Originalveröffentlichung in: The Burlington magazine 140 (1998), Nr. 1148, S. 759-760
BOOK REVIEWS
V I^SHHPP
Pierre Mignard 'le Romain'. Actes du
colloque. Edited by Jean-Claude Boyer. 55. Death of Socrates, by 317 pp. incl. 127 b. & w. ills. (La documen Charles-Alphonse tation Francaise, Paris, 1997), FF210. Dufresnoy. 122 by 155 ISBN 2110037709. cm. (Uffizi, Florence).
The present volume offers its Actes du col receiving a monographic exhibition at Avi can be identified with the socalled 'Stock loque in the broadest sense, for it not only gnon in 1979. And where the present book holmMaster'; and speculates that he and contains the papers presented in September takes any account of Pierre Mignard as a Mignard may well have borrowed motifs 1995 at the Louvre to mark the tercen painter, it is so only in respect of his por from each other. Bearing this in mind, one tenary of Pierre Mignard's death (Denis traits, while any evaluation of the success he can point out that the corpse on the ground Lavalle's contribution on the missing im aspired to as a historypainter is conspicu in Dufresnoy's Death of Socrates (Florence, pact of the ValdeGrace frescoes on later ously absent. Uffizi; Fig. 5 5) and especially the body of the French painters being the only omission), These reservations aside, the papers pub handmaiden in Mignard's Death of Cleopatra but also documents JeanClaude Boyer's lished in this volume are well worth reading. (private collection; Fig.56) are both based preparation of the event. Thus, the reader Giuseppe Scalia and Chiara Parisi present a on Maderno's famous sculpture of St Cecil will find the texts and illustrations which hitherto unknown will dated 22nd October ia in the Trasteverine church.3 In his con accompanied a 'dossier' exhibition in the 1653, which introduces intriguing implic tribution, Thierry Bajou examines six of Louvre focused on Michel II Corneille's ations about Mignard's private life and also Mignard's portraits at Versailles, among grisaille copy after Mignard's ValdeGrace the date of some of his more celebrated them that of the comte du Toulouse which decoration,1 plus a letter from Donatella paintings of the Virgin. Catherine Loisel is based on a famous composition by Guido Sparti declining to participate in the ab Legrand extends the reconstruction of Mig Reni now known only through a print (Bajou sence of documents concerning Mignard in nard's collections of drawings, including unconvincingly maintains that Mignard's the archives of the Roman Banco di Santo some new identifications and the reattribu model was a Sassoferrato, but that too Spirito, and a corrected and complete tran tion of several Carracci sheets. In an excit is based on the Reni).4 Finally, JeanClaude scription by Antoine Schnapper of already ing reexamination of the order in which the Boyer (who is preparing a monograph on published documents concerning Mignard's two editions of Dufresnoy's De Arte graphica Mignard) identifies the artists Mignard ad possessions. were prepared for publication in 1668, mired and attempted to emulate. And here Despite these added extras, the book Christopher Allen interestingly argues that it becomes clear how difficult it is to judge faithfully reflects the reluctance, clearly Roger de Piles's French translation may his work today. If Charles Le Brun is more discernible during the colloque, to confront not, in fact, postdate Mignard's Latin respected than acclaimed in our days, a the aesthetic qualities of Mignard's work. In edition which, Allen suggests, is simply a painter such as Mignard, who is technically fact, the ten papers in both sections of the hurried reaction to de Piles's undertaking. competent but essentially a follower rather book dedicated to 'Pierre Mignard et Rome' Sylvain Laveissiere presents some new attri than a creator, needs special pleading for a and 'Le peintre parisien' are largely con butions to the omvre of Dufresnoy, who now modern audience. Though this book fails to cerned with biographical topics, such as Mignard's collection of drawings or his relations with his friend CharlesAlphonse Dufresnoy, rather than his paintings. Thus, the question arises whether Mignard was indeed 'un des tout premiers peintres de son siecle' (as claimed by Pierre Rosenberg in his pref ace, p. 7) and not just a 'figure de pale decalque de Charles Le Brun, . . . son rival mieux doue' (Boyer, ex negativo in his introduction, p.9). It is curious that modern laments deploring Mignard's neglect frequendy echo criti cisms by his contemporaries concerning his lack of genius and inspiration (see the fortuna critica established by Edouard Pommier in the volume under review, esp. pp.244, 254 and 259). It is also telling that although the anniversary of Mignard's death should have
been celebrated in 1995 'avec le plus d'eclat 56. Death of Cleopatra, by possible'' (p.7), the Louvre granted him only Pierre Mignard. 99 by a 'Tableau du mois' display and a oneday 133 cm. (Private symposium. His brother Nicolas did better, collection, England).
759 address various fundamental questions, it is nonetheless welcome as a first step towards confronting an artistic personality who forces us to come to terms with late seventeenth-century painting in France. It is hoped that Jean-Claude Boyer's mono graph will go further in this direction. HENRY KEAZOR Kunsthistorisches Institut, Florence
'Organised by JeanClaude Boyer and Sylvain Laveis siere, and shown from 6th September to 2nd October 1995 in the 'tableau du mois' series. This name was adopted by p. ROSENBERG and L.-A. PRAT in their Catalogue raisonne of the Poussin drawings (Milan [1994]) II, p.1082, no. RllM. 'For an illustration of the Mignard see j.c. BOYER: Le peintre, le roi, le hens. L'Andromede de Pierre Mignard, exh. cat., Louvre, Paris [1989], p.62, no.33; Dufresnoy's picture is published in G. CHOMER and s. LAVEISSIERE: Autour de Poussin, exh. cat., Louvre, Paris [1994], p.71, no. 17. Recently, j. THUILLIER {Revue de I'art, 111 [1996], pp.5165) has published another painting by Dufres noy with a Death of Lucrezia (Kassel, Staatliche Kunst sammlungen; formerly attributed to Bertholet Flemal) which includes a similar prostrate figure. 'For Reni's lost painting, see s. PEPPER: Guido Reni, Novara [1988], p.265, no.107. For the Sassoferrato, see P. DAL POGGETTO, ed.: Giovan Battista Salvi '11 Sasso ferrato', exh. cat., Cinisello Balsamo, Milan [1990], p.80, no.28 (not cited by Bajou).
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