Painting
Jean Audran (French, 1667–1756), From Charles Perrault’s Cabinet of Fine Arts, Paris: chez G. Edelinck, 1690, Engraving
Around 1690, the writer Charles Perrault hired a team of engravers to illustrate his Cabinet of Fine Arts, a volume he commissioned to commemorate the allegorical paintings that decorated his magnificent private residence. Surrounded by putti mixing paints and reading about the arts, Painting takes the form of a voluptuous female figure daubing oils on a canvas. The work, which features a landscape lit by a brilliant sun and the inscription “I make all things flourish,” celebrates the art of painting fostered under the rule of Louis XIV, the Sun King. The Cabinet’s idealized vision of the art of painting would become a foil for The Great Mirror of Folly’s debased vision of “The Imagination.”
: The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints, and Photographs
The New York Public Library believes that this item is in the public domain under the laws of the United States, but did not make a determination as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries. This item may not be in the public domain under the laws of other countries.
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