Papers by Barbara Hryszko
Early Modern French Studies, 2024
Résumé
Par le truchement du premier commis La Chapelle, le surintendant Louvois commanda un ensem... more Résumé
Par le truchement du premier commis La Chapelle, le surintendant Louvois commanda un ensemble de tableaux devant servir de modèles à des tapisseries. Cette commande était un instrument d’intrigue ayant pour objectif d’évincer Le Brun, Premier peintre du roi, de la direction de la Manufacture des Gobelins et d’écarter de lui les peintres de son atelier. Cet article montre comment ces manœuvres ont détérioré leur ambiance de travail en créant entre eux une rivalité malsaine. La hiérarchie que les commanditaires ont créée dans les deux équipes alors constituées en imposant aux peintres les sujets des tableaux et les modèles à imiter, puis en leur versant des gages inégaux et injustifiés, était de nature à créer des conflits. Ainsi, Verdier, qui était le plus proche de Le Brun, se vit verser une faible rémunération, tandis que Corneille, qui avait quitté son ancien maître et s’était rapproché de Mignard, protégé de Louvois, fut grassement rétribué. L’injustice de ces rémunérations est notamment attestée par la réception que les tapisseries fabriquées à partir des tableaux ont connue à leur arrivée à Versailles en 1693 : les courtisans n’ont pas trouvé de motifs de critiquer l’œuvre de Verdier, jugée si tendancieusement par Louvois.
Il Capitale Culturale: Studies on the Value of Cultural Heritage, 2023
Abstract
An extract from Sarnicki’s work Ovidius inter Sarmatas expresses the belief – based on O... more Abstract
An extract from Sarnicki’s work Ovidius inter Sarmatas expresses the belief – based on Ovid’s words – that the Roman poet lived among the Sarmatians, who were the ancestors of Poles. The aim of this article is to search for the origins of the fascination with Ovid in Poland using historical, literary, and cultural analyses. In the 16th century, Ovid’s links with Sarmatia gave rise to the legend that he had lived in Poland, had learned to speak the Polish language, and had died and been buried near the Black Sea, that is, within the borders of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was claimed that Ovid was the first Polish poet, and his ‘naturalisation’ and the ‘discovery of his grave’ shaped the consciousness of the ruling classes and the elites of the Commonwealth. This phenomenon, combined with the widespread popularity of Metamorphoses, may have left its mark on the character of the decorations of the Polish palaces, including the 17th- and 18th-century royal residences, such as the Wilanów Palace and the Royal Baths Palace in Warsaw, which are filled with numerous Ovidian motifs.
![Research paper thumbnail of Owidiański wątek romansu Apolla i Issy: Ikonologia obrazu François Bouchera [The Ovidian Theme of the Love Between Apollo and Issa. The Iconology of the Painting by François Boucher]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/120281297/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Perspektywy Kultury / Perspectives on Culture, 2023
François Boucher, malując w 1750 r. dla Madame de Pompadour, metresy francuskiego króla Ludwika X... more François Boucher, malując w 1750 r. dla Madame de Pompadour, metresy francuskiego króla Ludwika XV, obraz zatytułowany Apollo objawiający swoją boskość Issie (il. 1), sięgnął nie tylko do opery Issé A.C. Destouchesa i A.H. La Motte’a posiłkującej się epizodem z Metamorfoz Owidiusza, ale również odniósł się do wcześniejszych ujęć graficznych podjętego tematu, takich jak: frontyspis libretta F. Ertingera datowany na rok 1697 (il. 2), frontyspis libretta wydanego w Amsterdamie w 1699 r. (il. 3), sztych przypisywany Ertingerowi z dzieła T. Corneille’a z 1697 r. (il. 4), rycina F. Chauveau z dzieła I. de Benserade’a z 1676 r. (il. 5). Już zmiana układu kompozycji obrazu w stosunku do tych sztychów jest wymowna, a odczytana dzięki zastosowaniu analizy formalnej i formalno-genetycznej, jednak głęboko ukryte znaczenie obrazu jest możliwe do wyśledzenia dzięki metodzie ikonologicznej. Przesłanie dzieła staje się czytelne dopiero w świetle genezy ikonograficznej obrazu, pominiętej w dotychczasowych badaniach. Malowidło, sięgające do mitu o miłości pasterskiej, było manifestacją tęsknoty za arkadyjskim szczęściem, kochaniem wzajemnym i beztroskim. Mit o Apollu i Issie doskonale wyrażał sielankowo-miłosną atmosferę charakterystyczną dla kultury XVIII w., która była także osobistym pragnieniem serca królewskiej kochanki, chcącej wzbudzić na nowo zaangażowanie monarchy w ich relację. Ikonografia dzieła Bouchera jest czytelna dopiero w kontekście jej genezy oraz historii i funkcji obrazu jako dekoracji pałacu Bellevue – prywatnej „Arkadii” – mitycznej krainy wiecznej szczęśliwości króla i jego faworyty.
