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Died on 09 December 1554 (or up to 13 days later)
Alessandro Bonvicino Moretto da Brescia, Italian
artist born in 1498. — Moretto da Brescia (originally Alessandro Bonvicino), Italian painter, active mainly in his native Brescia and the neighbourhood. He was a pupil of Titian and certainly his influence is apparent in Moretto's work. He was the leading Brescian painter of his day and had a large practice as a painter of altarpieces and other religious works, the best of which display an impressive gravity and a poetic feeling for nature (St Giustina with a Donor). However, his portraits, although much less numerous, are considered to be generally of higher quality and of greater importance historically. It seems likely that he introduced the independent full-length portrait to Italy, for although Vasari credits Titian with this distinction. Moretto's Portrait of a Gentleman of 1526 in the National Gallery, London, antedates any known example by Titian by several years. He passed on the thoughtful qualities to his pupil Moroni. — LINKS — Allegory of Faith (1530, 102x78cm) _ Similarly to other works from the Brescia school the painting has the character of the genre. The inscription on the band of the bouquet: IVSTUS EX FIDE VIVIT. — St Justina with the Unicorn (1530, 200x139cm) _ This is one of the masterpieces of Moretto. The kneeling man is probably the donor. — Portrait of a Man (1520, 74x56cm) _ The attribution to Moretto is debated. — Pietà (1520) _ In this important early work by Moretto, Christ is mourned by the Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist, and Mary Magdalen. By introducing the grandeur and monumental composition of Venetian masters, particularly Titian, Moretto brought new stature to the local Brescian shool of painting. — The Virgin of Carmel (1522, 271x298cm) _ Moretto was a painter influenced by Lombard naturalism but he preferred the intimate, muted study of reality characteristic of Foppa, Borgognone and Savoldo to the exuberant realism of Romanino. Among the greatest works of his youth can certainly be placed the 'Virgin of Carmel' who is presented in the powerful and carefully gauged monumentally of a Madonna of Mercy with the figures of the Carmelites the Blessed Angelo and St. Simon Stock at her sides and a crowd of devotees below, probably members of the Brescian family the Ottoboni. The conspicuously earthly nature of the figures imparts to the celestial apparition a feeling of everyday reality, rendered with ineffable naturalness by the quiet light which defines poses, gestures, spiritual feelings themselves with such plastic objectivity. This 'bourgeois' view of appearances marks the role of primary importance played by Moretto in Lombard realism which was to see Michelangelo Caravaggio as its greatest proponent around the end of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth. |
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on 09 December 1641: Anton van Dyck, Flemish
painter specialized in portraits, born on 22 March 1599. — Painter and printmaker. Pupil of Peter Paul Rubens. Painted in Italy, England and Antwerp. The records of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke first mention Anthony van Dyck, who was born in that city in 1599, as an apprentice of Hendrick van Balen in 1609. By 1618 Van Dyck was received as an independent master by the guild. Prior to that time he had established contact with the older Rubens. The scanty contemporary evidence suggests a changing collaborative relationship between the two artists, as Van Dyck would move from the position of a gifted apprentice to that of the most important member of Rubens's large studio. In the fall of 1620 Van Dyck is first recorded in England, at the court of James 1. Returning briefly to Antwerp in 1624, Van Dyck then traveled to Italy, visiting Genoa, Venice, Florence, Rome, and Palermo, before arriving back in Antwerp by the beginning of 1628. The effect of Venetian colorism, particularly as seen in the works of Titian, reinforced lessons learned from Rubens; Van Dyck remained a brilliant colorist throughout his career. Working in Antwerp until 1632, Van Dyck then returned to England at the invitation of Charles 1, who knighted him that year. Broken only by brief visits to the Continent, Van Dyck would spend the rest of his life in England, where he died at the age of forty-two. An accomplished history painter, Van Dyck is best known today as a portraitist. In addition to his consummate technical skill, Van Dyck's ability to capture the facial features of his portrait subjects and to characterize their social status soon