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ART “4”
“2”-DAY 02 February |
THE PRESENTATION
of the infant Jesus at the Temple |
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Born on 02 February 1827: Oswald
Achenbach, German painter who died on 01 February 1905.
Brother of Andreas
Achenbach. — {Many more people have an aching back than an Achenbach}
— He studied at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, as did his elder brother, the painter Andreas Achenbach [1815–1910], who was the main influence on him other than his teacher, Johann Wilhelm Schirmer. At a very early stage he began to prepare studies for landscapes in the area around Düsseldorf, sketching boulders, rocks, bushes, trees and people. From 1843 he went on many study tours, visiting Bavaria in 1843 and northern Italy and Switzerland in 1845. The Bavarian and Italian Alps stimulated him to create a unified approach to landscape painting. In such early works as Landscape (1846) his receptiveness to atmospheric values can be seen, even if the precise detail and clear articulation into foreground, middle ground, and background still clearly show his debt to Schirmer. — LINKS — Italianischer Park mit Zisterne (1850; 600x764pix _ ZOOM to 1400x1783pix) — The Bay of Naples (1884, 140x197cm) — Fishermen with the Bay of Naples and Vesuvius beyond (1877, 64x100cm) |
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Died on 02 February 1491: Martin
Schongauer (or Schöngauer), Alsatian painter and engraver
born between 1435 and 1450; son of goldsmith Caspard Schongauer and brother
of Ludwig
Schongauer [1450-1494]. — A leading figure in the art of the late Middle Ages north of the Alps, Martin Schongauer acquired during his own lifetime an influence that went far beyond the limits of the Rhine Valley. He revitalized German painting through a clever assimilation of Netherlandish art and a sense of local tradition and succeeded in combining precision and assurance of line with a strong sense of volume. From his painting of the Virgin of the Rose Bower (1473), which unites refined draftsmanship and monumentality, to his engravings, which are delicate yet convey a sense of solid form, he represents the splendid flowering of the Late Gothic style in the Upper Rhine. — Schongauer is best known for his 115 monogrammed copper engravings. He was born in Colmar, Alsace (now in France), where he spent most of his life. Most of his works are not authenticated or precisely datable. His late Gothic paintings show the strong influence of Flemish painters, especially Rogier van der Weyden. Although he painted prolifically, only a few of Schongauer's canvases have survived. Of these his masterpiece is Madonna of the Rose Arbor, also known as Virgin and Child in a Rose Garden, a monumental sensitive altarpiece, executed in 1473 for the Church of Saint Martin in Colmar. Schongauer's monogrammed copper engravings show a special richness and maturity because of his knowledge of painting. He was the first and foremost engraver of his time in northern Europe and his ornamental designs greatly influenced the development of German art, particularly the work of the later German master Albrecht Dürer. Schongauer's engravings, all of religious subjects, exhibit fine detail, economy of composition, and a greater range of light-and-shadow contrasts and textures than earlier printmakers had used. Among his best-known engravings are Death of the Virgin, one of his large, early works, and Passion of Christ, a set of 12 engravings executed later in life (circa 1477) when he had turned to work on smaller plates. — The students of Schongauer included Albrecht Dürer, Matthias Grünewald, Hans Burgkmair. — LINKS — The Large 'Road to Calvary' (1480) — The Holy Family (26x17cm) _ Schongauer was the leading master of the South German late Gothic who became artist under the influence of Rogier van der Weyden. He produced a large number of engravings and drawings and through them he exerted great influence on the young Dürer. The Holy Family shows an independent artist in spite of the Flemish character of the painting. — a different The Holy Family (26x17cm) _ Schongauer painted several small paintings representing the Holy Family, the Madonna or the Nativity; these paintings were sent to various countries (to Spain, England, Italy, France). This Holy Family belongs to this group of paintings. |
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Born on 02 February 1616: Sébastien
Bourdon, French Baroque
