when I first saw one of his paintings, I thought it was someone’s contemporary work. but I learned it was over 250 years old! a lot to learn from a master. FRANZ ANTON MAULBERTSCH, 1724 – 1796, is recognized as one of the greatest masters of fresco and oil painting of the eighteenth century. he painted frescoes in churches and palaces in almost sixty places, and over thirty such works survive. these paintings are spread throughout austria, slovakia, the czech republik, romania and germany.
maulbertsch’s astonishing use of bright contrasting color, luminous compositions, bold brushwork and extraordinary light effects have gained him in central europe a reputation of a genius. he was even called a forerunner of EXPRESSIONISM. expressionism started around 1919 – it means art that expresses intense emotion, or – to destort reality for an emotional effect. in his youth KOKOSCHKA admired the ‘extremist’, ‘revolutionary fresco painter of the baroque, maulbertsch’.
my name is hans bacher, – I work as production designer in the animation film industry. for the last 40 years I lived and worked in duesseldorf, london, paris, los angeles, manila and tokyo. now I am professor for film-design at the nanyang techn. university in singapore.
These are certainly in the Classical style, but they are verging on the Romantic!
I recommend checking out Corrado Giaquinto:
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/corrado-giaquinto-the-brazen-serpent