Painting Of The Golden Age: A Biographical Dictionary Of Seventeenth-Century European Painters

Painting Of The Golden Age: A Biographical Dictionary Of Seventeenth-Century European Painters

Reference materials on European painting of the seventeenth century are generally restricted to a roster of a few dozen great masters such as Rembrandt, Rubens, Caravaggio, and Velazquez, but this Golden Age produced hundreds of prodigiously talented painters. Almost 300--mainly Dutch, Flemish, Italian, and Spanish--are here given biographical coverage based on an extensive bibliography of contemporaneous, later, and recent scholarship. Attention is focused on training, travel, commissions, stylistic influences and legacy, and pupils. For each artist, the oeuvre is analyzed with reference to major works, and a detailed list of additional works with museum holdings is appended. References are keyed to the backmatter bibliography, and museum citations refer to a list of 183 collections around the world. An appendix groups the featured artists by nationality, and an index completes the volume.From Library JournalFor this compendium of well-summarized biographies of about 300 painters active in the 1600s, Gealt (curator, Indiana Univ. Arts Museum) selected artists based on their "importance,... contributions,... amount of scholarship available... and the inherent quality of their oeuvre." Given these criteria, the selected artists are largely Italian and Dutch/Flemish, with a smattering of other nationalities. Each essay (ranging from one to eight pages) concentrates on biographical facts, training, and discussions of major works and style. Completing each entry are a list of additional works keyed to location (though no clear criteria for inclusion are given) and a bibliography keyed to a master bibliography. A secondary work, but useful at an undergraduate level both for the summary biographies and as an introduction to the mostly English-language literature.- Jack Perry Brown, Art Inst. of Chicago Lib.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.Review?The first one-volume biographical dictionary in English to provide extensive summaries of the lives of nearly three hundred painters who were active in Europe during the seventeenth century. An extraordinary accomplishment and should be included in all art and humanities, as well as general, collections. It holds particular promise for anyone about to enter upon a pilgrimage to major art collections and museums at home and abroad.?-RQ Summer 1994"The first one-volume biographical dictionary in English to provide extensive summaries of the lives of nearly three hundred painters who were active in Europe during the seventeenth century. An extraordinary accomplishment and should be included in all art and humanities, as well as general, collections. It holds particular promise for anyone about to enter upon a pilgrimage to major art collections and museums at home and abroad."-RQ Summer 1994About the AuthorADELHEID M. GEALT is Director of the Indiana University Art Museum and Professor of Fine Arts at Indiana University. She is author of several books and catalogs, including Italian Portrait Drawing, 1400-1800, from North American Collections (1983), Looking at Art, A Visitor's Guide to Art Museums (1983), and Domenico Tiepolo, The Punchinello Drawings (1986), and coauthor of Art of the Western World (1989), a companion text for a WNET national television series. Other publications have appeared in journals, museum bulletins, catalogs, and reference books. She is developing a companion reference volume on seventeenth-century European paintings, which will analyze genres, subjects, and thematic content.