality, and endless invention as well as a feeling for simple grace and tenderness, for the solemn and sublime, along with a love for the mysterious. The latter is seen in his engravings more than in his paintings. (Examples: "Melancholia" and "Knight, Death, and the Devil.") His drawing, especially in his later years, was full of life and character, although there is much evidence that he always had to strive against a tendency toward stiff, hard lines and angular figures which strongly mark his early work. He elaborated details, especially drapery and hair. His portraits are marvels of minute workmanship. His draperies possess a mannerism in a certain sharpness and angularity of folds, though the large masses are often quiet and beautiful. His coloring varies, being, in some pictures, rich and even brilliant, while in others it is sadly wanting in fullness and transparence. His chiaroscuro is peculiar, there being so little shade. His gradations seem to be those of greater and less brilliance instead of light and dark.
$#EYCK, JAN VAN
##Jan van Eyck 1399-1441 ca.
John van Eyck and his brother, Hubert (1366-1426), are traditionally given the credit of being the inventors of oil painting, though the medium certainly existed earlier. They are said to have invented an excellent varnish, which gave to oil colors a fresh brilliance and caused them to dry quickly, thus greatly facilitating their use, and the technique developed by Jan of overlaying transparent layers of color caused the use of oils advance greatly.
Characteristics of van Eyck Painting.-- In composition, van Eyck's work remained in the Gothic tradition, rather than in the Early Renaissance of contemporary Italian painting, with which he was familiar. The figures, portrait-like in character, were represented with a somewhat rigid attitude and with little attempt at foreshortening. They were rather tall and slender, well modelled, and were clothed with the richest, most lavishly decorated garments. Indeed, spiritual radiance is expressed by gorgeous raiment and glittering jewels. The coloring was applied with full body and rich medium, and was so blended that no marks of the brush are visible. Flesh tints were very warm and detail minutely finished. Each precious stone seems to invite one to lift it from the robe or crown; and each golden thread of embroidery was as carefully painted as the face of the garment's wearer. Landscapes were always a feature in the works of Jan van Eyck. These were small in size, many of them being seen through an open window in the background, utterly faithful to nature in drawing, in aerial perspective, and in atmosphere. It is difficult to discern the work of Hubert from that of his brother Jan, and few works are attributed to him with any certainty, specifically the large altar-piece, the "Adoration of the Lamb", which was painted by both brothers for the church of St. Bavon, Ghent. It was probably designed by Hubert. After the death of Hubert, the altarpiece was finished by Jan, and the majority f the work is his. That great work is now divided and scattered. Only one panel, the central one, containing the Lamb, surrounded by worshippers, is now in St. Bavon, Ghent.
$#GENTILE DA FABRIANO
##Gentile da Fabriano 1370-1427
Gentile da Fabriano's work represents one of the highest expressions of the International Gothic style. Gentile combined a passionate realism with luxuriously ornamented details, embroidered garments, tapestries, rich costumes and gold background in his work, with the inventiveness of a tireless experimenter. His most important works include the "Adoration of the Magi," now in the Uffizi, the polyptych for the church of Valle Romita (now in the Brera), including "Scenes of the Coronation of the Virgin with Four Saints," and the "Quaratesi Polyptych. A number of his works were lost or destroyed. Gentile represented a sophisticated, courtly tradition and though Florentine art would not be significantly influenced by him, he was greatly respected there as an artist.
$#FERRARI, GAUDENZIO
##Gaudenzio Ferrari 1480-1546 ca.
Ferrari's works are numerous, evidence of his career in many small cities, ultimately becoming the leading painter in Milan. His works include frescoes at S. Maria delle Grazie, S. Maria della Pace, Milan, and S. Cristoforo, Vercelli. He had a vivid, realistic style, full of action and drama.
$#FETI, DOMENICO
##Domenico Feti 1589-1624 ca.
Domenico Feti was born in Rome and was a pupil of Ludovico Cardi. His coloring is powerful, and full of expression. He painted small pictures, and many of these illustrated the New Testament parables, which are among his best works and which brought him fame. His short career did not allow a large body of work, but it was expressive and vibrant, depicting a poetic if unquiet universe of myth and romance.
$#FOPPA, VINCENZO
##Vincenzo Foppa 1427-1515 ca.
Vincenzo Foppa was born in Brescia and afterward lived in Milan, where he was court painter to the Duke. It is probable that he studied in the school of Squarcione. His works show the same study of the antique, the same taste for classic architecture and gilt studio ornament that are found in the early Paduan School. They were also marked good outline drawing and by an unusual energy of expression, sometimes carried almost to the grotesque. His drawings have often been attributed to Mantegna (Paduan School), whose work influenced his own, particularly in perspective and modeling. His major works include a "Crucifixion" (Bergamo Gallery), fresco cycles in S. Eustorgio, Milan, and S. Maria del Carmine, Brescia, and the "Martyrdom of S. Sebastian," Castello Sforzesco, Milan.
$#FOUQUET, JEAN
##Jean Fouquet 1461-1485
Jean Fouquet was a miniaturist, illuminator, and painter to Charles VII, and then Louis XI. A Boccaccio which he illuminated, is at Munich, and portions of a Book of Hours, also by him, belong to the collection of M. Brentano Laroche, at Frankfurt There is a "Virgin and Child" in the gallery at Antwerp, attributed to him. The Virgin is said to be a portrait of Agnes Sorel, the beautiful mistress of Charles VII. Most of his easel paintings are portraits or depictions of the human figure. He combined in his work his own Gothic origins, the classical idealization and balance of the Italians, and the realism of the Flemings into a new style which was both original and uniquely French. He was an experimenter who adapted what he observed and learned, and his ability to paint light and shade was very skillful. His miniatures, such as those illustrations for the "Munich Boccaccio" and "Les Grandes Chroniques des roi de France" show an epic style and a mastery of composition.
$#FRAGONARD, JEAN HONORE
##Jean Honore Fragonard 1732-1806
Jean Honore Fragonard, born in Grasse, was first a pupil of Chardin, afterward of Boucher and combined the work of the two in his own work. He chose the frivolous, subjects of Boucher and represented them with the charming realism of Chardin. He was clever in color and technique. He won the Prix de Rome in 1752. He studied in Rome and his work was influenced by Pietro da Cortona, Tiepolo, Feti and others. Fragonard abandoned the grand manner of the history painting of his youth and began to paint for a private clientele, small amorous scenes and landscapes. His work, deplored by his critics, was popular with his public. The revolution deprived him of much of his clientele, but he continued to paint, focusing on the joyousness and fascination of human romance and emotion.
$#PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA
##Piero della Francesca 1416-1492 ca.
Piero della Francesca was born in Borgo San Sepolcro at the beginning of the Quattrocento, and was one of the greatest Italian painters of that century. He is distinguished for having advanced the study of perspective. He began his career assisting Domenico Veneziano with the frescoes in the Church of S. Egidio in Florence (now almost completely lost, and his early work shows strongly an affinity with Masaccio. His masterpiece is the fresco in the Choir of the church of S. Francesco in Arezzo depicting the "Legend of the True Cross," in which he blended the human presence into precise perspective backgrounds, an accomplishment of supreme importance for painting in Italy. He is famous as a writer on higher mathematics and the laws of perspective as well as painter. He was one of the artists invited to Rome by Pope Nicholas V., whose works in the Vatican were destroyed in order to make room for the frescoes of Raphael.
In addition to the frescoes in S. Francesco, one of the monuments of the Italian Renaissance, Piero's major works include the altarpiece "Our Lady of Mercy with Saints" with the "Annunciation" and the Crucifixion" (Borgo, Pin.), "Flagellation of Christ (Urbino, G.N.), the great "Diptych of the Duke of Urbino" (Uffizi). Piero della Francesca's new vision of volume in space, perspective and light would influence many contemporary artists as well as those to follow, including Perugino, Raphael, Antonello da Messina and Giovanni Bellini.
$#GADDI, TADDEO DI GADDO
##Taddeo Gaddi 1334-1366 ca
Taddeo Gaddi was the most important and constant of Giotto's pupils, with whom he was associated for over twenty years. He imitated Giotto very closely, though he never equalled him. Indeed, the great number of Giotto's pupils were always behind their master in the best qualities of his art. Gaddi's early work was his best, showing how much owed to the direct influence of Giotto. He differed from his master in the length and attention that he often gave to the limbs of his figures, and his tendency to add greater variety to background style and content. His major works include scenes from the "Life of Christ" in the Florentine Academy, and his remarkable "Pieta" (Yale University, Art Museum). Many frescoes formerly attributed to this artist are now lost.
$#GADDI, GADDO DI ZANOBI
##Gaddo di Zanobi Gaddi 1239-1312
Gaddi was the father of Taddeo, and the first of a prominent family of Florentine painters. He was a friend of Cimabue, whom he survived by twelve years. He was also a friend of Andrea Tafi and a worker in mosaics. Vasari speaks of many of his works, both paintings and mosaics, but the only remaining ones that can be attributed to him are some mosaics in the portico of Saint Maria Maggiore, in Rome, which were executed in 1308, and possibly others in the cathedrals of Florence and Pisa, and in the Baptistery at Florence.
$#GAINSBOROUGH, THOMAS
##Thomas Gainsborough 1727-1788
Thomas Gainsborough, born in Sudbury, Suffolk, is celebrated for his portraits, though he also retained a strong interest in landscapes throughout his life. He was a thoroughly original painter, both in conception and execution and followed no school traditions. He was fond of cool coloring. His celebrated "Blue Boy", a youth in blue satin, is said to have been painted to disprove the opinion of Reynolds that the predominance of blue in a picture is incompatible with a good color effect. He was a founder-member of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. His style was elegant and poetic, and he shared preeminence in portraiture only with Reynolds. Later in his life he turned to genre pictures which he valued above his other work.
$#GAULLI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA
##Giovanni Battista Gaulli 1639-1709
Giovanni Battista Gaulli, called "Bacicio," was born at Genoa. He studied with Bernini, who also became his patron. He had great clarity of invention and execution. One of his most important works was the "Glorification of the Name of Jesus" on the great vault of the Gesu in Rome. He painted in several Roman churches and was adept especially at making good likenesses of those who were dead. For the latter he was accustomed to draw an ideal face, which he would change according to the suggestions of those who had known the subject, until he made a satisfactory picture. He painted several celebrated portraits for popes and cardinals. He was one of the last great painters of the Roman Baroque.
$#CLAUDE GELLEE LE LORRAIN
##Claude Gellee 1600-1682
Claude Gellee was born at Champagne in Lorraine. This artist is the prince and poet of landscape painters. One of the striking aspects of the works of this artist is the immense space he represents; another is his color. He seemed to have first used much silvery gray, over which he painted, and this foundation color gives a peculiarly atmospheric effect. His architectural representations are unexceptionable, but he never succeeded in animals and figures, and said that he sold the landscape, but gave away the figures. Even before his death, his pictures were so admired that other artists attempted to imitate him and to dispose some of their works as his. In order to prevent this, he kept a book of drawings by which to identify his pictures. This he called, "Liber Veritatis." At his death there were six of these, one of which contained 200 drawings. Claude began in poverty. His parents were very poor and died while he was still young. He was apprenticed to a pastry cook, and traveled to Rome as valet to some young artists. Soon after he arrived there he entered the service of Agostino Tassi, for whom he cooked and prepared colors. He at length began to paint and studied nature very carefully. He was accustomed to sit whole days watching a scene and studying the effects of light at the different times of day, and so faithful was his memory, that he could reproduce them exactly upon his canvas. But few of his works are an exact picture of any one scene; they are rather composed of picturesque material gathered from different points, united with consummate taste and skill, and poetized or idealized by his exquisite imagination. It is also said that he studied in Naples with Godfrey Waal before he became the pupil of Agostino Tassi. His reputation, which was already good, was fully established by some works executed for Urban VIII soon after 1627. From this time, he received commissions from the most appreciative patrons of art in all parts of Europe.
$#GENTILESCHI, ORAZIO LOMI
##Orazio Lomi Gentileschi 1563-1647
Orazio Gentileschi, a late mannerist, was born in Pisa. He knew and was inspired, particularly in his early style, by Caravaggio and never displayed more than a moderate naturalism in his work. He was invited to England by Charles I. Several of his pictures are now at Marlborough House. Van Dyck painted his portrait, which was engraved by Vorsterman. Gentileschi, Artemisia (1590-1642), was his daughter, and accompanied him to England, where she painted both portraits and other pictures, but she spent most of her life in Bologna and Naples. She was a friend of Guido and was admired. She exceeded her father in portraits. His brother Francesco was also an artist, who resided chiefly at Genoa where he painted for several churches.
$#GHIBERTI, LORENZO DI BARTOLO
##Lorenzo di Bartolo Ghiberti 1378-1455
Lorenzo di Bartolo Ghiberti was born in Florence. A goldsmith and sculptor, he also painted some pictures at Rimini, where he fled from the plague in 1398. He is best known by his bronze gates to the Baptistery of Florence, which Michelangelo thought "worthy to be the gate of Paradise," which is known by that name and have never been surpassed in some respects. There was much controversy as to who should obtain the honor of making these gates, and after Ghiberti received it, he spent twenty years on the first, and as much more time on the last. It is easy to see in them the marks of the goldsmith's minute and finished manner, but Ghiberti introduced a new feature in bas-relief when he attempted to represent distance in background. In beautiful ornamentation, and perfect form and finish of all minor parts, he has never been surpassed. Ghiberti also made three statues for the Church of Orsanmichele; two bas-reliefs for the Cathedral of Siena, and the Sarcophagus of Saint Zenobius, in Santa Maria del Fiore, of Florence. He was a leading figure in Florence for fifty years, establishing a formative workshop.
$#GHIRLANDAIO, DOMENICO BIGORDI
##Domenico Bigordi Ghirlandaio 1449-1494
Domenico Ghirlandaio. (Domenico di Tommaso Curradi di Doffo Bigordi) was born in Florence. It is said that his father was a goldsmith, who made such exquisite garlands for the hair that he was called Ghirlandaio (the garland-twiner), which name descended to his children. There are certain characteristics of Domenico's pictures which might result from a knowledge of the goldsmith's art, such as precision in drawing, the modelling of figures, and the arrangement of drapery. Ghirlandaio was said to be a pupil of Alessio Baldovinetti, and became a mosaicist and the most celebrated fresco painter of his generation. They plainly show the advance from his earlier to his best manner: he introduced in his pictures the portraits of celebrated and important personages of his time, and was original in many ways. His life is a landmark in the history of Florentine art. His special greatness is in composition. He preferred large spaces, and worked in the old system of tempera. His portrait figures were not the actors in the scene represented, but he placed them, generally, in detached groups. This gave a solemn effect, and are comparable in their relation to the picture, to the chorus in a Greek tragedy. In the technicalities of these fresco-painting he excelled, and his works were highly finished. Ghirlandaio was the master of Michelangelo. Very little is of the mosaics which he executed, although he called mosaic work "painting for eternity." Major works include "St. Jerome" and the "Last Supper" in the Church of Ognissanti, Florence, the frescoes in the Sala dei Gigli in the Palazzo Vecchio, and the "Adoration of the Magi" now in the Uffizi.
$#GIORGIONE, GIORGIO BARBARELLI
##Giorgio Barbarelli Giorgione 1477-1510 ca.
Giorgione, was born in Castelfranco. Little is known of his early life. He acquired the name Giorgione, meaning "Georgio the Great," (apparently a reference to his noble height), sometime after 1548. The Venetian traditions give the following: He was fond of pleasure, but never profligate, and his love of his art would not allow him long to neglect it. After being betrayed by his best friend and mistress, Giorgione fled from Venice, entered the army, and worked in decorative painting, and worked with Titian on the Fondacho dei Tedeschi, at Venice. His technique, unique in its effects of light and the stillness of his isolated figures, produced a romantic, poetic mood peculiarly his own. This new style would dominate Venetian art. He had a great influence upon Titian. If any of the frescoes of Giorgione remain in Venice, they are but parts of pictures. The dampness of the climate, fires, and the effect of time have effaced them. His pictures are rare, and it is difficult to give a list of them, for there have been so many differences of opinion among the best judges, concerning the genuineness of those assigned to him, that few remain upon which no doubt has been thrown. He painted few historical subjects. Among the works acknowledged as his, the first place should be given to an altar-piece in the Church at Castelfranco. It represents the "Virgin and Child between Saints Francis and Liberale."
$#GIOTTO DI BONDONE
##Giotto di Bondone 1276-1336
Giotto di Bondone was born in Vespignano. According to the legend, when tending his flock, Giotto was accustomed to draw on the large, flat stones, and while thus employed, Cimabue came upon him, was filled with admiration of his work, and obtained the consent of his father to his taking him to be his pupil. Though this is probably merely a story, it is entirely possible that Giotto did study with Cimabue in Florence. Giotto became a painter, sculptor, and architect. Giotto drew his inspiration from nature, and he is generally regarded as the father of modern painting. His principal works were his fresco paintings, the masterpiece of which is the series of paintings in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. Giotto's ideas of space and perspective in architectural backgrounds, his placement of figures and use of gesture, all served to lead art in Italy from the Byzantine world into the western Gothic period. At the time of his death, Giotto had been architect and master of Santa Maria del Fiore two years. He was buried there, and afterwards a monument was erected to him upon which his portrait was carved by Benedetto da Maiano.
$#GOES, HUGO VAN DER
##Hugo van der Goes 1435-1482 ca.
Hugo van der Goes was one of the great Flemish masters of the late fifteenth century. The intensity of emotion evident in his work, particularly those presumed to be his late works, was new to Flemish art. Hugo was admitted to the Ghent Guild of Painters in 1467, and a number of commissions followed. He was a successful and respected artist, but emotionally he was unstable, suffering from increasing depression. He entered the Monastery of the Roode Kloster as a novice around 1478, but his mental health broke down in 1481 and he attempted suicide. Apparently his fame continued to draw patrons, and though his works cannot be dated with accuracy, he almost certainly continued to paint. Hugo's works include the Portinari Altarpiece, with its depiction of the "Adoration of the Shepherds" (now in the Uffizi), distinguished by the tension created by the contrast between dynamic action of the shepherds and the isolation of the sorrowing, contemplative Virgin and emaciated Child. Other works include the "Montforte Altarpiece," containing the monumental "Adoration of the Magi," and another "Adoration of the Shepherds" (both in the Berlin-Dahlem), and the emotionally fragmented "Death of the Virgin."
