.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
拍品專文
In the final decade of his life, François Gérard was the most acclaimed and successful artist in France. Wealthy and celebrated, he had long been the favored painter of Louis XVIII and his successor to the throne, Charles X, the Bourbon kings who ruled France after the fall of Napoleon and the restoration of the monarchy. Laden with honors – Commander of the Légion d’Honneur, First Painter to the Empress Josephine in 1806, member of the Institut in 1812, First Painter to the Emperor in 1817, made Baron in 1819 – Gérard was lavished with official state commissions throughout the Restoration. Nevertheless, the severe Neoclassical style that he had forged with David, Girodet and Fabre in the early years of the French Revolution and had dominated official art ever since, was being overturned by subsequent generations of painters, including Delacroix and Géricault, who were leading the new Romantic School of painting, which privileged intense emotion over Stoic restraint, medieval sources over classical antiquity, color and vigorous paint handling over line.
In 1829, Gérard received an important new commission from Louis Philippe, Duc d’Orléans (1773-1850) to create decorations for the staircase of the Palais Royal, the official residence of the Orléans family in Paris; the project would provide him with an opportunity to demonstrate that his work was evolving with the latest trends in art and prove that advancing age had not calcified his style or creativity. The program of decorations was to consist of three large paintings depicting scenes from Roman history, each taken from Livy’s monumental ‘History of Rome’ (‘Ab Urbe Condite’): Marcus Curtius leaping into the chasm; Cloelia escaping the assault of Etruscan soldiers; and the rape of Lucretia by Tarquin, son of the last king of Rome, which precipitated a rebellion that would lead to the establishment of the Roman republic. The present paintings are highly finished oil sketches made by Gérard in preparation for the first two episodes; a third, depicting the story of Lucretia was presumably made as well but is today unknown.
Scenes from Roman history portraying virtuous heroes and heroines sacrificing themselves for the honor of the homeland had long been a staple of Neoclassical history painting, and would have reflected flatteringly on the venerable House of Orléans. However, these modelli make clear that Gérard was not intending to render the scenes in a style that evoked the hieratic stillness of ancient statues, as he would have earlier in his career. Instead, the sketches are richly colored, boldly painted and conceived with an almost Baroque energy fully equal in their Romantic intensity to the contemporaneous oil sketches of Delacroix. Interpreting ancient tales that speak of heaving crowds of participants, Gérard chose to eliminate all but the singular heroes themselves and their equestrian companions, focusing tightly on his protagonists at the climactic moment of their thrilling acts of courage and liberation. The mysterious, nocturnal landscapes, fluid brushwork, and sepulchral lighting – particularly evident on Cloelia’s stallion – rival the effects found in the finest canvases of Géricault. The beautiful state of preservation of the two sketches and unlined canvases on which they are executed have enabled Gérard’s bravura brushwork to survive intact.
Livy recounts the tale of Marcus Curtius, a young Roman soldier, whose story Gérard depicts in his first painting. Following an earthquake in 362 BC, a deep pit opened in the Roman Forum, which locals attempted to fill in vain. An augur declared that the gods demanded the ‘most prized possession of the country’ to undo the devastation. Marcus Curtius responded that the arms and courage of Romans were the nation’s most precious possessions. Astride his horse, he then rode to his death, plunging into the chasm which miraculously closed over him, saving the city. In Gérard’s rendering, the young soldier – encased in armor, pike and saber in hand – calmly closes his eyes and lowers his helmeted head as he drives his terrified horse over the edge of the chasm into the fiery, smoke-filled pit below, ensuring his own death but the salvation of his country.
Cloelia, Livy records, was one of a group of Roman virgins taken hostage in 508 BC by Lars Porsena, King of the Etruscan city of Clusium, as terms of a peace treaty ending its war with Rome. Cloelia escaped the enemy camp on horseback, leading the Roman virgins across the Tiber through a barrage of darts and bringing the young women to safety. Learning of her escape, Porsena sent emissaries to Rome demanding Cloelia’s return. Fearing Porsena would break the peace treaty if she remained in Rome, the young woman selflessly returned to the enemy camp, ensuring the lives of the remaining Roman hostages. Gérard depicts his young heroine as she waves her arm to lead on the young women to follow her to salvation, her wild-eyed white steed frothing as he carries her onto the far banks of the Tiber.
Unfortunately for Gérard, his last great project was derailed by unanticipated but monumental political events. Charles X had ascended the throne in 1824, but six years into his reign there was heated opposition to his increasingly authoritarian and ultra-royalist policies, which included the re-imposition of capital punishment for sacrilege, attempts to alter inheritance laws, suppression of newspapers and the free press, and the restriction of suffrage. In July 1830, three days of increasingly violent urban rioting ended with the overthrow of the King, who abdicated his title and fled to Britain with his son, the Dauphin. Following the ‘July Revolution’, a provisional government established a constitutional monarchy and placed Louis-Philippe, Duc d’Orléans on the throne of France on 9 August 1830. As Louis-Philippe I, King of the French, Gérard’s patron was to live in the official royal residence, the Tuilleries Palace. The plans for Gérard’s decorations for the staircase in the Palais Royal were therefore abandoned. The artist died seven years later, his spectacular oil sketches the only surviving remnants of his final ambitious undertaking, but more than sufficient proof that his genius was undiminished.
