Tag Archives: Francois Boucher

manon lescaut: “a veritable leech”

Perfide Manon and Abbe Prevost. She was the classic cocotte, he the classic dupe; first the Abbe wrote his famous story, and then he set out to live it… …In any case, the Abbe removed hurriedly from England to Holland … Continue reading

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tencin: high wire act between rationalism and passion

“My menagerie,” Alexandrine Tencin called her salon; her guests were “mes betes.” Her Tuesdays she filled with good talk, high spirits, and low comedy involving chamber pots and such. Her leisure she filled with literature, the recourse of the bored. … Continue reading

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stubborn affiliations

The nude’s stubborn affiliation with tradition can create embarrassing situations at a time when art is stubbornly anti-traditional. Of course, some of it depends on what you mean by tradition. Until modern art kicked tradition in the jewels, you could … Continue reading

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bank heist: meltdown on the Mississippi

It is really a case of the greater fool hypothesis. That is, no matter how high the price of something gets whipped up in speculative frenzy, there are always others who are willing to pay for it. The Mississippi Bubble … Continue reading

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high hopes

Nice to Delta paint paint back on track. At one time it really was “America’s Favorite Craft Paint,” as they slogan on every bottle. It was such a hot commodity at one point and then it just died; sent out … Continue reading

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a gendered gaze

Exactly how many pieces of art are in the Louvre is not clear. At the most extreme is the assertion that there are 300,000 paintings and a minimum of 5,000 and the total pieces of art ranging from 35,000 to … Continue reading

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matters of taste and waste

Artistic dependency on money? Art as a cash crop, growing money and not the fertility of artistic endeavor. The effects of urban , cosmopolitan culture on the arts probably stretched back to the Renaissance, but it may have been Watteau … Continue reading

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gardens of magnificence

We have no idea what the Garden of Eden resembled. Painters have generally rendered it as a flowering green background to highlight Eve’s white nakedness. What we do know is that humanity from the start has delighted in gardens. In … Continue reading

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odd couples

A secret drive to crave disgrace or an insane desire to please? … Louise Mignot, the daughter of Voltaire’s sister, had in 1738 married Monsieur Denis of the Commisariat Department, who died in 1744. Her uncle on the occasion of … Continue reading

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angel fatigue: it’s lonely at the top

Rewards and air miles. frequent flyers.Who knows who you’ll cross flight paths with up in the heavens.  Its a difficult issue in dealing with   whether ,and how many other spirits in the celestial hierarchy are good or evil, fallen or … Continue reading

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