Andrea Mantegna
c. 1431 –1506
Andrea Mantegna (c. 1431 – September 13, 1506) was an Italian painter, a student of Roman archeology, and son-in-law of Jacopo Bellini.
Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with perspective, e.g. by lowering the horizon in order to create a sense of greater monumentality. His flinty, metallic landscapes and somewhat stony figures give evidence of a fundamentally sculptural approach to painting. He also led a workshop that was the leading producer of prints in Venice before 1500.
Andrea Mantegna
The Adoration of the Shepherds
1451-53
Agony in the Garden
c. 1459
Virgin with Sleeping Child
1465-70
St Sebastian
c. 1480
Madonna of the Cherubim
c. 1485
The Lamentation over the Dead Christ
c. 1490
Judith
c. 1495
Parnassus
1497
Pallas Expelling the Vices from the Garden of Virtue
1499-1502
Samson and Delilah
1495-1506
The Holy Family and the Family of St John the Baptist
1504-06
Bacchanalia with a Wine Vat
c. 1470
Battle of the Sea Gods
Battle of Two Sea Monsters
c. 1475
Antonio del Pollaiuolo
1429/1433 – 1498
Antonio del Pollaiuolo (17 January 1429/1433 – 4 February 1498), also known as Antonio di Jacopo Pollaiuolo or Antonio Pollaiuolo (also spelled Pollaiolo), was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, engraver, and goldsmith, who made important works in all these media, as well as designing works in others, for example vestments, metal embroidery being a medium he worked in at the start of his career.
His most characteristic works in his main media show largely naked male figures in complicated poses of violent action, drawing from classical examples and often centred on a heroic Hercules. He, or possibly his brother, was also a innovative painter of wide landscape backgrounds, perhaps having learnt from Early Netherlandish painting. His two papal tombs were the only monuments to survive the demolition of Old St Peter's in the next century and be reconstructed in the present St Peter's Basilica.
He very often worked in collaboration with his younger brother Piero del Pollaiuolo (c. 1443–1496), and distinguishing their contributions to satisfy modern ideas of authorship has proved exceptionally difficult, so that many paintings are just described as by the Pollaiuolo brothers. Contemporaries, and Giorgio Vasari, saw Antonio as by far the more talented, and responsible for the design and main painting of most works, but in recent decades the reputation of Piero has strengthened somewhat, and he is now given sole authorship of, for example, the small Apollo and Daphne (1470–1480) by its owner, the National Gallery. At the same time, contemporary references in lists of leading artists, of which there are a number, mostly mention the brothers together,[8] and Vasari's Lives of the Artists treats them in a single life.
According to Kenneth Clark, two factors have reduced his prominence in the modern view of Quattrocento art: the loss of his very large paintings of some of the Labours of Hercules, and "a name which looks difficult to pronounce". In his own day, and for several decades later, his "true position" as "one of the originating forces in the history of European art" was recognised.
Apollo and Daphne
David Victorious
c. 1472
Hercules and Antaeus
c. 1478
Hercules and the Hydra
c. 1475
Martyrdom of St Sebastian
1473-75
Tobias and the Angel
1460
Portrait of a Young Woman
1460-65
Portrait of a Lady
1460-65
The Assumption of St Mary Magdalene
1460
Hercules and Deianira
(c. 1470)
Battle of Ten Nudes
1470-75
Cosimo Rosselli
1439–1507
Cosimo Rosselli (1439–1507) was an Italian painter of the Quattrocento, active mainly in his birthplace of Florence, but also in Pisa earlier in his career and in 1481–82 in the Sistine Chapel in Rome, where he painted some of the large frescoes on the side walls.
Though generally regarded as a lesser talent in comparison to Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, and Domenico Ghirlandaio, who were all also active at the Sistine Chapel, Rosselli was still able to win large and important commission throughout his career, a testament to his high level of activity in his native Florence. Important local commissions include a fresco in the cloister of Santissima Annunziata, Florence and those in the Chapel of the Holy Blood in Sant'Ambrogio, Florence.
