Page 29 - Jacques Blanchard - Myth and Allegory
P. 29
Fig. 4 - JACQUES BLANCHARD, return his men to human form, formerly given
TheVirgin unveiling the Christ Child, to Solimena and now attributed to
black and wash, 171 x 147 mm., Blanchard44, shows a bearded, helmeted man
Paris, Musée du Louvre, INV 34153. dressed in a cuirass and cloak, which is
virtually identical in pose to our Bravo,
albeit depicted as standing. (Fig.3) It would
be tempting to connect this sheet with the
present work; the similarities are
unmistakable. But unfortunately, almost no
securely attributed sheets by Blanchard are
known and any comparison between our
painting and this sheet must remain
hypothetical. However, one of the very few
studies, which Thuillier does concede might
possibly be by Blanchard, a small black chalk
of The Virgin unveiling the Christ Child, is also
based on the same basic compositional
formula of our picture: i.e., a cloaked
primary figure gesturing in strong diagonal
to the right, which is in counterpoint to
draperies arranged towards the left. (Fig.4)
45Thuillier believes the drawing to be similar
in handling to another study possibly
connected with the Louvre Holy Family,
which, if this is so, would date both Louvre
sheets to about 1637-1638, consistent with
the proposed dating for our picture, as we
will see.
The painting is one of the best examples of
Blanchard’s depiction of female sensuality,
especially in the flesh tones and in the
wonderfully abstracted face of the sleeping
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