ABSTRACT
In 1750, when François Boucher painted Apollo Revealing His Divinity to the Shepherdess Issa for Madame de Pompadour, the mistress of the French king Louis XV (fig. 1), he drew not only on Destouches and La Motte’s opera Issé, based on an episode from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, but also on graphic depictions of the subject, including the frontispiece to Ertinger’s libretto of 1697 (fig. 2) and 1699 (fig. 3), a print attributed to Ertinger from Corneille’s 1697 work (fig. 4), and a print by Chauveau from Benserade’s 1676 work (fig. 5). Significantly, Boucher rearranged the composition of these prints in his painting, and today the meaning of his composition can be understood thanks to formal and formal-genetic analyses. However, the deeply hidden message of this painting can only be understood through the iconological method. The message of the work becomes clear only in the light of the iconographic origin of the painting, which was overlooked in previous analyses. The painting was a manifestation of the longing for Arcadian happiness and reciprocal and carefree love. The myth of Apollo and Issa perfectly expressed the atmosphere of idyllic love, which was also a desire of the royal mistress, who wanted to rekindle the monarch’s commitment to her relationship. The iconography of Boucher’s work becomes transparent in the context of the painting’s origin, history, and function as a decoration for Bellevue Palace – a private “Arcadia” – a mythical land of eternal happiness for the king and his favorite.
"Rocznik Filozoficzny Ignatianum" ["The Ignatianum Philosophical Yearbook"] Vol. 27, No. 2 (2021), 217–232 , 2021
The aim of this article is to present the circumstances of Noël Coypel’s appointment as rector of... more The aim of this article is to present the circumstances of Noël Coypel’s appointment as rector of the French Academy in Rome and to trace the route of his didactic journey from Paris to Rome with the Prix de Rome scholars entrusted to him. The paper is an attempt to answer the following questions: why a more difficult route through the Alps was chosen (and not, for example, a river and sea route), in what way was the journey edu cational, and what role did the documents given to Coypel play in securing the expedition. The article is based on an analysis of administrative records during the reign of Louis XIV, lists of superintendents and directors of the French Academy in Rome, accounts of royal buildings, and minutes of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris. The paper uses the analytical method, the comparative method, the synthetic method, source criticism, argumentum ex silentio inference, and the geographical method when discussing the itinerary. Although the trip was purposeful and related to Coypel’s new position, he designed it in such a way as to not so much get to the destination quickly, but to show his students as much as possible. Coypel introduced the royal scholars to masterpieces of painting and sculpture at centers along a route through Dijon, Lyon, Chambéry, the Mont Cenis Pass, Turin, Milan, Bologna and Florence. The crossing of the Alps, though danger ous, was most often chosen because of the artistic reputation of the cities there. The trip was educational at the expense of comfort or safety. Coypel, as a guide and teacher (paidagōgós) led his charges by overseeing their learning during and through the journey. Wandering to the Eternal City was part of a painter’s education (paideía) in the seventeenth century and was part of Coypel’s didactic work allowing young people to be inspired by direct exposure to masterpieces. The journey had an eminently didactic and artistic character, but also an initiatory one, as it gradually initiated and prepared the students for the experience of Rome, the center of artistic life at that time.
Re-inventing Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Pictorial and Literary Transformations in Various Media, 1400-1800, ed. Karl A.E. Enenkel and Jan de Jong, (Intersections vol. 70), Leiden, Brill, 2020, ISBN: 978-90-04-42489-0, 2020
https://brill.com/view/book/9789004437890/BP000013.xml
![Research paper thumbnail of Geneza ikonografii obrazu Bachantka grająca na tamburynie Alexandre’a Ubeleskiego [Genesis of the Iconography of Alexandre Ubeleski’s Painting Bacchante Playing the Tambourine]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/65710260/thumbnails/1.jpg)
„Studia Muzealne”, 2020
Analysis of the painting Bacchante Playing the Tambourine by Alexandre Ubeleski (Ubelesqui) (ill.... more Analysis of the painting Bacchante Playing the Tambourine by Alexandre Ubeleski (Ubelesqui) (ill. 1) within its proper cultural context should evoke the formal and iconographic models, i.e. the sculptures of the Versailles garden and the prints depicting them (ill. 6–14). The above models and the antique iconographic tradition of the Bacchanalia (ill. 4–5) allow, among other things, to identify the young man depicted in the painting as a satyr, while the earlier attribution saw him as a shepherd.
Analysis of the symbolism of the painting (ill. 1) and the preparatory drawing for it (ill. 3) reveals that the painting presents exquisite Bacchanalia, where natural instincts are subordinated to convention, while the erotic elements smuggled in under the cover of mythology are softened and balanced by the virtuous expression of the Bacchante and the satyr. Numerous contradictory yet complementary aspects (mythology - 17th-century French culture; eroticism typical of the Bacchanalia - a moralizing theme; allegory of the five senses - the genre character of an intimate garden concert) are merged in Alexandre Ubeleski’s painting into a single, semantically multifaceted and visually attractive composition.
Folia Historiae Artium, 2020
The in-depth analysis of the form and iconography of three drawings by Alexandre Ubeleski (1649/1... more The in-depth analysis of the form and iconography of three drawings by Alexandre Ubeleski (1649/1651–1718) allow for their grouping, the identification of their subject matter and potential sources of inspiration, their dating, and the discovery of their ideological meaning. The drawings are the designs of paintings presenting mythological lovers: Apollo and Issa (Fig. 1), Diana as Luna and Endymion (Fig. 2), and Bacchus and Ariadne (lost). Most probably, the artist prepared these scenes using François Chauveau’s drawings as a model. These drawings were designs of prints (Fig. 4 and 6) used to illustrating the poem of Isaac de Benserade entitled Metamorphoses d’Ovide en rondeaux (1676). Ubeleski’s drawings are related to the themes of operas composed in the second half of the 1690s, including Ariane et Bacchus (1696), Issé (1697), and Diane et Endymion (1698). Issé was particularly popular at that time and greatly contributed to popularising this rare Ovid’s theme. This allows us to put forward the hypothesis that a series of Ubeleski’s drawings could have been created at the same time. All three love stories depicted in the drawings present the unification of opposites: a god of sun and a nymph, a goddess of moon/hunting and a shepherd/hunter, and a god of wine and a girl abandoned by Theseus, and they also depict peculiar mythological “mésalliances” that link the immortal gods with beautiful yet mortal creatures. The question remains open whether the series of paintings planned by Ubeleski can be linked with the celestial bodies: the sun, the moon, and Corona Borealis, into which Ariadne’s diadem - a wedding gift from Bacchus - was transformed. The analysis of the drawings treated as a series offers an insight into the nature of Ubeleski’s work, and places it in a broader context of not only the arts but also the literature and music created within the culture of King Louis XIV’s court.
