S

Saar Betye (1929– ). African-American artist whose interest in African folk culture and mythology has led to her awareness of the occult and spiritual. In her assemblages and collages S. uses found and natural materials (wood, cloth, straw and leather) which are often of personal significance, e.g. her late Aunt Hattie’s handkerchief was the base of her collage Dat Ol’ Black Magic (1981). She subverts stereotyped images of blacks by appropriation and reinvention of these impressions in her work.

Sacchi Andrea (1599–1661). Roman painter, a leading representative of the classical tradition of Poussin and Algardi during the high Baroque period. He was a pupil of Albani and influenced by the Carracci. His paintings include Divine Wisdom (Barberini Palace, Rome) and Vision of St Romuald. Maratta was his pupil.

sacra conversazione (It. holy conversation). Painting of the Madonna and Child with Saints in which the figures are together on a single panel and are involved with one another. Developed in the 15th c. in the work of Fra Angelico, Lippi and Domenico Veneziano, this type of representation replaced that of the Gothic polyptych in which the Madonna and Child group occupied the central panel and each of the Saints a separate side panel.

Saenredam Pieter (1597–1665). Dutch painter of churches and town halls, working at Haarlem. He was a painstaking worker, correcting the perspective of his site plans with elaborate construction drawings, which he would transfer to panel. This gives his paintings an air of complete reliability despite their departures from reality. He had an independent income and produced only about 50 paintings in 35 years. S. was an avid collector of books, prints and drawings. Prized in the 19th c. mainly as topographical documents, his works are now among the most highly valued Dutch museum pieces from the 17th c.

Saftleven (Sachtleven) Cornelis (1607–81). Dutch painter best known for his peasant genre scenes in the manner of Brouwer. He also painted interiors, landscapes and historical subjects.

Saftleven Herman (1609–85). Dutch painter of landscapes and religious subjects, pupil of Goyen and brother of Cornells S. In the early 1640s his work was influenced by the Italianate manner of Both and later by the detailed study of Jan Bruegel the Elder.

Sage Kay (1898–1963). U.S. painter and poet. In 1937 following the exhibition of one of her paintings at the Salon des Surindé pendants, Paris, she was discovered by the Surrealists. Her work was distinguished by its austerity, spareness of form and its great attention to detail, e.g. Danger and Construction Ahead (both 1940). S.’s paintings were frequently abstract and near-abstract based on architectural motifs, e.g. Afterwards (1937) and All Surroundings Are Referred to High Water (1947). In 1940 she married Tanguy and her first U.S. exhibition opened in N.Y. A joint exhibition of S.’s and Tanguy’s work was held in Connecticut in 1954. She committed suicide.

Saint Gaudens Augustus (1848–1907). Irish-born U.S. sculptor who, after study in France and Italy, became a leading sculptor in the U.S.A. His work is clearly influenced by Renaissance and Neoclassical ideals but has an individual vigour and plasticity marred occasionally by sentimentality. His works include: the Farragut Monument and the General Sherman Monument.

St Ives artists (St Ives school of painting). In 1939 Stokes invited B. Nicholson and Hepworth to move from London to St Ives in Cornwall. Soon St Ives became a lively visual cultural centre which included A. Wallis, on the one hand, and Gabo on the other. Stimulated by the presence of Nicholson, Hepworth and Gabo, younger artists began to gather: Lanyon and, after the war, Davie, Frost, Heron, Hilton and W. Scott.

Saint-Phalle Niki de (1930–2002). French sculptor who has used ideas from her early assemblages and collages of found objects – ornaments, statues, toys, etc. – in developing her ‘Nanas’, large-scale female figures consisting of interwoven fabric stretched over frames made of chicken wire. Hon (1966) playfully challenges popular objectified images of the female body: ‘spectators’ entered between her legs into a huge arcade of amusements, including a milk-bar in one breast, a ‘lovers’ nest’, an aquarium and a cinema playing an early Greta Garbo film.

Salish. North American Indian people of the North-west Coast group, occupying an area of N.W. Washington, S.W. British Columbia and Vancouver Island. They were noted for their split plank communal houses, up to 500 ft (152 m.) long, and carved wooden ‘spirit canoe’ figures, used as markers in religious ceremonial to delineate the outline of imaginary canoes.

Salle David (1952– ). U.S. Postmodernist painter, photographer, stage designer and sculptor of the same generation as Schnabel and Fischl. He studied under Baldessari. A collage or assemblage artist of unconnected, appropriated images, styles and techniques from high art of the past, or modernism, and from popular and consumer cultures, which he juxtaposes and superimposes. Since the late 1970s S. has been making his controversial layered works which, in their characteristic combination of deadpan anonymity and shocking expressiveness, derive from the deadening quality of TV but are also closely related to Polke and through him to Picabia esp. in his use of overlapping drawings on top of recycled images, e.g. the diptychs Brother Animal and B.A.M.F.V. (both 1983) and Miner (1985). S.’s paintings suggest narrative and meaning which they then frustrate. His often pornographic representations of naked women on all fours taken from hard-core magazines have made him a target of some feminists. In 1992 he produced a series of seemingly abstract works, ‘Ghost’, which were in fact based on photographs projected on to photosensitized canvas and were related to Warhol’s Shadow paintings. His series ‘Pre-Fab’ (1993) consists of large canvases with overlapping images reminiscent of Rosenquist’s 1963 paintings, ‘on top of which are painted my paintings’.

Salon. A number of friends, forming a more-or-less stable group, who meet regularly at a private house; the lady of the house usually presides. The intellectual S. originated in 17th-c. France and has since always played an important role in the literary and artistic life of the country. The Hôtel de Rambouillet was the most famous of the early S.s. Founded in 1667, the S. provided the opportunity for annual exhibitions to members of the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture.

Salon des Indépendants. Founded, in Paris, in 1884, in opposition to the official annual Salon, by artists who disagreed with academic art.

Salon des Refusés. Special exhibition held in Paris in 1863 of the works refused by the Salon of that year. The exhibition was ordered by Napoleon III after the outcry caused by the number of rejections; nevertheless, the paintings exhibited were attacked by critics and public alike. One of the principal exhibits was Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe while other artists exhibiting were Boudin, Cézanne, Fantin-Latour, Jongkind, Pissarro and Whistler.

Salviati Francesco de’ Rossi, called (1510–63). Florentine Mannerist painter and designer, pupil of Andrea del Sarto and friend of Vasari. He worked in Florence, Venice and Rome and from 1554 to 1556 in Paris. His paintings include Justice and Story of Psyche.

Samaras Lucas (1936– ). Greek-born U.S. artist. He studied at Rutgers Univ. and Columbia Univ. under Schapiro. His works include assemblages, constructions, Box 54 (1966), disturbing environments, Mirrored Rooms (1960), figure/portrait photography, pieced-fabric compositions and pastels, October 17, 1974.

Sandby Paul (1725–1809). British landscape painter and engraver. He did some of his best work in and around Windsor Great Park and discovered the artistic potentialities of Welsh scenery. Besides watercolour he worked in gouache and was also the first to use aquatint engraving creatively. He gave an unidealized though sometimes over-detailed rendering of his subject.

Sand painting. A technique of making designs in different colours of sand, practised by the Navajos and other North American Indians (and also in Tibet, in Japan, and among the Australian Aborigines) in connection with religious ceremonies. They are ephemeral and must be done anew on every occasion.

Sandrart Joachim von (1606–88). German painter and art historian widely travelled in Germany and Italy. He is important as the author of Teutsche Academie… (1675–79), a valuable source of information on 17th-c. art and artists.

Sandys Frederick (1829–1904). British ill., subject painter and portraitist associated with later Pre-Raphaelitism.

Sano di Pietro (1406–81). Sienese painter, pupil and follower of Sassetta. He painted many scenes from the life of St Bernard, including St Bernard Preaching in Siena cathedral.

Sansovino Il (Andrea Contucci) (1460–1529). Italian sculptor. He was trained in Florence but worked mainly in Portugal (Lisbon and Coimbra) and Rome. His style is that of the High Renaissance, though the early influence from Donatello always remained strong. Works include the tomb of Cardinal Sforza, Rome; The Baptism, over the door of the Baptistery, Florence; and a Madonna for Genoa cathedral.

Santi Giovanni (d. 1494). Italian painter of the Umbrian school, father of Raphael and author of a rhymed chronicle which refers to various 15th-c. artists. His paintings include frescoes in S. Domenico, Cagli and Virgin and Child.

Santomaso Giuseppe (1907–90). Italian painter, a founder of the Fronte nuovo delle arte. He developed his own colouristic style of abstraction after World War II.

Sargent John Singer (1856–1925). Painter of the English school, but of U.S. origin. S. studied in Paris, arriving in London (1884) as an ‘Impressionist’, although influenced by the work of Frans Hals and Velázquez. Famous after the acquisition by the Chantrey Trustees of Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, S. became a prolific and fashionable portrait painter. His technical dexterity and ability to flatter the sitter were offset by a bravura brushwork, sometimes degenerating into the slipshod, which earned him and his followers the nickname of ‘the Slashing School’.

Sargent Coventry Patmore 1894

Sarrazin Jacques (1592–1660). Influential French sculptor. He worked in Rome with Domenichino and Vouet and developed a classicizing style that preceded the Baroque and French sculptural classicism.

Saryan Martiros (1880–?). Armenian painter. He studied at Moscow School of Art under Leonid Pasternak and Serov. He was a prominent member of the Blue Rose Group, and his work is closely related to that of Kusnetsov in his interest in Middle Eastern traditions, particularly Kirghiz Mongol painting, which together with the work of Matisse played an important part in forming his style.

Sassetta Stefano di Giovanni (c. 1392–1450). Sienese painter of great power and invention; he combined naïvety with the courtly sophistication of the International Gothic style. His most important work consists of a series of 8 panels dealing with the life of St Francis, painted for the town of Borgo San Sepolcro (1437–44).

Sassetta The Whim of the Young St Francis to Become a Soldier 1437–44

Sassoferrato Giovanni Battista Salvi, called (1605–85). Italian painter of Raphaelesque Madonnas. He worked mainly in Urbino and was probably a pupil of Domenichino.

