Thesis title: Status and Statehood in the Art and Literature of Richelieu’s Circle, 1628–1656
Supervisors: Prof. Genevieve Warwick
Dr Stephen Whiteman
Funded by Courtauld Scholarship / Stavros Niarchos Foundation
This thesis uncovers the propagandistic strategies shared by artists and writers working for the ministers of Louis XIII’s government. At the helm of this unique group of patrons was the charismatic principal ministre, Cardinal Richelieu (1585–1642). This period marked an unprecedented transferral of governing powers from the monarch and military nobility to an expanding class of technocrats. Along with the ministers’ new-found clout came extraordinary levels of wealth and its attendant luxuries. These included palatial homes filled with artworks commissioned to project individual virtue and ferocious patriotism. Artists were tasked with creating imagery that spoke to a set of concerns that are distinct from the resolute encomium associated with royal décors. After all, ministers needed to justify their seat at the ruling table without recourse to deep-rooted ancestry, while also upholding the primacy of the King. Accusations of monarchical usurpation reached fever pitch at this time, insofar as pamphleteers could evade Richelieu’s ruthless regime of censorship and punishment. This thesis will interpret the self-fashioning that was central to ministers’ artistic commissions in the context of the major literary developments made under Richelieu’s auspices. The foundation of the Académie française in 1634 is essential to this narrative, with a particular focus on star académicien Jean Chapelain (1595–1674). Historiographically, the sisterhood of literature and the visual arts in this period has been synonymous with Nicolas Poussin (1594–1665), the towering artist-intellectual. However, this focus excludes the widespread phenomenon of writers partaking in artistic programming. Furthermore, State-sponsored literature was a fertile source for tropes within the visual culture of the era. The four case studies of this thesis are organised around the figures of Richelieu and his closest colleagues, Chancellor Pierre Séguier (1588–1672) and Finance Minister Claude de Bullion (1569–1640). Each chapter draws upon various media, including paintings, drawings, tapestries and book illustrations.
Education
- 2018–23 PhD History of Art, The Courtauld Institute of Art
- 2014–15 MA History of Art, The Courtauld Institute of Art
- 2013–14 Graduate Diploma in History of Art, The Courtauld Institute of Art
- 2008–11 BA Hons Music, The University of Cambridge
Prizes and Awards
- 2017: The Sir Denis Mahon Essay Prize (£1000 and the opportunity to present a 1-hour prize lecture on my winning paper: ‘Simon Vouet, Claude Mellan and the Science of Superficiality’)
- 2015: Director’s commendation for an outstanding dissertation (‘Craft Fit for Contemplation: The Collaborative Prints of Simon Vouet and Claude Mellan, 1624–27’)
- 2014: Director’s commendation for an outstanding dissertation (‘Domine, Quo Vadis? Annibale Carracci Approaches an Old Theme Anew’)
Publications
- ‘Allegory and Social Mores in Abraham Bosse’s L’Hyver’. The Seventeenth Century, Vol. 37, No. 4 (2022): 621–53.
- ‘Domine, Quo Vadis? Annibale Carracci Approaches an Old Theme Anew’. Artibus et Historiae, No. 77 (2018): 231–53.
- ‘Galileo and Art’. In Visions and Visionaries, ex. cat. for The Guildhall Art Gallery, London, 11 December 2018 – 30 April 2019, 68–87.
- ‘Review: The Image of the Black in Western Art, Vol. 3′. Print Quarterly, Vol. 33, No. 4 (December, 2016): 446–49.
- ‘Biographies’. In Unseen London, Paris, New York: Photographs by Wolf Suschitzky, Dorothy Bohm and Neil Libbert, edited by Katy Barron, 102–07. London: Ben Uri Gallery, 2016.
Papers and Lectures
- 9 March 2019: ‘Reflections of the New Science: The Roman Prints of Claude Mellan and Simon Vouet, 1624–27’, presented at Birkbeck, University of London, as part of the interdisciplinary conference Mirror, Mirror: Perceptions, Deceptions, and Reflections in Time
- 15 June 2018: ‘Galileo and Art’, presented at the Museum of the Order of St John, London, in conjunction with the exhibition TechnoMedioevo: Age of Future Reloaded
- 24 January 2018: ‘Technical and historical approaches to exploring the Valence House portrait of Susannah Fanshawe (1698–1759)’, co-presented with Olivia Stoddart at Valence House Museum, Dagenham, as part of an event organised by the National Portrait Gallery’s Understanding British Portraits professional network
Other Professional and Academic Activity
- October 2018–October 2021: Print Room Assistant at The Courtauld Gallery
- March–June 2018: Michael Bromberg Fellow at The British Museum
- November 2017–June 2018: Painting Pairs: Art History and Technical Study, a scheme run by the Sackler Research Forum, The Courtauld Institute of Art
- May 2016–present: Paintings researcher at Ben Elwes Fine Art (covering works by an anonymous abolitionist painter, Benjamin West, Odilon Redon, Jules Pascin)