1420-1475 Flemish Dieric Bouts Locations Dirk Bouts whose real name was Theodorik Romboutszoon, was probably born in Haarlem, where he may have studied under the painter Albert van Ouwater. Sometime before 1450 Bouts took up residence in the Flemish city of Louvain. His name appeared in the records of Louvain in 1457 and again in 1468, when he was appointed "city painter." It is likely that Bouts spent some time in Bruges, as his earliest work, the Infancy Altarpiece shows the distinct and strong influence of Petrus Christus, the leading master of that city after the death of Jan van Eyck. The slightly later Deposition Altarpiece (ca. 1450) displays strong connections with the style of Rogier van der Weyden in both the figure types and the composition. About 1460, the period of the Entombment in London, the early, formative influence of Petrus Christus had been almost totally displaced by that of Rogier, though Bouts personal vision began to emerge in the fluid and continuous landscape background. The great Last Supper Altarpiece (1464-1467) marks the high point of Bouts career. In this solemn and dignified masterpiece the painter achieved spiritual grandeur in the context of convincing physical reality. The central panel of the altarpiece is the most emphatically significant treatment of the theme of the Last Supper in Northern European art. The wings, which contain Old Testament prefigurations of the central theme, are freer and more loosely organized. Eschewing the symmetry and rigid axial construction of the main panel, Bouts produced rhythmic foreground compositions in combination with fluid and dramatic spatial recessions. In 1468 Bouts was commissioned to paint four panels on the subject of justice for the Town Hall of Louvain. At the painter death in 1475 only two of the paintings had been completed; they are among the most remarkable productions of his career. The unusual subjects, taken from the chronicles of a 12th-century historian, concern the wrongful execution by Emperor Otto III of one of his counts and the subsequent vindication of the nobleman by his wife. The finer of the panels represents the dramatic trial by fire which the wife was obliged to undergo to prove her husband innocence. Rich draperies and sumptuous colors are applied to tall angular forms to create a work of rare formal elegance and high decorative appeal. In order to dignify the event, however, the artist has employed restrained gestures and expressions as well as a completely rationalized spatial setting. As in the Last Supper Altarpiece, a sense of solemn and hieratic importance is expressed by means of an austere and rigid geometry in the construction of both persons and places. The late productions of Bouts workshop, such as the well-known Pearl of Brabant Altarpiece, are characterized by the close collaboration of the painter two sons, Dirk the Younger (1448-1491) and Aelbrecht (1455/1460-1549). In the paintings of his less gifted sons, the master distinctive figure style was appreciably altered, though Dirk the Younger appears to have retained much of his father sensitivity to the landscape. In addition to his innovations in the depiction of landscape, Bouts made a substantial contribution to the development of the portrait. His Portrait of a Man (1462) localizes the sitter in an enlarged architectural setting while permitting the interior space to merge with the exterior through an open window. For the first time in Northern painting a common bond was forged between a particularized individual and the universal world of nature.  Related Paintings of Dieric Bouts :. | The Way to Paradise | Paradise | kristushuvud | Paradise | The Execution of the Innocent Count |
Related Artists:
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Frankfurt 1749-1832 Weimar,was a German writer and according to George Eliot, "Germany's greatest man of letters and the last true polymath to walk the earth." Goethe's works span the fields of poetry, drama, literature, theology, humanism and science. Goethe's magnum opus, lauded as one of the peaks of world literature, is the two-part drama Faust. Goethe's other well-known literary works include his numerous poems, the Bildungsroman Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and the epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther. Goethe was one of the key figures of German literature and the movement of Weimar Classicism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries; this movement coincides with Enlightenment, Sentimentality (Empfindsamkeit), Sturm und Drang and Romanticism. The author of the scientific text Theory of Colours, he influenced Darwin with his focus on plant morphology. He also served at length as the Privy Councilor ("Geheimrat") of the duchy of Weimar. Goethe is the originator of the concept of Weltliteratur ("world literature"), having taken great interest in the literatures of England, France, Italy, classical Greece, Persia, Arabic literature, amongst others. His influence on German philosophy is virtually immeasurable, having major effect especially on the generation of Hegel and Schelling, although Goethe himself expressly and decidedly refrained from practicing philosophy in the rarefied sense. Goethe's influence spread across Europe, and for the next century his works were a major source of inspiration in music, drama, poetry and philosophy. Goethe is considered by many to be the most important writer in the German language and one of the most important thinkers in Western culture as well.
JACOPO del SELLAIO
Italian painter, Florentine school (1442-1493)
pehr hillestrom
Pehr Hilleström (1732-1816) var en svensk målare och vävare, professor vid Konstakademiens läroverk från 1794 och dess direktör från 1810. I unga år var han en av Sveriges främsta gobelängvävare men övergick sedan till måleri. Han är mest känd för sina vardagsskildringar av sin tids levnadssätt. Han målade pigor och tjänstefolk som arbetar, överklassen i de fina salarna, enkelt folk i stugorna och bilder från olika bruksmiljöer. Genom det räknas han som den största skildraren av den gustavianska samtiden. Pehr Hilleström är far till konstnären Carl Petter Hilleström och farfars farfars far till Gustaf Hilleström. Pehr Hilleström föddes i 1732 Väddö, Roslagen, troligtvis den 18 november. Han växte upp under fattiga omständigheter på Väddö prästgård vid sin farbror som var kyrkoherde där. Han var son till en militär och äldst i en syskonskara på 12 barn. Hans far råkade redan 1719 i rysk fångenskap men hade 1723 lyckats återvända till Sverige och då tagit sin tillflykt till brodern på Väddö. 1743 flyttade familjen Hilleström från Roslagen till Stockholm, där Pehr, 10 år gammal, sattes i lära hos tapet- och landskapsmålaren Johan Philip Korn (1727-1796) samt mellan åren 1744-1747 även hos den invandrade tyske solfjädermålaren Christian Fehmer. Utöver detta fick han även undervisning vid kungliga ritareakademin där Guillaume Thomas Taraval (1701-1750) och Jean Eric Rehn (1717-1793) var läromästare. Efter inrådan från Carl Hårleman sattes Hilleström 1745 i lära hos Jean Louis Duru (-1753). Duru var hautelissevävare och hade kallats till Sverige för att göra textila utsmyckningen av Stockholms slott. Tanken var att Hilleström skulle utbildas till Durus medhjälpare. 1749 visade Hilleström upp ett första läroprov som visades upp för deputationen som gillade det så mycket så att han fick en belöning på 180 daler kopparmynt. När Duru dog i slutet av 1753 så fick Hilleström fullborda den påbörjade kappan för tronhimmelen i det kungliga audiensrummet. Han var då så skicklig att det knappt kunde märkas någon skillnad mellan hans och hans lärares arbete. Lönen var blygsam men vid 1756 års riksdag fick han samma årslön som Duru hade haft, och han fick en beställning på ett vävt porträtt av Hårleman utfört i hautelisse. Åren 1757-58 var Hilleström på en längre och för tidens konstnärer sedvanlig studieresa till utlandet. Färden gick till Paris, Belgien och Holland, bland annat med en vidareutbildning i gobelängteknikerna som mål. I Paris blir Hilleström erbjuden att studera måleri i François Bouchers atelj??, men störst intryck tog han där av genre- och stillebenmålaren Jean-Baptiste-Sim??on Chardin, som undervisade honom vid franska målarakademien. Väl hemma i Stockholm fortsatte han visserligen att göra tapeter, mattor, stolsöverdrag och dylikt för hovet. Men så småningom fylldes slottet behov av vävnader samtidigt som Hilleström fortsatte studera måleri.