Topical Catalogues of the Iconography of Venus from the Middle Ages to Modern Times. V. 2.1. The French Venus

199 Pages·0.912 MB·English

by  Bender K.

The French Venus
“Les déesses nous ennuient déjà ; elles sont blafardes et maigres, ces pauvres déesses égarées dans
notre siècle de science ; il n'y a plus que les vieillards qui s'aperçoivent de leur nudité.”
Emile Zola, dans 'Causerie'
La Tribune, le 30 août 1868
“Tu entends encore nos clameurs, Vénus immortelle!
Après avoir aimé tes contemporains, tu es à nous, maintenant, à nous tous, à l'univers.
Il semble que les vingt-cinq siècles de ta vie aient seulement consacré ton invincible jeunesse.”
Auguste Rodin, dans 'A la Vénus de Milo'
Paris, La Jeune Parque, 1945, p.2
First published in L'Art et les Artistes, n° 60, t. 10: 242-255, 1910.
“A great private collection is a material concentrate that
continually stimulates, that overexcites. Not only because
it can always be added to, but because it is already too much.
The collector's need is precisely for excess, for surfeit, for profusion.
...........................................
A collection is always more than is necessary.”
Susan Sontag in 'The Vulcano Lover – A Romance'
London, Vintage, 1993, p.72
The Iconography of Venus
from the Middle Ages to Modern Times
Volume 2.1
The French Venus
A topical catalogue of sculptures, reliefs,
paintings, frescos, drawings, prints and illustrations
of identified French artists
Compiled by
K. Bender
2009
To C and all my friends who are supporting me
Cover illustration: ‘Vénus de Milo’, 2001 by ARMAN. Sculpture in iron, 52x15x20 cm. Private
collection (serial number 28 in edition of 80). Photo AVdV. Authorization for reproduction requested.
A hard copy and a digital pdf version are available at www.lulu.com
Copyright (cid:211) 2009 by K. Bender. Any duplication, distribution or dissemination without the prior
permission of the author is not allowed.
iv
Contents
Introduction 7
Introduction to Volume 1.1 9
Guideline to the Topical Catalogue 11
Topic Date of work Artist’s/creators’ name(s) Title of work Type of work
Medium and material of support Dimension of work and series
Owner of work Inventory number of work Source(s) of information about the work
Reference number of work Replicas, copies of work and comments
Example
Catalogue – Table of Topics – Topic–index - List of Abbreviations 17
1. Allegories 21
2. Apotheosis/Sacrifice/Temple/Triumph/Worship 24
3. Attributes of Venus 29
4. Birth of Venus/Venus Anadyomene/Venus Marina 34
5. Toilet/Bath of Venus/Venus crouching 47
6. Venus and Adonis 55
7. Venus and Anchises, Aeneas 64
8. Venus and Cupid 68
9. Venus and Cupids 85
10. Venus and the Judgement of Paris/Venus, Helen & Paris 90
11. Venus and Mars 99
12. Venus and other Gods, Deities or Heroes 106
13. Venus and Psyche 120
14. Venus and Satyrs 124
15. Venus and Vulcan 126
16. Venus Asleep/ Venus after Tiziano 131
17. Venus Statues 135
18. Venus Unaccompanied and Abstract 144
Index of Artists 157
Directory of Owners and Auctioneers 179
Selected Bibliography 189
Specific Catalogues
Selected References
v
v

Introduction
This second volume “The French Venus” of the series on the Iconography of Venus from the Middle Ages
to Modern Times has the same general objective and organization as the first volume “The Italian Venus”.
Therefore, the Introduction to Volume 1.1, following this introduction, is added as essential information for
readers who do not know the first volume. These topical catalogues do not include any ‘discours
historique’ – for which the author has no competence: the abundant bibliography at the end of each volume
offers plenty of such material. The data compiled are simply ordered in a systematic way with the goal of a
quantitative analysis, i.e. by ‘counting’ artworks, topics and artists over the time considered. The present
volume counts 2997 artworks made by 977 French artists; the former volume counted 1840 artworks made
by 649 Italian artists. The author hopes that art historians as well as other scientists will explore these data
for in-depth studies: the quantitative approach to art history is relatively new and was recently the subject
of an international colloquium (Joyeux-Prunel 2008)1.
The methodology explained in detail in the Guideline to the Topical Catalogue, remains essentially the
same but was adapted where necessary or useful for the specificities of the corpus of French artworks. A
very important and unique source of information since the end of the 17th century are the many 'Salons of
French Artists', organized in Paris2. Unfortunately, only few collections of 'livrets de salon' are presently
available in digital format: hence, most of the screening for 'Venus'-topics was done manually and this
involved a certain degree of inaccuracy. More important, however, is the fact that the information given in
the 'livrets' until the end of the 19th century is incomplete on both the artist and the presented work:
• the artist's first name is generally not given and therefore correct or true attribution among relatives
(father, sons, brothers, etc.) or homonyms is not possible in some cases;
• the artwork itself is described by its title, which does not always allow for a correct topical
identification; a subtitle, when available, could help sometimes; information on type and medium/support
of the work is fragmentary and the size is seldom given;
• there are of course no reproductions available, which could help in a full and correct topical
identification, but in a few cases sketches made in the margin of the livrets by Gabriel de SAINT-AUBIN
are very helpful (Dacier 1993).
The bibliographical references to the information sources of the ‘Salons’ have been gathered separately and
are presented in a list entitled “Specific Catalogues”. This list includes also other inventories and some
general “topical” catalogues, already mentioned in the Introduction to Volume 1.1. A useful addition to the
list is Pigler's “Barockthemen – Ein Auswahl von Verzeichnissen zur Ikonographie des 17. und 18.
Jahrhunderts” (1974) because Pigler's list of topics (for the given period) is more extensive than in other
topical catalogues; moreover, Pigler subdivides each topical list of works by country-origin of the artists,
essentially the Low Countries, Italy, France, Germany and England: a feature which corresponds to the
concept of the present series of the Venus-iconography. The specific bibliographical list “About the
meaning of Venus (Aphrodite)” of Volume 1.1 has not been reproduced in this volume.
1 Bibliographical references throughout the document are given in the text by the author’s name and date of publication and are
listed in alphabetical order at the end of the volume.
2There have been 'Salons' in other French cities as well, e.g. in Lyon (Dumas 2007), but the screening was limited to Paris'
salons.
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Likewise in Volume 1.1, the artworks representing the prae-historic so-called Venus are not compiled, nor
are artworks which do not illustrate the figure of Venus: for instance plants or shells, vessels or ships or
other objects bearing her name. However, symbols/places closely related to her worship (e.g. Cyprus,
Cythera, Paphos, temples, etc) and Venus as the symbol of the Planet are included, but works featuring the
planet itself or related to astronomy, space exploration or science-fiction are excluded. Abstract art with a
title 'Venus' poses a specific problem: was the artist's inspiration the figure of Venus or the planet? A few
abstract works were included. Digital painting, an emerging technique, has not yet been included.
Acknowledgement and gratitude are due to the many librarians who helped the author in his search for
references. Specific help was found in the Institut National de l’Histoire de l’Art (INHA) and in the Ecole
Normale Supérieure (ENS), Département d’Histoire et Théorie des Arts, Paris, in the Warburg Institute,
London, in the Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica, Rome and in the Department of Art History, Universiteit
Gent, Ghent. The author is also very much indebted to several museum curators or assistants who
answered with personal communication to his questions for some detailed information.
The author realizes that the catalogue presented, likewise as Volume 1.1, is far from complete and not
without errors. It is the nature of such catalogues that they should be revised and expanded by new
information: readers are kindly invited to notify omissions, supply missing information or point out errors;
they will be gratefully acknowledged in a revised version. Please send E-mail to <[email protected]>.
Readers might also be interested to discuss the innovative quantitative analysis of the data compiled in
these catalogues: two papers regarding “The Italian Venus” are available free for downloading at
<http://stores.lulu.com/benderk> and papers on “The French Venus” will soon follow.
