Biblioteca Nacional de España
The Biblioteca Nacional de España is a major public library, the largest in Spain, one of the largest in the world. It is located on the Paseo de Recoletos; the library was founded by King Philip V in 1712 as the Palace Public Library. The Royal Letters Patent that he granted, the predecessor of the current legal deposit requirement, made it mandatory for printers to submit a copy of every book printed in Spain to the library. In 1836, the library's status as Crown property was revoked and ownership was transferred to the Ministry of Governance. At the same time, it was renamed the Biblioteca Nacional. During the 19th century, confiscations and donations enabled the Biblioteca Nacional to acquire the majority of the antique and valuable books that it holds. In 1892 the building was used to host the Historical American Exposition. On March 16, 1896, the Biblioteca Nacional opened to the public in the same building in which it is housed and included a vast Reading Room on the main floor designed to hold 320 readers.
In 1931 the Reading Room was reorganised, providing it with a major collection of reference works, the General Reading Room was created to cater for students and general readers. During the Spanish Civil War close to 500,000 volumes were collected by the Confiscation Committee and stored in the Biblioteca Nacional to safeguard works of art and books held until in religious establishments and private houses. During the 20th century numerous modifications were made to the building to adapt its rooms and repositories to its expanding collections, to the growing volume of material received following the modification to the Legal Deposit requirement in 1958, to the numerous works purchased by the library. Among this building work, some of the most noteworthy changes were the alterations made in 1955 to triple the capacity of the library's repositories, those started in 1986 and completed in 2000, which led to the creation of the new building in Alcalá de Henares and complete remodelling of the building on Paseo de Recoletos, Madrid.
In 1986, when Spain's main bibliographic institutions - the National Newspaper Library, the Spanish Bibliographic Institute and the Centre for Documentary and Bibliographic Treasures - were incorporated into the Biblioteca Nacional, the library was established as the State Repository of Spain's Cultural Memory, making all of Spain's bibliographic output on any media available to the Spanish Library System and national and international researchers and cultural and educational institutions. In 1990 it was made an Autonomous Entity attached to the Ministry of Culture; the Madrid premises are shared with the National Archaeological Museum. The Biblioteca Nacional is Spain's highest library institution and is head of the Spanish Library System; as the country's national library, it is the centre responsible for identifying, preserving and disseminating information about Spain's documentary heritage, it aspires to be an essential point of reference for research into Spanish culture. In accordance with its Articles of Association, passed by Royal Decree 1581/1991 of October 31, 1991, its principal functions are to: Compile and conserve bibliographic archives produced in any language of the Spanish state, or any other language, for the purposes of research and information.
Promote research through the study and reproduction of its bibliographic archive. Disseminate information on Spain's bibliographic output based on the entries received through the legal deposit requirement; the library's collection consists of more than 26,000,000 items, including 15,000,000 books and other printed materials, 4,500,000 graphic materials, 600,000 sound recordings, 510,000 music scores, more than 500,000 microforms, 500,000 maps, 143,000 newspapers and serials, 90,000 audiovisuals, 90,000 electronic documents, 30,000 manuscripts. The current director of the Biblioteca Nacional is Ana Santos Aramburo, appointed in 2013. Former directors include her predecessors Glòria Pérez-Salmerón and Milagros del Corral as well as historian Juan Pablo Fusi and author Rosa Regàs. Given its role as the legal deposit for the whole of Spain, since 1991 it has kept most of the overflowing collection at a secondary site in Alcalá de Henares, near Madrid; the Biblioteca Nacional provides access to its collections through the following library services: Guidance and general information on the institution and other libraries.
Bibliographic information about its collection and those held by other libraries or library systems. Access to its automated catalogue, which contains close to 3,000,000 bibliographic records encompassing all of its collections. Archive consultation in the library's reading rooms. Interlibrary loans. Archive reproduction. Biblioteca Digital Hispánica, digital library launched in 2008 by the Biblioteca Nacional de España List of libraries in Spain Media related to Biblioteca Nacional de España at Wikimedia Commons Official site Official web catalog
Michael Bryan (art historian)
Michael Bryan was an English art historian, art dealer and connoisseur. He was involved in the purchase and resale of the great French Orleans Collection of art, selling it on to a British syndicate, owned a fashionable art gallery in Savile Row, London, his book and Critical Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, first published in 1813-16, was a standard reference work throughout the 19th century, was last republished in 1920. Bryan was born in Newcastle upon Tyne and educated at the Royal Grammar School under Dr. Moyce, he travelled to London in 1781 to Flanders with his eldest brother, where he lived from 1782 to 1790 having some connection with the cloth trade, but building up his art historical knowledge. In June 1784, he married Juliana Talbot, the sister of Charles Talbot, the 15th Earl of Shrewsbury, which gained him valuable aristocratic social connections. Bryan moved back to London in 1790 establishing himself as an dealer in Fine Art. In 1793 or 1794, he again went to the continent in search of fine pictures.
