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Simon Vouet’s Allegory of Wealth: Virtue, Politics, and Artistic Achievement in the Court of Louis XIII of

Lilian H. Zirpolo

Fig. 1. Simon Vouet, Allegory of Wealth, Fig. 2. Flipped image of Michelangelo, c. 1630-1635, , . Delphic Sibyl, Vatican, Sistine Chapel, 1508- 1512.

Simon Vouet’s Allegory of Wealth (c. 1630-1635; Paris, Louvre) (Fig. 1) is somewhat of an enigma. The circumstances of the commission remain unclear as the work is not documented until 1709-1710, when it is listed in inventories of the French . These documents specify that the was then located in the Cabinet de la Surintendance at Versailles.[1] Later in the century, it was moved to the Cabinet du Roi at the and first made available for public viewing in 1750.[2] On those few occasions when the painting has been mentioned in the scholarly literature, its iconographic program has not been explained adequately.[3] William Crelly in his monograph on Vouet declared the work to be part of a series of allegorical

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compositions rendered for St. Germain-en-Laye, Louis XIII’s principal residence outside of Paris,[4] a proposal now universally accepted. (87-88) If the series included Vouet’s Allegory of Victory (c. 1630-1635; Indianapolis Museum of Art), Allegory of Virtue (c. 1630-1635; Paris, Louvre), Allegory of Peace (c. 1630-1635; Chatsworth, Devonshire Collection), and Allegory of Faith (c. 1630- 1635; Paris, Louvre) as Crelly suggested, it would have referenced the deeds and qualities of the French monarch as well as the benefits brought on by his wise and virtuous rulership. There is a great deal more to the meaning of the painting than this, however, and unraveling its iconography is the subject of this essay. From an aesthetic standpoint, the Allegory of Wealth is one of Vouet’s most outstanding compositions. A monumental seated female occupies a large portion of a classical setting, her wings and billowing drapery forming an arch that swoops down toward a Venetianized putto who stands beside her and offers her a handful of jewels. Another putto snuggles comfortably on the woman’s lap and points toward the heavens. At her feet are an opened book and gold and silver objects, including a vase embossed with the legend of Apollo and Daphne. Vouet consulted Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia in depicting the most salient details of the figure, including her gold colored draperies, the jewels being offered to her by the putto, and the vase at her side.[5] The influence of Veronese is undeniable as the work features a similar monumental quality and richness of textures as the Renaissance master’s creations. The pose of Vouet’s Wealth in fact recalls that of Veronese’s seated St. Catherine of Alexandria in the New York Metropolitan Museum (c. 1580-1585). In both examples, movement is established by the zigzagging of head, shoulders, torso, and legs—the face shown in profile. Veronese dressed his figure in fabrics of differing textures, from brocades to shimmering silks. In Vouet’s work, the textural contrast is between the sleek draperies, metal objects, and the feathers of the figures’ wings. In Vouet’s female, however, there is an added dynamism that also points to Michelangelo’s sibyls and prophets in the Sistine Ceiling, and particularly to the Delphic Sibyl (Fig. 2). The position of her legs, the arch formed by her arms as they embrace the putto who points to the heavens, the arrangement of her drapery, particularly on her lap, and the emphasis on curvilinear forms, are all elements Vouet borrowed from Michelangelo’s painting. It would seem that

