http://www.safran-arts.com/42day/art/art4oct/art1018.html
http://www.jcanu.hpg.ig.com.br/art/art4oct/art1018.html
http://www.ifrance.com/ojourdui/art/art4oct/art1018.html
updated Monday 18-Oct-2004 0:20 UT
site safe for children 
ART “4”
“2”-DAY 18 October
v.4.51 |
| BIRTH:
1697 CANALETTO |
| ^
Died on 18 October 1678: Jacob
Jordaens I, Antwerp painter, tapestry designer, and draftsman,
born on 19 May 1593 and baptized on 20 May 1593. — At the age of fourteen, Jordaens, a merchant's son, was apprenticed to Adam van Noort. In 1615 he joined the guild and married Van Noort's daughter a year later. In addition to large history paintings, Jordaens produced genre paintings and portraits, as well as designs for tapestries. Unlike Van Dyck and Rubens Jordaens never became a court artist. Although an upstanding citizen, he was no intellectual. He survived his rivals and became increasingly popular in the 1640s. His work for foreign (royal) patrons included paintings for the Orange room at Huis ten Bosch. Jordaens lived and worked in Antwerp his entire life. Around 1650 he became a Calvinist. Jordaens was a wealthy man and remained active until late in life. He died in an epidemic in 1678, on the same night as his eldest daughter. — In the context of 17th-century Flemish art, Jordaens is a somewhat complicated figure. His oeuvre, the fruit of a continual artistic development, is characterized by great stylistic versatility, to which the length of his career contributed. His religious, mythological and historical representations evolved from the rhetorical prolixity of the Baroque into a vernacular, sometimes almost caricatural, formal idiom. The lack of idealistic treatment in his work is undoubtedly the factor that most removed Jordaens’s art from that of his great Flemish contemporaries Rubens and van Dyck. Jordaens’s officially commissioned works included many paintings in which the sublimity of the subject-matter clashed with the vulgarity of some of his figures. Unlike Rubens and van Dyck, both of whom were knighted in the course of their careers, Jordaens was, in fact, completely ignored by the courts of Spain and Brussels, and he did not receive a single significant commission from Italy, France, or England. Only once did Charles I of England grant him a commission, and then under less than favorable circumstances. After Rubens’s death in 1640, Jordaens became the most prominent artist in the southern Netherlands. Only then did he receive royal commissions, but these came from the north, where pomp and circumstance were avoided and few demands were made in the way of Baroque perfection. Until then, his patrons had come almost entirely from among the prosperous bourgeoisie. The people of the social circles in which he moved were far less demanding of life, and they manifested a certain indifference towards the values of the culturally refined. — Jordaens was the student and son-in-law of Adam van Noort. Although Jordaens often assisted Rubens, he had a flourishing studio of his own by the 1620s, and after Rubens's death in 1640 he was the leading figure painter in Flanders. His style was heavily indebted to Rubens, but was much more earthbound, using thick impasto, strong contrasts of light and shade, and coloring that is often rather lurid. His physical types, too, are coarser than Rubens's and his name is particularly associated with large canvases of hearty rollicking peasants. Two of his favorite subjects, which he depicted several times are The Satyr and the Peasant, based on one of Aesop's fables, and The King Drinks, which depicts a boisterous group enjoying an abundant Epiphany feast. Jordaens's prolific output, however, included many other subjects, including religious works and portraits, and he also etched and made designs for tapestries. He rarely left his native Antwerp, but commissions came from all over Europe, the most important being The Triumph of Frederick Hendrik (1652), an enormous composition painted for the Huis ten Bosch, the royal villa near The Hague. In about 1655 Jordaens became a Calvinist; he continued to paint pictures for Catholic churches, but the work of the last two decades of his life is more subdued. — Jordaens' students included Johann Boeckhorst, Leendert van der Cooghen, Johann Ulrich Mayr, Jan Tricius. ^ — LINKS — Self Portrait among Parents, Brothers and Sisters (1615, 178x138cm) _ An early painting of the artist. Its datation is possible from the knowledge of the ages of the family members. _ detail _ the artist, head and shoulder. — The Family of the Artist (1621, 181x187cm) — Let the Little Children Come to Me (600x990pix _ ZOOM to 1400x2309pix, 858kb) — The Holy Family (1617, 124x93cm; 1/8 size, 69kb _ ZOOM to 1/4 size, 232kb _ ZOOM+ to 1/2 size, 877kb _ ZOOM++ to full size, 3293kb) — Thetis and Achilles Before the Oracle (1625 tapestry, 225x305cm; 1/8 size, 297kb _ ZOOM to 1/4 size, 1031kb _ ZOOM++ to 1/2 size, 3848kb) _ According to ancient Greek myths the nereid Thetis had dipped her newborn son Achilles in the waters of the River Styx, by which he became invulnerable, except for the part of his heel by which she held him. In this picture, she brings Achilles, now a young boy, to an oracle and hears that Achilles will die fighting Troy. So Achilles is dressed as a girl and sent to hide among the daughters of a king. But, perhaps twenty or so years later, when the Trojan War is about to start, the Greeks, who have learned from a soothsayer that they cannot win without Achilles, seek him out and find him. He becomes the bravest, handsomest, and greatest warrior of the Greek army of Agamemnon during