Salvator Rosa In French Literature

"Salvator Rosa (1615-1673), a colorful and controversial Italian painter, etcher, and poet, exercised a significant impact on writers of the French romantic era. In Salvator Rosa in French Literature, James S. Patty studies the reception in French literature of Rosa's life and work. Patty analyzes the perspectives on Rosa found in French fiction, poetry, drama, art criticism and history, literary history, and contemporary reference works to explain Rosa's impact on the artistic and literary communities and to establish relationships among them."

"Serious discussion in France of Rosa's work began in the mid-eighteenth century. Eighteenth-century documents reveal that nearly all the major French writers expressed admiration for his work, especially his landscapes. The rugged scenery depicted by Rosa was often described as savage and even sublime and thought to mirror sentiments expressed in the novels and poems of the day. Victor Hugo vividly described the teeming macabre visions that Rosa's "lugubrious forest" had inspired in him as a child. Other major writers who admired and were influenced by Rosa's work include Jules Michelet, Honore de Balzac, Alfred de Vigny, and George Sand. Patty devotes particular attention to poet and art critic Theophile Gautier's evaluations and descriptions of Rosa."

"Rosa's works began entering major French collections during his lifetime, and many of the passages at the heart of Salvator Rosa in French Literature describe, evaluate, and interpret paintings displayed in the Louvre. Recently, a large hall in the Louvre was named for Salvator Rosa; the painter, once dubbed "bizarre" by some critics in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, now holds a very visible place among the great artists enshrined in one of the world's great museums. Salvator Rosa in French Literature provides a comprehensive interpretation of Rosa's work and a clear evaluation of his mark on French literature."--Jacket.