Seurat and Piero della Francesca

Author(s): Albert Boime

Source: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 47, No. 2 (Jun., 1965), pp. 265-271
Published by: College Art Association
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NOTES
(Fig. 48), is called "niederrheinischum 1350" although both obviously are by the same painter and
most likely were part of one ensemble.22What interests us most is the similaritybetween the punch design
in the border of these two (Fig. 47) and of that in
the Carrand Diptych (Fig. 44) and the Sachs Annunciation (Figs. 45, 46), which are assigned to the
school of Paris. The decorative scheme is the same in
all instances, the hexa-stars in the Sachs Annunciation
are similar in shape to those in the Berlin panel; so are
also the Gothic arches of distinctly sharp, wiry contours. The Gothic arch, the hexa-star and the fourlobed rosette in the Berlin and Frankfort pictures can,
of course, be traced to Italian prototypes.
We may ask ourselvesif this similaritywarrants any
conclusion as to the relation of the French and German pictures.The physiognomiesin the German panels
are consistent throughout in their foxlike expressions
but their structure recalls the faces in the French
panels. The head of the Virgin in Berlin is a simplified
and vulgarized version of the Virgin's head in the
Annunciation. The dependence can be only one way:
the German pictures represent a coarse and heavyhanded imitation of the refined, courtly style of the
little French panels. They follow rather than precede
the Parisian pictures, and both these groups may be
tentatively dated in the 1370's. Consequently it seems
to be a plausiblepropositionto see them as originating
somewhere in the area borderingon the French sphere,
in a center in which a close connection with the French
style could exist. Such were, for example, Luxembourg,
Lorraine and Alsace, where the penetration of the
French style in architectureand sculpturein the fourteenth century can readily be recognized.
So far I have discussed the use of complex punch
decoration in painted panels. Similar or identical
punches were occasionally used on the gilded parts of
wooden statuary and in the illumination of manuscripts.23The gold leaf had to be padded, of course,
to make punching on parchment possible. In manuscripts, the earliest instance known to me is in the
Psalter of Queen Ingeborg (ca.

I200).24

The eight-

pointed rosette seems to be, however, composed of

He maintained that the
22. Stange, op.cit., figs. 113-115.
artist was at a time active in Hessen and in Thuringia. I
have always been struck by the stereotypes of attribution
when dealing with difficult-to-localizeGerman works. Alternatives other than "school of Cologne" or "Upper Rhenish" are almost never considered.There is a reason, however,
for this cautious attitude, for, in view of our present state of
knowledge, it would be futile (or too imaginative) to even
attempt to assign the various uncertainworks to other Rhenish centersin which flourishing painters'workshopsare documented or presupposed,such as Bonn, Mainz, and Strasbourg.
The last especiallyis badly neglectedbecauseof the destruction
of the city's records in the big fire.
23. E.g., a Gothic arch punch on the collar of an Italian
bishop, x4th century, at the Cloisters,New York. It would be
interestingto enlarge the scope of the study by an inquiry as to
whethersimilar punchescan be recognizedin mediaevalleather
work and bookbinding. Elements of decorative design often
have an enduring quality: the rims of a group of the i6th
century German embossed brass plates are adorned with band

265

eight drop-shaped punches. Definitely composite in

form are the star-rosetteson the early fourteenth century panels from the altarpiece in Klosterneuburg; it
is possible that the use of composite punched forms
is an early practicesince I have found compositehexarosettes in the Virgin's halo in a retable by Guido da
Siena in the Pinacoteca in Siena.
In Italian illumination the same shapes are used
as in panel painting, for example the Gothic arch and
the rosette composed of circles.25Outside of Italy, we
meet punched decor again in Bohemian manuscripts.
The illuminator of the Sedlec Antiphonary of 1414,
for example, shows his acquaintance with Italian art
in this respect.26
The use of complex punches in painting beyond the
Alps is sporadic and isolated, and it seems to have
taken roots, for less than two generations, only in the
school of Prague. In all cases the ultimate Italian inspiration is undoubted; this shows the great prestige
of Italian art even down to such technical details as
the shape of the punches. Some of the profiles used
in non-Italian painting may possibly be of a secondhand derivation, but the punch-profilesof some early
Bohemian panels such as the Veveri Madonna and the
Kosatky Dormition as well as the exquisite quality of
the punches in the Bargello and Cleveland panels seem
to have requireda direct acquaintancewith the Italian
tools themselves, with all the implications as to the
extent of artistic contact that follow from this observation.
STATE UNIVERSITY

OF NEW

YORK AT ALBANY

SEURAT AND PIERO DELLA

FRANCESCA1
ALBERT

BOIME

The question of a possible relation between the

work of Georges Seurat and that of Piero della Francesca is one that arises periodically,2but is never satisfactorily answered. The frequent observationby critics
and historians that Piero and Seurat manifest considpatternsof similar punches.

24. Musee Conde, Chantilly. Gothic Painting, Skira, 1954,

p. 17.
25. Leaf of a choir book illuminated by Lorenzo Monaco
or Matteo Torelli, and a leaf from an antiphonary by the
Master of the Beffi Triptych, late i4th century; both are in
the Cleveland Museum of Art.
26. M. Frinta, "The Master of the Gerona Martyrology
and BohemianIllumination,"ART BULLETIN, XLVI, 1964, figs.
24, 29. The custom apparently survived until I500 as shown
in a late example from a Silesian-Bohemian workshop: pentaand hexa-rosettes adorn the golden ground of the scenes in the
prayer book of Duke Georg of Miinsterberg-Ols in Vienna,
Nat. Bibl., MS 1960.

I. The substance of this article was delivered in a lecture

at the Frick Symposium of 1963.
2. A recent allusion to this relationship was made by Benedict Nicolson. See his article, "Reflections on Seurat," Burlington Magazine, civ, 1962, p. 214.