the ten-year war, which ends in victory for the Greeks (thanks to the Trojan horse). But Achilles had managed to anger the god Apollo, who in a late battle guided the poisoned arrow of the son of the king of Troy to the heel of Achilles, who was thus killed as predicted. — The Bean King (1655, 242x300cm) _ detail _ Jordaens painted several versions of the subject, representing a popular custom, the feast of the Bean King. — The Bean King (1638, 160x213cm) _ Jordaens was one of Rubens' most promising students and upon his master's death acquired the title of "principal Antwerp painter". The painting captures The Festival of the Bean King - celebrated on January 6th. A pie containing a single bean is served on this day and the guest who receives it becomes the "Bean King". Three people are recognizable in the painting: "The Bean King" - Jordaens' father-in-law; the woman to the left - Jordaens' wife, Yelizabeth; and the man with the upraised pitcher, Jordaens himself. — The Bean King — The Bean King (1638, 160x213cm) _ detail — The King Drinks (1638) — The King Drinks (156x210cm) _ This lavish depiction originates in the custom, on the Feast of the Epiphany popularly known as “the Feast of the Three Kings“ (06 January), of proclaiming king for the evening the person finding a bean hidden in his tart, and having him select his court from among those present. In the middle, behind the festive board, laden with expensive dinnerware, waffles, pastries and wine, sits enthroned the king of the evening. We recognize the old man as Jordaens' father-in-law, the painter Adam van Noort. He raises his glass to his mouth, at which everyone loudly proclaims: "The king drinks!". To the right of the festive pig the court musician is enlivening the solemn moment with his bagpipes, and next to him his butler lifts wine jug and glass with a sweeping gesture. To the left the court fool responds by raising his lighted pipe. The boisterous reactions of the other guests show that they have already indulged heavily in food and drink. In the right foreground a mother has to clean her crying child. To the left a bragging man lifts his cap and can into the air, whilst a dog jumps up at the surrounding hullabaloo. The drunkard in the left foreground, in the process of vomiting, grabs giddily at the back of a chair, tipping a set of drinking vessels noisily to the ground. Certain art historians have seen in this depiction of extreme merriment a turning away from such behaviour by a soberly inclined artist who had become a Protestant in later life. This interpretation may well be as unsatisfactory as the earlier reading of it as an ode to pleasure within the warm family circle, a concept so popular that it even founds its way onto biscuit tin lids. The surfeit to which Jordaens' figures are giving themselves over, but which is not really doing them much good, receives a somewhat ambivalent commentary in the cartouche in the top centre: "In een vry gelachllst goet gast syn" (where there is a free meal it is good to be a guest). A contradiction appears to exist between the message and the scene confronting us. Here the realisation that one should count oneself lucky not to have to pay the bill leads too far from pleasant excesses. Jordaens' presentation is therefore not free from a certain amount of irony. _ Compare The King Drinks (The Beanfeast) (1655; 663x800pix, 148kb) by Metsu [Jan 1629 – 24 Oct 1667 bur.] _ Twelfth-Night (the King Drinks) (1640, 58x70cm; 700x891pix, 163kb) by David Teniers II [bap. 15 Dec 1610 – 25 Apr 1690] _ and the unrelated (this one is the solitary king of the jungle) The King Drinks (1881; 61x91cm) by Rivière [14 Aug 1840 – 20 Apr 1920] — Prometheus Bound (1640, 245x178cm) _ Jordaens's painting is a variation on a theme that Rubens attempted early in his career and which derived formally from studies by Michelangelo. — Allegory of Fertility (1623, 180x241cm) _ This is without doubt one of Jacob Jordaens' most magnificent compositions and one of the most successful examples of his cooperation with still-life specialist Frans Snyders. In this work, painted around 1623, a good eight years after Jordaens had become a free master, the painter is at the peak of his career. Nothing remains of the clumsiness of his youthful work. Whether the eye stays on the anatomy or the expressions of the figures, on their rhythmic ordering or their gestures, or enjoys the creamy, confident paint strokes or the alternation between the golden light and the transparent shadows, or is tempted by the rich colors of Snyders' opulent fruits: everywhere it senses the same impressive harmony. The life-size figures, allowing only a glimpse of the landscape to show through, unfold like a sculpted frieze on both sides of a female nude, seen from behind, standing slightly off centre and so introducing a certain dynamism into the composition. Her nakedness catches the full light and draws the viewer's attention. A golden glow strokes her skin, in which nothing reminds us of the cold stone from which her sculptural monumentality initially seems to originate. Rather, as a nymph she belongs, together with her female companions and the satyrs surrounding her, to the category of beings between humans, gods and animals which in antiquity embodied the untameable powers of nature. The grapes that they are all gathering possibly symbolise the rich fertility of nature. For this reason the identification of the nymph seen from behind as "Humanity" is not convincing. Just as unsatisfactory is the identification of the woman in a red mantle to her right as Pomona, the goddess of fruit. The