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Raphael
(Raffaello Santi or Sanzio/Sanzi) (1483-1520). Italian painter, illustrator and
architect, born in Urbino, the seat of the condottiere (army
commander) Federico da Montefeltro, a great admirer of
art. Raphael's father, the artist Giovanni di Sanati, a man
of culture and in contact with the artistic ideas, gave his
son instructions in painting and introduced him to the
humanistic philosophy and artist at the Federico's court
e.g.: Luca Signorelli, Paolo Ucello, Hieronymus
Bosch, Bramante, Piero della Francesca
and Leon Battista Alberti.
At the age of 16 Raphael went to Perugia, where he became
apprenticed to Pietro Perugino. The stylistic
characteristics which he had acquired from Perugino, such as
clear organization of the composition and the avoidance of
excessive details, also provided useful means through which
to express the new spirit of the High Renaissance.
In 1504 Raphael moved to Florence where his masters were Michelangelo
and Leonardo
da Vinci.
In Florence
Raphael executed a great series of Madonna
paintings particularly influenced by Leonardo da Vinci's
"Madonna and Child theme", his lighting technique sfumato,
and his way of building up his compositions in depth with
pyramidal figure masses. From Michelangelo Raphael learned
the expressive possibilities of human anatomy.
At the request of Pope Julius II Raphael moved to Rome in
1508 and remained there until he died on his 37th birthday.
His first task in the Vatican was to paint a cycle of
frescoes in the Pope's private rooms, the three Stanzas at
the Vatican. The Stanzas were an apotheosis of the universality of St.
Peters Basilica: faith/knowledge, the old and new history of
Christendom, the antique culture.
In 1513 (during Pope Leo X's reign) Raphael worked with
Bramante at the St Peters Basilica, after Bramantes dead,
Raphael became the leader of the building project. Leo X commissioned Raphael to design 10 large tapestries to
hang on the walls of the Sistine Chapel, 1519. (Renaissance)
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"La
Donna Velata",
1514-1516. Palazzo Pitti, Galleria Palatina,
Florence |
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Diagram
of Stanza della Segnatura.
Tondos
on the ceiling: Justice,
Theology, Poetry
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Selected
works by Raphael
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Crucifixion,
1502-1503, The National Gallery, London |
| 1503-1504 |
Coronation
of the Virgin, 1503-1504,
The Vatican Museum |
| 1503-1504 |
The
Three Graces, 1503-1504,
The Conde Museum, Chantilly, France |
| 1503-1504 |
Allegory
(The Knight's Dream),1503-1504.
The National Gallery, London |
| 1504 |
The
Marriage of the Virgin, 1504, The Brera Gallery,
Milan |
| 1505 |
The
Madonna of the Goldfinch, 1505, The Uffizi
Gallery, Florence |
| 1505/1506 |
Madonna
del Prato, Madonna
of the Meadow, 1505/06, The Kunsthistorisches Museum,
Vienna |
| 1505-07 |
Esterházy
Madonna, 1505-07, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest |
| 1507 |
Deposition
of Christ, 1507, The Borghese Gallery, Rome |
| 1507 |
La
Belle Jardinière, 1507, The Louvre Museum, Paris |
| 1511 |
The
Triumph of Galatea,
1511, Villa Farnesina, Rome |
| 1511-1513 |
Madonna
Alba, 1511-1513,
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
| 1513 |
Funerary
chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Popolo,
1513. The banker Agostino Chigi, whose Villa Farnesina
Raphael had decorated, commissioned him to design and
decorate his funerary chapel.
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Ravn,
Lars (1959). Danish
self-taught painter, graphic designer, ceramic artist and sculptor.
Born in Aalborg, North Jutland, as Lars Ravn Hansen.
In 1980 an exhibition of the works of the Danish painter and sculptor Peter Louis-Jensen
was held at the Vejle Museum of Art, and
Ravn became Louis-Jensen's
assistant - the meeting was of decisive importance to Ravn. Later that
year he was studying art at Holbaek Kunsthoejskole (High School of Art),
Denmark.
