 |
| Simon Vouet Aurora before 1649 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
 |
| Simon Vouet Creusa carrying the Gods of Troy ca. 1635 drawing on blue paper National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
 |
| Simon Vouet Man with raised arm, behind parapet 1648 drawing Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf |
"Baroque I have tried myself to define elsewhere – rather by example than by abstract principles – as the art which was created in Rome roughly in the period 1620-1680 (and then spread to other countries, including France) in which artists used means which can be summed up in the term 'rhetorical', the aim of which was to strike astonishment and admiration in a spectator: in painting dynamic composition, irrational lighting and chiaroscuro, dramatic gestures, ecstatic poses, miraculous effects, often contrary to the laws of nature; in sculpture the same kinds of poses and gestures, sometimes combined with the use of coloured marbles and trompe l'œil imitations of other materials; in architecture creating effects of movement by means of curving walls and by the use of incomplete spaces leading one into another, a preference for ovals or polygons rather than circles and squares, dramatic and concealed lighting, effects of false perspective, the lavish introduction of coloured marbles and gilding, and the skilful use of siting."
– Anthony Blunt, from Art and Architecture in France, 1500-1700, originally published in 1953
 |
| Simon Vouet St Louis in Glory ca. 1640-41 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
 |
| Simon Vouet Study of reclining model before 1649 drawing Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
"Baroque artists are often credited with lurid depictions of religious emotion, but the extremes of physical suffering common in medieval images of martyrdom are off limits to them. The most characteristic seventeenth-century contribution to devotional imagery is a class of scene allied to martyrdom but milder, the saint in prostration or ecstasy, a moment at once dynamic and passive. Like a martyrdom it is something the hero-subject undergoes, completely beyond his control though he has probably prepared for it, using methods like those Ignatius popularized, which are best carried out by a solitary sufferer. Ecstasies in this sense are a mixture of pain and pleasure."
– Robert Harbison, from Reflections on Baroque (Reaktion Books, 2000)
 |
| Simon Vouet Study of young woman before 1649 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
 |
| Simon Vouet Study of seated woman before 1649 drawing Morgan Library, New York |
 |
| Simon Vouet Study for St Roch with Angel and dog before 1649 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
 |
| Simon Vouet Study of Angel for St Roch with Angel and dog before 1649 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
 |
| Simon Vouet Study of two seated women before 1649 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
 |
| Simon Vouet Study for St Francis of Paola resuscitating a child ca. 1648 drawing National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa |
 |
| Simon Vouet Kneeling woman ca. 1640 drawing Harvard Art Museums |
 |
| Simon Vouet Drapery study before 1649 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
 |
| Simon Vouet Two crouching nude male figures ca. 1640 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |