Le Nain
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| :''[[17th century art]]'' | :''[[17th century art]]'' | ||
| - | '''Baroque painting''' is the [[painting]] associated with the [[Baroque]] [[cultural movement]]. The movement is often identified with [[political absolutism|Absolutism]], the [[Counter Reformation]] and Catholic Revival, but the existence of important Baroque art and [[Baroque architecture|architecture]] in non-absolutist and [[Protestant]] states throughout Western Europe underscores its widespread popularity. | ||
| - | Most important and major painting during the period beginning around 1600 and continuing throughout the [[17th century]], and into the [[early 18th century]] is identified today as [[Baroque]] painting. Baroque art is characterized by great drama, rich, deep color, and intense light and dark shadows. As opposed to [[Renaissance art]], which usually showed the moment before an event took place, Baroque artists chose the most dramatic point, the moment when the action was occurring: [[Michelangelo]], working in the [[High Renaissance]], shows his [[David (Michelangelo)|David]] composed and still before he battles [[Goliath]]; [[Bernini]]'s baroque [[David (Bernini)|David]] is caught in the act of hurling the stone at the giant. Baroque art was meant to evoke emotion and passion instead of the calm rationality that had been prized during the Renaissance. | + | The three '''Le Nain brothers''' were [[Painting|painter]]s in 17th-century [[France]]: |
| + | '''Antoine Le Nain''' (c.1599-1648), | ||
| + | '''Louis Le Nain''' (c.1593-1648), and | ||
| + | '''Mathieu Le Nain''' (1607-1677). | ||
| + | The three were born in [[Laon]] (Mathieu in 1607; Antoine and Louis were originally believed to have been born in 1588 and 1593, respectively, but those dates have since been disputed: they may have instead been born just before and just after 1600), and by 1630, all three lived in [[Paris]]. | ||
| - | Among the greatest painters of the [[Baroque]] period are [[Caravaggio]], [[Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn|Rembrandt]], [[Peter Paul Rubens|Rubens]], [[Diego Velázquez|Velázquez]], [[Nicolas Poussin|Poussin]], and [[Vermeer]]. Caravaggio is an heir of the [[Humanism|humanist]] painting of the [[High Renaissance]]. His [[realism (visual arts)|realistic]] approach to the human figure, painted directly from life and dramatically spotlit against a dark background, shocked his contemporaries and opened a new chapter in the history of painting. Baroque painting often dramatizes scenes using [[chiaroscuro]] light effects; this can be seen in works by Rembrandt, Vermeer, [[Le Nain]] and [[Georges de La Tour|La Tour]]. The Flemish painter [[Antony Van Dyck]] developed a graceful but imposing portrait style that was very influential, especially in England. | + | Because of the remarkable similarity of their styles of painting and the difficulty of distinguishing works by each brother (they signed their paintings only with their [[surname]], and many may have been collaborations), they are commonly referred to as a single entity, ''Le Nain''. Louis is usually credited with the best-known of their paintings, a series of scenes depicting [[peasant]] life. These genre paintings are often noted for being remarkably literal, yet sympathetic; the subjects are never grotesque or seem ridiculed. There remains some question, however, as to whether some of the assumed "peasants" were truly from the rural class--many seem to be simply the bourgeois at leisure in the country. |
| - | The prosperity of 17th century Holland led to an enormous production of art by large numbers of painters who were mostly highly specialized and painted only [[genre painting|genre scenes]], [[Landscape art|landscapes]], [[Still-life]]s, [[portrait]]s or [[History painting]]s. Technical standards were very high, and [[Dutch Golden Age painting]] established a new repertoire of subjects that was very influential until the arrival of [[Modernism]]. | + | The brothers also produced [[Miniature (illuminated manuscript)|miniature]]s (mainly attributed to Antoine) and [[portrait]]s (attributed to Mathieu). Mathieu became the official painter of Paris in 1633, and was made a [[chevalier]]. |
