Artist
Erika Giovanna Klien (1900 - 1957)
Erika Giovanna Klien was born on April 12, 1900 in Trentino, Italy and moved to New York City in 1929. There, she was a teacher at various New York colleges. Klien was the most talented pupil of Franz Cizek, who taught at the Vienna School of Decorative Arts (Kunstgewerbeschule). He developed Viennese kineticism, which uses elements of cubism and futurism to create dynamic compositions. Erika Giovanna Klien died in New York July 19, 1957.
Diving Bird (1939)
Belvedere, Vienna, Inv.-Nr. 9547
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Erika Giovanna Klien: Diving Bird. 1939. Oil on canvas. 111 x 96 cm.
This painting shows the dynamics of a plummeting seagull and dissolves representational images into abstract graphic forms.
In 2001 the painting had been donated to the "Österreichische Galerie", Vienna.
François-Pascal Simon Gérard (1770 - 1837)
Baron François-Pascal Simon Gérard was born in Rome in 1770, where his father occupied a post in the house of the French ambassador. At the age of twelve Gérard obtained admission into the Pension du Roi in Paris. From the Pension he passed to the studio of the sculptor Augustin Pajou that he left at the end of two years for that of the painter Brenet, whom he quit almost immediately to place himself under Jacques-Louis David.
In 1789 he competed for the Prix de Rome, which was carried off by his comrade Girodet. In the following year (1790) he again presented himself, but the death of his father prevented the completion of his work, and obliged him to accompany his mother to Rome. In 1791 he returned to Paris; but his poverty was so great that he was forced to forgo his studies in favor of employment, which should bring in immediate profit. David at once availed himself of his help, and one of that master's most celebrated portraits, of "Le Pelletier de St Fargeaumay", may owe much to the hand of Gerard. This painting was executed early in 1793, the year in which Gérard, at the request of David, was named a member of the revolutionary tribunal, from the fatal decisions of which he, however, invariably absented himself.
In 1794 he obtained the first prize in a competition and further stimulated by the successes of his rival and friend Girodet in the Salons of 1793 and 1794, Gérard (nobly aided by the miniaturist Isabey), produced in 1795 his famous "Blisaire". In 1796 a portrait of his generous friend Isabey obtained undisputed success, and the money received from Isabey for these two works enabled Gerard to execute in 1797 his "Psyche et l'Amour". At last, in 1799, his portrait of Madame Bonaparte established his position as one of the first portrait-painters of the day. In 1808 as many as eight, in 1810 no less than fourteen portraits by him, were exhibited at the Salon, and these figures afford only an indication of the enormous numbers which he executed yearly; all the leading figures of the Empire and of the Restauration, all the most celebrated men and women of Europe, sat to Gérard. This extraordinary vogue was due partly to the charm of his manner and conversation, for his salon was as much frequented as his studio; Madame de Staël, George Canning, Talleyrand, the Duke of Wellington, have all borne witness to the attraction of his society.
After 1820 Gérard declined, watching with impotent grief the progress of the Romantic school. Loaded with honors-baron of the empire, member of the Institute, officer of the légion d'honneur, first painter to the king-he worked on, sad and discouraged; the revolution of 1830 added to his disquiet; and on January 11, 1837, after three days of fever, he died.
Gérard is best remembered by his portraits, and those of women are especially remarkable for their virginal simplicity and frankness of expression.
The Imperial Count Moritz Christian Fries and his Family (ca. 1804)
Belvedere, Vienna, Inv.-Nr. 3386
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François-Pascal Simon Gérard: The Imperial Count Moritz Christian Fries and his Family. ca. 1804. Oil on canvas. 223 x 163,5 cm.
This painting features Count Moritz Christian Fries (1777-1862), his attractive wife Maria Theresia neé Princess Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingfürst (1779-1819), and their son Moritz, who was born in 1804. Fries was one of the most important bankers and art patrons in 19th century Vienna. Francoise Gérard produced this image at the height of his career, and was one of the most sought-after portrait painters among the French aristocracy.
It is even forbidden to take pictures at the Belvedere Museum, where this painting is displayed.
Johannes Vermeer (1632 - 1675)
Johannes Vermeer was born in 1632 in Delft, Netherlands and died in December 1675 in the same city. The famous Dutch Baroque painter was specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle class life. Hard to believe, but Vermeer was only a moderately successful provincial genre painter who has never been wealthy. After his death he even left his wife and children in debt. One reason might be that Vermeer produced only a few paintings, due to his careful and slow method of painting.
There are not too many details known about the life of the painter. That's why Thoré-Bürger named him "The Sphinx of Delft". Together with Gustav Friedrich Waagen, Théopile Thoré-Bürger rediscovered the work of Vermeer in the 19th century as before the painter was only known locally. Since the two scholars published an essay with some reproductions of Vermeer's artworks, the artist's reputation has grown.
Today he is acknowledged as one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age.
The Art of Painting
Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Inv.-Nr. GG_9128
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Johannes Vermeer: The Art of Painting. ca. 1666. Oil on canvas. 130 x 110 cm.
This masterpiece of Vermeer is also known as "The Allegory of Painting" and "Painter in his Studio". The painting is one of the largest and most complex of Vermeer's works. It is also famous for being one of the artist's favorites.
There are two figures in the painting: the painter, who is thought to be a self-portrait of the artist, and his female subject. Despite a big map of the Netherlands there are a number of items in the studio, a golden chandelier and the marble tiled floor, which seem to be out of place as they would be reserved for the houses of the well-to-do. Experts attribute symbolism to various aspects of the painting: due to her attributes the subject is the Muse of History, there are symbols of the Catholic faith and many more.
Even when Vermeer was in debt, he never sold this artwork. After Vermeer's death his widow bequeathed the work to her mother to avoid the sale of the painting. The executor of Vermeer's estate, Anton van Leeuwenhoek, later determined that the transfer to the painter's mother in law was illegal. For most of the 18th century, the owner of the painting is not known. Later it was acquired by the Dutch physician Gerard van Swieten, his son Gottfried van Swieten inherited it. At the beginning of the 19th century it was purchased by the Bohemian-Austrian Count Czernin and it was on public display in the Czernin Museum in Vienna, Austria.
Until the late 19th century Vermeer was little known. Thus until 1860 "The Art of Painting" was considered to be by Pieter de Hooch, a contemporary of Vermeer. Although the artwork had Hoch"s signature as well, the French Vermeer scholar Thoré Bürger and the German art historian Gustav Friedrich Waagen finally recognized it as a Vermeer original.
During World War II, in 1940, "The Art of Painting" was acquired from Count Jaromir Czernin by Adolf Hitler for his personal collection. Together with other works of art it was stored in a salt mine until the end of the War. Afterwards the painting became the property of the State of Austria. In the 1960 and again, after being rejected, in August 2009, a request was submitted by the heirs of the Czernin family for the return of the painting.
Claes Claesz Wou (1592-1665)
Claes Claesz Wou lived from 1592 till 1665 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. He is a very rare (?minor?) Dutch seascape painter of the Amsterdam school. Very few of his works have survived.
Furthermore there are only little details known about his life. It is not even sure when and where he was born. But it seems to be proven that from at least 1635 until his death he lived in Amsterdam in a House called ?De Walvis? (?The Wale?). Besides his work as an artist, he also dealt in tobacco and worked as a panel maker. Many other painters in Amsterdam have bought their panels from him.
Wou?s rare, early marine paintings are indebted to Andries van Eertvelt, Hendrick Vroom and Cornelis Claesz van Wieringen. But Wou is best known for his later works, which are influenced by Jan Porcellis and Simon de Vliegher. Subjects of his artworks are often three or four ships in a violent storm. Paintings from this period (around the 1630s) are characterized by the typical use of grey and brownish tones.
Ships in a Storm
Museum of Fine Arts, Szépművészeti, Budapest, Inv.-Nr 62.8
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Claes Claesz Wou: Ships in a storm.
This is a signed painting (lower center right) and is the reference work of the artist, reproduced in all specialized Dutch manuals.
After 1918 purchases were possible only from the private collections remaining within Hungarys ragged borders; since this period the museum has had only a very limited budget. However, with the growth of the art trade in Hungary interesting, high-quality Dutch paintings surface regularly. The Museum of Fine Arts Budapest thus had the chance to acquire Jan Miense Molenaers Denial of Peter, as well aspaintings by Jacob Duck, Claes Claesz Wou, Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, Christiaen van Couwenbergh, and Pieter Crabeth
Pedro Núnez de Villavicencio (1644 - 1700)
The Spanish painter of the Baroque Period, Pedro Núnez de Villavicencio, was born 1640 in Seville. He was born into an aristocratic family and received the education for a military career. But already at an early age he was interested in painting.
Together with Murillo, Pedro Núnez de Villavicencio was one of the artists who founded the Academia de Pintura in Sevilla in 1660. One year later he joined the Jerusalem Order of the Knights of Malta and travelled to the island. There he became friends with the Italian painter Matthia Preti, who was also a member of the Order.
From 1664 on Núnez de Villavicencio travelled to Italy and Spain in the service of the Order and on several occasions was able to return to Seville. Due to his contact with Charles II, it is likely that he also passed through Madrid.
