In art history, "Old Master" (or "old master")The term is spelled either way in the literature. Major UK and US dictionaries, incl. the Oxford Online Dictionaries, American Heritage Dictionary, Macmillan, Cambridge, and Random House dictionaries use lowercase; Oxford English Dictionary, Collins, and Merriam-Webster dictionaries also mention the uppercase spelling.Old Masters Department, Christies.com. refers to any painter of skill who worked in Europe before about 1800, or a painting by such an artist. An "old master print" is an original print (for example an engraving, woodcut, or etching) made by an artist in the same period. The term "old master drawing" is used in the same way.
In theory, "Old Master" applies only to artists who were fully trained, were Masters of their local artists' guild, and worked independently, but in practice, paintings produced by pupils or workshops are often included in the scope of the term. Therefore, beyond a certain level of competence, date rather than quality is the criterion for using the term.
Period covered In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the term was often understood as having a starting date of perhaps 1450 or 1470; paintings made before that were "primitives", but this distinction is no longer made. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the term as "A pre-eminent artist of the period before the modern; esp. a pre-eminent western European painter of the 13th to 18th centuries." The first quotation given is from 1696, in the diary of John Evelyn: "My L: Pembroke..shewed me divers rare Pictures of very many of the old & best Masters, especially that of M: Angelo..,& a large booke of the best drawings of the old Masters.""old master, n. and adj." OED Online. Oxford University Press, December 2016. Web. The term is also used to refer to a painting or sculpture made by an Old Master, a usage datable to 1824. There are comparable terms in Dutch, French, and German; the Dutch may have been the first to make use of such a term, in the 18th century, when oude meester mostly meant painters of the Dutch Golden Age of the previous century. Les Maitres d'autrefois of 1876 by Eugene Fromentin may have helped to popularize the concept, although "vieux maitres" is also used in French. The famous collection in Dresden at the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister is one of the few museums to include the term in its actual name, although many more use it in the title of departments or sections. The collection in the Dresden museum essentially stops at the Baroque period.
The end date is necessarily vague – for example, Goya (1746–1828) is certainly an Old Master, though he was still painting and printmaking at his death in 1828. The term might also be used for John Constable (1776–1837) or Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863), but usually is not. Edward Lucie-Smith gives an end date of 1800, noting "formerly used of paintings earlier than 1700". Lucie-Smith, Edward, The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Art Terms, p. 152, 2003 (2nd edn), Thames & Hudson, World of Art series,
The term tends to be avoided by art historians as too vague, especially when discussing paintings, although the terms "Old Master Prints" and "Old Master drawings" are still used. It remains current in the art trade. Auction houses still usually divide their sales between, for example, "Old Master Paintings", "Nineteenth-century paintings", and "Modern paintings". Christie's defined the term as ranging "from the 14th to the early 19th century".Now rewritten less succinctly to the same effect.
The relevant part of the large and important collection of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in their main building in Brussels was renamed in recent years as the Oldmasters Museum in Dutch and English, and Musée Oldmasters in French. It was previously called the "Royal Museum of Ancient Art" in English (; ).
Anonymous artists Artists, most often from early periods, whose hand has been identified by art historians, but to whom no identity can be confidently attached, are often given names (a Notname) by art historians such as Master E.S. (from his monogram), Master of Flémalle (from a previous location of a work), Master of Mary of Burgundy (from a patron), Master of Latin 757 (from the shelf mark of a manuscript he illuminated), Master of the Embroidered Foliage (from his characteristic technique), Master of the Brunswick Diptych, or Master of Schloss Lichtenstein.
