Roger de Piles

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Roger de Piles

Roger de Piles (October 7, 1635 - April 5, 1709) was a French painter, engraver, art critic and diplomat.

in Clamecy

Clamecy, Nièvre

Clamecy is a Communes of France in the Ni?vre Departments of France in central France.Clamecy is the capital of an arrondissement in the department of Ni?vre, at the confluence of the Yonne River and Beuvron and on the Canal du Nivernais, 46 m....
, Roger de Piles started his career in art as a pupil of Claude François.

In 1662 he became tutor to Michel Amelot de Gournay

Michel Amelot de Gournay

Michel-Jean Amelot, baron de Brunelles, marquis de Gournay , was a French diplomat, conseiller d'?tat to Louis XIV of France from 1698, and connoisseur....
, whom he was to follow throughout his life, acting as secretary to his various missions as French ambassador to Venice, Portugal, Spain.

In Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy, the capital city of the Italian regions Veneto, a population of 271,251 . Together with Padua, Italy, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area ....
(1682-1685) he started a famous collection of prints, drawings and paintings of Giorgione

Giorgione

Giorgione is the familiar name of Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco, an Italy painter, a seminal artist of the High Renaissance in Venice....
, Correggio, Rembrandt

Rembrandt

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was a Netherlands Painting and etching. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art history and the most important in History of the Netherlands....
, Claude Lorrain

Claude Lorrain

Claude Lorrain was an artist of the Baroque Painting era who was active in Italy, and is admired for his achievements in landscape painting....
, Rubens

Peter Paul Rubens

Peter Paul Rubens was a prolific seventeenth-century Flemish Baroque painter, and a proponent of an exuberant Baroque style that emphasized movement, color, and sensuality....
, Antoine Coypel

Antoine Coypel

Antoine Coypel was a painter, the more famous son of the France painter No?l Coypel.Antoine studied under his father, with whom he spent four years at Rome....
, Jean-Baptiste Forest.

He also acquired a taste for political intrigue using his travels ostensibly undertaken to study the European collections, as a buyer for Louis XIV, as cover for confidential missions - for example in Germany and Austria (1685) on behalf of Louis' minister, the marquis de Louvois.

He was not always fortunate as a spy.

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Roger de Piles'

Start a new discussion about 'Roger de Piles'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

Roger de Piles (October 7, 1635 - April 5, 1709) was a French painter, engraver, art critic and diplomat.

Life

Born in Clamecy

Clamecy, Nièvre

Michel Amelot de Gournay

Venice

Giorgione

Giorgione is the familiar name of Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco, an Italy painter, a seminal artist of the High Renaissance in Venice....
, Correggio, Rembrandt

Rembrandt

Claude Lorrain

Claude Lorrain was an artist of the Baroque Painting era who was active in Italy, and is admired for his achievements in landscape painting....
, Rubens

Peter Paul Rubens

Peter Paul Rubens was a prolific seventeenth-century Flemish Baroque painter, and a proponent of an exuberant Baroque style that emphasized movement, color, and sensuality....
, Antoine Coypel

Antoine Coypel

The Hague

The Hague is the third largest city in the Netherlands after Amsterdam and Rotterdam, with a population of 475,904 and an area of approximately 100 km?....
carrying a false passport and imprisoned for the next five years. He spent his time writing L'Abrégé de la vie des peintres ...avec un traité du peintre parfait. published in 1699 following his appointement as Conseiller Honoraire to the Académie de peinture et de sculpture

Académie de peinture et de sculpture

The Acad?mie royale de peinture et de sculpture , Paris, was founded in 1648, modelled on Italy examples, such as the Accademia di San Luca in Rome....
.

In 1705 he followed Amelot de Gournay to Spain but illness forced him to return to Paris, where he died in 1709.

Art critic

His important contribution to aesthetic theory

Aesthetics

Aesthetics or esthetics is commonly known as the study of senses or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste ....
rests on his Dialogue sur le coloris ("Dialogue on colours"), in which he initiated his famous defence of Rubens

Peter Paul Rubens

Peter Paul Rubens was a prolific seventeenth-century Flemish Baroque painter, and a proponent of an exuberant Baroque style that emphasized movement, color, and sensuality....
in the argument started in 1671 by Philippe de Champaigne

Philippe de Champaigne

Philippe de Champaigne was a Baroque era painter of the French art.Born in Brussels of a poor family, Champaigne was a pupil of the landscape painter Jacques Fouqui?res....
on the relative merits of drawing

Drawing

Drawing is a visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoals, chalk, pastels, marker pens, stylus, or various metals like silverpoint....
and color

Color

Color or colour is the visual perception property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, yellow, blue and others....
in the work of Titian

Titian

File:Tizian 090.jpg Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio, born 1473/1490 , died 27 August 1576, better known as Titian , was the leading painter of the 16th-century Venice school of the Italian Renaissance....
(in a lecture to the Académie de peinture et de sculpture

Académie de peinture et de sculpture

The Acad?mie royale de peinture et de sculpture , Paris, was founded in 1648, modelled on Italy examples, such as the Accademia di San Luca in Rome....
on Titian's Virgin and Child with St John.)

