On 29 August 2019, I put in a short note at the very bottom of my post. The note was about my posts on Molière.
Navigating the Internet, I saw an invitation to rate one of my posts on Molière. This had never happened before. Besides only experts could rate scholarly articles, but they would not rate a post. Experts assess articles submitted for publication in a journal and books submitted for publication as monographs.
I wrote a PhD thesis on Molière and have published articles on some of his plays. I have not published a book on Molière because of other assignments. I would like to write a book on Molière, but that may not be possible. I no longer have access to a research library and my pension fund is too small for me to support the costs involved in writing a book.
Besides, I am now 75 years old and in poor health. I am nevertheless rereading the plays of Molière and writing posts as I read. These are accessible for free. There is no “pay” button on my site.
I have a loving community on WordPress, which is all I need.
In fact, I will have to spend more time resting. In my last post, I wrote “taught” instead of “thought.” That is a clear sign of fatigue.
I don’t know who decided that my posts on Molière should be rated. Moreover, I cannot understand why anyone would do this. Scholarly articles are much longer than posts. They contain several quotations by fellow scholars, and few images are used.
Let us hope this will not happen again, not without my consent.
In an earlier post on Barbier’s Fêtes galantes, I noted that virtuoso violinist Ginette Neveu (11 August 1919 – 28 October 1949) was a victim of the Air France Lockheed Constellation crash of 28 October 1949, in the Azores. The crash also claimed the life of 68 year-old illustrator and designer Bernard Boutet de Monvel, of the Monvel dynasty, as well as that of 33 year-old world champion boxer Marcel Cerdan, Édith Piaf‘s lover. Also killed on the island of São Miguel was classical pianist Jean Neveu, Ginette’s brother and accompanist. The Neveu family must have been devastated.
Ginette: a child prodigy
Ginette Neveu was 7 when she started giving public performances. By that age, she had mastered Mendelssohn’s E minor Concerto (Op. 64). In 1935, shortly after she turned 16, Ginette’s teacher entered her in the Wieniawsky Competition in Warsaw and she won over David Oistrakh (30 September 1908 – 24 October 1974) who was then 27 and an acclaimed violinist. It is difficult to say that Mr. Oistrakh lost to Ginette Neveu. There were 180 contestants and he came second. But more importantly Ginette was a child prodigy, so it is as though she belonged to a different category.
It does not happen very often, only a few times in a century, and sometimes in a millennium, but, occasionally, an exceptionally gifted individual is born who cannot be surpassed in his or her category and in his days. Only Beethoven could compose the Ninth Symphony and no one has equalled Mozart’s Requiem, K (Köchel) 626.
Not that we are about to run out of talents. Over the years, there have been hundreds of great composers, artists, performers, comedians, scientists, writers, architects, athletes, inventors, and very good human beings. Yet certain individuals are unlikely to be surpassed. Steve Jobs was one such individual, and so was Ginette Neveu.
It seems, however, that the greater the talent, the more fragile and vulnerable the writer, the composer, the performer, the artist, the scientist and my “good” human being… Fate took Ginette Neveu away from us at a very early age and, on 11 August 2014, we lost Robin Williams. In his category and in his days, I don’t think Mr. Williams could be surpassed, no more than Charlie Chaplin, in his category and in his days. Moreover, Robin Williams was a good human being. He will be missed.
At any rate, I have inserted, once again, Ginette Neveu’s interpretation of Maurice Ravel‘s Tzigane. It is remarkable.
My kindest regards to all of you.
P. S. I am trying to configure my webpage. I have been posting articles for three years and have yet to learn how to insert a picture in my sidebar. In other words, I am not a very gifted individual.
I updated the blog I posted on 25 January 2013: More Thoughts on Quebec. My comments were incomplete. For me, Quebec separatism is a very sensitive subject. Several members of my family, the Quebec branch, are supporters of Madame Marois’ Parti Québécois. However, my family also has a west coast branch. They are not sympathizers of any indépendantiste (separatist) movement.
