The French Venus “Les déesses nous ennuient déjà ; elles sont blafardes et maigres, ces pauvres déesses égarées dans notre siècle de science ; il n'y a plus que les vieillards qui s'aperçoivent de leur nudité.” Emile Zola, dans 'Causerie' La Tribune, le 30 août 1868 “Tu entends encore nos clameurs, Vénus immortelle! Après avoir aimé tes contemporains, tu es à nous, maintenant, à nous tous, à l'univers. Il semble que les vingt-cinq siècles de ta vie aient seulement consacré ton invincible jeunesse.” Auguste Rodin, dans 'A la Vénus de Milo' Paris, La Jeune Parque, 1945, p.2 First published in L'Art et les Artistes, n° 60, t. 10: 242-255, 1910. “A great private collection is a material concentrate that continually stimulates, that overexcites. Not only because it can always be added to, but because it is already too much. The collector's need is precisely for excess, for surfeit, for profusion. ........................................... A collection is always more than is necessary.” Susan Sontag in 'The Vulcano Lover – A Romance' London, Vintage, 1993, p.72 The Iconography of Venus from the Middle Ages to Modern Times Volume 2.1 The French Venus A topical catalogue of sculptures, reliefs, paintings, frescos, drawings, prints and illustrations of identified French artists Compiled by K. Bender 2009 To C and all my friends who are supporting me Cover illustration: ‘Vénus de Milo’, 2001 by ARMAN. Sculpture in iron, 52x15x20 cm. Private collection (serial number 28 in edition of 80). Photo AVdV. Authorization for reproduction requested. A hard copy and a digital pdf version are available at www.lulu.com Copyright 2009 by K. Bender. Any duplication, distribution or dissemination without the prior permission of the author is not allowed. iv Contents Introduction 7 Introduction to Volume 1.1 9 Guideline to the Topical Catalogue 11 Topic Date of work Artist’s/creators’ name(s) Title of work Type of work Medium and material of support Dimension of work and series Owner of work Inventory number of work Source(s) of information about the work Reference number of work Replicas, copies of work and comments Example Catalogue – Table of Topics – Topic–index - List of Abbreviations 17 1. Allegories 21 2. Apotheosis/Sacrifice/Temple/Triumph/Worship 24 3. Attributes of Venus 29 4. Birth of Venus/Venus Anadyomene/Venus Marina 34 5. Toilet/Bath of Venus/Venus crouching 47 6. Venus and Adonis 55 7. Venus and Anchises, Aeneas 64 8. Venus and Cupid 68 9. Venus and Cupids 85 10. Venus and the Judgement of Paris/Venus, Helen & Paris 90 11. Venus and Mars 99 12. Venus and other Gods, Deities or Heroes 106 13. Venus and Psyche 120 14. Venus and Satyrs 124 15. Venus and Vulcan 126 16. Venus Asleep/ Venus after Tiziano 131 17. Venus Statues 135 18. Venus Unaccompanied and Abstract 144 Index of Artists 157 Directory of Owners and Auctioneers 179 Selected Bibliography 189 Specific Catalogues Selected References v v Introduction This second volume “The French Venus” of the series on the Iconography of Venus from the Middle Ages to Modern Times has the same general objective and organization as the first volume “The Italian Venus”. Therefore, the Introduction to Volume 1.1, following this introduction, is added as essential information for readers who do not know the first volume. These topical catalogues do not include any ‘discours historique’ – for which the author has no competence: the abundant bibliography at the end of each volume offers plenty of such material. The data compiled are simply ordered in a systematic way with the goal of a quantitative analysis, i.e. by ‘counting’ artworks, topics and artists over the time considered. The present volume counts 2997 artworks made by 977 French artists; the former volume counted 1840 artworks made by 649 Italian artists. The author hopes that art historians as well as other scientists will explore these data for in-depth studies: the quantitative approach to art history is relatively new and was recently the subject of an international colloquium (Joyeux-Prunel 2008)1. The methodology explained in detail in the Guideline to the Topical Catalogue, remains essentially the same but was adapted where necessary or useful for the specificities of the corpus of French artworks. A very important and unique source of information since the end of the 17th century are the many 'Salons of French Artists', organized in Paris2. Unfortunately, only few collections of 'livrets de salon' are presently available in digital format: hence, most of the screening for 'Venus'-topics was done manually and this involved a certain degree of inaccuracy. More important, however, is the fact that the information given in the 'livrets' until the end of the 19th century is incomplete on both the artist and the presented work: • the artist's first name is generally not given and therefore correct or true attribution among relatives (father, sons, brothers, etc.) or homonyms is not possible