Saunders Raymond (1934– ). African-American abstract artist who has borrowed techniques and ideas from graffiti art and modified them into brightly coloured, textured paintings expressing through symbols and letters urban life in the U.S.A., e.g. Red Star (1970). S. wrote in 1968, in a pamphlet entitled Black is a Color, that ‘the indiscriminate association of race with art, on any level – social or imaginative – is destructive’. S. thought artists should resist racial identification and strive to express individual experience and identity.

Savery Roelandt (1576?–1639). Flemish painter of landscapes, animals and flowers, trained in Amsterdam. He worked in Prague and Vienna in the service of the Emperors Rudolf II and Mathias, but later settled in Utrecht. Favourite subjects were the Garden of Eden and Orpheus enchanting the wild beasts.

Savinio Alberto. The pseud, of Andrea de Chirico (1891–1952). Italian writer, painter and concert pianist, brother of the painter De Chirico.

Savoldo Giovanni Girolamo (c. 1480–c. 1550). Italian painter of religious subjects and portraits influenced by the Venetian school and Leonardo da Vinci. He anticipated Caravaggio in his realism and Elsheimer in his use of strange lighting effects.

Saxl Fritz (1890–1948). Viennese art historian. In 1929 he became Director of the Warburg Institute, which he had helped to found in Hamburg, and which, in 1944, was incorporated in the University of London, where he held the Chair of the History of the Classical Tradition. His books and papers in learned journals include Antike Götter in der Spätrenaissance, Mithras, Classical Mythology in Medieval Art (with Erwin Panofsky), Rembrandt’s Sacrifice of Manoah, British Art and the Mediterranean (with Rudolf Wittkower), Pagan Sacrifice in the Italian Renaissance, The Classical Inscription in Renaissance Art and Politics and A Spiritual Encyclopaedia of the Later Middle Ages.

Scarpazza Vittore. Vittore Carpaccio

Schack Adolf Friedrich, Graf von (1815–94). German art patron who built up an important coll. of paintings. S. was also a poet and novelist; his house was a literary centre in Munich.

Schad Christian (1884–1982). German artist, a member of Die Neue Sachlichkeit movement as a painter. Around 1918 he experimented with photography and produced ‘photograms’ to which he returned in 1960 when he developed what Tzara termed Schadographs – a method that, without the use of the camera, incorporated interferences with the development process. Dada.

Schadow Johann Gottfried (1764–1850). German sculptor and art theorist, one of the leading exponents of Neoclassicism in Germany. He studied in Rome (1785–7). His works include the Quadriga of the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin and monuments to Frederick the Great (Stettin) and Luther (Wittenberg). His group of the princesses Louise and Frederike of Prussia (Berlin) is a good example of his earlier work. His son Friedrich Wilhelm von Schadow-Godenhaus (1788–1862), a painter and writer, joined the Nazarenes group in Rome (1811). He was director of the Düsseldorf Academy (1826–59).

Schadow Two Princesses 1795–7

Schaffner Martin (late 15th–early 16th c.). German late Gothic/early Renaissance painter of religious subjects and portraits, active in Ulm. His masterpiece is the Wettenhausen altarpiece.

Schalcken Godfried (1643–1706). Dutch genre and portrait painter best known for his genre scenes by candlelight. He studied under Van Hoogstraten, then under Dou, whom he imitated closely in his earlier works.

Schapiro Meyer (1904–96). Highly influential Lithuanian-born U.S. writer and teacher on art, whose ideas have had a profound influence on a large number of artists, art historians and critics, such as D. Judd, R. E. Matta, R. Motherwell, L. Samaras, J. Ackerman, F. Hartt, R. Rosenblum, L. Steinberg. His publications include Van Gogh (1950), Cézanne (1952) and Selected Papers in 3 vols, and numerous articles in journals, incl. Art Bulletin, Gazette des Beaux-Arts and Journal of Warburg and Courtauld Institutes.

Schapiro Miriam (1923– ). U.S. artist whose early works of the ‘50s were abstract paintings, but whose commitment to feminism in the ’70s led her to explore collage as a medium expressive of ‘a responsibility to history to repair the sense of omission’. Her appropriation of objects (e.g. buttons, cottons and silk) and crafts (e.g. embroidery and patchwork) traditionally exclusive to women and her re-presentation of them in assemblages and photomontages have often been collaborative and coined by her as ‘femmages’. Through a meticulous geometrical layering that encompasses familiar female symbolism, S. has worked to challenge the stereotypical male–female dichotomy of intellect vs. emotion and to re-introduce the possibility of both.

Scharff Erwin (1887–1955). German sculptor. He 1st studied painting but later took up sculpture while in France (1911–13). He was a founder-member of the Neue Sezession group and his work shows the influence of Rodin and Maillol.

Schauffel(e)in Hans Leonhard (c. 1480–1538/40). German painter of portraits and religious subjects, and a woodcut designer, pupil and follower of Dürer.

Scheemakers Henry (d. 1748). Flemish sculptor, brother of Peter S. He worked in Britain (c. 1720–33) sometimes as assistant to his brother.

Scheemakers Peter (1691–1781). Flemish sculptor. After studying in Rome he worked in Britain almost continuously from c. 1716 to 1771, first assisting Francis Bird, then in partnership with Laurent Delvaux. He executed the Shakespeare monument in Westminster Abbey and many tombs in the Abbey and in country churches. His work is highly competent but lacking in character. His son Thomas (1740–1808) was also a sculptor and worked in Britain.

Scheffer Ary (1795–1858). German-born Dutch painter, ill. and engraver. In France from 1811 on, S. gained great popularity with history and genre paintings and portraits.

Schelling Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von (1775–1854). German philosopher who gave art the most important place in human activity; he exercised an important influence on Romantic writers.

Schiavone Andrea Meldolla (1522–82). Dalmatian painter and engraver who worked in Venice in a style derived from Parmigianino and Titian and influencing Tintoretto.

Schiele Egon (1890–1918). Austrian painter and graphic artist; with Klimt, who influenced him, and Kokoschka, one of the great Expressionist artists of early 20th-c. Vienna. S.’s most powerful work is in his male and female nudes in pencil, gouache, watercolour, etc.; the figures express in their postures emotions from despair to passion – and the female nudes are often unashamedly erotic. S. was primarily a draughtsman, and the angularities of his line and its nervous precision pervade all his work. His 1st real success came in the last year of his life, but full recognition was not accorded his work until the 1950s.

Schiele Paris von Gütersloh, the Painter’s Biographer (detail) 1918

Schinkel Karl Friedrich (1781–1841). German architect. S. began as a painter and designer of theatre sets, with a special fondness for vast imaginary Gothic buildings. S. was also a noted painter of Romantic landscapes.

Schlemmer Oskar (1888–1943). German sculptor who studied at the Stuttgart Academy under Hölzel (1909–14, 1918–19). He exhibited at the Sturm Gallery, Berlin, in 1919 and from 1920 to 1928 was at the Weimar Bauhaus teaching sculpture. His paintings, mural reliefs and sculpture run through a wide range of media in reducing the figure to a rhythmic play between convex, concave and flat surfaces. At the Dessau Bauhaus he directed the Bauhaus stage and taught the course ‘Man’. His Triadic Ballet produced at the Landestheater, Stuttgart (1922), was performed at the Weimar Bauhaus in 1923; in it he extended the concepts of his sculpture by the introduction of time, movement and changing light. Under Nazi suppression he virtually retired in 1937.

Schlüter Andreas (c. 1664–1714). German sculptor and architect. In 1694 he was appointed court sculptor at Berlin (producing, e.g. an equestrian statue of Friedrich Wilhelm). He visited Rome and his chief work, the Royal Palace, Berlin (1698–1706) shows the influence of Bernini. In 1713 he became chief architect to the Russian court; he died at St Petersburg.

Schmidt-Rottluff Karl (1884–1976). German artist born at Rottluff, near Chemnitz. He, Heckel and Kirchner founded Die Brücke group in Dresden in 1906 and were joined by Nolde and Pechstein. He stayed with the group until its dissolution in 1913. S.-R. was one of the most brutally violent of the German Expressionists, aggressively stark in drawing and raw in colour, e.g. Two Women (1912). In Berlin (from 1910) he was deeply influenced by Negro sculpture and produced several carvings, often brightly coloured, e.g. Head (1917) and woodcuts, e.g. The Way to Emmaus (1918).

Schnabel Julian (1951– ). U.S. Neo-Expressionist painter who came to notice in the late 1970s along with the Italians Chia and M. Palladino, and the Germans Kiefer and Baselitz.

Schneemann Carolee (1939– ). U.S. painter, Performance artist, film maker and writer. Her work is known for its controversial themes: feminist history, sexuality and what she calls ‘the body as a source of knowledge’.

Schnorr von Carolsfeld Julius (1794–1872). German painter who joined the Nazarenes in Rome, 1817–25. He became head of the Dresden Academy in 1846 and exercised great influence in Germany.

Schöffer Nicolas (1912–92). Hungarian-born French artist. From the late 1940s he built ‘spatio-dynamic’ towers and Kinetic art constructions, tall, outdoor metal skeleton frames which carry Plexiglas sheets, lighting units and mobile sections and broadcast randomly programmed taped music.

Schonbroeck Pieter (c. 1570–1607). Landscape painter born at Frankenthal, Germany, where his Flemish Protestant parents fled to escape religious persecution. There he was a pupil of Coninxloo. He later worked in Nuremberg. Characteristic paintings are of mountain scenery with small figures.

Schongauer Martin (c. 1430–91). German painter, influenced by R. van der Weyden, and engraver. He worked mainly in Colmar and his only authenticated work, Madonna of the Rose Bower (1473), is in St Martin’s church, Colmar. A number of other paintings, mainly of Madonnas and Nativity scenes, are attributed to him. His engravings exercised a powerful influence on Dürer and on the development of the medium in Germany. H. Burgkmair was his pupil.

