He is one of the few French painters of his time who had a pronounced artistic personality.[1] His work reflects the refined, although highly unstable, atmosphere at the court of the House of Valois during the French Wars of Religion of 1560 to 1598.
Life
Caron was born in Beauvais between 1521 and 1530 to Phillipe and Adele (Lamarre) Caron.
He married Marie Dangobert in 1555. Together, they had one son, Louis, who was born c. 1570.
Career
He began painting in his teens doing frescos for a number of churches. Between 1540 and 1550 he worked under Primaticcio and Niccolò dell'Abbate at the School of Fontainebleau. In 1561, he was appointed the court painter by Catherine de' Medici and Henry II of France. As court painter he also had the duties of organizing the court pageants. In this way he was involved in organizing the ceremony and royal entry for the coronation of Charles IX in Paris and the wedding of Henry IV of France with Marguerite de Valois. Some of his surviving illustrations are from these pageants.
His drawings of festivities at the court of Charles IX are likely sources for the depiction of the court in the Valois Tapestries. He died in Paris in 1599.
Not many of Caron's works survive, but they include historical and allegorical subjects, court ceremonies, astrological scenes, and his massacres, done in the mid-1560s. An example is his only signed and dated painting, Massacres under the Triumvirate (1566) which hangs in the Louvre. Caron used bright colors and incorporated unusual architectural forms.[2] He often placed his human figures almost insignificantly on grand stages, as did his mentor dell'Abbate. His figures tend to be elongated, even in portraits such as Portrait of a Lady (1577).
Many works attributed to him are also attributed to others. As there is minimal documentation of French painting in that era, this is not unusual. Because Caron is relatively well known, his name is likely to be attached to paintings similar to his known works.[3] In some cases, such painting are now ascribed "to the workshop of Antoine Caron", for example, The Submission of Milan to Francis I in 1515 (c. 1570).[4]
Selected works
Massacres of the Triumvirate, 1566, oil on linen canvas, 116 × 195 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris[5][6]
La Sibylle de Tibur, 1575/1580, oil on canvas, 170 × 125 cm, Louvre, Paris, (The Tiburtine Sibyl or Augustus and the Sibyl of the Tiber)
Abraham and Melchisedek, c. 1590, wood, 80 × 94 cm. private collection, Paris
Portrait of a Lady, 1577, Tempera on panel, Alte Pinakothek, München
Le train de deuil Amors, Louvre, Paris (The funeral procession of Love or An Allegory of the Death of Love)
Bagathan and Tharès Staatliche Graphische Sammlung (State Graphics Collection) in the Münchner Haus der Kulturinstitute (Munich Culture Institute), Munich
The Elephant Carousel, 1598, oil on wood, 87 × 130 cm., private collection, Paris
The Arrest and Supplication of Sir Thomas More (1478–1535) oil on wood, Musee de Blois, Blois
Apotheose of Semele, c. 1585, oil on wood, 65 × 76 cm. private collection, Paris
The Triumph of Winter, c. 1568, oil on canvas, 103 × 179 cm, private collection
Diane Chasseresse, 1550, oil on Louvre, Paris, (Diana, the Huntress) [School of Fontainebleau ... ][7]
The Submission of Milan to Francis I in 1515, c. 1570, oil on wood, 50.5 × 66.8 cm, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario [workshop of ... ][4]
^Yates, Frances A. (1951) "Antoine Caron's Paintings for Triumphal Arches" Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 14(1/2): pp. 132–134
^"I have already had occasion elsewhere to state my opinion that some of the paintings attributed by M. Ehrmann to Caron may perhaps be by other hands. I still feel it difficult to believe that the Beauvais Massacre with its sharply Flemish architecture can be a product of the French School, and I do not feel convinced that the Semele, the Carrousel with the Elephant, and the Martyrdom of Sir Thomas More are necessarily by his hand. "Blunt, Anthony F. (November 1956) "Review: Antoine Caron Peintre à la Cour des Valois 1521–1599 by Jean Ehrmann" The Burlington Magazine 98(644): p. 418
^Porcheron, Marie-Domitille "La mort romaine représentée. Les 'massacres du Triumvirat' par Antoine Caron" In Hinard, François (comp.) (1987) La Mort, les morts et l'au-delà dans le monde romain : actes du colloque de Caen, 20–22 novembre 1985 Centre de publications de l'Université de Caen, Caen, France, pp. 365–370, ISBN2-905461-22-5
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