On this day in history, November 30: Birth of Palladio, Pozzo, Bouguereau and Clyfford Still

What happened on this day in art history, November 30? It was the birthday of four artists.

Rest, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1879, Cleveland Museum of Art

Born on this day were Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, Baroque painter Andrea Pozzo, 19th century French painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau and 20th century American Abstract Expressionist painter Clyfford Still.



Villa Capra, (or Villa Rotunda) Andrea Palladio architect, at Vicenza, Italy, 1566 to 1570

Andrea Palladio (November 30, 1508 – August 19, 1580) was an architect from the Veneto region of Italy. His architecture, known as "Palladian" had an enormous influence on both Renaissance and later architecture.  Palladio was very aware the proportions and harmony that were used to create the original Greek temples.

Villa Capra, (or Villa Rotunda) Andrea Palladio architect, at Vicenza, Italy, 1566 to 1570

Here is a detail of one of four symmetrical porches from La Rotunda in Vicenza. Palladio uses the Ionic order from Greek entablature, but updated it for contemporary use, one change that Palladio made was to use smooth columns instead of fluted columns.  La Rotunda was the influence behind American president Thomas Jefferson's home of Monticello in Virginia.  However Monticello used the Doric Order from Greek entablature on its porches.

San Giorgio Maggiore, Palladio, Venice (1560 – 1563) 

Another Palladian architectural example can be seen above in the beautiful gleaming white marble façade of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice (built in 1560 – 1563).  The sculptural quality of the overall architectural work and the perfect harmony and proportions that Palladio used would influence future architects for centuries.

Andrea Pozzo,Triumph of Sant' Ignazio of Loyola, 1691-94
(Allegory of the Missionary Work of the Jesuits) Ceiling fresco, Chiesa di Sant' Ignazio, Rome

Also born on this day was Andrea Pozzo (November 30, 1642 – August 31, 1709) an Italian Baroque painter and architect as well as a lay brother in the Jesuit order.  Due to this he was commissioned to create art for several Jesuit churches, both in Italy and in Vienna.  Pozzo's best known work is The Triumph of Sant' Ignazio, an enormous fresco which covers the ceiling of the nave of the Church of Sant'Ignazio in Rome and perhaps the best known example of quadratura.

Painting of a false dome, Andrea Pozzo, 1685, Chiesa di Sant'Ignazio, Rome, Italy

photo- © Jean-Christophe BENOIST/ public domain, via Wikimedia Commons  

Pozzo also created a clever false dome within Sant'Ignazio.  This trompe l’oeil illusion works perfectly if the viewer is standing on a specific spot on the floor, on that spot one can look up and see a "dome" which is in fact a flat surface.  Pozzo is one of the best known painters of quadtratura.

Quadratura is a specific style of trompe-l'oeil painting which incorporates architectural elements into the work to create a convincing illusion of the expansion of the actual space into an imagined space.

Breton Brother and Sister, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1871, Metropolitan Museum of Art

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (November 30, 1825 – August 19, 1905) a late 19th century French painter who painted hundreds of popular paintings in his career in a very classically realist style.  Bouguereau lived and worked at the same time as the French Impressionists and Post-Impressionist movements but he never strayed from his realistic style of painting.  He is best known for his very sweet natured portraits of peasants from the French countryside, he also painted religious paintings and classical mythology. 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art says on their website this about the above work:

Based on sketches Bouguereau made while summering in Brittany in the late 1860s, this picture was completed in the artist’s studio in 1871. His young models, posed in traditional Breton costumes, epitomize pastoral sibling affection. This type of scene was quickly snapped up by American collectors, earning Bouguereau fame and fortune. As one critic explained,
"Whoever gets a picture by [him] gets the full worth of his money, in finished painting, first-rate drawing, and a subject and treatment that no well-bred person can … fault."


Interestingly Palladio and Bouguereau share both a birthday and the same date of their death, August 19.



Clyfford Still, 1957-D No. 1, 1957, oil on canvas, 113 x 159 in, Albright-KnoxArt Gallery, Buffalo, New York.

Image found at the museum’s website: www.albrightknox.org

Our final artist born on this day was 20th century American Abstract Expressionist painter Clyfford Still (November 30, 1904 – June 23, 1980).  He was an influential Color Field painter who spent most of his life in the San Francisco area, including teaching at the California School of Fine Arts (San Francisco Art Institute).  Still also lived in NYC for a few years where he got to know other Abstract Expressionist painters.  During his life his work was exhibited both at SFMOMA in San Francisco and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.