XVI century art English painting of the XVI century

1. Basics of English painting

The reflection of the great medieval art of England are just some English paintings on glass from the first half of the 16th century. They were researched by Whistlek. We will have to limit ourselves to only a few remarks. And in this area the Dutch art acquired the ground in England. Already saints with burning eyes and biblical scenes on the windows of a church in Fireford at the beginning of the 16th century were, as it turned out, of Dutch origin, and the famous painted windows of 1532 in the Lichfield Cathedral are known to have been brought to England from the Netherlands, from the monastery of Gerkenrod. Some of the windows of Westminster Abbey also come from the Netherlands. On the other hand, great English glass painters James Nicholson and Bernard Flower also worked here for Henry VIII. The most subtle English works on the glass of the 16th century include paintings of the east window of the cathedral in Winchester and twenty-five luxurious windows at Kings College in Cambridge, in the upper fields of which the events of the Old Testament are contrasted with the New Testament in the lower fields as prototypes. Valpol published the conditions for their manufacture, concluded by Henry VIII "in the eighteenth year of the reign" (in 1526) with glass masters Francis Williamson from Southwark and Simon Symonds from Westminster. Already they keep bright light colorful style later painting on glass. For the composition, they undoubtedly used continental designs, for example, for one of the most eloquent ones, the Raphael cardboard with the image of Ananias, the design of which was sent, probably from Brussels.

English easel painting of the XVI century was even less independent. To list the names of minor and third-rate Italian painters, who worked in England for the first half of it, is not part of our task. Already in the XVIII century, Valpol reported almost everything that could be said about this. Nichols and Scarf in the XIX century added very little. It should be especially pointed out the disciple of Girlandaio Toto (Antonio) del Nunziata (born in 1498), who played a certain role in decorating the most beautiful palace of Henry VIII. About the English Sergeantpainters (court painters) of the king like John Brown (died in 1532) and Andrew Wright (died in 1543) we only know their names. The light of Hans Holbein, the only great artist who dedicated his powers to England in the first half of the century, pushed all other foreign and local painters who lived there into the shadows. He became in England almost exclusively a portrait painter. The country that became Protestant did not give more room for religious images. In England, however, there was no lack of wealth and self-esteem, which always and everywhere produced strong portraiture.

The most famous Italian painter, who visited England in the second half of the XVI century, was Federica Zuccari, who arrived in London in 1574, but soon left again. He is correctly attributed to the portrait of Queen Elizabeth in Hampton Court. Most of his English portraits are in the nobility estates. But now it’s mostly Dutchmen who have taken English portraiture too. After Holbein, which was already discussed, Antonio Moreau arrived, writing the portrait of Sir Thomas Gresham of the National Portrait Gallery (National portrait gallery), Markus Geraards, the elder of Bruges (circa 1530–1600), who in 1571 became the court painter of Elizabeth, and his son of the same name (1561–1635), who probably owns portraits of the queen in Hampton Court and the National Gallery, and reliably owns the portraits of Kemden and Cecil, Duke of Exeter, and the lifeless image of the 1604 peace conference in the same meeting, Lucas de Geier (1534 to 1584), to You can trace it from there in the same place, finally Cornelis Ketel, who lived from 1578 to 1581 in London, where only the National Portrait Gallery has a distinctive portrait of his skillful work.

The English portrait painter Edward VI is mentioned in 1551. William Streets, to whom Vaagen attributed the portrait of the Duke of Essex with the signature “William Stroth”, is a weak imitation of Holbein. Only some English miniaturists, who have recently been thoroughly investigated by Sir Richard R. Holms, are clearer. It is claimed that Holbein already wrote miniatures in the form of small independent pictures, although he cannot be attributed to any of the existing things of this kind. For all that, Nikolai Gilliard (1537–1619) definitely calls himself his student; It is also very instructive that Gilliard, in his written notes, recognizes himself as a supporter of painting like the "plein air", namely: he recommends that in order to avoid useless shadows, he should only paint faces in the open air. Most of his really light, devoid of shadows, small portraits, written on a green or blue background, are located in Windsor Castle, in Velbeck Abbey and in Montague House in London. His disciple Isaac Oliver (1564–1617) followed in his footsteps. Of his portraits, kept in the same collections, the portrait of Sir Philip Sydney in Windsor, depicted to his full height against the background of his garden, is distinguished by a penetrating expression and subtlety of execution. The history of medieval art usually refers to miniatures of paintings of manuscripts; Beginning from the 16th century, the history of art is understood to refer to miniatures as predominantly small portraits painted mostly on ivory or on metal plates.