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DEATHS: 1921 PRADILLA — 1546 ROMANO — 1629 TERBRUGGHEN — BURIAL: 1570 RUYSDAEL
BIRTHS: 1882 VIANI — 1889 HÖCH
Finger by Michelangelo 1512: Michelangelo's Sixtine Chapel ceiling fresco
is exhibited for the first time.
^ Died on 01 November 1921: Francisco Pradilla y Ortiz, Spanish Realist painter and museum official, born on 24 July 1848.
— He first studied in Saragossa under the stage designer Mariano Pescador [–1886], and in 1866 moved to Madrid where he began to work under the stage designers and decorators Ferri and Busato. He entered the Escuela Superior de Pintura, Escultura, y Grabado and also attended the Academia de Acuarelistas. In 1873 Pradilla and his fellow student Casto Plasencia [1846–1890] won history painting scholarships to study at the newly founded Academia Española de Bellas Artes in Rome. In 1874 he sent from Rome a copy of Raphael’s Dispute over the Holy Sacrament, a work Pradilla completed in collaboration with Alejandro Ferrant [1844–], another Spanish scholarship holder.
      During Pradilla’s second and third years abroad he traveled through France, visiting the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1875, and Italy, where he was particularly impressed by Venice and the works of Veronese, Titian and Jacopo Tintoretto. Pradilla won a major prize in 1878 at the Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes in Madrid; as a result of this success he received the commission for another large picture on a historical theme, The Surrender of Granada (1882) for the Palacio del Senado (now Palacio de las Cortes) in Madrid. This work shows Pradilla’s concern to paint from life in his treatment of the landscape of Granada. He produced other paintings on related subjects, including Mad Queen Joanna Imprisoned at Tordesillas and The Sigh of the Moor . Pradilla also painted lively scenes of local life and color. The years of his stay in Rome, where he was director of the Academia Española between 1881 and 1883, allowed him to get to know the country around Rome and many other places in Italy. Such scenes as Dance on the Beach at Anzio, Italian Pilgrims on the Way to the Shrine and The Month of the Grape Harvest (Pontine Marshes) vividly convey his enthusiasm and affection for Italy and the Italians.

