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“2”-DAY 14 November
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Died on 14 November 1625: Giulio Cesare
Procaccini, Italian painter and sculptor born in 1574. — The most distinguished member of a family of artists, he was born in Bologna and worked mainly in Milan, where the family settled when he was a child, and also in Modena and Genoa. Initially he worked mainly as a sculptor, but after about 1600 he concentrated on painting and became one of the leading painters in Milan. His style was eclectic but often very powerful, combining something of the emotional tension of Mannerism with the dynamism and sense of physical presence of the Baroque. His colors tend to be acidic, his handling of light and shade dramatic. Many of his paintings are still in Milan, but two large scenes from Christ's Passion (perhaps part of a series) are in Edinburgh and Sheffield. His father Ercole Procaccini I [bap. 23 Feb 1520 – 13 Jan 1595], and his brothers, Camillo [1554 – 21 Aug 1629] and Carlo Antonio [13 Jan 1571 – 1630] were also painters, as was Carlo Antonio's son, Ercole Procaccini II [bap. 06 Aug 1605 – 02 Mar 1680]. — Having moved to Milan with the rest of the family in the mid-1580s, Giulio Cesare Procaccini was trained as a sculptor, perhaps in the workshop of Francesco Brambilla II, and then worked (1591–1599) for the workshop of Milan Cathedral. The results of this work are difficult to identify, and the most secure attribution is the left term on the altar of St Joseph. There followed a period (1597–1602) of intense sculptural activity for the church of Santa Maria presso San Celso, for the façade of which he executed two high reliefs in marble, the Visitation and Birth of the Virgin. In 1597 he may have accompanied his brother Camillo to Reggio Emilia, where Camillo added to his earlier fresco decorations for San Prospero. Between 1597 and 1600 Giulio Cesare is documented as working as a sculptor for Cremona Cathedral, to which two sculptures, Saint Matthew and Saint John, were delivered, after many delays, in 1625. He also produced the gilded wood Guardian Angel (1597) for Santa Monica, Cremona. From Cremona he went to Parma, where he studied the works of Correggio, Parmigianino, and Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli, which had a significant impact on the style of his early paintings. — LINKS — Madonna and Child with Saints and Angels — The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian — Saint Sebastian Tended by Angels (1612, 285x139cm) — The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine (145x145cm) — The Annunciation (1620, 237x164cm; 700x513 framed, 61kb) _ Probablement peint pour l'autel d'une église. Procaccini a traité à plusieurs reprises ce sujet, que ce soit pour d'autres tableaux d'autel, des oeuvres de dévotion ou l'ornement d'un devant d'autel. — The Assumption of the Virgin (1273x900pix, 253kb) — Study of 3 Heads of Children (1625, 26x35cm; 181kb) _ The liveliness and life-like quality of these three heads indicate that they were almost certainly painted directly from life. The figures are shown in profile, frontal and three-quarter views and, given the generic similarity of their features, it is not impossible that all three were painted from a single model. It is tempting to assume that the child (or children) are to be identified as Giulio Cesare’s own but there is not enough biographical information to confirm such a theory: all we know is that at the time of his death Giulio Cesare had three adult daughters - Cecilia, Prassede and Virginia - from his wife Isabella Visconti, whom he had married in May 1600. The child at the left holds up a medal, whilst the child in the center wears a coral necklace (as the Christ Child is often seen wearing) and the rightmost child has been transformed into a figure of the Child Saint John the Baptist through the addition of an animal-hide and reed cross. Though these figure studies were produced as life-like portraits, Procaccini probably intended such pictures to remain in his studio so that he could re-use the heads for putti or other secondary figures in his larger compositions. — Virgin and Child With Angels, in a garland (800x582pix, 124kb) the garland of flowers is the main subject. —(061113) |
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Born on 14 November 1885: (Sarah
Sophie Stern Terk) Sonia Delaunay, Russian French
painter, designer, and printmaker, born in the Ukraine on 14 November 1885,
active in France, where in 1910 she married Robert
Delaunay [12 Apr 1885 – 25 Oct 1941]. She died on 05 December
1979. (She was born on the 45th birthday of Monet, and died on the 53rd
