The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (474 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists
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Teniers , David the Younger
(1610–90).
Flemish painter, the most important of a family of Antwerp artists. His output was huge and varied (about 2,000 pictures have been attributed to him), but he is best known for his peasant scenes—similar to those of
Brouwer
, but less hearty. In 1651 he was appointed court painter to Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, Governor of the Austrian Netherlands in Brussels, and was also made custodian of the Archduke's art collection. Teniers was an unusual curator. He not only compiled a first-rate catalogue of the Archduke's pictures but he also made paintings of the galleries in which the works of art were installed, and painted small copies of some of the pictures (examples of the latter are in the Courtauld, Inst. and Wallace Coll., London). Teniers' father,
David the Elder
(1582–1649), was primarily a painter of religious scenes. Few pictures are known that are certainly by him, and many formerly attributed to him are now given to his son, with whom he may have collaborated. David the Younger's son,
David III
(1638–85), was one of the many artists who imitated his father's work. Other members of the family were
Julien I
(1572–1615), the brother of David I,
Julien II
(1616–79), the brother of David II, and
Abraham
(1629–70), the brother of David III.
Tenniel , Sir John
(1820–1914).
English illustrator. He is remembered chiefly for his brilliant illustrations to Lewis Carroll's
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
(1865) and its sequel
Through the Looking-Glass
(1872), which now seem inseparable from the text, and for his long association with
Punch
. He worked for
Punch
from 1850 to 1901, succeeding
Leech
as chief cartoonist in 1864.
Terborch , Gerard the Younger
, (
or Ter Borch ), Gerard the Younger
(1617–81).
Dutch painter and draughtsman of interiors and small portraits. A highly precocious artist—his earliest dated drawing (in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) is from 1625—Terborch studied with his father,
Gerard the Elder
(1584–1662), in his native Zwolle, and with Pieter de
Molyn
in Haarlem. Unlike most of the Dutch artists of his time he travelled extensively. In 1635 he was in London, and from
c.
1636 to 1640 he was in Italy. From Italy he probably went to Spain and then to Flanders. In 1648 he was in Germany, where he painted
The Swearing of the Oath of Ratification of the Treaty of Münster
(NG, London, 1648), a group portrait of the signatories to the treaty that gave the Dutch independence from the Spanish. In 1654 he finally settled in Deventer, where he won both professional and social success. After beginning his career with guardroom scenes, he turned to pictures of elegant society, to which his gifts for delicate characterization and exquisite depiction of fine materials were ideally suited. His best-known work, the subject of a charming passage by
Goethe
, is the so-called
Parental Admonition
(versions in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, and the Staatliche Museen, Berlin). It is symptomatic of Terborch's unvaryingly tasteful decorum that the true theme of this picture is a man making a proposition to a courtesan (the coin that he proffers to his ‘daughter’ has been partially erased in the Berlin version and it is omitted in the engraving Goethe knew). Terborch's most important pupil was Caspar
Netscher
.
Terbrugghen , Hendrick
(1588?–1629).
Dutch painter, one of the earliest and finest exponents of
Caravaggism
in northern Europe. Born into a Catholic family, he grew up in Utrecht, studied there with
Bloemaert
, then spent about a decade in Rome (
c.
1604–14). On his return to the Netherlands he became with
Honthorst
the leader of the Caravaggism associated with the Utrecht School. A second journey to Italy,
c.
1620, has been postulated, as his later works are generally more thoroughly Caravaggesque than his earlier ones. Terbrugghen was chiefly a religious painter, but he also produced some remarkable
genre
works, notably a pair of paintings of
Flute Players
(Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Kassel, 1621), which in their subtle tonality—with dark figures placed against a light background—anticipated by a generation the achievement of painters of the Delft School such as
Fabritius
and
Vermeer
. Although he was praised by
Rubens
, who visited Utrecht in 1627, Terbrugghen was neglected by 18th- and 19th-cent. collectors and historians. The rediscovery of his sensitive and poetic paintings has been part of the reappraisal of Caravaggesque art during the 20th cent.
terracotta
(Italian: baked earth). Clay baked to become hard and compact. Figures and architectural ornaments have been made of it since very early times and it is to these, rather than pottery vessels, that the word ‘terracotta’ usually refers. Clay is found all over the world in many different colours and qualities. Coloured clay is commoner than white. The presence of certain chemicals, such as iron oxide, affects the colour of the baked product, so terracotta works are not necessarily of the reddish-brown colour that is normally associated with the word. Firing may produce a wide range of colour from light buff to deep red or black. The hardness and strength of the baked clay vary according to the temperature at which it has been fired. During the firing the clay shrinks by about one-tenth of its volume, sometimes more, sometimes less, according to its quality and the amount of moisture.

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