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x. Seurat, Les Poseuses, i886- 888. Merion, Pennsylvania, The Barnes Foundation
(? I964 by The Barnes Foundation)

2.

Piero della Francesca, Death of Adam (detail),

Arezzo, San Francesco (photo: Alinari)

ca.

I460

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3. Piero della Francesca, Resurrection (detail), ca. 1463. Borgo

San Sepolcro, Palazzo Communale (photo: Alinari)

4. Seurat, Une baignade a Asnieres (detail), I883-I884.

London,
The National Gallery (Reproduced by courtesy of the Trustees)

5. Piero della Francesca, Resurrection

Combination drawing-photograph reproduced in
Eugene Miintz, Histoire de l'art pendant la
Renaissance, Paris, i889-I895, I, p. 344
(Courtesy Librairie Hachette)

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6. Seurat, La Parade, 1887-1888. New York, The Metropolitan Museum

of Art, Bequest of Stephen C. Clark, I960

7. Piero della Francesca, Discovery and Proof of the Cross (detail),

ca. 1460. Arezzo, San Francesco (photo: Anderson)

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266

THE

ART

BULLETIN

erable stylistic affinitiesis often coupled with the implication that these affinities are temperamental and
"spiritual" in nature. Longhis and Clark,' two of
Piero's major biographers,as well as a host of others,5
allude to this relationship.
Indeed, even the most cursory examination will
reveal some of Seurat and Piero's similarities. Both
were devoted students of mathematics and science,
and Piero's interest in the geometric aspects of early
Renaissance architecture parallels Seurat's fascination
with the new industrialtechnology.6 Both had orderly,
exact minds, intent on systematizing the practices of
their contemporaries. Their works were composed
with such mathematical precision as to lead some to
believe that they were in possessionof a formula.7And
although neither left behind a school, they both exercised an influence on subsequentgenerations.8Moreover, they both show a preference for mass-spectacle
situations,paradesand festivals, and unusual characters
in colorful costumes.9
Perhaps the most salient feature shared by these
painters is the stylization of figural attitudes and the
calculated expression imposed on their figures. Both
artists exploit coordinate views, showing the figure
in full-face, in profile, or from the rear. This can be
explained by their obvious desire to reduce figural
activity and induce a static effect. When this treatment
of the figure is applied on a large scale it expresses a
classic monumentality. Thus there can be little doubt
that Piero and Seuratstand in a definite temperamental
relationship to each other.
But now we must inquire whether these similarities
are coincidental or whether they reveal a deliberate
attempt on the part of Seurat to model his work after
Piero. First we will try to clarify the relationshipby

comparing their works, and then we will discuss the

peculiar set of circumstancesthat attracted the attention of Seurat to Piero. Let us examine Seurat's
Poseuses (Fig. I) together with a detail from Piero's
Death of Adam (Fig. 2). The central figure of the
former bears a striking resemblance to the partially
obscured female in the latter, both with regard to
figural posture and expression. Moreover, the entire
composition of Seurat has an affinity with that of the
group clustered around Adam.l1 Discounting the figure of Eve and the half-obscured man to the left,
both have used the coordinate views similarly. In this
context the profile view of Adam corresponds with
the model removing her stockings to the right of the
central nude in the Poseuses. Seurat could have known
this work from the photographcollection of the tcole
des Beaux-Arts1' or from a reproductionpublishedin
an article written by the lcole's librarian, Eugene
Miintz, in I883.12
We may also compare the sleeping guard in the
Resurrection (Fig. 3) with the crouching figure in
Une Baignade (Fig. 4). Seurat's figure shows the
same unmistakable contour, stressing even the overlapping hat brim terminating in a swooping point.
There is also a similar use of a hat band to separate
brim from crown in the headgear of both figures. Even
the sculptural vitality of the soldier's cape is reflected
in the contours of the ruffled trousers; and the loop
under the arm is echoed by the loop of the underwear
worn by Seurat's figure. Piero's work may have been
known through Miintz again who used a reproduction
of it in his work, Histoire de Part pendant la Renaissance (Fig. 5).1 Although the original of this illustration appears as a drawing, laboratory analysis revealed that a photograph was used as its base, as is
seen by the type in the legend."4

3. Roberto Longhi, Piero della Francesca, Rome, 1927, p.

56.
4. Clark posits a connection in a number of places. See
Sir Kenneth Clark, Piero della Francesca, New York, 195x,
p. 2. Also his Landscape into Art, London, I950, p. 116, and
Looking at Pictures, London, I96o, p. 136.
5. Among others, Roger Fry, Transformations, London,
I926,
p. I9I; Daniel Catton Rich, Seurat and the Evolution
of "La Grande Jatte," Chicago, 1935, p. 46i R. H. Wilenski,
Seurat, Faber Gallery Publication, London, 1949, p. 2; Lionello Venturi, "Piero della Francesca, Seurat and Gris," Diogenes,
No. 2, Spring, 1953, pp. 20-21.
6. For Piero's interest in the architecture of his time see
Clark's monograph, op.cit., pp. 19, 31, 49-50. Seurat's attachment to the technical side of society is discussed by Meyer
Schapiro in his articles "Nature of Abstract Art," Marxist
Quarterly, I, 1937, p. 9, and "Seurat and 'La Grande Jatte',"
Columbia Review, xvil, 1935, p. 7.
7. Clark, op.cit., p. 20. Signac implies a Neo-Impressionistic
formula in the last paragraph of his book. See Paul Signac,
D'Eugene Delacroix au neo-impressionnisme, Paris, 1899, p.