— Pradilla y Ortiz nació en Villanueva de Gállego (Zaragoza) y murió en Madrid. Inició sus estudios en Zaragoza, simultaneando las clases en la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Luis con la asistencia al taller del escenógrafo Mariano Pescador. Ignoramos las circuntancias familiares que lo obligaron a abandonar en 1861 los estudios de bachillerato, en los que destacaba, para ponerse a trabajar. Desde luego, no se trata de la orfandad a la que se ha aludido en ocasiones, toda vez que sus padres vivían aún a finales de la década de los setenta del siglo pasado.
      Poco tiempo después, realiza su primera decoración firmada: la de la ópera de Meyerbeer Los Hugonotes, bien que no sepamos si realizó los bocetos para lo ópera completa (era frecuente aprovechar decorados de producciones anteriores, o bien de otras obras con lugares similares) o, siquiera, si se conservan tales materiales.
      En 1866, se traslada a Madrid, donde continúa trabajando con pintores dedicados al teatro, como son Ferri y Bussato mientras se aloja en casa de unos familiares. Al mismo tiempo, asiste a clases en la Escuela Superior de Pintura y Grabado, en la que recibirá las enseñanzas de Federico de Madrazo, Carlos Luis de Ribera y Ponciano Ponzano. Asimismo, forma parte de la recién creada Asociación de Acuarelistas de Madrid y cultiva con esmero y dedicación la dicha técnica tanto en las clases nocturnas de la Asociación como en el taller del pintor Ramón Guerrero.
      En compañía de éste, realizará varios viajes entre 1871 y 1873 por Galicia para copiar paisajes. En uno de éstos será cuando conozca a la que años más tarde será su mujer. Al tiempo, sus acuarelas comienzan a interesar a los coleccionistas de Madrid. Al crearse en 1873 la Academia Española de Bellas Artes de Roma, es pensionado (junto con Casto Plasencia).
      En los años de estancia en Roma, trabaja como corresponsal de La Ilustración Española y Americana y lleva a cabo buen número de pinturas como El Naufragio (estudio de desnudo enviado desde allí como trabajo de pensionado que no está entre lo mejor de su producción, aunque destaquen de él el paisaje del fondo y el contraste que se establece entre las dos figuras; el cuadro forma hoy parte de los fondos del Ayuntamiento de Madrid), los retratos de Alfonso I "El Batallador" y Alfonso V "El Magnánimo" para el Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza. Sin embargo, será sobre todo la conocidísima Doña Juana la Loca la obra principal de este período. Por ella obtendrá la medalla de honor en la Exposición Nacional de 1878. La medalla de honor no se otorgaba todos los años y sólo la obtenía un pintor. La que obtuvo Pradilla fue la primera que se otorgó desde que se crearan las Exposiciones en 1856. En el mismo 1878, el cuadro es premiado en la Universal de París y alabado en las de Viena y Berlín. El cuadro es muestra del trabajo de taller que se realizaba en la época: el fondo pertenece a las cercanías de lago Tresimeno en Pasignano (Italia) y los detalles de vestuario y mobiliario están cuidados a la perfección, en tanto que en las hogueras y antorchas, así como en el grupo de frailes que avanza por la izquierda, se acerca Pradilla a la técnica impresionista con la utilización de manchas de color que sugieren la lejanía de los monjes y la dispersión del humo (no olvidemos la importancia que para el autor tenía, en general, el fuego; en el presente caso, se conserva un estudio de pequeño tamaño dedicado tan sólo al efecto del fuego y del humo sobre el cielo del fondo que resulta, en el cuadro acabado, uno de sus mayores aciertos). Al tiempo, los rostros de los personajes reflejan cuidadosamente el pensamiento, desde el enajenamiento de la reina hasta el aburrimiento o el cansancio, casi insolente en algún caso, de los servidores. Con todo ello, se aleja Pradilla de la pintura histórica al uso para llevar a cabo una aproximación realista al tema histórico. Al tiempo, el contraste entre los ropajes y actitudes de los personajes y el desolado paisaje invernal logran hacer más patente el dolor y el enajenamiento.
      El interés en el tema de la reina loca de amor, que había de ocupar a varios otros pintores y a dramaturgos como Tamayo y Baus, se muestra en un boceto titulado Doña Juana "la Loca" en los adarves del Castillo de la Mota de sus primeros años y en la pintura de una Doña Juana "la Loca" recluida en Tordesillas, que procede de su última época y en la que el desvalimiento de la reina se expresa a través de la selección de colores fríos, a los que ayuda el foco de luz invernal que ilumina la figura por la izquierda. La mirada perdida y los objetos cotidianos colocados en el hueco de la ventana contribuyen a la impresión de intimidad sorprendida que desprende toda la figura. Como en el resto de su producción histórica, mucho más breve que lo que su fama en este género pudiera hacer pensar, la preocupación fundamental de Pradilla es recrear el momento a través de la expresión de los personajes que lo protagonizaron.
      Tras el éxito de Doña Juana "la Loca", recibe el encargo de pintar La Rendición de Granada, obra también sobradamente conocida, para la decoración del Palacio del Senado, donde se exhibe todavía. Los dos cuadros mencionados convierten de inmediato a Pradilla en uno de los pintores de historia más conocidos y reputados. La Rendición le valió, además, la Gran Cruz de Isabel la Católica.
      La Rendición
es un cuadro más estático que Doña Juana, en buena medida por el propio tema y por la cantidad de personajes conocidos que debían aparecer en él (los propios Reyes Católicos, Boabdil, el príncipe don Juan, el Gran Capitán, el inquisidor Torquemada, etc.). Con todo, Pradilla dio buena muestra de su talento en la elección de diferentes colores para los principales personajes, así como en la inclusión de detalles que, como en el caso de los cortesanos de Doña Juana, prestan variedad a la escena. destaca en este respecto la expresión del Gran Capitán, que bromea con las damas de la reina a las que va escoltando. Los rostros de las damas, sorprendidos en mitad de la conversación, está también claramente independizados unos de otros. En el fondo de la escena, el paisaje granadino, estudiado a fondo por el pintor en el propio escenario, presenta unos toques naturalistas que alejan de nuevo la obra de Pradilla de los cuadros de asunto histórico habituales en el momento.
      Una tercera pintura histórica de gran formato fue El Suspiro del Moro en la que de nuevo se ocupó Fradilla de la toma de Granada, bien que en este caso desde la perspectiva del Boabdil desterrado que da a su ciudad la última mirada. El cuadro fue resultado de un encargo particular — aunque algunas fuentes señalen erróneamente que el encargo partió del Ateneo madrileño — realizado por un magnate ruso y, a la muerte de éste, de otro chileno que, a su vez, cedió los derechos a un tercero con el que discutió el pintor, enojado por no habérsele tenido en cuenta para la transacción. Hoy se desconoce el para dero de este cuadro, que por sus dimensiones resulta difícil de esconder, bien que conservemos de él reproducción fotográfica que muestra la sobriedad de la composición, en la que Boabdil, de espaldas y vestido de blanco, observa desde un alto su ciudad. El centro de la composición lo ocupa un caballo blanco, el de Boabdil, sujeto por un criado, cuyas crines agita el mismo viento que mueve las vestiduras del último rey de Granada.
      Entre 1881 y 1883, fue director de la Academia de Roma, bien que a regañadientes, pues su temperamento arisco y huidizo lo hacían poco apto para dicho puesto. Tras cesar en el cargo con una excusa fútil, permanece en la capital italiana hasta 1897, año en el que acepta la dirección del Museo del Prado y regresa a España. Son los años en los que se afianza su amistad con Joaquín Sorolla, que se había establecido en Italia tras concluir su pensionado en la Academia. Su labor pictórica es constante. La exposición de la Academia de Roma de 1884 exhibe su Corte de Aragón celebrando juegos florales. Otros cuadros de esta época son Vendimiadores en las lagunas Pontinas, El camino del santuario o Escenas Venecianas.
      En 1886, una quiebra económica acaba con su tranquilidad: deberá volver a pintar para rehacer su situación y mantener a su familia. La correspondencia con Sorolla nos da testimonio de sus preocupaciones en este tiempo. A su regreso, permanece poco tiempo en la dirección del Prado, en la que sustituía a Palmaroli. Su gestión tampoco parece haber sido particularmente buena: dejó escapar algún fondo de interés que salió a la venta en aquel tiempo a buen precio y hubo de sufrir algún robo en la pinacoteca por parte de personal de la casa.
      Tras abandonar el cargo, se instaló en Madrid y se dedicó a la pintura, lo único que verdaderamente le importaba, hasta su muerte. Sus últimos años los pasó casi aislado: no acudía a actos públicos y rechazaba cuantas invitaciones recibía. La situación de su taller, en lo que entonces eran las afueras de Madrid, contribuía a este aislamiento que, de ningún modo, supuso abandono de los pinceles. Muy al contrario, se sabe que aún cinco días antes de morir tuvo sesión con cinco modelos.
      Su pintura estuvo muy cotizada en su momento, hasta el extremo de que su nombre fue utilizado, sin su consentimiento, para las ilustraciones de una edición de lujo de las Leyendas de Zorrilla. Fue miembro de las reales academias de Bellas Artes de San Fernando de Madrid y de San Luis de Zaragoza, de la Academia Francesa y de la Hispanic Society de Nueva York. Asimismo, se le concedieron la a citada Gran Cruz de Isabel la Católica y la Legión de Honor con rango de Caballero. Debido a haber obtenido en su primera presencia en la Exposición Nacional el galardón más alto, sólo concurrió a otra más, la de 1892, en la que se exhibió La Rendición de Granada con motivo de la celebración del cuarto centenario de dicho acontecimiento. Parece que el talante solitario del pintor fue el motivo principal de este apartamiento de las Exposiciones Nacionales, en las que no eran infrecuentes los favoritismos y los enfrentamientos dentro de los jurados.
      Asimismo, declinó la oferta que se le hizo de participar en la decoración de San Francisco el Grande, una de las obras pictóricas a las que más importancia se dio en aquel momento, argumentando que estaba pintando La Rendición en Italia y que no podía trasladarse a Madrid para pintar al fresco una de las bóvedas. Por parte de los encargados de la decoración, debemos constatar que no insistieron en la presencia de Pradilla, mejor pintor de historia que casi todos los que llevaron a cabo la mencionada decoración.
      Sirva como botón de muestra de su éxito internacional el éxito cosechado en la Exposición Universal de Berlín, en la que fue el único español premiado, donde obtuvo la medalla de honor por Misa al aire libre en la romería de la Guía (Vigo). Asimismo, en 1892 fue nombrado miembro honorario de la Academia de Pintura de Munich. Su éxito fue grande tanto en España como en el resto de Europa y sigularmente en Alemania, donde su obra paisajística (lo más abundante de su producción) fue en su tiempo preferida a la de los impresionistas franceses y donde se lo reputó por uno de los mejores paisajistas de Europa.
      La producción de Pradilla es ingente (varios millares incluyendo apuntes y bocetos, tal y como señaló su hijo) y en ella destacan, junto con los cuadros de pintura histórica, convertidos en imágenes canónicas de los hechos de la historia española que muestran, multitud de cuadros de pequeño formato pintados del natural en los que con frecuencia se limita a plasmar un detalle (una luz, un cielo tormentoso, sensaciones de color, etc.), casi como si pretendiera utilizar el material para obras de mayor envergadura, así el mencionado estudio del fuego para Doña Juana "la Loca".
      Con frecuencia, tomaba apuntes del natural durante una temporada en zonas que le gustaban especialmente (así las Lagunas Pontinas cerca de Roma o el Monasterio de Piedra en Zaragoza) para luego elaborar los cuadros en el estudio. es el caso de cuadros como La lectura de Anacreonte o bién Pasando el arroyo, pertenecientes a su última época o de Emigrantes de otoño en el País Pontino, de su etapa romana.
      Asimismo fue destacado retratista (así el sobrio y bellísimo Retrato de Lidia Pradilla) y colaboró en decoraciones como la del madrileño palacio de los marqueses de Linares, hoy Casa de América, para el que llevó a cabo catorce pinturas en lienzo que, según la costumbre de la época, se fijaban después al muro. Los avatares de este palacio, cerrado y deshabitado durante años, ha permitido conservar un conjunto decorativo que de otro modo hubiera perecido como sucedió con los realizados en los palacios de los duques de Santoña o la infanta Isabel, sujetos al cambio de las modas decorativas.
      El éxito de Pradilla hizo que su obra se dispersara por Europa y América, lo que ha hecho infructuosas todas las tentativas de establecer un catálogo completo de su producción. En este respecto, es destacable la imposibilidad de hallar el paradero de cuadros de la envergadura de El último Suspiro del Moro ya comentado. A pesar de la utilización casi constante del óleo en el estudio y de su negativa a pintar el fresco, destacó Pradilla por su experimentalismo técnico, en especial en lo que al campo de la acuarela se refiere. Asimismo, destacó por su control poco común del dibujo. Partiendo del último Románticismo, Pradilla va a asimilar las innovaciones de los impresionistas y el preciosismo de la pintura italiana a su propio estilo.
^
Juana la LocaDoña Juana “La Loca” (340x500cm) _ Pradilla did several representations of Juana la Loca [< here is one]; many other 19th Century painters did the same. Within the historical trend of this century's painting, the insane Castilian princess was a common model. Felipe el HermosoThis painting captures a moment when the princess' entourage take a break during the long march she undertook to transfer the body of her deceased husband, The Archduke Philip "The Handsome" [portrait by Pradilla >]. Her insanity, accentuated over a long period by jealousy, moved her to undertake this journey (from Burgos to Granada, where she wished to bury her husband) only traveling by night because "an honest woman should flee from the light of day when she has lost her husband, who was the sun". During the day, the casket was kept at monasteries along the way, although in this painting we see a convent of nuns rather than a monastery of monks as should have been the case: Juana made them take the casket out of the church though, because she was jealous of woman's eye being set upon her departed husband.
_     Después de la muerte de Isabel en 1504, su hija Juana, que padeció esquizofrenia, junto con su marido Felipe, Archiduque de Austria, ascendieron al trono. La pareja había estado viviendo en Bruselas pero después se mudaron a Burgos en la primavera de 1506. Felipe se conocía como Felipe el Hermoso y fue famoso por sus infidelidades. Con todas sus aventuras amorosas, la estabilidad mental de Juana empeoró. La leyenda dice que Juana, que estaba loca de celos, atacó con una navaja a unos de sus propias damas de honor con quien creyó que Felipe estaba teniendo relaciones amorosas, y pidió que se cortara todo su pelo. Desde entonces, solo se permitió que las mujeres atendieran en el palacio.
