Frieze of Parnassus
Encyclopedia
The Frieze of Parnassus is a large sculpted stone frieze
encircling the podium, or base, of the Albert Memorial
in London, England. The Albert Memorial was constructed in the 1860s in memory of Prince Albert
, the husband of Queen Victoria.
The frieze is named after Mount Parnassus
, the favorite resting place in Ancient Greek mythology for the muses. It contains 169 life-size full-length sculptures, a mixture of low-relief and high-relief, of individual composers, architects, poets, painters, and sculptors from history. The depictions of earlier figures necessarily, were imaginary, although many of the figures were based on materials contained in a collection of artworks and drawings gathered for the purpose of ensuring authentic depictions, where this was possible.
The total length of the frieze is approximately 210 feet. The frieze was intended to be the 'soul' of the memorial, and the memorial's designer, George Gilbert Scott
, stated that he was inspired by the Hémicycle des Beaux Arts by Hippolyte Delaroche
. The memorial was not laid out precisely to directions of the compass
, however, closely enough that the sides are referred to by direction. Musicians and poets were placed on the south side, with painters on the east side, sculptors on the west side, and architects on the north side.
Henry Hugh Armstead
carved the figures on the south and east sides, the painters, musicians, and poets (80 in total), and grouped them by national schools. John Birnie Philip
carved the figures on the west and north sides, the sculptors and architects (89 named figures, plus two generic figures), and arranged them in chronological order.
The carving was executed in situ
, and was said by Scott to be "perhaps one of the most laborious works of sculpture ever undertaken". The initial contracts, agreed around 1864, had specified that the work was to be completed in four years for £7,781 15s. The eventual cost, however, exceeded this by some £2,000 and the work was not finished until 1872.
Large groups of figures of eminent persons from the past often decorate public buildings and monuments of the later nineteenth century, and some buildings such as the Walhalla temple
in Bavaria
and the Panthéon in Paris
were dedicated to this purpose. Many figures of visual artists decorate the Victoria and Albert Museum
close to the Albert Memorial at the other end of the "Albertopolis
" complex. A mosaic
frieze of more generalised figures from the arts runs round the circular Royal Albert Hall
adjacent to the memorial. The Parnassus
by Raphael
(1511), opposite the philosophers of The School of Athens
in the Vatican
Raphael Rooms
, is an earlier group portrait of great artists.
The selection of figures reflects contemporary thinking, although even by the taste of the 1860s it seems odd to omit Schubert, then considered rather lightweight, whilst including Daniel Auber
and Grétry
.
Among the painters, a classical tradition predominates to the extent that there is no hint of Mannerism
in the sixteenth century and Giulio Romano
is omitted, nor is there any reference to Rococo
taste, where a modern list would include Antoine Watteau
and François Boucher
. The painters represented in the frieze reflect to some extent, Albert's own taste for the "Primitives" of the late Middle Ages
, although Duccio
is absent. Botticelli and Vermeer were yet to be rediscovered, and El Greco
, Caravaggio
, and Goya, who would all figure in a modern canon, mostly were regarded with suspicion.
No English poet after John Milton
was featured. Among the architects, the figure of Nitocris
, the only figure representing a woman on the frieze, may have been selected because it was at one time thought that she was the pharaoh responsible for the pyramid now credited to Menkaura
.
Other figures commemorated elsewhere on the Albert Memorial, on the canopy mosaics, but not on the frieze, are Apelles
(painting), King Solomon (architecture) and King David (poetry). The preferred south side of the memorial, being the direction in which Albert's statue faces, is populated by poets and musicians, with poets at the centre in accordance with the Victorian concept of poetry as the highest of the arts.
The arrangement of the other groups also reflects this Victorian thinking, with the fine arts of the sculptors and painters on the east and west sides, joining a spiritual side on the south (the poets and musicians) and a material side on the north (the architects). At least three of the sides also have a central, pre-eminent figure seated on a throne, with Homer
for the poets, Raphael
for the painters, and Michelangelo
for the sculptors.
Scott originally intended the last of the architects depicted in full to be himself, however, after all the other characters had been chosen, he realised he'd forgotten Pugin, the great genius of the Victorian Gothic Revival. So Scott replaced his own statue with Pugin's, and then placed himself as a relief head, looking over Pugin's shoulder.
being depicted as bald, the phorminx
(lyre) being held by the bard Homer
, William Hogarth
's dog, Paolo Veronese
's hand resting on a greyhound, Daniel Auber
's right arm in a sling, the building models held by William of Wykeham
and Jean de Chelles
, the model of Trajan's Column
held by Apollodorus of Damascus
, the object held by Hiram
, the sculptures held by Dibutades and Phidias
, Ghiberti
leaning on a panel, the sculptures being held by Donatello
and Michelangelo
, and the statue being admired by the group to the right of Cellini.
Authentic period detail also is seen in much of the clothing, the details of facial hair, furniture, and accessories, including scrolls, books, swords, and palettes. The figures are posed, either in isolation or in groups, with some figures facing each other in poses of admiration or engaged deeply in conversation.
Frieze
thumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
encircling the podium, or base, of the Albert Memorial
Albert Memorial
The Albert Memorial is situated in Kensington Gardens, London, England, directly to the north of the Royal Albert Hall. It was commissioned by Queen Victoria in memory of her beloved husband, Prince Albert who died of typhoid in 1861. The memorial was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the...
in London, England. The Albert Memorial was constructed in the 1860s in memory of Prince Albert
Prince Albert
Prince Albert was the husband and consort of Queen Victoria.Prince Albert may also refer to:-Royalty:*Prince Albert Edward or Edward VII of the United Kingdom , son of Albert and Victoria...
, the husband of Queen Victoria.
The frieze is named after Mount Parnassus
Mount Parnassus
Mount Parnassus, also Parnassos , is a mountain of limestone in central Greece that towers above Delphi, north of the Gulf of Corinth, and offers scenic views of the surrounding olive groves and countryside. According to Greek mythology, this mountain was sacred to Apollo and the Corycian nymphs,...
, the favorite resting place in Ancient Greek mythology for the muses. It contains 169 life-size full-length sculptures, a mixture of low-relief and high-relief, of individual composers, architects, poets, painters, and sculptors from history. The depictions of earlier figures necessarily, were imaginary, although many of the figures were based on materials contained in a collection of artworks and drawings gathered for the purpose of ensuring authentic depictions, where this was possible.
The total length of the frieze is approximately 210 feet. The frieze was intended to be the 'soul' of the memorial, and the memorial's designer, George Gilbert Scott
George Gilbert Scott
Sir George Gilbert Scott was an English architect of the Victorian Age, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches, cathedrals and workhouses...
, stated that he was inspired by the Hémicycle des Beaux Arts by Hippolyte Delaroche
Hippolyte Delaroche
Hippolyte Delaroche , commonly known as Paul Delaroche, was a French painter born in Paris. Delaroche was born into a wealthy family and was trained by Antoine-Jean, Baron Gros, who then painted life-size histories and had many students.The first Delaroche picture exhibited was the large Josabeth...
. The memorial was not laid out precisely to directions of the compass
Compass
A compass is a navigational instrument that shows directions in a frame of reference that is stationary relative to the surface of the earth. The frame of reference defines the four cardinal directions – north, south, east, and west. Intermediate directions are also defined...
