French art
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French art is a term referring to the visual arts and plastic arts (often including architecture, woodwork, textiles and ceramics) originating from the geographical area of what is present day France. Historical surveys of French art often begin with Pre-Romanesque art, Romanesque art and Gothic art, but some surveys, such as André Chastel's French Art, also include discussions of pre-historic art, Celtic art and Roman art within France.
For practical purposes, the history of French art has been divided into a series of separate articles navigatible through the template to the right. The template also gives direct access to French art category indexes (such as alphabetical lists of painters or sculptors). For locating artists from a particular period or art movements, the relatively comprehensive manual list of painters and artistic movements in chronological order is recommended.
In addition to a brief historic overview, some supplementary or general material is included on this page, including art vocabulary and general French art references.
For information about French literature, see: French literature
For information about French history, see: History of France
For other topics on French culture, see: French culture
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[edit] Historic overview
[edit] Pre-history
The earliest known European art is from the Upper Palaeolithic period (between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago) and France has a large selection of extant pre-historic art from the Châtelperronian, Aurignacian, Solutrean, Gravettian and Magdalenian cultures. This art includes both cave paintings, such as the famous paintings at Pech Merle (in the Lot in Languedoc, dating back to 16,000 B.C.), Lascaux (located near the village of Montignac, in the Dordogne, dating back to somewhere between 13,000 and 15,000 B.C., or perhaps as far back as 25,000 B.C.), the Cosquer Cave, the Chauvet Cave and the Trois-Frères cave; and portable art, such as animal carvings and so-called Venus figurines like the "Venus of Brassempouy" (21,000 B.C., discovered in the Landes, now in the museum at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye) and ornamental beads, bone pins, carvings and flint and stone arrowheads.
There are some speculations that only Homo sapiens are capable of artistic expression, however a recent find, the Mask of La Roche-Cotard (a Mousterian or Neanderthal artifact, found in 2002 in a cave near the banks of the Loire River, dating back to about 33,000 B.C.), now suggests that Neanderthal humans may have developed a sophisticated and more complicated artistic tradition.
In the Neolithic period (see also Neolithic Europe), megalithic (large stone) monuments, such as the dolmens and menhirs at Carnac, Saint-Sulpice-de-Faleyrens and elsewhere in France begin to appear; this appearance is thought to start in the 5th millennium BC, although some authors speculate on Mesolithic roots. France has numerous painted stones, polished stone axes, and inscribed menhirs from this period.
In France from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age, one finds a variety of archeological cultures including the Rössen culture (ca. 4500—4000 B.C.), Beaker culture (ca. 2800 – 1900 B.C.), Tumulus culture (ca. 1600-1200 B.C.), Urnfield culture (ca. 1300-800 B.C.), and, in a transition to the Iron Age, Hallstatt culture (ca. 1200 - 500 B.C.).
For more on Prehistoric sites in Western France, see Prehistory of Brittany.
[edit] Celtic and Roman period
From the Proto-Celtic Urnfield and Hallstat cultures, a continental Iron age Celtic art developed; mainly associated with La Tène culture, which flourished during the late Iron Age from 450 BC to the Roman conquest in the 1st century B.C. This art drew on native, classical and (perhaps via the Mediterranean) oriental sources. The Celts of Gaul are known through numerous tombs and burial mounds throughout France.
Celtic art is ornamental, avoiding straight lines and only occasionally using symmetry, without the imitation of nature or ideal of beauty central to the classical tradition, but as far as we can understand it often involves complex symbolism. It includes a variety of styles and often incorporates subtly modified elements from other cultures, an example being the characteristic over-and-under interlacing which only arrived in the 6th century when it was already in use by Germanic artists.
The region of Gaul (Latin: Gallia) came under the rule of the Roman Empire from the 1st century BC to the 5th century AD., and monuments from this period include the amphitheater in Orange, Vaucluse, the "Maison Carrée" at Nîmes, the Pont du Gard aqueduct, and the Roman baths and arena of Paris.
