1838-1874 Spanish Mariano Fortuny y Marsal Gallery He was born in Reus, a town near Taragona in the autonomous community of Catalonia in Spain. His father died when he was an infant, his mother by age 12, thus Mariano was raised by his grandfather, a cabinet-maker. His grandfather taught him to make wax figurines. At the age of 9, at a public competition in his town a local patron, Domingo Soberno, encouraged further study. At the age of 14 years he moved to Barcelona with his grandfather. A sculptor, Domingo Taleru, secured him a pension of to allow him to attend the Academy of Barcelona. There he studied for four years under Claudio Lorenzale, and in March of 1857 he gained a scholarship that entitled him to two years of studies in Rome starting in 1858. There he studied drawing and grand manner styles. In 1859, he was called by the Spanish government to depict the campaigns of the Spanish-Moroccan War. The expedition lasted for only about six months, and he returned to Spain in the summer of 1860. The battle of Tetuan by Mariano Fortuny (1863-73)Since the days of Velazquez, there had been a tradition in Spain of memorializing battles and victories in paint; and on the basis of his experiences, Fortuny was commissioned by the city of Barcelona to paint a large canvas diorama of the capture of the camps of Muley-el-Abbas and Muley-el-Hamed by the Spanish army. He began his composition of The battle of Tetuan on a canvas fifteen metres long; but though it worked on and off on it during the next decade, he never finished it. The greater influence of this travel on Fortuny was his subsequent fascination with the exotic themes of the world of Morocco, painting both individuals and imagined court scenes. He visited Paris in 1868 and shortly afterwards married Cecilia de Madrazo, the daughter of Federico Madrazo, who would become curator of the Prado Museum in Madrid. Together, they had a son, Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo, who became a well-known fashion and tapestry designer. Another visit to Paris in 1870 was followed by a two years' stay at Granada, but then he returned to Rome, where he died somewhat suddenly on the 21st of November 1874 from an attack of tertian ague, or malaria , contracted while painting in the open air at Naples and Portici in the summer of 1874. Fortuny paintings are colorful, with a vivacious iridescent brushstroke, that at times recalls the softness of Rococo painting but also anticipates impressionist brushwork, Fortuny??s recollection of Morocco is not a costume ball, but a fierce, realistic portrait which includes bare-chested warriors. Richard Muther states: ??his marvellously sensitive eye ?? discerned the stalls of Moorish carpet-sellers, with little figures swarming, and the rich display of woven stuffs of the East; the weary attitude of old Arabs sitting in the sun; the sombre, brooding faces of strange snake-charmers and magicians. This is no Parisian East??every one here speaks Arabic??. Fortuny often painted scenes where contemporary life had still not shaken off the epaulets and decorations of ancient traditions such a the ????Burial of a matador???? and couples signing marriage contracts (La Vicaria). Each has the dazzle of bric-a-brac [1]ornament, but as in his painting of the ????Judgement of the model????, that painterly decorative air of Rococo and Romanticism was fading into academicism and left to confront the naked reality of the represented object. He inherited Goya??s eye for the paradox of ceremony and reality.  Related Paintings of Mariano Fortuny y Marsal :. | The Choice of a Model | Carnisseria publica | Odalisque | Arab Chief. | nude on the beach at portici |
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Niccolo di Pietro Gerini
Italian Painter, active ca.1368-1415 died in Florence in 1415, earned reputation of an important Italian painter. He represents giottesque school, in the tradition of the Andrea di Orcagna (1320-1368) and of Taddeo Gaddi. His father Pietro Geri is registered as a member of Lucas Guild in 1339. Niccolo worked mainly in Florence, although he also carried out commissions in Rome (Vatican), Pisa and Prato. He was first recorded in 1368 as a member of the Arte dei Medici e Speziali in Florence but is identifiable with the Niccolo dipintore who collaborated with Jacopo di Cione on frescoes for the Guildhall of the Judges and Notaries in Florence in 1366. It is self-evident that he is the Niccolaio dipintore who worked with Jacopo di Cione on the altarpiece of the Coronation of the Virgin (presently in London, National Gallery) for St Pier Maggiore, Florence in 1370 and was paid 12 golden florins per disegnare la tavola dell altare in November of the same year. He designed the altarpiece and the elaborate throne canopy with his usual fine painting and detailed ornaments whilst Jacopo di Cione was depicting side saints. This altarpiece is amongst of very few largest commissioned in 14th century Florence. It was seemingly commissioned by Albizzi family. He was collaborating with Jacopo di Cione on Coronation of the Virgin (Accademia, Florence) in 1372. Offner and Steinweg suggest that he was responsible for the design and fine painting and Jacopo for the execution of saints. It was commissioned by the mint of Florence Zecca Vecchia on the same year. In 1383 Gerini again worked with Cione on a fresco of the Annunciation in the Palazzo dei Priori, Volterra. This fresco clearly shows the work of two very different artists: Niccolo di Pietro Gerini (design and very fine painting) and Jacopo di Cione (broadly painted saints and side decoration). In 1386 Niccolo frescoed the façade of the Bigallo, Florence. He also frescoed Sant Ambrogio church in Florence Gerini performed the Crocefissione of St Felicita church in Florence. His hand is clearly on sacrestia of the basilica of Saint Croce to Florence with Scenes of the life of Christ. Between 1391 and 1392 he worked in Prato where he frescoed Palazzo Datini, church of Saint Francisco with Lorenzo di Niccolo and Agnolo Gaddi. He also frescoed capitolare of the church of Saint Francisco, Pisa. Very typically for Gothic depiction Gerini figures have large chins, sloping foreheads, and sharp noses whilst their bodies are squat and frontally displaced. Another important artist Lorenzo di Niccol?? di Martino was trained in Niccol?? di Pietro Gerini workshop and later collaborated with the master but was not his son as sometimes erroneously stated. Gerini though had a son Bindo di Niccolo di Pietro Gerini, born in 1363, who is registered as member of Lucas Guild since 1408. Niccolo di Pietro Gerini works can be found in major art galleries of Rome, Vatican, Florence, London, Milan, New York, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, St Petersburg, Boston, Cambridge, Budapest, Birmingham, Pegalo, Prato, Pisa, Altenburg, Avignon, Denver and several other museums.
Kracker, Johann Lucas
Austrian painter b. 1719, Wien, d. 1779, Eger
Jan Rustem
(b. 1762 in Istanbul - d. 1835 near Dekštas, Lithuania) was a painter of Armenian, Turkish or Greek ethnicity who lived and worked in the territories of the Polish CLithuanian Commonwealth. Primarily a portrait painter, he was commissioned to execute portraits of notable personalities of his epoch. For many years he was a professor at the University of Vilna, the predecessor of Vilnius University. He was born in Instanbul, and a young boy was sponsored by Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski who invited him to the Commonwealth around 1774. Czartoryski paid for his studies in Warsaw, where among his tutors were Jean-Pierre Norblin de La Gourdaine and Marcello Bacciarelli. Between 1788 and 1790 he moved to Germany, where he became a freemason. Two years later he returned to the Polish?CLithuanian Commonwealth and lived for some time in Warsaw, later moving to Vilna. Following the partitions of the Commonwealth, Rustem started working for the Common School of Vilna, which was later remamed the Imperial University of Vilna, as assistant to Franciszek Smuglewicz. After Smuglewicz's death, Rustem took over some of his duties. In 1811 he became a professor of sketching and in 1819 became a professor of painting. Rustem retired in 1826, but continued to give lectures until his death.