Simon vouet artemisia gentileschi biography

Early Life

Vouet's beginnings, like those of so many of his French contemporaries, Claude Vignon (1593-1670), Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), Claude Lorrain (1600-82), and Valentin de Boulogne (1591-1632), were quite adventurous. Son of a painter, Laurent Vouet, of whom almost nothing is known, he seems to have been sent to England when he was very young, then to Constantinople in 1611-12 and to Venice in 1612-13.

Career in Rome

Whether or not all these surmises are correct, Vouet was certainly in Rome in 1613, and, except for the short time he spent in Genoa working for the Doria family in 1621-2, lived there until his return to France. He did however spend time in Venice, and almost certainly visited Milan, Piacenza, Parma, Bologna and Florence. In 1617 he received a brevet from the King of France and the following year a royal pension. By 1620 he had established himself as the leader of the French colony in Rome; he won prestigious commissions in the capital and elsewhere and he had important protectors and admirers. His works were highly esteemed and were included in the most notable collections of the day. In 1624 he was called upon to be President of the Roman Academy of St Luke. The same year, his reputation was boosted even further by a commission for Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome, of which only some fragmentary sketches survive, and he undertook the decoration of the Church of S. Lorenzo in Lucina.

Vouet's works from Rome are well known. They include altarpieces, several of which are in situ: including The Birth of the Virgin (1618-20, Church of S. Francesco a Ripa, Rome); The Crucifixion (1621-2, Church of S. Ambrogio, Genoa); The Circumcision (1622, Church of S. Angelo a Segno, Naples); the decoration for the Alaleoni Chapel, 1623-4 in Rome, and for the Church of S. Lorenzo in Lucina; The Apparition of the Virgin to St Bruno (1626, Church of S. Martino, Naples); Apotheosis of St Theodore (1627, Gemaldegalerie, Dresden). In addition, we know of easel paintings including: The Lovers (1617-18, Rome, Gal. Pallavicini); The Fortune-Teller (National Gallery, Ottawa); St Jerome and the Angel (National Gallery of Art, Washington DC); and Time Vanquished (1627, Prado). There is also a series of very fine portraits that display a beautiful free handling and a touching spontaneity.

Despite his influence on the Neapolitan School, there is no record of Vouet's presence in Naples and recent criticism has tended to reject the idea of such a visit. In fact the inscriptions on the two paintings made for Naples - The Circumcision (1622, Capodimonte Museum, Naples) and St. Bruno Receiving the Rule of the Carthusian Order (c.1624, Chapter House, Certosa di S. Martino, Naples) - record that he painted them in Rome. These works won great acclaim in Naples for their modernity and originality and had considerable influence on the local Caravaggisti. They not only contributed to a modification of tenebrism, but also prepared the ground for the acceptance of Artemisia Gentileschi's work as well as later Neapolitan Baroque painting. The link between Vouet and Massimo Stanzione (1585-1656) may have been formed when Stanzione collaborated in the decoration of the church of S. Lorenzo in Lucina during his second stay in Rome. There are also parallels between Vouet's work of 1622-25 and that of Battistello Caracciolo (1578-1635).

Vouet's time in Italy witnessed a rapid development in his painting. Between 1614 and 1620 he moved away from the Caravaggism he had absorbed through Bartolomeo Manfredi (1582-1622) and studied the work of Orazio Borgianni and Carlo Saraceni (1579-1620). After his period in Genoa he was influenced by both Orazio Gentileschi (1563-1639) and Artemisia Gentileschi (1593–1656) and by the Bolognese classicists, especially Giovanni Lanfranco (1582-1647). Through Lanfranco's influence, Vouet gradually reached a lighter, more decorative and Baroque style which was to be fully developed during his French period.