Great Filipino Painters of All Time - Fernando Amorsolo

Rice Harvest (Threshing)



Returning Fisherman



Winnowing



Harvest Time



Tinikling



Pagsanjan Falls



Fernando Amorsolo (The Greatest Filipino Painter)

The Philippine artist Fernando Amorsolo (1892-1972) was a portraitist and painter of rural land scapes. He is best known for his craftsmanship and mastery in the use of light.

Fernando Amorsolo was born May 30, 1892, in the Paco district of Manila. At 13 he was apprenticed to the noted Philippine artist Fabian de la Rosa, his mother's first cousin. In 1909 Amorsolo enrolled at the Liceo de Manila and then attended the fine-arts school at the University of the Philippines, graduating in 1914. After working three years as a commercial artist and part-time instructor at the university, he studied at the Escuela de San Fernando in Madrid. For seven months he sketched at the museums and on the streets of Madrid, experimenting with the use of light and color. That winter he went to New York and discovered the works of the postwar impressionists and cubists, who became the major influence on his works. On his return to Manila, he set up his own studio.

During this period, Amorsolo developed the use of light - actually, backlight - which is his greatest contribution to Philippine painting. Characteristically, an Amorsolo painting contains a glow against which the figures are outlined, and at one point of the canvas there is generally a burst of light that highlights the smallest detail.

During the 1920s and 1930s Amorsolo's output of paintings was prodigious. In 1939 his oil Afternoon Meal of the Workers won first prize at the New York World's Fair. During World War II Amorsolo continued to paint. The Philippine collector Don Alfonso Ongpin commissioned him to execute a portrait in absentia of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, which he did at great personal risk. He also painted Japanese occupation soldiers and self-portraits. His wartime paintings were exhibited at the Malacanang presidential palace in 1948. After the war Amorsolo served as director of the college of fine arts of the University of the Philippines, retiring in 1950. Married twice, he had 13 children, five of whom became painters.

Amorsolo was noted for his portraits. He made oils of all the Philippine presidents, including the revolutionary leader Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, and other noted Philippine figures. He also painted many wartime scenes, including Bataan, Corner of Hell, and One Casualty.

Amorsolo, who died in 1972, is said to have painted more than 10,000 pieces. He continued to paint even in his late 70s, despite arthritis in his hands. Even his late works feature the classic Amorsolo tropical sunlight. He said he hated "sad and gloomy" paintings, and he executed only one painting in which rain appears.

Sourced: Biographies - Answers.com

Tags: Great Filipino Painters, Fernando Amorsolo, Philippines, Arts, Great Artists, Filipiniana

Posted by: Mel Avila Alarilla

Great Filipino Painters of All Time- Juan Luna

The Spoliarium



Juan Luna (Self Portrait)

Juan Luna y Novicio (October 23, 1857 – December 7, 1899) was a Filipino painter in the late 19th century.

Early life

He was born in Badoc, Ilocos Norte, Philippines, the third child of seven children. He is a descendant of the Cala Family of the Philippines. Luna obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree from the Ateneo Municipal de Manila in 1874. He showed artistic promise early on and was encouraged to take up painting and traveled to Rome to study the masters. He settled in Paris and married Maria de la Paz, a prominent Filipina from the Mestizaje family of Pardo de Tavera. In a rage over his suspicion of infidelity on the part of his wife, he mercilessly shot her and her mother to death in September 1892. Tried by a French court and subsequently convicted in 1893, he was sentenced to pay the victims' immediate kin but one franc each for their loss, as the court had deemed the murders a crime of passion. In 1894, Luna returned to the Philippines after an absence of almost 20 years.

His most famous piece, The Spoliarium, for which he won gold prize at the 1884 Madrid Exposition, is currently in the National Museum in Manila.

Upon his return to the Philippines, he was arrested two years later under suspicion of sedition. He was later pardoned. His brother, General Antonio Luna, was an active participant in the insurgent Katipunan movement.

In 1898, after the United States defeated Spain in the Spanish-American War, the fledgling Philippine Republic appointed him as a delegate to the Paris convention and to Washington, D.C. to help gain recognition of Philippine sovereignty and independence.

Luna died of heart failure in Hong Kong on December 7, 1899. He was rushing home from Europe after hearing of his brother’s assassination by members of the Katipunan. Luna was buried at the San Agustin Church in Intramuros.

