The A to Z of Renaissance Art by Lilian H. Zirpolo

Author:Lilian H. Zirpolo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Published: 2008-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

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L’ORME, PHILIBERT DE (c. 1510–1570). French architect responsible for proliferating the Italian architectural vocabulary in France. Trained by his father in Lyon, L’Orme went to Italy in 1533 to study Italian architecture firsthand. Upon his return to France, he was appointed official architect to King Francis I, and when Francis died, L’Orme continued his official charge under Henry II. Much of his work is no longer extant. His masterpiece is the Château d’Anet (beg. 1550) in Paris, a commission he received from Henry’s mistress, Diane de Poitiers. Only the building’s frontispiece, entrance gate, and parts of the chapel have survived and are now incorporated into the grounds of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. The frontispiece shows a melding of Italian and Gothic elements with the classical orders applied utilizing the Colosseum principle, but superimposed with a triangular form that is too pitched to be qualified as a pediment. The applied ornamentation on the various surfaces is typically Northern. L’Orme was also an author. He published the Nouvelles inventions pour bien bastir et à petits frais in 1561, in essence a building manual, and Le premier tome de l’architecture in 1567, a theoretical architectural treatise.

LA TOUR, GEORGE DE (1593–1652). French Caravaggist painter from Vic-sur-Seille, but active in Lunéville in the Lorraine region. Little is known about the details of La Tour’s life or how he became acquainted with the Caravaggist style. The available documentation on him reveals that in 1623–1624 he received two commissions from the Duke of Lorraine and that in 1639 he was painter to King Louis XIII, who is known to have owned a St. Sebastian by La Tour. A gap in the documentation from 1610–1611 and 1639–1642 has led some scholars to suggest that La Tour may have traveled on those occasions to Italy, where he would have seen Caravaggio’s works, or perhaps to the Netherlands, where he would have become acquainted with the Italian master’s style through the works of the Utrecht Caravaggists. His Fortune Teller (1636–1639; New York, Metropolitan Museum) is, in fact, more closely related to the art of the Dutch masters. It shows five half-length figures in elaborate costumes set against a dark background. The story is told through glances and gestures, the colors as brilliant as those utilized by the Utrecht Caravaggists. La Tour’s Christ and St. Joseph (1645; Paris, Louvre), where the Savior holds a candle so the saint may engage in carpentry, relates to Gerrit van Honthorst’s nocturnal scenes. The candle gave La Tour the opportunity to study the flickering effects of the flame on the various surfaces. The tools used by Joseph prefigure the instruments of the Passion and the wood refers to the cross on which Christ was crucified.

La Tour was living at a time when the Franciscans were experiencing a religious revival in the Lorraine region and their influence is clearly felt in the religious works created by the artist as they evoke piety from viewers and contemplation advocated by the members of the order. La Tour’s Nativity (1650; Rennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts), exemplifies this.

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