The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (159 page)

 
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(1898–1972).
Dutch graphic artist. His prints (mainly woodcuts and lithographs) make sophisticated uses of visual illusion, exploiting ambiguity between figure and ground, and between flat pattern and apparent three-dimensional recession. From
c.
1944 his work took on a
Surrealist
flavour as he made brilliant play with optical illusion to represent, for example, staircases that appear to lead both up and down in the same direction. Mathematical concepts played a key role in many of these prints and they have been of considerable interest to mathematicians. He has also had a strong appeal to the general public, particularly since the 1960s, when some young people felt that his work complemented the ‘mind-expanding’ experiences obtained through taking hallucinogenic drugs.

 
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Escorial
.

A small village about 50km. north-west of Madrid that gives its name to the palace and monastery built there by Philip II, containing one of the great treasure houses of Spanish art. Begun in 1563 by Juan Bautista de Toledo and finished in 1584 by Juan de Herrera , the huge complex of buildings in constructed entirely of granite and is overpoweringly austere. It comprises a royal palace and mausoleum combined with a Hieronymite monastery, college, and church. The plan is a large rectangle, roughly 160 m. × 200 m., and the layout has been compared to a gridiron, the attribute of St Lawrence , to whom the monastery was dedicated in acknowledgement of Philip II's victory over the French at St Quentin on St Lawrence's day, 1557. Philip II tried unsuccessfully to persuade
Titian
to come to Spain to paint altarpieces for the Escorial; and El
Greco
was rejected after his
St Maurice
had failed to obtain royal approval (1580). The Italian
Mannerists
Pellegrino
Tibaldi
and Luca
Cambiaso
painted a number of altarpieces and large fresco decorations in the church, cloister, and library. Other altar paintings were executed by Federico
Zuccaro
,
Navarrete
, and
Sánchez Coello
. A school of painting was thus established at the Escorial, in which younger artists such as
Ribalta
were trained. The principal sculptors employed by Philip II included Leone and Pompeo
Leoni
. In 1688 Claudio
Coello
completed the sacristy altarpiece and a few years later Luca
Giordano
painted the vaults of the church and the cloister staircase. In the 18th cent. Charles III used the Escorial as a hunting seat and furnished the hitherto unoccupied state rooms of the palace; many of the tapestries with which the walls were hung were designed by
Goya
. Other outstanding works of art in the Escorial include a crucifix carved by Benvenuto
Cellini
and paintings by
Dürer
,
Bosch
, Titian , El Greco,
Ribera
, and
Velázquez
.

 
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Este
.

Italian family, Lords of Ferrara , Modena , and Reggio from the late 13th cent. until 1598 and thereafter of Modena and Reggio until the end of the 18th cent. They were notable patrons of the arts and letters.
Leonello
(1407–50) made Ferrara into an important cultural centre; he was the friend of
Alberti
, and a patron of Jacopo
Bellini
and
Pisanello
; Rogier van der
Weyden
painted his illegitimate son
Francesco
(Metropolitan Mus., New York). His brother
Borso
(1413–71) was in touch with the young
Mantegna
and
Piero della Francesca
, made Cosimo
Tura
his chief court painter in 1458, and employed him, Francesco del
Cossa
, and Ercole de
Roberti
on the frescos in the Palazzo Schifanoia.
Isabella
(1474–1539), daughter of
Ercole I
(1431–1505), the half-brother of Leonello and Borso , was the greatest of the Este patrons and one of the most brilliant women of her time. She secured paintings from Mantegna,
Perugino
,
Costa
, and later
Correggio
to decorate her famous Studiolo in Mantua (she was married to Francesco
Gonzaga
) and is said to have implored art dealers not to show her their wares so she would not spend herself even further into debt. A portrait drawing of her by
Leonardo
is in the Louvre. Her brother
Alfonso
(1476–1539) commissioned mythological paintings by Giovanni Bellini and
Titian
for his Studiolo. Dosso and Battista
Dossi
,
Garofalo
, Girolamo da Carpi , and
Scarsellino
were the painters principally employed by the Estes during the 16th cent. In the next century they continued their collections in Modena, and
Francesco I
(1610–58) commissioned portraits of himself from
Bernini
and
Velázquez
. Both portraits are now in the Galleria Estense in Modena , which houses many other works from the Este collections. However, in 1744
Francesco III
sold 100 of his most splendid pictures to Augustus III of Poland (as Elector of Saxony he had his court in Dresden and these paintings are now among the treasures of the Gemäldegalerie there).

 
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Estes , Richard
.

See
SUPERREALISM
.

 
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