A Boy with Two Dogs
Museum of Fine Arts, Szépművészeti, Budapest, Inv. Nr - 782
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The painting is also known as "Boy attacked by a dog" and "The Fallen Apple Cart".
Franz Rösel von Rosenhof (1626 - 1700)
Franz Rösel von Rosenhof is best known as a landscape and animal painter. He was born 1626 in Vienna, Austria. From 1645 - 1648 he was a student of Paulus Kolb and in 1655 he became a master in Nuremberg. He established a good reputation for his depictions of animals.
In 1666 Franz Rösel von Rosenhof won a much-publicised competition against another known animal painter, Christopher Paudiss. The animals of Rosenhof were considered to be more realistic and natural. Rosenhof's rival never recovered from his defeat. From 1673-74 Rosenhof worked for the great art patron Prince Karl Eusebius of Lichtenstein.
A Hare
Museum of Fine Arts, Szépművészeti, Budapest, Inv. Nr - 1057
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Heinrich Schlitt (1849 - 1923)
Heinrich Schlitt was born in August 1849 in Biebrich-Mosbach (close to Wiesbaden) as a son of a ducal civil servant. Schlitt studied at the "Akademie der Bildenden Künste" (Academy of Fine Arts) in Munich. One of his teachers was Wilhelm Lindenschmitt. But already before, the Wiesbaden artist Kaspar Kögler had a quite big influence on Schlitt.
Schlitt was mostly known for his images of dwarfs and fairy tales. Other humorous works of him referred to everyday situations. The artist was also working as an illustrator for the "Illustrierte Zeitung" and the magazines "Über Land und Meer", "Daheim" und "Schalk". In Germany Schlitt is still not very recognized, but internationally he has the reputation as a famous painter of gnomes and faiences. Especially in the United States his artworks and objects are popular. Heinrich Schlitt died on November 19, 1923 in Munich.
Dwarf in the Forest
Museum of Fine Arts, Szépművészeti, Budapest
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Eugene Delacroix (1798 - 1863)
Horse Frightened by a Storm (1824)
Museum of Fine Arts, Szépművészeti, Budapest, Inv. Nr - 1935 - 2698
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Victor Vasarely (Pécs, April 9, 1906 - Paris, March 15, 1997)
The French painter, printmaker and textile artist was in fact Hungarian with the family name Vásárhelyi [va:sha:rheyi]. By 1930 (when he moved to Paris) he worked as a poster-designer. The decorative quality of this medium remained a permanent feature of his art for the rest of his life.
Vasarely was one of the leading figures in the development of geometrical abstraction known as Op art. This trend acquired widespread popularity in Europe and the USA during the 1960s.
His early paintings are based on the optical device of the contrast of black and white. In his whole career, following a logical development, he composed geometric shapes of varying types and colors superimposed on a grid. He also realized that the use of illusory effects could transform or 'dynamize' (in Vasarely's own words) the relatively stable, geometrical structures into shimmering and vibrant configurations that dazzled the eye of the spectator.
Vasarely believed in the democracy of art. Therefore he produced thousands of prints, silk-screens to make his compositions available for modest sums. He opened a museum in 1975, the Fondation Vasarely near Aix-en-Provence, and in Hungary, first in Pécs, in his assumed birth place in 1976 then in Budapest in 1986.
Sophia-111, 1952
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Acrylic on canvas, 132 x 200 cm
Vasarely Museum, Pécs, Hungary (JPM ltsz: 74.270)
An unexpected dynamism is conveyed by the broken black lines on the huge white canvas.
It is an 'ambiguous' work, where one cannot define whether marching figures or just a vibrating, visual game is the subject of the painting. This is a step further away from the Zebras, where abstraction does not need a definable form, or a subject anymore.
It is an important example of the master's linear period, during which he created similar grids which in turn gave an impetus to him later, in the direction of optical and kinetic art, both of which give the impression of motion.
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Vega-Arl, 1968
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Tempera on paper, 37 x 36 cm
Vasarely Museum, Pécs, Hungary (JPM ltsz: 74.240)
A very intense illusion overcomes the viewer that a soccer ball wants to fall out of the composition. Colors create a sense of distance and the distortion of squares that of space. The mock-perspective and distortion of geometrical forms also create the impressions of motion. This little work on paper is part of the master's Vega-series. With its bright colors and spectacular forms this series is a considerable step forward from compositions where only two colors (mostly black and white) were used on a simple plane.
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Zebra, 1938/1960
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Woven wool tapestry, 150 x 214 cm
Vasarely Museum, Pécs, Hungary (JPM ltsz: 74.279)
Broken, parallel lines, full of vibrating dynamism create, unexpectedly, a readable form. This is a tapestry re-make of 1960 of the original idea which dates from 1938. This composition was many-many times re-elaborated by the Master during his long career. Like many of his early works, it is based on the optical device of the contrast of black and white. The Zebra became, due to its inherent features, an emblematic composition of Vasarely's own work in particular and of the Op art movement of the 1960s in general.
Tivadar Kosztka Csontváry ((Kisszeben [now Sabinov, Slovakia] 1853 - 1919 Budapest) )
Hungarian Csontváry [chontva:ri] was born the same year as Van Gogh. They both shared a visionary attitude to art as they were convinced to have a 'mission'. Csontváry started his career late, after he was 40 (in 1894), but then with full energy. He studied in various European artistic centers, eventually in Paris, where he had a successful exhibition in 1907.
Despite this, his art was not really appreciated until much later, when in 1963-64 his very personal style was reevaluated through comprehensive exhibitions in Hungary.
Csontváry's idiosyncratic art does not fall into any category. It can be described as naive, decorative, colorful and post-impressionistic with an often indefinable symbolic meaning.
All this conveys a 'romantic spell' to his compositions.
Already his early, smaller canvases display a monumental approach to the rendered scene; later even his canvases became monumental.
His single most famous picture The Solitary Cedar (1907) is suggestive of the artist's tragic isolation, and is a key work of European Avanguard by being a forerunner of Surrealism.
Riders by the Seashore, 1909
Csontváry Museum, Pécs (Hungary)
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[Tengerparti sétalovaglás]
oil, canvas, 72 x 171,5 cm
Csontváry Museum, Pécs (Hungary)
This seashore-scene follows the structure created in the c. 17th century for 'classical' landscape painting. The composition is closed on both sides with rocks, and in the middle there is an open view into the distance.
Some undefinable, nature-loving drive obliged the graceful riders to the shore. It is a dream world where the participants fluctuate according to some mystical, musical rhythm.
With this last painting of his, the master started a new direction in his art.
Although he seems to have used the picturesque scenery around Capri as a starting point (most probably the cliffs of Faraglioni) he dropped topographical faithfulness for a lighter tone, both in color and conception. The scene looks like an improbable slow-motion picture, with ghost-like, hardly articulated figures.
The next artistic step will be abstraction - which was just about to be born at that time.
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The Roman Bridge at Mostar, 1903
Csontvary Museum, Pécs, Hungary
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Clear, striking colors render a deserted town on the canvas - despite the figures discernible in the picture. With its inhumanly silent atmosphere, and simple, cubist forms, this cityscape appears like a stage scenery - possibly because of its naive approach. This decorative dream-world is in fact an exotic part of SE Europe.
The famous Bridge over the Neretva (Naranta) river in the magical little town in Herzegovina (some 100 km. SW of Sarajevo) dates in fact from the c. 16th century, as opposed to what the artist said. It was destroyed during the Serbian War in the early 1990s, then reconstructed by Hungarian engineers.
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The Waterfall at Jajce, 1903
Csontvary Museum, Pécs, Hungary
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The Water with a rainbow-flicker on its surface is the protagonist of this picture. This is Majestic Nature with a huge, pinkish-yellowish cloudy sky balancing the water -what one almost hears as a roar. The scene is not frightful, but impressive.
The decorative, linear 'phrasing' of forms shows an unconscious awareness of Art Nouveau (Jugendstil) endeavors.
This topographically faithful cityscape of the pyramidal mountain-town with identifiable houses and an Italianate campanile (bell-tower) has a romantic atmosphere with its love of Nature.
The Bosnian city of Jajce [yaytse] lies on the Vrbas River, some 100 km. NW of Sarajevo.
Giovanni Segantini (January 15, 1858 - September 28, 1899)
Giovanni Segantini was born in 1858 into a poor family in Arco, at the northern end of Lake Garda. His mother died in 1865 and his father in 1866. His father, a commoner, left for Milan, to seek his fortune with another son, leaving Segantini behind. At age seven he ran away and was later found perishing of cold and hunger; he began to earn his bread by herding flocks in the hills and there he spent his long hours of solitude in drawing. As news of his fame reached the ears of a syndic, Segantini was sent back to Milan; unable to endure domestic life, he soon escaped again, and led the life of wanderer until, at Arco, he met up with his half-brother, who offered him the job of cashier in his grocery store. After more flights and more returns, Segantini finally settled in Milan to attend classes at the Brera. In Milan he was able to earn a living by teaching art and painting portraits. Later, he settled in Brianza, where he gave himself up to the study of mountain life, and became in truth the painter of the Alps. Segantini died at Maloja in October 1899 while working on his famous piece Alpentriptychon.
