The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (282 page)
Read The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists Online
Authors: Ian Chilvers
Lorrain , Claude
.
.
Lotto , Lorenzo
(
c.
1480–1556/7).
Venetian painter. According to
Vasari
and
Ridolfi
, he trained with
Giorgione
and
Titian
in the studio of Giovanni
Bellini
, but he worked in many places apart from Venice, had an idiosyncratic style, and stands somewhat apart from the central Venetian tradition. In 1508–12 he was in Rome, then lived mainly in Bergamo until 1526, when he returned to Venice. From 1530 he worked mainly in various towns in the Marches, and in 1554, when he was partially blind, he became a lay-brother at the monastery at Loreto, where he died. His rootless existence reflects his anxious, difficult temperament and his work is extremely uneven. It draws on a wide variety of sources, from Northern Europe as well as Italy, but at the same time shows acute freshness of observation. He is now perhaps best known for his portraits, in which he often conveys a mood of psychological unrest (
Young Man in his Study
, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), but he worked mainly as a religious painter. An outstanding example of how original and poetic his altarpieces could be is
The Annunciation
in the church of Sta Maria sopra Mercanti at Recanati—a bizarre and captivating work full of brilliant colours and lighting effects, odd expressions and poses, and unusual and beautifully painted details, including a startled cat.
c.
1480–1556/7).
Venetian painter. According to
Vasari
and
Ridolfi
, he trained with
Giorgione
and
Titian
in the studio of Giovanni
Bellini
, but he worked in many places apart from Venice, had an idiosyncratic style, and stands somewhat apart from the central Venetian tradition. In 1508–12 he was in Rome, then lived mainly in Bergamo until 1526, when he returned to Venice. From 1530 he worked mainly in various towns in the Marches, and in 1554, when he was partially blind, he became a lay-brother at the monastery at Loreto, where he died. His rootless existence reflects his anxious, difficult temperament and his work is extremely uneven. It draws on a wide variety of sources, from Northern Europe as well as Italy, but at the same time shows acute freshness of observation. He is now perhaps best known for his portraits, in which he often conveys a mood of psychological unrest (
Young Man in his Study
, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), but he worked mainly as a religious painter. An outstanding example of how original and poetic his altarpieces could be is
The Annunciation
in the church of Sta Maria sopra Mercanti at Recanati—a bizarre and captivating work full of brilliant colours and lighting effects, odd expressions and poses, and unusual and beautifully painted details, including a startled cat.
Louis , Morris
(Morris Louis Bernstein )
(Morris Louis Bernstein )
(1912–62).
American painter, a major pioneer of the movement from
Abstract Expressionism
to Colour Stain painting (see
COLOUR FIELD PAINTING
). Almost all his career was spent first in Baltimore and then from 1947 in nearby Washington. He isolated himself from the New York art world, concentrating on his own experiments and supporting himself by teaching. However, it was a visit to New York in 1953 with Kenneth
Noland
that led to the breakthrough in his art. He and Noland went to Helen
Frankenthaler's
studio, where they were immensely impressed by her painting
Mountains and Sea
, and Louis immediately began experimenting with her technique of applying liquid paint on to unprimed canvas, allowing it to flow over and soak into the canvas so that it acted as a stain and not as an overlaid surface of pigment. He was secretive about his technical methods and it is uncertain how he achieved his control over the flow of colour, but towards the end of his life he suffered from chronic back problems caused by his constant bending and stooping over the canvas. Whatever his technique, the effect was to create suave and radiant flushes of colour, with no sense of brush gesture or hint of figuration. His method was exacting, allowing no possibility for alteration or modification. For this reason, perhaps, Louis destroyed much of his work of this period.
Louis painted various series of pictures in his new technique, the first of which was
Veils
(1954; he did another series in 1957–60). The other major series were
Florals
(1959–60),
Unfurleds
(1960–1), and
Stripes
(1961–2). The
Veils
consist of subtly billowing and overlapping shapes filling almost the entire canvas, but his development after that was towards rivulets of colour arranged in rainbow-like bands, often on a predominantly bare canvas. It was not until 1959 that his career began to take off and he had little time to enjoy his success before dying of lung cancer. However, his reputation now stands very high and he has had enormous influence on the development of Colour Stain painting. In the introduction to the catalogue of the 1974 Arts Council exhibition of his work, John Elderfield wrote: ‘Morris Louis is one of the very few artists whose work has really changed the course of painting…With Louis, fully autonomous abstract painting came into its own for really the first time, and did so in paintings of a quality that matches the level of their innovation.’
American painter, a major pioneer of the movement from
Abstract Expressionism
to Colour Stain painting (see
COLOUR FIELD PAINTING
). Almost all his career was spent first in Baltimore and then from 1947 in nearby Washington. He isolated himself from the New York art world, concentrating on his own experiments and supporting himself by teaching. However, it was a visit to New York in 1953 with Kenneth
Noland
that led to the breakthrough in his art. He and Noland went to Helen
Frankenthaler's
studio, where they were immensely impressed by her painting
Mountains and Sea
, and Louis immediately began experimenting with her technique of applying liquid paint on to unprimed canvas, allowing it to flow over and soak into the canvas so that it acted as a stain and not as an overlaid surface of pigment. He was secretive about his technical methods and it is uncertain how he achieved his control over the flow of colour, but towards the end of his life he suffered from chronic back problems caused by his constant bending and stooping over the canvas. Whatever his technique, the effect was to create suave and radiant flushes of colour, with no sense of brush gesture or hint of figuration. His method was exacting, allowing no possibility for alteration or modification. For this reason, perhaps, Louis destroyed much of his work of this period.