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by making these sorts of direct references to the greatest masters of the Renaissance, Vouet was declaring himself to be their heir and successor. In fact, one could argue that Vouet sought to outdo Veronese and Michelangelo by rendering an image with far greater rhythmic movements, an added complexity to the pose and drapery arrangements, and a highly polished pictorial surface. Vouet achieved the almost jewel-like quality of the work by borrowing his palette from . The silvery tonalities, complemented by burnt oranges, yellows, and powdery blues of the Allegory of Wealth are also seen in Reni’s Charity (c. 1630; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art) and Cleopatra (c. 1635; Florence, Palazzo Pitti), both rendered during the same decade as Vouet’s painting. Vouet also made use of Reni’s types—sinuous figures with barely a hint of the body’s muscular or skeletal structure and porcelain-like complexions brushed at the cheeks, elbows, fingers, and toes with the softest touches of pink. On the most elemental of levels, the painting speaks of the wealth enjoyed by France under Louis’s regime, and this wealth is not only material but also cultural, as denoted by the opened book. The gesture of the pointing putto adds a vanitas element to the work—a reminder of the transience of life and the greater value of cultivating spiritual wealth rather than accruing worldly goods. That Wealth embraces the putto while leaning toward the other boy who offers her jewels suggests her dilemma as to which is preferable, worldly possessions or a higher, more spiritual state of being. On a deeper level, then, the work references the Neoplatonic desire of the soul to attain proximity to the divine through contemplation. Then, how does the legend of Apollo and Daphne, so prominently displayed in the left foreground, fit into this theme? As Ovid relates in the Metamorphoses (I: 452-566), Apollo ridiculed ’s archery skills so, in retaliation, the latter pulled two arrows from his quiver, one that causes individuals to fall in love and the other that repels love. He struck Apollo with the first arrow and directed the second at the wood nymph Daphne, causing her to flee when the god made his advances. Apollo ran after her, and, as the wind exposed her limbs and made her hair flow, his desire for her grew all the more. As he gained on Daphne, she cried to her father, the river god Peneius, to save her. This he did by transforming her into a laurel tree. The frustrated Apollo embraced

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her, still feeling her heartbeat underneath the bark, and declared that if he could not have her as his bride, then at least he would have her as his chosen tree. He vowed that the laurel leaves would forever crown his brows and be plaited into wreaths for the crowning of Roman heroes. Since the loss of Daphne’s virginity was prevented by her transformation, Renaissance depictions of the Ovidian legend symbolized the virtue of chastity, then so highly prized. Chastity in the minds of Vouet and Louis XIII most likely played no part in the iconography of the Allegory of Wealth as mistresses and male lovers were a common occurrence at the French court. Most likely, this scene, like most images of rape committed by a god, was intended as a metaphor for male invasion and conquest[6]—here, of course, a reference to the king’s political triumphs whether real or fictive. Further, Early Modern commentaries on Ovid gave the legend a philosophical meaning. For Giovanni di Bonsignori who penned the Ovidio Metamorphoseos vulgaris sometime in the fifteenth century (published in Venice in 1497), the myth was a symbol of man’s pursuit of virtue to attain perfection,[7] which in Vouet’s painting would allude to the king and his moral character. Editions of the Ovide moralisé saw Daphne’s attempted rape as a symbol of the desire for spiritual transcendence and of rejecting human sexual craving to follow a higher path,[8] which would tie the Ovidian scene in Vouet’s painting to the Neoplatonic reference made by the putto who points to the heavens. By including the scene of Apollo pursuing Daphne in his painting, Vouet also made a personal statement regarding artistic creativity. When he was called back by Louis XIII to court in 1627 after his stay in Italy, art in France was stagnant. The last major movement to have taken place there was the Mannerism of the Fontainebleau School,[9] so that Vouet’s return promised a revitalization of the arts now that he had learned the Italian mode of representation. Scholars of Early Modern literature have recognized that the scene of Daphne’s rape attempted by Apollo then signified the transformation of male sexual desire into artistic creation as it resulted in the adoption of the laurel wreath for the honorific crowning of heroes, including those who achieved excellence in poetry.[10] And since, as Horace asserted in the Ars Poetica, “Ut pictura poesis (as is painting, so is poetry)”(Horace line 361), a declaration often used in the Early Modern era to elevate

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painting to the liberal arts, it seems reasonable to say that Vouet was here casting himself as the new Apollo who would revitalize the art of painting in France—a task he most certainly accomplished. His classicist style would in fact dominate the art of France until the mid-17th century.

Notes

1. Bailly 298, no. 11.

2. Dézallier d’Argenville 343.

3. The standard literature on Vouet is Crelly; Thuillier et al, eds. Vouet: Galeries nationales; Thuillier et al, eds., Simon Vouet, ou, l’éloquence sensible; Loire, ed.; Harprath et al. eds; and Brejon de Lavergnée.

4. Crelly 87-88.

5. Ripa at 30 offers several ways in which to depict the allegorical figure of Wealth: as an old blind woman dressed in gold; as a woman dressed in regal costume and decked in expensive jewelry, holding an imperial crown in her right hand, a scepter in her left, and a gold vase at her feet; or as a beautiful woman elegantly garbed and holding a cartouche inscribed with the word DIVUS. Clearly, Vouet did not follow these prescriptions faithfully, but rather combined enough of the elements as to allow for the viewer’s proper identification of the allegorical figure.

