Expert art critic Richard Brettell takes you on an unforgettable journey through one of the world's greatest art museums in Museum Masterpieces: The Louvre. This course provides a fascinating overview of the Louvre's colorful history as royal palace, art academy, and national showcase. But the main focus of these richly illustrated lectures are some of the beautiful examples from the museum's remarkable collection of European paintings from the late medieval period through the early 19th century. Whether you're an art novice or an expert, you'll find something that will enlighten and surprise you about this acclaimed institution.
Museum Masterpieces: The Louvre
Take a dazzling virtual tour through the Louvre's remarkable collection of European paintings from the late medieval period through the early 19th century.
Overview
About
Richard Brettell (1949–2020) was the Margaret McDermott Distinguished Professor of Art and Aesthetics at The University of Texas at Dallas. He earned his BA, MA, and PhD from Yale University. Prior to joining The University of Texas at Dallas, Professor Brettell taught at Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, Yale University, and Harvard University. Professor Brettell was the founding American director of the French Regional and American Museum Exchange, designed to promote the exchange of art and information between regional museums in France and the United States. He served as the McDermott Director of the Dallas Museum of Art and advised and consulted for museums such as the Portland Museum of Art and the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. His museum exhibition work included Monet in Normandy (for the de Young Museum in San Francisco) and The Impressionist in the City: Pissarro’s Series (for the Dallas Museum of Art). He gave scholarly lectures at numerous museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Art, and he wrote more than 25 books, including Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century European Drawings in the Robert Lehman Collection and Impression: Painting Quickly in France, 1860–1890.
Trailer
01: Palace to Museum-The Story of the Louvre
This lecture provides an overview of the history of the Louvre, describes the layout of the building, and offers tips and strategies for making the most of a visit to this remarkable museum.
34 min
02: Leonardo and the Origins of the Collection
Francis I sparked an artistic revolution in the 16th century by attracting Leonardo da Vinci to France and creating a rivalry between French and Italian art. Leonardo's La Joconde (The Mona Lisa) serves as the anchor for a lecture exploring works by Italian painters, including Raphael, as well as earlier French painters....
31 min
03: Italian Renaissance and Baroque Painting
This lecture explores the Louvre's immense collection of Italian painting dating from the medieval period through the early 17th century. Featured works include altarpieces and portraits by masters of the High Renaissance and Baroque era in Italy including Raphael, Giorgione, Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto, and Andrea Mantegna, as well as the religious and secular works by the mercurial Caravaggio.
33 min
04: Spanish School of Painting
The Louvre's collection of Spanish paintings is small but contains some fine examples that were highly influential on later French painting. Jusepe Ribera's Clubfooted Boy serves as the featured masterpiece for the lecture, leading to a discussion of selected Spanish painters from the deeply religious images of El Greco to the court portraits of Goya....
30 min
05: Rubens and Flemish Painting; Early German
From the Rubens's immense canvas of The Apotheosis of Henry IV to Quentin Metsys's precise, quotidian portrait, The Moneylender and His Wife, this lecture surveys the Louvre's remarkable collection of paintings by Flemish and German artists....
32 min
06: Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Dutch Painting
This lecture discusses the major paintings in the collection by the three greatest Dutch artists of the 17th century-Rembrandt, Hals, and Vermeer-and explores the French interest in miniature Dutch cabinet pictures (Little Masters)....
31 min
07: De La Tour, Le Nain, and 17th-century Painting
This lecture initiates a broad survey of French painters that serves as the focus for the remainder of the course. De la Tour and the Le Nain brothers represent an original and indigenous style of French painting, which is contrasted to contemporary artists trained in Italy and the north.
31 min
08: Claude and Poussin-French Painters in Rome
The Grand Siecle (great century) of French painting-the 17th century-is represented by the works of two startlingly different artists: the intellectual painter Nicolas Poussin and the artist of tranquil landscapes, Claude Lorrain....
32 min
09: Watteau and Chardin
This lecture explores the state of French painting at the end of the reign of Louis XIV by contrasting the styles of two geniuses: the delicate, melancholy of Jean-Antoine Watteau and the earthy clarity of Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin.
31 min
10: Boucher, Fragonard, and the Rococo in France
Jean-Honore Fragonard's vigorous operatic painting and Boucher's delicate sensuality offer two versions of French Rococo painting and are contrasted to the classically inspired moralism of Greuze and their contemporaries.
32 min
11: Jacques-Louis David and His School
As a painter who started his career in the final salons of the Ancien Regime to become the premier artist of the French Revolution, Jacque-Louis David embodied the social and political transformations of his time....
32 min
12: Delacroix and Ingres-The Great Dialectic
The course concludes with an examination of two contrasting style of early 19th-century art, as seen in the works of Eugène Delacroix and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.
34 min
