Friday, December 25, 2020

09 works, Today, December 25th, is Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthasar's day, their story, illustrated #357

Andrea Mantegna, (1431–1506)
The Adoration of the Magi, c. between 1495 and 1505
Oil on canvas
Height: 486 mm (19.1 in); Width: 656 mm (25.8 in)
J. Paul Getty Museum,   Los Angeles, California

Andrea Mantegna ( c. 1431 – September 13, 1506) was an Italian painter, a student of Roman archeology, and son-in-law of Jacopo Bellini. Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with perspective, e.g. by lowering the horizon in order to create a sense of greater monumentality. His flinty, metallic landscapes and somewhat stony figures give evidence of a fundamentally sculptural approach to painting. He also led a workshop that was the leading producer of prints in Venice before 1500. More on Andrea Mantegna

Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthasar were distinguished foreigners in the Gospel of Matthew and Christian tradition.

Sir Peter Paul Rubens 
Melchior, The Assyrian King, c. 1618
Oil on panel transferred to canvas
66.8 x 51.5 cm (26 5/16 x 20 1/4 in.)
 National Gallery of Art, Washington, District of Columbia, United States

Sir Peter Paul Rubens (28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish Baroque painter. A proponent of an extravagant Baroque style that emphasized movement, colour, and sensuality, Rubens is well known for his Counter-Reformation altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects.
In addition to running a large studio in Antwerp that produced paintings popular with nobility and art collectors throughout Europe, Rubens was a classically educated humanist scholar and diplomat who was knighted by both Philip IV of Spain and Charles I of England.  More Sir Peter Paul Rubens

Melchior, often referred to as the oldest member of the Magi, was traditionally called the King of Persia and brought the gift of gold to Jesus.

Geertgen tot Sint Jans, (circa 1460 –circa 1488 )
Gaspar was a king of Persia
Detail; The three magi, circa 1480-1485
Oil on oak wood
Height: 91.6 cm (36 in); Width: 71.8 cm (28.2 in)
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Geertgen tot Sint Jans (c. 1465 – c. 1495), also known as Geertgen van Haarlem, Gerrit van Haarlem, Gerrit Gerritsz, Gheertgen, Geerrit, Gheerrit, or any other diminutive form of Gerald, was an Early Netherlandish painter from the northern Low Countries in the Holy Roman Empire. No contemporary documentation of his life has been traced, and the earliest published account of his life and work is from 1604, in Karel van Mander's Schilder-boeck.

According to van Mander, Geertgen was probably a pupil of Albert van Ouwater, one of the first oil painters in the northern Low Countries. Both painters lived in the city of Haarlem, where Geertgen was attached to the house of the Knights of Saint John, perhaps as a lay brother, for whom he painted an altarpiece. In van Mander's book he states that Geertgen took the name of St. John without joining the order, thus his last name "tot Sint Jans" was derived from the order's name and means "unto Saint John". More on Geertgen tot Sint Jans

Gaspar was a king of India. Some consider Caspar to be King Gondophares (AD 21 – c. AD 47).

Gondophares I was the founder of the Indo-Parthian Kingdom and its most prominent king, ruling from 19 to 46. A member of the House of Suren, he belonged to a line of local princes who had governed the Parthian province of Drangiana since its disruption by the Indo-Scythians in c. 129 BC. More on King Gondophares

Girolamo da Santacroce, (1480–1556)
Balthasar
Detail; The Adoration of the Three Kings, c. between circa 1525 and circa 1530 
Oil on panel
H : 26 5/8 x W: 31 15/16 x D: 5/16 in. (67.7 x 81.2 x 0.8 cm)
Walters Art Museum,  Baltimore, Maryland

Girolamo da Santacroce (c. 1480/85 – c. 1556) was a 16th-century Italian painter of the Renaissance period, active mainly in Venice and the Venetian mainland

da Santacroce was born in Bergamo. He became a pupil of the painter Gentile Bellini. On Gentile's death in 1507, he was left in Gentile's will half of the Oriental drawings made be Gentile. Santacroce then most likely worked as an assistant in the workshops of Giovanni Bellini and Cima da Conegliano.

