Old Master

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Any skilled painter who worked in Europe before 1800

title: "Old Master" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["paintings-by-movement-or-period", "history-of-art", "gothic-painters", "renaissance-painters", "mannerist-painters", "baroque-painters", "rococo-painters", "neoclassical-painters", "romantic-painters", "classical-art"] description: "Any skilled painter who worked in Europe before 1800" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Master" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Any skilled painter who worked in Europe before 1800 ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Self-portrait_as_the_Allegory_of_Painting_(La_Pittura)_-_Artemisia_Gentileschi.jpg" caption="''[[Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting]]'', [[Artemisia Gentileschi"] ::

In art history, "Old Master" (or "old master") refers to any painter of skill who worked in Europe before about 1800, or a painting by such an artist. An "old master print" is an original print (for example an engraving, woodcut, or etching) made by an artist in the same period. The term "old master drawing" is used in the same way.

In theory, "Old Master" applies only to artists who were fully trained, were Masters of their local artists' guild, and worked independently, but in practice, paintings produced by pupils or workshops are often included in the scope of the term. Therefore, beyond a certain level of competence, date rather than quality is the criterion for using the term.

Period covered

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the term was often understood as having a starting date of perhaps 1450 or 1470; paintings made before that were "primitives", but this distinction is no longer made. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the term as "A pre-eminent artist of the period before the modern; esp. a pre-eminent western European painter of the 13th to 18th centuries." The first quotation given is from 1696, in the diary of John Evelyn: "My L: Pembroke..shewed me divers rare Pictures of very many of the old & best Masters, especially that of M: Angelo..,& a large booke of the best drawings of the old Masters." The term is also used to refer to a painting or sculpture made by an Old Master, a usage datable to 1824. There are comparable terms in Dutch, French, and German; the Dutch may have been the first to make use of such a term, in the 18th century, when oude meester mostly meant painters of the Dutch Golden Age of the previous 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. 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. The collection in the Dresden museum essentially stops at the Baroque period.

The end date is necessarily vague – for example, Goya (1746–1828) is certainly an Old Master,

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. It remains 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 defined the term as ranging "from the 14th to the early 19th century".

The relevant part of the large and important collection of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in their main building in Brussels was renamed in recent years as the Oldmasters Museum in Dutch and English, and Musée Oldmasters in French. It was previously called the "Royal Museum of Ancient Art" in English (; ).

Anonymous artists

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 (a Notname) 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 Embroidered Foliage (from his characteristic technique), Master of the Brunswick Diptych, or Master of Schloss Lichtenstein.

List of the most important Old Master painters

[[File:Madonna em Majestade dita Rucellai - Duccio.jpg|thumb|388x388px|Rucellai Madonna by [[Duccio]], .]]

Gothic/Proto-Renaissance

Main article: Gothic art

Early Renaissance

Main article: Early Renaissance

High Renaissance

Main article: High Renaissance

Venetian School (Early Renaissance, High Renaissance and Mannerism)

Main article: Venetian painting

  • Domenico Veneziano (Italian, 1400–1461), Early Renaissance
  • Jacopo Bellini (Italian, 1400–1470), Early Renaissance
  • Gentile Bellini (Italian, 1429–1507), Early Renaissance, noted for historical scenes of Venice and portraits of its doges
  • Giovanni Bellini (Italian, 1430–1516), Early and High Renaissance, pioneer of luminous oil painting
  • Bartolommeo Vivarini (Italian, 1432–1499), Early Renaissance
  • Carlo Crivelli (Italian, 1435–1495), Early Renaissance
  • Alvise Vivarini (Italian, 1445–1503), Early Renaissance
  • Vittore Carpaccio (Italian, 1455–1526), Early Renaissance
  • Giorgione (Italian, 1477–1510), High Renaissance, pioneer of Venetian School of painting
  • Titian (Italian, c. 1488–1576), important High Renaissance-style exponent of colour painting in oils and frescoes
  • Palma Vecchio (Italian, 1480–1528), High Renaissance
  • Lorenzo Lotto (Italian, 1480–1556), High Renaissance
  • Sebastiano del Piombo (Italian, 1485–1547), High Renaissance
  • Jacopo Bassano (Italian, 1515–1592), Mannerist painter noted for portraiture and religious genre painting
  • Tintoretto (Italian, 1518–1594), major Venetian Mannerist painter of monumental religious works
  • [[File:Domenico Beccafumi - The Annunciation - WGA01551.jpg|thumb|The [[Annunciation]] by Beccafumi, 1545]]Paolo Veronese (Italian, c. 1528–1588), High Renaissance-style, one of Venice's leading colourists