In 1829, Gérard received an important new commission from Louis Philippe, Duc d’Orléans (1773-1850) to create decorations for the staircase of the Palais Royal, the official residence of the Orléans family in Paris; the project would provide him with an opportunity to demonstrate that his work was evolving with the latest trends in art and prove that advancing age had not calcified his style or creativity. The program of decorations was to consist of three large paintings depicting scenes from Roman history, each taken from Livy’s monumental ‘History of Rome’ (‘Ab Urbe Condite’): Marcus Curtius leaping into the chasm; Cloelia escaping the assault of Etruscan soldiers; and the rape of Lucretia by Tarquin, son of the last king of Rome, which precipitated a rebellion that would lead to the establishment of the Roman republic. The present paintings are highly finished oil sketches made by Gérard in preparation for the first two episodes; a third, depicting the story of Lucretia was presumably made as well but is today unknown.
Scenes from Roman history portraying virtuous heroes and heroines sacrificing themselves for the honor of the homeland had long been a staple of Neoclassical history painting, and would have reflected flatteringly on the venerable House of Orléans. However, these modelli make clear that Gérard was not intending to render the scenes in a style that evoked the hieratic stillness of ancient statues, as he would have earlier in his career. Instead, the sketches are richly colored, boldly painted and conceived with an almost Baroque energy fully equal in their Romantic intensity to the contemporaneous oil sketches of Delacroix. Interpreting ancient tales that speak of heaving crowds of participants, Gérard chose to eliminate all but the singular heroes themselves and their equestrian companions, focusing tightly on his protagonists at the climactic moment of their thrilling acts of courage and liberation. The mysterious, nocturnal landscapes, fluid brushwork, and sepulchral lighting – particularly evident on Cloelia’s stallion – rival the effects found in the finest canvases of Géricault. The beautiful state of preservation of the two sketches and unlined canvases on which they are executed have enabled Gérard’s bravura brushwork to survive intact.
Livy recounts the tale of Marcus Curtius, a young Roman soldier, whose story Gérard depicts in his first painting. Following an earthquake in 362 BC, a deep pit opened in the Roman Forum, which locals attempted to fill in vain. An augur declared that the gods demanded the ‘most prized possession of the country’ to undo the devastation. Marcus Curtius responded that the arms and courage of Romans were the nation’s most precious possessions. Astride his horse, he then rode to his death, plunging into the chasm which miraculously closed over him, saving the city. In Gérard’s rendering, the young soldier – encased in armor, pike and saber in hand – calmly closes his eyes and lowers his helmeted head as he drives his terrified horse over the edge of the chasm into the fiery, smoke-filled pit below, ensuring his own death but the salvation of his country.
Cloelia, Livy records, was one of a group of Roman virgins taken hostage in 508 BC by Lars Porsena, King of the Etruscan city of Clusium, as terms of a peace treaty ending its war with Rome. Cloelia escaped the enemy camp on horseback, leading the Roman virgins across the Tiber through a barrage of darts and bringing the young women to safety. Learning of her escape, Porsena sent emissaries to Rome demanding Cloelia’s return. Fearing Porsena would break the peace treaty if she remained in Rome, the young woman selflessly returned to the enemy camp, ensuring the lives of the remaining Roman hostages. Gérard depicts his young heroine as she waves her arm to lead on the young women to follow her to salvation, her wild-eyed white steed frothing as he carries her onto the far banks of the Tiber.
Unfortunately for Gérard, his last great project was derailed by unanticipated but monumental political events. Charles X had ascended the throne in 1824, but six years into his reign there was heated opposition to his increasingly authoritarian and ultra-royalist policies, which included the re-imposition of capital punishment for sacrilege, attempts to alter inheritance laws, suppression of newspapers and the free press, and the restriction of suffrage. In July 1830, three days of increasingly violent urban rioting ended with the overthrow of the King, who abdicated his title and fled to Britain with his son, the Dauphin. Following the ‘July Revolution’, a provisional government established a constitutional monarchy and placed Louis-Philippe, Duc d’Orléans on the throne of France on 9 August 1830. As Louis-Philippe I, King of the French, Gérard’s patron was to live in the official royal residence, the Tuilleries Palace. The plans for Gérard’s decorations for the staircase in the Palais Royal were therefore abandoned. The artist died seven years later, his spectacular oil sketches the only surviving remnants of his final ambitious undertaking, but more than sufficient proof that his genius was undiminished.