Ravn was at first connected with Die Neue Wilden (New Wild Painters or
Neo-Fauves of the 1980s). In the late 1980s he developed his art
and created a unique imagery - figurative paintings, bright colours,
symbols, ornamentation and humour - his favorite subjects were erotic
paintings.
In 1990 he created the Tivoli-poster and in 1996 Copenhagen Jazz
Festival-poster.
Since 1990 quite a few decoration tasks had been executed by Ravn e.g. a
Flower Frieze for Carlsberg Brewery in Copenhagen. Ravn is member of The
Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art.
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"Senses
The Body Landscape",
2004 |
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Rembrandt
Harmenszoon van Rijn (Rhine River) (1606-1669). Dutch Painter and
engraver. He was born in Leiden, and he died in Amsterdam. Rembrandts
father, a wealthy miller in Leiden, wished him to study at Leiden
University -
Rembrandt studied briefly there,
however his study became of great importance to his motif-choices and his adaptation
of the motifs. Rembrandt's family was not against his wish to become a
painter, and he was apprenticed for three years to Jacob Swanenburch in
Leiden, he
subsequently spent half a year in Amsterdam at the Italian influenced
history-painter Pieter Lastmann's workshop.
In 1624 Rembrandt established himself as painter in Leiden and developed
his temperamental mode of expression. In 1631 he moved to Amsterdam, and
in 1632 he got his breakthrough with the commissioned work "The
anatomy lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp"*.
In
1634 he
married the Major's daughter Saskia van Uylenburgh - the marriage, her
families position, meant in the following period a marked increase in his
official acknowledgement and popularity. Later he got more absorbed into
artistic problems, his paintings changed character, and did no longer match the
expectations and demands of the promoters - in "The
Night Watch", which was commissioned as a group portrait, he was accused of
not worrying about exact likeness and
instead absorbed himself in the Baroque
style's exaggerated motion and lighting technique, Rembrandt was influenced by
Caravaggio's
realism and light. The company is ready to move forward by order of captain
Cocq (with the red sash), beside the captain stands lieutenants. The woman
in the painting is supposed to be Saskia, who died the same year Rembrandt
finished the painting (1642) - to the right of Saskia is a figure wearing
a helmet decorated with oak leaves, a symbol of victory. Originally
"The Night Watch" contained 34 persons/portraits, 2 portraits has been cut away in the 18th century because the painting
was adjusted to the wall in the town hall at the Dam-place (the present
royal palace). The names of 18 persons are written at the sign in the town's gate archway. In group portraits the artist often portrayed himself at the
far right or left of the painting. It is uncertain whether or not
Rembrandt portrayed himself in "The Night Watch", however the
only person, who could be Rembrandt himself is almost hidden in the middle
of the painting, only the right eye
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The original title of "The Night Watch" was "The
Militia Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and of
Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburgh" - in 1808
the varnish had become so dark that the painting looked like a night-scene
and was titled "The Night Watch". In 1975-76 the painting was restored after vandalism
with a knife.
After Saskia's dead Rembrandt became more isolated and withdrawn e.g. in several of his
self-portraits were seen genuine melancholy.
Rembrandts works had in many ways strong connection to Italian art, his
early paintings were presumably influenced by Lastmann, the later by Venetian
Renaissance. He got his knowledge of Italian artist through his own
collection of paintings and sketches, which he bought at auctions in
Amsterdam. The majority of his collection was sold in 1656, when his
private financial situation forced him to realize his paintings. To put
his finances on a sound basis, he later opened up an art gallery together
with his son Titus and his girlfriend Hendrickje Stoffels.
