The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (279 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists
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Lohse , Richard
(1902– ).
Swiss painter and graphic artist. In his early works he experimented with various subjects and styles, but in the 1940s he became one of the leading representatives of
Concrete art
. His paintings are mathematically based, often featuring chequer-board or grid-like patterns, but they are not cold or analytical in effect; indeed his work is particularly noted for its beauty and refinement of colour, and has a certain resemblance to
Op art
of the kind associated with Bridget
Riley
. From about 1950 Lohse gained an international reputation.
Lomazzo , Giovanni Paolo
(1538–1600).
Milanese painter and writer. At the age of 33 he went blind and took to writing on the theory of art, publishing two treatises:
Trattato dell' Arte de la Pittura, Scoltura, et Architettura
(1584) and
Idea del Tempio della Pittura
(1590). The
Trattato
was the largest and most comprehensive treatise on art published in the 16th cent. and has been described as ‘the Bible of
Mannerism
’. It is divided into seven books, whose themes are Proportion, Motion, Colour, Light,
Perspective
, Practice, and History, the last containing a complete prescriptive guide to Christian and classical
iconography
. Throughout the book runs the assumption that the arts can be taught by detailed precepts. It was widely influential and was translated into English (as
A Tracte Containing the Artes of Curious Paintinge, Carvinge and Buildinge
) by the Oxford physician Richard Haydocke in 1598. The translation adds details of English artists such as
Hilliard
not mentioned in Lomazzo's original. Lomazzo also wrote poetry. An example of his rare surviving paintings is a self-portrait (1568) in the Brera, Milan.
Lombard , Lambert
(1505/6–66).
Netherlandish painter, draughtsman, engraver, architect, and antiquarian, active mainly in his native Liège. He was probably a pupil of
Gossaert
and was influenced by Jan van
Scorel
. A man of scholarly inclinations, Lombard visited Rome in 1537 (he also travelled in France and Germany) and made drawings of the
antique
, some of which were engraved in the workshop of Jerome
Cock
. He corresponded with
Vasari
, providing him with information about Netherlandish artists, and Vasari said of him: ‘Of all the Flemish artists I have named none is superior to Lambert Lombard of Liège, a man well versed in letters, a painter of judgement, a learned architect and—by no means his least title to merit—the master of Frans
Floris
, and Willem
Key
,’ This opinion was confirmed by van
Mander
, who wrote in 1604: ‘One can confidently rank him among the best Netherlandish painters, past and present.’ Unfortunately, very few paintings that can certainly be assigned to him survive to bear witness to his high contemporary reputation, and his work is known from drawings, copies, and engravings. A formidable
Portrait of the Artist
in the Musée de I'Art Wallon, Liège (another version is in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Kassel) is among the best works given to him, but some critics think it is by his pupil Frans Floris . The portraits associated with Lombard—lively and strongly characterized—generally appeal more to modern taste than his somewhat academic religious paintings.
Lombardo
.
Family of Italian artists, the leading Venetian sculptors of their period:
Pietro
(
c.
1435–1515) and his sons
Tullio
(
c.
1455–1532) and
Antonio
(
c.
1458–1516). Pietro, who came from Lombardy, settled in Venice in about 1467. He was an architect as well as a sculptor, and his church of Sta Maria dei Miracoli (1481–9), on the sculptural decoration of which he was assisted by his sons, has been called the choicest jewel of
Renaissance
work in Venice. Of his numerous tombs in Venetian churches, the best known is that of Doge Pietro Mocenigo (SS. Giovanni e Paolo, c.1476–81). His style is distinguished by polished mastery of marble cutting and an interest in the
antique
, features that recur in the work of Tullio. Tullio's most imposing work is the Vendramin monument (
c.
1493) in SS. Giovanni e Paolo; the figure of
Adam
from this—a sensuously beautiful free-standing nude—is in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. Antonio had less substance as an independent artist. His work included mythological reliefs for Alfonso d'
Este
(mainly in the Hermitage, St Petersburg).

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