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 :. | Portrait of a Man | Profane Love | Portrait of Charles V with a Dog | Portrait of Queen Christina of Denmark | Portrat eines jungen Mannes | Related Artists:
John William WaterhouseEnglish Pre-Raphaelite Painter, 1849-1917
English painter. His father was a minor English painter working in Rome. Waterhouse entered the Royal Academy Schools in London in 1870. He exhibited at the Society of British Artists from 1872 and at the Royal Academy from 1874. From 1877 to the 1880s he regularly travelled abroad, particularly to Italy. In the early 1870s he had produced a few uncharacteristic Orientalist keepsake paintings, but most of his works in this period are scenes from ancient history or classical genre subjects, similar to the work of Lawrence Alma-Tadema (e.g. Consulting the Oracle, c. 1882; London, Tate). However, Waterhouse consistently painted on a larger scale than Alma-Tadema. His brushwork is bolder, his sunlight casts harsher shadows and his history paintings are more dramatic.
Joseph StielerGerman Painter, 1781-1858,German painter. In 1798 he studied under Christoph Fesel (1737-1805) in Werzburg and in 1800 with Heinrich Feger in Vienna, where his style was strongly influenced by English portraiture. After he studied in Paris (1807-8) with Fran?ois G?rard the influence of Neo-classicism became apparent in his work. He visited Italy in 1809, 1810 and 1812 to do commissioned portraits for various patrons, among them Prince Eugene de Beauharnais (1809; Munich, Bayer. Nmus.) and Joachim Murat, King of Naples (reg 1808-15). In 1812 he went to Munich where he did work for middle-class clients, the nobility and the royal family of Bavaria (e.g. the portrait of Maximilian I Joseph, 1816; Ellingen, Schloss). In 1820 he was appointed court painter to Ludwig I, King of Bavaria (reg 1825-48), and painted several portraits of him. In 1823 he helped co-found the Kunstverein in Munich. He was one of the most important portrait painters in the Neo-classical style, specializing particularly in studies of women, as seen in the 36 portraits commissioned by Ludwig I for the Schenheitsgalerie (1827-42; Munich, Schloss Nymphenburg). In his portraits for the middle classes and for the court he devised certain peculiarities of form. He painted various members of the royal houses of Austria, Prussia and Sweden, as well as members of the nobility in the duchies of Saxe-Altenberg, Saxe-Coburg and Hesse. His sitters also included some of the most important figures in the political and intellectual life of Germany in the first half of the 19th century. He painted the pendant portraits of Franz Brentano and Antonie Brentano (both 1808; Winkel, Brentanohaus), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1828; Munich, Neue Pin.) and Ludwig Tieck (1838; Berlin, Schloss Charlottenburg), the geographer and botanist Alexander von Humboldt (1843; Potsdam, Schloss Charlottenhof) and the musician Ludwig van Beethoven (Bonn, Beethoven-Haus). After 1845 the classical elements in his paintings were sometimes combined with an application of colour typical of plein-air studies. He also painted genre pictures and religious scenes.
Pagani, GregorioItalian, 1558-1605
Italian painter. He trained in the studio of the Late Mannerist Maso da San Friano, but then studied with the more progressive Santi di Tito. There he became friends with Ludovico Cigoli: the two artists, who desired to renew the art of painting, studied from nature and developed an interest in Venetian and Emilian art. Pagani was deeply influenced by Correggio. His earliest surviving works include the frescoes of the Confirmation of the Rule of St Dominic (c. 1580; Florence, S Maria Novella, Chiostro Grande) and the Meeting between SS Dominic and Francis (Florence, Convento dei Cappuccini di Monturghi). In 1592 he painted the Virgin and Saints (St Petersburg, Hermitage), a work that already reveals his interest in Correggio. In the same year he painted a Finding of the True Cross (untraced), a daring composition that is preserved in preparatory drawings. A number of works from the 1590s survive and show Pagani's interest in Emilian art; the Crucifixion and Saints (1595; Florence, S Bartolomeo in Pozzo) and the Virgin and Child with SS Michael the Archangel and Benedict (1595; Florence, S Michele Arcangelo Le Ville). At the turn of the century Pagani was increasingly associated with those Florentine artists who wished to develop a new narrative clarity and directness. His pictures (e.g. Pyramus and Thisbe; Florence, Uffizi) show figures carefully posed with varied expressions and gestures. In the early 17th century Pagani became yet more attracted by naturalism, as in the St Lawrence (1600) in the basilica of the Madonna delle Grazie at San Giovanni, Valdarno. Through his friendship with Bartolomeo Carducho he was influenced by Spanish art, as is evident in the Adoration of the Magi