Italian Mannerist Painter, 1494-ca.1556 Italian painter and draughtsman. He was the leading painter in mid-16th-century Florence and one of the most original and extraordinary of Mannerist artists. His eccentric personality, solitary and slow working habits and capricious attitude towards his patrons are described by Vasari; his own diary, which covers the years 1554-6, further reveals a character with neurotic and secretive aspects. Pontormo enjoyed the protection of the Medici family throughout his career but, unlike Agnolo Bronzino and Giorgio Vasari, did not become court painter. His subjective portrait style did not lend itself to the state portrait. He produced few mythological works and after 1540 devoted himself almost exclusively to religious subjects. His drawings, mainly figure studies in red and black chalk, are among the highest expressions of the great Florentine tradition of draughtsmanship; close to 400 survive, forming arguably the most important body of drawings by a Mannerist painter.   Related Paintings of Pontormo :. | Madonna and Child with Two Saints | Saint Seth D | Portrait of a Lady in Red | Christ the Judge with the Creation of Eve | Joseph in Egypt |
Related Artists:
Joaquin Mir Trinxet
Spanish , 1873-1940
Jan Van Den Hoecke
Flemish Baroque Era Painter, 1611-1651 was a Flemish Baroque painter and draughtsman. He was born and died in Antwerp. He first apprenticed with his father, the painter Gaspar van den Hoecke (1595?C1648); then worked in the studio of Peter Paul Rubens. Jan's brother Robert van den Hoecke (1622?C1668) was also a painter. The artist and his father were well known for their 1635 execution of decorations for the Arch dedicated to the Emperor Ferdinand III in Antwerp. In this collaboration, Jan painted monumental representations, as seen in his piece, Triumphal Entrance of Cardinal Prince Ferdinand of Spain, (Uffizi Gallery). Hoecke then traveled to Austria under the commission of the Emperor Ferdinand III after 1637, staying for about ten years. He also painted for Ferdinand's brother, Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria (1614-C1662), including a Madonna and Child and a number of allegorical pieces. Before this he traveled to Italy and worked in Rome, which may have influenced his style some. Another piece by Hoecke is his, Hercules between Vice and Virtue, (Uffizi Gallery), which shows an influence from both Rubens, and another pupil of the master Baroque painter, Anthony van Dyck.
Nathaniel Currier
American lithographer and print publishers , 1813-1888 was an American lithographer, who headed the company Currier & Ives with James Ives. Currier was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts to Nathaniel and Hannah Currier. He attended public school until age fifteen, when he was apprenticed to the Boston printing firm of William and John Pendleton. The Pendletons were the first successful lithographers in the United States, lithography having only recently been invented in Europe, and Currier learned the process in their shop. He subsequently went to work for M. E. D. Brown in Philadelphia, in 1833. The following year, Currier moved to New York City, where he was to start a new business with John Pendleton. Pendleton backed out, and the new firm became Currier & Stodart, which lasted only one year. In addition to being a lithographer, he was also a volunteer fireman in the 1850s. In 1835, Currier started his own lithographic business as an eponymous sole proprietorship. He initially engaged in standard lithographic business of printing sheet music, letterheads, handbills, etc. However, he soon took his work in a new direction, creating pictures of current events. In late 1835, he issued a print illustrating a recent fire in New York. Ruins of the Merchant's Exchange N.Y. after the Destructive Conflagration of Decbr 16 & 17, 1835 was published by the New York Sun, just four days after the fire, and was an early example of illustrated news.