anniversary of his death) — She was the youngest of three children and in 1890 was adopted by her maternal uncle, Henri Terk, a lawyer in Saint Petersburg, where she spent her youth. She had early contacts with Germany, visiting the artist Max Liebermann in Berlin (1899) and studying drawing under Ludwig Schmidt-Reutter [1863–1909] in Karlsruhe from 1903 to 1905. In 1905 she moved to Paris to study at the Académie de la Palette. There she met Amédée Ozenfant, André Dunoyer de Segonzac, and Jean-Louis Boussingault. She learnt printmaking from Rudolf Grossmann [1882–1941]. Her early painting was figurative, with frequent references to van Gogh, Gauguin and the Fauves. The links with Germany continued after her move to France: she exhibited at the Erster Deutscher Herbstsalon at the Galerie Der Sturm, Berlin, in 1913 and again at the Galerie Der Sturm in 1920 and 1921. — Sonia Delaunay was a true Renaissance woman of many talents and aspirations. Although she found incredible successes in her life as a wife, mother, socialite, businesswoman and artist, she often lived in the shadow of her husband, Robert Delaunay. It was only decades after her husband’s death that Sonia Delaunay acquired the attention and appreciation that she fully deserved. As a vanguard of the modern female artist movement, Sonia exerted an influence upon the world of art and culture that remains unforgettable and momentous. Sonia Delaunay was born Sarah Stern in the small Ukrainian town Gradizhsk. As a young child, Sonia loved her father immensely and hated her mother just as strongly. She was impressed by the fortitude, honesty and calmness of her father, who worked as a hard laborer in a nail factory. On the other hand, her mother, an incessant complainer, irked the future artist. The general likes and dislikes Sonia found in her parents would greatly influence her own personality development later on in life, even though she was separated from both her father and her mother at the age of five when she was adopted by her uncle Henri Terk. Henri was an auspicious lawyer in St. Petersburg and was married to a relatively powerful wife named Anna. The affluent Jewish couple adopted the child in 1890 and renamed her Sonia Terk. In Saint-Petersburg, Sonia lived in the Terks’ beautiful home, furnished with her uncle’s formal studies and reproductions of famous paintings; she also received the best education money could buy. Every summer, the Terks traveled around Europe, staying at their Finnish country home and visiting the most prominent art galleries and museums on the continent. Thus, Sonia developed a taste for the arts at quite an early age. Sonia did not receive formal artistic training until she was 16, when she was enrolled in one of St. Petersburg’s most respected secondary schools. There, her art teacher urged the Terks to send the precocious Sonia to Germany so that she could study art more seriously. Sonia finished her secondary school studies at the age of 18 and immediately entered the Karlsruhe Academy of Fine Arts. The Terks, aware that Sonia would be alone and independent for the most part, preferred to school her in Karlsruhe rather than in Munich so that Sonia could be close to extended family members. From 1903 to 1905, Sonia studied under a strict professor who helped her develop a strong stylistic foundation. In 1905, Sonia left for Paris, the center for arts and entertainment, and would rarely return to Russia thereafter. Sonia loved life in Paris -- the excitement, the experimentation, the creativity. At first, she roomed with four other Russian girls in a pension on rue Campagne Premier. Every night, the girls entertained large parties of friends. In addition to having an active social life, Sonia had a serious academic career at the Académie de la Palette in Montparnasse. However, she grew to dislike the harsh, critical teaching style used by her professors and decided to paint on her own for the most part. Her paintings at this time, such as Finnish Landscape (1906) and Three Nudes (1908), were heavily influenced by Van Gogh, Gauguin and Matisse, and it is obvious in these paintings that Sonia was struggling to find her own style. Sonia soon came into contact with Wilhem Uhde, an influential art dealer and collector. He was an outgoing and charismatic man of bourgeois upbringing, and was thus able to penetrate Parisian art circles quite effortlessly. When Sonia met Uhde, he had already established an impressive art collection of Fauvist works. Sonia was immediately drawn to Uhde, particularly to his knowledge of modern art. On 05 December 1908, the two were married unexpectedly in a civil ceremony in London and had a brief honeymoon at the Bucklers Hotel. Ultimately, however, their marriage appears to have been loveless and based only upon intellectual similarities and social usefulness. Their marriage of convenience allowed Sonia to remain in Paris in spite of pressure from her family to return to Russia, while it allowed Uhde to hide his homosexuality. Sonia further benefited from the marriage through Uhde’s power in the art world. He housed solo shows of her early Parisian artwork and introduced her to the artistic elite. Nonetheless, Sonia still had not defined her personal style and continued to mimic the styles of the masters. |
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1909, Sonia met Robert
Delaunay and they mated shortly thereafter. The two had numerous similarities,