      Felipe murió después de una enfermedad corta, aunque algunos siguen creyendo que su suegro le envenenó Juana se volvía cada día más loca después de la muerte de su marido, y perdió el juicio (de ahí su apodo de Juana la Loca). Por consiguiente, su padre reinó como regente hasta su muerte en 1516. Juana creía que su marido resucitaría y lo puso en dos ataúdes: uno de plomo dentro de uno de madera. En diciembre, decidió llevarlo a la catedral de Granada para enterarlo junto a su madre Isabel. El cortejo fúnebre salió desde Flandes acompañado por un grupo de músicos, y algunos cortesanos y damas de honor. Andaban por la noche, porque creyó que "una mujer honesta debe de huir de la luz de día, cuando ha perdido a su marido que era su sol", y cada de vez en cuando abrieron el ataúd para que Juana pudiera besar la cara de Felipe. La procesión se detendría en los monasterios para que se pudieran celebrar misas fúnebres para su marido muerte. Desafortunadamente, una vez cometieron el error de parase en un convento y Juana, horrorizado al pensar que unas mujeres vieran a su marido muerto, ordenó que se salieran inmediatamente. El cuadro de Pradilla Ortiz muestra uno de los descansos que tomó el cortejo fúnebre. Nunca llegaron a Granada ya que Juana fue declarada demente y encarcelada en Tordesillas, donde quedó hasta su muerte en 1555.
An Elegant Lady in Court Costume, with a Ruff, Full-length (29x21cm)
^ Nacido el 01 Noviembre 1882: Lorenzo Viani, Italian painter, printmaker, and writer, who died on 02 November 1936. — Relative? of sculptor Alberto Viani [1906-1989]?
— He was born and grew up in Viareggio surrounded by poverty and misery and as a young man he became a member of the local anarchist group. After a brief attendance at the Scuole d’Arte in Lucca and Florence he began to paint systematically under the guidance of Plinio Nomellini; during that time he got to know the work of the sculptor Constantin Meunier, of the painter Eugène Laermans and of other artists involved in exposing social problems. At the Venice Biennale of 1907 he exhibited some drawings that combined elements from the analytical work of Giovanni Fattori and the distortions of satire and caricature. Viani strengthened his relationship with international anarcho-socialism, immersed himself in populist literature and studied revolutionary political essays. At the beginning of 1908 Viani went to Paris, where he met other political and humanitarian activists. In the run-down studio complex La Ruche, to which he returned in the winter of 1908–1909 and again towards the end of 1911, he experienced extreme poverty and degradation {even though he was busy as a bee?}. In the art galleries in Paris, however, he discovered the formal freedom of works by the Fauvists and the Expressionists, which he then assimilated into a personal style that found expression in Lady with Chrysanthemum (1911) and in the series of drawings To the Glory of War!
— Lorenzo Viani spent his childhood at the Royal Villa in Viareggio, where his father was employed by Don Carlos of Bourbon. The Viani’s economic situation was comfortable as long as the father continued to work for Don Carlos. Lorenzo attended only the first three grades of elementary school. The boy was not easily biddable and yet introspective. He preferred spending his time walking on the beach or in the woods. When his father lost his job, the family fell upon hard times. Young Lorenzo was familiar with poverty since his peregrinations through the most destitute neighborhoods of Viareggio had left a deep impression upon his spirit. In 1893 he was put to work as a helper in Fortunato Primo Puccini’s barbershop , where he remained for several years. Working for Puccini’s shop brought Lorenzo into daily contact with people from all walks of life and these encounters were a sort of “education in human anatomy”. He wrote: “Before drawing these unkempt faces, I had to handle them with my hands”. As a result, Lorenzo’s training was totally personal and independent from any traditional schooling.
      After he met Plinio Nomellini in Puccini’s barbershop, the painter encouraged him to enroll at the Institute of Fine Arts in Lucca. Viani attended classes there for about three years, from 1900 to 1903; at the Institute he met Moses Levy. During his years in Lucca, Lorenzo became involved in politics, and together with other anarchists he was arrested and imprisoned. In 1904 he was accepted at the Free School for Drawing Nudes at the Academy of Fine Arts; he also started to go to Giovanni Fattori’s studio, having met him in 1901, thanks to Nomellini’s introduction. His months spent in Florence were very stimulating for Viani, especially because of the many acquaintances he made. After returning to Viareggio, he took up residence in Torre del Lago and became a member of the “Bohème Club.” In 1907 he spent a few months in Genoa and exhibited a handful of drawings at the Venice Biennial. He also traveled to Paris, where he spent a little over a year (January 1908-spring 1909). His long-coveted Parisian visit turned out to be filled with economic difficulties and loneliness, and yet it also proved to be very rewarding because of the experiences he had and the acquaintances he made. Between 1911 and 1915 Viani was busy working and traveling to his solo shows in many Italian cities. He served in World War I from 1916 to 1919, years in which, despite his lack of free time, he managed to draw, paint and illustrate incessantly.
      On 02 March 1919, he married Giulia Giorgietti and moved to Montecatini, where his wife was an elementary school teacher. His tender portraits of children busy studying and writing belong to this period. After two years, the couple returned to Viareggio. From 1920 to 1922 Viani regularly exhibited his work in Bologna, Lucca and Rome, started writing again and also worked on the Viareggio War Memorial, which was unveiled in July 1927. In 1924 Viani moved to Fossa dell’Abate (today’s Lido di Camaiore) where his son Franco was born the following year, after which Lorenzo left again for Paris. In 1928 he suffered the first of many asthma attacks that would plague him with varying degrees of severity for the rest of his life. This was a happy time for Viani in terms of his career: he was well known all over Italy and his exhibits became a magnet for learned and international art lovers.
      In 1933 he spent a long period of time in the psychiatric hospital of Nozano, near Lucca, after a serious bout of asthma. Throughout these dark months of pain and suffering Viani continued his work, producing an abundance of drawings: the mental patients attracted him just as the poor people of Viareggio had. They were marginalized human beings who lived in a state of total unconsciousness, without any possibility of appeal: their mental illness made them forgotten and defenseless, and thus worthy of special attention. In 1936 he was commissioned to do a series of paintings for Ostia College. After many days of incessant work he was unable to attend the inauguration and died from a severe attack of asthma.
      His most important pictures are La consuetudine (1909), Gli zingari (1912), Mimi Concetta (Madame Fleury) (1909), La signora del Crisantemo (1911), La moglie del marinaio (1915), Peritucco (1914), Il violinista (1916), La morte (1918), La ritirata di Caporetto (1918), Il filosofo (1920), Persa la vistaaaa, persa la vitaaaa (1922), La vergine pazza (1930), La Duchessa (1934), Deposizione (1936), Ai confini della mente, L' ossesso, Il dittatore, Il folle, Vecchio marinaio, Viareggio in maschera.
— Nacido en Viareggio. Hacia finales del siglo comparte las ideas políticas anarquistas y vive en la más absoluta miseria. En 1900, se inscribe en el Instituto de Arte Passaglia de Luca; en 1904 estudia en la Escuela Libre de la Academia de Bellas Artes de Florencia, donde estudia bajo la dirección de Fattori. En estos años lee mucho y admira la obra de los artistas del quattrocento italiano. En 1907, expone algunos dibujos en la Bienal de Venecia, donde descubre la obra de Laermans y de Boccioni; en ese mismo año participa con dibujos satíricos en la revista anticlerical La Fionda.
      En 1908, viaja a París donde tiene la oportunidad de ver una retrospectiva de Van Gogh y en 1909, participa con algunas obras en el Salón de Otoño; hacia 1911, se relaciona intensamente con los círculos intelectuales anarquistas de París y pinta cartones con el tema de la guerra. Su primera gran exposición es en 1915 en el Palazzo delle Aste de Milán, donde muestra seiscientas veinticuatro obras, y obtiene un importante éxito. En 1927, inicia sus colaboraciones con el periódico Corriere Della Sera y dirige la revista Riviera Versiliese; realiza el Monumento a los Caídos de Viareggio, que suscita una gran polémica. A principios de los años treinta participa en las veladas futuristas y publica poemas. En 1936, recibe el encargo de pintar los frescos del Colegio IV de Noviembre en el Lido de Roma; muere ese mismo año víctima del asma.
Self-Portrait (367x371pix, 43kb)
La befana della bimba povera (1922; 501x340pix, 12kb)
Il pescatore (458x326pix, 31kb)
^ Died on 01 November 1546: Giulio Pippi Romano di Pietro de 'Gianuzzi, Italian Mannerist painter and architect.
— He was born Giulio Pippi in Rome in 1499 and became the chief student of the Italian painter Raphael, whom he assisted in many of the latter's finest works. After the death of Raphael, Romano completed the frescoes Battle of Constantine and Apparition of the Cross in the Vatican Palace, Rome. He inherited a portion of Raphael's wealth, including his works of art, and succeeded him as head of the Roman school. About 1524, Giulio accepted the invitation of Federigo Gonzaga, ruler of Mantua and patron of the arts, to carry out a series of architectural and pictorial works. The drainage of the marshes surrounding the city and its system of protection from the inundations of the Po and Mincio rivers attest to Giulio's skill as an engineer; his genius as an architect found scope in the planning and construction of the Palazzo del Tè, the cathedral, the streets, and a ducal palace. Among his works of this period are the frescoes Psyche, Icarus, and Fall of the Titans, in the Tè palace. In Bologna, he designed the facade of the Church of San Petronio. Among the best of his works is Martyrdom of Saint Stephen
— Giulio Romano's studio assistants included Francesco Primaticcio. His students included Francesco Bacchiacca, Niccolo dell'Abbate, and Brusasorci.
LINKS
Virgin with the Child _ Giulio Romano was the chief student of the Italian painter Raphael, whom he assisted in many of the latter's finest works. He inherited a portion of Raphael's wealth, including his works of art, and succeeded him as head of the Roman school. This painting clearly illustrates the influence of Raphael on the style of Giulio.
The Wedding of Psyche detail (1528, fresco).
^ Died on 01 November 1629: Hendrick Ter Brugghen (or Terbrugghen), Dutch painter, born in 1588.
—     Terbrugghen was one of the earliest and finest exponents of Caravaggism in northern Europe. Born into a Catholic family, he grew up in Utrecht, studied there with Bloemaert, then spent about a decade in Rome (1604-1614). On his return to the Netherlands he became with Honthorst the leader of Caravaggism associated with the Utrecht school. A second journey to Italy (1620) has been postulated, as his later works are generally more thoroughly Caravaggesque than his earlier ones. Terbrugghen was chiefly a religious painter, but he also produced some remarkable genre works, notably a pair of Flute Players (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Kassel, 1621), which in their subtle tonality - with dark figures placed against a light background - anticipated by a generation the achievement of painters of the Delft school such as Fabritius and Vermeer. Although he was praised by Rubens, who visited Utrecht in 1627, Terbrugghen was neglected by 18th- and 19th-century collectors and historians. The rediscovery of his sensitive and poetic paintings has been part of the reappraisal of Caravaggesque art during the 20th century.
LINKS
Democritus (1628) — Doubting Thomas (1623) — Heraclitus (1628)
The Adoration by the Magi (1619) — The Annunciation to the Virgin
The Crucifixion with the Virgin and St. John
Bagpipe Player (1624, 101x83cm) _ Hendrick ter Brugghen was a highly original painter. He was probably born in Utrecht, where he was a student of the Mannerist history painter, Abraham Bloemaert. Having learnt the basic skills of his craft in Bloemaert's workshop, he set off for an extended stay in Italy, a practice which was quite usual among Dutch artists - and especially those from the Catholic city of Utrecht - in the early seventeenth century. Ter Brugghen seems to have been based in Rome. It was a time of hectic activity and experiment: the young painter from Utrecht studied the work of the Carracci, Domenichino and Guido Reni, but the artist who was to have the most profound effect on him was Caravaggio, who fled from Rome after killing a man in 1606 and died four years later at Porto Ercole.
      Caravaggio's powerful, even shocking, naturalism and his dramatic use of bold highlights and deep shadows particularly excited the young ter Brugghen. After Caravaggio's death; his revolutionary style was adopted and developed in the direction of more decorative effects by a group of Italian followers, among them Orazio Gentileschi and Bartolomeo Manfredi. Ter Brugghen was arguably the leading member of a group of young Utrecht artists who were profoundly influenced by the work of Caravaggio and his Italian followers: they have been collectively christened the Dutch Caravaggisti. Gerrit van Honthorst and Dirk van Baburen followed the same route as ter Brugghen and had the same transforming experience. Together they fashioned a new type of history painting which was to change the course of large-scale narrative painting in the north and, in particular, affect Rembrandt's treatment of biblical subjects.
      Ter Brugghen was the first of the Dutch Garavaggisti to return home and bring the gospel of Caravaggism to the Netherlands: he was back in Utrecht by 1615. He died young, in 1629, but in the years after his return from Italy he developed a striking and original manner of painting and range of subject-matter. Following the example of Gentileschi and Manfredi, he painted half-length figures of drinkers and musicians, of which the Bagpipe Player is an outstanding example. He also painted more ambitious multifigured secular subjects, such as The Concert (London, National Gallery) of about 1626, based on Italian Caravaggesque prototypes. In The Concert he brings to an existing format of half-length figures gathered together around a flickering candle, a striking fluency in modelling the soft edges of his forms and a remarkable subtlety of palette - which includes light blues, lemon, purple and cerise.
Boy Lighting a Pipe (1623, 68x55cm) _ A pleasant-looking young soldier from the military barracks, sword on arm, is lighting his pipe from a candle which he has lifted out of the sconce in front of him. Two bright spheres of light are thrown over his face and shirt. The subject chosen by the artist is so simple, and at first sight so unambitious, that a contemporary viewer accustomed to formulas may well have sought for some abstruse meaning hidden beneath the apparent slightness of the theme. But the work demands no interpretation, only an appreciation of the episode depicted, and this simplicity is of pioneer significance in the development of genre painting. We learn from this picture that in Dutch genre it was not only everyday objects that came to be acceptable as subjects for paintings but also the unconscious and instinctive actions of men and women. Terbrugghen was a Dutch follower of Caravaggio and this is manifested by this painting, too.
