Italian High Renaissance Painter, ca.1485-1576
Italian painter active in Venice. As a young man he was taught by the Bellini family and worked closely with Giorgione. His early works are so similar in style to Giorgione's as to be indistinguishable, but soon after Giorgione's early death Titian established himself as the leading painter of the Republic of Venice. Among his most important religious paintings is the revolutionary and monumental Assumption (1516 ?C 18) for Santa Maria dei Frari, in which the Virgin ascends to heaven in a blaze of colour accompanied by a semicircle of angels. Titian was also interested in mythological themes, and his many depictions of Venus display his work's sheer beauty and inherent eroticism. Bacchus and Ariadne (1520 ?C 23), with its pagan abandon, is one of the greatest works of Renaissance art. Titian was sought after for his psychologically penetrating portraits, which include portrayals of leading Italian aristocrats, religious figures, and Emperor Charles V. He reached the height of his powers in The Rape of Europa (c. 1559 ?C 62), one of several paintings done for Philip II of Spain. He was recognized as supremely gifted in his lifetime, and his reputation has never declined. Related Paintings of Titian :. | Entombment (Pieta) | The Pardo Venus (mk05) | Detail of Martyrdom of St.Laurence | Venus and Music | The Entombment | Related Artists:
dante alighieriBorn: 1265
Birthplace: Florence, Italy
Died: September 1321 (Malaria)
Best Known As: The author of The Divine Comedy
BADALOCCHIO, SistoItalian Baroque Era Painter, 1585-ca.1619
Italian painter and etcher. His formation as an artist took place within the Carracci circle. According to Malvasia, he may have attended the Carracci Academy in Bologna, before returning to Parma in 1600 as the pupil of Agostino Carracci when the latter entered the service of Ranuccio I Farnese, 4th Duke of Parma. After Agostino's death in 1602, Badalocchio and his fellow pupil Giovanni Lanfranco were sent by the Duke to Rome in order to complete their training in the studio of Annibale Carracci, who was then working in the Palazzo Farnese. Badalocchio remained with Annibale until the latter's death in 1609. He participated in most of the projects that occupied the studio assistants during those years, such as the frescoes on the walls of the Galleria in the Palazzo Farnese and those previously in the Herrera Chapel in S Maria di Monserrato, Rome (now detached and divided between Madrid, Prado, and Barcelona, Mus. A. Catalunya), although his precise share in them is still debated. His first signed works are etchings, one (1606) after the antique sculpture of the Laokoon (Rome, Vatican, Mus. Pio-Clementino) and 23 (1607, part of a series of 54 executed in collaboration with Lanfranco) after Raphael's frescoes in the Vatican Logge; they reveal the romanizing character of his training. Yet his independent paintings of this early period reveal the influence of Lanfranco, which was to last throughout his career; the lively play of light and shade suggests his allegiance to Emilian art.
Bill TraylorAfrican-American Folk Artist, ca.1856-1949
was a self-taught artist born an Alabama slave. Unable to read or write, he first began drawing in 1939 at the age of eighty-three. He worked full-time for the next four years to produce over eighteen hundred drawings. He used a straight edge to create geometric silhouettes of human and animal figures which he then filled in with crayon and tempera. He is known for his intriguing use of pattern versus flat color and a remarkably intuitive sense of space. He started hanging his works on a nearby fence to entertain the locals. One of his first fans was Charles Shannon, a painter who introduced Traylor to the New South regionalist artists and organized two shows of his work before his death. Since then, Traylor has become one of the most highly sought-after outsider artists.