Dutch Baroque Era Painter, ca.1625-1679
Daily life was Jan Steen's main pictorial theme. Many of the genre scenes he portrayed are lively to the point of chaos and lustfulness, even so much that a Jan Steen household, meaning a messy scene, became a Dutch proverb (een huishouden van Jan Steen). Subtle hints in his paintings seem to suggest that Steen meant to warn the viewer rather than invite him to copy this behaviour. Many of Steen's paintings bear references to old Dutch proverbs or literature. He often used members of his family as models. Jan Steen painted also quite a few self-portraits, in which he showed no tendency of vanity.
Steen did not shy from other themes: he painted historical, mythological and religious scenes, portraits, still lifes and natural scenes. His portraits of children are famous. He is also well known for his mastery of light and attention to detail, most notably in textiles. Steen was prolific, producing about 800 paintings, of which roughly 350 survive.
Steen's work was valued much by contemporaries and as a result he was reasonably well paid for his work. He did not have any students, but his work proved a source of inspiration for many painters. Related Paintings of Jan Steen :. | Self-Portrait as a lutenist | The Morning Toilet | Scholar at his Desk | Beware of Luxury | Kagelspelarna outside a vardshus | Related Artists:
Christian Daniel Rauch1777 Arolsen-1857 Dresden,was a German sculptor. Rauch was born at Arolsen in the Principality of Waldeck. His parents were poor and unable to place him under efficient masters. His first instructor taught him little else than the art of sculpting gravestones, and Professor Ruhl of Kassel could not give him much more. A wider field of improvement opened up before him when he removed to Berlin in 1797; but he was obliged to earn a livelihood by becoming a royal lackey, and to practise his art in spare hours. Queen Louisa of Prussia, surprising him one day in the act of modeling her features in wax, sent him to study at the Academy of Art. Not long afterwards, in 1804, Count Sandrecky gave Rauch the means to complete his education at Rome, where Wilhelm von Humboldt, Antonio Canova and Bertel Thorvaldsen befriended him. Among other works, he executed bas-reliefs of "Hippolytus and Phaedra," "Mars and Venus wounded by Diomede," and a "Child praying." In 1811 Rauch was commissioned to execute a monument for Queen Louisa of Prussia.
Luca GordanoItalian Baroque Era Painter, ca.1634-1705
Ubaldo GandolfiItalian Painter, San Matteo della Decima, 1728 - Ravenna, 1781
was an Italian painter of the late-Baroque period, mainly active in and near Bologna. He was born in San Matteo della Decima and enrolled by the age of 17 at the Clementine Academy, where he apprenticed with Ercole Graziani the Younger, Felice Torelli, and Ercole Lelli. He was from a large family of prolific artists, including his sons Giovanni Battista and Ubaldo Lorenzo, as well as his brother Gaetano and nephews Mauro, Democrito (who became a pupil of Antonio Canova), and niece Clementina. Together, they are considered the last representative of the grand manner of painting characteristic of the Bolognese school, that had risen to prominence nearly two centuries earlier with the Carracci. Gandolfi's work ranges from Baroque to Neoclassic styles, and specifically recalls the style of Ludovico Carracci. He completed, in 1770-75, a series of canvases on mythological narratives for the Palazzo Marescalchi in Bologna (two are now in Museum of North Carolina ). He died in Ravenna in 1781.