Crossing of the Red Sea
1481-82
Scenes on the left wall
1481-82
Scenes on the left wall (detail)
1481-82
Scenes on the left wall (detail)
1481-82
Sermon on the Mount
1481-82
Tables of the Law with the Golden Calf
1481-82
Crucifixion with the Madonna and Saints
1503
Descent from Cross
c. 1485
Madonna and Child with Angels
Madonna and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist
(ca. 1490)
The Adoration of the Christ Child
(c. 1485 - c. 1507)
Portrait of a Man
(ca. 1481–82)
Hugo van der Goes
c. 1430/1440 – 1482
Hugo van der Goes (c. 1430/1440 – 1482) was one of the most significant and original Flemish painters of the late 15th century. Van der Goes was an important painter of altarpieces as well as portraits. He introduced important innovations in painting through his monumental style, use of a specific colour range and individualistic manner of portraiture. From 1483 onwards, the presence of his masterpiece, the Portinari Triptych, in Florence played a role in the development of realism and the use of colour in Italian Renaissance art.
Portrait of a Man
Adoration of the Shepherds
c. 1480
Adoration of the Shepherds (detail)
c. 1480
The Fall
1467-68
The Lamentation of Christ
1467-68
Mary Triptych
c. 1478
Calvary Triptych
1465-68
Calvary Triptych (detail)
1465-68
Calvary Triptych (detail)
1465-68
The Death of the Virgin
c. 1480
Monforte Altarpiece
c. 1470
Monforte Altarpiece (detail)
c. 1470
Portinari Triptych
1476-79
Portinari Triptych
The Adoration of the Shepherds
1476-79
Jacob and Rachel
c.1470-75
Luca Signorelli
c. 1441/1445 –1523
Luca Signorelli (c. 1441/1445 – 16 October 1523) was an Italian Renaissance painter from Cortona, in Tuscany, who was noted in particular for his ability as a draftsman and his use of foreshortening. His massive frescos of the Last Judgment (1499–1503) in Orvieto Cathedral are considered his masterpiece.
In his early 40s he returned to live in Cortona, after working in Florence, Siena and Rome (1478–84, painting a now lost section of the Sistine Chapel). With an established reputation, he remained based in Cortona for the rest of his life, but often travelled to the cities of the region to fulfill commissions. He was probably trained by Piero della Francesca in Florence, as his cousin Giorgio Vasari wrote, and his Quattrocento style became rather out of date in the new century.
Cortona will host a major exhibition in 2023 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of his death.
Biography
He was born Luca d'Egidio di Ventura in Cortona, Tuscany (some sources call him Luca da Cortona). The precise date of his birth is uncertain, but birth dates between 1441 and 1445 have been proposed. He died in 1523 in his native Cortona, where he is buried.
His first impressions of art seem to originate in Perugia – including the styles of artists such as Benedetto Bonfigli, Fiorenzo di Lorenzo and Pinturicchio. Lazzaro Vasari, the great-grandfather of art historian Giorgio Vasari, was Luca's maternal uncle. According to Giorgio Vasari, Lazzaro had Luca apprenticed to Piero della Francesca. In 1472 the young artist was painting at Arezzo, and in 1474 at Città di Castello. He presented to Lorenzo de' Medici a work which is likely School of Pan. Janet Ross and her husband Henry discovered the painting in Florence c. 1870 and subsequently sold it to the Kaiser Frederick Museum in Berlin, though it was destroyed there a few days after the end of World War II.[2] The painting's subject is almost the same as that which he also painted on the wall of the Petrucci palace in Siena – the principal figures being Pan himself, Olympus, Echo, a man reclining on the ground, and two listening shepherds.
Signorelli worked in central Italy, leading a very requested workshop, increasing his importance during the 1490s. He often returned to his native Cortona, and worked in nearby Umbria, especially in Città di Castello, where he left one of his masterpieces: the Martyrdome of St Sebastian (still in the umbrian town). This painting was very influential for the young Raphael, who worked in the same town and sketched some drawings of the "Martyrdom".