Schongauer Madonna of the Rose Bower 1473

Schwind Moritz von (1804–71). Austrian painter and graphic artist, a representative of late German Romanticism; pupil of Cornelius. He attempted monumental murals but was more successful with smaller paintings such as Das Knaben Wunderhorn and The Morning Hour and book ill.

Schwitters Kurt (1887–1948). German painter, sculptor, writer, architect, typographer and publisher. He started painting in a Cubist idiom, but after World War I he became associated with the German Dadaists. In 1918 he was the founder of the Dada group in Hanover. He lived in Norway from 1930 to 1937 and then in Britain. His 2 principal media were constructions and collage in which he used broken and discarded rubbish to create works of remarkable sensitivity, e.g. Opened by Customs (1937–9). He extended these ideas in what he called ‘merz’ pictures, e.g. the 3 Merzbaue: Hanover (1920–2; destroyed 1943), Oslo (1930–7; burnt 1953) and Langdale, Westmorland (1947–8), constructions which filled a whole building.

Scopas (mid-4th c. BC). Greek sculptor of the early Hellenistic period. The tendency towards violent action and pathos in his work became typical of much Hellenistic sculpture. He worked on the famous Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.

Scorel Jan van (1495–1562). The first Dutch painter of importance to study in Italy and responsible for introducing the Italian High Renaissance to the Netherlands. He was widely travelled and was appointed by Pope Hadrian VI superintendent of the Vatican Coll. In Rome he was influenced by Michelangelo and Raphael, particularly the latter. He returned to the Netherlands in 1524. His works include Pilgrims to Jerusalem, St Mary Magdalene and Holy Kinship.

scorper. A small chisel or gouging instrument used in wood- or metal-engraving for clearing large areas of a block or for engraving broad lines.

Scott Samuel (c. 1702–72). British marine and topographical painter. In his early work he followed W. van de Velde the Elder and the Younger but later, inspired by Canaletto’s success in London, turned to views of the City and the river Thames.

Scott William (1913–89). Scottish painter. S. first won reputation with simplified still-lifes; since the late 1960s these have been reduced to arrangements of basic, coloured forms.

Scott William Bell (1811–90). Scottish poet and painter, friend of D. G. Rossetti and Swinburne. His Autobiographical Notes… (1892) gives an idea of 19th-c. literary and artistic circles. It has now been revealed that an unsatisfied love for S. motivated the intensely sad love-poems of Christina Rossetti.

Scully Sean (1945– ). Irish abstract painter working in N.Y. and London. His multi-panelled, textured works of rich and muted colours in oils are characteristically striped and chequered. His almost ritualistic method of working – familiarizing himself with the ‘feeling’ of painting, sometimes substituting one panel for another – confers the ‘immediacy’ and ‘associational power’ he sees in figurative art. S.’s titles suggest his inspirations – admired writers and painters, places, emotions and, lately, women – e.g. Barra, Spirit and Lucia (all 1992).

scumbling. In oil painting, the technique of working a layer of opaque colour over an existing colour in such a way that the latter is only partially obliterated and a broken effect obtained.

Sebastiano del Piombo (1485–1547). Venetian painter of religious subjects and portraits, born Sebastiano Luciani but known as ‘del Piombo’ (It. seal) after his appointment as keeper of the Papal seal. His early style was in the manner of Giorgione, some of whose work he completed. In 1511 he went to Rome to work at the Villa Farnesina, where he met and was influenced by Raphael. Later he became a friend and follower of Michelangelo, who supplied the drawings for some of S.’s paintings such as the Flagellation in S. Pietro in Montorio, Rome. S.’s late work forms a link between the Venetian school and the High Renaissance in Rome.

Sebastiano del Piombo Flagellation 1517–24

Sebree Charles (1914–85). African-American painter, ill. and writer active in the 1930s Chicago art scene. Boy in a Blue Jacket (1938) displays both the influence on him of Post-Impressionism and his stylistic interest in Expressionism. Some of his works were exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago. S. moved to N.Y. in 1940 where he also designed sets for the theatre.

Segal George (1924–2000). U.S. sculptor who began his career as a painter. S. studied at Cooper Union, N.Y., Pratt Institute of Design and N.Y. University. S. exhibited regularly from 1956 but won special acclaim in the 1962 N.Y. exhibition ‘New Realists’. He is noted for life-sized white plaster figures cast from life, frozen in a gesture or pose and often juxtaposed with colourful, real everyday environments. Examples include The Gas Station (1963–4), The Diner (1964–6), The Bowery (1970) and The Curtain (1974).

Segantini Giovanni (1858–99). Italian painter noted for his landscapes of Alpine scenery and who, in later life, painted strangely symbolic pictures, e.g. The Bad Mothers. There is an S. museum at St Moritz.

Seghers Daniel (1590–1661). Early Flemish flower painter, pupil of Jan Bruegel the Elder. He specialized in floral garlands surrounding religious paintings and portraits often by another artist.

Seghers Hercules Pietersz (1589/90–after 1633). Dutch landscape painter and etcher, a pupil of Coninxloo; he may have visited Italy and come into contact with Elsheimer there. His rocky landscapes with dramatic lighting effects were expressive of awe at the sublimity of nature; they considerably influenced Rembrandt’s landscapes. S. produced powerfully imaginative experimental etchings using inks of different colours and printing on coloured paper and canvas.

Segonzac André Dunoyer de (1884–1974). French landscape, still-life and figure painter in a personal style influenced by Cézanne and the Fauves, graphic artist and theatrical designer. Many of his paintings are in watercolour. Among the books he ill. are Colette’s La Treille Muscate and Virgil’s Georgics.

Seligmann Kurt (1900–62). Swiss painter, graphic artist and theatrical designer in the Surrealist tradition. In 1939 he settled in the U.S.A.

Sellaio Jacopo del (c. 1441–93). Florentine painter, pupil of Fra Filippo Lippi and strongly influenced by Botticelli. His only fully authenticated work is a Pietà (Berlin) from S. Frediano, Florence.

sepia. A brown pigment prepared from the inky secretion of the cuttle-fish and used in watercolour and ink, often in monochrome. It was not much used until the 19th c. and should not be confused with bistre.

serial imagery. The same image repeated several times, sometimes with slight variations, in a contemporary painting or sculpture. The image chosen can be figurative (Warhol) or abstract (Judd and other Minimal sculptors).

serigraphy. A print making technique based on stencilling. Ink or paint is brushed through a fine screen made of silk, and masks are used to produce the design. These can be made of paper, or from varnish applied to the silk itself. Also called silk-screen printing.

Serov Valentin (1865–1911). Russian painter, teacher at the Moscow School of Art (1897–1909) and a contributor to The World of Art magazine and exhibitions. S. was brought up on Mamontov’s estate and taught at the Abramtsevo Colony. He painted the famous men of his day, but 1 of his best-known works is Girl with Peaches (1887), depicting Mamontov’s daughter. He was also a talented landscape painter.

Serra Jaime (d. before 1395) and Pedro (d. after 1405). The most important Catalonian painters of the late 14th c. They continued the Sienese tradition introduced by Ferrer Bassa. Pedro’s altarpiece The Holy Spirit in Manresa cathedral is a fine example of their work.

Serra Richard (1939– ). U.S. Minimalist sculptor who, like Judd or Andre, used as ways of composition repetition, regularity of units and intervals between them; for S., like R. Morris and Smithson, transience of structure (e.g. One-Ton Prop [House of Cards], 1969), ordering, allowing weight to determine where a composition ends (e.g. Stacked Steel Slabs, 1969), are also important considerations.

Sérusier Paul (1865–1927). French painter, founder of the Nabis group in 1889 under the influence of Gauguin.

Sesshu (1420–1506). Japanese sumi-e painter of the Muromachi period. He excelled in a conventional academic style which influenced the Kano family as well as an intense individual calligraphic technique derived from the Chinese Sung and Yüan masters, e.g. the renowned landscape scroll (1486).

Settignano Desiderio da. Desiderio da Settignano

Seurat Georges (1859–91). French painter born in Paris. S. studied at the École des Beaux-Arts (1878–9) where he was a model academic student. Early drawings show a complete absorption of Ingres’s classical discipline and his careful preparation in sketches and colour studies for each of his 7 large paintings was thoroughly traditional. His successive investigations of form, colour and line were part of a lifelong search for a sense of order in painting.

Most of his early independent works were conté drawings reflecting Millet in subject, in which a monumentality of form was realized by gradual tonal gradation.

His Baignade (1883–4) shows the simplicity of his early works enforced by the carefully calculated composition and by a palette of primary colours. His study of colour was based not on the empirical observation of the Impressionists, but on research into the writings of Chevreul, Blanc, Superville and Delacroix. In his theory of Divisionism (later called Neo-Impressionism) each local colour is composed of tiny particles of pure colour which not only represent the colour of the object, but also the colour of light, reflected local colours and complementaries. These are blended at a distance by the eye. The purest example of this is Un Dimanche d’été à l’île de la Grande Jatte (1884–6).

His later works – Poseuses (1886–7), Parade (1887–8), La Poudreuse (1889), Le Chahut (1889–90) and Le Cirque (1890) – become increasingly linear and decorative, reflecting both the curvilinear arabesques of Art Nouveau and his own life-long interest in popular art (posters, prints, etc.). The widespread use of his Divisionist technique illustrates his superficial influence on almost all painters. Of a more long-term significance were his liberation of pure colour and his reaction against Impressionism’s formlessness, which – like Cézanne – foreshadows the structural discipline of later abstract art.

Seurat Baignade 1883–4

Seven. Group of Seven

Seven and Five Society. Group of 7 British figurative painters and 5 sculptors founded (1920) and subject to annual re-election. By 1935, when the group, renamed the ‘7 and 5’ Abstract Group, mounted Britain’s 1st all-abstract exhibition, leading members were Hepworth, H. Moore and B. Nicholson.

Severini Gino (1883–1966). Italian painter who signed the Futurist Manifesto (1910) and was one of the most significant members of Futurism; from 1906 he lived chiefly in Paris. His Futurist paintings include Dance of Pan-Pan (1911) and Dynamic Hieroglyph of the Bal Tabarin (1912). He later allied himself with the Cubists and as a result of his theoretical studies publ. Du Cubisme au Classicisme (1921). This was followed by a period of representational, almost academic painting; later he returned to a non-figurative idiom. His works include murals and mosaics.

