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 (see detail below). 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.

The Allegory of Scylla and Charybdis, a rare 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 like in our painting 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 Scylla and Charybdis with the prominent figure of Neptune en colère (wrathful), seems almost a warning not to forget or neglect the ancient gods while we navigate our uncertain fate. 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 encouraged 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 place our Scylla and Charybdis to about 1640 towards the end of Brebiette's working life, a date 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 (see detail below) whose physiognomy resembles that of Neptune in our painting seated on a chariot and with fluttering robes comparable to the torn sails on our ship. Dr. Bassani Pacht states that she plans to publish our painting in an article on Brebiette's landscapes in a forthcoming collection of essays in honor of the eminent art historian Jacques Thuillier, edited by Alain Merot, Philippe Sénéchal et Denis Lavalle.

A glowing Allegory of Love and Abundance, by Charles Poerson (Vic-sur-Seille 1609 - 1667 Paris), 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. The face of Venus is directly reflected in the face of Helena (see detail below) in Poerson's small tondo of L'Enlèvement d'Hélène in the Louvre (Barbara Brejon de Lavergnée, Nicole de Reyniès and Nicolas Sainte Fare Garnot, Charles Poerson (1609-1667), Arthena 1997, color plate 2, cat. no. 3, page 78). 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. Dr. Gustin-Gomez wrote about the Allegory of Love and Abundance that the attribution is a very good idea without having seen the painting in person. The attribution is fully accepted by Patrice Marandel, European painting curator at the Los Angeles County Museum. This painting was suggested already as a work from Charles Poerson's hand by Jean-Claude Boyer, formerly from the Académie de France in Rome and by Sylvain Laveissière, the Louvre's emeritus chief curator of paintings, based on the resemblance of the figures in this work to paintings and drawings known to be by the artist. The French collector Paul Micio who owns a major Poerson also recognized this work as autograph. Charles Poerson 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 and fine allegorical portrait of the young Louis XIV as Jupiter and victor over the Fronde rebellion, hanging in Versailles and his beautiful and classical Camma et Synorix in the musée des Beaux-Arts in Metz, both of which relate directly to this superb Allegory. The painting was exhibited on loan to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art 2012/2013 (http://www.lacma.org ).