, however, closely enough that the sides are referred to by direction. Musicians and poets were placed on the south side, with painters on the east side, sculptors on the west side, and architects on the north side.
Henry Hugh Armstead
Henry Hugh Armstead
Henry Hugh Armstead was an English sculptor and illustrator, influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites.-Life:...
carved the figures on the south and east sides, the painters, musicians, and poets (80 in total), and grouped them by national schools. John Birnie Philip
John Birnie Philip
.John Birnie Philip was a notable English sculptor of the 19th century.He studied at the Government School of Design at Somerset House in London under John Rogers Herbert, and then at Herbert's own newly opened school in Maddox Street. He worked in Pugin's wood carving workshop at the Palace of...
carved the figures on the west and north sides, the sculptors and architects (89 named figures, plus two generic figures), and arranged them in chronological order.
The carving was executed in situ
In situ
In situ is a Latin phrase which translated literally as 'In position'. It is used in many different contexts.-Aerospace:In the aerospace industry, equipment on board aircraft must be tested in situ, or in place, to confirm everything functions properly as a system. Individually, each piece may...
, and was said by Scott to be "perhaps one of the most laborious works of sculpture ever undertaken". The initial contracts, agreed around 1864, had specified that the work was to be completed in four years for £7,781 15s. The eventual cost, however, exceeded this by some £2,000 and the work was not finished until 1872.
Large groups of figures of eminent persons from the past often decorate public buildings and monuments of the later nineteenth century, and some buildings such as the Walhalla temple
Walhalla temple
The Walhalla temple is a hall of fame that honors laudable and distinguished Germans, famous personalities in German history — politicians, sovereigns, scientists and artists of the German tongue". The hall is housed in a neo-classical building above the Danube River, east of Regensburg, in...
in Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
and the Panthéon in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
were dedicated to this purpose. Many figures of visual artists decorate the Victoria and Albert Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
close to the Albert Memorial at the other end of the "Albertopolis
Albertopolis
Albertopolis is the area centred on South Kensington, Kensington & Chelsea, London, England, between Cromwell Road and Kensington Gore, which contains a large number of educational and cultural sites, including:*Imperial College London...
" complex. A mosaic
Mosaic
Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...
frieze of more generalised figures from the arts runs round the circular Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
adjacent to the memorial. The Parnassus
The Parnassus
The Parnassus is a painting by the Italian renaissance artist Raphael.-Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican Palace:Pope Julius II commissioned Raphael to decorate with frescoes the rooms that are now known as the Stanze di Raffaello, in the Palace of the Vatican...
by Raphael
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino , better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur...
(1511), opposite the philosophers of The School of Athens
The School of Athens
The School of Athens, or in Italian, is one of the most famous paintings by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael. It was painted between 1510 and 1511 as a part of Raphael's commission to decorate with frescoes the rooms now known as the , in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican...
in the Vatican
Vatican Museums
The Vatican Museums , in Viale Vaticano in Rome, inside the Vatican City, are among the greatest museums in the world, since they display works from the immense collection built up by the Roman Catholic Church throughout the centuries, including some of the most renowned classical sculptures and...
Raphael Rooms
Raphael Rooms
The four Stanze di Raffaello in the Palace of the Vatican form a suite of reception rooms, the public part of the papal apartments. They are famous for their frescoes, painted by Raphael and his workshop...
, is an earlier group portrait of great artists.
List of figures
| Side | Group | Inscription | Official history | Identification | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South | Musicians | AUBER | D. E. F. Auber | Daniel Auber Daniel Auber Daniel François Esprit Auber was a French composer.-Biography:The son of a Paris print-seller, Auber was born in Caen in Normandy. Though his father expected him to continue in the print-selling business, he also allowed his son to learn how to play several musical instruments... |
|
| South | Musicians | MEHUL | E. H. Mehul | Étienne Méhul Étienne Méhul Etienne Nicolas Méhul was a French composer, "the most important opera composer in France during the Revolution." He was also the first composer to be called a "Romantic".-Life:... |
|
| South | Musicians | RAMEAU | J. P. Rameau | Jean-Philippe Rameau Jean-Philippe Rameau Jean-Philippe Rameau was one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the Baroque era. He replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera and is also considered the leading French composer for the harpsichord of his time, alongside François... |
|
| South | Musicians | LULLI | J. B. Lulli | Jean-Baptiste Lully Jean-Baptiste Lully Jean-Baptiste de Lully was an Italian-born French composer who spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. He is considered the chief master of the French Baroque style. Lully disavowed any Italian influence in French music of the period. He became a French subject in... |
|
| South | Musicians | GRETRY | A. E. M. Gretry | André Ernest Modeste Grétry André Ernest Modeste Grétry André Ernest Modeste Grétry was acomposer from the Prince-Bishopric of Liège , who worked from 1767 onwards in France and took French nationality. He is most famous for his opéras comiques.... |
|
| South | Musicians | JOSQUIN-DES-PRES | Jasquin Des Pres | Josquin des Prez Josquin Des Prez Josquin des Prez [Josquin Lebloitte dit Desprez] , often referred to simply as Josquin, was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance... |
|
| South | Musicians | ROSSINI | G. Rossini | Gioachino Rossini | |
| South | Musicians | MONTEVERDE | C. Monteverde | Claudio Monteverdi Claudio Monteverdi Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, gambist, and singer.Monteverdi's work, often regarded as revolutionary, marked the transition from the Renaissance style of music to that of the Baroque period. He developed two individual styles of composition – the... |
|
| South | Musicians | CARISSIMI | G. Carissimi | Giacomo Carissimi Giacomo Carissimi Giacomo Carissimi was an Italian composer, one of the most celebrated masters of the early Baroque, or, more accurately, the Roman School of music.-Biography:... |
|
| South | Musicians | PALESTRINA | G. P. A. de Palestrina | Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was an Italian Renaissance composer of sacred music and the best-known 16th-century representative of the Roman School of musical composition... |
|
| South | Musicians | GUIDO D'AREZZO | Guido | Guido of Arezzo Guido of Arezzo Guido of Arezzo or Guido Aretinus or Guido da Arezzo or Guido Monaco or Guido d'Arezzo was a music theorist of the Medieval era... |
|
| South | Musicians | ST AMBROSE | St Ambrose | Ambrose Ambrose Aurelius Ambrosius, better known in English as Saint Ambrose , was a bishop of Milan who became one of the most influential ecclesiastical figures of the 4th century. He was one of the four original doctors of the Church.-Political career:Ambrose was born into a Roman Christian family between about... |
|
| South | Poets | CORNEILLE | P. Corneille | Pierre Corneille Pierre Corneille Pierre Corneille was a French tragedian who was one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine... |
|
| South | Poets | MOLIERE | Molière | Molière Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature... |
|
| South | Poets | CERVANTES | Cervantes | Miguel de Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel, is a classic of Western literature, and is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever written... |
|
| South | Poets | VIRGIL | Virgil | Virgil Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid... |
|
| South | Poets | DANTE | Dante | Dante Alighieri Dante Alighieri Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ... |
|
| South | Poets | PYTHAGORAS | Pythagoras | Pythagoras Pythagoras Pythagoras of Samos was an Ionian Greek philosopher, mathematician, and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. Most of the information about Pythagoras was written down centuries after he lived, so very little reliable information is known about him... |
|
| South | Poets | HOMER | Homer | Homer Homer In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is... |
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| South | Poets | CHAUCER | G. Chaucer | Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer , known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey... |
