The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine of Alexandria is by the remarkable high baroque French painter Jacques de Lestin or Létin (Troyes 1614-1673 Troyes), as advised by Dr. Sylvain Kerspern, supported by Dr. Patrice Marandel of the Los Angeles County Museum and verbally approved of at a Paris exhibition by Sylvain Laveissière, chief curator of paintings at the Louvre. This very touching and superb oil on copper datable to possibly the 1620's in Rome, size 24.8 by 20.3 cm, probably served as a small personal devotional painting for a royal or aristocratic client. It takes its composition partly from Carravaggio's Martyrdom of Saint Matthew in the Roman church of San Luigi dei Francesi (Saint Louis of the French), which almost naturally also inspired Claude Vignon for his renowned painting of the same subject matter now in Arras, dated 1617. De Lestin is recorded as having arrived in Rome in 1622, living with his painter colleague Charles Mellin (who equally used the image of the descending angel from Carravaggio) and the sculptor Jacques Sarrazin. De Lestin is described as coming for the first time during Easter 1624 to Simon Vouet's studio, who himself had already arrived in Rome in 1614. De Lestin studied the large works of the then ténèbriste Vouet and obviously was much influenced by his style. Back to France in 1626 de Lestin was asked to execute many works outside his birthplace of Troyes and he kept in contact with Vouet and his circle who returned in 1627 to Paris. This exquisite small work displays the particular physiognomy and typical musculature seen in de Lestin's larger works. The nervous movement of the brush, heavy swirling drapery, the clasped hands and the flickering light coming from above left, casting deep soft shadows and the vibrant coloring denote the theatrical baroque efforts of the French artistic Counter Reformation, intending to show the spiritual strength of the Saints. The artist succeeds in depicting the cruelty of the moment with a moving but superb and very poetic pathos, much like what Vignon expressed in his Saint Matthew, while also having been influenced by the early Roman works of Vouet. Notwithstanding the size of this small amazing work, it shows the full power and talent of this quite unusual artist, cf. Jacques de Létin, exhibition catalogue Musee des Beaux-Arts de Troyes, 1976, with a preface by Jacques Thuillier.

Le Faune et sa Femelle (The Faun and his Female) by Nicolas Chaperon (Chateaudun 1612-1655 Lyon), oil on canvas, size 59 x 44.5 cm. As one of the pupils of Simon Vouet, Chaperon who was not only a painter but was also an engraver who made prints from works by Vouet, Poussin and Dorigny, all with themes from Greek and Roman mythology. The subject matter was mainly taken from Roman writers such as Ovid and Catullus, who wrote about the childhood and life of the wine god Bacchus, called Dionysus by the Greeks. Bacchus was the son of Zeus by the priestess Semele and he was celebrated in ancient mythology for his orgies surrounded by satyrs, female revelers and fauns (a famous depiction of Bacchus and Ariadne by Titian hangs in the National Gallery in London). The secular taste for such light hearted scenes, allowing the artist to freely use his imagination became early on fashionable in Italy and France. Chaperon produced paintings of Bacchanalia and a series of engravings from his own works in Paris before leaving for Rome in 1636. In this work the influence of Poussin is clearly visible in the cherub to the left and the influence of Vouet in the female figure, but both the seated faun with his huge shoulders and the satyr looking down from the tree are typical of Chaperon as is the small cherub leaning against the Faun and looking up at him. There is an engraving (in the same direction) after this painting by Chaperon in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, size 227 x 163 mm, signed in the plate Chaperon f., Mariette excudit, engraved by Chaperon and published by Pierre-Jean Mariette, a Parisian dealer in prints and illustrated in the exhibition catalogue Nicolas Chaperon, 1612-1654/55, Du graveur au peintre retrouvé, Nîmes musées des Beaux-Arts, 1999, authors: Sylvain Laveissière, Dominique Jacquot and Guillaume Kazerouni, pages 102-104, illus page 102, Catalogue number 21. This painting has extraordinary charm, and relates to the similarly appealing Drunken Silenus by Chaperon in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Dr. Dominique Jacquot one of the editors of the Nimes exhibition catalogue and author of the chapter on Chaperon's early years in Paris and his Bacchanalia has approved of the attribution.