cornucopia on the far right is a reference to Ovid's Metamorphoses, which tells how it came into being when the horn of Achelous, metamorphosed into a bull, broke off in his fight with Hercules. It was not Pomona but the water nymphs or naiads that afterwards filled it with fruit. In Jordaens' picture we do not, however, find the unambiguous references to Hercules and his unfortunate opponent, making it difficult to correctly title this masterpiece. — a different Allegory of Fertility (119x182cm) — Education of Jupiter (61x75cm) _ The court painters Rubens and Van Dyck regarded art as an elevated intellectual activity and were firmly convinced that the creation of art was on a far loftier plane than any other manual work. Jordaens was rooted in a section of society bounded by more modest horizons. He devoted his life to furthering his personal prosperity, and considered that his material wealth and skill as an artist earned him the right to enjoy the status of a respected citizen. This somewhat bourgeois element is also reflected in his oeuvre, even in the mythological works such as The Education ofJupiter, in which the inhabitants of Olympus appear to be taken straight from everyday life, in spite of their nakedness. — As the Old Sang the Young Play Pipes (1638, 192x120cm) _ detail _ The work depicting the theme of As the Old Sang, the Young Play Pipes, signed by Jordaens and dated 1638, is the earliest known version of this highly popular theme which the artist painted and drew on a variety of occasions. This wonderful family concert shows Jordaens at his best. — Satyr at the Peasant's House (1620, 195x204cm) — Satyr and Peasant (188x168cm) _ The theme is taken from a fable by the ancient Greek author Aesop. In the right foreground a satyr gets up brusquely from a table to which he has been invited by a peasant family, and admonishes his host, sitting to the left, for cooling his hot porridge by blowing on it, whereas earlier he had warmed his cold hands with the same breath when traveling home with the satyr. The peasant “blows both hot and cold”. This still popular expression means that someone does not take a clear position and is therefore unreliable. The earnestness of this moralizing message appears, however, to be lost on this country group. The satyr's approach is greeted rather with astonishment. The plump young farmer's wife stops eating, but looks like she still does not understand clearly what is going on. Her child is uninterested by the satyr and looks at the viewer rascally. From inside the shadowed canopy of her wicker chair the grandmother bends her wrinkled head, in pointed contrast to the flushed head of the young peasant woman in the same pose beneath her. To the left the composition is rounded off by a fresh, softly smiling milkmaid. The lumbering dog under the table and the cock proudly enthroned on top of grandmother's chair seem equally unperturbed. The very low horizon, just visible under the peasant's chair, makes the country people tower above the viewer, lending them an imposing monumentality which one would normally expect with high-born people. As simple people they take, with a certain dignity, their appointed place in the social order. Jordaens' lifelike characterization of the peasants, full of insight into human nature, and their closeness to nature expressed in their unpolished manners must have strongly seduced the city-dwellers commissioning these tableaux, who considered themselves as more civilized. In a later version, also in the Brussels museum, the fable appears to turn into a good-humored joke. There the warm palette and the rich texture have made way for the more even reproduction of colors and materials that are typical of the artist's later work. Jordaens' oeuvre contains various other paintings on this theme, including a duplicate of this one. This story, in both its versions (below), is a favorite of not only of Jordaens but of other Northern European genre or moral painters. Interestingly, however, these painters brought the satyr into the peasant's cottage, along with all the family members, the family dog, oxen, and roosters. Clearly they wanted to round off their moral lessons with a rich picture of a contemporary household--not to mention dramatizing the sexual tensions between the satyr and the women in that same household. (Version 1) A Man had lost his way in a wood one bitter winter's night. As he was roaming about, a Satyr came up to him, and finding that he had lost his way, promised to give him a lodging for the night, and guide him out of the forest in the morning. As he went along to the Satyr's cell, the Man raised both his hands to his mouth and kept on blowing at them. “What do you do that for?” said the Satyr. “My hands are numb with the cold,” said the Man, “and my breath warms them.” After this they arrived at the Satyr's home, and soon the Satyr put a smoking dish of soup before him. But when the Man raised his spoon to his mouth he began blowing upon it. “And what do you do that for?” said the Satyr. “The soup is too hot, and my breath will cool it.” “Out you go,” said the Satyr. “I will have nought to do with a man who can blow hot and cold with the same breath.” (Version 2) A Man and a Satyr once drank together in token of a bond of alliance being formed between them. One very cold wintry day, as they talked, the Man put his fingers to his mouth and blew on them. When the Satyr asked the reason for this, he told him that he did it to warm his hands because they were so cold. Later on in the day they sat down to eat, and the food prepared was quite scalding. The Man