A Laughing Bravo with a Bass Viol and a Glass (1625, 105x85cm) _ The artist worked mainly in Utrecht, but spent about ten years in Rome from about 1604-1614 where, like several other Dutch painters, he became versed in the style and subject matter of Caravaggio and his followers. Ter Brugghen was, in fact, the first of the Dutch artists to return to the north where, together with Baburen and Honthorst, he helped to establish the tenebrist style. Although no doubt based on one of the itinerant musicians who travelled in the Netherlands at the beginning of the seventeenth century, the subject is most probably an allegory of the senses of Hearing (the bass viol) and Taste (the glass). It is also possible that the artist is illustrating the theme of vanitas whereby the brevity of song is equated with a short life-span. A number of paintings in ter Brugghen's oeuvre explore such subjects, but only one other (known through a copy) includes a bass viol. On the other hand, the model, the vividly colored costume and the cap are standard studio properties used by the artist during the 1620s. Benedict Nicolson noted the forced smile of the sitter, comparing it to 'that thrown by the politician to his constituents' in 'a joyless wish to please'. The breadth of the handling of the paint contrasts with the drawing which is most fastidious. An important element, however, is the treatment of the light, which in its emotive power is decidedly Caravaggesque, but in its descriptive qualities anticipates later seventeenth-century Dutch painting. The painting is signed upper left: HTBrugghen fecit 1625 [HTB in monogram]. Purchased by Charles I and sold after his execution, the picture was in the possession of Sir Peter Lely at the time of the Restoration and was returned to the Royal Collection. It was cleaned in 1989.
The Concert (1626, 102x83cm) _ This is one of the rare paintings of artist in which the scene is lit by artificial light. The painting is signed and dated on the sheet music.
Duet (1628, 101x81cm) _ Engravings portraying young men playing lutes in the company of young women were created with various texts during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As part of a series depicting the five senses, such couples may have referred to Hearing; they may also have symbolized sanguine temperament, or, in some cases, "earth" from among the four elements, or the age of twenty. In each case, however, the common factors are youth, earthiness and full-bloodedness; these have been depicted since the Middle Ages, and all had to do with love: "Learn to play the lute and the spinet, The strings can caress the heart!" advised the poet Jacob Westerbaen (Gedichte II, The Hague, 1672). The lute often appeared on the cover illustration of hymnbooks as an erotic symbol, or as the attribute of Voluptas or Luxuria. It is thus very likely that the ornamental, double-stringed lute with its large rosette appears in ter Brugghen's painting to express a similar idea.
      In the painting of this Caravaggist artist from Utrecht the singing youths are characterized by exuberant gaiety, fully matured bodies and bright colors. The unusually colorful clothes, however, do not seem to be in accord with the fashions of the contemporary Dutch bourgeoisie. They resemble the dress of Burgundian actors from the previous century; thus they emphasize the "Bohemian" character of the two figures. The feathered beret, which was commonly used to indicate sensuality, bears special attention. The low-cut dress of the young woman is also a hint: an Amsterdam iconographic text from the sixteenth century prescribes a similar dress to express indecency. This must have been intended as a moralizing element in this otherwise rather tempting, happy scene, as these frivolous-looking paintings were always created with the aim of teaching a moral lesson.
Boy Playing Flute (1621)
The Flute Player (1621, 72x56cm) _ Terbrugghen's two half-length pictures of flute players at Kassel are outstanding examples of the breadth, force and beauty of his pictorial manner. They are also among earliest life-size, half-length Dutch paintings of musicians, a motif that quickly became a staple of Utrecht painters and soon entered the repertoire of other Dutch artists. Terbrugghen made more intricate pictures than the Kassel companion pieces, but he never surpassed their poetic Arcadian mood and delicacy. The effect o f the dark-shadowed flute player before a bright wall in the background is an anticipation of an essential pictorial theme of the Delft School.
Jacob Reproaching Laban (1628, 124x 158cm) _ The painting depicts the scene when Jacob accuses Laban of giving him to wife Leah instead of Rachel.
The Calling of St Matthew (1621, 102x137cm) _ Terbrugghen was the most important member of the Dutch Utrecht school. He spent ten years in Italy as a young man and he probably met there Caravaggio who exerted a great influence on him. His extant works were executed in Utrecht after returning from Italy. Sometimes he repeated the subjects of Caravaggio, like in the Calling of St. Matthew.
      The relation to Caravaggio is unmistakable but it is not a slavish imitation. The life-size figures are half-length instead of full-length, and the large empty space in Caravaggio's version at S. Luigi, where the drama of Christ calling the tax-collector to his vocation echoes in the shadows above the figures, has been eliminated. The composition has also been reversed; Christ and his follower appear to the left as dark figures in the foreground. The main accent is on the brightly illuminated group on the right. Terbrugghen's original talent and old Netherlandish realism successfully merge here with Caravaggesque motifs and elements. The mercenary soldier pointing to the money on the table shows a profile which marks him as a descendant of types popularized by early sixteenth century Flemish artists, and the six gesticulating hands in the centre are also a survival of an older tradition.
      Terbrugghen's debt to Caravaggio is seen most clearly in the manner of illumination. The light enters in a broad beam, and as usual in Terbrugghen's work, from the left. However, the quality of the light is original; it is lighter, richer, and more atmospheric than Caravaggio's, which seldom has the brightness or softness of real daylight.
The Calling of St Matthew (1616, 106x128cm) _ This is an early version of the subject painted by the artist.
St Sebastian Tended by Irene and her Maid (1625) _ Terbrugghen's ability to combine exquisite painterly effects with restrained emotion accounts for the power of his masterpiece, St Sebastian Tended by Irene and her Maid. The women tenderly and efficiently go about their business of trying to save the life of the saint, who has been pierced with arrows and left for dead. The large, full forms of the group have been knit together into a magnificent design, and what could have been hard and sculptural is remarkably softened by the cool silvery light which plays over Sebastian's half-dead. olive-grey body as well as the reds, creamy whites, and plum colors worn by the women who tend the saint.
^ Born on 01 November 1889: Hannah Höch, German Dadaist painter who died on 31 May 1978.
— Hannah Höch was born in Gotha. In 1912 she began her studies at the School of Arts and Crafts in Berlin-Charlottenburg, where she attended Harold Bengen's class in glass design. In 1915 she enrolled in painting classes at the State Museum for Arts and Crafts and in the same year she met Raoul Hausmann, with whom she formed a close relationship. Both were central figures of the Dada group in Berlin and developed the principle of photomontage. In 1919 she was represented in the First International Dada Fair in Berlin and in 1921 participated in an Anti-Dada-Merz Tour, which took her to Prague with Hausmann and Helma and Kurt Schwitters. After parting with Hausman she worked with Hans Arp and Kurt Schwitters, contributing to the latter's Merz-Bau in 1922. From 1926 to 1929 she lived with the Dutch author til Brugman in The Hague, where she had close connections with the De Stijl movement. She held her first solo exhibition at Galerie de Bron, The Hague, in 1929 and in the same year returned to Berlin where she took part in the Werkbund exhibition 'Film und foto' in Stuttgart. A solo exhibition of photomontages and watercolors, planned to take place at the Bauhaus in Dessau in 1932, was cancelled when the Bauhaus was closed down. She survived the Nazi period living in seclusion in a northern suburb of Berlin. A retrospective of her work was held at the Nationalgalerie, Berlin, and at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville, Paris, in 1976. Höch died in Berlin.
LINKS
Greeting Card
Imaginäre Brücke (1926, 65x72cm; 548x600pix, 106kb) _ In exhibitions held since the 1960s this painting has usually appeared with the simple descriptive title Zwei Köpfe. However, the painting was originally titled Imaginaire Brücke when it was first exhibited at the Grosse Berliner Kunstausstellung, Berlin, in 1926, and in Hoch's first solo exhibition at Galerie de Bron, The Hague, in 1929. The original title seems far more appropriate to the personal imagery of the painting. The two heads in Imaginary Bridge have the appearance of anonymous wooden mannequins. There are certain peculiarities about these heads, however, such as the brow of the male head folding over the long, straight nose, and the bobbed haircut of the female head, which invite us to identify them as caricatures of the artist herself and Raoul Hausmann [1886-1971], with whom she had a stormy personal relationship from 1915 until 1922-23. Hausmann made the mannequin head a central image of his own work. In his sculpture The spirit of our times (1919) Hausmann attached various gadgets to a real wooden mannequin head to express the robotic existence he perceived in contemporary city-dwellers. In his drawing Portrait of Felixmüller (1920), he drew the head of the artist as if reduced to mannequin impersonality, sitting on a square base exactly like those seen in Imaginary bridge. For Hausmann the mannequin head was a vehicle for satire. In Imaginary bridge Höch seems to have taken over Hausmann's satirical image and turned it back on its author, perhaps to describe an uneasy personal confrontation. According to the artist's niece, Eva-Maria Rossner: The meaning of the painting clearly points to Hannah Höch's unfulfilled wish to have a child by Raoul Hausmann [a wish apparently thwarted by the fact that Hausmann was already married]. On Hausmann's neck in the painting we see the image of a naked woman who stands screaming at a man who moves hastily away. This refers to Hausmann's wife who is openly outraged that he is fleeing from her to go to Hannah Höch. The question mark [also painted on Hausmann's head] presumably points to the fact that Hausmann does not know what to do. Between the heads is seen the longed for child across the imaginary bridge; the sun's rays emanating from Hausmann penetrate deeply into Höch's head. From the head of Hannah Höch, fir trees emerge, a symbol of her birthplace, the Thüringer Wald.
Schnitt mit dem Küchenmesser Dada durch die letzte Weimarer Bierbauch-Kulturepoche Deutschlands (1919; 800x631pix, 119kb)
Die Treppe (1926, 489x657pix, 162kb) — Die Mücke ist tot (1922; 550x467pix, 121kb)
Fotomontage aus der Sammlung: “Aus einem ethnographischen Museum” (1929; 599x399pix, 84kb)
^ Buried on 01 November 1670: Salomon van Ruysdael (or Ruisdael), Dutch Baroque landscape painter, born in 1600.
— Born Salomon de Gooyer (Goyer) in Naarden in Gooiland, the artist was received into the Haarlem guild in 1623 under that name. Subsequently, however, he took the name Ruysdael (sometimes signed "Ruyesdael"), derived from Castle Ruisdael (Ruisschendaal), a landmark near his father's hometown. In 1628, two years after his first extant dated painting, Salomon is already noted as an accomplished landscapist in the writings of the Haarlem chrocicler Samuel van Ampzig. Salomon would spend his entire artistic career in Haarlem, the site of many early innovations in the development of Dutch naturalistic landscape painting. Of particular importance to his early style was the work of Esaias van de Velde, who had worked in Haarlem from 1609 to 1618. Van de Velde's unaffected views of typically Dutch terrain formed the basis of the work of Ruysdael, Jan van Goyen (who had been a student of Van de Velde), and Pieter de Molijn (whose own influence is discernible in Salomon's work). Together these three younger artists were the principal exponents of Dutch tonal landscape painting. Not until the 1640s did the monochromatic color scheme characteristic of this phase give way to a more colorful and compositionally classical period, from which date Ruysdael's best works. Settling on river scenery as his primary subject, Salomon varied his compositions with great skill, focusing on the effects of light and atmosphere which change and qualify the natural components of his paintings: land, water, and foliage, all placed beneath a cloud-filled sky. Salomon van Ruysdael, a Mennonite, died in 1670 and was buried in Saint Bavo's Church in his adopted Haarlem. Salomon was the uncle of the more famous Jacob van Ruisdael and the father of Jacob Salomonsz. van Ruysdael, who was also a landscape artist.
— He was originally surnamed de Goyer, as was his brother Isaak, also a painter and the father of the better known landscapist Jacob Isaackszoon van Ruisdael [1628-1692]. Salomon entered the Haarlem Guild of Saint Luke in 1628. His first dated pictures are from 1627. He spent his whole life in Haarlem, where he was head of the guild in 1648. Van Ruysdael's early works - winter scenes - continue the tradition of Esaias van de Velde, and his early landscapes are based on the color schemes and compositions of Pieter Molyn; it has been suggested that he may have studied with either or both painters. At least by 1628 he is mentioned as a landscape painter of Haarlem. Unlike certain other landscape painters of the period, his nephew among them, van Ruysdael generally painted actual landscapes of such places as Arnhem, Dordrecht, and Utrecht, sometimes combining motifs from different places in one picture. His early river landscapes of the 1630s, which are characterized by diagonal compositions of the dunes, are similar in composition and use of color to the celebrated river scenes of his contemporary Jan van Goyen. Experts agree that van Ruysdael's most powerful work was done after 1645. His command of the landscape elements - great trees anchoring one side of the composition, distant views that draw the eye, and a vast expanse of sky and clouds - seems more assured, and his use of color for effect more brilliant. From that point van Ruysdael became increasingly interested in light effects and decorative elements in his compositions. Critics have speculated that his change of style was in part owing to the influence of several Dutch painters (such as Jan Both) who were returning to Holland from study in Italy. Many of van Ruysdael's later works are monumental in format and design, and they exhibit a masterly rendering of atmospheric effects. Though his landscapes are most characteristic of his work, between 1659 and 1662 van Ruysdael also painted a number of excellent still-lifes of game. His son Jacob Salomonszoon [1635-1681] was also a landscape artist.
LINKS
Rivercape with a Ferry
(1656, 105x135cm; main detail 889x1186pix, 95kb— EXPAND to full picture 1568x2000pix, 281kb)
— a different Riverscape with Ferry (1649) It was in the 1630s that Ruysdael, like van Goyen, discovered the picturesque beauty of river scenes, and he rivals van Goyen in his fine tonal treatment, subduing the local colors and making us feel the moist atmosphere of Holland in nearly monochromatic harmonies.
River View near Deventer (1645)
River View of Nijmegen with the Valkhof (1648, 75x104 cm; quarter size 139kb _ ZOOM to half size 561kb _ ZOOM++ to full size 2878kb, a long download perhaps, but then you get to see all the fine detail of aging cracks in the paint)
Tavern with May tree (1664, 80x111cm) _ detail
Halt at an Inn (1649, 91x136cm) _ detail
Tower at the Road (66x81cm)
River Scene (1632, 34x51cm) — a different River Scene (1660)
View of Deventer seen from the northwest (1657, 52x76 cm)
A Ferry Boat near Arnheim (1651, 89x116cm)
River Scene with Farmstead (1647, 70x92cm; 772x1031pix)
The Crossing at Nijmegen (1647, 70x89 cm) — View of Egmond aan Zee (1640)
After the Rain (1631) — Seascape — Landscape detail (1646, 62x89cm)
Still Life with a Turkey (1661, 112x85cm)