Additions to Some “Venus/Aphrodite” exhibitions in Europe published in Volume 1.1
“Venus and Mercury”, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London 1987
“Venus Sovietica”, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg 2007
An interdisciplinary conference “Aphrodite revealed – a goddess disclosed” was held at the Department
of Classics, University of Reading, 8-10 May 2008
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Introduction to Volume 1.1
Numerous books and essays have been written about the iconography and the iconology of Venus and
many art exhibitions were organized during the past decades, showing the continuing interest in the subject
(see a list of exhibitions below). No other mythological personage than Venus has been so often on stage.
The reader interested in the iconography of Venus (or Aphrodite), in the iconology and history of her
perpetual ambivalent presence and attention in our society, may find a support in this catalogue, besides a
selected up-to-date bibliography of the subject.
The aim of the Topical1 Catalogue is to offer a comprehensive list of artworks with the subject ‘Venus’.
The catalogue entries are the artworks, ordered by 18 main topics and, - within a topic or subtopic - listed
chronologically, giving essential details on the date, the artist, the title(s) of the work, the type of work and
its size, the owner and the source(s) of information. The identification is based solely either on the Roman
name ‘Venus’ (or her Greek counterpart ‘Aphrodite’) in the title of the work - given by its creator or used
by the owner - or on the subject closely related to ‘Venus’, e.g. the story of the ‘Judgement of Paris’ or the
“Tale of Psyche”. In general, no attempt has been made to interprete artworks which seemingly refer to
Venus but which do not bear her name in the title. In a few cases, however, such artworks are identified in
this catalogue if the owner or art scholars explicitely refer to Venus in the description of the artwork.
Works related to the paleo-historic so-called Venus are not considered.
This volume concerns only works of identified Italian artists. In principle only those artists born in Italy
are catalogued, but some non-native artists are added because their work was solely or for the largest part
made in Italy and is therefore often regarded as Italian artwork. The many Italian artists who worked
abroad are included. The alphabetic Index of Artists gives succinct basic information about their
whereabouts and lists the ‘Venus’-topics that were sources of inspiration for their works. The Directory of
Owners shows the worldwide dispersal of these works. Artworks considered in this catalogue are
sculptures, reliefs, paintings and frescos, drawings and prints (woodcuts, engravings, etchings,
lithographs, silk-screens) and illustrations (illuminations, book-illustrations and ex-libris) of identified
artists, including works identified as “attributed to…” or “workshop/studio of…” or “circle of…” if the
date of the work corresponds to the artist’s period of activity. Artworks made by unknown artists and
described “after…” or “follower of…” or “school of…” are not included.
As far as known, Topical Catalogues for Venus have never been made at the scale envisaged2. The
catalogue lists 1840 identified artworks and many replicas and copies: it should be useful to the owners of
the works for comparison reasons; to museums, galleries and auctioneers in order to help correct
identification of works attributed to some artist and to improve the title and description of the work; to
those studying mythology and iconology and to art historians: which are the ‘Venus’-topics most popular
in different periods and why? How did the iconography evolved over time? Which and how many topics
were popular with a given artist? Future similar topical catalogues of artworks made by different groups of
artists – e.g. French artists, artists of the Low Countries, etc. – could support correlation and relationship
studies.
The specificity of this catalogue should also guarantee the attention of other scientists, e.g. archaeologists
who search for later copies or representations of ancient artworks; philologists who wish to link literary
text to topics in artworks; scientists in philosophy, religion and sociology who are interested in the general
subject ‘Venus/Aphrodite’ and its past and present aura in society. For these reasons, other types of art (i.e.
1Relating to a particular subject, arranged by topics.
2 Rochelle (1991) and Reid (1993) published topical catalogues on general mythology: hence, their entries for Venus/Aphrodite
are limited. The Photographic Collection Index of the Warburg Institute (2002) offers a list of topics similar to the one used in
this catalogue, but the contents of the folders according to this index are not published.
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