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| South | Poets | SHAKESPEARE | W. Shakespeare | William Shakespeare William Shakespeare William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"... |
|
| South | Poets | MILTON | J. Milton | John Milton John Milton John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell... |
|
| South | Poets | GOETHE | Goethe | Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long... |
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| South | Poets | SCHILLER | Schiller | Friedrich Schiller Friedrich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life , Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe... |
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| South | Musicians | BACH | Bach | Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity... |
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| South | Musicians | GLUCK | Gluck | Christoph Willibald Gluck Christoph Willibald Gluck Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck was an opera composer of the early classical period. After many years at the Habsburg court at Vienna, Gluck brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices that many intellectuals had been campaigning for over the years... |
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| South | Musicians | HANDEL | Handel | George Frideric Handel George Frideric Handel George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music... |
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| South | Musicians | MOZART | Mozart | Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music... |
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| South | Musicians | MENDELSSOHN | Mendelssohn | Felix Mendelssohn Felix Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text... |
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| South | Musicians | HAYDN | Haydn | Joseph Haydn Joseph Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms... |
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| South | Musicians | WEBER | Weber | Carl Maria von Weber Carl Maria von Weber Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school.... |
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| South | Musicians | BEETHOVEN | Beethoven | Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of... |
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| South | Musicians | TALLIS | T. Tallis | Thomas Tallis Thomas Tallis Thomas Tallis was an English composer. Tallis flourished as a church musician in 16th century Tudor England. He occupies a primary place in anthologies of English church music, and is considered among the best of England's early composers. He is honoured for his original voice in English... |
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| South | Musicians | O. GIBBONS | O. Gibbons | Orlando Gibbons Orlando Gibbons Orlando Gibbons was an English composer, virginalist and organist of the late Tudor and early Jacobean periods... |
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| South | Musicians | LAWES | H. Lawes | Henry Lawes Henry Lawes Henry Lawes was an English musician and composer.He was born at Dinton in Wiltshire, and received his musical education from John Cooper, better known under his Italian pseudonym Giovanni Coperario, a famous composer of the day... |
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| South | Musicians | PURCELL | H. Purcell | Henry Purcell Henry Purcell Henry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music... |
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| South | Musicians | ARNE | T. A. Arne | Thomas Arne | |
| South | Musicians | BOYCE | W. Boyce | William Boyce | |
| South | Musicians | BISHOP | Sir H. R. Bishop | Henry Bishop | |
| East | Painters | TURNER | J. M. W. Turner | J. M. W. Turner J. M. W. Turner Joseph Mallord William Turner RA was an English Romantic landscape painter, watercolourist and printmaker. Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting... |
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| East | Painters | WILKIE | Sir D. Wilkie | David Wilkie David Wilkie (artist) Sir David Wilkie was a Scottish painter.- Early life :Wilkie was the son of the parish minister of Cults in Fife. He developed a love for art at an early age. In 1799, after he had attended school at Pitlessie, Kettle and Cupar, his father reluctantly agreed to his becoming a painter... |
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| East | Painters | REYNOLDS | S. J. Reynolds | Joshua Reynolds Joshua Reynolds Sir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA was an influential 18th-century English painter, specialising in portraits and promoting the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. He was one of the founders and first President of the Royal Academy... |
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| East | Painters | GAINSBOROUGH | T. Gainsborough | Thomas Gainsborough Thomas Gainsborough Thomas Gainsborough was an English portrait and landscape painter.-Suffolk:Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk. He was the youngest son of John Gainsborough, a weaver and maker of woolen goods. At the age of thirteen he impressed his father with his penciling skills so that he let... |
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| East | Painters | HOGARTH | W. Hogarth | William Hogarth William Hogarth William Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects"... |
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| East | Painters | REMBRANDT | Rembrandt | Rembrandt | |
| East | Painters | RUBENS | Rubens | Peter Paul Rubens | |
| East | Painters | HOLBEIN | Holbein | Hans Holbein the Younger Hans Holbein the Younger Hans Holbein the Younger was a German artist and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style. He is best known as one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century. He also produced religious art, satire and Reformation propaganda, and made a significant contribution to the history... |
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| East | Painters | DURER | Durer | Albrecht Dürer Albrecht Dürer Albrecht Dürer was a German painter, printmaker, engraver, mathematician, and theorist from Nuremberg. His prints established his reputation across Europe when he was still in his twenties, and he has been conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance ever since... |
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| East | Painters | H. VAN EYCK | H. and J. Van Eyck | Hubert van Eyck Hubert van Eyck Hubert van Eyck was a Flemish painter and older brother of Jan van Eyck. He was probably born in Maaseik, Flanders, now in Belgium.... |
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| East | Painters | J. VAN EYCK | H. and J. Van Eyck | Jan van Eyck Jan van Eyck Jan van Eyck was a Flemish painter active in Bruges and considered one of the best Northern European painters of the 15th century.... |
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| East | Painters | STEPHEN OF COLOGNE | S. Lockner | Stefan Lochner Stefan Lochner thumb|300px|Madonna in the Rose Bower .Stefan Lochner was a German late Gothic painter.His style, famous for its clean appearance, combined Gothic attention towards long flowing lines with brilliant colours with a Flemish influenced realism and attention to detail... |
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| East | Painters | CIMABUE | Cimabue | Cimabue Cimabue Cimabue , also known as Bencivieni di Pepo or in modern Italian, Benvenuto di Giuseppe, was an Italian painter and creator of mosaics from Florence.... |
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| East | Painters | ORCAGNA | Orcagna | Orcagna | |
| East | Painters | GIOTTO | Giotto | Giotto di Bondone Giotto di Bondone Giotto di Bondone , better known simply as Giotto, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence in the late Middle Ages... |
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| East | Painters | FRA ANGELICO | Fra Angelico | Fra Angelico Fra Angelico Fra Angelico , born Guido di Pietro, was an Early Italian Renaissance painter described by Vasari in his Lives of the Artists as having "a rare and perfect talent"... |
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| East | Painters | GHIRLANDAJO | Ghirlandajo | Domenico Ghirlandaio Domenico Ghirlandaio Domenico Ghirlandaio was an Italian Renaissance painter from Florence. Among his many apprentices was Michelangelo.-Early years:Ghirlandaio's full name is given as Domenico di Tommaso di Currado di Doffo Bigordi... |
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| East | Painters | MASACCIO | Masaccio | Masaccio Masaccio Masaccio , born Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone, was the first great painter of the Quattrocento period of the Italian Renaissance. According to Vasari, Masaccio was the best painter of his generation because of his skill at recreating lifelike figures and movements as well as a convincing sense... |
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| East | Painters | L. DA VINCI | L. Da Vinci | Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance... |
