2. PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973)
Picasso is to Art History a giant earthquake with
eternal aftermaths. With the possible exception of
Michelangelo (who focused his greatest efforts in
sculpture and architecture), no other artist had
such ambitions at the time of placing his oeuvre
in the history of art. Picasso created the avant-
garde. Then Picasso destroyed the avant-garde.
He looked back at the masters and surpassed
them all. He faced the whole history of art and
single-handed redefined the tortuous relationship
between work and spectator
Pablo Picasso in 1962
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3. LEONARDO DA VINCI (1452-1519)
For better or for worse, Leonardo will be forever
known as the author of the most famous painting
of all time, the quot;Giocondaquot; or quot;Mona Lisaquot;. But he
is more, much more. His humanist, almost
scientific gaze, entered the art of the
quattrocento and revoluted it with his sfumetto
that nobody was ever able to imitate
Self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci
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4. GIOTTO DI BONDONE (c.1267-1337)
It has been said that Giotto was the first real
painter, like Adam was the first man. We agree
with the first part. Giotto continued the Byzantine
style of Cimabue and other predecessors, but he
earned the right to be included in gold letters in
the history of painting when he added to it a
quality unknown to date: the emotion
Portrait of Giotto, by Paolo Uccello
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5. PAUL CÉZANNE (1839-1906)
quot;Cezanne is the father of us all.quot; This lapidary
phrase has been attributed to both Picasso and
Matisse, and certainly it doesn't matter who
actually said it, because in either case is true.
While he exhibited with the Impressionist
painters, Cézanne left behind the whole group to
develop a style of painting never seen so far,
which opened the door for the arrival of Cubism
and the rest of the vanguards of the twentieth
century
Self-portrait of Paul Cézanne
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6. REMBRANDT VAN RIJN (1606-1669)
The fascinating use of the light and shadows of
his works seem to reflect his own life, moving
from fame into oblivion. Rembrandt is the great
master of the Dutch painting, and along with
Velázquez the main figure of the 17 th century
Painting. He is, in addition, the great master of
the self-portrait of all times, an artist that had
never show mercy at the time of depicting himself
Self-portrait of Rembrandt van Rijn
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7. WASSILY KANDINSKY (1866-1944)
Although the title of quot;father of abstractionquot; has
been assigned to several artists, from Picasso to
Turner, few painters could claim it with as much
justice as Kandinsky. Many artists have achieved
the emotion, but very few have changed the way
we understand art. Wassily Kandinsky belongs to
the latter
Wassily Kandinsky
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8. CLAUDE MONET (1840-1926)
The importance of Monet in the history of art is
sometimes quot;forgottenquot; by the fact that Art lovers
tend to see only the overwhelming beauty that
emanates from the canvas, ignoring the complex
technique and composition of the work ( a
quot;defectquot; somehow caused by Monet himself,
when he declared quot;I do not understand why
people want to understand my paintings, when it
is enough to enjoy them). However, Monet's
experiments, including studies on the changes
caused by the daylight on an object at different
hours of the day, and the almost abstract quality
of their quot;water liliesquot; are clearly a prologue to the
Self-portrait of Claude Monet art of the twentieth century.
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9. CARAVAGGIO (1571-1610)
The tough and violent Caravaggio is considered
the father of Baroque painting, with his
spectacular use of lights and shadows and
quot;tenebristquot; scenes using complex perspectives
Caravaggio
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10. JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM
TURNER (1775-1881)
Turner is the best landscape painter of the
Western painting. Academic painter in his
beginnings, Turner was slowly but unstoppably
evolving towards a free, atmospheric style,
sometimes even outlining the abstraction, which
was misunderstood and rejected by critics who
had admired him for decades
Self-portrait of William Turner
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11. JAN VAN EYCK (1390-1441)
Van Eyck is the colossal pillar on which rests the
whole Flemish paintings from the later centuries,
the genius of accuracy, thoroughness and
perspective, well above any other artist of his
time either Flemish or Italian.
