Page:Bryan's dictionary of painters and engravers, volume 1.djvu/114

 Baldovinetti is certainly one of the most promi- nent masters of the early Florentine Renaissance. His chief merits lie in the utmost care with which he studied and represented natural objects. The extensive views of his landscape backgrounds are especially remarkable. But the types of his figures, which are taken from common life, are rather un- pleasing, nor is his colour harmonious. He aimed at finding out a new method of mixing colours. Vasari remarks that " he sketched his compositions in fresco, but finished them in secco, tempering his colours with a yolk of egg mingled with a liquid varnish, prepared over the fire." Owing to this peculiar process, which did not prove to be success- ful, his pictures are now in a very bad state of preservation. With better success, Baldovinetti devoted himself to works in mosaic, which art had not been practised at Florence for about a century. In 1481 he restored the mosaic picture over the por- trait of San Miniato, at Monte, and in the following years (1482 — 1490) the more important mosaics in the tribuna and in the cupola of the Baptistery. He died at Florence, in the hospital San Paolo, August 29, 1499, and was buried in San Lorenzo. His best scholar was Domenico Ghirlandajo, who after^vards painted his portrait near that of him- self in the frescoes of Santa Maria Novella (Vasari). Of his works may be mentioned:

Bergamo. Gallery. His own Portrait. Florence. Uffizi. Euthroued Virgin and Child, with Six Saints. „ SS. Annunziata. The Nativity. „ San Miniato. Annunciation. J. P. u.

BALDREY, John, an English painter, was born about 1760. He exhibited portraits at the Ro3-al Acaden]y in 1793 and 1794, and also engraved a few portraits, and other subjects, in the chalk style. He was living in 1821. Among his best works are the following :

Di ana and her Nymphs ; after Carlo Maratti. The Benevolent Physician ; after E. Penny. Lady Rawdon ; after Reynolds. The Finding of Moses ; after Salvator Rosa.

BALDRIGHI, GinsEPPE, was born at Stradella, near Pavia, in 1723. After studying for some years at Florence, under Vincenzo Meucci, and under Boucher in Paris, he was invited to the Court of Parma, where he was appointed principal painter to the Duke. He established a school of painting in that city, which was much fiequented. One of his most admired productions is a picture of 'Prometheus released,' in the Academy at Parma ; he likewise painted a large picture of the family of Philip, Duke of Parma, which gained him great reputation. His own portrait is in the UfBzi, Florence. He died at Parma in 1802.

BALDUCCI, Giovanni, called Cosci, after his maternal uncle, was, according to Baldinucci, a native of Florence ; he was a scholar of Battista Naldini. In 1590 he went to Rome, where he was taken under the protection of the Cardinal Alessandro de' Medici, afterwards Leo XI., by whom he was employed for some time. Several of his works are at Rome and Florence. Towards the latter end of his life he visited Naples, where he painted some pictures for the churches. He died there in 1603.

BALDUCCI, Matted, a native of Fontignano, was an associate of Bazzi between 1517 and 1523. In the following year he painted an altar-piece in San Francesco di Pian, Castagniano, in Montami- ata ; and works by him are seen in the Academy and churches of Siena.

BALDUNG, Hans, (called Gbien or GrCn, probably from his habit of dressing in green,) was born at Gmiind, in Swabia, between 1475 and 1480 ; he was a painter, engraver, and designer. Nothing is known of the youth of this important artist, and two altar-pieces in the Convent of Lichtenthal, near Baden-Baden, dated 1496, are thought to be his earliest productions. His first authenticated painting, dated 1501, representing the portrait of the Emperor Maximilian, is in the artist's sketch-book, in the Cabinet of Engravings at Carlsruhe. In 1507 he painted the altar-piece of St. Sebastian, lately in the possession of Herr Fr. Lippmann at Vienna, and probably also the ' Adora- tion of the Magi,' in the Sluseum at Berlin. It is very likely that Baldung worked at Nuremberg from 1507 to 1509, where he executed under the direction of Albrecht Diirer the copies of 'Adam and Eve,' after that master, in the Pitti Palace at Florence, and also probably assisted him in other works. In 1509 he removed to Strasburg and bought the freedom of that city ; in 1511 he went to Freiburg, but according to the chroniclers stayed subsequently several times at Strasburg, where he died in 1545. He was highly esteemed by the nobility of his time, especially by the Margrave of Baden, and stood on very intimate terms with Albrecht Diirer. Baldung, though he properly belongs to the Swabian school, exhibits in his works a close imitation of the style of Albrecht Diirer. He shows himself as a most energetic and characteristic artist ; he possessed an uncommon gift of invention and expression, but was too capricious and impetuous, and often too fantastic. His colouring is excellent, except in his latest productions, where the carnations are too pale. He painted religious, mythological, and allegorical subjects, and portraits. It may here be added that, if the altar-pieces at Lichtenthal are really by him, there is sufiScient proof that he studied first the works of Schongauer. His chef- d'osuvre is an altar-piece in the cathedral of Frei- burg; it bears the inscription, Joannes Baldung Cog. Gbien Gamundianus Deo et Vietdtb Auspi- ciBns Faciebat 1516. It represents the ' Corona- tion of the Virgin,' on the inside wings the ' Twelve Apostles,' and on the outside the ' Visita- tion,' the ' Flight into Egypt,' the 'Nativity,' and an ' Aimimciation,' which Kugler attributes to another painter.

His designs, distinguished for their excellent conception and a surety of hand reminding us of Albrecht Durer, are to be met with at Basle, Berlin, Carlsruhe, Copenhagen, Florence, Hanover, Lon- don, Paris, and Vienna.

As an engraver on copper, he was not very excellent in tlie technicalities. The following plates may be mentioned :

The Man of Sorrows. The Groom, considered his best ; an etching. An old man kissing a girl ; an etching. 1507. St. Sebastian.

He was, however, more excellent as a draughtsman on wood. What has been said of his paintings may be repeated for his woodcuts ; at present we know over 60 prints by him, which are signed with very different monograms, TQ 1 4. sometimes the two letters H. B. imited.