[edit] Medieval period
Merovingian art is the art and architecture of the Merovingian dynasty of the Franks, which lasted from the 5th century to the 8th century in present day France and Germany. The advent of the Merovingian dynasty in Gaul in the 5th century led to important changes in the field of arts. In architecture, there was no longer the desire to build robust and harmonious buildings. Sculpture regressed to be little more than a simple technique for the ornamentation of sarcophagi, altars and ecclesiastical furniture. On the other hand, the rise of gold work and manuscript illumination brought about a resurgence of Celtic decoration, which with Christian and other contributions, constitutes the basis of Merovingian art. The unification of the Frankish kingdom under Clovis I (465 – 511) and his successors, corresponded with the need for the building of churches, with plans most probably copied from Roman basilicas. Unfortunately, these timber structures did not survive destruction by fire, whether accidental or caused by the Normans at the time of their incursions.
Carolingian art is the roughly 120-year period from about 750 to 900 — during the reign of Charles Martel, Pippin the Younger, Charlemagne and his immediate heirs — popularly known as the Carolingian Renaissance. The Carolingian era is the first period in the Medieval art movement known as Pre-Romanesque; for the first time, Northern European kings patronized classical Mediterranean Roman art forms, blending classical forms with Germanic ones, creating entirely new innovations in figurine line drawing and setting the stage for the rise of Romanesque art and eventually Gothic art in the West. Illuminated manuscripts, metalwork, small-scale sculpture, mosaics and frescos survive from the period. The Carolingians also undertook major architectural building campaigns in numerous churches in France, including those of Metz, Lyon, Vienne, Le Mans, Reims, Beauvais, Verdun, Saint-Germain in Auxerre, Saint-Pierre in Flavigny, and Saint-Denis, and the town center of Chartres; the Centula Abbey of Saint-Riquier (Somme), completed in 788, was a major achievement in monastic architecture. Another important building (largely lost today) was "Theodulf's Villa" in Germigny-des-Prés.
With the end of Carolingian rule around 900, artistic production halted for about three generations. After the demise of the Carolingian Empire, France split into a number of feuding provinces, so that lacking any organized patronage, French art of the 10th and 11th centuries was produced by local monasteries for the purpose of spreading literacy and piety; however the primitive styles produced did not match the techniques of the earlier Carolingian period.
Multiple regional styles developed based on the chance availability of Carolingian manuscripts (as models to draw from), and the availability of itinerant artists. The monastery of Saint Bertin became an important center under its abbot Odbert (986-1007) who created a new style based on Anglo-Saxon and Carolingian forms. The nearby abbey of St. Vaast (Pas-de-Calais) created a number of works. In southwestern France at the monastery of Saint Martial in Limoges a number of manuscripts were produces around 1000, as were produced in Albi, Figeac and Saint-Sever-de-Rustan in Gascogne. In Paris there developed a style at the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. In Normandy a new style developed from 975 onward. By the later 10th century with the Cluny reform movement, and a revived spirit for the idea of Empire, art production began again.
Romanesque art refers to the art of Western Europe from approximately 1000 A.D. to the rise of the Gothic style, which rose in the middle 12th century in France. "Romanesque Art" was marked by a renewed interest in Roman construction techniques. The twelfth-century capitals from the cloister of Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, for example, adopt the acanthus-leaf motif and the decorative use of drill holes, which were commonly found on Roman monuments. Other important Romanesque buildings in France include the abbey of Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire (Loiret), the churches of Saint-Foy in Conques (Aveyron), Saint-Martin in Tours, Saint-Philibert in Tournus (Saône-et-Loire), Saint-Remi in Reims and Saint-Sernin in Toulouse; Normandy in particular underwent a large building campaign in the churches of Bernay, Mont-Saint-Michel, Coutances Cathedral, and Bayeux.
