Roger de Piles

Poussinist-Rubenist controversy

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  In Nicolas Poussin: Legacy

  …into a theoretical dispute with Roger de Piles; their respective sides were known as Poussinists and Rubenists, the former upholding the importance of line over colour and the latter the reverse. The Rubenists eventually triumphed, and the result was the art of Antoine Watteau and the Rococo.

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• In Rubenist

  …the colourist party, the critic Roger de Piles published a series of theoretical pamphlets setting forth the arguments and counterarguments. In 1673 his Dialogue sur le coloris (“Dialogue on Colour”) appeared, and in 1677 he followed it with Conversations sur la peinture (“Conversations on Painting”). The victory for the colourists…

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  In art criticism: Art criticism in the 17th century: Programmatic theory

  …to a head when critic Roger de Piles published a series of theoretical pamphlets setting forth an argument for the Rubenists in 1676. De Piles’s writings helped break the hold of the Poussinists in the French Academy by legitimating an alternative to it, giving the Rubenists credibility—especially when he was…

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