Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

FORTUNY, MARIANO JOSE MARIA BERNARDO ...

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 727 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

FORTUNY, MARIANO JOSE MARIA BERNARDO (1838-1874) , See also:Spanish painter, was See also:born at See also:Reus on the See also:firth of See also:June 1838. His parents, who were in poor circumstances, sent him for See also:education to the See also:primary school of his native See also:town, where he received some instruction in the rudiments of See also:art. When he was twelve years old his parents died and he came under the care of his grandfather, who, though a joiner by See also:trade, had made a collection of See also:wax figures, with which he was travelling from town to town. In the working of this show the boy took an active See also:part, modelling and See also:painting many of the figures; and two years later, when he reached See also:Barcelona, the cleverness of his handiwork made so much impression on some See also:people in authority there that they induced the See also:municipality to make him an See also:allowance of See also:forty-two francs monthly, so that he might be enabled to go through a systematic course of study. He entered the See also:Academy of Barcelona and worked there for four years under Claudio Lorenzale, and in See also:March 1857 he gained a scholarship that entitled him to See also:complete his studies in See also:Rome. Then followed a See also:period of more than two years, during which he laboured steadily at copies of the old pictures to which he had See also:access at Rome. To this period an end was put by the outbreak of the See also:war between See also:Spain and the See also:emperor of See also:Morocco, as Fortuny was sent by the authorities of Barcelona to paint the most striking incidents of the See also:campaign. The expedition lasted for about six months only, but it made upon him an impression that was powerful enough to affect the whole course of his subsequent development, and to implant permanently in his mind a preference for the glitter and brilliancy of See also:African See also:colour. He re-turned to Spain in the summer of r86o, and was commissioned by the See also:city of Barcelona to paint a large picture of the See also:capture of the camps of Muley-el-Abbas and Muley-el-Hamed by the Spanish See also:army. After making a large number of studies he went back to Rome, and began the See also:composition on a See also:canvas fifteen metres See also:long; but though it occupied much of his See also:time during the next few years, he never finished it. He busied himself instead with a wonderful See also:series of pictures, mostly of no See also:great See also:size, in which he showed an astonishing command over vivacities of technique and modulations of colour. He visited See also:Paris in 1868 and shortly afterwards married the daughter of Federico Madrazo, the director of the royal museum at See also:Madrid.

Another visit to Paris in 1870 was followed by a two years' stay at See also:

Granada, but then he returned to Rome, where he died somewhat suddenly on the 21st of See also:November 1874 from an attack of malarial See also:fever, contracted while painting in the open See also:air at See also:Naples and See also:Portici in the summer of 1874. The See also:work which Fortuny accomplished during his See also:short See also:life is distinguished by a superlative facility of See also:execution and a marvellous cleverness in the arrangement of brilliant hues, but the qualities of his art are those that are attainable by a See also:master of technical resource rather than by a deep thinker. His insight into subtleties of See also:illumination was extraordinary, his dexterity was remarkable in the extreme, and as a colourist he was vivacious to the point of extravagance. At the same time in such pictures as " La Vicaria " and " Choosing a See also:Model," and in some of his Moorish subjects, like " The Snake Charmers " and " See also:Moors playing with a See also:Vulture," he showed himself to be endowed with a sensitive appreciation of shades of See also:character and a thorough understanding of the peculiarities of a See also:national type. His love of detail was instinctive, and he See also:chose motives that gave him the fullest opportunity of displaying his readiness as a craftsman. See Davillier, Fortuny, sa See also:vie, son oeuvre, sa correspondance, &c. (Paris, 1876) ; C. Yriarte, Fortuny (Artistes celebres series) (Paris, 1889). (A. L.

End of Article: FORTUNY, MARIANO JOSE MARIA BERNARDO (1838-1874)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
FORTUNE, ROBERT (1813-188o) 		[next]
FORTY

Site © 2006 - Net Industries