Arte e ciência no século XVII: Charles Le Brun e o temperamento melancólico.

Na tradição hipocrático-galênica, a condição de saúde estava relacionada ao equilíbrio de humores corpóreos que, em diferentes combinações, resultavam em temperamentos. Esses temperamentos determinavam o caráter do homem, seus aspectos psicológicos, aparência física e afetos. Dos principais temperamentos (sanguíneo, colérico, melancólico e fleumático), o melancólico foi considerado o mais nocivo e de alterações psíquicas mais diversificadas, sendo objeto de estudo de tratados médicos, anatômicos e representações artísticas, literárias e filosóficas em diferentes períodos históricos, desde a Antiguidade Clássica. No âmbito artístico, inspirou uma iconografia exclusiva das emoções e da constituição física e fisiognomônica dos indivíduos, fortalecendo a relação intrínseca entre a alma e o corpo, principalmente na expressão do rosto. O objetivo deste artigo é estudar como o temperamento melancólico se relacionava com a produção iconográfica do artista Charles Le Brun (1619-1690). Este estudo levou à conclusão de que Le Brun transpôs para o campo da iconografia os conhecimentos da medicina hipocrático-galênica, da fisiognomonia e anatomia relacionando os traços faciais e personalidade. Separando corpo e alma relacionou os humores ao estudo das paixões em substituição ao estudo do caráter. Além disso, ele se preocupou com aspectos teóricos da pintura.

De Zonnekoning en de Republiek. De uitbeelding van de Nederlanden in de Spiegelzaal van Versailles

Nowadays, Versailles is mainly a tourist attraction, which draws 8.1 million visitors per year (figure 2018, Versailles Annual Activity Report). However, it was built in the second half of the 17th century to serve as the centre of the French monarchy and exemplifies a symbolic vision of the ideal monarchy, according to Louis XIV. The Hall of Mirrors is the focal point of the political representation displaying the French wealth and power of the Grand Siècle. The Franco-Dutch War (1672–1678) is the main subject of the historical decoration, painted by Charles Le Brun. The Dutch Republic is an essential part of the political theory depicted here, and serves as a counter-example to the idealised absolute monarchy embodied by the Sun King himself. Hence, the small Dutch Republic, then in its heyday, is a crucial partner to France in this elegant albeit conflictual pas de deux. The manner of portraying the Republic is significant for the understanding of the royal credo of Louis’s France, and emphasises the essential role of the Dutch Republic in 17th-century Europe.

Reliefs of the Summer Palace: An Early Onset of Russian Antiquity

The Summer Palace, a ship-like realisation of Peter the Great’s high aspirations in fields both mundane and aesthetic, wears an admirably preserved and well-maintained girdle of twenty-eight bas-reliefs and one haute-relief crowning the entrance. Themed mostly around Ovid’s Metamorphoses, they are both propagandistic allegories and reflections on the private life of the incumbent. The accumulation of traditional motives is handled with a freedom betraying a lack of thoroughness in representation as well as a desire for all things classical. The reliefs thus appear to be neither an unfinished piece by the great Andreas Schlüter nor an accurate reproduction of well-known artefacts crafted by his continuers (Braunstein, Mattarnowi, or even Le Blond, et al.) and marred beyond recognition by clumsy handiwork on the home turf, but an early attempt of domestic art to think Classics while going under its own steam in their execution. The living force behind these pieces was, evidently, Peter the Great himself: the in­ventiveness of composition uninhibited by poor execution, the introduction of recurrent sea­faring (sea is an omnipresent background in reliefs even when the plot borrowed from Ovid is definitely terrestrial) and amatory motifs along with a close unity of literary and allegoric, intimately personal and statesmanlike, point in his direction. The engravings by Giovanni Andrea Maglioli on which (as Renate Kroll has shown) five relieves are modelled also correlate with Ovid representing the amorous Neptune transformed in various sea beasts. However, the majority of plots and artistic decisions prove to be sourced in a set of 226 engravings by Charles Le Brun originally accompanying a free verse translation of the Metamorphoses by Isaac de Berserade. The later copy of this work spotted by Peter either in Holland during the Great Embassy (1697–1698) or among the books of his European friends at home and finally reproduced in Petersburg in 1722 delivered the first and, admirably, never quite so full plastic representation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Russia.

Piața de artă în Franța în sec. XVII-XVIII

Conçu comme une continuation de l’essaye „L’affaire de l’Art. Le Marché d’Art aux Pays Bas, au XVIIe siècle” (AMET 2018), cette étude suit la création artistique et le destinataire de l’œuvre d’art en France, aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. À la Cour du Roy Soleil, la possession d’un capital culturel (objets de luxe, tableaux, bijoux, calèches) était un moyen de montrer le rang, la vertu et la grandeur à travers la valeur associée à ces objets. Louis XIV a exercé un contrôle absolu de la production des œuvres d’art crées à Versailles, dans tous les domaines d’art : architecture, sculpture, peinture, théâtre, ballet, musique… Il y a réalisé un mouvement culturel et artistique et s’est entouré d’une pléiade d’artistes : Charles Le Brun, Nicolas Poussin et Pierre Mignard (premiers peintres du Roy), Molière (ses pièces étaient jouées à Versailles et dans les salons de Paris), Jean-Baptiste Lully (qui encourageait la passion du Roy pour la danse), Jean Racine (l’„historique officiel” du Roy), André le Nôtre (architecte du parc et des jardins de Versailles), Jean de la Fontaine, Charles Perrault etc. Parallèlement à la vie artistique de Versailles, pendant le XVIIIe siècle on assiste au développement du marché libre d’art à Paris ; dans le magasin appartenant à Edme-François Gersaint, Au Grand Monarque, les clients achetaient des tableaux, des gravures, des sculptures, des naturalia et d’autres objets de luxe. Gersaint a été le premier à Paris qui a réalisé des ventes aux enchères, suivant le modèle des Pays Bas. Ces enchères et les chroniques d’art de Denis Diderot ont beaucoup contribué à la „démocratisation” du public des arts plastique en France et dans tout le monde, à partir du XVIIIe siècle.

WILANÓW WORKS OF ART IN THE GERMAN CATALOGUE SICHERGESTELLTE KUNSTWERKE IM GENERALGOUVERNEMENT

Before the outbreak of WW II, the works of world art collected at the Wilanów Palace were considered to be the largest private collection in the Polish territories. Just the very collection of painting featured 1.200 exhibits. Apart from them the Wilanów collection contained historic furniture, old coins, textiles, artistic craftsmanship items, drawings, and prints, pottery, glassware, silverware, bronzes, sculptures, as well as mementoes of Polish rulers. Already in the first weeks of the German occupation, assigned officials selected the most precious art works from the Wilanów collections, and included them in the Sichergestellte Kunstwerke im Generalgouvernement Catalogue. The publication presented the most precious cultural goods secured by the Germans in the territory of occupied Poland. It included 76 items: 29 paintings and 47 artistic craftsmanship objects. In 1943, the majority of the works included in the quoted Catalogue were transferred to Cracow. A year later, the most valuable exhibits from Wilanów were evacuated to Lower Silesia. What remained in Cracow was only a part of the collection relocated from Wilanów. The chaos of the last weeks preceding the fall of the Third Reich caused that many art works from the Wilanów collection are considered war losses. Among many objects, included in the above Catalogue, there are several Wilanów paintings: Portrait of a Man by Bartholomeus van der Helst, Portrait of a Married Couple by Pieter Nason, Allegory of Architecture, Painting, and Sculpture by Pompeo Batoni, Allegorical Scene in Landscape by Paris Bordone, and The Assumption of Mary by Charles Le Brun.

EL RAPTO DE LO SUBLIME

El empirismo inglés revitaliza el concepto de lo sublime formulado por Longino. Los vínculos con la retóricas cuya finalidad es fascinar al oyente, sitúan esta categoría estética entre las más elevadas (hypsos) estrategias de seducción. Lo sublime eleva nuestra alma hasta el éxtasis, inhibe nuestro razonamiento y quedamos atónitos, horrorizados, nuestras facultades paralizadas, sumidos en un estado de abandono. Determinadas imágenes de la escatología cristiana, como las grandes machines de las cubiertas de los templos, perseguían un desprendimiento tal, una elevación hacia el límite, hacia lo inconmensurable. El primer pintor de Luis XIV, Charles Le Brun, encargado de todo el aparato propagandístico que rodeaba el absolutismo, ofrece en Les expressions des passions de l’âme una extensa taxonomía de las emociones humanas. No podemos evitar leer en el dibujo que dedica al ravissement (encantamiento o rapto), evidentes analogías con l´enlèvement ou ravissement de l’Église, anteriormente relatado. Vinculado con la asimilación de los signficantes exiliados, con aquello que produce vértigo, lo sublime funciona como discurso de legitimación del orden vigente y se sustenta en la entrega del sujeto. La corte dieciochesca no malgastaba sus recursos, profundamente conocedora de la importancia de las estrategias de la vigilancia y control. Lo sublime requiere individuos conmovidos, casi exaltados en éxtasis religioso, capaces de adhesiones fascinadas incluso ante los actos más horrendos. En La doctrina del shock, Naomi Klein describe la estrategia: para imponer reformas impopulares, se suele aprovechar algún estado de shock. Mientras los ciudadanos se recuperan del trauma se produce un proceso de de aceptación. ¿Y si no sucede espontáneamente ninguna crisis? La respuesta es terrorífica. Muchos autores hablan del papel clave de lo sublime en la legitimación de la modernidad y en la configuración del relato postmoderno. Su recuperación ¿responde a una nueva crisis de legitimación?

The Lutheran Church in Rodowo as a Place of the Spiritual Meeting of Three Social Strata

The article presents the hitherto unknown decoration of the furnishing of a little Protestant church in Rodowo in Ducal Prussia, founded by the local aristocratic family ofthe Schack von Wittenaus. After firstly providing an overview of the complicated confessional history of the region, the church, and its patrons, the second part of this article presents the emblematic decoration of church benches based on the “Four Elements,” with models for tapestries designed by Charles Le Brun and published in Paris in 1668 (and later in Germany). The original emblems, with descriptions by Charles Perrault, refer to King Louis XVI as the ideal ruler, but in Rodowo they emphasize the position of the Prussian nobility as the most important social group in the country. The second part of the article presents four unknown easel paintings on the church walls, with a symbolic presentation of Lutheran piety connected with Pietism in Ducal Prussia. The entire artistic ensemble in the church refers to the role of noblemen as leaders in the social and religious life of Ducal Prussia.