Editing Simon Vouet (section)

==Career==
Simon Vouet was born on January 9, 1590, in Paris.<ref>{{Britannica|633069}}</ref> His father Laurent was a painter in Paris and taught him the rudiments of art. Simon's brother [[Aubin Vouet]] was also a painter, as also was Simon's wife [[Virginia da Vezzo]], their son Louis-René Vouet, their two sons-in-law, [[Michel Dorigny]] and [[François Tortebat]], and their grandson [[Ludovico Dorigny]].[[File:Virginia da Vezzo, the Artist's Wife, as the Magdalen LACMA M.83.201.jpg|thumbnail|left|260px|''Virginia da Vezzo, the Artist's Wife, as the Magdalen'' (c. 1627), [[LACMA]]]]
 
Simon began his career as a portrait painter. At age 14 he travelled to England to paint a commissioned portrait and in 1611 was part of the entourage of the [[Achille de Harlay de Sancy|Baron de Sancy]], French ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, for the same purpose.  From [[Constantinople]] he went to Venice in 1612 and was in Rome by 1614.<ref name="Lavergnee">Brejon de Lavergnée, Barbara. 'Simon Vouet', ''Oxford Art Online''.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/artist-info.1959.html|title=Artist Info|website=www.nga.gov|access-date=20 April 2018}}</ref>

[[File:Simon Vouet - David with the Head of Goliath - Google Art Project.jpg|thumbnail|260px|[http://www.museidigenova.it/it/content/david-con-la-testa-di-golia-1620-1622 ''David with the Head of Goliath''] (1620–1622), [[Palazzo Bianco]], Genoa]]He remained in Italy until 1627, mostly in Rome where the [[Baroque]] style was becoming dominant. He received a pension from the King of France and his patrons included the [[Barberini family]], [[Cassiano dal Pozzo]], [[Paolo Giordano II Orsini|Paolo Giordano Orsini]] and [[Vincenzo Giustiniani]].<ref name="Lavergnee" /> He also visited other parts of Italy: Venice; Bologna (where the [[The Carracci|Carracci family]] had their academy); Genoa (where, from 1620 to 1622, he worked for the [[Doria (family)|Doria princes]]); and Naples. 

He was a natural [[Academic art|academic]], who absorbed what he saw and studied, and distilled it in his painting: [[Michelangelo Merisi|Caravaggio]]'s dramatic lighting; Italian Mannerism; [[Paolo Veronese]]'s color and ''[[di sotto in su]]'' or foreshortened perspective; and the art of [[Annibale Carracci|Carracci]], [[Guercino]], [[Giovanni Lanfranco|Lanfranco]] and [[Guido Reni]].

While in Rome he befriended artist [[Artemisia Gentileschi|Artimesia Gentileschi]] and painted her portrait in 1623.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Universalis |first=Encyclopædia |title=ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI |url=https://www.universalis.fr/encyclopedie/artemisia-gentileschi/ |access-date=2022-12-11 |website=Encyclopædia Universalis |date=25 July 2012 |language=fr-FR}}</ref>

Vouet's immense success in Rome led to his election as president of the [[Accademia di San Luca]] in 1624.<ref name="Bissell">{{cite journal|last1=Bissell|first1=R. Ward|author-link1=R. Ward Bissell|title=Simon Vouet, Raphael, and the Accademia di San Luca in Rome|journal=Artibus et Historiae|date=2011|volume=32|issue=63|pages=55–72|jstor=41479737}}</ref> His most prominent official commission of the Italian period was an altarpiece for St Peter's in Rome (1625–1626), destroyed at some time after 1725 (though fragments remain.)<ref name=Bozzetto>Schleier, Erich. "A Bozzetto by Vouet, Not by Lanfranco." ''The Burlington Magazine'', Vol. 109, No. 770 (May, 1967), pp. 272, 274–276.</ref>

[[File:Giuditta e Oloferne - Vezzi.png|thumbnail|260px|left|''Judith with the Head of Holofernes'' (c. 1624–1626) painted by [[Virginia da Vezzo]], the first wife of Simon Vouet, at the [[Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes]]]]In response to a royal summons, Vouet returned to France in 1627, where he was made [[Premier peintre du Roi]]. [[Louis XIII]] commissioned portraits, tapestry cartoons and paintings from him for the [[Louvre|Palais du Louvre]], the [[Luxembourg Palace|Palais du Luxembourg]] and the [[Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye]]. In 1632, he worked for [[Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu|Cardinal Richelieu]] at the [[Palais-Royal]] and the [[Château de Malmaison]]. In 1631 he decorated the château of the président de Fourcy, at Chessy, the hôtel Bullion, the château of [[Antoine Coiffier de Ruzé, marquis d'Effiat|Marshal d'Effiat]] at [[Chilly-Mazarin|Chilly]], the hôtel of the Duc d’Aumont, the Séguier chapel, and the gallery of the [[Château de Wideville]].

Today, a number of Vouet's paintings are lost, and "only two major decorative schemes survive, those for the chateaux of Colombes and Chessy,"<ref name="LavergnéeExhibitReview" /> but the details and imagery of many lost works are known from engravings by [[Michel Dorigny]], [[François Tortebat]], and [[Claude Mellan]].<ref name="Lavergnee" />