1598-1664 Spanish Francisco de Zurbaran Galleries Spanish baroque painter, active mainly at Llerena, Madrid, and Seville. He worked mostly for ecclesiastical patrons. His early paintings, including Crucifixion (1627; Art Inst., Chicago), St. Michael (Metropolitan Mus.), and St. Francis (City Art Museum, St. Louis), often suggest the austere simplicity of wooden sculpture. The figures, placed close to the picture surface, are strongly modeled in dramatic light against dark backgrounds, indicating the influence of Caravaggio. They were clearly painted as altarpieces or devotional objects. In the 1630s the realistic style seen in his famous Apotheosis of St. Thomas Aquinas (1631; Seville) yields to a more mystical expression in works such as the Adoration of the Shepherds (1638; Grenoble); in this decade he was influenced by Ribera figural types and rapid brushwork. While in Seville, Zurbur??n was clearly influenced by Velazquez. After c.1640 the simple power of Zurbaran work lessened as Murillo influence on his painting increased (e.g., Virgin and Child with St. John, Fine Arts Gall., San Diego, Calif.). There are works by Zurbar??n in the Hispanic Society of America, New York City; the National Gallery, Washington, D.C.; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art..  Related Paintings of Francisco de Zurbaran :. | Meditierender Hl. Franziskus mit Totenschadel | the defense of caadiz against the english | artoldo | St Casilda of Burgos | Saint Francis in Meditation |
Related Artists:
Jerome B Thompson
American Impressionist , 1814-1886
Meunier, Constantin
Belgian Painter and Sculptor, 1831-1905 Belgian sculptor, painter and draughtsman. He was directed towards an artistic career by his elder brother, the engraver Jean-Baptiste Meunier (1821-1900). He entered the Acad?mie des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, in September 1845 and studied under the sculptor Louis Jehotte (1804-84) from 1848. In addition, in 1852 he attended the private studio of the sculptor Charles-Auguste Fraikin. Gradually he came to feel that sculpture, at least in the traditional form taught in Brussels, was incapable of providing an adequate vehicle for either exposition or expression. Still at the Academy, he transferred to painting, therefore, in 1853, and followed the courses given by Fran?ois-Joseph Navez, studying in the evenings at the Saint-Luc studio, with Charles De Groux. He became friends with Louis Dubois, F?licien Rops and other rebellious young artists who were to found the Soci?t? Libre des Beaux-Arts in Brussels in 1868. With these, Meunier was part of the realist avant-garde, while seeking out a path of his own in painting. It has been said that De Groux had a decisive influence on Meunier. The latter partly denied this and insisted that he had felt the need very early to practise an art that was more devoted to the masses, to the people. His interest in everyday life, in the experience and condition of man, can already be discerned in the sketches and studies he made during his stays in the Trappist monastery of Westmalle, near Antwerp, between 1857 and 1875.
mattsleiderstam
Adolf Ludvig Stierneld, född den 1 september 1755 i Stockholm död den 31 juli 1835 på Gripsholm, var en svensk friherre, politiker, hovman och samlare av historiska dokument, vilken av senare historisk forskning avslöjats som en av Sveriges mest förslagna och produktiva dokumentförfalskare. Stierneld var son till Samuel Gustaf Stierneld, vilken var chef för Västmanlands regemente, och vilken lär ha antecknat sitt regemente bland den nyföddes faddrar. Sonen inskrevs även endast sex månader gammal som volontär i samma kår. Oaktat denna militärståtliga början hann sonen ej längre än till ryttmästare vid livregementet, vartill han utnämndes 1781. Inom hovet anställdes Stierneld som kammarherre hos drottning Sofia Magdalena 1778. Han kom dock snart på mindre vänlig fot med Gustav III och tillhörde vid 1786 och 1789 års riksdagar ledarna för oppositionen inom adelsståndet. När kungen beredde sig att genomföra sina envåldsplaner, hörde Stierneld till de motståndare som arresterades. Till följd av sina förbindelser med ryske ministern hade han åsamkat sig konungens synnerliga ovilja, och när de övriga arresterade frigavs, sändes Stierneld till Varbergs fästning, där han kvarhölls till 1790. Genom sitt 1790 ingångna giftermål med grevinnan Kristina Charlotta Gyldenstolpe, dotter till Gustav III:s gunstling Nils Philip Gyldenstolpe, kom Stierneld snart åter på mera vänlig fot med hovet och blev 1792 överkammarherre. Vid riksdagen 1800 sågs han också, i likhet med andra ur 1789 års opposition (Magnus Fredrik Brahe, Claes Axel Lewenhaupt med flera) i hovpartiets främsta led.