Antoine Caron (1521–1599) was a French

master Master, master's or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles In education: *Master (college), head of a college *Master's degree, a postgraduate or sometimes undergraduate degree in the specified discipline *Schoolmaster or master, presiding office ...

glass Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline solid, non-crystalline) solid. Because it is often transparency and translucency, transparent and chemically inert, glass has found widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in window pane ...

maker, illustrator,

Northern Mannerist Northern Mannerism is the form of Mannerism found in the visual arts north of the Alps in the 16th and early 17th centuries. Styles largely derived from Italian Mannerism were found in the Netherlands and elsewhere from around the mid-century, es ...

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

and a product of the

School of Fontainebleau The School of Fontainbleau () () refers to two periods of artistic production in France during the late French Renaissance centered on the royal Palace of Fontainebleau that were crucial in forming Northern Mannerism, and represent the first majo ...

. He is one of the few French painters of his time who had a pronounced artistic personality. His work reflects the refined, although highly unstable, atmosphere at the court of the

House of Valois The Capetian House of Valois ( , also , ) was a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty. They succeeded the House of Capet (or "Direct Capetians") to the List of French monarchs, French throne, and were the royal house of France from 1328 to 1589. ...

during the

French Wars of Religion The French Wars of Religion were a series of civil wars between French Catholic Church, Catholics and Protestantism, Protestants (called Huguenots) from 1562 to 1598. Between two and four million people died from violence, famine or disease di ...

of 1560 to 1598.

Life

Caron was born in

Beauvais Beauvais ( , ; ) is a town and Communes of France, commune in northern France, and prefecture of the Oise Departments of France, département, in the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, north of Paris. The Communes of France, commune o ...

between 1521 and 1530 to Phillipe and Adele (Lamarre) Caron. He married Marie Dangobert in 1555. Together, they had one son, Louis, who was born .

Career

He began painting in his teens doing frescos for a number of churches. Between 1540 and 1550 he worked under Primaticcio and

Niccolò dell'Abbate Niccolò dell'Abbate, sometimes Nicolò and Abate (1509 or 15121571) was a Mannerist Italian painter in fresco and oils. He was of the Emilia (region of Italy), Emilian school, and was part of the team of artists called the School of Fontaineble ...

at the School of Fontainebleau. In 1561, he was appointed the

court painter A court painter was an artist who painted for the members of a royal or princely family, sometimes on a fixed salary and on an exclusive basis where the artist was not supposed to undertake other work. Painters were the most common, but the cour ...

Catherine de' Medici Catherine de' Medici (, ; , ; 13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589) was an Italian Republic of Florence, Florentine noblewoman of the Medici family and Queen of France from 1547 to 1559 by marriage to Henry II of France, King Henry II. Sh ...

and

Henry II of France Henry II (; 31 March 1519 – 10 July 1559) was List of French monarchs#House of Valois-Angoulême (1515–1589), King of France from 1547 until his death in 1559. The second son of Francis I of France, Francis I and Claude of France, Claude, Du ...

. As court painter he also had the duties of organizing the court pageants. In this way he was involved in organizing the ceremony and

royal entry The ceremonies and festivities accompanying a formal entry by a ruler or their representative into a city in the Middle Ages and early modern period in Europe were known as the royal entry, triumphal entry, or Joyous Entry. The entry centred on ...

for the coronation of Charles IX in Paris and the wedding of

Henry IV of France Henry IV (; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry (''le Bon Roi Henri'') or Henry the Great (''Henri le Grand''), was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 16 ...

with

Marguerite de Valois Margaret of Valois (, 14 May 1553 – 27 March 1615), popularly known as , was Queen of Navarre from 1572 to 1599 and Queen of France from 1589 to 1599 as the consort of Henry IV of France and III of Navarre. Margaret was the daughter of King ...

. Some of his surviving illustrations are from these pageants. His drawings of festivities at the court of Charles IX are likely sources for the depiction of the court in the Valois Tapestries. He died in Paris in 1599.

Art

The Lion of Barbarossa by Antoine Caron 1562

Not many of Caron's works survive, but they include historical and allegorical subjects, court ceremonies, astrological scenes, and his massacres, done in the mid-1560s. An example is his only signed and dated painting, ''Massacres under the Triumvirate'' (1566) which hangs in the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

. Caron used bright colors and incorporated unusual architectural forms. He often placed his human figures almost insignificantly on grand stages, as did his mentor dell'Abbate. His figures tend to be elongated, even in portraits such as ''Portrait of a Lady'' (1577). Many works attributed to him are also attributed to others. As there is minimal documentation of French painting in that era, this is not unusual. Because Caron is relatively well known, his name is likely to be attached to paintings similar to his known works. In some cases, such painting are now ascribed "to the workshop of Antoine Caron", for example, ''The Submission of Milan to Francis I in 1515'' (c. 1570).

