ART “4”
“2”-DAY 01 January |
INFANT BAPTISM: 1618 MURILLO |
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Buried on 01 January 1661: Pieter
Claesz van Haarlem, Dutch Baroque
painter, specialized in Still
Life, born (but not still born) in 1597. — Dutch still-life painter, born in Burgsteinfurt, bishopric of Münster (now Steinfurt, Germany) and active in Haarlem where he settled in 1617. He and Willem Claeaszoon Heda, who also worked in Haarlem, were the most important exponents of the "ontbijt" or breakfast piece. They painted with subdued, virtually monochromatic palettes, the subtle handling of light and texture being the prime means of expression. Claesz generally chose objects of a more homely kind than Heda, although his later work became more colorful and decorative. The two men founded a distinguished tradition of still-life painting in Haarlem, but Claesz's son and student, Nicholas Berchem became famous as a landscape painter. — LINKS — Still Life with Fish (1647) — Still Life with Turkey Pie (1627) — Vanitas Still Life with the Spinario (1628) — Still Life with pitcher, glass of wine, red lobster, crab, etc. (1643, 75x89cm; 888x1125pix, 669kb _ ZOOM to 1776x2251pix, 2747kb) — Still Life with flowers, fruits, meats, crab, red lobster, cello, violin, etc. (164; 600x809pix, 204kb _ ZOOM not recommended to poor definition 1400x1888pix, 465kb) — Still Life with Musical Instruments (1623, 69x122cm) — Vanitas Still-Life (1630, 40x56cm) _ Nearly all Dutch still-lifes include - to a greater or lesser extent - the aspect of vanitas, a lament about the transience of all things. It is often symbolized by objects such as a skull or a clock, as in this painting, where the effect is enhanced by an overturned wine glass and an extinguished candle. Claesz's metaphysical criticism concentrates on book knowledge and its futility in the face of eternity. The claim of the enlightenment that book contains knowledge, experience and thoughts that were permanently valid beyond the life-span of an individual is met with resigned scepticism. With hues of grey, brown and green that tend to add up to a general 'monochrome' impression, Claesz's still-life was painted at a time when European book market was going through a phase of considerable expansion. — Still-life with Herring (1636, 36x46cm) _ The stylistic phases and fluctuations in aesthetics through which the Dutch landscape passed had their direct counterpart in still-life. The silvery tone which dominates in this Still-life by Claesz., muting the colors and subtly adjusting the objects to each other, directly relates to the tonal direction landscape took after 1630. — Still-life with Wine Glass and Silver Bowl (42x59cm) _ It is worth noting that in this monochrome 'banketje', which is dominated by shades of grey, green and silver, the elements of the painting have been reduced to a small number of vessels. Thus the composition of the painting is determined by an overturned silver goblet, a half empty wine glass and two pewter plates. Although this is a so-called breakfast still-life (an onbijtje), hardly any food is shown, but only the sparse left-overs of a meal, such as the olive on the plate, where it forms some kind of optical barrier between the hollow foot of the goblet and the plate that reflects it. Unlike the overabundance of food in earlier Flemish still-lifes, this painting emphasizes a refinement of taste. Naive consumerism has been replaced by aesthetic sublimation under the influence of Protestant introspection and asceticism. — Breakfast-piece (1646, 60x84cm) _ The work of the Dutch still-life painters who appear around 1620 corresponds to the tonal trend of the landscapists of van Goyen's generation. Pieter Claesz and Willem Claeszoon Heda, popularizers of the breakfast piece, are the principal representatives of this phase. Claesz, the father of the landscapist Nicolaes Berchem, was born at Berchem (probably the village near Antwerp). Heda's origins are obscure. Both were primarily active at Haarlem and underwent similar stylistic developments. Their early works show the influence of the older still-life painters, but they soon limited themselves to the description of a simple meal set near the corner of a table - some bread and cheese, a herring on a pewter dish, a glass of beer or wine, perhaps a silvery pewter vessel, and a white crumpled tablecloth - just enough to suggest a light breakfast or snack. These objects, which always look as if they had been touched by someone who is still close by, are no longer treated as isolated entities: they are grouped together, forming masses along a single diagonal axis. But more important, Pieter Claesz and