![Research paper thumbnail of Utracone dziedzictwo "pierworodnej córy Kościoła" na przykładzie sfery sacrum dawnej Île de la Cité [The lost legacy of the ‘eldest daughter of the Church’ exemplified by sacral architecture of the former Île de la Cité]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/64110609/thumbnails/1.jpg)
„Analecta Cracoviensia” , 2019
Conjuring up the image of the medieval buildings in the cradle of the capital of France triggers ... more Conjuring up the image of the medieval buildings in the cradle of the capital of France triggers reflection on the nature of its lost religious and cultural legacy both in the material and spiritual aspect. It also evokes thoughts on the ideological significance of its – no longer existing – sacral architecture, which stood out from other buildings on the island. The temples were important not only from the religious perspective but also from political and propaganda ones. Holy relics kept in them, especially the Crown of Thorns brought to the island from Constantinople by King Louis IX in 1239, elevated Paris to the rank of a new ideological capital of the empire. Dedicating churches to the first Gallic saints can be viewed as evidence of the significance of the island at the dawn of Christianity. Its opulent sacral architecture raised the prestige of the city and proved both its religiosity and prosperity. Sacral architecture of Île de la Cité was the essence of old French religiosity in which the whole traditional culture of France was rooted.
![Research paper thumbnail of Rewolucja urbanistyczna na terenie Île de la Cité w Paryżu w XIX w. – przyczyny i skutki [Urban Revolution of Paris’s Île de la Cité in the 19th Century – Reasons and Consequences]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/63852608/thumbnails/1.jpg)
STUDIA HISTORYCZNE , 2018
Urban changes in Paris taking place in the time of the second Empire were generally viewed as pos... more Urban changes in Paris taking place in the time of the second Empire were generally viewed as positive. First of all, they solved the problem of old, non-hygienic, overpopulated, and dirty districts of the city and enabled the police to control the area in case of revolutionary movements. Moreover, they created the possibility of placing central, most important offices in prestigious locations, which added authority and splendor to them. As a result, the center of Paris became hygienic, utilitarian, safe and representative. However, these positive aspects of urban changes introduced under Napoleon III soon received severe criticism. The location of the Cité and the island on which it was located proved to be a curse for its urban development. Seeking to squeeze as many monumental governmental objects as possible on a small area resulted in almost complete destruction of the mediaeval urban structure of the district. The urban revolution which changed the Cité became a dramatic symbol of the authoritarian power of the Second Empire.
Source: Notes in the History of Art , 2019
The article indicates the newly identified sources for two gobelins from the series prepared for ... more The article indicates the newly identified sources for two gobelins from the series prepared for King Louis XIV, titled Les sujets de la Fable. The tapestries from the series played a key role in the artistic policy of the Manufacture des Gobelins after accepting the position of the Superintendent of the Bâtiments du Roi by Louvois in 1683. In contrast to the other gobelins from this series, it was solely for the discussed pair that the sources of compositions have remained unidentified so far. This lacuna is filled by the present article, which identifies two drawings by Giulio Romano as the models for these gobelins. During the realization of the series, the drawings remained in the collection of the Sun King.
![Research paper thumbnail of Światło sześciu pór dnia w kulturze artystycznej siedemnastowiecznego Paryża [Light of the Six Parts of the Day in Artistic Culture of 17th-Century Paris]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/59238089/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Perspektywy kultury / Perspectives on Culture, 2018
The article aims at a presentation of the role and symbolism of light in the artistic culture of ... more The article aims at a presentation of the role and symbolism of light in the artistic culture of 17th-century Paris. An excellent source, enabling us to learn about this aspect of culture, is a lecture by Sébastien Bourdon (1616‑1671) delivered at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris on the 9th February 1669. In it, Bourdon tried to sensitise young students of the Royal Academy to the phenomena of light occurring in nature in the consecutive parts of the day, namely: dawn, sunrise, morning, noon, afternoon and sunset. The aim of the painter’s considerations was, firstly, to illustrate to the students the specificity of a given time of day by the careful description of the light characteristic for this time; secondly, to indicate various properties of individual types of light – favourable or unfavourable for the formation of the composition of a painting; and thirdly, to determine their influences on the soul, namely the ability to evoke the mood which should correspond well with the type of the subject matter taken. The text of Bourdon’s lecture is little known, but a valuable source for an insight into how students were instructed about the way to represent light and which time of day and the weather conditions were advisable to choose, taking into consideration compositional, iconographic and cultural factors. The source material also enables the reader to gain an insight into the manner of perceiving the mood and ideological content related to it, contained in a particular type of illumination. It is also an attempt at building an exegesis of the mood evoked by the light used in a painting, which should correspond with the character of the main scene. Thanks to this, looking at the works of the then painters through the prism of this theoretical argument, we can better understand the choices made by them during the creation in relation to the lighting used in a given scene, and thus better know the specificity of the then artistic culture.