The argument is most fascinating as an early debate on classic vs modern in painting; in essence on the mathematics of proportion

Proportion (architecture)

Proportion is the relation between elements and a whole....
and perspective

Perspective (graphical)

File:Staircase perspective.jpgPerspective in the graphic arts, such as drawing, is an approximate representation, on a flat surface , of an image as it is perceived by the eye....
in drawing

Drawing

Brush

The term brush refers to devices with bristles, wire or other filaments, used for cleaning, Personal grooming hair, cosmetics making painting, deburring and other kinds of surface finishing, and for many other purposes....
stroke—the approach of the moderns. In his detailed study of the argument, Roger de Piles et les débats sur le coloris au siècle de Louis XIV (1965), B. Teyssèdre gives a touching account of the bohème of the "modern" réfusés in seventeenth century Paris, a history that was to repeat itself with the Impressionists.

In the course of the argument Roger de Piles introduced the term "clair-obscur" (Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro is a term in art for a contrast between light and dark. The term is usually applied to bold contrasts affecting a whole composition, but is also more technically used by artists and art historians for the use of effects representing contrasts of light, not necessarily strong, to achieve a sense of volume in modeling three-di...
) to highlight the effect of color in accentuating the tension between light and dark in a painting.

The way Roger de Piles documented his argument with Venetian and northern European examples was of influence to Antoine Coypel

Antoine Coypel

Antoine Coypel was a painter, the more famous son of the France painter No?l Coypel.Antoine studied under his father, with whom he spent four years at Rome....
, Hyacinthe Rigaud

Hyacinthe Rigaud

File:Autoportrait au turban .jpgHyacinthe Rigaud was a France painter of Catalan people origin.He was born Jacint Rigau i Ros -- though in many encyclopaedias is "re-christened" with the name of H?acint Francesc Honrat Mathias Pere Martyr Andreu Joan Rigau -- in Perpignan, which became French a short time after his birth ....
, Nicolas de Largillière

Nicolas de Largillière

Nicolas de Largilli?re , France Painting, was born in Paris.His father, a merchant, took him to Antwerp at the age of three. As a boy, he spent nearly two years in London....
and François de Troy

François de Troy

Fran?ois de Troy , was a French people painting and engraver who became principal painter to James II of England in exile at Saint-Germain-en-Laye and Director of the Acad?mie de peinture et de sculpture....
.

Balance of painters

To his last published work: Cours de peinture par principes avec un balance de peintres (1708) de Piles appended a list of fifty-six major painters in his own time, with whose work he had acquainted himself as a connoiseur during his travels.

To each painter in the list he gave marks from 0 to 18 for composition, drawing, color and expression. This gave an overview of aesthetic appreciation hingeing on the balance between color and design. The highest marks went to Raffaello Sanzio and Rubens

Peter Paul Rubens

Peter Paul Rubens was a prolific seventeenth-century Flemish Baroque painter, and a proponent of an exuberant Baroque style that emphasized movement, color, and sensuality....
, with a slight bias on color for Rubens, a slight bias on drawing for Raphaël. Painters who scored very badly in anything but color were Giovanni Bellini

Giovanni Bellini

Giovanni Bellini was an Italy Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venice painters. His father was Jacopo Bellini, his brother was Gentile Bellini, and his brother-in-law was Andrea Mantegna....
, Giorgione

Giorgione

Giorgione is the familiar name of Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco, an Italy painter, a seminal artist of the High Renaissance in Venice....
and remarkably Michelangelo Caravaggio with 16 on color and 0 (zero) on expression. Painters who fell far behind Rubens and Raphaël but whose balance between color and design was perfect were Lucas van Leyden

Lucas van Leyden

Lucas van Leyden , also named either Lucas Hugensz or Lucas Jacobsz, was a Netherlands engraver and Painting, born and mainly active in Leiden, who was among the first Dutch exponents of genre painting and is generally regarded as one of the finest engraving in the history of art....
, Sebastian Bourdon, Albrecht Dürer

Albrecht Dürer

'Albrecht D?rer' was a Germans Painting, printmaker and theorist from Nuremberg. His still-famous works include the Apocalypse woodcuts, commons:Image:Duerer - Ritter, Tod und Teufel .jpg , St....
.

