The Lives and Works of Masters in Visual Arts

* Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)

- an Italian master of the arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture, a draftsman, an accomplished engineer, and a pioneer investigator, in the natural sciences. Life and works in painting

* Born in 1452 in Vinci, Republic of Florence (now in Italy), Leonardo spent his youth in Tuscany and in 1469, went to Florence with his father. Shortly there after, he entered the studio of sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio as an apprentice, where he received a diversified training, until 1476. He worked with Verrocchio on the painting of the “ Baptism of Christ “ In 1492, Leonardo went to Milan, where he remained in the service of the court of Ludovico Sforza until 1499, painting portraits, inventing machines of war, staging theatrical pageants and designing town plans and architecture.

It was in Milan, too, that he painted the famous Last Supper, which was ordered by Ludovico il Moro for the refectory of the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie.In 1499, Leonardo made a short visit to Mantua and proceeded from there to Venice and then to Florence, arriving there in 1500 almost 20 years after he had left, he remained there until 1506 although he visited Rome during 1502 and 1503.

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Soon after his arrivral, he excuted a cartoon, now in the National Gallery, London, for painting of The Virgen and Child and St. Anne. Leonardo completed few of his commissions and the list of his surviving works is not long . Among his other important works are : an unfinished Adoration of Magi in the Uffizi in Florence. The Virgin of the Rocks of which there are two versions, one in the Louvre, and one in the national Gallery in London; and a St.

John in the Louvre, his last painting. In 1504, he began a large wall painting, The Battle of the Anghiari, in the council chamber of the Florentine Republic in the Palazzo Vecchio.

Analysis and evaluation of Leonardo and some of his paintings Leonardo’s arts of expression needs utmost admiration . This expression was nurtured by his power of invention and also by every technical means : drawing, color, use of light and shadow. His Last Supper (1495-97) and Mona Lisa (1503-06), which are among the most widely popular and influential paintings of the Renaissance, need careful analysis. The Last Supper, which among the mosts famous paintings in the world, portrays and apostles’ reaction of Christ’s startling announcement that one of them would betray him.

Leonardo was a great virtuoso in his anatomical rendition of the human form. The Mona Lisa is a portrait of a woman, the wife of Florentine merchant Francesco di Bartolommeo del Gioconda – hence the alternate title for the painting La Giaconda.

* Michelangelo Buonorroti (1475-1564)
-an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet, regarded by many as the epitome of culture of Renaissance, Italy. He was born on March 6, 1475. In Camprese, about 40 miles outside of Florence.

Early life

Brought to Florence from Camprese while still an infant, Michelangelo was sent to nurse with stone cutter’s wife in Settignaro where he later liked to say, he imbibed marble dust with his wet nurse’s milk. The abundant correspondence with his father and brothers reveal’s the artist’s deep, almost morbid attachment to his family, despite the fact of comprehension, or even interest, in Michangelo’s art was entirely absent on their part. All their lives, the father and brothers looked upon Michelangelo only as a source of income or as a counselor in their various projects.

As a boy, Michangelo cared little for tradition Latin and humanistic studies; and his inclination to draw led his father, despite his scorn for art, to enroll him on April 1, 1488 in the workshop of Dominico Chilandio, then the most popular painter in Florence. A year later, however, Michelangelo left tha master to study in Medici Gardens near San Marco, where Lorenzo, the Magnificent, had gathered a collection of ancient statues and had assigned Bertoldo, a follower Donatello, to train young men in sculture. During the Bologna sojourn, Michelangelo was undoubtedly influenced by the vigorous reliefs of Iacope della Quercia on the doors of the Cathedral of San Petronio.

Early Works

In Florence, Michelangelo carved in marble a San Giovannino and a Sleeping Cupid (both lost). The Cupid imitated classic sculpture so skillfully that it was sold to a Roman art dealer who, in turn, sold the counterfeit as an authentic antique to the Cardinal Raffaello Riario. This first sojourn to Rome resulted in great fame for the youthful sculptor, and sharply revealed in the Bacchus and Pieta two of the contrasting main themes which served Michelangelo and his life: pagan exaltation of the nude male figure, and love-pity for the chart.

* Pablo Picasso(1881- 1973)

* One of the greatest and most original artists of the 20th century exerted a very powerful influence on the development of the modern art. * Studied art in Barcelona and then went to Paris on 1890. The paintings belonging to this period are poignant studies of poverty and suffering, examples: La Vie and the Old Guitarist.

* 1905- He given up portraying the world of the poor.

* Become interested in primitive African Sculpture in which human figures are broken up into geometric shapes. * Mid-1930s- he become concerned with social and political themes. In his symbolic etching Minotauromachy, he represented a personal vision of the struggle between the forces of evil and good. * Continued to paint in Paris despite the Nazi condemnation of the modern art during the World War 2. * 1944- he joined the French communist Party.

* His notable works: Demoiselles au bord dela Seine, After Courbet, Bronze Monkey and Her Young.

* Vincent Van Gogh(1853- 1890)
* Born in Groot Zuudert , North Brabant on March 30, 1853 to a Protestant Minister. * 1875- he visited museums and exhibitions while continuing reading the Bible in his free time. * 1876- he accepted a rote as a teacher of languages at a boarding school in Ramsgate, England. * 1877- he accepted a position in a bookstore but was haunted by his religious callings. * His first drawing seems to date from this period. Two of them were sold to a pastor in Brussels, who sent Van Gogh in a mission in Borinage District.

* 1880- he left Brussels, determined to embark on a career in painting and eager to renew his ties on paintings and painters. * 1881- he returned home who now live in Etten, and started to work with enthusiasm. * 1882- he lived with sien and her child in his studio in Schenkweg 138, leading the life of a working man and feeling proud of his lowering of social positions which alienated him from his family and friends. * His notable works: Head of a Peasant, The Weavers, The Garden and the Parish Church, The Potato Eaters.

* The works he executed in Antwerp include two self-portraits as well as the Black Side of Old Houses the Old Man with the Head of Victor Hugo. * The years in Paris yielded him a series of discoveries: impressionism, the impasto technique of Adolphe Montecelli and Japanese prints. * He adopted the pointillism technique and made still lifes, including Still Life with Flowers, Roses Tremieres, Shoes with Laces, Basket with Corusses and Apples . *