9. In Piero these characteristics are evident in such works

as the Queen of Sheba's Visit to Solomon, Discovery and Proof
of the Cross, Battle of Constantine and Heraclius Restores the
Cross to Jerusalem. Piero's love for parade and luxurious costumes is discussed by Lionello Venturi in his Piero della Francesca, Geneva, 1954, p. 10.
10. Professor Schapiro suggests that Seurat's hieratic and
academic element is derived from Puvis de Chavannes and sees
an affinity between the Poseuses and Puvis's Women by the Sea
(1864, Louvre, Paris). Schapiro, "Seurat: Reflection," Art
News Annual, xxix, 1964, pp. 23, 38. Without discounting this
influence, it should be noted that Puvis is never as strictly
hieratic as Seurat and makes little use of the coordinate views.
It is interesting to note that Puvis himself admired Piero and
knew his work well. See Arsene Alexandre, Puvis de Chavannes (Newnes Art Library), London, n.d., p. xi. The
Repose by Puvis in Amiens bears a strong resemblance to
Piero's Death of Adam. Moreover, Alexandre, a close friend
of Seurat, especially appreciated this work and considered
Piero as one of the first and greatest painters "de plein air"
(Histoire populaire de la peinture. Acole Italienne. Paris, n.d.
[90o6]).
I2. See notes 54 and 66 below.
11. See note 65 below.
I3. Eugene Miintz, Histoire de Part pendant la Renaissance,
I, p. 344.
3 vols., Paris, 1889-I895,
14. In the legend we can clearly read the location, "Borgo
S. Sepolcro," and below that, part of the title, "Cristo."
Stamped in the margin is the date of receipt for publication,
"March I2, I888." The artist superimposed his own contours

I29.

8. This aspect of Piero is rarely discussed. But he profoundly affected many Umbrian painters, including his pupil, Luca
Signorelli, Melozzo da Forli, Lorenzo da Viterbo and probably Raphael. See J. A. Crowe and G. B. Cavalcaselle, A New
History of Painting in Italy from the Second to the Sixteenth
II, pp. 552-555. Also
Century, 3 vols., London, I864-1866,
Jean Alazard, Piero della Francesca, Paris, 1948, pp. 48-49.

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NOTES

267

We may also observe a remarkable compositional

affinity between Seurat's Parade (Fig. 6) and the
right half of Piero's Discovery and Proof of the Cross
(Fig. 7). There are similaritiesin the mutual emphasis on horizontals and verticals, the strong axiality and
the severe architectural framework. The dynamic
thrust of the cross in Piero's compositionmay be compared with a similarly located diagonal in the Seurat,
created by the whip under the lion-tamer's arm and
continued through the composition by the line of the
bannister. This diagonal is reinforced by the parallel
gradation in size of the lion-tamer and the barker.
Moreover, the capitalsof the buildingin the Piero form
a line that meets the inner corner of the spectator's
shawl, and which correspondsto the intersection of a
horizontal line and the curve of the lion-tamer's barrel-chest in the Seurat. It may also be noted that the
vertical divisions and the circular motif are employed
similarly, with the latter tangential to a strong horizontal bar. Further, the arches of Piero's temple, which
enshrine the devout in a series of haloes, seem to be
echoed by Seurat around the heads of the musicians.
Here they are etherealized in his personal manner.
Seurat may have known Piero's work from a reproduction in the ]cole's photograph collection15or from
a copy hanging in the chapel of the t]cole.16 As this
copy belongs to the complex of circumstancesthat attracted the attention of Seurat to Piero, we shall refer
to it later in more detail.
Thus it appears that during the period of Seurat's
Piero
early maturity, between the years I884-I888,
assumed an influential role in the development of the
young painter.17We have observed pictorial examples
of this relationship; now it is necessary to examine the

critical events within the Beaux-Arts administration

that deeply affected Seurat and gave rise to his relationship with Piero. Paradoxically, the artist credited
with anticipating contemporary trends was caught up
in the ideological conflicts of the Academy itself, and
was perhapsin this respect more conservativethan has
hitherto been suspected. Many of Seurat's closest associates have alluded to his strong ties with the Pcole.l1
Seurat entered that institution in 1878 when he was
eighteen years old.19 At that time, the conservative
artists of the Beaux-Arts Academy led by Gerome,
Baudry, Bouguereau and Seurat's teacher, Lehmann,
were entrenched in a moribund romanticism. They
painted stereotyped themes and anecdotal subjects, allowing a slick technique to supplant a lack of intrinsic
motivation. However, more sophisticatedmembers of
the Beaux-Arts administrationsought a more genuine mode of expression and countered the conservatives by participatingin a revival of the Italian "Primitives."20Men like Paul Mantz and Georges Lafenestre"2both express admirationfor Piero at a time when
others, like the parochial Henri Delaborde, would dismiss Piero's importance.22However, at the same time
that an interest in the early Italian masters was revived, an even more extreme tendency, Impressionism,
emerged from without to challenge the official art.
Impressionismproduced a polarization, forcing the
otherwise responsive members of the Beaux-Arts administration reluctantly to take up the cudgels in defense of a conservative position. The outstanding example of this conservative withdrawal was Charles
Blanc, who occupied the office of Director of BeauxArts five years before Seurat's enrollment in the
Ptcole.2sOnce a friend of Delacroix and intimate with

and wash effects on a lightly reproduced photostatic print

of the photograph. This was not an unusual practice at the
time and served to prevent the loss of photographic contours
in the reproduction. I wish to acknowledge my gratitude to
Mlle. G. Morane and the laboratory technicians of the Librairie Hachette for the analysis of this illustration.
I6. See notes 35 and 47 below.
I5. See note 65 below.
17. This characterization of Seurat's style would not apply
to such late works as the Chahut (I889-1890,
Rijksmuseum
Louvre,
Kr6ller-Miiller, Otterlo) and the Cirque (i890-x891,
Paris).
I8. Felix Feneon in Julius Meier-Graefe, Modern Art,
Florence Simmonds and George W. Chrystal, trans., 2 vols.,
New York, i908o, , p. 311. Signac noted that Seurat followed
the courses offered at the lcole but resisted the teaching of his
professors by a supplementary study of "classical masters"
(op.cit., pp. 66-67). However, Pissarro once wrote to Signac:
"For the future of our art 'Impressionism,' it is absolutely
essential that we remain outside of the influence of Seurat's
school . . . Seurat is of the tcole des Beaux-Arts, he is impregnated with it, therefore take guard, there is a danger...."
(John Rewald, Seurat, Paris, x948, p. 115.)
19. Jacques de Laprade, Seurat, Paris, 1951, p. I I.
20. The national taste for the Primitives developed during
the July Monarchy and continued through the century, but it
received its greatest impulse in the early years of the Third
Republic. See Miintz, "The Italian Primitives," in The Great
Masters in the Louvre Gallery, II, Paris, I898-I900,
p. 4. Also
Leon Rosenthal, Du romantisme au rialisme, Paris, 1914, p.
9521. As a critic, Mantz championed Millet and praised the

