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RIBERA, Jusepe de
(b. 1591, Játiva, d. 1652, Napoli)
Biography
José (or Jusepe) de Ribera, Spanish painter, etcher, and draughtsman, active for all his known career in Italy, where he was called 'Lo Spagnoletto' (the Little Spaniard). Little is known of his life before he settled in Naples (at the time a Spanish possession) in 1616. Naples was then one of the main centres of the Caravaggesque style, and Ribera is often described as one of Caravaggio's followers.
However, although his early work is markedly tenebrist, it is much more individual than that of most Caravaggesque artists, particularly in his vigorous and scratchy handling of paint. Similarly, his penchant for the typically Caravaggesque theme of bloody martyrdom has been overplayed, enshrined as it is in Byron's lines: 'Spagnoletto tainted/His brush with all the blood of all the sainted' (Don Juan, xiii. 71). He undoubtedly painted some powerful pictures of this type, notably the celebrated Martyrdom of St Bartholomew (Prado, Madrid, c. 1630), but he was equally capable of great tenderness, as in The Adoration of the Shepherds (Louvre, Paris, 1650), and his work is remarkable for his feeling for individual humanity. Indeed, he laid the foundation of that respect for the dignity of the individual which was so important a feature of Spanish art from Velázquez to Goya.
This feature of his work is evident also in the secular subjects, such as The Clubfooted Boy (Louvre, 1642). He was the first to breach the traditional Spanish dislike for mythological themes (Apollo and Marsyas, Musées Royaux, Brussels, 1637), and he broadened the Baroque repertory by his series of philosophers depicted as beggars or vagabonds (Archimedes, Prado, 1630).
Ribera gradually moved away from his early tenebrist style, and his late works are often rich in colour and soft in modelling. He was the leading painter in Naples in his period (Velázquez visited him during his second visit to Italy and probably during his first) and his work was influential in Spain (where much of it was exported) as well as in Italy. His reputation has remained high, and until the Napoleonic Wars he and Murillo were virtually the only Spanish painters who were widely known outside their native country.
SASSOFERRATO
(b. 1609, Sassoferrato, d. 1685, Roma)
Biography
Giovanni Battista Salvi, Italian painter known by the name of his town of birth - Sassoferrato - and active in nearby Urbino and other cities of central Italy, notably Rome (where he was a pupil of Domenichino) and Perugia. He did some portraits but specialized in religious works painted in an extremely sweet, almost Peruginesque style. They are very clearly drawn and pure in colouring and totally un-Baroque in feeling - indeed they have a deliberately archaic quality that brings the paintings of the Nazarenes (a group of young, idealistic German painters of the early 19th century) to mind.
Little is known of his life (in the 18th century it was evidently generally believed he was a contemporary of Raphael) and few of his pictures are dated or datable; they seem to have been in great demand, however, as his compositions often exist in numerous very similar versions. Most of them were presumably done for private collectors, as few are in churches. Examples of his work are in many galleries and a fine collection of his drawings (virtually his entire surviving output as a draughtsman) is in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle.
SARACENI, Carlo
(b. 1579, Venezia, d. 1620, Venezia)
Biography
Saraceni spent almost all his career in Rome, where he formed his style under the influence of Caravaggio and Elsheimer, painting small luminous pictures of figures in landscapes as well as much larger altarpieces, including the replacement of Caravaggio's Death of the Virgin (Louvre, Paris), which the church of Sta Maria della Scala had rejected in 1606. Saraceni's picture is still "in situ". He painted several other smaller variants or versions of the picture, so the design was evidently popular. His style was sensitive and poetic, showing a delicate feeling for colour and tone. His liking for turbans, tasselled fringes, and stringy drapery folds, and his richly impasted paint may have influenced Dutch artists in Rome such as Lastman and Pynas, and through them Rembrandt.
SACCHI, Andrea
(b. 1599, Nettuno, d. 1661, Roma)
Biography
Italian painter, one of the leading artists of his day in Rome. He was a pupil of Albani, but he was inspired chiefly by Raphael, and with the sculptors Algardi and Duquesnoy he became the chief exponent of the style sometimes called 'High Baroque Classicism'. In defence of the classical princples of order and moderation, Sacchi engaged in a controversy in the Academy of St Luke with Pietro da Cortona on the question of whether history paintings should have few figures (as Sacchi maintained) or many (Cortona). Sacchi's ideas were more immediately influential, but his ponderous ceiling fresco of Divine Wisdom (1629-33) in the Palazzo Barberini in Rome is completely outshone by Cortona's exhilarating ceiling of the Grand Salone in the same building.