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| East | Painters | RAPHAEL | Raphael | Raphael Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino , better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur... |
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| East | Painters | MICHAEL ANGELO | M. Angelo | Michelangelo Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art... |
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| East | Painters | BELLINI | Bellini | Giovanni Bellini Giovanni Bellini Giovanni Bellini was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. His father was Jacopo Bellini, his brother was Gentile Bellini, and his brother-in-law was Andrea Mantegna. He is considered to have revolutionized Venetian painting, moving it... |
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| East | Painters | TITIAN | Titian | Titian Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio (c. 1488/1490 – 27 August 1576 better known as Titian was an Italian painter, the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near... |
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| East | Painters | MANTEGNA | Mantegna | Andrea Mantegna Andrea Mantegna Andrea Mantegna was an Italian painter, a student of Roman archeology, and son in law of Jacopo Bellini. Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with perspective, e.g., by lowering the horizon in order to create a sense of greater monumentality... |
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| East | Painters | P. VERONESE | P. Veronese | Paolo Veronese Paolo Veronese Paolo Veronese was an Italian painter of the Renaissance in Venice, famous for paintings such as The Wedding at Cana and The Feast in the House of Levi... |
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| East | Painters | TINTORETTO | Tintoretto | Tintoretto Tintoretto Tintoretto , real name Jacopo Comin, was a Venetian painter and a notable exponent of the Renaissance school. For his phenomenal energy in painting he was termed Il Furioso... |
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| East | Painters | COREGGIO | Coreggio | Antonio da Correggio Antonio da Correggio Antonio Allegri da Correggio , usually known as Correggio, was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the Italian Renaissance, who was responsible for some of the most vigorous and sensuous works of the 16th century... |
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| East | Painters | AN. CARACCI | A. Caracci | Annibale Carracci Annibale Carracci Annibale Carracci was an Italian Baroque painter.-Early career:Annibale Carracci was born in Bologna, and in all likelihood first apprenticed within his family... |
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| East | Painters | L. CARACCI | L. Carraci | Ludovico Carracci Ludovico Carracci Ludovico Carracci was an Italian, early-Baroque painter, etcher, and printmaker born in Bologna.... |
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| East | Painters | VELASQUEZ | Velasquez | Diego Velázquez Diego Velázquez Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was a Spanish painter who was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary Baroque period, important as a portrait artist... |
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| East | Painters | MURILLO | Murillo | Bartolomé Esteban Murillo Bartolomé Estéban Murillo Bartolomé Esteban Murillo was a Spanish Baroque painter. Although he is best known for his religious works, Murillo also produced a considerable number of paintings of contemporary women and children... |
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| East | Painters | POUSSIN | Poussin | Nicolas Poussin Nicolas Poussin Nicolas Poussin was a French painter in the classical style. His work predominantly features clarity, logic, and order, and favors line over color. His work serves as an alternative to the dominant Baroque style of the 17th century... |
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| East | Painters | CLAUDE | Claude | Claude Lorrain Claude Lorrain Claude Lorrain, , traditionally just Claude in English Claude Lorrain, , traditionally just Claude in English (also Claude Gellée, his real name, or in French Claude Gellée, , dit le Lorrain) Claude Lorrain, , traditionally just Claude in English (also Claude Gellée, his real name, or in French... |
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| East | Painters | DAVID | J. L. David | Jacques-Louis David Jacques-Louis David Jacques-Louis David was an influential French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era... |
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| East | Painters | GERARD | Gerard | François Gérard François Gerard François Pascal Simon, Baron Gérard was a French painter born in Rome, where his father occupied a post in the house of the French ambassador. His mother was Italian. As a baron of the Empire he is sometimes referred to as Baron Gérard.-Life:François Gérard was born in Rome, on 12 March 1770, to... |
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| East | Painters | GERICAULT | Gerecault | Théodore Géricault Théodore Géricault Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault was a profoundly influential French artist, painter and lithographer, known for The Raft of the Medusa and other paintings... |
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| East | Painters | DELACROIX | Delacroix | Eugène Delacroix Eugène Delacroix Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school... |
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| East | Painters | VERNET | Vernet | Claude Joseph Vernet | |
| East | Painters | DELAROCHE | Delaroche | Hippolyte Delaroche Hippolyte Delaroche Hippolyte Delaroche , commonly known as Paul Delaroche, was a French painter born in Paris. Delaroche was born into a wealthy family and was trained by Antoine-Jean, Baron Gros, who then painted life-size histories and had many students.The first Delaroche picture exhibited was the large Josabeth... |
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| East | Painters | INGRES | Ingres | Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was a French Neoclassical painter. Although he considered himself to be a painter of history in the tradition of Nicolas Poussin and Jacques-Louis David, by the end of his life it was Ingres's portraits, both painted and drawn, that were recognized as his greatest... |
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| East | Painters | DECAMPS | Decamps | Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps ]Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps was a French painter.He was born in Paris. In his youth he travelled in the East, and reproduced Oriental life and scenery with a bold fidelity to nature that puzzled conventional critics... |
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| North | Architects | PUGIN | Pugin | Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin | |
| North | Architects | SCOTT | Scott | George Gilbert Scott George Gilbert Scott Sir George Gilbert Scott was an English architect of the Victorian Age, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches, cathedrals and workhouses... |
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| North | Architects | COCKERELL | Cockerell | Samuel Pepys Cockerell Samuel Pepys Cockerell Samuel Pepys Cockerell was an English architect. He was the son of John Cockerell, of Bishop's Hull, Somerset, and the brother of Sir Charles Cockerell, 1st Baronet, for whom he designed the house he is best known for, Sezincote House, Gloucestershire, where the uniquely Orientalizing features... |
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| North | Architects | BARRY | Barry | Charles Barry Charles Barry Sir Charles Barry FRS was an English architect, best known for his role in the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster in London during the mid-19th century, but also responsible for numerous other buildings and gardens.- Background and training :Born on 23 May 1795 in Bridge Street, Westminster... |
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| North | Architects | CHAMBERS | Chambers | Sir William Chambers | |
| North | Architects | VANBRUGH | Vanbrugh | John Vanbrugh John Vanbrugh Sir John Vanbrugh – 26 March 1726) was an English architect and dramatist, perhaps best known as the designer of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard. He wrote two argumentative and outspoken Restoration comedies, The Relapse and The Provoked Wife , which have become enduring stage favourites... |
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| North | Architects | WREN | Wren | Christopher Wren Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren FRS is one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history.He used to be accorded responsibility for rebuilding 51 churches in the City of London after the Great Fire in 1666, including his masterpiece, St. Paul's Cathedral, on Ludgate Hill, completed in 1710... |
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| North | Architects | INIGO JONES | Inigo Jones | Inigo Jones Inigo Jones Inigo Jones is the first significant British architect of the modern period, and the first to bring Italianate Renaissance architecture to England... |