talent of young Monet. Officially, he held the position of

Minister of Interior, served on the Committee of the Societies of Beaux-Arts, and was appointed Director of BeauxArts in x882. Reviewing the Salon of 1872, Mantz derided
the "philosophers" who predicted that in the aftermath of
the Franco-Prussian War, painting would reflect a greater
range of emotional expression. He sympathized with their hopes
but noted that ". . . the physiognomy of the Salon differs little
from the expositions which have preceded the crisis. . . ." For
him the same lack of sentiment that characterized the previous Salons still remained. See Paul Mantz, "Salon de i872,"
Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 2nd ser., v, I872, pp. 449-450. Two
years earlier he wrote of his appreciation for Piero and was
disturbed that the master's work was "ignored by France."
Mantz, Les chefs-d'oeuvre de la peinture italienne, Paris, I870,
p. 148. Georges Lafenestre, like Mantz, served in several official
positions. He was Inspector of Beaux-Arts in the late seventies,
Chief of the Office in the administration, was Curator of
Paintings in the Louvre and wrote numerous articles for the
Gazette. For his interest in Piero see Georges Lafenestre, La
peinture italienne, Paris, x885, pp. 243-249.
22. See Henri Delaborde, "La collection de tableaux de
M. le Comte Duchatel," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, xiI, I862,
pp. 9-14. A general article dealing with the Madonna subsequently given to Baldovinetti by Berenson, Delaborde includes a biographical sketch of Piero and contrasts his art
with that of Ingres. Calling Piero's work the product of an
"adolescent art," and that of Ingres a "consummation," he
thus accounts for Ingres' popularity and Piero's obscurity.
Also see note 47 below.
23. For Blanc's biography see L. Fiaux, Charles Blanc,

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268

THE

ART

BULLETIN

Chenavard, he was aware of the rigidity of the Acad- wrote that it would include Raphael's frescoes in the
emy, but like many others he could not adjust to the Stanze, the Prophets and Sibyls of Michelangelo, the
revolutionary work of the Impressionists. Although Swan of Leonardo, the frescoes by Masaccio, GhirlanBlanc already had opposed the Barbizon school and daio, Mantegna and Andrea del Sarto.s0 And in the
criticized it for its trivial subject matter, it presented concluding paragraphof this report he wrote that in
no serious threat to his concept of "elevated" art. But striking the eyes of the people the copies would "initithe rise of the Impressionistsdramatized the scope of ate them to the magnificent discoveries of modern
the Barbizon influence, and underscored the need for science, by reviving the cult of the highest national
an urgent counter-program to arrest what he con- tradition."
We may never know how this passage affected the
sidered a shallow movement. In 1872 Blanc had tried
to block a new Salon des Refuses,24 and that year Minister but to any student of the period its implicaPuvis de Chavannes had resigned from the Salon jury tions are profoundly significant. For Blanc, a utopian
because of Blanc's intolerance for the Impressionists.25 socialistin the traditionof Saint-Simon, modern science
Rejecting both the moribund works of the Academy promised on the one hand to liberate the working
and the incomprehensibleinnovations of the Impres- class from the yoke of animal labor, and on the other
sionists,Blanc tried to deliver the "National Art" from to cultivate in the emancipated proletariat a taste for
this impasse by reinstating the Renaissance tradition, the industrial and fine arts.81 Hence the passage is
particularlythe Primitives. In pursuit of his program, rendered meaningful by the association of modern
he tried to indoctrinate the public and the rising gen- science and technology with an aesthetic metamoreration of artists by advancing a spectacularplan for phosis; according to Blanc, however, the model for
the organization of a museum that would house full- progress was to be the Renaissance tradition. This
scale copies of the great Renaissanceworks.26On Oc- paradox did not torture Blanc, for he could recall that
tober 26, I87I, Blanc submitted his official report to the great scientific and artistic achievements of the
the Minister of Beaux-Arts and introduced his idea Quattrocento were also inspired by classical materials.
for a Musee des Copies.27 He urgently admonished Thus the great social transformationsof the fifteenth
the Minister to provide him with funds adequate to and nineteenth centuries are marked by a humanistic
commission copies of masterpiecesnot owned by the revival.82 Crucial to this concept was Blanc's belief,
Louvre.28The purposewas to encourage French artists which he shared with Chenavard, that painting had
and to "strike the eyes of the people in a . . . lasting