Le Faune et sa Femelle (The Faun and his Female), a preparatory drawing for the above painting by Nicolas Chaperon (Chateaudun 1612-1655 Lyon), pen and brown ink with brown wash, size 28.5 x 21.5 cm. Provenance Jules-Alexandre Duval Le Camus (1814-1878), Paris, whose collection stamp it bears lower left (Lugt, Marques de Collections de Dessins et d'Estampes,, no. 1441). This high quality drawing follows Chaperon's superb graphic style as well as his preferred medium of pen and brown ink and brown wash (cf. Sylvain Laveissière, Dominique Jacquot and Guillaume Kazerouni, Nicolas Chaperon 1612-1654/55 , catalogue for the exhibition at the musées de Nîmes, 1999, Cat. 35, p. 140 illus. passim). Dr. Jacquot mentions in his description of the engraving in the same direction made by Chaperon himself (cf. idem, Cat. 21, pp. 102/4, illus. collection of the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris), that despite the heavy influence of Poussin and Vouet, one finds here the typical features of Chaperon's modeling of figures. The faun seen from the rear with large shoulders, the child with his round face who looks up at him and in particular the satyr with horns on a bald and knobby head seen from above, which he describes as a sort of signature of the artist. As comparison Jacquot mentions paintings sold at Christie's London in 1997 and a design correctly attributed to Chaperon by Kazerouni, illustrated in the drawing catalogue by Richard Harprath, Barbara Brejon de Lavergnée et alia, Simon Vouet: 100 neuentdeckte Zeichnungen for an exhibition at the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munchen, 1991. The fact that the composition has been copied many times and that the engraving exists in many impressions shows that it was a much admired image during Chaperon's life time.There are copies after our drawing in the Louvre (copie apres Chaperon 41 x 30.6 cm., inv. 25205, Fonds des dessins, Grand format) and one in the Albertina in Vienna (Satyrfamilie 24.8 x 19.5 cm. inv. no.11591).

The Triumph of Neptune, a notable large work by Pierre Brebiette (Mantes 1598?-1642 Paris), oil on canvas, size 111.7 x 148.6 cm., attributed with the full support from Dr. Paola Bassani Pacht author and Dr. Sylvain Kerspern, co-author of the exhibition catalogue Pierre Brebiette, Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orleans, 2002. As Jacques Thuillier wrote in his preface to the catalogue " On peut voir en Brebiette un petit maître charmant qui poursuit en plein XVIIe siècle le vieux rêve païen de Fontainebleau et retrouve pour chanter Bacchus, les dryades et les satyres, les accents point si lointains ni oubliés de la Pléïade. Mais un autre image s'impose : celle d'un artiste indépendant, dont les expériences romaines eurent un role déterminant pour le développement du courant néo-venétien des années vingt " (One could see in Brebiette a charming small master who pursues in the full seventeenth century the old pagan dream of Fontainebleau and recovers for our enchantment Bacchus, the dryads and satyrs, returning to the quite far removed but not forgotten sounds of the 'Pléïade'- i.e. the Pléïade is the name given to a group of 16th-century French Renaissance poets, inspired by Alexandrian poets and tragedians of the 3rd century B.C. -. But another image imposes itself: that of an independent artist, to whom the Roman experiences were a determining role for the development of the neo-Venetian trend in the years twenty - i.e. 1620's -). Brebiette's works have great charm, but there are traces of melancholy as if celebrating a vanishing mythological world. His depictions of Proserpina abducted to the Underworld (there is an example in the Louvre and a small variation on copper in private hands) denote a regret as if with her all of antiquity disappears into the dark. This large Neptune en colère (wrathful), seems almost a warning not to forget or neglect the ancient gods. The ship with torn sails struggles to reach safe haven, while a Triton heralds Neptune's triumph. Brebiette is an idiosyncratic painter as can be seen in his self portrait engraved after the death of his wife Loyse de Neufgermain in 1637, which bears the inscription animum pictura pascit inani (Painting nourishes the heart of him who is overwhelmed), but also with a poetic and romantic nature almost modern in sensibility. His love for a vanishing ancient world was nourished in Rome by the Cavaliere Dal Pozzo, the sophisticated patron of Poussin whose deep interests in Roman archeology were well known. Having become peintre du roi (court painter to Louis XIII) Brebiette enjoyed success in Paris with his tales from ancient mythology. Both Dr. Bassani Pacht and Dr. Kerspern date our Triumph of Neptune to about 1640 towards the end of Brebiette's working life, a dating supported by the structure of the struggling ship and by an engraving by Brebiette dated 1640 of Le Temps sur son Char...etc. (in the catalogue number 103, page 102, illustrated) which shows the figure of Time whose physiognomy resembles closely that of the Neptune in our painting seated on a chariot and with fluttering robes comparable to the torn sails on our ship. The image is taken before at present being cleaned and restored in France.

