American Colonial Era Painter, 1738-1815
John Singleton Copley (1738[1] - 1815) was an American painter, born presumably in Boston, Massachusetts and a son of Richard and Mary Singleton Copley, both Irish. He is famous for his portrait paintings of important figures in colonial New England, depicting in particular middle-class subjects. His paintings were innovative in their tendency to depict artifacts relating to these individuals' lives. Related Paintings of John Singleton Copley :. | Portrait of Nathaniel Allen | The Death of Major Peirson | Mrs Samuel Hill | Theodore Atkinson | Young Lady with a Bird and a Dog | Related Artists:
COURTOIS, JacquesFrench Baroque Era Painter, 1621-1676
was a French painter. He was born at Saint-Hippolyte, near Besançon. His father was a painter, and with him Jacques remained studying up to the age of fifteen. Towards 1637 he went to Italy, was received at Milan by a Burgundian gentleman, and entered, and for three years remained in the French military service. The sight of some battle-pictures revived his taste for fine art. He went to Bologna, and studied under the friendly tutelage of Guido Reni; thence he proceeded to Rome, where he painted, in the Cistercian monastery, the "Miracle of the Loaves." Here he took a house and after a while entered upon his own characteristic style of art, that of battle-painting, in which he has been accounted to excel all other old masters; his merits were cordially recognized by the celebrated Cerquozzi, named Michelangelo delle Battaglie. He soon rose from penury to ease, and married a painter's daughter, Maria Vagini; she died after seven years of wedded life. Prince Matthias of Tuscany employed Courtois on some striking works in his villa, Lappeggio, representing with much historical accuracy the princes military exploits. In Venice also the artist executed for the senator Sagredo some remarkable battle-pieces. In Florence he entered the Society of Jesus, taking the habit in Rome in 1655; it was calumniously rumoured that he adopted this course in order to escape punishment for having poisoned his wife. As a Jesuit Brother, Courtois painted many works in churches and monasteries of the society. He lived piously in Rome, and died there of apoplexy on 20 May 1676 (some accounts say 1670 or 1671). His battle-pieces have movement and fire, warm colouring (now too often blackened), and great command of the brush, those of moderate dimensions are the more esteemed. They are slight in execution, and tell out best from a distance.
Cosme TuraItalian Early Renaissance Painter, ca.1430-1495
Italian Renaissance artist. He was a leading master of the school of Ferrara and court painter to the city's ruling Este family. Often vividly emotional, Tura's figures range from the graceful to the grotesque, as in the gentle Mary and contorted Jesus of his c.1472 Pieta (Correr Museum, Venice). Combining material splendor with asceticism, his stylistically idiosyncratic paintings are frequently filled with sharply portrayed natural details??diversified landscapes, squirrels, monkeys, fruits, etc.??that serve as both plastic and iconographic elements. His works are executed in a harsh, nervously linear, and rather angular style, with bold and sometimes strident coloring. Examples of his art include two organ panels, Annunciation and St. George Slaying the Dragon (cathedral, Ferrara); Christ on the Cross (Milan); St. Jerome (National Gall., London); Portrait of a Man and Saints (National Gall. of Art, Washington, D.C.). Attributed to him is a portrait of a member of the Este family, The Flight into Egypt, and St. Louis of Toulouse
DARET, JacquesNetherlandish Northern Renaissance Painter, ca.1404-1470
was an Early Netherlandish painter born in Tournai (now in Belgium), where he would spend much of his life. Daret spent 15 years as a pupil in the studio of Robert Campin, alongside Rogier or Rogelet de le Pasture (assumed by scholars to be Rogier van der Weyden, both words meaning "field" or "meadow" in French and Dutch respectively), and afterwards became a master in his own right. He became a favorite of the Burgundian court, and his patron for 20 years was the abbot of St. Vaast in Arras, Jean de Clercq. Though many works of Daret are mentioned in Jean de Clercq's account books, only four panels of Daret's works are known to have survived: all are from the so-called Arras Altarpiece or Saint-Vaast Altarpiece, painted for the abbot between 1433 and 1435. These paintings show a striking resemblance to the Flemish realism of the Master of Flemalle. This is argued by most scholars to be evidence that the Master of Flemalle was Daret's master, Robert Campin. Daret features rather more in the art historical debates over his period than the merit of his work alone would justify because he is relatively well-documented, and in particular can be securely identified as the creator of the altarpiece mentioned above, as well as a pupil of Campin. The stylistic similarity between him and the Master of Flemalle is therefore crucial evidence in the identification of the latter with Campin. This then becomes an important connection in establishing a link between Robert Campin/the Master of Flemalle and his other major pupil,