In 1498, Signorelli moved to the Monastery of Monte Oliveto Maggiore south of Siena, where he painted eight frescoes, forming part of a vast series depicting the life of St. Benedict; they are at present much injured. In the palace of Pandolfo Petrucci he worked on various classic or mythological subjects, including the aforementioned School of Pan. Signorelli remained healthy until his death, continuing to paint and accept commissions into his final year, including the altarpiece of the Church at Foiano
Luca Signorelli
Self Portrait
Sermon and Deeds of the Antichrist
1499-1502
Resurrection of the Flesh
1499-1502
The Damned
1499-1502
The Elect
1499-1502
Lamentation over the Dead Christ
1502
Portrait of an Elderly Man
c. 1492
Mary Magdalene
1504
Sandro Botticelli
c. 1445 – 1510
Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi (c. 1445 – May 17, 1510), better known as Sandro Botticelli or simply Botticelli, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th century, when he was rediscovered by the Pre-Raphaelites who stimulated a reappraisal of his work. Since then, his paintings have been seen to represent the linear grace of late Italian Gothic and some Early Renaissance painting, even though they date from the latter half of the Italian Renaissance period.
In addition to the mythological subjects for which he is best known today, Botticelli painted a wide range of religious subjects (including dozens of renditions of the Madonna and Child, many in the round tondo shape) and also some portraits. His best-known works are The Birth of Venus and Primavera, both in the Uffizi in Florence, which holds many of Botticelli's works. Botticelli lived all his life in the same neighbourhood of Florence; his only significant times elsewhere were the months he spent painting in Pisa in 1474 and the Sistine Chapel in Rome in 1481–82.
Only one of Botticelli's paintings, the Mystic Nativity (National Gallery, London) is inscribed with a date (1501), but others can be dated with varying degrees of certainty on the basis of archival records, so the development of his style can be traced with some confidence. He was an independent master for all the 1470s, which saw his reputation soar. The 1480s were his most successful decade, the one in which his large mythological paintings were completed along with many of his most famous Madonnas. By the 1490s, his style became more personal and to some extent mannered. His last works show him moving in a direction opposite to that of Leonardo da Vinci (seven years his junior) and the new generation of painters creating the High Renaissance style, and instead returning to a style that many have described as more Gothic or "archaic".
Self-portrait
Sandro Botticelli
The Virgin and Child with Two Angels and the Young St John the Baptist
1465-70
Portinari Triptych
1476-79
Madonna and Child and Two Angels
c. 1470
Fortitude
c. 1470
Madonna and Child with an Angel
c. 1470
The Return of Judith to Bethulia
c. 1472
The Discovery of the Murder of Holofernes
c. 1472
Adoration of the Magi
c. 1475
Lamentation over the Dead Christ with Saints
c. 1490
Madonna and Child and the Young St John the Baptist
1490-95
The Mystical Nativity
c. 1500
The Birth of Christ
1476-77
Annunciation
1481
Madonna with Lilies and Eight Angels
c. 1478
Madonna of the Magnificat (Madonna del Magnificat)
1480-81
Madonna of the Pomegranate (Madonna della Melagrana)
c. 1487
Virgin and Child with Six Angels and the Baptist
c. 1485
Virgin and Child with Two Angels
c. 1490
Virgin and Child with St John the Baptist and an Angel
1490s
The Virgin Adoring the Child
c. 1490
Cestello Annunciation
1489-90
Primavera
c. 1482
Primavera (detail)
c. 1482
Portinari Triptych
1476-79
The Birth of Venus
c. 1485
The Birth of Venus (detail)
c. 1485
Venus and Mars
c. 1483
The Story of Nastagio degli Onesti (first episode)
c. 1483
The Story of Nastagio degli Onesti (second episode)
c. 1483
The Story of Nastagio degli Onesti (third episode)
c. 1483
The Story of Nastagio degli Onesti (forth episode)
c. 1483
Calumny of Apelles
1494-95
Portrait of a Man with a Medal of Cosimo the Elder
1474
Portrait of a young woman, possibly Simonetta Vespucci
1484
Dante Alighieri
c. 1495
Portrait of a Young Woman
after 1480
Dante: Divina Commedia
1480s
Dante: Divina Commedia (detail)
1480s
Pietro Perugino
c. 1446/1452 – 1523
Pietro Perugino (c. 1446/1452 – 1523) was an Italian Renaissance painter of the Umbrian school, who developed some of the qualities that found classic expression in the High Renaissance. Raphael was his most famous pupil.