such as having been brought up by rich extended relatives. Most of all,
though, they shared a comparable love for art. Uhde and Sonia divorced in
1910, and Sonia immediately married Robert. The Delaunays’ son Charles was
born just two months after their wedding. The family ate, drank and breathed
art, exchanging ideas, working next to one another, and constructively criticizing
each other’s work. The Delaunays lived well beyond their means and entertained
large groups of friends, spending money they never had. Every Sunday, their
home became an open house to young avant-garde artists. Sonia Delaunay never separated the decorative arts from the fine arts, and she gave as much attention to the design of furniture around the home as she did to large canvasses. Her talent was completely instinctive, as Sonia -- for her own amusement -- created numerous everyday trinkets of contrasting and complementary colors for their home. Sonia also became interested in dressmaking. She used random scraps of material in adventurous combinations for her family’s clothing, although she was not initially interested in the fashion world. Around this time, Sonia became obsessed with color. Her paintings explored the power, versatility and vibrancy of colors. Furthermore, she encouraged Robert to paint with color, as many of his paintings had become more and more monochromatic. Throughout their marriage and even after Robert’s death, Sonia put herself and her needs in the background, emphasizing those of her husband. Robert became so obsessed with painting that he neglected to take care of himself and his son. In addition, his temper was also hard to control. Nonetheless, Sonia loved Robert unconditionally, and she kept quiet about these dissatisfactions. Sadly, the family was temporarily separated soon after Charles’ birth when their son became ill. Sonia moved with Charles to Nice to stay with relatives, and then moved to Normandy. Alone, Robert and Sonia were able to study one another’s work. By the time the two were reunited, their artwork had become extremely abstract. ^ In 1912, the Delaunays’ close friend Guillame Apollinaire came to live in their studio. Apollinaire had undergone trial for the disappearance of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre and sought refuge in the Delaunays’ home. Sonia and Robert defended their friend earnestly throughout the whole process. Apollinaire was one of the most devoted fans of the Delaunays’ artwork and had termed their interpretation of Cubist style “Orphism.” In 1914, Sonia was persuaded by a friend to move the family to Madrid. There, their son Charles caught typhoid fever. Robert had little talent as a father, so Sonia was left to care for Charles herself. To reconnect, the couple took a seaside vacation together when Charles was better. Afterwards, Sonia returned to Paris to prepare their apartment. However, when she went back to Madrid for her family, she found Robert again totally immersed in his work and captivated by the Iberian landscape. Nonetheless, the Spanish heat was too intense, and the Delaunays decided to move instead to coastal Portugal so that Robert could continue his art in cooler surroundings. Sonia immediately fell in love with all of Portugal and began painting day into night. As seen in paintings such as Disk (1916), the vibrant colors and light of the Iberian Peninsula had captivated her as well, and she was the happiest she had ever been. |
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1921, the Delaunays returned to Paris. Soon after their return, Sonia began
working with Dada propagandist Tristan Tzara on fashion pieces and fabric
designs. Together, the two created the famous “poem-dresses” and the costumes
for Tzara’s play Coeur à Gaz. Sonia was gaining worldwide attention
with her fabrics of geometric designs. Even Hollywood actresses were buying
her designs, thus funding the Delaunay lifestyle. Delaunay’s artistry had
turned into a business enterprise, and her apartment became a boutique,
fashion studio and fabric house. In 1925, Sonia featured her fashion designs
in the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs. Sonia also gave an
impressive lecture at the Sorbonne on the influence of painting on clothing
designs. In this lecture, Sonia also introduced the novel idea of prêt-à-porter
