Italian Baroque Era Painter, 1591-1666 best known as Guercino or Il Guercino, was an Italian Baroque painter from the region of Emilia, and active in Rome and Bologna. Guercino is Italian for squinter, a nickname that was given to him because he was cross-eyed. He is especially noted for his many superb drawings. Guercino was born at Cento, a village between Bologna and Ferrara. By the age of 17 he was associated with Benedetto Gennari, a painter of the Bolognese School. By 1615 he moved to Bologna, where his work earned the praise of an elder Ludovico Carracci. He painted two large canvases, Elijah Fed by Ravens and Samson Seized by Philistines, in what appears to be a stark naturalist Caravaggesque style (although it is unlikely he had been able to see any of the Roman Caravaggios first-hand). They were painted for Cardinal Serra, Papal Legate to Ferrara. The Arcadian Shepherds (Et in Arcadia ego) was painted in 1618 contemporary with The Flaying of Marsyas by Apollo in Palazzo Pitti. His first style, he often claimed, was influenced by a canvas of Carracci in Cento. Some of his later pieces approach rather to the manner of his great contemporary Guido Reni, and are painted with more lightness and clearness. Guercino was esteemed very highly in his lifetime. He was then recommended by Marchese Enzo Bentivoglio to the Bolognese Ludovisi Pope, Pope Gregory XV. His two years (1621-23) spent in Rome were very productive. From this stay date his frescoes of Aurora at the casino of the Villa Ludovisi and the ceiling in San Crisogono (1622) of San Chrysogonus in Glory; his portrait of Pope Gregory (now in the Getty Museum, and, what is considered his masterpiece, The Burial of Saint Petronilla or St. Petronilla Altarpiece, for the Vatican (now in the Museo Capitolini). The Franciscan order of Reggio in 1655 paid him 300 ducats for the altarpiece of Saint Luke Displaying a Painting of the Madonna and Child (now in Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City). The Corsini also paid him 300 ducats for the Flagellation of Christ painted in 1657.   Related Paintings of GUERCINO :. | Et in Arcadia Ego | Recreation by our Gallery | The Resurrected Christ Appears to the Virgin hf | Doubting Thomas | Et in Arcadia Ego kh |
Related Artists:
anguissola sofonisba
The best known of the sisters, she was trained, with Elena, by Campi and Gatti. Most of Vasari's account of his visit to the Anguissola family is devoted to Sofonisba, about whom he wrote: 'Anguissola has shown greater application and better grace than any other woman of our age in her endeavours at drawing; she has thus succeeded not only in drawing, colouring and painting from nature, and copying excellently from others, but by herself has created rare and very beautiful paintings'. Sofonisba's privileged background was unusual among woman artists of the 16th century, most of whom, like Lavinia Fontana (see FONTANA (ii),(2)), FEDE GALIZIA and Barbara Longhi (see LONGHI (i), (3)), were daughters of painters. Her social class did not, however, enable her to transcend the constraints of her sex. Without the possibility of studying anatomy, or drawing from life, she could not undertake the complex multi-figure compositions required for large-scale religious or history paintings. She turned instead to the models accessible to her, exploring a new type of portraiture with sitters in informal domestic settings. The influence of Campi, whose reputation was based on portraiture, is evident in her early works, such as the Self-portrait (Florence, Uffizi). Her work was allied to the worldly tradition of Cremona, much influenced by the art of Parma and Mantua, in which even religious works were imbued with extreme delicacy and charm. From Gatti she seems to have absorbed elements reminiscent of Correggio, beginning a trend that became marked in Cremonese painting of the late 16th century. This new direction is reflected in Lucia, Minerva and Europa Anguissola Playing Chess (1555; Poznan, N. Mus.) in which portraiture merges into a quasi-genre scene, a characteristic derived from Brescian models.
Francisco Bayeu
Spanish painter , 1734, Zaragoza, Spain - 1795, Madrid was a Spanish painter, active in a Neoclassic style, whose main subjects were religious and historical themes. Born in Zaragoza, he received a broad childhood education. His initial art studies were with a local master, Jos?? Luz??n[1] and Antonio Gonz??lez Vel??zquez. He then moved to Madrid, winning a scholarship with the painting of the ????Tyranny of Gerion???? to study in the Academia Real de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. The death of his parents and the care of his brothers forced him to return to Zaragoza, until he was recalled by Anton Raphael Mengs to help decorate the Royal Palace of Madrid. In later years, one of his colleagues was Francisco Goya, who married his sister, Josefa Bayeu. He served as court painter to King Charles III of Spain. He was named a professor of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in 1765 and director in 1788. He painted in the Charterhouse of Aula Dei in Zaragoza. In 1767 he was named court painter for Charles III, king of Spain. He was involved in the decoration of various Royal palaces near Madrid.
Johan Laurentz Jensen
(8 March 1800, Gentofte - 26 March 1856, Copenhagen) was a Danish artist who specialized in flower painting. In parallel with his studies at the Danish Academy, he became a pupil of Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg and also of Cladius Detlev Fritzsch. Specializing in flower painting, Jensen continued his education in Paris under the Flemish flower painting brothers, Gerard and Cornelis van Spaendonck, and at the porcelain factory in Sevres where he learnt the art of miniature flower painting. Taking 17th-century Dutch flower painting as a starting point, he revived the art in Denmark. His floral arrangements often had both a decorative and symbolic value. Danish plants were often accompanied by exotic flowers and fruits, sometimes even birds. He also became head artist at the Danish Procelain Factory. Jensen had an extensive circle of customers and many students, especially women, including Louise of Hesse-Kassel who later married King Christian IX. Since the 1980s, his works have gained wide international recognition. Many are exhibited in Statens Museum for Kunst and in Thorvaldsens Museum.