Word: bruns
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Gobelins' three centuries of achievement, the pick of its greatest tapestries were on special exhibition last week at France's Mobilier National (the government department in charge of all official furnishings). The exhibits range in style from the elaborate allegories of Gobelins' first director, Charles Le Brun, to the joyful abstractions of the Spanish painter Joan Miro (see color page...
...energetic Finance Minister, Colbert, in 1662, its first task was to reflect France's reigning Sun King. To keep up with his demands, 250 weavers were required, while additional shops turned out furniture, sculpture, mosaics, even locks and bolts. Presiding over all was Charles Le Brun, who gave the age its style. As first painter to the King, Le Brun decorated most of Louis' palaces, planned Versailles' garden statues and, above all, saw through to completion some of the most sumptuous tapestries ever created by Gobelins...
Full Range. Among the first woven was Le Brun's series on The Elements, which ransacked classical mythology to celebrate the events in Louis XIV's reign. One of the most famous, L'Air, drew from the full range of the factory's 79 colors to depict, in wool, gold and silk threads, Juno, the goddess of marriage, rebuffing Boreas, the god of the north wind in Greek mythology. Courtiers understood that the real subject was Louis' marriage to Marie-Therese of Spain, which had brought to an end France's 25-year...
Louis branded the age with his name. He was, after all, the arbiter of its fashions, the patron of its arts, the instigator of its wars. He was the Sun King, and Le Brun painted him as a god on the vaults of Versailles...
Even Locks & Bolts. Le Brun's artistic dictatorship was centered in the workshops of the Gobelins, where he directed the manufacture of tapestries, furniture, sculpture, mosaics, wood inlay-even locks and bolts. The style is called "Louis Quatorze," but it might as well be "Charles Le Brun"; seldom has a single man so completely shaped the look of his age. His best paintings were perfectly drawn and meticulously detailed scenes of grand battles and formal parades, but he was also a consummate portraitist with a little-used gift for capturing the nuances of feeling...