The Evil Mothers (1894)
Belvedere, Vienna, Inv. -Nr. 485
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Wilhelm Trübner (Heidelberg 1851 - Karlsruhe 1917)
Trübner attended the Kunstschule (Art School) at Karlsruhe from 1867/68. In 1869 he became acquainted with the works of Courbet and Leibl at the International Arts Exhibition in the Munich Glaspalast (Crystal Palace). He joined the circle around the painter Wilhelm Leibl, to which the painter Hans Thoma and Karl Schuch belonged to as well. Trübner's numerous visits to Paris are reflected in his artistic oeuvre that predominantly includes landscapes and portraits in the style of the realistic to impressionist tendencies.
Caesar am Rubicon, um 1878 / Caesar at Rubicon, around 1878
Belvedere, Vienna, Inv.-Nr. 8522
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Jakob van Schuppen (Fontainbleau 1670 - Vienna 1751)
Prince Eugene was born in Paris in 1633 to Eugene-Maurice, Prince of Savoy-Carignan and Count of Soisson, and Olympia Mancini as their fifth son. Prince Eugene joined the army of Emperor Leopold I and became one of the most successful generals of all times. He was also well known as a collector and patron of arts. The Prince had the Belvedere Palace in Vienna, one of the grandest Baroque palaces in the world, built for himself by the architect Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt as his summer residency.
Prince Eugene of Savoy (after 1717)
Belvedere, Vienna Inv.-Nr. Lg 1440
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Jacques Louis David (Paris 1748 - Brussels 1825)
The picture Napoleon Crossing the St. Bernhard, 1801, is an important piece of the French collection at the Belvedere. The exhibition, dating back to 1801, focuses on the laborious march of the French army through the Great St. Bernard Pass in 1800 in order to retake the territories of Piemont and Lombardy at the Battle of Morengo. Jacques Louis David received an art education at Francois Boucher and from 1766 on in the studio of J.M. Viens. During the French Revolution David supported Robespierre. In 1795 David's meeting with Napoleon found its echo in numerous Napoleon portraits. In 1804 he was appointed official court painter. After Napoleon's fall David immigrated to Brussels where he stayed for the rest of his life.
Napoleon Crossing the St. Bernard
Belvedere, Vienna, Inv.-Nr. 2089
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"Napoleon Crossing the St. Bernhard" (1801) is an important piece of the French collection at the Belvedere. The exhibition, dating back to 1801, focuses on the laborious march of the French army through the Great St. Bernard Pass in 1800, in order to retake the territories of Piemont and Lombardy at the Battle of Marengo. Jacques Louis David received his art education at Francois Boucher, and from 1766 onwards in J. M. Viens's studio. David supported Robespierre during the French Revolution. His meeting with Napoleon in 1795 found its echo in numerous Napoleon portraits. In 1804 he was appointed official court painter. After Napoleon's fall, David immigrated to Brussels where he stayed for the rest of his life.
Franz Werner Tamm (Hamburg 1658 - Vienna 1724)
The exuberant-decorative still-lives by Franz Werner Tamm were considered as wonderful example of the baroque life sensation already during the painter's lifetime. The artist, who was born in Hamburg, received also his arts education there, before he moved to Rome in 1685. After settling down in Vienna in 1696, Tamm began with the painting of successive new subjects, such as animal and hunting still-lives. They show his refined skills at observation and depiction just as clearly as his flower and fruit paintings do. His artistic success was primarily based on his fine sense for eye-appealing picture imagination combining the impulses of Italian and Dutch origin in a harmonious way.
Hausgeflügel und Kaninchen, um 1706 / Poultry and Leveret, around 1706
Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Inv.-Nr. 4148
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Gustav Klimt (Vienna 1862 - Vienna 1918)
Gustav Klimt studied from 1877 at the Vienna School of Applied Arts (Wiener Kunstgewerbeschule) and was instructed by Ferdinand Laufberger. Already during his studies he founded together with his brother Ernst Klimt and his colleague Franz Matsch a circle of artists called 'Künstlercompagnie', which carried out all decoration works in the whole Monarchy from 1883 onwards. In 1897, Klimt was co-founder and also first President of the 'Secession'. Still before the turn of the century, Klimt developed his new style, in which neo-impressionist and symbolist elements are combined to an ornamental style. The Belvedere in Vienna has the largest Gustav Klimt collection in the world, to which besides 'Kuß' (Kiss) also the painting 'Mohnwiese' (Poppy Field) belongs.
Adam and Eve (ca. 1917 - 1918)
Belvedere, Vienna
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Adam and Eve, 1917-18, Not even Klimt can treat the subject of 'Adam and Eve' without the presence of the male. Yet he succeeds in making him a kind of decorative accessory, using a technique observed in ancient vase painting, he paints him darker than the triumphant figure of Eve, the alluring carnal Viennese with her gently rounded flesh, the obvious star of the picture.
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Beethoven Frieze (1902)
Belvedere, Vienna
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Painted in 1902 for the 14th Vienna Secessionist exhibition, the Beethoven Frieze was meant to celebrate the composer Ludwig van Beethoven. It was painted directly onto the walls of the housing of the exhibition, as it was only intended to be used there. The painting was preserved ever since, yet only went on display again in 1986. The Vienna Secession Building now has it on permanent display.The frieze's fame and popularity have earned it a collector's coin, the Austrian 100 euro "Secession Coin", minted in November 10, 2004.
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Mohnwiese, 1907 / Poppy Field, 1907
Belvedere, Vienna, Inv.-Nr. 5166
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Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller (Vienna 1793 - Hinterbrühl bei Wein 1865)
Waldmüller pursued his studies from 1807 until 1813 at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, where he became custos of the gallery in 1829 and finally also professor. Waldmüller participated in countless international exhibitions and he was an important painter already during his lifetime. The true-to-detail depiction of the surface quality of various objects is fascinating in his still-lives.
Rosen im Glas, 1831 / Roses in Glass, 1831
Belvedere, Vienna, Inv.-Nr. 2332
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Joseph Nigg (Vienna 1782 - Vienna 1863)
Joseph Nigg attended the Vienna Academy of Fine arts and studied at Johann B. Drechsler. From 1800 until 1848, Nigg worked as a flower painter for the Vienna Porcelain Manufacture. Nigg, who had exhibited his works at the yearly exhibitions of the Academy already from 1824 onwards, became known for his oil and porcelain painting, as well as for his flower aquarelles. His importance manifests itself in his meticulous porcelain paintings on one hand and in the excessive naturalism of his oil paintings.
Blumenstück, um 1835 / Bouquet, around 1835
Belvedere, Vienna, Inv.-Nr. 3630
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Jan Brueghel the Elder (Brussels, 1568 - Antwerp, January 13, 1625)
Jan Brueghel the Elder (Brussels 1568 - 1625 Antwerp) was a Flemish painter, son of Pieter Bruegel (sic) the Elder, brother of Pieter Brueghel the Younger and father of Jan Brueghel the Younger. His nicknames "Velvet", "Flower", or "Paradise" Brueghel derive from his painting technique and favored subjects.
Jan formed a style more independent of his father's (than did his brother) applying a more 'juicy' brush and darker colors. His early works are often landscapes, particularly forest scenes, with small figures representing stories taken from Scripture. Later, the figures in his compositions were often painted by other artists, like Peter Paul Rubens. He also painted flowers, fruits and sea-pieces.
Jan traveled to Italy in 1589 and stayed in Rome from 1592 to 1595. He visited the Court of Rodolph II. in Prague between 1604-6 after which he became painter of Archduke Albert of Austria, Governor of the Netherlands in Brussels.
Entering Noah's Ark
Museum of Fine Arts, Szépművészeti, Budapest
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Oil on panel, 61 × 90.2 cm Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest, Inv. No. 548 From the Esterházy Collection, 1870.
The Old Testament story (Genesis 6: 13-21) offered an opportunity for the artist to paint an idyllic landscape inhabited by numerous, exotic animals among colorful, minutely drawn plants. The motif of the horse is taken from a work by Rubens.
The Budapest painting, executed between 1613 and 1615, is accepted as an autograph version (Ertz 1979), compared to the some dozen copies and repetitions - among which the best known is the one in the Prado in Madrid. It is also regarded as the prototype of over a hundred of landscapes by the artist and his school which depict the Garden of Eden.
Paul Cézanne (January 19, 1839 - October 22, 1906)
Paul Cézanne], January 19, 1839 October 22, 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th century conception of artistic endeavor to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century. Cézanne can be said to form the bridge between late 19th century Impressionism and the early 20th century's new line of artistic enquiry, Cubism. The line attributed to both Matisse and Picasso that Cézanne "is the father of us all" cannot be easily dismissed.
Landscape in Provence 1895-1900
Museum of Fine Arts, Szépművészeti, Budapest
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Pencil and watercolor, 313 × 478 mm
Collection of Prints and Drawings, inv. no. 1935-2675
Instead of reflecting nature accurately, Cézanne intended to arouse an impression of mass and depth in the viewer. On this watercolor composed out of patches, the paper left blank is as much a space-forming element as the colored brush strokes, and it is primarily these white surfaces that bring out the vibrating lights of the sunlit landscape. From the Majovszky Collection.