raised the hot soup to his mouth and blew on it. When the Satyr again inquired the reason, he said that he did it to cool the broth, which was too hot. “I can no longer consider you as a friend,” said the Satyr, “a fellow who with the same breath blows hot and cold." — See The Satyr and the Peasant Family (1662, 51x46cm) by Jan Steen [1626 – 03 Feb 1679]. — The Satyr and the Peasant (1626, 133x167cm) by Jan Liss [1595-1629] — The Four Evangelists (1625, 133x118cm) _ In the 17th century, following the example given by the Carracci and by Caravaggio, painters depicted the Evangelists as robust men of the people. This picture, which dates from between 1620 and 1625, is painted in vigorous and thick brushwork - a technique very different from that of Rubens. — Meleager and Atalanta (1618, 152x120cm) _ Jordaens's artistic aspirations did not extend quite so high as those of Rubens. Jordaens showed himself to be an uncomplicated member of the middle-class, and there is little room in his work for reflection or any feeling of transcendence. Although he never visited Italy, he was strongly influenced by Caravaggio. Traces of this influence are visible in the contrast between light and dark which serves to heighten the dramatic tension of his Meleager and Atalanta. The painting's subject is taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses. — An Apostle (1625, 69x52cm) _ Jordaens painted a series of apostles between 1623 and 1625. The model of these characteristic heads was Abraham Graphäus, the messenger of the Saint Luke Guild in Antwerp. — Studies of the Head of Abraham Grapheus (45x52cm) _ Like Rubens, Jordaens ran a large workshop with numerous assistants. The paintings in the various museums undoubtedly include a variety of workshop products, in which the master had only a partial hand. Jordaens' skilful technique and deft observation can, however, be admired in their purest form in the double Studies of the Head of Abraham Grapheus. The artist must have been especially inspired by the shaggy head of his model — a messenger at the Antwerp Painters' Guild — as he appears in many of his paintings. — Eating Man — Nymphs at the Fountain of Love (1630, 131x127cm) — Saint Charles Cares for the Plague Victims of Milan (1655) — Offering to Ceres, Goddess of Harvest (1620, 165x112cm) — Portrait of a Young Married Couple (1620) — Adoration by the Shepherds — The Holy Family with Saint Anne, the Young Baptist, and his Parents — Assumption of the Virgin (280x178cm) — Christ Driving the Merchants from the Temple — 20 images at Webshots |
| ^
Born on 18 October 1697: Giovanni
Antonio Canal “Canaletto”, Italian painter
who died on 20 April 1768. |
| In
1720, the artist’s name is first recorded in the register of the Venetian
painters’ guild. Venice had a tradition of public exhibitions, at which
painters, especially beginners, could promote their work. Canaletto is recorded
as having hung a view of the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo (probably
Santi
Giovanni e Paolo and the Scuola di San Marco) at the annual display
of paintings organized outside the Scuola di San Rocco. His work was said
to have ‘made everyone marvel’, and it was purchased by the Imperial Ambassador
to Venice. The exhibition itself was later depicted by the artist in the
background of his portrayal of the Doge procession The
Doge Visiting the Church and Scuola di San Rocco. After his success at the public exhibition, Canaletto was commissioned to paint four works for the merchant Stefano Conti (1725). Patrons such as Conti were important to Canaletto at the outset of his career, but it was English collectors who came to dominate the market for his view paintings. According to the fashion of the time it was considered that an essential part of good education and cultivation for the young English gentleman was to travel to Italy and visit the famous places of Rome, Florence and Venice. Of course, such travel also involved bringing home some refined souvenirs, and Canaletto tried to meet this demand. Canaletto’s earliest work for the ‘English market’ came to him as a result of his contact with an Irishman called Owen McSwiney (c.1684-1754). Their acquaintance took place in 1720s, at least the first documentary mention of paintings, commissioned by Owen McSwiney, referred to 1826. McSwiney not only introduced Canaletto to English customers, but seems also to have encouraged the painter to create works which might particularly appeal to them. The most important person in Canaletto’s career and his patron was Joseph Smith (c.1674-1770), an Englishman, who lived in Venice, and worked as an agent on behalf of British collectors of manuscripts, books and works of art; he also served as British Consul to the Venice Republic (1744-1760; 1766). He had a notable collection of his own. This collection in 1762-3 was sold to King George III, by that time it included the largest single group of works by Canaletto ever assembled. In the 1730s, the demand for Canaletto’s work was so large that Canaletto employed studio assistants. Canaletto’s father probably helped him, and certainly Canaletto’s nephew Bernardo Bellotto (1720-80), who at the time was trained in his studio. In 1735, a set of engravings was published by Antonio Visentini after Canaletto’s paintings in Smith’s collection, called the Prospectus Magni Canalis Venetiarum, which also included the portrait of the artist, now considered the only reliable one. Canaletto's nephew, Bernardo Bellotto, expertly mimicked his style and even adopted the nickname "Canaletto" for himself. This has made it difficult to attribute