However, there was a disorderly students’ strike between March and September 2012 and my comments now reflect greater disapproval of the strike. But I do not understand why Quebec did not sign the Patriated Constitution, 1982. I love my country, but it is a house divided (Abraham Lincoln).
Bilingualism
When I was a child living in Quebec, Friday was market-day, but we sometimes shopped on rue Wellington, before going to the market. Most of the shops on rue Wellington did not belong to French-speaking Canadians and they have disappeared: an exodus. The architecture, however, is a remnant of a prosperous past.
In the past, as I walked down Sherbrooke Streets with my mother, I kept seeing the word Real Estate everywhere. Réal is a French name. So I ended up telling my mother that Monsieur Réal Estate (Es-ta-te), was probably the richest man in town. He owned so many shops! Mother told me the truth.
The Differences
We had English-speaking friends and we visited with them. I was a keen observer of interiors from a very young age. I therefore noticed that the difference between French-speaking and English-speaking Canadian citizens had to do with houses. Our English-speaking friends had a fireplace and a bay window in their living-room. How brilliant! All we had was a big stove and no hot water. I therefore decided that when I grew up, I would own an English house.
Hendrickje Sleeping, by Rembrandt
Houses
I did grow older and, by then, we lived on the west coast. We therefore had an English house, a house with a fireplace and a bay window. Victoria was a marvellous place at the time. Our house was near the sea and my mother had enrolled me in a private school for girls: St Ann’s Academy. It was located within walking distance of the house and it had an extraordinary garden, tennis courts, everything. But my father decided to move to Vancouver and they settled so far from the University of British Columbia (UBC) that I chose to complete my B.A. at the University of Victoria. I do not have a Master’s Degree. UBC suggested I enter the PhD programme.
Toronto
I left Victoria to get a graduate degree. I married and, four years after leaving Victoria, I moved to Toronto, where my husband had found employment. For two years, we lived on the lower floor of a lovely little house in an area of town I had chosen. A year later, I started teaching and it was soon possible for us to buy a house, an English house. I loved our little house.
How Micheline lost her Blue House
But my favourite English house was the Blue House, my Nova Scotia house. It was a cottage-like, two-storey house and it had 22 windows. Although it did not have a bay window, it had the essential fireplace. In fact, it was perfect and located across the street from the campus.
The New Course
A long time ago, I caught a flu and never recovered fully. I can teach three courses, which is a normal workload. But at that stage in my career, I could not be asked to teach courses in unrelated areas. My goal was to finish writing my book on Molière. I was entering a sabbatical leave that would have allowed me to finish my book, but I was told to prepare a course on animals in literature, a course I would have to teach in English. Would that I could have refused. But it was not possible. I was afraid the Chair of my Department would get angry. He once got angry to the point of making me collapse. I fainted.
When I returned to work, I realized I also had to update a language-lab component. I finished upgrading it in November. During the Christmas break, I made sure every lecture of my course on animals in literature was prepared. In February, I started to feel overwhelming fatigue. I saw my doctors who told me I could not finish my teaching assignment. I was given a note and presented it. But despite a doctor’s note, I was not allowed to leave the classroom. My students no longer had a teacher, so I dragged myself to work and completed my 2001-2002 teaching assignment while applying for permanent disability benefits.
—ooo—
In the eyes of my case manager at the Insurance Company, my having completed the academic year was proof positive that I was an imaginary invalid. She had me see a doctor who requested, in writing, that I be told not to leave my home or make serious decisions as I would be able to return to work after an indefinite leave. He diagnosed Depression, not ME, myalgic encephalomyelitis. He thought I would recover. He asked my case manager to tell me not to leave my home in Antigonish or make serious decisions.
