Old Masters
Guide to Great European Painters of the Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neo-Classical, Romantic Movements.
Visual Arts

Great Master Painters of Europe

In fine art, the term 'Old Master' refers to great European painters (those who have 'stood the test of time') practising during the period c.1300-1830. This period includes Giotto and the Early Renaissance, the High Renaissance and the Northern Renaissance, as well as artists from the schools of Mannerism, Baroque, Rococo, Neo-classical and Romanticism. The Spanish painter Francisco Goya (died 1828) is reckoned to be one of the last Old Masters. How good a painter must be to qualify as an old master, is not clear. In practice, all of the top artists from these eras fall into the category. While eschewed by most art historians for its vagueness, the term is regularly employed by galleries and art auctions to brand and separate the great European artists of yesteryear from more modern famous artists.

List of Old Masters

The category of old master is exemplified by (but by no means limited to) the following:

Giotto di Bondone (Italian, 1267-1337)
First great pre-Renaissance fresco painter (Scrovegni Chapel Padua).
Jan van Eyck (Dutch, 1390-1441)
Finest pioneer oil painter, noted for his realistic portrait masterpieces.
Roger Van der Weyden (1400-1464)
Dutch artist and leading religious panel-painter of Northern Renaissance.
Piero della Francesca (Italian, 1420-92)
Italian Renaissance painter, pioneered the rules of linear perspective.
Andrea Mantegna (1430-1506)
Renaissance master, pictures noted for mastery of perspective and detail.
Alessandro Botticelli (1445-1510)
Florentine Renaissance master, creator of La Primavera.

Hieronymus Bosch (Dutch, 1450-1516)
Greatest of all medieval painters, noted for complex moralizing works.
Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452-1519)
Greatest Renaissance oil painter/draftsman (the Last Supper, Mona Lisa).
Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528)
Greatest painter and printmaker of the Northern Renaissance.
Lucas Cranach the Elder (German, 1472-1553)
Leading Renaissance painter in Germany, noted for his court portraiture.
Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian, 1475-1564)
Greatest Renaissance sculptor (Pieta, David) and painter, renowned for his Genesis and Last Judgement frescoes in the Sistine Chapel in Rome.
Titian (Italian, c.1477-1576)
Greatest Renaissance exponent of colour in oils and fresco.
Raphael (Italian, 1483-1520)
"Il Divino", greatest Renaissance painting prodigy (School of Athens).

Hans Holbein The Younger (Swiss, 1497-1543)
Celebrated as one of the greatest portrait painters.
Jacopo Tintoretto (Italian, 1518-1594)
Major Venetian painter of monumental religious works.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Flemish, c.1525-1569)
Leading Flemish artist of his day, master landscape painter.
El Greco (Domenikos Theotocopoulos) (Greek, 1541-1614)
Noted for his dazzling spiritual works and portraits.
Caravaggio (Italian, 1573-1610)
Milan virtuoso noted for his imaginative, sensational Biblical paintings.
Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577-1640)
Foremost Baroque history painter and portraitist.
Frans Snyders (Flemish, 1579-1657)
Undisputed master of Baroque still life.
Nicolas Poussin (French, 1594-1665)
Possibly the greatest classical academic painter of all time.
Francisco de Zurbaran (Spanish, 1598-1664)
Master of chiaroscuro, noted for his religious pictures and still-lifes.
Anthony Van Dyck (Flemish, 1599-1641)
Infant prodigy, pupil of Rubens, noted for his portraits.
Diego Velázquez (Spanish, 1599-1660)
Court painter, possibly the greatest Spanish old master.
Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606-1669)
Finest exponent of chiaroscuro in narrative and portrait painting.
Jan Vermeer (Dutch, 1632-1675)
The greatest Dutch genre-painter, unrecognized in his life time.
Jean Chardin (French, 1699-1779)
One of the greatest 18th century still life artists.
Francisco Goya (Spanish, 1746-1828)
Spanish court painter, one of the great portraitists (The Nude Maja).
Jacques-Louis David (French, 1748-1825)
Passionate, classical-style, political master painter.

Note: the term 'Old Master' should not be confused with the category of noted but anonymous painters from the same period, who are labelled "Master of (a location, or work of art)". Examples include: Master of the Housebook, an unidentified Dutch painter named after drawings in the Hausbuch in Schloss Wolfegg; Master of St Cecilia, an unnamed Italian painter who painted the St Cecilia altarpiece; Master of the Lyversberg Passion, a German painter responsible for a Passion series now in Cologne.

• For more information about classical painting in Ireland, see: Guide to Irish Fine Art.

• How to Update This Mini Review of Old Masters, Artists, Painters and Sculptors.

© visual-arts-cork.com 2008 All rights reserved.