A little Christmas present-angel artist to get to know

Part 1 – 1304 to 1486

Giotto di Bondone

He was born in 1266 in Vespignano near Florence, and died on January 8, 1337, also in Florence.

The Italian painter was probably the most important pioneer of the Renaissance in Italy ; because of his outstanding fame, he is usually only “Giotto” .

We know quite a lot about him from sources such as Lorenzo Ghibertis's Commentarii, written around 1450. The son of a Florentine blacksmith is said to have been discovered by a painter while tending and sketching his sheep. Artists of the time marveled at his talent; according to Renaissance ideas, artistic geniuses were born with it.

Giotto soon received commissions in Florence and was summoned to Rome by Pope Benedict XII , where he worked for ten years. He also worked for King Robert of Naples. He thus became famous as an architect, sculptor, and poet, and is said to have enjoyed great financial success.

From 1320 he maintained a financially successful workshop in Florence, in 1334 he became master builder of Florence Cathedral, he died in 1337 while working in the Bargello Chapel in Florence (while working on the “Last Judgment” ).

Giotto is said to have painted flies so realistically that his friends wanted to shoo them away; since then, the fly has been considered a symbol of artistic progress . Also legendary is “Giotto’s O,” a freehand drawing of a perfect circle, which he is said to have presented to a papal envoy as a work sample.

Actually, the founder of Italian painting only dealt with religious themes. However, he did so in an unusually natural and lively manner, using new colors and with early hints of perspective, as in the famous “Ognissanti Madonna” in the Uffizi Gallery, Giotto’s only surviving large panel painting.

Giotto is mentioned in Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy" and in Boccaccio's "Decameron" , Petrarch owned a work by him, Michelangelo took him as a model, and the European space probe that ascended in 1985 to study Halley's Comet also bore his name (with good reason, as Giotto is said to have painted the comet in a fresco cycle).

The angel in the Advent calendar was created sometime between 1304 and 1306. The large fresco cycle in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua , to which the angel belongs, is considered Giotto's masterpiece.

 

Hubert van Eyck

He was born around 1370 in Maaseyck (near Maastricht) and died on September 18, 1426 in Bruges.

The Flemish painter is shrouded in mystery; very little is known about his life; the only certainty is that he enrolled in the religious congregation of “Mary with the Rays” in Ghent in 1421–1422.

Hubert van Eyck was long famous for the “Ghent Altarpiece” (winged altarpiece in St. Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent, erected in 1432 or 1435), which he is said to have created together with his brother Jan van Eyck.

Hubert van Eyck's great fame is based on an inscription on the Ghent Altarpiece, on the frame which reads:

Pictor Hubertur Eeyck. Maior Quo Nemo Repertus
Incepit. Pondus. Que Johannes Arte Secundus
(Frater) Perfecit. Judoci Vijd Prece Fretus
Versv Sexta Mai. Vos Collocat Acta Tveri

For those of us who don't know Latin: “The painter Hubert van Eyck, of whom there was no greater, began this work, and his brother Johannes, the second in this art, completed the difficult task on behalf of Jodocus Vijd. Through these verses, he entrusts to your care what was created on May 6th.”

However, for some years now it has been known with reasonable certainty that this is more likely one of the first major art scandals: Jan van Eyck was hardly the brother of Hubert van Eyck, who comes from Bruges and not from Ghent (Hubert wasn't from Ghent either, but he was known as a painter in Ghent).

When Albrecht Dürer inspected the altarpiece around 1530, he observed no trace of an inscription; an X-ray examination in 1950 confirmed his assessment. Infrared reflectography in 1979 revealed that Jan van Eyck was the sole signer of the altarpiece.

The motives for the vilification of poor Jan van Eyck and his magnificent legacy to posterity are said to lie in the local patriotism of the people of Ghent in the 16th century. After all, Jan van Eyck was an immigrant, and an “immigrant” has problems elsewhere entirely (the author, a Berliner, is not referring to Bavaria; she loves Bavaria and has never had any problems there and would never comment on Bavarian affairs, but the word is so lovely).

 

In any case, Bruges and Ghent had long competed for cultural supremacy, and the people of Ghent are said to have readily exploited the coincidental similarity in names to attribute the now-famous artwork to "their Hubert." This theory comes from a well-known German art historian and is widely accepted in Germany. Whether Ghent and Bruges are still arguing today is unknown to the author, but hardly likely.

