No other 17th-century European painter combined artistic talent, social and economic success and a high cultural level like Rubens. Though primarily a painter, he also made numerous designs for prints, tapestries, architecture, sculpture and decorative objects. His abundant work is strikingly versatile in its subject matter, including paintings on mythological, religious and historical subjects as
Murillo was apparently a calm and sweet natured man, a fact which might explain some aspects of his personal artistic expression. Born into a family of many siblings, he was orphaned as a child and taken in by one of his sisters. He must have trained with Juan del Castillo, to judge by the characteristics of his early style. In 1645 he married Beatriz Cabrera, who bore him several children. Throug
This German painter and treatise-writer was the most outstanding proponent of early neoclassicism. He began art studies in Dresden under the severe supervision of his father, Ismael Mengs, a painter at the court of Saxony. Between 1741 and 1744, he lived with his father and brothers in Rome, where he was able to study classical Antiquity and the works of Michelangelo and Raphael at the Vatican. Du
As the founder of a line of outstanding 19th-century Spanish artists, José de Madrazo y Agudo is one of the great names in Spanish neoclassicism. His work, his preeminent position in Spanish society and his deep influence on many generations of painters trained at the Academy of San Fernando make him a fundamental figure of this period.After preliminary studies in Madrid with Gregorio Ferro (1742-