Italian Mannerist Painter, 1535-1607 Born in Florence. After the death of his father in 1540 he was brought up and trained in art by a close friend, often referred to as his 'uncle', the mannerist painter Agnolo Bronzino, whose name he sometimes assumed in his pictures. In some ways, Allori is the last of the line of prominent Florentine painters, of generally undiluted Tuscan artistic heritage: Andrea del Sarto worked with Fra Bartolomeo (as well as Leonardo Da Vinci), Pontormo briefly worked under Andrea, and trained Bronzino, who trained Allori. Subsequent generations in the city would be strongly influenced by the tide of Baroque styles pre-eminent in other parts of Italy. Freedburg derides Allori as derivative, claiming he illustrates "the ideal of Maniera by which art (and style) are generated out of pre-existing art." The polish of figures has an unnatural marble-like form as if he aimed for cold statuary. It can be said of late phase mannerist painting in Florence, that the city that had early breathed life into statuary with the works of masters like Donatello and Michelangelo, was still so awed by them that it petrified the poses of figures in painting. While by 1600 the Baroque elsewhere was beginning to give life to painted figures, Florence was painting two-dimensional statues. Furthermore, in general, with the exception of the Contra Maniera artists, it dared not stray from high themes or stray into high emotion.  Related Paintings of ALLORI Alessandro :. | Susanna and The Elders | Portrait of a Florentine Nobleman | Maria de Medici | Hercules Crowned by the Muses | Preaching of St John the Baptist |
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John Thomas Serres
1759-1825 English painter, born in London in December 1759. He was the eldest son of Dominic (1722-93), a successful marine painter who was to be one of the founder members of the Royal Academy.Son of Dominic Serres. John Thomas Serres's colourful career began with landscape painting. He later travelled extensively, spending periods in Paris (1789), Rome and Naples (1790-91), before succeeding his father to the office of Marine Painter to George III in 1793. He worked promisingly as a painter (in both oils and watercolour) of sea-pieces in the European tradition, advanced in England by Phillipe Jacques de Loutherbourg. After becoming Marine Draughtsman to the Admiralty in 1800 he took on the less challenging employment of making drawings and elevations of the west coasts of France and Spain. This connection with the Navy was probably related to his appointment as drawing instructor at Chelsea Naval School, London.
Edward Caledon Bruce
painted Robert E. Lee in 1865
Josephus Laurentius Dyckmans
painted The Blind Beggar in 1853