$#MABUSE, (JAN GOSSAERT)
##Mabuse (Jan Gossaert) 1470-1541 ca.
Jan Gossaert, known as (Mabuse), traveled to Italy early in his career, with Philip of burgundy. His work is distinguished by his attempt to blend the tradition of the Gothic, the forms of the Renaissance, and the jewel-like technique of the Flemish. He therefore occupies an important place in the history of the art of the Netherlands, though his work is that of an artist in transition. He left a large body of work, including the Malvagna Triptych, "Virgin and child with Angels" (Galleria Doria, Rome), "The Adoration of the Magi" (London, N.G.), the portrait of "Jean Carondelet Praying to the Virgin" (Louvre), and"Danae" (Munich, Alta Pin.).
$#GOYA Y LUCIENTES, FRANCISCO JOSE DE
##Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes1746-1828
Little is known about Goya's childhood and early training, but he rose from obscurity to become on of Spain's greatest painters. His life spanned great social upheaval and revolution, and these changes are reflected in his passionate and penetrating work. Achieving royal patronage, Goya became famous painting exquisite tapestry cartoons, and a series of portraits of Madrid society. Following an illness in 1792 which left him deaf, Goya's work took a darker, more critical turn, and his imagination produced such works as "Madhouse" and "Inquisition, both in Madrid. His portraits became more satirical, though his two depictions of the Duchess of Alba, and the two "Majas" are famous for their sensuous depiction of beauty. Following the domination of Napoleon, Goya grew disillusioned with the corruption and failure of liberal ideals which he witnessed, and the return of Spanish royal rule provided him with further images of war and human suffering. Goya's genius is evident in the transition his work provides to a modern idiom.
$#GOYEN, JAN JOSEPHSZ. VAN
##Jan Josephsz Van Goyen 1596-1656
Considered by many as the greatest Dutch landscape artist of the early seventeenth century, Van Goyen's early works followed in the Flemish landscape tradition, painted in bright colors and including architectural subjects and groups of people. His style changed in 1625-30, becoming almost monochromatic, with a much more limited palette. His work began to feature water in lakes, rivers and canals, similar to the van Ruysdael's of the period. Van Goyen's style was lively and his later works were painted with economy and subtlety. Two of his most impressive works are "Two Oak Trees" (Rijksmuseum), and "View over the Rhine" (Utrecht).
$#BENOZZO GOZZOLI
##Benozzo Gozzoli 1420-1498
Benozzo Gozzoli (Benozzi di Lese Sandro) was a pupil of Fra Angelico, whom he assisted in his work in the Cathedral at Orvieto, and whose style of painting he at first quite faithfully followed. His early pictures show much of the tender grace and ideal beauty of Angelico. Later he was influenced by the works of Masaccio, and turning wholly from the ideality of his former master, seems to have revelled in the study of nature and real life. His landscape backgrounds are filled with villas, trees, vines, fruit, and flowers, and are animated with herds of cattle, deer, hares, dogs and birds. He loved to tell stories by his pictures, and introduced many portraits, some of which are admirably treated; indeed, so close to nature is much of his painting of portrait heads, that by some writers he has been called the "Florentine Holbein."
$#GREUZE, JEAN-BAPTISTE
##Jean-Baptiste Greuze 1725-1806
Greuze became known as a young painter for his charming small scenes of family life. His paintings, small slices of life, often ambiguous with a historical background, were a new expression, and were very successful. His increasingly historical works gained austerity and precision, as well as great sensitivity. His portraits had finesse and candor, reminiscent of Rembrandt. Among his works are "The Village Betrothal," "The Emperor Severus reproaching Caracalla," "La Cruch Cassee," and "Self Portrait,) all in the Louvre.
$#GROS, ANTOINE JEAN
##Baron Antoine Jean Gros 1771-1835
Baron Antoine Jean Gros is one of the most noted of David's pupils. His historical paintings are superior, being full of real life, and yet marked by the dignity and heroic element of classic art. Among his portraits, his "Bonaparte at Arcola" (Louvre), and "Plaguehouse at Jaffa" brought him great status among the artists of his time. When David was exiled, Gros was appointed head of his school where he continued to paint in the Neoclassic style, mythological subjects which had largely gone out of fashion. His works are notable for lively brushwork and opulent colors, reminiscent of the Venetians.
$#GRUNEWALD, MATTHIAS
##Matthias Grunewald 1470/80-1530 ca.
Matthias Grunewald stands outside the established traditions of the sixteenth century. Second only to Durer, Grunewald's violent expressiveness, and the brilliant juxtaposition of form, light and color establishes him as one of the greatest masters of his time. The great Isenheim Altarpiece, his masterpiece, was finished in 1516. The central panel depicts the remarkable "Crucifixion," in which the tormented body of the Christ overwhelms the space, hanging from a cross bowed with the weight of suffering. Grunewald achieves in this work a universal symbol of suffering, using a unique iconography which has been attributed by some to the literary "Revelations" of Bridget of Sweden. Other works include the "Incarnation of the Son of God," "Lamentation of Christ," the "Virgin," "St. John the Baptist", "Mary Magdalene," the "Annunciation," the "Resurrection" and the "Nativity," all from the Isenheim Altarpiece, the triptych in Linderhardt Church near Bayreuth, depicting "Fourteen Helpers in Need" and the "Mocking of Christ," and the "Crucifixion" (Washington D.C., N.G.),
$#GUERCINO, GIOVANNI FRANCESCO BARBIERI
##Giovanni Francesco Barbieri Guercino 1592-1666
Guercino, though not a direct pupil of the Carracci, was greatly influenced by their school. His pictures show animation and a brilliant color which is sometimes too heavy in the flesh shadows. His earlier works are strongest. In these his style, like that of Guido Reni, is realistic and marked by broad masses of shadow and small, clear lights. His works include the powerful "Martyrdom of St. Peter" (Modena), one of a series of altarpieces, "Aurora," the illusionistic fresco on the ceiling in the Villa Ludovisi in Rome, and "Guardian Angel" (Fano). He influenced the development of the Baroque in Rome.
$#HALS, FRANS
##Frans Hals 1580-1666 ca.
Frans Hals produced works that are most distinctively Dutch in spirit, and which seem to have been, in greater or less degree, the models for most of the succeeding painters of Holland. A painter of portraits and genre scenes, his subjects were groups of archers or of civic bodies, family portraits, and single figures. His portraits are remarkable for their sense of reality, sometimes with a humorous element. His expressions are animated. He had a particular feeling for portraits, and even his religious and genre paintings had a strong portrait character. His technique achieved virtuoso standards. The "Laughing Cavalier" (London, Wallace Col.) is one of the most brilliant examples of Baroque portraiture. Other works include "Yonker Ramp and his Sweetheart" (N.Y. Metropolitan Museum), "Descartes" (Copenhagen), and his two last group portraits, the "Governors of the Old Men's Almshouse" and the "Lady Governors of the Old Men's Almshouse," both in the Frans Hals Museum.
$#HEDA, WILLEM CLAESZ.
##Willem Claesz. Heda 1594-1680
Willem Claesz. Heda was born in Haarlem and became a painter of still-life, particularly the "breakfast piece" type. His work was refined and decorative, his arrangements almost classical, and they include "Still Life" (Louvre), and "Still Life" (Hermitage), both rich examples of his technique.
$#HEEM, CORNELIS DE
##Cornelis de Heem 1631-1764
Cornelis de Heem, a Dutch painter, was the son of Jan de Heem, and he painted the same subjects with almost equal merit. His color is typically cooler, and his composition not quite so certain as his father's works demonstrate. His works are in the Munich, Vienna, and Dresden galleries.
$#HOGARTH, WILLIAM
##William Hogarth 1697-1764
William Hogarth, born in London, and a son-in-law of Sir James Thornhill, began as a printmaker and engraver, which skills would influence the development of his work. He belongs to the province of the higher genre and was an author as well as painter. He was a clever satirist and attempted reform by relentlessly holding up to ridicule the popular vices and corruption of his day. His conversation pieces were very popular, especially his two series works, "A Harlot's Progress," and "Marriage a la Mode," both of which were engraved. His aim was to make paintings similar to stage representations, and he succeeded admirably. In composition his pictures are thoroughly and exquisitely dramatic, without in the least degenerating into the theatrical. Many of his pictures have been engraved.
$#HOLBEIN THE ELDER, HANS
##Hans Holbein the Elder 1460-1524 ca.
Hans Holbein the Elder, Augsburg, was the father of a family of painters. Both his sons, Hans the Younger and Ambrosius were to become painters as well. He followed the styles of Schongauer and Rogier van der Weyden. He suffered much from having been the father of a famous son, since many of his works have, through much of history, been considered to be youthful paintings of Hans Holbein the Younger.
Characteristics.-- His subjects were wholly religious. Earlier paintings are marked by the slender figures, quaintly stiff attitudes, gentle conventional faces, and simple long garments of the early Flemish School. Later works possess much more of a portrait-like character, and the latest are touched by the influence of Italian painting. His last works are his best. He was very fond of architectural details; hence we find many of these in the backgrounds of his pictures.
$#HOOCH, PIETER HENDRICKSZ. DE
##Pieter De Hooch 1630-1681
Pieter De Hooch was a painter of Dutch genre scenes, often out-of door effects seen from an interior. His subjects are simple, a courtyard or interior of a room, with open doorway or window through which sunlight is streaming. His figures (seldom more than two) keep their places extremely well; but the chief merits of the pictures are the composition of color masses and the light and shade. His work shows some influence of Carel Fabritius and possibly also Jan Vermeer, whose work may have been influenced in return by de Hooch's interiors. He was first appreciated by the English, and most of his works are in private collections of that country.
$#ICTINUS & PHIDIAS
##Ictinus & Phidias 400's B.C.
Ictinus, active during the second half of the 5th Century, B.C., was the Greek architect of the Parthenon, the Temple of Apollo at Bassae, and the Periclean Telesterion at Eleusis. In his work can be seen the highest perfection of the Doric order, and perhaps the first interest in the arrangement of interior space. Phidias, the great Greek sculptor (active 470-425 B.C.) worked under Pericles in the project of beautifying the city of Athens. His genius was the foundation for the development of the classical style. We only see the reflection of his great work in the Parthenon sculptures which, though executed by others, were based on his designs. Apart from these, Roman and descriptions by ancient authors of his magnificent Athena Parthenos, and other works, are all that remain by which to appreciate the effect and lasting influence he made on the course of western art.
$#INGRES, JEAN AUGUSTE DOMINIQUE
##Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres 1780-1867
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres holds a middle place between the art of his master David and the Romantic school that completely displaced it. After leaving the studio of David he spent many years in Rome, and became an ardent student of Raphael's works in the endeavor to combine the qualities of both methods. He acquired the practice of subordinating all other qualities of a picture to its forms, so that we find his figures possessed of an almost Greek beauty of line and action, as well as natural grace. He painted many pictures containing a single figure, and these show his style of work to the best advantage. During his lifetime his works ranked in importance with those of Delacroix and other noted artists who were flinging aside all study of the antique and devoting themselves to the representation of nature and its actualities.
$#JORDAENS, JACOB
##Jacob Jordaens 1593-1678
Jacob Jordaens succeeded Rubens as the preeminent painter in Flanders when the great master died. He was a very prolific painter; his subjects are Biblical, historical, mythological, allegory, and portrait. His works were so very strongly realistic that some early critics called them vulgar. Many are humorous. In technique and color he occasionally approaches Rubens, though he was primarily influenced in style by van Dyck. Though he painted religious and mythological subjects, as well as portraits, Jordaens, unlike Rubens, preferred a more down-to-earth reality in his work.
$#LANFRANCO, GIOVANNI
##Giovanni Lanfranco 1582-1647
Giovanni Lanfranco was born in Parma and was one of the latest and most noticeable pupils of Agostino and later, Annibale Carracci. Among his best works were the cupola paintings of Santa Andrea della Valle in Rome and the Capella di S. Gennaro in Naples. Among his finest works are "Saint Louis Feeding the Poor", and the "Liberation of Saint Peter". He also executed a number of etchings in a masterly manner.
$#LE BRUN, CHARLES
##Charles Le Brun 1619-1690
Charles Le Brun is noted as a historical painter. He was a pupil of Vouet, also of Nicholas Poussin, whom he followed to Rome. Returning to Paris, he was chosen first director of the French Academy, and carried out the desires of Louis XIV in the decorations at Versailles, which are a grand testimony to the victories of that king. His work is richly inventive, sometimes theatrical and mannered, and is stronger in composition than in light and shade, drawing or technique.
$#LE NAIN, LOUIS
##Louis Le Nain 1593-1648 ca.
These three brothers are scarcely distinguishable in their works, for the simple name of Le Nain is common to all. Their early work was distinctive in its extreme realism. They painted genre subjects and were good portrait painters, especially in miniature. Only a few portraits survive, but it is the genre scenes that set the Le Nain's work above the ordinary, displaying the sincere observation and psychological understanding of the artists. They were all members of the Academy. Louis and Antoine died 1648 and Mathieu in 1677.
$#LE NAIN, MATHIEU
##Mathieu Le Nain 1607-1677 ca.
These three brothers are scarcely distinguishable in their works, for the simple name of Le Nain is common to all. Their early work was distinctive in its extreme realism. They painted genre subjects and were good portrait painters, especially in miniature. Only a few portraits survive, but it is the genre scenes that set the Le Nain's work above the ordinary, displaying the sincere observation and psychological understanding of the artists. They were all members of the Academy. Louis and Antoine died 1648 and Mathieu in 1677.
$#LUCAS VAN LEYDEN
##Lucas van Leyden 1494-1533
Lucas van Leyden, a pupil of Engelbrechsten, was a prolific and precocious one of the foremost of the early sixteenth century. In addition to a small genre paintings, Lucas also skillfully executed works engraved on copper as well as woodcuts. Durer, whose work he admired and studied, even etching an exact copy of Durer's woodcut "Portrait of the Emperor Maximilian," made a portrait of Lucas in silverpoint in 1521. His careful studies of composition and expression are evident when he again turned to painting, in works such as the diptych of the "Virgin and Child and Mary Magdalene" (Munich) and the triptych of the "Last Judgement" (Leiden), Lucas' masterpiece. Though better known for his engravings as a graphic artist, Lucas' genuine originality and sensitivity to new ideas are brilliantly apparent in his relatively few painted works. In scenes illustrating common life he anticipated the coming Dutch School. His figures are highly mannered and possess a coquettish air; his aerial perspective and color are especially notable.
$#LIPPI, FILIPPINO
##Filippino Lippi 1457-1504 ca.
Filippino Lippi, son of Fra Filippo Lippi and pupil of Botticelli, had the honor of having completed the series of frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel, Florence, begun by Masolino and carried on by Masaccio. He ranks with Botticelli and Ghirlandaio in importance.
Characteristics.--His works are noted for high sentiment, grace, and beauty, rather than for strength of conception or rendering. His early work in the Brancacci chapel resembles Masaccio's, while it is sometimes difficult to distinguish some of his later painting from that of Botticelli. His work lacked the nervous energy seen in much of Botticelli's work. His faces are particularly sweet in expression. He liked to embellish his figures, in easel pictures especially, with varied draperies, headdresses, etc. Major works include the "Adoration of the Magi," and "Scenes from the Life of Esther" (London), the "Altarpiece of the Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints and a Donor," and the fresco cycle, "Scenes from the Lives of St. Philip and St. John the Evangelist" (Church of S. Maria Novella, Florence).
$#LIPPI, FRA FILIPPO
##Fra Filippo Lippi 1406-1469
Lippi Fra Filippo, the painter to whose name so much of romance and scandal clings, was influenced by both Fra Angelico and Masaccio, and blended the ideal of one with the real of the other. A lay brother at the Carmelite Abbey in Florence, he ran away with a nun (whose marriage the Pope legalized subsequently), and had one son, Filippino, who also became a painter. He established his reputation with three works: the "Barbadori Altarpiece" (Louvre); the "Coronation of the Virgin" (Uffizi); and the "Annunciation" (S. Lorenzo which best illustrate his early Florentine style. One of the most original and personal of his works is the lyrical "Madonna and Child" (Uffizi).
Characteristics: His works are marked by a stately composition and fine, golden color. The faces he painted are short and broad, with very wide jaws, and are marked by a grave but decidedly youthful expression. His Madonnas usually wear a delicate, filmy headdress, which was an adornment of the Florentine ladies of his time. His angels are lusty, merry-faced boys.
$#LORENZETTI OR LAURATI, AMBROGIO
##Ambrogio Lorenzetti 1332-1348 fl.
Ambrogio Lorenzetti is among the most noted Sienese artists of the fourteenth century. His work is much more advanced and vigorous than that of Duccio and Martini, and resembles that of Giotto more than does any other Sienese painting. One of the most original artists of the fourteenth century, Ambrogio was a painter of the Sienese school, and brother of the painter Pietro Lorenzetti. His most famous works are the large fresco allegories, "Good Government" and "Bad Government" in the Palazzo Publico in Siena. They are particularly notable for Ambrogio's experimental depiction of space, and the forcefulness and inventiveness of their characterization and realism. His "Presentation in the Temple" (Uffizi) is one of the major works of the fourteenth century.
$#LORENZO MONACO, PIERO DI GIOVANNI
##Lorenzo Monaco 1370-1425 ca.
Lorenzo Monaco (Piero di Giovanni), born in Sienna, was a monk and belonged to the monastery called degli Angioli, in Florence. His early works follow Giotto in style, but later he united with the realism of the school of Giotto much of the idealism and religious fervor of expression for which Fra Angelico (his contemporary) is noted, and his works reflect the style of the International Gothic. . His execution is very tender and careful; his color pure and harmonious. His works include the diptych "Christ on the Mount of Olives" (Louvre), the "Coronation of the Virgin" Altarpiece and the "Adoration of the Magi" (both in the Uffizi), and the fresco cycle of the "Life of the Virgin" and the "Annunciation Altarpiece" of S. Trinita, Florence.
$#LORENZO DI CREDI, (LORENZO D'ANDREA)
##Lorenzo di Credi 1459-1537
Lorenzo di Credi, pupil of Verrocchio, was clearly influenced by his master and by the young Leonardo. Some works show such points of similarity that critics have sometimes found it difficult to distinguish with absolute certainty between Lorenzo's work and some of the early works of Leonardo. Their later work differs widely.
