Old Master

In art history, "Old Master" (or "old master")[1][2] refers to any painter of skill who worked in Europe before about 1800, or a painting by such an artist. An "old master print" is an original print (for example an engraving or etching) made by an artist in the same period. The term "old master drawing" is used in the same way.

"Old Masters" redirects here. For other uses, see Old Masters (disambiguation).
Giorgione's Sleeping Venus (c. 1510), Dresden, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister.

In theory, "Old Master" applies only to artists who were fully trained, were Masters of their local artists' guild, and worked independently, but in practice, paintings produced by pupils or workshops are often included in the scope of the term. Therefore, beyond a certain level of competence, date rather than quality is the criterion for using the term.

Period covered

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the term was often understood as having a starting date of perhaps 1450 or 1470; paintings made before that were "primitives", but this distinction is no longer made. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the term as "A pre-eminent artist of the period before the modern; esp. a pre-eminent western European painter of the 13th to 18th centuries." The first quotation given is from 1696, in the diary of John Evelyn: "My L: Pembroke..shewed me divers rare Pictures of very many of the old & best Masters, especially that of M: Angelo..,& a large booke of the best drawings of the old Masters."[3] The term is also used to refer to a painting or sculpture made by an Old Master, a usage datable to 1824.[3] There are comparable terms in Dutch, French and German; the Dutch may have been the first to make use of such a term, in the 18th century, when oude meester mostly meant painters of the Dutch Golden Age of the previous century. Les Maitres d'autrefois of 1876 by Eugene Fromentin may have helped to popularize the concept, although "vieux maitres" is also used in French. The famous collection in Dresden at the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister is one of the few museums to include the term in its actual name, although many more use it in the title of departments or sections. The collection in the Dresden museum essentially stops at the Baroque period.

The end date is necessarily vague – for example, Goya (1746–1828) is certainly an Old Master,[2] though he was still painting and printmaking at his death in 1828. The term might also be used for John Constable[2] (1776–1837) or Eugène Delacroix (1798–1868), but usually is not.

The term tends to be avoided by art historians as too vague, especially when discussing paintings, although the terms "Old Master Prints" and "Old Master drawings" are still used. It remains current in the art trade. Auction houses still usually divide their sales between, for example, "Old Master Paintings", "Nineteenth-century paintings" and "Modern paintings". Christie's defines the term as ranging "from the 14th to the early 19th century".

Anonymous artists

Artists, most often from early periods, whose hand has been identified by art historians, but to whom no identity can be confidently attached, are often given names by art historians such as Master E.S. (from his monogram), Master of Flémalle (from a previous location of a work), Master of Mary of Burgundy (from a patron), Master of Latin 757 (from the shelf mark of a manuscript he illuminated), Master of the Brunswick Diptych or Master of Schloss Lichtenstein.

List of the most important Old Master painters
Still Life with Pie, Silver Ewer and Crab by Willem Claeszoon Heda (1658) Oil on canvas Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem

Gothic/Proto-Renaissance
  • Cimabue (Italian, 1240–1302), frescoes in the Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi
  • Giotto di Bondone (Italian, 1267–1337), first Renaissance fresco painter
  • Duccio (Italian, 1255–1318), Sienese painter
  • Simone Martini (Italian, 1285–1344), Gothic painter of the Sienese School
  • Ambrogio Lorenzetti (Italian, c. 1290–1348), Gothic painter
  • Pietro Lorenzetti (Italian, c. 1280–1348), Sienese school
  • Gentile da Fabriano (Italian, 1370–1427), International gothic painter
  • Lorenzo Monaco (Italian, 1370–1425), International gothic style
  • Masolino (Italian, c. 1383–c. 1447), Goldsmith trained painter
  • Pisanello (Italian, c. 1395–c. 1455), International gothic painter and medallist
  • Sassetta (Italian, c. 1392–1450), Sienese International Gothic painter

Early Renaissance
Portrait of a young woman by Sandro Botticelli, 1480

High Renaissance
Main article: High Renaissance
Sistine Chapel ceiling, Ignudi, Michelangelo, 1509
  • Fra Bartolommeo (Italian, 1472–1517)
  • Michelangelo (Italian, 1475–1564), acclaimed sculptor, painter and architect
  • Bernardino Luini (Italian, c. 1480–1532)
  • Raphael (Italian, 1483–1520), acclaimed painter
  • Il Garofalo (Italian, 1481–1559)
  • Ridolfo Ghirlandaio (Italian, 1483–1561)
  • Andrea del Sarto (Italian; 1486–1530)
  • Correggio (Italian, 1490–1534), painter from Parma noted for illusionistic frescoes and altarpiece oils
  • Giulio Romano (Italian, c. 1499–1546)