Heda reacted to the comprehensive forces of light and atmosphere which envelop us and the things with which we live, and they found means to express their reactions to these forces as accurately, immediately, and intensely as possible. As a result, they seem to animate their simple subjects. With a new pictorial mode, they achieve a more dynamic spatial and compositional treatment. The foreground of their unpretentious arrangements becomes spacious, and there is clear recession. Instead of vivid local colors, monochromatic harmonies with sensitive contrasts of valeurs of low intensity are favoured, without, however, a loss of the earlier regard for textural differentiation. From the point of view of composition and of coloristic, tonal, and spatial treatment the perfectly balanced still-lifes by Claesz and Heda are among the most satisfying Dutch paintings made during the century. Claesz has a more vigorous touch than Heda. He was also a man of simpler tastes. Heda depicts oysters more frequently than herrings, and after 1640 his compositions became larger, richer, and more decorative. To obtain a more monumental effect, during his maturity Heda often abandons the traditional horizontal format for a vertical one. Ornate silver vessels and costly 'façon de Venise' glasses, at the time blown in the Netherlands as well as Venice, intensify the contrasts of valeurs, and touches of color provided by the pink of sliced hams and ripe fruit are combined with an increased chiaroscuro. — Still-Life (1633, 38x53cm) _ The affluent citizens of Haarlem were particularly open to the refined taste displayed in breakfast still-lifes by artists like Pieter Calesz. and Willem Claesz Heda. — Still-life (1647, 40x61cm) _ In the still-lifes of Claesz, the objects are ordered in a simple way; they are just laid out on the table. The light is even; shadows are used only to emphasize each object's plastic form. — Still Life with Wine Glass — Pipes and Brazier — Still Life with Two Lemons [actually 2 and 2/3 lemons] (1629, 43x59cm) _ Pieter Claesz perfected the still life by breaking out of the more conventional mold and creating a sub-genre, the ontbijtje, or breakfast piece. There were no bright colors or plentiful table arrangements here; Claesz worked with an almost monochromatic palette of brown, gray, olive, and gold. Light was his unifying element, the texture of each object all important. Nor was there abundance, as in the traditional still life, but instead an elegantly arranged collection of sparse objects -- often a hunk of cheese or bread, pewter tableware, and almost always a white tablecloth. In Still Life with Two Lemons, Claesz deviated further still, with no cloth covering the table and no ordinary breakfast foods visible. His placement of olives and lemons -- depicted realistically but certainly not considered typical of breakfast fare -- emphasized Claesz's concern with technique above content. |
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Baptized on 01 January 1618: Bartolomé-Esteban
Murillo, Spanish painter specialized in Religious
Subjects who died on 03 April 1682 after falling from a scaffolding
a few months earlier. — In the private collections of his native Seville, Murillo was able to study the works of the major Renaissance and baroque masters of Italy and Flanders, as well as his Spanish precursors; these paintings profoundly influenced his art. His early works, depictions of the Madonna and of the Holy Family, were dry in character, but he soon developed a warm, atmospheric quality in his painting, executing in 1645-46 11 scenes from the lives of various saints that established his fame. Murillo was the first president of the Seville Academy, founded in 1660. Murillo excelled in genre painting, depicting poverty-stricken children in a pathetic and touching manner, as in Young Beggar (1655). From 1671 to 1674 he painted several pictures for the Church of the Confraternity de la Caridad, Seville, many now dispersed to museums in Saint Petersburg, Madrid, and London. Murillo's works prefigure the development of European and especially Spanish painting in the 18th and 19th centuries. He portrayed Madonnas as beautiful women, and saints as likable Spanish characters, anticipating the elements of audacious realism that characterized 18th-century religious art. He died in Seville. During the 19th century Murillo's genre paintings won wide acceptance and influenced many painters. — Bartolomé was the youngest of the 14 children of Sevillian barber Gaspar Esteban and his wife María Pérez Murillo (whose mother's surname Bartolomé would make his own). On 25 July 1627, his father died, on 08 January 1628 he lost his