Art Chowder November | December 2016, Issue 6 | Page 46

Roger de Piles

and the Nature of Painting

The Meeting of David and Abigail.

PETER PAUL RUBENS

Rest on the Flight into

1625-1628, Detroit Institute of Arts
This was the painting given to de Piles by the Duke of
Richelieu, from his extensive collection of works by Rubens.

N

oting that the Royal Academy, founded by Louis XIV
in 1648; was the bastion of dogmatic artistic conservatism
may summarize the heart of the issue. The official doctrine
of the Academy was rooted in a reverence for the Antique:
the works of classical Greek and Roman art, and the I