ART “4”
“2”-DAY 02 June
v.9.90 |
| ^
Baptized as an infant on 02 June 1565:
Francisco Ribalta, Catalan
Baroque
era painter who died on 12 January 1628. [a dubious source says that he
was born on 22 June 1565] — The first Spanish painter in the 17th century to abandon Mannerism for the new realistic style was Ribalta who, after receiving his early training in Toledo spent the years of his maturity in Valencia. It is not known whether Ribalta was aquainted with the work of Caravaggio or whether he arrived independently at results parallel to those achieved by the Italian Tenebrists. At all events, his style is remarkable for its virile naturalism. The brushwork is increasingly bold and free, so different from the polished smoothness of the previous age. Ribalta sought expressiveness as well as beauty and accentuated the sculptural modeling of his forms by contrasting light and shade. Among his better known works are the Last Supper in the Valencia Museum and the panels of the great altarpiece of Algemesi, painted in 1603; one of these, that depicting the martyrdom of St James, suggests a connection between Ribalta and Navarrete. — Ribalta was probably trained at the Escorial and during most of the 1580s and 1590s he worked in Madrid. His earlier paintings are Mannerist in character, notably his first known work, the undistinguished The Nailing to the Cross (1582). By 1599 he was settled in Valencia and there his style became much more sombre and naturalistic. Ribalta had studied in Italy and he is known to have made a copy of Caravaggio's Martyrdom of Saint Peter, but his late tenebrist style may have been influenced more by Ribera than by direct knowledge of painting in Rome. In 1598 he moved to Valencia and established a large studio under the patronage of the archbishop, Juan de Ribera. His compositions of this period, notably the Retable of Santiago in the church of Algemesí (1603, 1610), are highly imitative and mediocre. In his last period, after 1612, he achieved both originality and grandeur. Paintings such as The Singer and Christ Embracing St. Bernard and the Portacoeli Retable are marked by their monumental and powerfully modeled forms, simplicity of composition, and realistic lighting. These late paintings anticipate the work of Diego Velázquez, Francisco de Zurbarán, and Ribalta's student José de Ribera later in the 17th century. In their turn, Ribalta's dramatically lit and powerfully austere mature works (e.g. .Christ Embracing Saint Bernard) had considerable influence on Spanish painting, notably on Zurbarán. Francisco Ribalta's son Juan Ribalta y Pelayo [1596 or 1597 – Jul or Oct 1628] was also an able painter in the Caravaggesque manner. — When Francisco was about 7, the Ribalta family left his native Solsona for Barcelona, and it must have been there that he saw paintings by Isaac Hermes. In 1581, after the death of his parents, Ribalta moved to Madrid to seek an apprenticeship. He was enormously receptive to the work of other artists; he studied the paintings in the royal collection, came in contact with the Spanish and Italian artists who were carrying out the decoration of El Escorial and developed his early style, which was strongly influenced by Italian Mannerism. There is documentary evidence for Ribalta’s activity in Madrid, including his earliest known work, the Crucifixion (1586), which was painted there and which shows his interest in Venetian coloring and use of crepuscule light. In Madrid, Ribalta married Inés Pelayo, by whom he had a son, Juan Ribalta y Pelayo [1596 or 1597 – Jul or Oct 1628], an able painter in the Caravaggesque manner; and two daughters, one of whom married Vicente Castelló, who disseminated Francisco Ribalta's style during the second third of the 17th century. Francisco Ribalta was the most distinguished artist working in Valencia in the early 17th century. His move towards naturalism at an early date was significant for the history of Spanish painting as well as being very influential. His documented mature works after about 1620 show a change of vision, and they are also of the highest quality. The religious paintings are depicted with more pronounced realism, and his deeply felt spiritual belief is expressed in a direct and very immediate way. In 1607 Ribalta supported other leading Valencian painters in a move to form the Colegio de Pintores to safeguard the interests of the profession. The expulsion of the Moriscos in 1609 and the death in 1611 of the Patriarch Archbishop Juan de Ribera, Ribalta’s most important patron, led to an economic crisis and spiritual void in Valencia that had an effect on his activity, since thereafter commissions came more rarely, and his work became more introspective. During 1616 and 1617 the idea of forming the Colegio de Pintores was revived, and Ribalta took an active role in the management and signed the petition to Philip III seeking support for the Colegio. — LINKS –- Virgen de Portacoeli –- Sueño de la Madre de San Eloy –- San Francisco Confortado por un Angel (1620, 204x158cm) _ After about 1612, Ribalta's art begins to reflect the heightened, anguished spirituality of the city, but it was not until a visit to Madrid about 1619 or 1920 that he found the way to channel the religious fervor into great works of art. In Madrid, Ribalta experienced the Florentine naturalism of the Carducho brothers. It is also possible that Pedro Orrente played a part in directing Ribalta toward a greater naturalism. Indeed, his Saint Francis Comforted by a Musical Angel is a direct descendant of Bartolome Carducho's Death of Saint Francis (1593, 115x153cm; 800x1118pix, 123kb) Ribalta's painting is purged of all vestiges of mannerism and uses the powerful force of light to enhance the presence of figures and objects alike. It also displays a new fluidity and confidence in composition and draftsmanship: the angel, dramatically framed by fluttering drapery, points