Rembrandt's art from his later periods were only appreciated by few of his
contemporaries, in the 19th century he was rediscovered by the
romanticists,
and he became regarded as one of his century's greatest painters. The Danish painter Thomas
Kluge has been called a modern
Rembrandt. (Baroque)
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"Self-Portrait",
c.1634, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy
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Rembrandt's
wife Saskia van Uylenburgh
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"The
Jewish Bride", c.1665, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
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"The
Holy Family", c.1644, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
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"The
Syndics of the Amsterdam Drapers' Guild", 1662,
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
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"Still-Life
with Vanitas-Symbols", c.1630, Rijksmuseum,
Amsterdam
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"The
Nightwatch"/"The
Militia Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and of
Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburgh",
1642, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
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"The
Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp", 1632,
Mauritshuis, The Hague
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*"The
anatomy lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp", 1632,
Mauritshuis, the Hague. Until in the early 17th century, particularly in Northern Europe, anatomic
science was known, however not from the academic world. A surgeon was
identical with a butcher or a barber. At anatomical theatres public
dissection of criminals condemned to death took place - mainly in the
winter months because of the dead bodie's condition, it lasted about
3-5 days.
The public dissection was a part of the punishment, the society's revenge
on people, who did not follow the rules, primarily a social event, secondary a scientific event. In the
Netherlands a criminal could be flayed alive. In 17th Century France a hierarchy of punishment
was practiced - the punishment was measured out
in relation to the opposition action against society.
Dissections had been practiced since around 400 AD - e.g. a mural
showed a dissection scene. I the
late Middle Ages dissection became a public event. |
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Leonardo da Vinci
dissected more than 30 corpses for art's sake. After the reformation there was
chapels left, where the dissections took place - symbolically God's creation
was dissolved. In 1550 10 public dissections took place in Amsterdam, the
same year anatomical and surgical guilds were founded in Dutch cities.
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Reni, Guido
(1575-1642). Italian painter. (1575-1642). Italian painter. (1575-1642). Italian painter. (Baroque)
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Detail
"Aurora", 1614, fresco, Casino
Rospigliosi, Palazzo Pallavicini, Rome |
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Renoir,
Pierre-Auguste (1841-1919). French painter. He was born in
Limoges, and he died in Cagnes. His father Léonard was a tailor,
his mother Marguerite cared for their six children and run the
household. In 1845 the family moved to Paris. Early Renoir had
shown talent for drawing, and in 1854 he was apprenticed as a
china painter at the Paris Firm Lévy frères (Lévy brothers), in
1858 the firm went bankrupt - subsequently Renoir decided to
become a painter.
From 1860-64 he made a living by copying paintings in the Louvre
Museum, and he took much interest in the painters of the 18th
century e.g. Fragonard, Watteau
and first and foremost the Rococo painter Francois Boucher and his
painting "The
bath of Diana/Diana Leaving the bath", 1742, which
was very special to him his whole life through. |
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"The
Swing", 1876, Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
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"The
Theatre box" aka "La Loge"
1874, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London
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In
1861 Renoir took painting classes with the Swiss artist Charles
Gleyre,
and he joined Ecole des Beaux-Arts. In Gleyre's private studio
Renoir worked together with other young artists, Monet,
Sisley
and Bazille - the founders of Impressionism. In 1864, for the
first time, the official Salon accepted one of his paintings - after that
he was commissioned to paint portraits. I 1865 he visited Bourron-Marlotte
near Fontainebleau south of Paris, the first of many summers he
spent there - that year he met Gustave
Courbet. In 1867 his painting "Lise"
was accepted by the Salon (the model was his mistress Lise Tréhot,
the painting belongs to Folkwang Museum in Essen, Germany).
Until the early 1870s his paintings at regular intervals were
accepted by the Salon. In 1871, after military service during the
French-Prussian war, Renoir returned to Paris. In 1872 he met the visionary
French art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, who early discovered the
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In 1873 he participated in the Salon des Refusés, and in
1874 in the first Impressionist exhibition - he also exhibited
with the Impressionists in 1876, 1877 and 1882. In 1875 financial
problems forced Renoir and other Impressionist painters to hold an
auction of their works. From 1878-83 his paintings were exhibited
at the Salon. In 1881-82 he visited Italy and Algeria. In 1883
Paul Durand-Ruel organized a solo exhibition of his works - the
same year he traveled to the British Channel Islands of Jersey and
Guernsey and to L’Estaque in Southern France to visit
Cézanne.
