Nicolas Régnier, v. 1588-1667: l'homme libre

Abstract

Flemish by his birthplace (Maubeuge, around 1588), French by language, Nicolas Régnier realizes his entire career in Italy: Parma first, the court of the Farnese, then Rome and Venice. In Rome; As a worthy emulator of Caravaggio, Regnier upsets the ordinary codes of representation and engages the spectator in an active dialogue. He sings the tumultuous daily life of Rome, his wicked heroes - crooks, courtesans and fortunetellers - and his popular practices - his games, pranks and insults. The subversive dimension of some of his paintings made Régnier a "avant-garde" painter who knew how to renew the language of Caravaggio. In the city of the Doges, where he lived until his death in 1667, Régnier pursued an original path. Introducing the art of Caravaggio and promoter of the classic ideal, he is one of the major players in the renewal of Venetian painting of the seventeenth century. To the fame of the artist are added those of the collector and the art dealer: a high-flying merchant, capable of negotiating for the princes of Italy the most important affairs of the time; a refined collector who could boast 4 masterpieces by Dürer, Giorgione, Titian, Rubens and many others. This book reveals the diversity of the artist's activities and the astonishing modernity of his art which evolves from a radical "natural" painting to a sophisticated painting, where naturalism and idealization intermingle, melodrama and pleasure. Translation by dessinoriginal.