List of the most important Old Master painters
Gothic/Proto-Renaissance
Cimabue (Italian, 1240–1302), frescoes in the Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi Giotto di Bondone (Italian, 1267–1337), first Renaissance fresco painter Duccio (Italian, 1255–1318), Sienese painter Simone Martini (Italian, 1285–1344), Gothic painter of the Sienese School Ambrogio Lorenzetti (Italian, c. 1290–1348), Gothic painter Pietro Lorenzetti (Italian, c. 1280–1348), Sienese school Gentile da Fabriano (Italian, 1370–1427), International gothic painter Lorenzo Monaco (Italian, 1370–1425), International gothic style Masolino (Italian, c. 1383–c. 1447), Goldsmith trained painter Pisanello (Italian, c. 1395–c. 1455), International gothic painter and medallist Sassetta (Italian, c. 1392–1450), Sienese International Gothic painter
Early Renaissance
Paolo Uccello (Italian, 1397–1475), schematic use of foreshortening Fra Angelico (Italian, 1400–1455), noted for San Marco convent frescoes Masaccio (Italian, 1401–1428), first to use linear perspective thereby giving sense of three-dimensionality plus developed new realism Fra Filippo Lippi (Italian, 1406–1469), father of Filippino Andrea del Castagno (Italian, 1410–1457) Piero della Francesca (Italian, 1415–1492), painter who pioneered linear perspective Benozzo Gozzoli (Italian, 1420–1497) Alesso Baldovinetti (Italian, 1425–1499) Vincenzo Foppa (Italian, 1425–1515)
Antonello da Messina (Italian, 1430–1479), painter who pioneered oil painting Cosimo Tura (Italian, 1430–1495) Andrea Mantegna (Italian, 1431–1506), master of perspective and detail Antonio del Pollaiuolo (Italian, 1431–1498) Francesco Cossa (Italian, 1435–1477) Melozzo da Forli (Italian, 1438–1494) Luca Signorelli (Italian, 1441–1523) Perugino (Italian, c. 1446–1523), Raphael was his pupil Verrocchio (Italian, c. 1435–1488) Sandro Botticelli (Italian, c. 1445–1510), great Florentine master Domenico Ghirlandaio (Italian, 1449–1494), prolific Florentine fresco painter Pinturicchio (Italian, 1454–1513) Filippino Lippi (Italian, 1457–1504), son of Filippo Cima da Conegliano (Italian, 1459–1517) Piero di Cosimo (Italian, 1462–1521)
High Renaissance
Francesco Francia (Italian, 1450–1517) Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452–1519), acclaimed oil painter and draughtsman Lorenzo Costa (Italian, 1460–1535)
Fra Bartolommeo (Italian, 1472–1517) Michelangelo (Italian, 1475–1564), acclaimed sculptor, painter and architect Bernardino Luini (Italian, c. 1480–1532) Raphael (Italian, 1483–1520), acclaimed painter Il Garofalo (Italian, 1481–1559) Ridolfo Ghirlandaio (Italian, 1483–1561) Andrea del Sarto (Italian, 1486–1530) Correggio (Italian, 1490–1534), painter from Parma noted for illusionistic frescoes and altarpiece oils Giulio Romano (Italian, c. 1499–1546)
Venetian School (Early Renaissance, High Renaissance and Mannerism)
Domenico Veneziano (Italian, 1400–1461), Early Renaissance Jacopo Bellini (Italian, 1400–1470), Early Renaissance Gentile Bellini (Italian, 1429–1507), Early Renaissance, noted for historical scenes of Venice and portraits of its doges Giovanni Bellini (Italian, 1430–1516), Early and High Renaissance, pioneer of luminous oil painting Bartolommeo Vivarini (Italian, 1432–1499), Early Renaissance Carlo Crivelli (Italian, 1435–1495), Early Renaissance Alvise Vivarini (Italian, 1445–1503), Early Renaissance Vittore Carpaccio (Italian, 1455–1526), Early Renaissance Giorgione (Italian, 1477–1510), High Renaissance, pioneer of Venetian School of painting Titian (Italian, c. 1488–1576), important High Renaissance-style exponent of colour painting in oils and frescoes Palma Vecchio (Italian, 1480–1528), High Renaissance Lorenzo Lotto (Italian, 1480–1556), High Renaissance Sebastiano del Piombo (Italian, 1485–1547), High Renaissance Jacopo Bassano (Italian, 1515–1592), Mannerist painter noted for portraiture and religious genre painting Tintoretto (Italian, 1518–1594), major Venetian Mannerist painter of monumental religious works Paolo Veronese (Italian, c. 1528–1588), High Renaissance-style, one of Venice's leading colourists