painter, draftsman, and engraver, who died on 08 May 1671. — Although he was one of the most successful painters of the mid-17th century in France and highly praised by the writer André Félibien, he was also widely criticized for never achieving a fixed style of his own. He began his career as an imitator of the Bamboccianti and of Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione. He later produced altarpieces in a vigorous Baroque style and portraits in the manner of Anthony van Dyck before coming under the classicizing influence of Nicolas Poussin. Towards the end of his career, in a lecture to the Académie Royale, he recommended that young artists reject uniformity of inspiration. Remarkably, he was able to give a personal flavor to his work in any style and genre. — In 1634-1637 Bourdon worked in Rome, where he developed a talent for imitating the work of other painters — Claude, Dughet, van Laer — sometimes probably with intent to deceive. He continued in this vein when he returned to France and his oeuvre is still ill-defined. From 1652 to 1654 he was court painter to Queen Christina of Sweden, of whom he did two portraits, and after his return to France he worked mainly as a portraitist, developing a more personal style in which soft tonalities and skilful play with cascading draperies create a languorous, romantic effect. — Nicolas-Pierre Loir and Pierre Mosnier were students of Bourdon. — LINKS — Moses Defending the Daughters of Jethro (107x137cm; 960x1219pix, 656kb _ ZOOM to 1796x2280pix, 2437kb) — Landscape with Shepherd Leading his Flock (1650, 49x62cm; 3/10 size, 77kb _ ZOOM to 3/5 size, 345kb) — Le Massacre des Saints Innocents (1651; 600x888pix _ ZOOM to 1400x2072pix) — Bacchus and Ceres with Nymphs and Satyrs (1654, 51x77cm) _ Bourdon, a talented imitator of other painters, took several details from Titian's Bacchanal. — The Beggars (1639, 49x65cm) _ Bourdon was the one French painter who came under the influence of Poussin in Rome but who also retained his individuality. He is one of the few French painters of the 17th century who was equally adept at portrait, landscape, mythological and genre painting.. This versatility, noticed by his contemporaries, has meant that only in recent years have a number of his pictures been identified. His mythological pictures are confused with those of other Poussin followers, his landscapes with those of Dughet, and his genre pictures with those of the Netherlandish Bamboccianti. — Queen Christina of Sweden (72x58cm) _ Bourdon went to Sweden in 1652, where he entered the service of that redoubtable monarch Queen Christina, who eventually gave up politics for art. During his years in Sweden, Bourdon mostly executed portraits, characterized by their elegance and subtlety. They are usually bust-length with the face slightly turned, a type of portrait that was to be extremely influential on the next generation of painters, especially Le Brun and Mignard, and a whole host of more minor portraitists. In this portrait the informality of the treatment of the sitter is striking. — Queen Christina of Sweden on Horseback (1653, 383x291cm) _ The painting was presented by Queen Christina of Sweden to Philip IV of Spain. — Portrait of a Man (105x65cm) _ In Rome the young Bourdon was exposed to some of the greatest portraits of the Renaissance in the collections there, as well as to the constant experiments of artists as diverse as Bernini, Lanfranco and Domenichino, who all painted portraits. from all these influences Bourdon compounded his own style, which inevitably became a formula, but a successful one. He often painted his sitters three-quarters on, in a soft and even light, and preferred waist-length portraits and a feeling of relative informality. With his curious mixture of Italian influences, Bourdon set the style for middle-class French portraiture for almost the rest of the century. One of the best examples is this Portrait of a Man , which is a "tour de force" of subtle modeling and lighting. Indeed, almost all the surviving middle-class portraits of the time in France, that are not by Philippe de Champaigne and his followers, copy this type. The sitter of this portrait is unknown. — The Finding of Moses (1650, 120x173cm) _ In representing this Biblical tale of compassion for the helpless, the artist, concerned with providing a historically accurate setting, has included palm trees and ancient temples in the background landscape. Trained primarily in Rome, Bourdon spent most of his successful career in Paris and Stockholm, where he was court painter to the Queen of Sweden. An eclectic, he worked in a variety of contemporary styles and here the artist has adapted and elaborated a composition by Poussin. The translucent color is, however, unique to Bourdon and presages the lighter hues of the early 18th century. — A Scene from Roman History (1645, 145x197cm) _ It is assumed that the scene depicts Antony and Cleopatra. — The Selling of Joseph into Slavery (1637) — Potare Sitientes (engraving 43x58cm _ ZOOM to) |
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Died on 02 (03?) February 1776: Francis