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The Buffet 1877
Museum of Fine Arts, Szépművészeti, Budapest
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oil on canvas, 65.5 × 81 cm
Collection of Modern Art, inv. no. 371.B
After becoming acquainted with the Impressionists, from 1872 onwards Cézanne abandoned his earlier dark, impasto painting technique. Although he never became a real Impressionist actually, his ideas emphasized the solidity and permanence of forms and were the exact opposite of their artistic philosophy Cézanne exhibited with them from 1874 to 1877. This still-life, a masterpiece of his characteristic genre, dates from this period. When painting the dishes and apples placed on the sideboard in his flat in Paris, Cézanne was far more interested in the massiveness and spatial unity of the objects than in evanescent surface effects. Gift of Baron Ferenc Hatvany, 1917.
Marc Chagall (Vityebsk, July 7, 1887 - Saint-Paul, France, March 28, 1985)
Chagall was born in a small city in the western Russian Empire not far from the Polish frontier. His family, which included eight other children, was devoutly Jewish and, like the majority of the some 20,000 Jews in Vitebsk, humble without being poverty-stricken; his father worked in a herring warehouse, and his mother ran a shop where she sold fish, flour, sugar, and spices. The young Chagall attended the heder (Jewish elementary school) and later went to the local public school, where instruction was in Russian. After learning the elements of drawing at school, he studied painting in the studio of a local realist, Jehuda Pen, and in 1907 went to St. Petersburg, where he studied intermittently for three years, eventually under the stage designer Léon Bakst. In 1910, with a living allowance provided by a St. Petersburg patron, Chagall went to Paris. After a year and a half in Montparnasse, he moved into a studio on the edge of town in the ramshackle settlement for bohemian artists that was known as La Ruche (the Beehive).
He presented dreamlike subject matter in rich colours and in a fluent, painterly style thatwhile reflecting an awareness of artistic movements such as Expressionism, Cubism, and even abstractionremained invariably personal. Although critics sometimes complained of facile sentiments, uneven quality, and an excessive repetition of motifs in the artist's large total output, there is agreement that at its best it reached a level of visual metaphor seldom attempted in modern art.
Village in Blue 1972
Museum of Fine Arts, Szépművészeti, Budapest, Inv.-Nr. 72.13.B
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This late work of Chagall represents cherished childhood memories surfacing like dreams. This fanciful work, its lively rhythm, is a perfect way to introduce young children to the amazing world of art. This hand-painted limited edition childrens breakfast set will be an heirloom for generations. The work was purchased from the artist by the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest in 1972.
Paul Gauguin (1848 - 1903)
Eugne Henri Paul Gauguin (7 June 1848 8 May 1903) Paul Gauguin was born in Paris, France to journalist Clovis Gauguin and half-Peruvian Aline Maria Chazal, the daughter of socialist leader Flora Tristan. In 1851 the family left Paris for Peru, motivated by the political climate of the period. Clovis died on the voyage, leaving three-year old Paul, his mother and his sister to fend for themselves. They lived for four years in Lima, Peru with Paul's uncle and his family. The imagery of Peru would later influence Paul in his art.
Black Pigs, 1891
Museum of Fine Arts, Szépművészeti, Budapest, Inv.-Nr. 355.B
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Painted in Tahiti, this is a straightforward departure from the creation of illusion. This was Gauguins first piece following his arrival to the island in 1891. With strong colors on rough canvas, Gauguin depicts the much desired Paradise, tropical rainforest where dignified native women live peaceful lives among the animals. This composition expresses Gauguins fresh outlook and the comfort of his surroundings among the trees and pigs in Mataiea. The image was chosen for this product line with the thought that everyone deserves a piece of Paradise.
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Winter Landscape 1879
Museum of Fine Arts, Szépművészeti, Budapest
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Winter Landscape was shown in Paris at the fifth exhibition of Impressionists in 1880. The buoyancy of the misty gloom and the luminous effect of the falling snowflakes are typical of his style. Research has recorded a particular snowstorm that suddenly struck Paris that year. The scene is divided by a row of young trees with laden branches, while a full grown tree with a straight trunk stands among them, marked by refined articulation.
Melchior d'Hondecoeter (c. 1636 April 3, 1695)
The Dutch Melchior de Hondecoeter's (Utrecht c. 1636 - 1695 Amsterdam), specialty was the representation of domestic and exotic birds in Italianate landscape settings. He studied under his father, the landscape and animal painter Gysbert de Hondecoeter and started his career in the studio of his uncle Jan Baptist Weenix. The influence of the latter is evident in the pyramidal compositions and Italianate landscape backgrounds.
As opposed to game pieces rendering dead animals as trophies (like Jan Fyt or Peter Snyders), Melchior depicted animals like 'societies', furnishing them with human temper: with passion, joy and fear when delineating his scenes full of action. His accurately drawn, boldly colored and highly decorative works were extremely popular and often copied, already during the artist's lifetime.
It is documented that Hondecoeter possessed a small gallows, to keep birds in the right position, as well as several paintings by Frans Snyders.
William III. Governor of the Northern Netherlands employed Hondecoeter, to paint his Menagerie (zoo) at the palace of Het Loo (in Holland).
Waterfowl 1871
Museum of Fine Arts, Szépművészeti, Budapest
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Oil on canvas, 188 x 133 cm Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest, Inv.no. 215 From the Esterházy Collection, 1870.
An over-life-sized Pelican dominates this large, decorative painting, which is the visual inventory of a bird collection. Next to the Pelican there stands an Egyptian gander (he-goose). A pair of ducks with their offspring shovels in the front, a drake teal descends in the air to the left, and a magpie sits on a tree branch above. Various other waterfowl are neatly arranged around the scene. A smaller variant of this painting is in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam and a horizontal version in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.
Maximilian Lenz (1860 - 1948)
Maximilian Lenz was born in Vienna in 1860. After studying art he became a painter and lithographer. In 1903 he accompanied Klimt on a visit to Ravenna, where both artists were deeply impressed by the hieratic style and decorative use of gold in the Byzantine mosaics. During the First World War Lenz produced several posters for the Central Powers. Lenz died in in 1948.
One World, 1899
Museum of Fine Arts, Szépművészeti, Budapest, Inv.-Nr. 20.B
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A long way from designing banknotes in Buenos Aires in the 1890s, Maximilian became one of the founding members of the Secessionist Movement in Vienna in 1897 and participated several times in its exhibitions. His One World, painted in 1899, recalls the typical stylistic features, intensified color harmony, and dream-like fantasy world of the period. Elegant, suave and exceptional in todays style, it is that very dream-like fantasy from a visionary man of the past that makes each and every item in this product line a must have.
Claude Monet (November 14, 1840 December 5, 1926)
Claude Monet (French pronounced [klod mn]) also known as Oscar-Claude Monet or Claude Oscar Monet (November 14, 1840 December 5, 1926)[1] was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting The term Impressionism is derived from the title of his painting Impression, Sunrise.Monet was born on November 14, 1840 on the fifth floor of 45 rue Laffitte, in the ninth arrondissement of Paris. He was the second son of Claude-Adolphe and Louise-Justine Aubre'e Monet, both of them second-generation Parisians. On May 20, 1841, he was baptized in the local parish church, Notre-Dame-de-Lorette as Oscar-Claude. [3] In 1845, his family moved to Le Havre in Normandy. His father wanted him to go into the family grocery store business, but Claude Monet wanted to become an artist. His mother was a singer.
Plum Trees in Blossom in 1879
Museum of Fine Arts, Szépművészeti, Budapest
)
Claude also known as Oscar-Claude Monet or Claude Oscar Monet (November 14, 1840 December 5, 1926)[1] was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting The term Impressionism is derived from the title of his painting Impression, Sunrise. Following their unsympathetic welcome, the founders of impressionism triggered overwhelming admiration. Monet was loyal to the trend, when he painted Plum Trees in Blossom in 1879.
Jacopo Ligozzi (1547 - 1627)
Born in Verona, he was the son of the artist Giovanni Ermanno Ligozzi, and part of a large family of painters and artisans. After a time in the Hapsburg court in Vienna where he displayed drawings of animal and botanical specimens, he was invited to come to Florence, receiving the patronage of the Medici as one of the court artisans.
Upon the death of Giorgio Vasari in 1574, he became head of the Accademia del Disegno (now the Accademia di Belle Arti Firenze), the officially patronized guild of artists, which was often called to advise on diverse projects. He served Francesco I, Ferdinando I, Cosimo II and Ferdinando II, Grand Dukes of Tuscany. He worked on some projects with Bernardino Poccetti. Late in life, he was named director of the grand-ducal Galleria dei Lavori[1], a workshop providing designs for artworks made mainly for export: embroidered textiles and for the newly popular medium of pietre dure, mosaics of semiprecious stones and colored marbles.
Hyacinthus
Florence, Gabinetto Desegni e Stampe degli Uffizi
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The original botanical study depicts the hyacinth plant in its entirety, from the roots of the bulb to the crown of blue flowers, according to the technique proper to illustration of miniatures. The picture was removed from a volume, as indicated by the traces of red visible on the bottom of the original. Jacopo Ligozzi arrived to Florence in 1577 at the invitation of Francesco I de Medici. He was also in contact with the greatest naturalists of the time, the artist from Bologna, Ulisse Aldrovandi. In his works of superior quality, Ligozzi combined technical virtuosity with precise observation of flowers, plants, birds and fish.