Died on a 01 November:


^ 1968 Léopold Survage (or Sturzwage), Russian painter, designer, and illustrator, born on 31 July 1879. — [c'est quoi un survage? un super-sauvage? un survivant sauvage?] — He was directed to enter the piano factory operated by his Finnish father, and besides learning the piano he took a commercial diploma in 1897. After becoming severely ill at the age of 22, he rethought his career and entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Introduced to the modern movement through the collections of Sergey Shchukin and Ivan Morosov, he joined the ranks of the Moscow avant-garde and by 1906 was close to the circle associated with the magazine Zolotoye runo (see GOLDEN FLEECE). He also met Alexander Archipenko, exhibiting with him in the company of David Burlyuk, Vladimir Burlyuk, Mikhail Larionov and Natal’ya Goncharova. With Hélène Moniuschko, whom he subsequently married, he travelled to Western Europe, visiting Paris in July 1908. The following August the couple settled in Paris, where Survage worked as a piano tuner and briefly attended the short-lived school run by Henri Matisse. He exhibited with the Jack of Diamonds group in Moscow in late 1910, but he first showed his work in France (at the urging of Archipenko) only in the Salon d’Automne of 1911. — Homme dans la ville (1917, 73x60cm) — Deux Hommes et un Cheval (dessin original à la mine de plomb, 27x21cm) [they want $2000 for this scribble. Has to be seen to be believed]

