File:Herculanum et Pompéi, recueil général des peintures, bronzes, mosaïques, etc., découverts jusqu'à ce jour, et reproduits d'apreès Le antichita di Ercolano, Il Museo borbonico, et tous les ouvrages (14803068823).jpg

English: Drawing of a fresco from Pompeii or Herculaneum depicting Perseus rescuing Andromeda from the sea monster with the use of the head of Medusa by Henri Roux Ainé, 1870. Translated related text: The comparison of this painting with the bas-relief of the preceding plate [also depicting Perseus and Andromeda] would be an interesting object of study. It would offer the opportunity to bring together the processes of the two arts and their means of execution and effect; to fix their ideal and their own conventions, founded on these material conditions: there is here a whole thesis of aesthetics which will be easily guessed by those who do not think that art should ever tend to the identical reproduction of nature. The space granted to us here only allows us to indicate this subject of research and meditation.

The use of colors, the degradation of shadows and tints, allowed the author of the fresco to to move further away than the sculptor-from the emblem or from the allegorical type, to take a step, a single one, towards reality. Always the same attributes, but differently arranged; the poses more complex, more animated, the details more strongly marked, the expression of the faces more agitated: a remnant of the fury of the combat on that of Perseus; fear again, astonishment too, and already a beginning of happiness in the features of Andromeda; even the draperies (the purple ephaptide of the hero, the yellowish pallium of the virgin), which are perceived in their folds by the agitation of the figures; a more mournful Medusa; the monster finally thrown back into perspective, which on the other side was impossible! The painter chose, as for this last character, the tradition that suited him best: some say he is petrified; the others make him perish under the blows of the harp; and according to Pausanias, one still saw at Joppa a fountain in which Perseus, all covered with the blood of the monster, had come to wash, and whose waters had retained a reddish tint. Pliny also says that the skeleton of the sea monster was brought to Rome by Scaurus; which supposes that we did not believe that he had been entirely petrified. The two opinions could be reconciled: first struck by the curved sword, then petrified by the gaze of Medusa, the animal would have succumbed both to the courage of Perseus and to his magic talisman. Be that as it may, the sculptor seems to have adopted the tradition most suited to his art: the painter, the one he had to express most easily, he who could show the agitated and red sea, and the waves of blood which arise from a large wound.

Identifier: herculanumetpomp18703barr (find matches)
Title: Herculanum et Pompéi, recueil général des peintures, bronzes, mosaïques, etc., découverts jusqu'à ce jour, et reproduits d'apreès Le antichita di Ercolano, Il Museo borbonico, et tous les ouvrages analogues
Year: 1870 (1870s)
Authors: Barré, Louis, 1799-1857 Roux, H. (Henri), Sr Bouchet, Adolphe
Subjects: Art, Greco-Roman
Publisher: Paris, Firmin Didot frères, fils et cie
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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Text Appearing Before Image:
s accessoires symboliques! On peut sen assureren comparant ce bas-relief aux peintures dont il se trouverapproché à dessein. Le monstre changé en pierre ; la têtede Méduse calme et belle, et non hideuse comme se lafigurent les modernes , qui grimacent quand ils veulentêtre terribles; cette tête cachée à dessein par Persée, quicraint de perdre celle quil vient de sauver; enfin lestalonnières et la redoutable harpe que Persée possédaitencore dans cette dernière expédition : voilà les em-blèmes qui disent le sujet du bas-relief aussi clairementque si lon avait écrit au bas : Persée et Andromède,Malheureusement tous les sujets noffrent pas un pareilavantage, et les artistes modernes devraient le savoir. Quant au dessin, il a ce calme et cette simplicité quidistinguent la sculpture antique. Quand nous naurionspas dit un mot à ce sujet, tout le monde aurait bien vuque notre planche nest point la copie dune peinture,et surtout dune fresque. i.. ■ PEINTURES a11:1 S eue
Text Appearing After Image:
ff. Jlauœ: a.esz& M? 3? V. 5 . P. 32 2_SC rvlte/sJ «sire < y1 n^/rs/sjzaiz DEUXIÈME SÉRIE. 33 Il y a pour chaque genre une optique spéciale, unidéal particulier, approprié à ses moyens dexécution :convention classique , si Ton veut, cette convention aenfanté des séries non interrompues de chefs-dœuvre.Le système de facilité, de grâce , de mollesse, propreaux artistes de la renaissance, qui ont pétri le marbrecomme la cire, a aussi produit les siens : mais ceux-cisont à lantique ce quest lidylle à lépopée. La vignette contient trois fragments de fresque quiornaient sans doute des corniches ou des lambris : deuxlions, un aigle aux ailes éployées et un griffon. PLANCHE 108. La comparaison de cette peinture avec le bas-reliefde la planche précédente serait un objet détude inté-ressant. Elle offrirait loccasion de mettre en présence lesprocédés des deux arts et leurs moyens dexécution etdeffet ; de fixer leur idéal et leurs conventions propres,fondées

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