The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (350 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists
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Orphism
(or Orphic Cubism).
A shortlived movement in French painting that developed out of
Cubism
between late 1911 and early 1914. The word ‘Orphism’, which had previously been used by the
Symbolists
, was applied to the movement by
Apollinaire
at the exhibition of the
Section d'Or
in October 1912; the reference to Orpheus, the singer and poet of Greek mythology, reflected the desire of the artists involved to bring a new element of lyricism and colour into the austere intellectual Cubism of
Picasso
,
Braque
, and
Gris
. The painters mentioned by Apollinaire as practitioners of Orphism were
Delaunay
,
Léger
,
Picabia
, and Marcel
Duchamp
;
Kupka
was the main member of the movement not named by Apollinaire. They made colour the principal means of artistic expression and Delaunay and Kupka were among the first to paint totally non-representational pictures, seeing an analogy between pure abstraction and music. Although it was short-lived, Orphism had a strong influence on German painting (notably
Klee
, who visited Delaunay in 1912,
Macke
, and
Marc
) and on
Synchromism
.
Orsi , Lelio
(
c.
1511–87).
Italian
Mannerist
painter and architect. He worked mainly in his birthplace Novellara and in Reggio Emilia , and he is counted a member of the Parmesan School. His large-scale decorative work has almost all perished and he is now known mainly by
cabinet pictures
of religious subjects (
The Walk to Emmaus
, NG, London,
c.
1570). He drew on numerous different influences (
Correggio
,
Giulio Romano
,
Michelangelo
,
Parmigianino
, and perhaps also German woodcuts), but his style has a leaning towards the bizarre, with dramatic stagelighting effects, that gives it a distinctly personal touch.
Os, van
.
Dutch family of painters active during the late 18th and 19th cents.
Jan
(1744–1808) was the founder. He and his daughter
Maria Margrita
(1780–1862) and his son
Georgius Jacobus Johannes
(1782–1861) specialized in painting flowers and fruits in the lavish detailed manner of Jan van
Huysum
. Another of Jan's sons,
Pieter Gerardus
(1776–1839), specialized in pictures of cattle. His son and pupil,
Pieter Frederik
(1802–92), taught
Mauve
.
Osona , Rodrigo de
(active 1476–84).
Spanish painter. He was one of the leading painters of his day in Valencia, introducing both Netherlandish and Italian
Renaissance
influence to the area. His most important work is the Crucifixion in St Nicholas, Valencia (1476). On the basis of an altarpiece of
The Adoration of the Magi
(V&A, London) signed ‘the son of Master Rodrigo’, several works have been attributed to
Rodrigo de Osona the Younger
, who is documented from 1505 to 1513. He continued his father's style in a weaker more Italianate manner.
Ostade , Adriaen van
(1610–85).
Dutch painter, active in his native Haarlem. Although he turned his hand to most types of subject, he was principally a
genre
painter. He was a very prolific painter and also made watercolours, etchings, and drawings. According to
Houbraken
, both he and
Brouwer
(whose work is similar) were pupils of Frans
Hals
. His early pictures depict lively scenes of peasants carousing or brawling in crowded taverns or hovels. In his later works (after
c.
1650) his peasants learn better manners and the rooms they live in are tidier. These later pictures are lighter in key and more colourful; thus they follow the general trend of Dutch painting around this time. Ostade was successful, popular, and much imitated. His most talented pupil was his brother
Isaak
(1621–49), who also worked in Haarlem. As well as painting genre scenes in the manner of Adriaen, Isaak was an outstanding practitioner of the winter landscape, and his early death cut short a career of great promise. Good examples of the work of both brothers are in the National Gallery, London.

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