Severn Joseph (1793–1879). British portrait and subject painter, a friend of Keats. He accompanied the poet to Italy in 1820 and was with him at his death. He painted many portraits of Keats.

Seymour James (1702–52). British painter, with Wootton a pioneer of sporting art in Britain. He specialized in hunting and racing subjects and was noted for his horse portraiture.

Seymour Robert (1798–1836). British ill., caricaturist, engraver and painter whose fame rests on his ills for The Pickwick Papers by Dickens, one of his last commissions before he committed suicide.

Sezession (Ger. secession). Term for the groups of German and Austrian artists who in the 1890s resigned from the recognized academic organizations in order to further the modern (mainly Impressionist and Art Nouveau) movement. The most important were the S.s of Munich (1892), Vienna (1897) and Berlin (1899). The most avant-garde, the Berlin S., evolved from the rejection of Munch’s paintings in the Berlin Artists’ Association (1892). In 1910 the Berlin S. split and the Neue Sezession was formed; its members included Nolde, Pechstein and other artists who later formed Die Brücke, as well as Kandinsky and Jawlensky.

sfumato (It. evaporated). The rendering of form by means of subtle tonal gradations so as to eliminate any sharply defined contours. The work of Leonardo is an example.

Shahn Ben (1898–1969). Russian-born U.S. painter. After study in N.Y. he travelled in Europe and Africa (1927–9). He collaborated with Rivera on the Rockefeller Center murals (1933) and became one of the major figures in the wave of U.S. realist painting in the 1930s. His tightly drawn, slightly caricatured realism often has a satirical element reminiscent of late German Expressionism (Dix, Grosz, etc.). He painted several public murals under the W.P.A. Art Project.

Shapiro Joel (1941– ). U.S. sculptor who first showed Minimal works in N.Y. in 1970. He soon allowed (from 1975) toy-like, miniature representations of familiar objects into his work. They were there for their purely formal qualities, e.g. a table, bridge, ladder and most commonly houses cast in iron or lead, exhibited sparsely on the floor or on shelves, in disproportionately vast spaces. In the ’80s, S.’s works, in squared-off blocks of wood, or wood cast in patinated bronze, were on a larger scale and made abstracted, or reduced, reference to the human figure in a Constructivist-like manner, but also showed how closely the artist considered the grand tradition of modernist sculpture, from Brancusi to Giacometti and D. Smith. Since the mid-8os he has made box-like sculptures which, as in his previous work, address the fundamental issues of sculpture as form in space.

Shchukin Sergei (1851–1936). With the Morosovs, the Shchukin family, esp. Peter (1852–1912) and Sergei, became great and distinguished patrons and collectors. Peter collected prints, drawings and rare books, as well as Russian and Eastern art and decorative arts. His brother Dimitri collected Old Masters, esp. Dutch School, Flemish masters and French pictures including Watteau, Boucher and Fragonard. It was Sergei, however, who became most famous outside Russia. From the end of the 19th c. to the year of the Revolution his collection of modern French art parallels its development, and it attracted the attention of students and lovers of art. His collection was visited in Moscow to be studied, and it exerted a revolutionary influence on contemporary Russian art; S. had a lively personal contact with the young artists who flocked to his house to look at the ‘new’ art. He assembled a rich collection of works – many through the Durand-Ruel Gal. – by Braque, Cézanne, Degas, Derain, Gauguin (over 15 of Gauguin’s paintings were displayed in his dining room), Manet, Monet, Matisse (so many of his works – over 20 paintings in the Grand Salon of his house – that his collection was dubbed ‘the apotheosis of Matisse’), and Picasso (through the art dealer Kahnweiler) of whose work he was the 1st collector.

Sheeler Charles R. Jr (1883–1965). U.S. painter of industrial architecture and machinery, a leading exponent of Cubist-Realism (or Precisionism) exemplified in New England Irrelevancy. In the 1930s, beginning with scenes of the River Rouge Plant for Ford, he worked in a style of straight realism, influenced by his work as a photographer. Magic Realism.

Shepard E(rnest) H(oward) (1879–1976). British ill. renowned especially for his ills to A. A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh books and K. Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows (1931). S. also worked many years for Punch; his publs included the autobiographical Drawn from Memory (1957).

Sherman Cindy (1954– ). U.S. Postmodern artist using black-and-white and colour photographs. Her works, usually in series, in which she is exclusively the subject, are not self-portraits: the many stereotype ‘characters’ she simulates, ‘plays’ and photographs are depicted in ways that are often rife with narrative ambiguity. Her disguises range from stereotypes of women on TV, in films, girlie magazines and advertisements, to subjects from fairy-tales, myths, operas and Old Master paintings. S.’s ‘Untitled Film Stills’ series (c. 75 in total), begun in 1977, is made up of small, documentary-like black-and-white photographs based on ‘40s and ‘50s film noir B-movies, taken in her studio and around Manhattan, which hint at narrative. In the early ’80s S. produced a series of ‘horizontal’ (2 ft [0.6 m.] by 12 ft [3.7 m.]) Playboy-type photographs which focus on the mood and individuality of the ‘model’ – ‘the part the photographer doesn’t want to take pictures of’. She subsequently used different techniques and formats, including Cibachrome colour and 6 ft (1.8 m.) large prints. In a new series, started in the ‘90s S. disguised herself as either a male or female subject from famous Old Master portraits, e.g. Untitled (1990), in which she is a Bacchus by Caravaggio. S. has said that her purpose is ‘to go blank’: through this effacement of her own ‘self, she addresses the issue of identity in images that might in other contexts remain unquestioned.

Shields Frederic James (1833–1911). British painter and ill. influenced by Rossetti.

Shinn Everett (1876–1953). U.S. painter, member of The Eight. Influenced by Degas, he abandoned urban realism for subjects from the theatre and theatrical decoration.

Shunga-Kanva. Cultural period in N. India (c. 184 BC-AD 17) named after its 2 dominant dynasties. The most famous Shunga monument is the stone stupa railing from Bharhut, imitative of split-log wooden prototypes, on the inscribed uprights of which are carved nature spirits assimilated to Buddhism. Other sites include Besnagar and important sculptures at Bodhgaya which are probably Kanva.

Siberechts Jan (1627–c. 1700). Antwerp landscape painter who settled in Britain and was one of the earliest interpreters of the British landscape and country-houses.

Sickert Walter (1860–1942). British artist, the leading British Impressionist painter. S. studied under Whistler and was much influenced by his friend Degas, whose wit and meticulous draughtsmanship he appreciated fully. He employed Impressionist techniques to portray interiors, often of the theatre, using, however, sombre tones to express the nuances of colour rather than light. S. also painted landscapes and townscapes in London, Dieppe and Venice. In 1911 he helped to found the Camden Town Group and was also a member of the New English Art Club and the London Group. In London, after 1905, he was associated with Gore, L. Pissarro and Gilman. The coll. A Free House! (1947) reveals that S. was a fluent writer on artistic subjects.

Siena, school of. School of Italian painting which flourished between the 13th and 15th cs and for a time rivalled Florence, though it was more conservative, being inclined towards the decorative beauty and elegant grace of late Gothic art. Its most important representatives include Duccio, whose work shows Byzantine influence; his pupil Martini; Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti; Domenico and Taddeo di Bartolo; Sassetta; and Matteo di Giovanni. In the 16th c. the Mannerists Beccafumi and Sodoma worked there.

Signac Paul (1863–1935). French painter who joined Seurat and with him worked out the theoretical principles of Neo-Impressionism which he defined in D’Eugène Delacroix au néoimpressionnisme (1899). He was the most rigid exponent of Divisionism.

significant form. Term used by the British art critic C. Bell in 1913 to describe the essence of works of art, which he saw in terms of forms, and relationships of forms. Form itself is, according to Bell the true content of the work of art, and other kinds of content (e.g. narrative and symbolic elements) are secondary.

Signorelli Luca (1441–1523). Italian painter, pupil of Piero della Francesca. S. anticipated Michelangelo in his interest in nude figures in action, though he was not entirely successful in his attempts to depict movement. His work finds its most complete expression in the famous fresco cycle at Orvieto cathedral (1499–1503), a series of semicircular compositions conveying his vision of life, death, damnation and resurrection. The story is told in a harsh, brutal manner which emphasizes the solemnity and horror of the subject. S.’s interest in the formal qualities of dramatic action pervades his religious compositions and portraits. S. worked on the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel in the 1480s.

Signorelli Study for the Martyrdom of a Saint

silhouette. A profile outline, sometimes a head, cut out of black paper or painted or drawn from shadow. The medium was at its most popular in the 18th c. and early 19th c. and derives its name from Étienne de Silhouette (1709–67), an unpopular French finance minister, whose hobby was cut-out portraiture.

silk-screen printing. serigraphy

silver point. 15th–16th-c. drawing technique; Dürer was a master of the medium. A silver pointed pencil (sometimes gold or lead) was used on paper, often tinted, prepared with an abrasive compound. Although heightened effects were obtained with opaque white, s. p. depended fundamentally on line; shading for example was possible only by hatching. The s.-p. line was indelible.

Singier Gustave (1909–84). Belgian-born French painter, of the school of Paris.

Siqueiros David Alfaro (1896–1974). Mexican painter; with Rivera and Orozco, one of the great contemporary Mexican muralists. He fought in the Mexican Revolutionary army and his left-wing political and trade union activities led to frequent periods of imprisonment and exile; his large-scale paintings are full of energy and violence, mirroring his rebellious spirit (e.g. Flowers, 1962). In Europe (1919) he and Rivera formulated principles for creating a public art derived from the Pre-Columbian tradition. From 1922 S. painted many huge, turbulent, crowded murals, e.g. The Mexican Revolution. He used a variety of mediums and styles evolved from Surrealism.

