Old Masters of the Fine Arts. Biographies and stories of their life. Contemporary meaning and reading of the art of the Old Masters.
The Dutch and Flemish Masters
The Exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC is incredible presentation of the supreme mastership of the old Netherlands Masters. In the 17th century the middle and upper classes of the Netherlands played a central role in the History of Arts. Their enthusiasm in collecting Masterpieces and decorating their homes with paintings
James Fittler
Brother James Fittler (October 1758 – 2 December 1835) was an English engraver of portraits and landscapes and an illustrator of books. He was appointed by King George III to be his marine engraver. Fittler was born in London in October 1758. In April 1778 he enrolled as student at the Royal Academy and studied engraving. Besides book illustrations,
Guillaume Philippe Benoist
Guillaume Philippe Benoist was a French engraver and Brother Mason. He was born in Normandy in 1725, but did a lot of portraits and engravings in England. Nine panoramic views of Rio de Janeiro: Da Ilha das Cobras. Philippe Benoist (1813-c.1905) and Eugene Ciceri (1813-1890). Lithograph. 45 x 71cm. He died in London
The Falling Gladiator
William Rimmer (American [born England], 1816–1879). The Falling Gladiator, 1907. Bronze. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Rogers Fund, 1907 (07.224). In this work, Rimmer conveys the wounded warrior’s physical stress by accentuating his rippling skin and the taut, straining muscles beneath. The tension between the raised arm and the dramatic, collapsing posture enhances
Knight, Death and the Devil
Knight, Death and the Devil (German: Ritter, Tod und Teufel, originally Rider, German: Reuter ) is a large 1513 engraving by the German artist Albrecht Dürer, one of the three Meisterstiche (master prints) completed during a period when he almost ceased to work in paint or woodcuts to focus on engravings. The image is infused with complex iconography and symbolism, the precise meaning of which has been
Mars and Venus
Mars and Venus is a c. 1483 painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli. It shows the Roman gods Venus and Mars in an allegory of beauty and valour. The youthful and voluptuous couple recline in a forest setting, surrounded by playful satyrs. The painting is typically held as an ideal of sensuous love, of pleasure and play. In the painting Venus watches
A Faun Teased by Children
Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Italian, 1598–1680). Bacchanal: A Faun Teased by Children, 1562–1629. Marble. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, The Annenberg Fund Inc. Gift, Fletcher, Rogers, and Louis V. Bell Funds, and Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, by exchange, 1976 (1976.92). A drunken satyr, follower of Bacchus, the wine god, lunges forward to pick
The School of Athens
The School of Athens, or Scuola di Atene in Italian, is one of the most famous frescoes by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael. It was painted between 1509 and 1511 as a part of Raphael's commission to decorate with frescoes the rooms now known as the Stanze di Raffaello, in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. The Stanza della Segnatura was the first of the rooms to be decorated,
Melencolia – 1514
Melencolia I is a 1514 engraving by the German Renaissance master Albrecht Dürer. It is an allegorical composition which has been the subject of many interpretations. One of the most famous old master prints, it has sometimes been regarded as forming one of a conscious group of Meisterstiche ("master prints") with his Knight, Death and the Devil (1513) and Saint Jerome in his Study (1514). The engraving measures