AWIL-UM : Thoughts in Perspective: تاریخ هنر

2015-03-27

Sebastien Bourdon [French Baroque Painter]

Sebastien Bourdon is a French Baroque era painter born in 1616 in Montpelier. His father was a painter on glass and this influenced the young boy to undergo a career in art, being sent at the age of seven to Paris as an apprentice to a painter. At the age of 14 he left his apprenticeship and went to Bordeaux and the to Toulouse. Having a precarious financial situation, to say the least, he enlists in the army where in 1634 an officer recognizing his talent directs Sebastien on the road of his destiny by discharging him from military service and financing his journey to Rome. There he studied works by Poussin, Claude Lorrain and Caravaggio and earned his income by selling reproductions of other works.

In 1637 he returned to Paris and began to have his own commissions, among them St. Peter's martyrdom for Notre-Dame and the Martyrdom of St. Andrew for Church of Saint-André in Chartres. In 1648 he was one of the founders of the French Royal Academy. The next important moment in his biography is the year 1652 when Christina of Sweden made him chief court painter. He continued to execute commissions for the church of Saint-Benoit, for the cathedral of Montpellier, in Cologne and for the Tuileries Palace.

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2013-03-09

Overview of Caravaggio's Christian Art

Sometime in the early 13th century, between 1227 and 1234 [1], a liturgical drama was composed now known as "The Play of Daniel" (Ludus Danielis). Out of several versions only one survived complete with musical notation and that is the version from Beauvais. The play dates back to ~1140 [2]. What you are listening to now is only a small part of it but the part which in my opinion clearly stands out from the rest because of its unforeseen power. How much of the original composition was altered, maybe none, maybe a lot, I don't know, but this does not alter the experience of hearing it.

I doubt Caravaggio would of had the chance to listen to this song, but who can know such things. Born as Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio in 1571 studied in Naples under Simone Peterzano, he remainde in the history of art a very intriguing character and an exceptional painter who had a formative influence on Baroque painting. His biography is quite entertaining in the sense that he was a veritable rock star of his time, if I could say so and apparently I can. Among the highlights of his eccentric behavior I can remember that he used a well known prostitute as his model for St Mary and that he killed a man. He died in 1610. He didn't have many years of painting but what he eventually painted is truly art at its highest. I don't know what his painting habits were but I don't think he was following the method used by Byzantine painters while working on their icons, immersed in prayer. This being said it is safe to assume that many of his religious works are not entirely religios, meaning that they also have roots in his personal life, in fact there are studies done on this which I am sure you can find on the web.