mother. Murillo's elder sisters and brothers were already grown up. The 10-year-old Bartolomé was adopted into the family of his sister Ana, who in 1625, already a widow, had married Juan Agustín Lagares, a wealthy Sevillian barber-surgeon. Murillo was apprenticed in 1633 to painter Juan del Castillo [1584-1640]. When, in 1639, Castillo left Seville for Cadiz, Murillo did not enter the workshop of a known artist, as it was traditional for beginners, but preferred to stay independent. It is said that to gain a living Murillo started to make sargas: cheap paintings on rough canvas sold at country fairs, and shipped to America by traders. Obviously his paintings appealed to the taste of the public, besides they revealed a certain talent of the young man. That was why the Franciscan monastery in Seville commissioned this unknown artist with a cycle of 11 paintings with scenes from the lives of Franciscan saints, which brought Murillo fame. Murillo dated his works very seldom. The first dated canvas belongs to the cycle for the Franciscan Monastery: one of the paintings is dated 1646, thus the whole series is usually dated 1645-1646. But some art historians consider that the work took a longer period, of approximately 1642 to 1646. The canvases of the cycle are painted in different styles; thus some art historians consider that Cuisine of Angels (Miracle of Saint Diego de Alcada) was inspired by Ribera [1591-1652]; Death of Saint Clara was influenced by van Dyck [22 Mar 1599 – 09 Dec 1641]; and Velásquez [06 Jun 1599 – 07 Aug 1660] had an effect on St. Diego Giving Charity. During those years the young artist's own style of soft forms and warm colors was being formed. At some point in Murillo's life, probably in the late 1640s, he is believed to have visited Madrid. In any case, after 1650 his style changed, which might be the result of his meeting with Velásquez and studying of the works of Titian [1488 – 27 Aug 1576], Rubens [28 Jun 1577 – 30 May 1640], and Van Dyck in the royal collections in Madrid. On 26 February 1645 Murillo married Beatriz Sotomayor y Cabrera; soon their first daughter, named María, was born [–1650]. From 1647 to 1654 Murillo painted a lot of Madonnas, small in size, the canvases were aimed for home altars: Madonna of the Rosary, Madonna and Child. Already in his early religious paintings for the Franciscans Murillo widely used the genre scenes, which soon became a separate subject in his works: The Beggar Boy (1650), Grape and Melon Eaters. (1650), The Little Fruit Seller (1675) etc. Today considered somewhat sentimental, his genre scenes nevertheless represent a new way of perception. Murillo's children, as well as his Madonnas, very soon became popular not only in Spain. Thanks to them he was the first Spanish painter to achieve widespread European fame. To the 1650s, also belong many of his portraits. Unfortunately, we do know nothing about the persons depicted, even when they are identified by their names. With fame and multiple commissions the financial situation of Murillo became secure. It is known that in 1657 Murillo invested big money in a trade company in the New World, he bought slaves for his household. In 1662, he was admitted to several religious organizations of Seville. Murillo also took an active part in the social life of his city. Thus he was one of the founders of the Academy of Fine Arts in Seville, which was opened in 1660, with Murillo as its first president. In January 1664, Murillo buried his wife. Though 20 years of his life were still ahead, and during these 20 years he would painted 2/3 of all his known works, Murillo would never fully recover from this blow. During 1664, he could not work, at the end of the year he moved with all his surviving children (José Esteban, aged 14, Francisca María, aged 9, Gabriel, aged 8, Gaspar Esteban, aged 2, and infant María) into the Convent of Capuchins. From 1665 to 1682, he painted many of his major religious works, such as those for the Santa María la Blanca (1665), of the Caridad Hospital (1670-1674), of the Capuchins (1676), of the Venerables Sacerdotes (1678), of the Augustinians (1680), and, lastly, of the Cadiz Capuchins, together with a large number of pictures made at different times for the Cathedral of Seville or other churches and many devotional works for private individuals. A legend says that Murillo died in poverty. It is contradicted by the fact of the many commissions he had. More close to the truth is the version that he gave off his money as charitable contributions to the religious organizations of which he was the member. The story about Murillo's death sounds like a legend. Murillo accepted a commission