William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905)

William-Adolphe Bouguereau was a French academic painter.

In his realistic genre paintings he used mythological themes, making modern interpretations of classical subjects, with an emphasis on the female human body.

During his life he enjoyed significant popularity in France and the United States, was given numerous official honors, and received top prices for his work.

As the quintessential salon painter of his generation, he was reviled by the Impressionist avant-garde. By the early twentieth century, Bouguereau and his art fell out of favor with the public, due in part to changing tastes.

In the 1980s, a revival of interest in figure painting led to a rediscovery of Bouguereau and his work.

Throughout the course of his life, Bouguereau executed 822 known finished paintings, although the whereabouts of many are still unknown.

Edgar Degas: "People call me the painter of dancing girls.."

• "Do it again, ten times, a hundred times. Nothing in art must seem to be an accident, not even movement".

• "Bisogna rifare dieci volte, cento volte lo stesso soggetto. Niente, in arte, deve sembrare dovuto al caso".

Pierre-Auguste Renoir: "I grandi uomini sono modesti”!

• "Shall I tell you what I think are the two qualities of a work of art? First, it must be indescribable, and, second, it must be inimitable".

• "Vuoi sapere quali sono le due qualità di un'opera d'arte? In primo luogo, deve essere indescrivibile e, in secondo luogo, deve essere inimitabile".

• "I grandi uomini sono modesti".

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Pietro Perugino (1450-1523) | Raphael's master

Perugino🎨, byname of Pietro di Cristoforo Vannucci, Italian Renaissance painter🎨 of the Umbria school and the teacher of Raphael🎨.

His work (e.g., Giving of the Keys to St. Peter🎨, 1481-82, a fresco in the Sistine Chapel in Rome) anticipated High Renaissance ideals in its compositional clarity, sense of spaciousness, and economy of formal elements.

Perugino | The Sistine Chapel frescoes

The wall paintings of the Sistine Chapel🎨 are among the most important examples of the type of painting developed in Florence in the later fifteenth century.

The five artists brought to Rome to execute them came from various different art centres: Botticelli🎨, Ghirlandaio and Rosselli from Florence, Perugino from Umbria🎨, Signorelli from Cortona.