Venetian School (Early Renaissance, High Renaissance and Mannerism)
Main article: Venetian painting
  • Domenico Veneziano (Italian, 1400–1461), Early Renaissance
  • Jacopo Bellini (Italian, 1400–1470), Early Renaissance
  • Gentile Bellini (Italian, 1429–1507), Early Renaissance, noted for historical scenes of Venice and portraits of its doges
  • Giovanni Bellini (Italian, 1430–1516), Early and High Renaissance, pioneer of luminous oil painting
  • Bartolommeo Vivarini (Italian, 1432–1499), Early Renaissance
  • Carlo Crivelli (Italian, 1435–1495), Early Renaissance
  • Alvise Vivarini (Italian, 1445–1503), Early Renaissance
  • Vittore Carpaccio (Italian, 1455–1526), Early Renaissance
  • Giorgione (Italian, 1477–1510), High Renaissance, pioneer of Venetian School of painting
  • Titian (Italian, c. 1488–1576), important High Renaissance-style exponent of colour painting in oils and frescoes
  • Palma Vecchio (Italian, 1480–1528), High Renaissance
  • Lorenzo Lotto (Italian, 1480–1556), High Renaissance
  • Sebastiano del Piombo (Italian, 1485–1547), High Renaissance
  • Jacopo Bassano (Italian, 1515–1592), Mannerist painter noted for portraiture and religious genre painting
  • Tintoretto (Italian, 1518–1594), major Venetian Mannerist painter of monumental religious works
  • Paolo Veronese (Italian, c. 1528–1588), High Renaissance-style, one of Venice's leading colourists

Sienese School
Main article: Sienese School
  • Giovanni di Paolo (Italian, 1403–1482), Early Renaissance
  • Matteo di Giovanni (Italian, 1430–1495), Early Renaissance
  • Francesco di Giorgio (Italian, 1439–1502), Early Renaissance
  • Il Sodoma (Italian, 1477–1549), High Renaissance
  • Beccafumi (Italian, 1486–1551), High Renaissance-Mannerist

Northern Renaissance
Main article: Northern Renaissance
"Kreuzigung Christi" (English: "Crucifixion of Christ") by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1503

Spanish Renaissance
Main article: Spanish Renaissance

Mannerism
Main article: Mannerism
Holy Family with St. Anne and the Infant St. John by Agnolo Bronzino, c. 1545

Baroque painting
Main article: Baroque painting
Supper at Emmaus by Caravaggio, 1601
Portrait of Susanna Lunden by Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1622
Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez, 1656

Dutch Golden Age and Flemish Baroque painting
Main articles: Dutch Golden Age Painting and Flemish Baroque painting
The Concert by Gerard van Honthorst, 1623
  • Roelant Savery (Flemish, 1576–1639)
  • Frans Snyders (Flemish, 1578–1657), master of Baroque still life from the Antwerp School
  • Frans Hals (Flemish-born Dutch, 1580–1666), one of the greatest post-Renaissance portraitists
  • Pieter Lastman (Dutch, 1583–1633)
  • Hendrick Terbrugghen (Dutch, 1588–1629), Dutch Realist genre painter and a leading member of the Utrecht Caravaggisti
  • Gerrit van Honthorst (Dutch, 1590–1636)
  • Dirck van Baburen (Dutch, 1595–1624)
  • Matthias Stom (Dutch, 1600–1652)
  • Adriaen Brouwer (Flemish, c. 1605–1638), noted for his tavern-based genre paintings
  • Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669), history painting, portraits, etchings
  • Jan Lievens (Dutch, 1607–1674)
  • Jacob Adriaensz Backer (Dutch, 1608–1651)
  • Ferdinand Bol (Dutch, 1616–1680)
    Yonker Ramp and his sweetheart by Frans Hals, 1623
  • Jan Havickszoon Steen (Dutch, 1625–1679), Leiden School, tavern genre scenes
  • Jan Davidsz de Heem (Dutch, 1609–1683), still-life artist of the Utrecht/Antwerp School
  • David Teniers the Younger (Flemish, 1610–1690), Dutch Realist known for his peasant/guardroom scenes
  • Adriaen van Ostade (Dutch, 1610–1685), peasant scene artist of the Haarlem School
  • Govert Flinck (Dutch, 1615–1660)
  • Gerrit Dou (Dutch, 1613–1675)
  • Frans van Mieris the Elder (Dutch, 1635–1681)
  • Gerard Terborch (Dutch, 1617–1681), Haarlem School genre painter
  • Willem Kalf (Dutch, 1619–1693), noted for still-life pictures
  • Albert Cuyp (Dutch, 1620–1691), Dordrecht School landscape painter
  • Samuel van Hoogstraten (Dutch, 1627–1678), genre painter
  • Jan de Bray (Dutch, 1627–1697)
  • Jacob van Ruisdael (Dutch, 1628–1682), Haarlem School landscape artist
  • Gabriel Metsu (Dutch, 1629–1667), intimate small-scale genre scenes
  • Pieter de Hooch (Dutch, 1629–1683), Delft School of Dutch genre painting
  • Johannes Vermeer (Dutch, 1632–1675), Delft School Dutch genre painter, little-known in his own lifetime
  • Meindert Hobbema (Dutch, 1638–1709)
  • Aert de Gelder (Dutch, 1645–1727)
  • Adriaen van der Werff (Dutch, 1659–1722)
  • Rachel Ruysch (Dutch, 1664–1750), important female flower painter from Amsterdam

Rococo
Main articles: Rococo and Italian Rococo art

British
An Experiment on a Bird in an Air Pump by Joseph Wright of Derby, 1768

Vedutism
Main articles: Veduta and Grand Tour

Neoclassicism
Main article: Neoclassicism

Romanticism
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See also

References
  1. The term is spelled either way in the literature. Major UK and US dictionaries, incl. the Oxford Online Dictionaries, American Heritage Dictionary, Macmillan, Cambridge, and Random House dictionaries use lowercase; Oxford English Dictionary, Collins, and Merriam-Webster dictionaries also mention the uppercase spelling.
  2. Old Masters Department, Christies.com.
  3. "old master, n. and adj." OED Online. Oxford University Press, December 2016. Web.
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