Most Romanesque sculpture was integrated into the church architecture, not just for aesthetic but also for structural purposes. Small-scale sculpture during the pre-Romanesque period was influenced by Byzantine and Early Christian sculpture. Other elements were adopted from various local styles of Middle Eastern countries. Motifs were derived from the arts of the "barbarian," such as grotesque figures, beasts, and geometric patterns, all important additions, particularly in the regions north of the Alps. Among the important sculptural works of the period are the ivory carvings at the monastery of Saint Gall. Monumental sculpture was rarely practiced separately from architecture in the pre-Romanesque period. For the first time since the fall of the Roman empire, monumental sculpture emerged as a significant art form. Covered church facades, doorways and capitals all increased and expanded in size and importance, as in the Last Judgment Tympanum, Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne and the Standing Prophet at Moissac. Monumental doors, baptismal fonts, and candleholders, frequently decorated with scenes from biblical history, were cast in bronze, attesting to the prowess of metalworkers. Frescoes were applied to the vaults and walls of churches. Rich textiles and precious objects in gold and silver, such as chalices and reliquaries, were produced in increasing numbers to meet the needs of the liturgy and the cult of the saints. In the 12th century, large-scale stone sculpture spread through Europe. In the French Romanesque churches of Provence, Burgundy, and Aquitaine, sculpures adorned the facades, and statues were incorporated into the capitals.
Gothic art and architecture was a Medieval art movement that lasted about 300 years. It began in France out of the Romanesque period in the mid-12th century. By the late 14th century, it had evolved towards a more secular and natural style known as International Gothic, which continued until the late 15th century, where it evolved into Renaissance art. The primary Gothic art mediums were sculpture, panel painting, stained glass, fresco and illuminated manuscript.
Gothic architecture was born in the middle of the 12th century in Île-de-France, when Abbot Suger built the abbey at St. Denis (ca. 1140), considered the first Gothic building, and soon after the Chartres Cathedral (ca. 1145). Prior to this there had been no sculpture tradition in Ile-de-France—so sculptors were brought in from Burgundy, who created the revolutionary figures acting as columns in the Western (Royal) Portal of Chartres Cathedral (see image)—it was an entirely new invention, and would provide the model for a generation of sculptors. Other notable Gothic churches in France include Bourges Cathedral, Amiens Cathedral, Notre-Dame de Laon, Notre Dame in Paris, Reims Cathedral, the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, Notre-Dame de Strasbourg.
The designations of styles in French Gothic architecture are as follows: Early Gothic, High Gothic, Rayonnant, and Late Gothic or "Flamboyant". These divisions are effective, but debatable. Because Gothic cathedrals were built over several successive periods, each period not necessarily following the wishes of previous periods, the dominant architectural style changes throughout a particular building. Consequently, it is often difficult to declare one building as a member of a certain era of Gothic architecture. It is more useful to use the terms as descriptors for specific elements within a structure, rather than applying it to the building as a whole.
The French ideas spread. Gothic sculpture evolved from the early stiff and elongated style, still partly Romanesque, into a spatial and naturalistic feel in the late 12th and early 13th century. Influences from surviving ancient Greek and Roman sculptures were incorporated into the treatment of drapery, facial expression and pose. Dutch-Burgundian sculptor Claus Sluter and the taste for naturalism signaled the beginning of the end of Gothic sculpture, evolving into the classicistic Renaissance style by the end of the 15th century.
Painting in a style that can be called "Gothic" did not appear until about 1200, or nearly 50 years after the start of Gothic architecture and sculpture. The transition from Romanesque to Gothic is very imprecise and not at all a clear break, but we can see the beginnings of a style that is more somber, dark and emotional than the previous period. This transition occurs first in England and France around 1200, in Germany around 1220 and Italy around 1300. Painting (the representation of images on a surface) during the Gothic period was practiced in 4 primary crafts: frescos, panel paintings, manuscript illumination and stained glass. Frescoes continued to be used as the main pictorial narrative craft on church walls in southern Europe as a continuation of early Christian and Romanesque traditions. In the north stained glass was the art of choice until the 15th century.
