Западноевропейское искусство от Хогарта до Сальвадора Дали

Manet soon went even further; in 1867 he painted a subject from contemporary history, the Execution of the Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, which records an event that had deeply shocked the French public and for which Napoleon III and his government, who had installed Maximilian, were blamed. Manet treated the incident in a totally unexpected way, almost as a reaction against such an elaborately staged protest composition as Goya's «Third of May, 1808». Manet made a close study of newspaper accounts and photographs of the execution, and even of portrait photographs of the slain emperor, but instead of arranging the figures for maximum emotional effect he has taken a snapshot of the scene. It is impossible to make out the expressions of the doomed men. Only the officer preparing his rifle for the coup de grace receives special attention. The onlookers peering over the wall are merely curious. The picture consists of coloured uniforms, a briskly painted background, and puffs of smoke. Another traditional subject, this time a tragic one, has been modernised in terms of immediate vision.

In the early 1870s Manet gave up his flat style and adopted the brilliant palette and the broken brushwork of the Impressionists. Some of his later pictures are indistinguishable from theirs. The most memorable of these, A Bar at the Folie-Bergere, painted in 1881-82, only two years before the artist's premature death, is a brilliant restatement of Manet's earlier interest in the human figure.

The entire foreground is constituted by the marble bar, laden with fruit, flowers and bottles of champagne and liqueurs. The nearer edge of the bar is cut off by the frame and we have the illusion that its surface extends into our space and that we as spectators are ordering a drink from the solid barmaid who leans her hands on the inner edge. This illusion is reinforced by the reflection in the mirror, which fills the entire background of the picture. We can make out clearly a back view of the barmaid, in conversation with a top-hatted gentleman. Manet certainly remembered Velazquez's Las Meninas, in whose background mirror appear the king and the queen. Manet's extension of the mirror beyond the frame at the top and sides substitutes for the expected space within the picture the reflected interior of the cabaret, which is behind the spectator and, therefore, outside the picture. This is the most complex image in the history of art. In his early works Manet had modernised the subject. In this picture Manet eliminated the Renaissance pictorial space (a vertical section through the pyramid of sight). Manet's masterpiece is painted with a brushwork that combines memories of Velazquez's virtuosity with the most briliant achievements of the Impressionists. The imposing dignity of the figure and the straight lines of the bar and the crowded balcony make this work his most monumental accomplishment.

Make sure you know how to pronounce thefollowing words:

Edouard Manet; Velazquez; Parisian; Austria; Folie-Bergere flagrant; Raphael; erasure; Napoleon; Mexico; Maximilian; luminosity; insoluble

Notes

Luncheon on the Grass – «Завтрак на траве»

A Bar at the Folie-Bergere – «Бар «Фоли – Бержер»

Execution of the Emperor Maximilian of Mexico – «Казнь императора Мексики Максимилиана»

Salon des Refuses – «Салон отверженных»

Tasks

I. Read the text. Make sure you understand it. Mark the following statements true or false.

1. Manet was the founder of Impressionism.

2. Manet admired Giotto, Ingres and Delacroix.

3. In the Luncheon on the Grass Manet was striving to produce three-dimensional forms on a flat surface.

4. Courbet liked the Luncheon on the Grass. 4. Manet never painted subjects from contemporary history. 6. A Bar at the Folie-Bergere is a brilliant restatement of Manet's earlier interest in the human figure.

II. How well have you read? Can you answer the following questions?

1. Where did Manet study painting?

2. What did Manet exhibit in 1863? How was this painting accepted by the public?

3. Why did the Luncheon on the Grass create an uproar? What had Manet wittily adapted in this picture? What did Manet point out by this painting? What did the erasure of form allow Manet to do? What enigma did Manet pose in this work of art?

4. What event does the Execution of the Emperor Maximilian of Mexico record? How did Manet treat the incident? How are the figures arranged?

5. What picture was painted two years before Manet's premature death? What is depicted in the background? What role does the mirror play in this picture? What does this mirror recall?