French Baroque and Classical Art

Question 1

Answer 1

Hyacinthe Rigaud, Louis XIV,

oil on canvas, 1701

• This famous portrait is regarded as the very epitome of the absolutist ruler portrait. Yet it represents more than just power, pomp and circumstance. The sumptuous red and gold drapery is not only a motif of dignity, but also creates a framework that echoes the drapes of the ornate, ermine-lined robe. The blue velvet brocade ornamented with the golden fleurs-delis of the house of Bourbon is repeated in the upholstery of the chair, the cushion and the cloth draped over the table below it: the king quite clearly “sets the tone”.
• Louis is presented in an elegantly angled pose,

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Question 2

Answer 2

Claude Perrault, Louis le Vau, and Charles le Brun, east façade of the Louvre, Paris,

1667-1670

• brilliant synthesis of French and Italian classical elements, including a central pavilion resembling an ancient temple front with a pediment
• has a central and two corner prjecting columnar pavilion
• designers favored an even roofline
• the stately proportions and monumentality of the Baroque design were both expression of the new official

Question 3

Answer 3

le Vau, le Nôtre, and Jules-Hardouin Mansart,

Aerial view of the palace and gardens of Versailles,

begun 1669

–the formal gardens provide a rational transition form the forzen architectural forms to the natural lving ones.

• The elegant shapes of trimmed shribs and hedges define the tightly designed geometric units.
• Farther away from the palace the design loosens as trees in shadowy maasses, screen or frame views of countryside.

No photograph can reveal the design’s full richness

temporal art work; its aspects change with the time of day, the seasons and the relative position of the observer

Question 4

Answer 4

27 Jules-Hardouin Mansart and Charles le Brun,

Hall of Mirrors, Palace of Versailles,

ca. 1680
- this hall overlooks the Versailles park from the second floor of Louis XIV’s palace. Hundreds of mirrors illusionalistically extend the room’s width and once reflected gilded and jeweled furnishings

Question 5

Answer 5

Nicolas Poussin, Et in Arcadia Ego,

oil on canvas,

ca. 1655

detail of tomb inscription

• Poussin was the leading proponent of classicism in 17-th century Rome.
• His ‘grand manner” paitings are models of “arrangement and measure” and incorporate figures inspired by ancient statuary

Question 6

Answer 6

Nicolas Poussin, Landscape with Saint John on Patmos, 1640

• classical landscape amid broken columns, an obelisk, and a ruined temple, suggesting the decay of great civiliations and the coming of new Christian era
• Painted for the secretary of the Pope
• hills, sky, and clouds are represented with pristine clarity ignoring the rules of atmospheric perspective.
• His landscapes are not portraits of specific places
• imaginary setting

Question 7

Answer 7

Claude Lorrain, Landscape with Cattle and Peasants,

oil on canvas,

1629

• used atmospheric and linear perspective to transform the rustic Roman countryside filled with peasants and animals into an ideal classsical landsacpe bathed in sunlight in infinite space
• tell no dramaitc story, point out no moral, praise no hero, and celebrate no saint compared to POUSSIN
• the figures in his painting is added as mere excuses for the radiant landscape

Question 8

Answer 8

Georges de la Tour, Adoration of the Shepherds,

oil on canvas,

1645-1650

• can be a genre piece instead of a biblical narratice.
• his use of light suggests a familiarity of Caravaggio’s painting
• makes use of night setting
• the light illuminates a group of people held in a mystic trance induced by their witnessing the miracle of incarnation
• eliminated the dogmatic significane of incrnation
• only the light is dramatic

Question 9

Answer 9

Caravaggio, Fortune Teller, 1595

-First is the neat compositional symmetry: each model occupies roughly half of the canvas and mirrors accurately the gestures of its counterpart — the elbows, the head tilt, the angle of the eye level. Together, the two figures form a round arch, with the plume of the young man’s head-dress marking the pinnacle. Second is the palette: the warm golden-brown tones of the skin and of the background (mixed with soft light, and complemented by the interchange of whites, greens, reds and browns of the garments) underscore the symmetry to further soothe the audience.

Use of light:
Light almost always enters from the upper left hand corner of the picture plane in the artist’s early paintings.

Color palette:
The color palette used for this peace also creates a feeling of serenity. Warm golden-brown tones of the skin and the background are blended with soft lighting, and set off by the whites, greens, reds and browns of the garments and this adds to the painting’s symmetry.

• Painted in 1595, Caravaggio’s “The Fortune Teller” is an early and revolutionary work. In it, the artist depicts a Gypsy girl reading the palm of a dandyish young man from whom she stealthily attempts to steal a gold ring. Through the young couple’s intricate play of hands and eloquent exchange of looks, Caravaggio conveys the psychological ambiguities of this moment of attraction and deception. He heightens the drama of the encounter by depicting the two figures at close vantage point against a neutral background and uses light and shadow to draw attention to key details. The Fortune Teller represents one of the new genre subjects that Caravaggio developed early in his career. The painting’s distinctive style and stunningly original approach to the subject made it one of Caravaggio’s most influential works.

Question 10

Answer 10

Georges de la Tour, the Fortune Teller

1630

While an old gypsy crone tells his fortune, a naive youth is robbed by her accomplices,

-La Tour’s painting can be interpreted as a genre or theatrical scene,

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