JAN VAN EYCK
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12. ALBERT DÜRER (1471-1528)
The real Leonardo da Vinci of the Northern
European Rennaisance was Dürer, a restless and
innovative genious, master of the drawing and
the color. He is one of the first artists to represent
nature without artifice, either in his landscapes or
his drawings of plants and animals
Self-portrait of Alberto Durero
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13. JACKSON POLLOCK (1912-1956)
the major figure of the Abstract Expressionism
and the painter who divides the twentieth century
between avant-garde and post-avant-gardes. His
quot;dripsquot; from the period 1947-1952 are one of the
milestones of contemporary art
JACKSON POLLOCK
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14. MICHELANGELO (1475-1564)
Some readers will be quite surprised to see the
man who is, along with Picasso, the greatest
artistic genius of all time out of the quot;top tenquot; of
this list, but the fact is that even Michelangelo
defined himself as quot;sculptorquot;, and even his
painted masterpiece (the frescoes in the Sistine
Chapel) looks like a painted sculpture.
Nevertheless, a masterpiece of this caliber is
sufficient to guarantee him a place of honor in the
history of painting
MICHELANGELO
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15. PAUL GAUGUIN (1848-1903)
One of the most fascinating figures in the history
of painting, his works moved from Impressionism
(soon abandoned) to the symbolsism, colorful and
vigorous, shown is his paintings in Polynesia.
Matisse and Fauvism can not be understood
without the works of Paul Gauguin
Self-portrait of Paul Gauguin
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16. FRANCISCO DE GOYA (1746-1828)
Goya is an enigma. In the whole History of Art few
figures are as complex for the study as the artist
born in Fuendetodos, Spain. Enterprising and
indefinable, a painter with no rival in all his life,
Goya was the painter of the Court and the painter
of the people. He was a religious painter and a
mystical painter. He was the author of the beauty
and eroticism of the Maja desnuda and the
creator of the explicit horror of The executions of
May 3rd. He was an oil painter, a fresco painter, a
sketcher and an engraver. And he never stopped
his metamorphosis
Self-portrait Francisco de Goya & Dr. Arrieta
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17. VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853-1890)
Few names in the history of painting are now as
famous as Van Gogh, despite the complete
neglect he suffered in life. His works, strong and
personal, are one of the greatest influences in the
painting of the twentieth century, especially in the
German Expressionism
Self-portrait of Vincent van Gogh
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18. ÉDOUARD MANET (1832-1883)
Manet was the origin of Impressionism, a
revolutionary in a time of great artistic
revolutions. The quot;Olympiaquot; or quot;Déjeuner sur
l'Herbequot; opened the way for the great figures of
the Impressionism
Self-portrait of Édouard Manet
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19. MARK ROTHKO (1903-1970)
The influence of Rothko in the history of painting
is yet to quantify, because the truth is that almost
40 years after his death the influence of the large
masses of color and the emotion of Rothko's large
canvases continues to increase in many painters
of the 21st century
MARK ROTHKO
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20. HENRI MATISSE (1869-1954)
Art critics tend to regard Matisse as the greatest
exponent of the twentieth century painting, only
surpassed by Picasso. This is an exaggeration,
although the almost pure use of color in some of
his works strongly influenced many of the
following avant-gardes
HENRI MATISSE - self portrait
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21. RAFAEL (1483-1520)
Picasso is to Art History a giant earthquake with
eternal aftermaths. With the possible exception of
Michelangelo (who focused his greatest efforts in
sculpture and architecture), no other artist had
such ambitions at the time of placing his oeuvre
in the history of art. Picasso created the avant-
garde. Then Picasso destroyed the avant-garde.
He looked back at the masters and surpassed
them all. He faced the whole history of art and
single-handed redefined the tortuous relationship
between work and spectator
Self-portrait of Rafael
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