The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (202 page)

(
c.
1485–1527/8).
Swiss graphic artist, designer, and goldsmith, active mainly in Basle. He is best known for his drawings, which survive in considerable number, often signed and dated. They are done in a bold and energetic style, with virtuoso curling strokes of the pen; favourite subjects are soldiers (Graf himself spent some time as a mercenary in Italy), peasants, and flamboyantly dressed ladies of easy virtue. Graf also designed stained glass, made woodcuts, and executed the earliest extant dated etchings (1513).

 
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Graffiti art
.

A style of painting based on the type of spray-can vandalism familiar in cities all over the world and specifically in the New York subway system; the term can apply to any work in this vein, but refers particularly to a vogue in New York in the 1980s (several commercial galleries specialized in it at this time and a Museum of American Graffiti opened there in 1989). The best-known figures of Graffiti art are Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–88) and Keith Haring (1958–90), both of whom enjoyed absurdly inflated reputations (and prices) during their brief careers, which were ended for Basquiat by a drugs overdose and for Haring by AIDS. Basquiat was a genuine street artist who ‘crossed over’ into the gallery world; Haring had an art school training but adopted a primitivistic style based on graffiti. Robert
Hughes
referred to them as ‘Keith Boring and Jean-Michel Basketcase ’.

 
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Grand Manner
.

Term applied to the lofty and rhetorical manner of
history painting
that in academic theory was considered appropriate to the most serious and elevated subjects. The classic exposition of its doctrines is found in
Reynolds's
Third and Fourth
Discourses
(1770 and 1771), where he asserts that ‘the
gusto grande
of the Italians, the
beau idéal
of the French, and the
great style, genius
, and
taste
among the English, are but different appellations of the same thing’. Cecil Gould (
An Introduction to Italian Renaissance Painting
, 1957) rightly points out that ‘the Grand Manner is an attitude rather than a style’ and goes on to give a lucid account of some of its characteristics. ‘The general aim is to transcend Nature… The Subject itself must be on an elevated and elevating plane… Similarly, the individual figures in such a scene must be shown purged of the grosser elements of ordinary existence… Landscape backgrounds or ornamental detail must be reduced to a minimum and individual peculiarities of human physiognomy absolutely eleminated. Draperies should be simple, but ample and noble, and fashionable contemporary costume absolutely shunned. Alternatively, the figures should be nude.’ The idea of the Grand Manner took shape in 17th-cent. Italy, notably in the writings of
Bellori
. His friend
Poussin
and the great Bolognese painters of the 17th cent. were regarded as outstanding exponents of the Grand Manner, but the greatest of all was held to be
Raphael
.

 
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Grand Tour
.

An extensive journey to the Continent, chiefly to France, the Netherlands, and above all Italy, sometimes in the company of a tutor, that became a conventional feature in the education of the English gentleman in the 18th cent. Such tours often took a year or more. The practice reflects Dr Johnson's pronouncement (1776) that ‘A man who has not been in Italy is always conscious of an inferiority.’ It had a noticeable effect in bringing a more cosmopolitan spirit to the taste of connoisseurs and laid the basis for many collections among the landed gentry. It also helped the spread of the fashion for
Neoclassicism
and an enthusiasm for Italian painting. Among the native artists who catered for this demand were
Batoni
,
Canaletto
,
Panini
, and
Piranesi
, and British artists (such as
Nollekens
) were sometimes able to support themselves while in Italy by working for the dealers and restorers who supplied the tourist clientele. There was also a flourishing market in guide books (see
RICHARDSON
).

 
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(1775–1849).
French painter. Granet was a pupil of J.-L.
David
and subsequently spent the years 1802–19 in Rome. He made a speciality of sombre tonal effects and changing light in dimly lit interiors, his highly individualistic style recalling Dutch interiors rather than the
Neoclassical
tradition in which he was trained. His
Choir of the Capuchin Church in Rome
was exhibited at the 1819
Salon
with such success that he made sixteen replicas of it. Granet also painted Italian landscapes, constructed with firm, cubic volumes in which some critics have seen a foreshadowing of
Cézanne
. In 1826 he became curator of the
Louvre
Museum and was made Keeper of Pictures at Versailles in 1830. During the Revolution of 1848 he retired to his native Aixen-Provence, where he founded the museum which bears his name. It contains a celebrated portrait of him by
Ingres
.

 
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