Francesco Primaticcio. School of Fontainbleau

When you are king, in this case, Francis 1, only the most famous artist of the time is good enough to decorate your palace walls. 

Galerie François I at Fontainebleau: one of the great interiors of the Renaissance. Decorated by a team of Italian artists including Francesco Primaticcio

Francesco Primaticcio, also called Bologna, Le Primatice, or Primadizzi, (born April 30, 1504, Bologna, Emilia [Italy]—died 1570, Paris, France), Italian Mannerist painter, architect, sculptor, and leader of the first school of Fontainebleau.

Apollo & the muses, in the ballroom at Fontainebleau by Francesco Primaticcio

Now a staircase but formerly the chamber of Anne de Pisselieu, Duchesse d'Etampes, Francois I's #1 mistress. Decorated in the 1540s with frescoes & amazing stucco figures by Primaticcio,

Ulysses and Penelope, painted in 1545

After Primaticcio worked with Giulio Romano on decorations at Mantua's Palazzo del Tè, François I invited him to his palace at Fontainebleau in 1532. Aside from royal art-buying trips to Italy, Primaticcio remained there as court artist under François I, Henri II, and François II. His responsibilities ranged from planning interior decoration to serving as architect in the design of entire buildings. His versatility also extended to painting, supervising tapestry production, and creating designs for court masques and other celebrations. At Fontainebleau, Primaticcio worked closely with Rosso Fiorentino, introducing Italian Mannerist features into French decorative art. Their distinctive combination of painting and stucco relief became a hallmark of the School of Fontainebleau. After Rosso's death in 1540, Primaticcio became chief designer. He completed his masterpiece, the Ulysses Gallery, between the late 1630s and 1659. Throughout the 1500s, Primaticcio's elongated, elegant figure-drawing style greatly influenced French painting. His architectural work was equally influential but because many of the buildings he worked on have been destroyed, a record of this body of work often survives only in prints and drawings.

Two-faced. Double head, 1543

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Francesco-Primaticcio

Marinus van Reymerswaele. Money is the root of all evil

Matthew removes his hat to greet what he thought was a customer but guess what, he's being Called. Between them, like a footnote, appears the citation of the Biblical verses. From 1530 by Marinus van Reymerswaele

A very annoyed Christ. From the circle of Marinus van Reymerswaele

The tax collectors, wearing their fab hats. Why is one man so anxious? Has he been cooking the books, about to be found out? By Marinus van Reymerswaele, today's artist with an unknown birthday

Money bends and twists the hands of those obsessed with it

Money changer and his wife, by Marinus van Reymerswaele. This is the second version owned by the Prado! This from 1538

Marinus van Reymerswaele or Marinus van Reymerswale (c.1490 – c.1546) was a Dutch Renaissance painter mainly known for his genre scenes and religious compositions. After studying in Leuven and training and working as an artist in Antwerp, he returned later to work in his native Northern Netherlands. He operated a large workshop which produced many versions of mainly four themes: the tax collectors, the money changer and his wife, the calling of Saint Matthew and St. Jerome in his study. 

http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/reymerswaele_marinus_van.html

Robert Campin, aka Master of Flémalle, Died in this day in 1444

Portrait of a woman, 1435. Don't know what I love more: the eyes, the subtlety of the purple robe, the incredible headscarf (the layers! the folds!) or the pins.

Portrait of a rather grumpy looking man wearing a fantastic red turban.

A great face from 1425: Barthelemy Alatruye, painted (and framed) by Robert Campin. The epitome of the hard faced Flemish merchant.

Barthelemy's wife Marie de Pacy. portrayed without flattery.

Robert Campin's Marriage of the Virgin (with added groom selection scene) from 1420. Extravagantly divergent architecture & marvelously diverse persons. He died (alas!!) on this day in 1444.

Merode Altarpiece, 1425: donors witness the miracle through garden door, while Joseph busily makes mousetraps. And Mary remains focused on her book!