Hayman, English painter and illustrator born in 1708. — He was in London at the age of 10, and from 1718 until about 1725 he was apprenticed to Robert Brown [–1753], a decorative painter. From 1732 Hayman was employed as a scene painter at Goodman’s Fields Theatre, where he painted allegorical works such as The King Attended by Peace, with Liberty and Justice Trampling on Tyranny and Oppression on the pit ceiling (destr.). He moved to Drury Lane Theatre in 1736, shortly before the Licensing Act closed Goodman’s Fields. At Drury Lane he painted scenery for Thomas Arne’s masque The Fall of Phaeton (1736) and was praised for his naturalistic landscapes. From the late 1730s he began accepting commissions for portraits and conversation pieces. His success in the field of portraiture rested on the dearth of good portrait painters in England at the time and his exploitation of a growing middle-class clientele. Hayman painted portraits of doctors, literary men and actors. These range from distinguished single figures such as Dr Charles Chauncey (1747) to informal groups such as Samuel Richardson and his Family (1741), while David Garrick and Mrs Pritchard in ‘The Suspicious Husband’ (1747) is one of the earliest examples of the theatrical conversation piece in England. For all his success, Hayman’s portraits are often stolid and uninspired, relying on repetitious facial formulae and only occasionally exhibiting a refreshing informality. — Thomas Gainsborough was an assistant of Hayman. Mason Chamberlin and Nathaniel Dance-Holland were students of Hayman. — portrait of Hayman — LINKS — Running Scared (1842, 93x144cm) — The Wrestling Scene from As You Like It (1742, 53x92cm) _ This picture illustrates, in As You Like It of Shakespeare, the moment towards the end of Act I, Scene II, when Orlando throws Charles, the Duke’s wrestler, to the ground, watched by Duke Frederick, Rosalind, and Celia. The horizontal format of the picture is similar to that of the large narrative scenes that Hayman painted around this time to decorate the supper boxes at Vauxhall Gardens. This picture, which is too small to have served such a purpose may, however, have been produced as a demonstration piece, quite probably made for Jonathan Tyers, the proprietor of Vauxhall Gardens. — See-Saw (1742, 139x241cm) _ This is one of the few surviving panels painted by Hayman and his assistants between 1738 and 1760 to decorate the supper boxes at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. The idea of using Vauxhall for the public display of contemporary paintings was Hogarth’s. To thank him, Vauxhall’s proprietor, Jonathan Tyers, gave to Hogarth a perpetual free entry ticket. The panels, which took their style from light-hearted decorative French engravings of the 1730s, were one of the great attractions of this fashionable venue and contributed greatly to the spread of French Rococo taste in England. — Thomas Nuthall and his Friend Hambleton Custance (1748, 71x91cm) _ Two wealthy Norfolk squires are resting in a country interior after a day's shooting. On the left is Hambleton Custance [1715-1757] of Weston, who was about to marry a local heiress; his festive garb and bird-in-hand pose may refer to this fact. On the right is Thomas Nuthall [1715-1775], solicitor to the East India Company. The suspicion that he might be shown here as the unsuccessful suitor comforted by his dog is reinforced by the fact that he remained single until he married his friend's widow in 1757. Nuthall amassed great wealth through many official posts and had himself painted frequently. |
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Born on 02 (or 18?) February 1602:
Michelangelo Cerquozzi “delle Battaglie”,
, Italian painter who died on 06 April 1660 (or in 1679?). — He was a painter of bambocciate (low-life subjects), battles, small religious and mythological works, and still-lifes. He was born of Roman parents, baptized in the parish of San Lorenzo in Lucina and spent his entire life in his native city. A member of the Accademia di S Luca since 1634, Cerquozzi attended meetings of the society as late as 1652. His friends included Domenico Viola, Pietro da Cortona and Giacinto Brandi. More significant were his associations with foreign residents in Rome. According to Baldinucci, Cerquozzi had special affection for the Spanish, owing to the patronage he received from the major-domo of the Spanish Embassy as a youth, and would often don Spanish attire as a sign of his sentiment. His Spanish connections may partly account for the many commissions he later received from patrons identified with Rome’s pro-Spanish political faction. Cerquozzi enjoyed equally good rapport with northern European residents of Rome, including the Dutchman Pieter van Laer. He is documented as having quartered with artists from beyond the Alps, including Paulus Bor and Cornelis Bloemaert, for the bulk of his career. His contacts with Dutch and Flemish painters living in his native city profoundly affected his artistic development. — LINKS — Dance in the Trattoria (1850; 600x813pix, 153kb _ ZOOM to 1400x1898pix, 358kb) — View in the Roman Forum (1657, 130x105cm; 960x777pix, 436kb _ ZOOM to 2250x1820pix, 2577kb) collaboration with Viviano Codazzio. — Rural Scene (1646, 130x97cm; 1047x750pix, 131kb) _ Collaboration with Giovanni Angelo “Angeluccio”, another bambocciante, who painted the landscape; Cerquozzi painted the figures.y of light and shadow. The majority of Angeluccio's collaborations were with Cerquozzi. — Figures in a Tree-lined Avenue (1646, 130x97cm; 1032k750pix, 144kb) _ Another collaboration with landscapist Angeluccio. |
