ART “4”
“2”-DAY 01 December |
| DEATH:
1563 SCHIAVONE |
BIRTH:
1869 SOMOV |
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Died on 01 December 1563: Andrea Medulich
(or Meldolla, Medulla) “Schiavone”, Dalmatian painter,
draftsman and etcher, active in Italy, born in 1522. — Original name Andrija Meldulic. His nickname "Schiavone" means Slav, reflecting the fact that he came from Zara, Dalmatia (then under Venetian jurisdiction). He worked mainly in Venice, where he was on friendly terms with Titian (who along with Parmigianino was one of the main influences on his style). His most characteristic works were small-scale religious or mythological scenes for private patrons in a vigorous, painterly style. — Born in Zara (Zadar) on Dalmatian coast, then under Venetian rule. In 1556 won a painting commission in the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice. Worked mostly in intaglio and at the end of his life made designs for block prints. Died in Venice. — Although the artist was born in Zadar, his ancestors came from the place called Meldola, Italy (Romagna). However, he expressed his deep and permanent association with the Croatian Adriatic coast by his nickname Schiavone (Slav). — He belonged to a prominent family who had settled in Zara but were originally from Méldola in the Romagna. He may have been taught painting either in Zara or in Venice by Lorenzo Luzzo or Giovanni Pietro Luzzo, who were active in both cities. According to another theory, he was trained in the Venetian workshop of Bonifazio de’ Pitati, but this would not account for his later proficiency as a fresco painter. As an etcher, he seems to have been essentially self-taught, working initially from drawings by Parmigianino. By the late 1530s Schiavone seems to have been established in Venice. In 1540 Giorgio Vasari commissioned from him a large battle painting , ‘one of the best [works] that Andrea Schiavone ever did’ (Vasari, 1568). Schiavone’s first surviving paintings and etchings probably date from about 1538–1540; they show that he was strongly influenced by Parmigianino and central Italian Mannerists in figural and compositional modes, but was also a strikingly daring exponent of Venetian painterly techniques; he employed an equally free technique in etching. Several paintings, for example the large-scale Four Women in a Landscape and the small-scale Two Men, carry his ‘technique of spots, or sketches’ (Vasari) so far that the subjects have not been identified. — LINKS — Landscape with Jupiter and Io (205x275cm) _ The subject of the picture was taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses: the jealous Juno catches Jupiter with Io. To save his lover Jupiter transforms her into a cow and entrust her to Argus. The landscape is the main subject of the painting, the human figures are only staffages. — La Conversione di S. Paolo (205x265cm) _ Dopo una generica attribuzione alla scuola veneta l'opera è stata indicata come di Bonifacio de' Pitati (The Conversion of Saul,1570) per poi essere riconosciuta come dello Schiavone. Grande, movimentata composizione in cui i cavalli, le bandiere e i soldati sembrano rapiti da un turbine, mentre sopra un cielo apocalittico, striato di verde, scoppia, fenomeno meteorico, la luce nella quale il Cristo tra gli angeli impone il suo volere. I colori squillano ovunque, e gli sbattimenti luministici si esaltano sulle profondità scure. Pare che lo Schiavone abbia tenuto presente nel volo del Cristo in iscorcio quello del S. Marco dal Miracolo dello schiavo (1548) del Tintoretto e polemizzi nella sua mossa invenzione con l'immobilità del primo piano e la staticità della natura che sono in quello. Non mancano in quest'opera richiami a Raffaello e alla sua scuola filtrati anche attraverso i modi del Pordenone. — Lot and his Daughters (1555 round; 575pix diameter, 139kb) |
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Born on 01 December (30 Nov? Julian?) 1869:
Konstantin Andreyevitch Somov, Russian Symbolist
painter and graphic artist who died on 06 May 1939. — He was the son of a curator at the Hermitage Museum, and he attended the Saint-Petersburg Academy of Art from 1888 to 1897, studying under the Realist painter Il’ya Repin from 1894. In 1897 and again in 1898–1899 he went to Paris and attended the studios of Filippo Colarossi and of Whistler. Neither the Realism of his Russian teachers nor the evanescent quality of Whistler’s art was reflected for long in Somov’s work. He turned instead for inspiration to the Old Masters in the Hermitage and to works of contemporary English and German artists, which he knew from visits abroad and from the art journals. — He was a painter in oils and watercolor, and illustrator. Born in Saint-Petersburg, son of Andrei Somov, Curator of the Hermitage. Studied at the Academy of Arts in Saint-Petersburg 1888-1897, from 1894 under Repin, then lived 1897-1899 in Paris in the circle of Bakst, Alexander Benois and other Russian friends. Member of the World of Art (Mir Iskusstva) 1899. His early work was mainly landscape, but from about 1900 he began to paint romantic scenes of marquisses, harlequins, etc. set in the Rococo and early 19th century periods. Also painted portraits and modeled figures