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25 August 2011

Perfect Painting: de Piles' List

Ranking Artists "Rationally"
Without too much comment, I present the Louis XIV era French theorist Roger de Piles' rankings of artists according to a tally of their individual qualities; suffice it to say, while I'm intrigued by the idea, and sympathetic to de Piles' partisanship for "color" or the "Rubenistes," I would quibble with the particulars (how does Michelangelo wind up so far down, below Abraham van Diepenbeeck?).

Roger de Piles, Cours de peinture par principes avec un balance de peintres (1708)

arranged from highest to lowest
Painter
Composition
Drawing
Color
Expression
Total
17
18
12
18
65
18
13
17
17
65
Annibale? Carracci
15
17
13
13
58
15
17
9
17
58
16
16
8
16
56
x
13
9
12
?
15
10
17
13
55
Vanius
15
15
12
13
55
13
13
15
12
53
12
15
18
6
51
15
6
17
12
50
15
14
16
4
49
15
16
4
14
49
15
15
4
15
49
15
16
4
14
49
13
14
10
10
47
15
14
7
10
46
15
12
13
6
46
13
14
10
9
46
12
16
9
8
45
14
15
6
10
45
15
16
7
6
44
8
13
16
7
44
13
15
8
8
44
15
10
16
3
44
18
10
10
4
42
14
13
10
5
42
11
10
14
6
41
12
9
14
6
41
10
8
16
6
40
Lucas Jordaens
13
12
9
6
40
12
15
5
8
40
8
9
18
4
39
9
10
16
3
38
10
8
16
3
37
8
17
4
8
37
10
15
6
6
37
8
10
10
8
36
10
10
8
8
36
6
8
15
4
33
11
15
0
6
32
6
8
17
0
31
5
6
16
0
31
10
8
8
4
30
10
10
6
2
28
6
6
16
0
28
4
6
14
0
24
8
6
6
4
24
0
15
8
0
23
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_de_Piles
The complete list is transcribed here from Manlio Brusatin, Histoire des couleurs (Paris: Flammarion, 1986, pp. 103–104), reproduced in Elisabeth G. Holt, Literary Sources of Art History, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1947), pp. 415–416)

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