The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (99 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists
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Chassériau , Théodore
(1819–56).
French painter. He was the most gifted pupil of
Ingres
, whose studio in Rome he entered when he was 11, but in the 1840s he conceived an admiration for
Delacroix
and attempted, with considerable success, to combine Ingres's
classical
linear grace with Delacroix's
Romantic
colour. His chief work was the decoration of the Cour des Comptes in the Palais d'Orsay, Paris, with allegorical scenes of Peace and War (1844–8), but these were almost completely destroyed by fire. There are other examples of his decorative work, however, in various churches in Paris. Chassériau was also an outstanding portraitist and painted nudes and North African scenes (he made a visit there in 1846).
Cheere , Sir Henry
(1703–81).
English sculptor, possibly of French descent. He went into partnership with Henry
Scheemakers
and after Scheemakers left England about 1733 Cheere extended the practice, his output including much work for Oxford University. Cheere was also prominent in public affairs and devoted efforts to an abortive scheme to found an academy of arts a decade before the
Royal Academy
came into being. His art is markedly
Rococo
in feeling, with an interest in small rhythms, and in his charming smaller monuments he often used coloured marbles (
Dean Wilcocks
, Westminster Abbey,
c.
1756). He was well thought of by his fellow artists and furthered the career of
Roubiliac
by gaining him his first important commission in England—the statue of Handel for Vauxhall Gardens (now V&A, London, 1738). His brother
John
(1709–87) had a yard near Hyde Park Corner which turned out a great number of garden figures.
Chia , Sandro
.
chiaroscuro
(Italian: bright-dark). Term describing the effects of light and shade in a work of art, particularly when they are strongly contrasting.
Leonardo
was a pioneer of bold chiaroscuro, but the term is most usually associated with 17th-cent. artists, particularly the
Caravaggisti
and
Rembrandt
.
chiaroscuro woodcut
.
A type of
woodcut
in which tonal effects are created by printing successively on to the same sheet from different blocks of varying tone. Two or more tones of a single colour are used, or of two nearly related colours, one of which is darker than the other. The method dates from the early 16th cent., when it was chiefly used for the reproduction of drawings, and developed more or less simultaneously in Germany and Italy. The earliest dated example is
The Emperor Maximilian on Horseback
of 1508, designed by Hans
Burgkmair
: other notable German exponents were
Cranach
,
Baldung Grien
, and
Altdorfer
. In Italy, where the medium was used more extensively,
Ugo da Carpi
(who is sometimes credited with inventing the technique) made many prints after designs by
Raphael
and
Parmigianino
, the latter artist being a prolific designer for the process.

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