Κυριακή 30 Οκτωβρίου 2011

10 Western painters you should know

10 Western painters you should know




1.PABLO PICASSO(1881-1973)

Pablo Picasso
With the possible exception of 

Michelangelo, no other 

artist had such ambitions at the time 

of placing his oeuvre in the history of 

art.Picasso created the avant-garde. 

Picasso destroyed the avant-garde. He 

looked back at the masters and 

surpassed 

them all. 

2. GIOTTO DI BONDONE 


Portrait of Giotto, by Paolo Uccello
  It has been said that Giotto 

was the first real painter, like Adam 

was the first man. We agree with 

the first part. Giotto continued the 

Byzantine style of Cimabue and 

other predecessors, but he earned 

the right to be included in gold 

letters in the history of painting when he added a 

quality unknown to date: emotionator.




3. LEONARDO DA VINCI (1452-1519) 

Self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci
For better or for worse, Leonardo will be 

forever known as the author of the most 

famous painting of all time, the 

Gioconda" or "Mona Lisa". But he is 

more, much 

more. His humanist, almost scientific 

gaze, entered the art of the quattrocento and 

revoluted it with his sfumetto .






4. PAUL CÉZANNE (1839-1906)

Self-portrait of Paul Cézanne


 "Cezanne is the father of us all." This 

famous quote has been attributed to 

both Picasso and Matisse, and 

certainly it does not matter who 

actually said it, because in either case 

would be appropriate. While he exhibited with the 

Impressionist painters, Cézanne left behind the whole 

group and developed a style of painting never seen so 

far, which opened the door for the arrival of Cubism 

and the rest of the vanguards of the twentieth 

century.




 5. REMBRANDT VAN RIJN 

(1606-1669)


Self-portrait of Rembrandt van Rijn
The fascinating use of the light and 

shadows in Rembrandt's works 

seem to reflect his own life, 

moving from fame to oblivion. 

Rembrandt is the great master of 

Dutch painting, and, along with Velázquez, the main 

figure of 17th century European Painting. He is, in 

addition, the great master of the self-portrait of all 

time, an artist who had never show mercy at the time 

of depicting himself.




6. DIEGO VELÁZQUEZ 

(1599-1660)


Along with Rembrandt, 

one of the summits of 

Baroque painting. But 

unlike the Dutch artist, 

the Sevillan painter spent 

most of his life in the 

comfortable but rigid 

courtesan society. 

Nevertheless, Velázquez was an innovator, a "painter 

of atmospheres" two centuries before Turner and the 

Impressionists, which it is shown in his colossal 'royal 

paintings' ("Meninas", "The Forge of Vulcan"), but 

also in his small and memorable sketches of the Villa 

Medici.



7. WASSILY KANDINSKY (1866-1944)

Wassily Kandinsky

Although the title of "father of 

abstraction" has been assigned to 

several artists, from Picasso to Turner, 

few painters could claim it with as much 

justice as Kandinsky. Many artists have 

succeeded in painting emotion, but very few have 

changed the way we understand art. Wassily 

Kandinsky is one of them.



8. CLAUDE MONET (1840-1926)

Self-portrait of Claude Monet
The importance of Monet in the 

history of art is sometimes 

"underrated", as Art lovers tend to 

see only the overwhelming beauty 

that emanates from his canvases, 

ignoring the complex technique and 

composition of the work (a "defect" somehow caused 

by Monet himself, when he declared that "I do not 

understand why everyone discusses my art and 

pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to 

understand, when it is simply necessary to love"

). However, Monet's experiments, including studies 

on the changes in an object caused by daylight at 

different times of the day; and the almost abstract 

quality of his "water lilies", are clearly a prologue to 

the art of the twentieth century.


9. CARAVAGGIO 

(1571-1610)

The tough and 

violent Caravaggio 

is 

considered the 

father of Baroque 

painting, with his 

spectacular use of 

lights and shadows. Caravaggio’s 

chiaroscuro became so famous that 

many painters started to copy his 

paintings, creating the 'Caravaggisti' style.




10. JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM 

TURNER (1775-1851)

Self-portrait of William Turner

Turner is the best landscape painter of 

Western painting. Whereas he had 

been at his beginnings an academic 

painter, Turner was slowly but 

unstoppably evolving towards a free, 

atmospheric style, sometimes even outlining the 

abstraction, which was misunderstood and rejected 

by the same critics who had admired him for 

decades.














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