List

The complete list is transcribed here from Manlio Brusatin:Histoire des couleurs (Paris: Flammarion, 1986, pp.103-104), reproduced in Elisabeth G. Holt Literary Sources of Art History, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1947), pp.415-416)

Painter	Composition	Drawing	Color	Expression
Andrea del Sarto Andrea del Sarto Andrea del Sarto was an Italy painter from Florence, whose career flourished during the High Renaissance and early-Mannerism. Though highly regarded by his contemporaries as an artist "senza errori" , he is overshadowed now by equally talented contemporaries like Raphael....	12	16	9	8
Federico Barocci Federico Barocci Federico Barocci was an Italy Renaissance Painting and printmaker. His original name was Federico Fiori, and he was nicknamed Il Baroccio, which still in northwestern Italian dialects means a two wheel cart drawn by oxen....	14	15	6	10
Jacopo Bassano Jacopo Bassano Jacopo Bassano was an Republic of Venice painter who was born and died in Bassano del Grappa near Venice, from which he adopted the name.His father Francesco Bassano the Elder was a "peasant artist" and Jacopo adopted some of his style as he created religious paintings with novel features including animals, farmhouses, and landscapes....	6	8	17	0
Giovanni Bellini Giovanni Bellini Giovanni Bellini was an Italy Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venice painters. His father was Jacopo Bellini, his brother was Gentile Bellini, and his brother-in-law was Andrea Mantegna....	4	6	14	O
Sebastian Bourdon	10	8	8	4
Charles Le Brun Charles Le Brun Charles Le Brun was a French Painting and Aesthetics, one of the dominant artists in 17th century France....	16	16	8	16
I Carracci Carracci There are several notable people with the name Carracci:* Agostino Carracci , Italian painter and printmaker* Annibale Carracci , Italian Baroque painter and brother of Agostino Carracci...	15	17	13	13
Cavalier D'Arpino	10	10	6	2
Correggio Antonio da Correggio Antonio Allegri da Correggio was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the Italy Renaissance, who was responsible for some of the most vigorous and sensuous works of the 16th century....	13	13	15	12
Daniele da Volterra Daniele da Volterra Daniele Ricciarelli , better known as Daniele da Volterra, was an Italy Mannerism Painting and sculpture.He is best remembered for his association, for better or worse, with the late Michelangelo....	12	15	5	8
Abraham van Diepenbeeck Abraham van Diepenbeeck Abraham van Diepenbeeck was an erudite and accomplished Netherlands painter of the Flemish School.After having received a classical education, Van Diepenbeeck became one of Peter Paul Rubens' best pupils and assistants....	11	10	14	6
Il Domenichino	15	17	9	17
Albrecht Dürer Albrecht Dürer 'Albrecht D?rer' was a Germans Painting, printmaker and theorist from Nuremberg. His still-famous works include the Apocalypse woodcuts, commons:Image:Duerer - Ritter, Tod und Teufel .jpg , St....	8	10	10	8
Giorgione Giorgione Giorgione is the familiar name of Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco, an Italy painter, a seminal artist of the High Renaissance in Venice....	8	9	18	4
Giovanni da Udine Giovanni da Udine Giovanni Nanni, also Giovanni de' Ricamatori, better known as Giovanni da Udine , was an Italy painter and architect born in Udine. He should not be confused with Martino da Udine, otherwise known as Pellegrino da San Daniele ....	10	8	16	3
Giulio Romano Giulio Romano Giulio Romano was an Italy Painting and Architecture. A prominent pupil of Raffaello Santi, his stylistic deviations from high Renaissance classicism help define the 16th-century style known as Mannerism....	15	16	4	14
Guercino	18	10	10	4
Guido Reni Guido Reni Guido Reni was a prominent Italy Painting of high-Baroque style....	x	13	9	12
Holbein Hans Holbein the Younger Hans Holbein the Younger was a Germans artist and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style. He is best known as one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century....	9	10	16	3
Jacob Jordaens Jacob Jordaens Jacob Jordaens , was one of three Flemish Baroque painting, along with Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck, to bring prestige to the Antwerp school of painting....	10	8	16	6
Lucas Jordaens	13	12	9	6
Giovanni Lanfranco Giovanni Lanfranco Giovanni Lanfranco was an Italy painter of the Baroque period....	14	13	10	5
Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italy polymath, being a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, Painting, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer....	15	16	4	14
Lucas van Leyden Lucas van Leyden Lucas van Leyden , also named either Lucas Hugensz or Lucas Jacobsz, was a Netherlands engraver and Painting, born and mainly active in Leiden, who was among the first Dutch exponents of genre painting and is generally regarded as one of the finest engraving in the history of art....	8	6	6	4
Michelangelo Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance Painting, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer....	8	17	4	8
Caravaggio	6	6	16	O
