Italian 1267-1337 Giotto Galleries Giotto di Bondone (c. 1267 ?C January 8, 1337), better known simply as Giotto, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence. He is generally considered the first in a line of great artists who contributed to the Italian Renaissance. Giotto's contemporary Giovanni Villani wrote that Giotto was "the most sovereign master of painting in his time, who drew all his figures and their postures according to nature. And he was given a salary by the commune [of Florence] in virtue of his talent and excellence." The later 16th century biographer Giorgio Vasari says of him "...He made a decisive break with the ...Byzantine style, and brought to life the great art of painting as we know it today, introducing the technique of drawing accurately from life, which had been neglected for more than two hundred years." Giotto's masterwork is the decoration of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, commonly called the Arena Chapel, completed around 1305. This fresco cycle depicts the life of the Virgin and the life of Christ. It is regarded as one of the supreme masterpieces of the Early Renaissance. That Giotto painted the Arena Chapel and that he was chosen by the commune of Florence in 1334 to design the new campanile (bell tower) of the Florence Cathedral are among the few certainties of his biography. Almost every other aspect of it is subject to controversy: his birthdate, his birthplace, his appearance, his apprenticeship, the order in which he created his works, whether or not he painted the famous frescoes at Assisi, and where he was eventually buried after his death.  Related Paintings of Giotto :. | The Lamentation of Christ (mk08) | Annunciation to Zacharias | Last Judgment | Bewening of Christ | Allegory of Chastity |
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Abraham Hondius
(1625 - 1691) was a Dutch Golden Age painter known his depictions of animals. He was the son of a city stonemason, Daniel Abramsz de Hondt. Hondius was born in Rotterdam and trained under Pieter de Bloot ( 1601 - 1658) and Cornelis Saftleven.He lived in Rotterdam until 1659 and moved then to Amsterdam. He moved to London] in 1666, where he spent the rest of his life. Hondius combined throughout his career several stylistic influences and struggled to develop a style of his own. He however specialised somehow in animal pieces: more than two-thirds of his paintings, etchings and drawings are hunting scenes, animals fighting and animal studies. He also executed landscapes, genre and religious scenes. Hondius most likely moved to London] (where he later died) in 1666 where he spent the rest of his life. He painted views of London such as The Frost Fair on the Thames at Temple Stairs and London Bridge. His last known work is "Ape and Cat Fighting over Dead Poultry," dated 1690.
Frederick Soulacrioix
French 1825-1879
George Desmarees
was born in 1697 at Stockholm, where he was instructed in painting by Peter Martin van Meytens, whose assistant he afterwards became. In 1724 he made a stay in Amsterdam, and in the following year in Nuremberg and then in Venice, where he received further tuition from Piazzetta. In 1731 he settled in Munich, where he became court painter, and where he continued to reside till his death in 1776. A portrait of himself and one of his daughter are, with a third in the Munich Gallery, and other portraits by him are at Augsburg.