10 Facts About Simon Vouet

Simon Vouet's father Laurent was a painter in Paris and taught him the rudiments of art.

Simon's brother Aubin Vouet was a painter, as was Simon's wife Virginia da Vezzo, their son Louis-Rene Vouet, their two sons-in-law, Michel Dorigny and Francois Tortebat, and their grandson Ludovico Dorigny.

Simon Vouet remained in Italy until 1627, mostly in Rome where the Baroque style was becoming dominant.

Simon Vouet received a pension from the King of France and his patrons included the Barberini family, Cassiano dal Pozzo, Paolo Giordano Orsini and Vincenzo Giustiniani.

Simon Vouet visited other parts of Italy: Venice; Bologna ; Genoa ; and Naples.

Simon Vouet was a natural academic, who absorbed what he saw and studied, and distilled it in his painting: Caravaggio's dramatic lighting; Italian Mannerism; Paolo Veronese's color and di sotto in su or foreshortened perspective; and the art of Carracci, Guercino, Lanfranco and Guido Reni.

Today, a number of Simon Vouet's paintings are lost, and "only two major decorative schemes survive, those for the chateaux of Colombes and Chessy," but the details and imagery of many lost works are known from engravings by Michel Dorigny, Francois Tortebat, and Claude Mellan.

Two years later Simon Vouet married a French widow, Radegonde Beranger, with whom he had three more children.

Simon Vouet's style became uniquely his own, but was distinctly Italian, importing the Italian Baroque into France.

Also in Simon Vouet's circle was a friend from his Italian years, Claude Vignon.