Among other places he visited Holland, remained there until an order arrived from the French government to stop all English citizens resident there. He was, amongst many others, detained at Rotterdam, it was here that he met Jean-Joseph de Laborde who, in 1798, sought his advice and assistance in disposing of the Italian part of the famous private "Orleans Collection" of art which he had acquired. Bryan, in effect, became a middleman for the purchase, contacted the Duke of Bridgewater, who authorised him to open negotiations. After three weeks, a syndicate consisting of the Duke of Bridgewater, Marquis of Stafford Lord Gower, the Earl of Carlisle, became the purchasers of the collection from Bryan, at a price of £43,500; the collection was displayed in Bryan's private art gallery in Pall Mall, London, as well as at The Lyceum in the Strand. In 1801 Bryan obtained, through the Duke of Bridgewater, the king's permission to visit Paris in order to purchase art from the cabinet of Monsieur Robit to bring back to England.
Among other fine pictures, he returned with two by the baroque Spanish artist Murillo - "The infant Christ as the Good Shepherd", "The infant St. John with the lamb". In 1804 Bryan retired from the art world, settled at his brother's home in Yorkshire, where he remained until 1811. In 1812 Bryan again visited London, commenced writing his "magnum opus" - the Biographical and Critical Dictionary of Painters and Engravers in 2 volumes; the first part appeared in May 1813, concluded in 1816. He owned a gallery in London's Savile Row, which became a fashionable gathering place for artists and their patrons. In 1818 he became involved with some speculative art purchases. On 14 February 1821, Bryan suffered a severe paralytic stroke, dying at Portman Square, London on 21 March of the same year. Bryan's dictionary of painters and engravers ( London, New York and Bombay Edition of 1903 - 1905:Volume 1 1903 Volume 2 Volume 3 Volume 4 Volume 5 1905 "Bryan, Michael". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Oxford University Press. Doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/3793. Bryan's dictionary of painters and engravers revised and enlarged by George C. Williamson, hathitrust.org
Royal Palace of Madrid
The Royal Palace of Madrid is the official residence of the Spanish Royal Family at the city of Madrid, although now only used for state ceremonies. The palace contains 3,418 rooms, it is the largest functioning the largest by floor area in Europe. King Felipe VI and the Royal Family do not reside in the palace, choosing instead the more modest Palace of Zarzuela on the outskirts of Madrid; the palace is owned by the Spanish State and administered by the Patrimonio Nacional, a public agency of the Ministry of the Presidency. The palace is located on Calle de Bailén in the western part of downtown Madrid, east of the Manzanares River, is accessible from the Ópera metro station. Several rooms in the palace are open to the public except during state functions. An admission fee of €13 is required, however some days it is free; the palace is located on the site of a 9th-century Alcázar, near the town of Magerit, constructed as an outpost by Muhammad I of Córdoba and inherited after 1036 by the independent Moorish Taifa of Toledo.
After Madrid fell to King Alfonso VI of Castile in 1083, the edifice was only used by the kings of Castile. In 1329, King Alfonso XI of Castile convened the cortes of Madrid for the first time. King Felipe II moved his court to Madrid in 1561; the old Alcázar was built on the location in the 16th century. After it burned 24 December 1734, King Felipe V ordered a new palace built on the same site. Construction spanned the years 1738 to 1755 and followed a Berniniesque design by Filippo Juvarra and Giovanni Battista Sacchetti in cooperation with Ventura Rodríguez, Francesco Sabatini, Martín Sarmiento. King Carlos III first occupied the new palace in 1764; the last monarch who lived continuously in the palace was King Alfonso XIII, although Manuel Azaña, president of the Second Republic inhabited it, making him the last head of state to do so. During that period the palace was known as "Palacio Nacional". There is still a room next to the Real Capilla, known by the name "Office of Azaña"; the interior of the palace is notable for its wealth of art and the use of many types of fine materials in the construction and the decoration of its rooms.