from the Capuchin church in Cadiz. For the first time in his life he went to decorate another city. While working on the Marriage of St. Catherine (1682) Murillo fell from the scaffold, in critical condition he was brought to his native Seville, where he soon died. After his death he left very modest private property, but many students and innumerable followers. His works influenced later Spanish painting and anticipated 18th-century European Rococo painting. — LINKS — Self-Portrait — Penitent Magdelene (1660, 123x108cm; 1068x936pix, 649kb _ ZOOM to 2136x1872pix, 2172kb) — Adoration by the Shepherds (1655, 187x228cm) _ Murillo, like Velázquez and Ribera, is one of the few Spanish artists with an international reputation. In his own lifetime Murillo's genre scenes were exported to Flanders, but much greater interest was aroused by his work in the early nineteenth century, when, following the Napoleonic invasion of Spain, the agents of French and other collectors were able to acquire and export pictures by him of other types. In this early painting the typical characteristics of the Seville school, by which he was formed, can be observed. There is an accent on clear detail, emphasized by the contrasts of light and shade. The rather high viewpoint creates the impression that one has just walked in on to the scene represented: such effects of intimacy and directness were typical of the aims of Counter-Reformation Baroque. — The Rozenkranz Madonna (1655; 594x401pix, 62kb _ ZOOM to 1386x937pix, 145kb) — Immaculate Conception (96x64cm; 936x611pix, 128kb) _ Murillo's Immaculada has nothing of a Queen of Heavens. Standing on a crescent moon, as described in the Apocalypse, surrounded by angels holding the mirror as a sign of purity and the palm frond as a sign of suffering, she stands in a relatively unaffected poses. Her face is pale, her eyes gaze upwards in yearning. We can sense the pain she has experienced and her mourning for her son. Quiet and introverted, she epitomizes the humble anticipation of the hereafter, transfigured only by a mild smile, that is a hallmark of Murillo's paintings of this period; the 'Estilo vaporoso'. — A different though similar Immaculate Conception (96x64cm; 588x325pix, 79kb _ ZOOM to 1372x757pix, 197kb) _ here the symbol of purity is not a mirror, but lilies. — Annunciation (1655; 600x738pix, 106 kb _ ZOOM to 1400x1723pix, 236kb) _ a different though similar Annunciation (1665, 125x103cm; 867x699pix, 104kb) _ Mary is not shown in the thralls of mystical rapture, nor in those of devotion. Murillo's Mary is a very young woman with an almost childlike face, who is kneeling at her prie-dieu, her eyes cast pensively downwards. She has set aside her basket of handiwork and seems to have been disturbed by an angel in the midst of her prayers. Were it not for the presence of his wings, even the angel would seem to be a very worldly creature. He is not floating in some uncertain sphere, nor is he a vision, but is kneeling on the floor tiles. Strong-limbed and barefoot, almost like a peasant, his pretty face is framed by dark locks. With one hand, he points towards the dove of the Holy Spirit, which floats above their heads in a truly unearthly and intangible celestial vision. With the other hand, he makes a gesture of persuasion: he seems to be explaining the purpose of his mission quite vigorously to Mary. Although the event seems plausible in a distinctly earthly manner - even the putti in the clouds do not alter this impression - the miracle is clear. Mary's innocence, underlined by the lily as a symbol of purity, is of such intensity that the spectator senses her quiet reservation, the excited anticipation of the prophesied miracle and her astonishment at the experience. — The Young Beggar (1645, 134x100cm) _ A journey to Madrid in about 1643 enabled Murillo to study the Venetian and Flemish paintings forming part of the royal collections. Otherwise, he remained permanently in Seville, his native city, and his life was a simple one, free of serious problems. By 1645 his style had hardened in its final mold, as may be seen in the paintings executed about this time for the Franciscans, with the first of those figures of rascals and beggars in which he was to specialize. This is the spirit, for example, of the Boys Eating Melon and the Young Beggar, which is a study in yellowish ochers and browns. — The Little Fruit Seller (1675, 149x113cm) _ A little girl with the face of a Madonna, a contented little boy examining the earnings she holds in her hand and a basket full of grapes which is, in itself, a still-life of the highest quality. Does this painting show us a life free from worry? The apparent