Embezzlement and High Treason in Louis XIV’s France by Vincent J Pitts (review)

Reviews 203 artists’explicit emulations of the romantic painter. Finally, the authors give smart and well-researched overviews of each catalog entry as they explore the subtle but at times astonishing borrowings or tributes of modern artists.An exhibition visitor might give pause when coming across Gauguin’s I Raro Te Oviri (Under the Pandunas) or Matisse’s The Red Carpet—what do the flattened forms and disinterested presentation of the human and still-life figures have to do with Delacroix’s grandiose subjects and anxious handling of paint?—but the catalog reveals a rich genealogy rooted in one thing that always comes back to Delacroix: color. It is only by knowing that Gauguin possessed prints of Delacroix’s works while in Tahiti,or that Matisse was grappling with the works of Paul Signac (who championed Delacroix and made him his own) while trying in earnest to work out his own style and palette, that the legacy emerges and becomes impossible to refute. In a particularly dramatic example of an unexpected yet profound connection between Delacroix and abstract symbolism, the little “lemon note” of a yellow halo that Delacroix dabbed onto the canvas in Christ on the Sea of Galilee inspired Van Gogh to turn his paintings into seas of his famously vivid yellows, greens, blues, and reds. It is also a delight to discover that Delacroix, in the later part of his career, transformed the floral still-life into a creative exercise in color and expression that Impressionists repeatedly embraced as an evocative challenge. An art-historical ‘tour de force,’the present catalog is a treasure trove of images and bibliographical references for casual readers and experts alike and is to be commended for its bold originality and top-notch yet engaging scholarship. University of Delaware Karen F. Quandt Pitts, Vincent J. Embezzlement and High Treason in Louis XIV’s France. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2015. Pp. 224. ISBN 978-1-4214-1824-7. $45. Nicolas Fouquet, France’s unfortunate surintendant of finance was the incarnation of ambition. In this splendid book Pitts tells the mesmerizing story of the rise and fall of Fouquet, who made a mockery of absolute power by divine right by mounting a formidable defense at his public trial, but ultimately paid the price for overreaching and finished his days in prison. The book is not a biography; nor is it a study of the shady financial world in which Fouquet operated or an attempt to establish once and for all the guilt or innocence of Fouquet. Rather, Pitts focuses on the trial itself to show how Fouquet gradually turned the tables on the king and successfully manipulated the system in his favor. The Fronde interrupted Fouquet’s rise to power, but he chose wisely to remain loyal to Mazarin. In 1653 Fouquet was appointed surintendant des finances and used this position to amass a huge fortune. Fouquet’s disgrace is the stuff of myth.In 1661 Fouquet organized a feast at his magnificent estate atVaux-le-Vicomte. The young Louis XIV was in attendance and realized that there must be something amiss. In point of fact, he was already aware of Fouquet’s wealth and unorthodox financial practices thanks to Colbert, who aspired to succeed Mazarin and saw in Fouquet his main rival. Together they concocted a plot to bring about the downfall of Fouquet. Colbert arranged to have Fouquet tried before a special court, the chambre de justice, making this a political showcase trial, stuffed with twenty-eight handpicked magistrates and royal officials who would deliver the desired verdict of guilty of financial misconduct and high treason. After months of preliminary interrogations of the prisoner, the trial finally got under way. Fouquet demanded and eventually was granted access to most of his records in order to prepare his defense. From the beginning, he alleged evidence tampering and rejected the charges against him, arguing that he had always tried hard to support the crown and that any irregularities in his financial dealings were as much the result of the dire times as they were of Mazarin’s corruption. The trial dragged on for almost three years. There is no doubt that Fouquet’s strategy...