Sandro Botticelli (Arco, c. March 1, 1444 - Pontresina, May 17, 1510)
Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, better known as Sandro Botticelli or Il Botticello ("little barrels"; March 1, 1445 May 17, 1510) was an Italian painter of the Florentine school during the Early Renaissance (Quattrocento). Less than a hundred years later, this movement, under the patronage of Lorenzo de' Medici, was characterized by Giorgio Vasari as a "golden age", a thought, suitably enough, he expressed at the head of his Vita of Botticelli. His posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th century; since then his work has been seen to represent the linear grace of Early Renaissance painting, and The Birth of Venus and Primavera rank now among the most familiar masterpieces of Florentine art.
Pallas and the Centaur 1482
Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi
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Sandro Botticelli
(Florence 1445-1510)
Pallas and the Centaur c. 1482
painting on canvas; 207 x 148 cm
Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi
The work is described therein as a "painting on wood [sic! above the door of the antechamber in which is painted Camilla with a satyr [in another copy "Camilla with I satyr"", along with a painting on panel showing "nine figures of men and women", which can presumably be identified as the Primavera, "in the ground floor chamber alongside the chamber of Lorenzo" in the "old house" on Via Larga which belonged to the Medici branch of Lorenzo il Vecchio, cousins of Lorenzo il Magnifico.
The aspect of the work that has intrigued critics most is the iconography, and many scholars have engaged in the complex deciphering of the allegory. The female figure, crowned with olive, armed with a halberd and with a shield on her back has generally been identified as Pallas or Minerva. Some scholars see her as Camilla, queen of the Volsci, celebrated by Virgil in the Aeneid, and some identified her as the armed Venus of Kythera described by Pausanius. The identification with Minerva, is based not only on the iconography relating to the goddess, crowned and girdled with the shoots of the olive that was sacred to her, but also on a later inventory of 1516 where the work is described as (Minerva and the centaur) and not a satyr as in 1498.
The allegory is centred on the submission of the centaur, who is holding a bow in his right hand and has a quiver slung over his shoulder, as the goddess gently holds him back by his thick locks. According to the most convincing interpretation sees it is a moral allegory of the triumph of the Mind or Reason, inspired by the Divine, over bestial and instinctual life. This meaning implies a lofty and cultured patron, who could well have been Lorenzo il Magnifico himself, to whom the numerous interlaced Medici olive branches, a family device, might allude. It is conjectured that Lorenzo may have intended the painting as a gift for the wedding of his cousin Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco.
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (April 15, 1452 - May 2, 1519)
Born as the illegitimate son of a notary, Piero da Vinci, and a peasant woman, Caterina, at Vinci in the region of Florence, Leonardo was educated in the studio of the renowned Florentine painter, Verrocchio. Much of his earlier working life was spent in the service of Ludovico il Moro in Milan. He later worked in Rome, Bologna and Venice and spent his last years in France, at the home awarded him by King François I.
Female Head
Parma, Galleria Nazionale
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Leonardo da Vinci
(Vinci 1452-Amboise 1519)
'La scapigliata' or 'Dama scapigliata' (Female Head)'
XVI century, beginning
painting on panel; 24.7 x 21 cm
Parma, Galleria Nazionale
Purchased in 1839 by the Galleria Nazionale di Parma as a work by Leonardo , the small panel has aroused doubts in some critics regarding the attribution, as a result of the unusual technique and the appearance of the work as a very 'modern' sketch.
A documentary confirmation, of the attribution could come from the fact that a "painting showing the head of a woman with tousled hair, sketched "work of Leonardo da Vinci" is cited in an inventory of the Collezione Gonzaga in Mantua, dating to 1627, the year in which the collection was tragically sold to Charles I Stuart, King of England, only to be dispersed on his death. Some scholars have suggested that the painting can be identified with that mentioned in 1531 in the apartment of Margherita Paleologa, the consort of Federico Gonzaga, son of Isabella d'Este.
If this is the case, then this unfinished picture may represent all that the marchioness managed to obtain, despite her continuous and pressing requests to the artist for his works and her own portrait, which remained at the cartoon stage and is conserved in the Departement des Arts Graphiques of the Musée du Louvre, Paris.
It is observed by researchers that there are strong resemblances of a technical character between this Female Head and the head of the angel in the second version of the Virgin of the Rocks, probably begun in the early 1490s and completed between 1506 and 1508. The painting is dated the early years of the sixteenth century, a chronological attribution which appears all the more likely if we consider that the unfinished head may have been a preliminary study for the head of the Virgin which Leonardo was to have executed for Isabella d'Este in 1501, and which it appears he never actually delivered.
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Study of the head of a soldier in the battle of Anghiari 1505
Museum of Fine Arts, Szépművészeti, Budapest
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Leonardo da Vinci
(Vinci 1452-Amboise 1519)
Study for the Head of a Soldier in the Battle of Anghiari
c. 1504 - c. 1505
red chalk on very pale pink prepared paper(recto),
red chalk on unprepared paper (verso)
226 x 186 mm
Budapest, Szépmüvészeti Múzeum
The magnificent studies of heads in Budapest were produced for the ill-fated Battle of Anghiari in the Sala del Gran Consiglio (Hall of the Grand Council) of the Palazzo della Signoria in Florence. Leonardo was commissioned to decorate one of the two longer walls of the hall around the middle of 1503, and a year later his younger rival, Michelangelo, was invited to make a pendant.
The compositions commemorated two decisive military events of the Republic of Florence, the victory of Cascina, where the Florentine troops gained over Pisa in 1364, and their triumph over the Milanese at Anghiari in 1440. Leonardo worked on the battle scene from October 1503 with interruptions until May 1506, when he returned to Milan leaving the unfinished work behind once and for all. The heavily deteriorated wall painting, enclosed with a wooden railing in 1513, counted among the sights of Florence; its last traces were obliterated by Vasari during the renovation of the hall in 1563.
Although neither the wall painting nor its cartoon have survived, with the help of contemporary accounts, copies and Leonardo's extant sketches, the destroyed work can be reconstructed. Out of the complete composition, Leonardo only painted the crucial episode of the battle, the Fight for the Standard, the moment when the young Florentine mercenary, Pier Giampaolo Orsini is just about to wrench the standard from the hand of Niccolo Piccinino, condottiere of the Milanese.
The scene, for "in it rage, fury and revenge are perceived as much in the men as in the horses" (Vasari 1568), offered a perfect occasion for the representation of the intense emotions and extreme states of mind reflecting on the human face. The Budapest studies of heads, with their vitality resulting from live model, and their dramatic force of expression, faithfully recall that shocking horror of the brutal fighting rage of the soldiers, rushing on each other with unrestrained ferocity in the heat of the battle that Leonardo termed pazzia bestialissima (most beastly madness).
From the 1490s onwards, Leonardo found pleasure in using chalk in the most varied possible ways, for quick, small-size sketches and carefully elaborated studies alike. In the masterly modelled Budapest drawings, Leonardo first sketched the outlines of the head with quick, thin lines, then he shaded the face with dense, slightly curved parallel hatchings. He softened the transitions between the deeper tones and the highlights by rubbing away the chalk. Finally, he stressed the contours of the head around the lips, the chin and the neck with heavy lines. On the basis of the survived contracts and invoices, Leonardo commenced to draw the cartoon after May 1504, in the Sala del Papa of Santa Maria Novella, and he started to paint the mural not earlier than April 1505 onwards. The red and black chalk studies, elaborated in the greatest detail, must have been produced between 1504 and 1505, in the last phase prior to the execution of the full-scale cartoon.
Raphael Sanzio (Raffaello) (April 6 or March 28, 1483 April 6, 1520)
Raphael Sanzio, usually known by his first name alone (in Italian Raffaello)(April 6 or March 28, 1483 April 6, 1520)was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance, celebrated for the perfection and grace of his paintings and drawings. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period.
Portrait of Youth 1503/ca
Museum of Fine Arts, Szépművészeti, Budapest, Inv.-Nr. 94
: Portrait of Youth 1503/ca<br /><i>Museum of Fine Arts, Szépművészeti, Budapest, Inv.-Nr. 94</i>'))
In a note dating from 1530 the Venetian patrician and art lover Marcantonio Michiel mentions a portrait painted by Raphael of the poet and humanist Pietro Bembo, which he saw in Bembos house in Padua. The picture was painted in Urbino sometime between 1504 and 1506: in other words it is one of Raphaels early works. As such, the tight space, the motif of the parapet, and the somewhat unnatural positioning of the hands resting on it still betray the influence of Netherlandish models and of Perugino. Bembo became one of the leading figures of Renaissance literary life primarily with his poems written in the style of Petrarch, his treatise on love, Gli Asolani, and his linguistic-stylistic work entitled Prose.
