The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (388 page)

(1574–1625).
Italian painter and sculptor, the most distinguished member of a family of artists. He was born in Bologna and worked mainly in Milan, where the family settled when he was a child, and also in Modena and Genoa. Initially he worked mainly as a sculptor, but after about 1600 he concentrated on painting and became one of the leading painters in Milan. His style was eclectic but often very powerful, combining something of the emotional tension of
Mannerism
with the dynamism and sense of physical presence of the
Baroque
. His colours tend to be acidic, his handling of light and shade dramatic. Many of his paintings are still in Milan, but two large scenes from Christ's Passion (perhaps part of a series) are in Edinburgh (NG) and Sheffield (Graves Art Gal.). His father,
Ercole
(1515–95), and his brothers,
Camillo
(
c.
1560–1629) and
Carlo Antonio
(1555–1605), were also painters.

 
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Procter , Dod
and
Ernest
.

See
NEWLYN SCHOOL
.

 
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(1783–1852).
English painter, best known for his watercolour views of
Picturesque
buildings and streets in Normandy, many of which appeared as engravings in illustrated books. He was an important popularizer of Picturesque landscape and helped to build up the British
Romantic
image of the Continent. His work was greatly admired by
Ruskin
.

 
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provenance
.

The record of the ownership of a work of art. A complete provenance accounts for the whereabouts of a work from leaving the artist's studio to the present day, and the nearer a work's pedigree approaches this ideal, the more secure its attribution is likely to be.

 
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(
c.
1465–1529).
Netherlandish painter. He was born at Mons and worked in Valenciennes and briefly in Antwerp before settling in Bruges in 1494. His style was fairly close to Gerard
David
, then the leading painter in Bruges, but Provost, although clumsier, was more inventive. In 1521 Provost met and entertained
Dürer
, who is reputed to have drawn his portrait.

 
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(1758–1823).
French portrait and historical painter. He was trained at the Dijon Academy and in 1784 went to Rome, where he was a friend of
Canova
and formed his style on the example of the
sfumato
and sensuous charm of
Leonardo
and
Correggio
. In 1787 he returned to Paris and after working in obscurity for some time he became a favourite of both empresses of the French, Josephine and Marie-Louise, designing the decorations for the bridal suite of the latter. His friendship with the statesman Talleyrand enabled him to remain in favour even after the fall of Napoleon in 1815, but he painted little in his final years. He had a neurotic personality and the shock of the suicide of his mistress—his pupil Constance Mayer—in 1821 led to his own death. Prud'hon belongs both to the 18th and to the 19th cents. In his elegance, his grace, and his exquisite fancy he is akin to the epoch of Louis XVI—
David
referred to him slightingly as ‘the
Boucher
of his time’. But his deep personal feeling aligns him with the
Romantics
.
Gros
said of him: ‘He will bestride the two centuries with his seven league boots.’ Among his best-known pictures are
Justice and Divine Vengeance pursuing Crime
(Louvre, 1808), for which he received the Legion of Honour, and
Venus and Adonis
(Wallace Coll., London, commissioned 1810, but still in Prud'hon's studio at his death). Prud'hon was an outstanding draughtsman, but many of his paintings are in poor condition because of his use of
bitumen
.