Italian Early Renaissance Painter, 1267-1337
Italian painter and designer. In his own time and place he had an unrivalled reputation as the best painter and as an innovator, superior to all his predecessors, and he became the first post-Classical artist whose fame extended beyond his lifetime and native city. This was partly the consequence of the rich literary culture of two of the cities where he worked, Padua and Florence. Writing on art in Florence was pioneered by gifted authors and, although not quite art criticism, it involved the comparison of local artists in terms of quality. The most famous single appreciation is found in Dante's verses (Purgatory x) of 1315 or earlier. Exemplifying the transience of fame, first with poets and manuscript illuminators, Dante then remarked that the fame of Cimabue, who had supposed himself to be the leader in painting, had now been displaced by Giotto. Ironically, this text was one factor that forestalled the similar eclipse of Giotto's fame, which was clearly implied by the poet. Related Paintings of GIOTTO di Bondone :. | Meeting at the Golden Gate | Christ Among the Doctors | Joachim's Sacrificial Offering | Death and Ascension of St Francis | Vision of the Flaming Chariot | Related Artists:
LEDESMA, Blas deSpanish painter documented 1602-1614 in Granada,Spanish painter. He is known to have worked in Granada from 1602, and in 1614 he designed a stucco vault decoration for the Alhambra. Archival sources testify to his renown as a painter of decorative fresco grotesques (untraced) and still-lifes. His activity as a still-life painter remains debatable, partly because he has been confused with Blas de Prado and also because of Torres Marten's controversial attributions. Ledesma's only unanimously accepted autograph painting is Still-life with Cherries and Flowers (Atlanta, GA, High Mus. A.), signed in Granada. A highly decorative painting, it shows none of the sophistication of still-lifes by Juan Senchez Cot?n, in Granada from 1603. It is painted meticulously and drily. Depicting a severely drawn, rather flat basket on a narrow ledge flanked by flowers behind it, the rigorously symmetrical composition is relieved only by soft lighting and the studied disarray of some fallen cherries. Two other unsigned and poorly preserved still-lifes of analogous subject-matter have been attributed to Ledesma
Francesco del CossaItalian
c1435-c1478
Francesco del Cossa Location
Italian painter. He was a leading representative of the Ferrarese school and was regarded, with Ercole de Roberti, as the founder of the Bolognese school. His principal works include The Glorification of March, April, and May, frescoes in the Schifanoia Palace, Ferrara; some admirable portraits of the artist contemporaries; Madonna Enthroned (Bologna); Madonna and Child with Angels, St. Liberal, and St. Lucy (National Gall. of Art, Washington, D.C.); and an altarpiece representing scenes from the life of St. Vincent Ferrer (National Gall., London, and the Vatican).
Pearce, Charles SpragueAmerican, 1851-1914
American artist, was born at Boston, Massachusetts. In 1873 Pearce became a pupil of L??on Bonnat in Paris, and after 1885 he lived in Paris and at Auvers-sur-Oise. He painted Egyptian and Algerian scenes, French peasants, and portraits, and also decorative work, notably for the Thomas Jefferson Building at the Library of Congress at Washington. He received medals at the Paris Salon and elsewhere, and was made Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor, decorated with the Order of Leopold, Belgium, the Order of the Red Eagle, Prussia, and the Order of the Dannebrog, Denmark. Among his best known paintings are The Decapitation of St John the Baptist (1881), in the Art Institute of Chicago; Prayer (1884),