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| Keywords: De Champaigne, Philippe, The Visitation, 1643-48.jpg Artwork Creator Philippe de Champaigne Catalogue Entry Philippe de Champaigne a founding member of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture was a follower of the Jansenist movement which sought to use art as an aid to meditation and eliminate decorative sensuous elements These holy figures are bathed in a raking light representing God �s grace as they recognize their destinies the Virgin to bear the Savior and her elderly cousin Elizabeth to give birth to Saint John the Baptist When Mary visited Elizabeth to inform her of her pregnancy she spoke the verses known as the Magnificat My soul doth magnify the Lord Luke 1 41 46 �55 Joseph and Zechariah witness the scene and marvel at God �s plan for salvation The artist repeated this composition in both full- and half-length formats One of them was once part of the decoration of a chapel in the Church of the Oratory in Paris There the Visitation and Dream of Joseph were on the sidewalls while the Nativity was on the altar In a narrow chapel the formula of placing the figures in a shallow shadow-box-like space would have created an especially theatrical effect Indeed the remarkably concentrated narrative with the restrained gestures of the figures has affinities with French classical theater of the time Derived from ancient theater as defined in Aristotle �s Poetics seventeenth-century French theater evolved from Baroque effects toward a purified and rigorous theatrical practice in which props were eliminated objects received euphemistic noble names and the individual actor �s tirade carried the plot forward The meeting of the two women Mary �s words Elizabeth coming toward her like a noblewoman �s attendant in a play recall theatrical conventions and mirror a pattern that would have been familiar to viewers of the period Gallery Label The Virgin Mary who has just learned of her pregnancy from the archangel Gabriel greets her cousin the elderly Elizabeth at the doorway of her house The formerly barren Elizabeth is now six months pregnant with John the Baptist According to the evangelist Luke when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary the babe leaped in her womb Luke 1 41 Here Saints Zacharias husband of Elizabeth and Joseph fiancé of Mary are also present at the Visitation Philippe de Champaigne a follower of Jansenism an Augustinian movement in the French Catholic Church painted several similar versions of the subject The scene may have appealed to Jansenists because their doctrine denied free will and emphasized God �s grace and predestination 1643-48 Oil on canvas Size cm 114 5 88 5 <br> frame Size cm 141 6 112 7 12 4 Institution Princeton University Art Museum European Art object history exhibition history credit line Museum purchase Fowler McCormick Class of 1921 Fund accession number y1994-17 place of creation Princeton University Art Museum PD-old-100 1674 cite book Steward James Christen Princeton University Art Museum Handbook of the Collections Revised and Expanded Edition 2013 Princeton University Art Museum Princeton NJ 978-0943012414 2nd 199 cite web The Visitation y1994-17 http //artmuseum princeton edu/collections/objects/34052 Princeton University Art Museum European paintings in the Princeton University Art Museum 1643 Paintings in the Princeton University Art Museum 1643 European art in the Princeton University Art Museum 1643 Religious paintings by Philippe de Champaigne 17th-century paintings of Visitation Uploaded with UploadWizard | ||||
