Ornament of the Academy
Academician Marc Fumaroli, president of the Amis du Louvre, is a distinguished scholar and essayist, whose writings on 17th-century art reveal a profound knowledge of its cultural context, writes Robert Oresko.
Robert Oresko, Monday, 25th August 2008
Portrait by Derry Moore.
1 The Inspiration of the Poet by Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), c. 1629-30. Oil on canvas, 183 x 213 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris
2 Marc Fumaroli at the Collège de France, Paris, where he was a professor from 1986 to 2002. Photo: © Derry Moore
3 Allegory of Wealth by Simon Vouet (1590-1649), c. 1640. Oil on canvas, 170 x 124 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris
4 Allegory of Divine Providence by Pietro da Cortona (1596-1669), 1632-39. Fresco. Cortona’s decoration of the ceiling of the Gran Salone of Palazzo Barberini, Rome, commissioned by Francesco Barberini, is the subject of a brilliant essay by Fumaroli explaining its complex iconography
5 Nicolas Poussin, ‘Santa Francesca Romana’ (Paris, Musée du Louvre) Painted for Mgr. Giulio Rospigliosi, later Pope Clemente IX (1660-1667-1669), a noted patron and author of opera libretti, Poussin’s S. Francesca Romana dates from about 1657 and was probably commissioned to commemorate the end of the plague in Rome. The figure on the right is probably Anna Colonna Barberini (1601-1658). Sold from the Rospigliosi-Pallavicini collection in 1798, it was acquired by the Louvre in 1999, Fumaroli publishing his first book on in in 2001.
7 IV. Maurice Quentin de La Tour, ‘Portrait of Louis XV in armour) (Paris, Musée du Louvre)
8 Only one of two portraits of Louis XV (1710-1715-1774) painted by Quentin de La Tour, it entered the king’s collection and formed the basis of many of his official portraits. Louis XV wears the Order of the Saint-Esprit and the Spanish Golden Fleece. At about the same time, Quentin de La Tour also painted a portrait of the king’s consort, Maria Leszcynska. The first version of Marc Fumaroli’s article was presented in 2004 at the Quentin de La Tour conference held at Saint-Quentin.
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