Page 32 - Jacques Blanchard - Myth and Allegory

artist’s decade in Paris, circa 1634, which
would therefore make it a likely candidate for
the lost series of paintings executed by
Blanchard for the hôtel Le Barbier. More
tantalising still, Dézallier d’Argenville
describes the dimensions of eight of the
fourteen pictures as ‘nearly square’.47
However, none of the recorded subjects of
Blanchard’s decorative work corresponds to
the present picture and admittedly, some
doubt lingers as to the exact extent of the
literary themes Blanchard explored in his
scheme for the Hôtel le Barbier. However our
painting, which was apparently made to fit
within boiseries, would appear consistent with
these works and indeed with Blanchard’s Venus
and the Three Graces Surprised by a Mortal, dating
from the same years. The picture could well
have formed part of a similarly elaborate
decoration, as yet unrecorded. It should also be
noted that these decorations were often
designed for relatively small rooms.
Consequently, these pictures were hung close
together with a viewpoint of approximately
chest height for the lower edge of the painting,
which is exactly the case in this picture.
Beresford after having toyed with the idea of a
hôtel Le Barbier provenance, wrote: ‘I have
puzzled over the dating and I think there are
various things wrong with the chronology in
Thuillier’s catalogue. Finally, I am persuaded
that your picture is very late, quite possibly
from the last year of Blanchard’s life.The main
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picture to compare it with is known to
Thuillier only from an engraving. It is TheVirgin
uncovering the Christ Child with the infant Saint
John adoring.The engraving states that this was
painted in 1638. If this is correct I think a date
of 1637/38 is right for your picture’.48
The colour scheme of this relatively late work,
while typical of Blanchard, has now developed
into something slightly more Venetian rather
than Vouet-like. This is largely due to the
artist’s inclusion of the rich red drapery
arranged almost like a cloth-of-honour behind
the sleeping nymph, which is in both chromatic
and compositional counterpoint to the distinct
ice-blue drapery that barely covers her. This
red swagged drapery also appears in the
undated Danaë in Lyon49, which Thullier dates
to as early as 1629, after the artist’s departure
from the city. However, the engraving after this
composition is generally dated rather later to
just after Blanchard’s death. Equally, the red
drapery also appears in the Louvre Venus and the
Graces Surprised by a Mortal, and, with equal
panache, in the Toledo Charity.
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Finally, we should consider the painting’s
distinctive landscape elements, which,
while hardly unusual in Blanchard’s oeuvre,
here, form almost a third of the composition.