Greek-born Spanish Mannerist Painter, 1541-1614
Considered a representative of late Renaissance Spanish art, El Greco was actually born in Greece, on the island of Crete. After studying in Venice under Titian, El Greco settled in Toledo, Spain in 1577. At the time he was wildly popular, his emotionally religious paintings being just the ticket for the hometown of the Spanish Inquisition. After his death his work was largely ignored until the beginning of the 20th century; now he considered one of the inspired geniuses of Western art. His distinctive style features bold shapes and colors, with elongated and slightly distorted figures.
In Toledo El Greco was in constant demand and liked living large: he maintained a private orchestra to accompany his meals. Related Paintings of El Greco :. | The Visitation | The Burial of Count Orgaz (mk08) | The Entombment of Christ | The Despoiling of Christ (mk08) | The Risen Christ | Related Artists:
Jan WouterszAmsterdam 1599-1663
Gustaf Wilhelm PalmSwedish, 1810-1890,Swedish painter. He entered the Royal Academy of Arts in Stockholm in 1828, where he was a student of Carl Johan Fahlcrantz. Following a tour of Norway he went, via Copenhagen, to Berlin and Vienna for three years in order to seek a cure for an eye illness. He was influenced there by Biedermeier painting and Ferdinand Georg Waldm?ller, and also by the architectural painters Jakob Alt (1789-1872) and his son Rudolf Alt.
Jerg RatgebJerg Ratgeb (also Jörg) (born circa 1480 in Schwäbisch Gmend; died 1526 in Pforzheim) was a German painter and contemporary of Derer.
Around the turn of the 15th to 16th century, Ratgeb appears to have spent time in Italy, where he came in contact with Italian Renaissance art and with the recently developed use of perspective in painting. After returning to Germany, he settled in Heilbronn. In 1510, he painted the altar of Saint Barbara in the church of nearby Schwaigern.
From 1514 to 1517 he was in Frankfurt am Main, where he painted the walls of the refectory and cloister of the Karmeliterkloster (Carmelite Monastery). The paintings, of which only fragments survive, are the largest wall paintings known to the north of the Alps from that period. His most famous work is the Herrenberg Altarpiece, completed in 1521. It was originally painted for the Stiftskirche (abbey church) of Herrenberg. Today, it is on display in the Staatgalerie at Stuttgart. Ratgeb had developed a distinctive personal expressive style, visibly influenced by artists such as Albrecht Derer, Matthias Grenewald and Hieronymus Bosch.
Fresco in the Karmeliterkloster, Frankfurt am Main.
Copy of the altarpiece in the abbey church at Herrenberg - here depicted when closed
Because of his marriage with a serf of the Duke of Werttemberg he lost most of his rights as a citizen of Heilbronn. He moved to Stuttgart, where he became a member of the city council. In that position, he negotiated with the rebelling farmers during the German Peasants' War in 1525. He became part of the military contingent requested by the rebels and was elected councillor and chancellor by the peasants. After the suppression of the rebellion, he was arrested, accused of high treason ("because of the Peasant War and on behalf of Duke Ulrich") and finally executed in Pforzheim in 1526, by being torn apart by four horses.