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| North | Architects | MANSART | Mansart | Jules Hardouin Mansart Jules Hardouin Mansart Jules Hardouin-Mansart was a French architect whose work is generally considered to be the apex of French Baroque architecture, representing the power and grandeur of Louis XIV... |
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| North | Architects | THORPE | Thorpe | John Thorpe John Thorpe John Thorpe or Thorp was an English architect. Little is known of his life, and his work is dubiously inferred, rather than accurately known, from a folio of drawings in the Sir John Soane's Museum, to which Horace Walpole called attention, in 1780, in his Anecdotes of Painting; but how far these... |
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| North | Architects | PALLADIO | Palladio | Andrea Palladio Andrea Palladio Andrea Palladio was an architect active in the Republic of Venice. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily by Vitruvius, is widely considered the most influential individual in the history of Western architecture... |
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| North | Architects | VIGNOLA | Vignola | Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola was one of the great Italian architects of 16th century Mannerism. His two great masterpieces are the Villa Farnese at Caprarola and the Jesuits' Church of the Gesù in Rome... |
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| North | Architects | DELORME | Delorme | Philibert de l'Orme Philibert de l'Orme Philibert DeLorme was a French architect, one of the great masters of the French Renaissance.He was born at Lyon, the son of Jean Delorme, a master mason. At an early age Philibert was sent to Italy to study and was employed there by Pope Paul III... |
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| North | Architects | SANSOVINO | Sansovino | Jacopo Sansovino Jacopo Sansovino Jacopo d'Antonio Sansovino was an Italian sculptor and architect, known best for his works around the Piazza San Marco in Venice. Andrea Palladio, in the Preface to his Quattro Libri was of the opinion that Sansovino's Biblioteca Marciana was the best building erected since Antiquity... |
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| North | Architects | SAN GALLO | San Gallo | Giuliano da Sangallo Giuliano da Sangallo Giuliano da Sangallo was an Italian sculptor, architect and military engineer active during the Italian Renaissance.He was born in Florence. His father Francesco Giamberti was a woodworker and architect, much employed by Cosimo de Medici, and his brother Antonio da Sangallo the Elder and nephew... |
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| North | Architects | PERUZZI | Peruzzi | Baldassare Peruzzi Baldassare Peruzzi Baldassare Tommaso Peruzzi was an Italian architect and painter, born in a small town near Siena and died in Rome. He worked for many years, beginning in 1520, under Bramante, Raphael, and later Sangallo during the erection of the new St. Peter's... |
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| North | Architects | BRAMANTE | Bramante | Donato Bramante Donato Bramante Donato Bramante was an Italian architect, who introduced the Early Renaissance style to Milan and the High Renaissance style to Rome, where his most famous design was St... |
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| North | Architects | WILLIAM OF WYKEHAM | William of Wykeham | William of Wykeham William of Wykeham William of Wykeham was Bishop of Winchester, Chancellor of England, founder of Winchester College, New College, Oxford, New College School, Oxford, and builder of a large part of Windsor Castle.-Life:... |
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| North | Architects | ALBERTI | Alberti | Leone Battista Alberti Leone Battista Alberti Leon Battista Alberti was an Italian author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, cryptographer and general Renaissance humanist polymath... |
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| North | Architects | BRUNELLESCHI | Brunelleschi | Filippo Brunelleschi Filippo Brunelleschi Filippo Brunelleschi was one of the foremost architects and engineers of the Italian Renaissance. He is perhaps most famous for inventing linear perspective and designing the dome of the Florence Cathedral, but his accomplishments also included bronze artwork, architecture , mathematics,... |
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| North | Architects | GIOTTO | Giotto | Giotto di Bondone Giotto di Bondone Giotto di Bondone , better known simply as Giotto, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence in the late Middle Ages... |
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| North | Architects | ARNOLFO DI LAPO | Arndfo Di Lapo | Arnolfo di Cambio Arnolfo di Cambio Arnolfo di Cambio was an Italian architect and sculptor.-Biography:Arnolfo was born in Colle Val d'Elsa, Tuscany.... |
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| North | Architects | ERWIN VON STEINBACH | Ermin Van Steinbach | Erwin von Steinbach Erwin von Steinbach Erwin von Steinbach was a German architect, and was a central figure in the construction of Notre-Dame de Strasbourg.-Biography:... |
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| North | Architects | JEHAN DE CHELLES | Johan de Chelles | Jean de Chelles Jean de Chelles Jean de Chelles was a master mason and sculptor who was one of the architects at the Cathedral of Nôtre Dame de Paris. On the exterior wall of the south transept a stone plaque is signed Johanne Magistro and dated February 1257, documenting the initiation of alterations to the transept and its... |
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| North | Architects | ROB DE COUCY | R. de Courcy | Robert De Coucy Robert De Coucy Robert De Coucy or Courcy, born Reims was a medieval French master-builder and son of a master-builder of the same name.... |
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| North | Architects | WILLIAM OF SENS | William of Sens | William of Sens William of Sens William of Sens was a 12th century French architect, supposed to have been born at Sens, France.He is referred to in September 1174 as having been the architect who undertook the task of rebuilding the choir of Canterbury cathedral, originally erected by Conrad, the prior of the monastery, and... |
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| North | Architects | WILLIAM THE ENGLISHMAN | William the Englishman | William the Englishman William the Englishman William the Englishman was an English architect and stonemason. He completed the work done on Canterbury Cathedral in England by the French architect William of Sens, after the latter was badly injured in a fall from scaffolding on the cathedral.He is commemorated on the Albert Memorial in London... |
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| North | Architects | ABBE SUGER | Abbe Suger | Abbot Suger Abbot Suger Suger was one of the last Frankish abbot-statesmen, an historian, and the influential first patron of Gothic architecture.... |
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| North | Architects | ANTHEMIUS | Anthemius | Anthemius of Tralles Anthemius of Tralles Anthemius of Tralles was a Greek professor of Geometry in Constantinople and architect, who collaborated with Isidore of Miletus to build the church of Hagia Sophia by the order of Justinian I. Anthemius came from an educated family, one of five sons of Stephanus of Tralles, a physician... |
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| North | Architects | HERMODORUS | Hermodoraus | no article | |
| North | Architects | APOLLODORUS | Appollodonus | Apollodorus of Damascus Apollodorus of Damascus Apollodorus of Damascus was a Greek engineer, architect, designer and sculptor who flourished during the 2nd century AD, from Damascus, Roman Syria. He was a favourite of Trajan, for whom he constructed Trajan's Bridge over the Danube for the 105-106 campaign in Dacia. He also designed the Forum... |
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| North | Architects | CALLIMACHUS | Callimchus | Callimachus (sculptor) Callimachus (sculptor) Callimachus was an architect and sculptor working in the second half of the 5th century BC in the manner established by Polyclitus. He was credited with work in both Athens and Corinth and was probably from one of the two cities... |
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| North | Architects | LIBON | Libon | Libon Libon Libon was a 5th century BC Greek architect. Born in Elis, he built the Doric temple to Zeus at Olympia in about 460 BC. Libon, through his work on the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, is said to have inspired the technique and design of the Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis - though this was obviously... |
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| North | Architects | CALLICRATES | Callicrates | Kallikrates Kallikrates Callicrates was an ancient Greek architect active in the middle of the fifth century BCE. He and Ictinus were architects of the Parthenon . An inscription identifies him as the architect of "the Temple of Nike" in the Sanctuary of Athena Nike on the Acropolis... |
