RIGAUD, Hyacinthe

Anne-Jules was the 2nd Duke of Noailles (1650-1708), marshal of France, son of Anne of Noailles, the first duke. He was made field marshal at the age of 23 and was named lieutenant general and commander in chief of Languedoc in 1682. By then he had become one of the greatest generals of France, and, after raising the regiment of Noailles in 1689, he commanded in Spain during the War of the Spanish Succession. In 1693 he was made marshal of France.

In France, during the decades of 1660-80 few painters had devoted themselves exclusively to portraiture, which was considered of secondary importance. The personages of the time liked if possible to be shown in action, for instance as victorious general, or at least surrounded by appropriate and allegorical embellishments. But after about 1685 several important artists appear who specialized in portraiture and who created a new fashion in this field. The essential novelty of their style is the introduction of the technique and patterns of the Flemish school, particularly of van Dyck.

The oldest of these painters was Fran�ois de Troy who was soon outshone by two more brilliant painters of the same generation, Nicolas de Largilli�re and Hyacinthe Rigaud. Many of the works by these two artists belong in spirit and in date to the eighteenth century, but both made important contributions to the development of French painting well before 1700, and they must be considered as helping to create the transition from one century to the other. Both contributed to the elimination of the style of the Grand Si�cle, both belonged to the party of Colour; but in certain other respects they are sharply opposed: in their clent�le, their naturalism, and in their relation to the painting of the Netherlands.

Jacques-B�nigne Bossuet (1627-1704) was a French bishop and theologian, renowned for his sermons and other addresses. He has been considered by many to be one of the most brilliant orators of all time and a masterly French stylist.

The dawning of the eighteenth century in France is marked by the culmination of the work of court portrait painters such as Hyacinthe Rigaud, who with great brilliance established the characteristics of the facial portrait, here represented by Louis XIV.

Several artists, whose careers and styles form a transitional period between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, enjoyed enormous success under the patronage of Louis XIV. By far the best of them was Hyacinthe Rigaud. There is a strident quality of many of his best portraits which suggest a familiarity with Spanish painters like Zurbar�n. Rigaud rigidly provided the court with exactly what it wanted - a splendid, opulent and yet tasteful glorification of its new-found power and wealth.

Over seventy when Rigaud painted his portrait, the bishop and tutor to the Dauphin was a celebrated preacher, whose funeral orations were published and enthusiastically circulated. Well aware of his worth, he wears a fortune in silk moir�. For all his air of benevolence, Bossuet was instrumental in shaping the French Catholic Church and the absolute monarchy.

This famous portrait is regarded as the very epitome of the absolutist ruler portrait. Yet it represents more than just power, pomp and circumstance. The sumptuous red and gold drapery is not only a motif of dignity, but also creates a framework that echoes the drapes of the ornate, ermine-lined robe. The blue velvet brocade ornamented with the golden fleurs-delis of the house of Bourbon is repeated in the upholstery of the chair, the cushion and the cloth draped over the table below it: the king quite clearly “sets the tone”.

A monumental marble column on a high plinth is draped in such a way that it does not detract from the height of the figure. Louis is presented in an elegantly angled pose, situated well above the standpoint of the spectator to whom he seems to turn his attention graciously, but without reducing the stability of his stance.

Rigaud’s consummate mastery of portraiture is particularly evident in the way he depicts the king’s facial expression: his distanced unapproachability are not founded in Neoclassicist idealization, but in the candour of an ageing, impenetrable physiognomy. The lips are closed decisively and with a hint of irony, the eyes have a harsh, dark sheen, while the narrow nose suggests intolerance. This is a ruler who is neither good nor evil, but beyond all moral categories.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 20 minutes):

Fran�ois Couperin: Les Nations - La Fran�aise

This famous portrait is regarded as the very epitome of the absolutist ruler portrait. Yet it represents more than just power, pomp and circumstance. The sumptuous red and gold drapery is not only a motif of dignity, but also creates a framework that echoes the drapes of the ornate, ermine-lined robe. The blue velvet brocade ornamented with the golden fleurs-delis of the house of Bourbon is repeated in the upholstery of the chair, the cushion and the cloth draped over the table below it: the king quite clearly “sets the tone”.