If you would like to judge for yourself, you could look at and compare some pictures by Hubert van Eyck on the web, although apart from pictures from the Ghent Altarpiece, there aren't too many to be found…

The angels of December 8th and 10th were created by Hubert van Eyck/Jan van Eyck, “Musician Angels” and an “Annunciation Angel” from the Ghent Altarpiece.

Gentile da Fabriano

was born in Fabriano around 1370 and died in Rome in 1427.

Little is known about the life of this early Renaissance painter Allegretto Nuzi . Since Nuzi is said to have lived from 1315/20 to around 1373, Nuzi's life was probably not very long.

Gentile “da Fabriano” is similar to Anton “aus Tirol”, because Gentile actually means, and even more euphoniously, Gentile di Nicolò Massio.

Gentile worked in his hometown until the turn of the century. In 1408/1409 he was sighted in Venice, where he was supposed to decorate a Doge's Palace with frescoes, but he left the completion of the work to his pupil Pisanello.

Gentile da Fabriano is said to have preferred to work in Brescia for Pandolfo III Malatesta, a mercenary leader about whom the internet has much interesting information, e.g. about the crusade to the Holy Land, which he led until 1402, his burial jacket unearthed in 2011 and his kidney stone disease.

From around 1420, Gentile da Fabriano worked in Florence, for example, for the Strozzi family on a chapel in the church of Santa Trinita (the most important panel painting being the “Adoration of the Magi,” with its highly three-dimensional depiction of the figures). For the merchant family Quarantesi, he created the Quaratesi Polyptych for the high altar of San Niccolò sopr'Arno in Florence. He had been admitted to the painters' guild in Florence in 1422, and after a brief period in Siena, he accepted the invitation of Pope Martin V to come to Rome around 1426.

There, in the Lateran Basilica (the bishop's church of Rome), he began a cycle of frescoes from the life of John the Baptist, which, due to the death of the master, also had to be completed by his pupil Pisanello.

Gentile da Fabriano is known to posterity as the most important Italian representative of the "International Gothic" style , and through his famous pupils Pisanello and Jacopo Bellini . The angel of December 3rd belongs to the panel painting: "Adoration of the Magi" for the family chapel of the Strozzi banking family.

 

Melchior Broederlam

was born sometime before 1380 and probably lived until about 1410.

Melchior Broederlam (or Broederlain) was a Flemish painter of the Gothic period, about whose life we ​​know very little.

What is certain is that he stayed at the court of Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, in Ypres between 1381 and 1409, and that's pretty much it.

The only work Broederlam left us are two wings of an altarpiece for the Chartreuse de Champmol, a Carthusian monastery in Dijon, Burgundy, which was specifically founded to house the tombs of the Dukes of Burgundy.

When Broederlam arrived, the construction had already employed more than 250 workers from various regions and all construction trades for years; the sculptures on the altarpieces had been commissioned from Jacques de Baerze as early as 1390, and were delivered to Ypres in 1391.

Melchior Broederlam worked on the paintings for the altarpieces from 1393 to 1399; in 1399 they were installed in the Chartreuse. The altarpiece depicted the Annunciation , the Visitation , the Presentation in the Temple, and the Flight into Egypt .

Besides his time in Ypres, Melchior Broederlam is said to have worked in Dijon in 1389 and 1399 and in Paris in 1390 and 1395, but no records of this have survived. The angel of December 18th belongs to the left wing of the altarpiece that Melchior Broederlam designed for Philip the Bold.

Fra Angelico

was born in 1387 (between 1386 and 1400) in Vicchio di Mugello near Florence and died on February 18, 1455 in Rome.

The painter of the Italian Early Renaissance was richly endowed with names. He was born Guido (Guidolino) di Pietro. Upon taking his religious vows, he adopted the name Giovanni (Brother John), which his contemporaries adorned with the distinctive addition of Fiesole (a town near Vicchio, in the province of Florence).

Giorgio Vasari, Italian architect, court painter to the Medici, and one of the first art historians to write about the lives and works of Leonardo da Vinci , Raphael, and Michelangelo, as well as Fra Giovanni, already referred to Fra Giovanni as Fra Giovanni Angelico (the Heavenly, Angelic One) in his biography written before 1555. Posterity even speaks of Il Beato Fra Angelico (the happy, blessed Heavenly Brother) – in the case of a monk, not a compliment to any particular talent, but referring to the way in which Fra Angelico depicted his Christian themes.

In 1982, Pope John Paul II actually beatified Fra Angelico ; at that time he had long been known as the patron saint of Christian artists.