6. See Tsuchiya 90.

7. Bonsignori. See also Wright 98.

8. Amsler, 80; Horowitz 79.

9. The patronage of the members of the first Fontainebleau School, established by the Italian masters Francesco Primaticcio and Rosso Fiorentino, ended when Francis I died in 1547. The style used by these masters consisted of elongated figures in contorted

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poses rendered in brilliant colors and enframed by heavy decorative stucco work. A second Fontainebleau School emerged when Henry IV ascended the throne, now composed of mainly Flemish and French masters, among them Ambroise Dubois from Antwerp and the French Toussaint Dubreuil and Martin Fréminet. These masters continued to use the elongated forms and unusual poses, yet featured a greater solidity of the figures and a more pronounced contrast of light and dark. Their style was a far cry from the Italianate mode Vouet brought back from Rome upon his return to France. On the Fontainebleau School, see Lévêque; Zerner; & Musée de Louvre, Primatice.

10. Stephanson 146-147; Enterline 78; Schleiner 95.

Works Cited

Amsler, Mark. “Rape and Silence: Ovid’s Mythography and Medieval Readers”. Representing Rape in Medieval and Early Modern Literature. eds. Elizabeth Ann Robertson and Christine M. Rose. New York: Palgrave 2001. 61-96.

Bailly, Nicolas. Inventaire des tableaux du Roy rédigé en 1709 et 1710, ed. F. Engerand. Paris: Leroux, 1899.

Bonsignori Da Citta’ Di Castello, Giovanni. Ovidio Metamorphoseus vulgaris, ed. Erminia Ardissino. Bologna: Commissione per i Testi di Lingua, 2001.

Brejon de Lavergnée, Barbara. Dessins de Simon Vouet, 1560-1649. Paris: Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1987. Crelly, William R. The of Simon Vouet, New York and London: Yale UP, 1962. Dézallier d’Argenville, Antoine-Nicolas. Voyage pittoresque de Paris, ou Indication de tout ce qu’il y a de plus beau dans cette grande ville en peinture, sculpture et architecture. Paris: par M.D., 1749.

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Enterline, Lynn. The Rhetoric of the Body from Ovid to Shakespeare. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2000.

Harprath, Richard and Laurentius Koch and Jacques Thuillier, eds., Simon Vouet: 100 neuentdeckte Zeichnungen, aus den Beständen der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek, Munich: Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München, 1991.

Horace. Ars Poetica. The Latin Library. http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/horace/arspoet.shtml

Horowitz, Maryanne Cline. Seeds of Virtue and Knowledge. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1998.

Lévêque, Jean-Jacques. L’école de Fontainebleau, Neuchtel: Éditions Ides et Calendes, 1984.

Loire, Stéphane, ed., Simon Vouet: actes du colloque international, Galeries nationales du , 5-6-7 février 1991. Paris: La Documentation Française, 1992. Musée du Louvre. Primatice: maître de Fontainebleau, Paris, Musée du Louvre, 22 septembre 2004-3 janvier 2005, Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 2004.

Ripa, Cesare. Iconologia, ed. Cesare Orlandi, Perugia: 1767.

Schleiner, Louise. Cultural Semiotics, Spenser, and the Captive Woman. Bethlehem, PA: Lehigh UP, 1995.

Stephanson, Raymond. The Yard of Wit: Male Creativity and Sexuality, 1650-1750. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2003.

Thuillier, Jacques; Barbara Brejon de Lavergnée, & Denis Lavalle, eds., Vouet: Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 6 novembre 1990-11 février 1991. Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1990. ______, eds., Simon Vouet, ou, l’éloquence sensible: dessins de la Staatsbibliothek de Munich, Musée des beaux-arts de Nantes, 5

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décembre 2002-20 février 2003. Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 2002.

Tsuchiya, Akiko. “Seduction and Simulation in Carme Riera’s Una primavera per a Domenico Guarini” Movable Margins: The Narrative Art of Carme Riera, eds. Kathleen Mary Glenn, Mirella D’Ambrosio Servodidio and Mary Seale Vásquez, Lewisburg: Bucknell UP, 1999.

Wright, Allison. The Pollaiulo Brothers: The Arts of Florence and Rome. New Haven: Yale UP, 2005.

Zerner, Henri. The School of Fontainebleau: Etchings and Engravings. Tr. Stanley Baron. London: Thames & Hudson, 1969.

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