the lute like a crossbow at the recoiling body of the saint, who is startled by the heavenly intruder. –- The Nailing to the Cross (1582, 145x103cm) –- Santo Isidro Labrador –- Abrazo de San Francisco al Crucificado (158x133cm) _ The depiction of Saint Bernard's rapturous vision is perfectly calculated to achieve maximum effect. The saint is represented as a gaunt figure with prominent cheekbones and deep-set eyes. He embraces Christ, and his mouth forms a half smile that communicates the holy rapture suffusing his body and soul. As Christ descends from the cross to meet him, Saint Bernard's body goes limp and needs to be supported by the Savior. Under the tightly focused light, the figures seem palpable. Exercising superb control of the composition and every detail, Ribalta succeeds in externalizing this powerful religious experience, making it seem real but not commonplace. –- Encuentro del Nazareno con su Madre –- Presentación de María en el Templo — The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine (1602, 123x108 cm; 575x501pix, 120kb) |
| ^
>Baptized as an infant on 02 June 1621:
Isaak (or Isack, Isaac, Isak)
van Ostade, Dutch painter and draftsman who died on 15 October
1649. — He was the younger brother and the most talented student of Adriaen van Ostade (bapt. 10 Dec 1610 – 27 Apr 1685), who also worked in Haarlem. He may have received additional instruction from a landscape painter, possibly Salomon van Ruysdael. As well as painting genre scenes in the manner of Adriaen, Isaack was an outstanding practitioner of the winter landscape and his early death cut short, after 11 years, a career of great promise, in the course of which he produced an extraordinary volume of work. Once he had attained artistic maturity, he began to exert an influence of his own on his elder brother. Like him, he was a prolific and accomplished draftsman. — LINKS — Farmhouse Interior (1642, 50x68cm; 690x960pix, 75kb) _ Isaack van Ostade, like his brother Adriaen, depicted peasant and low-life scenes. This untidy farmhouse interior is typical of Haarlem painting in the first half of the seventeenth century, with its low-key use of color. The painting would be taken as a warning against a dissolute life. Reddish color balance. — a different Farmhouse Interior (1645, 600x763pix) Greenish color balance. –- Interior of a Barn with People and Animals (1648, 50x67cm; 680x900pix, 56kb) variation on the same theme, but with better color balance. — Interior of a Peasant House (1640, 45x40cm) _ In this almost monochrome, brownish-yellowish painting a collection of objects of the everyday life of the peasants can be seen. This peasant room is warm and large like a barn and contains a collection of everything necessary for feeding men and animals. Basket, barrel, trough, broken jug, pail, ladder, tools and fodder have been hoarded by the farmer with all the collecting instinct of a hamster. He and his family are grouped round the fireplace trying to get warm, and the man's stance, though awkward, seems to indicate that he is master of his rather poor house. The colors are all different shades of brown and yellow. — Pig-Killing (1642, 40x54cm) _ The occupants of the one room which constitutes the peasant's home are busy as ants about the slaughtered pig. Their faces are scarcely discernible and the children can only be recognized by their smaller size and the fact that they are playing at blowing up the bladder. The adult figures are busy at the pump-well. All their world is within the confines of this one room which the artist has painted in a variety of browns and yellows, with which he has created a rather mysterious atmosphere. — The Cut Pig (42x31cm) _ The occupants of the one room which constitutes the peasant's home are busy as ants about the slaughtered pig. Their faces are scarcely discernible and the children can only be recognized by their smaller size and the fact that they are playing at blowing up the bladder. The adult figures are busy at the pump-well. All their world is within the confines of this one room which the artist has painted in a variety of browns and yellows, with which he has created a rather mysterious atmosphere. — Winter Landscape (1643, 72x114cm) _ In his short life Isaack van Ostade painted a large number of pictures, some of genre subjects like his brother's Adriaen van Ostade, but the best are of landscape, especially winter landscapes. _ detail — A Winter Scene (1645, 49x40cm) _ Isack van Ostade was the short-lived younger brother of the painter of scenes from peasant life, Adriaen van Ostade. They were both born, lived and worked in Haarlem, and Isack was a student of his brother who was eleven years his senior. Isack joined the guild in 1643. His earliest paintings — the first dated picture is from 1639 — are peasant interiors dependent on Adriaen's, but towards the end of his brief career he became more interested in outdoor scenes and produced a series of beautiful and original landscapes, often set in winter. This deliberately picturesque view, its low viewpoint serving to outline the wooden bridge against the sky, is one of his finest paintings. It is rich in its treatment of the details of peasant life, whose harsh aspects (as seen, for example, in the figure of the man laboring under his load of faggots) are relieved by the pleasure taken by the child in the anticipation of skating on the frozen river. — The Outskirts of a Village with a Horseman (1650; 160kb) — A Woman Selling Fruit by a Cottage (179kb) — A Winter Scene with an Inn (1645; 170kb) — The Halt at the Inn (1645; 98kb) — Rest by a Cottage (1648; 179kb) — Winter View (1648; 126kb) — Traveler at a Cottage Door (1649; 118kb) –- Interior with Peasants Playing Cards at a Table (18x18cm; 924x900pix, 87kb) — Frozen Canal with Skating Couple (101x149cm; 474x700pix, 207kb) — A Stop at the Village Inn (600x812pix) —(070601) |
|
|
site safe for children 