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Buried on 02 February 1640: Hendrick Corneliszoon Vroom,
Haarlem painter and draftsman, born in 1563, who initiated the Dutch 17th-century
tradition of marine painting. — {There is no basis for the story that,
in the days when surnames were barely coming into use, one of his ancestors
belonged to a wealthy but surnameless family in which each son had his own
numbered room, resulting in the name Vroom for him, and Iroom, IIroom, IIIroom,
IVroom, and VIroom for his brothers who, unlike him, did not have descendants
noted in history.} — Son of sculptor and ceramicist Cornelis Hendrickszoon Vroom I {not to be confused with Iroom V, who is not known to history}; and father of painters Cornelis Hendrikzoon Vroom II [1591 – 16 Sep 1661], Frederick Hendrikzoon Vroom II [1600 – 16 Sep 1667], and Jacob Vroom I. — By his own account, Hendrick Corneliszoon received his early training in Delft, home of his mother’s family. Hendrick’s stepfather, like his father a ceramic artist, forced him to work as a decorator of ceramic vessels, which caused the young artist to leave home and embark on extensive travels in Spain and Italy. After working for ecclesiastical patrons in Florence and Rome, he was employed for at least two years (1585–1587) by Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici, who in October 1587 succeeded Francesco I as Grand Duke of Tuscany. Ferdinando’s keen interest in ships and the navy seems to have been a determining factor in Vroom’s choice of subject-matter. According to Lanzi, he was known in Rome as ‘Lo Spagnolo’ (since he had arrived there from Spain). Among his earliest works may be a group of marine paintings attributed to him. His friendship in Rome with Paul Bril, mentioned by van Mander, had no effect on Hendrick’s painting style, but Bril’s influence is discernible in a group of landscape drawings, apparently produced in the Rhône region of France, where the artist stopped on his return journey from Italy. — The students of Vroom included Jan Porcellis and Cornelis Claeszoon van Wieringen. — LINKS — Battle of Haarlemmermeer, 26 May 1573 (1621, 190x268cm) _ On the inland lake of Haarlemmermeer the Dutch and Spanish navies meet in battle. It is in the middle of the Dutch Revolt against Spain. Much later, the battle is painted by Vroom. The Spanish ships — identified by the flags with a red cross — are sailing before the wind from the right. Meanwhile, the ships of the Sea Beggars are approaching from the left. They were badly equipped and were eventually forced to retreat. That battle occurs during the Eighty Years War (1568-1648) in which the Dutch fought off Spanish rule and which led to the foundation of the Dutch Republic, which comprised the seven northern United Provinces of the Netherlands (Friesland, Gelderland, Groningen, Holland, Overijssel, Utrecht, Zeeland), the Southern Netherlands remaining loyal to the Spanish king. The division of the Netherlands also led to a religious split. While the south remained Catholic, the northern provinces tolerated different denominations, with the Protestant Dutch Reformed Church as the official church of the Republic. — Dutch Ships Ramming Spanish Galleys off the Flemish Coast in October 1602 (118x146cm) _ In 1602 Spanish ships attempted to enter the Southern Netherlandish harbors, attacking the Dutch naval and mercantile fleet. In coastal waters their manoeuvrable galleys had the advantage, being powered by slaves and prisoners rather than the changeable wind. On 26 June of that year, a message reached the States General from England warning of the approach of another fleet of galleys. In combination with the English, who chased the Spanish ships, the Dutch managed to fend off the attack. The Lucera was rammed by Gerbrandt Jansz. Sael's vessel and Rear Admiral Johan Adriaensz. Cant's ship battered the Padilla. Four other ships were put out of action, although these made it to the Flemish coast. In a second encounter in 1603, the last of the galleys were taken out. — The Arrival at Vlissingen of the Elector Palatinate Frederick V (1632, 203x409cm; 1298x618pix, 127kb) _ Marine painting, stylistically a branch of landscape painting, had a significance for the Dutch public since Holland's wealth and power largely depended on its sea-borne trade.. Probably the first artist to establish himself as a specialist was Hendrick Cornelisz. Vroom. This is a characteristic painting by him. It