Flemish painter (b. ca. 1544, Antwerpen, d. 1618, Antwerpen).   Related Paintings of FRANCKEN, Ambrosius :. | Worship of the Golden Calf dj | Descent from the Cross dfg | Sebastiaan Leerse in his Gallery dgh | Supper at the House of Burgomaster Rockox dhe | An Antique Dealer s Gallery |
Related Artists:
Ramon Bayeu
1746-1793 Spanish Ramon Bayeu Gallery The biography of Jose del Castillo (Madrid, 14.10.1737-Madrid, 5.10.1793) shows that the artist, being in his youth one of the most appropriate painters for becoming a leader of the artistic movement of the Illustrious Absolutism, ends up performing secondary work, paintings for tapestry and some religious works of art, which was not the field where he could best display his talent. Jose del Castillo is a perfect example of how an unhappy destiny can influence on the professional life of a painter under the regime of that time. Surely the unhappy destiny, in point of fact, does not explain anything and we will have to find out the real reasons why one of the most promising careers in painting of the eighteenth century in Spain was crushed. Probably it was a combination of two unsuccessful elections, from our point of view, that excluded the figure of Jose del Castillo from the elite group of artists of that time.
JANSSENS, Jan
Flemish painter (b. 1590, Ghent, d. after 1650, ?) Flemish painter, active also in Italy. He became a master in the painters' guild of his native Ghent in 1621, but before that he spent considerable time in Italy, particularly Rome, where he is documented in 1619 and 1620. There he became associated with the international Caravaggesque movement and was especially influenced by the paintings of the Utrecht Caravaggisti, such as Gerrit van Honthorst and Dirck van Baburen. Immediately after his return to Ghent, Janssens introduced the style of Caravaggio there. His altarpieces and other painted compositions with mercilessly realistic representations of biblical and hagiographic themes were particularly sought after for churches in and around Ghent. In these works Janssens achieved a high emotional impact by modelling the figures and objects with a strong light from a hidden source. Typical examples are the Christ Crowned with Thorns (1627; Ghent, St Peter) and the Martyrdom of St Barbara (Ghent, St Michael). Such paintings met the demand that sprang from the Counter-Reformation for strongly emotional representations of religious themes. Janssens also occasionally worked for a public that was more international in outlook, as is demonstrated by his Caritas Romana
Francesco Solimena
1657-1747 Italian Francesco Solimena Gallery Francesco Solimena was born in Canale di Serino, near Avellino. He received early training from his father, Angelo Solimena, with whom he executed a Paradise for the cathedral of Nocera (place where he spend a big part of his life) and a Vision of St. Cyril of Alexandria for the church of San Domenico at Solofra. He settled in Naples in 1674, there he worked in the studio of Francesco di Maria and later Giacomo del Po[1]. He apparently had taken the clerical orders, but was patronized early on, and encouraged to become an artist by Cardinal Vincenzo Orsini (later Pope Benedict XIII)[2]. By the 1680s, he had independent fresco commissions, and his active studio came to dominate Neapolitan painting from the 1690s through the first four decades of the 18th century. He modeled his art??for he was a highly conventional painter??after the Roman Baroque masters, Luca Giordano and Giovanni Lanfranco, and Mattia Preti, whose technique of warm brownish shadowing Solimena emulated. Solimena painted many frescoes in Naples, altarpieces, celebrations of weddings and courtly occasions, mythological subjects, characteristically chosen for their theatrical drama, and portraits. His settings are suggested with a few details??steps, archways, balustrades, columns??concentrating attention on figures and their draperies, caught in pools and shafts of light. Art historians take pleasure in identifying the models he imitated or adapted in his compositions. His numerous preparatory drawings often mix media, combining pen-and-ink, chalk and watercolor washes. Francesco Solimena 'A study for the fresco cycle in the Sacristy of San Paolo Maggiore in Naples', Whitfield Fine Art.A typical example of the elaborately constructed allegorical "machines" of his early mature style, fully employing his mastery of chiaroscuro, is the Allegory of Rule (1690) from the Stroganoff collection, which has come to the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg. He apparently hoped to see his son Orazio follow a career in the law, for which he received a doctorate (de Domenici), but also became a painter. His large, efficiently structured atelier became a virtual academy, at the heart of cultural life in Naples. Among his many pupils were Francesco de Mura (1696-1784) , Giuseppe Bonito (1707-89), Pietro Capelli, Gaspare Traversi, and most notably Corrado Giaquinto and Sebastiano Conca. The Scottish portraitist Allan Ramsay spent three years in Solimena's studio. Solimena amassed a fortune, was made a baron and lived in sumptuous style founded on his success. Francesco Solimena died at Barra, near Naples, in 1747.