Jacques Courtois

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Jacques Courtois

Jacques Courtois (born December 12, 1621 in Saint-Hippolyte , Franche-Comté ; † November 14, 1675 in Rome ; also known as Giacomo Cortese or Cortesi ; Il Borgognone or Le Bourguignon ) was a battle and history painter . Although he was a native of France, he is assigned to the Italian art circle due to his life and work.

Life

Jacques Courtois first learned from his father Jean-Pierre Courtois at a young age , but went to Milan around 1635, around the age of 15 . There he joined the Spanish army and spent the next three years as a soldier . He followed the army in marches and battles, but also made countless battle sketches. Jacques Courtois was therefore one of the few battle painters who learned and practiced the soldier's trade themselves. In 1639 Courtois left the army and went to Bologna , where Guido Reni became aware of him and taught him for some time. From Bologna Courtois went to Florence , where he met the Dutch painter Jan Asselijn . Asselijn, known in Italy as Giovanni Azzolino and also called Crabat Olandese or Crabbetje , was the first to instruct the young Courtois in battle painting. From 1640 Courtois was in Rome, where he was accepted into a monastery. The praise given by the then famous Roman battle painter Michelangelo Cerquozzi to some of his battle scenes prompted him to primarily cultivate this art form.

The Battle of Lützen (around 1655).

After the death of his wife, a daughter of the Florentine painter Vajani, who died after only seven years of marriage, Courtois followed the call of Matteo de Medici (1613–1667) to Florence and Siena . Courtois remained in the service of the Medici until 1655 , then he went back to Rome, where he entered the Jesuit novitiate of San Andrea al Quirinale on December 13, 1657 and gave up his profession on February 2, 1668. In the monastery he first painted some religious pictures, but later turned back to his treasured battle pictures before he died on November 14, 1675 in Rome.

His brothers Guillaume and Jean-Baptiste Courtois also gained fame as artists.

plant

Jacques Courtois is without a doubt the most important master of the narrative or decorative battle picture and usually signed as Giacomo Cortese . As a battle painter, he was strongly influenced by Salvator Rosa . In the way in which figures and landscape are connected, as well as in the color treatment, Courtois basically follows the style begun by Rosa. In contrast to Rosa, however, he preferred the fight with firearms, and did not turn to the representation of the ancientizing battle. Courtois painted the masses of the fighting under the influence of atmospheric phenomena such as light, air and dust. He was interested in the reflections of the light on the fast moving bodies of horse and rider, the painterly effects that can be achieved through the depiction of the gunpowder vapor and the flashes of fire from the pistols being shot. Courtois increases the feeling of dynamism and the disorder of the battlefield with his powerful brushstrokes. The horses rolling on the ground and the ball of warriors are further fragmented by the strong light-dark effects and the impression of a battle is reinforced. The fight is used as an excuse to create a fascinating composition of light and shadow, color and shape.

The Battle of Nördlingen (around 1655).

The battle pictures of Jacques Courtois were already highly valued and admired by his contemporaries; they have been preserved in large numbers - but mostly still unseen - in almost all European galleries. Courtois painted a series of large battle pictures for Prince Matteo de Medici, depicting episodes from the War of Castro ; but also scenes from the Thirty Years' War , such as B. the " Battle of Lützen " or the " Battle of Nördlingen ". The new type that Jacques Courtois created through his battle paintings, the uniqueness of the hand-to-hand combat, the liveliness and the colourfulness, was to have a lasting impact on a whole group of students and imitators.

Works (excerpt)

  • The battle of Lützen . Oil on canvas, around 1655, 141 × 275 cm. Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti , Florence (Inv.Oggetti d Arte Pitti, n.451).
  • The battle of Nördlingen . Oil on canvas, around 1655, 141 × 275 cm. Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti, Florence (Inv.Oggetti d Arte Pitti, n.452).
  • A battle . Oil on canvas, 117 × 199.5 cm. Alte Pinakothek , Munich (Inv. No. 938).
  • A cuirassier on the attack . Oil on canvas, 44 × 31 cm. State gallery in the Plassenburg , Kulmbach (Inv. No. 2320).
  • A hussar on the attack . Oil on canvas, 44 × 31 cm. State gallery in the Plassenburg, Kulmbach (Inv. No. 2319).

literature

  • Walter F. Kalina: The Thirty Years War in the Fine Arts . Diploma thesis University of Vienna, 2001.
  • Nathalie Lallemand-Buyssens: Jacques Courtois n'était pas qu'un peintre de batailles. In: Recherches en Histoire de l'art 6, 2007, pp. 49–59.
  • Nathalie Lallemand-Buyssens: Jacques Courtois et Salvator Rosa. In: Salvator Rosa e il suo tempo, 1615-1673 , Rome 2010, pp. 357-371.
  • Nathalie Lallemand-Buyssens: Rome ou les deux vies de Jacques Courtois. In: Bulletin de l'Association des Historiens de l'Art Italy. No. 17, 2011, pp. 99-105.
  • Nathalie Lallemand-Buyssens: Incontournable Friborg: De Franche-Comté en Italie, un réseau de la Dorsale catholique au XVIIe siècle . In: Transdisciplinarity in Art, Design, Architecture and Art History , Oberhausen 2017, pp. 259–267.
  • Nathalie Lallemand-Buyssens, "Figures de soldiers et scènes de bataille: les dessins de Salvator Rosa et de Jacques Courtois", in  Il disegno tra Napoli, Firenze e Roma ai tempi di Salvator Rosa , 2017, pp. 25-37.
  • Matthias Pfaffenbichler: The battle picture in the late 16th and 17th centuries. Dissertation University of Vienna, 1987.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Walter F. Kalina: The Thirty Years' War in the fine arts. Diploma thesis, University of Vienna, 2001, p. 146.
  2. ↑ Helge Siefert: To the glory of the hero. History and genre painting from the 17th and 18th centuries from the holdings of the Alte Pinakothek. Munich, Alte Pinakothek, April 23–11. July 1993 . Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich 1993, p. 192 .
  3. ^ Oskar Pollak: Courtois, Jacques . In: Ulrich Thieme (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists from Antiquity to the Present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 7 : Cioffi – Cousyns . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1912, p. 591-592 ( Text Archive - Internet Archive ).
  4. ↑ On the categorization of the battle pictures: Matthias Pfaffenbichler: The battle picture in the late 16th and 17th centuries. Dissertation University of Vienna, 1987.
  5. ^ Matthias Pfaffenbichler: The battle picture in the late 16th and 17th centuries. Dissertation University of Vienna, 1987, p. 233.
  6. ↑ Helge Siefert: To the glory of the hero. History and genre painting from the 17th and 18th centuries from the holdings of the Alte Pinakothek. Munich, Alte Pinakothek, April 23–11. July 1993 . Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich 1993, p. 72 .
  7. ↑ Klaus Bußmann , Heinz Schilling : 1648 - War and Peace in Europe. Catalog volume and two text volumes, Münster 1998 [Documentation of the Council of Europe exhibition on the 350th anniversary of the Peace of Westphalia in Münster and Osnabrück.] Münster / Osnabrück 1998, ISBN 3-88789-127-9 , p. 92 f.

Web links

Commons : Jacques Courtois  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
personal data
SURNAME Courtois, Jacques
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cortese, Giacomo; Cortesi, Giacomo; Il Borgognone; Le Bourguignon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian painter
DATE OF BIRTH December 12, 1621
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint-Hippolyte , Franche-Comté
DATE OF DEATH November 14, 1675
Place of death Rome