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| North | Architects | ICTINUS | Ictinus | Iktinos Iktinos Ictinus was an architect active in the mid 5th century BC. Ancient sources identify Ictinus and Callicrates as co-architects of the Parthenon.... |
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| North | Architects | MNESIKLES | Mnesicles | Mnesikles Mnesikles Mnesikles was an ancient Athenian architect active in the mid 5th century BCE, the age of Pericles.... |
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| North | Architects | CHERSIPHRON | Chersiphron | Chersiphron Chersiphron Chersiphron , an architect of Knossos in Crete, was the builder of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, on the Ionian coast. The temple had been begun about 600 BC, and was completed by other architects. Chersiphron and his son Metagenes were co-authors of its building... |
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| North | Architects | RHOECUS | Rhoscus | Rhoecus Rhoecus Rhoecus was a Samian sculptor of the 6th century BCE. He and his son Theodorus were especially noted for their work in bronze. Herodotus says that Rhoecus built the temple of Hera at Samos, which was destroyed by fire c. 530 BCE. In the temple of Artemis at Ephesus was a marble figure of night by... |
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| North | Architects | METAGENES | Metagenes | Metagenes Metagenes Metagenes son of the Cretan architect Chersiphron, also was an architect. He was co-architect, along with his father, of the construction of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.... |
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| North | Architects | THEODORUS | Theodorus | Theodorus of Samos Theodorus of Samos Theodorus of Samos was a 6th century BC ancient Greek sculptor and architect from the Greek island of Samos. Along with Rhoecus, he was often credited with the invention of ore smelting and, according to Pausanias, the craft of casting. He is also credited with inventing a water level, a... |
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| North | Architects | HIRAM | Hiram | Hiram Abiff Hiram Abiff Hiram Abiff is a character who figures prominently in an allegorical play that is presented during the third degree of Craft Freemasonry... |
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| North | Architects | BEZALEEL | Bezaleel | Bezalel Bezalel In Exodus 31:1-6, Bezalel |transcribed]] as Betzalel and most accurately as Beẓal'el), is the chief artisan of the Tabernacle. Elsewhere in the Bible the name occurs only in the genealogical lists of the Book of Chronicles, but according to cuneiform inscriptions a variant form of the same,... |
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| North | Architects | SENNACHERIB | Sennacherib | Sennacherib Sennacherib Sennacherib |Sîn]] has replaced brothers for me"; Aramaic: ) was the son of Sargon II, whom he succeeded on the throne of Assyria .-Rise to power:... |
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| North | Architects | NITOCRIS | Nitocris | Nitocris Nitocris Nitocris has been claimed to have been the last pharaoh of the Sixth Dynasty. Her name is found in the Histories of Herodotus and writings of Manetho but her historicity is questionable. She might have been an interregnum queen... |
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| North | Architects | CHEOPS | Cheops | Khufu Khufu Khufu , also known as Cheops or, in Manetho, Suphis , was a Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt's Old Kingdom. He reigned from around 2589 to 2566 BC. Khufu was the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty. He is generally accepted as being the builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of... |
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| West | Sculptors | EGYPTIAN | Egyptian | none | |
| West | Sculptors | ASSYRIAN | Assyrian | none | |
| West | Sculptors | RHOECUS | R. Loecus | Rhoecus Rhoecus Rhoecus was a Samian sculptor of the 6th century BCE. He and his son Theodorus were especially noted for their work in bronze. Herodotus says that Rhoecus built the temple of Hera at Samos, which was destroyed by fire c. 530 BCE. In the temple of Artemis at Ephesus was a marble figure of night by... |
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| West | Sculptors | DIBUTADES | Dibutades | Butades Butades Butades of Sicyon, sometimes mistakenly called Dibutades, was the first ancient Greek modeller in clay. The period at which he flourished is unknown, but has been put at about 600 BC... |
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| West | Sculptors | BUPALUS | Bupalus | Bupalus Bupalus Bupalus and Athenis , were sons of Archermus, and members of the celebrated school of sculpture in marble which flourished in Chios in the 6th century BC. They were contemporaries of the poet Hipponax, whom they were said to have caricatured... |
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| West | Sculptors | PHIDIAS | Phidias | Phidias Phidias Phidias or the great Pheidias , was a Greek sculptor, painter and architect, who lived in the 5th century BC, and is commonly regarded as one of the greatest of all sculptors of Classical Greece: Phidias' Statue of Zeus at Olympia was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World... |
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| West | Sculptors | SCOPAS | Scopas | Scopas Scopas Scopas or Skopas was an Ancient Greek sculptor and architect, born on the island of Paros. Scopas worked with Praxiteles, and he sculpted parts of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, especially the reliefs. He led the building of the new temple of Athena Alea at Tegea... |
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| West | Sculptors | BRYAXIS | Bryaxis | Bryaxis Bryaxis Bryaxis was an ancient Greek sculptor. He created the sculptures on the north side of the mausoleum of Maussollos at Halicarnassus which was commissioned by the queen Artemisia II of Caria in memory of her brother and husband, Mausolus... |
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| West | Sculptors | LEOCHARES | Leochanes | Leochares Leochares Leochares was a Greek sculptor from Athens, who lived in the 4th century BC.-Works:Leochares worked at the construction of the Mausoleum of Maussollos at Halicarnassus, one of the "Seven Wonders of the Ancient World". The Diana of Versailles is a Roman copy of his original... |
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| West | Sculptors | PRAXITELES | Praxiteles | Praxiteles Praxiteles Praxiteles of Athens, the son of Cephisodotus the Elder, was the most renowned of the Attic sculptors of the 4th century BC. He was the first to sculpt the nude female form in a life-size statue... |
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| West | Sculptors | LYSIPPUS | Lysippus | Lysippos Lysippos Lysippos was a Greek sculptor of the 4th century BC. Together with Scopas and Praxiteles, he is considered one of the three greatest sculptors of the Classical Greek era, bringing transition into the Hellenistic period. Problems confront the study of Lysippos because of the difficulty of... |
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| West | Sculptors | CHARES | Chanes | Chares of Lindos Chares of Lindos Chares of Lindos was a Greek sculptor born on the island of Rhodes. He was a pupil of Lysippus.... |
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| West | Sculptors | GIULIANO DI RAVENNA | Giuliano de Ravenna | no article | |
| West | Sculptors | NICCOLA PISANO | Niccola Pisano | Nicola Pisano Nicola Pisano Nicola Pisano was an Italian sculptor whose work is noted for its classical Roman sculptural style. Pisano is sometimes considered to be the founder of modern sculpture.- Early life :His birth date or origins are uncertain... |
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| West | Sculptors | GHIBERTI | Ghiberti | Lorenzo Ghiberti Lorenzo Ghiberti Lorenzo Ghiberti , born Lorenzo di Bartolo, was an Italian artist of the early Renaissance best known for works in sculpture and metalworking.-Early life:... |
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| West | Sculptors | TORELL | W. Tonel | William Torell William Torell William Torell, also spelled Torel, Torrel, Torrell, Toral etc, , from a notable family of London goldsmiths, was an English sculptor responsible for the very fine gilded brass funeral effigies of Henry III of England and his son's queen Eleanor of Castile in Westminster Abbey ; the idealised... |
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| West | Sculptors | LUCA DELLA ROBBIA | Luca Deklla Robbia | Luca della Robbia Luca della Robbia Luca della Robbia was an Italian sculptor from Florence, noted for his terra-cotta roundels.Luca Della Robbia developed a pottery glaze that made his creations more durable in the outdoors and thus suitable for use on the exterior of buildings. His work is noted for its charm rather than the drama... |
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| West | Sculptors | WILLIAM OF IRELAND | William of Ireland | William of Ireland | |