Detail of the townscape from the Merode altarpiece.

A beautiful Annunciation in an elaborate Gothic chapel. Mary trying to finish the chapter before she has to deal w/ this

Right hand panel of the 1438 The Werl Triptych, now in the Prado, Madrid

Robert Campin, (born c. 1378, Tournai, France—died April 26, 1444, Tournai), one of the earliest and greatest masters of Flemish painting. He has been identified with the Master of Flémalle on stylistic and other grounds. Characterized by a naturalistic conception of form and a poetic representation of the objects of daily life, Campin’s work marks a break with the prevailing International Gothic style and prefigures the achievements of Jan van Eyck and the painters of the Northern Renaissance.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Campin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Campin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9rode_Altarpiece

Campbell, Lorne. "Robert Campin, the Master of Flémalle and the Master of Mérode". The Burlington Magazine, Volume 116, No. 860, Nov. 1974. 634-646

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Born on this day in 1775

Joseph Mallord William Turner, perhaps England's most celebrated painter was born in 1775 and thus much more a Georgian than a Victorian painter, reflecting the Grand Tour rather than the Cook's Tour (did he ever travel in a train?). 

The son of a barber and wigmaker in Covent Garden, he had little formal education, no social graces and dropped aitches all his life. He was also very short — a surviving tailor's pattern for his trousers indicates an inside-leg measurement of only 19 inches, and Charles West Cope's sketch of his adding last touches to a painting of middling size hanging low in an exhibition has him standing on a bench or table. Slim as a boy, as a man he was a portly little barrel. Hard to avoid putting on weight when you are that short and when English food of the era ran to potatoes and pie and beer. 

There had been English painters who could knock about as equals with the landed gentry, even the aristocracy — Reynolds, first president of the Royal Academy, had made himself a gentleman and Gainsborough had perhaps been much more of one than we suppose — but not Turner. This is not to say that he had no lordly friends — the part played in his life by Petworth proves that point —
but his lordly patrons for the most part bought or commissioned his paintings because he was the Damien Hirst of his day, an unpredictable and challenging celebrity, his work expensive and fashionable in the sense less of conforming to fashion than of making and re-making it throughout a life that ended at the age of 76, more than a little mad, in 1851.

Mortlake Terrace

Yet, towards the end of his life, part of the elite turned away from his near-abstraction toward Victorian kitsch, paintings of dogs, cute little kids, simpering maidens, and hyper-realism. His work became more visionary, sparer, and more dismissive of the critics.  As the critical jokes became nastier with references to him being a victim of yellow fever (Mortlake Terrace) to pointed comments about works painted with blood, Turner remained true to his own vision. As Turner’s health declined, he worked on what he knew were his last paintings.

He was an introvert, solitary and eccentric; we know of two mistresses in London. two daughters, and Sophia Caroline Booth, the companion of his old age.

During his frequent travels to Europe, he was a working traveller rather than a Grand Tourist, a wayfarer with his eyes wide open and his sketchbook out. In thousands of sketches and a multitude of paintings, he recorded his response to the landscape of mountains, sea and increasing presence of the Industrial revolution upon his beloved English landscapes. 

“Departure of the Fleet (1850) was one of the last great works of his life.  As Aeneas leaves Dido. Dido’s tragedy (indeed Dido herself) is lost in the glow of rich golden color, the final most poetic vision of possibly the greatest painter that Britain every produced .

On his deathbed in 1851, Turner ‘s doctor wrote “just before 9 a.m., the sun burst forth directly on him with that brilliancy which he loved to gaze on.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._M._W._Turner

Happy Birthday Sidney Nolan

April 22, 1917. Sir Sidney Robert Nolan OM, AC (22 April 1917 - 28 November 1992) was one of Australia's leading artists of the 20th century. best known for his series of paintings on legends from Australian history, most famously Ned Kelly, the bushranger and outlaw. Nolan's stylized depiction of Kelly's armor has become an icon of Australian art. In this image: Sidney Nolan, Death of Sergeant Kennedy at Stringybark Creek, 1946, enamel on composition board, 91.0cm x 121.7cm, Purchased 1972, Courtesy National Gallery of Australia.