In 1885, 1886 and 1889 he exhibited with Les Vingt in Brussels. In
1887 he formed an acquaintance with the French Symbolist poet
Stéphane Mallarmé. In 1890 he participated in the Salon for the
last time, and he was awarded the medal of the Légion d’Honneur.
Renoir earliest works were influenced by Courbet and Corot,
however his meeting with the Impressionists changed his way of
painting. Renoir was fascinated by the Impressionists studies from
nature and their use of bright colours, like Cézanne he aimed at
a painting where the firm composition and the representation of
the plastic form played the decisive role - for both of them the
classic ideal of beauty was more important than the description of
the passing light and the colour effects. Though Renoir was
closely knitted to the Impressionist, he occupied a special
position in history of art. Renoir was first and foremost figure
painter, a large part of his paintings described women and
children, the life of the streets and café's - he also painted a
few landscapes. A great enthusiasm for life's luxuriance
characterized Renoir's paintings.
The last decades of his life Renoir suffered from rheumatic
arthritis and got a facial paresis, in his last years he had
frequent attacks of facial pareses and sight problems - he painted
with brushes fastened to his arm - in spite of failing health he
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Rodin,
Francois Auguste René
(1840–1917). French sculptor, known as the father of European
Modern Sculpture.
Rodin showed an intense interest in drawing at an
early age, he was 14 years old when he attended La
Petite École, a school for drawing and mathematics.
From 1854-57 he studied at École des Arts Décoratifs
in Paris. In 1862, broken-hearted over his sisters
dead, he joined the Order of the Holy Sacrament.
During his one-year religious studies he created a
bust of father Piere-Julien Eynard, the process of
sculptural creation convinced him that sculpture was
his true calling. Influenced by the Romantic
sculptor Antoine-Louis Barye (c.1795-1875) and the Realist sculptor
and painter Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, (1827-1875), Rodin developed his own artistic language. Like the
Impressionist he wanted to describe motion, and contrary to
the Impressionist, he was more than a sensitive and quiet lyric poet.
Instead of rest and statuesque heaviness Rodin brought passion, motion,
uneven and strong broken surface into sculpture.
A journey to Italy in 1875 made an indelible impression on him, he saw Michelangelo's Mannerism sculptures and became fascinated
by his way of representing the human musculature and the symbolic
often dramatic realism in his work. Rodin, who had been trained in the
academic tradition, found in
Michelangelo's sculptures freed from the limitations of the tradition. Back in Paris Rodin began to
depict the subjects as
they really appeared.
In 1877 he exhibited at L'Age d'Airin in Brussels and Paris. In the
beginning his highly realistic and unconventional sculptures were rejected
by the public.
In 1880 he was commissioned by the government to execute a bronze gate, "The
Gates of Hell" ( La
Porte de L'Enfer, 1880-1917, Musee Rodin, Paris) as entrance to the
planned Museum for Decorative Art. |
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The task included 186 figures, among
these "The Thinker", "Ugolino" and "Adam and
Eve". "The Gates of Hell" was influenced by Dante's
Inferno, "the Divine Comedy".
Though the commission was canceled Rodin
continued to work on the gate, which was left uncasted at his dead, later the
figures were casted and the gate exhibited at Musée Rodin. "The Thinker", 1880, was modeled for "The Gates of
Hell". The sculpture was the first of Rodin's sculptures erected in a public place, it was
placed in front of the Panthéon in the Latin Quarter in Paris in
1906 during an intense political and social crisis, which turned
the
sculpture into a socialist symbol. In 1922 the sculpture was moved to
Musée Rodin under the pretext of being a nuisance to ecclesiastical
ceremonies.
