The painter, draftsman, and printmaker Claude Gellée was born in a village in the Vosges region of northeastern France in the often contested duchy of Lorraine. In Italy, where he spent the greater part of his life, he came to be known as Claude le Lorrain, and for English-language speakers as Claude Lorrain or simply Claude. His biographers, Joachim von Sandrart (1606–1688) and Filippo Baldinucci (1625–1697), knew him in Rome but give differing accounts of the beginning of his career. His...

Revered by artists and collectors since the seventeenth century, Claude Lorrain was a master of landscape painting, raising the reputation of the art form to new heights. His paintings present idealised views of nature, governed by Classical concepts and fuelled by the inspiration of the Roman Campagna. Claude’s special contribution was the poetic rendering of light, which would particularly influence the Romantic movement and change the course of art. Delphi’s Masters of Art Serie...

Founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the English painter Sir John Everett Millais was a principal figure of nineteenth century British art. Along with Rossetti and Holman Hunt, he confronted the art establishment with a daring challenge to ignore 500 years of history and the corrupting influence of Raphael. An extraordinary range of paintings sought a bold return to the abundant detail, intense colours and complex compositions of the early Renaissance. Millais produced meticulously d...

Jan van Eyck was a fifteenth century Netherlandish painter of altarpieces, single-panel religious figures and commissioned portraits, who perfected the newly developed technique of oil painting. Panel paintings like the ‘Arnolfini Portrait’ and ‘The Ghent Altarpiece’ are celebrated for their unprecedented use of naturalism, complex iconography and geometric perspective. Although only 22 paintings are confidently attributed to Van Eyck, his virtuosity and pioneering developments would have ...

The founder of the nineteenth century French school of Neo-Impressionism, Georges Seurat devised the technique of Pointillism, portraying the play of light with tiny brushstrokes of contrasting colours. A man of studious habits and a scientific mind, Seurat employed his original technique to create huge compositions with tiny, detached strokes of pure colour too small to be distinguished when looking at the entire work, though when viewed from a distance, shimmered with brilliance. In spit...

The chief exponent of French Neoclassical painting in the mid-nineteenth century, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres is noted for his cool, meticulously drawn works, representing the stylistic antithesis of the contemporary Romantic school. As a monumental history painter, Ingres sought to perpetuate the classical tradition of Raphael and Poussin, though today it is his portraits that are recognised as his greatest legacy. The extraordinary clarity of expression and microscopic detail of his wo...

Hokusai, the Japanese master artist and printmaker of the ukiyo-e school, produced a vast array of artworks, including single-sheet prints of landscapes and actors, hand paintings, individual surimonos, erotic books and many more. His famous print series “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” marks the summit in the history of the Japanese landscape print, as epitomised by his world famous design ‘The Great Wave off Kanagawa’. Hokusai’s determined industry, spanning over seventy years of...

The leading exponent of the Rococo style, Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s paintings are characterised by remarkable facility, exuberance and frivolous hedonism. Regarded as one of the greatest colourists of art history, Fragonard produced stunning artworks that capture the spirit of the final days of the Ancien Régime, conveying intimacy and veiled eroticism. Delphi’s Masters of Art Series presents the world’s first digital e-Art books, allowing readers to explore the works of great artist...

The great Italian Mannerist painter of the Venetian school, Tintoretto was one of the most important artists of the late Renaissance. Due to his phenomenal energy in painting he was termed ‘Il Furioso’ and his works are characterised by their muscular figures, dramatic gestures and bold use of perspective. Delphi’s Masters of Art Series presents the world’s first digital e-Art books, allowing readers to explore the works of great artists in comprehensive detail. This volume present...

The principal exponent of the Neoclassical reaction against the Rococo style, Jacques-Louis David won wide acclaim with his huge canvases on classical themes. The appointed painter to Napoleon, David developed his Empire style, notable for its use of warm Venetian colours, confirming his status as the most celebrated artist of his day. Delphi’s Masters of Art Series presents the world’s first digital e-Art books, allowing readers to explore the works of great artists in comprehensi...

Doménikos Theotokópoulos, widely known as El Greco (The Greek), was a leading painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. El Greco’s style was enriched with elements of Mannerism and the Venetian Renaissance, adopting a dramatic and expressionistic style that was met with puzzlement by his contemporaries, but gained widespread appreciation in the twentieth century. Delphi’s Masters of Art Series presents the world’s first digital e-Art books, allowing readers to exp...

The greatest sculptor of the Italian Renaissance, Donatello produced both marble and bronze masterpieces. His revolutionary statues were lauded for their incredible realism, while he also developed his very own form of shallow bas-relief, known as ‘schiacciato’. Donatello possessed an extensive knowledge of ancient sculpture, which he developed into his own innovative, modern style, having a lasting impression on the history of Western art. Delphi’s Masters of Art Series presents t...