Work published with the financial support of the CRCV.
Retraites savantes. L’art du XVIIe siècle. Mélanges en l’honneur d’Alain Mérot, directed by Véronique Meyer, Damien Tellas, Élodie Vaysse and Bruno Guilois, éditions Le Passage, May 2024, 256 p., €45 (ISBN: 978-2-84742-515-4).
Professor Emeritus at Sorbonne Université, Alain Mérot has gained worldwide renown for his studies and research in 17th-century art. Everyone is familiar with his monographs on Le Sueur and Poussin, not to mention his works on 17th-century interiors and landscape. His many objects of study bear witness to his intellectual curiosity, which is not limited to the history of art: literature, poetry, music and spiritual movements are frequently the focus of his attention.
In homage to his teaching and his work, a number of individuals – academics, curators and independent researchers – have come together to compile a collection dedicated to the art of the period starting with the beginning of the reign of Henry IV and ending with what is known in France as the first 18th century (1680-1750). The diversity of fields included in this compilation offers an exceptional, coherent whole that makes essential reading for anyone interested in artistic production of the period.
Whether considering the life or work of certain artists, the characteristics of grand décor or of different genres, or how the works produced at the time were viewed in later centuries, this work, through its varied yet complementary approaches, provides a nuanced, lively and frequently renewed picture of the art of the Grand Siècle.