French 1600-1682 Claude Lorrain Galleries In Rome, not until the mid-17th century were landscapes deemed fit for serious painting. Northern Europeans, such as the Germans Elsheimer and Brill, had made such views pre-eminent in some of their paintings (as well as Da Vinci in his private drawings or Baldassarre Peruzzi in his decorative frescoes of vedute); but not until Annibale Carracci and his pupil Domenichino do we see landscape become the focus of a canvas by a major Italian artist. Even with the latter two, as with Lorrain, the stated themes of the paintings were mythic or religious. Landscape as a subject was distinctly unclassical and secular. The former quality was not consonant with Renaissance art, which boasted its rivalry with the work of the ancients. The second quality had less public patronage in Counter-Reformation Rome, which prized subjects worthy of "high painting," typically religious or mythic scenes. Pure landscape, like pure still-life or genre painting, reflected an aesthetic viewpoint regarded as lacking in moral seriousness. Rome, the theological and philosophical center of 17th century Italian art, was not quite ready for such a break with tradition. In this matter of the importance of landscape, Lorrain was prescient. Living in a pre-Romantic era, he did not depict those uninhabited panoramas that were to be esteemed in later centuries, such as with Salvatore Rosa. He painted a pastoral world of fields and valleys not distant from castles and towns. If the ocean horizon is represented, it is from the setting of a busy port. Perhaps to feed the public need for paintings with noble themes, his pictures include demigods, heroes and saints, even though his abundant drawings and sketchbooks prove that he was more interested in scenography. Lorrain was described as kind to his pupils and hard-working; keenly observant, but an unlettered man until his death. The painter Joachim von Sandrart is an authority for Claude's life (Academia Artis Pictoriae, 1683); Baldinucci, who obtained information from some of Claude's immediate survivors, relates various incidents to a different effect (Notizie dei professoni del disegno). John Constable described Claude Lorrain as "the most perfect landscape painter the world ever saw", and declared that in Claude??s landscape "all is lovely ?C all amiable ?C all is amenity and repose; the calm sunshine of the heart"  Related Paintings of Claude Lorrain :. | A Seaport at Sunrise | The Judgment of Paris | Landscape with Dancing Satyrs and Nymphs | Seaport at Sunset | Landscape with the Finding of Moses sdfg |
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Johann Michael Franz
Seine Eltern waren der Zimmermeister Jakob Franz , und Anna geb. Lueger. Seine Ausbildung genoss er im Umkreis des Augsburger Reichsstädtischen Kunstakademiedirektors Johann Georg Bergmuller (Bergmiller) (1688-1762); nach eigenen Angaben schloss er sie 1733 ab.
Jens Juel
1745-1802 Danish Jens Juel Galleries was a Danish painter, primarily known for his many portraits, of which the largest collection is on display at Frederiksborg Castle. He was born in the house of his mothers brother Johan Jørgensen, who was a school teacher in Balslev on the island of Fyn. Jens Juel was the illegitimate son of Vilhelmine Elisabeth Juel (January 1725 ?C March 1799), who served at Wedellsborg and a fine gentleman, probably a Wedell or Lord Jens Juel. When Juel was one year old, his mother married Jørgen Jørgensen (1724 ?C June 4, 1796), who was a school master in Gamborg, not far from Balslev, and he grew up in Gamborg. He showed an interest in painting from an early age, and his parents sent him to be an apprentice of painter Johann Michael Gehrman in Hamburg, where he worked hard for five or six years and improved himself so far, that he created himself a reputation as a painter of portraits, landscapes, etc. Just over twenty years old he came to Copenhagen to attend the Royal Danish Academy of Art. In 1767 he was awarded its small gold medal and in 1771 the large gold medal. In 1772 he left Copenhagen to be away for eight years. Initially, he went to Rome where he stayed for four years together with other Danish artists, including Abildgaard. From Rome, he moved to Paris, at the time a center of portrait painting. In 1777 he moved on to Geneva, where he stayed for two years at the home of his friend Charles Bonnet in the company of other Danish artists, including etcher Clemens. In Geneva, Juel soon earned himself a reputation as an excellent artist and he painted many portraits. Through Bonnet, who had become a member of honour of the Danish academy, his reputation reached Denmark. After eight years of absence, he returned to Copenhagen in 1780 after a brief stay in Hamburg, where he met Klopstock. It was at his house, that he painted his well-known picture of "Messiadens Digter". Back in Copenhagen, he created himself a reputation as a painter of portraits for the royal house, nobility and the well-to-do. April 4, 1782, he was unanimously elected to be a member of the academy by Mandelberg, Weidenhaupt and Abildgaard. He became the director of the academy in 1795.
Pieter Cornelis Dommersen
painted A gothic cathedral in a medieval city in 19th century