Page 25 - Jacques Blanchard - Myth and Allegory

Formally, Blanchard’s depiction of Venus
and Adonis fits comfortably within a visual
tradition that stretches back to early
mannerism. Stylistically and technically,
however, the painting marks a notable turning
point in French art. Blanchard’s brushwork,
colourism and sense of composition are
derived from the finest of the Venetian golden
age, but they have been imported and
translated into a very discerning French
idiom. Moreover, Blanchard succeeds in
expressing an origin myth without a trace of
didacticism. Perhaps he understood that while
his wealthy patron may have appreciated this
subject as a romantic paradigm, he might be
less charmed were the subject depicted as a
warning or justification of the consequences
of love. Therefore, instead of being a scripted
scene of the theatrical baroque, Venus and
Adonis Departing for the Hunt, with its
deliberate sensuality and dramatic tension, is a
true epyllion, a sort of erotic elegy. Working
within the often very narrow remit of
decorative painting, Blanchard achieved in this
work that delicate balance between the
poetic and the sensual, which is one of the
delights of the baroque.

A.G.

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