French Romanesque

Noah's Ark - c. 1100 - Fresco - Abbey Church, Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe (click photo for larger image)The fresco featured here belongs to a Noah cycle related in eight episodes, in the context of an Old Testament series extending over the vault of the former Benedictine monastery church. A New testament sequence adorns the presbytery and galleries, and further frescoes are in the vestibule and the crypt. The superb series of paintings on the barrel vaulting were executed in one session by at least four artists. The remaining groups of works were apparently the responsibility of a single, leading artist in each case. Notice how the perspective seems to read up—rather than back. This is a fine example of work that isn’t concerned with formal elements such as proportion and scale—but which nevertheless is extraordinary fine art.

An Impressionist Fascination

Claude Monet - The Rocks of Belle Ile (Rough Sea) - 1886 - Oil on canvas, 65 x 82 cm - Musée d'Orsay, Paris (click photo for larger image)French painter Claude Monet (1840-1926) was the founder and leader of the Impressionist movement in France. The movement's name, Impressionism, is derived from his work entitled “Impression, Sunrise” of 1873. Monet adhered to the principles of Impressionism throughout his long career and is considered the most consistently representative painter of that school, as well as one of the foremost painters of landscape in the history of art. At Etretat in Normandy, Monet was fascinated by the sheer cliffs and the bizarre shape of the Manneporte, an arch of rock. He returned to the subject over several years, and to the jagged crags and stormy Atlantic at Belle-Ile-en-Mer in Brittany. Using Impressionist dabs to establish an irregular pattern was almost as important in such a work as recording a striking view.

Mallet: Libertine Scenes

Jean-Baptiste Mallet - Gothic Bathroom - 1810 - Oil on canvas, 41 x 33 cm - Château-Musée, Dieppe (click photo for larger image)Although French painter Jean-Baptiste Mallet (1759-1835) was wildly popular during his day, no in-depth biography is available. We DO know that he exhibited at every Salon between 1793 and 1827, a noteworthy testament to his success. He was awarded a second class medal in 1812 and a first class medal in 1817. Mallet executed very few portraits, preferring instead to paint nymphs bathing and graceful classical nudes. He established his reputation with genre scenes (often done in gouache) of fashionable and often libertine subjects, always elegant and refined. During the Napoleonic Era, it was permissible to cast a vaguely churchy air over blatantly erotic scenes, such as we see here in the “Gothic Bathroom.” Shown at the Salon of 1810, the female figure undresses before a washstand that strongly resembles a baptismal font—by the light of a stained-glass window set with scenes of love. “The blasphemous comedy of this picture is sufficient warning to take Napoleonic religion with a pinch of salt.”

Illumination!

Jean Le Noir (with contributions by his daughter, Bourgot) - Psalter of Bonne of Luxembourg - c. 1348 - Manuscript (Inv. 69.86), 126 x 88 mm - Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (click photo for larger image)French illuminator Jean Le Noir (active 1331-1375 in Paris) is an important figure in the history of French manuscript illumination. He is first mentioned in 1331, in the service of Yoland of Flanders, Duchess of Bar. Later he left her employ to work for King John II of France (reigned 1350-64). In 1358, during John's imprisonment in London, he and his daughter, Bourgot, who is also mentioned as an illuminator ('enlumineresse'), were given a house in Paris by the regent Charles, in recognition of services rendered to the King. In 1372 Jean Le Noir received gifts from Jean, Duc de Berry, and is referred to as 'illuminator to the King and to the Duc’. The piece featured here is widely regarded as his main work. This psalter was copied and illuminated for the private devotions of Bonne of Luxembourg (1315-1349), daughter of the Bohemian king, the wife of Duke John of Normandy, subsequently King John II of France (John the Good, reigned 1350-1364). The book contains 150 psalms and a calendar. The miniatures were produced by Jean Le Noir with the probable contribution of his daughter, Bourgot. “The miniatures are characterised by sensitive, noble lines, and their silhouettes and internal modeling are marked by graphic refinement and delicacy. The miniature on folio 83v illustrates Psalm 53, "The Fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." The figure of the fool, an ugly fat man with a Semitic profile has been exploited for anti-Jewish propaganda.”

A Major Force During a Time of Change

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes - The Poor Fisherman - 1881- Oil on canvas - 5’ 1" x 6' 3 3/4" (155 x 192.5 cm) - Musee d'Orsay, Paris (click photo for larger image)French artist Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1824-1898) was a painter who became the president and co-founder of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and whose work influenced a great many other artists. “The Poor Fisherman was the first of Puvis de Chavannes' paintings to be bought by the State. But the work sparked a lively reaction at the Salon of 1881 and was not bought until 1887 when it was again shown to the public by the art dealer Durand-Ruel. So it took six years for a national museum to dare to show this radical painting that was so unrealistic in the light of the conventions of the time.” - Musee d’Orsay