Simon Vouet

Simon Vouet's paintings connect early seventeenth-century Italian experience with the religious and courtly art of France. His work developed from strong contrasts of light toward more expansive color, flowing drapery, and figure groups. After returning from Rome to Paris, he led a studio that produced large commissions and prepared compositions through studies from the live model. Portraits and smaller religious pictures show related attention to expression and gesture on a more concentrated scale.