Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/600

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JOUVENET


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JOUVENET


the celebrated pulpit orator Bourdaloue; "Oleander et Eudoxius", a translation of the "Entretiens de Cleandre ct d'Eudoxe" of Father Daniel. This latter work is a refutation of the accusations brought against the Society of Jesus by its enemies; in 1703 it was put on the Index. The translation of the theological letters of Father Daniel to the Dominican Father Alexander Natalis contains a comparison of the teach- ings of St. Thomas and of the theologians of the Society of Jesus concerning Probabilism and its relation to Divine grace. In 1704 appeared Jouvancy's " Appen- dix de Diis et heroibus poeticis", a widely read work which was a translation of Father Gautruche's "His- toire po(5tique pour I'intelligence des poetes et auteurs anciens". Jouvancy also translated into Latin biog- raphies, written by other Jesuits, of the saints of the order, St. Stanislaus Kostka and St. John Francis Regis.

Jouvancy edited a large number of school editions of Latin authors. The text was always revised suit- ably to school use, was altered in many places with classical elegance, and supplied with learned foot- notes, partly explanatory of the details given by the author, partly on the style and grammatical construc- tion; these editions were frequently reissued both in France and other countries. To some of the later editions translations were added. Worthy of special praise were the editions of the " Comedies" of Terence, the "Odes" and "Liber de arte poetica" of Horace, the "Epigrams" of Martial, the "Metamorphoses" of Ovid, the philosophical writings of Cicero, as "De officiis", "Cato Major", and "Laelius". Jouvancy's " Institutiones poeticie", published in 1718 and often reprinted, was another work intended for use in teach- ing. A number of editions also appeared of his " Novus apparatus graeco-latinus, cum interpretatione gallica". This work, based on Isocrates, Demos- thenes, and the leading Greek authors, was not only much superior to the lexicons then used, but was also intended to encourage the cultivation of the mother- tongue, as well as the study of the two classical lan- guages. Jouvancy also delivered many orations and eulogies, for example on Louis XIV his family, and his government, in externals so brilliant for France, on the churches of Paris and the French nation. These were published in two volumes and from 1701 frequently reprinted.

A work of special importance was Jouvancy's "Christianis litterarum magistris de ratione discendi et docendi" (Paris, 1691). In 1696 he was com- missioned by the Fourteenth Congregation of the Society to adapt this work as a guide and method for the classical studies of the members of the Society. After careful examination of the manuscript by a commission of the order, it was published at Florence in 1703 as an official textbook under the title: " Magis- tris scholarum inferiorum Societatis Jesu de ratione discendi et docendi". This edition was the basis of all later ones. In this pioneer work Jouvancy took the first steps in the method for the study of philology which was developed by the great investigators of antiquity of the nineteenth century at the German universities. Latin is and remains the central point of instruction, even though Greek and the historical branches are not neglected. The art of the teacher may be separated into two main divisions: by the example of his own piety and virtue the teacher is to lead the pupil to the knowledge and service of the Creator; he is to bring the pupil to apply himself to his actual studies by fear of humiliation and an honour- able spirit of competition. The principles of the " De ratione discendi et docendi" were used as a standard in all the Jesuit colleges of the German assistance.

After he was called to Rome, Jouvancy laboured on the second half of the fifth part of the history of the Society of Jesus, which eml>raced the period 1591- 1016. The work was forbidden in France by decrees


of Parlement of 22 February and 24 March, 1715, because it expressed opinions contravening the royal rights of sovereigns, that is, opposing the royal abso- lutism of the Bourbons. In Rome as well the work was placed in part on the Index by decree of 29 July, 1722, because in some passages it contradicted the papal decree "De ritibus Sinensibus" quihus deletis liber permittitur (which being destroyed, the book is permitted), .\ccording to documents in the archives of the order this part of Jouvancy's book was written before the publication of the papal decree (Reusch, "Index der verbotenen Bucher", 2 vols., I, Bonn, 1885, 772 sq.).

SoMMERvoGEL. Bibl. dc la c. de J. (Paris, 1893), bibliogra- phies in IX, X: ScHWICKERATH. Lem- unci Lehrmpthode von Joseph Juvencius in Bibliothek der katholischen Piidagogik, X (Freiburg im Br., 1898).

Karl Hoeber.

Jouvenet, Jean, surnamed the Great, French painter, b. at Rouen in 1644; d. at Paris, 5 April, 1717. In his family, of Italian extraction, the paint- ing instinct was hereditary. Noel Jouvenet, his grand- father, who had settled in Normandy, is believed to have been the teacher of Poussin, while to Laurent Jouvenet, his father, Jean owed his early instruction in art, before he was sent by him to Paris in 1660. At that time the goldsmiths' guild in the city planted a tree each year on 1 May in the enclosure of Notre- Dame, and presented a painting for the altar of Our Lady. The greatest artists of the age painted some of these works, which were known as mais. Jouvenet executed the painting for the year 1673, the subject being the "Cure of the Paralytic". His performance attracted the attention of Lebrun, who enrolled the author in the group of artists then engaged in deco- rating the palace of Versailles, under the direction of the "premier peintre". Jouvenet was elected to the Academy in 1675, and was appointed professor in 1681. However it was not till some time later, after the death of Lebrun (1692), that he came into prominence. In truth, French painting hitherto almost completely under the influence of the Italian schools, and following under Lebrun the tradition of Rome and Bologna, was just commencing to free itself. A new tradition, traceable to Rubens, who had in 1628 painted in the Palais du Luxem- bourg (the famous Galerie de Mi'dicis, now in the Louvre), was daily gaining strength. Artists were divided into " Rubenists" and " Poussinists", the par- tisans of form and the champions of colour. This artistic strife continued during the whole of the latter part of the reign of Louis XIV. Jouvenet played a decisive part in the struggle. Never having been in Italy, he could form an impartial judgment of the merits and claims of the Roman school. With La Fosse and Antoine Coypel, he was one of those who contributed most to the work of transformation, which resulted in the rise of the eighteenth-century school of artists.

Jouvenet's paintings for the Salons of 1699 and 1704 were the manifesto of the new school. The most important of them are preserved in the Louvre. The first is the famous "Descent from the Cross" (1697), which hangs in the Salon Carr^ — a free translation of Rubens' masterpiece in the cathedral of Antwerp. Eloquent and impressive, distinguished by a senti- ment of massiveness and colour, and by its tonality at once low and elaborate, it was destined to exert a pro- found influence on the school. With the painting by Largillicre in St-Efienne du Mont (1696), it occupies a most important place in the history of French paint- ing, in which it is one of the jirincipal dates. In the S:il(iii (if 1704 Jouvenet prosenird the four works, each twenty feet long, inteiuh'd for I he churcli of St-M:irlip lies Champs (but now in the Louvre): "The Kcpast at the House of Simon", "The lOxpulsion of the Sellers from the Temple", and especially the "Raising of