Simon Vouet
Encyclopedia
Simon Vouet was a French
painter and draftsman, who today is perhaps best remembered for helping to introduce the Italian Baroque style of painting to France.
(1654–1742) were also painters. Simon began his painting career as a portrait painter. At a young age he travelled to England and was part of the entourage of the Baron de Sancy, French ambassador to Constantinople
. From there he went to Venice and was in Rome in 1614.
He spent an extensive period of time in Italy, from 1613 to 1627. He was mostly in Rome where the Baroque
style was emerging during these years. He received a pension from the King of France and his patrons included the Barberini family, Cassiano dal Pozzo
, Paolo Giordano Orsini
and Vincenzo Giustiniani
. He also visited other parts of Italy: Venice; Bologna, (where the Carracci family
had their academy); Genoa, (where from 1620 to 1622, he worked for the Doria princes
); and Naples. He was a natural academic, who absorbed what he saw and studied, and distilled it in his painting: Caravaggio's dramatic lighting; Italian Mannerism; Paolo Veronese
's color and di sotto in su or foreshortened perspective; and the art of the Carracci
, Guercino, Lanfranco
and Guido Reni
. Vouet's immense success in Rome led to his election as president of the Accademia di San Luca
in 1624. In 1626 he married Virginia da Vezzo who modelled Madonnas for Vouet's religious commissions.
Despite his success in Rome, Vouet suddenly returned to France in 1627, following pressing recommendations from the Duc de Béthunes and a summons from the King. A French contemporary, lacking the term "Baroque", said, "In his time the art of painting began to be practiced here in a nobler and more beautiful way than ever before," and the allegory of "Riches" [illustration, left] demonstrates a new heroic sense of volumes, a breadth and confidence without decorative mannerisms.
Vouet's new style was distinctly Italian, importing the Italian Baroque style into France. He adapted this style to the grand decorative scheme of the era of Louis XIII
and Richelieu and was made premier peintre du Roi
. Louis XIII commissioned portraits, tapistery cartoons and paintings from him for the Palais du Louvre
, the Palais du Luxembourg and the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye
. In 1632, he worked for Cardinal Richelieu at the Palais-Royal and the Château de Malmaison
. In 1631 he also decorated the château of the président de Fourcy, at Chessy, the hôtel Bullion, the château of marshal d Effiat at Chilly
, the hôtel of the Duc d’Aumont, the Séguier chapel, and the gallery of the Château de Wideville.
In Paris, Vouet was the fresh dominating force in French painting, producing numerous public altarpieces and allegorical decors for private patrons. Vouet's sizeable atelier or workshop produced a whole school of French painters for the following generation, and through Vouet, French Baroque painting retained a classicizing restraint from the outset (although Vouet was not as classical as his contemporaries, Nicolas Poussin
and Philippe de Champaigne
).
His most influential pupil was Charles le Brun
, who organized all the interior decorative painting at Versailles
and dictated the official style at the court of Louis XIV of France
, but who jealously excluded Vouet from the Académie Royale in 1648. Vouet's other students included Valentin de Boulogne
(the main figure of the French "Caravaggisti"), Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy
, Pierre Mignard
, Eustache Le Sueur
, Nicolas Chaperon
, Claude Mellan
and the Flemish artist Abraham Willaerts
. Vouet was also a friend of Claude Vignon
.
A number of Vouet's decorative schemes have been lost but are recorded in engravings by Claude Mellan and Michel Dorigny.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
painter and draftsman, who today is perhaps best remembered for helping to introduce the Italian Baroque style of painting to France.
Life
His father Laurent was a painter in Paris and taught him the rudiments of art. Simon's brother Aubin Vouet (1595–1641) and his grandson Ludovico DorignyLudovico Dorigny
Ludovico Dorigny was a French painter and engraver. Trained in his native country, he spent most of his life and career in Verona, Italy.-Life and career:...
(1654–1742) were also painters. Simon began his painting career as a portrait painter. At a young age he travelled to England and was part of the entourage of the Baron de Sancy, French ambassador to Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
. From there he went to Venice and was in Rome in 1614.
