Caravaggio
Italian Baroque Era Painter, ca.1571-1610
Italian painter. After an early career as a painter of portraits, still-life and genre scenes he became the most persuasive religious painter of his time. His bold, naturalistic style, which emphasized the common humanity of the apostles and martyrs, flattered the aspirations of the Counter-Reformation Church, while his vivid chiaroscuro enhanced both three-dimensionality and drama, as well as evoking the mystery of the faith. He followed a militantly realist agenda, rejecting both Mannerism and the classicizing naturalism of his main rival, Annibale Carracci. In the first 30 years of the 17th century his naturalistic ambitions and revolutionary artistic procedures attracted a large following from all over Europe. Related Paintings of Caravaggio :. | The Calling of Saint Matthew (detail) gfd | St Francis dfgd | Bacchus | Burial of St Lucy fg | The Concert The Musicians | Related Artists: lesueurCharles Alexandre Lesueur (Le Havre, January 1, 1778 - Le Havre, December 12, 1846) was a French naturalist, artist and explorer.
Pictured here is the oil portrait by Charles Willson Peale of Charles-Alexandre Lesueur. The original hangs in the reading room of the of Ewell Sale Stewart Library in the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.
In 1801 he traveled to Australia as artist on the expedition of Nicolas Baudin. With François Peron he took over the duties as naturalist after the death of the expedition's zoologist Rene Mauge. Together they collected over 100,000 zoological specimens.
Between 1815 and 1837 he lived in the United States In 1833, he visited Vincennes, Indiana where he sketched the first known drawing of Grouseland, the mansion of William Henry Harrison. The mansion is today a National Historic Landmark.
In the years 1825-1837 Lesueur lived in New Harmony, Indiana, where he filled sketchbooks full of the finds discovered during the utopian adventure funded by his friend William Maclure. He drew the boat "Philanthropist", which arrived full of intellectuals who came to live in the small town of New Harmony, on the Wabash River. He took research trips and sketched the people and the small towns in the area. He was in New Harmony when Prince Maximilian, Prince of Wied-Neuweid, Germany, and artist Karl Bodmer came to spend five months there in 1832-1833. Prince Maximilian said of Bodmer "He had explored the country in many directions, was acquainted with everything remarkable, collected and prepared all interesting objects and had already sent considerable collections to France" (Elliott Johansen, p. 6) Indeed, LeSeur sent specimens of unique fish, animals and fossils, as well as artifacts he had dug from the Indian Mounds in New Harmony back to France, where they remain.
LeSeur returned to France in 1837, only after his friends Thomas Say and Joseph Barabino had died and William MacClure had returned to Philadelphia, accompanied by many of his fine books. He had spent 21 years in the United States, but continued his scholarly studies and activities in France, where he resumed his occupation of artist-naturalist and began to catalogue his extensive research and artwork. At last, he was awarded the honor of Chevalier de l??Ordre Royal de la L??gion d'honneur for his long years of work in the sciences Jean-Baptiste PaterJean-Baptiste Pater (December 29, 1695 - July 25, 1736) was a French rococo painter.
Born in Valenciennes, Pater was the son of sculptor Antoine Pater and studied under him before becoming a student of painter Jean-Baptiste Guide. Pater then moved to Paris, briefly becoming a pupil of Antoine Watteau in 1713. Watteau, despite treating Pater badly, had a significant influence on him. However the two quarreled and Pater returned to Valenciennes, where he remained for two years. In 1721, Pater and the dying Watteau reconciled; subsequently Pater became a student of Watteau once again, although only for a month before the latter's death. Pater later claimed to have learnt everything he knew during those few weeks with Watteau. He was accepted into the Academie in 1728, presenting a large military work in the popular Watteau style - La Rejouissance des Soldats (Louvre).[1]
Pater adopted the popular Fete galante subject matter, heavily imitating his teacher Watteau, indeed he directly copied some of his figures. Pater used a traditional Rococo pastel palette. His most characteristic difference in style from other artists of the time surrounded his use of shimmering lines. His most prominent customer was Frederick the Great, who sat for two portraits in the "Turquerie" style: LeSultan au Harem and Le Sultan au Jardin. One of Pater's most renowned works is Landscape with a Cart (Schloss Charlottenburg), which is considered to display a feathery application of paint that anticipates Francesco Guardi. The delicately constructed subject matter and figures subordination to the buildings represent a movement away from fete galante, however this development was cut short by Pater's death in 1736. George Samuel Elgood,RI1851-1943
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