Caesar Returning to Cleopatra her Throne, French School

View Similar Items

French School, circa 1700 Judith and Her Handmaiden with the Head of Holofernes

Barbizon School, French Painting, Atributed to Jules Dupré, Oil on Wood

French School 19th Century Landscape

French School 18th Century "Battle"

Slice Daenerys 'Game of Thrones'

French School, "Peasants at the Table, " 1896

19th Century French School Still Life of Field Flowers

Frederick Goodall "Returning from the Well"

Painting of a return from fishing, 1930s.

Charming Paris Porcelain "Deers in a Landscape" by Saunier, French School, 1819

18th Century French School Portrait of a Man

Simone Colombier Abstract Gouache, Bordeaux School, France, 1947

1 of 9

Caesar Returning to Cleopatra her Throne, French School

About the Item

Probably in the first years of the decade of 1640, Louis Phelipeaux de la Vrillière, Secretary of State to Louis XIV, commissioned three paintings from Pietro da Cortona to decorate, along with seven other Italian baroque paintings, the Grand Gallery of his mansion in Paris. Though the Hôtel de la Vrillière became in the 18th century the Hôtel de Toulouse, the ten paintings by Cortona, Guercino, Poussin, Guido, Maratta, and l’Orbetto which decorated the Grand Gallery remained intact. They were not removed until the Revolution when they were confiscated by the Duc de Ponthièvre. During the Napoleonic era, they were dispersed among various museums - mostly to the Louvre, and the Caeser Returning to Cleopatra her Throne by Cortona went to Lyons in 1811. Brigante dated this painting 1643(?). Two preparatory drawings are known. The present work, by a French artist, is after Cortona’s original.

As Dr. Jorg Martin Merz has kindly commented, “the free brushwork and the good quality of the present work point to a distinguished painter, not a simple copyist. As there is no painted record or version of this composition in Rome, the present work was probably done in France and in the late 17th or 18th century.” The author of the present work, a riot of color and brushwork, must be French and 18th century. Indeed attributions to both Vien and Natoire have been suggested.

The Finding of Romulus and Remos, one of the other two paintings by Cortona made for l’Hôtel de la Vrillière, was replicated by Cortona on a smaller scale twice. One version is in the apartment of Don Urbano in the Palazzo Barberini; the second was “discovered” by Ellis Waterhouse at Chatsworth. No replicas by Cortona are known however, for the present composition. One painted copy, datable to the last quarter of the 18th century, and in the Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, has been cited in the Italian literature, and Ursula Fischer Pace notes that two copies are mentioned in the French exhibition catalogue, Seicento, le siecle de Caravage dans les collections françaises, Paris, 1988.

Framed

Dimensions:
Height: 17.25 in (43.82 cm)Width: 23.325 in (59.25 cm)
Materials and Techniques:
Linen
Place of Origin:
France
Period:
18th Century and Earlier
Date of Manufacture:
18th Century
Condition:
Seller Location:
New York, NY
Reference Number:
1stDibs: U090108854223