He spent an extensive period of time in Italy, from 1613 to 1627. He was mostly in Rome where the Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
style was emerging during these years. He received a pension from the King of France and his patrons included the Barberini family, Cassiano dal Pozzo
Cassiano dal Pozzo
Cassiano dal Pozzo was an Italian scholar and patron of arts. The secretary of Cardinal Francesco Barberini, he was an antiquary in the classicizing circle of Rome, and a long-term friend and patron of Nicolas Poussin, whom he supported from his earliest arrival in Rome: Poussin in a letter...
, Paolo Giordano Orsini
Paolo Giordano Orsini
Paolo Giordano Orsini may refer to two members of the Italian Orsini family:*Paolo Giordano I Orsini , first duke of Bracciano*Paolo Giordano II Orsini...
and Vincenzo Giustiniani
Vincenzo Giustiniani
thumb|upright|Vincenzo Giustiniani in a portrait by [[Nicolas Régnier]] Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani was an aristocratic Italian banker, art collector and intellectual of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, known today largely for the Giustiniani art collection, assembled at Palazzo...
. He also visited other parts of Italy: Venice; Bologna, (where the Carracci family
Annibale Carracci
Annibale Carracci was an Italian Baroque painter.-Early career:Annibale Carracci was born in Bologna, and in all likelihood first apprenticed within his family...
had their academy); Genoa, (where from 1620 to 1622, he worked for the Doria princes
Doria
Doria, originally de Auria , meaning "the sons of Auria", and then de Oria or d'Oria, is the name of an old and extremely wealthy Genoese family who played a major role in the history of the Republic of Genoa and in Italy, from the 12th century to the 16th century.-Origins:According to legend, a...
); and Naples. He was a natural academic, who absorbed what he saw and studied, and distilled it in his painting: Caravaggio's dramatic lighting; Italian Mannerism; Paolo Veronese
Paolo Veronese
Paolo Veronese was an Italian painter of the Renaissance in Venice, famous for paintings such as The Wedding at Cana and The Feast in the House of Levi...
's color and di sotto in su or foreshortened perspective; and the art of the Carracci
Annibale Carracci
Annibale Carracci was an Italian Baroque painter.-Early career:Annibale Carracci was born in Bologna, and in all likelihood first apprenticed within his family...
, Guercino, Lanfranco
Lanfranco
Lanfranco may refer to:* Lanfranco, master-builder of the Modena Cathedral* Guido Lanfranc of Milan , professor of Surgery.* Giovanni Lanfranco , Italian painter....
and Guido Reni
Guido Reni
Guido Reni was an Italian painter of high-Baroque style.-Biography:Born in Bologna into a family of musicians, Guido Reni was the son of Daniele Reni and Ginevra de’ Pozzi. As a child of nine, he was apprenticed under the Bolognese studio of Denis Calvaert. Soon after, he was joined in that...
. Vouet's immense success in Rome led to his election as president of the Accademia di San Luca
Accademia di San Luca
The Accademia di San Luca, was founded in 1577 as an association of artists in Rome, under the directorship of Federico Zuccari, with the purpose of elevating the work of "artists", which included painters, sculptors and architects, above that of mere craftsmen. Other founders included Girolamo...
in 1624. In 1626 he married Virginia da Vezzo who modelled Madonnas for Vouet's religious commissions.
Vouet's new style was distinctly Italian, importing the Italian Baroque style into France. He adapted this style to the grand decorative scheme of the era of Louis XIII
Louis XIII of France
Louis XIII was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1610 to 1643.Louis was only eight years old when he succeeded his father. His mother, Marie de Medici, acted as regent during Louis' minority...
and Richelieu and was made premier peintre du Roi
Premier peintre du Roi
The Premier peintre du Roi was a post within the administration of the Bâtiments du Roi of the département de la Maison du Roi in France under the Ancien Régime, just below the post of directeur général des Bâtiments, Arts et Manufactures de France...