Following the "Burning of the Vanities" in 1497, when many works depicting mythological and secular subjects were destroyed in a fit of religious fanaticism, his subjects were limited to religious themes. These were usually placed in landscapes with architectural backgrounds. His Madonnas were gentle and graceful, with faces shaped like those of Leonardo, but most critics agree that his work lacked the depth of feeling inherent in the latter. Major works include the "Madonna and Child with Two Saints" Altarpiece (Louvre), the "Annunciation" (Uffizi), one of his finest works, and "St. Michael" in the Florence Cathedral.
$#LOTTO, LORENZO
##Lorenzo Lotto 1480-1556 ca.
Lorenzo Lotto was an unconventional painter whose troubled, unsettled life was reflected in his numerous, monumental religious works and portraits. He was influenced in his early work by several artists, Giovanni Bellini and Antonello da Messina in particular, leading him toward a purely sixteenth century manner. His sense of color and poetry were his own, however, and the human quality of his portraits reflect a particular style of realism and penetrating psychological understanding. In the later years of his life his work began to display an awareness of Titian in the more restrained use of color and emphasis on shades and shadows. Among his great works are the "Madonna with St. Peter Martyr" (Washington D.C., N.G.), the "Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine" (Bergamo), "Agostino and Niccolo della Torre (London, N.G.), and the "Altarpiece of St. Nicolas in Glory" (Venice, Church of the Carmini). Lotto is considered one of the great masters of the High Renaissance, his genius evident in the poetry and style of his many works.
$#MANFREDI, BARTOLOMEO
##Bartolomeo Manfredi 1580-1620
Bartolomeo Manfredi was born at Mantua and little is known of his life. He was influenced early in his career by Caravaggio, and he continued to follow his master's style throughout his life. His subjects were bandits, gamesters, etc. His works are rare, and it is believed that many of them have been attributed to Caravaggio. A sense of coarseness and brutality is evident in his work, even in the mythological subjects. Though he achieved popularity and helped spread Caravaggism, he remains at best imitative of that great master.
$#MANTEGNA, ANDREA
##Andrea Mantegna 1431-1506
Andrea Mantegna was adopted by Squarcione and registered as his foster-child in 1441. At the age of seventeen, he painted a much-admired Madonna for the Church of Santa Sophia. It is evident from the early efforts of Mantegna that he studied the works of other masters from Squarcione, his instructor. The earliest picture of his which is so preserved as to show his manner, is an altar-piece in the Brera, representing Saint Luke and other saints. This was executed in 1454, and is excellent in modeling, light and shade; it has a northern realism, but is far superior to most Squarcionesques, and equal in color to any tempera painting of Venice of the same time. After 1448 he worked on the chapel of Saints Jacopo and Christoforo in the Church of Eremitani at Padua. The whole left side, with the "Life of Saint Jacobo, " and the "Martyrdom of Saint Cristoforo", is his work. For his age and the state of Paduan art they are wonderful, although the some critics of Squarcione said that his figures were statuesque and lifeless. Mantegna had become disaffected towards his foster-father, had married the daughter of Jacopo Bellini, and fully sympathized with the faction opposed to Squarcione. He had no doubt been much affected by the influence of Donatello at Padua; he had studied the antique as much as possible and imitated it in his architecture and figures. But the "Martyrdom of Saint Cristoforo" shows that he had discovered his mistake, and strangely displays his attempt to remedy his greatest fault. These works made him famous, and the Marquis of Mantua used every inducement to persuade him to leave Padua. But he was occupied with some pictures for San Zeno at Verona. The Marquis persistently followed Mantegna, and at length about 1460 he entered his service, in which he continued until his death. The Marquis required all kinds of work of him, from the most sacred subjects to turkeys. In the old castle two rooms remain decorated by Mantegna. An inscription in one gives the date of 1474. The subjects are full of grace and life. The achievements of Hercules, busts of Roman emperors, and a strutting peacock, with beautiful heads of women and children regarding it, are a part of them; and in the center he represented a great aperture through which, apparently, the blue sky is seen. Sometime in 1483, after a change in government and the death of his patron earlier, he found new a patron in the Duchess of Este. At length in 1488 he was sent to Rome to paint a chapel in the Vatican for Innocent VIII, whose request the Marquis could not refuse. Here he labored unceasingly for two years. He then resumed the "Triumphs of Caesar", in which he had been interrupted, and in 1491 the Marquis made him new presents of land as a reward for these excellent works. From this time his works all show the presence of his assistants. It was not, however, until 1495 that he produced his famous "Madonna della Vittoria",. He painted until his death, but he suffered much sorrow and loss in his later years. Mantegna was doubtless the greatest painter of Northern Italy in his day, and his influence was felt in all Italy. His works are full of meaning; his inventive powers were large; his foreshortening, perspective, chiaroscuro, and color were excellent. He also painted what may be called reliefs, or pictures in chiaroscuro, and was besides a good engraver. He was early in the practice of this art, and his knowledge of design greatly assisted him to excel.
$#MARTINI, SIMONE
##Simone Martini 1283-1344 ca.
Probably a student of Duccio, Simone Martini was born in Siena and his works would have a considerable effect on the development of the Siena School into the fifteenth century. He achieved a stylistic balance between the Gothic and what would become the International Gothic, with the optical depth and original ideas of space and elegant detail. His works include the "Holy Martyr" (Ottawa, N.G.), the "Polyptych of the Virgin and Child with Saints and Prophets" (Pisa), and his masterpiece, the cycle of frescoes in the Lower Church of Assisi, "Scenes from the Life of St. Martin."
$#MASACCIO, TOMMASO DI GIOVANNI
##Tommaso di Giovanni Masaccio 1401-1428
Tommaso di Giovanni Masaccio, one of the greatest masters of the Quattrocento, was born in San Giovanni, in the Val d' Arno. Masaccio came to Florence where the two great influences on his work were the sculptors, Brunelleschi and Donatello, from whom he would bring to his work a new consciousness of the human figure and sense of perspective. He was enrolled in the city guild of painters in 1424; and he died by in Rome in 1428. During his short life Masaccio made an almost phenomenal advance in painting.
Characteristics.-- The conventionalities that had hitherto clung to all pictured works were wholly dropped by Masaccio. His drawing of the human figure (tested by several nude figures in his pictures) is masterly. He puts animation and variety of expression into both figures and faces. In his work real life for the first time becomes the serious subject. While Giotto sought for the best means of telling the story selected as his subject, Masaccio sought, seemingly, a fitting incident which, as a theme, would enable him to portray most forcibly the characters he chose to represent. This study of individual character appears in the work of no earlier master, and was of great importance in the evolution of Italian painting. It marks the beginning of the tendency towards the predominance of the artistic treatment of a picture over its subject, and its inevitable end was to throw out the purely devotional aim which had before characterized painting. Masaccio made a great advance in both linear and aerial perspective; his figures were placed firmly on different planes in the same composition. His works include collaborations with Masolino on the "Altarpiece of the Virgin and St. Anne" (Uffizi), and on the cycle of frescoes for the Brancacci Chapel, S. Maria del Carmine in Florence.
$#MASOLINO DI CRISTOFORO, TOMMASO FINI
##Tommaso Masolino di Cristoforo da Panicale
Tommaso Masolino di Cristoforo, called "da Panicale" from the place of his birth, was a sculptor as well as a painter. His works give evidence of a careful observation of nature, are truthful in drawing and modelling, and show a knowledge of linear perspective. They possess a certain dramatic grouping of figures. His work in the Brancacci Chapel with Masaccio shows his initial style, the International Gothic, as well as the impact of Masaccio's stylistic treatment of light and space.
$#MEMLING, HANS
##Hans Memling 1424-1495 ca.
Hans Memling's early life is not known, other than that he was born in Germany and he lived and painted in Bruges. He purchased citizenship in Bruges in 1465. It seems certain that he studied in the workshop of Rogier van der Weyden, for throughout his career he would use themes and compositions based on the works of that great master. Though lacking in Rogier's spiritual depth and power, Memling had a seductive talent as a storyteller, using fresh and lively colors, a love of detail and an exactitude of precision in his portraiture. Some influence of Jan van Eyck is discernable in his portraits. His works include the "Triptych of the Crucifixion" (divided between Vicenza Museium, Pierpont Morgan Library, N.Y., and Bruges Museum), "The Virgin and Child with Donors, Angels and Saints" (London, N.G.), the famous "Triptych of the Last Judgement" (Gdansk Museum), and the "Triptych of the Virgin and the Two Sts. John" (Bruges, Hopital de St. Jean).
$#METSU, GABRIEL
##Gabriel Metsu 1630-1667
Gabriel Metsu painted Dutch genre pictures and was one of the founders of the Leyden Painters Guild. His religious and mythological works date from before 1655, after which he inclined toward genre scenes in a style which recalls the work of Vermeer and Pieter de Hooch. His works include "A Man and a Woman Seated by a Virginal" (London, N.G.), and his most famous, "The Sick Child" (Amsterdam Rijksmuseum).
$#MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI
##Michelangelo Buonarroti 1475-1564
Michelangelo Buonarroti, who was born at Castel' Caprese near Arezzo in Tuscany, and was one of the world-masters of painting. He is distinguished as sculptor, painter, and architect, as well as engineer and poet. He studied in the workshop of Ghirlandaio. He soon distinguished himself from the other pupils of Ghirlandaio, and attracted the notice of that great patron of art, Lorenzo de' Medici, who gave him a home in his own palace and commissioned him to execute several pieces of sculpture. Here Michelangelo lived for four years, and was brought into contact with many of the greatest and most intellectual men of that time in Italy. The worth of such influence to the young man's life must have been incalculable. He became a diligent student of Masaccio's great frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel and also of the remains of ancient art in Florence. He gave himself up to study of anatomy more like a devotee than an ordinary student. Until 1503 Michelangelo is known (with the exception of a few small pictures) exclusively as a sculptor, but in this year he received the commission to enter the lists as a painter with Leonardo da Vinci. The cartoon made at this time brought him so much fame, that soon after he was summed by the order of Pope Julius II to execute the decoration of the vault in the Sistine Chapel, but eventually the project grew into the great series of frescoes which monumental undertaking became the master's most famous achievement. He was then so diffident of his own powers as a painter that, having consented, with great reluctance, to undertake the work, he sent for some of his old Florentine companions to paint the frescoes from his cartoons. Not satisfied with their work, however, he destroyed it all and painted the whole with his own hand. He loved sculpture best but it was the fresco paintings which gave him sufficient space for the representation of his mighty conceptions. In these, however, his is the painter-sculptor, not alone the painter, for his frescoes are full of sculptural qualities.
Characteristics.-- First of all, we must notice the greatness and essential poetry of his conception and style. His compositions differ from those of other masters in that each part seems complete in itself. He has placed magnificent figures side by side, and they have to do with each other yet the relative action is not in the least necessary to the full force of expression of the figures. He discarded draperies almost wholly, having had a passion for the representation of the nude human figure. Until the recent cleaning of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, art historians were divided between the opinion that Michelangelo was weak as a colorist, and that he deliberately used dull tones to emulate sculpture. The full, dazzling display of brilliant colors which the cleaning revealed has left both views untenable, and make necessary a new assessment of Michelangelo as a colorist. As a sculptor, Michelangelo's poetry and power are monumental. His great works of sculpture include his famous "David" (Florence), the exquisite "Pieta" for St. Peter's in Rome, the "Bacchus" (Florence), the "Slaves" (Louvre), and the "Moses." His painted works, in addition to the Sistine Chapel, include the "Doni Tondo" (Holy Family), (Uffizi), and the frescoes in Pope Paul III's chapel in the Vatican, including the "Conversion of St. Paul" and the "Crucifixion of St. Peter." In addition to his paintings and sculptures, Michelangelo left a number of drawings and architectural works in St. Peter's, the Farnese Palace, and the Church of S. Giovanni dei Fiorentini. From the unveiling of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, Michelangelo was considered the greatest living artist. Strangely, or perhaps due to his monumental greatness, he had no pupils or school, though his creative innovations were adapted into the work of his contemporaries. He stands like a colossus, as monumental an artist as was the nature of his work.
$#MILLET, JEAN FRANCOIS
##Jean Francois Millet 1814-1875
Jean Francois Millet was a leader in what may be called the rustic genre. Though he received a formal education in Cherbourg and later in Paris with Paul Delaroche, and the classical precision he learned there would be evident in his work, it was in landscapes full of natural beauty and poetry of feeling that he pictured the hard-working peasantry of France--woodcutter, water carriers, stone breakers, charcoal burners, toilers in the field, etc.. He pictured them with a depth of feeling, an earnestness, and a sympathy which was born of his own peasant life and nature. In 1850 he moved to Barbizon, joining the artists there where he concentrated on landscapes and rural subjects. His works, such as the "Sower" (Philadelphia Museum of Art), and the "Gleaners" (Louvre) elicited charges that he was a Communist. In spite of this, he had increasing success, due in part to the patronage of William Morris Hunt, and the winning of such honors as the Legion of Honor in 1868. His work would later influence Seurat and van Gogh.
$#MURILLO, BARTOLOME ESTEBAN
##Bartolome Esteban Murillo 1618-1682
Bartolome Murillo was born in Seville and was orphaned at an early age. He was then apprenticed to Juan del Castillo, and apparently was familiar with the work of both Ribera and Zubaran. His early works developed in the style of tenebrism, but gradually he attained a style enriched by knowledge of color and composition which came from both the Venetian and Flemish schools. Murillo painted religious works with a special affinity for the themes of the "Immaculate Conception," "Virgin and Child," and the "Holy Family." Though these works made him the foremost Spanish painter of his day, they are often considered too sentimental and sweet for contemporary taste. His genre scenes, particularly such famous works as the "Young Beggar" (Louvre), and the "Ragged Boy" are considered to be among his best works. His portraits, influenced by van Dyck, are particularly Spanish in character.
$#ORCAGNA, ANDREA DI CIONE
##Andrea Orcagna di Cione 1308-1368 ca.
Andrea Orcagna di Cione, who painted probably from 1343-1368, was also a sculptor and architect. He is distinguished as being one of the most noted of the immediate successors of Giotto. His figures show a greater sense of beauty and proportion. His color was rendered softer and more harmonious by his study of the Sienese masters, from whom also he learned to engraft a tenderness of expression upon the stern simplicity of the Giottesque School. His paintings are among the masterpieces for the fourteenth century. Orcagna, sculptor, architect and painter is distinguished as being one of the most notable successors of Giotto. His major extant work as a sculptor is the tabernacle for the Or San Michele, Florence. As an architect he supervised mosaic decoration on the facade of the Cathedral of Florence. The Altarpiece for the Strozzi Chapel in S. Maria Novella at Florence is his chief painted work, depicting "Christ in Glory with Saints."
$#OSTADE, ADRIAEN JANSZ. VAN
##Adriaen Jansz. van Ostade 1610-1685
Ostande was a Dutch genre painter, who may have been a pupil of Franz Hals along with Adriaen Brouwer, whose work would greatly influence Ostade's own style. His works illustrate contentment and humble happiness. Also apparent in his work is the impact of Rembrandt and his use of dark and light. He made numerous drawings in semi-opaque color, and about fifty-four etchings from his own designs, which are esteemed highly. He married the daughter of Van Goyen, and had a large family; he left Haarlem to return to Lubeck, where he hoped better to support his household, but his pictures were so much appreciated in Amsterdam that about 1662 he settled there for life, made the neighboring villages the scenes of his study, and gave himself quietly to the work of picturing "the short and simple annals of the poor." Among his works are "Peasant Festival" (The Hague), "Peasant Interior" (Louvre), and "Peasant Interior with a Flute Player" (Berlin, former State Museum).
$#PALMA IL GIOVANE, JACOPO NEGRETI
##Jacopo Negreti Palma il Giovane 1544-1628
Jacopo Palma was called "il Giovane," and was considered the most important painter in Venice after the deaths of Tintoretto and Veronese. A number of his works represent nude, or half nude mythological figures in the midst of pleasing landscapes. His most important works are in the series in the Oratorio de Crociferi, Venice.
$#PALMA IL VECCHIO, JACOPO D'ANTONIO NEGRETI
##Palma il Vecchio, Jacopo d'Antonio Negreti 1480-1528 ca.
Palma il Vecchio, called "Il Vecchio," was born at Serina, near Bergamou. He was Bergamesque by birth and name, but Venetian in his manner of painting. He was fond of natural backgrounds and represented in them eternal summer. His female figures are his best works, with soft, richly blended tones, and elegant bearing. His fondness for a type of opulent and sensual beauty marked his work, influenced by Titian but lacking a sense of mystery and atmosphere inherent in the latter's works. We have no account of his having studied with any great master or of his being employed by the state, but he was patronized by the families of noble Venetians of Cornaro and Friuli. At the time of his death, he had no family but nephews and a niece, and was a member of the brotherhood of Saint Spirito, in whose vaults, at San Gregorio, at Venice, he desired to be buried. His pictures are numerous, and yet he left forty-four unfinished when he died.
$#PARMIGIANINO, GIROLAMO FRANCESCO
##Girolamo Francesco Mazzola Parmigianino 1504-1540
Girolamo Francesco Mazzola, called "il Parmigianino," is one of the most noted of Correggio's followers. He began his career at the precocious age of fourteen, with "Baptism of Christ" (Berlin), and he went on to become on of the great masters of the mannerist style. His elongated and aristocratic figures are finished with elegance in a shifting, unreal space. His major works include the frescoes of S. Giovanni Evangelista, the frescoes of "Diana" in Fontanellato Castle, the "Marriage of St. Catherine" (Rome, Palazzo Doria), and the "Madonna of the Long Neck," (Uffizi).
$#PERUGINO, PIETRO DI CRISTOFORO VANUCCI
##Pietro di Cristoforo Vanucci Perugino 1446-1524
Pietro di Cristoforo Vanucci, born in the little town of Citta della Pieva, was called "Perugino" because at maturity he settled in Perugia, established an academy, and there won his fame. Much of the excellence of his work is due to the study of Florentine masters. He was one of the first artists in central Italy to handle the new oil medium successfully. For several years the young Raphael worked in his studio, and the younger artist's influence can be seen in a more delicate, brilliant line than previously seen in Perugino's work. Perugino was the foremost painter in Umbria at the end of the Quattrocento, and in his work is successfully blended the great Florentine discoveries with the gentle spirit of his local tradition. His most important surviving work is the fresco in the Sistine Chapel, "Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter."
