Mariano Jose Maria Bernardo Fortuny y Carbo

{"Id":168,"Name":"Mariano Jose Maria Bernardo Fortuny y Carbo","Biography":"\u003Cstrong\u003EFORTUNY, MARIANO JOSE MARIA BERNARDO (1838-1874)\u003C/strong\u003E, Spanish painter, was born at Reus on the 11th of June 1838. His parents, who were in poor circumstances, sent him for education to the primary school of his native town, where he received some instruction in the rudiments of art. When he was twelve years old his parents died and he came under the care of his grandfather, who, though a joiner by trade, had made a collection of wax figures, with which he was travelling from town to town. In the working of this show the boy took an active part, modelling and painting many of the figures; and two years later, when he reached Barcelona, the cleverness of his handiwork made so much impression on some people in authority there that they induced the municipality to make him an allowance of forty-two francs monthly, so that he might be enabled to go through a systematic course of study. He entered the Academy of Barcelona and worked there for four years under \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.terravista.pt/copacabana/1229/romanti4.html\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EClaudio Lorenzale\u003C/a\u003E [\u003Ca href=\u0022http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en\u0026sl=pt\u0026u=http://www.terravista.pt/copacabana/1229/romanti4.html\u0026prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2522Claudio%2BLorenzale%2522%26start%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DN\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EEN\u003C/a\u003E], and in March 1857 he gained a scholarship that entitled him to complete his studies in Rome. Then followed a period of more than two years, during which he labored steadily at copies of the old pictures to which he had access at Rome. To this period an end was put by the outbreak of the war between Spain and the emperor of Morocco, as Fortuny, was sent by the authorities of Barcelona to paint the most striking incidents of \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.armada.mde.es/Historia/capitulo4/1859.htm\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003Ethe campaign\u003C/a\u003E [\u003Ca href=\u0022http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en\u0026sl=es\u0026u=http://www.armada.mde.es/Historia/capitulo4/1859.htm\u0026prev=/search%3Fq%3DMuley-el-Abbas%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DG\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EEN\u003C/a\u003E]. The expedition lasted for about six months only, but it made upon him an impression that was powerful enough to affect the whole course of his subsequent development, and to implant permanently in his mind a preference for the glitter and brilliancy of African color. He returned to Spain in the summer of 1860, and was commissioned by the city of Barcelona to paint a large picture of the capture of the camps of Muley-el-Abbas and Muley-el-Hamed by the Spanish army. After making a large number of studies he went back to Rome, and began the composition on a canvas fifteen metres long; but though it occupied much of his time during the next few years, he never finished it. He busied himself instead with a wonderful series of pictures, mostly of no great size, in which he showed an astonishing command over vivacities of technique and modulations of color. He visited Paris in 1868 and shortly afterwards married the daughter of \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.livronet.com.br/arteyestilos/biografias/pintores/kntz.htm\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EFederico Madrazo\u003C/a\u003E [\u003Ca href=\u0022http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en\u0026sl=es\u0026u=http://www.livronet.com.br/arteyestilos/biografias/pintores/kntz.htm\u0026prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2522Federico%2BMadrazo%2522%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EEN\u003C/a\u003E], the director of the \u003Ca href=\u0022http://museoprado.mcu.es/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003Eroyal museum\u003C/a\u003E at Madrid. Another visit to Paris in 1870 was followed by a two years stay at Granada, but then he returned to Rome, where he died somewhat suddenly on the 21st of November 1874 from an attack of malarial fever, contracted while painting in the open air at Naples and Portici in the summer of 1874.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EThe work which Fortuny accomplished during his short life is distinguished by a superlative facility of execution and a marvellous cleverness in the arrangement of brilliant hues, but the qualities of his art are those that are attainable by a master of technical resource rather than by a deep thinker. His insight into subtleties of illumination was extraordinary, his dexterity was remarkable in the extreme, and as a colorist he was vivacious to the point of extravagance. At the same time in such pictures as \u003Cu\u003ELa Vicaria\u003C/u\u003E and \u003Cu\u003EChoosing a Model\u003C/u\u003E, and in some of his Moorish subjects, like \u003Cu\u003EThe Snake Charmers\u003C/u\u003E and \u003Cu\u003EMoors playing with a Vulture\u003C/u\u003E, he showed himself to be endowed with a sensitive appreciation of shades of character and a thorough understanding of the peculiarities of a national type. His love of detail was instinctive, and he chose motives that gave him the fullest opportunity of displaying his readiness as a craftsman.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003ESee Davillier, \u003Cu\u003EFortuny, sa vie, son euvre, sa correspondance, \u0026c.\u003C/u\u003E (Paris, 1876) ; C. Yriarte, \u003Cu\u003EFortuny\u003C/u\u003E (Artistes c\u0026eacute;l\u0026egrave;bres series) (Paris, 1889). (A. L. B.)\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cu\u003ESource:\u003C/u\u003E\u003C/strong\u003E Entry on the artist in the \u003Ca href=\u0022http://41.1911encyclopedia.org/F/FO/FORTUNY_MARIANO_JOSE_MARIA_BERNARDO.htm\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003E1911 Edition Encyclopedia\u003C/a\u003E.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cu\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFurther references:\u003C/strong\u003E\u003C/u\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cli type=\u0022square\u0022\u003EExtensive links to further sources on the artist at the \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/fortuny_y_marsal_mariano.html\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EArtCyclopedia\u003C/a\u003E.\u003Cli type=\u0022square\u0022\u003ETwo thumbnail biographical sketchs on the artist in \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.bartleby.com/65/fo/Fortuny.html\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EThe Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition\u003C/a\u003E and the \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=35627\u0026tocid=0\u0026query=fortuny\u0026ct=\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EEncyclop\u0026aelig;dia Britannica\u003C/a\u003E.\u003Cp\u003E","Awards":null,"HasAlbums":false,"HasPortraits":true,"HasRelationships":true,"HasArticles":false,"HasDepictedPlaces":true,"HasLetters":false,"HasLibraryItems":false,"HasProducts":false,"HasSignatures":false,"HasVideos":false,"HasMapLocations":true,"TotalArtworks":67}