1869-1907 was a Polish playwright, painter and poet, as well as interior and furniture designer. A patriotic writer, he created a series of symbolic, national dramas within the artistic philosophy of the Young Poland Movement. Wyspiaeski was one of the most outstanding and multifaceted artists of his time in Europe. He successfully joined the trends of modernism with themes of the Polish folk tradition and Romantic history. Unofficially, he came to be known as the Fourth Polish Bard. Stanisław Wyspiaeski was born to Franciszek Wyspiaeski and Maria Rogowska. His father, a sculptor, owned an atelier on Wawel Hill. His mother died of tuberculosis in 1876 when Stanisław was seven years old. Due to alcohol problem, Stanisław's father could not fulfil his parental responsibilities. Stanisław was adopted by his aunt Joanna Stankiewiczowa and her husband Kazimierz. The Stankiewicz family belonged to a bourgeois and intellectual class. In their house Wyspiaeski became acquainted with painter Jan Matejko, who was a frequent visitor. Matejko soon recognized that the boy had artistic talent and gave him the first artistic guidance. Wyspiaeski attended Saint Anne's Secondary. The school was unique for several reasons. Firstly, although Polish language was forbidden in educational institutions under foreign rule, the lectures in Saint Anne's Gymnasium were delivered in Polish. Secondly, the teacher's goal was to equip the students with a thorough knowledge of Polish history and literature. Thirdly, the school graduates, which included Lucjan Rydel, Stanisław Estreicher and Henryk Opieeski, were considered prominent figures in Krakew's cultural life. As a student Wyspiaeski did not display any specific talent, but took particular interest in art and literature. According to Joanna Stankiewiczowa, a young Stanisław portrayed small village cottages, animals, plants, armors and decorations. As far as literature was concerned, Wyspiaeski created a dramatic interpretation of Matejko's painting Stefan Batory pod Pskowem (Bathory at Pskov). In 1887 Wyspiaeski enrolled in the Philosophy Department at the Jagiellonian University and the School of Fine Arts in Krakew. While studying at the University, he attended lectures in art, history and literature. Jan Matejko, the dean of the School of Fine Arts soon recognized Wyspiaeski's talent and asked him to join in the creation of a polychrome inside the Mariacki Church. The years 1890-1895 were devoted to traveling. Wyspiaeski visited Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Prague and France. The stay in France was regarded to be the major point in his artistic life. He studied at the private atelier Academie Colarossi. Since the school fee was very high, Wyspiaeski applied for a grant. During the stay in France he got acquainted with Paul Gauguin. Together they visited art museums, where Wyspiaeski was bewitched by the beauty of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes's paintings. He also attended theatre performances based on Shakespeare's and antic plays. His future dramas: Daniel i Meleager (Daniel and Meleagra) and Powret Odysa (Return of Odysseus) were based on the antic tradition. Meanwhile, he worked on several dramas Krelowa Polskiej Korony (The Queen of Polish Crown), Warszawianka (Varsovian Anthem) and the first version of Legenda (Legend). The play Legenda (Legend) was based on the famous Polish legend about Wars and Sawa. In August 1894 he returned to Krakew, where he got involved in the modernist movement. It was then he designed and partially made a polychrome for the Franciscan Church that was composed of flowery, geometrical and heraldic motifs. Moreover, the prior of the church encouraged Wyspiaeski to design various stained glass windows such as Blessed Salomea, Saint Francis Stigmata and God the Father. It is worth mentioning that Wyspiaeski received an award of the Polish Academy of Learning for the landscape of the Kopiec Kościuszki (Kościuszko Mound).   Related Paintings of Stanislaw Wyspianski :. | Self-Portrait | Autoportret | Sleeping Stas, | Motherhood, | Stained glass window in Franciscan Church, designed by Wyspiaeski |
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PISANELLO
Italian painter (b. 1395, Pisa, d. 1455, Roma). known professionally as Antonio di Puccio Pisano or Antonio di Puccio da Cereto, also erroneously called Vittore Pisano by Giorgio Vasari, was one of the most distinguished painters of the early Italian Renaissance and Quattrocento. He was acclaimed by poets such as Guarino da Verona and praised by humanists of his time who compared him to such illustrious names as Cimabue, Phidias and Praxiteles. He is known for his resplendent frescoes in large murals, elegant portraits, small easel pictures, and many brilliant drawings. He is the most important commemorative portrait medallist in the first half of the 15th century. He was employed by the Doge of Venice, the Pope in the Vatican and the courts of Verona, Ferrara, Mantua, Milan, Rimini, and by the King of Naples. He stood in high esteem of the Gonzaga and Este families. He had many of his works wrongly ascribed to other artists such as Piero della Francesca, Albrecht Derer and Leonardo da Vinci, to name a few. While most of his paintings have perished, a good many of his drawings and medals have survived. His life is somewhat shrouded in mystery. He was born between 1380 and 1395 and died between 1450 and 1455 (probably between 14 July and 8 October 1455). He was a native of Pisa but spent his early years in San Vigilio sul Lago in the territory of Verona. He was probably given his early training by a Veronese painter (perhaps Altichiero or Stefano da Verona) as his early style is in the tradition of veronese painting. Between 1415 and 1420, he was the assistant of the renowned painter and illuminator Gentile da Fabriano from whom he acquired his refined, delicate, detailed style. Pisanello also acquired from him a taste for precious materials and beautiful fabrics that can be found in his later paintings. The frescoes in the Doge's Palace at Venice, on which they worked together, have