A monumental marble column on a high plinth is draped in such a way that it does not detract from the height of the figure. Louis is presented in an elegantly angled pose, situated well above the standpoint of the spectator to whom he seems to turn his attention graciously, but without reducing the stability of his stance.

Rigaud’s consummate mastery of portraiture is particularly evident in the way he depicts the king’s facial expression: his distanced unapproachability are not founded in Neoclassicist idealization, but in the candour of an ageing, impenetrable physiognomy. The lips are closed decisively and with a hint of irony, the eyes have a harsh, dark sheen, while the narrow nose suggests intolerance. This is a ruler who is neither good nor evil, but beyond all moral categories.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 20 minutes):

Fran�ois Couperin: Les Nations - La Fran�aise

At the end of Louis XIV’s reign the outstanding painter was Hyacinthe Rigaud. Although his activity continued well into the next century, the ethical quality of his figures and the aesthetic quality of his style are part of the spirit of the Louis XIV period.

Guided by Le Brun, Rigaud created in painting, as Coysevox had done in sculpture, the portrait of the ‘man of quality’, whose value he conveyed by the nobility of the attitude, expressiveness of the gesture, and movement of the draperies - in short, by the passion of which he showed his generous temperament to be capable. The aim was less to depict and individual and a character, as Philippe de Champaigne had done in the preceding period, than to affirm the social rank and ‘condition’ of the sitter, who might be the King, a minister, a financier, or a soldier, but who was always of the Court. Rigaud thus started the Court portrait, which was to have a considerable importance in Europe during the next century.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 3 minutes):

Marc-Antoine Charpentier: Marche en Rondeau

In this extraordinary portrait of Phillippe de Courcillon, Marquis de Dangeaua, a theatrical influence is evident. An enormous black wig frames the hard oval face, below which flows a stream of brocade, gold and finery in improbable folds created by a pose that outlandishly aggrandizes the sitter.

Wigs played an important role in 17th-century portraits. The exact origin of this accessory is not clean, but they were certainly widespread in distinguished circles by 1620-30. Wigs lent faces - and therefore all portraits - a similar impact because of a similar framework of ringlets and curls. Whether bald or not, people choose the colour of their hair according to the attire to be worn and the event to be attended. Louis XIV and all French princes were highly attentive to such points.

Pierre Drevet was an engraver in Lyon.

For his military portraits Rigaud’s regular formula is to present the figure in modern armour in three-quarter- or full-length, against a landscape background which usually shows a battle in progress. This is quite different from the convention of the previous generation, when generals preferred to be shown in the dress and action of a Roman Imperator. Rigaud’s portraits depend on van Dyck, but in the introduction of the battle scene in the background he is following a tradition already familiar in France.

The present portrait is based on a prototype by Rigaud showing the comte d’�vreux as a young man that was painted in about 1703. The cavalry skirmish in the background has been attributed to Joseph Parrocel (1646–1704).

Parallel with the series of Baroque portraits Rigaud also produced others of a much more intimate and naturalistic type. This tendency is most clearly apparent in the famous double portrait of his mother, painted in 1695 for the marble bust which the artist commissioned from Coysevox. In this strikingly observed portrait there are echoes of Van Dyck and Champaigne, if only in the placing of the two heads on a single canvas; but the real source is a different and a new one. The whole conception of the portrait, the attention with which the wrinkles of the skin are painted, the meticulous handling of the cap, and the dry painting of the white bodice, all combine to prove that Rigaud was here taking as his model Rembrandt’s early portraits of his mother. We know that he admired Rembrandt, since the inventory of his pictures, taken at the time of his wedding in 1703, includes seven paintings by the master and two copies by Rigaud after him. In the eighteenth century the art of Rembrandt was to have a wide success in France, but Rigaud was the first French artist since Vignon to study his works, and the first without exception to find in him an inspiration towards naturalism and psychological subtlety.