Iskusstvo Frantsii XVII – XVIII vekov iz sobraniia Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha (French Art of the 17th and 18th c. from the Collection of the State Hermitage)
St. Petersburg: Slavia, 2009. Sewn pb. This catalogue of a Hermitage exhibition at Kazan covers the period when the works in various genres by French artists became the most imitated and admired art of Europe. The catalogue includes major artists and less well-known ones some of whose works are published here for the first time. The authors discuss themes that shaped the art of the age: the role of the first French royal academy founded in 1635 in propagating a classicism based on Greek and Roman aesthetics; Poussin’s ideals and their decline into dogma in the work of his successors; absolutism in the politics of Louis XIV and its effect on art; the boom in architecture and the paintings that became part of the decor of palatial interiors; the rise of portraiture and changing approaches to landscape painting; Watteau, the regency of the Duke of Orleans, and the emergence of rococo; the successive artists of the eighteenth century and their styles; neoclassicism and harbingers of romanticism. A separate chapter covers the decorative arts using examples from the Hermitage collection of porcelain, ceramics, bronze, tapestries, and furniture. The book design is conducive to careful study — frequent details and two-page spreads reveal the special characteristics of the works. 190 pp., 8 1/2 x 11 ins., 141 color illus., sewn pb., Rus. with artists’ names in French. Item #3716
ISBN: 9785950101403
Price: $77.00