individual paintings to one artist or the other. In 1741, the War of the Austrian Succession broke out, which consequently undermined the tourist business; this meant that the artist’s was loosing his principal source of patronage. In addition, perhaps for the first time, Canaletto experienced some serious competition. Canaletto tried to expand the variety of his subjects. In 1740-41, he traveled along the Brenta Canal towards Padua, and made a number of drawings, which were to form the basis of etching and paintings. In 1742 Canalletto painted for Smith a series of five large paintings of ancient Roman ruins: Rome: the Arch of Constantine — Rome: Ruins of the Forum, looking towards the Capitol — Rome: The Arch of Septimius Severus — Rome: The Arch of Titus. In 1746 Canaletto arrived in London; he worked in England intermittently until 1755. His first works in England were the views of the Thames and the recently completed Westminster Bridge: London: Westminster Bridge from the North on Lord Mayor's Day — London: Seen through an Arch of Westminster Bridge. Canaletto’s loyal agents Smith and McSwiney provided the artist with introduction to important patrons in London. Thus, through Smith’s assistance Canaletto was introduced to the Duke of Richmond, and some of the works Canaletto later painted for this patron: London: Whitehall and the Privy Garden from Richmond House — London: the Thames and the City of London from Richmond House are widely considered his greatest achievements while in England. Later Canaletto painted subjects outside London – for example, the country homes of the Duke of Beaufort, the Earl of Warwick and the Duke of Northumberland: Warwick Castle: the East Front. London: Northumberland House. Canaletto returned briefly to Venice in 1751 (and may also have traveled home again in 1753), but then remained in England up until 1755. Among the important works from this period are a series of capricci for the Lovelace family: Capriccio: River Landscape with a Column, a Ruined Roman Arch, and Reminiscences of England and a group of 6 pictures, which were painted for Thomas Hollis. In 1755 the artist returned to Venice permanently. His last years in Venice from 1756 onwards were not as artistically noteworthy. Many of his later pictures were based on compositional and technical formulae worked out some years before. However, there are a few exceptions deserving attention: The Grand Canal Looking Down to the Rialto Bridge, The Campo di Rialto, The Vigilia di S. Pietro and The Vigilia di S. Marta, all four works were painted for the German patron Sigmund Streit; and the pair of views of the Piazza San Marco in the National Gallery, London: Piazza San Marco: Looking East from the North-West Corner; Piazza San Marco: Looking East from the South-West Corner. In 1763 Canaletto was finally elected to the Venetian Academy of Fine Arts. His admission had been rejected previously, probably because view painting was not highly regarded by academicians. The artist’s reception piece Capriccio: Capriccio of Colonade and the Courtyard of a Palace was completed almost two years later. The very last of Canaletto’s dated works is the drawing San Marco: the Crossing and North Transept, with Musicians Singing. Canaletto died of a fever. |
| ^ — LINKS — From his name you can correctly guess one of his favorite subjects (and I spare you some): — Grand Canal from Palazzo Flangini to Palazzo Bembo (1740, 61x92cm; 796x1200 pix, 582kb — ZOOM to 1327x2000pix, 1756kb) _ Painted from a vantage point near the present-day railroad station, this placid scene shows where the Grand Canal in Venice begins to curve toward the east. Many of the palaces and monuments pictured here still stand, including the Palazzo Flangini (the first building in the left foreground) and the adjacent Scuola dei Morti. Behind them the cupola of the church of San Geremia can be found. The Palazzo Correr Contarini stands midway down the left bank, which is visible as far as the Palazzo Gritti (now a hotel) and concludes with the church of San Marcuola. — Grand Canal: Looking East, from the Campo San Vio (1725) — Grand Canal: Looking North-East from the Palazzo Corner-Spinelli to the Rialto Bridge. (1725) — Entrance to the Grand Canal (1725). — Entrance to the Grand Canal from the Piazzetta (1727) — Grand Canal: the Rialto Bridge from the South (1727) — Grand Canal: The Stonemason's Yard; Santa Maria della Carità from the Campo San Vidal (1728) — The Grand Canal from Campo S. Vio towards the Bacino (1730) — Santa Maria della Salute Seen from the Grand Canal (1730) — A Regatta on the Grand Canal (1732) _ The picture showing traditional Venetian ceremony is from a series of 14 views of the Grand Canal painted by Canaletto and engraved by Antonio Visentini (published in 1735). — The Grand Canal from Campo S. Vio towards the Bacino (1732, 46x78cm) — Grand Canal: from Santa Maria della Carità to the Bacino di San Marco — Entrance of the Grand Canal: from the West End of the Molo (1738) — Grand Canal: Looking South-West from the Chiesa degli Scalzi to the Fondamenta della Croce, with San Simeone Piccolo (1738) — Entrance to the Grand Canal: Looking East (1744) — Grand Canal: Looking South-East from the Campo Santo Sophia to the Rialto Bridge (1756) — The Grand Canal Looking Down to the Rialto Bridge (1761) — Veduta del Canal Grande da palazzo Balbi verso Rialto (1722, 144x207cm) _ Quando, all’inizio del terzo decennio, Canaletto dipinge le prime vedute veneziane è ancora fortemente influenzato dalla lezione di Marco Ricci. Nella veduta del Canal Grande affiorano i toni brunacei della tradizione