was commissioned in 1632 by the City of Haarlem to commemorate the Elector's visit to the Republic in 1613 upon his return from England, where he married Elisabeth, the daughter of James I. It is a painting full of detail, mainly portraits of ships as they are about to anchor in the roads off Vlissingen (Flushing), which is shown on the horizon. Vroom has chosen a high viewpoint, to permit a broad and clear view; the little waves are painted with mechanical regularity. _ detail (950x869, 141kb) showing the Prince Royal, flying the white flag with the arms of the English royal standard, arriving with the the royal couple on board. — Battle of Gibraltar (770x1105pix, 150kb) _ Hendrick Vroom has been rightly called the founder of European marine painting. To be sure, artists before Vroom painted marine pictures but Vroom was the first to specialize in this branch of painting. His pictures, which are usually large and depict historical maritime events, were primarily portraits of ships. Subjects that were a stimulus to patriotism as well as historical naval battles were also portrayed. Vroom's most famous representations of the latter are not paintings but a set of ten tapestries he designed that offered vast bird's-eye panoramas of the Defeat of the Spanish Armada by the English Fleet. The set was completed in 1595, and later hung in the old House of Commons until 1834 when it was destroyed with the building by fire. The tapestries are known today from a fine set of eighteenth-century engravings. — The Harbor in Amsterdam (1630, 97x201cm; 517x1089pix, 78kb) — Arrival of a Dutch Three-master at Schloss Kronberg (1614, 101x180cm, 770x1336pix, 130kb) |
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THE PRESENTATION of the infant Jesus at the Temple painted by Bellini (1464, 80x105cm) , by Mantegna (1460, 67x86cm). In 1453 or 1454 Andrea Mantegna [1431-1506] married Nicolosia Bellini and in so doing allies himself professionally with her brother, Giovanni Bellini [1426-1516] , to whom he imparts ideas derived from Donatelli. The two paintings of The Agony in the Garden by Mantegna and Bellini respectively reveal the artistic interdependence of the two brothers-in-law: the technical innovations and organization of the Paduan painter and the pre-eminence of the Venetian in the field of light and color. This is confirmed by a comparison between the two Presentations at the Temple, painted by Bellini and Mantegna. The two paintings have an identical structure and the same characters: in the foreground, leaning against a marble ledge, the Virgin is holding the swaddled Child while the old priest stretches out to take it. At sides and in the center are several characters identified as Jacopo Bellini (the old man in the middle) and as Nicolosia and Andrea Mantegna, possibly recently married (the young couple standing at the sides facing left). In the painting by Bellini there are two more figures, identified by critics as the mother Anna and Giovanni [at the extreme right, looking at the viewer; beside him is Mantegna: detail who is alone in the Mantegna painting: detail] himself. The invention was probably Mantegna's, as can be assumed from the inflexibly austere framing of the scene, the Child of Donatellian inspiration which placed on the ledge becomes a unit of measure for the scene's spatial depth, and even the physical features of the priest, resembling Squarcione's prototypes which had been familiar to Mantegna. Mantegna's Presentation is enclosed ineluctably within a rectangular frame, a fatal screen separating the group from the spectator; the figures are absorbed in an incisiveness that renders them detached and eternal in an absolute vision. In contrast with its architectural solidity and marmoreal rigor, Bellini's scene has a quite different rhythm, with modifications that are apparently insignificant but in reality substantial: the addition of two characters gives the group more life, splits it up and reassembles it into a small human crowd. The elimination of the frame, or rather its reduction to a pale, marbled shelf, somewhat akin to a church altar-top, suddenly removes every barrier and draws one toward the scene with a sense of intimacy. To the solid as rock colors of Mantegna, who blends flesh-tones, stones and drapery, he responds with a pure and orchestrated play of whites and reds in clear alternation. It would be illuminating perhaps to discover the reasons that led to these two painting, which do not appear to be a matter of chance, but almost certainly linked to family events, which with this important family portrait were solemnized. — Charles de la Fosse: La Presentation au Temple (1682) — Giotto di Bondone: Presentation at the Temple (1306, 200x185cm) _ detail of an angel — Bartolomeo di Giovanni: Presentation at the Temple (1488) — Fra Angelico: Presentation in the Temple (1430, 158x136cm) |
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