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 :. | Portrait of a Young Man hgjgh | The banquet of the Kleopatra | The wedding to canons | The communion | Venus and Cupid |
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Nikolay Fechin
Russian, 1881-1955
JANSSENS, Jan
Flemish painter (b. 1590, Ghent, d. after 1650, ?) Flemish painter, active also in Italy. He became a master in the painters' guild of his native Ghent in 1621, but before that he spent considerable time in Italy, particularly Rome, where he is documented in 1619 and 1620. There he became associated with the international Caravaggesque movement and was especially influenced by the paintings of the Utrecht Caravaggisti, such as Gerrit van Honthorst and Dirck van Baburen. Immediately after his return to Ghent, Janssens introduced the style of Caravaggio there. His altarpieces and other painted compositions with mercilessly realistic representations of biblical and hagiographic themes were particularly sought after for churches in and around Ghent. In these works Janssens achieved a high emotional impact by modelling the figures and objects with a strong light from a hidden source. Typical examples are the Christ Crowned with Thorns (1627; Ghent, St Peter) and the Martyrdom of St Barbara (Ghent, St Michael). Such paintings met the demand that sprang from the Counter-Reformation for strongly emotional representations of religious themes. Janssens also occasionally worked for a public that was more international in outlook, as is demonstrated by his Caritas Romana
John Smibert
1688-1751 John Smibert Gallery John Smybert (or Smibert) (1688 - 1751), Scottish American artist, was born in Edinburgh and died in Boston, Massachusetts. He studied under Sir James Thornhill, and in 1728 accompanied Bishop Berkeley to America, with the intention of becoming professor of fine arts in the college which Berkeley was planning to found in Bermuda. The college, however, was never established, and Smybert settled in Boston, where he married in 1730. In 1731 he painted "Dean George Berkeley and His Family," also called "The Bermuda group", now in the Yale University Art Gallery, Yale University, a group of eight figures; it is maintained that the person furthest to the left is actually the artist himself. He painted portraits of Jonathan Edwards and Judge Edmund Quincy (in the Boston Art Museum), Mrs Smybert, Peter Faneuil and Governor John Endecott (in the Massachusetts Historical Society), John Lovell (Memorial Hall, Harvard University), and probably one of Sir William Pepperrell; and examples of his works are owned by Harvard and Yale Universities, by Bowdoin College, by the Massachusetts Historical Society, and by the New England Historical and Genealogical Society. Portrait of Edmund Quincy, attributed to John Smybert Plaque at Granary Burying Ground in Boston commemorating SmybertBetween 1740-42, he served as architect for the original Faneuil Hall, which he designed in the style of an English country market. The hall burned down in 1761 but was restored, and then in 1806 greatly expanded and modified by Charles Bulfinch. His son Nathaniel was also a painter. Smybert lies in an unmarked grave in the Granary Burying Ground in Boston.