Great artists and their paintings

Great artists and their paintings Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi, better known as Sandro Botticelli (March 1, 1445 – May 17, 1510) was an extremely successful Italian painter of the Florentine school during the Early Renaissance (Quattrocento). With the emergence of the High Renaissance style at the turn of the 16th century, he fell out of fashion, died in obscurity and was only returned to his position as one of the best-loved Quattrocento painters through the interest of Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelites. 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. Botticelli was born in Florence, Italy, in 1445. Details of Botticelli's life are sparse, but we know that he did not become an apprentice until he was about fourteen years old, which would indicate that he received a fuller education than did other Renaissance artists. When Botticelli was 14 or 15 he was sent to the great painter, Fra Filippo. There he learned how to mix colors and clean brushes. Botticelli was greatly influenced by his teacher. He spent his whole life in Florence except for a visit to Rome. Botticelli was a member of the Medici family. His real name was Alessandro Filipepi. He was nicknamed "Botticelli", which means "little barrel", and was originally bestowed on his older brother. For some reason the name was passed on to, and adopted by, the younger painter brother. Many of Botticelli's paintings are undated, but an Adoration of the Magi (Florence, Uffizi) has been dated by modern scholarship to 1475. This is important because it provides evidence of Botticelli having already secured the patronage of the Medici whose portraits (according to Vasari) appear in the picture. So well did this work establish Botticelli's reputation that in 1481-82 he was commissioned to join Perugino, Ghirlandaio and Rosselli (the most celebrated painters of the day) to paint frescoes for the Sistine Chapel. "Pallas and the Centaur" Botticelli - 1482 Botticelli's two most famous paintings were painted around this time, possibly for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici. They are the Primavera (1478) and the Birth of Venus (1483), both in the Uffizi. These are mythologies that exemplify the moral and metaphysical Neoplatonic ideas that were then fashionable in the Medici circles. Pure visual poetry, they are stylistically the essence of Botticelli: there is a deliberate denial of rational spatial construction and no attempt to model solid-looking figures; instead the figures float on the forward plane of the picture against a decorative landscape backdrop, and form, defined by outline, is willfully modified to imbue that outline with expressive power. By 1465, Botticelli had his own studio. After the age of 56 no paintings were found that were painted by him. Botticelli died alone and infirm. He lived to be about 65 and died around 1510. Botticelli had a very successful career, with a highly individual and graceful style founded on the rhythmic capabilities of outline. In fact, Botticelli became Florence's favorite artist. His paintings were very popular. Realism was ignored in Botticelli's paintings because he used allegories within delicate color and poetic lines. Édouard Manet (January 23, 1832 – April 30, 1883) was a French painter. One of the first nineteenth century artists to approach modern-life subjects, he was a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. His early masterworks The Luncheon on the Grass and Olympia engendered great controversy, and served as rallying points for the young painters who would create Impressionism—today these are considered watershed paintings that mark the genesis of modern art. Biography Pablo Picasso was the first child of José Ruiz y Blasco and María Picasso y López. He was baptized with the names Pablo Diego José Santiago Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Crispín Crispiniano de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz Blasco y Picasso. The young Picasso showed a passion and a skill for drawing from an early age. It was from his father, who was an art professor, that Picasso had his first formal academic art training, such as figure drawing and painting in oil. In 1897 Picasso studied at the Madrid Academy in the Spanish capital. Dissatisfied with the training, he quit and returned to Barcelona. He was a rebel from the start and, as a teenager, began to frequent the Barcelona cafes where intellectuals gathered. In 1900, he made his first trip to Paris, the current world capital of art, and soaked up the works of Manet, Gustave Courbet, and Toulouse-Lautrec, whose sketchy style impressed him greatly. During his living in Paris, Picasso shared a small room with Max Jacob in theb boulevard Voltaire. Jacobs (journalist and poet) helped him learn French. They were times of severe poverty, cold and desperation. "Garçon à la pipe" Picasso - 1905 Much of his work had to be burned to keep the small room warm. Then, he started traveling from Paris to Barcelona and Madrid. In 1904, he established definitely in Paris, in the “Bateau Lavoir” in the Rou Ravignon. In the same year, Picasso began a long term relationship with Fernande Olivier. She appears in paintings many of the Rose period. After acquiring fame and some fortune, Picasso left Olivier for Eva Gouel (Marcelle Humbert), whom Picasso called Eva. Picasso included declarations of his love for Eva in the painting “Ma Jolie” and in many other works. The next year, Picasso met Apollinaire, who would eventually introduce him to Braque. He also met several important figures like Gertrude Stein, André Derain and Henri Matisse. In 1915, Eva Gouel died from a lethal disease. Two years later, Picasso traveled to Rome and spent time with Diaghilev’s ballet company, working on décor for “Parade”. There, Picasso met Igor Stravinsky and fell in love with the dancer Olga Khokhlova. After traveling with the ballet company, Picasso fell in love with Olga, and married her in 1918. thanks to his wife contacts, Picasso started to move in different social circles. In 1927, Picasso started an extramarital relationship with seventeen-year old Marie-Thérèse Walter, with whom he would have a child in 1935. This pregnancy split Picasso’s marriage. But, the divorce took very long because Picasso’s fortune was in dispute. In 1936, he is involved with the Yugoslavian photographer Dora Maar, whom would be Picasso’s companion. Picasso has an exuberant love life. Picasso had two wives (Olga Khokhlova and Jacqueline Roque) and four children by three women. Picasso´s Work Picasso's work is often categorized into "periods". While the names of many of his later periods are debated, the most commonly accepted periods in his work are the Blue Period, the Rose Period, the African-influenced Period, Analytic Cubism, and Synthetic Cubism. Blue Period: Picasso’s artistic production is usually described in terms of a series of overlapping periods. In his “Blue Period” (1901–4) he depicted the world of the poor. Predominantly in tones of blue, these melancholy paintings (such as The Old Guitarist, 1903; Art Inst. of Chicago) are among the most popular art works of the century. Rose Period: Canvases from Picasso’s “Rose Period” (1905–6) are characterized by a lighter palette and greater lyricism. Picasso began to use delicate pinks and earth colors to paint circus performers like harlequins and acrobats. During this period, Picasso’s Parisian studio attracted the major figures of the avant-garde at this time, including Matisse, Braque, Apollinaire, and Gertrude Stein. African-influenced Period: Picasso discovered the power of African masks and incorporated their motifs into his art. In the same year, 1907, he produced the breakthrough painting “Desmoiselles d’Avignon”, one of the few works that singlehandedly altered the course of art. Cubism: Called the first truly twentieth-century painting, “Desmoiselles D’Avignon” effectively ended the nearly 500-year reign of Renaissance-ruled Western art. Picasso fractures the laws of perspective, breaking up the space into jagged planes without orderly recession. Picasso smashed bodies to bits and reassembled them as faceted planes that one critic compared to a “field of broken glass”. One of the most recognized figures in 20th century art, Picasso is best known as the co-founder, along with Georges Braque, of cubism. It has been estimated that Picasso produced about 13,500 paintings or designs, 100,000 prints or engravings, 34,000 book illustrations and 300 sculptures or ceramics. In 1939-40 the Museum of Modern Art in New York, under its director Alfred Barr, a Picasso enthusiast, held a major and highly successful retrospective of his principal works up until that time. This exhibition lionized the artist, brought into full public view in America the scope of his artistry, and resulted in a reinterpretation of his work by contemporary art historians and scholars.