Although Adam Elsheimer (1578–1610) painted on an almost miniature scale and died very young, his paintings remain some of the most striking in the history of Western art. Elsheimer’s recondite subject matter, astonishing ability to render night scenes, and uniquely lyrical use of landscape deeply affected generations of artists. Several key biographies of Elsheimer, along with the personal reminiscences of his friends and contemporary painters, compose this intriguing collection of essays and bring the artist’s brief career and remarkable times to life.
"Adam Elsheimer is first recorded in 1600 and by 1610 he was dead. But Elsheimer was influential on the coming century to a degree out of all proportion to his brief career and small output. Above all, he revolutionised the handling of light in landscapes and interiors, introducing novel ways of handling complex narratives as well as inventing new subject matter in painting." "Although his importance has always been recognised, appreciation of the artist has been hampered by a lack of good reproductions. This book offers for the first time a host of lavish colour details from his paintings that demonstrate Elsheimer's extraordinarily fine touch and feeling. This major study, the first to appear in English for nearly thirty years, accompanies a landmark exhibition being held at the Stadelsches Kunstinstitut in Frankfurt, at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh and at Dulwich Picture Gallery in London."--BOOK JACKET.
A brand-new perspective on early modern art and its relationship with nature as reflected in this moving account of overlooked artistic genius Adam Elsheimer, by an outstanding writer and critic. Seventeenth-century Europe swirled with conjectures and debates over what was real and what constituted “nature,” currents that would soon gather force to form modern science. Natural Light deliberates on the era’s uncertainties, as distilled in the work of long underappreciated artist Adam Elsheimer (1578–1610), a native of Frankfurt who settled in Rome and whose diminutive and mysterious narrative compositions related figures to landscape in new ways, projecting unfamiliar visions of space at a time when Caravaggio was polarizing audiences with his radical altarpieces and early modern scientists were starting to turn to the new “world system” of Galileo. His visual inventions influenced many famous artists—including Rembrandt van Rijn, Claude Lorrain, and Nicolas Poussin. Julian Bell guides the reader through key Elsheimer artworks, examining the contexts behind them before exploring the new imaginative thoughts that opened up in their wake. He also explores the experiences of Elsheimer and other Northern artists in the literary, artistic, and scientific culture of 1600s Rome. Although his life was tragically short, Elsheimer’s legacy endured and prints of his work were widely spread throughout Europe, with his influence extending as far as the Indian subcontinent.
A new title in the successful Lives of the Artists series, which offers illuminating, and often intimate, accounts of iconic artists as viewed by their contemporaries. The most notorious Italian painter of his day, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610) forever altered the course of Western painting with his artistic ingenuity and audacity. This volume presents the most important early biographies of his life: an account by his doctor, Giulio Mancini; another by one of his artistic rivals, Giovanni Baglione; and a later profile by Giovanni Pietro Bellori that demonstrates how Caravaggio’s impact was felt in seventeenth-century Italy. Together, these accounts have provided almost everything that is known of this enigmatic figure.
Jules Breton (1827-1906), known as one of the first 'peasant painters', created beautiful scenes of rural French life and was a highly popular figure among the Salon artists of his era. Taking his inspiration from his native Artois and from the landscapes of Brittany, where he stayed for long periods, he painted peasant women and men performing their daily activities, meticulously observing their world and making it a place of peace and harmony. During the second half of the nineteenth century, rewards and official decorations were heaped upon him, and his paintings were purchased not only by the emperor but also by collectors in America, Britain and Ireland. However, Breton's work became eclipsed by the avant-garde movements of the twentieth century, and he was eventually forgotten. This book now pays Breton the tribute that he deserves. It traces the development of his career and the forces that influenced him from his childhood through his early training in Belgium and Paris to his years in Brittany. The book presents and discusses a number of important paintings by Breton, some of which have been almost unknown until now, and it shows how they reflect the artist's social and humanitarian concerns as well as his painterly abilities.