A glowing Allegory of Love and Abundance, attributed to Charles Poerson (French, 1609-1667), circa 1650/60, oil on canvas, size 93 x 75 cm. From a notable private collection in Rome and exhibited at the New Orleans Museum of Art 2008-2010, Venus, whose lower torso is loosely wrapped in a mantle, sits in an informal pose between two putti representing Love and Abundance or, in another sense, spiritual and sublime emotion against base and material wants. Cupid stands confidently to one side, leaning on his bow and against the goddess' knee, a stalwart defender of love's sanctity and spiritual power. The other putto jumping animatedly in front of a broken column is, by contrast, an emblem of unchecked appetites as he attempts to seize the bunch of grapes that Venus prudently withholds. One can infer from this tantalizing juxtaposition -- along with the gathering storm clouds in the background -- that a momentous decision has been made. The goddess, whose arm rests on Cupid's shoulder, has chosen love that is high-minded and everlasting over the quest for more fleeting, material pleasures. It was not uncommon for artists of seventeenth century France to flatter their aristocratic female patrons by portraying them as classical goddesses like Venus or Diana and in poses reminiscent of Greek and Roman sculpture. This may be the case here, although the sitter is unknown. Nudity was no impediment to such portrayals provided that the goddess was clearly shown as the embodiment of beauty, chastity, wisdom, good breeding, and/or as a devout patron of the fine arts. (It was only from the mid-eighteenth century on that the middle class virtues of literacy, religious devotion, or motherhood became popular modes of representation). Charles Poerson bathes the figure of Venus in strong white light emanating somewhat from the left, and frames her face and flowing locks with the contrasting tones of black and royal blue in the sky. The flesh tones are sumptuously rendered in fine gradations of color. A pink ribbon in Cupid's hair marks him as the favorite of the goddess. The landscape background efficiently conveys a poetic atmosphere, and the broken column alludes to the vanity of once mighty civilizations now lost. This Allegory of Love and Abundance would appear to be an appropriate summation of Poerson’s Atticiste style, incorporating an inventive disegno and subtle coloration with an admirable gift for conveying refined sentiment. It is only in the last thirty years that historians have come to recognize Charles Poerson as a major exponent of the new Classical style in France during the reigns of Louis XIII and Louis XIV. Art historians like Clementine Gustin-Gomez have attempted to restore him to prominence by distinguishing his work from that of his contemporaries. This painting, Allegory of Love and Abundance was suggested as a work by Charles Poerson by Jean-Claude Boyer, formerly from the Académie de France in Rome and by Sylvain Laveissière, the Louvre's chief curator of paintings, based on the resemblance of the figures in this work to paintings and drawings known to be by the artist. He appears to have entered in 1634 the studio of Simon Vouet (1590-1649). It is reported that he worked with Philippe de Champaigne and Simon Vouet on Cardinal de Richelieu’s palace circa 1632. It is possible that he went to Italy sometime during 1630s, although there is no direct evidence that documents this. In any event, he developed an Italianate style under Vouet's tutelage, characterized by a restrained palette, strong lighting effects, the use of monumental figures modeled after antique prototypes, and a tendency to set the action against rather static but evocative architectural settings. His pictorial language became also closely aligned with Vouet's. After the death of Vouet in 1649, Poerson’s style became more Classical, that is, less theatrical and more intellectually complex both in composition and in his deployment of color. He settled as a painter in Paris from 1638 onwards and in 1651 he was elected member of the Académie royale. Charles Poerson designed a large number of cartoons for the royal tapestry works, les Gobelins. Among his more famous works are the large allegorical portrait of the young Louis XIV as Jupiter and victor over the Fronde rebellion, hanging in Versailles and his Camma et Synorix in the musée des Beaux-Arts in Metz, both of which relate directly to this superb Allegory.

A valuable and striking addition to his small works on copper by the French/Canadian painter Claude François or as he was later called Frère Luc (1614-1685) is this image of Saint William of Aquitaine , a soldier renouncing military life in order to become a monk. The saint is shown in a flaming red mantle as if engulfed in a purifying fire. His armor is adorned very clearly with the stylized golden rose symbolic of the Provence (later brought to England with his daughter Eleanor of Aquitaine). As Dr. Sylvain Kerspern, the specialist on Frère Luc has remarked, the artist traveled much and many documents have been lost during the French Revolution, but a fine painting by him remains in a church in La Rochelle, the seaport on the Bay of Biscayne established by William of Aquitaine, with could explain this representation of one of the patron saints of Aquitaine. But since this is a small oil on copper it probably was not meant for a church but for private devotion and commissioned by someone named Guillaume or just to honor this saint in which case the La Rochelle connection appears interesting. The highly emotional aspect however of this painting would suggest from the quite rare iconography a greater interest in the devotional value than in the actual historical facts of the represented saint. In Canada as stated above with the description of the La Vièrge embrassant le Christ au Roseau, now in the Montreal Museum, Frère Luc is considered to be the first authentically Canadian artist (FRANÇOIS, CLAUDE, Frère Luc - Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online)