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Virgin and child and Saint John the Baptist (The Esterhazy Madonna) 1508
Museum of Fine Arts, Szépművészeti, Budapest
: Virgin and child and Saint John the Baptist (The Esterhazy Madonna) 1508<br /><i>Museum of Fine Arts, Szépművészeti, Budapest</i>'))
Raffaello known as Raphael
(Urbino 1483-Rome 1520)
Esterházy Madonna
1508
painting on wood; 28.5 x 21.5 cm
Budapest, Szépmuvészeti Múzeum, Esterházy
collection; inv. no. 71
In the foreground of this delicate masterpiece, the kneeling Virgin is represented along with her child and the infant Saint John the Baptist. The composition masterfully direct the spectator's eye towards the scroll in John's hand: not only the eyes of each figure are fixed on it, but the movements of their bodies are converging towards this common focus point, too.
Although the painting itself has been left unfinished (the figures of the children as well as the face and décolletage of the Virgin, were not developed beyond the stage of undermodelling), it is obvious for anyone conversant with the traditions of Christian art that John's scroll should include his words prophesying Christ's sacrifice: "Behold the lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world". (John 1:29).
These words, referring to the fulfilment of the promise of divine redemption in the person of Jesus, constitute the thematic message of the image. The iconography of the Madonna with the two children in a landscape, which lends a pre-eminent role to the prophecy of John, was developed in Florence, possibly stimulated by patriotic sentiments as John was the city's patron saint. During his stay in Florence (1504-1508), Raphael created several variations on the theme.
In these, as in his Florentine works in general, his prime source of inspiration was Leonardo. He was following the example of Leonardo's compositional ideas in arranging the three figures into a cone (a form connoting harmony by its symmetry), and also in working out the complex interplay of glances and gestures that establishes an organic yet dynamic unity within the group. The young artist used Leonardo's sketches as a point of departure for the Esterházy Madonna too, but his response became much more free and independent than in the earlier treatments of the subject.
His confidence may have been largely enhanced by the fact that his Leonardesque source itself was based on a classical sculpture that Raphael - at an earlier stage in his life - could study firsthand, as well: an exceptionally intact example of the Crouching Aphrodite was in the possession of Duke Guidobaldo da Montefeltro in Urbino. Raphael used the classical example as a model not only for the figure of the Virgin but for that of the infant John as well, thus creating a delicate rhyming between the two figures. Given the maturity and boldness of the composition, the painting may be dated to 1508, the end of Raphael's Florentine period, and it can be supposed that its completion was prevented by the artist's leave for Rome. The tiny picture is not only a synthesis but a step forward, too.
By placing the infant Jesus atop a hill, Raphael intensified the asymmetrical component within the composition, whereas he also enhanced the dynamism and power of the movements. Thus the conical structure, originally rather static and compact, is relaxed, and a little bit of disquietude penetrates, for the first time, Raphael's divine harmony. Nevertheless, the general mood is defined by the same soft melancholy as earlier, suggesting a quiet resignation to the predestined faith.
Agnolo Bronzino (Florence 1503-1572)
Agnolo di Cosimo Tori known as Bronzino
Florentine Mannerist painter, the pupil and adopted son of Pontormo. Pontormo introduced Bronzino's portrait of Joseph in Egypt (National Gallery, London)as a child. The origin of his nickname is uncertain, but possibly derived from his having a dark complexion. Bronzino was deeply attached to Pontormo and his style was heavily indebted to his master. However, Bronzino lacked the emotional intensity that was such a characteristic of Pontormo's work and excelled as a portraitist rather than a religious painter.Bronzino was court painter to Duke Cosimo I de Medici for most of his career, and his work influenced the course of European court portraiture for a century. Cold, cultured, and unemotionally analytical, his portraits convey a sense of almost insolent assurance.
Portrait of Cosimo
Florence, Museo degli Argenti
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Agnolo di Cosimo Tori known as Bronzino
(Florence 1503-1572) and workshop
Portrait of Cosimo I de' Medici
c. 1550
painting on panel; 114 x 89 cm
Florence, Museo degli Argenti
Within the official iconography of I. Cosimo de' Medici (Florence 1519-1574), the portrait that shows him "dressed in full armour and with his hand resting on his helmet" (Vasari, 1568) was widely disseminated and enjoyed enormous popularity, as testified to by at least twenty-five known exemplars.
Until 1555, Cosimo I was engaged in the defence of the Tuscan state that he had built up from the external threat posed by Florentine exiles and by the French. In this portrait the Duke wished to offer the image of an experienced military leader, the son of the famous condottiere Giovanni dalle Bande Nere, who had died prematurely and in veneration of whom he had grown up.
Cosimo I is portrayed in a three-quarter figure pose, his imperious gaze lost in space and his right hand resting on the helmet, glittering like the armour, some pieces of which miraculously survived the Lorraine dispersion of the vast Medici armoury and are conserved in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello.
Of the Australian prototype, very likely commissioned by the erudite Paolo Giovio for his own famous collection of illustrious men situated in the villa in Como, this portrait retains the monumental layout and the virtuoso skill in the rendering of the metallic gleams and glints of the armour, albeit in colours that are darker and more contrasting than the luminous clarity of the first version, indicative of the intervention of an assistant in the pictorial translation. With this painting and the many others executed over his industrious artistic career, Bronzino justly attained the role of official portrait painter to the Medici family and court, even though, in his last years, he had to rely increasingly on his assistant, Alessandro Allori.
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Portrait of Duke Alessandro
Galleria degli Uffizi
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Alessandro, illegitimate son of Giulio (Clement VII) (1511 or 1512-1537) His mother was presumably an Arab slave or a peasant woman from Roman Campagna. He was brought up in the Medici palace in Florence from where the family had fled in 1527 on hearing that Rome had been sacked. Following the Treaty of Barcelona he returned to Florence in 1530 at the head of an army of Spanish mercenaries where the governing body declared him an hereditary duke after the dissolution of the Signoria. However, his power faltered after the death of Clement VII. At the age of 26 he was killed by an assassin who was presumably hired by his cousin, Lorenzino (the son of the great-grandson of Lorenzo il Vecchio).
L'udovit Fulla (February 27, 1902, Ružomberok - April 21, 1980, Bratislava)
Madonna with an Angel
Slovak National Gallery - Inv. Nr. - O 1223
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Song and Work 1934 - 1935
Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava
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The Slovak Girl
Slovak National Gallery - Inv. Nr. - O 1926
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Winter Behind the City
Slovak National Gallery - Inv. Nr. - OP 38
)
Pieter Claesz (c. 1597-1660)
Pieter Claesz. (Berchem near Antwerp 1596/7 - 1660 Haarlem ) was active in his whole life in Haarlem, where he settled in 1621. Roelof Claesz. Koets (Haarlem 1592/3 - 1655) worked mostly together with Pieter Claesz. - we know some 10 jointly signed pieces - to whom many of his paintings are still attributed. He specialized in the painting of fruit, excelling in the portrayal of enormous bunches and branches of grapes.
Pieter Claesz., together with Willem Calesz.(=Claeszoon) Heda, was the most important exponent of Ontbijt or Monochrome Banketje, the 'breakfast-piece', containing few objects on a tabletop, painted in subdued, grayish tones - so typical of the Haarlem School in the 1630s and '40s. Their later paintings became more complex, richer in color and more extravagant in technique. Koets and a handful of other painters only followed them in their artistic endeavors.
Still Life with Fruit and Roemer Cup 1614
Museum of Fine Arts, Szépművészeti, Budapest
)
Oil on canvas, 104,5 x 146 cm Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest, Inv.no.53.478 From the Zichy Collection, 1906
This rather late painting in the artistic career of the two Haarlem masters is clearly divided in to two parts: the left being a typical, monochrome 'breakfast', the right a fruit-piece. The two sides are combined by the unified use of color. Although the objects represented are much larger than life-size, the painting evokes an intimate atmosphere. Outstanding professional skills make the materials lifelike. The texture of the damask tablecloth, the transparency of the Roemer-glass, the shine of the grapes all shows a competent knowledge of craft.
Dutch still-lifes usually contain hidden, allegorical meanings. Here the bread and the wine are Eucharistic symbols. The grapes (and wine) refer to the blood of Christ. The apples serve as allusion to the Fall of man.
Georg Flegel (1566 - 1638)
Flegel was born in Olmutz (Olomouc), Moravia. Around 1580 he moved to Vienna, where he became the assistant to Lucas van Valckenborch I, a painter and draughtsman. Flegel and his employer later moved to Frankfurt, which at the time was an important art-dealing city.As an assistant, he inserted items such as fruit, flowers, and table utensils into Valckenborch's works.
Still Life with Cheese
Museum of Fine Arts, Szépművészeti, Budapest
)
oil on canvas, 30.5 × 49.4 cm
Collection of Old Master Paintings, inv. no. 91.1
In the German territories Flegel was the foremost master of still life, which was developing into a pure form around 1600. This small-size picture, painted with fascinating objectivity and extraordinary meticulousness, is a fragment: it is the lower half of a still life showing a small food cupboard with two shelves. The painting appeared in one piece in its watercolor copy in the Viennese Imperial Collections inventory of 1723; it was subsequently cut in half. Flegels only cupboard still life, restored to its original form, is in the National Gallery, Prague. Similar depictions of cupboards can be seen in the background of his earliest kitchen scenes, painted in collaboration with Lucas van Valckenborch. He is supposed to have painted several similar individual cupboard still life works. Andor Pigler, 1991.