Louis painted various series of pictures in his new technique, the first of which was
Veils
(1954; he did another series in 1957–60). The other major series were
Florals
(1959–60),
Unfurleds
(1960–1), and
Stripes
(1961–2). The
Veils
consist of subtly billowing and overlapping shapes filling almost the entire canvas, but his development after that was towards rivulets of colour arranged in rainbow-like bands, often on a predominantly bare canvas. It was not until 1959 that his career began to take off and he had little time to enjoy his success before dying of lung cancer. However, his reputation now stands very high and he has had enormous influence on the development of Colour Stain painting. In the introduction to the catalogue of the 1974 Arts Council exhibition of his work, John Elderfield wrote: ‘Morris Louis is one of the very few artists whose work has really changed the course of painting…With Louis, fully autonomous abstract painting came into its own for really the first time, and did so in paintings of a quality that matches the level of their innovation.’
Louvre
, Paris.
, Paris.
The national museum and art gallery of France, an epitome of the nation's history and culture. The first building on the site, begun
c.
1190 by Philip-Augustus as a fortress and arsenal, held the royal treasures of jewels, armour, illuminated manuscripts, etc. It was enlarged and beautified by Charles V (reigned 1364–80), and his successor Charles VI used it as a residence for visiting royalty. Francis I began to demolish it in the 1520s and in 1546 commissioned the architect Pierre Lescot to build a new palace of four wings around a square court, roughly of the same size as the old castle and on the same site. Only the west and half of the south wings were completed by Lescot , but his work forms the heart of the present vast structure, and his elegant and sophisticated
classical
style set the tone for all the future additions, which were made by virtually every French monarch up to Napoleon III. Under Louis XIV the royal collection increased from some 200 pictures to over 2,000. In support of the policy for state control of the arts and taste, some of the king's pictures were opened to public view in the Louvre from 1681 and the exhibitions of the new Académie were held there from 1673. The court had moved into the Louvre in 1652, but it transferred to Versailles in 1678. Under Louis XVI the conversion of the Grande Galerie into a museum was begun and as a result of the democratic fervour incidental to the Revolution the Louvre was opened as the first national public gallery in 1793 (though as a public gallery it was preceded by others, including the
Ashmolean
in Oxford and the
Vatican
). Napoleon renamed the Louvre the Musée Napoléon in 1803 and exhibited there the works of art he had gathered from conquered territories. Most were restored after his fall from power. The Louvre was reopened by Napoleon III in 1851 with the addition of the
Rubens's
Medici cycle from the Luxembourg Palace. In addition to one of the world's greatest collections of paintings, the Louvre houses many other treasures, including large holdings of Greek and Roman antiquities. Among the famous ancient statues are the
Borghese Warrior
, the
Venus de Milo
, and the
Victory of Samothrace
. To relieve congestion after the Second World War a special museum for Impressionist art was formed at the Jeu de Paume in the gardens of the Tuileries. The paintings from the Jeu de Paume, together with certain other works from the Louvre, have now been moved to the Musée d'Orsay in Paris (opened 1986), which is devoted to the art of the late 19th cent.,
c.
1848–
c.
1905.
c.
1190 by Philip-Augustus as a fortress and arsenal, held the royal treasures of jewels, armour, illuminated manuscripts, etc. It was enlarged and beautified by Charles V (reigned 1364–80), and his successor Charles VI used it as a residence for visiting royalty. Francis I began to demolish it in the 1520s and in 1546 commissioned the architect Pierre Lescot to build a new palace of four wings around a square court, roughly of the same size as the old castle and on the same site. Only the west and half of the south wings were completed by Lescot , but his work forms the heart of the present vast structure, and his elegant and sophisticated
classical
style set the tone for all the future additions, which were made by virtually every French monarch up to Napoleon III. Under Louis XIV the royal collection increased from some 200 pictures to over 2,000. In support of the policy for state control of the arts and taste, some of the king's pictures were opened to public view in the Louvre from 1681 and the exhibitions of the new Académie were held there from 1673. The court had moved into the Louvre in 1652, but it transferred to Versailles in 1678. Under Louis XVI the conversion of the Grande Galerie into a museum was begun and as a result of the democratic fervour incidental to the Revolution the Louvre was opened as the first national public gallery in 1793 (though as a public gallery it was preceded by others, including the
Ashmolean
in Oxford and the
Vatican
). Napoleon renamed the Louvre the Musée Napoléon in 1803 and exhibited there the works of art he had gathered from conquered territories. Most were restored after his fall from power. The Louvre was reopened by Napoleon III in 1851 with the addition of the
Rubens's
Medici cycle from the Luxembourg Palace. In addition to one of the world's greatest collections of paintings, the Louvre houses many other treasures, including large holdings of Greek and Roman antiquities. Among the famous ancient statues are the
Borghese Warrior
, the
Venus de Milo
, and the
Victory of Samothrace
. To relieve congestion after the Second World War a special museum for Impressionist art was formed at the Jeu de Paume in the gardens of the Tuileries. The paintings from the Jeu de Paume, together with certain other works from the Louvre, have now been moved to the Musée d'Orsay in Paris (opened 1986), which is devoted to the art of the late 19th cent.,
c.
1848–
c.
1905.
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