Quinten Massys | Northern Renaissance painter

Quinten Massys, Massys also spelled Matsys, Metsys, or Messys, (born c. 1465/66, Leuven, Brabant [now in Belgium] - died 1530, Antwerp), Flemish artist, the first important painter of the Antwerp school.

Trained as a blacksmith in his native Leuven, Massys is said to have studied painting after falling in love with an artist’s daughter. In 1491 he went to Antwerp and was admitted into the painters’ guild.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder | Life

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, also spelled Brueghel or Breughel, (1525-1569), the greatest Flemish painter of the 16th century, whose landscapes and vigorous, often witty scenes of peasant life are particularly renowned.

Since Bruegel signed and dated many of his works, his artistic evolution can be traced from the early landscapes, in which he shows affinity with the Flemish 16th-century landscape tradition, to his last works, which are Italianate.

He exerted a strong influence on painting in the Low Countries, and through his sons Jan and Pieter he became the ancestor of a dynasty of painters that survived into the 18th century.

Sandro Botticelli | Lo stile pittorico

Lo stile del pittore Italiano Sandro Botticelli (Firenze, 1445-1510) subì diverse evoluzioni nel tempo, ma fondamentalmente mantenne alcuni tratti comuni che lo rendono tutt'oggi ben riconoscibile, anche nel vasto pubblico.

Gli input fondamentali della sua formazione artistica furono sostanzialmente tre: Filippo Lippi, Andrea del Verrocchio ed Antonio del Pollaiolo.

Giorgio Vasari | The life of Sandro Botticelli

At the same time with the elder Lorenzo'de Medici, the Magnificent, which was truly a golden age for men of intellect, there also flourished one Alessandro, called Sandro after our custom, and surnamed Di Botticello for a reason that we shall see below.

This man was the son of Mariano Filipeppi, a citizen of Florence, who brought him up with care, and had him instructed in all those things that are usually taught to children before they are old enough to be apprenticed to some calling.

But although he found it easy to learn whatever he wished, nevertheless he was ever restless, nor was he contented with any form of learning, whether reading, writing, or arithmetic, insomuch that his father, eary of the vagaries of his son's brain, in despair apprenticed him as a goldsmith with a boon-companion of his own, called Botticello, no mean master of that art in his day.

Van Gogh | Holland Landscapes

"I can very well do without God both in my life and in my paintings, but I cannot, ill as I am, do without something which is greater than I, which is my life - the power to create" - Quote in his letter to brother Theo.

Nicolas Poussin | Baroque Era painter

Nicolas Poussin, (born June 1594, Les Andelys, Normandy [France] - died November 19, 1665, Rome, Papal States [Italy]), French painter and draftsman who founded the French Classical tradition.

He spent virtually all of his working life in Rome, where he specialized in history paintings - depicting scenes from the Bible, ancient history, and mythology - that are notable for their narrative clarity and dramatic force.

Aelbert Cuyp | Baroque Era painter

Aelbert Cuyp, in full Aelbert Jacobszoon Cuyp, Aelbert also spelled Albert, Cuyp also spelled Cuijp, (baptized October 20, 1620, Dordrecht, Netherlands - buried November 15, 1691, Dordrecht), Dutch painter** of the Baroque period** who is known for his peaceful landscapes of the Dutch countryside, distinguished for their poetic use of light and atmosphere.

Van Gogh: "I am not an adventurer by choice but by fate"

"There is but one Paris and however hard living may be here, and if it became worse and harder even-the French air clears up the brain and does good-a world of good".

"An artist needn't be a clergyman or a churchwarden, but he certainly must have a warm heart for his fellow men".

"The diseases that we civilized people labor under most are melancholy and pessimism".

Richard MacDonald, 1946 | Figurative sculptor

One of the most collected figurative bronze sculptors at work today, Richard MacDonald** has achieved this stature through a consuming passion for his work and an unrelenting dedication to its quality and integrity.

A native Californian, MacDonald was educated at the prestigious Art Center College of Design and received a Bachelor of Professional Arts, Cum Laude.

For biographical notes -in english and italian- and other works by MacDonald see:

• Richard MacDonald, 1946 | Figurative sculptor | Cirque du Soleil