1912 John Emms, British artist born on 21 April 1843.

1804 Anton Wilhelm Tischbein, German portrait painter born on 01 March 1730. He was a court painter in Hanau. — A relative of Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein [15 Feb 1751 – 26 Jun 1829] and Johann-Friedrich-August Tischbein [09 March 1750 – 21 Jun 1812]? — A Young Lady (77x58cm; 400x269pix) In a rocky landscape with waterfall. Holding a letter in her hands.

^ 1619 Jerome (or Hieronymous) Wierix, Antwerp engraver, born in 1553, brother of Jan Wierix [1549-1618] and Anton Wierix II [1557 – 11 March 1604 bur.]. At the death of their father Anton Wierix I [1522–1572], one of the guardians to whom Jerome was entrusted was Jerome Manacker, who was probably a close relative of the goldsmith of the same name (fl Antwerp, 1520–1556). Jerome Wierix also began his training by making engravings after Dürer, an activity in which he showed himself to be more precocious than his older brother. He joined Christoph Plantin in 1570 and, like his brother, became a master in 1572–1573. In 1574 Plantin paid a fine for Jerome, who had been arrested drunk at night. The publisher was even more exasperated by Jerome’s lifestyle than by Jan’s, and after he had rescued Jerome from prison the next year, he decided not to continue to employ him. From 1577, the date of his first independent engraving, Jerome worked for several other publishers. Between 1577 and 1580 he made many prints for Willem van Haecht and his nephew Godevaard van Haecht [1546–1599]. These were mostly allegorical and political in theme and demonstrate a sympathy for those rebelling against the Spanish.


