The Thames and Hudson Dictionary of Art and Artists (World of Art)

831 Pages·1993·37.77 MB·English

by  Herbert Read

Sir Herbert Read was one of the most prominent writers on twentieth-century
art, whose numerous publications include Modern Painting: A Concise History.
He died in 1968.
Nikos Stangos was a commissioning editor and director at Penguin Books and
Thames & Hudson for most of his professional life. He worked closely with
many leading poets, art historians and artists of the day. He edited David
Hockney by David Hockney and That’s the Way I See It by Hockney. He also
edited a number of other books including Concepts of Modern Art in the World
of Art series. He died in 2004.
Other titles of interest published by Thames & Hudson include:
The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Art Terms
The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of British Art
The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of the Italian Renaissance
The Gallery Companion: Understanding Western Art
How to Read a Painting: Decoding, Understanding and Enjoying the Old Masters
Mirror of the World: A New History of Art
Styles, Schools and Movements: The Essential Encyclopaedic Guide to Modern Art
Other reference titles in the World of Art series include:
The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Fashion and Fashion Designers
The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Graphic Design and Designers
See our websites
www.thamesandhudson.com
www.thamesandhudsonusa.com
FOREWORD
This dictionary provides comprehensive information on the fine arts, with entries
on paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints, and the artists who have made
them, throughout the world. The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Art and Artists
also covers historical styles and movements in the arts and groups of artists; in
addition it contains entries on techniques, materials and terms, as well as on the
major writers whose ideas have influenced the course of art and the work of
artists. The aim is to be precise and specific, but without shirking the
responsibility of providing, where necessary, some critical evaluation. On the
whole, discursive articles on subjects such as English art, which by their very
nature cannot be sufficiently detailed, are not included. One departure from this
general principle is the inclusion of more general entries on cultures outside the
Western world – in several of which the anonymity of the artist is a common
occurrence. There are, however, entries on individual artists as well, where these
are known by name and are likely to be encountered.
The majority of entries on movements and artists active before 1945 were
originally written for the Encyclopaedia of the Arts, whose consulting editor was
Sir Herbert Read, managing editor Geoffrey Hindley and assistant editor
Nathaniel Harris, and was published by Thames & Hudson in 1966. Many of
these entries, however, have been substantially revised and updated, and about
40 per cent more have been added. The result is that this dictionary comes right
up to date. By providing extensive information on contemporary art and artists
not accessible elsewhere, together with full examination of the arts of the past,
on a universal scale, it is an unrivalled reference work.
This revised, updated and expanded edition of the dictionary now includes more
than 2500 entries. Over 200 new entries have been added to those in the previous
edition, not only to bring the dictionary up to date, but also to correct injustices
in previous editions. It should perhaps be noted that the relative length of artists’
entries does not necessarily imply the degree of their importance.
Extensive cross-references provide the reader with the full context in which an
artist has worked.
Nikos Stangos
ABBREVIATIONS
Most of the abbreviations in this dictionary are in common use or are self-
evident: e.g. the name of the artist or subject which forms the headword is
referred to in the text of the entry by the first letter(s) (Michelangelo becomes
M.). Abbreviations such as ill. indicate various forms of the same word:
illustrator, illustrated, illustration. We have generally followed the Oxford
English Dictionary in using full stops after abbreviations only where the last
letter is not the last letter of the word in full. Thus: ill. (illustration, illustrator),
ills (illustrations); c. (century), cs (centuries), etc.

anon. anonymous
b. born
c. century
c. circa
cm. centimetre
coll. collection
d. died
ed. edition, editor, etc.
fl. floruit
Fr. French
ft feet
Gal. Gallery
Ger. German
Gr. Greek
Inst. Institute
It. Italian
Jap. Japanese
km. kilometre
Lat. Latin
Lib. Library
m. metre
ms., mss manuscript(s)
M.O.M.A.Museum of Modern Art, New
York
N.G. National Gallery, London
N.Y. New York
R.A. Royal Academy, London
SS Saints
St Saint
Tate Tate Gallery, London
U.S.(A.) United States (of America)
V.&A. Victoria and Albert Museum,
London
vol. volume
A
Aaltonen Waïnö (1894–1966). Finnish sculptor and painter and a major force in
modern Finnish sculpture. His work in granite is classical in line despite its
monumental character. Besides a number of female torsos and portrait heads, A.
executed public monuments.
Abbate Niccolo dell’ (c. 1512–71). A Modenese painter who, from 1552,
worked in France and was, with Primaticcio, a leader of the school of
Fontainebleau. A. was stylistically influenced by the illusionism of Mantegna
and the softness of Correggio, but more important was his characteristically
Mannerist treatment of landscape, as in the Rape of Proserpine. There are
similarities in his work to Dosso Dossi and also Patenier and the Antwerp
school, and A. himself introduced Mannerism in landscape into France. A major
picture is The Story of Aristaeus.
Abbate The Story of Aristaeus (detail) c. 1557
Abbey Edwin Austin (1852–1911). U.S. oil painter, watercolourist and book ill.,
who worked much in Britain, becoming an R.A. in 1898. He drew ills in pen for
works by Robert Herrick, Oliver Goldsmith and Shakespeare, and painted the
scenes of The Quest of the Holy Grail on the walls of the public library, Boston,
Mass.