Page 295 - TMS Art Collection

No. 210715 Pg. 6

The Dragon. Throughout Judeo Christian literature and iconography (including
Jewish, Islamic, Coptic and Christian) Satan is allegorically depicted as a serpent or
even a dragon. Said depiction is apparent in paleo Christian art and iconography
as well as in Renaissance paintings as well as all historical styles that followed.
This is particularly apparent in the Italian and Spanish schools of painting as well
as in the Temple of Jaen.
Van Loo and Saint Michael. Carle Van Loo was a French painter with a Flemish
background. He is the youngest and most distinguished from a famous dynasty of
painters of Dutch origin. Initially he was ascribed to the Italian School and studied
under remarkable masters in Rome and Turin. Carle Van Loo was a prominent
member of the Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, of which he was
named director. He was knighted in the Order of St. Michael.
Carle Van Loo, having been born in Nice, France in 1705 belonged to the
Neoclassic Movement in French Painting, in the epoch of Luis XV. French Rococo
(style of the frame) was the prominent style in this court. His art works created in
Fontainebleau, are thereby now a part of the collection of Versailles and two of
them are exhibited in the Louvre Museum.
We conclude that it does not contradict the theory that the painting depicts the
Archangel Saint Michael defeating the Dragon with the title of the Oil Painting,” St.
George, Patron of England, defending England from the Dragon”, as the biblical
and historical passages feature the same allegorical imagery.

4. The overall composition of the studio Oil Painting is but one part of an
extensive pictorial tradition in the history of art.
Initially, the landscape acted as only a part of a larger narrative (be it mythical,
historical, human or religious). Over time the growing popularity of Naturalism
elevated the mundane or situational reality by emphasizing foreground elements
and human and social themes.
Neoclassism which corresponds to the age or movement that was present during
Carle Van Loo’s lifetime focused on reviving that sense of realism through the use
of a sharp, natural color palette. Keeping in mind the mythological and religious
themes which were largely inspired by passages in the Old and New Testaments,
the style of Realism which we previously alluded to refers to the figurative
representation of the Archangel Michael and to the ferocious nature of the beast;
the Oil Painting is set on a naturalistic landscape with a blue sky, a wavy sea and a
rocky shore. In the lower left quadrant, there is a chained female prisoner, also
figuratively represented, in the foreground.

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