 This lecture is entitled Simon Vuet and French Baroque Painting, Bridge from the Past or Bridge to the Future. Now, Simon Vuet was yet another very important French Baroque painter, and like so many of the other French Baroque painters we've looked at in this course, he spent a lot of time in Italy, and that greatly influenced his career, the work that he was to produce both well in Italy and when he returned to France. Now he was in Italy from 1613 to 1627, and this over here is a portrait of Vuet, a self-portrait. He was there from 1613 to 1627, and these 14 years were incredibly important in his development as a painter. He was influenced both by Italy's classicism, let's write that here, classicism, as well as by the always influential work of Caravaggio. So these were two prevailing styles that would have influenced anyone who would have visited Italy. And interestingly, generally speaking, Vuet's work shows more interest in the style of Caravaggio early in his career, and later in his career he moved towards more light-hearted but also classicizing paintings, and we'll take a look at exactly what that means in the coming examples. And these two works here are by Simone Vuet, and this is an example of something that's a little bit more in the style of Caravaggio, and this painting on the right is an example of something that's a little more in the style of his later works. And we'll take a closer look at those in just a few minutes. So he moved back to France in 1627 because the king called him back, so he was a very important and well-liked artist in his native France, and he was so well-liked that he became president of the Academy of Painting and an official court painter, and his style really came to prevail in France in the 1630s and 40s, and would actually prevail really the rest of the century, and anticipate some styles that were to come, not only later in the 17th century, but also into the 18th century. So let's take a closer look at this image in the center here. Okay, so you see this image on the right here. This is Vuet, and this is his Saint Jerome and the Angel, and it dates from their early 1620s. And on the left we see Caravaggio's take on the same subject. This is also a Saint Jerome. So I think you can see right away similarities between these two paintings. The appearance of Saint Jerome, the general setting of these two paintings, the use of Tenebrism or Chiaroscuro, the color scheme, all of these things that we should be really familiar to by now, the kind of hallmark features of Caravaggio's painting. You can see all of that at work here in Vuet's Saint Jerome and the Angel. But as I said, when I introduced Vuet, he moved away from this a little bit as we move later on into his career. And let's take a look at that now. So this example here is known as the Toilet of Venus. Venus, and it dates from about 1629. Now this is really the style that Vuet became famous for and would really prevail in later Baroque painting. And just as a real quick side note, the name Toilet, that might sound kind of strange to you. Well, our modern understanding of that word we think of a bathroom. But Toilet originally referred to if you think of, it's comparable to sitting down, a woman sitting down at a table and maybe doing her hair, putting on makeup, putting on some jewelry, perfume, that sort of thing. So it's sort of attending to your physical appearance, your personal appearance. It's not, it doesn't refer to the modern sense of Toilet. So in case that's confusing, that's what is meant when you hear Toilet in some of these older paintings. So again, this is very typical of Vuet's work later on. And we see, I think, a greater elegance. We've moved away from some of that gritty realism that is characteristic of Caravaggio and his followers. There's really a swirling movement throughout this composition. Also you'll notice there's brighter colors, bright colors, as opposed to the more muted monochrome with really the light standing out. And that's another thing that's different here. We don't have that same extreme use of chiaroscuro or tenor brism. But chiaroscuro, no more. Instead, we do see brightly lit figures, but it's more of an even use of the color. There's also a certain sensuousness and sumptuousness to this, which is anathema to the style of Caravaggio. It's much more light-hearted in subject matter as well as the style. It's pleasant, pleasant to look at. And interestingly, I think you can see there is still the continuation of classical themes in this painting. Classical themes. Not only is this an image of Venus, who is Greco-Roman goddess, but the way this is depicted, we see an interest in the physical form, a kind of sculptural quality in this form, as well as the general treatment of some of these details within the painting show a clear influence of classical art. Let's take a look at one more example here. Okay, so on the left we have Vue's Toilet of Venus, and on the right is another toilet scene. It's known as Lady at Her Toilet, and it's by a Dutch artist known as Gerard Ter Borch. You don't need to worry about the details of who he is, but just an interesting example, this is Dutch, and it dates from the 1660s. About 1660 actually. And it's interesting to compare these two because I think it shows the difference between these two cultures in basically the same subject matter. Now, again, they're both these sort of elegant women at their toilet, so again attending to their physical appearance. But there are some very, you know, clear differences obviously. Right? We have Venus, a goddess, versus a woman in her home. And the setting here for Venus is kind of ambiguous. We're not clear, you know, is this inside, does this outside, what's going on. So it's a little bit of a fantasy setting. We have more subdued colors in the Dutch scene, which is, you know, one of these famous Dutch interior scenes. And then we have these really rich bold colors again that are typical of the way in the toilet of Venus. So again we have this understated versus bold quiet versus exuberant. So a very different take on basically the same theme. So I think that tells you a little bit about the difference between the interest of Dutch Baroque painting versus French Baroque painting. And let's look at finally one last comparison. Okay, so once again we have Bué's The Toilet of Venus on the left. And this is compared to Georges de La Tour. And this is his penitent Magdalene. Penitent Magdalene. And you should be familiar with Georges de La Tour because we just looked at him. And I think you hopefully will remember right away, this is pretty typical of Georges de La Tour, this use of chiaroscuro, the presence of the candle. And then again, this is very typical of Bué's later work. So it's interesting to compare these two because both artists are typical of French Baroque. And they're working at roughly the same time in France. So again we have some similarities here. They're both young women contemplating themselves in front of a mirror. But that's basically where the similarities between these two paintings end. First off, one is a biblical figure in Georges de La Tour. This is a biblical story. And in Bué's we have a mythological figure. And in case you aren't aware of the story of Magdalene she was a repentant sinner. So that's a pretty big difference from Venus, who is the goddess of love. So right away that changes the meaning of these two images. We have bright colors versus muted colors. Bright light versus this tenor brism, chiaroscuro. Meditation on sumptuousness and sensuousness and beauty versus a meditation on death. Notice this skull here and morality and mortality. So I think this is an interesting one and you could compare these two paintings for quite a while. But they both represent what's typical of the French Baroque. But it is Bué's style ultimately that would supersede Georges de La Tour's style. I highly suggest the styles that would predominate for decades to come. . . . . . .