made him much sought after by Europe's nobility and aristocracy. His portraits of the first Genoese period and later, which were initially based on the Italian portraits of Rubens, created the vocabulary of aristocratic portraiture that remained preeminent until the nineteenth century and that helped to shape England's great portrait tradition. — Sir Anthony van Dyck was a Flemish painter who was one of the most important and prolific portraitists of the 17th century. He is also considered to be one of the most brilliant colorists in the history of art. Van Dyck was born in Antwerp, son of a rich silk merchant, and his precocious artistic talent was already obvious at age 11, when he was apprenticed to the Flemish historical painter Hendrik van Balen. He was admitted to the Antwerp guild of painters in 1618, before his 19th birthday. He spent the next two years as a member of the workshop of the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens in Antwerp. Van Dyck's work during this period is in the lush, exuberant style of Rubens, and several paintings attributed to Rubens have since been ascribed to van Dyck. From 1620 to 1627 van Dyck traveled in Italy, where he was in great demand as a portraitist and where he developed his maturing style. He toned down the Flemish robustness of his early work to concentrate on a more dignified, elegant manner. In his portraits of Italian aristocrats—men on prancing horses, ladies in black gowns—he created idealized figures with proud, erect stances, slender figures, and the famous expressive “van Dyck” hands. Influenced by the great Venetian painters Titian, Paolo Veronese, and Giovanni Bellini, he adopted colors of great richness and jewel-like purity. No other painter of the age surpassed van Dyck at portraying the shimmering whites of satin, the smooth blues of silk, or the rich crimsons of velvet. He was the quintessential painter of aristocracy, and was particularly successful in Genoa. There he showed himself capable of creating brilliantly accurate likenesses of his subjects, while he also developed a repertoire of portrait types that served him well in his later work at the court of Charles I of England. Back in Antwerp from 1627 to 1632, van Dyck worked as a portraitist and a painter of church pictures. In 1632 he settled in London as chief court painter to King Charles I, who knighted him shortly after his arrival. Van Dyck painted most of the English aristocracy of the time, and his style became lighter and more luminous, with thinner paint and more sparkling highlights in gold and silver. At the same time, his portraits occasionally showed a certain hastiness or superficiality as he hurried to satisfy his flood of commissions. In 1635 van Dyck painted his masterpiece, Charles I in Hunting Dress, a standing figure emphasizing the haughty grace of the monarch. Van Dyck was one of the most influential 17th-century painters. He set a new style for Flemish art and founded the English school of painting; the portraitists Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough of that school were his artistic heirs. He died in London. — Anthony van Dyck (Antonis van Dijck) is one of the greatest Flemish painters. He was born on 23 March, 1599 in Antwerp, 7th child in the family of a well-to-do silk merchant Frans van Dyck. After the early death of his mother he, at the age of 10, was sent to be trained by painter Hendrick van Balen in his workshop. In 1615, he already had his own workshop and an apprentice. In 1618, he was accepted as a full member of the Lucas Guild of painters. In 1618-1620, Van Dyck was working with Rubens as his pupil and assistant. He took part in the painting of the Jesuit Church in Antwerp. Also he painted such religious works as Samson and Delilah (1620), The Crowning with Thorns (1620), Judas' Kiss (1618-1620), St. Martin Dividing His Cloak (1620-1621) and portraits: Frans Snyders (1618), Margareta de Vos (1618), Family Portrait (1621) and several known self-portraits. Although Van Dyck was with Rubens little more than two years, the older master's style affected his own indelibly. By his twenty-first year Van Dyck was already ripe for independence. His pride and ambition made it hard for him to stand in Rubens' shadow in Antwerp. He therefore accepted the invitation from Earl of Arundel to London, where he stayed several months. In England he painted Thomas Howard, 2nd Earl of Arundel (1620-1621) and other pictures. Also he was able to study the numerous works of the masters of Italian Renaissance, which were in the collections of the Earl of Arundel and the Duke of Buckingham. This led him to follow in the footsteps of his teachers