clothing and other newfound freedoms in women’s fashion. In the 1930s, the Great Depression put Sonia’s life on hold. The demand for fine art was dwindling, and the Delaunay family could not depend on painting for income. Sonia saw this as an incredible opportunity to withdraw from her artistic career and encouraged Robert to do the same. The two wasted away their days enjoying one another’s company and living a carefree lifestyle. By the end of the 1930s, they faced financial failure and once again had to promote their artwork to support their lifestyle. Both Sonia and Robert’s artwork was featured in a myriad of exhibitions towards the end of this decade. The 1937 Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans La Vie Moderne showcased some of Sonia’s best work. For two years, Sonia worked on the decoration of two exhibition buildings, though she threatened to withdraw her name from the Exposition contract after several disputes with Félix Aublet, the decorator in charge. Nevertheless, the Exposition works were eventually displayed and garnered much money for the Delaunays. A few months after the Exposition, Sonia suffered a severe asthma attack and was informed that she had emphysema. The news had no effect on her life, however, and she continued to work just as hard as ever, becoming even more dedicated to abstract art. In 1941, Robert died. Immediately after his death, Sonia organized retrospectives of his work as a tribute to his life. To some, it seemed as though she kept herself alive by keeping Robert’s memory alive. To finance this expedition, she sold most of her major possessions and rented out her apartment in Mougins. Sonia lived instead in random hotels and in friends’ homes, selling Robert’s paintings now and then if she could. When Sonia returned to Paris in January of 1945, she was about 60 years old and depressed. Her apartment in Paris was a mess, her health was in shambles, and her financial situation was tenuous. Charles, who had experienced much success with the Parisian radio scene, constantly criticized his mother for her reckless spending habits. Furthermore, she was a bit disillusioned by the young Parisian artists who in her opinion lacked a necessary spirituality. Although she enjoyed their company, she had little faith in their artwork, which was quite academic and theoretical rather than instinctual. In 1946, Sonia wanted only to be alone for a bit in the town of Gambais. She would not produce any artwork again until 1950, when she collaborated with Hans Arp and Alberto Magnelli on a lithograph project. During the 1950s, Sonia began to feel a bit overlooked, for her artwork had received little to no attention. Having come to the conclusion that Robert’s work had gained enough notice, she decided to concentrate on her own artwork. She painted prolifically during this period, pumping out and exhibiting numerous gouache paintings. In the 1960s, she again went through bouts of depression, as many of her friends had been dying. She was faced with bleak loneliness and trusted nobody. In 1964, Sonia, almost 80 years old, met the writer/poet/art-enthusiast/editor Jacques Damase at the Opéra in Paris. She felt a strangely comfortable attraction to Damase and confided in him her deepest thoughts. She went to London to see him in 1965, and the two soon began to see each other regularly. Following her maternal instincts, she wished to cure his drinking and emotional problems. Similarly, Damase looked after Sonia, providing her with a selfless and supportive friendship. Damase helped coordinate Sonia’s most important retrospective, a full-scale tribute to her works at the Musée National d’Art Moderne. Sonia had finally gained the respect she was in search of and truly enjoyed the fame. For the rest of her life, Sonia lived in the lap of luxury, wearing the finest clothing and traveling to the most cultured places. Sonia died peacefully in her studio. Sonia Delaunay never stood on the shoulders of her husband or friends. By making a well-respected name for herself and by herself, Sonia also made a name for women artists in general. Despite being faced with endless adversity, Sonia never once deserted her position in life as mother, wife or artist. Her fortitude, combined with her incredible skill, allowed her to become one of the most esteemed artists in modern history. — LINKS — Couverture (1911) This quilt was made for the Delaunays’ son Charles before his birth. The blanket is composed of various patches of fur and fabric, much like the fabric worn by Russian peasants at the time. The fabric pieces show geometric design patterns, and their arrangement is clearly Cubist. The blanket served as a model for many of Sonia’s later works and is one of Sonia’s early experiments with abstract art. The patterns and materials are completely random. The piece’s harmony also indicates that Sonia paid extreme attention to color composition. — endpapers and binding for Blaise Cendrars' Pâques à New York (1912) _ Soon after designing the Couverture, Delaunay made a series of appliqué collage bookbindings, most notably for Cendrars' Pâques à New York. Similar in this respect to the quilt, the bookbindings play with the effects of juxtaposed surfaces. Appearing frequently are the Russian folk art motifs, the rainbow and the arc, as well as the triangles and trapezoids of patchwork construction that Delaunay was using in her paintings during the same period (Le Bal Bullier is one example). These motifs serve as building blocks that can be detached and reassembled in each subsequent design. Delaunay's procedure accentuates the autonomy of the unit or building block; each shape remains distinct even while participating in a larger composition. The detachable quality of the building blocks reminds the viewer of the initial gesture