Bernardo Daddi: Breaking with the Gothic

Bernardo Daddi - Crucifixion - 1340–1345 - Oil on panel - Height: 31 cm (12.2 in); Width: 20 cm (7.8 in) - National Gallery of Art - Washington, D.C. (click photo for larger image)Bernardo Daddi ( c. 1280 – 1348) was an early Italian Renaissance artist and the leading painter of Florence of his generation.

He was outstanding in Florence in the period after the death of Giotto (who was possibly his teacher). Daddi ran a busy workshop specializing in small devotional panels and portable altarpieces. He was one of the artists who contributed to the revolutionary art of the Renaissance, which broke away from the conventions of the Gothic, by creating compositions which aimed to achieve a more realistic representation of reality

His style is a sweetened version of Giotto's, tempering the latter's gravity with Sienese grace and lightness. He favored smiling Madonnas, teasing children, and an abundance of flowers and trailing draperies. 

His lyrical manner was extremely popular and his influence endured into the second half of the century. His style is a sweetened version of Giotto's, tempering the latter's gravity with Sienese grace and lightness. He favored smiling Madonnas, teasing children, and an abundance of flowers and trailing draperies. 

Daddi’s lyrical manner was extremely popular and his influence endured into the second half of the century.

Early Netherlandish Painting

Rogier van der Weyden - Portrait of a Lady, c. 1460, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. 34 × 25.5 cm (13 × 10 in) (click photo for larger image)The period from about 1420 to 1550 was one of astonishing and almost uninterrupted artistic achievement in the Burgundian Netherlands (Low Countries).

Taking "all-bearing nature" as their guide, early Netherlandish artists extended the boundaries of painting until they seemed as limitless as the blue-tinged mountains of the distant horizons in their pictures. Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden became the most renowned painters in Europe, Van Eyck acquiring legendary status as the purported inventor of oil painting.

Works by these masters were sought by princes and merchants throughout Europe, who prized them for their remarkable realistic qualities, their technical and coloristic virtuosity, and their heightened expressive power. REGISTER NOW to join us to explore this outstanding artistic tradition.

Did You Know?

Pablo Picasso was an animal lover. He owned a pet monkey, a goat, an owl, a turtle and packs of dogs and cats.

Magic, Myth and Monsters

Mosaic of Jesus Christ in Istanbul, Turkey (click photo for larger image)Medieval art includes a wide variety of art and architecture. It belongs to the period known as the Middle Ages, which roughly spanned from the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 CE to the early stages of the Renaissance in the 14th century.

Work produced during this era grew out of the artistic heritage of the Roman Empire and the iconographic style of the early Christian church, but those approaches were also fused with the “barbarian” cultures of Northern Europe.

What resulted was a diverse range of artistic styles and periods, some of which include the early Christian and Byzantine, Anglo-Saxon, Viking, Romanesque, and Gothic.

To learn more about the art produced during this 1000 year long civilization, REGISTER NOW for Dr. Jill’s six-week online course, “Magic, Myth and Monsters” presented by the Bethany Arts Community. 

In addition to exploring the remarkable artwork produced during the ten centuries of the Middle Ages, we will also examine the ways in which medieval art profoundly influenced the modern art of the 20th century and beyond.

Don’t Miss this exciting course!

Kees van Dongen: The Painter of Brothels

Kees van Dongen - Le Coquelicot (The Corn Poppy) - c. 1919 - Oil on canvas - 21 1/2 x 18 in - Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (click photo for larger image)Dutch-French painter Cornelis Theodorus Maria (“Kees”) van Dongen (1877-1968) was one of the leading members of the Fauve group of artists that grew up in Paris during the early 20th century. (He was also briefly a member of the German Expressionist group “Die Brücke” (“The Bridge”).

“Nicknamed ‘the painter of brothels’ van Dongen was especially enthralled with the red light district, depicting its dancers, singers, and prostitutes. He later graduated to painting society ladies, who liked the way he elongated their forms and made them look both elegant and slightly dangerous. Despite unfavorable critical comparisons to Matisse (who loathed him), and the apparent absence of any moral compass (van Dongen traveled with a Nazi propaganda tour in 1941), he left a remarkable record of fashions and social attitudes in Paris over the first half of the 20th century.…” (The Art Story) 

“Van Dongen absorbed all the styles that converged on Paris in the early 1900s and made out of them something new. In addition, van Dongen's path as a portraitist prefigures the interaction between art and commerce that would become central to art after the 1950s. (The Art Story)