. Louis XIII commissioned portraits, tapistery cartoons and paintings from him for the Palais du Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
, the Palais du Luxembourg and the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye
The Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye is a royal palace in the commune of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, in the département of Yvelines, about 19 km west of Paris, France. Today, it houses the Musée d'Archéologie Nationale ....
. In 1632, he worked for Cardinal Richelieu at the Palais-Royal and the Château de Malmaison
Château de Malmaison
The Château de Malmaison is a country house in the city of Rueil-Malmaison about 12 km from Paris.It was formerly the residence of Joséphine de Beauharnais, and with the Tuileries, was from 1800 to 1802 the headquarters of the French government.-History:Joséphine de Beauharnais bought the...
. In 1631 he also decorated the château of the président de Fourcy, at Chessy, the hôtel Bullion, the château of marshal d Effiat at Chilly
Chilly
Chilly may refer to:*Cold, i.e. low temperature-Entertainment:*Chilly , a disco band from the 1970s*Chilly Willy, a cartoon penguin-Food:*Chiefly india: chili pepper, the spicy fruit of plants in the genus Capsicum...
, the hôtel of the Duc d’Aumont, the Séguier chapel, and the gallery of the Château de Wideville.
In Paris, Vouet was the fresh dominating force in French painting, producing numerous public altarpieces and allegorical decors for private patrons. Vouet's sizeable atelier or workshop produced a whole school of French painters for the following generation, and through Vouet, French Baroque painting retained a classicizing restraint from the outset (although Vouet was not as classical as his contemporaries, Nicolas Poussin
Nicolas Poussin
Nicolas Poussin was a French painter in the classical style. His work predominantly features clarity, logic, and order, and favors line over color. His work serves as an alternative to the dominant Baroque style of the 17th century...
and Philippe de Champaigne
Philippe de Champaigne
Philippe de Champaigne was a Flemish-born French Baroque era painter, a major exponent of the French school.-Early life:Born in Brussels of a poor family, Champaigne was a pupil of the landscape painter Jacques Fouquières...
).
His most influential pupil was Charles le Brun
Charles Le Brun
Charles Le Brun , a French painter and art theorist, became the all-powerful, peerless master of 17th-century French art.-Biography:-Early life and training:...
, who organized all the interior decorative painting at Versailles
Versailles
Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...
and dictated the official style at the court of Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
, but who jealously excluded Vouet from the Académie Royale in 1648. Vouet's other students included Valentin de Boulogne
Valentin de Boulogne
Valentin de Boulogne , sometimes referred to as Le Valentin, was a French painter.-Origins:Valentin was born in Coulommiers, France, where he was baptised in the parish of Saint-Denys on January 3, 1591, making 1590 his likely year of birth...
(the main figure of the French "Caravaggisti"), Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy
Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy
Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy , French painter and writer on his art, was born in Paris, son of an apothecary.He was destined for the medical profession, and well educated in Latin and Greek; but, having a natural propensity for the fine arts, he would not apply to his intended vocation, and was...
, Pierre Mignard
Pierre Mignard
Pierre Mignard , called "Le Romain" to distinguish him from his brother Nicolas Mignard, was a French painter...
, Eustache Le Sueur
Eustache Le Sueur
Eustache Le Sueur or Lesueur , one of the founders of the French Academy of Painting, was born in Paris, where he passed his whole life....
, Nicolas Chaperon
Nicolas Chaperon
Nicolas Chaperon was a French painter, draughtsman and engraver, a student in Paris of Simon Vouet whose style he adopted before he was further matured by his stay in Rome in the studio of Nicolas Poussin.In 1653-55 the consuls de Lyon called him to decorate the hôtel de ville but Chaperon dying...
, Claude Mellan
Claude Mellan
Claude Mellan was a French engraver and painter.Mellan was born in Abbeville. Among the leading engravers of his time, he is best known for his numerous portraits as well as for his engraving technique of using parallel lines of varying thickness, rather than the more traditional technique of...
and the Flemish artist Abraham Willaerts
Abraham Willaerts
Abraham Willaerts was a Dutch Baroque painter, mostly of marine and harbor scenes.Willaerts was born in Utrecht, the son of the painter Adam Willaerts. He trained with his father, becoming a member of the Utrecht guild of painters in 1624, and studied under Jan van Bijlert in Utrecht and with...
