Italian Early Renaissance Painter, 1267-1337 Italian painter and designer. In his own time and place he had an unrivalled reputation as the best painter and as an innovator, superior to all his predecessors, and he became the first post-Classical artist whose fame extended beyond his lifetime and native city. This was partly the consequence of the rich literary culture of two of the cities where he worked, Padua and Florence. Writing on art in Florence was pioneered by gifted authors and, although not quite art criticism, it involved the comparison of local artists in terms of quality. The most famous single appreciation is found in Dante's verses (Purgatory x) of 1315 or earlier. Exemplifying the transience of fame, first with poets and manuscript illuminators, Dante then remarked that the fame of Cimabue, who had supposed himself to be the leader in painting, had now been displaced by Giotto. Ironically, this text was one factor that forestalled the similar eclipse of Giotto's fame, which was clearly implied by the poet.   Related Paintings of GIOTTO di Bondone :. | Presentation of Christ in the Temple | Decorative band with figure | Joachim Takes Refuge in the Wilderness | Washing of Feet | St Paul |
Related Artists:
Gabriel Jacques de Saint-Aubin
French Painter, 1724-1780,Draughtsman, etcher and painter, brother of (1) Charles-Germain de Saint-Aubin. He studied with the painters Etienne Jeaurat and Hyacinthe Colin de Vermont, but failed three times to win the Prix de Rome (competition paintings, 1752-4; Paris, Louvre). He broke with the Academie Royale, preferring to support and exhibit at the Academie de St Luc. Although he continued to paint such pictures as a Street Show in Paris (c. 1760; London, N.G.; other examples in Rouen, Mus. B.-A.), he is best known as a draughtsman and etcher. He was a passionate and unconventional observer of the sights of the Paris streets and of the social scene. Dacier saw him as the 'man who drew at all times and in all places', and his contemporary Jean-Baptiste Greuze spoke of his 'priapism of draughtsmanship'. In his many drawings he combined pencil, black and red chalk, bistre, ink and watercolour to create dazzling spontaneous effects. He drew incidents that struck him as he wandered the streets, or entertainments that he attended. He recorded them, noting dates and times, in sketchbooks (e.g. Paris, Louvre and Stockholm, Nmus.) or sometimes in the margins and blank pages of printed books that he was carrying (such as a volume of the poems of Jean-Michel Sedaine, in the Mus. Cond?, Chantilly). These drawings of contemporary incidents include the Fire at the Foire Saint-Germain on the Night of 16-17 May 1762 (ex-David Weill priv. col.) and the Crowning of Voltaire at the Theetre-Franeais in 1778 (Paris, Louvre; see fig.). He went regularly to the Salon of the Academie Royale and to art sales, covering the margins and flyleaves of his sale catalogues and Salon livrets with tiny sketches of works of art and the passing scene. One hundred of these illustrated catalogues were among his effects when he died, and of these about a third survive. These include the livrets for the Salons of 1761, 1769 and 1777 (all Paris, Bib. N.), as well as the catalogues of the sales of Louis-Michel van Loo in 1772 and Charles Natoire in 1778 (both Paris, Bib. N.), and that of Pierre-Jean Mariette in 1775 (Boston, MA, Mus. F.A.). Together with his etchings and large watercolours (e.g. Paris, Louvre) of the Louvre's Salon Carre at the time of the exhibitions of 1753, 1767 and 1769,
Vasily Polenov
1844 - 1927,Painter. He began a systematic study of drawing in 1856, first with the landscape painter Pavel Cherkasov (1834-1900), then from 1859 to 1861 with Pavel Chistyakov (1832-1919). He also took lessons with Chistyakov, whom he considered his most important teacher, in 1871 and early 1872, after finishing his academic course. From 1863 to 1871 Polenov studied at the St Petersburg Academy of Art, where he met members of the progressive wing of the Russian artistic intelligentsia, and occasionally in the faculty of law at St Petersburg University. The classical education he received at home, his academic training and lessons with Chistyakov led Polenov towards an exalted history painting, although he personally inclined towards landscape. This dualism remained in Polenov work for the duration, and not until the late 1880s and early 1890s did he achieve a stable relationship between the two forms. The whole of his student career and the initial postgraduate, scholarship period was largely taken up with historical works: from academic compositions, for example the Resurrection of Jairus Daughter (1871; Pskov, Mus. Hist., Archit. & A.), for which he received the Grand Gold Medal and a travel bursary (in Germany and Italy, 1872-3, and France, 1873-6), to numerous pictures and sketches on subjects from antiquity and medieval history, executed in France or shortly after his departure from there, under the perceptible influence of Paul Delaroche (e.g. The Master Right, 1874; Moscow Tret yakov Gal.). At the same time he produced his first independent works, in the 1860s and early 1870s: landscapes in the surroundings of the Imochentsy estate in Karelia (e.g. Mountains, 1870; Moscow Tret yakov Gal.), and landscape studies and pictures executed from nature in Normandy in 1874 (e.g. Fishing Boat, Etretat; Moscow, Tret'yakov Gal.). In 1876 he became an Academician
Walter Moras
painted Markisches Dorf in 1888