The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (38 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists
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Bartlett , Jennifer
.
Bartolommeo , Fra
(Baccio della Porta )
(1472/5–1517).
Florentine painter. After training with Cosimo
Rosselli
, he was deeply influenced by the preaching of Savonarola and entered the Dominican Order in 1500, giving up painting until 1504. From then until 1508 he developed parallel with
Raphael
—though Raphael's was the more imaginative genius—each contributing something to the new High
Renaissance
type of Madonna with Saints, in which the figure of the Madonna acts not merely as a centre but as a pivot about which the whole composition turns. The two artists also evolved a new treatment, first adumbrated by
Leonardo
, of the theme of the
Madonna and Child with the Infant St John in a Landscape
. Raphael,
Michelangelo
, and Leonardo had all left Florence by 1509 and in the second decade of the century Fra Bartolommeo was rivalled only by
Andrea del Sarto
as the leading painter in the city, which he left only briefly for visits to Venice in 1508 and Rome in 1514. His style acquired a solemn restraint and monumentality that made him one of the purest representatives of the High Renaissance (
The Mystical Marriage of St Catherine
, Louvre, Paris, 1511). Fra Bartolommeo was a brilliant draughtsman and the mystical element in his nature is expressed in his drawings, which escape the tendency to empty rhetoric occasionally shown in his later paintings. His drawings include not only figure studies, but also landscape and nature studies.
Bartolozzi , Francesco
(1727–1815).
Italian engraver, active mainly in England. He was one of the most accomplished engravers of his period, achieving success in Italy, in England, where he became Engraver to George III in 1764, and in Portugal, where he moved in 1802 to become Director of the National Academy in Lisbon. Bartolozzi became a founder member of the
Royal Academy
in 1768 and engraved the works of many of his leading contemporaries, such as
Copley
,
Kauffmann
, and
Reynolds
, but he was also celebrated for engravings after the Old Masters.
Barye , Antoine-Louis
(1796–1875).
French sculptor, celebrated for his portrayal of animals. He laid the basis of his extensive knowledge of animal forms while employed by a goldsmith making models of animals in the Jardin des Plantes, Paris (1823–31). His work was in the spirit of
Romanticism
, particularly his preference for rendering violent movement and tense posture. He also did the pediment
Napoleon dominating History and the Arts
on the Pavillon de l'Horloge of the
Louvre
and an equestrian statue of Napoleon at Ajaccio, the Emperor's birthplace in Corsica.
Baschenis , Evaristo
(1617–77).
Italian painter, the most prominent of a family of artists recorded from 1400. He was ordained
c.
1647 and painted a few religious subjects, but his fame rests chiefly on his beautifully poised and polished still lifes of musical instruments. His predilection for the subject may have been associated with the contemporary fame of the Amati family of violin-makers of Cremona, which is near to Baschenis's native town of Bergamo. The Accademia Carrara there has the best collection of his paintings.

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