Sourced at WIKIPEDIA

Tags: Great Filipino Painters of All Time, Juan Luna, The Spoiliarium, Philippines, Pearl of the Orient Seas, Filipiniana

Posted by: Mel Avila Alarilla

Timeless Masterpieces of The Great Masters- El Greco

The Holy Trinity (1577-1579)



The Assumption of The Virgin (1577-1579)



The Modena Triplych (1568) Tempera on panel



The Opening of The Fifth Seal (1608-1614)



View of Toledo (c. 1596-1600)



The Burial of Count Orgaz (1586-1588)


El Greco


El Greco (1541- April 7, 1614) was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. He usually signed his paintings in Greek letters with his full name Domenicos Theotokopoulos underscoring his Greek origin. El Greco was born in Crete which was at that time part of the Republic of Venice and the center of Post-Byzantine art. El Greco received his initial training as an icon painter of the Cretan school.

In 1570, El Greco moved to Rome where he executed a series of works strongly marked by his Venetian apprenticeship. Unlike other Cretan artists who had moved to Venice, El Greco substantially altered his style and sought to distinguish himself by inventing new and unusual interpretations of traditional religious subject matter. In 1577, El Greco emigrated first to Madrid, then to Toledo, where he produced his mature works.

The primacy of imagination and intuition over the subjective character of creation was a fundamental principle of El Greco's style. El Greco discarded classical criteria such as measure and proportion. He believed that grace is the supreme quest of art, but the painter achieves grace only if he manages to solve the most complex problems with obvious ease. El Greco regarded color as the most important and the most ungovernable element of painting and declared that color had primacy over form. He died on April 7, 1614.


Tags: Timeless Masterpieces, Great Masters, El Greco, Post-Byzantine Art, Spanish Rennaisance, Greece, Venice, Rome, Crete, Madrid, Toledo, Spain, Icon

Posted by: Mel Avila Alarilla

Timeless Masterpieces of The Great Masters- Van Gogh

The Starry Night (1889)



The Red Vineyard (1888)



The Night Cafe (1888)



The Old Mill (1888)



Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers (1888)



The Cafe' Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, at Night (1888)



The Cherry Tree (1888)



Self Portrait (1887)


Vincent van Gogh

Vincent Willem van Gogh (March 30, 1853 - July 29, 1890) was a Dutch Post- Impressionist artist. His paintings and drawings include some of the world's best known, most popular and most expensive pieces. Van Gogh spent his early adult life working for a firm of art dealers. He did not embark upon a career as an artist until 1880. Initially, van Gogh worked only with somber colors until he encountered Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism in Paris. He incorporated their brighter colors and style of painting into a uniquely recognizable style which was fully developed during the time he spent at Arles, France.

Vincent Willem van Gogh was born in Goef-Zundert, a village close to Breda in the Province of North Brabant in the Southern Netherlands. While in Antwerp, he applied himself to the study of color theory and spent time looking at the works of Peter Paul Rubens, gaining encouragement to broaden his palette to carmine, cobalt and emerald green. In March 1886, he moved to Paris to study at Fernand Cormon's studio. It was not difficult to see and study Impressionist works in Paris at this time.

Van Gogh's depression deepened and on July 27, 1890 at the age of 37, he walked into the fields and shot himself in the chest with a revolver. Without realizing that he was fatally wounded, he returned to the Ravoux Inn where he died in bed two days later.

Tags: Timeless Masterpieces, Great Masters, Vincent van Gogh, Impressionism, Neo-Impressionism, Netherlands, Depression, Suicide, Starry Night

Posted by: Mel Avila Alarilla

Timeless Masterpieces of The Great Masters- Rembrandt

The Night Watch (1642)



The Mill (1648)



The Abduction of Europa (1632)



Belshassar's Feast (1636- 1638)




The Polish Rider



Rembrandt's Son Titus as a Monk (1660)



Christ in the Storm on the Lake of Galilee (1633)



Descent from the Cross (1634)



Abraham and Isaac (1634)



Self Portrait by Rembrandt (1661)


Rembrandt

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (July 15, 1606 - October 4, 1669) was a Dutch painter and etcher. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art history and the most important in Dutch history. His contributions to art came in a period that historians call the Dutch Golden Age.