"The Burghers of Calais", 1884-1895, is the most famous
example of Rodin's unique style, the human suffering and pain is
obvious. The sculpture group recalls the surrender of Calais during the
Hundred Years War between France and England (1337-1453). Edward
III offered to spare the city if six leading
citizens of Calais, wearing nooses around their necks,
would turn over the keys to the city and castle, as well as their
lives. To prevent any further loss of life, Eustache de Saint
Pierre led an envoy of six influential men to surrender the city,
which had been abandoned by Philip VI. Though the burghers
expected to be executed, their lives were spared by the
intervention of England's Queen, Philippa. Besides Eustache de
Saint Pierre the men were Jacques and Pierre de Wissant, Jean de
Vienne, Andrieus d'Andres and Jean d'Aire.
Many of Rodin's sculptures were by the public considered to be controversial
e.g. "The
Naked Balzac", 1891. At the World Exhibition in Paris in
1900 Rodin got his own pavilion, he exhibited 170 works.
In 1908 Rodin moved to Hôtel Biron outside Paris. In 1912 the state decided to redevelop
the hotel, Rodin suggested a plan to the authorities, he bequeathed
his worldly goods to the state on the assumption that he could live there the rest of his life, and
the hôtel after his dead, would be converted into
a museum of his works, and after longer debate his suggestion was approved,
today the hôtel is " Musée Auguste Rodin - Hôtel Biron".
In his last year Rodin married Rose Beuret, who he had known for many
years, she died three weeks after the wedding, and shortly after Rodin
died, both were buried in Meudon, a cast of "The Thinker" was
placed next to his tomb. (Realism)
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Musée
Rodin, Paris.
Photos: Kirsten Petersen |
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"Seated
Cambodian Dancer" |
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National Gallery
of Art, Washington D.C. |
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"The
Burghers of Calais", 1984-86, Musée Rodin,
Paris
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"The
Thinker", 1880, with the dome of
the Church of the Invalides in the background
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Rosselli,
Cosimo (1439-1507). Italian painter.
(Early
Renaissance) |
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Perugino,
First Day Cover. The postmark shows Jesus
giving the Apostle Peter the keys to the
kingdom of Heaven.
The stamp below shows Rosselli's Sistine
Chapel fresco |
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Rothko,
Mark (1903-1970). Latvian-American painter, born
Marcus Rothkowitz in Daugavpils, Latvia (former Dvinsk, Russia). Rothko died in his studio in New
York, he committed suicide.
In 1913 the Rothko family left Russia and settled in Portland, Oregon in
the US. Rothko received a scholarship, which made it possible for him to
study at Yale University, New Haven
from 1921-23, and after this he moved to New York. In 1925 he studied
under
Max Weber at Art Students League. In
1928 he participated in his first group exhibition at Opportunity
Gallery in New York. In the early 1930s Rothko made friends with the
painters Milton Avery (1893-1965)
and Adolph Gottlieb (1903-1974). In 1933
his first solo exhibition was held at Portland Museum of Art.
In 1935 Rothko was co-founder of "The Ten", an artist group which
sympathized with Abstract Art and Expressionism. From 1936-37 he executed
easel paintings for WPA Federal Art Project*. In the early 1940s he worked
closely with Gottlieb and developed a style with mythological
contents, simple flat shapes in a
imagery influenced by primitive art. In the
mid 1940s his paintings showed a surrealist influence (the surrealist
technique automatism). In 1947 and 1949 Rothko taught at
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California School of Fine Arts, San Francisco,
where Clyfford Still (1904-1980) was his
fellow instructor. In the late 1940s and the early 1950s Rothko developed his
mature style - rectangles containing meditative silence. In 1958 he
received his first commissioned work
- a series of murals for the New York restaurant The Four Seasons,
situated in Mies van der
Rohe's Seagram building, however the murals were
not placed in the restaurant, because Rothko considered his intense
murals to be misplaced as background in a connoisseur restaurant, and in
the late 1960s he donated the murals to Tate Gallery in London, they are
now hanging in Tate Modern. In 1961 Rothko was given a solo exhibition at
MoMA.