ceased to express an elevated picture of society, that it

Paris, 1882. For a record of his accomplishments see Eugene

Guillaume, "Charles Blanc," in Notices et Discours, Paris,
1882, pp. 2-48. Blanc served as Director for the second time
during the years I871-1873.
24. Rewald, The History of Impressionism, New York,
1946, p. 227.
25. Camille Mauclair, Puvis de Chavannes, Paris, 1928,
p. 13.
26. The first to call attention to this museum in recent
years was Longhi in his monograph on Piero. Referring to
copies after the Arezzo frescoes hanging in the chapel of the
tcole des Beaux-Arts, he mentions that they were originally
commissioned for the Musee des Copies (op.cit., p. 143n).
Clark also refers to these copies in the chapel (Landscape,
op.cit., p. xI6).
27. The original report, together with its rough drafts, may
be found in Archives Nationales F21 572 (herein referred to
as Arch. Nat.). The museum was also referred to as the Musee
europeen. For a full historical description of the museum see A.
Boime, "Le Musee des copies," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, October, 964, pp. 237-247.
28. Arch. Nat. This was to be one of the principal arguments used by apologists for the museum. Another was the
preservation of deteriorating frescoes by means of the copy.
See Louis Auvray, Le musee europeen, Paris, I873, pp. I, II.
Auvray also contrasts the copies with examples from the Salon
of I872 to the detriment of the latter (pp. 6-7).
29. Arch. Nat. Blanc complained that French artists have
been "reduced to misery by the prolonged cessation of work"
and were being lured away from their homeland by offers
from other countries, "not only England, Russia, Austria, but
especially America." Blanc feared that America was the greatest threat to the superiority maintained by the French in the
arts and industries. In order to halt this "expatriation" Blanc
suggested a large-scale governmental operation to provide for

a number of commissions. In a period following the FrancoPrussian War, French prestige was indeed at its lowest ebb.
But Blanc was also concerned with the success of the Barbizon
painters in America and probably with the patronage of Durand-Ruel in London of the young Impressionists. It was this
kind of patronage that encouraged the landscape painters.
Also Lionello Venturi, Les
See Rewald, op.cit., pp. 211-2I2.
archives de l'impressionnisme, 2 vols., Paris and New York,
I939, I, pp. I7-19, II, pp. I75-I80.
30. Arch. Nat. Many of these copies had been previously
executed. The two brothers, Raymond and Paul Balze, had
copied Raphael's frescoes in I835, and Paul Baudry had copied
Michelangelo's Prophets and Sibyls. The fact that these copies
were used in the Museum of Copies points to contradictions
in the proposal by Blanc. To include objects of a previous period was to deny the museum's value as an immediate stimulus
to artistic activity.
3 . In this Blanc shared the views of his brother, the famous
socialist, Louis Blanc. See Fiaux, op.cit., pp. 24-25, 35, 50.
Also Philippe de Chennevieres, "Charles Blanc," in Souvenirs
d'un Directeur des Beaux-Arts, Paris, I883, pp. 87-88. The
notion had been expressed in the catalogues for the Expositions
Universelles of 1855 and 1867. See also E. du Sommerard,
Notice sur M. Charles Blanc, Paris, 1883, pp. 26-27.
32. See Blanc, Le Cabinet de M. Thiers, Paris, I871, pp.
75-76.
33. Blanc, "Exposition Universelle," in Les Artistes de mon
In his discussion of the
temps, Paris, I876, pp. 414-415.
awards for painting, Blanc was disheartened by the fact that
Rousseau won a Medal of Honor: ". . . to suppose that even
landscape could compete with a more elevated painting, that
is to say, in which the human figure plays the principal role."
For Chenavard's view see Theophile Silvestre, Histoire des
artistes vivants, francais, et etrangers, Paris, 1856, p. 7; in
Joseph C. Sloane, Paul Marc Joseph Chenavard, Chapel Hill,

fashion."29 Discussing his plans for "a magnificent neglected the image of man and began to substitute
gallery without parallel" to house these projects, he the insignificant imagery of landscape.38To Blanc, a

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NOTES
dehumanized art denied the human gain of technological innovation.84Hence, convinced there was a wide
gap between scientific progress and that of the arts,
he attempted to halt what he considered a decline in
the arts and to direct attention to the classic creations
of the past. He thus invoked the work of the Renaissance to emphasize the virtues of a humanistic and
individualisticpoint of view; to restore the image of
man in a period when landscapewas being increasingly
used as subject matter.
Two of Blanc's major commissionsfor the Museum
of Copies were full-scale facsimiles of the Arezzo
frescoes, the Battle of Heraclius and the Discovery and
Proof of the Cross."5 Blanc had praised Piero in his
monumental Histoire des peintres de toutes les ecoles,36
as well as his Histoire de la Renaissance artistique en

269

them Piero della Francesca.39Writing of the unforgettable frescoes of Arezzo, Blanc calls Piero "a singular genius who strangely combined the qualities of an
artist with the geometrical exactitude of a scientist."40
Blanc sadly laments the deterioratingcondition of the
Arezzo works, but states that "they have escapedcomplete loss thanks to the beautiful copies that have been
made by the French government."4l And in a footnote he adds: "These precious frescoes were copied
by Monsieur Loyeux when we had the honor of directing the Administrationof the Beaux-Arts, and on
our proposal they are now in the tcole des BeauxArts. . . ,,42

Charles Loyeux43 was an obscure artist recommended to Blanc by Gerome on the basis of his skill
as a copyist.44 Indeed, the accuracy of Loyeux's copies

Italie.37 In the preface to the latter work, Blanc's literary assistantwrote that the aim of the book was to
present a good guide to the Primitives.88This was
necessary because the visitor to Italy who is always
going to admire Michelangelo, is generally less experienced with works by the "immortalprecursors,"among

after Piero was never questionedby his contemporaries

in France and Italy.45 Because of his exceptional skill,
Loyeux became the local hero in Arezzo.46 The resulting publicity placed Piero in a new light at the
Ptcole, where these copies were to be retained long
after the demise of the Museum of Copies.47