Sisley Alfred (1839/ 40–99). Painter born in Paris of British parents. While a student under Gleyre (1863–4) he met Monet, Renoir and Bazille and painted with them near Fontainebleau. He made 4 visits to Britain (1871–97); from 1880 he lived at Moret-sur-Loing. Influenced at 1st by Corot, he became a central figure of the Impressionist group, exhibiting with them (1874, 1876, 1877, 1883). The paintings of the floods at Marly are paramount examples of Impressionism, freshly painted in clear colour; his landscapes are mostly of the Île-de-France.

Sisley The Flood 1876 

Sistine Chapel. A private chapel of the Pope, also used for Papal elections. It is a long plain room covered with a tunnel-vault pierced by windows. Built in 1473 for Sixtus IV (whence the name) it was decorated (1481–3) with large frescoes by Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Perugino, Pinturicchio and Rosselli. Between 1508 and 1512 the ceiling was painted by Michelangelo in 9 main scenes (from the Creation to Noah) surrounded by Prophets, Sybils and nude youths. In 1536–41 Michelangelo returned to paint The Last Judgement on the E. wall behind the altar.

Situation artists. 18 British painters, e.g. Denny, Hoyland and R. Smith, who mounted an exhibition in London in 1960 of large abstract pictures at least 30 ft (9.14 m.) square. The aim was to fill the spectator’s field of vision and so make him participant in a situation created by the artwork.

Six Dynasties, the. Period in Chinese history (265–581) marked by political disunion and the ascendance of Buddhism in the arts. Outstanding painters were the 4th-c. Ku K‘ai-chi and the 6th-c. theorist Hsieh Ho and Chang Seng-yu at the 6th-c. court of Nanking. In sculpture a gilt bronze Sakayamuni Buddha (338) reveals the influence of Gandhara. Shrines and colossal figures of Buddhas and attendant figures were hewn out of the cliffs at Ping-ling-ssu and Mai-chi-shan, Kansu (begun 4th c.), Tun-huang, W. Chinese Turkestan (366 onwards), Yunkang, Shansi (5th c.) and Lung-men, Honan (late 5th–6th c.). Remarkable wall paintings also survive at the 1st 3 sites, notably Tun-huang.

sketch. Quick drawing or painting made as an aid to memory or a rough draught of a painting made to give the artist some idea of what the completed work will look like. Some of the s.s of artists such as Constable have a spontaneity which is lost in their finished paintings. In the case of Rubens, the full-scale compositions were frequently the work of pupils whereas his s.s were his own.

Slevogt Max (1868–1932). German Impressionist painter, ill. and theatrical designer trained in Munich (1885–9) and Paris (1889).

Sloan John (1871–1951). U.S. realist painter, ill. for newspapers in Philadelphia and N.Y., and cartoonist, one of the most important members of The Eight. His city scenes include Greenwich Village Backyards (1914). His later studies of nudes show an interest in formal problems.

Sluter Claus (d. c. 1405). Netherlands sculptor in the service of Philip the Bold of Burgundy. He assisted Jean de Marville in constructing the portal of the Carthusian monastery at Champmol, completing it in 1400 with the addition of 4 figures. The duke’s tomb (Dijon Mus.), begun in 1384, was only completed in 1411 after S.’s death. Carved in black-and-white marble, the duke’s effigy was placed on a slab surmounting a rectangular base flanked by figures in different attitudes of grief. This tomb and the well-head, The Well of Moses (1395–1406), with its powerful figures of the Prophets, anticipating Michelangelo, were influential well into the 16th c. S. was a great innovator in the expressive handling of drapery, realism of gesture and rendering of character type. Regarded as the founder of the Burgundian school.

Sluyters Jan (Johannes Carolus Bernardus) (1881–1957). Dutch Post-Impressionist painter of portraits, still-lifes and nudes in a personal expressionistic style.

Smart John (1741–1811). British portrait painter and miniaturist, friend of Cosway. He worked in India from 1784 to 1797.

Smet Gustave de (1877–1943). Belgian Expressionist painter. During World War I he stayed with Van den Breghe in Holland, where he came into contact with German Expressionism. After the war he worked with Permeke and other Expressionists at Laethem-Saint-Martin. He painted many scenes of rural life, stylized in a manner reminiscent of child art.

Smibert John (1688–1751?). Scottish portrait painter, a follower of Kneller, who worked in Italy and London before going to America in 1728 and settling in Boston. He established the New England tradition of portrait painting.

Smith David (1906–65). U.S. sculptor, a pioneer in the field of metal sculpture. Originally a painter, he studied at the Art Students League; he turned to reliefs and free-standing structures in the mid-1930s, deriving from the Surrealist work of Picasso and González; he held his 1st 1-man exhibition in 1938. His work ranges from the semi-representational (e.g. Sentinel IV, 1957) to monumental geometric constructions in his last years (e.g. Cubi XVIII, 1964).

Smith Sir Matthew (1879–1959). British painter who studied at Manchester School of Art (1900–4) and the Slade School, London (1905–7), worked at Pont-Aven, Brittany (1908) and studied in Matisse’s studio (1910). Fitzroy Street Nude No. 1 (1916) in its strong colour and simplified forms, shows the extent of S.’s absorption of Fauvism, which was also brilliantly expressed in his early Cornish landscapes. In his later nudes, landscapes and flower paintings form suffered from an expressive flamboyance of paint and colour.

Smith Richard (1931– ). British painter who has worked much.in the U.S.A., influenced by F. Stella, Poons and R. Morris; he exhibited (1960) with the London Situation artists. He has exploited pictorial elements from advertising and commercial packaging of consumer products, and his concern with colour and space has led to work with 3-dimensional shaped canvases. Later work includes multiples and kite-like cloth hangings.

Smithson Robert (1928–73). U.S. artist, one of the most prominent practitioners of Earth art. Originally a Minimal art sculptor of ‘primary structures’, S. developed his concept of ‘sites and nonsites’, a notion which affected greatly the development of ‘site sculpture’ (art made in specific outdoor locations) in the late ‘60s and in the ’70s. His 2 major earth works were Spiral Jetty (1970), a mud and rock coil in Great Salt Lake, 1500 ft (457.2 m.) long and 15 ft (4.57 m.) wide, and Broken Circle/Spiral Hill (1971). Long.

Snyders Frans (1579–1657). Flemish painter of still-life subjects, animals and hunting scenes, pupil of P. Bruegel the Younger and H. van Balen. He worked in Antwerp, often collaborating with Rubens, in whose pictures he painted the flowers and fruit. One of his best-known paintings is The Kitchen Table.

Socialist Realism. Pronounced as a dogma for all Soviet artists in all fields of art in 1934. It aimed to produce art comprehensible to the masses, and inspire the people with admiration for the dignity of the working man and his task of building Communism. Heroic idealization of work and the worker was the required theme, and the guiding hand of the Communist party and its discipline was to mould and prune artists, in order to create, in Stalin’s words, worthy ‘engineers of souls’. The approved techniques were derived from the realistic and naturalistic traditions.

Social Realism. A term used to describe paintings of the life and environment of the lower middle and working classes in the 20th c. The 2 main groups generally identified as S.-r. painters are The Eight, painting after 1900 in the U.S.A., and a British group (Kitchen Sink school), working in the 1950s, among them John Bratby, Derrick Greaves, Edward Middleditch and Jack Smith.

Sodoma Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, called Il (1477–1549). Italian painter who worked chiefly in Siena in an elegant mannered style. According to Vasari, who disliked him, he got his nickname on account of his homosexuality. However, he used it himself in his signature. In 1498 he went to Milan, where he was strongly influenced by Leonardo da Vinci, and in 1501 to Siena. His work there included the completion of a series of frescoes begun by Signorelli in the monastery of Monte Oliveto and the notable Vision of St Catherine in S. Domenico. He was employed in the Vatican and the Villa Farnesina, Rome.

Soest Gerard (d. 1681). Portrait painter, either from Germany or the Netherlands, who worked in Britain from 1656. He painted fine male portraits but never rivalled Lely as a fashionable portraitist because his rough manners made women dislike sitting for him.

Soffici Ardengo (1879–1964). Italian artist and writer. After taking part in the Cubist movement in Paris S. became one of the most vociferous members of Marinetti’s Futurist group and wrote violent but brilliant polemics and poems.

Solano Susana (1946– ). Spanish sculptor living in Barcelona. Her sensuous, hand-wrought works in bronze and iron from the early to mid-80s, made with unsophisticated tools and referring often to domestic and natural spaces, embrace a variety of ambiguities, e.g. the relationship between interior and exterior space, which the critic Barbara Rose has described as ‘our experience that these volumes are hollow’. Since the mid-80s, S. has produced works with sleeker lines and suggestions of colour, e.g. Thermal Station No. 1 (1987), using sheet iron, plate glass, marble and wire mesh, and photographs to explore effects of light and dark. Works include Dos Nones (1988), You Shall Not Pass (1989) and Here Lies the Paradox (1990–1).

Solari(o) Andrea (d. c. 1520). Milanese painter who was influenced by the work of Antonello da Messina on a visit to Venice and by Leonardo da Vinci in Milan. One of his finest paintings is Madonna with the Green Cushion. His brother Cristoforo (d. 1527), called ‘Il Gobbo’, was an architect and sculptor.

Solari(o) Antonio da (fl. 1502–18). Italian painter nicknamed ‘Lo Zingaro’ (‘The Gypsy’). He was a follower of Giovanni Bellini and Carpaccio and worked mainly in Naples. He is best known for his frescoes of the life of St Benedict in S. Severino, Naples.

Soldati Atanasio (1887–1953). Italian painter who developed a purely abstract style after World War II and gathered round him in Milan the 1st group of Italian abstractionists.

Solimena Francesco (1657–1747). Italian painter who worked mainly in Naples; one of the most famous exponents of late Baroque decorative painting. The chief formative influence on S.’s style was that of Giordano but tempered with elements borrowed from Maratta’s classicism. Representative paintings are in the churches of S. Paolo Maggiore and Gesù Nuovo, both Naples. His many pupils included Conca and Ramsay.

Solomon Simeon (1840–1905). British painter and ill. Talented early Pre-Raphaelite works earned S. a wide reputation but his arrest for homosexuality (1871) ended his career and he died a destitute alcoholic. S. did ills for Swinburne’s poems and, later, insipid drawings and pastels of mythological and biblical subjects.