A large and superb Bacchanal by Nicolas Chaperon (Chateaudun 1612-1655 Lyon), oil on canvas, size 133.5 by 144.5 cm. This splendid image though maybe less reddish and lighter in tone than some of Chaperon's other paintings (cf. 'The Drunken Silenus' in the Uffizi gallery in Florence) nevertheless displays many characteristics of Chaperon's hand. For example one notices here the splatches of red color in the tree trunks like in the above listed earlier 'Faun and his Female' by Chaperon. And the prone figure of the inebriated Bacchus is found in many of Chaperon's drawings, etchings and paintings. A close comparison can be made between the typical physiognomy of the figures within a triangular composition and the five engravings after Chaperon by Michel Dorigny as confirmed by the art-historian and collector Jean-Pierre Mariette (1694–1774). All are described by Dr. Dominique Jacquot and illustrated in the small exhibition catalogue edited by Dr. Sylvain Laveissière of Chaperon's works at the Nîmes musée des Beaux-Arts in 1999, pages 79-135. The closest of these engravings is Laveissière's catalogue number 22 (in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris), pages 104-106 where one can see the bacchante on the left in our painting who embraces the other bacchante half turned away from the viewer directly reflected in the bacchante who pours wine into the lifted cup of a kneeling bacchante (see detail below). This typical embracing gesture is present in many of the etchings and drawings after and by Chaperon (cf. the satyr embracing a tree trunk in our above listed example). While in another engraving by Dorigny after Chaperon the bacchante seen from the rear in our painting, is exactly like the bacchante depicted to the left in that etching (Laveissière, catalogue number 26, pages 112-114). The luscious fullness and massing of the figures in our painting can clearly be seen in the red chalk drawing in the Louvre and its engraving by Dorigny after Chaperon of ‘The Drunken Sileneus on a Goat Supported by two Fauns’(Laveissière catalogue number 24, pages 108-110). The three-dimensional and triangular position of his figures against dark woods is directly reflected in a black chalk drawing by Chaperon in the Albertina in Vienna (inv. # 11.587, illus. and described by B. Brejon de Lavergnée et alia , Charles Poerson (1609-1667) , Arthena 1997, page 213, number 129) which could very well be a study for this work and is also comparable to the red chalk drawing of ‘La Nourriture de Jupiter’ in the musée des Beaux-Arts in Besançon. And the exact replica of our kneeling faun to the right holding up Bacchus is found in a copy after Chaperon of the 'Union of Bacchus and Venus' in the Grand Palais in Paris. Equally as noted by Jacquot is the manner of representing the forward inclined heads of the protagonists in a remarkably rhythmical pattern. Chaperon’s cherubs play an integral part in his compositions by emphasizing a sensuality which is restrained in his figures. The charming conceit of depicting them as small fauns with rabbit-like ears is encountered often in Chaperon’s images. The overly developed dorsal muscles of his male fauns are also an immediately recognizable trait. Notable here too is the fairly dense treatment of the drapery in the red loincloth of the faun to the left, visible in our above listed example as well as in many engravings. Dorigny by comparison is far closer to Simon Vouet, their joint master with more dynamic compositions and an entirely different visual canon. Though the beautiful 'Pan and Syrinx' oil by Dorigny at the Louvre approaches our 'Bacchanal', its concept is of an entirely different and more evasive decorative appeal, in line with Dorigny's loyalty to Vouet (which also places the fine 'Allegory' attributed to Charles Poerson and described above outside Dorigny’s oeuvre). Though Chaperon is known so far mainly by his more somber palette, we can compare our pastel-colored painting to the large 'Ceres' in the London National Gallery whose profile though sharper shows a close resemblance with the features and the slanted eyes of the frontally facing and forward leaning bacchante to the left in our painting. Dr. Humphrey Wine of the London museum puts the relationship of that work to Chaperon in doubt, but even there the cherubs bear a close resemblance to Chaperon’s cherubs while Laveissière links its modeling and colors to the mural attributed by him to Chaperon in the Church of Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs in Paris. That mural though not in good shape reinforces a different aspect of Chaperon’s hand, namely an affinity to Poussin, which is also clearly seen in the figure of the faun to the left in our painting who is shown seen from the rear, an image which is obviously much indebted to the faun to the left in Poussin’s 'The Nurture of Bacchus' at the Louvre. In addition there is the very interesting description by Laveissière in the Nîmes museum catalogue of an oil sketch of ‘Venus and Amor in a Landscape’, which he attributes to Chaperon and which has passed under several names from Vouet to Dorigny, but is close to Chaperon’s manner in " le traitement du volume et des lumières, la pâte généreuse, la draperie cabossée, l'harmonie de roses et de bleu ardoise avec les terres" (in the treatment of volume and light, generous brushwork, pleated drapery and the harmony of pink, slate blue and earth tints). In fact Dr. Laveissière could have described our painting (Laveissière, page 21, color illus. Fig. A). It may well be as Laveissière has suggested about the London 'Ceres' that our canvas was meant for a decorative scheme or even as a design for a tapestry, because the large figures display a classicism unlike other works by Chaperon and with a pastel color eminently adapted to that purpose. All this proves that more exploration of Nicolas Chaperon’s works is necessary and that our large elegant painting must be part of his mature decorative style. The exuberance, the extraordinary rhythm as well as the triangular composition wherein the large figures are typically enlaced and with glances that criss-cross but do not directly engage is also found in the related, though more Vouet-esque and therefore probably somewhat earlier 'Venus, Mercury and Cupid' by Chaperon, acquired by the Louvre Museum from Christie's, New York on January 26, 2005 (lot number 24). But there the dominant color is a subtle orange-yellow, while in our painting a pinkish-red dominates, instead of the darker hues in for example the 'Drunken Silenus' in the Uffizi (which would seem like our example above of Le Faune et sa Femelle, to be datable to Chaperon's Paris period before he left for Rome). In both paintings Chaperon displays his love for a drapery that fluidly waves as if in a strong wind, which is also notable in all of the Classical seventeenth century French masters. What makes these representations of the drunkenness of Bacchus or Silenus so intriguing is that they are secular compositional variants on the 'Deposition' and thus one wonders about the symbolism intended by the artist.