Nothing is known about Fra Angelico's parents; the earliest surviving evidence about him is a document from 1417, which confirms his joining a religious brotherhood and his work as a painter. This is also evident from two receipts from 1418, issued for payment for artistic work in the church of Santo Stefano del Ponte, Sestri Levante, Liguria.

Fra Angelico, a Dominican friar named Fra Giovanni, is first mentioned in 1423. He trained as an illuminator (book painter) and is said to have worked with his brother Benedetto, also a Dominican. His teachers are unknown, and his earliest works have not survived.

Fra Angelico moved south again from Liguria, beyond Fiesole. From 1408 to 1418, he lived in Cortona, Tuscany, in the Dominican convent and painted frescoes in the church. Vasari later mentions an altarpiece and a painted rood screen in a Florentine Carthusian church.

Around 1420, Fra Angelico returned to Fiesole, to the monastery of San Domenico, where he set up a workshop and created a polyptych for the high altar of the monastery church. In 1436, his order moved to the former Salvestrine monastery of San Marco in Florence, where manuscripts attributed to Fra Angelico are preserved. Numerous paintings in the cells and cloisters are also attributed to him.

In 1445, Fra Angelico was summoned to Rome, where he decorated the Chapel of the Santissimo Sacramento (no longer extant) with frescoes on behalf of Pope Eugene IV. Subsequently, between 1447 and 1449, he painted frescoes in the Cappella Niccolina on behalf of Pope Nicholas V, working alongside Benozzo Gozzoli.

From 1449 to 1452, Fra Angelico served as prior of the Dominican monastery in Fiesole. He then returned to Rome, where he died in 1455 and was buried in the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. The angel on the entrance side is "Annunciation ," taken from the main panel of an altarpiece depicting the life of Mary, created around 1433.

 

Master of the Wilton Diptych

This is clearly a pseudonym, because we know nothing about this master.

He lived between 1395 and 1399; how long before and after that period is unknown. The fact that he lived between 1395 and 1399 is only known because scholarly analysis has dated the Wilton Diptych to this period. Diptychs are two-part paintings; in religious art, the triptych in three parts, a common altarpiece, is more familiar.

It is known that the diptych was commissioned by King Richard II of England (1367–1400), as the coat of arms of Richard II can be seen on the outer (reverse) side. And his truly decorative emblem, a white stag with a crown and chain.

The front of the diptych naturally its patron, Richard II , on the left wing, modestly small and kneeling. Behind him stand three saints, identifiable by their attributes: John the Baptist (recognizable by his fur cloak and lamb in his arms, Richard's patron saint); the English King Edward the Confessor, 1004–1066, canonized in 1161 for his earnest efforts on behalf of sick subjects (including, according to legend, miraculous healings); and Edmund of East Anglia, or Edmund the Martyr, c. 841–869, who is venerated as a martyr and saint for his death in battle against attacking Danes.

Both are recognizable by their ermine cloaks and the crowns on their heads; Edward the Confessor bears his attributes bear, tree, arrow and wolf, which can be seen on his cloak and in his hand; Edmund the Martyr is usually depicted in royal robes with a ring (symbol of the fellowship of Christians) and a dove (symbol of the Holy Spirit and peace), at least the ring can be seen on the diptych.

The three saints support Richard II in his request to receive the blessing of the Madonna, who is depicted on the right wing. She holds the Christ Child in her hands, who blesses the kneeling king; both are surrounded by eleven angels. These angels carry several symbols; high above on the left, an angel flutters the flag with the St. George's Cross, which has been the flag of England (patron saint St. George) since the 13th century and still forms the center of the Union Jack.

The small sphere at the end of the flagpole symbolizes a globe; only those with keen eyesight can spot the tiny island of England depicted on it. The emblem of Richard II, the white stag, is also embroidered on the angels' shoulders, and the flowery meadow beneath the Madonna and angels is strewn with Marian flowers—roses, irises, and daisies—which also symbolize paradise.

All these symbols are meant to tell us that King Richard II was granted England by the Christ Child. In the context of the then-prevalent conflict over whether secular power or the Church held sway, this symbolism is double-edged: either Richard wanted to express his submission to divine power and his confidence in divine approval, or conversely, he wanted to make it clear that the Crown's claim to secular supremacy was "God-given" before the Church.

No expense was spared in the creation of the diptych; the images are mounted on a gilded background adorned with elaborate punchwork, the frame is also gilded, even the hooks and eyes used to close the folding panels. Despite this, the Wilton Diptych is not very large; each wing measures 47.5 × 29.2 cm, only slightly larger than a sheet of A3 paper.