| - | == History == | + | Antoine and Louis died in 1648. Mathieu lived until 1677. |
| - | The [[Council of Trent]] (1545–63), in which the [[Roman Catholic Church]] answered many questions of internal reform raised by both [[Protestantism|Protestants]] and by those who had remained inside the Catholic Church, [[Art_in_Roman_Catholicism#Council_of_Trent|addressed the representational arts]] in a short and somewhat oblique passage in its decrees. This was subsequently interpreted and expounded by a number of clerical authors like [[Molanus]], who demanded that [[painting]]s and [[sculpture]]s in church contexts should depict their subjects clearly and powerfully, and with decorum, without the stylistic airs of [[Mannerism]]. | + | |
| - | This return toward a [[Populism|populist]] conception of the function of ecclesiastical art is seen by many [[Art history|art historians]] as driving the innovations of [[Michelangelo Merisi|Caravaggio]] and the [[Carracci]] brothers, all of whom were working (and competing for commissions) in Rome around 1600, although unlike the Carracci, Caravaggio persistently was criticised for lack of decorum in his work. | + | |
| - | However, although [[sacred art|religious painting]], [[history painting]], [[allegories]], and [[portraits]] were still considered the most noble subjects, [[landscape]], [[still life]], and genre scenes were also becoming more common in Catholic countries, and were the main genres in Protestant ones. | + | |
| - | ===The Term=== | + | |
| - | The term "Baroque" was initially used with a derogatory meaning, to underline the excesses of its emphasis. Others derive it from the mnemonic term "Baroco" denoting, in logical ''Scholastica'', a supposedly laboured form of [[syllogism]]. | + | |
| - | In particular, the term was used to describe its eccentric redundancy and noisy abundance of details, which sharply contrasted the clear and sober rationality of the Renaissance. It was first rehabilitated by the [[Switzerland|Swiss-born]] [[Art History|art historian]], [[Heinrich Wölfflin]] (1864–1945) in his ''Renaissance und Barock'' (1888); Wölfflin identified the Baroque as "movement imported into mass," an art antithetic to [[Renaissance]] art. He did not make the distinctions between [[Mannerism]] and Baroque that modern writers do, and he ignored the later phase, the academic Baroque that lasted into the 18th century. Writers in French and English did not begin to treat Baroque as a respectable study until Wölfflin's influence had made German scholarship pre-eminent. | + | The Le Nain paintings had a revival in the 1840s and, thanks to the exertions of [[Champfleury]], made their appearance on the walls of the Louvre in 1848. Champfleury was a friend of Realist painter [[Gustave Courbet]], a theorist of Realism and writer on French popular arts. The 'naive' quality of these works, with their static poses,'awkward' compositions and peasant subjects were admired and may well have exercised some influence on many nineteenth-century artists, notably Courbet himself. |
| - | + | ||
| - | A rather different art developed out of northern realist traditions in 17th century [[Dutch Golden Age painting]], which had very little religious art, and little [[history painting]], instead playing a crucial part in developing secular genres such as [[still life]], [[genre painting]]s of everyday scenes, and [[landscape painting]]. While the Baroque nature of Rembrandt's art is clear, the label is less use for [[Vermeer]] and many other Dutch artists. [[Flemish Baroque painting]] shared a part in this trend, while also continuing to produce the traditional categories. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | ==Notable Baroque painters== | + | |
| - | ===Dutch=== | + | |
| - | *[[Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn|Rembrandt]] (1606-1669) | + | |
| - | *[[Frans Hals]] (1580-1666) | + | |
| - | *[[Jacob Isaakszoon van Ruisdael|Jacob van Ruisdael]] (1628-1682) | + | |