Murillo Bartolomé Estéban Murillo Bartolom? Esteban Murillo was a Spain List of painters, one of the most important figures in Baroque painting in Spain. Although he is best known for his religious works, Murillo also produced a considerable number of paintings of contemporary women and children....	6	8	15	4
Otho Venius	13	14	10	10
Palma il Vecchio	5	6	16	0
Palma il Giovane	12	9	14	6
Il Parmigianino Parmigianino Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola , also known as Francesco Mazzola or more commonly as Parmigianino or sometimes "Parmigiano", was a prominent Italy Mannerism Painting and printmaker active in Florence, Rome, Bologna, and his native city of Parma....	10	15	6	6
Gianfrancesco Penni Gianfrancesco Penni Gianfrancesco Penni, also known as Giovan Francesco was an Italy painter, student of Raphael.Born in Florence to a family of weavers, Penni entered very early in Raphael's workshop, and collaborated with him for several works, including the famous Raphael Rooms of the Vatican Palace as well as the frescoes of Villa Farnesina, both in...	O	15	8	0
Perin del Vaga Perin del Vaga Perino del Vaga or Perin del Vaga, nickname of Piero Buonaccorsi , was an Italy painter of the Late Renaissance/Mannerism....	15	16	7	6
Sebastiano del Piombo Sebastiano del Piombo Sebastiano del Piombo , byname of Sebastiano Luciani, was an Italy Renaissance-Mannerism painter of the early 16th century famous for his combination of the colors of the Venetian school and the monumental forms of the Roman school....	8	13	16	7
Primaticcio	15	14	7	10
Raphael Raphael Raphael Sanzio, usually known by his first name alone was an Italy Painting and architect of the High Renaissance, celebrated for the perfection and grace of his paintings and drawings....	17	18	12	18
Rembrandt Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was a Netherlands Painting and etching. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art history and the most important in History of the Netherlands....	15	6	17	12
Rubens Peter Paul Rubens Peter Paul Rubens was a prolific seventeenth-century Flemish Baroque painter, and a proponent of an exuberant Baroque style that emphasized movement, color, and sensuality....	18	13	17	17
Francesco Salviati Francesco de' Rossi (Il Salviati) Francesco de' Rossi was an italy Mannerism painter from Florence, also active in Rome. He is known by many names, prominently the adopted name Francesco Salviati or as Il Salviati, but also Francesco Rossi and Cecchino del Salviati....	13	15	8	8
Eustache Le Sueur Eustache Le Sueur Eustache Le Sueur or Lesueur , one of the founders of the France Academy of painting, was born in Paris, where he passed his whole life....	15	15	4	15
Teniers David Teniers the Younger David Teniers the Younger , a Flemings artist born in Antwerp, was the more celebrated son of David Teniers the Elder, almost ranking in celebrity with Peter Paul Rubens and Van Dyck....	15	12	13	6
Pietro Testa Pietro Testa Pietro Testa was an Italian High Baroque artist, best known, both to his contemporaries and modern appreciation, as a printmaker and draftsman, who was active in Rome....	11	15	0	6
Tintoretto Tintoretto Tintoretto was one of the greatest painters of the Venetian school and probably the last great painter of the Italian Renaissance. For his phenomenal energy in painting he was termed Il Furioso, and his dramatic use of perspectival space and special lighting effects make him a precursor of baroque art....	15	14	16	4
Titian Titian File:Tizian 090.jpg Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio, born 1473/1490 , died 27 August 1576, better known as Titian , was the leading painter of the 16th-century Venice school of the Italian Renaissance....	12	15	18	6
Van Dyck	15	10	17	13
Vanius	15	15	12	13
Veronese Paolo Veronese Paolo Veronese was an Italian painter of the Renaissance in Venice, famous for paintings such as The Wedding at Cana and The Feast in the House of Levi....	15	10	16	3
Taddeo Zuccari Taddeo Zuccari Taddeo Zuccaro or Zuccari , was an Italian painter, one of the most popular members of the Mannerism....	13	14	10	9
Federico Zuccari Federico Zuccari Federico Zuccari, also known as Federigo Zuccaro , was an Italy Mannerism Painting and architect, active both in Italy and abroad....	10	10	8	8

Writings

De Arte Graphica (1668) (Translation from Latin to French of Charles Alphonse Du Fresnoy
Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy

Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy , France Painting and writer on his art, was born in Paris, son of an apothecary.He was destined for the medical profession, and well educated in Latin language and Greek language; but, having a natural propensity for the fine arts, he would not apply to his intended vocation, and was allowed to learn the rudim...
's work - with supplementary comments by Roger de Piles).
Dialogue sur le coloris ( Dialogue upon Colour, 1673)
Le Cabinet de Monseigneur le Duc de Richelieu (1676)
Lettre d'un français à un gentilhomme flamand (1676)
La Vie de Rubens (1681)
L'Abrégé de la vie des peintres ( The Art of Painting and the Lives of the Painters, 1699)
Cours de peinture par principes avec un balance de peintres ( The Principles of Painting, 1708)

Roger de Piles

Life

Art critic

Balance of painters

List

Writings

External links