L'air, série Sur Les Quatre Éléments 

Charles Le Brun rendered "L'air" from his series "Sur Les Quatre Éléments" using oil paints, those fundamental materials of the European tradition. Le Brun was a master of allegory, and here he deploys the full arsenal of that approach. The very handling of the paint, from the thin washes of the sky to the creamy impasto of the clouds, underscores the subject matter: air itself. Look at the ways in which the figures are idealized, their drapery swirling as though caught in a breeze. The artist's skill—years in the making—is crucial to the picture’s effect. Note that Le Brun was premier peintre to King Louis XIV, who based the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture on a guild system, where practitioners were granted status in return for labor. This painting is not just about air, it’s about an entire social and economic system, one in which artistic skill was explicitly tied to the production of wealth and power. Seen in this light, the painting becomes more than just a pretty picture; it is a window onto the world of early modern Europe.