The Baptism of Christ

The Baptism of Christ. Public Domain ClipArt Stock Photos and Images. Date: circa 1710. Medium: oil on canvas. Dimensions: 48.3 × 37.1 cm Current location: The Fitzwilliam Museum Link back to Institution, Cambridge, United Kingdom. Accession number: Accession Number 633.

In the foreground of a hilly landscape, Christ is baptised by St. John, amid a circle of onlookers. The two figures are brilliantly lit by rays from the disk high above, against general darkness. (Text from the Fitzwilliam Museum catalogue, by H. Gerson and J.W. Goodison); Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Aert de Gelder (1645–1727) Dutch painter and draughtsman. Date of birth / death. October 26, 1645 - August 29, 1727 (buried) Location of birth / death, Dordrecht / Dordrecht. Work period from 1659 until 1727. Work location: Dordrecht (1659–1660), Amsterdam circa 1661–1663), Dordrecht (circa 1663–1727).

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1923. In this case circa 1710

This work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or less. In this case Aert de Gelder (1645–1727)

The Baptism of Christ by Aert de Gelder (1645–1727). More about this image and story at Public Domain Clip Art - http://publicdomainclip-art.blogspot.com/search/label/Ancient%20Aliens

In the foreground of a hilly landscape, Christ is baptised by St. John, amid a circle of onlookers. The two figures are brilliantly lit by rays from the disk high above, against general darkness.

The Madonna with Saint Giovannino by Domenico Ghirlandaio

The Madonna with Saint Giovannino (The Madonna and Child with the infant St. John) by Domenico Ghirlandaio (Domenico di Tommaso di Currado di Doffo Bigordi 1449 - 1494), on display in the Sala d'Ercole in Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Italy.

More about this image and story at Public Domain Clip Art - http://publicdomainclip-art.blogspot.com/search/label/Ancient%20Aliens

Domenico Ghirlandaio, whose family name was Bigordi, was born at Florence in 1449, and died there in 1494. We have seen that the Florentine school developed in several directions, but in Ghirlandaio we meet with a remarkable union of the various tendencies it had taken. He was brought up as a goldsmith, and afterwards became a pupil of Alesso Baldovinctti, principally as a worker in mosaic, but he was fully alive to the merits of all his great predecessors among the Florentines, ancient and modern. We see from his works that he was acquainted with those of Giotto, and he made ;i special study of Masaccio whom he followed as a painter of fresco.

The first we hear of his employment as an artist is in 1475, when, on the 28th of November, he began a painting in the Vatican Library, and we find at the same time records of payments to his brother David for work done at the same place down to May 1476 All that is now left of Ghirlandaio's work in Rome is a picture in the Sistine painted then or later—the Call of SS. Peter and Andrew. The composition is well co-ordinated, the principal group is sufficiently conspicuous, the landscape and episodes picturesque, and the perspective thoroughly understood; the colouring is harsher than usual in a Florentine, but for simplicity and clearness the picture is one of the best in the chapel.

In Florence his chief works were some frescoes in the Church of Ognisanti— S. Jerome, as a companion to Botticelli's S. Augustine, a grave and dignified figure; and the Last Supper, in the refectory, simply treated. The smaller picture of the same subject in the refectory of S. Marco is but a replica in the main of this—the traditional long table, with S. John leaning on Christ and Judas- alone in the foreground. From 1481 till 1485 he was busy with a wall in an upper room of the Palazzo Vecchio—a grand architectural composition, with S. Zenobius enthroned and other figures; quite in the distance spreads a landscape.

This was followed by a still more important work, the decoration of the chapel of the Sassctti family in Santa Trinita, signed and dated 5th December 1485. At the sides of the altar kneel the donor Francesco Sassctti and Nera his wife. Italian art had at this date produced nothing that so nearly approaches the figures of the donors in the great Ghent altarpiece; nor is it in technique only, but in the dignity of realism that Ghirlandaio comes near to the Flemish painters. On the three walls are frescoes of scenes from the life of S. Francis of Assisi—his parting from his father, the founding of the order, the ordeal by fire, the reception of the stigmata, the raising of a dead child, and the death of the saint. We see that Giotto's work in S. Croce had made its mark on the younger painter, but he has translated him into the newer style. The action is carried on with calm simplicity, the heads have all the character of portraits—indeed some of the most distinguished sons of Florence figure in the second subject—and the scenes are set amid views of Florence itself. In the last of the series an impressive contrast is marked between the lamenting brethren who kiss the Saint's feet and hands and the ceremonial gravity of the priests, at their head the abbot with his glasses on his nose; in treatment, drawing, and modelling Ghirlandaio excels every fresco-painter since Masaccio, and on these walls he shows a marked advance on all his former works in colour and technique. In the frescoes in the Chapel of S. Fina at S. Gimignano the ceiling and arches are filled with figures; on the walls are the Mass of S. Gregory and the death of that saint,—in all essential details a repetition of that of S. Francis.