Alexandre Ubelski’s works reveal his dual attitude towards the rules imposed by both artistic the... more Alexandre Ubelski’s works reveal his dual attitude towards the rules imposed by both artistic theory and patrons. On the one hand, the artist working for the royal court or the church authorities complied with the principles, but on the other hand, he broke some of rules by introducing his innovations. An example of the first attitude is evident in the series Les Sujets de la Fable (1684-85). In this royal commission he followed the full pattern of requirements. The other attitude reveals itself through a comparative study of a drawing and a painting Christ Healing the Sick for the Notre-Dame in Paris (1690-1691, according to my attribution). The paper demonstrates why and how certain elements from a preparatory drawing were eliminated from the painting.
BARBARA HRYSZKO
Alexandre Ubeleski (Ubelesqui): The Œuvre of the Painter and the Definition of hi... more BARBARA HRYSZKO
Alexandre Ubeleski (Ubelesqui): The Œuvre of the Painter and the Definition of his Style (pp. 226-280)
Summary
The purpose of this article is to identify the undisputed works of Alexandre Ubeleski (1649/1651–21 April 1718), a painter of Polish origin, who worked in the service of Louis XIV and was affiliated with the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris. A number of facts concerning the painter’s life were established on the basis of archival documentation. Thanks to the archival sources, history of individual works and the analysis of the painter’s signatures it was possible to identify Ubeleski’s output consisting of forty-four works, including: seven paintings, twenty preparatory drawings for paintings and seventeen académies. Another twenty-eight works are documented in prints and over fifty-three works are known only from written sources. Although the surviving works constitute merely a small percentage of the artist’s total output, they may serve as evidence in defining his style. One may hope that defining the painter’s style and the common element of all of his paintings and drawings shall serve as a basis for the future attribution of works that may appear, for instance, in the antiquarian trade.
The painter was one of many artists at the time whose work was strictly defined by the academic canon. Ubeleski’s style was fundamentally influenced by his studies at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris. This very institution was his basic source of inspiration. It was there that the artist learned about the works of great masters. The classical style and the preponderance of drawing in his works contributed to his early successes which started his academic career, and gained him the chair of a professor. Ubeleski’s artistic output is a representative sample of the French academic art in the reign of Louis XIV. The nature of his œuvre indicates that he was one of the Poussinistes, who valued classical models of great predecessors over creative experiments.
„Estetyka i Krytyka”, 29, 2/2013
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Papers by Barbara Hryszko
Par le truchement du premier commis La Chapelle, le surintendant Louvois commanda un ensemble de tableaux devant servir de modèles à des tapisseries. Cette commande était un instrument d’intrigue ayant pour objectif d’évincer Le Brun, Premier peintre du roi, de la direction de la Manufacture des Gobelins et d’écarter de lui les peintres de son atelier. Cet article montre comment ces manœuvres ont détérioré leur ambiance de travail en créant entre eux une rivalité malsaine. La hiérarchie que les commanditaires ont créée dans les deux équipes alors constituées en imposant aux peintres les sujets des tableaux et les modèles à imiter, puis en leur versant des gages inégaux et injustifiés, était de nature à créer des conflits. Ainsi, Verdier, qui était le plus proche de Le Brun, se vit verser une faible rémunération, tandis que Corneille, qui avait quitté son ancien maître et s’était rapproché de Mignard, protégé de Louvois, fut grassement rétribué. L’injustice de ces rémunérations est notamment attestée par la réception que les tapisseries fabriquées à partir des tableaux ont connue à leur arrivée à Versailles en 1693 : les courtisans n’ont pas trouvé de motifs de critiquer l’œuvre de Verdier, jugée si tendancieusement par Louvois.