riccesca; le figurette sono piccole, piuttosto generiche, ma colte in posizioni estremamente vivaci. Memore della sua precedente attività di scenografo, Canaletto si serve di due diverse fonti di luce sul primo piano, al punto che sulle acque del Canal Grande si proiettano contemporaneamente sia le ombre di palazzo Balbi, a sinistra, che quelle delle case dei Mocenigo a destra. — Ingresso del Canal grande (1730, 50x73cm) _ Già alla fine degli anni Venti, Canaletto è ormai il più abile e più pagato pittore di vedute di Venezia, e grazie alla mediazione di Joseph Smith si è conquistato anche la ricca clientela di oltremanica disposta a pagare per un suo quadro qualsiasi cifra di denaro. Egli ha infatti compreso che alle vedute inquiete del primo periodo, il pubblico preferisce vedute di una Venezia luminosa, animata, descritta con lenticolare e minuziosa cura. In questa veduta del Canal Grande Canaletto delinea ogni particolare architettonico, ogni dettaglio delle imbarcazione, animate da figurette intente alla più diverse attività. Per descrivere le prospettive con rigorosa precisione l’artista si serve di uno strumento ottico, la camera oscura, che permette di studiare una veduta inquadrandola con un gioco di lenti. Questa viene utilizzata da Canaletto per eseguire schizzi e disegni che poi il pittore riassembla e rielabora in studio. — Canal grande verso nord con le Fabbriche di Rialto (1727, 45x61cm) _ Il successo arriva improvviso e nel giro di pochi anni il Canaletto diventa il vedutista più ricercato di Venezia, ma la sua definitiva consacrazione avviene quando il pittore entra in contatto con Owen McSwiney, un irlandese riparato nella città lagunare dopo le sue fallimentari attività di impresario teatrale a Londra. Su consiglio di McSwiney collabora con altri pittori a un ciclo di dipinti raffiguranti monumenti funebri immaginari, dedicati a insigni personaggi della storia inglese, per il duca di Richmond. Per lo stesso committente esegue inoltre due piccole vedute su rame, nelle quali il Canaletto abbandona i modi drammatici, fortemente chiaroscurati della fase giovanile, preferendo toni più luminosi che esaltano la resa dei particolari della veduta e delle architetture che la compongono. — The Grand Canal with the Rialto Bridge in the Background (1725, 146x234cm) — The Grand Canal and the Church of the Salute (1730) _ detail — The Grand Canal at the Salute Church (1740, 121x151cm) — Capriccio: the Grand Canal, with an Imaginary Rialto Bridge and Other Buildings (1745) — Venice: the Grand Canal from the Palazzo Foscari to the Carita — The Stonemason's Yard (1728, 124x163cm) _ Giovanni Antonio Canal's popularity with English Grand Tourists - mainly young noblemen completing their education with an extended trip to the Continent - has meant that many more of his pictures can be found in Britain than in his native Venice or even throughout Italy. Trained as a scene painter, by 1725 he was specialising in vedute - more or less topographically exact records of the city, its canals and churches, festivals and ceremonies. He visited England several times, but his English paintings did not please, and he returned home for good in about 1756. Although we associate Canaletto for the most part with mass-produced, crystal-clear scenes of celebrated sights, The Stonemason's Yard, his masterpiece, is not of this kind. A comparatively early picture, and almost certainly made to order for a Venetian client, it presents an intimate view of the city, as if from a rear window. The site is not in fact a mason's yard, but the Campo San Vidal during re-building operations on the adjoining church of San Vidal or Vitale. Santa Maria della Carità, now the Accademia di Belle Arti, the main art gallery in Venice, is the church seen across the Grand Canal.The Church of Santa Maria della Carità is still flanked by the slender campanile that collapsed in 1741. Canaletto's later works are painted rather tightly on a reflective white ground, but this picture was freely brushed over reddish brown, the technical reason for the warm tonality of the whole. Thundery clouds are gradually clearing, and the sun casts powerful shadows, whose steep diagonals help define the space and articulate the architecture. Not doges and dignitaries but the working people and children of Venice animate the scene and set the scale. In the left foreground a mother has propped up her broom to rush to the aid of her fallen and incontinent toddler, watched by a woman airing the bedding out of the window above and a serious little girl. Stonemasons kneel to their work. A woman sits spinning at her window. The city, weatherbeaten, dilapidated, lives on, and below the high bell-tower of Santa Maria della Carità it is the little shabby house, with a brave red cloth hanging from the window, which catches the brightest of the sunlight. — View of the Arch of Constantine and Environs, Rome (1763 drawing, 20x32cm; full size) — La Torre di Malghera (etching 29x42cm; 2/3 size) — 27 prints at FAMSF |
| ^
Died on 18 October (17 April?) 1679: Jan
van Kessel II, Antwerp, Flanders, still-life and flower
painter, draftsman, and designer, specialized in Still
Life, baptized as an infant on 05 April 1626, sometimes designated as
Jan van Kessel I, because he was the first painter of that name. But the
real Jan van Kessel I was his grandfather, a draper. The father of Jan van
Kessel II was the painter Hieronymus (= Jeroom) van Kessel [bap. 06
Oct 1578 – 1636+]. David
Teniers the Younger [15 Dec 1610 – 25 Apr 1690] was the uncle-in-law
of Jan van Kessel II, having married in 1637 his mother's sister Anna Brueghel.