Somer Paul van (1577/ 8–1621/2). Flemish portrait painter, possibly trained in Italy, who worked in the Netherlands and from 1616 in London where he was patronized by the court. His most important painting is a full-length portrait of Queen Anne of Denmark (1617).

Sonfist Alan (1946– ). U.S. artist whose work is exclusively related to nature and its processes, as in wet canvases enclosed in sealed Plexiglas boxes, which gradually become mildewed. In other works, a colony of ants, warren tunnels, twigs, etc. reveal the organic processes, and therefore the essential component of time, which S. uses as his subject matter.

Sonnier Keith (1941– ). U.S. sculptor, writer and video artist whose primary concern with communication and the use of technology fuses pictorial and verbal language. The apparatuses he sets up in his works using neon lighting, microphones, telephones, TV sets, videos and satellites are effectively self-contained communication systems, e.g. Expanded Set, Send Receive (both 1979) and Aesthesipol (1982).

Soto Jesús-Rafael (1923–2005). Venezuelan artist who settled in Paris in 1950. He soon became engaged in Op(tical) research and in 1954, together with other practitioners of Kinetic art, joined the Galerie Denise René which became the forum for their experiments in perception, illusion, movement and change. The kinetic effect in his work (e.g. Petite Double Face, 1967) is obtained by the superimposition of a grille (wires or nylon cords, etc.) on a painted panel, sometimes 3-dimensional, or mobile.

sotto in sù (It. from below upward). Term applied to foreshortening in a ceiling painting so that from below the figures have the appearance of floating in space. It was used by Mantegna (Camera degli Sposi frescoes, Mantua) and reached its highest point of development in the Baroque period.

Soulages Pierre (1919– ). French painter principally self-taught under the inspiration of prehistoric and medieval art. His mature style did not fully develop until, after his military service (1940–5), he emerged as one of the leading members of the post-war school of Paris. He made a reputation partly as a theatrical designer. He 1st exhibited in 1947.

Southern school. Chinese art

South-west Indian cultures (North American). Hohokam, Mogollon, Pueblo

Soutine Chaim (1894–1943). Russian painter. He moved to Paris (1913), living in desperate poverty; there he met Chagall and Modigliani. Like theirs, his work was only tenuously connected with the current Parisian mainstream. S.’s art is closer to other isolated Expressionists such as Nolde and Kokoschka. Under the influence of the Fauves and Van Gogh, the haunted melancholy of his early work gave way to the volcanic violence of colour and technique in the landscapes painted at Céret (1919–22), e.g. Gnarled Trees whose crude brushwork witnesses furiously expended energy. These are some of the most extreme examples of Expressionism.

With a growing patronage from 1923 (most of his works are still in private colls) his financial hardship was over, but the disturbing images persisted, painted in the colour and texture of raw flesh, e.g. the Rembrandt-inspired Carcass of Beef. Only in his last works, e.g. Windy Day, Auxerres (1939), does a lyrical decorative quality appear.

Spada Leonello (1576–1622). Bolognese painter of religious and genre subjects who studied at the Carracci Academy before entering Caravaggio’s studio in Rome. He accompanied Caravaggio to Naples and Malta and became a close follower of his style. He ended his career in Parma, softening his style under the influence of Correggio.

Spagna Giovanni di Pietro called lo (d. 1528). Spanish painter who worked in and around Perugia. He was a follower of Perugino and Raphael.

Spencer Sir Stanley (1891–1959). British painter born in Cookham, Berkshire, where he spent most of his life. He studied at the Slade School, London (1908–12). Untouched by modern art and a meticulously dry craftsman, he was an isolated eccentric of British 20th-c. art. He was gifted with an extraordinary visual imagination; most of his paintings were of religious subjects poetically interpreted in the context of Cookham Village, e.g. Resurrection Cookham (1923–7). After 1932 he felt that his visionary power had left him and that all subsequent works were uncertain and incomplete. He decorated the Burghclere chapel (Soldiers Resurrecting, 1926–32) and was an official war artist (1940–1).

Spero Nancy (1926–2009). U.S. artist who, since the mid-60s, worked on paper and whose preoccupation with abuse against women was the principal concern of her often disturbing work, e.g. The Torture of Women (1976). Her large collage-like works on paper scrolls encompass female figures of differing scales (present, past and mythological), combined with textual fragments, e.g. from the media, demonstrating a political and historical sensibility keen to document but which offers no solutions. S.’s works include Codex Artaud (1971), Tortured in Chile (1974) and The First Language (1981).

Spillaert Leon (1881–1946). Belgian painter. His works include gouaches, watercolours and ink drawings of his native Ostende and also ills for poetry by his friend M. Maeterlinck. These combine Symbolist and Expressionist elements with Surrealist-like dream motifs.

Spinello Aretino (fl. 1371–1410). Italian painter of the early Florentine school who anticipated Masaccio in reviving the tradition of Giotto. He worked in Arezzo, Florence, Pisa and Siena, painting frescoes and altarpieces.

Spitzweg Carl (1808–85). German painter of delicate Romantic landscapes and anecdotal pictures of eccentric small-town characters such as The Poor Poet (1839).

Spoerri Daniel (1930– ). Swiss artist, one of the members of the Nouveau réalisme movement which was founded in 1960. He makes assemblages of objects from everyday life, reflecting the Dada and Surrealist obsession with the fantasy of the commonplace object. In 1959 he founded Multiplication d’Art Transformable (M.A.T.). décollage, Rotella, Villeglé, Hains and Vostell.

Spranger Bartholomeus (1546–c. 1611). Flemish painter of religious and allegorical subjects who worked in Rome, Vienna and Prague. He followed the rhetorical style of late Italian Mannerism derived from Correggio and Parmigianino.

Spraycan art. Comic-strip style murals rooted in, and expressive of, inner-city life, which originated in the graffiti art of the N.Y. subways in the ’70s and ’80s and which has spread throughout the cities of the Western world. In the U.S.A., S. a. is commonly employed in the creation of memorials to victims of city life.

Squarcione Francesco (1397–1468). Italian painter, teacher and antiquarian, founder of the school of Padua. He travelled in Greece and Italy coll. antique works. These influenced his own work and that of his pupils who included Mantegna, Tura and Crivelli.

Stael Nicholas de (1914–55). Russian painter who studied at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, and settled in Paris in 1932; he was influenced by Braque, whom he met in 1940, and also by the spirit generated by the Bauhaus. His abstract and lyrical style is characterized by use of boldly defined masses, painted in rich contrasting tones. He slowly gravitated towards representational paintings, with his colour becoming more subdued and neutral. He committed suicide.

Staffage. French term used in English for the figures, human and animal, in a landscape. Often landscape painters, particularly Dutch 17th- and 18th-c. masters, employed a second painter to add the S.

stained glass. Pieces of glass stained with metal oxides are joined together with leading, and details can be painted on. Unique among the visual arts, s. g. is illuminated by diaphanous rather than reflected light. It probably originated in the Near East with coloured glass set in a plaster framework; in Europe it was used for representational art. The finest examples are in the churches of France, Britain and Germany. The successful use of s. g. depends not only on the manipulation of the richly coloured glass pieces but also on the use of the heavy leads to create a satisfactory pattern. From the 17th c. onwards a facile technique of enamel painting on clear glass was gradually substituted for grisaille painting on s. g. In the 20th c. s. g. has been used by Expressionist artists and a new technique has been developed in Denmark, involving thick glass pieces joined by reinforced concrete. In recent years the medieval techniques have been revived in Britain, notably for the cathedral at Coventry.

Stained glass The Prophet Hosea (Augsburg cathedral) early 12th c.

Stamos Theodoros (1922–1997). U.S. Color-field painter who has consistently explored the limits of abstraction in works of radiant and lyrical colour.

Stämpfli Peter (1937– ). Swiss painter, living in France since 1960. In the early ‘60s he isolated images from mass culture, e.g. Machine à Laver (1963), decontextualizing them firstly against a background of colour, then against white, and finally shaping the canvas to the single image, e.g. Rouge Baiser (1966), where the lips alone are suspended. Since 1969 S. has focused on the image of the tire, his reiteration of which has freed the object of any signification other than a formal one, e.g. SS 396 no 2 (1969) – 3 concentric circles cut from canvas, presented frontally – and his 1970 Venice Biennale assemblage of rectangular canvases with elliptical images of tires over shaped canvases on the floor, M301 (1970) and Royal (1971). Since the ’80s, S.’s work has become bolder in patterning and colour.

Stanfield Clarkson (1793–1867). British marine painter admired by Ruskin.

state. Used as a technical term to describe the various stages through which an engraving or etching may pass. The 1st s. is the 1st proof pulled from the plate. The artist may decide on some improvement and alter lines on the plate; the proof from the altered plate is the 2nd s. This process may be repeated a number of times until the artist is fully satisfied with the work.

steel engraving. Copper, the metal generally used in engraving, was too soft to allow a large number of reprints. In the 19th c. some workers began to engrave on steel, which was durable but also hard to work; a further refinement was steel facing in which a fine steel film was laid on the copper plate by electrolysis.

Steell Sir John (1804–91). Leading Scottish sculptor of the statue of Sir Walter Scott in the Scott Monument, Edinburgh.

Steen Jan Havicksz (1625/6–79). Dutch genre painter, pupil of A. van Ostade and J. van Goyen. He worked at Leyden, The Hague, Delft and Haarlem, producing a great number of paintings, often of tavern scenes and social gatherings. There is a wide range of humour and anecdotal interest in his work. He is noted for his rich colour harmonies and sense of composition.

Steer Philip Wilson (1860–1942). British painter who studied in Paris under Bouguereau and Cabanel. S.’s work was strongly influenced by Neo-Impressionism, but in the 1890s he turned to a style derived from Turner and Constable. He became widely known only when the Tate accepted Chepstow Castle, an oil painting, in 1909. S.’s fresh, light, breezy landscapes in oil were matched by watercolours of great liquidity and economy of statement, with large skies and a strong sense of atmosphere.

