COYPEL, Antoine
(b. 1661, Paris, d. 1722, Paris)

Vault decoration

1709
Fresco
Chapel of the Château, Versailles

Coypel painted the ceiling of the chapel of Versailles in 1709. In it Coypel turns his back on Rubens and follows a Roman Baroque model, Baciccia's ceiling for the Gesù. Coypel follows his original closely in the general principles of the design, which depends on the most melodramatic forms of trompe-l'oeil, and on the creation of the effect that the celestial world is literally bursting through the vault into the chapel itself. Coypel has even extended the trompe-l'oeil because, whereas in the Gesù the fresco is surrounded with real stucco decoration, at Versailles the architectural setting is entirely painted, in imitation of real vaulting and relief.




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