Monthly Archives: January 2013

Featured Artist at the e.Gallery this week is a 19th Century artist, Ernst Heinrich Haeckel [German, 1834-1919] Link: http://fineart.elib.com/fineart.php?dir=Alphabetical/Haeckel_Ernst_Heinrich

Ernst Haeckel, much like Herbert Spencer, was always quotable, even when wrong. Although best known for the famous statement “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny”, he also coined many words commonly used by biologists today, such as phylum, phylogeny, and ecology. On the other hand, Haeckel also stated that “politics is applied biology”, a quote used by Nazi propagandists. The Nazi party, rather unfortunately, used not only Haeckel’s quotes, but also Haeckel’s justifications for racism, nationalism and social darwinism.

Featured Artist at the e.Gallery this week is a 18th Century artist of the Rococo movement, Giovanni_Batista Piazetta [Italian, 1682-1754] Link: http://fineart.elib.com/fineart.php?dir=Alphabetical/Piazetta_Giovanni_Batista

Giovanni Batista Piazzetta was an artist who sought little gain in his creations, and as a result he was impoverished for much of his life. Albeit, his paintings and drawings were renowned for their Rocco style, with subtle coloring and curvaceous forms in religious and genre subjects. Born in Venice to a sculptor, Piazzetta studied woodcarving with his father and went on to train as a painter with Antonio Molinari (1655–1704). Molinari was a Venetian Baroque painter, whose influence merged in Piazzetta with that of the Bolognese painter, Giuseppe Crespi (1665–1747), who certainly influenced Piazzetta and may have trained him some.

Featured Artist at the e.Gallery this week is a 15th Century artist, Konrad Witz [German-Swiss, c.1400-1446] Link: http://fineart.elib.com/fineart.php?dir=Alphabetical/Witz_Konrad

Konrad Witz, (born ca. 1400, Rottweil, died ca. 1446, Basel), was a German-born painter from Rottweil in Swabia, active in Switzerland and generally considered a member of the Swiss school. He entered the painters’ guild in Basle in 1434 and apparently spent the rest of his career there and in Geneva. Little else is known of him and few paintings by him survive. These few, however, show that he was remarkably advanced in his naturalism, suggesting a knowledge of the work of his contemporaries Jan van Eyck and the Master of Flémalle. In place of the soft lines and lyrical qualities of International Gothic we find in Witz’s work heavy, almost stumpy, figures, whose ample draperies emphasize their solidity.

Featured Artist at the e.Gallery this week is a 15th Century artist of the Early Renaissance movement, Filippino Lippi [Florentine, 1457-1504] Link: http://fineart.elib.com/fineart.php?dir=Alphabetical/Lippi_Filippino

Florentine painter, the son and pupil of Fra Filippo Lippi. who died when the boy was about 12. The boy completed his father’s work (or at least cleared up his estate) in Spoleto (the final receipts for Filippo’s frescoes in the Spoleto Cathedral was signed by Filippino) and he set off alone for Florence on 1 January 1470. He also studied with Botticelli and learned much from his expressive use of line, but Filippino’s style, although sensitive and poetic, is more robust than his master’s. The first certainly datable work by Filippino is the Annunciation on two tondi (1483–84, San Gimignano).