I had applied for permanent disability benefits, not an “indefinite” leave. Therefore, when my case manager told me was that my application for disability benefits had been approved, I thought I was free to leave. Not that I wanted to, but it had been suggested to me. My mother was in a hospital and my father had moved to my brother’s house. That The companies Independent Medical Examiner (IME) was right. Under normal circumstances and despite an illness, I could work.
My benefits were terminated, but when I tried to return to work, the Vice-President did not want me to continue teaching. A friend told me they would hurt me, if I returned. I ended up accepting a concealed retirement arrangement. I regained my tenure when my benefits were reactivated, but they would not let me re-enter the classroom.
So, I no longer live in an English house. In short, my story takes one from house to house and, now, infinity…
Self-portrait with a Cap, by Rembrandt van Rijn Openmouthed Aux yeux hagards
All of Rembrandt’s paintings are featured at Rembrandt.OrgThe Complete Works. “Hendrickje Sleeping” is a drawing and the “Self-portrait,” an etching.
However, there is one thing I noticed about Vermeer that seems particularly interesting. The background of his interiors borrows from the main color in the garment people are wearing. This process creates a degree of continuity to his paintings. However, here, the white hat and cape are major factors in the manner Vermeer shapes the canvas and gives the whole painting the pale or bright area it requires.
In this painting the red of the dress colors some of the floor tiles. Yet, the white wall is suddenly blue. The way Vermeer allows the light to touch here and there brightens up the painting considerably.
This painting is nearly monochromatic, but that is because it is a detail. The detail looks like a gold and black painting. The darkened wall makes the girl’s face stand out. This is a common technique, but would that more of us could do this so well.
Having admired a number of Dutch paintings last week, leaving the subject is very difficult. In the Fine Arts, I should think it would be difficult to find so many masters living in one area of Europe during a mere hundred years.
Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens (28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was active in the early part of the seventeenth century, and he is an accomplished artist and was a fine diplomat. He was not Dutch, but how does one not mention him?
But let us focus on Holland. Dutch artist Rembrant van Rijn (15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669) is usually considered the most prominent artist of the seventeenth century in Holland. However, it is a question of degrees. Johannes Vermeer (1632 – December 1675) is also a Dutch Master. The same is true of Jacob Isaackszoon van Ruisdael(c. 1628 – 14 March 1682), Franz Hals (c. 1582 – 26 August 1666).
Some excelled at portraiture (Vermeer, Hals), others painted landscapes (the Ruisdaels) but Rembrandt was the most eclectic. He painted portraits, the Jewish population of Amsterdam, seascapes, biblical subjects and the very large Night Watch (1642), housed in the Rijksmuseum, in Amtersdam. Vermeer was also a “genre,” painter. He painted interiors where individuals are going about their everyday activity.
A Young Man in a Large Hat, by Frans Hals, 1626/1629[i]
The Girl with the Pearl Earring, by Johannes Vermeer, 1665
The Windmill at Wijk bij Duurstede, by Jacob Isaackszoon van Ruisdael, c. 1670
A Backdrop
The above is a mere backdrop or introduction. However, it is quite acceptable. We have identified four Dutch Masters, possibly the most prominent Dutch Masters of the seventeenth century, the Dutch Golden Age. We have linked each of them to subjects they depicted which, by an large, are not religious subjects.
In this regard, a potential gallery of the Dutch Golden Age paintings would contain portraits, seascapes, depiction of Jews in a tolerant Holland, and depictions of rather large groups of people. On the subject of Jews, I should note that the citizens of seventeenth-century Holland were a tolerant society.
As a result, there was considerable emigration to Holland. Not all stayed, but many did, some of whom were artists. Jewish and Mannerist artist Gillis van Coninxloo emigrated to Holland.
I have explored the life and times of several Golden Age Dutch artists, but realize I am now too tired to continue my work. I will have to rest. So I may not post blogs for a few days. However, I will try to catch up with messages and comments.That is very important.
One can no longer embed the video featuring Rubens pictures. However, one can click on the link I have put at the bottom of this page. Just click on Peter Paul Rubens.
