Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510)

Alonso Cano (1601-1667)

Alonzo Cano or Alonso Cano (19 March 1601 - 3 September 1667) was a Spanish painter**, architect and sculptor born in Granada.
He learned architecture from his father, Miguel Cano; painting in the academy of Juan del Castillo, and from Francisco Pacheco the teacher of Velázquez**; and sculpture from Juan Martínez Montañés.

As a sculptor, his most famous works are the Madonna and Child in the church of Lebrija (also called Nebrija), and the colossal figures of San Pedro and San Pablo.
He was made first royal architect, painter to Philip IV, and instructor to the prince, Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias. The King gave him the church preferment of a canon of the Granada Cathedral (1652), in order to take up a position as chief architect of the cathedral, where his main achievement in architecture was the façade, designed at the end of his life and erected to his design after his death.
He was notorious for his ungovernable temper; and it is said that once he risked his life by committing the then capital offence of dashing to pieces the statue of a saint, when in a rage with the purchaser who begrudged the price he demanded. According to another story, he found his house robbed after coming home one evening, his wife murdered, and his Italian servant fled.

Notwithstanding the presumption against the fugitive, the magistrates condemned Cano, because he was of a jealous temper. Upon this he fled to Valencia, but afterwards returned to Madrid, where he was put to the torture, which he endured without incriminating himself, and the king received him into favour.
After the death of his wife he took Holy Orders as a protection from farther prosecution, but still continued his professional pursuits.

He died in 1667.

In his last moments, when the priest held to him a crucifix, he told him to take it away; according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, this was because the priest gave the Sacrament to conversos. Probably this version is spurious as many others about his life and temperament. | © Wikipedia

Alonso Cano (Granada, 19 marzo 1601 - Granada, ottobre 1667) è stato uno scultore, architetto e pittore Spagnolo**, tra i maggiori artisti spagnoli del XVII secolo.
Si formò come scultore e architetto nella bottega del padre, Miguel Cano, costruttore di grandi pale d'altare, e in quella di Juan Martínez Montañés; dal 1616 lavorò nella bottega di Francisco Pacheco a Siviglia, dove apprese l'arte della pittura e fu coallievo di Diego Velázquez**.
Lasciò Siviglia nel 1638 e, segnalato da Velázquez, venne chiamato alla corte di Madrid, dove fu attivo nella decorazione pittorica delle fabbriche reali.
La sua maniera pittorica risentì fortemente, oltre che del classicismo del maestro Pacheco, anche dell'opera dei veneti Tiziano Vecellio** e Paolo Veronese**, di cui vide i lavori nella capitale spagnola, che ebbe anche modo di restaurare dopo l'incendio del 1640. In una sua seconda fase pittorica, spinto dal gusto naturalistico del Velázquez** affrontò temi sacri impreziositi da elementi terreni. La sua produzione tarda rivelò un ritorno al primitivo plasticismo.
Accusato, nel 1644, di aver ucciso la propria moglie, si rifugiò a Valencia e si fece frate.
Dopo aver ottenuto la protezione di Filippo IV, rientrò a Madrid e assunse l'incarico di sopraintendente della cattedrale di Granada.

Progettò l'arco di trionfo per celebrare l'ingresso a Madrid di Maria Anna d'Austria, moglie di Filippo IV, e dal 1650 fu architetto della cattedrale di Toledo.
Come architetto introdusse in Spagna lo stile esuberante di derivazione portoghese denominato churrigueresco e diversamente da molti suoi contemporanei, non seguì ciecamente i dettami del Barocco, ma rispettò, in molti casi, gli schemi rinascimentali italiani.
Più originale fu la sua attività di scultore, soprattutto di opere lignee policrome destinate alla devozione. Venne influenzato inizialmente dall'italianeggiante Juan Martinez Montañés ed in un secondo tempo dal Bernini**.
Nel 1652, grazie a Filippo IV, ottenne la nomina a canonico della cattedrale di Granada, la sua città natale, dove trascorse gli ultimi anni della sua vita: morì tra il 3 e il 5 ottobre del 1667. | © Wikipedia

Pablo Picasso | Watercolors

In the spring of 1932, Picasso had retired to the Château de Boisgeloup, his studio-retreat in Normandy, in the company of his new mistress and principal muse, Marie-Thérèse Walter. It was his time spent at Boisgeloup that provided the inspiration for the present work.

In "Nature morte à la tête classique et au bouquet de fleurs", Picasso has subverted the traditional embodied interaction of artist and model - a theme that came to symbolize his own life and work most evocatively - and replaced these lead roles with sculpted avatars.

In place of the artist is a large, bearded neoclassical head, while the model is substituted by a bas-relief sculpture affixed to the wall above a bouquet of flowers, echoing the graceful profile of Marie-Thérèse Walter.

Haunted by the absence of his mistress who had remained in Paris, Picasso re-created her image from memory.

Pablo Picasso | Nature morte à la tête classique et au bouquet de fleurs, 1933 | Sothebys

Robert Campin (1375-1444) | Pittore Fiammingo

L'opera di Robert Campin fu fondamentale per l'origine della pittura fiamminga, alla quale egli aprì l'orizzonte, parallelamente a Jan van Eyck, anche se con un percorso artistico diverso.

Alla sua formazione ebbero concorso da un lato i caratteri dell'arte mosano-renana, dall'altro le conquiste dello stile gotico internazionale affinate dai pittori della corte di Borgogna, allora particolarmente attiva in campo artistico, e portate alla massima altezza da Melchior Broederlam. Campin fece propri e sintetizzò gli stimoli che queste scuole avevano consolidato nel secolo precedente, ma nel contempo rinnovò in senso naturalistico la concezione della pittura: per questo può essere considerato il padre del realismo fiammingo.

Albrecht Altdorfer | Northern Renaissance painter

Albrecht Altdorfer, (born c. 1480 - died Feb. 12, 1538, Regensburg [Germany]), German painter, printmaker, and draftsman who was one of the founders of landscape painting.

Altdorfer spent most of his life in Regensburg, becoming a citizen in 1505 and in later years serving as official architect of the city and a member of its inner council. He was the guiding spirit of the Danube school of painting.

Marc Chagall | From life memories to fantasy

Chagall's early life left him with a "powerful visual memory and a pictorial intelligence", writes Goodman.

After living in France and experiencing the atmosphere of artistic freedom, his "vision soared and he created a new reality, one that drew on both his inner and outer worlds".

But it was the images and memories of his early years in Belarus that would sustain his art for more than 70 years.