. Vouet was also a friend of Claude Vignon
Claude Vignon
Claude Vignon was a leading French painter and engraver working in the Baroque manner.He was born at Tours and received early training in Paris...
.
A number of Vouet's decorative schemes have been lost but are recorded in engravings by Claude Mellan and Michel Dorigny.
Exhibitions
- 1990 : retrospective of Simon Vouet's work at the Galeries nationales of the Grand PalaisGrand PalaisThis article contains material abridged and translated from the French and Spanish Wikipedia.The Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées, commonly known as the Grand Palais , is a large historic site, exhibition hall and museum complex located at the Champs-Élysées in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France...
. - 2002-2003 : Simon Vouet ou l'éloquence sensible at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de NantesMusée des Beaux-Arts de NantesThe Fine arts Museum of Nantes is an art museum in Nantes, France.The museum was created in 1801 with the purchase of the Cacault collection and was located in is actual Palais des Beaux-Arts since 1900....
(5 December 2002-20 February 2003), devoted to drawings from his French period now in the collection of the Staatsbibliothek in Munich. - 2008-2009 : Simon Vouet, les années italiennes (1613–1627) (21 November 2008-23 February 2009), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, in collaboration with the Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'archéologie de BesançonMusée des Beaux-Arts et d'archéologie de BesançonThe Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'archéologie in the French city of Besançon is the oldest public museum in France...
(where it toured 26 March to 29 June 2009).
Decorative schemes
- Palais de la Justice
- Palais Cardinal, Musée des hommes illustre
- The Châteaux de Rueil
- Château de La Muette
- Château-Neuf de Saint-Germain-en-LayeChateau-Neuf de Saint-Germain-en-LayeThe Château-Neuf de Saint-Germain-en-Laye was a French chateau , now mostly demolished, which served as the royal residence from the second half of the 16th century until 1680.-Construction:...
, The Four Cardinal Virtues - Château de Fontainebleau
- Residence of Chancelier Séguier (hôtel)
- Residence of Maréchal de La Meilleraye
- Residence of Président Tuboeuf
- Church of Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs à Paris, The Assumption (1629), Apostles at the Tomb of the Virgin
- Church of Saint-Etienne à Chilly-Mazarin, Burial of Christ (1639)
- Hôtel-Bullion
- Church of Saint-Merry à Paris, Saint Merry releasing the Prisoners (1640)
Royal tapisteries
- Renaud and ArmideArmideArmide is the French and English form of the name Armida, a witch in Torquato Tasso's epic poem "Jerusalem Delivered" . The sequence of the poem recounting her love affair with the Christian knight Renaud inspired many operas, which are listed under the names of their respective composers in the...
, Renaud in the arms of Armide (1630–1660), Louvre - Moses saved from the waters (Old Testament)
- The Life of Ulysses (labours of Ulysses)
Studio and copies
- Saint Sebastian (1618–1620), Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation (USA)
- Intelligence, Memory and Will, Capitoline Museums, Rome
- Virgin and Child à la rose, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Marseille
- Hesselin Virgin and Child, Louvre
- Sainte Marie Madeleine, National Gallery, Rome
- Allegory of the Fine Arts, National Gallery, Rome
- Allegory of Peace, National Gallery, Rome
- Allegory of Charity (1640–1645), Museum of Draguignan
- Diana, Somerset House, London
- Virgin and Child with an Angel, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen
- Suicide of Lucretia, Narodni Gallery, Prague
- Roman Charity, Musée Bonnat, Bayonne
- Burial, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
- Martyrdom of Saint Eustace, church of Saint-Eustache, Paris
- Diana, Royal Collection, Hampton Court
- Hercules among the Olympians, Royal Collection, Hampton Court
- Minerva, Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg
- Virgin and Child, Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg
- Virgin and Child, Ashmoleam Museum, Oxford
- Virgin and Child, Musée Magnon, Dijon
- Apollo and the Muses, National Hungarian Museum, Budapest