Alain Mérot, published by Éditions Gallimard, 2009
This delectable or even meditative art, which reflects various “discourses” in the tradition of the Renaissance renewed by the Counter-Reformation, stood out among the culture of the time and was a response to the expectations of an educated audience. As a kind of witness to a lost world, and a particular relationship between man and nature, landscapes are thought to take the art world back to a certain era. Alain Mérot, who had already written, among other things, a history of French painting in the 17th century, therefore strives to restore its uniqueness and to better understand its continuing importance.