of the simultaneous craft, that of assembling rather than inventing, selecting rather than originating. — Le Bal Bullier (1912-1913) _ One series of Sonia’s early large-scale works that explored simultaneous color contrast. The Bal Bullier was a famous dancehall where the Delaunays and their friends often met. It was extremely popular among students and shop girls, but many poets and artists frequented the haunt to take up the stylish new dances, such as the fox trot and tango. These new dance forms inspired Sonia to create this painting, as she was fascinated with the way colors swirled in the figures of the dancers. Sonia used mattress ticking in all four versions of the Bal Bullier paintings because she could not afford real canvasses. Sonia loved painting colors in motion, and in these paintings, she adopts the point of view of the dancer in that everything shown is in constant motion. The lines are swirling and chaotic, and the technique is obviously abstract. Thus, the painting can be read from any direction. The colors of this painting are relatively muted. Greens and dark blues shadow the bright reds and oranges. The Bal Bullier experiences would also be the basis for many of the dresses Sonia designed later on in her career. — Automne (tapestry, 227x167cm; 799x575pix, 63kb) — Rayures (1925; 600x833pix, 138kb) _ a design for a mattress-cover? — Electric Prisms (1914; 400x400pix 71kb) _ These works were originally exhibited in the Salon des Indépendants. Sonia used a myriad of materials in this study series, including crayons, watercolor, cut papers and oil paints. She was obsessed with the nature of light, especially the way in which light from electric street lamps was distorted into halos as it fell onto the Parisian streets. These street lamps were a relatively novel invention at the time and replaced the old Parisian gaslights. In these paintings, Sonia showcased circles of light distorted by a prism. The paintings evoke feelings of movement, depth and rhythm quite effectively through Sonia’s masterful manipulation of color combinations. — Marché au Minho (1916, 197x216cm) _ One of the paintings Sonia created during her joyful stay in Vila de Conde in northern Portugal. There, the light was kind to her art. Sonia wrote, “The light of Portugal was not violent, but exalted every color.” Sonia was inspired by the many intense colors found in the peasants’ houses, clothing, food and ceramics. She also liked the straight, planar lines used in the Portuguese architecture. In this painting, Sonia freed herself from formal arrangement. The placement of colors and shapes is quite haphazard. –- Éclipse (1975, 129x177cm; 625x842pix, 37kb) _ The waste of bandwidth by this image devoid of details has prompted the pseudonymous Trevor Duvinmeur to make his own improved and highly efficient edition: _ Egg Lips (2005; 480x600pix, 10kb _ ZOOM to 800x1000pix, 19kb) and the creatively modified _ Egg Laps (2005; 480x600pix, 12kb _ ZOOM to 800x1000pix, 25kb) — Untitled (Composition) (107kb) — Untitled (799xpix, 29kb) — Untitled (37kb) — Rythme Coloré (900x1640pix, 228kb) — similar, but different Rythme Coloré (900x664pix, 92kb) — Untitled (3 prints grouped in one image; 49kb) — article: High Decoration: Sonia Delaunay, Blaise Cendrars, and the Poem as Fashion Design —(061113) |
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Died on 14 November 1676: Jacques
Courtois “le Bourguignon”, French painter specialized
in cavalry battles, born on 12 February 1621. — {puisqu'il était
Courtois, je serai courtois avec lui en ne faisant aucune plaisanterie sur
son nom}. — Jacques Courtois and his brother Guillaume [1628-1679] were active in Italy and often known by the Italian forms of the names, Giacomo and Guglielmo Cortese. They came from Burgundy and both had the nickname Il Borgognone or Le Bourguignon. Jacques was a prolific painter of battle scenes, fairly close in style to those of Salvator Rosa, but more colorful. Courtois is an example of a painter who has escaped notice in terms of art history, because of both his isolation from his native Franche Comté (incorporated into France by Louis XIV) and his lack of association with Italian art, even though he spent his whole career in Rome. Courtois evolved the archetypal small battle piece, depicting plenty of violence and the smoke of combat, a format that was to remain standard right up to the end of the eighteenth century, though few of its exponents were French. Authentic works by Courtois frequently appear on the art market, but much of his oeuvre has till to be identified. — LINKS — Bataille de Mongiovino (138x276cm) _ The painting is one of a series of battle pieces representing the victories of the patron, in this instance against the troops of Pope Urban VIII in 1643. The painting is signed in the center by the Italian name of the artist: Iacomo Cortesi. — Bataille d'Arbelles, 331 av. J.C. (188x328cm; 402x726pix, 78kb poor definition) — Rencontre de Cavaliers (74x96cm; 474x600pix, 85kb poor definition) |
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