The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (429 page)

(1588–1660).
The leading French sculptor of the mid-17th cent. He was in Rome 1610–
c.
1627, during which time he formed his style on the example of the
antique
and
classicizing
artists such as
Domenichino
and
Duquesnoy
. On his return to Paris he established himself as head of his profession, running an important workshop through which passed many of the leading sculptors of the following generation (those who worked at Versailles). Much of Sarrazin's best work was done as architectural decoration, the finest example being his
caryatids
(1641) on the Pavillon de l'Horloge at the
Louvre
. Sarrazin also supervised the decoration (1652–60) of the Château de Maisons, the masterpiece of François Mansart, the greatest French architect of the 17th cent. Although it does not rank on the same level, Sarrazin's dignified work forms a kind of sculptural parallel to the architecture of Mansart or the paintings of
Poussin
.

 
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(1392?–1450).
With
Giovanni di Paolo
the outstanding Sienese painter of the 15th cent. His work continues Sienese tradition in its beautiful colouring and elegant line, but he was also influenced by the
International Gothic
style and by contemporary Florentine developments, combining them into a highly personal manner expressive of his mystical imagination. His most important work was the St Francis altarpiece (1437–44) painted for the church of S. Francesco at Borgo San Sepolcro and now dispersed. The central panel,
St Francis in Ecstasy
(Berenson Coll., Florence), has a monumental dignity that must have impressed
Piero della Francesca
(a native of Borgo), and some of the other panels (seven are in the National Gallery, London) show him at his most lyrical.

 
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(1609–85).
Italian painter, known by the name of his town of birth—Sassoferrato—and active in nearby Urbino and other cities of central Italy, notably Rome (where he was a pupil of
Domenichino
) and Perugia. He did some portraits, but specialized in religious works painted in an extremely sweet, almost
Peruginesque
style. They are very clearly drawn and pure in colouring and totally un-
Baroque
in feeling—indeed, they have a deliberately archaic quality that brings the paintings of the
Nazarenes
to mind. Little is known of his life (in the 18th cent. it was evidently generally believed he was a contemporary of
Raphael
) and few of his pictures are dated or datable; they seem to have been in great demand, however, as his compositions often exist in numerous very similar versions. Most of them were presumably done for private collectors, as few are in churches. Examples of his work are in many galleries (for example, the National Gallery and Wallace Coll., London), and a fine collection of his drawings (virtually his entire surviving output as a draughtsman) is in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle.

 
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(1930– ).
Spanish painter. He was self-taught and began painting during a long illness in 1947. During two years in Paris, 1953–5, he made contact with members of the
Surrealist
movement, including André
Breton
. After his return to Spain, however, Saura quickly abandoned Surrealism and worked in a semi-abstract
expressionist
vein, his powerful, stormy, and thickly textured figures creating a feeling of tortured humanity (
Great Crucifixion
, Boymans Mus., Rotterdam, 1963). His work has been seen as one of the most forceful protests against the Franco regime.

 
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(1576?–1639).
Flemish painter and etcher of landscapes, animal subjects, and still life, the best-known member of a family of artists. He was born in Cambrai, grew up in Amsterdam, and in 1619 settled in Utrecht, but he is best known for his association with Prague, where he worked for the emperor Rudolf II from 1603 to 1613. Rudolf's famous menagerie allowed him to study in detail the exotic animals that became the trademark of his work. He painted and drew creatures such as pelicans, ostriches, camels, and the now extinct dodo, and was one of the first artists in the Netherlands to do pictures of animals alone. His favourite subjects, however, were Orpheus and the Garden of Eden, which allowed him to include any number of colourful beasts. Savery's bright and highly finished style is similar to that of Jan ‘Velvet’
Brueghel
, but is somewhat more archaic. His rare flower paintings are sometimes of outstanding quality, and with
Bosschaert
he was an influential Flemish exponent of this genre in Holland.
Houbraken
says that Savery died insane.

 
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