The Dutch landscape artist Jan van Kessel [bap. 22 Sep 1641 – 24 Dec
1680 bur.] was apparently unrelated. — Jan van Kessel II of Antwerp was the son of the painter Hieronymus van Kessel and the grandson of Jan Brueghel. Van Kessel specialized in small oil paintings on copper and wood. Jan van Kessel painted many animals (especially insects) and flowers, as well as some mythological and biblical scenes. His choice of subject leaned towards those which included animals and plants; for example, he painted Noah's Ark. — Jan van Kessel II began his training as a painter in 1635 under Simon de Vos [28 Oct 1603 – 15 Oct 1676] and was also taught by his uncle Jan Breughel II [13 Sep 1601 – 01 Sep 1678] and by Jacob van Ruisdael. He became the most versatile artist of the van Kessel family. In 1645 he was registered in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke as a flower painter, but he also depicted, in both oil and watercolor, animals, birds, fish and insects, as well as a variety of still-life subjects. He continued the traditions of his maternal grandfather, Jan I “Velvet” Brueghel [1568 – 13 Jan 1625], and was also influenced by Daniel Seghers [05 Dec 1590 – 02 Nov 1661]. Van Kessel painted garlands and bouquets of flowers, but is best known for small, jewel-like pictures, often on copper, of insects or shells against a light background, executed with strong color and great exactitude. At his marriage to Maria van Apshoven [–1678] in 1647, one of the witnesses was his uncle David Teniers II, who had married Breughel’s daughter Anna ten years previously. In 1655 Jan van Kessel II bought a house opposite the cemetery of the Saint Joriskerk in Antwerp, but by the end of his life all his possessions were heavily mortgaged in order to pay off his debts. Jan II taught two of his seven sons to paint, Ferdinand van Kessel [07 Apr 1648 – 1696], who painted in the style of his father, and Jan van Kessel III [1654-1708] (aka, erroneously, Jan van Kessel II)., who followed in the portrait tradition of his grandfather. — LINKS — Insects and Fruit (11x16cm) _ In this painting on copper, a caterpillar is crawling over a small branch, surrounded by butterflies and other insects. Although this painting appears to be a realistic still life, it is actually more like a sampler. The small animals are accurately depicted, only the relation between them and the space around them is not entirely precise. This kind of painting was probably specially intended for people who had a scientific interest in plants and animals. These detailed studies were often produced as prints. — The Animals (1660, 175x123cm) _ This triptychon contains 40 sections (17x23cm each). The animals are placed in a setting (Netherlandish, mountainous, exotic) corresponding to the species. (8 rows of 5 separate pictures each, tiny in the reproduction) — The Mockery of the Owl (170x234cm) _ The fully-fledged animal painting emerged in the late 16th century with the rise of biological research and collections of rare creatures. Jan van Kessel in The Mockery of the Owl demonstrates a thorough knowledge of exotic animals. The artist uses a narrative subject as a vehicle for painting his animals. — Still-Life (42x77cm) _ This Antwerp artist's teacher and uncle was Jan Brueghel the Younger, and therefore he was a direct descendant on his mother's side from Pieter the Elder [1525-1569] and Jan the Elder (“Velvet”). He painted chiefly still-lifes, frequently representing food laid out sumptuously on light-colored tables and depicted with the delicacy of a miniaturist, using lively colors of a predominately red tint laid on with the tip of the brush. The documentary, informative, educational, and communicative function of these richly laid tables, in which the individual objects are simply added on and depicted from a slightly raised viewpoint, is combined with the evident intention of demonstrating the affluence of the wealthy patrons of these works. It is also possible to discern allegorical intentions alluding to the five senses or the four elements, but while such an interpretation is quite plausible, the principal aim is a purely aesthetic one, offering this profusion of beautiful objects, rendered with exquisite skill, as a simple feast for the eyes. There is a companion piece to this painting, a variation on the same theme. — Still Life with Fruit and Shellfish (1653) — Africa (central panel, detail) (1666) — Europe (central panel, detail) (1666) — 6 prints at FAMSF |