poverty of the two figures, their unchild-like but necessary employment suggest a sense of hopelessness and misery. And yet these children seem to exude an air of rapt serenity and contented enjoyment of life. Herein lies Murillo's Christian message: because these children do not see their poverty as a burden, and because they do not regard their existence as joyless, they are beautiful and "dignified". It is thus a painting that could adorn the walls of any ruler's palace. — Boys Eating Fruit (Grape and Melon Eaters) (1650) _ A journey to Madrid in about 1643 enabled Murillo to study the Venetian and Flemish paintings forming part of the royal collections. Otherwise, he remained permanently in Seville, his native city, and his life was a simple one, free of serious problems. By 1645 his style had hardened in its final mold, as may be seen in the paintings executed about this time for the Franciscans, with the first of those figures of rascals and beggars in which he was to specialize. This is the spirit, for example, of the Boys Eating Melon, in Munich, and the Boy, which is a study in yellowish ochers and browns. — The Toilette (1675, 147x113cm) _ The room is so dark that we can hardly make out the objects in it: beneath the little window aperture stands a rough-hewn wooden table, on which there is an earthenware jug and a white cloth. Another earthenware jug stands on the floor. At the right-hand edge of the painting, we see a spindle and distaff on a stool. The old woman who has just set them aside is now crouching down to look for lice in the little boy's hair. He is sitting on the floor, leaning against her knee and petting a little dog that is begging for a piece of the bread the boy is stuffing into his mouth. Both figures are very poorly dressed, and the few details of the room further emphasize the impression of poverty. Murillo is probably the only Baroque painter of rank to have portrayed poverty with such kind and conciliatory traits. There is no sign here of the wealthy man's notion of the picturesque simple life, so frecquently found in this genre. Murillo chooses the colors of the earth. The earthenware dishes, the stones of the wall, the wood of the furniture, the faces and clothes of the two figures, all are united by this warm coloring which seems so natural that it does not even raise the question of poverty or wealth, happiness or unhappiness. — Flight into Egypt (1660, 155x125cm) _ Murillo painted several variants of this popular subject, this is not the best among them. — Holy Family with the Infant St John (1660, 156x126cm) _ The companion-piece of the Flight into Egypt. The two playing children in the foreground are typical children representations of the artist, however, more seentimental than those in his genre paintings. — Children with Shell (1670, 104x124cm) _ The scene depicts Christ Child giving drink to the child St John the Baptist. — The Holy Family (1660, 186x155cm) _ A characteristic feature of the painting is that St Joseph is depicted as a rather old man. Thus Murillo ignored the iconographic rule generally respected in that period. — Rebecca and Eliezer (1650, 107x171cm) _ The painting, showing the influence of Titian, Rubens and Van Dyck, depicts a story from the Genesis: the servant of Abraham, who was sent to Mesopotamia to look for a wife to Isaac, Abraham's son, selects the the charming girl who gave water to him and his camels. — The Infant Jesus Distributing Bread to Pilgrims (1678, 219x182cm) _ Murillo painted this picture when he was sixty; it was commissioned by Canon Justino de Neve for the refectory of a home for retired priests in Seville, hence the choice of theme: the distribution of bread to the elderly, an action symbolizing charity. It is a characteristically vertical Baroque composition with the Child in the centre; his face, however, bears no trace of the light-heartedness characteristic of Murillo's young beggar boys. It is a childish face, charming, yet exalted and spiritualized; but the painting of the body indicates how closely Murillo observed the proportions and movements of small children. Equally beautiful and exalted is the face of the ministering angel. But Mary, seated behind the Child, is the embodiment of motherhood, a human being of this earth, comely but without true beauty, anxious and concerned as she watches her little son. In the seventeenth century subtle brushwork and carefully selected hues were used to separate what was earthly from what was heavenly. The angel, the Infant Jesus and the putti floating among the clouds are represented as visionary beings; but Mary, the daughter of earthly people, and the group of three pilgrims are