It is such a beautiful presentation. A gift from God to us mortals.
The music is Vivaldi’s music, his Concerto for Two Flutes, Op. 47, No. 2, Largo. Vivaldi was a priest who had red hair: he was the Red Priest. The largo. Usually the second movement of a concerto is a slow tempo. Here we have a largo, which is a slow tempo. The third or last movement has a faster tempo. The musicians who are performing Vivaldi’s music are the Arcangelos Chamber Ensemble and the video was assembled to help people concentrate.
Concentrate. For some, maybe. But not quite if you go into a spell of ecstasy because the music is heavenly. Music is very powerful and can therefore be therapeutic, etc. I concentrate, but on the music and the pictures.
The fusion of art and music in the privacy of one’s home is one of the internet’s finest features.
As a former university teacher, I enjoy preparing informative blogs. It takes time and effort, especially when you have problems operating machines. I used to leave the doors to my house unlocked for fear I would not be able to get back in. Keys do not always work very well. So think of me using a computer.
The effort. Do not worry. What about those persons who cannot afford to attend a university or those persons, sometimes older persons, who want to remember.
I receive comments I do not always have time to answer, but I read all of them and wish to thank you for your encouraging words. It touches me that you should appreciate blogs about people who lived a long time ago. They were a little different, but not altogether. Human nature is human nature and that fact overrides the years that may separate us from an “ancestor.” At any rate, I thank you.
If that’s fine with you, I will continue to write about French-Canadian /Quebecois history and literature. But sometimes an event happens that forces me to write about another subject or not to write.
Moreover, there are times when I need to speak about an artist or a musician or a great work of literature. This week, courtly behaviour came up. How reassuring to know that it was not altogether superficial, or a mask.
Some of my readers have asked for longer blogs, such as sprezzatura. Such blogs are useful to students of all ages. Sprezzatura has to do with the behaviour of the courtier. It is described as nonchalance, but it is in fact a certain reserve, or retenue, on the part of Castiglione’s perfect courtier.
I believe people prefer short blogs. A mixture might be my best option.
Allegory, Boy Lighting Candle in Company of Ape and Fool by El Greco
El Greco (1541 – 7 April 1614)
This painting was inserted in my last post and was supposed to grow larger when one clicked on the picture. It didn’t. So I have reintroduced El Greco’s “Allegory” as it is a fascinating example of candlelight chiaroscuro.
El Greco’s manneristic paintings are characterized by elongated and occasionally distorted elements, such as somewhat mishapen body limbs. His paintings are also busy, which is not case with neo-classical works. Moreover, in the painting featured above, El Greco uses a form of chiaroscuro, but mannerism, a movement, does not have to feature chiaroscuro.
Caravaggio (29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610)
Caravaggio(le Caravage) is the artist who introduced chiaroscuro, and there are degrees of chiaroscuro. Tenebrism is its strongest expression. I suspect, however, that the historical importance of Caravaggio lies more in his effort to give objects relief or dimensionality, which was a chief concern of Renaissance realism and which situates the introduction of chiaroscuro at a specific moment in history.
The moment is the Renaissance. The Renaissance is its birthplace, as it is the birthplace of the point de fuite or the vanishing point. But it remains that, as a technique, chiaroscuro will be a lasting legacy, as will the vanishing point and perspective in general, whereas movements will follow the whims of fashion. To a large extent, chiaroscuro will in fact be a matter of choice, which differentiates it from perspective, a more permanent feature. Yet, it remains a technique.
Other artists are associated with the use of chiaroscuro (light-dark, or vice-versa). The following is a quotation from the Encyclopædia Britannica: “The single most important painter in the tradition was the Frenchman Georges de La Tour, though echoes of Caravaggio’s style can also be found in the works of such giants as Rembrandt van Rijn and Diego Velázquez.” [i]
So there are forms of chiaroscuro. There are paintings where a light emanating from a candle makes an area of the painting light. Georges de La Tour uses this technique frequently, but he is not a mannerist.