In 1962 he finished murals for Havard University, and in 1964 he received
a commission to paint a set of murals for an octagonal shaped chapel** at
University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas - the chapel was inaugurated in
1971, a year after Rothko's dead.
*WPA Federal Art Project (FAP),
(1935-43), was a governmental art project and
a part of Works Progress Administration (WPA), a comprehensive
governmental action program
established in 1935, during The Great Depression, by president Franklin D.
Roosevelt - the purpose of the program was to get unemployed people back into
work.
Federal Art Project (FAP) engaged a wide range of artists with
different experiences and working within different styles, in 1936 the Federal Art Project
was employing more than 5000 artists. The FAP produced e.g. murals, easel
painting, sculptures, graphics and poster, and art centres and galleries
were established in regions, where artistic expressions were more or less unfamiliar.
**Sheldon Nodelman "The Rothko
Chapel Paintings: Origins, Structure, Meaning". (Action
Painting/Tachism,,Abstract)
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Rousseau, Henri (Julien Felix) (1844-1910). French
self-taught Post-Impressionist and Naive painter - he was not
influenced by any particular style.
Rousseau war born in Laval, and he died in Paris, he was buried in
the Cimetière de Bagneux outside Paris.
In 1869 Rousseau moved to Paris, where he was employed as customs
officer, and in 1885 when just over 40 years of age, he quitted
his job at the customs authorities and the rest of his life he was
living on a small pension supplied with the money he earned by
selling his paintings and he also made extra money by giving
lessons in violin, singing and solfège.
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"Juniet's Cart", 1908, Musée
de l'Orangerie, Paris
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"The
Snake Charmer",
1907,
Musee d'Orsay, Paris
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Rousseau was called
Le
Douanier (the customs officer) after his place of employment.
Rousseau signed his first paintings in 1880.
Rousseau painted portrait-landscapes, as he called them - paintings with a
landscape or a view over his favourite part of Paris with a person placed
in the foreground. In 1886 he exhibited for the first time at Salon des
Indépendants.
In 1891 he painted his first exotic motifs e.g. the jungle as he imagined
it, he found his inspiration in illustrated book and from visits to the
Paris Botanical Gardens.
In his jungle paintings he used a vast number of
green colours - he first jungle painting
"Surprise"
belongs to National
Gallery, London. Of his most known paintings are "The
Sleeping Gypsy",
1897 and "The
Dream",
1910, both works belong to Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Rousseau never left France, his native land - he had been influenced by
his colleagues accounts from the French-Mexican war. Because Rousseau was
a self-taught painter he had many critics - his naivety was extreme, the
established artists considered him as untrained or uneducated, however his
paintings showed a sophisticated technique. In 1906 he met Delaunay,
Picasso,
Vlaminck and the poets Max Jacob and Appollinaire, and in 1908 a banquet was held in his honour by Picasso, the
banquet had an undertone of ridicule. In 1909, because of his naivety,
Rousseau got involved in a lawsuit about false cheques, he was acquitted
also because of his naive paintings.
His particularly posthumous fame resulted in a retrospective exhibition
in 1911 at Salon des Indépendants in Paris. (Naivism)
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"Daughters
of Cecrops Finding the Infant Erichthonius"*,
c.1616, Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna |
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Rubens, Peter Paul (1577-1640).
