Makart, HANS

Makart, HANS, Austrian painter, was born at Salzburg on 28th May 1840, studied under Piloty at Munich (1861-65), and after visiting Italy settled in Vienna in 1869. Ten years later he was appointed professor at the academy in the Austrian capital, and there he died on 3d October 1884. He painted grandiose spectacular and historical genre pictures, gorgeous with colour and of gigantic size; but the drawing and modelling were frequently faulty, and the treatment nearly always sensuous and voluptuous to a degree. Another strong characteristic of his work is a love for lifeless forms, with the look of death and of the grave upon them. His brilliant colouring and generally theatrical style of art made his pictures fetch large sums. Amongst the most notable specimens of his brush are 'Amorettes,' 'Entrance of Charles V. into Antwerp'—the nude female figures in which were portraits of well-known Viennese ladies (a fact that gave rise to much scandal)—'Cleopatra on the Nile,' 'The Five Senses,' 'The Seven Deadly Sins,' 'Diana hunting,' 'Summer,' and 'Spring.' See Life by Von Lützow (1886).