DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.67683#0544
yjz. FRANCE
out of it. One almost inevitably thinks of Watteau, for it is
charming grace expressed spontaneously and with marvelous
workmanship — “a pool of iridescent loveliness.” This lady is
dressed in a fluffy gown of pale blue with a narrow border of
rich black as if to give it strength. She is sitting at the piano
entirely absorbed in her music. The brush strokes indicate with
great accuracy the textures of the stuffs, the hair, and the sheen
of the polished wood. The room is rather shadowy but there
is an amazing feeling in it of depth and atmosphere. There is
nothing affected, elegant, or monumental about the picture;
but the great masses of rich, luminous color that seem to melt
into each other, the suave line, the ease and spontaneity both of
composition and of technique, make the canvas enchanting.
Another French painter of importance, who lived quiet and
serene, apart from the turmoil of conflicting ideas, was Pierre
Cecile Puvis de Chavannes (182.4-1898 a.d.). Typical of his work
are the mural decorations in the Pantheon representing the life of
Saint Genevieve. These paintings almost inevitably recall those
of Piero della Francesca (Pl. 106 c). Like Piero, like the Gothic
glassmakers and tapestry weavers, and like Giotto, Puvis de
Chavannes never forgot that he was decorating a wall, not
creating a pictorial illusion. For this reason he did not carry
the eye far into the distance, but kept the painting flat, in a
very few planes. The figures he simplified until they became
almost geometrical silhouettes fitted into the landscape like
architectural members of a building. Nowhere are there deep
shadows or violent contrasts, but the harmonious massing of
soft silvery tones — blue, rose, green, and white. Even the night
scene of Saint Genevieve Watching over the Sleeping City (Pl. 148 d)
conforms to these principles, and also shows how much poetic
and imaginative quality there was in the painter’s conception
of the scene as the aged Saint, the patron saint of Paris, stands
almost ghostlike by the parapet watching with great tenderness
over her loved city. Thus Puvis de Chavannes in his wall paint-
ings with their serenity, poetic imagination, intellectual clarity,
and quiet decorative beauty, has set a standard for modern mural
decoration.
The Impressionists and their immediate followers, after all,
were luminists and scientists. Perugino had expressed the spa-
ciousness of nature; Giovanni Bellini and Giorgione had given
it poetry and mood; Velasquez had filled it with atmosphere;
Claude and Turner had painted ecstatic visions of light and air.
It was the accomplishment of the French Impressionists really to
out of it. One almost inevitably thinks of Watteau, for it is
charming grace expressed spontaneously and with marvelous
workmanship — “a pool of iridescent loveliness.” This lady is
dressed in a fluffy gown of pale blue with a narrow border of
rich black as if to give it strength. She is sitting at the piano
entirely absorbed in her music. The brush strokes indicate with
great accuracy the textures of the stuffs, the hair, and the sheen
of the polished wood. The room is rather shadowy but there
is an amazing feeling in it of depth and atmosphere. There is
nothing affected, elegant, or monumental about the picture;
but the great masses of rich, luminous color that seem to melt
into each other, the suave line, the ease and spontaneity both of
composition and of technique, make the canvas enchanting.
Another French painter of importance, who lived quiet and
serene, apart from the turmoil of conflicting ideas, was Pierre
Cecile Puvis de Chavannes (182.4-1898 a.d.). Typical of his work
are the mural decorations in the Pantheon representing the life of
Saint Genevieve. These paintings almost inevitably recall those
of Piero della Francesca (Pl. 106 c). Like Piero, like the Gothic
glassmakers and tapestry weavers, and like Giotto, Puvis de
Chavannes never forgot that he was decorating a wall, not
creating a pictorial illusion. For this reason he did not carry
the eye far into the distance, but kept the painting flat, in a
very few planes. The figures he simplified until they became
almost geometrical silhouettes fitted into the landscape like
architectural members of a building. Nowhere are there deep
shadows or violent contrasts, but the harmonious massing of
soft silvery tones — blue, rose, green, and white. Even the night
scene of Saint Genevieve Watching over the Sleeping City (Pl. 148 d)
conforms to these principles, and also shows how much poetic
and imaginative quality there was in the painter’s conception
of the scene as the aged Saint, the patron saint of Paris, stands
almost ghostlike by the parapet watching with great tenderness
over her loved city. Thus Puvis de Chavannes in his wall paint-
ings with their serenity, poetic imagination, intellectual clarity,
and quiet decorative beauty, has set a standard for modern mural
decoration.
The Impressionists and their immediate followers, after all,
were luminists and scientists. Perugino had expressed the spa-
ciousness of nature; Giovanni Bellini and Giorgione had given
it poetry and mood; Velasquez had filled it with atmosphere;
Claude and Turner had painted ecstatic visions of light and air.
It was the accomplishment of the French Impressionists really to