An extract from Sarnicki’s work Ovidius inter Sarmatas expresses the belief – based on Ovid’s words – that the Roman poet lived among the Sarmatians, who were the ancestors of Poles. The aim of this article is to search for the origins of the fascination with Ovid in Poland using historical, literary, and cultural analyses. In the 16th century, Ovid’s links with Sarmatia gave rise to the legend that he had lived in Poland, had learned to speak the Polish language, and had died and been buried near the Black Sea, that is, within the borders of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was claimed that Ovid was the first Polish poet, and his ‘naturalisation’ and the ‘discovery of his grave’ shaped the consciousness of the ruling classes and the elites of the Commonwealth. This phenomenon, combined with the widespread popularity of Metamorphoses, may have left its mark on the character of the decorations of the Polish palaces, including the 17th- and 18th-century royal residences, such as the Wilanów Palace and the Royal Baths Palace in Warsaw, which are filled with numerous Ovidian motifs.
ABSTRACT
In 1750, when François Boucher painted Apollo Revealing His Divinity to the Shepherdess Issa for Madame de Pompadour, the mistress of the French king Louis XV (fig. 1), he drew not only on Destouches and La Motte’s opera Issé, based on an episode from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, but also on graphic depictions of the subject, including the frontispiece to Ertinger’s libretto of 1697 (fig. 2) and 1699 (fig. 3), a print attributed to Ertinger from Corneille’s 1697 work (fig. 4), and a print by Chauveau from Benserade’s 1676 work (fig. 5). Significantly, Boucher rearranged the composition of these prints in his painting, and today the meaning of his composition can be understood thanks to formal and formal-genetic analyses. However, the deeply hidden message of this painting can only be understood through the iconological method. The message of the work becomes clear only in the light of the iconographic origin of the painting, which was overlooked in previous analyses. The painting was a manifestation of the longing for Arcadian happiness and reciprocal and carefree love. The myth of Apollo and Issa perfectly expressed the atmosphere of idyllic love, which was also a desire of the royal mistress, who wanted to rekindle the monarch’s commitment to her relationship. The iconography of Boucher’s work becomes transparent in the context of the painting’s origin, history, and function as a decoration for Bellevue Palace – a private “Arcadia” – a mythical land of eternal happiness for the king and his favorite.
Analysis of the symbolism of the painting (ill. 1) and the preparatory drawing for it (ill. 3) reveals that the painting presents exquisite Bacchanalia, where natural instincts are subordinated to convention, while the erotic elements smuggled in under the cover of mythology are softened and balanced by the virtuous expression of the Bacchante and the satyr. Numerous contradictory yet complementary aspects (mythology - 17th-century French culture; eroticism typical of the Bacchanalia - a moralizing theme; allegory of the five senses - the genre character of an intimate garden concert) are merged in Alexandre Ubeleski’s painting into a single, semantically multifaceted and visually attractive composition.
Alexandre Ubeleski (Ubelesqui): The Œuvre of the Painter and the Definition of his Style (pp. 226-280)
Summary
The purpose of this article is to identify the undisputed works of Alexandre Ubeleski (1649/1651–21 April 1718), a painter of Polish origin, who worked in the service of Louis XIV and was affiliated with the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris. A number of facts concerning the painter’s life were established on the basis of archival documentation. Thanks to the archival sources, history of individual works and the analysis of the painter’s signatures it was possible to identify Ubeleski’s output consisting of forty-four works, including: seven paintings, twenty preparatory drawings for paintings and seventeen académies. Another twenty-eight works are documented in prints and over fifty-three works are known only from written sources. Although the surviving works constitute merely a small percentage of the artist’s total output, they may serve as evidence in defining his style. One may hope that defining the painter’s style and the common element of all of his paintings and drawings shall serve as a basis for the future attribution of works that may appear, for instance, in the antiquarian trade.
The painter was one of many artists at the time whose work was strictly defined by the academic canon. Ubeleski’s style was fundamentally influenced by his studies at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris. This very institution was his basic source of inspiration. It was there that the artist learned about the works of great masters. The classical style and the preponderance of drawing in his works contributed to his early successes which started his academic career, and gained him the chair of a professor. Ubeleski’s artistic output is a representative sample of the French academic art in the reign of Louis XIV. The nature of his œuvre indicates that he was one of the Poussinistes, who valued classical models of great predecessors over creative experiments.