$#PISANO, ANDREA
##Andrea Pisano 1290-1349 ca.
Andrea Pisano's works as an architect and sculptor were few, and he is known only through two major works: the Florence Campanile, on which he assisted Giotto, and the Florence Baptistry doors. He gained a great reputation as a bronze-caster, and was entrusted with the execution of the gates to the Baptistery of Florence. They are now displaced by Ghiberti's gates, but when they were complete in 1339, it was said that all Florence was in ecstasy regarding them, and he received great honor for his work. He may be regarded as the reviver of bronze sculpture, which had constantly declined from the antique, and in which no work had been produced at all comparable with the gate of Andrea Pisano.
$#PISANO, GIOVANNI
##Giovanni Pisano 1240-1320 ca.
Giovanni Pisano was born in Pisa, and was the son of Nicola Pisa, a Romanesque sculptor and architect. Giovanni's own style, however, tended toward the Gothic, as can be seen in his facade of the Cathedral at Siena. Giovanni worked much under Nicola and assisted him with the Perugian fountain. As early as the making of the Siena pulpit, he was a master in his in his own right, and went in 1268 to Naples to fulfill a commission from the Franciscans there; he also designed the Episcopal Palace. After the death of Niccola, the Pisans were anxious to have Giovanni remain in his native city, where he executed important works. The Church of Santa Maria della Spina was the first example in Italy of the pointed architecture. In 1278 he was chosen to build the Pisan Campo Santo; it was the first and the most beautiful one in all Italy. Many of the sculptures here were also by his hand. The representation of Pisa was the first attempt at making large statues in Italy, since the days of Constantine. It had great intensity of expression in its principal figure, and displays the originality of Giovanni. He gained much reputation from this, and in 1286 went to Siena, where he was commissioned to build the facade of the cathedral. The people of Siena wished for him to make his home there; the magistrates made him a citizen and exempted him from taxes for life; but he remained only three years, and went next to Perugia. In this city he made a monument to Urban IV, which no longer exists. From this time, he devoted himself wholly to sculpture. At Arezzo he made the shrine of Saint Donato for the cathedral. It was a superb work of art. A new pulpit was also to be made for the Church of San Andrea, and there were those in Pistoia who had so admired Nicola Pisano that they wished to have his son to do it. In 1305 he was commissioned to make the monument of Pope Benedict XI, still remaining in San Domenico at Perugia and somewhat later, another monument of Saint Margaret in the church of that saint at Cortona. The general arrangement of the two was similar, and in both cases angels were holding back curtains and regarding the figures with sorrow. In 1312 he commenced rebuilding the Cathedral of Prato. He did not live to see it completed, but his designs were carried out with precision.
$#POELENBURGH, CORNELIS VAN
##Cornelis van Poelenburgh 1586-1667
Cornelis van Poelenburgh was born in Utrecht and was a pupil of Abraham Bloemaert. He visited Rome where he adopted, as far as he was able, the elegance of the Italian school. He represented many stories from sacred history and from mythology, with figures in richly colored landscapes. His execution was labored and finished. Major works include "Landscape with Ruins and Antique Relief," and "Landscape with Ruins and Cattle Dealers" (Louvre), which were basic to the development of the Italian style of landscape in the Netherlands.
$#POLLAIUOLO, ANTONIO DI JACOPO DEL
##Antonio di Jacopo del Pollaiuolo 1433-1498
Antonio di Jacopo del Pollaiuolo was born in Florence. He was a sculptor, goldsmith, a worker in bronze and silver ornaments and also a painter. His pictures were affected by his other occupations, showing precise, incisive line. He excelled in the knowledge of perspective and anatomy, and it is said that Antonio was the first artist who dissected the human body in order to know how to represent it. His work summarized the trends and discoveries in Florentine art of his time. His major works represented contests of strength and muscular action, such as the sculpture of "Hercules and Antaeus," and the painted "Martyrdom of St. Sebastian" (London, N.G.). Antonio was celebrated as the best goldsmith of his time, and one of the major painters, and received many important commissions from church and state, including the great patron of art, Lorenzo de' Medici. He made bronze monuments for the Popes Sixtus IV and Innocent VIII. The first is now in the Chapel of the Sacrament in Saint Peter's.
$#POLYEUCTOS
##Polyeuctos the Elder B.C. 452-412
Polyeuctos the Elder was a celebrated statuary maker who was probably a native of Sicyon and a citizen of Argos. He was the pupil of Ageladas and fellow-pupil of Phidias and Myron. He lived, as nearly as can be told, from B. C. 452-412. Polycleitus received the highest praise from Pliny, Cicero, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Quintilian, etc. He was a worker in marble and bronze. He also wrote a treatise on the proportions of the human body called "Canon" and made a statue of the same name, in which his theory was exemplified. He had many pupils, and exercised great influence upon the school of Argos. His great portrait statue of "Demosthenes" and one of the "Diadoumenos" represent his great artistic understanding and his move away from classical idealism toward Hellenistic realism.
$#PONTORMO, JACOPO CARUCCI
##Jacopo Carucci Pontormo 1494-1557
Jacopo Carucci Pontormo, who was named after the town of his birth, was a pupil of Andrea del Sarto, and so successfully imitated his master that his paintings often passed under his name. He was also influenced by Leonardo, and by Piero di Cosimo. Later, the drawing style of Michelangelo would become apparent in Pontormo's work as well. He was commissioned by Pope Leo X to help decorate the great entrance hall of the Villa at Poggio a Caiano. The lunette "Vertumnus and Pomona" is a masterpiece of the fantasy and elegance of Florentine Mannerism. Other major works include the "Supper at Emmaus" (Uffizi), the Altarpiece of the "Deposition" and frescoes of the "Annunciation" and the "Evangelists" (Church of S. Felicita, Florence), the "Visitation" in the Church of S. Michele (Florence), and a series of preparatory sketches for scenes from the "Fall," the "Flood" and the "Resurrection," (Uffizi), which display a force and dramatic tension beyond any contemporary works, and which resemble Michelangelo's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel in their breadth of vision.
$#POUSSIN, NICOLAS
##Nicolas Poussin 1593-1665
Nicolas Poussin was distinguished as an historical, mythological, and landscape painter, and occupies a very high place in the history of French painting by reason of his influence, though he spent the greater part of his life in Rome. He was especially fond of mythological subjects, to which he always gave an able rendering. His interpretations of the Italian landscape were among the best in the world of art. His work possessed a heroic quality that is especially fitted to represent the grandeur of the Italian mountains and the luxuriant vegetation of that country. He gave comparatively little attention to atmospheric effect or color, but depicted superb masses of foliage, massive groups of antique architecture and twilight skies heavy with clouds.
$#PRETI, MATTIA
##Mattia Preti 1613-1699
Mattia Preti, called "Il Calabrese," born at Taverna, was one of the less important Naturalistic School followers. He was a pupil of Guercino. He chose gloomy subjects. His composition was copious, his design bold, and his use of heavy shadows very effective.
$#RAPHAEL SANTI DA URBINO
##Raphael (Raffaello) Santi da Urbino 1493-1520
Raphael or Raffaello Santi was born in Urbino. His first instructor was his father, Giovanni Santi, who was probably a pupil of Melozzo da Forli, and who was an excellent painter. Giovanni Santi's importance in this school has only been lately recognized. After his father's death, he entered the school of Perugino in Perugia, where he remained for several years. Raphael visited Florence in 1504, remaining four years, where he was brought into contact with the greatest art workers and masters of Italy. There his work took on the classicism of Leonardo, the young Michelangelo, and Fra Bartolommeo. The development of his mature style places him as one of the greatest painters of the Italian High Renaissance. In 1508 he settled in Rome, having gone there at the request of Pope Julius II, and lived and painted in that city until his early death. In studying the life and work of Raphael, we cannot separate the work from the man himself. He seems to have been from his childhood a seeker. All the individual traits of intellectual and moral life were admirably balanced in him. Although he may well be called an "Apostle of Beauty", the beauty he portrays seldom approaches the sensuous; it is a noble, intellectual, moral, spiritual beauty. From each of those great masters whose works he studied, he assimilated that which was highest and best, and thus formed a style peculiar to himself, expressed in serenity and balance. His works include grand decorative compositions, religious subjects and portraiture, and in each he is always the great master, ever struggling to attain his high ideal -- the perfection of beauty and truth.
Characteristics.-- We often hear the art of Raphael compared with that of Michelangelo, but there can be no real comparison between the two because they are so essentially opposed one to the other. The chief element of Michelangelo's painting is the portrayal of strength, of power; with Raphael, as with Greek art, the whole endeavor is to render a serene, harmonious beauty. Through Michelangelo's art we see the master's own prodigious personality; in Raphael's we feel the sum of all the highest influences to which he had been subjected. In Raphael's work the treatment was subordinate to the conception. He painted in three great styles: The first, Peruginesque, in which he imitated Perugino very closely; the second, Florentine, used very soon after he went to Florence while engaged in the study of Florentine art; and the third, Roman, used after he had been brought into close contact in Rome with Michelangelo. By far the larger number and the most important of his works are painted in the Roman Style. It is difficult to designate the special characteristics of Raphael's style, because it was so full of diverse influences. He gathered up all the elements of the High Renaissance and embodied them in himself. His work is marked by noble subjects, expressive composition, serene landscape backgrounds, clear drawing, true perspective, grace and naturalness of the human figure, beauty and gentleness of expression. His major works include the "Sistine Madonna" (Dresden), the "Virgin with the Fish" (Prado), and the great "Transfiguration" in the Vatican. Also in the Vatican are the series of rooms decorated by Raphael and his assistants, which include "Disputation of the Blessed Sacrament" and the "School of Athens."
$#REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN
##Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn 1606-1669
Rembrandt (Harmensz. van Rijn or Rhijn), was born in Leyden, and is the greatest name of the Dutch school. His masters were unimportant artists; his love for the study of nature was the strongest influence in his art life. This developed very early, and at the age of twenty-three he went to Amsterdam and soon painted some of his best pictures. A brief season of great prosperity followed, for he married the daughter of a wealthy burgher and received many commissions. He established a large school and exerted much influence on Dutch art. He gathered a large and valuable collection of pictures and other art treasures, which, after the death of his wife, when he had become bankrupt, were all sold at auction. His misfortunes did not weaken, but rather strengthened his painting. He never traveled, like other artists, but spent all his years in Amsterdam. He was throughout life a profound student of nature, and since common humanity, age, and even deformity and death appealed to him more strongly than wealth, luxury, or beauty, he spent much time in wandering through the poorest streets of the city seeking models. He painted religious pictures, the higher genre, portraits, landscapes, and, occasionally, mythological pictures. His numerous self-portraits show his unceasing interest in the essence of humanity.
Characteristics.-- In his religious pictures we find not the slightest trace of Italian methods of treatment. He cared nothing for traditionary proprieties of costume and accessories, but clothed his people (who are real Dutch men and women, burghers or peasants, Jews or Turks) in their everyday costumes. His "Christ" lived not alone in Palestine, but was a universal Christ, whose only nimbus was his love and pity; who was present healing the sick or teaching the multitudes of Amsterdam, just as really as those of Capernaum and Jerusalem. In his pictures of the higher classes, he gave us the noble type of the Dutch people. The figures and faces, all possessed individuality and character. His composition and drawing were sometimes weak. His treatment of light and shade, especially in his later pictures (his early ones often possess a clear, daylight tone), distinguish him from all other artists and is the strongest and most individual element of his work. Indeed, it sometimes seems as if the meaning of his work, its dramatic interest, its pathos and its spiritual intent, was revealed through its chiaroscuro instead of by its composition or the expression of its figures. In some of his very latest works we can believe that the picture revealed itself first to him in dazzling light and shadows, which afterward he peopled as he chose. This light and shadow follows no ordinary rules of chiaroscuro; it is arbitrary, sudden, and partial; it is an illumination in a dark space. It is fantastic rather than natural light. His portraits were exceptionally strong, his faces animated and characteristic, and his peculiar use of chiaroscuro is especially adapted to this class of painting. His landscapes do not appear to be the representations of any particular places; they are, however, full of the most intense feeling of nature; they are poetic; often a melancholy feeling of solitude breathes from them. His color, like his light and shade, is arbitrary; his earlier pictures were comparatively clear and cool; his later color is full of rich, warm, golden browns, while his last are very warm. His technique was unlike the great mass of Dutch painting. He soon lost his first careful method of representing detail, and grew very broad in handling, until, in some of his latest pictures almost all detail was lost in color and chiaroscuro. His many works include the "Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaas Tulp," "Descent from the Cross," "Night Watch," "Christ at Emmaus," and "Saul and David."
$#RENI, GUIDO
##Guido Reni 1575-1642
Guido Reni, was born in Bologna, the son of a professor of music. He began early to practice playing upon the flute, but soon chose to adopt the profession of a painter. His first instructor was Denis Calvaert, whom he left in order to enter the school of the Carracci, where he became the favorite of Ludovico, winning a public commission in competition with his master. Guido painted "Saint Benedetto in the Desert," for the Church of Santa Michele in Bosco. Some of Ludovico's finest works were in the same church, but that of Guido did not suffer by contrast. He went to Rome with Albano. His first picture painted there, the "Martyrdom of Saint Cecelia", won for him great praise. He gained a new triumph in his decoration for Paul V of the private chapel of Monte Cavallo. He returned to Bologna, where he painted several pictures in his native city, the most celebrated being the "Murder of the Innocents" for the Church of San Domenico. Paul V was anxious for his return to Rome, and when he went he was employed at Santa Maria Maggiore. His finest work in Rome, was the "Aurora" in the garden house of the Palazzo Rospigliosi. This is well known by the engravings of Morgen and Frey. After his work was finished at Santa Maria Maggiore, he returned to Bologna and was obliged to refuse many commissions, so great was the number he received. With the exception of Domenichino he is considered most worthy of the disciples of the Carracci. His style exalts the classical understanding of beauty.
$#REYNOLDS, SIR JOSHUA
##Sir Joshua Reynolds 1723-1792
Sir Joshua Reynolds was born at Plympton in Devonshire, 1723. When quite young he displayed such a talent for drawing, and made likenesses of his relatives and friends with such success that in 1740, his father sent him to London to study with Mr. Hudson, a portrait-painter. He remained with him two and a half years. He returned to Devonshire and established himself at Plymouth Dock. In 1749, by invitation of Captain Keppel, he sailed for Leghorn, and from there proceeded to Rome. He spent three years in Florence, Venice, and other cities studying carefully the works of the great masters. Soon after his return to England, he was acknowledged to be the best painter in that country since the days of van Dyck. In 1768 he was made President of the Royal Academy, and soon after the King bestowed on him the honor of knighthood. Although it was not a part of his duty to read lectures to the academy, he continued to do so until 1790, when he took his leave. During these years he also sent 244 pictures to the various exhibitions. In 1781 and in 1783 he made excursions to the Netherlands and Holland. In 1784 he exhibited his celebrated portrait of Mrs. Siddons. (He painted his name on the border of Mrs. Siddons' garment, in her picture as "The Tragic Muse." The actress went near to examine it, and, seeing the name, smiled. Sir Joshua bowed and said, "I could not lose the opportunity of sending my name to posterity on the hem of your garment.") In 1786 he was commissioned to paint a picture for the Empress of Russia, who gave him free reign in deciding the subject, size and price. He painted the "Infant Hercules Strangling the Serpent." When Alderman Boydell undertook to establish his Shakespeare Gallery, Sir Joshua chose three subjects for himself: the "Death of Cardinal Beaufort", "Macbeth with the Witches", and "Puck", which was one of his happiest efforts. In 1782 he experienced a slight shock of paralysis. Afterwards, he was quite well until 1789, when his sight was so defective that he feared he might become blind, and it was from this time that he stopped painting. He died on the 23rd of February in 1792. His remains, after lying in state at the Royal Academy, were buried at St. Paul's, near the tomb of Sir Christopher Wren. As a portrait painter, and particularly as a painter of children, he is almost unequalled.
$#RIBERA, JOSE DE
##Jose de Ribera 1590-1656 ca.
Jose de Ribera, called "Lo Spagnoletto," was born in Xativa. It has been generally believed that he studied with Francisco Ribalta, but there is some doubt. He left for Italy while very young. There is a story that he was at Rome, living in extreme poverty. Clothed in rags, he lived on crusts, and spent his time in copying the frescoes he could see in the streets. He arrested the attention of a Cardinal who took him home and provided for his comfort. But Ribera found himself less inclined to work than before, and soon returned to his life in the street. The Cardinal, angry at this, called him an ungrateful little Spaniard and invited him to return to his house. When Ribera declared that he needed the spur of poverty to make him a good artist, the Cardinal admired his resolution, and the story being repeated attracted the attention of other artists to him, and he was called Il Spagnoletto. Though this may be only legend, his work certainly was imbued with violence and dramatic intensity, reflecting a hectic and unconventional lifestyle. He studied the works of Caravaggio, Raphael and the Carracci. He likewise visited Parma and Modena, and some of his works show the effect of the study of Correggio. After 1635, however, his tenebrist style changed considerably, showing a lighter palette and more freedom without sacrificing the monumentality and sometimes harsh realism of his earlier work. He achieved a more spiritual vision. Among his works are the "Martyrdom of St. Andrew" (Budapest), "Diogenese" (Dresden), the "Triumph of the Magdalene" (Madrid), and the "Adoration of the Shepherds" (Paris, Louvre). One of the greatest figures in Baroque art, Ribera had a considerable influence on artists both in Italy and in Spain.