Pietro Vannucci was born in Città della Pieve, Umbria, the son of Cristoforo Maria Vannucci. His nickname characterizes him as from Perugia, the chief city of Umbria. Scholars continue to dispute the socioeconomic status of the Vannucci family. While certain academics maintain that Vannucci worked his way out of poverty, others argue that his family was among the wealthiest in the town. His exact date of birth is not known, but based on his age at death that was mentioned by Vasari and Giovanni Santi, it is believed that he was born between 1446 and 1452.
Pietro most likely began studying painting in local workshops in Perugia such as those of Bartolomeo Caporali or Fiorenzo di Lorenzo. The date of the first Florentine sojourn is unknown; some make it as early as 1466-1470, others push the date to 1479. According to Vasari, he was apprenticed to the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio alongside Leonardo da Vinci, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Lorenzo di Credi, Filippino Lippi, and others. Piero della Francesca is thought to have taught him perspective form. In 1472, he must have completed his apprenticeship since he was enrolled as a master in the Confraternity of St Luke. Pietro, although very talented, was not extremely enthusiastic about his work.
Perugino was one of the earliest Italian practitioners of oil painting. Some of his early works were extensive frescoes for the convent of the Ingessati fathers, destroyed during the Siege of Florence; he produced many cartoons for them also, which they executed with brilliant effect in stained glass. A good specimen of his early style in tempera is the tondo (circular picture) in the Musée du Louvre of the Virgin and Child Enthroned between Saints.
Pietro Perugino
The Delivery of the Keys fresco
1481–1482
Pietà
c. 1490
The Madonna between St John the Baptist and St Sebastian
1493
Virgin and Child between Saints Rosa and Catherine
c. 1493
Madonna and Child
Madonna with Child and the Infant St John
1505-10
Magdalen
1500
Apollo and Marsyas
c. 1495
Combat of Love and Chastity
1505
Famous Men of Antiquity
1497-1500
Prophets and Sibyls
1497-1500
Baptism of Christ
c. 1482
Moses's Journey into Egypt and the Circumcision of His Son Eliezer
c. 1482
Moses's Journey into Egypt and the Circumcision of His Son Eliezer (detail)
c. 1482
Domenico Ghirlandaio
1448 – 1494
Domenico di Tommaso Curradi di Doffo Bigordi (2 June 1448 – 11 January 1494), professionally known as Domenico Ghirlandaio (also spelt as Ghirlandajo),[a] was an Italian Renaissance painter born in Florence. Ghirlandaio was part of the so-called "third generation" of the Florentine Renaissance, along with Verrocchio, the Pollaiolo brothers and Sandro Botticelli. Ghirlandaio led a large and efficient workshop that included his brothers Davide Ghirlandaio and Benedetto Ghirlandaio, his brother-in-law Bastiano Mainardi from San Gimignano, and later his son Ridolfo Ghirlandaio.[4] Many apprentices passed through Ghirlandaio's workshop, including the famous Michelangelo.[4] His particular talent lay in his ability to posit depictions of contemporary life and portraits of contemporary people within the context of religious narratives, bringing him great popularity and many large commissions.
Self Portrait
The Adoration of the Shepherds
1483
Visitation
c. 1491
Portrait of a Man
1477
An Old Man and His Grandson
c. 1490
Giovanna Tornabuoni
1450
Ritratto di Giovane Donna
1490
Madonna and Child enthroned with Saint
c1483
Adoration of the Magi
1488
Madonna and Child
1490
San Girolamo
1480