Par le truchement du premier commis La Chapelle, le surintendant Louvois commanda un ensemble de tableaux devant servir de modèles à des tapisseries. Cette commande était un instrument d’intrigue ayant pour objectif d’évincer Le Brun, Premier peintre du roi, de la direction de la Manufacture des Gobelins et d’écarter de lui les peintres de son atelier. Cet article montre comment ces manœuvres ont détérioré leur ambiance de travail en créant entre eux une rivalité malsaine. La hiérarchie que les commanditaires ont créée dans les deux équipes alors constituées en imposant aux peintres les sujets des tableaux et les modèles à imiter, puis en leur versant des gages inégaux et injustifiés, était de nature à créer des conflits. Ainsi, Verdier, qui était le plus proche de Le Brun, se vit verser une faible rémunération, tandis que Corneille, qui avait quitté son ancien maître et s’était rapproché de Mignard, protégé de Louvois, fut grassement rétribué. L’injustice de ces rémunérations est notamment attestée par la réception que les tapisseries fabriquées à partir des tableaux ont connue à leur arrivée à Versailles en 1693 : les courtisans n’ont pas trouvé de motifs de critiquer l’œuvre de Verdier, jugée si tendancieusement par Louvois.
An extract from Sarnicki’s work Ovidius inter Sarmatas expresses the belief – based on Ovid’s words – that the Roman poet lived among the Sarmatians, who were the ancestors of Poles. The aim of this article is to search for the origins of the fascination with Ovid in Poland using historical, literary, and cultural analyses. In the 16th century, Ovid’s links with Sarmatia gave rise to the legend that he had lived in Poland, had learned to speak the Polish language, and had died and been buried near the Black Sea, that is, within the borders of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was claimed that Ovid was the first Polish poet, and his ‘naturalisation’ and the ‘discovery of his grave’ shaped the consciousness of the ruling classes and the elites of the Commonwealth. This phenomenon, combined with the widespread popularity of Metamorphoses, may have left its mark on the character of the decorations of the Polish palaces, including the 17th- and 18th-century royal residences, such as the Wilanów Palace and the Royal Baths Palace in Warsaw, which are filled with numerous Ovidian motifs.
ABSTRACT
In 1750, when François Boucher painted Apollo Revealing His Divinity to the Shepherdess Issa for Madame de Pompadour, the mistress of the French king Louis XV (fig. 1), he drew not only on Destouches and La Motte’s opera Issé, based on an episode from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, but also on graphic depictions of the subject, including the frontispiece to Ertinger’s libretto of 1697 (fig. 2) and 1699 (fig. 3), a print attributed to Ertinger from Corneille’s 1697 work (fig. 4), and a print by Chauveau from Benserade’s 1676 work (fig. 5). Significantly, Boucher rearranged the composition of these prints in his painting, and today the meaning of his composition can be understood thanks to formal and formal-genetic analyses. However, the deeply hidden message of this painting can only be understood through the iconological method. The message of the work becomes clear only in the light of the iconographic origin of the painting, which was overlooked in previous analyses. The painting was a manifestation of the longing for Arcadian happiness and reciprocal and carefree love. The myth of Apollo and Issa perfectly expressed the atmosphere of idyllic love, which was also a desire of the royal mistress, who wanted to rekindle the monarch’s commitment to her relationship. The iconography of Boucher’s work becomes transparent in the context of the painting’s origin, history, and function as a decoration for Bellevue Palace – a private “Arcadia” – a mythical land of eternal happiness for the king and his favorite.
Analysis of the symbolism of the painting (ill. 1) and the preparatory drawing for it (ill. 3) reveals that the painting presents exquisite Bacchanalia, where natural instincts are subordinated to convention, while the erotic elements smuggled in under the cover of mythology are softened and balanced by the virtuous expression of the Bacchante and the satyr. Numerous contradictory yet complementary aspects (mythology - 17th-century French culture; eroticism typical of the Bacchanalia - a moralizing theme; allegory of the five senses - the genre character of an intimate garden concert) are merged in Alexandre Ubeleski’s painting into a single, semantically multifaceted and visually attractive composition.
