Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei (Budapest, 2008)
ANNUAL REPORT • A 2008. ÉV - ZSUZSANNA GILA: Lines of Beauty
Fragonard's brilliant Italian landscapes, mythological and genre scenes, an impressive female nude by Boucher, and Hubert Robert's land- and townscapes inspired by Italy. The functions and themes represented by the selected eighty-four drawings outlined two centuries of French history, starting from the time of Cardinal Richelieu, the founder of the French Academy, and Louis XIII through the long era of the Sun King, Louis XIV, demanding pomp and allegiance, all the way to the rule of Louis XV, dominated by emotions and sensuality. The calamitous period of the age of Enlightenment and the French revolution, which miraculously spared Hubert Robert's life, ended with the coronation of Napoleon I as emperor in 1804: this was a time of retreat and shift in approach, manifest in the romantic and neo-classicist works at the exhibition, including those by Jacques-Louis David. The exhibition and the catalogue offer a thematic and chronological approach to the drawings in each section of the periods portrayed. The sketches related to the pompous and allegorical decorations of palaces with themes predominantly drawn from ancient mythology; the works of Le Brun, Antoine Coypel and François Lemoyne, all made in the grand siècle, were followed by rococo drawings, including those by Claude Gillot and Watteau, in which themes linked to the theatre and music and literary illustrations are complemented by more ordinary, everyday themes, portraits, genre scenes, landscapes and depictions of animals. At the same time, the royal court continued to commission works with religious themes, although the winding lines of the angels meant to be painted for the royal palace in Versailles reflect the ease and taste of the Rococo rather than absorbed devotion (Louis de Boullogne, the younger). A new genre was introduced into French painting because of a requirement introduced by the court: true-to-life animal painting with scientific accuracy, exemplified by the works of JeanBaptiste Oudry, the chronicler of the royal game park who —following in the footsteps of 4 ANTOINE WATTEAU. NINE STUDIES OF HEADS