Sacchi, indeed, was at his best on a much smaller scale - in altarpieces such as the grave, introspective Vision of St Romuald (Vatican, c. 1631) and in portraits. His most important pupil was Maratti. Sacchi also worked as an architect, designing the Chapel of St Catherine of Siena (1637-39) in the Sacristy of Sta Maria sopra Minerva, a work of refined classical purity. He was a fine draughtsman.
NIEULANDT, Adriaen van, the Younger
(b. 1587, Antwerpen, d. 1658, Amsterdam)
Biography
Painter, draughtsman, engraver and broker, member of a Dutch family of artists of Flemish origin. The family can be traced back as far as Jacob van Nijeulandt, who is recorded as a citizen of Antwerp in 1561. One of his four children, Willem van Nieulandt (1533-96), married Adriana Nouts (d 1608), and they had three sons: Willem van Nieulandt I (1560-1626), Joris van Nieulandt (1561-1626) and Adriaen van Nieulandt (d 1603). Willem I was the first artist in the family. A painter and draughtsman, he lived and worked in Rome, where he was known as Guglielmo Terranova and where he became a member of the Accademia di S Luca in 1604. His brother Adriaen was a pedlar and pen merchant and moved to Amsterdam with his family in 1589, probably because they were Calvinists. Adriaen's sons, Willem van Nieulandt II, Adriaen van Nieulandt the Younger and Jacob van Nieulandt, all became painters.
Adriaen van Nieulandt the Younger was a pupil of Pieter Isaacsz. and Frans Badens (1571-1618) in Amsterdam. Unlike his brother, he apparently did not travel. In 1628 Adriaen was installed as a broker; he also valued works of art. Among his documented commissions were 11 paintings on copper for the chapel of King Christian IV of Denmark in Frederiksborg Castle near Hillerod (destroyed by fire, 1859). He specialized in landscapes and interiors with secular and biblical incidental characters.
NETSCHER, Caspar
(b. 1639, Prague, d. 1684, The Hague)
Biography
Dutch painter. Houbraken makes inconsistent statements about his birthplace, mentioning both Heidelberg and Prague, and there is similar doubt about his birthdate. Most of his career was spent in The Hague, where he settled in 1661/62, but he trained in Deventer with Terborch. From his master he took his predilection for depicting costly materials - particularly white satin. He painted genre scenes and some religious and mythological subjects, but from about 1670 he devoted himself almost exclusively to portraits, often for court circles in The Hague. His reputation was such that Charles II invited him to England. His work, elegant, Frenchified, small in scale, and exquisitely finished, influenced Dutch portraiture into the 18th century, his followers including his sons Constantijn (1688-1723) and Theodor (1661-1732).
NEER, Eglon van der
(b. 1634, Amsterdam, d. 1703, Düsseldorf)
Biography
Eglon van der Neer was the son of Aert van der Neer, the Dutch landscapist active in Amsterdam. Eglon painted landscapes as well as history pictures, portraits, and genre scenes, was more peripatetic and had greater financial success than his father.
At the beginning of his career Eglon travelled in France where he worked for the Dutch governor of Orange. He returned to Amsterdam by 1659. From 1664 until 1679, Rotterdam was his base. Thereafter he spent a decade in Brussels. He was appointed court painter of Charles II of Spain in 1687; however, he apparently never made the trip to the king's court. In 1690 he accepted the post of court painter to the Elector Palatine, Johann Willhelm in Düsseldorf. Adriaen der Werff, Eglon's pupil, made contact with the Elector Palatine in 1696 and quickly became his favourite. However, Eglon continued to hold his position until his death in 1703.
NATTIER, Jean-Marc
(b. 1685, Paris, d. 1766, Paris)
Biography
French portrait painter. His father, Jean (c. 1642-1705), was a painter and his mother, Marie Courtois (c. 1655-1703), was a miniaturist. He was one of the most successful artists at the court of Louis XV, excelling in the vogue for painting women in mythological or allegorical fancy dress - or undress - transforming his matrons into goddesses (Mme de Lambesc as Minerva, Louvre, Paris, 1737). His portraits are little concerned with individual characterization, but they show fluency, vivacity, and a relaxed charm. He was at his best with women and has been accused of 'painting with make-up', a comment that suggests the pastel-like delicacy of his handling. Taste was turning against him towards the end of his career and some of his later work shows signs of fatigue. His brother Jean-Baptiste (1678-1726) was also a painter; he committed suicide after being expelled by the Académie.
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