Italian Early Renaissance Painter, ca.1422-1492 Italian painter and theorist. His work is the embodiment of rational, calm, monumental painting in the Italian Early Renaissance, an age in which art and science were indissolubly linked through the writings of Leon Battista Alberti. Born two generations before Leonardo da Vinci, Piero was similarly interested in the scientific application of the recently discovered rules of perspective to narrative or devotional painting, especially in fresco, of which he was an imaginative master; and although he was less universally creative than Leonardo and worked in an earlier idiom, he was equally keen to experiment with painting technique. Piero was as adept at resolving problems in Euclid, whose modern rediscovery is largely due to him, as he was at creating serene, memorable figures, whose gestures are as telling and spare as those in the frescoes of Giotto or Masaccio. His tactile, gravely convincing figures are also indebted to the sculpture of Donatello, an equally attentive observer of Classical antiquity. In his best works, such as the frescoes in the Bacci Chapel in S Francesco, Arezzo, there is an ideal balance between his serene, classical compositions and the figures that inhabit them, the whole depicted in a distinctive and economical language. In his autograph works Piero was a perfectionist, creating precise, logical and light-filled images (although analysis of their perspective schemes shows that these were always subordinated to narrative effect). However, he often delegated important passages of works (e.g. the Arezzo frescoes) to an ordinary, even incompetent, assistant.   Related Paintings of Piero della Francesca :. | Polyptych of Perugia | pala mantefeltro | The Baptism of Christ | Madonna del Parto | legend of the true cross |
Related Artists:
Pater, Jean-Baptiste
French Rococo Era Painter, 1695-1736 French painter and draughtsman. He was taught in Valenciennes by Jean-Baptiste Guid? (master 1697; d 1711) and also by his father, Antoine Pater (1670-1747), a sculptor whose portrait was painted by Antoine Watteau (Valenciennes, Mus. B.-A.), who was also a native of Valenciennes. He probably followed Watteau to Paris after the short stay that the latter made in Valenciennes around 1710. Pater thus became a pupil of Watteau. Watteau's difficult character led to Pater's dismissal. He then spent a few hard years on his own in Paris, before returning to Valenciennes around 1715 or 1716. He tried to work independently of the local corporation of St Luc, of which he was not a member; a number of comical legal difficulties ensued, and Pater returned to Paris in 1718. There he must have been in contact with Watteau, since he worked for some of the latter's clients, such as the dealers Pierre Sirois and Edm?-Fran?ois Gersaint, and the collector Jean de Jullienne. In the spring of 1721 the dying Watteau called Pater to him at Nogent, near Paris, apparently full of remorse for his previous attitude and wishing to instruct him in the basic tenets of his painting,
Edward Atkinson Hornel
Scottish Painter , 1864-1933
Christen Kobke
1810-1848 Danish Christen Kobke Galleries He lived in Kastellet until 1833 and made many paintings of the area. His painting "Gården ved bageriet i Kastellet" (ca. 1832) hangs in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek museum in Copenhagen. In 1832 he shared a studio with friend, landscape painter Frederik Hansen Sødring. He painted a portrait of Sødring which now hangs in the Hirschsprung Collection. In 1834 he moved, along with his parents, outside of Copenhagen??s fortifications near Sortedamssøen, a lake area. He painted many views overlooking the lake towards the city and the embankments surrounding the city. His work becomes larger, more monumental. Like many of his contemporary artists he came under the influence of Niels Lauritz Høyen, art historian, who promoted a nationalistic art. Høyen called for artists to search for subject matter in the folk life of their country instead of searching for themes in other lands, such as Italy (which was at that time considered a requirement for an artist??s training). On a visit to Hillerod in 1835 he painted a romantic picture of Frederiksborg Palace, "Frederiksborg Slot ved Aftenbelysning" ("Frederiksborg Palace in the Evening Light"). At the end of 1837 he married Susanna Cecilie Kobke (1810-1849), and shortly afterwards painted a portrait of his young bride. One of the Small Towers on Frederiksborg Castle, c.1834-35.In 1838 he received a travel stipend from the Academy, left his new wife and traveled over Dresden and Munich to Italy accompanied by decorative painter Georg Hilker. They arrived in Rome by year??s end where he met brother-in-law Frederik Christopher Krohn, sculptor and medallionist, and many other Danish artists. He traveled, along with Constantin Hansen the following summer to Naples, Sorrento, Pompeii and Capri where he painted out in the open air. He returned home in 1840 with a large collection of sketches for later use and inspiration. Unfortunately, most his later work with these Italian themes was uninspired, and they found little favor. Kobke even considered at the time becoming a decoration painter, having participated in 1844-1845 in the decoration of the Thorvaldsens Museum, a museum dedicated to the artistic works of Bertel Thorvaldsen. Two years after his father died in 1843 the family sold the property outside Copenhagen, and Kobke moved back into the city. His application for admission to the Academy, which was accompanied by one of his failed Italian landscapes, was rejected in 1846. He died in 1848 of pneumonia, and is buried in Assistens Kirkegard. Kobke, a national romantic, painted portraits, landscapes and architectural paintings. Most of Kobke??s portraits show friends, family members and fellow artists. He found most of his motifs in his immediate surroundings. Now he is recognized internationally for his well composed and harmonic paintings, for their coloristic qualities and for his sense of the everyday life. But in his lifetime he was almost forgotten, especially because of his early death and limited production. Despite his talent and the praise of various contemporaries, Kobke had never been inundated with commissions. Kobke is recognized today as one of the most talented among Denmark??s Golden Age painters and the most internationally renowned Danish painter of his generation. The painterly interpretations he made of his surroundings stand as highpoints of the period. His works are in the collections of not only Danish museums but also such international museums as the J. Paul Getty Museum