As indicated in the Encyclopædia Britannica, the use of chiaroscuro is prevalent in the paintings of Georges de la Tour (1593-1652). But La Tour is a realist. Moreover, here we are looking at the above-mentioned candlelight chiaroscuro. On an excellent internet site devoted to La Tour’s realism, Misty Amanda Vandergriff, writes that La Tour is also considered “to be a follower of Caravaggio [29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610] due to his dependency on specific elements of the Caravaggesque style (most notably the use of chiaroscuro and tenebristic techniques).” [ii]
Contemporaries
Also associated with the use of chiaroscuro are Italian artists such as Artemisia Gentileschi (July 8, 1593–1652), Spanish artist Jusepe de Ribera and Dutch artists Gerrit van Honthorst and Dirck van Baburen. Honthorst and Baburen were Utrecht artists.
In other words, the history of Fine Arts presents similarities with the history of literature and with history in general. When Caravaggio introduced chiaroscuro, he was innovating. Renaissance imperatives called for as faithful a depiction of reality as could be achieved. This led to the development of certain techniques, some of which ended up overriding the moment and movements.
We have long left the Renaissance, but the use of chiaroscuro has lasted. Moreover, we still have the grisaille, a monochrome, chrome meaning colour, form of chiaroscuro. But, the time has come to close this post. So let’s look at David’s use of chiaroscuro andalso look at one of his grisailles and then walk away from the computer.
Jacques-Louis David (1748 – 1825)
Jacques-Louis David‘s (30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) “Death of Marat” does indeed demonstrate the enduring usefulness of chiaroscuro. “The Death of Marat” dates back to 1793. The years had therefore madechiaroscuroone of many tools used by artists to achieve an aesthetic goal. In the case of Jacques-Louis David’s depiction of the “Death of Marat,” chiaroscuro lends drama to David’s painting and serves to explain why “La Mort de Marat” is considered a masterpiece. But, I am also including “Patroclus,” a grisaille by David, where chiaroscuro is achieved to a large extent by the use of a beam of light, another form of chiaroscuro.
The Man with the Golden Helmet, by Rembrandt von Rijn (15 July 1606 – 15 July 1606), housed in the Berlin National Museum
In my post on Barbizon school artist, Charles Jacque, I mentioned not only the Golden section in a rather cavalier fashion, but I also mentioned chiaroscuro somewhat off-handedly.
Rembrandt Harmenszoon von Rijn’s “Man with the Golden Helmet,” 1560-1665, housed in the Berlin National Museum, is a good example of the use of chiaroscuro or dark and light. It is also a good example of the use of the Golden section.
According to Wikipedia “[c]hiaroscuro originated during the Renaissance as drawing on coloured paper, where the artist worked from the paper’s base tone towards light using white gouache, and towards dark using ink, bodycolour (a color that lasts) or watercolour.
By and large, we no longer use coloured paper. We use pale, usually white, paper. However, the above description is particularly interesting in that it gives the impression that the light area has been dug out of darkness. In the case of Charles Jacque‘s Marie, the dark areas are carved out of a white background. It is a process akin to making a cameo, or the reverse.
Let us return to Wikipedia to read that “[t]hese in turn drew on traditions in illuminated manuscripts, going back to late Roman Imperial manuscripts on purple-dyed vellum (from vélin or calfskin).”
However, more simply defined, chiaroscuro refers to the contrast between light areas and dark areas, as in Charles Jacque’s “Marie.” Marie seems to emerge, as though dug out from the white background. In most drawings and coloured paintings, the pale area seems nearer than the dark area. However, if only one part of the painting is lit (see El Greco), that is the part we see.
Sacred and Profane Love, 1602–1603 Giovanni Baglione (1566 – 30 December 1643)
Micheline's Blog 