It includes paintings by artists such as Caravaggio, Juan de Flandes, Francisco de Goya, Velázquez, frescoes by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Corrado Giaquinto, Anton Raphael Mengs. Other collections of great historical and artistic importance preserved in the building include the Royal Armoury of Madrid, watches, furniture and the world's only complete Stradivarius string quintet. Muhammad I, Umayyad Emir of Cordoba, between 860 and 880. After the Moors were driven out of Toledo in the 11th century, the castle retained its defensive function. Henry III of Castile added several towers, his son John II used it as a royal residence. However, during the War of the Castilian Succession the troops of Joanna la Beltraneja were besieged in the Alcázar, causing severe damage to the royal building; the only drawing of the castle from the Middle Ages is one made in 1534 by Cornelius Vermeyen. Emperor Charles V extended and renovated the castle in 1537, using the architects Alonso de Covarrubias and Luis de Vega.
Philip II added a continued the renovations. Philip III added a long southern facade between 1610 and 1636. Philip V of Bourbon renovated the royal apartments in 1700; the Alcázar of the Habsburgs was austere in comparison to the Palace of Versailles where the new king spent his childhood and he began a series redesigns led by Teodoro Ardemans and René Carlier. On the other hand, the main rooms were redecorated in the style of French palaces by the Queen Maria Luisa of Savoy and the Princess of Ursins. On Christmas Eve 1734, the Alcázar was destroyed by a fire originating in the rooms of the French painter Jean Ranc, it was not detected due to the warning bells being confused with the call to mass. For fear of looting, the doors of the building remained closed. Many works of art were lost, by Diego Velázquez. Others, such as Las Meninas, were rescued by tossing them out the windows. Many pieces were saved because the king ordered that much of his collection be moved to the Buen Retiro Palace shortly before the blaze.
This fire lasted four days and destroyed the old Alcázar, whose last walls were demolished in 1738. Filippo Juvarra oversaw work on the new palace; the Italian architect devised a lavish project of enormous proportions inspired by Bernini's plans for Versailles. This plan was not realized due to Juvarra's untimely death in March 1736, his disciple, Giambattista Sacchetti known as Juan Bautista Sacchetti or Giovanni Battista Sacchetti, was chosen to continue the work of his mentor. He designed the structure around a large square courtyard and resolved the sightline problems by creating projecting wings. In 1760, Charles III called upon Sicilian Francesco Sabatini, a Neoclassical architect to enlarge the building; the original idea was to frame the Plaza de la Armería with a series of galleries and arcades which would accommodate the various dependencies and the construction of two wings around the same square. Only the extension of the southeast tower known as la de San Gil was completed. Sabatini planned to extend the north side with a large facade that echoed the style of the building and included three square courtyards, somewhat smaller than the large central courtyard.
Work on this expansion started but was soon interrupted, leaving the foundations buried under a platform on which the royal stables were b
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Zaragoza
The Archdiocese of Saragossa is a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical territory located in north-eastern Spain, in the province of Zaragoza, part of the autonomous community of Aragón. The archdiocese heads the ecclesiastical province of Saragossa, having metropolitan authority over the suffragan dioceses of Barbastro-Monzón, Huesca and Teruel and Albarracín; the diocese was created in Roman times. In 1912 the diocese was bounded on the north by Huesca; the episcopal city of Saragossa is situated on the river Ebro. The cathedral is dedicated to the Saviour, it shares its rank with the Church of Nuestra Señora del Pilar, half of the chapter residing at each of the two churches, while the dean resides six months at each alternately. The building of the cathedral was begun by Pedro Tarrjao in the fourteenth century. In 1412 Antipope Benedict XIII caused a magnificent baldachinum to be erected, but one of its pillars fell down, it was reduced to its present condition. In 1490 Archbishop Alonso of Aragón raised the two lateral naves, lower, to an equal height with the central, added two more.