Stefano da Zevio (or da Verona) (c. 1375– 1451). Veronese painter in the International Gothic style. Antonio Pisanello was probably his pupil.

Steinbach Haim (1944– ). U.S. Neo-Conceptualist artist born in Israel whose assemblages of mixed media – as with those of Koons and Bickerton, often of simulated and reconstituted commodity mass-produced goods – refer obliquely to Pop and Minimalism. His usually brightly coloured, ambiguous works prompt a variety of formal and associational interpretations, e.g. Fantastic Arrangement (1985), comprising 5 clocks – 4 digital and 1 in the shape of a soccer ball – on a red and green formica shelf setting off the different colours of the clocks and Security and Serenity (1986).

Steinberg Saul (1914–99). Rumanian-born U.S. artist who, especially since 1959, lived in the U.S.A. after years of travelling. He 1st studied and worked as an architect but soon turned to drawing, watercolour and sculpture. His drawings are sophisticated and witty, and abound in visual and verbal puns. He published regularly in The New Yorker since 1941. In 1978 he had a retrospective exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, N.Y.

Steinlen Théophile-Alexandre (1859–1923). Swiss-born French painter and graphic artist, a vigorous impassioned critic of social misery and human exploitation. His poster designs of the 1890s were executed in the bold, flat style, influenced by the Japanese print, which is best exemplified in the work of Toulouse-Lautrec.

Stella Frank (1936– ). U.S. painter of great prominence among the artists of his generation. Nurtured on the Abstract Expressionism of Kelly and Newman, S., struck by Johns’s use of repetition and flat colour, moved, by 1960, to what he called ‘non-relational’ painting and what was to be labelled ‘Post-painterly abstraction’ and Hard-edge flat painting (1964) and ‘Systemic painting’ (1966). In 1960 S. attracted controversy and recognition for his black paintings included in the M.O.M.A. exhibition, ‘Sixteen Americans’ (e.g. Die Fahne Hoch!, 1959). These were large, vertical rectangles with a symmetrical pattern of balanced bands of black paint separated by thin stripes of bare canvas, forming regular, spaced rectangles radiating inward from the canvas edge to a cruciform centre. Later, using copper or aluminium paint (e.g. Creede, 1961), S. explored different shapes for the canvas, suggested by the rectilinear repeated pattern. This developed into U- and L-shaped canvases using heavy framing edges. From 1967 S. turned to brilliantly coloured shaped works interrelating semi-circles with rectangular or diamond shapes (e.g. Lac La Rouge II, 1968). These led to the ‘exotic Birds’ series, begun in 1975: colourful and expressive paintings which are freer, shaped structures and which play on the dichotomy between real space and the 2-dimensional picture plane. A late work is Sat Bhai (1978).

Stella Joseph (1877–1946). Italian-born U.S. painter. Closely associated with the contemporary artistic developments of Europe, his Futurist paintings of 1910 to 1923, notably Battle of Lights, Coney Island, and Brooklyn Bridge, show his sense of excitement and urgency that he was to find and paint in the U.S.A. and are the finest of his career; they were of seminal importance to U.S. modernists. During the 1920s S. exhibited with Duchamp and Man Ray in the Société Anonyme; later works include Still Life (1944).

stencil (Fr. pochoir). Method of duplicating designs by cutting required shapes out of card or thin metal which are then sprayed or brushed with ink or paint, reproducing the shapes on the paper beneath. S.s have been traditionally used for reproducing simple fabric designs and have also been used to great effect in book ill. silk-screen printing.

stencil wallpaper. Late 18th–19th-c. U.S. domestic folk art. Travelling painters toured remote country districts, equipped with paints and simple stencil patterns. With these they decorated the plain-papered walls, lodging with the family until the job was complete.

Stepanova Varvara Fedorovna (1894–1958). Russian artist and designer, wife of Rodchenko. She collaborated with the Russian Futurists producing collages and ills for publications. She also produced designs for the stage and for textiles. A member of the Productivist group including Rodchenko, Popova and Tatlin, she used Constructivist principles in her designs; she taught in the textile department of Vkhutemas. She also did typographical and poster designs and worked in films.

Stephens Frederick George (1828–1907). British painter and writer on art, a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Stevens Alfred (1818–85). British sculptor and painter. He studied in Italy and worked with Thorwaldsen. He designed the vases and lions on the railings of the British Museum and the Wellington Monument at St Paul’s Cathedral.

Stieglitz Alfred (1864–1946). U.S. photographer who has been called the father of modern photography. In 1905 he established the 1st of his N.Y. galleries known as the Photo-Secession or ‘291’ which showed not only the pioneering work of photographers but became an influential centre of avant-garde painting and sculpture. He showed Rodin for the 1st time in the U.S.A. and among others, Matisse; the 1st exhibition of Toulouse-Lautrec’s lithographs; H. Rousseau; Cézanne; Picasso; Picabia; Brancusi, and the U.S. artists Dove, Marin, A. Maurer, Hartley, O’Keeffe and Man Ray. From 1925 to 1929 S. ran the Intimate Gallery, after which he opened An American Place. His influence on U.S. art was seminal. His collection, which included 450 U.S. works, was presented to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1949.

Still Clyfford (1904–80). U.S. painter. His style, which is highly individualistic, owes little or nothing to contemporary European movements. He was, however, a central figure among the ‘Color-field’ or ‘abstract-imagist’ wing of Abstract Expressionism and was influential as a teacher at the California School of Fine Arts, 1946–50. He employs large monochrome masses and predominant colours are black, red and yellow. His paintings are lyrical and passionate, merging space and figure into a powerful unity, e.g. 1947–M, 1947.

still-life. Painting containing only objects (most often domestic – tableware, flowers, books – but sometimes skulls, dead game, etc.) viewed close up. S.-l. was of early importance in oriental art, and is approached in Greek and Roman mosaics; but it emerged as an independent subject in the West only in the 16th c, e.g. practised by Caravaggio, and flowering in 17th-c. Flanders. It was often used symbolically and allusively. Chardin was the 1st notable French s.-l. painter. Since the 18th c. it has been widely used, receiving impetus from the 19th-c. discovery of the Japanese colour print; with Cézanne and others the s.-l. has been a stage in a development towards non-representational art.

stippling. In drawing or painting, modelling form by means of small dots or short strokes instead of lines or areas of colour.

Stokes Adrian (1902–72). British writer on art and psychoanalysis, painter and poet. In 1936 he started painting with the Euston Road school and the following year completed 8 years of psychoanalysis with Melanie Klein, which had a profound effect on his art theory and painting. His most important and influential works include his 1st 2 books on art and architecture, Quattro Cento (1932) and Stones of Rimini (1934), as well as Smooth and Rough (1951) and Michelangelo (1955), and the essays Reflections on the Nude (1967). The complete critical writings were published in 3 vols in 1978. His paintings, mostly still-lifes and landscapes, are luminous and quiet, sometimes reminiscent of Morandi.

Stomer Matthias (17th c.). Dutch Caravag-gesque painter of religious subjects who settled in Italy; pupil of Honthorst.

Stone Marcus C. (1840–1921). British painter and ill. Son of Frank (1800–59). His genre paintings were much admired at the turn of the c., e.g. In Love, Rejected, A Stolen Kiss, pictures of sentimental narrative. He was a member of the R.A. (1886).

Stone Nicholas (1586–1647). British mason-sculptor and architect, trained under Hendrick de Keyser in Amsterdam (1606–13) and appointed master mason to James I (1619). He worked on the Banqueting House, Whitehall, where he began an association with Inigo Jones. He is best known for his tombs, which include that of Francis Holles (Westminster Abbey), based on Michelangelo’s tomb of Giuliano de’ Medici. His son Nicholas (d. 1647) was a sculptor who worked under Bernini in Italy, and another son Henry (d. 1653) was noted as copyist of Van Dyck.

Stoss Veit (d. 1533). German late Gothic sculptor, painter and engraver active in Cracow and Nuremberg. His masterpiece is the huge high altar in carved and painted wood in the church of Our Lady, Cracow. Other important works include the tomb of King Casimir IV, Annunciation and the high altar of Bamberg cathedral.

Stothard Thomas (1755–1834). British painter, and a book ill. and embellisher of considerable charm. His best-known painting is Canterbury Pilgrims which caused a quarrel between him and Blake, who was already working on the same subject.

Strange Sir Robert (1721–92). Scottish engraver, noted for line engravings after Van Dyck; rival of Bartolozzi.

Straub Johann Baptist (1704–84). Bavarian Rococo sculptor, from 1737 court sculptor in Munich. His works include the high altar, St Michael’s church, Berg-am-Laim, Munich, and altars in the monastic churches of Ettal and Schäftlarn. Günther was his pupil.

Streeter (Streater) Robert (1624–80). British decorative painter, best known for the ceiling (1669) of the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, the nearest approach to Baroque decoration by an Englishman before Sir J. Thornhill.

stretcher. The wooden frame on which canvas is stretched for painting.

Strozzi Bernardo (1581–1644) called ‘Il Cappuccino’. Genoese painter of religious subjects who was for a time a Franciscan friar. From 1630 he worked in Venice. His painting was influenced by Rubens, later by the Venetian school.

Stuart Gilbert (1755–1828). Outstanding U.S. portrait painter. He studied in London under West although the development of his style owed more to Gainsborough and Reynolds. He worked in London and Dublin before returning to the U.S.A., acquiring a great reputation for the honesty and psychological insight of his work. He painted the best-known portraits of Washington including the unfinished ‘Athenaeum’ head.

Stubbs George (1724–1806). British painter. He studied anatomy at York and then made a perfunctory visit to Italy in 1754. S. lived and worked in Lincolnshire and London, making anatomical drawings, esp. of horses, publ. the Anatomy of the Horse (1766). He became a popular painter of racehorses for the aristocracy, but his animal paintings are not mere records; they are elegant and dignified in design. He is a master of composition who also painted brilliant conversation pieces and portraits, genre paintings of rural life and some enamelled earthenware panels for Josiah Wedgwood.

Stubbs Anatomy of the Horse 1766

stucco. Originally the lime-plaster used as a ground in fresco painting and in the decoration of buildings; the term is now used loosely to describe any plaster or cement used on exteriors.

