The influence of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in the 17th century

The brainchild of Charles Le Brun (1619-1690), the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture (Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture) was founded in 1648 with the objective of according artists a proper status. It was a training and exhibition centre which operated under the patronage of the king and which provided an education focused on drawing. It offered its members the prospect of recognition reinforced by commissions from the state. Painting was codified into a strict hierarchy. Subjects of a religious, mythological or historical nature (such as this work by Charles Le Brun) required erudition and reflection and, therefore, were considered the most noble genre: Mucius Scaevola devant Porsenna (Mucius Scaevola before Porsena) depicts an episode from Roman Antiquity, as described in the writings of the historian Livy. It meets the Academy's criteria: allusion to Antiquity and the juxtaposition of the different stages in the drama on the canvas, capturing the whole discourse. Portraiture was ranked second in the institution's classification. In Portrait d’un échevin (Portrait of an alderman) by Nicolas de Largillière (1656-1746), the naturalness of the pose emphasises the focus on the rendering of clothing and the balance of colour to accentuate the painter's ability to bring the subject closer to the viewer.