all represented as human beings of this earth as real as the basket of bread which is as closely observed as any still-life. It is assumed that the pilgrim with a book is the portrait of Canon Justino de Neve. Several later (19th century) copies of the painting are known. _ detail 1 _ It is assumed that the pilgrim with a book is the portrait of Canon Justino de Neve who commissioned the painting. _ detail 2 (Mary) — A Girl and her Duenna (1670, 106x127cm) _ According to tradition, the models were from the province of Galicia and attained a certain notoriety as courtesans in Seville. A man of the people, Murillo obviously intended this picture to both surprise and amuse the spectator. Yet the casualness of this painting masks a sure sense design - note how the girls' heads form a diagonal that bisects the canvas - and great technical skill. Although he had begun by selling his pictures at fairs, Murillo became conversant with and influenced by the works of Velázquez, Titian and Rubens, presumably as a result of studying the royal collections in Madrid. But Murillo never lost his popular appeal or his gift for the telling expression, such as the smile of the uppermost woman, indicated only by her eyes and cheeks. — Childhood of the Virgin. (1665) — The Holy Family with a Little Bird. (1650, 144x188cm) _ This is a little-known genre scene: intimate, lyrical and very different from Murillo's customary representations of floating putti and healthy street Arabs. Here the Holy Family is portrayed as a simple human family: the artist shows a carpenter and his wife as he might have seen them at home in seventeenth-century Spain, dressed in the costume of the day. There are no haloes in this picture, nor is there any hint of the schematic arrangement seen in Baroque religious pictures. There is an element of sentimentality in the scene: the parents watch fondly as the Child plays with the dog and the bird. There could hardly be a more unambiguous example of the infusion of naturalism into a religious theme which is so characteristic of Spanish art; there is also in this picture something reminiscent of the homely atmosphere found in Netherlandish painting. — The Miracle in the Chapel of the Portiuncula (1675; 594x420pix, 82kb _ ZOOM to 1386x980pix, 194kb) _ With the Virgin Mary interceding at His side, Christ, holding a cross, is seen blessing a kneeling Saint Francis of Assisi [1181 – 03 Oct 1226], presumably imparting on him the stigmata (wounds on hands, feet, and side similar to those of Christ on the cross), though the scene differs from that described by Brother Leo, according to whom while Francis Bernardone was in meditation on Mount Alvernia in the Apennines in 1224 on or about the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (14 September), he received from an apparition of Christ crucified (without Mary) the stigmata, which periodically bled during the remaining two years of his life. This miracle has a memorial on 17 September, separate from the feast of Saint Francis on 04 October. — Saint Joseph with Infant Jesus (600x415pix, 100kb _ ZOOM to 1400x968pix, 247kb) — Saint Joseph with Toddler Jesus (1666; 841x429pix, 24kb) — The Good Shepherd (1660; 742x592pix, 28kb _ ZOOM to 1400x1122pix, 230kb) _ Child Jesus sitting, and sheep to His left. — The Good Shepherd (1678; 600x450pix, 102kb _ ZOOM to 1400x1050pix, 308kb) _ Child Jesus standing, and sheep to His right. — The Young and the Old (600x428pix, 90kb _ ZOOM to 1400x998pix, 204kb) _ — The Prodigal Son Receiving His Portion of Inheritance (1667) — The Departure of the Prodigal Son (1667) — The Prodigal Son Feasting with Courtesans (1667) — The Prodigal Son Driven Out (1667) — The Prodigal Son Feeding Swine (1667) — The Return of the Prodigal Son (1667) — A Boy with a Dog (1655) [in lithograph: “Le Mendiant”] — 7 prints at FAMSF |
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Died on 01 January 1768: Jean
Restout II, French Neo-classical
painter, specialized in historical
