Leseprobe

65 At another level, there is also a marked visual resonance between the space within the painting and the space in which the canvas resides. That resonance echoes both inmate- rials and in forms: from the bare smooth stone that constructs both the ledge and columns of Restout’s Upper Roomand the walls and ceiling of the refectory; to the recur- ring architectural elements, like Restout’s line of columns that repeats the refectory’s window embrasures, or the corbels supporting the refectory’s vaulted ceiling that find a formal corollary in the corbels supporting the stone ledge uponwhich the Virgin stands. Almost in the spirit of a trompe l’œil , Restout pushes his illusion to the edge to merge the space of the beholder with that of the scene beheld. In its original state, moreover, that merging would have been even more complete. Before the later alterations, the canvas was not only larger but also shaped to fit its arched space. And in its shady refectory niche away from the window, Restout’s illusion was safe from the raking light that might threaten to rupture its depth as it does now in the Louvre. Filling its wall, framed by the ceiling itself, Restout’s Pentecost would have blended almost seamlessly with the room around it, extending the space of the hall through the wall, like a vision through to the Upper Room, where the ceiling was breaking open for this dramatic event to occur. In terms of its display strategies, Restout’s Pentecost mobilizes the simplest mechanism of the three examples offered here: a single painting designed to hang in a large, relatively Figure 2: Original location of Restout’s Pentecost in the former refectory of the Abbey of Saint-Denis, Saint- Denis, Maison d’Éducation de la Légion d’Honneur.