French School circa 1860

 Palestrina
 Oil on mahogany panel
 65.5 x 51 cm
 Around 1860

 Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was born in Palestrina (Italy) in 1525, the town from which he took his name.
 It was at the choir school of Sainte-Marie-Majeure that he received his first music lessons.

 From 1544 to 1551, he was organist and choirmaster of the cathedral of his hometown. When his bishop became pope, the composer was called to Rome and became choirmaster and then member of the pontifical choir. But, only a year later, the pope died. His successor, Marcellus II (who was to reign for only three weeks) required the singers of the pontifical chapel to never have written madrigals (pieces on a secular subject) and to never be married. Unfortunately for him, Palestrina fulfilled all these undesirable conditions. He therefore resigned and took over the direction of the choir of Saint John Lateran in 1555, for five years, after which he directed that of Santa Maria Maggiore.
 The musician also taught during this time on various occasions. In 1570 he accepted to resume his position as choirmaster (at the Capella Giulia), but with a higher salary. Palestrina was commissioned, after a few years, to amend the Gregorian repertoire, "denatured by several centuries of abusive interpretations and clumsy copies". Unfortunately, due to the lack of original manuscripts, the attempt at reform fell through after years of fruitless work.

 Faced with criticism from Protestant reformers who denounced the corruption of the church, the Catholic clergy reacted by bringing the Counter-Reformation into line. This was not without consequences for religious music. At the Council of Trent (1543-1563) voices were raised against the complications that counterpoint had led to. There was a demand for a clearer understanding of the words, or even a return to the simplicity of plainchant. How could polyphony be saved? By proving that it was not incompatible with the intelligibility of the text.
 This is what Palestrina achieves through a more homophonic, airy and harmonious writing. The interpretation of his songs without instruments by the choirs of the Sistine Chapel is considered a model, hence the expression a cappella.

 The composer suffered the deaths of his wife, two sons and three brothers in epidemics caused by the wars. It was then that he obtained papal permission to join the orders, but barely a year later he remarried a rich widow. Then came a period of ease during which he regularly published his works and enjoyed an excellent reputation. Also during these years of ease, he founded an organization to defend the professional interests of musicians.
 The composer wanted to return to his hometown, but he died suddenly before being able to see Palestrina again, on February 2, 1594.

 While the masterpieces of his predecessors will be forgotten, Palestrina will continue to be interpreted and increasingly appreciated for the calm serenity of his compositions, their vocal fullness which does not exclude suavity, the remarkable balance which he knows how to establish between the words and the counterpoint.

 He became the very incarnation of a style that he, in reality, only extended with genius. So much so that, until the end of the 19th century, he was considered by romantic artists as the father of Western religious music.

 The subject of the composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, known as Palestrina, was treated at the Salon from the 1840s onwards with no fewer than seven paintings, two watercolours and two engravings by artists such as Alcide Boichard (1844), Henri Baron (1847), Gustave Boulanger and Ferdinand Heilbuth (1857), Dominique-Antoine Magaud (1861), Hugues Merle (1861) and Auguste de Pinelli (1863).