In France,
Puvis de Chavannes, especially the paintings done for the great Byzantine churches in Marseilles, is nearly pure Byzantine, as is Hippolyte Flandrin, most particularly in his work for Saint-Germain des Pres in Paris.
Communication with the world outside was possible only via carrier pigeon and hot-air balloon, a circumstance most eloquently depicted by
Puvis de Chavannes in a pair of large allegorical paintings.
Some of these figures, such as Pierre
Puvis de Chavannes, Edouard Detaille, and Leon Lhermitte, had considerable reputations at the time.
The Symbolist art that emerged under this influence, depicting a real unreality, can be found in the pagan demons of Arnold Bocklin, the "unreal ambience," in the words of the Belgian poet Georges Rodenbach, of Pierre
Puvis de Chavannes, the phantasmagoria of Odilon Redon, and a host of lesser artists and illustrators across Europe, all experimenting with different permutations of Symbolism, mysticism, and the styles of Art Nouveau (Goldwater's book is unrivaled in its comparison of Symbolism to Art Nouveau).
Los tres habian tenido largas estadias en Europa por cuenta de sus familias, habian estudiado en Paris, Santamaria en la Escuela de Bellas Artes, como discipulo de los respetados pintores Henri Gervex (1852-1929) y Jacques Ferninad (1842-1934) (33), y Rocha y Holguin y Caro en la Academia Julien de Paris, quienes fueron alumnos del pintor frances
Puvis de Chavannes (1824-1898) (34).
Indeed, according to his piece on
Puvis de Chavannes, retaining conventions for the sake of tradition undermines the evolution of artistic values and reduces the quality of art:
Influenced by the Post-Impressionists, the Symbolists and
Puvis de Chavannes, he was in continuous rebellion against academic conservatism, but he depended on his academic skills, rather than invention, to maintain his practice.
El dato, en este caso, es significativo, por cuanto esa actividad que define a la protagonista es la de una "fabricante" (17), combinada con la de una coleccionista, que acumula objetos improductivos (18): "Los pull-overs y las mananitas se amontonan en los armarios; tambien los manteles finamente disenados con motivos de
Puvis de Chavannes" (67).