The painting is called the Wilton Diptych because it belonged for a time to the Earl of Pembroke, who kept it in his “Wilton House” from 1705 to 1929. In 1929, it was acquired by the National Gallery in London and can still be admired there today. The angels of December 11th are a testament to the beautiful work of the Master of the Wilton Diptych.

Benozzo Gozzoli

He was born in Florence in 1420 and died in Pistoia near Florence in 1497.

The Italian Renaissance painter was born Benozzo di Lese di Sandro, the son of the tailor Lese di Sandro; why he was called Gozzoli can only be guessed at, and not necessarily for charming reasons: in Italian, Gozzo means goiter, or unfathomable throat, (swollen) abdomen, (fat) belly; with such a name, even the diminutive form Gozzoli doesn't help much…

Gozzoli studied under Fra Angelico, whom he accompanied to Rome from 1446/1447 to 1449, where he helped him paint frescoes for Pope Nicholas V in the Chapel of St. Nicholas in the Vatican Palace (Cappella Niccolina).

Benozzo Gozzoli then worked in Montefalco, where he created works such as the "Assumption of Mary ," a painting now in the Pinacoteca in the Vatican. In 1452, he painted a cycle of frescoes depicting the legend of Saint Francis in the Church of San Francesco in Montefalco.

Around 1456 he went to Florence; it is known that he worked for the Medici from 1459 to 1461, decorating the chapel of the Palazzo Medici with frescoes. From 1463 to 1464, Gozzoli painted a fresco cycle with 17 scenes from the life of Saint Augustine in the church of Sant'Agostino in San Gimignano, Tuscany.

From about 1468 he lived in Pisa, where he created his major work: a series of 25 frescoes with scenes from the Old Testament, in the Camposanto Monumentale cemetery. Gozzoli worked on the cycle for about 15 years, until 1483 or 1485. What he did after that is unknown, only that he returned to his home region, died there at the age of 77, and was buried in the Dominican monastery.

Benozzo Gozzoli became famous for several panel paintings that have survived to posterity: “Madonna with Four Saints” from 1456 (Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria in Perugia), “Madonna Enthroned with Four Saints” from 1461 (National Gallery London), “Dance of Salome” (National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC) and “Triumph of Saint Thomas Aquinas” (Paris, Louvre).

such a person is called “Vergognosa di Pisa” ( Shameful of Pisa) by the Italians, “The Grape Harvest and Drunkenness” (Camposanto in Pisa), in which the drunken and naked Noah is looked at by his daughter through her fingers.

The origin of the expression is not entirely certain; “Noah in a frenzy” was a popular motif at the time, and people probably had a great understanding of how difficult it was to accommodate all species on one ship. The “Adoring Angels” of December 7th were created by Benozzo Gozzoli.

 

Friedrich Herlin

He was born around 1450 in southern Germany, presumably in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, and died around 1500 in Nördlingen.

We don't know much about the late Gothic painter , only that he worked in Rothenburg ob der Tauber and lived in Nördlingen from 1459 onwards. It is recorded that he received Nördlingen citizenship in 1467 and died there sometime around 1500. And that he was the father-in-law of the well-known Ulm painter Bartholomäus Zeitblom , at least for a time, because Zeitblom is known to have had a second marriage, to a daughter of the Ulm painter Hans Schüchlin.

Several works certainly attributed to Friedrich Herlin can be found in southern Germany: in St. James' Church in Rothenburg, wings on the high altar with depictions from the life of Mary, made around 1466; in the town church of St. Blasius in Bopfingen, two altar wings with the "Nativity" and the "Adoration of the Magi" from 1472; in St. Boniface's Church in Emmendingen, three altar wings, "Nativity" , "Adoration of the Magi" and "Circumcision" from 1473; and in St. George's, the town church of Nördlingen, a triptych donated by the Nördlingen innkeeper Jakob Fuchshart and his stepsons.

Herlin became known more as a successor to Roger van der Weyden (from whom he is said to have trained) than for an independent style and expression. Only a realistic depiction of the reading Apostle Peter with pince-nez has achieved a certain public notoriety, because viewers find it very amusing and the depiction of spectacles is of interest to art and cultural historians. The angel in the calendar represents the "Adoration of the Christ Child" in Friedrich Herlin's "Nativity .

Filippino Lippi

was born around 1457 in Prato in Tuscany and died in Florence in 1504.

Filippino Lippi was called Filippo in his time and was never called anything else; the name “Filippino” was later given to him by art historians to distinguish him from his equally artistic and famous father.

