The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (352 page)

Ovens , Juriaen
.

See
CAMPEN
.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

(1789–1869)
. German painter, the leading member of the
Nazarenes
. He moved to Rome in 1810 and was based there for the rest of his life, although he made several visits to Germany. In 1813 he was converted to Roman Catholicism and apart from a few portraits (there is a self-portrait in the Uffizi) his work was almost exclusively on religious themes. He painted in a consciously archaic style—clear and sincere but rather pallid—based on the work of
Perugino
and the young
Raphael
.
The Rose Miracle of St Francis
(Portiuncula Chapel, Assisi, 1829) is perhaps his best-known painting. The high-minded and didactic tone of his work won it a more sympathetic acceptance (particularly in England) than its artistic quality alone merited. William
Dyce
and Ford Madox
Brown
were among his supporters and there were affinities between his aspirations and those of the
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

(1886–1966).
French painter, writer, and teacher. In 1918 he met
Le Corbusier
with whom he founded
Purism
, but he is more important as a writer and teacher than as a painter. He lived in London, 1935–9, then in New York, 1939–55, founding art schools in both cities. After returning to France he settled in Cannes, where he directed a studio for foreign art students. His
Foundations of Modern Art
(1931, enlarged edition, 1952) is a study of the interrelationship of all forms of human creativity, including science and religion, and is one of the most widely read books by any modern artist. His
Mémoires
, 1886–1962 was posthumously published in 1968.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

(1564–1644).
Spanish painter and writer, active in Seville. He was a man of great culture, a poet and scholar as well as a painter, and his house was the focus of Seville's artistic life. As a painter he was undistinguished, working in a stiff academic style (though his portraits are fresher than his religious works). He was an outstanding teacher, however, for (in spite of his own limitations) he was sympathetic to the more naturalistic style that was then developing. And he was generous enough in spirit to acknowledge openly that his greatest pupil,
Velázquez
(who became his son-in-law in 1618), was a much better painter than himself: ‘I consider it no disgrace for the pupil to surpass the master.’ Alonso
Cano
was his other outstanding pupil, and Pacheco often collaborated with the great sculptor
Montañés
, painting his wooden figures. In 1649 his book
El Arte de la Pintura
(The Art of Painting), was posthumously published; part theoretical, part biographical, this is a major source of information for the period (it includes accounts of his meeting with El
Greco
in Toledo in 1611 and of Velázquez's early career). Pacheco was an official art censor to the Inquisition and the highly detailed
iconographical
prescriptions in his book were often strictly adhered to by contemporary artists.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

(active 1465?–98).
Austrian painter and sculptor. He died at Salzburg, but most of his career was spent at Bruneck in the Tyrol. Nothing is known of his training, and the earliest recorded work by him (a signed and dated altarpiece of 1465) is now lost. He worked mainly for local churches, carrying out the carving as well as the painting of his altarpieces, and much of his work is still
in situ
. His most celebrated work is the St Wolfgang altarpiece (1471–81) in the church of S. Wolfgang on the Abersee, a huge
polyptych
with some astonishingly intricate woodcarving. Although Pacher's sculpture is thoroughly late
Gothic
in spirit, his painting is strongly influenced by Italian art. He is particularly close to
Mantegna
, especially in the way dramatic effects are obtained by using a low viewpoint and setting the figures close to the picture plane. There is no documentary evidence that Pacher visited Italy, but because of its proximity to the Tyrol it seems overwhelmingly likely that he did. Pacher's work had wide influence and he was the most important interpreter of
Renaissance
ideas for German painting before
Dürer
. A
Friedrich
and a
Hans Pacher
, presumably related, were active in the Tyrol at the same time as Michael , and Friedrich collaborated with him.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search