Van Balen and Rubens and finish his education in Italy. Van Dyck left London in February 1621 and after staying 8 months in Antwerp, he arrived in Italy by the end of 1621. He spent 6 years in Italy, staying mostly in Genoa and traveling to Rome, Venice, Turin and Palermo, studying and copying the Venetian masters — Tintoretto, Veronese, and particularly Titian, whose works influenced him greatly. He earned his livelihood by creating portraits especially of the Genoese aristocracy. The most notable portraits were George Gage, Looking at a Statuette (1623), Cardinal Bentivolo (1622-1623), Lucas van Uffeln (1622), Elena Grimaldi, Marchesa Cattaneo (1623), Paola Adorno, Marchesa Brinole-Sale with Her Son (1626), Giovanni Vincenzo Imperiale (1626). Also he was commissioned to paint some pictures for the Church Oratorio del Rosario depicting St. Rosalia, the patroness saint of Palermo. Other well-known religious picture of this period are Susanna and the Elders (1621-1622), The Four Ages of Man (1626), The Tribute Money (1620s). In 1627, Van Dyck returned to Antwerp, where he was given a triumphal welcome. He received many commissions for churches and became a court painter to the Archduchess Isabella in 1630. He created an astonishing amount of portraits during his stay in Antwerp in 1627-1632, the best of them are Portrait of Maria Louisa de Tassis (c.1630), Philippe Le Roy (1630), Marie de Raet, Wife of Philippe Le Roy (1631), Prince Rupert von der Pfalz (1631-1632). He also undertook a bigger project Iconography, for which he created the engravings of the famous people of the time: monarchs, commanders, philosophers, artists, collectors. It was published in 1628-1641. In 1632, Charles I invited Van Dyck to England to be a court painter. He was knighted, rewarded with the generous annuity of £200 and lavished with gifts. Sir Anthony van Dyck was crucial to Charles I: his portraits were designed to support the King in his claim to be absolute monarch. Other artists painted Charles, too, but it is Van Dyck's image of this melancholic, doomed King that is remembered in history. Van Dyck painted 37 pictures of Charles I and 35 of his Queen Henrietta Maria. The best of them are Equestrian Portrait of Charles I, King of England with Seignior de St. Antoine (1633), Queen Henrietta Maria with Sir Jeffrey Hudson (1633), Charles I, King of England, at the Hunt (1635) Charles I, King of England (1636), Charles I, King of England, from Three Angles (1636), Children of Charles I (1635), Equestrian Portrait of Charles I, King of England (1638). Van Dyck become a celebrated portraitist of the English court and aristocracy. In less that 10 years he created over 350 pictures, including royal portraits. His best portraits are Philip, Lord Wharton (1632), George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and His Brother Lord Francis Villiers (1635), Thomas Howard, 2nd Earl of Arundel and Surrey with His Grandson Lord Maltravers (1635), James Stuart, Duke of Lennox and Richmond (1637), Lord John Stuart and His Brother Lord Bernard Stuart (1637), George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol and William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford (1637), Princess Mary Stuart and Prince William of Orange (1641). In 1639, Van Dyck married Mary Ruthven, grand-daughter of the Earl of Gowrie. His only daughter was born on the 1st of December, 1641 and on the 9th of December, 1641 he died in London. He was buried in the St. Paul Cathedral. In his court portraits Van Dyck established a style of characterization that was to persist all over the Europe for more than two centuries: in his visions of tall and aloof, yet relaxed, elegance, he showed the most subtle ability to bring a precise physical likeness into compositions of fluent and elaborate Baroque splendor. He was in particular a stimulus to English painters, such as Gainsborough, Reynolds and Lawrence. — LINKS — Lucas Vorsterman (1620) — Nicolaes van der Borght, Merchant of Antwerp (1631) — Self portrait (1630) — Sheet of Studies (1635) — Titian's Self Portrait with a Young Woman (1630) — William II, Prince of Orange and Princess Henrietta Mary Stuart, daughter of Charles I of England (1641) — Self-Portrait (1629, 116x93cm) (3/4~length) _ Self-Portrait (head and shoulders) _ These are two of the three versions of a painting representing the painter at 20, although they weres painted later, based on an earlier, now lost, study. — Portrait of a Lady (1620, 148x109cm) — Marie Claire de Croy, Duchess d'Havre, and Girl (1634, 207x123cm) — Engravings of 32 portraits at FAMSF — Margareta Snyders |
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