$#ROBBIA, LUCA DI MARCO DELLA
##Luca di Simone di Marco Della Robbia 1400-1482
Luca Della Robbia was born in Florence in 1400. He entered the sculptor's guild in 1432, and founded a family workshop which would last into the sixteenth century. He was influenced by the work of Lorenzo Ghiberti and Donatello, though Luca would later specialize in glazed terra cotta rather than marble and bronze, giving his name to the famed "Robbia ware." The only memorials of that time are the bas-reliefs in the side of the Campanile towards the Duomo, and two unfinished reliefs in the Uffizi. The first represent "Music, Philosophy, Geometry, Grammar, and Astronomy"; "Plato and Aristotle"; "Ptolemy and Euclid"; and a "Man Playing the Lute". The unfinished ones are the "Imprisonment" and "Crucifixion of Saint Peter". There are also the reliefs made for the balustrade of an organ in the Duomo. These were undertaken in 1445 and established him a with a high rank among Italian sculptors. They represented youths dancing, singing, and playing on musical instruments. He executed one of the finest of the many cinque-cento tombs for the Bishop Benozzo Federighi of Fiesole. A portion of the decorations of this tomb were enamelled tiles painted with fruits and flowers in their natural colors. In this enamel painting Luca excelled, and he made it so prominent that it has been known as Robbia ware. Luca made some changes by coloring his enamel for certain portions of the backgrounds, such as the plants, draperies, etc. Andrea, the nephew of Luca, worked with him and shared his property with another nephew, Simone, who was a shoemaker. After his death his secret of enamelling was carefully guarded by his family and created a fortune for them. They made a system of polychromatic architecture. Andrea and his son, Luca II, were employed eleven years in decorating the Ceppo Hospital, at Pistoia, with a frieze which represents the "Seven Acts of Mercy". The effect of this enamel painting is brilliant. Pope Leo X employed Luca II to pave the Loggie of the Vatican with colored tiles. Giovanni and Girolamo, brothers of Luca II, also worked in Robbia ware, and the latter went to France and was employed by Francis I in decorating his Chateau de Madrid, in the Bois de Boulogne.
$#ROMANINO, GIROLAMO
##Girolamo Romanino 1484-1566 ca.
Girolamo Romanino was born in Rumano on the Serio. It is said that he first studied under Stefano Rizzi. Before 1510 he had begun to be an important painter. His style, essentially Giogionesque, developed marked individual modifications and characteristics. His imagination was fertile and fantastic, filling his work with the colorful and bizarre. Works include the Altarpiece (Padua Museum) and paintings in S. Giovanni Evangelista in Brescia.
$#ROMANO, GIULIO PIPPI
##Giulio Romano 1499-1546
Giulio Romano, (Giulio Pippi) was born in Rome. He became one of Raphael's assistants. While Raphael lived Romano did few original works. He was co-heir to Raphael's estate with Giovanni Francesco Penni. He was also an architect, and was invited to Mantua, where he erected many palaces and churches. In that city he attracted much attention and was surrounded with pupils who executed many rich decorations under his direction. After the death of Sangallo he was appointed architect of Saint Peter's, but died at Mantua while preparing to go to Rome to assume his office. Painted works include the frescoes at the Palazzo del Te.
$#RUBENS, SIR PETER PAUL
##Sir Peter Paul Rubens 1577-1640
Sir Peter Paul Rubens was born at Siegen in the county of Nassau. This remarkable man, scholar, painter and diplomatist, was descended from two prominent families. His father, John Rubens, was one of two principal magistrates of Antwerp. His mother, Mary Pypeling, belonged to a distinguished family of the same city. About 1570 John Rubens was forced to leave Antwerp by the civil war then raging, so that the birth of Peter Paul occurred when his family were in a sort of exile. He made rapid advancement in scholarship; his talent for drawing soon led him to decide upon painting as a profession. He entered the school of Adam van Noort. He remained four years with his master, and laid the foundation of his success in gaining a thorough knowledge of the technical part of his art. Another four years was passed in the studio of Otto Vaenius, whose influence in philosophy and taste were of more advantage to Rubens than his instructions in painting. In 1598 he was admitted to the guild of painters in Antwerp; his father had died and his mother had returned to that city. In 1600 he went to Venice and studied the works of Titian and Paolo Veronese. The Archduke Albert, governor of the Netherlands, had given him letters of recommendation to Vincenzio Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, and when he proceeded to that city he was received honorably and appointed a gentleman of the bedchamber. He remained two years and studied the works of Giulio Romano at the Palazzo del Te, as well as other works within his reach. He then asked permission to go again to Venice, which was granted; when he returned to Mantua, he executed three large pictures for the Jesuits, which proved how much he had gained from his opportunities. The Duke soon sent him to Rome to copy some of the most celebrated pictures there; he executed this commission, and painted by command of the Archduke Albert three pictures for the Church of Santa Croce in Gersusalemme. In 1605 the Duke of Mantua wished to dispatch an envoy to Spain, and recalled Rubens from Rome that he might undertake the mission. In this embassy he proved that he had uncommon political abilities. When in Rome he had been commissioned to paint the tribute of Saint Maria in Vallicella, and after his return from Spain he proceeded to do so. He then went to Genoa, where his fame had preceded him and was immediately employed. He had now been seven years absent from his home, when he was recalled on account of the illness of his mother, who did not live until he reached her. He then settled in Antwerp, built himself a house with a studio and in 1609 married his first wife, Isabella Brant, who died in 1626, leaving two sons, to whom Gevartius was tutor. He had many students and did an immense amount of work. It was then that he executed a large portion of the works which have immortalized his name and enriched the world. He has been accused of allowing his pupils to paint pictures during these years which he claimed, but he refuted these accusations and proved how universal his genius was by completing with his own hands pictures of almost every kind. In 1620 he was invited to France by Marie de' Medici, for whom he executed many great works. In 1628 he was sent again to Spain by the Infanta Isabella. His mission was a delicate one, but he fulfilled it to the satisfaction of Philip IV and the Duke of Olivares. While in Spain he painted many grand and important pictures, some of which are splendid examples of his gorgeous coloring. Upon his return to Flanders he was sent to England to try to effect a peace with that country. He was successful and was knighted by King Charles in 1630. He also received this honor from the King of Spain. It was in 1630 that he married the young Helen Fourment, a niece of his first wife. She was sixteen years old., and they had five children. Both his wives so often served him for models that their forms and faces are familiar to the world. After his return from England he was treated with much consideration in Flanders. He lived luxuriously, and was a collector of beautiful things of various kinds. He died in 1640 and was buried in his private chapel in the Church of Saint James, which is decorated with a magnificent work of his own. His family erected a monument to him upon which is inscribed an epitaph written by Gevartius. His works embrace historical, scriptural, and mythological subjects, portraits, animals and landscapes. His style was a strange and delightful combination of Southern and Northern art; his technicalities and arrangements were Italian. He often mingled in his works earthly princes, antique, mythical personages, ancient gods, and the members of the family of Marie de' Medici, and dressed them all in the late fashion of his time. But in order to enjoy a large portion of his works it is best to forget his subjects, forget the names by which they are called, and observe each figure as a separate portrait.
$#RUISDAEL, JACOB ISAACKSZ. VAN
##Jacob Isaacksz. van Ruisdael 1605-1682 ca.
Jacob Isaacksz. van Ruisdael was one of the most celebrated Dutch landscape painters. His works depict both land and water beneath a heavily clouded sky. They were full of strong, dark shadows and are mournfully poetic in feeling. He sometimes represented a wild, mountainous country with waterfalls and desolate ruins. He also painted purely coast and sea pieces, where the water was always agitated by storm. His chiaroscuro reminds us of Rembrandt. His coloring was cool; his early pictures showed a very careful rendering of detail; his later were more broadly treated. His best known landscape, "The Jewish Cemetery" is a poetic and symbolic view of life's transience. Other works include "The Cottage" (Hamburg) and the "View of Haarlem" (Rijksmuseum)
$#SAVOLDO, GIOVANNI GIROLAMO
##Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo 1485-1548 ca.
Savoldo Giovanni Girolamo was born in Brescia. A Venetian painter, Savoldo was probably influenced most by Leonardo and Cima, his work reflecting the shapes and patterns of life characterized by the term "Lombard". His works include "Hermits" (Venice Academy), "The Shepherd" (Cotini, Florence), and "St. Jerome " (London N.G.).
$#SCHEDONI, BARTOLOMEO
##Bartolomeo Schedoni 1580-1615 ca.
Bartolomeo Schedoni was born in Modea. Duke Ranuccio was his friend and patron, and he formed himself by study of Correggio and Caravaggio. Typical works show realistic, brilliantly colored figures, as in "The Entombment " (Parma, N.G.).
$#SCHIAVONE, ANDREA MEDOLLA
##Andrea Schiavone 1527-1582 ca.
Andrea Schiavone (called Medolla) was born in Dalmatia. He settled in Venice, became a follower of Titian, and a fine colorist. He helped bring the mannerist style to Venice. Among his works are the roundels on the San Marco Library ceiling, the adjacent "Philosophers," and the important "Adoration of the Magi". His pictures can be seen in good collections, and prized for their extraordinary power of color. He left several etchings, some from his own designs, and others after Parmigiano and other artists.
$#SIGNORELLI, LUCA
##Luca Signorelli 1441-1523 ca.
Luca Signorelli was born in Cortona in 1441. This painter was very remarkable for his time. He was a pupil and collaborator of Piero della Francesca. He possessed a wonderful knowledge of anatomy and was a precursor of the manner of Michelangelo, who admired his works, and in a certain sense imitated him. His greatest work was in the Cathedral of Orvieto, where he represented the "End of the World", and the "History of Antichrist." The architectural parts were in the best classic style, the angels beautiful and graceful, the imps and the lost ones struggle with indescribable energy. Signorelli also painted in the Sistine Chapel a large fresco of the "History of Moses", and even there he holds an honorable place among the great painters whose works surround his. He had more influence on the painting of the High Renaissance than any of his Florentine contemporaries with the exception of Leonardo.
$#SOLARI, ANDREA DI MILANO
##Andrea Solari di Milano 1495-1522 ca.
Andrea Solari was born in Milan and belonged to a family of architects and sculptors. He was influenced by the manner and spirit of Leonardo in many of his pictures, though he lived at one time in Venice and came under the influence of that school. The modeling of his figures, especially his hands, was remarkably fine. He excelled also in beauty of tone and power of expression. Some of his later works show such a decided Flemish character that it is thought he must have visited Flanders. His works include "The Virgin with the Green Cushion" (Louvre) and "Chancellor Morona" (Milan).
$#STEEN, JAN HAVICKSZ.
##Jan Havicksz. Steen 1625-1679 ca.
A Dutch painter of genre, Jan Steen was a pupil of van Goyen at The Hague. His work represented homely family scenes, parents with their children, etc. He possessed the rare talent of painting faces overflowing with expression. His quaint sense of humor distinguished his work easily from the mass of genre painting. His coloring and technique rank him with Hals and Van Ostade. He is best known for his rendering of popular Dutch proverbs such as "So Pipe the Young" (The Hague), and "As the Old Sing".
$#TINTORETTO, JACOPO ROBUSTI
##Jacopo Robusti Tintoretto 1518-1594
Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti), was born in Venice and called Tintoretto (little dyer) from the trade of his father. According to perhaps a legendary story, he is said to have been at one time a pupil in the studio of Titian, who sent him home at the end of three days, saying that he "never would be anything but a dauber." Some writers have attributed this action to Titian's jealousy, but it is difficult to believe this to have been the case. It is likely, however, that it was due to a clash between a great master, and an independent, strong willed student. There, however, could have been few pupils in the studio who would have shown greater ability, judging from after results. Tintoretto is one of the boldest and most assured painters in the history of art. He was so rapid with his brush that he was called "Il Furioso" by his contemporaries. He painted in Venice through his long life. No such diversity of opinion has ever existed regarding the merit of any other painter. His work varied widely in quality. His ability, however, must be judged by his best, and this puts him unmistakably among the greatest, and most original of Venetian masters.
Characteristics.-- His subjects were mostly religious, mythological, and portrait. His inventive and dramatic power or representation was wonderful. He was a story-teller and loved to combine many incidents within one picture. His swift linear brush strokes and use of color reveal his inventive style, and he had an original mastery of large compositions. Among his many works (about 300 paintings), are "The Assumption" (Venice Church of the Jesuits), "The Last Supper" (Venice, S. Marcuola), "St. Mark Freeing a Slave" (Venice Academy), and scenes from the "Life of Christ" (S. Pocco). Some of his figures are the most headlong, the most impetuous in the world of art. This action is one of his most marked characteristics. He even makes his lights and shade a power in the movement of his pictures. His color is very variable; sometimes rivalling the richest productions of his school.
$#TITIAN
##Titian 1488-1575
Titian (Tiziano Vecelli) was born in Cadore, among the Italian Alps, and would become the greatest painter of his time. He came to Venice as a boy, where he entered the studio of the Bellini brothers and became a pupil of Giovanni Bellini and a fellow-pupil of Giorgione, by whom he was more strongly influenced than by the master himself. Titian was a great colorist; he was great also in every technical quality necessary to the thorough furnishing of the artist. His art life was one of long triumph. Here fame, riches, friends, and honors crowded upon him. Kings and princes would have their portraits painted by no other hand. In his later work we find many classic or mythological themes, much portrait painting, and that style of fancy female figures that had its origin with him. He also painted some purely landscape pictures, a new art feature of this time.
Characteristics.-- Some critics find little of the spiritual ideal in Titian's work; he was, emphatically, the painter of humanity. In his religious pictures we find less of the effort to portray spiritual feeling; the picture seems to have been conceived more to represent a group of noble, tranquil, magnificently painted people. His church pictures were some of the most gorgeous in art. There were superb priestly robes, and princely costumes, and glowed with richest harmonies of color. His composition at its best is unsurpassed, for he composed everything in his picture, -- line, mass, color, light and shade, all in perfect balance. His handling was bold, free, and rapid; detail was wholly subordinated to general effect. His brilliant portraits were always courtly, dignified, high-bred men and women, and were rendered particularly attractive by the wonderful quality of breadth of color and light that fills the canvas. Among his many great works, may be included the frescoes of "The Miracles of St. Anthony" (Padua, Scuola del Santo), "Sacred and Profane Love" (Rome, Borghese), the Huge "Assumption Altarpiece (Venice, Frari), the famous "Venus of Urbino" (Venice, Academy), and the great "Ecce Homo" (Vienna, Museum of Art History). His landscapes were marked by the grand Alpine scenery amidst which he was born, and are often rendered impressive by clouds and storms.
$#TURA, COSIMO
##Cosimo Tura 1430-1495
Court painter to the Duke of Ferrara, Tura founded the Renaissance School of Ferrara. Though little is known about his development, his style is unmistakable, with intricate, twisted lines and brilliant color. Major works include "Allegorical Figure" (London, N.G.), "Madonna in a Garden" (Washington, D.C., N.G.), "Pieta" (Venice, Correr Museum), and the "Poverella Altarpiece" (London, N.G.).
$#TURNER, JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM
##Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851
Joseph Mallord William Turner is one of the best-known names in landscape painting. He was one of the most hard-working, as well as original of painters. For more than sixty years, with scarcely an intermission, his pictures were hung on the walls of the Royal Academy.
Characteristics.-- His taste was classic, and Claude Lorrain was his first model. He always idealized his subject, not painting the place itself, but, after having grasped all the principal features of a region, gathered them into one impression which he placed on paper or canvas. He loved to paint wide distances, river, seas, mountains, anything that would give a sweep of horizon lines. He delighted in effects of aerial perspective, and studied the problem of painting sunlight. The luminosity of his paintings was unique and his work spans a wide range. As his works grew more abstract, luminous and visionary, criticism increased and his popularity waned. After his death, 282 oil paintings and 19,751 watercolors and drawings were left to the British nation, now housed in the Tate Gallery, London. He painted in both oil and water colors.
$#UCCELLO, PAOLO DI DONO
##Paolo di Dono Uccello 1397-1475
Paolo was called Uccello on account of his love for birds and was at one time chiefly famous for his mastery of the science of linear perspective. His devotion to this study was so great that Vasari says he would often neither eat nor sleep, and when remonstrated with by his wife would only reply, "Oh! this delightful perspective!" The knowledge gained and put into practice by him was a great help to contemporary artists. Modern criticism however, emphasizes his gift for fresco, mosaic and other decorative work, and it is believed today that his preoccupation with perspective is apocryphal. Major works include the series of frescoes of the "Creation" in Florence S. Maria Novella, the "Flood" and the "Battle of San Romano", (Louvre, Uffizi and London, N.G.), His works were marked by such stiffness and exact drawing of detail, and by figures so designed that they exhibited to the fullest extent his knowledge of mathematical foreshortening.
$#DYCK, SIR ANTHONY VAN
##Sir Anthony van Dyck 1599-1641
Sir Anthony van Dyck, born in Antwerp, stands first among the actual pupils of Rubens, and is especially famous for his portrait painting, though in his early years he produced many religious pictures of high rank. His great ambition was to be a historical painter and to receive great commissions as Rubens did, and the failure of this was a bitter disappointment. His later life was spent in England, where he became court painter to Charles I, where he painted a great number of portraits of the royalty and the nobility.
Characteristics.-- His feeling for nature was much more refined than that of Rubens, but he falls far below that master in scope of invention and force of representation. His religious pictures were marked by intensity of expression and much elevation of sentiment. Into these he was fond of introducing child-angels. His earliest pictures showed a certain dependence on Rubens. The forms are strongly pronounced while the faces are somewhat realistic, and the flesh tints are very warm. His later works were marked by cooler color and a greater refinement of face and figure. To his portraits he imparted a peculiar air of distinction: his men, women, and children were aristocratic. The costumes of his time were favorable to the beauty of his art: the broad, rich, falling collar with deep scallops of point lace, which received the name of van Dyck; the rich stuffs of garments, the broad hats with ostrich feathers, etc.; also the short face curls of his women and the pointed ("van Dyck") beards of men. The same type of long, slender hand appears always; it is said to be a portrait of his own. Major works include the "Virgin of the Rosary" (Palermo), "Anna Wake" (Hague), and "Charles I on Horseback" (Paris, Louvre).
$#WEYDEN, ROGIER VAN DER
##Rogier van der Weyden 1399-1464
Rogier (de la Pasture) van der Weyden was born in Tournai , and is believed to have been either an apprentice or assistant to the Master of Flemalle (Robert Campin).. By 1435 Rogier had achieved wealth and prestige in Brussels. Opinion differs as to Rogier's stylistic development, though most agree his early works strongly reflect the influences of van Eyck and Flemalle, some even asserting that the Master of Flemalle did not exist, and ascribing his works to Rogier. Rogier's mature works reflect greater spirituality and austerity than the softer, coloristically rich works of his youth. Following a trip to Italy and exposure to the Renaissance, he returned to a richer, softer style. Rogier developed a style using emotional symbols and spiritual depth which demonstrate his inventive genius and made him the most influential northern painter in the fifteenth century.
