The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (199 page)
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Authors: Ian Chilvers
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Gormley , Antony
.
.
Gossaert , Jan
(also called Mabuse )
(also called Mabuse )
(
c.
1478–1532).
Netherlandish painter, probably from Maubeuge in Hainault, from which his name ‘Mabuse’ derives. In 1503 he was registered in the Guild Master's list at Antwerp and in 1508–9 he visited Rome in the service of Philip Bastard of Burgundy, an ambassador to the Vatican. His work before his Italian journey is in the tradition of Hugo van der
Goes
and Gerard
David
, whose influences can be seen in the
Adoration of the Magi
(NG, London). On his return to Antwerp, however, his work was transformed by the experience of Italy, although the motifs he learned there were never thoroughly digested and co-existed with Flemish figures and details.
Vasari
acclaimed him for being the first ‘to bring the true method of representing nude figures and mythologies from Italy to the Netherlands’, but in, for example,
Neptune and Amphitrite
(Staatliche Museen, Berlin, 1516), his first dated work, the life-size figures are in fact closer to
Dürer
than to any Italian contemporary, and they are set in a curious, totally misunderstood classical temple. Gossaert was highly thought of by his contemporaries. His commissions took him to various towns in the Netherlands, his patrons included the Royal House of Denmark, and his work was widely influential. However, to modern eyes there seems justice in Dürer's assessment of him as better in execution than in invention (‘nit so gut im Haupstreichen als im Gemäl’). Jan van
Scorel
was Gossaert's pupil for a short time in Utrecht.
c.
1478–1532).
Netherlandish painter, probably from Maubeuge in Hainault, from which his name ‘Mabuse’ derives. In 1503 he was registered in the Guild Master's list at Antwerp and in 1508–9 he visited Rome in the service of Philip Bastard of Burgundy, an ambassador to the Vatican. His work before his Italian journey is in the tradition of Hugo van der
Goes
and Gerard
David
, whose influences can be seen in the
Adoration of the Magi
(NG, London). On his return to Antwerp, however, his work was transformed by the experience of Italy, although the motifs he learned there were never thoroughly digested and co-existed with Flemish figures and details.
Vasari
acclaimed him for being the first ‘to bring the true method of representing nude figures and mythologies from Italy to the Netherlands’, but in, for example,
Neptune and Amphitrite
(Staatliche Museen, Berlin, 1516), his first dated work, the life-size figures are in fact closer to
Dürer
than to any Italian contemporary, and they are set in a curious, totally misunderstood classical temple. Gossaert was highly thought of by his contemporaries. His commissions took him to various towns in the Netherlands, his patrons included the Royal House of Denmark, and his work was widely influential. However, to modern eyes there seems justice in Dürer's assessment of him as better in execution than in invention (‘nit so gut im Haupstreichen als im Gemäl’). Jan van
Scorel
was Gossaert's pupil for a short time in Utrecht.
Gotch , Thomas Cooper
.
.
Gothic
.
.
Style of architecture and art that succeeded
Romanesque
and prevailed in Europe (particularly northern Europe) from the mid 12th cent. to the 16th cent. The word was, like many other stylistic labels, originally a term of abuse; it was coined by Italian artists of the
Renaissance
to denote the type of medieval architecture which they condemned as barbaric (implying, quite wrongly, that it was the architecture of the Gothic tribes who had destroyed the classical art of the Roman Empire). The Gothic style is still characterized chiefly in terms of architecture—in particular by the use of pointed arches, flying buttresses, and elaborate tracery. By extension, however, the term ‘Gothic’ is applied to the ornament, sculpture, and painting of the period in which Gothic architecture was built; it has less precise meaning in these contexts, although a swaying elegance is often considered typical of Gothic figures, which are generally much more naturalistic and less remote than those of the Romanesque period.
Romanesque
and prevailed in Europe (particularly northern Europe) from the mid 12th cent. to the 16th cent. The word was, like many other stylistic labels, originally a term of abuse; it was coined by Italian artists of the
Renaissance
to denote the type of medieval architecture which they condemned as barbaric (implying, quite wrongly, that it was the architecture of the Gothic tribes who had destroyed the classical art of the Roman Empire). The Gothic style is still characterized chiefly in terms of architecture—in particular by the use of pointed arches, flying buttresses, and elaborate tracery. By extension, however, the term ‘Gothic’ is applied to the ornament, sculpture, and painting of the period in which Gothic architecture was built; it has less precise meaning in these contexts, although a swaying elegance is often considered typical of Gothic figures, which are generally much more naturalistic and less remote than those of the Romanesque period.
Gottlieb , Adolph
(1903–74).
American painter, one of the leading
Abstract Expressionists
. His early work was
Expressionist
and in 1935 he was one of the founding members of the Expressionist group The
Ten
. In 1936 he worked for the
Federal Art Project
. Some of his landscapes of the late 1930s were influenced by
Surrealism
, and from the early 1940s this tendency was enhanced by contact with expatriate European Surrealists and by an interest in Freudian psychology. His personal style began to emerge in 1941 and from then until the end of his life he worked on three main series:
Pictographs
(1941–51),
Imaginary Landscapes
(1951–7, and again in the mid 1960s), and
Bursts
(1957–74). The
Pictographs
use a loose grid-or compartment-like arrangement with schematic shapes or symbols suggesting some mythic face; the
Imaginary Landscapes
feature a zone of astral shapes against a foreground of heavy
gestural
strokes; and the
Bursts
, becoming still freer, suggest solar orbs and astral bodies hovering above violently coloured terrestrial explosions. Gottlieb also designed stained glass and other works for churches and synagogues, suggesting a religious mood without any specific representation.
American painter, one of the leading
Abstract Expressionists
. His early work was
Expressionist
and in 1935 he was one of the founding members of the Expressionist group The
Ten
. In 1936 he worked for the
Federal Art Project
. Some of his landscapes of the late 1930s were influenced by
Surrealism
, and from the early 1940s this tendency was enhanced by contact with expatriate European Surrealists and by an interest in Freudian psychology. His personal style began to emerge in 1941 and from then until the end of his life he worked on three main series:
Pictographs
(1941–51),
Imaginary Landscapes
(1951–7, and again in the mid 1960s), and
Bursts
(1957–74). The
Pictographs
use a loose grid-or compartment-like arrangement with schematic shapes or symbols suggesting some mythic face; the
Imaginary Landscapes
feature a zone of astral shapes against a foreground of heavy
gestural
strokes; and the
Bursts
, becoming still freer, suggest solar orbs and astral bodies hovering above violently coloured terrestrial explosions. Gottlieb also designed stained glass and other works for churches and synagogues, suggesting a religious mood without any specific representation.
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