Page 13 - Jacques Blanchard - Myth and Allegory
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At this point however, we should consider specific influence le Blanc may have had on
the second circle of influence upon the Blanchard, but they act as strong enough
formation of the French baroque: the strong evidence to show that the younger artist had
Flemish influence exerted by Vouet’s two entered an ambiance where there was already
predecessors at the French court: Frans extensive patronage by the Church.11 Le Blanc,
Pourbus the Younger, and Peter Paul Rubens.9 on the other hand, must have recognised the
Between Rubens’s massive cycle for Marie de young artist’s promise, because when he left for
Médicis and Pourbus’s stunning portraits of Paris in 1623, Blanchard is known to have
Marie and Henri IV, Vouet could hardly have finished a number of the works Le Blanc left
ignored the impact of these two artists when behind in his studio, including perhaps the
he took up his own appointment as the first Virgin and Child with a Bishop and a Woman
premier peintre du Roi in 1627. Though still a Holding a Baby (Lyon, St Denis).
young man in 1629, Vouet, with his acuity
and ambition, was to change this position At the end of October 1624, Blanchard
irrevocably and it is within this context of travelled to Rome in the company of his
innovation that Blanchard’s arrival should be brother Jean, reaching the city at the same
examined. time as Poussin and by 1625, was resident in
the via Margutta, near the church of Santa
Despite his polished and prolific output as a Maria del Popolo. The fact that he was six
religious and decorative painter, very little is years Poussin’s junior is a clear indication of
known of Blanchard’s early development, as is Blanchard’s precocity and early success. It is
so often the case with French painters of this possible that he came into contact with the
period. According to Félibien, our only other young French painters who were active
relatively contemporary biographical source for there, including Vouet, Valentin de Boulogne,
the artist, Blanchard spent his adolescence Jacques Stella, Claude Mellin, and Jacques de
apprenticed at the Paris studio of his maternal Létin. But in spite of any possible encounters,
uncle Nicolas Baullery (c. 1550/60-1630). By these artists were to have little influence on
1618, he travelled to Lyon to work in the studio the artist’s development, since unlike Vouet,
of Horace le Blanc.10 Two pictures by le Blanc, Blanchard was only to spend some eighteen
both dated 1621, the Transverbération de Saint months in Rome before departing for Venice
Théresè, (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon) and the where he remained for two years. It was
Entombment, (Église de Saint André, Grenoble) primarily from the Venetian artists that
cannot themselves be used to illustrate what Blanchard was to derive his inspiration.
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