Sienese School

Main article: Sienese School

Northern Renaissance

Main article: Northern Renaissance

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Lucas_Cranach_d.Ä._-_Klage_unter_dem_Kreuz,1503(Alte_Pinakothek).jpg" caption=""Kreuzigung Christi" (English: "Crucifixion of Christ") by [[Lucas Cranach the Elder]], 1503"] ::

Spanish Renaissance

Main article: Spanish Renaissance

Mannerism

Main article: Mannerism

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Agnolo_di_Cosimo,called_Bronzino-_Holy_Family_with_St._Anne_and_the_Infant_St.John-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" caption="Agnolo Bronzino]], c. 1545"] ::

Baroque painting

Main article: Baroque painting

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Caravaggio_-_Cena_in_Emmaus.jpg" caption="Supper at Emmaus]]'' by [[Caravaggio]], 1601"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/'Equestrian_Portrait_of_the_George_Villiers,_1st_Duke_of_Buckingham'.jpg" caption="Portrait of]] [[George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham]]'' by [[Peter Paul Rubens]], c. 1625"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Las_Meninas,_by_Diego_Velázquez,_from_Prado_in_Google_Earth.jpg" caption="''[[Las Meninas]]'' by [[Diego Velázquez]], 1656"] ::

Dutch Golden Age and Flemish Baroque painting

Main article: Dutch Golden Age Painting, Flemish Baroque painting

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/The_Concert_A22894.jpg" caption="''The Concert'' by [[Gerard van Honthorst]], 1623"] ::

Rococo

Main article: Rococo, Italian Rococo art

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Capitulaciones_de_boda_y_baile_campestre_(Watteau).jpg" caption="''Capitulations of Wedding and Rural Dance'' by Antoine Watteau, 1711"] ::

British

Vedutism

Main article: Veduta, Grand Tour

Neoclassicism

Main article: Neoclassicism

Romanticism

Main article: Romanticism

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/William_Blake_003.jpg" caption="The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun]]'' by William Blake, circa 1805"] ::

References

References

  1. The term is spelled either way in the literature. Major UK and US dictionaries, incl. the [https://web.archive.org/web/20170202011900/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/old_master Oxford Online Dictionaries], [https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=old%20master American Heritage Dictionary], Macmillan, Cambridge, and Random House dictionaries use lowercase; Oxford English Dictionary, Collins, and Merriam-Webster dictionaries also mention the uppercase spelling.
  2. [http://www.christies.com/departments/old-master-and-early-british-paintings-70-1.aspx Old Masters Department], Christies.com.
  3. "old master, n. and adj." ''OED Online''. Oxford University Press, December 2016. Web.
  4. Lucie-Smith, Edward]], ''The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Art Terms'', p. 152, 2003 (2nd edn), Thames & Hudson, World of Art series, {{ISBN. 0500203652
  5. Now rewritten less succinctly [https://www.christies.com/departments/old-master-and-early-british-paintings-70-1.aspx to the same effect].
  6. "Musée Oldmasters Museum".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

paintings-by-movement-or-periodhistory-of-artgothic-paintersrenaissance-paintersmannerist-paintersbaroque-paintersrococo-paintersneoclassical-paintersromantic-paintersclassical-art