A Closer Look at Five Great Paintings on display at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon

Aretino and the Envoy of Charles V- Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
Ingres’ painting captures a famous French legend in which the Renaissance writer Aretino was offered a bribe by Charles V to prevent him from criticising the monarch following a heavy military defeat. Looking closely, we can see Aretino’s clearly unimpressed expression as he idly dangles the gold chain he’s been given by the king’s envoy. If we turn our attention to the messenger, we notice that he’s moved his hand on top of his rapier, prepared to put Aretino in his place if he speaks out against his ruler. Zooming in even further, we can see that Ingres has included a painting by Titian on the back wall to give a sense of the time period; on the far right a naked one gazes out from the bedroom— a nod to Arteino’s reputation as a lothario.

The Watering Place- Jean Honoré Fragonard
This painting marked a transition for Jean Honoré Fragonard as he began to move away from his Academic neo-classical training and towards landscape painting in the vein of the masters of the Dutch Golden Age of the previous century. It’s an idyllic pastoral scene; if we zoom in we can see how the fluid, delicate brushworks creates the faintest sense of a breeze blowing through the clouds and the trees in this valley where young couple rest upon the luscious grass. If we move in even closer though, we find that Fragonard didn’t fully flesh out the man’s features, leaving him with a rather eerie looking scarecrow-like face.

The Stoning of Saint Stephen- Rembrandt van Rijn
This is thought to be the earliest painting by Rembrandt who likely produced it when he was still a teenager. It might not be quite at the level of his later masterpieces, but there are already signs of his ability to render diverse human emotions and his remarkable attention to detail; zoom in for instance on Saint Stephen’s robe in the centre to see the vast array of colours and designs. If we move our focus to the actual subjects, we notice that Rembrandt has given them all unique expressions— from the pleading Saint Stephen to the malice and curiosity of the figures in the crowd. If we zoom behind Saint Stephen’s head we notice a boy who seems to greatly resemble the Rembrandt we recognise from his later self-portraits.