| West | Sculptors | VERROCCHIO | Verrocchio | Andrea del Verrocchio Andrea del Verrocchio Andrea del Verrocchio , born Andrea di Michele di Francesco de' Cioni, was an Italian sculptor, goldsmith and painter who worked at the court of Lorenzo de' Medici in Florence in the early renaissance. Few paintings are attributed to him with certainty, but a number of important painters were... |
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| West | Sculptors | DONATELLO | Donatello | Donatello Donatello Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi , also known as Donatello, was an early Renaissance Italian artist and sculptor from Florence... |
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| West | Sculptors | MICHAEL ANGELO | Michael Angelo | Michelangelo Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art... |
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| West | Sculptors | TORRIGIANO | Torrigiano | Pietro Torrigiano Pietro Torrigiano Pietro Torrigiano was an Italian sculptor of the Florentine school. According to Giorgio Vasari, he was one of the group of talented youths who studied art under the patronage of Lorenzo de' Medici in Florence.... |
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| West | Sculptors | GIAN DI BOLOGNA | Gian Di Balogna | Giambologna Giambologna Giambologna, born as Jean Boulogne, incorrectly known as Giovanni da Bologna and Giovanni Bologna , was a sculptor, known for his marble and bronze statuary in a late Renaissance or Mannerist style.- Biography :... |
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| West | Sculptors | BANDINELLI | Bandinelli | Bartolommeo Bandinelli Bartolommeo Bandinelli Bartolommeo Bandinelli, actually Bartolommeo Brandini , was a Renaissance Italian sculptor, draughtsman and painter.-Biography:... |
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| West | Sculptors | VISCHER | Vischer | Peter Vischer the Elder Peter Vischer the Elder Peter Vischer the Elder was a German sculptor, the son of Hermann Vischer, and the most famous member of the noted Vischer Family of Nuremberg.... |
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| West | Sculptors | CELLINI | Cellini | Benvenuto Cellini Benvenuto Cellini Benvenuto Cellini was an Italian goldsmith, sculptor, painter, soldier and musician, who also wrote a famous autobiography. He was one of the most important artists of Mannerism.-Youth:... |
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| West | Sculptors | BACCIO D'AGNOLO | Baccio D'agnelo | Baccio D'Agnolo Baccio D'Agnolo Baccio D'Agnolo , born Bartolomeo Baglioni, was an Italian woodcarver, sculptor and architect from Florence."Baccio"'is an abbreviation of Bartolomeo, and "d'Agnolo" refers to Angelo, his father's name... |
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| West | Sculptors | GOUJON | Gaujon | Jean Goujon Jean Goujon Jean Goujon was a French Renaissance sculptor and architect.-Biography:His early life is little known; he was likely born in Normandy and may have traveled in Italy... |
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| West | Sculptors | PALISSY | Palisay | Bernard Palissy Bernard Palissy Bernard Palissy was a French Huguenot potter, hydraulics engineer and craftsman, famous for having struggled for sixteen years to imitate Chinese porcelain... |
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| West | Sculptors | BONTEMPS | Bontemps | Pierre Bontemps Pierre Bontemps Pierre Bontemps was a French sculptor known for his funeral monuments, was, with Germain Pilon, one of the pre-eminent sculptors of the French Renaissance.... |
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| West | Sculptors | PILON | Pilon | Germain Pilon Germain Pilon Germain Pilon was a French Renaissance sculptor.-Biography:He was born in Paris. Trained by his father and Pierre Bontemps, Pilon was an expert with marble, bronze, wood and terra cotta; from about 1555 he was providing models for Parisian goldsmiths... |
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| West | Sculptors | CANO | Cano | Alonzo Cano Alonzo Cano Alonzo Cano or Alonso Cano was a Spanish painter, architect and sculptor born in Granada. He learned architecture from his father, Miguel Cano; painting in the academy of Juan del Castillo, and from Francisco Pacheco the teacher of Velázquez; and sculpture from Juan Martínez Montañés... |
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| West | Sculptors | STONE | Stone | Nicholas Stone Nicholas Stone Nicholas Stone was an English sculptor and architect. In 1619 he was appointed master-mason to James I, and in 1626 to Charles I.... |
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| West | Sculptors | BERNINI | Bernini | Gian Lorenzo Bernini Gian Lorenzo Bernini Gian Lorenzo Bernini was an Italian artist who worked principally in Rome. He was the leading sculptor of his age and also a prominent architect... |
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| West | Sculptors | CIBBER | Cibber | Caius Gabriel Cibber Caius Gabriel Cibber Caius Gabriel Cibber was a Danish sculptor, who enjoyed great success in England, and was the father of the actor, author and poet laureate Colley Cibber. He was appointed "carver to the king's closet" by William III.... |
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| West | Sculptors | PUGET | Puget | Pierre Paul Puget Pierre Paul Puget Pierre Paul Puget was a French painter, sculptor, architect and engineer.-Biography:Puget was born in Marseille. At the age of fourteen he carved the ornaments of the galleys built in the shipyards of his native city, and at sixteen the decoration and construction of a ship were entrusted to him... |
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| West | Sculptors | GIBBONS | Gibbons | Grinling Gibbons Grinling Gibbons Grinling Gibbons was an English sculptor and wood carver known for his work in England, including St Paul's Cathedral, Blenheim Palace and Hampton Court Palace. He was born and educated in Holland where his father was a merchant... |
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| West | Sculptors | BIRD | F. Bird | Francis Bird Francis Bird Francis Bird was one of the leading English sculptors of his time. He is mainly remembered for sculptures in Westminster Abbey and St Paul's Cathedral. He carved a tomb for the dramatist William Congreve in Westminster Abbey and sculptures of the apostles and evangelists on the exterior of St... |
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| West | Sculptors | BUSHNELL | Bushnell | John Bushnell John Bushnell John Bushnell was an English sculptor, known for several outstanding funeral monuments in English churches and Westminster Abbey. Several anecdotes concerning his haughty disposition and increasing eccentricity were repeated in artistic circles and recorded in the eighteenth century by George... |
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| West | Sculptors | ROUBILIAC | Roubiliac | Louis-François Roubiliac Louis-François Roubiliac Louis-François Roubiliac was a French sculptor who worked in England, one of the four most prominent sculptors in London working in the rococo style, "probably the most accomplished sculptor ever to work in England", according to Margaret Whinney.-Works:Roubiliac was largely employed for portrait... |
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| West | Sculptors | CANOVA | Canova | Antonio Canova Antonio Canova Antonio Canova was an Italian sculptor from the Republic of Venice who became famous for his marble sculptures that delicately rendered nude flesh... |
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| West | Sculptors | FLAXMAN | Flaxman | John Flaxman John Flaxman John Flaxman was an English sculptor and draughtsman.-Early life:He was born in York. His father was also named John, after an ancestor who, according to family tradition, had fought for Parliament at the Battle of Naseby, and afterwards settled as a carrier or farmer in Buckinghamshire... |
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| West | Sculptors | DAVID (ANGERS) | David D'Angers | Pierre Jean David Pierre Jean David Pierre-Jean David , usually called David d'Angers, was a French sculptor.He was born at Angers. His father was a sculptor or a mason, but had gone into the army as a musketeer, fighting against the Chouans of La Vendée. He returned to his trade at the end of the civil war to find his customers... |
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| West | Sculptors | THORWALDSEN | Thorvaldsen | Bertel Thorvaldsen Bertel Thorvaldsen Bertel Thorvaldsen was a Danish-Icelandic sculptor of international fame, who spent most of his life in Italy . Thorvaldsen was born in Copenhagen into a Danish/Icelandic family of humble means, and was accepted to the Royal Academy of Arts when he was eleven years old... |
Selection, arrangement, and omissions
Daniel Auber
Daniel François Esprit Auber was a French composer.-Biography:The son of a Paris print-seller, Auber was born in Caen in Normandy. Though his father expected him to continue in the print-selling business, he also allowed his son to learn how to play several musical instruments...
and Grétry
André Ernest Modeste Grétry
André Ernest Modeste Grétry was acomposer from the Prince-Bishopric of Liège , who worked from 1767 onwards in France and took French nationality. He is most famous for his opéras comiques....
