The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (410 page)

 
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(1558/60–1625).
Spanish painter, the leading painter of his period in Seville. He was a priest and virtually all his work was done for churches and religious houses in and around Seville. Roelas has been called ‘the Spanish,
Tintoretto
’ and ‘the Spanish
Veronese
’, and the painterly richness of his large multi-figure compositions suggests he had studied in Italy. His work, however, has a religious fervour that is typically Spanish rather than Italian, and his blending of mysticism with
naturalism
was deeply influential in Seville. Most of his work remains there; his masterpiece is perhaps the huge
Martyrdom of St Andrew
(Seville Mus., 1609).

 
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(1874–1947).
Russian painter, designer, archaeologist, anthropologist, and mystical philosopher. He was a prolific painter of landscapes and of imaginary historical scenes that evoke a colourful pagan image of Russia's past. They reveal the same feeling for exotic splendour and bold, sumptuous colour that he displayed in his set and costume designs for
Diaghilev's
Ballets Russes
, notably for Stravinsky's
Rite of Spring
(1913), for which Roerich created the scenario with the composer. A man of immense energy, Roerich combined his career as an artist with one as an archaeologist and anthropologist. In 1925–8 he made a 16,000-mile expedition in Central Asia; his ‘investigation of the cultures of the region [is] still the bedrock of anthropological studies of Central Asia’ (
The Times Atlas of World Exploration
, 1991). From 1928 until his death he directed a Himalayan research station at Kulu in India, and many of his later paintings feature mountain landscapes. He had a deep interest in esoteric religions and the mysteries of nature, and he developed a philosophy in which art should unite humanity. There are Roerich museums in Moscow and New York (he lived in the USA, 1920–3), but the best collection of his work is in the Russian Museum, St Petersburg.

 
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Roger of Helmarshausen
.

See
THEOPHILUS
.

 
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(1907–79).
British painter. He exhibited with the
London Group
in 1931 and became a member in 1938. With
Coldstream
and Victor
Pasmore
he was a founding member of the
Euston Road School
in 1937 and he became one of the main upholders of its sober figurative tradition, although in his later work the underlying abstract quality of the composition became of more importance. A distinguished teacher, he lectured at the
Slade
School from 1948 to 1963 and was Professor of Fine Art in the University of Reading, 1963–72.

 
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(1849–1938).
German painter and graphic artist. Until he was over 50 he worked in a fairly traditional
naturalistic
manner, but he then discovered the work of the
Post-Impressionists
, in particular van
Gogh
, whose brilliant colour and intense feeling were a revelation to him, and he became one of the pioneers of
Expressionism
in Germany. His favourite themes were visionary views of old German towns, colourful landscapes, and flower pieces. He received considerable acclaim for work in his new style, but in 1937 he was declared a
degenerate artist
by the Nazis and forbidden to paint.

 
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