[edit] Early Modern period
In the late 15th century, the French invasion of Italy and the proximity of the vibrant Burgundy court (with its Flemish connections) brought the French into contact with the goods, paintings, and the creative spirit of the Northern and Italian Renaissance, and the initial artistic changes in France were often carried out by Italian and Flemish artists, such as Jean Clouet and his son François Clouet and the Italians Rosso Fiorentino, Francesco Primaticcio and Niccolò dell'Abbate of the (so-called) first School of Fontainebleau (from 1531). Leonardo da Vinci was also invited to France by François I, but other than the paintings which he brought with him, he produced little for the French king.
The art of the period from François I through Henri IV is often heavily inspired by late Italian pictorial and sculptural developments commonly referred to as Mannerism (associated with Michelangelo and Parmigianino, among others), characterized by figures which are elongated and graceful and a reliance on visual rhetoric, including the elaborate use of allegory and mythology. Perhaps the greatest accomplishment of the French Renaissance was the construction of the Châteaux of the Loire Valley: no longer conceived of as fortresses, these pleasure palaces took advantage of the richness of the rivers and lands of the Loire region and they show remarkable architectural skill.
In the early part of the 17th century, late mannerist and early Baroque tendencies continued to flourish in the court of Marie de Medici and Louis XIII. Art from this period shows influences from both the north of Europe (Dutch and Flemish schools) and from Roman painters of the Counter-Reformation. Artists in France frequently debated the merits between Peter Paul Rubens (the Flemish baroque, voluptuous lines and colors) and Nicolas Poussin (rational control, proportion, Roman classicism).
There was also a strong Caravaggio school represented in the period by the amazing candle-lit paintings of Georges de La Tour. The wretched and the poor were featured in an almost Dutch manner in the paintings by the three Le Nain brothers. In the paintings of Philippe de Champaigne there are both propagandistic portraits of Louis XIII' s minister Cardinal Richelieu and other more contemplative portraits of people in the Catholic Jansenist sect.
From the mid to late 17th century French art is more often referred to by the term "Classicism" which implies an adherence to certain rules of proportion and sobriety uncharacteristic of the Baroque as it was practiced in Southern and Eastern Europe during the same period. Under Louis XIV, the Baroque as it was practiced in Italy was not in French taste (Bernini's famous proposal for redesigning the Louvre was rejected by Louis XIV.) Through propaganda, wars and great architectural works, Louis XIV launched a vast program designed for the glorification of France and his name. The Palace of Versailles, initially a tiny hunting lodge built by his father, was transformed by Louis XIV into a marvelous palace for fêtes and parties, under the directionof architect Louis Le Vau, painter and designer Charles Le Brun and the landscape architect André Le Nôtre.
Rococo and Neoclassicism are terms used to describe the visual and plastic arts and architecture in Europe from the late 17th to the late 18th centuries. In France, the death of Louis XIV lead to a period of freedom commonly called the Régence. Versailles was abandoned from 1715 to 1722. Painting turned toward "fêtes galantes", theater settings and the female nude. Painters from this period include Antoine Watteau, Nicolas Lancret and François Boucher. The Louis XV style of decoration (although already apparent at the end of the last reign) was lighter: pastels and wood panels, smaller rooms, less gilding and fewer brocades; shells and garlands and occasional Chinese subjects predominated. Rooms were more intimate.
The latter half of the 18th century continued to see French preeminence in Europe, particularly through the arts and sciences, and the French language was the lingua franca of the European courts. The French academic system continued to produce artists, but some, like Jean-Honoré Fragonard and Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin, explored new and increasingly impressionist styles of painting with thick brushwork. Although the hierarchy of genres continued to be respected officially, genre painting, landscape, portrait and still life were extremely fashionable.
