Last year, I visited the Wallace Collection, and enjoyed The Venus Series by François Boucher, the Rococo master.
The series is a celebrated group of three large-scale vertical paintings. The fourth got added into the mix years afterwards.
I really like Rococo. I think they are wonderful, silly and a pure aesthetic delight. I think today this art is considered rather passe. The colour palettes and forms are a wonderful way to explore ideas about femininity and luxury, even modern ones.
The Judgment of Paris by François Boucher (1754)
The central panel. Gorgeous.
Rococo was all about lightness, charm, and curves. The cherubs are a decorative tool to better frame the composition. The tree goddesses do look like they could be sisters.
It depicts one of the most famous incidents of Greek mythology, leading to the Trojan War. It follows the story of Paris, a prince of Troy, who is forced to settle a dispute between three goddesses over who is the fairest: Juno, Minerva, and Venus. He picks Venus. In the myth of the judgment, she won the contest by bribing Paris. She promised him the hand of the most beautiful mortal woman in the world: Helen of Sparta.
Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan by François Boucher (1754)
Love it. So magical.
In this dramatic composition of Boucher’s masterpiece, Vulcan (the Roman name for a Greek god) is the husband of Venus. He plays the role of the “wronged husband” who has just caught his wife in an affair with Mars, the god of war.
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Venus and Vulcan by François Boucher (1746)
Another beautiful painting.
Venus visiting her husband Vulcan at his forge to request armor for her son, Aeneas.
Venus seems to radiate light.
I love Venus’s wrap around the more rigid, angular, and dark-toned form of Vulcan. Boucher juxtaposes their bodies to create a visual harmony. The sheer number of cherubs with a swirling & upward energy leads the eye across the entire painting.
Cupid a Captive by François Boucher (1754)
Wonderful. Based on the popular theme of love disarmed.
They really are beautiful paintings.
ReplyDeleteI find Boucher's work kind of kitschy.
ReplyDeleteI know.
DeleteBoucher is not easy to approach with a 21st Century mindset. These were painted in response to the gravity and seriousness of the Baroque. These particular paintings are actually great examples of the elements that make him both great and distant.
Thanks for the comment. 👍😁
Luminous, theatrical, and delightfully indulgent, where myth, sensuality, and swirling cherubs turn divine drama into pure visual pleasure
ReplyDeleteI rather like these. Having trouble posting comment for some reason.
ReplyDelete👍Thanks Margaret.
DeleteVoluptuous and sensuous.
ReplyDeleteYep. 🔥
DeleteWonderful paintings I've never seen before. Thank you for bringing them to my attention. What strikes me is the rather odd postures of the folk depicted. Plus of course the nudity. I assume that was the artistic trend at the time. And we're reminded that there's nothing new about people having affairs.
ReplyDeleteHi Nick.
DeleteThe nude is a very long-standing tradition of European art going back to classical greek and the romans. It was revived in the Renaissance, and it captures the ideal beauty and form, and even the divine itself. Mythology (as in this case) is about the gods/goddesses, and the nude is the pure form. They used to do the olympics in the nude.
The sinuous and curved movements on the canvass is also a deliberate signature of the rococo. your eye is supposed to move around and taken in the excessive ornaments. A bit playful, very rococo.
I'm sure the nudity gets all the attention, but I'm struck by the Kewpie doll faces, even among the adults
ReplyDeleteI wondered something about that myself, I think it's to do with the fact that these aren't women - they're goddesses/nymphs. They are the ideal form. That's my theory.
DeleteThanks for commenting Kirk.