Italian Early Renaissance Painter, ca.1422-1492 Italian painter and theorist. His work is the embodiment of rational, calm, monumental painting in the Italian Early Renaissance, an age in which art and science were indissolubly linked through the writings of Leon Battista Alberti. Born two generations before Leonardo da Vinci, Piero was similarly interested in the scientific application of the recently discovered rules of perspective to narrative or devotional painting, especially in fresco, of which he was an imaginative master; and although he was less universally creative than Leonardo and worked in an earlier idiom, he was equally keen to experiment with painting technique. Piero was as adept at resolving problems in Euclid, whose modern rediscovery is largely due to him, as he was at creating serene, memorable figures, whose gestures are as telling and spare as those in the frescoes of Giotto or Masaccio. His tactile, gravely convincing figures are also indebted to the sculpture of Donatello, an equally attentive observer of Classical antiquity. In his best works, such as the frescoes in the Bacci Chapel in S Francesco, Arezzo, there is an ideal balance between his serene, classical compositions and the figures that inhabit them, the whole depicted in a distinctive and economical language. In his autograph works Piero was a perfectionist, creating precise, logical and light-filled images (although analysis of their perspective schemes shows that these were always subordinated to narrative effect). However, he often delegated important passages of works (e.g. the Arezzo frescoes) to an ordinary, even incompetent, assistant.   Related Paintings of Piero della Francesca :. | Madonna della Misericordia | The Discovery of the Wood of the True Cross and The Meeting of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (mk08) | st sigismund detail from st sigismund and sigismondo | berlin staatliche museen tempera on panel | Polyptych of the Misericordia |
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William Anderson
William Anderson (1757 - 27 May 1837) was born in Scotland and became an artist specializing in maritime and patriotic themes.. Anderson's training as a shipwright stood him in good stead when he became an artist specializing in maritime art based on the Dutch 17th century Masters. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1780 and continued to exhibit annually until 1811. He then exhibited intermittently until 1834. His best work was executed in the years 1790-1810, during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, at which time the demand for naval paintings was high. He painting was not restricted to marine subjects. His pictures, shown at exhibitions, include A View of Berwick-on-Tweed and A View of Tynemouth. His history paintings include The Battle of Waterloo, The Capture of Fort Louis, Martinique, 1794, which shows the attack by Commander Robert Faulknor of Zebra on Fort Saint Louis (Martinique), The Battle of Cape Finisterre, The First Battle of Groix and The Battle of the Nile . Other paintings include Shipping on the Thames at Deptford and View at the mouth of the Thames ..
Kramskoy, Ivan Nikolaevich
Russian Painter, 1837-1887
GHEYN, Jacob de II
Dutch engraver/painter (b. 1565, Antwerp, d. 1629, The Hague). was a Dutch painter and engraver, whose work shows the transition from Northern Mannerism to Dutch realism over the course of his career. De Gheyn received his first training from his father, Jacob de Gheyn I, a glass painter, engraver, and draftsman. In 1585, he moved to Haarlem, and studied under Hendrik Goltzius for the next five years. He moved again to Leiden in the middle of the 1590s. His first commission was for an engraving of the Siege of Geertruitenberg from Amsterdam city officials in 1593. Around 1600, de Gheyn abandoned engraving, and focused his work on painting and etching. Moving to The Hague in 1605, he was employed often by Dutch royalty, designing a garden in the Buitenhof for Prince Maurice of Orange which featured the two first grottoes in the Netherlands. After Prince Maurice's death in 1625, de Gheyn worked for Prince Frederick Henry, his brother. De Gheyn painted some of the earliest female nudes, vanitas, and floral still lifes in Dutch art. He is credited with creating over 1,500 drawings, including landscapes and natural history illustrations.