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Simon Vouet
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Early Days:
Simon Vouet father Laurent was a painter in Paris and taught him the rudiments of art - Simon's brother Aubin Vouet (1595-1641) was also a painter. Simon began his painting career as a portrait painter. At a young age he travelled to England and was part of the entourage of the Baron de Sancy, French ambassador to Constantinople. From there he went to Venice and was in Rome in 1614. |
Career:
He spent an extensive period of time in Italy, from 1613 to 1627. He was mostly in Rome where the Baroque style was emerging during these years. He received a pension from the King of France and his patrons included the Barbering family, Cassiano dal Pozzo, Paolo Giordano Orsini and Vincenzo Giustianini. He also visited other parts of Italy: Venice; Bologna, (where the Carracci family had their academy); Genoa, (where from 1620 to 1622, he worked for the Doria princes); and Naples. He was a natural academic, who absorbed what he saw and studied, and distilled it in his painting: Caravaggio's dramatic lighting; Italian Mannerism; Paolo Veronese's color and di sotto in su or foreshortened perspective; and the art of the Carracci, Guercino, Lanfranco and Guido Reni. Vouet's immense success in Rome led to his election as president of the Academia di San Luca in 1624. In 1626 he married Virginia da Vezzo who modeled Madonnas for Vouet's religious commissions.
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In Paris, Vouet was the fresh dominating force in French painting, producing numerous public altarpieces and allegorical decors for private patrons. Vouet's sizeable atelier or workshop produced whole school of French painters for the following generation, and through Vouet, French Baroque painting retained a classicizing restraint from the outset
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