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Classical (ancient Greek and Roman) subject matter—especially history and myth—

was a common subject for artists since the Renaissance. Artists recorded stories appealing to the audiences of their era—sometimes heroic and tragic, sometimes sentimental and erotic. Playful and erotic subjects were especially popular in the mid-eighteenth century among aristocratic and wealthy patrons, and a corresponding visual language, Rococo, evolved to depict them. The informal Rococo style contrasted with the somber rigidity of the academic style taught at the École Royale and used for RIÀFLDOFRPPLVVLRQV7KH5RFRFRÁRXULVKHGWKURXJKRXW(XURSHDQGLVFKDUDFWHUL]HG

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Pompeii became fashionable among novelty-seeking patrons uninterested in drab historical and religious subjects; Rococo classicism fused tradition (ancient myth and history) with trendiness. François Boucher (1703–70)—along with Antoine Watteau (1684–1721) and Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806)—was the leading French Rococo painter. Boucher won the Prix de Rome without studying at the École Royale, due to the support of academician François Lemoyne (1688–1737). Boucher worked DVDQLOOXVWUDWRUDQGHQJUDYHUMRLQHGWKH$FDGpPLHLQUHFHLYHGKLVÀUVWUR\DO

commission in 1735, and became director of the Gobelins tapestry factory in 1755.

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aspect of Rococo. He painted it at the request of the Marquise de Pompadour (sister

Figure 1.12

Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, Goethe in the Roman Campagna, 1786–87. Oil on canvas, 164 × 206 cm (5 ft 4½ in × 6 ft 9 in).

Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt.

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mistress (1745–50).

According to the Roman writer Apuleius, Venus, goddess of love, was jealous of the human Psyche, whose beauty and kindness charmed mortal men. She directed her son Cupid, god of love, to put a spell on Psyche so that she would only fall in love with ugly, evil men, but instead, Cupid fell in love with her. He hid Psyche in a remote palace and secretly visited her. Because Cupid wanted to conceal his identity from Psyche, he visited only at night and told her she could never see him. Curiosity got the better of her, however. One night while Cupid lay sleeping, Psyche lit a lamp DQGGLVFRYHUHGKHUORYHU·VLGHQWLW\$ZDNHQHGE\DGURSRI ODPSRLO&XSLGÁHG9HQXV

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rescued his beloved, and Jupiter, king of the gods, sanctioned their marriage and granted Psyche immortality.

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Rococo style. Despite its apparent frivolity, the Marriage of Cupid and Psyche provides insight into eighteenth-century society. The stances of Cupid and Psyche mirror one another, they are about the same height, and Boucher portrayed them with the same translucent skin and delicate features, suggesting parity between the god and the human, male and female. Indeed, in aristocratic circles intelligence, sensitivity, and taste were traits valued without regard to class, gender, or race. Boucher’s painting H[KLELWV OLEHUDO (QOLJKWHQPHQW LGHDOV E\ DIÀUPLQJ WKH UROH RI  WUDGLWLRQDO DXWKRULW\

(Jupiter) in insuring happiness, justice, and prosperity. A savvy entrepreneur, Boucher PDGHDIRUWXQHE\FDWHULQJWRZHDOWK\SDWURQVLQVWHDGRI VHHNLQJSUHVWLJLRXVRIÀFLDO

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1765 Boucher was appointed First Painter to the king and director of the Académie Royale, the institution that presided over artistic matters in France.

While classical subjects escalated in popularity during the eighteenth century, WKHVSHFLÀFVRXUFHVWRU\VW\OHDQGWHFKQLTXHDUWLVWVFKRVHUHÁHFWHGVHQVLWLYLW\WRWKHLU

Figure 1.13

François Boucher, Marriage of Cupid and Psyche, 1744. Oil on canvas, 186 × 132 cm (6 ft 1¼ in × 4 ft 4 in).

Musée du Louvre, Paris.

intended audiences. Boucher turned to mythology for an erotic subject whose Rococo treatment appealed to his aristocratic patron. Two decades later, Joseph-Marie Vien (1716–1809) chose an erotic subject, but one whose debt to a recently discovered ancient painting made it simultaneously trendy and traditional. Vien studied at the École Royale in Paris, and won its prestigious Prix de Rome (Rome Prize), which funded his study at the French Academy in Rome from 1744 to 1750. In Rome, Vien joined the antiquity craze and made drawings that provided the basis for paintings executed back in Paris. In 1775, Vien returned to Rome as director of the French Academy, where he remained until 1781. Vien based his best known work, Seller of Cupids (1763, Figure 1.14), on a wall painting from Herculaneum reproduced in the third volume of Antiquities of Herculaneum, published in 1762 by Carlos III (Figure 1.15). Vien’s patron, the Count of Caylus, a wealthy antiquities collector, owned a copy, and Vien executed Seller of Cupids in 1763. Vien’s subject—selling loves to women—

dovetailed with contemporary aristocratic taste for erotic subjects, yet the inspiration, subject matter, and style were all classical. Vien retained elements of the Herculaneum painting: stage-like space whose back wall is parallel to the picture plane, few ÀJXUHV³WKUHHIHPDOHÀJXUHVDQGWKUHHZLQJHGORYHV³UHVWUDLQHGH[SUHVVLRQVVWDWLF

poses, minimal furnishings, and a somber palette. He did not copy the ancient work exactly, but used it as the basis for what the Académie Royale considered an original creation honoring the classical past. Vien altered the spacing, dress, and gestures of the women, and enriched the scene with archaeologically correct furnishings derived from other documentary sources—the chair, the urn and pedestal, the censer, and the ER[ZHUHDOOEDVHGRQVSHFLÀF5RPDQREMHFWVXQHDUWKHGLQUHFHQWH[FDYDWLRQV7KXV

the painting was simultaneously modern and ancient, derivative and original. Seller of Cupids evidences truth via archaeological accuracy, economy of expression, controlled brushwork, and an emphasis on line rather than color, that would come to mark the Neoclassical style of painting.

Figure 1.14

Joseph-Marie Vien, Seller of Cupids, 1763. Oil on canvas, 95 × 119 cm (37 × 46⁷/8 in).

Château de Fontainebleau.

Figure 1.15

Carlo Nolli, Seller of Loves from Le Pitture Antiche d’Ercolano e Contorni, Vol. 3, 1762. Engraving, 23 × 32 cm (9 × 12⁵/8 in). Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, IN.

Figure 1.16

Anton Raphael Mengs, Parnassus, 1761. Fresco, 300

× 600 cm (10 × 20ft). Villa Albani, Rome.