for the Imperial Porcelain Factory. First one-man exhibition in Saint-Petersburg 1903. Member of the Saint-Petersburg Academy of Fine Art 1913; professor at the Academy of Arts from 1918. Left Russia in 1924 and spent his last years in Paris. His works include illustrations for Manon Lescaut, Daphnis and Chloé and the poems of Pushkin. Died in Paris. — Somov was born in Saint-Petersburg into the family of the senior curator at the Hermitage, artist and art historian, Andrei Ivanovich Somov and his wife, Nadezhda Constantinovna, an excellent musician. The family had a big collection of paintings, etchings, watercolors, big library; the artists were frequent guests in the house. Constantin started to learn to play piano, singing, and painting early. From 1888 till 1897, he studied at the Academy of Arts, where from 1894 he took a course at Ilya Repin’s studio. Later he wrote that the first five years in the Academy were a lost and fruitless time. Nevertheless he took the studies very seriously and got a number of awards in the academy. The work with Repin can be felt in some of his paintings of those years, e.g. portraits of N. Ober, wife of the sculptor Ober (1896), Portrait of Father (1897), Self-Portrait (1898). Since his childhood Somov was a friend of Alexander Benois; during their students’ years they often gathered together in the house of Benois, there Somov got acquainted with Sergei Dyagilev, future theatre interprener, and Lev Bakst. In 1896, the new subjects appeared in his works: ladies and gentlemen in the 18th century garments, e.g. Rest after a Walk, Lady by the Pool, Promenade after Rain, etc. Such works, full of intimite poetry, elegant and refined, were far from the ideals of realistic art. The “gallant” 18th century was admired in Benois’ circle. Somov more than others was fond of French Rococo - Watteau, Fragonard, light chamber music by Rameau and Grétry, Gluck and Mozart. The artist preferred to work with watercolors, but sometimes used mixed techniques – combined watercolor with goache, whitewash and bronze. Somov’s works of 1896-97 are not those of a student, he found already his own theme and his individual style. In autumn of 1897 he left Academy and went to Paris, where his friends, Benois, Lanceray, Bakst, Ober, Ostroumova had already left for. In Paris they frequented various private studios and the Académie Colarossi. In 1898 after return to St. Petersburg, the friends founded World of Art (Mir Iskusstva) society, with their own magazine. Sergei Diaghilev made much for founding of the society. The World of Art exhibitions attracted talented young artists of St. Petersburg and Moscow. The society played very important role in development of Russian art of the beginning of the 20th century. In 1897-1900, Somov worked on a beautiful portrait of his childhood friend, and a peer in the Academy of Arts, the artist Elisabeth Martynova. She was often sick and he left abroad several times, and the work on the portrait took so long time. The portrait became known as Lady in Blue. Martynova’s colleague-painters remembered her as highly emotional, proud and easily wounded. She was sure that one day she would be a great artist. Unfortunately, she got ill with tuberculosis and died early. In 1901 Somov painted another woman-artist, Anna Ostroumova (1901). “My portrait has likeness with me and has not. The features are mine, and even the pose is mine. But at the same time there is a lot of from Somov, some characteristics do not belong to me. This dreaming melancholic figure… I, though sometimes was sad of course, on the whole was energetic, businesslike and liked to laugh too much…” Portraits and landscapes form the most realistic part of Somov’s work; his individual style reveals in original subject paintings, love scenes in interior and in the open air, retrospective views, such as Echo du temps passé, Enchantment, The Laughed Kiss, In the Bosquet, etc. Since 1910, Somov more and more often turns to the subject of Arlequine, e.g. Lady and Harlequin (1912), Italian Comedy (1914), etc., traditional masks of commedia dell’arte. In 1906-10 the artists created a series of graphic portraits of Russian artists and poets for magazines and books: Alexander Blok (1907), Eugene Lanceray (1907), poet M.A. Kuzmin (1909), ballet-dancer N. Pozdnyakov (1910). In 1900-1910, Somov’s works shown at exhibitions of “World of Art” society, Union of Russian painters, Munich and Berlin Sessecions, autumn Salon of 1906 in Paris and others became widely known in Europe. The artist was especially popular in Germany, where, in 1907, the first monograph about him was published by Oscar Bic. In 1913 Somov became an Academician, and in 1918 a professor of the Art College. At the end of 1923 Somov immigrated to the US. He stayed in the US for 1 year. “…my art is absolutely alien to America,” he wrote in one of his letters. In summer of 1925, he moved to France, where, near Paris, the last 14 years of his work would pass. In this period he painted mainly portraits, including that of Rachmaninov. Somov died in Paris. — LINKS — Self-Portrait (1898; 741x516pix, 30kb) _ “The Artist as Couch Potato” — 60 images at ABC Gallery |
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