The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (430 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists
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Savoldo Giovanni Girolamo
(active 1508–after 1548).
Italian painter, born in Brescia, first documented in Florence in 1508, and active mainly in Venice. His output was small and his career is said to have been unsuccessful, but he is now remembered as a highly attractive minor master whose work stands somewhat apart from the main Venetian tradition. His forté was night scenes, in which he gave his lyrical sensibility and liking for unusual light effects full play. One of the best-known examples is
Mary Magdalen Approaching the Sepulchre
, of which several versions exist, one in the National Gallery, London. The writer Pietro Aretino described Savoldo as ‘decrepit’ in 1548 and he is not heard of thereafter.
Scarsellino , Lo
(Ippolito Scarsella )
(
c.
1551–1620).
The leading Ferrarese painter of his period. He produced a good deal of large-scale work, but is now remembered mainly for his small mythological or religious scenes set in landscapes, several of which are in the Borghese Gallery, Rome. Their romantic feeling and spirited technique recall Venetian painting and they were particularly influential on the young
Guercino
.
Schad , Christian
.
Schadow , Johann Gottfried
(1764–1850).
German sculptor, graphic artist, and writer on art. He travelled in Italy, 1785–7, and in 1788 he settled in Berlin, where he became head of the Academy in 1816. His style was
Neoclassical
(he knew
Canova
in Italy), but retained a degree of
Baroque
liveliness. He was active mainly as a portraitist and tomb sculptor, but his best-known work is the
quadriga
(four-horse chariot) (1793) surmounting the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, which was badly damaged in the Second World War. His finest achievement is perhaps the charming and sensitive group of
The Princesses Luise and Frederika of Prussia
(Staatliche Mus., Berlin, 1795–7). From the 1820s his sight deteriorated and he turned more to graphic work (he was a draughtsman, engraver, and lithographer) and to writing on art theory. He had three artist sons;
Felix Schadow
(1819–61),
Rudolf Schadow
(1786–1822) and, most importantly,
Wilhelm von Schadow
(1788–1862). Wilhelm was in Italy 1811–19 and a member of the
Nazarenes
. He taught at the Berlin Academy, then in 1826 became Director of the Düsseldorf Academy, which he helped to make into a leading centre of history painting.
Schalken , Godfried
(1643–1703).
Dutch painter of biblical, allegorical, and anecdotal subjects and of portraits, active mainly in Leiden. He was taught by
Hoogstraten
and
Dou
, and was one of Dou's most distinguished successors in the Leiden
fijnschilder
(fine painter) tradition. His surfaces are as smooth, glossy, and delicately finished as Dou's, but Schalken differed from his master in his lighting effects (he had a strong preference for the red glow of candle-light) and in his penchant for scenes involving coquettish women. As with Dou, Schalken's great popularity lasted throughout the 18th cent.
Scheemakers , Peter
(1691–1781).
Flemish sculptor, active mainly in England, where he settled around 1720. Apart from a visit to Rome (1728–
c.
1730) he was based in London until 1771, when he returned to his native Antwerp. In the 1730s he became the main rival to
Rysbrack
, whose prices he undercut. Rysbrack defeated him in competition for the equestrian statue of William III in Bristol, but Scheemakers gained a great success in 1740 with his Shakespeare monument in Westminster Abbey and thereafter received numerous commissions and controlled a large studio with many assistants. He was, indeed, perhaps the most prolific of mid 18th-cent. sculptors, particularly as a maker of monuments, ranging from small tablets to large multi-figure compositions. Rysbrack also made portrait busts, and these, like his monuments, are often severely classical, reflecting his love of the
antique
. Scheemakers' brother
Henry
(d. 1748) and his son
Thomas
(1740–1808) were also sculptors working in England.

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