Italian High Renaissance Painter, 1483-1520 Italian painter and architect. As a member of Perugino's workshop, he established his mastery by 17 and began receiving important commissions. In 1504 he moved to Florence, where he executed many of his famous Madonnas; his unity of composition and suppression of inessentials is evident in The Madonna of the Goldfinch (c. 1506). Though influenced by Leonardo da Vinci's chiaroscuro and sfumato, his figure types were his own creation, with round, gentle faces that reveal human sentiments raised to a sublime serenity. In 1508 he was summoned to Rome to decorate a suite of papal chambers in the Vatican. The frescoes in the Stanza della Segnatura are probably his greatest work; the most famous, The School of Athens (1510 C 11), is a complex and magnificently ordered allegory of secular knowledge showing Greek philosophers in an architectural setting. The Madonnas he painted in Rome show him turning away from his earlier work's serenity to emphasize movement and grandeur, partly under Michelangelo's High Renaissance influence. The Sistine Madonna (1513) shows the richness of colour and new boldness of compositional invention typical of his Roman period. He became the most important portraitist in Rome, designed 10 large tapestries to hang in the Sistine Chapel, designed a church and a chapel, assumed the direction of work on St. Peter's Basilica at the death of Donato Bramante,   Related Paintings of RAFFAELLO Sanzio :. | The annunciation | Moses Saved from the Water | Heal foot | The Parnassus | Roveredo portrait |
Related Artists:
Maggiotto, Domenico
Italian Painter, 1713-1794
Jan Frans van Dael
an excellent painter of fruit and flowers, was born at Antwerp in 1764, but went early to Paris and settled there. He was self-inatructed in art, but made such progress that he soon distinguished himself at the exhibitions, on one occasion obtaining the prize of 4000 francs, and on two others, the large gold medal. His style is in the manner of Van Huysum and Van Spaendonck, although he did not confine himself strictly to fruit and flowers, but painted other subjects, in which such objects might with propriety be introduced. Two of his pictures, which he painted for the Empress Josephine, represent 'An Offering to Flora,' and 'The Tomb of Julia'; the latter is now in the Louvre. His master-piece, known as 'La Croisee,' the fruit of three years' labour, was likewise purchased by the Empress Josephine, and is now in a private collection at Liege. He was also patronized by the Empress Marie Louise, who took one of his pictures with her to Parma. He died in Paris in 1840, and was buried in the cemetery of Pere Lachaise by the side of his friend Van Spaendonck. The Louvre has also by him three pictures of 'Flowers' and one of 'Fruit.'
John Closterman
John Closterman (1660-1711) (also spelled Cloosterman, Klosterman), portrait-painter, born in Osnabruck, the son of an artist, who taught him the rudiments of design. In 1679 he went to Paris, accompanied by his countryman Tiburen, and there worked under Francois de Troy. In 1681 he came to England, and painted draperies for John Riley, at whose death, in 1691, Closterman finished several of his portraits. This recommended him to the Duke of Somerset, but he lost his favour on account of a dispute about a picture of Guercino, specially acquired for his grace, and which was afterwards purchased by Lord Halifax. In 1696 he was invited to the court of Spain, and executed the portraits of the king and queen; he also went to Italy twice, and made several acquisitions of works of art. On returning to England he obtained considerable employment, and married an Englishwoman. He buried his wife, Hannah, on 27 January 1702. According to Arnold Houbraken, he later took a mistress, who then ruined him by her extravagant habits, and ultimately left him in a state of dejection of body and mind that led to his ultimate decline. Jacob Campo Weyerman, who took much of his biographical material from Houbraken, states "Closterman had taken a beautiful mistress who, while he was away in the country, robbed him of his valuables and disappeared, actions which drove the painter into madness". He died in 1711, and was buried in Covent Garden churchyard.