THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
Contrast between the Academicians and Naturalists, and between
the French and Spanish Schools of Painting.--Peculiarities of
each.--Ladies of Rank in Madrid Pupils of Velasquez.--Instruction
of the royal Children in Art.--The Engraver of Madrid.--Every
City in the South of Spain boasts a female Artist.--Isabella
Coello.--Others in Granada.--In Cordova.--The Sculptress of
Seville.--Luisa Roldan; her Carvings in Wood.--The Canons
“sold.”--Invitation to Madrid.--Sculptress to the King.--Other Women
Artists in Spain.--In France Woman’s Position more prominent than
in preceding Age.--Corruption of court Manners.--Unworthy Women in
Power.--Women in every Department of Literature.--Mademoiselle de
Scudery.--Madame de la Fayette.--Madame Dacier.--Women in theological
Pursuits.--Their Ascendency in Art not so great.--Miniature and
Flower Painters.--Engravers.--Elizabeth Sophie Chéron.--A Leader
in Enamel-painting.--Her Portraits and History-pieces.--Her
Merits and Success.--Her Translations of the Psalms.--Musical and
Poetical Talents.--Honors lavished on her.--Love and Marriage
at three-score.--Her Generosity to the needy.--Verses in her
Praise.--Historical Tableaux.--Madelaine Masson.--The Marchioness de
Pompadour.
Striking contrasts belong to the history of art in the seventeenth
century. A moral, religious, and artistic contrast existed between
the academicians and the naturalists; and one as remarkable may
be noticed between the French and Spanish schools of painting,
corresponding, in fact, to the civil struggle between the two nations
for European supremacy. In Spain the enthusiasm for art harmonized
with the passionate character of the people; in France, discretion and
intellectual taste predominated. The sensuous and rudely natural in
Spanish art was combined with the warmest glow of religious feeling.
Velasquez, a son of Andalusia, had a number of scholars in Madrid among
ladies of high rank. Donna Maria de Abarca and the Countess of Vill’
Ambrosa were celebrated for their skill in taking likenesses, and were
highly praised by the poets. The Duchess of Bejar, Teresa Sarmiento,
and Maria de Guadalupe, Duchess of Aveiro--also an accomplished
linguist and lover of letters--had considerable celebrity as painters.
The admiration of Philip IV. for art rendered the instruction therein
of the royal children and those of the nobility a necessary branch
of education. The Duchess of Alba, celebrated for her beauty and
intrigues, gave one of Raphael’s master-pieces as a fee to the family
physician, who had cured her of a dangerous illness.
Maria Eugenia de Beer was an engraver in Madrid, and we may find in
the choir-books of the cathedral at Tarragona creditable specimens of
the talent of the painter Angelica, who painted the illuminations with
great neatness and skill.
Every city in the south of Spain seemed to be able to boast of a female
artist. In Valencia lived Doña Isabella Sanchez Coello, the daughter
and pupil of “the Spanish Prothogenes”--Alonzo Sanchez Coello--the
first of the great Spanish portrait painters, and the Velasquez of the
court of Philip II. Born in 1564, she was the playmate of Infants and
Infantas, and she acquired distinction both in music and painting. She
married Don Francisco de Herrera, Knight of Santiago. Dying in Madrid
in 1612, she was buried with her husband’s family in the church of San
Juan.
Magdalena Gilarte was a noted painter, and worked in her father’s
style with spirit and skill. Jesualda Sanchez carried on her husband’s
business after his death, and painted small pictures of the saints for
sale.
In Granada we find Doña Maria Cueva Benavides y Barrados an admired
painter, and Anna Heylan an engraver in copper. In Cordova, Doña
Francisca Palomino y Velasco, the sister of the painter and art
historian of the same name. She flourished about the close of the
century.
THE SCULPTRESS OF SEVILLE.
To the school of Seville, in which Spanish art reached its highest
development, belongs a fair artist of repute. Luisa Roldan was known
as an excellent sculptor in wood. She was born in 1656, and profited
by her father’s instructions in art, acquiring great skill. After her
mother’s death, she kept both her household and the studio in orderly
operation, attending with successful management to the affairs of both,
and keeping busy at work both her servants and her father’s pupils.