Sienese School
Giovanni di Paolo (Italian, 1403–1482), Early Renaissance Matteo di Giovanni (Italian, 1430–1495), Early Renaissance Francesco di Giorgio (Italian, 1439–1502), Early Renaissance Il Sodoma (Italian, 1477–1549), High Renaissance Beccafumi (Italian, 1486–1551), High Renaissance-Mannerist
Northern Renaissance
Robert Campin (Flemish, 1375–1444), Northern Renaissance artist who painted the "Mérode Altarpiece" Jan van Eyck (Flemish, c. 1390–1441), pioneer oil painter Konrad Witz (German, c. 1400–c. 1446) Rogier van der Weyden (Flemish, 1400–1464), Dutch artist and leading religious panel painter Stefan Lochner (German, c. 1410–1451), German painter of the Cologne School Petrus Christus (Flemish, c. 1410–c. 1476) Dirk Bouts (Flemish, 1420–1475) Simon Marmion (French, 1420–1489) Meister Francke (German, fl. 1424–1435) Hans Memling (German born-Flemish, 1430–1494), Flemish artist of the Bruges School Martin Schongauer (German, 1430–1491) Michael Pacher (Austrian 1435–1498) Hugo van der Goes (Flemish, 1440–1483), oil painter from the Netherlands Hieronymus Bosch (Dutch, Early Netherlandish, 1450–1516) Gerard David (Flemish, 1450–1523) Geertgen tot Sint Jans (Dutch, 1460–1490) Hans Holbein the Elder (German, 1460–1524) Quentin Matsys (Flemish, 1466–1530) Jan Mabuse (Flemish, 1470–1533) Matthias Grünewald (German, 1470–1528), noted for his intense expressionist religious paintings Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528), greatest painter and printmaker of the Northern Renaissance Lucas Cranach the Elder (German, 1472–1553), leading German Renaissance painter Hans Burgkmair (German, 1473–1531) Jean Clouet (French, 1475–1547) Albrecht Altdorfer (German, 1480–1538), Danube School of painting Maitre de Moulins (French, fl. 1480) Hans Baldung Grien (German, 1484–1545), German Renaissance artist Joachim Patenier (Flemish, 1485–1524), pioneer landscape painter of the Netherlandish Renaissance Joos van Cleve (Flemish, 1485–1540) Bernard van Orley (Flemish, 1488–1541) Hans Springinklee (German, 1490–1540) Wolf Huber (Austrian, 1490–1553) Lucas van Leyden (Dutch, 1494–1533) Jan van Scorel (Dutch, 1495–1562) Hans Holbein the Younger (German, 1497–1543), one of the greatest portrait painters Georg Pencz (German, 1500–1550) Sebald Beham (German, 1500–1550) Barthel Beham (German, 1502–1540) Lucas Cranach the Younger (German, 1515–1586) Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Dutch, Flemish, c.1525–1569), leading artist of his day Aegidius Sadeler (Flemish, 1570–1629)
Spanish Renaissance
Bartolomé Bermejo (Spanish, c. 1440–c. 1501) Alonso Berruguete (Spanish, c. 1488–1561) Luis de Morales (Spanish, 1512–1586) Alonso Sánchez Coello (Spanish-Portuguese, 1531–1588) El Greco (Greek-born Spanish, 1541–1614), noted for his dazzling spiritual works and portraits
Mannerism
Dosso Dossi (Italian, 1479–1542) Alfonso Lombardi (Italian, 1487–1537) Bartolommeo Bandinelli (Italian, 1493–1560) Pontormo (Italian, 1494–1556), Florentine fresco/oil painter Rosso Fiorentino (Italian, 1494–1540) Maarten van Heemskerck (Dutch, 1498–1574) Alessandro Moretto (Italian, 1498–1555) Giulio Clovio (Croatian-born Italian, 1498–1578) Niccolo Tribolo (Italian, 1500–1550) Parmigianino (Italian, 1503–1540), Mannerist painter/etcher from Parma Bronzino (Italian, 1503–1572) Jacob Seisenegger (Austrian, 1505–1567) Pieter Aertsen (Dutch, 1508–1575) François Clouet (French 1510–1572)