[Born at Andelys, in France, 1594. Died in Rome, 1665. Aged 71.]
The greatest master of the French school of painting. His taste for art
was revealed at a very early period. As a child, he drew upon his lesson
books and the walls of the school-room. At eighteen, he went to Paris,
where he frequented schools from which he learned but little. Genius and
self-tuition did more for him. At thirty he painted the “Death of the
Virgin” for a chapel at Nôtre-Dame, and so well, that the poet Marino
took the painter to Rome, and recommended him to Cardinal Barberini with
the energetic words, “You will see a youth who has the spirit of one
possessed.”[31] The Italian syllables are yet stronger. In Rome he fell
into poverty, and sold his pictures for a mere trifle. He worked against
the spirit and taste of the age in both France and Italy: throwing
himself, with his faithful comrade in art, the sculptor Fiamingo,
entirely into the study of the ancient Greek sculpture. He was recalled
to his own country by Richelieu, in 1640, and was created Court Painter.
In 1643, he returned to Rome, whence no solicitations could again draw
him. He lived twenty-five years in great calm and happiness, married to
the sister of Caspar Poussin, without children, without a pupil, without
a man-servant--esteeming quiet in the house above everything. He was
devoted to his art, a great student in it, and of all science bearing
upon it. His genius was altogether antique. He transported himself into
an elder world, and lived there. Thus in religious subjects he seems to
lean towards the Old Testament; and he revels in the wealth of Greek
mythology. His classical spirit ennobled landscape both in its own forms
and by the poetical significance and treatment of the figures. His art,
like poetry, seemed to open to him an escape from the world about him. A
style of severe simplicity, truth, high beauty, harmony.
[31] Vederete un giovane che ha la furia del diavolo.
[From the marble in the Louvre, by Blaise.]