subjects, born on 25 March 1692. — Jean Restout came of a family of painters and did many religious and mythological pictures, and worked for a time for Frederick the Great. Born in Rouen, he was the son of Jean Restout, the first of that name, and of Marie M. Jouvenet, sister and student of Jean Jouvenet. In 1717, the Royal Academy having elected Restout a member on his work for the Grand Prix, he remained in Paris, instead of going to Italy, exhibited at all the salons, and filled successively every post of academical distinction. His works, chiefly altar-pieces, ceilings, and designs for Gobelin tapestries, were engraved by Cochin, Drevet, and others. — Jean Restout II received his early artistic training from his father, Jean Restout I, and from his mother, Marie Catherine Jouvenet Restout. By 1707 he was in Paris as the student of his famous uncle and godfather, Jean Jouvenet [1644 – 05 Apr 1717], the leading religious painter there. In 1717 Jean Restout painted Vénus demandant à Vulcain des armes pour Énée. Ce tableau lui mérita d'être agréé de l'Académie le 29 May 1717. On y voit l'influence de Jouvenet: même caractère de dessin, mêmes formes larges de drapées, même principe de disposer ses groupes, mêmes entente de la perspective et de toute la magie du clair-obscur. He followed with Vénus montrant ses armes à Enée. He was received (reçu) by the Académie on 28 June 1720, the year in which he married Marie-Anne Hallé [1704–], a daughter of the painter Claude-Guy Hallé. Unlike most history painters of his time, Restout did not travel to Italy to study. He had a solid training from Jouvenet, and perhaps also from Nicolas de Largillièrre, and, once established in the 1720s, he had a studio of assistants and students. He occasionally attended the drawing school of the Académie, where from 1730 he was professor of drawing, in which capacity he wrote his Essai sur les principes de la peinture. Jean Restout II painted many religious and mythological pictures, and worked for a time for Frederick the Great. His works, chiefly altar-pieces, ceilings and designs for Gobelin tapestries, were engraved by Cochin, Drevet and others. Jean Restout II had an impressively active and successful career. He specialized in serious historical subjects, especially sombre and large-scale religious scenes, which seem out of place in a period renowned for its rather more amorous Rococo art and fêtes galantes, although they demonstrate the continuity of the tradition of monumental figure painting throughout the 18th century. — LINKS — La Pentecôte (1732, 465x778cm) _ Cet immense tableau, à l'origine cintré et plus large, a été peint pour le réfectoire de l'abbaye de Saint-Denis. Les apôtres entourant la Vierge reçoivent du Saint-Esprit (invisible ici) des flammèches qui leur donnent le don des langues, pour aller évangéliser le monde. — Ananie imposant les mains à Saint Paul (1719, 99x80cm) — Mort de Sainte Scolastique (1730, 338x190cm; 1094x604pix, 81kb) — Venus Presenting Arms to Aeneas (1717, 137x105cm; 640x488pix, 58kb) _ Restout has faithfully illustrated the passage from Virgil's Aeneid (Book VIII) in which Venus descends amid clouds to bring weapons made by Vulcan to her son Aeneas: "Lo! the presents perfected by my lord's promised skill! so that thou mayest not shrink, my child, from challenging anon the haughty Laurentines or brave Turnus to battle." This painting is believed to be the diploma piece that Restout submitted in 1717 for his "agrégation," or entrance as an associate member of the French Royal Academy. It was the beginning of a successful career as a history painter, that would include his election as professor, director, and finally chancellor of the Academy. THE FAMILY — Jean Restout II is the most famous of a family of painters from Caen, of which the first was Marguérin Restout, active in the early 17th century. Marguérin’s son Marc-Antoine Restout [1616–1684] was a student of Noël Jouvenet and a friend of Nicolas Poussin, with whom he apparently visited Rome in 1642. He established a reputation in both Rome and the northern Netherlands, as well as in his native Caen. Several of Marc-Antoine's ten children became artists: Jacques Restout [?1653–before 1702], a student of Poussin's nephew Pierre Le Tellier [1614-1680], became a painter, etcher, writer, and abbot of the Premonstratensian abbey of Moncel, near Vitry.; Eustache Restout [1655–1743], prior of the Premonstratensian abbey of Mondaye, trained under Jean Jouvenet and made some fine decorative ceiling paintings as well as being active as an architect and sculptor.; Jean Restout I [1663–1702] married Jouvenet’s sister Marie-Madeleine-Catherine Jouvenet [1655–1698], herself a painter, and acquired a reputation for history painting. They were the parents of Jean Restout II, whose son, Jean-Bernard Restout [22 Feb 1732 – 18 Jul 1797], is the second most renowned painter in the family, best known for his portraits; and whose daughter (painter Anne-Catherine Restout?) married Noël Hallé [1711 – 1781]. Pierre Restout [1666–] was also a painter and monk. Charles Restout [1668–] was a Benedictine monk at Saint-Denis, who painted church ceilings and altarpieces. Thomas Restout [1671–1754] visited Rome and the Netherlands to study his art before establishing himself as a portrait painter. |
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