beside the easel

Childhood of Christ, ca 1620 Born on 4 November, 1592 Gerard van Honthorst , sometimes written as Gerrit , was a prolific Dutch Baroque painter from Utrecht who typified the chiaroscuro of tenebrism in the Netherlands. Having spent four years in Italy absorbing the styles of Caravaggio, Manfredi and others he developed his own brand of powerful realism that earned him the nickname "Gherardo Delle Notti", or Gerard of the Nights . Interestingly, he did paint a few scenes and portraits that were not at night and with deep chiaroscuro—many of them quite amusing—but as he was known for painting in his usual dark manner they were not immediately recognizable as his own. Honthorst was unique from his tenebrist contemporaries in that he not only painted religious scenes but genre painting, with characters from everyday life, especially musicians. Compared to his French contemporary Georges de La Tour , whose style was much darker, painting common people in similar scenes to H...

Coronation of the Virgin with St Augustine and St William of Aquitaine, ca.1616 Born on January 26, 1582, Giovanni Lanfranco was a Baroque painter and alumni from the Accademia degli Incamminati in Bologna. A contemporary of such greats as Guido Reni and Domenichino , Lanfranco would take what he learned from the Carracci and make it uniquely his own, fusing tenebrism, color, Mannerism, Renaissance and Baroque into a very eclectic combination that at times seems to defy description. At times he can be quite Classical, other times Venetian, and yet sometimes he can be eerie enough to veer into the fringes of the surreal. Lanfranco could take the most overdone and tired theme or story and make it unreal...dreamlike and even bizarre. His subconscious seems to have been at the heart of his work, rather than merely keeping up with his colleagues or earning a paycheque. Lanfranco is, in many ways, a visionary who foresaw Surrealism by three hundred years. Note how the composition ...

Self-Portrait, 1627 Born on January 9, 1590 in Paris, Simon Vouet was the giant of his era and is credited with introducing Baroque art to France. Coming from a family of painters, his precocious talents lead him to travel at quite a young age and in his early twenties he stopped in Italy and lived there for 13 years, longer than any other European artist at that time. His extensive travels within Italy allowed him to absorb all the major painters and styles with keen fascination, clearly inspired by the rich history of art that was lacking back in his native France. During this period he also became a "principe" at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, and probably the first non-Italian artist to teach there. Vouet's talent and sharp business savvy led him to a very successful career and a pioneer of the Baroque outside of Italy. Above is his self-portrait, one of my very favourites for its spontaneity and freshness with skilled brushwork. Painted in his late thir...

Christ and the Adulteress, 1625 Born in north-central France on January 3, 1591, Valentin de Boulogne was a Baroque painter who spent most of his career in Italy, so heavily influenced by the tenebrism of Caravaggio that he would become one of the leading exponents of the Caravaggisti . Having studied under the artist who brought the Baroque to France, Simon Vouet , Valentin would synthesize his own fingerprint onto this genre in a way that few others did. Facial expression, body language, and attention to anatomy are what dominate the work of Valentin, with small accents of vibrant color. While Caravaggio's realism maintains a sense of Classicism, Valentin has more of the Baroque drama and dynamic anatomy—his figures seem to wrestle within the confines of the moment. Yet Valentin's realism in portraiture has a powerful presence that rivalled the best of his day. Unfortunately like some of his contemporaries, Valentin died young at the age of 41, where had he lived long en...

John the Baptist in the Desert, 1600's Born in Florence on October 17, 1577, Cristofano Allori was a Mannerist painter whose distinct realism sets him on the cusp of the Baroque in his later works. His father, Alessandro Allori, was also a noted painter yet Cristofano chose to go his own way to synthesize the strict draftsmanship of the Florentines with the coloring of the Venetians. This idea was not uncommon, and in fact many artists of the early Baroque favoured such harmony but it was how Allori was able to achieve it that makes him unique. His attention to detail unfortunately limited the amount of works produced, in combination with passing away at the height of his powers at the age of 44, but it is his style that deserves particular merit. In John the Baptist in the Desert Allori depicts him with the freshness of a Caravaggio, yet with vibrant red and a deep blue sky behind him. Instead of placing St. John the Baptist in dark shadows, he puts the trees and ground in ...

Samson defeats Philistines, 1625 A painter from Pisa, Orazio Riminaldi was a Baroque tenebrist born in 1586 on September 5th. Riminaldi was unfortunately one of many painters who died young, in his case from the plague in 1630, but it is what he accomplished in those brief years that merits attention. Riminaldi's expressive faces and body language, along with superb skin tones and dramatic skies, take his art to a deeper level than some his contemporaries, who were perhaps more cautious in their techniques. Look at the fury of the scene above. It is quite rare in painting to see a pile of bodies with a warrior like Samson no less, stepping on top of one while grabbing the hair of another. And yet Riminaldi manages to make it look majestic and noble. The anatomy of the figures shows foreshortening combined with Caravaggio's chiaroscuro in a tight yet carefully arranged composition. By making it vertical, in a triangular design, it heightens the sense of drama while requi...

Grand Master of the Baroque, Michelangelo Merisi was born on September 29, 1571 at his namesake town of Caravaggio east of Milan. It's fair to say that he was among the first true "rebels" of the art world, having lost both parents at an early age and after his training in Milan under Simone Peterzano, (who had trained under Titian in Venice) Caravaggio moved to Rome and lived on the streets until he could find work. During this period Caravaggio would have witnessed the Mannerism of the day waning and naturalism beginning to make a comeback. What separates Caravaggio from the Renaissance, Mannerism or even Venetians is of course the low-key mood of his work, taking the chiaroscuro of Leonardo to the limits of darkness, away from the ideal and artificial. The poverty, disease and crime that must have occurred during that period in Rome was clearly enough to contrast with the glowing saints and madonnas in painting of that era. Caravaggio would find this hypocrisy unbe...