The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (11 page)

All-over painting
.

A type of painting in which the whole surface of the canvas is treated in a relatively uniform manner and traditional ideas of composition—of the picture having a top, bottom, or centre—are abandoned. First used of the ‘drip’ paintings of Jackson
Pollock
, the term has since been applied to pictures where the overall treatment of the canvas is relatively uniform, whether relying on texture or on ‘scribbled’ material as with Cy
Twombly
or on colour as with the
Colour Field painters
.

 
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(1926–90).
British art critic and curator, active for much of his career in the USA. In the 1950s he worked at the
Institute of Contemporary Arts
, London (he was director, 1957–9), and he was one of the leading figures in the
Independent Group
, the cradle of British
Pop art
(Alloway himself coined this term). He was also a strong supporter of American
Abstract Expressionism
, and in 1961 he emigrated to the USA, settling in New York, where he became a curator at the
Guggenheim
Museum and art critic for
The Nation
. His books include
American Pop Art
(1974) and
Topics in American Art since
1945 (1975).

 
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(1779–1843).
American painter and writer, considered the most important artistic personality of the first generation of
Romanticism
in the USA. Samuel Taylor Coleridge , who met him in Rome and whose portrait Allston painted (NPG, London), considered him ‘a man of… high and rare genius… whether I contemplate him in the character of a Poet, a Painter, or a Philosophic Analyst’. Allston spent his working life in Boston apart from two lengthy visits to Europe: during the first, 1801–8, he studied under Benjamin
West
at the
Royal Academy
, subsequently visiting France with John
Vanderlyn
; the second stay in England was from 1811 to 1818. Up to
c.
1818 his Romanticism expressed itself in the grandiose and dramatic, and his large canvases exploited the mysterious, monumental, and terrific aspects of nature (
The Rising of a Thunderstorm at Sea
, Mus. of Fine Arts, Boston, 1804). In his later period he was a forerunner of the subjective and visionary trend in American landscape painting, which relied more upon mood and reverie than upon observation or drama, as in his famous
Moonlight Landscape
(Mus. of Fine Arts, Boston, 1819). Through his pupil
Morse
this type of landscape painting became indigenous to the USA. Allston's writing included poetry, a Gothic novel entitled
Monaldi
(1841), and the posthumously published
Lectures on Art
(1850).

 
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(1836–1912).
Dutch painter who settled in London in 1870 and took British nationality in 1873. He specialized in historical genre scenes, beginning with medieval subjects, but then—following a visit to Pompeii in 1863—turning to the ancient world. His paintings evoke a Hollywood vision of ancient Greece and Rome (and sometimes Egypt), with their sensuous depiction of beautiful women, exotic costumes, and marbled settings—
Punch
called him a ‘marbellous artist’. They were enormously successful and he had a sumptuous lifestyle in his house in St John's Wood, which had previously been owned by
Tissot
and which Alma-Tadema remodelled as a Roman villa. He was knighted in 1899 and received the Order of Merit in 1905. His success encouraged several imitators, including his wife
Laura
(1852–1909), his daughter
Anna
(1865–1943), and painters such as John William Godward (1861–1922) and Edwin Long (1829–91). However, Alma-Tadema's work went completely out of favour after his death, and his reputation did not revive until the 1970s. Now he once again pleases a large public; visitor surveys at the Getty Museum, Malibu, have revealed that his
Spring
(1894) is the most popular work in the collection.

 
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altarpiece
.

A picture, sculpture, screen, or decorated wall standing on or behind an altar in a Christian church. They vary enormously in size and conception, from tiny portable pictures to huge structures embracing the arts of architecture, sculpture, and painting. They do, however, divide into two main types: the reredos, which rises from ground level behind the altar; and the retable, which stands either on the back of the altar itself or on a pedestal behind it. Many altars have both.

 
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