One also finds in this period a kind of Pre-romanticism. Hubert Robert's images of ruins, inspired by Italian cappricio paintings, are typical in this respect. So too the change from the rational and geometrical French garden (of André Le Nôtre) to the English garden, which emphasized (artificially) wild and irrational nature. One also finds in some of these gardens curious ruins of temples called "follies".
The middle of the 18th century saw a turn to Neoclassicism in France, that is to say a conscious use of Greek and Roman forms and iconography. In painting, the greatest representative of this style is Jacques Louis David who, mirroring the profiles of Greek vases, emphasized the use of the profile; his subject matter often involved classical history (the death of Socrates, Brutus). The dignity and subject matter of his paintings were greatly inspired by Nicolas Poussin in the 17th century.
[edit] Modern period
The French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars brought great changes to the arts in France. The program of exaltation and mythification of the Emperor Napoleon I of France was closely coordinated in the paintings of Gros and Guérin. Meanwhile, Orientalism, Egyptian motifs, the tragic anti-hero, the wild landscape, the historical novel and scenes from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, all these elements of Romanticism created a vibrant period that defies easy classification.
The Romantic tendencies continued throughout the century: both idealized landscape painting and Naturalism have their seeds in Romanticism: both Gustave Courbet and the Barbizon school are logical developments, as is too the late 19th century Symbolism of such painters at Gustave Moreau (the professor of Matisse and Rouault) or Odilon Redon.
Édouard Manet represents for many critics the division between the 19th century and the modern period (much like Charles Baudelaire in poetry). His rediscovery of Spanish painting from the golden age, his willingness to show the unpainted canvas, his exploration of the forthright nude and his radical brush strokes are the first step toward Impressionism. Impressionism would take the Barbizon school one further, rejecting once and for all a belabored style (and the use of mixed colors and black), for fragile transitive effects of light as captured outdoors in changing light (in part inspired by the paintings of J. M. W. Turner). Claude Monet with his cathedrals and haystacks, Pierre-Auguste Renoir with both his early outdoor festivals and his later feathery style of ruddy nudes, Edgar Degas with his dancers and bathers.
From this point on, the next thirty years were a litany of amazing experiments. Vincent van Gogh, Dutch born but living in France, opened the road to expressionism. Georges Seurat, influenced by color theory, devised a pointillist technique that controlled the Impressionist experiment. Paul Cézanne, a painter's painter, attempted a geometrical exploration of the world (that left many of his peers indifferent). Paul Gauguin, the banker, found symbolism in Brittany and then exoticism and primitivism in French Polynesia. Henri Rousseau, the self-taught dabbler, becomes the model for the naïve revolution.
The early years of the twentieth century were dominated by experiments in colour and content that Impressionism and Post-Impressionism had unleashed. The products of the far east also brought new influences. Les Nabis explored a decorative art in flat plains with a Japanese print graphic approach. At roughly the same time, Les Fauves, exploded in color (much like German Expressionism).
The discovery of African tribal masks lead Pablo Picasso to his "Demoiselles d'Avignon" of 1907. Picasso and Georges Braque (working independently) returned to and refined Cézanne's way of rationally understanding objects in a flat medium; but their experiments in cubism would also lead them to integrate all aspects of the day to day life: collage of newspapers, musical instruments, cigarettes, wine… Cubism in all its phases would dominate Europe and America for the next ten years. Go to the article Cubism for a complete discussion.
World War I did not stop the dynamic creation of art in France. In 1916 a group of discontents met in a bar in Zurich (the Cabaret Voltaire) and create the most radical gesture possible: the anti-art of Dada. At the same time, Francis Picabia and Marcel Duchamp in Paris were exploring similar notions. At the In an art show in New York in 1917 Duchamp presented a white porcelain urinal signed R. Mutt as work of art, becoming the father of the readymade.
