Joan of Arc was born in 1412 in the quiet countryside village of Domrémy, France. She was a peasant girl with no noble standing, born to a farming family and having no formal education. Her short life was defined by her divine vision of three saints calling her to lead the French in the Hundred Year’s War at the age of thirteen. She obeyed and led France to victory in the Siege of Orléans, despite doubts of her military abilities or religious legitimacy. She was captured by the English in 1431 and tried for heresy and witchcraft. Refusing to renounce her visions, Joan was found guilty and burned at the stake at the age of nineteen. Shortly after her death, Joan was adopted as a symbol of French nationalism and the Catholic Church granted her martyrdom and sainthood for her piety and obedience to God until death.
Joan’s bizarre and fascinating life provided a plethora of subject matter for artists to draw from. Joan’s image gradually became beloved all over the western world, not only in France. Joan was a universal figure with qualities that all audiences could identify with or admire. Artists utilized the universality of Joan to make artistic, social, political, or religious statements or to attach their country to Joan’s legacy. Some even used Joan as a marketing tactic or as wartime propaganda. This exhibition explores a few of the various ways Joan of Arc has been represented over time and how her universality and versatility serves audience and artist.
Jules Bastien-Lepage
Joan of Arc
1879
oil on canvas
100” x 110”
MET: 89.21.1
French artist Jules Bastien-Lepage paints Joan in absorption: the internal process of her spiritual transformation. This was a popular depiction of Joan all throughout the 19th century. Other interpretations of this type often read as religious icons. Bastien-Lepage’s Joan, however, does not fall into this category. His material, formal, and narrative choices humanize and individualize Joan. She is plain, rugged, and standing in a dark oil landscape, not the depiction one would expect for a purified saint.
Despite the initial criticism of style in Joan of Arc, the viewer may see the benefits of Bastien-Lepage’s choices. His controversial synthesis of naturalism and mysticism executes this: Instead of excluding the viewer form Joan’s absorption, direct access to the experience is received by looking at the saints in the background. As a whole, Joan of Arc is a memoir to the saint as an ordinary girl and shows the relevance of her experience to any era.
Henri Chapu
Jeanne d’Arc à Domrèmy
1870-1872
Marble sculpture
Height: 117 cm Width: 92 cm
Musée d’Orsay: RF 166
The image of Joan of Arc grew in popularity in France during the late 19th century, due to the Franco Prussian War. She became both a symbol of patriotism as well as a beacon of hope and courage. Like many other French artists of the 19thcentury, sculptor Henri Chapu was interested in Joan particularly in absorption as she faced war. Here, Chapu presents the peasant Joan as she was before her military service. The white marble and Joan’s determined far off look dignifies the plain girl and transforms her into a purified icon. This piece simultaneously distances the viewer from her divine experience as she reflects on something the viewer cannot see. This work, in both composition and material, recalls for the viewer Joan’s humble yet honorable beginnings and her eternal purity, piety, and courage.
Gari Melchers (1860-1932)
Joan of Arc
unknown date
oil on canvas
30” x 23”
Indianapolis Museum of Art: 37.126
American artist Gari Melchers connects Joan of Arc to late 19th/early 20th century America. He explores here what an American Joan might look like. This work strongly recalls the visual choices in Bastien-Lepage's interpretation. Melchers paints his Joan as a plain shepherdess at work in the field, surrounded by her sheep. However, the haloed figure is clearly in American dress and landscape, she is not French in any sense. This interpretation is a striking example of the universality of Joan. Joan of Arc has no historical connection to America, yet Melchers recognizes how she can happily exist in a rural American lifestyle. Ultimately, this work elevates the American agricultural class by presenting a holy figure as an ordinary American girl.
Alphonse Mucha
Maude Adams as Joan of Arc
1909
oil on canvas
82 ½ x 30 in
MET: 20.33
Joan of Arc was not only an important figure for painting and sculpting. She also was a popular subject for opera and theatre productions. This piece by Czech illustrator Alphonse Mucha was for a one-night performance of an American opera about the saint. Mucha also designed the set and costuming. Of course, the elaborate nature of opera must be reflected in the advertisement to bring in audiences. The decorative qualities of the poster, however, do not detract from Joan’s plain piety. She is still seen in peasant garb and in a state of absorption, with a flourish of operatic drama. In a way, this advertisement brings to light the dramatic nature of Joan of Arc’s divine calling, reminding the viewer of the beauty and transcendence of her life.
Unknown
Joan Compared to Judith
Manuscript illumination from Martin le Franc’s Le Champion des Dames
ca 1451
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris: ms. fr. 12476
Shortly after Joan’s execution, her image and iconography began to be developed and circulated. This illumination by an anonymous artist of the 15th century was included in a series of poems by Martin le Franc. The poems were an early-feminist response to popular French misogynistic literature. This illumination accompanies a poem defending Joan against charges of pugnaciousness and heresy, both crimes that eventually lead to her execution. The artist secures the defense by comparing Joan to Judith, another important militant female figure in the Catholic tradition. Judith was revered for the same behavior as Joan, so why should the latter be condemned?
William Haskell Coffin
Joan of Arc Saved France, Women of America, Save Your Country
1918
lithograph poster
101 x 73 cm
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division (LC-USZC4-9551)
During World War I, Joan once more rose to fame, this time in America. Her universal image of patriotism and courage was utilized as a sale tactic to support the American troops and economy in wartime. This particular advertisement was directed at American women to “do their part” and to “be like Joan.” Joan is represented in a visual language already existing in advertisement images of women at this time: smiling and sexually-appealing. American women of the early 20th century were accustomed to this sort of visual feminine role model. However, this “encouragement” was now attached to an identifiable and admiral historical figure, strengthening the gender-specific marketing strategies employed by the US Treasury Department.
Peter Paul Rubens and his workshop
Joan of Arc
1620
oil on canvas
71 ½” x 45 ¾”
North Carolina Museum of Art: 52.9.111
Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens emphasizes Joan’s connection to both military service and devotion to the Church. Joan is in full battle garb, excepting her gauntlets laid at the foot of the crucifix where she prays. Rubens twists this popular Joan-type by giving her long, wavy, red hair. While sometimes this feature can be read a sign of promiscuity, it is probable that Rubens is not emphasizing lust or sexual immorality. Joan was understood to have been a virgin her entire life and was never wed, so a jab at her being licentious would have held no weight. Rather, Rubens seems to be emphasizing her femininity in unity with her “non-feminine” accomplishments. By making her femininity unavoidable, Rubens elevates Joan as a woman in light of her service to state and Church, a three-for-one statement on the social, religious, and political aspects contributions of womankind.
No comments:
Post a Comment