Roldan was indebted to her for valuable hints. He had carved a statue
of St. Ferdinand for the Cathedral, which the canons rejected. Luisa
suggested certain anatomical operations with the saw, which were
perfectly successful. The canons took the work for a new one, and were
satisfied; and the saint was peacefully installed in his chapel. Her
chief productions were small figures of the Virgin, or groups of the
Adoration of the shepherds, etc., and all were designed and executed
with delicacy and grace. She sculptured a Magdalen supported by an
angel, the statue giving an exquisite idea of an angel’s sweetness and
protecting love. It is placed in the hospital at Cadiz. Her small
pieces are full of expression.
She married Don Luis de los Arcos, and was invited to Madrid in 1692,
through Don Cristobal Ontañon, who had presented several of her works
to Charles II. The king was pleased, and ordered a statue of St.
Michael, life size, for the church of the Escurial. This Luisa executed
with great success, and to the admiration of the connoisseurs. The work
elicited complimentary verses from a distinguished poet, and the artist
was rewarded by the post of sculptress in ordinary to the king, with a
salary of a hundred ducats, paid from the day she arrived at court.
When Charles II. died she had just completed a statue of our Saviour
which he had ordered for a convent; its destination was then changed to
a nunnery at Sisanto. She died at Madrid in 1704, leaving in the palace
treasure a small group, modeled in clay, representing St. Anna teaching
the Virgin to read, and attended by angels. Some of her works were
placed in the Recolete Convent, and some in the Chartreuse of Paulan.
Doña Isabella Carasquilla was a painter, and married a miniaturist,
Juan de Valdes Leal of Cordova. Their daughters Luisa and Maria were
highly educated, and painted miniatures. The latter died in 1730, a nun
in the Sistercian Convent at Seville.
Rosalba Salvioni, a painter of celebrity, was the pupil of Mesquida.
Doña Inez Zarcillo evinced no small taste in drawing and modeling. She
was the sister of a sculptor.
Maria de Loreto Prieto, an artist’s daughter, possessed extraordinary
talent for painting and engraving. Her father was highly esteemed by
Charles III., and had the oversight of all the coins for the purpose
of improving the stamps.
Caterina Querubini, the wife of Preciado, a miniature-painter, enjoyed
a pension from the Spanish court, and an honored place in the Academy
de San Fernando.
Doña Isabella Farnese, the wife of Philip V., and Angela Perez
Caballero, drew exceedingly well, and were members of the Academy in
Madrid.
WOMEN ARTISTS IN FRANCE.
In France women had taken a position more prominent than in the
preceding century. Even the gallantry prevailing in society, and the
corruption of court manners, were promoted by feminine influence.
Unworthy women were raised to power, and the history of court favorites
from the reign of the knightly Henry IV. to that of the great monarch
Louis XIV. forms the most important part of the annals of the empire.
Women took eminent places in every department of literature; in the
drama Catherine Bernard was the disciple of Racine, and Mademoiselle de
Scudery had many imitators in her poetical romances; while Madame de la
Fayette took the lead in a more modern style of fiction. Madame Dacier
became celebrated as “the most learned and eloquent of women,” and her
example helped to spread a love of knowledge and classical attainment
among the French ladies. Even theological pursuits had a Jeanne de la
Mothe-Guyon to represent mysticism in conflict with the orthodoxy of
the court and the state.
In art the ascendency of woman was by no means so great. We may,
however, name, as prominent in portrait and miniature painting,
Antoinette and Madelaine Herault; the latter, in 1660, married Noel
Coypel. She joined noble virtues to her extraordinary talents.
Henriette Stresor and Catherine Perrot may also be mentioned. Catherine
Duchemin, a flower-painter, married the famous sculptor Girardon.
Several women were noted as engravers on copper; among them Claudine
Bonzonnet Stella has been called the first in France, and practiced the
art with her two sisters. Jane Frances and Mary Ann Ozanne, the sisters
of a French engraver, worked chiefly in engraving sea-side scenes.
ELIZABETH SOPHIE CHÉRON.
But she who occupies the highest place among all the artists of this
period is Elizabeth Sophie Chéron. Born in Paris in 1648, she received
instruction from her father in miniature and enamel painting, in which
she attained such perfection that she may be regarded as the leader
of the host of French artists who devoted themselves especially to
this branch. At the age of twenty-six she was admitted a member of the
Academy, at the proposal of Charles Le Brun. She was received with
distinction; his portrait by her being her reception picture.
