Giorgione's Sleeping Venus (c. The Sleeping Venus, also known as the Dresden Venus, is an extremely influential painting by the Italian Renaissance master Giorgione 1510), Dresden, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister. The Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (English Old Masters Picture Gallery) is an state Art museum located in the Semper wing of the Zwinger

"Old Master" (or "old master") is a term for a European painter of skill who worked before about 1800, or a painting by such a painter. Painting (pān'tīng in Art, is the practice of applying Color to a Surface (support base such as e Year -of the Julian calendar. The Gregorian calendar was 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar until Friday, but 12 days ahead since Saturday. An Old master print is an original print (for example an engraving or etching) made by an artist in the same period. An old master print is a work of art produced by a Printing process within the Western tradition (European or New World Printmaking is the Process of making artworks by Printing, normally on Paper. Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it For other uses of etch or etching, see Etching (disambiguation, for the history of the method see Old master prints. Likewise an Old master drawing. Drawing is a Visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium

In theory an Old Master should be an artist who was fully trained, was a Master of his local artists' guild, and worked independently, but in practice paintings considered to be produced by pupils or workshops will be included in the term. The Guild of Saint Luke was the most common name for a city Guild for painters and other artists in Early modern Europe, especially in the Low Countries Therefore, beyond a certain level of competence, date rather than quality is the criterion for using the term.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth century the term often had a starting date of perhaps 1450 or 1470; paintings made before that were "primitives"; but this distinction is no longer made. The original OED from the beginning of the 20th century, defines the term as "a 'master' who lived before the period accounted 'modern', chiefly applied to painters from the 13th to the 16th or 17th century. The Oxford English Dictionary ( OED) published by the Oxford University Press (OUP is a comprehensive Dictionary of the English " Rather surprisingly, the first quotation they give is from a popular encyclopedia of 1840: "As a painter of animals, Edwin Landseer far surpasses any of the old masters". Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, RA ( March 7, 1802 in London – October 1 1873) was an English painter, There are comparable terms in Dutch, French and German; the Dutch may have been the first to make use of the term, in the 18th century. Les Maitres d'autrefois of 1876 by Eugene Fromentin may have helped to popularize the concept, although "vieux maitres" is also used in French. Eugène Fromentin ( October 24, 1820 – August 27, 1876) was a French painter and writer The famous collection in Dresden at the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister is one of the few museums to include the term in its actual name, although many more use it in the title of departments or sections. Dresden (etymologically from Old Sorbian Drežďany, meaning people of the riverside forest, Drježdźany is the Capital city of the German The Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (English Old Masters Picture Gallery) is an state Art museum located in the Semper wing of the Zwinger The collection in the Dresden museum essentially stops at the Baroque period. Baroque art redirects here Please disambiguate such links to Baroque painting, Baroque sculpture, etc

The end-date is necessarily vague—Goya (1746–1828) is certainly an Old Master, and he was still painting and printmaking at his death in 1828. Printmaking is the Process of making artworks by Printing, normally on Paper. For example the term might be used, but usually is not, about John Constable (1776–1837) or Eugene Delacroix (1798–1868). John Constable ( 11 June 1776 &ndash 31 March 1837 Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix (26 April 1798 &ndash 13 August 1863 was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of

The term tends to be avoided by Art historians as too vague, especially when discussing paintings, although the terms Old Master Prints and Old Master drawings are still used. Art history is the Academic study of objects of Art in their Historical development and stylistic contexts i It remains more current in the art trade. Auction houses still usually divide their sales between, for example: "Old Master Paintings", "Nineteenth-century paintings" and "Modern paintings". Christie's defines the term as ranging "from the 14th to the early 19th century". Christie's is a leading art business and a fine arts Auction house

Artists, most often from early periods, whose hand has been identified by art historians, but to whom no identity can be confidently attached, are often given names by art historians such as Master E.S. (from his monogram), Master of Flémalle (from a previous location of a work), Master of Mary of Burgundy (from a patron), Master of Latin 757 (from the shelf mark of a manuscript he illuminated), Master of the Brunswick Diptych (from a work in a museum in Brunswick), and so on. Master E S (c 1420 &ndash c 1468 (previously known as the Master of 1466) is an unidentified German Engraver, Goldsmith, and Robert Campin (c 1375 &ndash 26 April 1444) now usually identified with the artist known as the Master of Flémalle, is usually considered the first Mary, called Mary the Rich ( 13 February, 1457 &ndash Braunschweig, known as Brunswiek in Low German, is a city of 245810 people (as of 31 December 2007 located in Lower Saxony, Germany. Other works may be described as being by an "Unknown Master".

A very short and by no means complete list of the most important Old Masters:

Still Life with Pie, Silver Ewer and Crab by Willem Claeszoon Heda (1658) Oil on canvas Frans Halsmuseum, Haarlem

• Giotto di Bondone (Italian, 1267-1337)
• Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452-1519)
• Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528)
• Michelangelo (Italian, 1475-1564)
• Titian (Italian, c. Willem Claeszoon Heda ( December 14, 1594, Haarlem - c 1680 Haarlem was one of the earliest Dutch artists devoted exclusively to the painting The Frans Hals Museum is a Hofje and municipal Museum in Haarlem, The Netherlands. Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci ( April 15 1452 – May 2 1519 was an Italian Polymath, having been a scientist Mathematician, Engineer Albrecht Dürer (ˈalbʀɛçt ˈdyʀɐ ( May 21, 1471 &ndash April 6, 1528) was a German painter, Printmaker Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni Two biographies were published of him during his lifetime One of them by Giorgio Vasari, proposed that he was the pinnacle of all Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio (c 1485 &ndash August 27 1576 better known as Titian, was the leading painter of the 16th-century Venetian 1477-1576)
• Raphael (Italian, 1483-1520)
• Hans Holbein the Younger (German, 1497-1543)
• Jacopo Tintoretto (Italian, 1518-1594)
• Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Flemish, c. Raphael Sanzio, usually known by his first name alone (in Italian Raffaello) (April 6 or March 28 1483 – April 6 1520 was an Italian painter and Tintoretto (real name Jacopo Comin; September 29, 1518 - May 31, 1594) was one of the greatest painters of the Venetian school and Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c 1525 &ndash September 9, 1569) was a Netherlandish Renaissance 1525-1569)
• Paolo Veronese (Italian, c. Paolo Veronese (1528 – April 19 1588 was an Italian painter of the Renaissance in Venice, famous for paintings such as The Wedding at Cana 1528-1588)
• El Greco (Greek, 1541-1614)
• Frans Hals (Dutch, 1580-1666)
• Caravaggio (Italian, 1573-1610)
• Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577-1640)
• Nicolas Poussin (French, 1594-1665)
• Diego Velázquez (Spanish, 1599-1660)
• Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606-1669)
• Johannes Vermeer (Dutch, 1632-1675)
• Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (Italian, 1691-1770)
• Joshua Reynolds (English, 1723-1792)
• Francisco Goya (Spanish, 1746-1828)

See also

• Maestro — the musical equivalent

References

• Christies