in some cases; • the artwork itself is described by its title, which does not always allow for a correct topical identification; a subtitle, when available, could help sometimes; information on type and medium/support of the work is fragmentary and the size is seldom given; • there are of course no reproductions available, which could help in a full and correct topical identification, but in a few cases sketches made in the margin of the livrets by Gabriel de SAINT-AUBIN are very helpful (Dacier 1993). The bibliographical references to the information sources of the ‘Salons’ have been gathered separately and are presented in a list entitled “Specific Catalogues”. This list includes also other inventories and some general “topical” catalogues, already mentioned in the Introduction to Volume 1.1. A useful addition to the list is Pigler's “Barockthemen – Ein Auswahl von Verzeichnissen zur Ikonographie des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts” (1974) because Pigler's list of topics (for the given period) is more extensive than in other topical catalogues; moreover, Pigler subdivides each topical list of works by country-origin of the artists, essentially the Low Countries, Italy, France, Germany and England: a feature which corresponds to the concept of the present series of the Venus-iconography. The specific bibliographical list “About the meaning of Venus (Aphrodite)” of Volume 1.1 has not been reproduced in this volume. 1 Bibliographical references throughout the document are given in the text by the author’s name and date of publication and are listed in alphabetical order at the end of the volume. 2There have been 'Salons' in other French cities as well, e.g. in Lyon (Dumas 2007), but the screening was limited to Paris' salons. 7 Likewise in Volume 1.1, the artworks representing the prae-historic so-called Venus are not compiled, nor are artworks which do not illustrate the figure of Venus: for instance plants or shells, vessels or ships or other objects bearing her name. However, symbols/places closely related to her worship (e.g. Cyprus, Cythera, Paphos, temples, etc) and Venus as the symbol of the Planet are included, but works featuring the planet itself or related to astronomy, space exploration or science-fiction are excluded. Abstract art with a title 'Venus' poses a specific problem: was the artist's inspiration the figure of Venus or the planet? A few abstract works were included. Digital painting, an emerging technique, has not yet been included. Acknowledgement and gratitude are due to the many librarians who helped the author in his search for references. Specific help was found in the Institut National de l’Histoire de l’Art (INHA) and in the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS), Département d’Histoire et Théorie des Arts, Paris, in the Warburg Institute, London, in the Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica, Rome and in the Department of Art History, Universiteit Gent, Ghent. The author is also very much indebted to several museum curators or assistants who answered with personal communication to his questions for some detailed information. The author realizes that the catalogue presented, likewise as Volume 1.1, is far from complete and not without errors. It is the nature of such catalogues that they should be revised and expanded by new information: readers are kindly invited to notify omissions, supply missing information or point out errors; they will be gratefully acknowledged in a revised version. Please send E-mail to <[email protected]>. Readers might also be interested to discuss the innovative quantitative analysis of the data compiled in these catalogues: two papers regarding “The Italian Venus” are available free for downloading at <http://stores.lulu.com/benderK> and papers on “The French Venus” will soon follow. Additions to Some “Venus/Aphrodite” exhibitions in Europe published in Volume 1.1 “Venus and Mercury”, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London 1987 “Venus Sovietica”, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg 2007 An interdisciplinary conference “Aphrodite revealed – a goddess disclosed” was held at the Department of Classics, University of Reading, 8-10 May 2008 7 Introduction to Volume 1.1 Numerous books and essays have been written about the iconography and the iconology of Venus and many art exhibitions were organized during the past decades, showing the continuing interest in the subject (see a list of exhibitions below). No other mythological personage than Venus has been so often on stage. The reader interested in the iconography of Venus (or Aphrodite), in the iconology and history of her perpetual ambivalent presence and attention in our society, may find a support in this catalogue, besides a selected up-to-date bibliography of the subject. The aim of the Topical1 Catalogue is to offer a comprehensive list of artworks with the subject ‘Venus’.