Sturm, Der. The magazine (inaugurated in 1910) and art gallery in Berlin, of the German Expressionist movement. In its pages appeared ills by members of the Brücke and Blaue Reiter groups and articles expounding the new aesthetic.

style. Term for the manner of execution in writing, painting, etc. as opposed to subject matter or its organization (i.e. form); (2) the common characteristics of the arts in a given period – e.g. Louis XIV s. – or of a school or movement.

Sully Thomas (1783–1872). U.S. portrait painter. He studied under West in London. There he was influenced by Lawrence, particularly in his portrayal of women and children. He settled in Philadelphia, where he had no rivals after the deaths of Peale and Stuart. He also produced a large number of subject paintings.

Sultan Donald (1951– ). U.S. painter and graphic artist who uses innovative materials such as tar, vinyl tiles, plaster and latex paint in the creation of isolated, recognizable images, e.g. his ‘puzzle pictures’ series of the mid-70s. His land-and seascapes of the late ’70s are multilayered, suggesting both physical and illusory dimensions. In the mid-80s he began to create his well-known images of lemons in yellow and black, e.g. Four Lemons (1984) and the ‘Black Lemon’ series on paper (1985–6). Throughout the ’80s he produced ‘event pictures’ which were inspired by current issues, e.g. environmental and industrial concerns, e.g. Pumps (1984) and Early Morning (1988), in which the effect of fire is achieved by the application of turpentine to yellow latex paint.

sumi-e. Japanese art-term for monochrome ink painting.

Sunday painter. Someone who paints for pleasure in their spare time. The term is often used in a derogatory sense but is also associated with modern primitive painters who usually began as self-taught amateurs.

Sung. Chinese dynastic era divided into N. Sung (960–1126) and S. Sung (1126–1279) by invasions which occupied most of N. China and drove the emperors from their capital at K ai-feng to Hang-chou. It witnessed the classical epoch of Chinese art. Confucianism and Taoism were strong influences: the most famous treatise in the N. Sung period was Kuo Jo-hsü’s Experiences in Painting (1074) which analyses the work of a series of prominent painters from the late T’ang down to the 1070s. The division between courtly and scholarly traditions became marked (wen-jen and Chinese art). Leading N. Sung courtly painters were Fan Kuan (fl. 990–1020), Travelling amid Mountains and Gorges; Hsu Tao-ning, Fishing in the Mountain Stream (c. 1000); Kuo Hsi (mid-11th c.), Early Spring; and the late 11th–12th-c. Chang Tse-tuan, River Life on the… Chring-ming Festival. The S. wen-jen affected an unacademic clumsiness, working in ink on paper rather than the courtly colour on silk. They included Su Tung-p’o (1036–1101), Wen T’ung (d. 1079), his teacher in bamboo painting, Mi Fu (1051–1107), and the calligrapher Huang T’ing-chien (1045–1105). Li Kung-lin (1040–1106) copied many old masterpieces in the archaizing fashion of the period; his panoramic scroll of his country estate, Lung mien, followed the T’ang painter Wang Wei.

The N. Sung emperor, Hui-tsung (reigned 1101–25), a dictatorial patron of the imperial academy, was a painter of exquisite delicacy and an elegant calligrapher. The principal artist of the academy, Li T’ang, noted for his ‘axe-cut’ brushstroke, linked the grandeur of N. Sung with the S. Sung interest in atmospheric perspective and the representation of space personified by the ‘Ma-Hsia’ school of Ma Yuan (fl. 1190–1225) and Hsia Kuei (fl. 1200–30). This in part influenced the mid-13th c. school of Ch’an Buddhist artists, e.g. Liang K‘ai, Mu-ch’i and the noted dragon painter Ch’en Jung.

Sung Wild Geese

Super Realism. Art of extreme verisimilitude, associated with the U.S.A. in the 1970s but to a lesser extent popular also in Western Europe. In painting it is usually, though not always, based on the direct copying of photographs (Photo Realism); in sculpture it makes much use of direct casts from the human figure. Also called Hyper Realism.

Suprematism. The 1st system of purely abstract pictorial composition, based on geometric figures. Its founder was the Russian artist Malevich whose 1st Suprematist work was a black square on a white ground painted in 1913; he himself described this as ‘no empty square, but rather the experience of non-objectivity … the supremacy of pure feeling … ‘Malevich’s early Suprematist works were 2-dimensional simple geometric studies using chiefly primary colours; from c. 1915 greater complexity appears, 2 or more interrelated groups of shapes overlapping or in receding succession, introducing the 3rd dimension.

Surikov Vassily (1848–1916). Russian painter, a member of the Wanderers. His subjects, however, were chiefly historical: one of the most famous is the colossal canvas The Boyarina Morosova (1887). He was fascinated by Russian medieval art and architecture; Veronese, Titian and other monumental Italian painters played a part in forming his style which was the earliest attempt to marry the ideals of the Wanderers with national artistic traditions.

Surrealism. Movement begun in 1924 (when the Dada movement split) with a manifesto written by Breton, in which it is described as ‘pure automatism’. This fitted Surrealist literature better than Surrealist painting, but Surrealist art has become better known than Surrealist writing, especially in the works of Arp, M. Ernst, Dalí and Miró. The dominant vehicle of S. ideas and work, literary and visual, was the magazines. La Révolution Surréaliste, the 1st official S. magazine, 1st appeared in Paris, December 1924, instigated by Breton, Aragon, Éluard and others, with contributors including Robert Desnos, De Chirico, Man Ray, Ernst, Picasso and Masson. 12 issues came out and it ceased publication in 1929. Le Surréalisme au service de la Révolution, considered by Breton as the best S. magazine, came out in Paris in 6 numbers between 1930 and 1933. It was succeeded by the eclectic review Minotaure (1933–9), publ. in Paris. Other important S. magazines publ. outside France were the Bulletin Internationale du Surréalisme (1935 and 1940), publ. by the S. group in Belgium, London Bulletin (1938–40), and in N.Y. View (1940–7) and VVV (1942–4).

S. paintings are of 2 main sorts: Dali has called the one ‘hand-painted dream objects’ – conventional techniques are used to depict a fantastic image like De Chirico’s enigmatic townscapes or the soft watches in Dalí’s Persistence of Memory; the other is inventive in technique, as in rubbings (‘frottage’) by Ernst, the decalcomania (a sort of monotype) invented by Dominguez, and the informal abstract painting of such an artist as Masson. In both sorts of painting the Surrealists aimed to mingle reason with unreason, using dreams, chance effects, the automatism uncontrolled by aesthetic or moral consideration, to create a new reality. Surrealist poetry by writers such as Paul Éluard and René Crevel had the same aim, and so had the 2 important Surrealist films Un Chien Andalou and L’Âge d’Or. The zenith of the movement was in the 1930s, Surrealist groups having been formed in Britain, the U.S.A., Japan, Scandinavia and elsewhere. During the war many Surrealists were in the U.S.A. (e.g. Duchamp), where their art and ideas had a liberating influence on U.S. art. There has been some Surrealist activity in Paris since 1945, but the major Surrealist artists have worked and developed independently. The term S. is more loosely used of fantastic, weird or horrific imagery in the art of any period. The word was coined in 1917 by Apollinaire for the work of certain artists, in particular Marc Chagall.

Survage Lèopold (1879–1968). Finnish-born painter and theatrical designer who settled in Paris (1908) and joined the Cubists.

Susterman(s) or Sutterman, Justus (1597– 1681). Flemish portrait painter in the tradition of Van Dyck. He was court painter for a time in Florence. One of his finest portraits is that of Galileo.

Sutherland Graham (1903–80). British painter; he studied graphic art at Goldsmiths’ College (1921–6). S. started painting in earnest in 1935 and contributed to the 1936 Surrealist Exhibition, London. His pre-war landscapes, e.g. Entrance to Lane (1939), moved from Palmer’s formalizations towards a freer organic language. As a war artist (1940–5) S. withdrew, like Piper, Vaughan and others, into the English romantic tradition, e.g. Tapping a Steel Furnace (1941); but following an important visit to the Mediterranean seaboard (1947) he developed a spiky language of expressive abstract forms, Surrealist in mood, e.g. Head III (1953). He also painted a series of portraits and in 1957 completed the design for the altar tapestry for Coventry cathedral.

Svomas. Vkhutemas

Swan John Macallan (1847–1910). British painter and sculptor, chiefly of animals. He was a considerable draughtsman and worked in the London Zoo and Jardin des Plantes, Paris, producing fine unsentimental work.

Sweerts Michiel (1624–64). Flemish genre and portrait painter, in Rome from 1642 to 1652/4. He went to India as a missionary and died in Goa.

Symbolism. A movement in European literature and the visual arts c. 1885–c. 1910, based on the notion that the prime concern of art was not to depict, but that ideas were to be suggested by symbols, thus rejecting objectivity in favour of the subjective. It combined religious mysticism with an interest in the decadent and the erotic. Among the artists associated with the movement were Redon, G. Moreau and Puvis de Chavannes in France, F. Khnopff in Belgium, Toorop in Holland, Hodler in Switzerland, Klimt in Austria and Segantini in Italy.

Synchromism. U.S. art movement, originated in Paris (1912) by S. Macdonald-Wright and Russell and joined by P. Bruce and A. Frost. They developed a brilliant chromatic idiom, clearly related to Orphism, and exhibited at the Armory Show (1913).

Synthetism. A style of painting in the 1890s by Gauguin, Bernard and other artists at Pont-Aven in Brittany. Flat areas of colour are surrounded with black lines. The group around Gauguin believed that an artist must synthesize his impressions and paint from memory, rather than depict directly. The Pont-Aven artists organized an exhibition under the title ‘Synthétisme’, during the Universal Exhibition of 1889. In 1891 a group was formed including Gauguin, Bernard, Charles Laval and Louis Anquetin. cloissonism.

Systemic painting. Abstract painting which is based on a logical system; often the repetition and sometimes progressive variation of a single element, either in one work or in a series of related canvases, e.g. F. Stella.