French language
Sébastien Bourdon (1616-1671), born in Montpellier, was baptized at the Calvinist temple in that city. He is one of the major painters of the height of pictorial classicism, in the tradition of Nicolas Poussin, and was part of the important colony of Protestant artists gathered in Paris...
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French language
Sébastien Bourdon (1616-1671), born in Montpellier, was baptized at the Calvinist temple in that city. He is one of the major painters of the height of pictorial classicism, in the tradition of Nicolas Poussin, and was part of the important colony of Protestant artists gathered in Paris during the period of appeasement and spirit of tolerance before the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. With a pictorial tradition that has been booming since the 16th century in the Lutheran communities of Northern Europe, and keen to benefit from religious commissions, many Protestant artists carried out important commissions for Parisian churches or private oratories.
The catalogue of this exhibition, which will take the form of a collection of essays, proposes to show, through a selection of Bourdon's religious works, what would be the part of inspiration linked to the painter's religious convictions and the part of concession that the artist agreed to make to satisfy his Catholic sponsors. The major cycle of the last years of the painter's career, the Seven Works of Mercy, will be particularly studied.
Exhibition at the National Museum of Port-Royal des Champs from September 20 to December 16, 2018.
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