Italian Baroque Era Painter, ca.1571-1610 Italian painter. After an early career as a painter of portraits, still-life and genre scenes he became the most persuasive religious painter of his time. His bold, naturalistic style, which emphasized the common humanity of the apostles and martyrs, flattered the aspirations of the Counter-Reformation Church, while his vivid chiaroscuro enhanced both three-dimensionality and drama, as well as evoking the mystery of the faith. He followed a militantly realist agenda, rejecting both Mannerism and the classicizing naturalism of his main rival, Annibale Carracci. In the first 30 years of the 17th century his naturalistic ambitions and revolutionary artistic procedures attracted a large following from all over Europe.  Related Paintings of Caravaggio :. | Hl. Hieronymus beim Schreiben | St Francis dfgd | Beheading of Saint John the Baptist fg | Caravaggio Cardsharps Kimbell detail | The Sacrifice of Isaac fdg |
Related Artists:
Nikolai Roerich
Russian, 1874-1947 Russian painter, stage designer and founder of cultural institutions. The son of a lawyer of Scandinavian descent, he graduated from the studio of the landscape painter Arkhip Kuindzhi at the Academy of Fine Arts (1897) and from the faculty of law at the University of St Petersburg (1898). He then studied in Paris with the history painter Fernand Cormon (1900). Roerich had wide interests and made an important contribution to Russian culture: he lectured at the Institute of Archaeology (1898); he became secretary of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (1901) and director of its school (1906); and he was the first chairman of the World of Art (Rus. Mir Iskusstva) Society (1910). The first volume of his collected cultural writings was published in Moscow in 1914. As a painter he exhibited with the Academy from 1897, WORLD OF ART from 1902, the Vienna Secession c. 1905 and the Salon d'Automne in Paris in 1906. From c. 1903 he was a leading member of the artists' colony at TALASHKINO, where he designed mosaics, friezes, murals and furniture. As a stage designer in Russia, he worked between 1907 and 1915 for such directors as Nikolay Yevreinov (1879-1953),
MEYTENS, Martin van
Dutch painter (b. 1695, Stockholm, d. 1770, Vienna). was a Swedish-Austrian painter who has painted people of the royal Court of Austria such as Marie Antoinette, Maria Theresa of Austria, Francois III and his family, and many other royal paintings. His painting style has inspired many other painters to paint in a similar format. Martin van Meytens was born on June 16, 1695 and was later baptised in Stockholm, Sweden. He studied other great painter's works and in 1717 he had a great success in painting enamel paintings and miniatures, but later went on to greater task. In 1723 he began to paint large portraits of royal courts
Peder Balke
Peter Andersen was born on the island of Helgøya, in Hedmark county, Norway. He grew up Ringsaker, but stayed in the 1820s on the Balke farm in Toten in Oppland county. Farmers in Toten paid his education, and as thanks he decorated several of the farms in Toten on his return. They actively encouraged his painting activities and later supported him in higher education. In the autumn of 1827, Balke served as an apprentice to Heinrich August Grosch. he was also a student at the Tegneskole under Grosch and Jacob Munch. Balke signed a two year contract as an apprentice at the Danish decoration and artist Jens Funch. From autumn 1829 to spring 1833, he was a pupil of Carl Johan Fahlcrantz at the art academy in Stockholm. Balke was also a pupil of Johan Christian Dahl from 1843 to 1844. During the summer of 1830 he walked through Telemark, Rjukan, Vestfjorddalen over Røldal and Kinsarvik to Bergen, and then back over Vossevangen to Gudvangen, further over Fillefjell to Valdres and thence across the mountains to Hallingdal. All the way he painted and drew small sketches that were later developed into paintings. He also traveled to Germany, and Russia. He visited Paris and London. In Stockholm, he completed several of the paintings he had outlined of his Finnmark tour. Some of these were sold to the royal family. In 1846 he sold thirty of his paintings to Louis-Philippe of France for Versailles. Besides the 17 paintings in the National Gallery in Oslo, Peder Balke also is represented at several major art collections in Norway and Sweden.