Lorenzo di Credi (1458-1537) High Renaissance painter

Born the son of a goldsmith in 1457 or 1459, Lorenzo di Credi was, with Leonardo da Vinci🎨 and Perugino🎨, a pupil in the Florentine workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio, where he is first recorded in 1480 as a poorly paid assistant

During the master's absence in 1482-1483, Lorenzo took over the shop, and he became Verrocchio's heir upon Andrea's death in 1488.

Though not a very original painter, Lorenzo was technically proficient, with the result that the meticulously detailed, enamel-like surfaces of his pictures are, as a rule, better preserved than are the works of his teacher or his fellow pupils.

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Alonso Sánchez Coello (1531-1588) Renaissance painter

Sánchez Coello, Alonso (Benifairó del Valls, Valencia - Spain, 1531/32 - Madrid -Spain, 1588) is a fundamental figure in the history of Spanish painting🎨.

He was the first to bring portraiture to the peninsula, where he followed the model developed by Anthonis Mor in likenesses of the Habsburg family.

Some of his paintings were included in the most important portrait galleries developed during the reign of Philip II, including those at the El Pardo and Alcázar Palaces, both sadly lost to fires in 1604 and 1734, respectively.

Today, his works hang in the Museo del Prado, in Spain’s royal foundations, including the Monastery of the Descalzas Reales and in museums and collections in Austria and Bohemia.

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Karl D. Witkowski (1860-1910) | Genre painter

Karol (Karl) Dominik Witkowski (16 August 1860, Yazlovets, now Buchach Raion - 17 May 1910) was a Polish🎨-American🎨 portraitist and genre painter🎨, better known in the USA as Karl Witkowski.

He painted scenes of contemporary daily life in America.

Karol Dominik Witkowski was born to a Polish family in Jazłowiec (Jaslowiec), near Buchach, Czortków (Podole, Poland, now Ukraine).

As young boy he showed unusual talent in making drawings and his parents sent him to school in Chortkiv (12 miles from Yazlovets).

In 1879 he enlisted in the Austrian Army (in 19th century southern Poland was occupied by Austria and named Galicia), where he gained popularity by making portraits of his fellow soldiers and commanding officers, including a portrait of General Duke William of Württemberg and portrait of Lieutenant Field Marshal Emanuel Salomon of Friedberg - Mírohorsky (this army officer also was a genre painter, it is possible, why later in USA Karl Witkowski became genre painter).

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Auguste Rodin / Shakespeare | Romeo and Juliet, 1905

Silenzio! Quale luce irrompe da quella finestra lassù?

È l'oriente, e Giulietta è il sole.

Sorgi, vivido sole, e uccidi l'invidiosa luna,

malata già e pallida di pena

perché tu, sua ancella, di tanto la superi in bellezza.

Non essere la sua ancella, poiché la luna è invidiosa.

Il suo manto di vestale è già di un verde smorto,

e soltanto i pazzi lo indossano. Gettalo via.

È la mia donna; oh, è il mio amore! se soltanto sapesse di esserlo.

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Michelangelo Buonarroti | Sol io ardendo all'ombra mi rimango | Sonnets / Le Rime

Molti anni fassi qual felice, in una

brevissima ora si lamenta e dole;

o per famosa o per antica prole

altri s'inlustra, e ’n un momento imbruna.

Cosa mobil non è che sotto el sole

non vinca morte e cangi la fortuna.

A man who's happy many a year, one hour

- even less! - undoes; all's lost in grief and worry.

Another basks in his family name; that glory

is out in a flash as blacker heavens lour.

None so alive but death cuts short the story;

nothing so sweet but fortune turns it sour ...

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Rubens | Portrait of Susanna Lunden, 1622-25

This painting is one of the most famous by Peter Paul Rubens🎨 (Flemish Baroque Era painter, 1577-1640) in the Collection of the National Gallery, London.

The title 'Le Chapeau de Paille' (meaning The Straw Hat) was first used in the 18th century. In fact the hat is not straw; 'paille' may be an error for 'poil', which is the French word for felt.

The hat, which shades the face of the sitter, is the most prominent feature of the painting.

The portrait is probably of Susanna Lunden, born Susanna Fourment, third daughter of Daniel Fourment, an Antwerp tapestry and silk merchant. Her younger sister Helena became Rubens's second wife in 1630.

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Michelangelo Buonarroti | 267 Drawings | Part.⁵

Michelangelo🎨, with Leonardo da Vinci🎨 and Raphael🎨, is one of the three giants of the Florentine High Renaissance🎨. Although their names are often cited together, Michelangelo was younger than Leonardo by 23 years, and older than Raphael by eight.

Because of his reclusive nature, he had little to do with either artist and outlived both of them by more than forty years. Michelangelo took few sculpture students.

He employed Francesco Granacci, who was his fellow pupil at the Medici Academy, and became one of several assistants on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

Michelangelo appears to have used assistants mainly for the more manual tasks of preparing surfaces and grinding colours.

Despite this, his works were to have a great influence on painters, sculptors and architects for many generations to come.

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