He was a prolific artist and many of his works are signed and dated. He produced many copies after the works of the leading Venetian masters. His work shows the influence of Titian and Palma Vecchio. More on Girolamo da Santacroce

Balthasar, originally called Bithisarea, was the King of Macedonia. Balthazar followed the Star of Bethlehem first to the palace of Herod the Great.

Cornelis Massijs, (–1580)
Arrival of the Holy Family in Bethlehem, c. 1543
Oil on oak wood
Height: 27 cm (10.6 in); Width: 38 cm (14.9 in)
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Germany

Cornelis Massijs (1508, Antwerp – c. 1556, unknown), was a Flemish Renaissance painter, draughtsman and engraver, mainly known for his landscapes and, to a lesser extent, genre scenes and portraits. He is regarded as an important figure in the transition from the fantastic landscapes of Joachim Patinir to the 'pure landscapes' of later Netherlandish landscape painting.

He was the son of leading Antwerp painter Quinten Matsys and the younger brother of Jan, who also became a prominent painter. He trained under his father. He was admitted together with his brother Jan, as a master in the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke in 1531, a year after his father's death. In 1544 the brothers were forced to leave Antwerp because of their religious beliefs. Where Cornelis went and whether he ever returned to Antwerp is unknown. There is speculation that Cornelis travelled to England and later to Germany and Italy, but there is no conclusive proof for this. More on Cornelis Massijs

Gerard van Honthorst, (1592–1656)
The Adoration of the Shepherds, c. 1622
Medium oil on canvas
Height: 164 cm (64.5 in); Width: 190 cm (74.8 in)
Wallraf–Richartz Museum, Cologne, Germany

Gerard van Honthorst (4 November 1592 – 27 April 1656) was a Dutch Golden Age painter who became especially noted for his depiction of artificially lit scenes. Early in his career he visited Rome, where he had great success painting in a style influenced by Caravaggio. Following his return to the Netherlands he became a leading portrait painter. More on Gerard van Honthorst

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage." 

Jacques Joseph Tissot, (1836–1902)
The Magi Journeying, c. between 1886 and 1894
Gouache over graphite on gray wove paper
Height: 20.2 cm (7.9 in); Width: 29.2 cm (11.4 in)
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York

For information on Jacques Joseph Tissot, see below

When King Herod heard this, he was frightened and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: 'And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.'" 

Jacques Joseph Tissot 
The Magi in the House of Herod, c. 1886-1894
Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper
5 3/8 x 6 3/8 in. (13.7 x 16.2 cm)
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York

Jacques Joseph Tissot (15 October 1836 – 8 August 1902), Anglicized as James Tissot, was a French painter and illustrator. He was a successful painter of Paris society before moving to London in 1871. He became famous as a genre painter of fashionably dressed women shown in various scenes of everyday life. He also painted scenes and characters from the Bible. More on James Tissot

Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage." When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 

El Greco, (1541–1614)
Adoration of the Magi, between 1568 and 1569
Oil on panel
Height: 42.8 cm (16.8 in); Width: 51 cm (20 in)
Museo Soumaya at Plaza Carso, Mexico City

Doménikos Theotokópoulos (1541 – 7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco; Spanish for "The Greek", was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. The nickname "El Greco" refers both to his Greek origin and Spanish citizenship. The artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters.
 
El Greco was born in Crete, which was at that time part of the Republic of Venice, and the center of Post-Byzantine art. He trained and became a master within that tradition before traveling at age 26 to Venice, as other Greek artists had done. In 1570 he moved to Rome, where he opened a workshop and executed a series of works. During his stay in Italy, El Greco enriched his style with elements of Mannerism and of the Venetian Renaissance. In 1577, he moved to Toledo, Spain, where he lived and worked until his death. In Toledo, El Greco received several major commissions and produced his best-known paintings.
 
El Greco's dramatic and expressionistic style was met with puzzlement by his contemporaries but found appreciation in the 20th century. El Greco is regarded as a precursor of both Expressionism and Cubism, while his personality and works were a source of inspiration for poets and writers. El Greco has been characterized by modern scholars as an artist so individual that he belongs to no conventional school. He is best known for tortuously elongated figures and often fantastic or phantasmagorical pigmentation, marrying Byzantine traditions with those of Western painting. More on El Greco

On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another path. More on Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthasar




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