He was originally called Fra Filippo Lippi (or Fra Lippo Lippi), and his full name was Fra Filippo Tommaso Lippi, but now a long time has passed, and it is better and more appropriate to remember his son as Filippino Lippi, as he is always referred to.

Filippino Lippi's life began in a rather exciting way: because his father, Fra Filippo Tommaso Lippi, was really called Fra Filippo Tommaso Lippi, with emphasis on Fra – because he lost his mother and father as a child, he entered the Carmelite monastery of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence at the age of 14, so he was a religious brother.

He only remained there until 1432, but is said not to have been released from his vows, and biographer Giorgio Vasari recounts Fra Filippo's romantic adventures (which modern biographers doubt). In any case, Filippo the Elder is said to have settled in Prato in 1456 to paint the frescoes in the cathedral's choir.

Before beginning this work, he is said to have started a painting for the San Margherita convent chapel in Prato in 1458, during which time he met Lucrezia Buti, a beautiful woman, but probably also a novice. Lucrezia modeled for Filippo, and he eloped with her; the result was Filippino…

This Filippino also wanted to become a painter; he apprenticed in his father's workshop and, after his father's death in 1469, with his father's friend, the aptly named Fra Don Diamante. Sandro Botticelli is also said to have been an apprentice in his father's workshop; Filippino Lippi worked for him from 1472 onwards, and his early work is said to show influences of Botticelli's painting style and Flemish painting.

From 1482 to 1484, Filippino Lippi worked in the Brancacci Chapel of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence, where he completed Masaccio's frescoes. Fresco painting became his specialty, and Lorenzo I de' Medici his main patron in Florence .

Filippino Lippi frequently visited Rome to study antiquity, and from 1489 to 1493 he painted in Rome, creating the frescoes of the Carafa Chapel in the Roman church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. Filippino Lippi also created the Renaissance Angel of December 14th, which can be admired in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

 

Carlo Crivelli

He was probably born in Venice around 1430/1435 and died in the Marche region in 1500.

As the birth dates above already suggest, we don't know much about Carlo Crivelli. However, the painter is an immense stimulus for research, firstly because of his outstanding work, which has survived to us in an unusually large number of artworks, and secondly because of the fact that he left us documents and numerous signatures on his works, from which his life can be pieced together like a puzzle. The following has been discovered:

Carlo Crivelli was born the son of the painter Iachobus de Chriveris, who lived in the parish of San Moisè in Venice. He had a younger brother, Vittore, and perhaps another brother named Ridolfo dal Ricci. Crivelli must have been born between 1430 and 1435 because, on March 7, 1457, he was sentenced to six months in prison and a fine of 200 lire; he had to be of legal age to receive this sentence.

He received the punishment for the abduction of the wife of a Venetian sailor, with whom he had fallen in love; this adultery was a scandal and probably the reason why Crivelli left Venice and never returned.

Crivelli was probably originally an apprentice to Antonio Vivarini, Giovanni d'Alemagna, and Bartolomeo Vivarini, who introduced him to contemporary Paduan painting. This influenced his early work, but none of his early works from Venice have survived.

After his arrest in 1457, the artist went to Padua, befriended Giorgio Schiavone, and followed him to Zara in Dalmatia, then under Venetian rule. From there, Crivelli went to the Marche region, where in 1469 he became embroiled in another conflict and trial in Ascoli, but also continued to paint, for example, the altarpiece Polittico di Porto San Giorgio for the church of San Giorgio. The dispute was apparently resolved favorably, and in 1473 Crivelli settled in Ascoli, married, and diligently painted altarpieces, also in the surrounding towns.

As an advanced artist, Crivelli ventured into some innovations, a new structure for the altarpiece ; perhaps this is why he received an increasing number of commissions from elsewhere. In the last years of his life, Crivelli was constantly traveling between Camerino, Matelica, Fabriano, and Pergola.

He was awarded the title "miles" by Ferdinando di Aragona, Prince of Capua and future King of Naples, with which he subsequently signed his works. This honorary title brought him into political difficulties, which is why he moved from place to place in his later years. Crivelli is said to have died in Fermo and to be buried in the Church of San Francesco, though this is not certain; Ascoli and many other locations are also mentioned.

What is certain, however, is that Carlo Crivelli was among the first painters to develop a completely independent visual language, fascinating and powerfully effective. He preferred to paint decorations and magnificent ornaments, but also incorporated surprising elements such as cucumbers, which give his works an almost surreal quality.

Carlo Crivelli's Angel of December 5th, created in 1486, shows a detail from "The Annunciation" and actually contains a cucumber – have fun finding it!