Page 39 - Jacques Blanchard - Myth and Allegory

40 Proposed by Andrea Gates:‘If [the subject of the painting] copy made by La Hyre after a lost composition by
were Theseus and Ariadne, for which Blanchard could Blanchard, but more likely, like the other red chalk sheets
have used Catullus or Ovid as a source, this would explain in the Louvre attributed to Blanchard, is by Nicolas
the setting, the costumes, the sleeping figure and the red Prévost (c. 1604-1666 fl.).Thuillier, op. cit. DR21 p. 319-
cloth, which also hangs behind the sleeping Danaë in Lyon 320, illus.
and could denote nobility, rather than being strictly
decorative. There was a Bacchus and Ariadne by Blanchard 45 Thuillier, op. cit., cat. no. 3, p. 311, illus.
listed in Edmund Glover’s sale of pictures (London, 17
March 1741, lot 45, sold for 1/-16).’ (A. Gates, 2008, 46 Gerard Edelinck, engraving after Blanchard’s reputed
email, 18 January). self-portrait, Paris, Private coll., reproduced in Thuillier,
op. cit., p. 13 (facing page).
41 One possible example is the Warrior Bidding Farewell to a
Queen, alternatively Hyanthe and Francus (or) Tancred and 47 Referenced in: J. Thuillier, Jacques Blanchard 1600-1638,
Herminia, attributed to Toussaint Dubreuil and originally exhib. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes, 1998,
believed to have been painted for the Château-Neuf de under cat. no. 46.
Saint-Germain-en-Laye, though now believed to be at
least partly by his workshop. It depicts an encounter 48 Private comm. (R. Beresford, 2008, email, 17 January).
between similar, but standing figures in a wooded
landscape. Its original precise subject is also unknown. 49 Thuillier, op.cit., cat. no. 22, pp. 120-123, illus.
(Fontainebleau, Musée du Château de Fontainebleau, oil
on canvas, 191 x 135 cm, Inv. no. 8719). 50 It is clearly unlikely that our Bravo is meant to be Cimon,
who was an uncouth shepherd, as he is helmeted and
42 Mars and Rhea Silvia, c. 1616–17, oil on canvas, 207 x 271 cuirassed and carries a sword, all attributes which denote
cm, Liechtenstein Museum, Inv. no. GE 122, acquired by rank and possibly nobility.
Prince Johann Adam Andreas I of Liechtenstein in 1710.

43 Two such examples: a sarcophagus relief of Mars and Rhea
Silvia, walled into the Palazzo Mattei, and the Lion Hunt
sarcophagus, which had been in the forecourt of St. Peter’s
Basilica (now in the Palazzo Ropigliosi) had been well
known and admired since at least the early 16th century.

44 It should be noted that there are almost no securely
attributed sheets by Blanchard, and Thuillier does not
fully accept any of the drawings attributed to Blanchard,
distinguishing only a handful of the possible from the
many rejected attributions. Likewise, Thuillier does not
accept this particular drawing, but believes it could be a

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