Italian Early Renaissance Painter, ca.1383-1447
Florentine painter of the early Renaissance, whose real name was Tommaso di Cristoforo Fini. His versatile painting incorporated his feeling for decorative color with strong modeling and spatial organization. He was admitted (1423) to the apothecaries' guild in Florence, in which painters were enrolled, and was soon commissioned to paint the frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel in Florence. These were continued by his pupil Masaccio upon Masolino's departure (1427) for Hungary and were completed by Filippino Lippi, thus greatly complicating the question of authorship; currently scholars attribute to Masolino St. Peter Preaching, St. Peter Healing the Cripple, The Raising of Tabitha, and The Fall of Adam and Eve. Upon his return to Florence, Masolino found painters occupied with problems of perspective, light and shade, and classical architecture and decoration, ideas that he utilized while retaining much of the old Giottesque tradition. He went to Rome where he painted frescoes in the Church of San Clemente for the Cardinal Branda Castiglione. For the same patron he decorated the church of Castiglione di Olona in the province of Como, Italy. There he represented scenes from the life of the Virgin and of St. John the Baptist. Attributed to Masolino are The Foundation of Santa Maria Maggiore and a Madonna and Christ in Glory (Naples); Related Paintings of MASOLINO da Panicale :. | Modonna of Humility | Crucifixion hjy | The Annunciation syy | Saint Peter and Saint Paul (nn03) | St Peter Preaching | Related Artists:
Gyula BenczurGyula Benczur (1844 - 1920) was a Hungarian painter and pedagogue. He won international success with his first few paintings, winning several competitions. He assisted Karl von Piloty with the frescoes of Maximilianeum and Rathaus in Munich. He also illustrated books by the great German writer, Friedrich Schiller. He was commissioned by the Bavarian king Ludwig II to paint Rococo themes. Later he was offered numerous international teaching positions, including offers in Prague and Weimar, but accepted a position in Munich, one of his most distinguished pupils being the Swiss-born American painter Adolfo Meller-Ury. Benczur was later a favorite among the Hungarian upper-class, painting numerous portraits of kings and aristocrats. He was considered a rival in historical painting to Makart. During his lifetime, Benczur won numerous awards. His self-portrait is on display at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
Simone Martini1283-1344
Italian
Simone Martini Locations
He was a major figure in the development of early Italian painting and greatly influenced the development of the International Gothic style. It is thought that Martini was a pupil of Duccio di Buoninsegna, the leading Sienese painter of his time. His brother-in-law was the artist Lippo Memmi. Very little documentation survives regarding Simone's life, and many attributions are debated by art historians. Simone Martini died while in the service of the Papal court at Avignon in 1344.
Simone was doubtlessly apprenticed from an early age, as would have been the normal practice. Among his first documented works is the Maest?? of 1315 in the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena. A copy of the work, executed shortly thereafter by Lippo Memmi in San Gimignano, testifies to the enduring influence Simone's prototypes would have on other artists throughout the fourteenth century. Perpetuating the Sienese tradition, Simone's style contrasted with the sobriety and monumentality of Florentine art, and is noted for its soft, stylized, decorative features, sinuosity of line, and unsurpassed courtly elegance. Simone's art owes much to French manuscript illumination and ivory carving: examples of such art were brought to Siena in the fourteenth century by means of the Via Francigena, a main pilgrimage and trade route from Northern Europe to Rome.
Simone's major works include the Maest?? (1315) in the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena, St Louis of Toulouse Crowning the King at the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples (1317), the S. Caterina Polyptych in Pisa (1319) and the Annunciation and two Saints at the Uffizi in Florence (1333), as well as frescoes in the Chapel of St. Martin in the lower church of the Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi. Francis Petrarch became friend with Simone while in Avignon, and two of his sonnets make reference to a portrait of Laura de Noves he supposedly painted for the poet.
Olof Areniusa Swedish portrait painter, and son of a minister in Upland, was born in 1701. He studied under David von Krafft, and afterwards went to the Netherlands to study the old masters. His portraits and miniatures in oil are much esteemed, and are to be found in all the public galleries, as well as in the best private collections, in Sweden. Many of them have been engraved. He died at Stockholm in 1766.