French Painting In The 14th 15th And 16th Centuries

This examination of a distinctive period of French painting discusses the interrelated artistic cities and regions that formed essential links in Renaissance-era artistic exchanges. The interaction between the French courts and Paris during the International Gothic period, the diffusion of ars nova in France during the days of Charles VII and Louis XI, and the standardization of a French style based on Jean Fouquet's model are among the artistic geographies considered in this analysis. Reproductions of key works that illustrate cultural confluences accompany an updated introduction to the scholarship of these relationships.

Recent studies and exhibitions, combined with the discovery of work by hitherto little-known artists have enabled Merot to take a fresh look at the period and to suggest a new configuration. The great names of the period - Poussin, Vouet, Le Sueur, de La Tour, Mignard - are located in relation to other developments. Merot includes discussion of the impact of contemporary literature and political, philosophical and social influences. The foundation of the Royal Academy of Painting in 1648, and the influence of Mazarin on artistic developments are considered with other issues of status, patronage and connoisseurship. The book provides a panorama of the period; the text is profusely illustrated in colour, and accompanied by a comprehensive bibliography.

"Since 1957, when Martin Davies published The French School, an unprecedented amount of research has been undertaken on French seventeenth-century artists. Taking account of this, Humphrey Wine has written afresh on the seventeenth-century paintings in Davies's catalogue; he has also written detailed entries on all subsequent acquisitions in this field. These include, as well as paintings by Claude and Poussin, major pictures such as La Hyre's Allegory of Grammar, the Le Nain brothers' Adoration of the Shepherds and Le Sueur's Alexander and his Doctor.".