Characteristics.--His subjects were religious, and were usually those that expressed deep sorrow and suffering. Many of his subjects are shown with faces that are furrowed by grief and stained by tears. Many of his compositions were enclosed by richly carved portals, every detail of which was carefully finished. Major works include "Decent from the Cross" (Madrid, Prado), one of his greatest and most influential works, the "Crucifixion Triptych" (Vienna, Museum of Art History), the magnificent "Braque Triptych" (Louvre), and "Portrait of a Young Woman" (two versions, Washington, D.C., N.G. and London, N.G.).
$#VELASQUEZ, DIEGO RODRIGUEZ DE SILVA Y
##Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velasquez 1599-1660
Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velasquez, the greatest name in the school of Madrid, was also, beyond question, the greatest in Spanish art and one of the foremost painters of all time. His masters were Herrera and Pacheco, both of the Andalusian School (he was born in Seville); he also studied in Italy, but the best of his knowledge was gained directly from nature. He painted religious pictures, portraits, and landscapes. He was court painter to Philip IV, and painted many royal portraits. It is in the area of portraiture that he is unsurpassed, though he excelled in so many areas he can be truly called universal.
Characteristics.-- As a realist Velasquez is unsurpassed. His portraits live, breathe, and seem ready for action. This effect was increased by his power of representing atmosphere. His backgrounds have the appearance of concavity, and so his figures seem to be surrounded by space. In composition everything keeps its place singularly well. His technique was very broad, yet no detail is lost that is essential to the portrayal of character. Velasquez expressed his spirituality in his immense respect and sympathy for the individual, from king and pope to pathetically deformed dwarfs. As his style reached maturity, his brushwork became freer and more tactile, so that he can be called the first modern painter. Of his many masterpieces, a few include "The Adoration of the Magi", "Triumph of Bacchius", "Don Sebastian de Morra", Tapestry Weavers" (all in the Prado), the "Rokeby Venus", the only nude we have by him (London, N.G.), and the famous "Las Meninas".
$#VERONESE, PAOLO CALIARI
##Paolo Caliari Veronese 1528-1588
Paolo Veronese was born in Verona, the son of a sculptor, and pupil of Antonio Badile. He lived mostly in Venice, and is perhaps the most pure exponent of the Venetian school of painting, the middle member of the triade which included Titian and Tintoretto. What particularly distinguished him was the vitality and poetic feeling which he infused into his works. His gorgeous draperies, grand architecture, splendid vases and ornaments, varied costumes, and the representation of imposing scenes rendered his works most effective and masterly, and also earned for him the label "decorative". Even his religious pictures had all these features, and are admirable scenes of earthly pageantry. Some of his more serious subjects, however, are thrilling in their deep feeling and expression. Magnificent effect and the development of color and the figure seem to have been his chief aims. Major works include "Marriage at Cana" (Louvre), "Adoration of the Magi" (Dresden), "Christ Carrying the Cross" (N.Y., Frick), and the famous "Feast in the House of Levi" (Venice, Academy), which led to his appearance before the inquisition
$#VERROCCHIO, ANDREA DEL
##Andrea Del Verrocchio 1432-1488
Verrocchio, was first a goldsmith, then a painter, but sculpture was his first loved art and he was the outstanding sculptor in Florence during the second half of the fifteenth century. He was also one of the most influential artists and teachers of that period. His pupils included such masters as Perugino, Botticelli and Leonardo. Among the sculptured masterpieces by Verrocchio are "Christ and St. Thomas" (Or San Michele), "David," the "Madonna and Child," and the "Woman with the Lovely Hands" (Florence National Museum). As a painter he has been overshadowed by the greatness of his pupils, especially Leonardo, but his work is distinguished by a keen insight into the psychological and intellectual motivation of his subjects, his knowledge of anatomy, and the magisterial command of space. Three paintings are assigned to him with varying degrees of certainty: the "Baptism of Christ" (Uffizi), which was completed by Leonardo, the "Altarpiece of the Madonna di Piazza" (Cathedral of Pistoia), and "Tobias and the Archangel," (two versions, Uffizi and London N.G.). The "Madonna Enthroned with Angels and Saints" (Budapest) is generally credited to him, but some critics believe it to be questionable.
$#WATTEAU, JEAN ANTOINE
##Jean Antoine Watteau 1684-1721
Jean Antoine Watteau was the most influential painter in that change of both spirit and method which entered into French art of the eighteenth century. He may be called the first distinctively French painter. His pictures recorded the manners of society of his time, and thus were simply works of the higher genre. Their subjects were mostly fetes or frolics, peopled with beautiful women and their lovers, all dressed in bewitching costumes fashioned after the styles of the times. He studied color from Rubens' brilliant series of scenes in the life of Marie de Medici, then in the Luxembourg, and these gay rosy hues are admirable in his holiday scenes. His elegant genre paintings are the essence of French poetic feeling. Works include "Harlequin and Columbine" (Wallace Collection), "Gilles" (Louvre), and "Les Comedians Italiens" (Washington D.C., N.G.).
$#BECKMANN, MAX
## Max Beckmann 1884-1950
Max Beckmann was a German painter and graphic artist and one of the leading Expressionists. He was born in Leipzig, studied at the Weimar Academy (1900-1903), and traveled through France and Italy (where he was influenced by Pierodell Francesca) before settling in Berlin in 1904. There he became a member of the Sezession movement and painted several large-scale dramatic works, expressing literary and Biblical themes. His experiences as a medical corpsman in World War I led him to a more personal, distorted style, influenced by German Gothic art and filled with images of pain and torture (e.g. "The Night", 1918-19). His use of space became more cramped and vertical and his forms more angular, while the intensity of his figures, together with their deliberate distortion and close-up views, lent his work a new power. He sought to reveal symbolically the ideas underlying reality as he saw it and the ambiguity and uncertainty of existence. His explorations of cynicism and despair, blended with the monumentality of his early work,became statements against aggression during the rise to power of the Nazis ("Departure", 1935, MOMA). In 1937 he emigrated to Holland, and in 1947 he came to the U.S.A. He died three years later in New York.
$#BELLOWS, GEORGE WESLEY
##George Wesley Bellows 1882-1925
American artist George Bellows was an academic painter (elected Academician in 1913) and an outgoing, athletic man. He was taught by Robert Henri and was affiliated with his Ashcan school; Bellows's "City Dwellers" (1913, Los Angeles County Museum of Art) reflects their concern with the underside of American society. Like them, however, he turned his skill as a realist to evoking the beauty of his subjects, avoiding serious subjects. His personal style was also affected by Manet's techniques, using a subdued palette and broad, rapid brushstrokes. Famed for his paintings of boxers, he always retained his youthful identification with athletes and their spectacles. He was also active in progressive artistic programs, organizing the Armory Show.
$#BENTON, THOMAS HART
## Thomas Hart Benton 1889-1975
An American painter and teacher, Benton was born in Neosho, MO. As the son of a U.S. Congressman and grandson of a famous Senator, he was raised in a conservative Midwest tradition which was to later color his work. He studied art at the Chicago Art Institute and at the Academie Julien in Paris, where he was affected by the nascent Cubist style as well as by El Greco and the Italian Renaissance masters. In seeking to create a popular, distinctively American art, he experimented with the abstraction of Synchronism but soon turned to the Regionalist style of scene painting. His early work continued to express itself, however, in the rhythmic lines which pervade his later paintings and imbue them with an uneasy energy. This element reached the peak of its development in the work of his most famous pupil, Jackson Pollock. Benton's own work uses Modernist principles to provide simplicity and clarity, and is chiefly representational. He was a popular and influential Regionalist in the 1930's. Critical of modernism, he tried to paint non-politically, but is today best remembered for his often-satirical murals such as "American Life" (1931, New York New School for Social Research). Other works include "Susanna and the Elders" (San Francisco, DeYoung), and "Arts of the West" (New Britain, Conn., Museum of American Art).
$#BIROLLI, RENATO
## Renato Birolli 1906-1959
An Italian painter, Birolli was interested in the artist's role in society. He co-founded the anti-fascist group Corrente and the Fronte Nuovo delle Arti, and his views had a profound effect on other modern Italian artists. His style evolved from a School of Paris-influenced Post-Impressionism in the late 1930's to an Abstract Expressionist one applied to figurative elements.
$#BLAKELOCK, RALPH ALBERT
##Ralph Albert Blakelock 1847-1919
An American painter of poetic and visionary landscapes, Blakelock was a self-taught romantic. Born in New York City, he studied briefly at the City College (then the Free Academy) and later at Cooper Union. Many of his paintings are damaged due to his use of unstable pigment layers and bitumen and varnish--possibly a result of his lack of technical knowledge. Blakelock travelled the Pacific Coast and the far West between 1869 and 1872, an experience which provided much of his later material. Ironically, his lyrical moonlit landscapes, such as "Moonlight Sonata" (1892, Boston MFA), and his imaginative visions of natives (e.g. "The Chase", 1879, Worcester) became popular immediately after his traumatic breakdown in 1899. Toward the end of his life, funds were raised to place him in a private sanitarium in the Adirondacks.
$#BOTERO, FERNANDO
## Fernando Botero 1932-
A Columbian painter and graphic artist, Botero currently has studios in both Paris and New York. The ironic juxtaposition of local subjects with a European manner characterizes his work. His use of detail and his figures, distorted in a Mannerist style to emphasize their expressiveness and sensuality, reflect his studies at the Prado and elsewhere in Spain in 1952.
$#BRAQUE, GEORGES
##Georges Braque 1882-1963
A French painter, Braque is one of the founders of Cubism and, as such, one of the dominant artists of the twentieth century. Born at Argenteuil and raised at Le Havre, he was trained as a youth in the family decorating and painting business. In 1902 he left to study painting in Paris, where he experimented with Fauvism. Guillaume Apollinaire introduced him to Picasso in 1907. Adapting the latter's ideas from "Demoiselles d'Avignon" (then in progress) he produced "Grand nu" in 1908--arguably the true beginning of Cubism. Sharing ideas with Picasso and under the influence of Cezanne, he explored this anti-naturalistic style, particularly such themes as interpenetrating objects and techniques including papier-colle, or collage, until he was mobilized in 1914. Following a severe head wound, he was discharged in 1916, thereafter pursuing a more subdued, personal, but nonetheless highly evocative, form of Cubism. He added sand to some paints to create texture, and worked more in grays, browns and black, attempting always "de peindre l'espace"--"to paint space." His expression of an object's tactile presence on a flat canvas, and his full realization of enclosed space, perhaps reach their zenith in the challenging and brilliant "Atelier" series (1948 onwards).
$#BUFFET, BERNARD
##Bernard Buffet 1928-
A well-known contemporary French artist, Buffet developed his distinctive style and built a considerable reputation by the age of twenty. His varied subjects--portraits, townscapes, still lifes--are done with black outlines and spiky forms, in contrast to the popular Abstract style; the pessimism of his work has been moderated somewhat of late by his use of brighter colors. Works include "La Passion," "The Circus," and "Pieta," (Modern Art Gallery, Milan).
$#BURCHFIELD, CHARLES
##Charles Burchfield 1893-1967
An American landscape painter, Burchfield created a varied body of work dominated by Mid-Western and disturbing visionary scenes. Born in Ashtabula, OH and raised in Salem in the same state, he studied at the Cleveland Museum of Art (under Henry G. Keller) and, briefly, at the National Academy of Design in New York. His early work consists mainly of brooding, macabre nature scenes and small-town visions, such as "Church Bells Ringing, Rainy Winter Night" (1917, Cleveland Museum of Art). In 1921 he moved to Buffalo, NY, where he would remain until his death. There he painted largely in watercolor, depicting industrial or residential scenes of the city ("Black Iron", 1935, Whitney; "Rainy Night", 1930, Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego). Toward the end of his life Burchfield returned to the nature scenes of his youth, often in fact re-working and expanding earlier paintings such as "Sun and Rocks" (1918/1950, Buffalo, Albright)--but with more lyrical and less macabre tones.
$#BURRI, ALBERTO
##Alberto Burri 1915-
An Italian painter and collage artist, Burri was a medical officer in North Africa with the Italian Army in World War II. He began painting in 1945 at an American prisoner-of-war camp using available materials, such as bandages and medical supplies. Following that time, he devoted himself to painting and creating collages with such items as bloody bandages, rusty metal and burnt wood--evoking the horrific images of war.
$#CAMOIN, CHARLES
##Charles Camoin 1879-1965
A French painter and contemporary of Matisse, Rouault and Marquet, Camoin became a leading figure in Fauvism. His later paintings show the influence that Renoir and Bonnard exerted with their brilliant coloration.
$#CAMPIGLI, MASSIMO
##Massimo Campigli 1895-1971
Although Campigli was Italian, he began painting in Paris in 1919. He was fascinated by ancient Greek and Etruscan art, and his work from the late 1920's on consists of figures conceived in relationship not to perspective, but to gesture.
$#CEZANNE, PAUL
##Paul Cezanne 1839-1906
One of the founders of twentieth century art, this French painter was independently wealthy, and so could afford to ignore the indifference which his work received from the public. In trying to give greater substance to Impressionism he evolved his own style, using color rather than light and shadow to create structure and to analyze and recreate the feelings which nature evoked in him. He contributed to modern art a new concept of form and realism, in which painting reconstructed rather than recreated or imitated reality. His favorite subjects were portraits of Hortense Fiquet (his mistress, and later wife), still lifes and landscapes--notably his prolonged studies of the view at Mont Ste-Victoire and L'Estaque.
$#CHAGALL, MARC
##Marc Chagall, 1887-1985
A popular and prolific painter, book illustrator, stage set designer and stained-glass artist, Chagall was born in Vitwlosk, Russia. After studying in St. Petersburg he lived in Paris from 1910 to 1914. During that time he was befriended by the poet Apollinaire and strongly influenced by the evolving Cubist style. Drawing on childhood memories for inspiration and imagery he developed his own poetic, highly individual style, noted for its colorful exuberance. After returning to Russia, where he taught until 1923, he divided his time between France and the U.S.
$#CHASE, WILLIAM MERRIT
##William Merrit Chase 1849-1916
An American painter and teacher, Chase was born in Indiana and studied in New York and Munich. He founded his eponymous School in New York in 1896; among his students there were Sheeler, O'Keeffe, and Hartley. Chase himself worked in a variety of styles, showing the influence of, variously, the Impressionists, Velazquez, and Japanese prints.
$#CHURCH, FREDERICK EDWIN
##Frederick Edwin Church 1826-1900
An American painter famed for his epic landscapes, Church was Thomas Cole's sole student. He retained his teacher's mystical approach to nature, but expanded his own horizons beyond the Catskill mountains. An 1853 expedition to South America provided him with rich sources of scenic grandeur, as typified in "The Heart of the Andes", (1859, New York, Metropolitan). His popular reputation, however, was based on "Falls of Niagara" (1857, Washington, Corcoran), whose success in the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1867 enabled him to travel throughout Europe and the Near East.
$#DEGAS, EDGAR HILAIRE GERMAIN
##Edgar Hilaire Germain Degas 1834-1917
A French painter and sculptor, Degas was associated with but (was not actually one of) the Impressionists. He studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and absorbed many of the principles of the Old Masters and of Renaissance Italian painting. In his youth he concentrated on portraits and themes from ancient history, but later focused on contemporary subjects. Degas' chief continuing concern was depicting movement--capturing a pose which expressed a range of motion. His ballet-dancer paintings are perhaps his best-known, although he had a number of continuing themes--women in their daily tasks and race courses chief among them.
$#DE KOONING, WILLEM
##Willem De Kooning 1904-1990
A painter and occasional sculptor, De Kooning was born in Rotterdam bur emigrated to the U.S. in 1926. In the 1930's he established himself as an Abstract Expressionist in New York City. By the mid-1940's he had become a leading figure in that movement, and began producing his trademark semi-abstract female figure paintings--done in black and lurid color, with broad, free strokes. The parallels to the CoBrA group's work in Europe are evident, but De Kooning's style became more austere and abstract. His energetic manner of work strongly influenced American artists in the 1950's.
$#DENIS, MAURICE
##Maurice Denis 1870-1943
A key figure in the Symbolist movement, this French painter was one of the creators of Nabis in 1888. He was well-known in areas of design other than painting, working in stained glass, book illustrations, and decorative panels. His 1890 article "Definition of Neo-Traditionalism" says 'a picture--before being a war-horse, a nude woman, or some other genre--is essentially a flat surface covered with colors assembled in a certain order.' His rejection of realism led him to embrace the purity of line and color. However, he gradually returned to realism, partly due to the influence of Cezanne.
$#DERAIN, ANDRE
##Andre Derain 1880-1954
This French painter and sculptor, together with Matisse, founded Fauvism. He greatly admired Van Gogh, and imitated his use of intense colors and broad brush-strokes. Around 1906, he introduced Picasso and other avant-garde artists to the stylistic mode of primitive art. Like several other artists, he moved toward realism under the influence of Cezanne, and his work gradually took on the monumentality of Renaissance art. His famous granite masks were sculpted during 1914-1918, and he resumed sculpting again in 1939.
$#DONGEN, CORNELIS THEODORUS (KEES) VAN
##Kees van Dongen 1877-1968
This Dutch painter relocated to the heart of the artistic movement, Paris, in 1897. He was greatly affected by Monet and other Impressionists in his early works. Between 1900 and 1907 he returned several times to his native Holland where the bulk of his paintings were landscapes. In 1906 he gradually drifted into the Fauvism style, introducing brighter colors and bolder strokes.
$#DUCHAMP, MARCEL
##Marcel Duchamp 1887-1968
A French artist and chess-player, Duchamp is famous chiefly for his "Nude Descending a Staircase", (1911-12) and for "The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even" (1915-23), also known as "The Large Glass". Like most of his work, these are both in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Duchamp began as a Cubist stylist, but his involvement with the Section d'Or led him to a more independent style which strongly influenced Dadaism and Surrealism. For the last three decades of his life he abandoned publicly-displayed art for the intellectual rigors of chess, but upon his death a number of new works came to light.
$#DUFY, RAOUL
##Raoul Dufy 1877-1953
A French painter and designer, Dufy worked in a distinctive style, painting flowers, landscapes, and popular scenes in brilliant color defined by careful lines. Before arriving at this format he studied in Le Havre and worked in Paris, where he was influenced by Cezanne and Fauvism, and befriended Braque.
