Isabelle Douillet-de Pange, Art historian specializing in baroque art and curator at the Folon Foundation, guides us through the collections Oldmasters of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, to respond to what Baroque art gives us to see. She specifies, “itComparison is not reason, history never repeats the same dishes. However, it is fascinating to confront it to reflect on the present. However, resorting to history alone seems to me to be intellectual laziness which prevents us from seeing the specificity of the present. We must both show the similarities, but also the differences.“
Civilizations drowned in images
Our regions, with the cities of Antwerp and Brussels, are seeing the emergence of leading Baroque artists. “Lhe most insane personality of all these painters, and who in my opinion embodies the baroque, is really Pierre-Paul Rubens“.
Imbued with the baroque essence of the works it houses, the room dedicated to Rubens (1577-1640) captivates the visitor. The oversized canvases impose themselves on us, supported by the noble red color of the walls recalling the painter's favorite touch. Isabelle Douillet-de Pange stops in front The martyrdom of Saint Liévinmimicking one of the characters.
“OHe sees Liévin having his tongue torn out. His suffering takes on meaning when we see the heavens parting. This is the promise of the Baroque: of this great theater that is the world, the pivot point is death. It is death that will allow us to access the kingdom of God, where everything will be extraordinary. This vision is fundamentally different from ours, with capitalism which tells us that enjoyment takes place here and now. The Church gives a spiritual promise to the baroque man, hence this exaltation of death.“
Before leaving the room, the art historian adds: “ The image reaches its climax with the baroque, and in a way drowns everything: it drowns out criticism, it affirms conviction, and finally it allows us not to ask questions. Compared to our time, which is also a civilization of images, I wonder: we are also drowned in images, so what effect does this have on us?“
The unexpected success of the Emile Claus retrospective
From mastery to acceptance of reality
The journey continues, and sees a series of portraits which are transformed over the course of artistic movements and the different rooms of the museum. Hieratic bodies and attitudes follow one another and dissipate once Antoon van Dyck's section is reached. This painter (1599-1641), having worked in the workshop of Peter-Paul Rubens, is known for having brought an additional dimension to the art of portraiture, by managing to show not only the lives of the people represented, but also by representing their nobility and dignity.
Isabelle Douillet-de Pange advances towards the Portrait of Porzia Impériale and her daughter Maria Francescapointing at the girl: “When you look at her face, she is absolutely alive. There is at once the tenderness of her cheeks, the mischief in her eyes, the awareness that she is wearing a beautiful dress and that she is in front of her mother's harpsichord. There is a humanity in this painting that I find extraordinary.“
“In the mastery of the portrait and the image, I tell myself that there is also something there that resembles our time a little. Today, with the selfie for example, control of our image is total. I prefer to photograph myself, rather than it being done by someone else, who will interpret me in their own way. While there, designating the portraitswe feel an initial contract with the painter: paint me as I am, but still a little better.”
This baroque mastery of the image also involves the acceptance of reality, with the desire to represent it as it is. “It is an art where the gaze accepts to see.“We see this in Antoon van Dyck, but also in Rubens with Four studies of the head of a Moor.
“The Baroque is still a terribly complicated period for Africans: we wonder how God was able to put a soul in a black body. Rubens' answer is wonderful: we must look at the subject for itself. The humanity of this African naturally shines through in this image, although I don't think Rubens intended to do anything political or philosophical. He allowed himself to contemplate his model. Skin tones, smiles, eyes, hair: we feel that the painter was passionate about his subject and did not put a filter between him and his representation. For me, it is a major work in the history of painting, in terms of this appropriation of reality.“
Exhibitions not to be missed at the moment in Brussels, Antwerp, Mons, Namur… but also abroad
The Human Comedy by Jordaens
“There we are at the limit of what we, men and women of the 21st century, can see.“, exclaims Isabelle Douillet-de Pange upon arriving in the room dedicated to Jacques Jordaens (1593-1678). She describes the painter as the prototype of the Baroque man: “He separates himself from his compatriots (Pierre-Paul Rubens and Antoine van Dyck, Editor’s note) by becoming the champion of human comedy.”
Facing Suzanne and the old men, The satyr and the peasantor even The allegory of the Fertility of the earththe idealized features of the Renaissance are forgotten. Fleshy bodies, cellulite and wrinkled skin, “there is the idea of appropriating reality as it is, to the point of showing us things that repel us, but which are completely accepted.“
“For Jacques Jordaens, we can get away with anything: this life doesn't have much importance, so let's laugh and watch this human comedy. Life is a dream from which death is the awakening. Life is a great theater. The baroque man lives in the second degree, he knows that this world is made of illusions, so he does not take it seriously and has fun with it.“
“We are very far from our modern sensibilities. But there is still, in these images which are not intended to be perfect, this somewhat perverse ambition of wanting to convey reality, while they show something else. We are always in this ambivalence, does the image completely reflect reality?“