This IMAGE (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired.This applies to the United States, where Works published prior to 1978 were copyright protected for a maximum of 75 years. See Circular 1 "COPYRIGHT BASICS" PDF from the U.S. Copyright Office. Works published before 1923 (in this case Circa 1481) are now in the public domain.

This file is also in the public domain in countries that figure copyright from the date of death of the artist (post mortem auctoris) in this case Domenico Ghirlandaio (c. 1449 – c. 1494), and that most commonly runs for a period of 50 to 70 years from December 31st of that year.

TEXT CREDIT: History of Ancient, Early Christian, and Mediaeval Painting, Volume 2, By Alfred Friedrich Gottfried Albert Woltmann, Karl Woermann

The Annunciation Carlo Crivelli

Carlo Crivelli is one of those painters about whose life hardly any information, traditional or otherwise, has come down to us. But about his artistic origin, with the exception of one questionable statement, there is an absolute blank; and we are reduced to the necessity of making his pictures tell their own story about the masters under whom he studied, and the school to which he belonged. These are conditions which expose the inquirer to many dangers and temptations; and the greatest care must be taken not to go beyond the facts contained in the pictures, or to allow the imagination to usurp the place of legitimate inference. Fortunately in the case of Crivelli some at least of the inferences, and perhaps those of most importance, are so clear, that we may feel some confidence when we make them that we have got near to the truth. Crivelli, as we shall see, whenever he signed a picture, never forgot to remind the world that he was a Venetian. Here then is our starting-point. When we consider that he left Venice early in his career, never apparently to return.

The most superficial glance at Crivelli's pictures would tell us that he has nothing in common with what is known as Venetian art proper, the school of the Bellini and Giorgione, of Titian and Tintoret. But long before the Bellini, Venice had its painters with a character and tradition of their own. While it is probably true that all Italian art is ultimately indebted to Byzantine inspiration, this influence was more direct in the case of Venice than elsewhere. At a time when, on the western side of Italy, the older forms of painting were being endowed with new life and undergoing a new birth, Venice with her Eastern connections preserved the artistic traditions of Constantinople. But Venice could not remain for ever unaffected by the astonishing progress which was being made by national Italian art, and early in the fifteenth century we find the old Venetiaift school in process of transformation under the influence of Umbrian and Veronese masters.* This new generation, reinforced perhaps by the infusion of a German element, had its leading representatives in the Vivarini of Murano. They, in their turn, were affected by the new centre of artistic teaching which had lately sprung up in Padua, associated with the name of Squarcione. Under the influence of each of these elements, the old Venetian school, the painters of Murano, and the school of Padua, Crivelli directly or indirectly came and we will endeavour now to show how his early pictures provide the evidence for this statement.

The Annunciation. Wood, 2'07" m x 1'46" m = 6 ft. 10 1/2 x 4 ft. 10 1/2. [No. 739.] A street scene. To right a house with elaborate architectural ornaments and an open loggia above with birds and flowers. Through the open door is seen the Virgin kneeling, while over her head floats the Dove which has descended from the sky in a ray of light piercing the wall. On the base of the pilasters flanking the door is inscribed "Opus Karoli Crivelli Veneti 1486." In the street outside, facing a window, kneels the angel, with lily in left hand and blessing with the right. Beside him kneels St. Emidius, in cope and mitre, holding a model of the town of Ascoli. To left steps lead up to a house-door where a small group is talking. The street is closed by a richly-decorated arch through which is seen the city wall. Several small figures passing to and fro. On the face of the step at the bottom of the picture are the words "Libertas ecclesiastica" between three escutcheons: in the centre Pope Innocent VIII. ; right, the town of Ascoli; left, Prospero Caffarelli, Bishop of Ascoli.

Painted for the Convent of the Annunziata, at Ascoli, by order of the municipality, to commemorate the charter of 1482. (See p. 20.) It remained in the domestic chapel of the Frati till 1811, when it was removed, by order of the Government, to Milan, and deposited in the Brera. After 1815 it passed into private hands, and formed part of the Solly collection, whence it came in 1847 to Mr Labouchere (Lord Taunton), who presented it to the National Gallery in 1864.

This IMAGE (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired.This applies to the United States, where Works published prior to 1978 were copyright protected for a maximum of 75 years. See Circular 1 "COPYRIGHT BASICS" PDF from the U.S. Copyright Office. Works published before 1923 (in this case Circa 1486) are now in the public domain.

This file is also in the public domain in countries that figure copyright from the date of death of the artist (post mortem auctoris) in this case Carlo Crivelli (c. 1435 – c. 1495), and that most commonly runs for a period of 50 to 70 years from December 31st of that year.

TEXT CREDIT: Carlo Crivelli By Gordon McNeil Rushforth

The Annunciation Carlo Crivelli More about this image and story at Public Domain Clip Art - http://publicdomainclip-art.blogspot.com/search/label/Ancient%20Aliens

A street scene. To right a house with elaborate architectural ornaments and an open loggia above with birds and flowers. Through the open door is seen the Virgin kneeling, while over her head floats the Dove which has descended from the sky in a ray of light piercing the wall.