N.C., 1962, p. 73. Chenavard assisted Blanc in forming the

Museum of Copies. Arch. Nat. F21 494.
34. Henri Delaborde, "Musee des copies," Revue de Deux
Mondes, 105, May I, I873, p. 211. For more of Blanc's
philosophy see his introduction to the first issue of the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, I, I859, pp. 1-15.
35. The copy of the Battle of Heraclius was commissioned
early in I872 and the finished work shipped to Paris in October; the Discovery and Proof of the Cross was commissioned
in February, I873 and the copy shipped to Paris in August of
that year. The size of the two copies is 3.37 x 7.45 meters.
See Arch. Nat. F21 495A, 235 for this documentation and
correspondence between the artist and Blanc. As Auvray's work
was published at the time of the museum's opening, April i5,
i873, only the Heraclius is listed (op.cit., p. 56). A complete catalogue of all copies exhibited appeared in the Journal
des debats, Dec. 30, i873, p. 5; also in La chronique des arts,
3 parts, Jan. 3, 1874, pp. I-2; Feb. 7, p. 51; Feb. I4, p. 62.
36. Blanc, Histoire des peintres de toutes les ecoles, "lcole
Ombrienne et Romaine," Paris, I861 et seq.
37. Blanc, Histoire de la Renaissance artistique en Italie,
2 vols., Paris, I889 (pub. posthumously by Maurice Faucon),
II, pp. 96-106.
38. Blanc, Histoire de la Renaissance, I, p. ix. In preparation for this book, Blanc had undertaken a special trip to
Italy for study of the Primitives. Significantly, he based a
course on this subject at the Colle-e de France, where he
taught during Seurat's student years. In Tullio Massarani,
Charles Blanc, Paris, I885, p. 75. Part of his research was
published in a series of articles for Le Temps. See Blanc, "Une
Excursion en Italie a la recherche des pr6curseurs," Le Temps,
Jan. 7, March 3, April I4, Sept. 2, Oct. 5, Nov. 3, I88 ; Jan.
29, Feb. 5, i882. It was the last work he wrote. He died on
January i8, I882 while two of the articles were still in manuscript form. See Mantz, "Charles Blanc," Le Temps, Jan.

44. Arch. Nat. F21 235. Answering Blanc's request for a

recommendation, G6rome wrote: ". . . Loyeux . . . is a man
with some talent, and especially a very skillful copyist. ... ."
45. Loyeux's copy of the Heraclius was so faithful that an
official of Arezzo requested permission from Blanc to photograph the copy, stating: "It would be extremely difficult to
photograph the original, and the . . . copy is of a marvelous
resemblance." (Arch. Nat. F21 235) Auvray notes that the
copy was a "conscientious work" indicating the deteriorated
parts of the fresco (op.cit., p. 56).
46. When Loyeux returned to Arezzo for the second time
to copy the Discovery and Proof of the Cross, the Petrarch
Academy of Arts and Sciences of that city conferred on him
an honorary diploma and struck a special medal in his honor
(Arch. Nat. F21 494, 235). See also the letter of the Secretary-General of the Academy to Blanc describing the ceremony
held in Loyeux's honor (Arch. Nat. F21 494).
47. For special references to Loyeux's commission see La
chronique des arts, No. 33, Sept. io, i872, p. 346; Le Galois,
Sept. 2, 1872, p. i. Few of the copyists received this attention
and the response of Arezzo dignitaries to Loyeux's work
delighted the officials of the Beaux-Arts administration. See
Arch. Nat. F21 494, 235. Fifteen years later, an Italian art
historian would recall the event of Loyeux's commissions,
claiming that it had been a great honor for Piero and his
country. See Luigi Guinti, "Borgo San Sepolcro," in Arte e
Storia, Oct. i8, I887, pp. 215-216. While the museum was
being dismantled at the end of I873 Blanc's successor summoned a special committee to decide the fate of the 157 copies.
It was decided to retain the important works and relegate
"secondary" copies to provincial museums, churches and public buildings. A controversy ensued over the value of keeping
the Piero della Francescas, with Delaborde against. It was
finally resolved by the member of the committee responsible
for the disposition of the copies, Eugene Guillaume, then
Director of the tcole. Apparently urged by Blanc to retain
the copies, Guillaume wrote on January i6, i874 that "the
Piero della Francescas will be kept by us in any case; I believe that they should be sent to the Jcole . . . [they] have
interest only for study and for the artists. . .." For this information and other details of the museum's dismantling and
dispersal of the copies see Arch. Nat. F21 486, 572. Early in
I874 the two copies were hung in the chapel on the right
wall and later recorded b Miintz. See Miintz, Guide de PE'cole
Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, I889, p. 288. The works are
still in situ.

I19,

882.

39. Blanc, Histoire de la Renaissance, I, p. ix.

4o. Blanc, ibid., II, pp. 99-oo100.
42.
41. Ibid., pp. 101-102.

Ibid.,

p. io2n.

43. Charles Loyeux (1823-1898). See Thieme-Becker references. He is primarily remembered for his portraits which
he exhibited often in the annual Salons. Trained in the studio
of Delaroche, he became friendly with Gerome, Yvon, and
Jobbe-Duval, who studied there at the same time. It was
through their influence that Loyeux received the commission
to copy the frescoes by Piero. See Arch. Nat. F21 235.

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270

THE

ART

BULLETIN

But Blanc's effort to revive an early Renaissance

model was never fully realized; at the end of 1873
the museum was dismantledand Blanc was discharged
from his position as Director.48 Yet his visionary
scheme marks the institutional manifestation of a
turning point in the history of art. And it is here that
the twenty-four-year-old Georges Seurat enters the
picture. Synthesizing the conflicting trends, he embodied in part the cole tradition, Blanc's distinctiveoutlook, and the techniqueof the Impressionists.The result
was "a vigorous conventional structure" adorned by
the new color conceptions.49His indebtednessto Blanc
was revealed by Signac, who as late as 1925 still declared the debt that he and Seurat owed to the writer.50