Jan van der Heyden (March 5, 1637, Gorinchem March 28, 1712, Amsterdam)
Van der Heyden is primarily known as a painter of townscapes. Barely a dozen of his still-lifes have come down to us, of which this canvas, painted in the last year of his life, is an outstanding example. He also painted landscapes and country estates where figures were drawn by other artists (like Adriaen van de Velde). As early as 1668 Cosimo II. de' Medici bought one of his paintings, a view of a town hall with manipulated perspective.
Jan van der Heyden (Gorkum 1637 - 1712 Amsterdam) was an Amsterdam painter, draughtsman, printmaker and inventor who significantly contributed to contemporary firefighting and street lighting. (As a boy he witnessed the fire of the old Amsterdam Town Hall which made a deep impression on him.) He wrote and illustrated the first firefighting manual (Brandspuiten-boek) and also designed the comprehensive street lighting scheme for Amsterdam, which lasted from 1669 until 1840, and was used as a model by many other towns.
He was a traveled man, had seen the Hague, Gent and Brussels, and had ascended the Rhine to Cologne, where he drew over and over again the tower and crane of the great Medieval cathedral (the 'Dom').
Corner of a Room with Curiosities, 1712
Museum of Fine Arts, Szépművészeti, Budapest
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Oil on canvas, 75 × 63.5 cm Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest, Inv.no. 201 From the Esterházy Collection, 1870.
In the corner of this rich, bourgeois home there is a multitude of objects: an Italian painting, a Turkish rug, Chinese silk, Japanese weapons, a Dutch cabinet, and the shell of an Armadillo (South American ant-eater) and an open atlas referring to the great explorations which led to all these riches. This painting is to reflect the refined taste, collecting passion and scholarly ambitions of its owner. This seemingly random assortment of valuables and curiosities are nevertheless the elements of traditional vanitas still-lifes, reminding of the futility and temporary nature of human life.
Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634)
Avercamp studied in Amsterdam with the Danish-born portrait painter Pieter Isaacks (1569-1625), and perhaps also with David Vinckbooms. In 1608 he moved from Amsterdam to Kampen in the province of Overijssel. Avercamp was deaf and was known as "de Stomme van Kampen" (the mute of Kampen).As one of the first landscape painters of the 17th-century Dutch school, he specialized in painting the Netherlands in winter. Avercamp's paintings are colorful and lively, with carefully crafted images of the people in the landscape. Avercamp's work enjoyed great popularity and he sold his drawings, many of which were tinted with water-color, as finished pictures to be pasted into the albums of collectors. Queen Elizabeth II has an outstanding collection of his works at Windsor Castle, England. Avercamp died in Kampen and was interred there in the Sint Nicolaaskerk.
Frozen River with Skaters 1620
Museum of Fine Arts, Szépművészeti, Budapest
)
oil on panel, diameter 30,5 cm
Collection of Old Master Paintings, inv. no. 1698
The winter scene, which evolved from depictions of the seasons and months, was established as an independent genre by Pieter Bruegel, whose example was followed by numerous painters in the northern Netherlands. Avercamp devoted almost his entire life to this subject matter. He observed every detail precisely, thus bringing landscape painting close to the Dutch realist style. In this picture, painted after 1620, he created delicate atmospheric effects by rendering the light filtering through silvery clouds and already employed the device of aerial perspective. He shows the frozen canal meandering among the houses from a slightly elevated vantage point, hence creating ample space to position the figures sliding, sledding and golfing on the ice. Purchased from art dealer F. Kleinberger, Paris, 1899.
Zoló Palugyay (1898 - 1935)
Nirvána 1930
Slovak National Gallery
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Maurice Utrillo (December 26, 1883 - November 5, 1955)
Maurice Utrillo, born Maurice Valadon, (December 26, 1883 - November 5, 1955) was a French painter who specialized in cityscapes. Born in the Montmartre quarter of Paris, France, Utrillo is one of the few famous painters of Montmartre who was born there.Utrillo was the son of the artist Suzanne Valadon (born Marie-Clémentine Valadon), who was then an eighteen-year-old artist's model. She never revealed who had been the father of her child; speculation exists that he was the offspring from a liaison with an equally young amateur painter named Boissy, or with the well established painter, Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes. In 1891 a Spanish artist, Miguel Utrillo y Molins, signed a legal document acknowledging paternity, although the question remains as to whether he was in fact the child's father.
Street Scene
Museum of Fine Arts, Szépművészeti, Budapest
)
oil on canvas, 60 × 73 cm
Collection of Modern Art, inv. no. 422.B
This veduta is characterized by the same precise perspective and high technical skill as Utrillos youthful masterpieces. However, his forms are more sharply outlined and his style brighter and more colorful. Some compositional details, such as the photo-like arrangement of the branches reaching in from both sides, prove that this picture may have been painted from a postcard. The artist followed the ready-made motifs with an almost dry meticulousness but the colors are his own invention. Gift of Miksa Lénárd,1939.
Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (February 24, 1885 September 18, 1939)
Born in Warsaw, Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz was the son of Stanislaw Witkiewicz.Witkiewicz was raised in his family home in Zakopane. In accordance with his father's antipathy toward the "servitude of the school", the young Witkiewicz was homeschooled and encouraged to develop his talents across the creative fields. He had begun to support himself through portrait painting and continued to do so on his return to Zakopane in Poland. Witkiewicz had died in some obscurity but his reputation began to rise soon after the War, a war which had destroyed his own life and devastated Poland.
Winter Landscape at Zakopane
Museum of Fine Arts, Szépművészeti, Budapest
)
oil on canvas, 59.5×60.5 cm
Collection of Modern Art, inv. no. 90.6.B
This painter, art theorist, philosopher, and dramatist, who often used the pseudonym Witkacy, played an important role in the creation of modern Polish art. By the age of 17 he was writing philosophical essays and exhibiting landscapes. He spent his youth in Zakopane but during his frequent trips abroad he strove to absorb the spirit of modern European art. A mixture of influences coming from Art Nouveau, Symbolism and Expressionism is manifest in this early landscape. It was executed parallel with his first psychological portraits and monsters, with which he exerted such a great influence on his contemporaries. Purchased in 1990.
Granducal manufacture of Florence ()
Table top with ornamental scroll decoration Florentine Manufacture, attrib. XVI. century, last quarter
Table top with decoration of ornamental scrolls
Florence, Museo degli Argenti
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This table top is closely related to the style of Roman inlays fashionable in the second half of the mid 16th century. They were characterized by strict abstract ornamental decoration and by exclusive use of antique marble from archeological excavations. The colorful marble inlay composition is organized around an irregular central octagon. The square antique yellow frame highlights exceptionally the bright yellow and crimson marble inlay. Four black and white scrolls in illustrative style in marble from Aquitaine are linked to the square areas. The composition is completed on all four sides by an ornate frame of multi-colored symmetrical scrolls of varied shapes on a base of black marble from Belgium, considered modern in the 16th century.
Henri de Touluse-Lautrec (1864-1901)
Museum of Fine Arts, Szepmuveszeti, Budapest
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (pronounced [i d tuluz lotk]) (24 November 1864 9 September 1901) was a French painter, printmaker, draftsman, and illustrator, whose immersion in the decadent and theatrical life of fin de sicle Paris yielded an oeuvre of provocative images of modern life.
Ladies in the Refectory
Museum of Fine Arts, Szépművészeti, Budapest
)
oil on cardboard, 60.3 × 80.5 cm
Collection of Modern Art, inv. no. 356. B
A frequent setting for Toulouse-Lautrecs works is the brothel opened in 1895 in the Rue des Moulins. From their typical gestures and characteristic facial expressions, which the artist registered through sharp psychological observation, some of the tarts in the brothel may be recognized in several of his pictures. One of the characters of These Ladies is also known by name. The transitory nature of the vivid scene is intensified by the presence of a fourth person who can only be seen in the mirror, seated at a table. The dynamic painting technique, the closed silhouettes shaded with few colors, and the concisely rendered setting, all recall the atmosphere of the painters Art Nouveau posters. The work was purchased from the exhibition of the Ernst Museum, 1913.
Jan Victors (1619 - 1676)
Student of Rembrandt van Rijn, Jan Victors painted mostly large paintings of biblical subjects but he also did portraits, genre scenes, and historical subjects.After 1650, he began painting mostly street life, influenced by Pieter Lastman and Abraham Bloemaert. Not long after, Victors quit painting to become a ziekentrooster comforter of the sick for the Dutch East India Company. His position took him to the East Indies in 1676 where he died later that year.
At the Quacks
Museum of Fine Arts, Szépművészeti, Budapest
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Victors was a student of Rembrandt van Rijn, a Dutch Baroque painter who focused mainly on large paintings of biblical subjects but also produced portraits, genre scenes, and historical themes. After 1650, he began painting mostly street life, influenced by Pieter Lastman and Abraham Bloemaert. Not long after, Victors quit painting to become a ziekentrooster, a comforter of the sick for the Dutch East India Company. His position took him to the East Indies in 1676 where he died later that year.
Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574)
Vasari was born in Arezzo, Tuscany. Recommended at an early age by his cousin Luca Signorelli, he became a pupil of Guglielmo da Marsiglia, a skillful painter of stained glass. Sent to Florence at the age of sixteen by Cardinal Silvio Passerini, he joined the circle of Andrea del Sarto and his pupils Rosso Fiorentino and Jacopo Pontormo where his humanist education was encouraged. He was befriended by Michelangelo whose painting style would influence his own.In 1529 he visited Rome and studied the works of Raphael and others of the Roman High Renaissance. Vasari's own Mannerist paintings were more admired in his lifetime than afterwards. He was consistently employed by patrons in the Medici family in Florence and Rome, and he worked in Naples, Arezzo and other places. Many of his pictures still exist, the most important being the wall and ceiling paintings in the great Sala di Cosimo I of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, where he and his assistants were at work from 1555, and his uncompleted frescoes inside the vast cupola of the Duomo, completed by Federico Zuccari and with the help of Giovanni Balducci. He also helped organize the decoration of the Studiolo, now reassembled in the Palazzo Vecchio.
Vulcan's Forge
Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi
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Giorgio Vasari
(Arezzo 1511-Florence 1574)
Vulcan's Forge
c. 1567 - c. 1568
painting on copper, 38 x 28 cm
Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi
The small painting on copper presents a sophisticated allegorical composition, with Minerva on the left bearing the instruments of the architect, the compass and square, in her right hand while with the left, she presents a drawing to Vulcan. Vulcan is intent on engraving the shield of Archelaos, which bears the astrological signs of Capricorn and Aries, respectively of Duke Cosimo I , and the Prince Francesco de' Medici , set on either side of a globe.
Also part of the central group are one putto bearing a lance, and two others struggling to hold up a plumed helmet in the right foreground. In the background on the left, naked youths intent on drawing are portrayed in the Accademia del Disegno, founded in 1563, watched over by the Three Graces, symbolising the arts of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. On the right, in the middle distance, other youths are working on pieces of armour in Vulcan's forge.
Aloft, flying above, is Peace bearing a wreath of olive, the plant sacred to Minerva. The painting was commissioned along with others by Prince Francesco I de' Medici around the years 1567-1568, from various artists of Vasari's circle, almost as if he wished to hold a sort of testimonial to the talents available in Florence at the time, in view of the forthcoming decoration of his study in Palazzo Vecchio known as the Studiolo.
The subjects of the 'miniature' paintings were elaborated by Vasari's friend, Don Vincenzo Borghini, the erudite spedalingo and prior of the Spedale degli Innocenti , and translated into the paintings and drawings that have come down to us.
Jacopo Zucchi (c. 1541- c. 1590)
Jacopo Zucchi training began in the studio of Giorgio Vasari, and he participated in decoration of the Studiolo and the Salone dei Cinquecento in the Palazzo Vecchio. Moving to Rome in the early 1570s, he worked for the Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici in his Palazzo Firenze (1574).
He also helped decorate, along with his brother, the apse and dome of Santo Spirito in Sassia with a fresco of the Pentecost. He painted the grand salon of the former Rucellai (now Ruspoli) palace in Rome with mythologic genealogies. Two canvases, representing the Ascension and Resurrection, are housed in the church of San Lorenzo Martire in San Lorenzo Nuovo (Italy).
The Gathering of the Coral
Rome, Galleria Borghese
)
Jacopo Zucchi
(Florence c. 1541 - Rome c. 1596)
The Gathering of Coral
XVI century, ninth decade
oil on copper; 55 x 45 cm
Rome, Galleria Borghese
The dimensions are small, suited to a 'virtuoso' cabinet, and the surface is glazed and precious. The invention is 'very delightful and graceful' in line with the parameters provided by Vincenzo Borghini in Florence ten years earlier to Giorgio Vasari and his team of artists that already included Jacopo di Piero Zucca, for the decoration of the Studiolo of Francesco I .
Effectively there is no doubt about the analogous princely destination of The Gathering of Coral, datable around the start of the ninth decade of the sixteenth century. It can clearly be related to the information recorded by the seventeenth century biographer Giovanni Baglione: that for "Ferdinando de' Medici at the time a Cardinal" he painted "a study" with this subject "which is in the palagio of the Medici garden" in Rome.
A rehabilitated pagan amulet, syncretised by Christian iconography, coral is born, according to Ovid, from the blood that spurted from the severed head of the Medusa; it is actually of animal origin despite resembling in appearance a vegetable of mineral consistency. There can be little doubt that coral exerted a distinct fascination on the collector's curiosity of the future Grand Duke.
In fact, Ferdinando also commissioned from Zucchi a design for a fountain on the same subject. The refined intellectual climate harked back to the binomial of the precious rarities, Nature and Art, that had inspired the Florentine Studiolo, in comparison to which Zucchi's approach appears to be alleviated of exacting hermetic and alchemic implications. What prevails, instead, is the courtly play of capricious beauty, revealed in the lavish array of pearls, crustaceans, oysters and mussels - and coral, naturally - and also embodied, in the centre of the composition, in the portraits of various ladies of the time, and worthy to be seen and marvelled at.
The same elegant levity invests the entirely exotic presence of the Negro hunters, the parrot and the monkey that, bedecked with precious baubles, mimics the Manneristic pose of the exuberant cherub in the foreground. Moreover "vivacity and liveliness of figure" were the qualities recognised in Zucchi by his master Vasari. A judgement that justifies Zucchi's inclination to temper the Michelangelism of the Florentine line.
Andrea del Castagno (1421-1457)
Andrea del Castagno was born at Castagno, a village near Monte Falterona, not far from Florence. During the war between Florence and Milan, he lived in Corella, returning to his home after its end. In 1440 he moved to Florence under the protection of Bernadetto de' Medici. Here he painted the portraits of the citizens hanged after the Battle of Anghiari on the facade of the Palazzo del Podest, gaining the nickname of Andrea degli Impiccati.
Little is known about his formation, though it has been hypothised that he apprenticed under Fra Filippo Lippi and Paolo Uccello. In 1440-1441 he executed the fresco of Crucifixion and Saints in the Ospedale di Santa Maria Nuova, whose perspective-oriented construction and figures shows the influence of Masaccio.
In 1442 he was in Venice where he executed frescoes in the San Tarasio Chapel of the church of San Zaccaria. Later he also worked in St. Mark's Basilica, leaving a fresco of Death of the Virgin (1442-1443).
Pippo Spano
Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi
)
Andrea di Bartolo di Bargilla
known as Andrea del Castagno
(c. Castagno 1421 - Firenze 1457)
Pippo Spano c. 1450 fresco, detached and transferred to canvas
250 x 154 cm
Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi
In the villa belonging to the Carducci family in Legnaia, a village close to Florence, we can see a "beautiful [room by the hand of Andreino, with sibyls and famous Florentine men", as recorded by Albertini in his Memoriale as far back as 1510. The frescoes, barely mentioned by Vasari but described in detail by the nineteenth century commentator, Gaetano Milanesi, were discovered in 1847.
They were arranged in a reconstruction of the whole perspective of the wall section, thanks also to the donation of fragments of the frieze, detached in 1907 and 1910, by the then owner of the villa, Cesare D'Ancona. In the loggia, the row of nine figures - three Florentine men-at-arms (Pippo Spano, Farinata degli Uberti and Niccolo Acciaioli), three famous women (the Cumaean Sibyl, Esther and Tomiri) and three writers (Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio) were separated by an elaborate decoration of Corinthian style above a fake marble plinth.
Considerable remnants of the frescoes of one of the shorter sides were discovered in 1948-1949: a Madonna and Child flanked by the figures of Adam and Eve, while, according to the documents, on the opposite side was a Crucifixion with Saint Jerome and Our Lady. Apart from the three female figures, who can be interpreted through the moral virtues attributed to them (the Cumaean Sibyl had predicted the advent of Christ, and the two Queens, Esther and Tomiri, had acted for the good of their people), the iconographic programme was designed to underscore the political and literary glory of Florence.
There are no Greek or Roman heroes in the frescoes of the Carducci villa, and the references are to the protagonists of later Florentine history. Pippo Spano was born Filippo Scolari in 1369, in Tizzano close to Florence, and died near Buda on 27 December 1426. His dazzling rise to power, initially in the service of the Primate of Hungary, Cardinal Demetrio Szecky (1387) and then in that of Sigismund, King of Bohemia (1361-1437), who appointed him as chief of his army, was the result of his incredible skill as a military strategist. He was also responsible for major improvements in the fortifications in the south of the country, where his exceptional capacity for mathematical calculations certainly stood him in good stead, as well as for a series of victories in the field, principally against the Turks between 1417 and 1425. Lord of Oroza, supreme Count of Timisoara (1407), administrator of the gold mines of the State and Knight of the Golden Spur of the Order of the Dragon, he exerted a great influence on the imagination of the Florentines, and in particular on Filippo Carducci, one of the most prominent politicians of the time. The cycle is dated to 1450, or shortly afterwards, in view of stylistic and documentary considerations; the gonfalonier Filippo Carducci, who must have commissioned the frescoes, died in July 1449, and in 1451, his sons sold the villa to relatives.
