Ingres, the artist of the harmony that looked at the past and ahead of its time – Terra Peru

Rafael was their god and the imprint of his work is in Picasso, who was fascinated. Ingres looked at the past but modern adventure began with a painting of a special originality on display in the Prado, in the first monographic organized in Spain on a French artist.

With masterpieces that have rarely left France as “Grande Odalisque” or “The Dream of Ossian”, or icons of portraiture as “The Countess of Haussonville” or “Mrs. Moitessier “, the exhibition has been made possible by major loans from the Louvre Museum and the participation of Ingres Museum Montauban (south of France).

The exhibition, which opened on Monday the queen Letizia, is composed of more than sixty works that bring visitors “to one of the highest levels of European painting of the nineteenth,” according to director Prado, Miguel Zugaza, who in his speech had a few words of solidarity with France “in a very difficult day for Europe”.

Vincent Pomarede, the Louvre Museum and curator of the exhibition along with Carlos G. Navarro, wanted to work with your choice of “the public to discover this immense French artist” and do so with an idea that based on insisting that Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres “is not an academic artist.”

He went through the Academy “but not an academic. He is a passionate seeking news”, which addressed an original way the currents of his time and recreated equally to the romantic, realistic or classic. “But is not the neoclassical master who wanted to present in art history.”

Ingres was opposed to Delacroix, “both hated” and his reference is Rafael, “that was their god”, but had a strong relationship with the neoclassical Jacques-Louis David. Example of neoclassical practice is his early work “Achilles receives Agamemnon’s ambassadors.”

From a young Ingres was devoted to portraits. “He orders the great Parisian bourgeoisie” as the portrait of “Mrs. Riviere,” which highlights the perfect and detailed drawing of the jewels and furniture.

But very young received commissions from power. Examples are “Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul” and stunning portrait of “Napoleon I on his Imperial Throne,” which was not well received by critics.

“Due to these criticisms he considered too bold, in the 30s decided not to exhibit at the Paris Salon” Pomarede said.

Another of the masterpieces that are contemplated in the tour is “Oedipus and the Sphinx”, in which the artist wants to modernize the great male nude “and goes beyond the current and usual image “a work in which the main figure is presented in relief, as if it were a frieze in anticipation of symbolism.

The tour also showcases a large selection of drawings that put Ingres “as one of the best artists in the history of the painting of the nineteenth century,” the French commissioner. Many of these drawings show the process of creating his large paintings, as in the case of “Grande Odalisque”, whose painting received significant criticism.

“This work provides insight into one of the major themes for Ingres as it was to renew the genre of the female nude, with works full of light and movement. With these naked wanted to create melodies.”

Talking to the stands Odalisque “frees Ruggiero Angelica”, a painting “an extraordinary sensuality.”

The “Troubadour” section shows works in which the artist returns to take the call romanticism painting troubadour, small tables that reflect stories of emotional rather than historical, set in the courts of the Middle Ages as “Raphael and the Fornarina” or “Francisco I attended the last gasp of Leonardo da Vinci”.

Highlights on the tour “one of his most famous masterpieces, the portrait of Louis-Francois Bertin, which shows the great personality of portrayed through his attitude.”

Ingres also addressed religious painting, but traditionally they tried to modernize the way Raphael painted the Virgin, as in “The Virgin adoring the Sacred”.

In the “Sumptuous nakedness” the mythical box excellence envisaged by Ingres, “The Turkish Bath”. According to the curator, the artist worked all his life to this work, which shows “a work of very refined light, with some music. I wanted to paint something beautiful”.

And it does so with an ode to the beauty of naked female body in a work in which emphasizes harmony and had a fundamental importance in artists like Matisse and Picasso. “Ingres looks to the past but begin to venture the future, creating works with a special originality”.