When Dada reached Paris, it was avidly embraced by a group of young artists and writers who were fascinated with the writings of Sigmund Freud, and particularly by the notion of the unconscious mind. The provocative spirit of Dada became linked to the exploration of the unconscious mind through the use of automatic writing, chance operations and, in some cases, altered states. The surrealists quickly turned to painting and sculpture. The shock of unexpected elements, the use of Frottage, collage and decalcomania, the rendering of mysterious landscapes and dreamscapes were to become the key techniques through the rest of the 1930s.
The French art scene immediately after the war went roughly in two directions. There were those who continued in the artistic experiments, especially surrealism, from before the war, and there were those who took on the new Abstract Expressionism and action painting from New York and tried them in a French manner (Tachism or L'art informel). Parallel to both of these tendencies, Jean Dubuffet dominated the early post-war years while exploring child-like drawings, graffiti and cartoons in a variety of media.
The late 1950s and early 1960s in France saw what might be considered Pop Art. Yves Klein had attractive nude women roll around in blue paint and throw themselves at canvases; Victor Vasarely invented Op-Art by designing sophisticated optical patterns; artists of the Fluxus movement like Ben Vautier incorporated graffiti and found objects into their work; Niki de Saint-Phalle created bloated and vibrant plastic figures; Arman gathered together found objects in boxed or resin-coated assemblages and César Baldaccini produced a series of large compressed object-scuptures. In May 1968, the radical youth movement, through their atelier populaire, produced a great deal of poster-art protesting the moribund policies of president Charles de Gaulle.
Many contemporary artists continue to be haunted by the horrors of the war and the specter of the holocaust. Christian Boltanski's harrowing installations of the lost and the anonymous are particularly powerful.
[edit] Art museums in France
[edit] Paris
- Musée du Louvre
- Musée d'Orsay — 19th century art (national collection)
- Centre Pompidou (Beaubourg) — 20th century art (national collection)
- Musée national du Moyen âge (Musée de Cluny) — medieval collection
- Palais de Tokyo — 20th century art (city of Paris collection)
- Musée Guimet — Asian art
- Musée du quai Branly — Non-Western art
- Grand Palais — changing expositions
- Petit Palais
- Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume — changing expositions
- Musée Picasso — the artist Pablo Picasso
- Musée Rodin — the sculptor Auguste Rodin
- Musée Zadkine — the sculptor Ossip Zadkine
- Fondation Dubuffet — the sculptor and painter Jean Dubuffet
- Musée Carnavalet — Paris and the 17th century in a former mansion
- Musée Jacquemart-André — private collection from the renaissance to the 19th century
- Fondation Cartier — contemporary Art
- Centre National de la photographie
- Musée Bourdelle — the sculptor Emile-Antoine Bourdelle
- Musée Dapper — African art
- Musée Gustave Moreau — the symbolist painter Gustave Moreau
- Manufacture des Gobelins — tapestries and weaving from the 17th century
- Musée Nissim de Camondo — private collection of 18th century works
- Musée Maillol — Fondation Dina Vierny — the sculptor Aristide Maillol
- Maison Européenne de la Photographie
- Musée de Céramique à Sèvres
- Musée du Montparnasse
[edit] Near Paris
- Palace of Versailles
- Fontainebleau
- Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye - Musée des Antiquités Nationales (Museum of National Antiquities).
[edit] Vocabulary
French words and expressions dealing with the arts:
- peinture — painting, paint
- peinture à l'huile — oil painting
- tableau — painting
- toile — canvas
- gravure — engraving
- dessin — drawing
- aquarelle — watercolor
- croquis — sketch
- ébauche — study
- crayon — pencil, a pencil drawing
- paysage — landscape
- nature morte — still life
- la peinture d'histoire — History painting, see Hierarchy of genres
[edit] Reference works
- Anthony Blunt: Art and Architecture in France 1500-1700 ISBN 0-300-05314-2
- André Chastel. French Art Vol I: Prehistory to the Middle Ages ISBN 2-08-013566-X
- André Chastel. French Art Vol II: The Renaissance ISBN 2-08-013583-X
- André Chastel. French Art Vol III: The Ancient Régime ISBN 2-08-013617-8
