Style Troubadour
Taking its name from medieval troubadours, the Troubadour Style was a French artistic movement across multiple media aiming to regain the idealised atmosphere of the Middle Ages. It can be seen as a reaction against Neoclassicism, which was coming to an end at the end of the Consulate. A comparable phenomenon in the United Kingdom and the USA was the Gothic Revival.
The rediscovery of Medieval civilisation is one of the intellectual idiosyncrasies of the early 19th century. The stakes on the question of the origin of the Nation were highly and historians like Michelet and Augustin Thierry in France were the initiators and propagators of the Nation centric consciousness, the passion for the Middle Ages and the investigation into the founding values of the Nation.
Starting in the late 18th century when the first “medievalist” art appeared with their picturesque characteristics, the Troubadour style gained momentum in the 19th century and peaked in the years 1820 to 1830.
The Museum of French Monuments, created by Alexander Lenoir in 1795 to stem the tide of destruction of nation architectural heritage during the Revolution, participated in this trend.
Equally there was a resurgence of Christian sentiment, in its artistic dimension, most notably inspired by works such as Chateaubriand’s Génie du Christianisme (The Genius of Christianity) an apology for the Christian faith, which contributed to a more general post-revolutionary religious revival in France, and expressed a pre-Romantic sensitivity. Both artists and writers exalted the glory of France’s Christian past.
The first Troubadour painting was presented at the salon in 1802 by Fleury-Richard: Valentine of Milan weeping the death of her husband. This painting was a huge public success and was saluted by artists, namely David, for its novelty in technique and subject. Alexandre-Evariste Fragonard, Révoil, Drölling, Bergeret, Menjaud, Ingres and Isabey were some of the painters that defended this style.
The style became very popular, with an abundance of medieval subjects with moving or dramatic episodes of a glorified past, with very approximate care given to for archaeological or historical truth.
Indeed the Middle Age described was an idealized version of the past. This movement expressed a search for the exotic found in a long gone past.
Eugene Viollet-le-Duc contributed to a re-evaluation and rehabilitation of medieval architecture.
- The Four Henrys’ rolling dice in the house of Crillon in Avignon, by Eugene Deveria, salon of 1857. The episode took place after Henri III became king of France. The cardinal Charles of Lorraine suddenly died while the King was visiting him in Avignon. A few days later, the King, his cousin Henry of Navarre (futur Henry IV), Henry of Guise and Henry of Condé played a game of dice. As the King threw the dice upon the table they were covered with blood. Doctor Miron, King Henry’s friend declared: “This is a sign these gentlemen will all die violent deaths.” As all froze in horror, Henri de Navarre is said to have thrown of his hat in defiance of the sign.
- The refined gentleman, by Jean Louis Meissonnier (1815-1891)
