Simon Vouet

SIMON VOUET (Paris, 1590 - 1649)
"Saint Catherine and the Angel
Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Possibly Cardinal de la Valette, Rome, 1625. Galerie Electorale de Düsseldorf (1752 - 1805).
Size: 109 x 73 cm; 123 x 95 cm (frame).
Exhibitions:
New York, Finch College, "Vouet to Rigaud: Frenc Masters of the Seventeenth Century", 1967 (cat. No. 3).
Jacksonville, Florida, The Cummer Gallery of Art, "The Age of Louis XIII", 1969 (cat. No. 48, illus.);
Florida, Museum of Fine Arts, 1970; College Park, University of Maryland Art Gallery, "The Works of Simon Vouet", 1971.
Bibliography:
LIONI, Ottavio and AMIDEI, Fausto, "Ritratti di alcuni celebri Pittori del secolo XVII...", p. 55; DEZAILLIER D'ARGENTVILLE, "Abrégé de la vie des plus fameux peintres", 1752, vol. IV, p. 14; PIGAGE, Nicolas, "La Galerie Electorale de Düsseldorf.Catalogue raisoné e figuré de ses tableaux...", pl. IV, no. 56; FRANC, Charles, "Histoire des peintres de toutes les ecoles...", vol. 8; DUSSIEUX, "Les artistes francaise a l'etranger", 1876, p. 428.; L. DEMONTS, "Essai sur la formation de Simon Vouet en Italie" in "Bulletin de la Société d'Histoire d'Art Francais" 1913, pp. 315 and 341; CRELLY, "Les artistes francaises a l'étranger", 1876, p. 428. 315 and 341; CRELLY, William "The Paintings of Simon Vouet", 1962, pp. 238-239, no. 187 (as a lost work); DARGENT, G. and THUILLIER, J. WSimone Vouet en Italie" in "Saggi et Momorie di Storia dell'Arte,", 1965, vol. IV, p. 45, no. A23 (as a lost work). A23 (as a lost work).
The work was engraved by Claude Mellan in 1625, with the coat of arms of Cardinal de la Valette and a dedication to him. Both Crelly's book and that of Dargent and Thullier identify the present work as the one on which Mellan based his engraving, listing it in both studies as a lost work and considering it to be the one mentioned in the Collection of the Electoral Gallery in Düsseldorf in 1752 by Dezaiilier d'ARgenville. The painting was reproduced in an engraving of 1775 in an 18th-century catalogue of the Düsseldorf collection. It is possible to appreciate slight variations between Mellan's and Mechel's engravings. Desmonts, however, deduces that the Düsseldorf painting is a different one from the Mellan engraving, although Crelly argues that these variations are minor.
The painting was in the Düsseldorf Collection and disappeared during its transfer to Munich.
A French Baroque painter, Simon Vouet probably began his training with his father, the painter Laurent Vouet, and is mentioned by André Félibien in England at the age of fourteen as a professional portraitist. His mastery of this genre led him to visit Constantinople in 1611, accompanying the French ambassador, and then to Venice the following year. Finally, two years later, he settled in Rome, protected by the Barberini family and the French Crown. He remained in the Italian capital until 1627, where he achieved great success among the nobility and clergy sympathetic to France. In fact, he was appointed director of the Academy of Saint Luke in 1624. In Rome Vouet particularly admired the work of Caravaggio, whose language would define the French master's youthful style. However, his painting rapidly evolved towards forms more akin to classicism through the influence of the Neo-Venetianist trend that was spreading through Rome through artists such as Lanfranco. He was also receptive to the influence of the Roman-Bolognese classicism of the Carracci, Guercino and Reni, particularly in his chromaticism, which evolved towards greater clarity, and also in his increasingly harmonious compositions. In 1627 he returned to France, summoned by Louis XIII to become court painter. In Paris Vouet became the most influential painter of his time, and in fact introduced the influence of the Italian Baroque into France, especially the trends derived from the work of Veronese. The influence of Veronese can be seen in the large-scale decorations that Vouet executed during the reign of Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelie.