Greek-born Spanish Mannerist Painter, 1541-1614
Considered a representative of late Renaissance Spanish art, El Greco was actually born in Greece, on the island of Crete. After studying in Venice under Titian, El Greco settled in Toledo, Spain in 1577. At the time he was wildly popular, his emotionally religious paintings being just the ticket for the hometown of the Spanish Inquisition. After his death his work was largely ignored until the beginning of the 20th century; now he considered one of the inspired geniuses of Western art. His distinctive style features bold shapes and colors, with elongated and slightly distorted figures.
In Toledo El Greco was in constant demand and liked living large: he maintained a private orchestra to accompany his meals. Related Paintings of El Greco :. | The Annunciation | St Sebastian | baptism of christ | St.Martin and the Beggar | Portrait of Cardinal Tavera | Related Artists:
Sergei SvetoslavskyRussia,1869-1938
Maria Sibylla MerianGerman Baroque Era Illustrator, 1647-1717,Daughter of Mattheus Merian. After her father's death, her mother married in 1651 the flower still-life painter Jacob Marell, who became Maria Sibylla's teacher. On 16 May 1665 she married Johann Andreas Graff, another pupil of her stepfather. She thenceforth specialized in illustrations of flowers, fruit and, especially, grubs, flies, gnats and spiders. In 1670 the family moved to Nuremberg. In 1675 Sandrart referred to her in the Teutsche Academie, reporting that she painted on cloth (i.e. silk, satin). With Graff, she produced a book of flowers, the first part appearing in 1675; a second edition, enlarged by parts 2 and 3 ,came out in 1680, entitled Florum fasciculi tres. It included 36 engravings intended to serve as patterns for embroidery.
Nils von DardelSwedish, 1888-1943,Swedish painter. After a short time at the School of Art in Stockholm, which he found too conservative, he travelled for the first time to Paris in 1910. There he immediately made contact with the Scandinavian artists who were pupils of Matisse and with them made his debut in Stockholm in 1912 as a member of the Man of the Year 1909 group. Under the influence of Cubism, Dardel painted a townscape of Senlis, in a style that eventually developed into the sophisticated naivety of Funeral in Senlis (1913; Stockholm, Mod. Mus.).