the administrationwho helped to stimulate interest in

the Renaissance; Eugene Miintz, the librarian of
the .cole des Beaux-Arts during Seurat's student
years.5' An extremely gifted man, Miintz produced
an enormous amount of literature on the Renaissance.55So involved was he in this epoch that his colleagues referred to him as the "italianista."56And he
showed a distinct preference for the work of Piero; in
addition to studies in his general works he wrote at
least three articles devoted to the artist.57In this respect Miintz shared the taste of his teacher, Charles
Blanc, with whom he maintaineda close relationship.58
In the year of Seurat's enrollment, 1878, Miintz assumed his post at the library where the young artist
Blanc's most notable literary effort, Grammaire des was to spend many hours in the perusalof books, prints
arts du dessin,5l apparently served as a bible for the and photographs.59That Seurat knew the librarianis
two artists. Signac often invoked the authority of this evident from the account of his friend, Coquiot,
work in his own writings, and we know that Seurat who recorded that the two of them spent many hours
had a copy of this book in his studio.52But Seurat in- in the company of Miintz.6 Indeed, Coquiot reherited more from Blanc: an interest in scientific in- counts that Miintz steered him "clear of adventures
novation and the use of the human image as subject with the girls who were then swarming in the
matter for his monumental paintings. As Professor cafes. .. ."61 In 1884, Miintz wrote an article in
Schapiro suggests, he imposed a systematic structure La chronique des arts, describing a newly discovered
on fleeting impressionsin order to bring "Impression- manuscript of Piero's treatise on perspective.62This
ism up to date in light of the latest findings of sci- aspect of the artist was fascinatingto Miintz, who was
ence."53 Moreover, Seurat's preoccupation with Blanc's awed by Piero's grasp of mathematicalproblems.6'In
ideas and a humanistic concern led him beyond the the opening paragraph of the Chronique study he
Impressionists. He reasserted the importance of the wrote:
human subject and projected it in the monumental
"I have always been impressedwith Piero della Franstyle of the Italian Primitives.58a
And here we must mention one other member of cesca, who is, in my opinion, one of the three or four
48. Blanc was replaced on December 23, x873, one week

prior to the special sessionsummonedby his successor.See La

chronique des arts, Dec. 27, I873, p. i. The article deceptively

states that Blanc resigned voluntarily to devote more time to
writing. Later Chennevieres revealed the truth of Blanc's dismissal (op.cit., pp. 93-94). Also Fiaux, op.cit., pp. 45-46.
49. Meier-Graefe, op.cit., p. 311.
50. Jacques Guenne, "Entretien avec Paul Signac," L'art
vivant, I, March 20, 1925, p. 3. Blanc's influence on Seurat is discussed in detail in William Innes Homer, Seurat and
the Science of Painting, Cambridge, I964, pp. 29-36, 208-2 1.
51. Blanc, Grammaire des arts du dessin, Paris, 1867. It
had many editions.
52. Signac, op.cit., pp. 21, 67, 89, 103-I04, io6. See also
F. Cachin's edition of Signac's work in the series Miroirs
de l'Art, Paris, 1964, p. i68. For Seurat's copy see lmile
Verhaeren, Sensations, Paris, 1927, p. 200.
53. Schapiro, Marxist Quarterly, op.cit., p. 9.
53a. See Robert L. Herbert, Seurat's Drawings, New York,
1962, pp. 30-31.
Miintz was a recipient of
54. Eugene Miintz (1845-1902).
all the official honors, including membership in the Institut
and Knight of the Legion of Honor. He was Librarian from
1878 until his death in 1902.
55. For a complete bibliography see G. de Manteyer, "Eugene Miintz. Bibliographie," in Melanges d'archeologie et
d'histoire, xxIII, January-June 1903. During a creative period of about thirty-five years he produced almost five hundred works, most of which concern the Italian Renaissance.
Although his contribution is for the most part dated, Miintz
provided a model for the generation of art historians born
at the turn of the century. His three-volume work on the
Renaissance is still one of the most comprehensive in its
field. Histoire, op.cit.
56. See Roberto Longhi, "Un disegno per la Grande-Jatte

e la cultura formale di Seurat," Paragone, I, Jan., 1950, p. 42.

In this perceptive article Longhi discusses the admiration for
the Primitives at the time of Seurat's development. However,
he apparently was not aware of the special regard that Miintz
had for Piero. See note 57 below.
57. Miintz, "Un nouveau manuscrit du traite de perspective
de Piero della Francesca," La chronique des arts, Sept. 26,
I884, pp. 424-4265 "A travers la Toscane," Tour du monde,
I, Jan. 6, 1883, pp. 280-285; "Mantegna et Piero della Francesca," Archivio storico dell'arte, II, 1889, pp. 273-276. Even
when Miintz discusses Piero in passing he cannot avoid praising him, as in his biography of Raphael. He calls Piero ". ..
one of the most illustrious representatives of the Florentine
School . . ." (Raphael, sa vie, son oeuvre et son temps, Paris,
i881, p. 9). In general, Miintz indicated a preference for the
Quattrocento artists. Sec his Les precurseurs de la Renaissance,
Paris and London, I882, and note 2o above.
58. Miintz, Histoire, op.cit., I, p. 633. Miintz and Blanc,
together with Paul Mantz, served on the Committee of the
Societies of Beaux-Arts in the section devoted to the history
of art. See L'annee artistique z879, Paris, I88o, p. 602. He
also shared Blanc's view that artistic progress depends on a
recollection of Renaissance tradition and believed that the
history of art should be taught in the primary schools. See
Miintz, L'art populaire, Paris, 1899, p. 19. When Blanc died,
Miintz was one of those nominated to fill Blanc's chair of
Aesthetics and History of Art in the College (La chronique,
Nov.

25, 1882,

p. 3).

59. Mintz had been the assistant to Ernest Vinet when the
latter died in 1878. He then assumed Vinet's position as librarian and curator of the collections. See L'annee artistique
1878, Paris, 1879, p. 48.
60. Gustave Coquiot, Seurat, Paris, 1924, p. 174.
61. Ibid., pp. 174-I75.
62. Miintz, La chronique, op.cit.
63. Ibid., p. 424.

