The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists

 

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Abbreviations
Bib.
Bibliothèque or Biblioteca
Bib. Nat.
Bibliothèque Nationale
BL
British Library
BM
British Museum
Coll.
Collection
DNB
The Dictionary of National Biography
Gal.
Gallery
Inst.
Institute
Lib.
Library
Met. Mus.
Metropolitan Museum
MOMA
Museum of Modern Art
Mus.
Musée, Museo, Museum, etc.
NG
National Gallery
NPG
National Portrait Gallery
OED
The Oxford English Dictionary
Univ.
University
V&A
Victoria and Albert Museum
A

 

AAA
.
Aachen , Hans von
(1552–1615).
German painter, born in Cologne (in spite of his name, which derives from his father's birthplace) and active in the Netherlands, Italy (1574–87), and most notably Prague, where he settled in 1596 as court painter to the emperor Rudolf II. On Rudolf's death (1612) he worked for the emperor Matthias . His paintings, featuring elegant, elongated figures, are—like those of his colleague Bartholomeus
Spranger
—leading examples of the sophisticated
Mannerist
art then in vogue at the courts of Northern Europe, and he was particularly good with playfully erotic nudes (
The Triumph of Truth
, Alte Pinakothek, Munich, 1598). Engravings after his work gave his style wide influence and he ranks as one of the most important German artists of his time.
Aaltonen , Wäinö
(1894–1966).
Finnish sculptor, the personification of the patriotic spirit of his country in the years following the declaration of independence from Russia (1917). The bronze monument to the runner Paavo Nurmi (1925) outside the athletics stadium in Helsinki and the bust of the composer Sibelius (1928, various casts exist) are among his portrayals of national heroes.
Abbate , Niccolò dell'
(
c.
1510–71).
Italian
Mannerist
painter. He trained in his birthplace, Modena, and developed his mature style in Bologna, where he worked from 1547 to 1552, mainly on the fresco deceration of palaces. In this work he combined stucco with figure compositions and landscapes (the best surviving examples are at the Palazzo Pozzi, now Palazzo dell' Università). His elegant figure style was influenced particularly by
Parmigianino
. He was invited to France in 1552, probably at the suggestion of
Primaticcio
, under whom he worked at
Fontainebleau
, and he remained in France for the rest of his life. Most of his work in the palace itself has been lost, and he is now considered most important for his landscapes with figures from mythological stories (
Landscape with the Death of Eurydice
, NG, London). In these he was the direct precursor of
Claude
and
Poussin
in the long-lived tradition of French classical landscape. Niccolò also painted portraits in both Italy and France.

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