Page 16 - Jacques Blanchard - Myth and Allegory
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The Venus and Graces Surprised by a Mortal, in rely on fragmentary evidence for their style
the Louvre, signed, but not dated is assigned and subject matter. Between 1631 and 1632,
by Thuillier to around 1630-31.17 If this is so, Blanchard undertook one of his most
it represents the artist’s first major picture of important decorative projects for the hôtel Le
female nudes, with a strong Venetian Barbier.20 While these works are now lost,
inspiration. The mood is fully Titianesque, they were recorded by Dézallier d’Argenville
both in the paintings of the flesh tones and in in his Abrégé of 1762, wherein the writer
the richness of the draperies, which have all recalls that Blanchard executed fourteen
the opulence of their Venetian predecessors. compositions with mythological and literary
However, it is perhaps worth mentioning the themes, consisting of eight square canvases
Susanna and the Elders, acquired at auction in and six upright ones.21These works must have
1990 by the Virginia Museum of Fine Art. made an impressive ensemble and it may be
Sterling, having only known the work from that amongst the works currently attributed
the engraving in reverse by Pierre Daret, to Blanchard, one of more of these may
dated the picture to 1628, noting what he survive.
believed to be clear traces of the influence of
Domenico Fetti.18 The next fixed date in Blanchard’s career is
1632, which the artist recorded on the verso of
The beautiful Angelica and Medor in New his Saint Jerome in the Museum of Fine Arts,
York19 follows the Venus and Graces Surprised by Budapest.22 It is a relatively conservative
a Mortal in Thuillier’s chronology, and in its work, perhaps because the subject matter left
sensuality; it is clearly close to the more the artist with little further option than to
ambitious Louvre picture. Here, the Venetian observe the standard iconography of a half-
influence remains strong and the picture draped old man contemplating a skull and
presents an uncanny anticipation of the Crucifix while pondering the biblical text.
sensuality of the dix-huitième; indeed, it was Interestingly, it is consistently the one work in
later reproduced in a popular engraving by Blanchard’s oeuvre popularly misinterpreted as
Jean-Charles Le Vasseur. deliberately ‘Caravaggist’.
One of the most important aspects of The Louvre Charité of 1633, acquired by
Blanchard’s art in his Parisian career was the Louis XIV in 1662 from Everard Jabach,
decoration of several hôtels. However, not one represents the first time that Blanchard can be
of these works survives in situ and we have to seen to add a modicum of classical order,
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