perished as well as the frescoes in the Basilica of St. John Lateran and the palaces of Mantua and Pavia. In 1422, he was reported to be in Mantua in the service of young Ludovico Gonzaga, son of the Marchese of Mantua Gianfrancesco Gonzaga. He continued to work for the Gonzaga family till the 1440s. Giorgio Vasari, an artist and biographer of the Italian Renaissance, states that Pisanello also worked in the workshop of Andrea del Castagno, author of the painted equestrian monument of Niccole da Tolentino (1456) in the Cathedral in Florence. He must also have known Paolo Uccello, the painter of the Battle of San Romano with its many horses. Pisanello's love of drawing horses probably finds its origin in this relationship. But as there is so much unknown of his life, this attribution by Vasari is not reliable and may only be a legend. His Madonna and Quail, now in the Museo di Castelvecchio in Verona, is signed by "Antonius Pisanus". It is tentatively dated at c. 1420. The style is a blend of the styles of Gentile da Fabriano and Stefano da Verona. This might show that Pisanello was also a pupil of the latter in Verona. Pisanello stayed again in Verona in 1424. However, according to some scholars, he painted frescoes about hunting and fishing and jousts in Pavia the same year. These were commissioned by the Duke of Milan Filippo Maria Visconti. There is no trace of these frescoes left. Back in Mantua with the Gonzagas between 1424 and 1426, he painted one of his important surviving works: the fresco Annunciation in San Fermo, Verona. It was used to embellish the funeral monument of Nicole di Brenzoni by the Florentine sculptor Nanni di Bartolo. When Gentile da Fabriano died in Rome between August and October 1427, his work at the Basilica of St. John Lateran was unfinished. Pisanello completed the frescoes of his former master between 1431 and 1432. All these frescoes were destroyed when the basilica was rebuilt in the 17th century by Francesco Borromini. The Kupferstichkabinet in Berlin has a pale sketch of this fresco, drawn by Borromini. While in Rome, he became more and more influenced by the classical style of Renaissance art. His drawings are generally prized as jewels of the quattrocento, and are wonderful examples of the elegant garb of the time, including spectacular hats. In contrast with his contemporaries, his drawings are not drafts for future paintingings but are autonomous work of art. He compiled several books of drawings, detailed and accurate studies of fauna and flora drawn with a poetic naturalism, and elegant costumes. Pisanello traveled to several Italian cities and was introduced to a number of courts. He stayed for a while in Florence. In this period he painted two important portraits: Emperor Sigismund, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (but the attribution is still contested) and Portrait of a Man (now in the Palazzo Rosso, Genoa). He returned to Verona between 1433 and 1438. His fresco masterpiece from this period is Saint George and the Princess of Trebizond (1436-38) at the Pellegrini Chapel, Sant'Anastasia, Verona. It had to be restored after water seepage badly damaged the fresco at the end of the 19th century. He prepared for this painting with a large number of drawings. Many of these famous drawings are on display in the Louvre, Paris. From 1435, Pisanello became more and more interested in portraiture and medalmaking. He was introduced to Leonello d'Este, Marquess of Ferrara. His famous Portrait of an Este Princess dates from this period. His Vision of Saint Eustace, now at the National Gallery in London, long ascribed to Albrecht Derer because of its perfection of this very fine panel, shows most animals in profile or defined poses with miniature-like delicacy. The story in this small painting (egg tempera on wood) is probably only a pretext for showing "noble" animals (horses, hunting dogs, stag, bear...) and the most noble creature of all: the hunting courtier. In 1438, the Council of Basel negotiated with the Byzantine Emperor John VIII Palaiologos. On this occasion Pisanello struck a commemorative medal of the emperor. He also made some drawings with portraits of the emperor and his retinue (on display at the Louvre, Paris), suggesting
Joseph Anton Koch
1768-1839 Austrian Joseph Anton Koch Galleries was an Austrian painter of the German Romantic movement. The Tyrolese painter left academic training in the Karlsschule Stuttgart, a strict military academy, and traveled through France and Switzerland. He arrived in Rome in 1795. Koch was close to the painter Asmus Jacob Carstens and carried on Carstens' 'heroic' art, at first in a literal manner. After 1800 Koch developed as a landscape painter. In Rome he espoused a new type of 'heroic' landscape, revising the classical compositions of Poussin and Lorrain with a more rugged, mountainous scenery. He left Rome in 1812 and stayed in Vienna until 1815, in protest of the French invasion. During this period he incorporated more non-classical themes in his work. In Vienna he was influenced by Friedrich Schlegel and enthusiasts of old German art. In response, his style became harsher, and this new approach had a wide influence on German landscape painters who visited Rome.
Angelika Kauffmann
1741-1807,Swiss neoclassical painter and graphic artist. From her youth she was known for her artistic, musical, and linguistic abilities. She went to England, where she enjoyed success as a fashionable portrait painter and decorator. A protegee of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Kauffman was one of the original members of the Royal Academy. She often decorated houses designed by the Adam brothers. After her marriage in 1781 to the Venetian painter Antonio Zucchi, she lived in Italy, where she flourished in artistic and literary circles. Reynolds, Winckelmann, Goethe, and Garrick commissioned her to paint their portraits. Representative works include Religion (National Gall., London); Self-Portrait (Staatliche Museen, Berlin); and the etchings of L'Allegra and La Pensierosa. The British Museum has a collection of her drawings and prints.