1667/1668 -1736 · Paris and Royal Academy

Dynamic mythology, luminous colors and academic composition made Nicolas Bertin a history painter at the turn of the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XV.

Nicolas Bertin was born in Paris in 1667 or 1668 and died there in 1736. Trained in the academic workshops of Jean Jouvenet and Bon Boullogne, he specialized in history painting, mythology and decorations intended for residences and private collections. Phaethon driving the chariot of the Sun, painted around 1715 -1720 and kept at the Louvre, transposes the second book of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Apollo gives his final instructions to Phaethon, already installed at the reins of the chariot; the Hours surround him while Diane, in the background, draws the veil of Night. Bertin organizes the cosmic passage between darkness and light through the diagonals of the horses, the draperies, the clouds and the rising clarity. The moment precedes the catastrophe: the young driver's momentum already carries the imprudence that will lead to his downfall. Professor at the Royal Academy, Bertin belongs to a generation which softens the monumentality of the Grand Siècle with a lighter color and a more graceful movement. The "Nicolas Bertin" selection notably compares Phaethon driving the chariot of the Sun. His reading favors space.

Bertin suspends Phaethon between education and disaster: horses, clouds and light make the momentum felt even before the myth changes.