The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (124 page)

 
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(active 1457–93).
Italian painter. He was born in Venice and always signed himself as a Venetian, but he spent most of his career working in the Marches, particularly at Ascoli Piceno, and he also lived for some time at Zara in Dalmatia (now in Croatia). His paintings are all of religious subjects, done in an elaborate, old-fashioned style that owes much to the wiry Paduan tradition of
Squarcione
and
Mantegna
and yet is highly distinctive. Their dense ornamentation is often increased by the use of
gesso
decoration combined with the paint. The finest collection of his works is in the National Gallery in London and includes the delightful and much reproduced
Annunciation
(1486).
Vittore Crivelli
(d. 1501/2), probably Carlo's brother, was a faithful but pedestrian follower.

 
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(1768–1821).
English landscape painter and etcher, with
Cotman
the major artist of the
Norwich School
. He was born, worked, and died in Norwich and his only journey abroad was to Paris in 1814 to see the exhibition of the pictures which had been seized by Napoleon . Of humble origin, he was first apprenticed to a coach-and-sign painter and taught himself principally by copying works in the collection of Thomas Harvey of Catton, a collector and amateur painter who befriended him. The Dutch masters
Ruisdael
and
Hobbema
were particularly influential on his work and he also admired
Gainsborough
and
Wilson
. He earned a major part of his living as a drawing master. Together with Wilson , Crome represents the transition from the 18th-cent.
Picturesque
tradition to the
Romantic
conception of landscape. His finest paintings, such as
The Poringland Oak
(Tate, London,
c.
1818), are marked by a broad handling of the paint, a bold realization of space, and keen appreciation of local characteristics.
As an etcher Crome's accomplishment was modest, and during his life he never published his plates: they were published by his widow and his eldest son
John Bernay Crome
(1794–1842), 13 years after his death. The elder Crome is sometimes referred to as ‘Old Crome’ to distinguish him from his son, who painted in his manner but with inferior talent.

 
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(1825–96).
English journalist, diplomat, and art historian. He had a distinguished career as a commercial attaché in Berlin, Paris, and Vienna and was also a war correspondent in the Crimea and elsewhere, but he is best known for his writings on art history done in collaboration with the Italian painter Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle (1819–97). They met by chance in 1847 and became firm friends when Cavalcaselle was later a political refugee in London; for a time they lived in the same house. Every detail of their books was discussed between them, but Crowe did all the actual writing because Cavalcaselle's English was inadequate. Their prodigious output included
The Early Flemish Painters
(1857),
A New History of Painting in Italy
(3 vols., 1864–8),
A History of Painting in North Italy
(2 vols., 1871),
Titian: His Life and Times
(2 vols., 1877) and Raphael:
His Life and Works
(2 vols., 1882). These works, all of which have appeared in subsequent editions, either in English or translation, set new standards of methodical research, bringing to light masses of new information, and they are still considered valuable.

 
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(1792–1878).
English painter, illustrator, and
caricaturist
. The son of a caricaturist,
Isaac Cruikshank
(1756?–1811?), he was highly precocious and quickly established himself in succession to
Gillray
as the most eminent political cartoonist of his day. The private life of the Prince Regent (later George IV) was one of his first targets. He began to turn to book illustration in the 1820s and his output was immense. In later life he took up the cause of temperance, producing moral narratives in
woodcut
(
The Bottle
, 1847;
The Drunkard's Children
, 1848) and a vast painting
The Worship of Bacchus
(Tate, London, 1860–2). His brother,
Isaac Robert Cruikshank
(1789–1856), was a
miniaturist
and caricaturist.

 
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