| ^
Died on 18 October 1669: Abraham
Willaerts, Dutch painter born in 1603, son of Adam Willaerts
[1577 – 04 Apr 1664], and brother of Isaac Willaerts [1620 –
24 Jun 1693] and Cornelis Willaerts [1600–1666]. After being trained by his father, Abraham Willaerts studied under Jan van Bijlert in Utrecht and Simon Vouet [08 Jan 1590 – 01 July 1649 bur.] in Paris. In 1624 he became a master of the Utrecht Guild of St Luke; from 1637 to 1644 he was in Brazil in the entourage of Count John Maurice of Nassau-Siegen, and in 1659 he visited Naples and Rome. His marine paintings closely follow those of his father, for example Coast Scene (1647), but often have an atmospheric softness, as in Beach Scene with Ruin (1662). Abraham’s foreign travels had little effect on his style but resulted in Mediterranean harbor views (real and imaginary), such as Harbor of Naples. He painted a series of portraits, both single figures (several were admirals) and family groups. He also contributed portraits in the foreground of some of his father’s harbor scenes. — Abraham Willaert appartient à une famille de peintres protestants qui émigrèrent des Flandres vers les Provinces-Unies à la fin du xvie siècle. Il se forma chez Jan van Bijlert à Utrecht puis chez Simon Vouet à Paris. En 1624, il est reçu maître de la guilde d'Utrecht. De 1637 à 1644, il participe à l'expédition de Jean Maurice de Nassau au Brésil, et en 1659 on le trouve à Naples et à Rome. Mais ces voyages sont sans effet sur son style. — LINKS — Cornelis Tromp in Roman Costume (1673, 40x33cm) _ A Dutch maritime hero dressed in Roman costume is how Cornelius Tromp has been portrayed here. He stands as if about to draw his saber. In the background ships are engaged in battle. Cornelis Maartenszoon Tromp [09 Sep 1629 – 29 May 1691] went to sea as a boy with his father, the celebrated Admiral Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp [23 Apr 1598 – 10 Aug 1653]. Cornelis rose swiftly through the ranks. He distinguished himself in particular during the Battle of Livorno. Differences of opinion and his impetuous behavior led to a rift between Cornelis and Admiral Michiel de Ruyter [24 Mar 1607 – 29 Apr 1676] and to his departure from the fleet. After a reconciliation with De Ruyter, in 1673, during the Third Anglo-Dutch War, he reentered the navy. Tromp re-established his reputation at the Battle of Schoneveld and the Battle of the Texel, both in 1673. In 1677-1678 he fought in the Baltic against Sweden. In 1678 he succeeded De Ruyter as commander-in-chief. Abraham Willaerts made this portrait after a work by the Hague painter Jan Mijtens [1614-1670] who had also portrayed Tromp dressed as a Roman in 1668. Willaerts's portrait was one of the last in a series of paintings of maritime heroes, to which a portrait of Baron Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam [1616-1665] also belonged. Popular in the seventeenth century, images of Dutch maritime heroes were later to return to fashion as wall decorations. — Cornelis Tromp (600x486pix) in contemporary costume. — Admiral Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp (600x496pix) _ Maarten Tromp was the highest ranking sea commander (from 1636) under the stadholder during the Dutch wars with Spain and England during the first half of the 17th century. His victory over the Spanish in the Battle of the Downs (21 Oct 1639) marked the passing of Spain's power at sea. — The Stormy Sea (1626, 84x114cm; 575x774pix) — Sea Battle Between Dutch and Spanish Fleets (1641, 163x243cm) — A Shipbuilder and his family (1650, 86x130cm) _ Le charme de ce tableau, qui représente la promenade d'une famille devant un paysage panoramique, réside dans la recherche de pittoresque et de détails anecdotiques. Ainsi chaque personnage tient à la main un accessoire en accord avec son âge ou son rang social : une paire de gants et un éventail pour les parents, un hochet et une crosse pour les jeunes enfants. L'étendue d'eau est animée de nombreuses embarcations : voiliers, barques de pêche, bac transportant des animaux... Une brise provoque une succession de vaguelettes à la surface de l'eau selon un procédé cher à l'artiste. A la fois portrait collectif et paysage, cette peinture illustre parfaitement les deux domaines dans lesquels Abraham Willaerts s'est illustré. La restauration de l'oeuvre, en 1994, a fait apparaître une signature et la date 1650. |
site safe for children