The great chancel and choir were built by order of Archbishop Dalmau de Mury Cervellón. In the chapel of Saint Dominguito del Val are preserved the relics of that saint, a boy of seven, crucified by the Jews in 1250; the façade of the cathedral is Renaissance, beside it rises the tower, more modern than the body of the church, having been begun in 1790. The Church of Nuestra Señora del Pilar is believed to have originated in a chapel built by the Apostle James. Bishop Pedro de Librana found it in ruins and appealed to the charity of all the faithful to rebuild it. At the close of the thirteenth century four bishops again stirred up the zeal of the faithful to repair the building, preserved until the end of the seventeenth century. In 1681 work was commenced on the new church, the first stone being laid by Archbishop Diego de Castrillo, 25 July 1685; this grandiose edifice, 140 metres in length, covers the capella angelica, where the celebrated image of the Blessed Virgin is venerated. Though the style of the building is not of the best period, attention is attracted by its exterior, its multitude of cupolas, which are reflected in the waters of the river Ebro, giving it a character all its own.
Saragossa possesses many noteworthy churches. Among them is that of St. Engratia, built on the spot where the victims of Dacian were martyred, it was destroyed in the Spanish War of only the crypt and the doorway being left. The University of Saragossa obtained from Charles I in 1542, the privileges accorded to others in Spain, its importance was afterwards promoted by Bishop of Tarazona. A separate building has been erected for the faculties of medicine and sciences; the archiepiscopal palace is a splendid edifice. There are two ecclesiastical seminaries; that of Sts. Valerius and Braulius, founded by Archbishop Agustín de Lezo y Palomeque in 1788, was destroyed by an explosion and was rebuilt in 1824 by Archbishop Bernardo Francés Caballero. Before the Roman period the site of Saragossa appears to have been occupied by Salduba, a little village of Edetania, within the boundaries of Celtiberia. In 24 BC Emperor Octavius Augustus in his seventh consulate, founded the colony of Caesar Augusta, giving it the Italian franchise and making it the capital of a juridical conventus.
Geographer Pomponius Mela called it "the most illustrious of the inland cities of Hispania Tarraconensis." The diocese is one of the oldest in Spain, for its origin dates back to the coming of the Apostle James — a fact of which there had never been any doubt until Caesar Baronius, influenced by a fabulous story of García de Loaisa, called it in question. Pope Urban VIII ordered the old lesson in the Breviary dealing with this point to be restored. Involved with the tradition of St. James's coming to Spain, of the founding of the church of Saragossa, are those of Our Lady of the Pillar and of Sts. Athanasius and Theodore, disciples of St. James, who are supposed to have been the first bishops of Saragossa. About the year 256 there appears as bishop of this diocese Felix Caesaraugustanus, who defended true discipline in the case of Basilides and Martial, Bishops of Astorga and Mérida. St. Valerius, who assisted at the Council of Iliberis, was bishop from 290 to 315 and, together with his disciple and deacon St. Vincent, suffered martyrdom in the persecution of Dacian.
It is believed that there had been martyrs at Saragossa in previous persecutions as Prudentius seems to affirm. It is said that Dacian, to detect and so make an end of all the faithful of Saragossa, ordered that liberty to practice their religion should be promised them on condition that they all went out of the city at a certain fixed time a
Baroque painting
Baroque painting is the painting associated with the Baroque cultural movement. The movement is identified with Absolutism, the Counter Reformation and Catholic Revival, but the existence of important Baroque art and architecture in non-absolutist and Protestant states throughout Western Europe underscores its widespread popularity. Baroque painting encompasses a great range of styles, as most important and major painting during the period beginning around 1600 and continuing throughout the 17th century, into the early 18th century is identified today as Baroque painting. In its most typical manifestations, Baroque art is characterized by great drama, deep colour, intense light and dark shadows, but the classicism of French Baroque painters like Poussin and Dutch genre painters such as Vermeer are covered by the term, at least in English; as opposed to Renaissance art, which showed the moment before an event took place, Baroque artists chose the most dramatic point, the moment when the action was occurring: Michelangelo, working in the High Renaissance, shows his David composed and still before he battles Goliath.
Baroque art was meant to evoke emotion and passion instead of the calm rationality, prized during the Renaissance. Among the greatest painters of the Baroque period are Velázquez, Rembrandt, Rubens and Vermeer. Caravaggio is an heir of the humanist painting of the High Renaissance, his realistic approach to the human figure, painted directly from life and spotlit against a dark background, shocked his contemporaries and opened a new chapter in the history of painting. Baroque painting dramatizes scenes using chiaroscuro light effects; the Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck developed a graceful but imposing portrait style, influential in England. The prosperity of 17th century Holland led to an enormous production of art by large numbers of painters who were highly specialized and painted only genre scenes, still lifes, portraits or history paintings. Technical standards were high, Dutch Golden Age painting established a new repertoire of subjects, influential until the arrival of Modernism; the Council of Trent, in which the Roman Catholic Church answered many questions of internal reform raised by both Protestants and by those who had remained inside the Catholic Church, addressed the representational arts in a short and somewhat oblique passage in its decrees.
This was subsequently interpreted and expounded by a number of clerical authors like Molanus, who demanded that paintings and sculptures in church contexts should depict their subjects and powerfully, with decorum, without the stylistic airs of Mannerism. This return toward a populist conception of the function of ecclesiastical art is seen by many art historians as driving the innovations of Caravaggio and the Carracci brothers, all of whom were working in Rome around 1600, although unlike the Carracci, Caravaggio persistently was criticised for lack of decorum in his work. However, although religious painting, history painting and portraits were still considered the most noble subjects, still life, genre scenes were becoming more common in Catholic countries, were the main genres in Protestant ones; the term "Baroque" was used with a derogatory meaning, to underline the excesses of its emphasis. Others derive it from the mnemonic term "Baroco" denoting, in logical Scholastica, a laboured form of syllogism.
In particular, the term was used to describe its eccentric redundancy and noisy abundance of details, which contrasted the clear and sober rationality of the Renaissance. It was first rehabilitated by the Swiss-born art historian, Heinrich Wölfflin in his Renaissance und Barock, he did not make the distinctions between Mannerism and Baroque that modern writers do, he ignored the phase, the academic Baroque that lasted into the 18th century. Writers in French and English did not begin to treat Baroque as a respectable study until Wölfflin's influence had made German scholarship pre-eminent. Led by Italy, Mediterranean countries followed by most of the Holy Roman Empire in Germany and Central Europe adopted a full-blooded Baroque approach. A rather different art developed out of northern realist traditions in 17th century Dutch Golden Age painting, which had little religious art, little history painting, instead playing a crucial part in developing secular genres such as still life, genre paintings of everyday scenes, landscape painting.
While the Baroque nature of Rembrandt's art is clear, the label is less use for Vermeer and many other Dutch artists. Most Dutch art lacks the idealization and love of splendour typical of much Baroque work, including the neighbouring Flemish Baroque painting which shared a part in Dutch trends, while continuing to produce the traditional categories in a more Baroque style. In France a dignified and graceful classicism gave a distinctive flavour to Baroque painting, where the 17th century is regarded as a golden age for painting. Two of the most important artists, Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain, remained based in Rome, where their work all in easel paintings, was much appreciated by Italian as well as French patrons. William Dobson George Jamesone Godfrey Kneller Peter Lely Daniël Mijtens John Michael Wright
Sacristy
A sacristy is a room for keeping vestments and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, parish records. In some countries, it is known as the vestry; the sacristy is located inside the church, but in some cases it is an annex or separate building. In most older churches, a sacristy is near a side altar, or more behind or on a side of the main altar. In newer churches the sacristy is in another location, such as near the entrances to the church; some churches have more than one sacristy. Additional sacristies are used for maintaining the church and its items – such as candles and other materials; the sacristy is where the priest and attendants vest and prepare before the service. They will return there at the end of the service to remove their vestments and put away any of the vessels used during the service; the hangings and altar linens are stored there as well. The Parish registers are administered by the parish clerk. Sacristies contain a special wash basin, called a piscina, the drain of, properly called a "sacrarium" in which the drain flows directly into the ground to prevent sacred items such as used baptismal water from being washed into the sewers or septic tanks.
The piscina is used to wash linens used during the celebration of the Mass and purificators used during Holy Communion. The cruets, ciborium, altar linens and sometimes the Holy Oils are kept inside the sacristy. Sacristies are off limits to the general public; the word "sacristy" derives from the Latin sacristia, sometimes spelled sacrastia, in turn derived from sacrista, from sacra. A person in charge of the sacristy and its contents is called a sacristan; the latter name was given to the sexton of a parish church, where he would have cared for these things, the fabric of the building and the grounds. In Eastern Christianity, the functions of the sacristy are fulfilled by the Diaconicon and the Prothesis, two rooms or areas adjacent to the Holy Table. Work on finding the so-called "lost medieval sacristy of Henry III" at Westminster Abbey during an episode of the archaeological television programme Time Team revealed that the abbey had two separate sacristies; as well as a conventional sacristy for storage of ceremonial vessels such as the chalice and paten, the second, described in a 15th-century document as the "galilee of the sacristy" was determined to have been used for the robing and formation of the procession.
