Among the 2022 anniversaries are the 500th of the death of Piero di Cosimo, the centenary of the death of Léon Bonnat who taught Sargent and Munch, and the birth of animal painter Rosa Bonheur.
Piero
How an architect, two great masters of painting, and the author of an early textbook on painting applied geometric optics to change painting.
From his battle with the sea monster to the deadly fight at his wedding to Andromeda, paintings by Titian, Veronese, Burne-Jones, Vallotton and others.
The significance of Alberti’s textbook on painting and simplified perspective, followed by Piero’s account of perspective, and Vasari’s new history of painting.
In Florence, stories told in paintings became increasingly secular, and ingeniously integrated multiple scenes from the single story into one painting.
How rendering of the surface texture of fabrics changed during the southern Renaissance, and new techniques were exported to the north.
It was the patrons who funded, enabled, and occasionally directed the movement towards realism and secular subjects, and developed the genres.
At the start of the 15th century, Italian easel paintings used egg tempera. By the end, Leonardo da Vinci was pushing the technical boundaries using oil paint.
Atlas, who bears the heavens on his shoulders. Prometheus, who deceived Zeus and was bound by chains as punishment, an eagle eating his liver each day. Epimetheus, who married Pandora.
Scenes from Perseus and Andromeda, and Orlando Furioso, by Veronese, Moreau, Burne-Jones, Vallotton and others.
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