More about Simon Vouet
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Simon Vouet was a groundbreaking artist in Italy and France.
Painting was the family trade. Simon Vouet’s father, Lawrence, and brother, Aubin, were both painters, but never as successful as Simon
Vouet was a seasoned traveler. If Vouet were alive today, his Instagram would be filled with images of Constantinople, Italy, London, and Paris, but with an artistic flair, no doubt. Sultans, kings, popes, aristocrats, English ladies, and Artemisia Gentileschi were big fans. Vouet decorated everything from palaces and churches to hotels and private homes. Being a Caravaggio superfan, Vouet spread Italian Baroque through France.
Being a recipient of a royal pension meant he could spend his money on booze and broads. Or study art in Italy, which he most appropriately did. He was so revered in Italy that he even won papal commissions for two Saint Peter’s altarpieces, decorated chapels, and sent two altarpieces to Naples and Genoa. In Rome, Vouet rose to the top of the art world by becoming president of the Accademia di San Luca, holding the position for three years instead of the customary one. This guy made big waves in Italy.
Then ol’ pal King Louis XIII stamped his feet and Vouet returned home to France. Unfortunately for Vouet, Louie wanted the best painters in his court, and Vouet was one of the best. Italian art was hotly desired in France, where the art scene had been lagging behind, and Vouet brought back all he had learned from Italy--the chiaroscuro of Caravaggio, the colors of Veronese--and transformed French art. Moving back to France and becoming a court painter proved not a bad career move. It gave Louie the kicks to see Vouet paint in front of him, and Vouet even gave the King drawing lessons. In 1648, Vouet founded the French Academy. Paris churches demanded altarpieces from him, and private commissions had him painting allegorical and mythological figures. But then there was that jealousy over Nicholas Poussin. Old pal Louie summoned Poussin to court in 1640 and Vouet felt his presence a threat, but that vanished when Poussin returned to Italy.
Despite the presence of threats, Vouet was a celebrity painter until his death, rising to the top and stayed there to enjoy it all the way to the pearly gates.
Sources
Sources
- Blunt, Anthony, Beresford, Richard, Art and Architecture in France, 1500-1700, Volume 62. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999.
- Bussagli, Marco, Reiche, Mattia, Baroque& Rococo. New York; Sterling, 2007.
- Christies, “Three portraits by the artist who taught Louis XIII to draw,” March 11, 2020. Accessed March 23, 2020. https://www.christies.com/features/Simon-Vouet-portraits-made-for-King-…
- Harris, Ann Sutherland, Seventeenth-century Art and Architecture. London: Lawrence King Publishing, 2005.
- Haskell, Francis, Patrons and Painters: A Study in the Relations Between Italian Art and Society in the Age of the Baroque. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1980.
- Hobbes, James R., The Picture Collector’s Manuel, Adapted to the Professional Man, and the Amateur. London: T. & W. Boone, 1849.
- Merot, Alain, French Painting in the Seventeenth Century. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.
- Olson, Todd, Poussin and France: Painting, Humanism, and the Politics of Style. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.
- Rosenberg, Pierre, Funaroli, Marc, France in the Golden Age: Seventeeth-century French Paintings in American Collections. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1982.
- Zirpolo, Lilian H., The A to Z of Renaissance Art. Lanham: The Scarecrow Press, Inc, 2009.
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Here is what Wikipedia says about Simon Vouet
Simon Vouet (
French: [vwɛ]; 9 January 1590 – 30 June 1649) was a French painter who studied and rose to prominence in Italy before being summoned by Louis XIII to serve as Premier peintre du Roi in France. He and his studio of artists created religious and mythological paintings, portraits, frescoes, tapestries, and massive decorative schemes for the king and for wealthy patrons, including Richelieu. During this time, "Vouet was indisputably the leading artist in Paris," and was immensely influential in introducing the Italian Baroque style of painting to France. He was also, according to Pierre Rosenberg, "without doubt one of the outstanding seventeenth-century draughtsmen, equal to Annibale Carracci and Lanfranco."
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