$#EAKINS, THOMAS
##Thomas Eakins 1844-1916
A realist painter, Eakins has been called the greatest American artist of his century. Born in Philadelphia, he studied in Europe from 1866 to 1870, where he was profoundly affected by the work of Velazquez and Ribera in the Prado. His own paintings strove for fidelity to the subject, leading to his interest in anatomy and the human figure. He lost his teaching position at the Pennsylvania Academy for allowing a class of mixed sexes to paint a nude, and his most famous work is "The Gross Clinic" (1875, Philadelphia, Jefferson Medical College), depicting a dissection. His private income enabled him to weather, and indeed to scorn, the public disapproval which such works occasionally drew.
$#ERNST, MAX
##Max Ernst 1891-1976
A German painter and collage artist, Ernst was a co-founder of both the Dadaist and the Surrealist movements. He was a self-taught painter, trained at Bonn in philosophy and psychiatry. He lived for the last thirty-five years of his life in the U.S.A., where his work became dominated by elements of the grotesque.
$#FATTORI, GIOVANNI
##Giovanni Fattori 1825-1908
This Italian painter was the primary artist in the Machiaoli style. In 1859 he first started the machia technique in his pictures of French soldiers. Later, from 1867 to 1875, he took a completely different tangent in his work, using tonal contrasts and intense light. This new style was developed in landscapes, although he worked in portraits throughout his career. Sadly enough, monetary recognition came late for Fattori, and in the late 1880's, he had to rely on his income from teaching in Florence.
$#FRANKENTHALER, HELEN
##Helen Frankenthaler 1928-
An American painter, Frankenthaler's work spans the change from Abstract Expressionism to color-stain painting. She studied under Tamayo and Hofmann, and in 1952 she painted her great work "Mountains and Sea ", which employs the technique of thinned paint poured onto unprimed canvas, and has an abstract hint of landscape. She was married to Motherwell from 1958 to 1971, during which she changed from oil to acrylic paint. Her works have since developed from internal symbolism using forms in a vague landscape to treating the entire canvas as a medium of expression.
$#GAUGUIN, PAUL
##Paul Gauguin 1848-1903
One of the greatest of the Post-Impressionists, Gauguin, a French painter, sculptor and printmaker, was a founder of modern art. Raised in Peru, he started his career in painting while working as a stockbroker. He soon met Pisarro and Cezanne, as well as the Impressionists, and began painting the religious feelings and daily life of peasants at Pont-Aven in Brittany. In 1888, a major work titled "The Vision After the Sermon" or, alternatively, "Jacob Wrestling with the Angel" marked Gauguin break with Impressionism to follow his own style. He rejected realism in favor of the imagination, and through his expressionist means he made one of the most influential impacts on Western art. Joining him in renouncing naturalism were the Nabis, the Symbolists, and van Gogh. He and van Gogh enjoyed a friendship which ended in a tempestuous quarrel at Arles in 1888. He expanded his painting style by using postcards of several cultures as inspiration for his paintings. Gauguin's taste for the simple and uncivilized drew him to a number of places, including Martinique, Tahiti, and the Marquesas Islands, where he died. An overwhelming personality in life, his influence on modern art can still be felt today.
$#GOTTLIEB, ADOLPH
##Adolph Gottlieb 1903-1974
An American Abstract Expressionist painter, Gottlieb's work is loosely grouped into several series. Incorporating American Indian motifs, Jungian archetypes and Surrealist techniques, in the 1940's he produced a number of "pictograph" paintings which imposed a vague grid on the canvas to structure abstract and natural elements scattered across it. His "Imaginary Landscapes" of the 1950's featured orbs floating over a number of thick brushstrokes; these evolved into more vertical compositions which he called "Bursts".
$#GUTTOSO, RENATO
##Renato Guttoso 1912-
An Expressionist painter, Guttoso uses bright colors and complex patterns in a style which blends realist and surrealist imagery with a 'Guernica'-influenced Cubism. He joined Birolli and others in resisting the official Fascist cultural policy of Italy in the early 1940's and was a founding member of the Fronte Nuovo delle Arti.
$#HARTLEY, MARSDEN
##Marsden Hartley 1877-1943
An American progressive painter, Hartley was greatly influenced by his stay in Paris and Berlin from 1912 to 1915. He exhibited his work at Der Sturm and produced his finest work in this period, notably the colorful "A German Officer" (1914, New York, Metropolitan) which treats military emblems abstractly. His later work focused on landscapes using massive forms and thick lines.
$#HENRI, ROBERT
##Robert Henri 1865-1929
An American teacher and realist painter, Henri was a founding member of The Eight, later Ashcan. Working primarily in New York and his native Philadelphia, he strove to bring a social conscience to his work--his "West 57th Street, New York" (1902, Yale, University Art Gallery) depicts the poor on a slushy urban street--but most of his finest work was done in portraits. He organized the Exhibition of Independent Artists (1910) in rebellion against the staid and sterile Academy.
$#HOPPER, EDWARD
##Edward Hopper 1882-1967
An American figurative painter, Hopper worked in the area between the regionalists and the Ashcan school. Trained under Henri and influenced by Meryon and Degas, he painted urban scenes which infused realism with a romantic, brooding atmosphere, evoking the solitude and boredom which lurks in even the most bustling and vibrant of cities.
$#JOHNS, JASPER
##Jasper Johns 1930-
An American painter and sculptor, Johns has been a dominant figure in post-World War II art. After early experiments with Abstract Expressionism, his work turned more avant-garde. His famous "Target" and "Flag" painting series began in the mid-1950's incorporating, over the years, a variety of techniques including wax encaustic and plaster casts of faces. He is a seminal figure in the Pop Art and Conceptual Art movements, producing apparently representational works which have strong ironic or self-conscious aspects. His increasingly subtle paintings frequently contain contradictions which question artistic preconception.
$#KLINE, FRANZ
##Franz Kline 1910-1962
Kline originally produced impastoed landscapes and cityscapes, but in 1948, at the suggestion of De Kooning, he turned to Abstract Impressionism. Working on a large scale, he used broad black lines to define and divide white spaces, modified by overpainting, dry brushing and scumbling. This graphic style is usually considered his most successful, although late in his life he began to paint in color.
$#LA FARGE, JOHN
##John La Farge 1835-1910
An American painter and designer, La Farge studied for years in Paris, where he wrote influential scholarly papers on Oriental art. In America he oversaw the creation of murals and stained glass to decorate Trinity Church in Boston (1876). His paintings were varied, and included landscapes, still lifes, and unusual subjects--many of the latter resulting from his 1886 journey to the Far East. His paintings are often infused with moral-religious themes akin to those of the Pre-Raphaelites.
$#LEGER, FERNAND
##Fernand Leger 1881-1955
A French painter, teacher, and distinctive stylist, Leger began his career under the influence of Cezanne and Cubism. These led to a concern for simplification and overriding structure which dominated his work thereafter, as he evolved a fragmented but highly dynamic style which drew extensively on the polished surface of machines. After World War I he returned to the figurative tradition, but retained his impulse to celebrate technology and urban society. Working on a grand scale and using images from folk culture, he began to use a less formal structure a few years before his death.
$#LEVI, CARLO
##Carlo Levi 1902-1975
An Italian writer and social realist painter, Levi was associated with Novecento when he took up painting in 1923. He soon left, disappointed with its sterile atmosphere,and began painting studies of peasant life in a more Expressionist style. After World War II he worked for about ten years as a politician and writer before returning to painting.
$#LUKS, GEORGE BENJAMIN
##George Benjamin Luks 1867-1933
An American painter associated with The Eight and later with Ashcan, Luks worked as a newspaper illustrator until Henri persuaded him to try painting. Both stylistically and in subject matter, Luks' debt to Henri remains clear. His work focused on elements of lower-class urban life, most notably, like George Bellows, on sporting events and athletes.
$#MANET, EDOUARD
##Edouard Manet 1832-1883
Born in Paris to aristocratic parents, Manet wanted to be a painter from an early age. However, his father opposed this career choice and insisted he join the Navy. After failing the entrance examination two times, Manet finally convinced his parents to let him enroll in the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. He studied under Thomas Couture, but their relationship a stormy one, so that Manet finally left in 1856 to study at the Louvre. Manet's first major painting, "Absinthe Drinker", was turned down for exhibition, even though Eugene Delacroix supported his efforts. However, a few years later, the Paris Salon awarded him an honorable mention for his painting, "Portrait of Monsieur and Madame Auguste Manet" (1860). By 1862, Manet had established his reputation as a painter with a unique and creative talent. 1863 saw Manet's paintings exhibited along with Cezanne, Whistler and others at the Salon des Refuses. When Manet's painting "le Dejeuner sur l'Herbe" or "Luncheon on the Grass" caused a scandal, the young artists (and future impressionists) of his time, became his devoted followers. Manet continued to exhibit and cause scandal from time to time. At one point, he became so disillusioned with the Paris critics that he left for Spain, where he studied Velazquez and Goya (1865). Upon return to France the following year, Manet's paintings were once again rejected by the Salons, and it wasn't until 1868 that his work was shown, that being the "Portrait of Emile Zola". Manet became friends with many of the French writers of the period including Baudelaire, Zola, Mallarme and others. As time went on, Manet went through periods of acceptance and periods of rejection by the Parisian art community. His portrait of the famous engraver Emile Ellot (1873) was received with huge success; while his "Nana" was refused in 1877. It was in 1879 that Manet first began to become ill, most likely with locomotor atxia, the disease which finally killed him. However, he kept painting in between treatments and showing as often as he could. Manet was one of the most controversial of artists during his lifetime. Much of his work was inspired by the old Masters like Raphael and Titian; however, his gift was that he created a style which was the beginning of Impressionism: clean lines, clear contrasting darks and whites, and easy flowing brush movements. Edouard Manet died near Paris in 1883.
$#MATISSE, HENRI
##Henri Matisse 1869-1954
A French painter, sculptor, illustrator and designer, Matisse was one of the greatest forces influencing art in the first half of the 20th century. He abandoned the study of law for painting in 1892, and by 1905, working with Derain and influenced by Signac's Neo-Impressionism, he created Fauvism. His next concern was to concentrate on the flatness of the canvas, replacing illusionist techniques with those emphasizing color, pattern, and purity of line. This phase reached its height in the twin works of "Dance" and "Music" (1909-10, Leningrad, Hermitage Museum). During the next decade he created and mastered a more formal structure, producing austere, epic effects. Finally he adopted a naturalistic style, with a more varied palette and using other materials as well as paint--particularly in such works as "Memory of Oceanie" (1953, New York, MOMA), where cut-outs of brightly colored paper illuminate the painting. Living at Nice after 1920, he worked until his death. His last major project was decorating the Chapel of the Rosary (Venice), including the ceramic tiling, vestments, and stained-glass windows. His "Notes of a Painter" (1908) contains his chief artistic ideas and analyses of his own work.
$#MIRO, JOAN
##Joan Miro 1893-1983
A versatile Spanish painter, Miro was strongly affected by the Catalan art which surrounded him in his youth. He moved to Paris in 1923 and his early work there reflects the influence of Cubism, with abstract figures and a sophisticated freedom of line. His paintings quickly became more surrealist, with large areas of color upon which a variety of forms were placed without logical order. This in turn evolved into his most characteristic style, featuring amorphous, brightly-colored shapes set against a plain background. During the turbulence of the 1930's he adopted more restricted figures and darker colors, but in 1940 he produced the "Constellations" series--an optimistically harmonious view of man and nature. He has also produced ceramic murals for UNESCO (Paris, 1955-58) and the Harvard Campus (1960) but his final projects were smaller in scale and ambition.
$#MODIGLIANI, AMEDEO
##Amedeo Modigliani 1884-1920
Although born and raised in Italy, Modigliani moved to Paris to pursue his painting and sculpting in 1906, and is often regarded as French. He studied the Italian Renaissance masters of Naples and Florence, and was strongly influenced by Picasso and Cezanne as well as by African traditional sculpture. His work consisted chiefly of portraits and of erotic female nudes, done in a simplified and distorted manner with carefully controlled color. Modigliani is as famous for his many lovers, dissolute lifestyle and early death as he is for his artistic work.
$#MONDRIAN, PIETER CORNELIS (PIET)
##Piet Mondrian 1872-1944
A Dutch painter, Mondrian was a guiding force in Abstract art. He began his career with landscapes, done largely in the Symbolist style, but soon turned to Fauvism and its colorful Expressionist techniques. Living in Paris in the years preceding World War I, he was influenced by Cubism and began producing more abstract paintings--although they were still based on natural images. In 1917 Mondrian co-founded De Stijl ("The Style"), a school of artistic thought based on his own Neo-Plasticism and pursuing symbols of harmony. This new mode involved strong geometric structures, rectangular shapes, and primary colors. Mondrian's "Composition in yellow and blue" (1925, Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beunigen) typifies the style, which attempted to use harmonious, abstract order to create a pure "absolute" reality. Mondrian's later development built consistently on this foundation; his most striking variation was the abandonment of color. His last few years saw a new energy and rhythm in his work, following a move to New York in 1940.
$#MONET, CLAUDE OSCAR
##Claude Oscar Monet 1840-1926
This French painter is widely considered as the seminal Impressionist; in fact one of his paintings, "Impression: Sunrise", provided a name for the movement. Raised in Le Havre, he studied under Boudin but moved to Paris in 1859. While studying under Gleyre (1862-63) he and his colleagues Renoir, Bazille, and Sisley, felt a desire to render their impressions of light and nature directly onto the canvas. The quartet often painted in the forest of Fountainbleu, where artistic views of nature were readily available. Monet was also impressed by Manet's work, although the former was more concerned with the effects and play of light. He visited with his friend Pissarro in London during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71, returning to France shortly thereafter. He stayed at Argenteuil on the Seine, and finally settled at Giverny in 1883. Soon afterwards he began his series work, painting the same subject under different lighting conditions. Some of these series include "Poplars" (1890-91), "Mornings on the Seine" (1896-97) and "The Thames" (1899-1901). Around 1900 his eyesight began to worsen rapidly, and his last series "Waterlilies" (1899-1926, Orangerie, Paris) are of enormous size and brilliant color. Some speculate that the formlessness, size and coloring in this last series is due to his eyesight, while others argue that they show a trend towards Abstraction, but there is no doubt that Monet was one of the most well-known and sophisticated of the Impressionists.
$#MOTHERWELL, ROBERT BURNS
##Robert Burns Motherwell 1915-1991
An American writer and painter, Motherwell was an early proponent of Abstract Expressionism. He was strongly influenced by Picasso (whose collage techniques he imitated and developed) and Matisse, and was particularly close to the Surrealist expatriates during and after World War II. His own work became more abstract after the 1940's, although the forms in his paintings remain evocative. He is well known for his ongoing "Elegies to the Spanish Republic" series, and the more colorful 'Open' series.
$#MUNCH, EDVARD
##Edvard Munch 1863-1944
A graphic artist and painter, Munch is regarded by many as the greatest modern Norwegian artist. He trained at the Oslo School of Design and was a follower there of Christian Krohg. He was deeply affected by Impressionist and Symbolist works during his visits to France in the 1880's. His neurotic obsessions with solitude, despair, and terror took shape from these influences and led to an intensely creative sixteen year period spent largely in Germany. An 1892 exhibition of his work in Berlin caused such a furor that it was closed after a week, and in its wake the Berlin Sezession was formed. His next major project was a series about life and death, designed to be shown together, called "Frieze of Life"; the most famous is 'The Scream' (1893, Oslo, NG), an archetypical evocation of angst and horror. After his 1908 nervous breakdown his imagery became less passionate; his best late work consists of winter landscapes and studies of laborers.
$#NOLAND, KENNETH
##Kenneth Noland 1924-
A second-generation Abstract Expressionist painter, Noland's concerns with depicting color and the two-dimensional character of the canvas have led him to the Hard-edge style of painting. In this, he was influenced by his teacher Bolotowsky's geometric orientation and by Frankenthaler's staining technique. He created a well-known group of target-like paintings structured around the canvas's center, beginning in 1958; in 1962 he added ovals, horizontal stripes, and chevrons to his repertoire, and in 1975 he began using irregularly-shaped canvases.
$#NOLDE, EMILE
##Emile Nolde, 1867-1956
Originally trained as a woodcarver, Nolde studied painting at the Academie Julian in Paris (1898-99) and under Holzen (1899). A deeply religious man, he brought a mystic pantheism and a deep interest in tribal art to his work. He sought to express his religious feeling through clashing colors and distorted figures. Largely independent from the other Expressionists (although a member of Die Brucke, 1906-07), he lived much of his life at Seebull in his native Germany. The Nazis declared him "Degenerate" and forbade him to paint, but he secretly continued to produce small watercolors -- known as the "unpainted pictures" -- throughout World War II.
$#O'GORMAN, JUAN
##Juan O'Gorman, born 1905
A Mexican painter and architect, O'Gorman is best known for his murals although he first established himself as an easel-painter. His mural paintings make rich use of narrative symbolism, with brilliant colors and fine detailing. His mosaic mural on all four sides of the University Central Library (Mexico City, 1953) was received with acclaim.
$#O'KEEFFE, GEORGIA
##Georgia O'Keeffe, 1887-1986
An American Modernist painter, O'Keeffe was originally influenced by the arid landscapes of Texas, where she frequently worked and travelled between 1912 and 1918. Her drawings and watercolors from that period are almost abstract in their emblematic sparseness. Done with a poetic control of color and restrained design, these "landscapes" and her representational paintings of flowers were the foundation of her reputation, although her cityscapes of New York--often associated with Precisionism--reveal a more clean-edged style. Major works include her "Jack in the Pulpit" series (Washington D.C., N.G.), "Lawrence Tree," "Farway Nearby," and "Black Iris," (N.Y., Metropoliltan Museum of Art).
$#PICASSO, PABLO
##Pablo Ruiz Picasso 1881-1973
Pablo Picasso was born in Malaga, Spain in 1881 to middle-class parents. His father was a painter who taught at the School of Fine Arts in Malaga first, then in La Corona at the elementary school. In 1895, Picasso's family relocated to Barcelona where Picasso began to receive formal training in the arts. Picasso was influenced early on by Art Nouveau and the early Impressionists Toulouse-Lautrec and Steinlen. Picasso met El Greco, Surbarian and others in Paris, and by the age of nineteen, Picasso held his first exhibition under the dealer Ambroise Vollard.
