Trois grâces contemporaines (2018) Painting by Rémi Acquin

The Charities, or Graces among the Romans, are minor deities of very ancient origin, probably pre-Hellenic. Initially two in number in the oldest literary evocations, their number was increased to three by the Greek poet Hesiod in the 8th century BC.
Called Aglaé, Euphrosyne and Thalie, they form, according to this poet, a triad personifying both charm and beauty. They are generally considered to be the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, the most beautiful of the Oceanids, although other kinships have been attributed to them in ancient traditions and texts.
Companions of Apollo (Phoebus) and Aphrodite (Venus), they each represent a different type of beauty: Aglaé the splendor, Euphrosyne the cheerfulness and Thalie the abundance, the gift.
Together, they personify life in all its fullness, in all its intensity. They preside over gratuitous manifestations of beauty, joy and sweetness: games and dances (hence their artistic representations), parties and feasts, or even sexuality outside marriage.
The graces having crossed more than three thousand years, one cannot be astonished that they constitute one of the mythological topics most treated by the artists, so much so that they constitute a common thread making it possible to apprehend as a whole the history of Western art, from Athenian and Spartan antiquity to the present day.
The interpretations take more or less assertive liberties with the mythological origins, the graces sometimes representing three ages of life, three seasons, the incarnation of beauty, gentleness and friendship, or three young girls in various situations. devoid of any perceptible symbolism.
We can thus evoke, among others, from the Greek marbles and the frescoes and mosaics of Pompeii, the paintings of Botticelli, Raphael, Cranach the Elder, Rubens, van Loo, Grien, Boucher, Regnault, Kupka, Delaunay, Valtat, Foujita , Dali, Picasso, the sculptures of Canova, Pradier, Maillol and Niki de Saint-Phalle, or the photographs of Man Ray and Sally Mann.
For my "Three Contemporary Graces", I based myself more particularly on the small painting by Raphaël, painted around 1505, itself probably inspired by a medal by Niccolò di Forzore Spinelli (1430-1514). This work seduced me by its mystery, its apparent simplicity, by the rhythmic balance of the composition and the complementarities of the colors.
I represented the graces in a classic way, in a pose faithful to the oldest representations: the central figure is from behind, and one of the graces looks in a direction opposite to that where the other two direct their sight. As in the preparatory drawing of Raphaël's work, discovered in 1986, the central grace places her hands on the shoulders of her neighbors.
The bare ground, brushed in umber, recalls the painting of Cranach the Elder, highlighting the ocher tones of the complexion of the nudes. The gestures of the graces create an impression of gyration and perception of three-dimensional figures. It also emanates from the attitudes, the looks, the transparency of the veils, both candor and sensuality.
However, beyond the obvious analogies with the work of the Renaissance, these three graces are resolutely current. This modernity is discreetly reflected in their physique, their hairstyles, and, in a striking way, in their attributes, these smartphones which constitute the material symbol of our time par excellence. These appear in this classic painting almost as an intruder, like anachronistic elements, creating a temporal telescoping, opening in themselves a door on five hundred years of history.
While Raphael's graces offered an apple, these enjoy the pleasures of modern technology, one no doubt listening to music in her headset, the other two smiling for a selfie. The gift has been transmuted into narcissistic pleasure, and the thousand-year-old symbolism making graces carriers of life and joy gives way to withdrawal, disinterest in the other, immediate and futile pleasure, challenging us about our own behaviors. . We would be hard pressed to identify in them Aglaé, Euphrosyne and Thalie. All three have their attention focused on smartphones, objects of universal worship, new industrial deities. And the look, usually detached that we have on the ancient deities, is filled with bittersweet emotions: aren't these contemporary graces simple young women, our daughters, dedicated to living our joys and our torments? , to grow old and die one day?

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GrâcesSmartphoneGraces