1581-1644 Italian Bernardo Strozzi Galleries Strozzi was born in Genoa. He was probably not related to the other Strozzi family. In 1598, at the age of 17, he joined a Capuchin monastery, a reform branch of the Franciscan order. When his father died c1608, he left the order to care for his mother, earning their living with his paintings, which were often influenced by Franciscan teachings, for example his Adoration of the Shepherds (c. 1615) . In 1625, he was charged with illegally practicing as a painter. When his mother died c1630, Bernardo was pressured in court by the Capuchin's to re-enter the order. He was briefly imprisoned in Genoa , and upon release fled to Venice to avoid confinement in a monastery in 1631. He became nicknamed all his life as il prete Genovese (the Genoa priest). Saint Christopher, by Strozzi.Early paintings, such as The Ecstasy of St Francis show the dark emotionalism of Caravaggio. But by the second decade of the 17th century, while working in Venice, Strozzi had synthesized a personal style which fused painterly influences of the North (including Rubens and Veronese) with a monumental realistic starkness. For example, in the painting The Incredulity of Thomas, the background is muted, yet Jesus' face, haloed and his outline, misty, in a style atypical of Caravaggio. Never as dark as the Caravaggisti, Venice infused his painting with a gentler edge, a style more acceptable to the local patronage, and one derived from his precursors in Venice, Jan Lys (died 1629) and Domenico Fetti (died 1626), who had also fused the influence of Caravaggio into Venetian art. Examples of this style can be found in his Parable of the Wedding Guests (1630),Christ giving keys of Heaven to Saint Peter (1630),, Saint Lawrence distributing Alms at San Nicol?? da Tolentino[7] and a Personification of Fame (1635-6). He was also likely influenced by Velazquez (who visited Genoa in 1629-30). After a commission to paint Claudio Monteverdi his fame grew, and his portrait paintings included many of the leading Venetians. His pupils and painter strongly influenced by him included Giovanni Andrea de Ferrari (1598-1669), Giovanni Bernardo Carbone, Valerio Castello and, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione.  Related Paintings of Bernardo Strozzi :. | Vanitas Allegory | Die eitle Alte | Holy Family with St. John the Baptist | The Cook | Portrait of a Knight |
Related Artists:
Giacinto Gimignani
Italian Painter , Pistoia, 1611 - Roma, 1681
Jean-Baptiste Jouvenet
1644-1717 French Jean Baptiste Jouvenet Galleries He came from an artistic family, one of whom Noel Jouvenet may have taught Nicolas Poussin. He early showed remarkable aptitude for his profession, and, on arriving in Paris, attracted the attention of Le Brun, by whom he was employed at Versailles, and under whose auspices, in 1675, he became a member of the Acad??mie royale, of which he was elected professor in 1681, and one of the four perpetual rectors in 1707. He also worked under Charles de la Fosse in the Invalides and Trianon. The great mass of works that he executed, chiefly in Paris, many of which, including his celebrated Miraculous Draught of Fishes (engraved by Audran; also Landon, Annales, i. 42), are now in the Louvre, show his fertility in invention and execution, and also that he possessed in a high degree that general dignity of arrangement and style which distinguished the school of Le Brun. Jouvenet died on the 5 April 1717, having been forced by paralysis during the last four years of his life to work with his left hand.
Bacon, Henry
American, 1839-1912