Born on a 01 November:


^ 1887 Laurence Stephen Lowry, English painter who died on 23 February 1976. On leaving school in 1904, he began work in Manchester as a clerk with a firm of chartered accountants, studying painting and drawing in the evenings at the Municipal College of Art (1905–1915), where he was taught by the French painter Adolphe Valette, and at Salford School of Art (1915–1925). In 1910 he became a rent collector and clerk with the Pall Mall Property Company in Manchester; he remained a full-time employee and eventually chief cashier until his retirement in 1952. Despite his unusually long period as an art student, he regarded himself as self-taught. He drew inspiration from his surroundings, particularly Pendlebury, near Manchester, where he lived from 1909 to 1948. Here were the cotton mills and factories, the coal mines and back-to-back cottages, that were to become familiar in such paintings as The Pond (1950) and Industrial Landscape (1955). Lowry populated this and such neighbouring towns as Salford and Eccles with figures, at first carefully drawn, as in Salford Street Scene (1928). They were later realized in a more impressionistic way that suggested the routine movement of crowds of workers, as in Coming from the Mill (1930); an everyday street scene (e.g. An Organ Grinder, 1934); the drama of The Arrest (1927); and the festive holiday spirit in Good Friday, Daisy Nook (1946) — LINKSThe Lake (1937, 43x53cm) _ Although entitled The Lake, there is nothing picturesque about this blighted, dismal landscape. Lowry shows us a bleak view of his native Salford across a poisoned stretch of water, littered with sunken boats, broken jetties and mud-banks. Smoke pours from the many factory chimneys to mix with the band of smog, hanging over the city like a pall. The black, funereal aspect of this polluted weather effect is emphasised by the foreground telegraph poles that look like crosses by graves. — The Fever Van (1935; 403x500pix) Lawrence Stephen Lowry is best known for his "matchstick men and women", paintings of people in the industrial towns of the north of England. He grew up in Stretford, now a suburb of Manchester, and most of his work portrays desolate urban landscapes peopled by anonymous figures. The Fever Van is one of the many views of Salford painted by Lowry. It is, however, a distinctive work. While most of his paintings of the urban scene are predominantly atmospheric, here there is a story at the heart of the picture. An ambulance has drawn up outside a house to collect a fever patient. Lowry has chosen to show the scene from a distance, as if he is trying to suggest that such events are part of every day life in the town. The painting conveys the pain and suffering of not just the victim, but of the community as a whole.

1853 Maurice Leloir, French artist who died on 07 October 1940.

1844 Olga Wisinger-Florian, Austrian artist who died on 7 February 1926.

^ 1781 Joseph Karl Stieler, German painter who died on 09 April 1858. — [Was Stieler a stealer from whom other artists were careful to keep their best innovative ideas?] — In 1798 he studied under Christoph Fesel [1737–1805] in Würzburg and in 1800 under Heinrich Füger [1751-1818] in Vienna, where his style was strongly influenced by English portraiture. After he studied in Paris (1807-1808) under François Gérard [04 May 1770 – 11 Jan 1837] the influence of Neoclassicism became apparent in his work. He visited Italy in 1809, 1810 and 1812 to do commissioned portraits for various patrons, among them Prince Eugène de Beauharnais (1809) and Joachim Murat, King of Naples (reg. 1808–15). In 1812 Stieler went to Munich where he did work for middle-class clients, the nobility and the royal family of Bavaria (e.g. the portrait of Maximilian I Joseph, 1816). In 1820 he was appointed court painter to Ludwig I, King of Bavaria (reg 1825–48), and painted several portraits of him. In 1823 he helped co-found the Kunstverein in Munich. He was one of the most important portrait painters in the Neoclassical style, specializing particularly in studies of women, as seen in the 36 portraits commissioned by Ludwig I for the Schönheitsgalerie (1827–1842). In his portraits for the middle classes and for the court he devised certain peculiarities of form. He painted various members of the royal houses of Austria, Prussia and Sweden, as well as members of the nobility in the duchies of Saxe-Altenberg, Saxe-Coburg and Hesse. His sitters also included some of the most important figures in the political and intellectual life of Germany in the first half of the 19th century. He painted the pendant portraits of Franz Brentano and Antonie Brentano (both 1808), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1828) and Ludwig Tieck (1838), the geographer and botanist Alexander von Humboldt (1843) and the musician Ludwig van Beethoven. After 1845 the classical elements in his paintings were sometimes combined with an application of color typical of plein-air studies. He also painted genre pictures and religious scenes.

1780 Maria Margaretha van Os, Dutch fruit and flower painter who died on 17 November 1862, daughter and student of Jan van Os [bap. 23 Feb 1744 – 07 Feb 1808] and sister of Georgius van Os [20 Nov 1782 – 24 July 1861] and of Pieter Gerardus van Os [08 Oct 1776 – 28 March 1839].

1725 (infant baptism) Theresia (or Teresa) Concordia Mengs, Czech painter and teacher who died in 1806 or 1808 . From 1741 she worked in Rome and in 1765 married Anton von Maron, a student of her brother Anton Raphael Mengs [12 Mar 1728 – 29 Jun 1779]. In the same year she was elected a member of the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. She also worked in Dresden, where she was court painter to the Electors of Saxony. She specialized in miniature portraits in pastels and in painting on enamel. The pastel of The Artist’s Sister Juliane Mengs (1750) depicts the sitter wearing a frilled cap that frames her face, the plain background concentrating attention on her alert expression. A counterpart to this work is the artist’s Self-portrait (1750). Theresia Concordia also produced miniature copies after Raphael and Correggio (e.g. Night, after Correggio, 1530). In Rome she taught a number of students, among whom was Apollonie Seydelmann [1767–1846], who became a member of the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Dresden, in 1792.

Finger by Michelangelo ^ 1512 The Sixtine Chapel ceiling fresco by Michelangelo
is exhibited for the first time.

     It is a masterpiece covering 540 square meters. Michelangelo had painted the ceiling from 1508 to 1512. It had been commissioned in 1508 by Pope Julius II to depict the whole story of the Bible.
     La fresque du plafond la chapelle Sixtine est montrée au public pour la première fois. L'œuvre maîtresse de Michel-Ange est saluée par tous les contemporains. Vasari écrit : "Chacun eût l'impression d'un univers en mouvement et demeura muet d'admiration". Derrière l'admiration légitime des Italiens de goût se profile l'indignation du petit clergé allemand vis à vis d'une entreprise très coûteuse et fort peu évangélique. La bombe de Luther explosera cinq ans plus tard, jour pour jour. La fresque du Jugement Dernier sur le mur ouest, aussi par Michel-Ange, sera inaugurée le 31 octobre 1541.
     Michelangelo Buonarroti was born on 06 March 1475. He died on 18 February 1564. Michelangelo painted on the west wall of the Sistine Chapel from 1534 to 1541 the Last Judgment scene. Other parts of the Sistine chapel were painted by other artists.
;      When Michelangelo was invited to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the lower walls of it were already decorated with scenes from the lives of Moses and Christ,  executed by the Florentine and Umbrian artists Botticelli (The Temptation of Christ (1481-1482), Scenes from the Life of Moses (1481-1482), The Punishment of Korah (1481-1482)), Cosimo Rosselli, Piero di Cosimo, Domenico Ghirlandaio The Calling of St. Peter, Signorelli, Pinturicchio and Pietro Perugino The Delivery of the Keys (1482). Above these frescoes, which occupied straightforward rectangular fields, Michelangelo created his masterpiece.
        The twelve existing windows along the lateral walls of the chapel he integrated by means of twelve lunettes capped by twelve spandrels. In them he depicted ancestors of Christ:
Azor and Sadok; Josias, Jechonias and Salathiel; Ezekias, Manasses and Amon; Asa, Josaphat and Joram; Jesse, David and Solomon; Naasson; Aminadab; Salmon, Booz and Obed; Roboam and Abia; Ozias, Joatham and Achaz; Zorobabel; Abiud and Eliakim; Achim and Eliud; Jacob and Joseph; Eleazar and Matthan.

