Category Archives: 15th Century

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).