A Muse (detail), mid-1720s, Rosalba Carriera. Pastel on blue paper. The J. Paul Getty Museum
The Birth of Pastel
GETTY CENTER
South Pavilion, Upper Level
This installation explores the evolution of pastel paintings out of colored chalk drawings from the Renaissance to the Rococo. Featuring works by Jacopo Bassano, Federico Barocci, Simon Vouet, Robert Nanteuil, Joseph Vivien, Rosalba Carriera, and Maurice-Quentin de La Tour, the display focuses most closely on the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century, when pastels began to rival oils—in their variety of color, their high degree of finish, and even their scale—as the preferred medium for stately portraits.