Between these he placed the large seated figures of the Prophets and Sibyls: The Prophet Zechariah,The Sibyl of Delphi, The Prophet Isiah, The Cumaean Sibyl, The Prophet Daniel, The Libyan Sibyl,The Prophet Jonah, The Persian Sibyl, The Prophet Jeremiah, The Erythraean Sibyl, The Prophet Ezekiel, The Prophet Joel.

The four corner frescoes, pendentives, are: David and Goliath; Judith and Holofernes; The Punishment of Haman; The Brazen Serpent.

        The entire central section of the ceiling he crossed by painted arches, dividing the ceiling into nine pictorial fields. The arches are supported at either end by painted columns. Between the arches Michelangelo skillfully grouped the nine central fields thus created into three triptychs: The Creation of the World, The Creation and Fall of Man, and The Story of Noah.
        The Creation of the World consists of three frescoes: The Separation of Light and Darkness, The Creation of the Sun and Moon, The Separation of Land and Water.
        The Creation and Fall of Man includes the following frescoes: The Creation of Adam, The Creation of Eve, The Fall and The Expulsion from Paradise.
        The Story of Noah consists of frescoes:  The Sacrifice of Noah, The Flood, The Drunkenness of Noah.
        He thereby organized the fields into a rhythmical sequence in which a large picture is flanked by two smaller ones, a device which dramatically emphasizes the four main scenes: The Creation of Sun and Moon, The Creation of Adam, The Fall and the Expulsion from Paradise, and The Flood.
        At the meeting of the cornices are twenty Ignudi, true living statues of young naked men, the spiritual brothers or lovers of the artist.
        The extraordinary thing about Michelangelo's design is that it is elaborated and articulated as a single unit. The groups are so framed in a system of cornices that they give the effect of enormous plaques and cameos. Yet not a single one of them is meant to stand by its own; each one is perfectly integrated into the unity of the whole.

      Michelangelo is certainly the most representative artist of the XVI century: a sculptor, painter, architect, and poet. He lived to a great age, and enjoyed great fame in his lifetime. Titian, and Venetian painting generally, was very much influenced by his vision, and he is responsible in large measure for the development of Mannerism.
            Michelangelo di Ludovico di Lionardo di Buonarroti Simoni was born in 1475; at Caprese, in Casentino. His family Buonarroti Simoni, are mentioned in the Florentine chronicles as early as the XII century. In 1488, at the age of 13, he entered the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio. Thus he came under the influence of Masaccio, because his teacher, Ghirlandaio, not only took from Masaccio ideas for sacred scenes, but actually imitated certain of his designs. After less than a year he moved to the academy set up by Lorenzo the Magnificent. From 1489 till 1492 he lived in the Palazzo Medici in Via Larga, where he could study “antique and good statues” and could meet the sophisticated humanists and writers of the Medici circle.
            Lorenzo the Magnificent died in 1492, and in 1494 the Medici were expelled from Florence. After the brief rule of the priest Savonarola, whose ascetic religion and republican ideas both influenced the young man deeply, Michelangelo left Florence and went first to Venice and then to Bologna, where he could absorb their art and culture. In 1496, he eventually came to Rome and stayed there until 1501.
            In 1499 he completed Pieta for Vatican. Christian emotion never has been more perfectly united with classical form. Returning, famous, to Florence in 1501, Michelangelo was commissioned by the new republican government to carve a colossal David, symbol of resistance and independence.
            In 1504, the Signoria of Florence commissioned Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo to paint the walls of the Grand Council Chamber in the Palazzo Vecchio, the seat of government of Florence. Leonardo worked on the Battle of Anghiari and Michelangelo on the the Battle of Cascina. Florence was immediately divided into two camps passionately supporting one or the other. Michelangelo's work did not come further than the cartoon for the picture, which also was destroyed in the civil conflict of 1512.
            In 1505 Michelangelo was summoned by the new Pope Julius II, to Rome and entrusted with the design of the pope’s tomb. The original grandiose project was never carried out. Although only 3 of the 40 life-size or larger figures were executed – Moses, Rebellious Slave (unfinished), Dying Slave – the commission dominated most of the artist's life. Victory and Crouching Boy were also carved for one of the projects of the tomb. The constantly aborted work on the tomb, ended only in 1547, 40 years and 5 revised contracts later. The final version of it is in San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome.
            In 1508 Julius transferred the artist to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Michelangelo accepted the commission, but right from the start he considered Pope Julius’ plans altogether too simple. It was something unheard of for a patron, to allow his own plans to be completely changed by an artist. In this case, moreover, the change of plan meant that the work would have an entirely different meaning from the original one.
            Since he was not very familiar with the technique of fresco, he needed the help of several Florentine painters, as well as the advice. But his ambition to produce a work that would be absolutely exceptional made it impossible for him to work with others, and in the end he did the whole thing himself. This was something quite unprecedented. Not only was the work so vast in scale, but no artist hitherto had ever undertaken a whole cycle of frescoes without an efficient group of helpers. Michelangelo helped to create his own legend, complaining of the enormous difficulties of the enterprise. In his sonnet On the Painting of the Sistine Chapel, he describes all the discomforts involved in painting a ceiling, how he hates the place, and despairs of being a painter at all.
            After the death of Julius II in 1513, the two Medici popes, Leo X (1513-1521) and Clement VII (1523-1534) preferred to keep Michelangelo well away from Rome and from tomb of Julius II, so that he could work on the Medici church of San Lorenzo in Florence. This work was aborted too, although Michelangelo was able to fulfill some of his architectural and sculptural projects in the Laurentian Library and the New Sacristy, or Medici Chapel, of San Lorenzo. The Medici Chapel fell not far short of being completed: two of the Medici tombs intended for the Chapel were installed Tomb of Giuliano de' Medici and Tomb of Lorenzo de' Medici, and for the 3rd Michelangelo had carved his last great Madonna (unfinished) when he left Florence for ever in 1534.
            It was during this period, while he was planning the tombs in the New Sacristy, that the sack of Rome occurred (1527), and when Florence was besieged shortly after, he helped in fortifying the city, which finally came back into Medici hands in 1530. While the siege was still on, he managed to get away for a while to look after his own property. He incurred the displeasure of Alessandro de Medici, who was murdered by Lorenzino in 1537. This event he commemorated in his bust of Brutus.
            In September 1534 Michelangelo settled down finally in Rome, and he was to stay there for the rest of his life, despite flattering invitations from Cosimo I Medici at Florence. The new Pope, a Farnese who took the name of Paul III, confirmed the commission that Clement VII had already given him for a large fresco of The Last Judgment over the altar of the Sistine Chapel. Far from being an extension of the ceiling, this was entirely a novel statement. Between 2 projects about 20 years had passed, full of political events and personal sorrows. The mood of The Last Judgment is somber; the vengeful naked Christ is not a figure of consolation, and even the Saved struggle painfully towards Salvation. The work was officially unveiled on 31 October 1541.
            Michelangelo's last paintings were frescos of the Cappella Paolina just beside the Sistine Chapel, completed in 1550, when he was 75 years old, The Conversion of Paul and The Crucifixion of Saint Peter.
            Michelangelo's crowning achievement, however, was architectural. In 1537-39 he received commission to reshape Campidoglio, the top of Rome's Capitoline Hill, into a squire. Although not completed until long after his death, the project was carried out essentially as he had designed it. In 1546 Michelangelo was appointed architect to St. Peter's. The cathedral was constructed according to Donato Bramante’s plan, but Michelangelo became ultimately responsible for its dome and the altar end of the building on the exterior.
            He continued in his last years to write poetry, he carved the two extraordinary, haunting and pathetic late Pietas, one of them The Rondanini Pieta in Milan, on which he was working 6 days before his death. He died on 18th of February 1564 at the age of 89 and was buried in Florence according to his wishes.
            Michelangelo's prestige stands very high nowadays, as it did in his own age. He went out of favor for a time, especially in the 17th century, on account of a general preference for the works of Raphael, Correggio and Titian; but with the early Romantics in England, and the return to the Gothic, he made an impressive return. In the 20th century the unfinished, unresolved creations of the great master evoked especially great interest, maybe because in the 20th century “the aesthetic focus becomes not simply the created art object, but the inextricable relationship of the artist's personality and his work.”

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