Old Master

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"Old Masters" redirects here. For other uses, see Old Masters (disambiguation).
Artemisia Gentileschi is an Old Master of Italian Baroque art

In art history, "Old Master" (or "old master")[1][2] refers to any painter of skill who worked in Europe before about 1800, or a painting by such an artist. An "old master print" is an original print (for example an engraving, woodcut, or etching) made by an artist in the same period. The term "old master drawing" is used in the same way.

In theory, "Old Master" applies only to artists who were fully trained, were Masters of their local artists' guild, and worked independently, but in practice, paintings produced by pupils or workshops are often included in the scope of the term. Therefore, beyond a certain level of competence, date rather than quality is the criterion for using the term.

Period covered

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the term was often understood as having a starting date of perhaps 1450 or 1470; paintings made before that were "primitives", but this distinction is no longer made. The

Eugene Fromentin may have helped to popularize the concept, although "vieux maitres" is also used in French. The famous collection in Dresden at the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister is one of the few museums to include the term in its actual name, although many more use it in the title of departments or sections. The collection in the Dresden museum essentially stops at the Baroque
period.

The end date is necessarily vague – for example,

Goya (1746–1828) is certainly an Old Master,[2] though he was still painting and printmaking at his death in 1828. The term might also be used for John Constable[2] (1776–1837) or Eugène Delacroix (1798–1868), but usually is not. Edward Lucie-Smith gives an end date of 1800, noting "formerly used of paintings earlier than 1700".[4]

The term tends to be avoided by

art historians as too vague, especially when discussing paintings, although the terms "Old Master Prints" and "Old Master drawings" are still used. It remains current in the art trade. Auction houses still usually divide their sales between, for example, "Old Master Paintings", "Nineteenth-century paintings", and "Modern paintings". Christie's defined the term as ranging "from the 14th to the early 19th century".[5]

Anonymous artists

Artists, most often from early periods, whose hand has been identified by art historians, but to whom no identity can be confidently attached, are often given names by art historians such as

Master of Flémalle (from a previous location of a work), Master of Mary of Burgundy (from a patron), Master of Latin 757 (from the shelf mark of a manuscript he illuminated), Master of the Embroidered Foliage (from his characteristic technique), Master of the Brunswick Diptych, or Master of Schloss Lichtenstein
.

List of the most important Old Master painters

Rucellai Madonna by Duccio, c. 1285.

Gothic/Proto-Renaissance

Main article: Gothic art

Early Renaissance

Main article:
Early Renaissance
Portrait of a young woman by Sandro Botticelli, 1480

High Renaissance

Main article: High Renaissance
Ignudi
, Michelangelo, 1509

Venetian School (Early Renaissance, High Renaissance and Mannerism)

Main article: Venetian painting
  • Domenico Veneziano (Italian, 1400–1461), Early Renaissance
  • Jacopo Bellini (Italian, 1400–1470), Early Renaissance
  • Gentile Bellini (Italian, 1429–1507), Early Renaissance, noted for historical scenes of Venice and portraits of its doges
  • Giovanni Bellini (Italian, 1430–1516), Early and High Renaissance, pioneer of luminous oil painting
  • Bartolommeo Vivarini
    (Italian, 1432–1499), Early Renaissance
  • Carlo Crivelli (Italian, 1435–1495), Early Renaissance
  • Alvise Vivarini (Italian, 1445–1503), Early Renaissance
  • Vittore Carpaccio (Italian, 1455–1526), Early Renaissance
  • Giorgione (Italian, 1477–1510), High Renaissance, pioneer of Venetian School of painting
  • Titian (Italian, c. 1488–1576), important High Renaissance-style exponent of colour painting in oils and frescoes
  • Palma Vecchio (Italian, 1480–1528), High Renaissance
  • Lorenzo Lotto (Italian, 1480–1556), High Renaissance
  • Sebastiano del Piombo (Italian, 1485–1547), High Renaissance
  • Jacopo Bassano (Italian, 1515–1592), Mannerist painter noted for portraiture and religious genre painting
  • Tintoretto (Italian, 1518–1594), major Venetian Mannerist painter of monumental religious works
  • The Annunciation by Beccafumi, 1545
    Paolo Veronese (Italian, c. 1528–1588), High Renaissance-style, one of Venice's leading colourists

Sienese School

Main article: Sienese School
  • Giovanni di Paolo (Italian, 1403–1482), Early Renaissance
  • Matteo di Giovanni (Italian, 1430–1495), Early Renaissance
  • Francesco di Giorgio
    (Italian, 1439–1502), Early Renaissance
  • Il Sodoma
    (Italian, 1477–1549), High Renaissance
  • Beccafumi
    (Italian, 1486–1551), High Renaissance-Mannerist

Northern Renaissance

Main article: Northern Renaissance
"Kreuzigung Christi" (English: "Crucifixion of Christ") by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1503

Spanish Renaissance

Main article: Spanish Renaissance

Mannerism

Main article: Mannerism
Agnolo Bronzino
, c. 1545

Baroque painting

Main article: Baroque painting
Supper at Emmaus by Caravaggio, 1601
Portrait of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham by Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1625
Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez, 1656

Dutch Golden Age and Flemish Baroque painting

Main articles:
Dutch Golden Age Painting and Flemish Baroque painting
The Concert by Gerard van Honthorst, 1623

Rococo

Main articles: Rococo and Italian Rococo art
Capitulations of Wedding and Rural Dance by Antoine Watteau, 1711
An Experiment on a Bird in an Air Pump
by Joseph Wright of Derby, 1768

British

Vedutism

Main articles: Veduta and Grand Tour

Neoclassicism

Main article: Neoclassicism

Romanticism

Main article: Romanticism
The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun by William Blake, circa 1805

See also

References

  1. ^ The term is spelled either way in the literature. Major UK and US dictionaries, incl. the Oxford Online Dictionaries, American Heritage Dictionary, Macmillan, Cambridge, and Random House dictionaries use lowercase; Oxford English Dictionary, Collins, and Merriam-Webster dictionaries also mention the uppercase spelling.
  2. ^ a b c Old Masters Department, Christies.com.
  3. ^ a b "old master, n. and adj." OED Online. Oxford University Press, December 2016. Web.
  4. ISBN 0500203652
  5. ^ Now rewritten less succinctly to the same effect.

External links

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