Nolan served in the Australian army from 1942 to 1945, during which time he began to paint the local desolate desert landscapes in a more representational style. Apart from his landscapes, most of his mature works dealt with Australian historical or legendary characters and events—notably, the bushranger Ned Kelly, a famous outlaw whose square helmet is an iconic image in Australia. Nolan’s painting style is noted for its fluidity, which he emphasized by applying unusual mediums—such as ripolin (an enamel house paint) and polyvinyl acetate—to masonite, glass, paper, or canvas.

https://artsearch.nga.gov.au/detail.cfm?IRN=28937

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Kelly

Katsushika Hokusai

These woodblock prints were all made by world-renowned Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai in the 1830s. They show wagtails in wisteria, warblers perched on roses and sparrows soaring over hibiscus flow   (British Museum)..

Filippino Lippi. Son of the painter Fra Filippo Lippi

Died (alas!) on this day in 1505, in Florence, Filippino Lippi. Son of the painter Fra Filippo Lippi, & destined to follow in his father's artistic footsteps. Here by himself as a young man, 1485.

Angel of the Annunciation, 1483, by Filipino Lippi. Amazing wings!

Head of an old man, drawn around 1495 by Filippino Lippi.

All three archangels - Michael, Raphael, Gabriel -- have turned out to help young Tobias with his miraculous little fish. Kindly! Painted in 1480 by Filippino Lippi

Here, just Raphael, advising young Tobias on the medicinal properties of his miraculous fish. Again from Filippino Lippi

Coronation of the Virgin, 1447

Filippino Lippi, (born c. 1457, Prato, Republic of Florence—died April 18, 1504, Florence), early Renaissance painter of the Florentine school whose works influenced the Tuscan Mannerists of the 16th century.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brancacci_Chapel

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Filippino-Lippi

BAMPFA & Hilma af Klint & Virtual Cinema

Every streaming purchase of BEYOND THE VISIBLE through the link below supports BAMPFA as we work to get through this challenging time. Enjoy the film, stay safe, and tune in for more #VirtualCinema programs soon.
https://kinonow.com/hilma-af-klint-bampfa

Have you tuned into the #VirtualCinema premiere of BEYOND THE VISIBLE yet? Every stream thru the above link supports #BAMPFA. And once you've seen the film, learn more about the astounding #HilmaAfKlint in this livestream chat from our friends

@Guggenheim

: https://youtube.com/watch?v=f98URF2hoxA&feature=youtu.be

Adriaen Coorte.

Three peaches, 1706

Today's artist without a (known) birthday: Adriaen Coorte. Most of Coorte's paintings are small, intimate still lifes. With their simple subjects - asparagus, or berries - his paintings contrast starkly with the magnificent, extravagant still lifes then in vogue. Those pictures are all about the profusion of valuable objects and foods, while here the emphasis is on the meticulous rendering of a single vegetable.

Still life with asparagus

Vanitas

Adriaen Coorte (1665 – 1707) was a Dutch Golden Age painter of still lifes, who signed works between 1683 and 1707. He painted small and unpretentious still lifes in a style more typical of the first half of the century, and was “one of the last practitioners of this intimate category”. Adriaen Coorte was a painter of the Baroque.  Little is known about his life although there is a notation from Middleburg (1695) that he was fined for selling a painting without being a member of the painter's guild. 

Coorte almost fell into oblivion after almost two hundred years. His work did not enter into public collections until the 20th century.

https://www.hisour.com/adriaen-coorte-11842/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_paintings_by_Adriaen_Coorte

https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/rijksstudio/artists/adriaen-coorte