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NOTES
greatest painters of the fifteenth century, a blend of
scientific rigor and spontaneity:he is at the same time
an impressionist and mathematician . ."64

In this remarkablepassage Miintz reveals his personal

interest in the artist. But perhaps more important is
the strange juxtaposition of the epithets "impressionist" and "mathematician"; even if the term "impressionist" was not meant in a formal sense, it was sufficiently in vogue to be anathema to the lcole. Yet
Miintz employs it unreservedly, and the significance
of such an interpretationfor Seurat would have been
unmistakable.
We have already alluded to the part that Miintz
played in providing illustrative materials that Seurat
may have known. In was during his tenure as librarian
that the lcole purchased two lots of photographsthat
included eleven reproductionsafter Piero.65In I883,
Miintz published a series of articles on Arezzo in
Tour du monde, a travel journal, in which for the
first time one may find excellent published drawings
of Piero's frescoes.66And finally, in the concluding
paragraphof his study on Piero in his Histoire de Part
pendant la Renaissance, he noted the important place

that his teacher, Charles Blanc, gave to the copies of

Piero in the midst of eminent works of art exhibited
in the ill-fated Musee des Copies.67He then invited
the reader to come to the chapel where the copies had
found asylum, and join in the appreciation that he
and Blanc shared for Piero.
64. Ibid.

65. The catalogue number for these photographs and the

date of purchase are registered in the inventory of the library. See Cat. Nos. 8X63 and 8426. In November x879, the
library purchased the following Pieros:
i. Portraits of Federigo da Montefeltro and Battista Sforza.
2. The Triumphs of Federigo and Battista.
On March I, i880, they purchased a second lot with the following:
i. Queen of Sheba's Visit to Solomon. 2. Torture of Judas.
3. Death of Adam. 4. Discovery and Proof of the Cross. 5.
Burying of the Wood. 6. Heraclius Restores the Cross to Jerusalem. 7. Battle of Heraclius. 8. Battle of Constantine. 9.
Dream of Constantine. o0. Annunciation (Arezzo). I . St.
Mary Magdalene.
These photographs were for the most part provided by Giraudon and Co. and Braun and Co.; however, these firms no
longer possess their original negatives.
66. Miintz, Tour du monde, op.cit. One of these reproductions is an engraving while the rest are carefully executed
line drawings. However, according to their legends they were
all based on photographs. The engraving is a detail from
the Queen of Sheba's Visit (p. 285), and the drawings are
after Heraclius Restores the Cross (p. 281), the Death of
Adam (p. 279), and one of the prophets in the choir of San
Francesco (p. 28 ).
67. Miintz, Histoire, op.cit., p. 633.
68. La chronique, Dec. 4, I88o, p. i. Also L'annee artistique
Paris, i88i, p. 33.
I880-I881,
69. The Musee des Etudes was originated by Adolphe

271

In I88o, the year Seurat attained his majority, he

was discharged from military service and seriously
began to seek a direction for his art. In that same year
Miintz, in addition to his regular position, was appointed curator of the Musee des Jftudes,the collective
label for the casts and copies at the .cole.68 He was
thus in a positionto encourage the young artist to study
these works and explain their significance for Blanc.69
Furthermore, in the same year Seurat moved to a new
residence, 19, Rue de Chabrol.70 On that street, a
short thoroughfare in Montmartre, the man who had
copied the works of Piero, Charles Loyeux, resided
at number 7 .71 Loyeux was probablya familiarfigure
in Montmartre and his past association with Blanc
and the Beaux-Arts administration could have provided a point of contact for Seurat. Loyeux probably
owned photographs and drawings, and was eager to
provide information about the one significant commission of his career.
Thus the artist who, in the words of one writer, delivered painting from an aesthetic "threatened with
formlessness and dissolution,"72may have found in
Piero della Francesca the model he desired. And Une
Baignade, Seurat's first major canvas, with its monumental quality of a Quattrocento fresco, seems to be
a statement declaring the direction in which he intended to take his art.73
[COLUMBIA

UNIVERSITY]

Thiers in I834. Its purpose was to instruct students in the

work of classical masters by exhibiting full-scale copies after
their work. It was Thiers who commissioned Sigalon to copy
the Last Judgment of Michelangelo. See Louis Peisse, "L''cole
des Beaux-Arts. Musee des ttudes," Revue des deux mondes,
Oct. 15, I840, pp. 232-245. Blanc, who was a close friend
of Thiers, derived his inspiration for the Musee des Copies
from Thiers' original concept. Moreover, as Thiers was then
President of the Republic, Blanc probably had political sanction
for his scheme. See Chennevieres, op.cit., p. 96. Also AmauryDuval, L'atelier d'lngres, Paris, 1929, pp. 54-55.
70. Rewald, Seurat, p. 26.
71. For Loyeux's address see the Catalogue du Salon de
I880. Also his biography in Bellier-Auvray, Dictionnaire generale des peintres, I, Paris, I882, which lists his address at
time of publication.
72. Rich, op.cit., pp. 4-5.
73. For their inestimable help in the preparation of this
paper I wish to thank Professors Theodore Reff, Rudolf
Wittkower, Milton Lewine, Howard Hibbard, George Heard
Hamilton, and the author's brother, Jerome Boime. The advice of Professors Meyer Schapiro and Charles de Tolnay also
aided in its formulation. I want also to express my gratitude
to Mme. Bouleau-Rabaud, Curator of the Bibliotheque de
l'lcole des Beaux-Arts and her untiring staff Mlle. Damiron,
Director of the Bibliotheque d'Art et d'Arch6ologie and staff
members Miles. M. Barbin and F. Cachin; and to Mme. Labat and the staff of the Archives Nationales. I also wish to
thank Miss Darthea Speyer and especially Mme. Oegema von
der Wal of the Fine Arts Section of the American Embassy
at Paris.

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