John William Godward
English
1861-1922
Godward was a Victorian Neo-classicist, and therefore a follower in theory of Frederic Leighton. However, he is more closely allied stylistically to Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, with whom he shared a penchant for the rendering of Classical architecture, in particular, static landscape features constructed from marble.
The vast majority of Godward's extant images feature women in Classical dress, posed against these landscape features, though there are some semi-nude and fully nude figures included in his oeuvre (a notable example being In The Tepidarium (1913), a title shared with a controversial Alma-Tadema painting of the same subject that resides in the Lady Lever Art Gallery). The titles reflect Godward's source of inspiration: Classical civilisation, most notably that of Ancient Rome (again a subject binding Godward closely to Alma-Tadema artistically), though Ancient Greece sometimes features, thus providing artistic ties, albeit of a more limited extent, with Leighton.
Given that Classical scholarship was more widespread among the potential audience for his paintings during his lifetime than in the present day, meticulous research of detail was important in order to attain a standing as an artist in this genre. Alma-Tadema was, as well as a painter, an archaeologist who attended historical sites and collected artefacts that were later used in his paintings: Godward, too, studied such details as architecture and dress, in order to ensure that his works bore the stamp of authenticity. In addition, Godward painstakingly and meticulously rendered those other important features in his paintings, animal skins (the paintings Noon Day Rest (1910) and A Cool Retreat (1910) contain superb examples of such rendition) and wild flowers (Nerissa (1906), illustrated above, and Summer Flowers (1903) are again excellent examples of this).
The appearance of beautiful women in studied poses in so many of Godward's canvases causes many newcomers to his works to categorise him mistakenly as being Pre-Raphaelite, particularly as his palette is often a vibrantly colourful one. However, the choice of subject matter (ancient civilisation versus, for example, Arthurian legend) is more properly that of the Victorian Neoclassicist: however, it is appropriate to comment that in common with numerous painters contemporary with him, Godward was a 'High Victorian Dreamer', producing beautiful images of a world which, it must be said, was idealised and romanticised, and which in the case of both Godward and Alma-Tadema came to be criticised as a world-view of 'Victorians in togas'. Related Paintings of John William Godward :. | Drusilla | Yes or No | A Fair Reflection | He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not | The Muse Erato at Her Lyre | Related Artists: George Copeland AultAmerican, 1891-1948 Alfred StieglitzAmerican Photographer, 1864-1946..S. photographer and exhibitor of modern art. He was taken to Europe by his wealthy family to further his education in 1881. In 1883 he abandoned engineering studies in Berlin for a photographic career. Returning to the U.S. in 1890, he made the first successful photographs in snow, in rain, and at night. In 1902 he founded the Photo-Secession group to establish photography as an art. His own best photographs are perhaps two series (1917 C 27), one of portraits of his wife, Georgia O'Keeffe, and the other of cloud shapes corresponding to emotional experiences. His photographs were the first to be exhibited in major U.S. museums. Francesco Cozza1605-1682)was an Italian painter of the Baroque period.
He was born in Stilo in Calabria and died in Rome. As a young man, he went to Rome and apprenticed with Domenichino. He traveled with Domenichino to Naples.
He is best known for his expansive panegyric ceiling fresco, Apotheosis of Pamphili House, in the library of Palazzo Pamphili in Piazza Navona (1667-73). He also frescoed the Stanza del Fuoco in Palazzo Pamphili in Valmontone, 1658-59), where he worked along with Pier Francesco Mola, Gaspar Dughet, Mattia Preti, Giovanni Battista Tassi (il Cortonese), and Guglielmo Cortese. He also participated with Carlo Maratta and Domenico Maria Canuti in fresco decorations of the Palazzo Altieri. His landscape paintings recall the Carracci style of paesi con figure piccole (landscapes with small figures). He painted a Madonna del Riscatto in church of Santa Francesca Romana. He was received into the Accademia di San Luca at Rome in 1650.
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