.
Among the painters, a classical tradition predominates to the extent that there is no hint of Mannerism
Mannerism
Mannerism is a period of European art that emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. It lasted until about 1580 in Italy, when a more Baroque style began to replace it, but Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century throughout much of Europe...
in the sixteenth century and Giulio Romano
Giulio Romano
Giulio Romano was an Italian painter and architect. A pupil of Raphael, his stylistic deviations from high Renaissance classicism help define the 16th-century style known as Mannerism...
is omitted, nor is there any reference to Rococo
Rococo
Rococo , also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful...
taste, where a modern list would include Antoine Watteau
Antoine Watteau
Jean-Antoine Watteau was a French painter whose brief career spurred the revival of interest in colour and movement...
and François Boucher
François Boucher
François Boucher was a French painter, a proponent of Rococo taste, known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories representing the arts or pastoral occupations, intended as a sort of two-dimensional furniture...
. The painters represented in the frieze reflect to some extent, Albert's own taste for the "Primitives" of the late Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, although Duccio
Duccio
Duccio di Buoninsegna was one of the most influential Italian artists of his time. Born in Siena, Tuscany, he worked mostly with pigment and egg tempera and like most of his contemporaries painted religious subjects...
is absent. Botticelli and Vermeer were yet to be rediscovered, and El Greco
El Greco
El Greco was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" was a nickname, a reference to his ethnic Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος .El Greco was born on Crete, which was at...
, Caravaggio
Caravaggio
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was an Italian artist active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily between 1593 and 1610. His paintings, which combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, had a formative influence on the Baroque...
, and Goya, who would all figure in a modern canon, mostly were regarded with suspicion.
No English poet after John Milton
John Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
was featured. Among the architects, the figure of Nitocris
Nitocris
Nitocris has been claimed to have been the last pharaoh of the Sixth Dynasty. Her name is found in the Histories of Herodotus and writings of Manetho but her historicity is questionable. She might have been an interregnum queen...
, the only figure representing a woman on the frieze, may have been selected because it was at one time thought that she was the pharaoh responsible for the pyramid now credited to Menkaura
Menkaura
Menkaure was a pharaoh of the Fourth dynasty of Egypt who ordered the construction of the third and smallest of the Pyramids of Giza. His name means "Eternal like the Souls of Re"...
.
Other figures commemorated elsewhere on the Albert Memorial, on the canopy mosaics, but not on the frieze, are Apelles
Apelles
Apelles of Kos was a renowned painter of ancient Greece. Pliny the Elder, to whom we owe much of our knowledge of this artist rated him superior to preceding and subsequent artists...
(painting), King Solomon (architecture) and King David (poetry). The preferred south side of the memorial, being the direction in which Albert's statue faces, is populated by poets and musicians, with poets at the centre in accordance with the Victorian concept of poetry as the highest of the arts.
The arrangement of the other groups also reflects this Victorian thinking, with the fine arts of the sculptors and painters on the east and west sides, joining a spiritual side on the south (the poets and musicians) and a material side on the north (the architects). At least three of the sides also have a central, pre-eminent figure seated on a throne, with Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
for the poets, Raphael
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino , better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur...
for the painters, and Michelangelo
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...
for the sculptors.
Scott originally intended the last of the architects depicted in full to be himself, however, after all the other characters had been chosen, he realised he'd forgotten Pugin, the great genius of the Victorian Gothic Revival. So Scott replaced his own statue with Pugin's, and then placed himself as a relief head, looking over Pugin's shoulder.
Authenticity and details
Authentic points of detail and historical accuracy include PhidiasPhidias
Phidias or the great Pheidias , was a Greek sculptor, painter and architect, who lived in the 5th century BC, and is commonly regarded as one of the greatest of all sculptors of Classical Greece: Phidias' Statue of Zeus at Olympia was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World...
being depicted as bald, the phorminx
Phorminx
The phorminx was one of the oldest of the Ancient Greek stringed musical instruments, intermediate between the lyre and the kithara. It consisted of two to seven strings, richly decorated arms and a crescent-shaped sound box. It mostly probably originated from Mesopotamia...
(lyre) being held by the bard Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
, William Hogarth
William Hogarth
William Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects"...
's dog, Paolo Veronese
Paolo Veronese
Paolo Veronese was an Italian painter of the Renaissance in Venice, famous for paintings such as The Wedding at Cana and The Feast in the House of Levi...
's hand resting on a greyhound, Daniel Auber
Daniel Auber
Daniel François Esprit Auber was a French composer.-Biography:The son of a Paris print-seller, Auber was born in Caen in Normandy. Though his father expected him to continue in the print-selling business, he also allowed his son to learn how to play several musical instruments...
's right arm in a sling, the building models held by William of Wykeham
William of Wykeham
William of Wykeham was Bishop of Winchester, Chancellor of England, founder of Winchester College, New College, Oxford, New College School, Oxford, and builder of a large part of Windsor Castle.-Life:...
and Jean de Chelles
Jean de Chelles
Jean de Chelles was a master mason and sculptor who was one of the architects at the Cathedral of Nôtre Dame de Paris. On the exterior wall of the south transept a stone plaque is signed Johanne Magistro and dated February 1257, documenting the initiation of alterations to the transept and its...
, the model of Trajan's Column
Trajan's Column
Trajan's Column is a Roman triumphal column in Rome, Italy, which commemorates Roman emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars. It was probably constructed under the supervision of the architect Apollodorus of Damascus at the order of the Roman Senate. It is located in Trajan's Forum, built near...
held by Apollodorus of Damascus
Apollodorus of Damascus
Apollodorus of Damascus was a Greek engineer, architect, designer and sculptor who flourished during the 2nd century AD, from Damascus, Roman Syria. He was a favourite of Trajan, for whom he constructed Trajan's Bridge over the Danube for the 105-106 campaign in Dacia. He also designed the Forum...
, the object held by Hiram
Hiram I
Hiram I , according to the Hebrew Bible, was the Phoenician king of Tyre. He reigned from 980 to 947 BC, succeeding his father, Abibaal. Hiram was succeeded as king of Tyre by his son Baal-Eser I...
, the sculptures held by Dibutades and Phidias
Phidias
Phidias or the great Pheidias , was a Greek sculptor, painter and architect, who lived in the 5th century BC, and is commonly regarded as one of the greatest of all sculptors of Classical Greece: Phidias' Statue of Zeus at Olympia was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World...
, Ghiberti
Lorenzo Ghiberti
Lorenzo Ghiberti , born Lorenzo di Bartolo, was an Italian artist of the early Renaissance best known for works in sculpture and metalworking.-Early life:...
leaning on a panel, the sculptures being held by Donatello
Donatello
Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi , also known as Donatello, was an early Renaissance Italian artist and sculptor from Florence...
and Michelangelo
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...
, and the statue being admired by the group to the right of Cellini.
Authentic period detail also is seen in much of the clothing, the details of facial hair, furniture, and accessories, including scrolls, books, swords, and palettes. The figures are posed, either in isolation or in groups, with some figures facing each other in poses of admiration or engaged deeply in conversation.