Alexandre Ubeleski (Ubelesqui): The Œuvre of the Painter and the Definition of his Style (pp. 226-280)
Summary
The purpose of this article is to identify the undisputed works of Alexandre Ubeleski (1649/1651–21 April 1718), a painter of Polish origin, who worked in the service of Louis XIV and was affiliated with the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris. A number of facts concerning the painter’s life were established on the basis of archival documentation. Thanks to the archival sources, history of individual works and the analysis of the painter’s signatures it was possible to identify Ubeleski’s output consisting of forty-four works, including: seven paintings, twenty preparatory drawings for paintings and seventeen académies. Another twenty-eight works are documented in prints and over fifty-three works are known only from written sources. Although the surviving works constitute merely a small percentage of the artist’s total output, they may serve as evidence in defining his style. One may hope that defining the painter’s style and the common element of all of his paintings and drawings shall serve as a basis for the future attribution of works that may appear, for instance, in the antiquarian trade.
The painter was one of many artists at the time whose work was strictly defined by the academic canon. Ubeleski’s style was fundamentally influenced by his studies at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris. This very institution was his basic source of inspiration. It was there that the artist learned about the works of great masters. The classical style and the preponderance of drawing in his works contributed to his early successes which started his academic career, and gained him the chair of a professor. Ubeleski’s artistic output is a representative sample of the French academic art in the reign of Louis XIV. The nature of his œuvre indicates that he was one of the Poussinistes, who valued classical models of great predecessors over creative experiments.
Prof. dr hab. Marcin Fabiański
Bardzo ważkie rezultaty przyniosła wnikliwa kwerenda archiwalna, która pozwoliła Pani Barbarze Hryszko odtworzyć wiernie i bardzo szczegółowo biografię Ubeleskiego oraz rozszerzyć wiedzę o jego dorobku. […] Autorka wykorzystała różnorodne i bardzo skuteczne metody identyfikacji dzieł Ubeleskiego, poddając m.in. wnikliwej analizie inskrypcje umieszczone na jego rysunkach. Wykazała się także dobrą znajomością metod badań nad malarstwem francuskim, atrybuując Ubeleskiemu kolejne dzieła na podstawie rycin, na których malarz ten występuje jako inwentor. […] Zgadzam się z atrybucjami i „antyatrybucjami” Pani Hryszko, a zarazem doceniam znaczny wysiłek włożony przez nią w przeszukanie wielu kolekcji, wyłowienie z nich dzieł Ubeleskiego, a także w uzasadnienie tych wyborów. […]
Książka wnosi wiele nowych informacji do badań nad malarstwem francuskim XVII wieku. Praca ta prezentuje bowiem we wszechstronny sposób sylwetkę paryskiego artysty „drugiego planu”, który odegrał z pewnością istotną rolę w utrzymaniu francuskiego malarstwa na „akademickich torach”. Na pochwałę zasługuje retoryczna wyrazistość wywodów Autorki, jasne stawianie tez i ich precyzyjne uzasadnianie. Praca jest zaopatrzona w bardzo bogaty aparat naukowy i starannie zilustrowana.
Prof. dr hab. Piotr Krasny
Le but de mon article sera de déterminer la spécificité de cette commande. Dans quelle mesure ce travail collectif sur la série était typique pour la pratique artistique du dix-septième siècle et dans quelle mesure était-il inhabituel, en raison des circonstances politiques spécifiques de ce premier ordre de Louvois.
Dans mes réflexions, je vais chercher des réponses aux questions suivantes. Qui était responsable de l'ensemble de la série sous le rapport artistique et iconographique? Quel rôle jouait Henri Bessé de La Chapelle, un contrôleur des bâtiments du roi et inspecteur des beaux-arts? Selon quelle clé ont été choisis les artistes? Combien d'espace pour leur propre invention a-t-il été laissé aux peintres? Quels éléments formels ou iconographiques ont unifié la série? Quel rôle dans la fusion de cette série, créé par un tel grand nombre d'artistes, était l'éducation des artistes dans l’Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture a Paris ? Comment l'éducation académique influence-t-elle la préparation des artistes pour le travail collectif?