The period of 1901-1904 is known as his "Blue Period", when he painted beggars, prostitutes, the poor people and people who were ill in varying shades of blue. Examples of this period are "The Couple" (1904), "Life" (1903), and "Woman with a Crow" (1904). Following this period, Picasso entered his "Rose Period", where his designs became more subtle, his tones clearer, and pinks and grays predominated his coloring. Clowns, acrobats, actors and others of the circus world, as well as young girls, were the mainstay of his subject matter during 1904-06. "Mountebanks" (1905), "Toilette" (1906) and "Family of Acrobats with Monkey" (1905) are all examples of the Rose Period work.
With the portrait of writer Gertrude Stein in 1906, Picasso moved out of the Rose Period toward a more primitive and simple style, influenced by Cezanne and ancient Iberian art, as well as African Negro sculptures. It was during this period that Picasso (1907-14) and Braque each made important contributions to the evolution of Cubism as a style. His "Portrait of Fernande Olivier (1909), "Girl with a Mandolin" (1910), and "Aficionado" (1912) are all good examples of the Cubism style which revolutionized the art world more than anything had since the Renaissance. Picasso never stayed with one style for extremely long periods of time. By 1920, the Classical influences of Greek and Roman art show in his paintings, for example, "Three Women at the Fountain" (1921). He then began to paint his fine still lifes, and in 1925, once again his art showed its unique style in the first examples of Expressionism, with some teasing of Surrealism as well, as shown in "Seated Woman" (1926-7). During this time period, Picasso's marriage was not doing well, and his anger shown on canvas and in his writings seems to be entirely directed at women. However, in 1932, he met a young woman, Marie-Therese Walter, and her relationship with him brought him back to a more calm style of painting. Between 1930 and 1934 Picasso turned to sculpture as his main art form. "Woman Lying Down" (1932) seems to have been inspired by Matisse, and "Construction" (1931), was completed of semi-abstract and surreal shapes of refuse with the help of his friend Julio Gonzalez. At the end of this period, Picasso once again turned to Classical influences, as shown in his engravings for the Latin poet Ovid's "Metamorphoses" (1930). The next period shows Picasso depicting Spanish bullfights and scenes. In 1936 his most famous painting, "Guernica" was completed as the war broke out in Europe. Picasso's strong feelings at the devastation caused by the war are evident in "Night Fishing at Antibes" (1939), among others.After the war, Picasso finally relaxed his style once more. "Charnier" (1944-5) was his last sad work of that time. He had met a woman named Francoise Gilot in 1945. She bore him two children and his peace in that relationship is reflected in his works such as "Mother and Child with Orange" (1951). This prolific artist produced more variety in his works than any painter before or since. His powerful paintings and sculptures were full of his own feelings and left a legacy unmatched in the world of art. Pablo Picasso died in Mougins, France at the age of ninety-two in 1973.
$#PISSARO, CAMILLE JACOB
##Camille Jacob Pissaro, 1830-1903
A French painter, this venerable Impressionist was born in the West Indies and moved to Paris in 1855. He was introduced to Monet in 1859, and lived with him in London during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. His anarchic nature was given free rein when organizing the revolutionary Impressionist exhibitions, and he displayed his work at each one. Several of his works portray pastoral subjects, done in a distinctive style with a high horizon line and forms massive in their solidity. Around 1886 he was impressed by Seurat's work and started painting in the Pointillist style, but soon returned to a more liberated style, although with darker hues. In his later life he was invaluable to young Impressionists such as Gauguin and Cezanne, and his calming influence often soothed easily-roused artistic tempers.
$#POLLOCK, JACKSON
##Jackson Pollock, 1912-1956
This American painter was one of the first in his nation to achieve international recognition. He was a seminal figure in the New York school of Abstract Expressionism, and was greatly influenced in his early work by the art of American Indians and Siqueiros. During the Depression (1935-40) he worked in the Federal Art Projects, Easel Division. Near the end of this time, he began therapy with a Jungian analyst, and some of his work, such as "Guardians of the secret" (1943, San Francisco, Museum of Art) shows imagery influenced by Freud and Jung. In 1946-50 he began what some were to call Action Painting: he placed the canvas on the floor and poured paint across it, creating a melange of lines and splatters. Unlike Action Painters, however, Pollock retained control over the flow of paint, producing paintings which have an impressive monumentality. He expanded the size of his work in 1950 (e.g. "Blue Poles", 1953, Canberra, National Museum), and created a series which used solely black and white paint. Like some other modern artists, Pollock received great notariety throughout his life, due in equal part to his alcoholism, therapy, and early death in an accident.
$#PRENDERGAST, MAURICE BRAZIL
##Maurice Brazil Prendergast, 1859-1924
One of The Eight who did not continue in the Ashcan school, this American painter studied in Paris, 1891-94. His works are intensely colored and are remarkably decorative, showing the influence of the Nabis, Bonnard and Vuillard.
$#RAFFAELLI, JEAN FRANCOIS
##Jean Francois Raffaelli, 1850-1924
Raffaelli is best known for his somber hues and depictions of working-class life in his native France, such as "Blacksmiths drinking" (1885, Douai, Musee Chartreuse). This many-faceted artist not only worked with paint and canvas, but also displayed his talents in sculpture, lithography and engraving. Admired in the late 1800's, he exhibited with the Impressionists in 1880-81 but did not take up their brilliant palette.
$#RAUSCHENBERG, ROBERT
##Robert Rauschenberg, born 1925
This leader of the avant-garde in the 1950's is one of the more unusual modern American artists. He studied at Black Mountain College under Albers, and several of Rauschenberg's early works show his tutor's influence. In 1954 he began his "combine-paintings", which take everyday (and some unusual) objects and incorporate them into his work. One of the more famous of these, "Bed", (1955, New York, Mr. and Mrs. Leo Castelli collection) depicts a bed covered with a quilt, then splashed with paint in a satire of Abstract Expressionism. Another well-known one is "Monogram" (1963, Stockholm, Modern Museet), which displays a stuffed Angora goat with a tire around its middle, treated with paint in a similar manner. His work is often described as a bridge between the introverted Abstract Expressionists and the extroverted, flamboyant Pop movement. In the 1960's he began his silk-screen compositions, often forming a collage-like combination of art history, current events, and abstract scrawls. He continued to push the limits of artistic work, and one of his series, 'Jammers' (1975-76), features silk-screened draperies of cloth and wall panels indicative of interiors.
$#REDON, ODILON BERTRAND
##Odilon Bertrand Redon, 1840-1916
Born in Bordeaux, this French painter and lithographer is often regarded as a seminal figure in Symbolism, along with Moreau and Puvis. He moved to Paris in 1859 to study under Gerome, but several factors contributed to a nervous breakdown which sent him home. Back in Bordeaux he studied under Bresdin, and produced several fantastic images in charcoal and lithography inspired by another artist of the time, Edgar Allen Poe. He did not use color until around 1892, when he began to work with brightly hued pastels and paints. He kept an unusual journal, published under the title "To himself".
$#REMINGTON, FREDERIC
##Fredric Remington, 1861-1909
Like the gun which shares his last name, Remington was shaped by, and in turn influenced, the popular conception of the "Wild West". He profoundly affected his native American culture through his depictions of a heroic, entertaining frontier. In 1895 he began bronze sculpting, and his first completed sculpture, "Bronco Buster", was so popular that 300 castings were made.
$#RENOIR, PIERRE AUGUSTE
##Pierre Auguste Renoir, 1841-1919
One of the greatest and best-loved of the Impressionists, Renoir began his career in 1854 as a decorator in a porcelain factory. In 1862 he met Bazille, Sisley, and Monet, all of whom he worked and associated with. Monet in particular affected his style, which made a transition from dark and ponderous scenes to light-filled ones, done in the characteristic broken-stroke manner of the Impressionists. In 1881, having achieved success and acceptance at the Salon, he decided that he had taken Impressionism as far as he could. He visited Italy, where the Renaissance masters affected his style profoundly, and adopted a more classical structure. He continued to travel, regularly studying the Old Masters, and rejected much of the spontaneity of the other Impressionists; many preliminary sketches preceded his "The Bathers", (1887, Philadelphia Museum of Art), and he refused to shatter the form of his subject simply for "instantaneity." His favorite subjects were beautiful women (particularly for his celebrated nudes), children, and people having fun, done in glowing tones of light and with a deep understanding of color.
$#RIVERA, DIEGO
##Diego Rivera, 1886-1957
A Mexican painter, Rivera is best-known for his murals which celebrate the people and traditions of Mexico. In his twenties he travelled to Paris, where he experimented with Cubism, but by 1922 he returned to his native land to pursue a renewed interest in the culture there. Drawing in part on the pre-Columbian art of the region, he developed a narrative style of mural painting glorifying the history and working-class people of Mexico, which led to the popular renewal of the mural tradition. Works of his at Rockefeller Center in New York and the Detroit Institute of Art influenced American art; his finest work is to be found at the Lerma Water Works and (in mosaic) in the National Stadium (Mexico City).
$#ROUAULT, GEORGES
##Georges Rouault, 1871-1958
This French Expressionist painter is best known for his religious subjects. He studied under Moreau and his tutor's influence on Rouault's style remained evident through the rest of his career. In 1905 he exhibited his work with his colleagues Matisse, Camoin and Marquet, but although he shared their love of luminous palettes and impassioned brush-strokes, his subject matter was a world apart. Like Daumier he was concerned with the decline of humanity, and expressed it in the images of prostitutes, judges and despairing clowns, as is shown in his "Little Olympia" (1906, Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst). His close friend Leon Bloy also influenced Rouault's interest in the Roman Catholic religion; from 1918 on almost all of Rouault's works dealt with Christian theology. He took his talents off the easel occasionally, designing book illustrations, tapestries, and drawing figures for the windows of the Church of Assy.
One of the leading painters in the Naive style, Rousseau worked in the mundane but lucrative career of a toll inspector in his native France until 1885, when he committed himself to possible starvation by becoming an artist. Through the dubious recommendation of the anarchic dramatist Alfred Jarry he entered the sacred circle of Picasso and Apollinaire. These two leaders in the Cubist and Surrealist fields encouraged the young painter by admiring his purity of vision in art. His best-known works are the jungle scenes painted in 1900-10, which have in common incredible detail and remarkably intense central figures, among them "The Dream" and the "Sleeping Gypsy", (New York, MOMA). His subjects ranged from rural and modern landscapes to portraits and studies of children.
$#RYDER, ALBERT PINKHAM
##Albert Pinkham Ryder, 1847-1917
One of the strongest individualists in the American artistic field, Ryder was also an eccentric hermit. From 1870 he lived a life of solitude in New York, where he painted a series of introverted, almost arcane works. These often drew on the imagery of the ocean, and are reminiscent of his native New Bedford, MA. The thickness of the paint he used added texture to the pictures, and their eerie effect is heightened by the use of simplified, almost abstract forms and yellowish lighting. His most famous and disturbing painting is "Death on a Pale Horse" or "The Race Track" (Cleveland Museum of Art). Since he worked on his paintings for long periods they are difficult, if not impossible, to accurately date. Unfortunately, his odd experimental technical methods led to the early deterioration of several of his paintings. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then this artist is one of the most flattered of his time; it is said that there are more fake copies of his work than any of other American artist.
$#SIGNAC, PAUL
##Paul Signac, 1863-1935
A French Pointillist and Neo-Impressionist painter, Signac was an associate of Seurat in 1884 after founding the Salon des Independents. He exhibited at the last Impressionist showing in 1886, and afterwards provided the theoretical underpinnings of the Neo-Impressionist movement from his home on St. Tropez, where he moved in 1892. His "From Delacroix to Neo-Impressionism" (1899) advocated scientific precision in painting, although Signac's own finest work, done years later, was more spontaneous and colorful. In 1904 he was visited on the island by Matisse, whom he influenced profoundly.
$#STELLA, JOSEPH
##Joseph Stella, 1877-1946
Although an American painter, Stella was born and lived in Italy until he emigrated in 1896. He visited Paris, 1911-12, and was profoundly affected by the Futurists he met there. Their influence is clear is his well-known "Battle of Lights, Coney Island" (1914, Yale University Art Gallery), and although he rejected their concepts shortly thereafter, he continued to be drawn to Futurist and Precisionist urban and mechanical themes. He painted several versions of the Brooklyn Bridge, which was for him a powerful urban symbol ("The Bridge", 1926, Newark Museum of Art, "Brooklyn Bridge, San Francisco, MOMA).
$#STILL, CLYFFORD E.
##Clyfford E. Still, 1904-1980
A distinctive and varied stylist, Still was an American painter associated at some times with Abstract Expressionism and at others with color-field painting. His early landscapes were peopled with intriguingly distorted figures, but he soon devoted himself to more abstract work. His mature style, developed in the 1940's, featured jagged knifed-on patches of paint, ranging from glossy to matte and inconsistent in hue, interlocking and covering the canvas. At the same time he pioneered monochromatic painting, and began to explore extremely large-scale work. Still's influence on American art was marked, but overt imitations of his styles did not appear until the late 1960s. Major works include the monumental "Fourteen Stations of the Cross", (Washington, D.C., MOMA).
$#TAMAYO, RUFINO
##Rufino Tamayo, born 1899
This self-taught Mexican painter, graphic artist, and muralist blends aspects of European artwork such as Surrealism and Cubism with the ancient native artwork of the Mexican Indians. Head of the ethnographic department of the National Archaeological Museum in Mexico City, he was charged with supporting traditional native art forms throughout the country. Tamayo took his duties seriously, incorporating some of these art forms in his own first mural for the Conservatory of Mexico City in 1933. His murals and paintings express native themes, consciously avoiding the single-minded views of the Revolutionary muralists.
$#VEDDER, ELIHU
##Elihu Vedder, 1836-1923
Although most of his work was done in France and Italy, this painter and illustrator is regarded as American. An intensely mystical person, many of his finer paintings illustrate his troubling personal dreams, such as "The Questioner of the Sphinx" (1863, Boston, MFA).
$#VUILLARD, JEAN EDOUARD
##Jean Edouard Vuillard, 1868-1940
This French painter was involved with the Nabis and was a personal friend of Bonnard. In 1892 he began painting decorative panels and created several prints. He preferred domestic subjects and was interested in the flat patterns created on canvas; like Bonnard, he was greatly impressed by Oriental prints. Around 1900 he reverted to a realistic mode of painting.
$#GOGH, VINCENT VAN
##Vincent van Gogh 1853-1890
Few artists have excited the public imagination and sympathy as has this post-impressionist Dutch painter. During the thirty-six years of his life, Vincent suffered poverty, tragic disappointment in love and human relationships, and a devastating mental illness which led to his committal to an asylum and his eventual suicide. Yet, in spite, or perhaps because of his tortured and lonely existence, Vincent left a remarkable body of work which eloquently speaks of human passion and love of life. Following an abortive attempt at ministry, Vincent went first to The Hague and then to Paris to paint. He adopted the techniques of impressionism, and experimented briefly with pointillism. In February, 1888 he went to Arles, where he had a phenomenally productive period. He was helped and supported in his artistic career through the rest of his life by his brother, Theo. Color began to emerge as his consuming focus. He almost eliminated the atmospheric effects of the impressionists, and his work took on a dazzling effect of color and light. Following an unsuccessful visit from Gaugin, Vincent had a severe episode of a form of psychotic epilepsy, during which he mutilated his ear. Yet he continued to paint. In 1889, he had an enforced stay in the hospital at Arles, and voluntarily entered the asylum at St. Remy-de-Provence in May, where he remained for a year. He was attacked by three terrible bouts of insanity, and though he continued to work, finally, in July of 1890 he shot himself and ended his suffering. His works include "Wheatfields with Crows," "and "La Plaine de la Crau" (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh), "Irises" (N.Y., Metropolitan Museum of Art), the "Starry Night" (N.Y., MOMA), and his extraordinary series of self portraits, included in collections at the Musee d'Orsay, Harvard University, etc. Though Vincent van Gogh only sold one painting during his life, his works today fetch phenomenal prices, and the auction of one of his "Irises" brought the highest price ever paid for a painting.
$#GENTILESCHI, ARTEMISIA LOMI
##Artemisia Lomi Gentileschi 1597-1651 ca.
Artemisia studied with her father, painter Orazio Lomi Gentileschi, and also with Tassi. Her style was Caravaggesque, tending toward the extremes of tenebrism in some works. Artemisia traveled to London where she was influenced by van Dyck, her work becoming more painterly in style. Artemisia influenced the development of Neapolitan painting, with her vigorous forms and dramatic atmospheric light effects. She tended toward genre scenes, even in religious compositions. Major works include "Miracle of S. Carlo Boromeo" (Florence, Cecioni Collection), "David and Goliath" (Rome, Corsini Collection), "Lot and His Daughters" (Rome, Borghese), and her passionate and powerful "Judith and her servant woman with the head of Holophernes" (Florence, Pitti).
$#HOLBEIN THE YOUNGER, HANS
##Hans Holbein the Younger 1497-1543
One of the sons of the Gothic painter Hans Holbein the Elder, Hans the Younger went on to eclipse his father and brothers as a brilliant portrait painter. A friend of Erasmus, Holbein traveled to Italy and later to London, where he was introduced into the court of Henry VIII. Becoming court painter, Holbein received innumerable commissions for portraits. Unlike Durer and Grunewald, Holbein avoided personal involvement with his subjects, preferring a precise impersonal style which was the height of realistic painting. His major works include "Erasmus" (Basel), "Thomas Cromwell" (N.Y., Frick), "Henry VIII and Jane Seymour," and "Edward VI as a Child" (Washington, D.C., N.G.).
$#LORENZETTI OR LAURATI, PIETRO
##Pietro Lorenzetti 1306-1348 fl.
Brother of painter Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Pietro's style, like his brother, derived from the influence of Giotto. Though his influence was not as great as his brother's, Pietro had many assistants and followers. His major works include the polyptych "Madonna and Child with Saints" (S. Maria della Pieve, Arezzo), the frescoes in the Lower Church of S. Francesco, Assisi, including "The Madonna and Child between SS. Francis and John the Evangelist" and "Christ's Death and Resurrection", "Madonna and Child" (Uffizi), and perhaps his most important work, the "Nativity of the Virgin" triptych, in the Opera del Duomo, Siena.
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