Her merits were a fine tone, exquisite taste and harmony in design,
and finely-disposed draperies. She often made portraits from memory.
Her portraits were so frequently treated in an allegorical manner they
might be called historical; and her history-pieces were much admired.
She designed much after the antique.
Her father had educated Elizabeth in the strictest principles of
Calvinism; but her mother, Marie Lefevre, a Catholic, persuaded her
to become a member of that church, after a year’s seclusion in the
community of Madame de Miramion. The difference in faith did not impair
her affection to her family. She supported her brother Louis for some
time in Italy, whither he went to study painting.
This accomplished artist passed the maturity of life without any of the
experiences, with which almost every young girl is familiar, of the
tender passion. Her emotions seem to have been altogether spiritual.
She translated many of the Psalms into French verse; and they were
published with illustrations by Louis. She played admirably on the
lute, and was accustomed to practice in the parlor with her nieces and
pupils, who performed on different instruments. Louis XIV. gave her a
pension of five hundred livres.
The most eminent scholars of the day were her friends and visitors;
and in conversation she evinced the highest mental cultivation. Her
portraits were chiefly painted as presents to her friends, or as
ornaments to her own cabinet. “I have the pleasure,” she would say, “of
seeing them in their absence.”
In spiritual lyrics she was the precursor of J. B. Rousseau, with whom
in warmth of feeling she may be compared; and in narrative poetry she
acquired much reputation. The Academy dei Ricovrati, in Padua, received
her as a member in 1699, under the name of Erato. She possessed beauty
and engaging manners, and to all the honors lavished on her she joined
the crowning grace of modesty.
The attractions of this gifted being did not depart with the beauty of
fleeting youth. At the age of sixty she fascinated the affections of
the Sieur Le Hay, a gentleman about her own age, on whom she bestowed
her hand, simply with the generous motive, it was said, of promoting
his good fortune. Tradition reports that, when they came out of the
church after the ceremony had been performed, the bride made a speech
to her husband, implying that esteem, not romantic love, had influenced
her choice. She is said to have alluded to him, under the name of
Damon, in one of her poems.
As of Madame Dacier, it might be said of this artist--the traits of a
great and manly nature might be discerned in her face. Her features
wore an expression of decision and firmness. Her hair, in her portrait,
curls from the top and floats in ringlets. She was remarkable for
the modesty and simplicity of her dress. Her large and sympathizing
heart made her the protector and benefactor of needy artists, while
her social qualities drew around her the brilliant circles that
habitually were found at her house, including many of the most gifted
and illustrious of that day. Her death took place in 1711, at the age
of sixty-three, and she was buried at St. Sulpice. She was lamented
by Fermelhuis in a canto of praise. The Abbé Bosquillon wrote the
following lines to be inscribed under her portrait:
“De deux talens exquis l’assemblage nouveau
Rendra toujours Chéron l’ornement de la France;
Rien ne peut de sa plume égaler l’excellence
Que les graces de son pinceau.”
For different gifts renowned, fair Chéron see,
Ever of France the ornament and pride;
Equaled by none her pen’s great works shall be,
Save when her pencil triumphs at their side.
Mademoiselle Chéron made many studies from Raphael and the Caracci.
Among her historical tableaux are enumerated, “The Flight into
Egypt”--the Virgin represented in a wearied sleep, with angels
guarding the babe; “Cassandra inquiring of a god the doom of Troy;”
“The Annunciation;” “Christ at the Sepulchre”--after Zumbo; with “The
Demoiselles de la Croix”--her nieces and pupils; and a grand portrait
of the Archbishop of Paris, placed in the Jacobin school of the Rue St.
Jacques.
Madelaine Masson was the daughter of Anthony Masson, a celebrated
engraver, and was born in Paris, 1660. She received instruction from
her father, and engraved portraits in his fine style. Among these is
the picture of Maria Teresa, Queen of France, and of the Infanta of
Spain.
The Marchioness de Pompadour engraved and executed small plates after
Boucher and others. She engraved one set of sixty-three prints, after
gems by Gay.