Having achieved youthful success as a portrait painter, his later years were marked by personal tragedy and financial hardship. Yet his drawings and paintings were popular throughout his lifetime, his reputation as an artist remained high and for tenty years he taught nearly every important Dutch painter.

In both painting and printmaking, he exhibited a complete knowledge of classical iconography, which he molded to fit the requirements of his own experience. Because of his empathy for the human condition, he has been called "one of the great prophets of civilization."

Throughout his career, Rembrandt took as his primary subjects themes of portraiture, landscape and narrative painting. For the last, he was especially praised by his contemporaries, who extolled him as a masterful interpreter of Biblical stories Sourcedfor his skill in representing emotions and attention to detail. Rembrandt died on October 4, 1669 at Amsterdam, Netherlands at the age of 63.


Tags: Timeless Masterpieces, Great Masters, Rembrandt, Narrative Painting, Dutch Golden Age, The Night Watch, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Posted by: Mel Avila Alarilla

Timeless Masterpieces of The Great Masters- Bellini

Transfiguration of Christ (c.1487)


Naked Woman in Front of the Mirror



Pieta (1460) Tempera on panel



St. Francis on Ecstasy (1480)



The Feast of the Gods (c.1514)



Madonna and Child (c.1480)



St. Jerome (c.1455)



San Zaccaria Altarpiece (1505)




San Giobbe Altarpiece (c.1487)


Bellini

Giovanni Bellini (c.1430 - 1516) was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. He is considered to have revolutionized Venetian painting, moving it towards a more sensuous and coloristic style. Through the use of clear, slow drying oil paints, Giovanni created deep rich tints and detailed shadings. His sumptuous coloring and fluent atmospheric landscapes had a great effect on the Venetian painting school, especially on his pupils Giorgione and Titian.

His paintings from his early period are all executed in the old tempera method: the scene is softened by a new and beautiful effect of romantic sunrise color. Bellini makes use of religious symbolism through elements such as grapevines and rocks. Yet his most important contribution to art lies in his experimentation with use of color and atmosphere in oil painting.

Tags: Timeless Masterpieces, Great Masters, Giovanni Bellini, Venetian Paintings, Tempera Paintings, Religious Symbolism

Sourced from: WIKIPEDIA

Posted by: Mel Avila Alarilla

Timeless Masterpieces of The Great Masters- Raphael

Self Portrait by Raphael
Missing since World War II



St. Catherine of Alexandria (1507)



Miraculous Draught of Fishes (1515)


Deposition of Christ (1507)



Saint George and the Dragon



Madonna of the Meadow (1506)






Sistine Madonna (1513-14)



Transfiguration (1520)



The Wedding of the Virgin



RAPHAEL

Raphael Sanzio, usually known by his first name alone (in Italian Raffaello) (April 6 or March 28, 1483- April 6, 1520) was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance, celebrated for the perfection and grace of his paintings and drawings. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period.

Raphael was enormously productive and despite his early death at thirty seven, a large body of his works remain, especially in the Vatican. He was extremely influential in his lifetime, but after his death, the influence of his great rival Michelangelo was more widespread until the 18th and 19th centuries when his more serene and harmonious qualities were again regarded as the highest models.

Raphael was born in the small but artistically significant Central Italian city of Urbino in the Marche region where his father- Giovanni Santi was court painter to the Duke. Raphael led a "nomadic" life, working in various centers in Northern Italy, but spent a good deal of time in Florence, perhaps from about 1504. Raphael was able to assimilate the influence of Florentine art while keeping his own developing style. By the end of 1508, he had moved to Rome where he lived for the rest of his life. Raphael was the ideal balanced painter, universal in his talent, satisfying all the absolute standards and obeying all the rules which were supposed to govern the arts. The excellence of this extraordinary man lay in the propriety, beauty and majesty of his characters, his judicious contrivance of his composition, correctness of drawing, purity of taste and the skillful accomodation of other men's conceptions to his own purpose. He died on a Good Friday on April 6, 1520 at the age of 37.

Sourced at Wikipedia

Tags: Timeless Masterpieces, Great Masters, Raphael, Rennaisance, Arts,
Great Paintings

Posted by: Mel Avila Alarilla