Selected works

* ''Massacres of the Triumvirate'', 1566, oil on linen canvas, 116 × 195 cm,

Musée du Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

, Paris * ''La Sibylle de Tibur'', 1575/1580, oil on canvas, 170 × 125 cm, Louvre, Paris, (''The Tiburtine Sibyl'' or ''Augustus and the Sibyl of the Tiber'') * '' Abraham and Melchisedek'', c. 1590, wood, 80 × 94 cm. private collection, Paris
''Astronomers Watching an Eclipse'' or ''Dionysius the Areopagite Converting the Pagan Philosophers''
1570s, oil on canvas, 93 × 73 cm., formerly in the collection of

Anthony Blunt Anthony Frederick Blunt (26 September 1907 – 26 March 1983), (formerly styled Sir Anthony Blunt from 1956 until November 1979), was a leading British art historian and a Soviet spy. Blunt was a professor of art history at the University ...

, London, now at the

J. Paul Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California, United States, housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. It is operated by the J. Paul Getty Trust, the world's wealthies ...

, Los Angeles * ''Portrait of a Lady'', 1577, Tempera on panel,

Alte Pinakothek The Alte Pinakothek (, ''Old Pinakothek'') is an art museum located in the Kunstareal area in Munich, Germany. It is one of the oldest galleries in the world and houses a significant collection of Old Master paintings. The name Alte (Old) Pin ...

, München * ''Le train de deuil Amors'', Louvre, Paris (''The funeral procession of Love'' or ''An Allegory of the Death of Love'') * ''Bagathan and Tharès'' Staatliche Graphische Sammlung (State Graphics Collection) in the Münchner Haus der Kulturinstitute (Munich Culture Institute), Munich * ''The Elephant Carousel'', 1598, oil on wood, 87 × 130 cm., private collection, Paris * ''The Arrest and Supplication of Sir Thomas More (1478–1535)'' oil on wood, Musee de Blois,

Blois Blois ( ; ) is a commune and the capital city of Loir-et-Cher Departments of France, department, in Centre-Val de Loire, France, on the banks of the lower Loire river between Orléans and Tours. With 45,898 inhabitants by 2019, Blois is the mos ...

* ''Apotheose of Semele'', c. 1585, oil on wood, 65 × 76 cm. private collection, Paris * ''The Triumph of Winter'', c. 1568, oil on canvas, 103 × 179 cm, private collection of Anne H. Bass * ''Diane Chasseresse'', 1550, oil on Louvre, Paris, (''Diana, the Huntress'') chool of Fontainebleau ... * ''The Submission of Milan to Francis I in 1515'', c. 1570, oil on wood, 50.5 × 66.8 cm, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario orkshop of ... ref name="Milan"/>

Gallery

Image:Antoine Caron 001.jpg, ''Augustus and the Sibyl of the Tiber'' (c. 1578) Image:Antoine Caron 002.jpg, ''Massacres of the Triumvirate ''(1566) Image:Henri Lerambert, Le Christ et la Femme adultère.jpg, , ''Christ and the Adultress'' Image:Caron-Antoine-triumph-of-winter.jpg, ''Triumph of Winter'' (c. 1568) Image:Antoine Caron Astronomers Studying an Eclipse.jpg, ''Dionysius the Areopagite Converting the Pagan Philosophers ''(c. 1570)''Dionysius the Areopagite Converting the Pagan Philosophers'' The Getty Research Institute
/ref> File:41MA-B.jpg, ''The massacre under the Triumvirate'', Musée d'Art classique de Mougins

Notes

References

* Ehrmann, Jean (1955) ''Antoine Caron: peintre à la cour des Valois, 1521-1599'' (Travaux d'humanisme et Renaissance, No 18) Droz, Geneva
OCLC 30014514
* Ehrmann, Jean (1986) ''Antoine Caron: peintre des fêtes et des massacres'' Flammarion, Paris, * Chilvers, Ian (ed.) (2004) "Caron, Antoine (1521-1599)" ''The Oxford Dictionary of Art'' (3rd ed.) Oxford University Press, Oxford, * Hueber, Frédéric (2016) ''La vie et l'oeuvre d'Antoine Caron (1521-1599)'', University of Geneva, Geneva (PhD thesis in history of art), 3 vol.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caron, Antoine 1521 births 1599 deaths People from Beauvais French Mannerist painters French court painters 16th-century French painters French male painters People from the Province of Île-de-France