| - | *[[Johannes Vermeer]] (1632-1675) | + | |
| - | *[[Jan Steen]] (1626-1679) | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | ===Flemish=== | + | |
| - | *[[Peter Paul Rubens]] (1577-1640) | + | |
| - | *[[Anthony van Dyck]] (1599-1641) | + | |
| - | *[[Jacob Jordaens]] (1593-1678) | + | |
| - | *[[Jan Brueghel the Elder]] (1568-1625) | + | |
| - | *[[Frans Snyders]] (1579-1657) | + | |
| - | *[[David Teniers the Younger]] (1610-1691) | + | |
| - | ===French=== | + | |
| - | *[[Jean de Beaugrand]] (1584-1640) | + | |
| - | *[[Georges de La Tour]] (1593-1652) | + | |
| - | *[[Claude Lorrain]] (1600-1682) | + | |
| - | *[[Le Nain]], [[Antoine Le Nain]] (c.1599-1648), | + | |
| - | [[Louis Le Nain]] (c.1593-1648), and | + | |
| - | [[Mathieu Le Nain]] (1607-1677) | + | |
| - | *[[Hyacinthe Rigaud]] (1659-1743) | + | |
| - | *[[Nicolas Poussin]] (1594-1665) | + | |
| - | ===Italian=== | + | |
| - | *[[Caravaggio]] (1571-1610) | + | |
| - | *[[Guercino]] (1591-1666) | + | |
| - | *[[Annibale Carracci]] (1560-1609) | + | |
| - | *[[Orazio Gentileschi]] (1563-1639) | + | |
| - | *[[Artemisia Gentileschi]] (1592-1652/53) | + | |
| - | *[[Agostino Carracci]] (1557-1602) | + | |
| - | *[[Ludovico Carracci]] (1555-1619) | + | |
| - | *[[Pietro da Cortona]] (1596-1669) | + | |
| - | *[[Salvator Rosa]] (1615-1673) | + | |
| - | *[[Giovanni Battista Tiepolo]] (1696-1770) | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | ===Portuguese=== | + | |
| - | *[[Josefa de Óbidos]] (1630-1684) | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | ===Spanish=== | + | |
| - | *[[Francisco Ribalta]] (1565 - 1628) | + | |
| - | *[[José de Ribera]], ''Lo Spagnoletto'' (1591 - 1652) | + | |
| - | *[[Francisco Zurbarán]] (1598 - 1664) | + | |
| - | *[[Diego Velázquez]] (1599 - 1660) | + | |
| - | *[[Alonso Cano]] (1601 - 1667) | + | |
| - | *[[Bartolomé Esteban Murillo]] (1617 - 1682) | + | |
| - | *[[Juan de Valdés Leal]] (1622 - 1690) | + | |
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Revision as of 14:47, 16 September 2009
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The three Le Nain brothers were painters in 17th-century France: Antoine Le Nain (c.1599-1648), Louis Le Nain (c.1593-1648), and Mathieu Le Nain (1607-1677). The three were born in Laon (Mathieu in 1607; Antoine and Louis were originally believed to have been born in 1588 and 1593, respectively, but those dates have since been disputed: they may have instead been born just before and just after 1600), and by 1630, all three lived in Paris.
Because of the remarkable similarity of their styles of painting and the difficulty of distinguishing works by each brother (they signed their paintings only with their surname, and many may have been collaborations), they are commonly referred to as a single entity, Le Nain. Louis is usually credited with the best-known of their paintings, a series of scenes depicting peasant life. These genre paintings are often noted for being remarkably literal, yet sympathetic; the subjects are never grotesque or seem ridiculed. There remains some question, however, as to whether some of the assumed "peasants" were truly from the rural class--many seem to be simply the bourgeois at leisure in the country.
The brothers also produced miniatures (mainly attributed to Antoine) and portraits (attributed to Mathieu). Mathieu became the official painter of Paris in 1633, and was made a chevalier.
Antoine and Louis died in 1648. Mathieu lived until 1677.
The Le Nain paintings had a revival in the 1840s and, thanks to the exertions of Champfleury, made their appearance on the walls of the Louvre in 1848. Champfleury was a friend of Realist painter Gustave Courbet, a theorist of Realism and writer on French popular arts. The 'naive' quality of these works, with their static poses,'awkward' compositions and peasant subjects were admired and may well have exercised some influence on many nineteenth-century artists, notably Courbet himself.
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Le Nain" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
