Initially a servant and cook to an Italian painter, he developed his distinctive style from a Flemish artist who had moved to Rome in 1582. A great influence on JMW Turner.
Tassi
Paul Bail left Antwerp, taught Tassi in Rome, who in turn taught Claude Lorrain. Claude-Joseph Vernet learned in Rome, then advised Valenciennes, and so French landscape painting came home.
Interest in paintings of witchcraft grew in the Age of Enlightenment, with a series painted by Goya for the Duchess of Osuna.
A small selection of the wonderful coastal landscapes painted by Claude Lorrain or Gellée.
His family name wasn’t Tassi, he planned to steal paintings, intended to murder his wife, had an adulterous affair with his sister-in-law, and raped Artemisia Gentileschi. But he has one redeeming feature.
How northern landscape painting was taken to Italy, and started its long journey to acceptance, and eventually Impressionism.
Wonderful paintings of a gruesome story: that of Judith and Holofernes, by Veronese, Caravaggio, Artemisia Gentileschi.
The Eclectic Light Company 