| Compiled by Neil Collins MA LLB  The greatest and most influential figure in Counter-Reformation Baroque art in Northern Europe, Rubens painted almost every type of genre and subject (notably history paintings and portraits). Also, he designed tapestries, produced book illustrations and festival decorations, as well as cartoons and sketches for sculptures, metalwork and architecture. He taught Anthony Van Dyck and influenced a host of other painters, especially French artists like Delacroix and Renoir. Described as "the prince of painters and the painter of princes."Painting Masterpieces by Rubens - Samson and Deliah (1609) oil on wood, National Gallery, London - Descent from the Cross (1611-14) oil/wood, Catherdal of Our Lady, Antwerp - Rape of the Daughters of Eluccipus (1618) oil, Alte Pinacothek, Munich The most renowned painter of the Early Netherlandish School, he collaborated with his brother Hubert Van Eyck on the Ghent Altarpiece. Noted especially for his pioneering mastery of oil painting, his introduction of a new realism in religious works and portraiture, and his use of luminous glowing colours. Along with Roger Van der Weyden, Van Eyck was the supreme model of painterly technique during the early Northern Renaissance. Painting Masterpieces by Jan Van Eyck - Ghent Alterpiece (1432) oil on wood, Saint Bavo Catherdal, Ghent - Man in a Red Turban (1433) oil on wood, National Gallery, London - Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife (1434) oil on wood, National Gallery A shy, workaholic, Rodin was the greatest and most influential sculptor of the modern era, a worthy successor to the traditions of Donatello, Michelangelo, Giambologna and Bernini. A master in the use of clay, plaster, stone and bronze, some of his finest work evolved over decades. Constantin Brancusi described him as "indisputably the starting point of modern sculpture." Sculpture Masterpieces by Auguste Rodin - The Thinker (1881) Bronze, Musee Rodin, Paris - The Kiss (1888-9) Marble, Musee Rodin, Paris - The Burghers of Calais (1889) Bronze, Musee Rodin, Paris - The Gates of Hell (1880-1917) Musee d'Orsay, Paris |
| The leader and devoted adherent of the French Impressionism plein-air painting movement, and the acknowledged initiator of "Modern Art", Monet had a lifelong obsession with the depiction of light. His "Haystacks" and "Water Lily" series of canvases (the latter completed in his garden at Giverny) took years to complete. A close colleague of the Impressionist painters Pissarro and Renoir, his later works (not unlike those of Turner, whom he admired) spilled into Expressionism. Followers included Alfred Sisley, as well as Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Georges Seurat and Edouard Vuillard. Painting Masterpieces by Claude Monet  - Impression, Sunrise (1873) oil on canvas, Musee Marmottan Monet, Paris- Poppies Near Argenteuil (1873) oil on canvas, Musee d'Orsay - Haystack in the Morning, Snow Effect (1891) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - Waterlilly Pond (1899) oil on canvas, National Gallery, London The greatest European sculptor of the 15th century and arguably the best artist of his era, Donatello was part of the remarkable group of artists (Alberti,Brunelleschi, Masaccio) who drove the early Renaissance in Florence. A prolific worker, he was a master of stone, wood, terracotta and stucco as well as his preferred medium of bronze. Had a huge influence on his contemporaries, due to his invention of rilevo schiacciato, his sensitive handling of classical motifs and the emotional content of his sculptures. Sculpture Masterpieces by Donatello - David (c.1440) Bronze, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence - Mary Magadalene (c.1455) Painted wood, Museo Nazionale del Bargello - Equestrian Statue of the Gattamelata (1444-53) Bronze, Piazza del Santo  Arguably the greatest landscape painter in the history of art, the precocious Joseph William Mallord Turner exhibited at the London Royal Academy at only 15 years of age. Overshadowed initially by Thomas Girtin, Turner's remarkably innovative technical and stylistic working methods in both oils and watercolours gave his paintings a revolutionary impact, in composition, tone and form. Had a lifelong interest in the portrayal of light, and endless respect for the Old Masters. Revered by his contemporaries, including John Constable. Painting Masterpieces by JMW Turner - Burning of the House of Lords and Commons (1835) oil, Philadelphia Museum - The Fighting Temeraire (1839) oil on canvas, National Gallery, London - Snow Storm: Steamboat off a Harbour's Mouth (1842) oil, Tate Gallery Florentine artist, draughtsman, scientist, theorist - the "Universal Renaissance  Man" - Leonardo completed a mere handful of works but remained a pivotal figure in the High Renaissance era. His oil painting technique was enormously innovative and influential, notably his supreme skill in sfumato (whereby he mellowed the precise outlines employed by previous painters), which was described by Giorgio Vasari as one of the distinguishing marks of modern painting. Almost single-handedly responsible for transforming craftsmen-painters and sculptors into artists and intellectual experts in disegno. |
| Painting Masterpieces by Leonardo Da Vinci - Lady with Ermine (c.1490) oil on wood, Czartoryski Museum, Cracow - The Last Supper (1495-98) fresco, Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie - Mona Lisa (1503) oil on wood, Louvre, Paris  Perhaps best-known for the paintings of his Blue and Rose Periods, his shorter African period, and his co-invention of Analytical and Synthetic Cubism with Georges Braque, Picasso was also a master sculptor, ceramicist, designer and printmaker, whose prolific output drew inspiration from prehistoric, tribal, classical, Renaissance and avant-garde themes. Picasso's revolutionary treatment of the picture plane (in his Cubist work) effectively started a new era of fine art, while his innovative sculptures were among the first to utilize "found" materials. These innovations had a profound effect on the development of modern and contemporary art movements including Constructivism, Futurism, Orphism, Purism and Vorticism, as well as Dada and Surrealism, and on contemporary painters (eg. Marcel Duchamp, Juan Gris, Fernand Leger, Francis Picabia, Robert Delaunay) and sculptors (eg. Archipenko, Jacques Lipchitz, and Ossip Zadkine). Probably the most influential artist of the 20th century: not least because he was the most important semi-abstract artist and one of the great expressionist painters. Painting Masterpieces by Picasso - Blue Nude (c.1904) oil, Picasso Museum, Barcelona - Garcon a la Pipe (1905) oil on canvas, Private Collection - Girl In Chemise (1905) Tate Collection, London - Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), oil on canvas, Museum of Modern Art NY - Portrait of Ambroise Vollard (1909-10) oil/canvas, Pushkin Museum, Moscow - Guernica (1937) oil on canvas, Prado Museum, Madrid - Weeping Woman (1937) oil on canvas, Tate Gallery, London Arguably the greatest painter since the Renaissance, the elusive Dutch Realist genius Rembrandt created a large number of stunning masterpieces, including some of the finest examples of history-painting, group and individual portraiture, genre-paintings, still-life and self-portraits ever produced in the history of art. One of the greatest exponents of chiaroscuro (use of light and shadow), he is also famous for the character and emotional content of his canvases, which introduced a revolutionery realism into painting. Rembrandt was also one of the greatest draughtsmen and printmakers (etching and dry-point). Taught numerous Old Masters (eg. Gerrit Dou, Carel Fabritius, Nicolaes Maes), and still exerts a huge influence on painters throughout the world. Painting Masterpieces by Rembrandt  - Jacob Blessing the Children of Joseph (1656) oil, Gemaldegallerie, Kassel- The Nightwatch (1642) oil on canvas, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam - Syndics of the Cloth-Makers Guild (1662) oil, Rijksmuseum - Self-Portrait (1669) oil on canvas, National Gallery, London |
