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Old Master

(Redirected fromOld Masters)
"Old Masters" redirects here. For other uses, seeOld Masters (disambiguation).

Inart history,"Old Master"(or"old master")[1][2]refers to anypainterofskillwho worked in Europe before about 1800, or a painting by such an artist. An "old master print"is an originalprint(for example anengraving,woodcut,oretching) made by an artist in the same period. The term "old masterdrawing"is used in the same way.

Artemisia Gentileschiis an Old Master ofItalian Baroque art

In theory, "Old Master" applies only to artists who were fully trained, wereMastersof their localartists' guild,and worked independently, but in practice, paintings produced by pupils or workshops are often included in the scope of the term. Therefore, beyond a certain level of competence, date rather than quality is the criterion for using the term.

Period covered

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In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the term was often understood as having a starting date of perhaps 1450 or 1470; paintings made before that were "primitives", but this distinction is no longer made. TheOxford English Dictionarydefines the term as "A pre-eminent artist of the period before the modern; esp. a pre-eminent western European painter of the 13th to 18th centuries." The first quotation given is from 1696, in the diary ofJohn Evelyn:"My L: Pembroke..shewed me divers rare Pictures of very many of the old & best Masters, especially that of M: Angelo..,& a large booke of the best drawings of the old Masters."[3]The term is also used to refer to a painting or sculpture made by an Old Master, a usage datable to 1824.[3]There are comparable terms in Dutch, French, and German; the Dutch may have been the first to make use of such a term, in the 18th century, whenoude meestermostly meantpainters of the Dutch Golden Ageof the previous century.Les Maitres d'autrefoisof 1876 byEugene Fromentinmay have helped to popularize the concept, although "vieux maitres" is also used in French. The famous collection inDresdenat theGemäldegalerie Alte Meisteris one of the few museums to include the term in its actual name, although many more use it in the title of departments or sections. The collection in the Dresden museum essentially stops at theBaroqueperiod.

The end date is necessarily vague – for example,Goya(1746–1828) is certainly an Old Master,[2]though he was still painting andprintmakingat his death in 1828. The term might also be used forJohn Constable[2](1776–1837) orEugène Delacroix(1798–1868), but usually is not.Edward Lucie-Smithgives an end date of 1800, noting "formerly used of paintings earlier than 1700".[4]

The term tends to be avoided byart historiansas too vague, especially when discussing paintings, although the terms "Old Master Prints" and "Old Master drawings" are still used. It remains current in the art trade. Auction houses still usually divide their sales between, for example, "Old Master Paintings", "Nineteenth-century paintings", and "Modern paintings".Christie'sdefined the term as ranging "from the 14th to the early 19th century".[5]

The relevant part of the large and important collection of theRoyal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgiumin their main building inBrusselswas renamed in recent years as theOldmasters Museumin Dutch and English, and Musée Oldmasters in French. It was previously called the "Royal Museum of Ancient Art" in English (French:Musée royal d'art ancien;Dutch:Koninklijk Museum voor Oude Kunst).[6]

Anonymous artists

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Artists, most often from early periods, whose hand has been identified by art historians, but to whom no identity can be confidently attached, are often given names by art historians such asMaster E.S.(from his monogram),Master of Flémalle(from a previous location of a work),Master ofMary of Burgundy(from a patron),Master of Latin 757(from the shelf mark of a manuscript he illuminated),Master of the Embroidered Foliage(from his characteristic technique),Master of the Brunswick Diptych,orMaster of Schloss Lichtenstein.

List of the most important Old Master painters

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Rucellai Madonnaby Duccio,c. 1285.

Gothic/Proto-Renaissance

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Main article:Gothic art

Early Renaissance

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Main article:Early Renaissance
Portrait of a young womanbySandro Botticelli,1480

High Renaissance

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Main article:High Renaissance
Sistine Chapel ceiling,Ignudi,Michelangelo, 1509

Venetian School (Early Renaissance, High Renaissance and Mannerism)

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Main article:Venetian painting
  • Domenico Veneziano(Italian, 1400–1461), Early Renaissance
  • Jacopo Bellini(Italian, 1400–1470), Early Renaissance
  • Gentile Bellini(Italian, 1429–1507), Early Renaissance, noted for historical scenes ofVeniceand portraits of itsdoges
  • Giovanni Bellini(Italian, 1430–1516), Early and High Renaissance, pioneer of luminous oil painting
  • Bartolommeo Vivarini(Italian, 1432–1499), Early Renaissance
  • Carlo Crivelli(Italian, 1435–1495), Early Renaissance
  • Alvise Vivarini(Italian, 1445–1503), Early Renaissance
  • Vittore Carpaccio(Italian, 1455–1526), Early Renaissance
  • Giorgione(Italian, 1477–1510), High Renaissance, pioneer of Venetian School of painting
  • Titian(Italian, c. 1488–1576), important High Renaissance-style exponent of colour painting in oils and frescoes
  • Palma Vecchio(Italian, 1480–1528), High Renaissance
  • Lorenzo Lotto(Italian, 1480–1556), High Renaissance
  • Sebastiano del Piombo(Italian, 1485–1547), High Renaissance
  • Jacopo Bassano(Italian, 1515–1592), Mannerist painter noted for portraiture and religious genre painting
  • Tintoretto(Italian, 1518–1594), major Venetian Mannerist painter of monumental religious works
  • TheAnnunciationby Beccafumi, 1545
    Paolo Veronese(Italian, c. 1528–1588), High Renaissance-style, one of Venice's leading colourists

Sienese School

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Main article:Sienese School

Northern Renaissance

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Main article:Northern Renaissance
"Kreuzigung Christi" (English: "Crucifixion of Christ" ) byLucas Cranach the Elder,1503

Spanish Renaissance

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Main article:Spanish Renaissance

Mannerism

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Main article:Mannerism
Holy Family with St. Anne and the Infant St. JohnbyAgnolo Bronzino,c. 1545

Baroque painting

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Main article:Baroque painting
Supper at EmmausbyCaravaggio,1601
Portrait ofGeorge Villiers, 1st Duke of BuckinghambyPeter Paul Rubens,c. 1625
Las MeninasbyDiego Velázquez,1656

Dutch Golden Age and Flemish Baroque painting

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Main articles:Dutch Golden Age PaintingandFlemish Baroque painting
The ConcertbyGerard van Honthorst,1623

Rococo

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Main articles:RococoandItalian Rococo art
Capitulations of Wedding and Rural Danceby Antoine Watteau, 1711
An Experiment on a Bird in an Air Pumpby Joseph Wright of Derby, 1768

British

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Vedutism

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Main articles:VedutaandGrand Tour

Neoclassicism

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Main article:Neoclassicism

Romanticism

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Main article:Romanticism
The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun by William Blake, circa 1805

See also

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References

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  1. ^The term is spelled either way in the literature. Major UK and US dictionaries, incl. theOxford Online Dictionaries,American Heritage Dictionary,Macmillan, Cambridge, and Random House dictionaries use lowercase; Oxford English Dictionary, Collins, and Merriam-Webster dictionaries also mention the uppercase spelling.
  2. ^abcOld Masters Department,Christies.com.
  3. ^ab"old master, n. and adj."OED Online.Oxford University Press, December 2016. Web.
  4. ^Lucie-Smith, Edward,The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Art Terms,p. 152, 2003 (2nd edn), Thames & Hudson, World of Art series,ISBN0500203652
  5. ^Now rewritten less succinctlyto the same effect.
  6. ^"Musée Oldmasters Museum".Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.Retrieved26 May2016.
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