Flemish painter. Rubens was born i Siegen, Westphalia, Germany as son of a
lawyer, he grew up in Cologne in Germany and Antwerp in Belgium. From 1591-98 Rubens had studied under the Flemish
painters: the Baroque painter
Tobias Verhaecht, the Mannerist painter Otto van Veen and Adam van Noort. In 1600 he was offered employment
by Vincenzo I Gonzaga, the Duke of Mantua, Italy, who employed
Rubens for about nine years. From 1601-02 Rubens was in Rome producing
three altarpieces for the crypt chapel of St. Helena in Santa
Croce in Gerusalemme commissioned by Archduke Albrecht. From
1603-05 he
worked in Genoa as a portraitist and painter of altarpieces. In 1605 he
served as the duke's emissary to King Philip 3. of Spain. |
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During
his years in Italy, Rubens saw the early baroque works of the
contemporary Italian painters Annibale Carracci and Caravaggio, in
his Italian period he produced some of his finest portraits at
various princely Italian courts.
In 1608 Rubens returned to Antwerp to his mothers deathbed. In
1609 he married Isabella Brandt and remarried after her dead the
16 year old Helene Fourment, who became his preferred portrait model.
In Antwerp he was employed by the mayor of the town, at the same
time he was engaged as court painter to the Austrian archduke Albert. As the
most prominent painter of Antwerp, Rubens maintained a large workshop,
where he produced commissions for major religious orders of the Spanish
Netherlands (Belgium), France and Germany. He worked for Marie
de' Medici, queen of France (second wife of King Henry 4. and daughter of
Francesco de' Medici, grand duke of Tuscany), as well as Spanish and English patrons
among them King Charles 1.
In his early works Rubens was influenced by Michelangelo's muscular
figures and the lighting of Caravaggio, later by Tizian's
lyrical expressions. (Baroque)
*The Greek myth of Cecrops, The first king of Attica who
was half man half snake, he was believed to have been born out of
the earth. He had three daughters Aglauros, Pandrosos and Herse.
Cecrops was considered to be the founder of Greek civilization and
the city of Athens.
Erichtonius, mythical king of Athens, born out of the earth
and had a snake's tail. He was the son of The Earth Mother Gaia,
and was given to Athena, who hid him in a basket, and she took the
basket to the daughters of Cecrops, warning them not to open it,
which they still did, and they saw a child intertwined with a
snake. Athena then took Erichthonius to her temple, the snake
became holy to her.
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Detail
"Madonna
with the Saints",
c.1638-1640,
St. Jacobs Church,
Antwerp, Belgium |
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Detail
"Adoration
of Infant Jesus",
Pinacoteca Civica Fermo, Italy |
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Detail
"Three Music-Making Angels", c.1615-20,
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna
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"Venus
in front of the Mirror" c.1614 |
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Selected works:
"St. George and the
Dragon", 1606-1607, Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain.
"The Elevation of the Cross", 1610-1611, the Antwerp
Cathedral, Belgium.
"The Four Parts of the
World", 1614, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria.
"St. Sebastian", 1618. Gemaldegalerie, Berlin, Germany.
"Destiny of Marie de' Medici", 1621-1625, Louvre,
Paris - a cycle of 21 paintings depicted
for Palais du Luxembourg in
Paris, commissioned by the widowed queen mother of France, Marie
de' Medici.
"Adoration of the Magi", 1624, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium.
"The Triumph Entrance of Henry 4 into Paris",
1627-1630, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy.
"A Peasant Dance", Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain.
"The Whitehall Ceilings",
London, 1630-34, for King Charles I.
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Ecce
Homo:
Saint
John's Gospel 19:1-7:
Then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him. And the soldiers plaited
a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and arrayed him in a
purple robe; they came up to him, saying, "Hail, King of the
Jews!" and struck him with their hands. Pilate went out again,
and said to them, "See, I am bringing him out to you, that
you may know that I find no crime in him." So Jesus came out,
wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to
them, "Behold the man!" [Ecce Homo] "When
the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, "Crucify
him, crucify him!" Pilate said to them, "Take him
yourselves and crucify him, for I find no crime in him. "The
Jews answered him, "We have a law, and by that law he ought
to die, because he has made himself the Son of God."
Rubens,"Ecce
Homo", Christ wearing
the crown of thorns and the purple robe |
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