Altar cloth Antependium Sacristan Savilahti Stone Sacristy Sexton Vestry "Sacristy" article from Catholic Encyclopedia
Anthony van Dyck
Sir Anthony van Dyck was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Southern Netherlands and Italy. The seventh child of Frans van Dyck, a wealthy Antwerp silk merchant, Anthony was precocious as a youth and painted from an early age. In his late teens he was enjoying success as an independent painter, becoming a master in the Antwerp guild in 1618. By this time he was working in the studio of the leading northern painter of the day, Peter Paul Rubens, who became a major influence on his work. Van Dyck worked in London for some months in 1621 returned to Flanders for a brief time, before travelling to Italy, where he stayed until 1627 based in Genoa. In the late 1620s he completed his admired Iconography series of portrait etchings of other artists, he spent five years after his return from Italy in Flanders, from 1630 was court painter for the archduchess Isabella, Habsburg Governor of Flanders. In 1632 he returned to London to be the main court painter, at the request of Charles I of England.
With the exception of Holbein, van Dyck and his contemporary Diego Velázquez were the first painters of pre-eminent talent to work as court portraitists, revolutionising the genre. He is best known for his portraits of European aristocracy, most notably Charles I and his family and associates, he painted mythological and biblical subjects, including altarpieces, displayed outstanding facility as a draughtsman, was an important innovator in watercolour and etching. His superb brushwork rather painted, can be distinguished from the large areas painted by his many assistants, his portrait style changed between the different countries he worked in, culminating in the relaxed elegance of his last English period. His influence extends into the modern period. During his lifetime, Charles I granted him a knighthood, he was buried in St Paul's Cathedral, an indication of his standing at the time of his death. Antoon van Dyck was born to prosperous parents in Antwerp, his father was Frans van Dyck, a silk merchant, his mother was Maria, daughter of Dirk Cupers and Catharina Conincx.
He was baptised on 23 March 1599. His talent was evident early, he was studying painting with Hendrick van Balen by 1609, became an independent painter around 1615, setting up a workshop with his younger friend Jan Brueghel the Younger. By the age of fifteen he was a accomplished artist, as his Self-portrait, 1613–14, shows, he was admitted to the Antwerp painters' Guild of Saint Luke as a free master by February 1618. Within a few years he was to be the chief assistant to the dominant master of Antwerp, the whole of Northern Europe, Peter Paul Rubens, who made much use of sub-contracted artists as well as his own large workshop, his influence on the young artist was immense. The origins and exact nature of their relationship are unclear. At the same time the dominance of Rubens in the small and declining city of Antwerp explains why, despite his periodic returns to the city, van Dyck spent most of his career abroad. In 1620, in Rubens's contract for the major commission for the ceiling of the Carolus Borromeuskerk, the Jesuit church at Antwerp, van Dyck is specified as one of the "discipelen", to execute the paintings to Rubens' designs.
Unlike van Dyck, Rubens worked for most of the courts of Europe, but avoided exclusive attachment to any of them. In 1620, at the instigation of George Villiers, Marquess of Buckingham, van Dyck went to England for the first time where he worked for King James I of England, receiving £100, it was in London in the collection of the Earl of Arundel that he first saw the work of Titian, whose use of colour and subtle modeling of form would prove transformational, offering a new stylistic language that would enrich the compositional lessons learned from Rubens. After about four months, he returned to Flanders, but moved on in late 1621 to Italy, where he remained for six years, studying the Italian masters and beginning his career as a successful portraitist, he was presenting himself as a figure of consequence, annoying the rather bohemian Northern artist's colony in Rome, says Giovan Pietro Bellori, by appearing with "the pomp of Zeuxis... his behaviour was that of a nobleman rather than an ordinary person, he shone in rich garments.
He was based in Genoa, although he travelled extensively to other cities, stayed for some time in Palermo in Sicily. For the Genoese aristocracy in a final flush of prosperity, he developed a full-length portrait style, drawing on Veronese and Titian as well as Rubens' style from his own period in Genoa, where tall but graceful figures look down on the viewer with great hauteur. In 1627, he went back to Antwerp where he remained for five years, painting more affable portraits which still made his Flemish patrons look as stylish as possible. A life-size group portrait of twenty-four City Councill
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Bryan, Michael (1886). "Coello, Claudio". In Graves, Robert Edmund (ed.). Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers (A–K). I (3rd ed.). London: George Bell & Sons.
