Workshop of Pierre Mignard (1612 - 1695)
Attributable to Henri Gascard (Paris 1635 - Rome 1701)
Portrait of Françoise-Athénaïs, Marquise of Montespan (1640-1707), favorite of Louis XIV of France
Oil on canvas
79 x 86 cm. - Framed 91 x 98 cm.
Full details of the painting (click HERE)
The painting portrays Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Marquise of Montespan (Lussac-les-Châteaux, 1640 – Bourbon-l'Archambault, 1707), a French noblewoman best known as Madame de Montespan, the most famous mistress of King Louis XIV of France.
Belonging to one of the oldest and noblest families in France, the House of Rochechouart, Madame de Montespan was called by some "the true Queen of France" during her love affair with Louis XIV of France due to the pervasiveness of her influence at court at that time.
She was one of the most emblematic and fascinating figures of the court of the Sun King, celebrated by contemporaries as a woman of extraordinary beauty: with her blonde hair, blue eyes and crimson lips, she was the perfect embodiment of beauty according to the standards of the time.
Next to her is Cupid on a cloud, god of love, ready to shoot his arrow at her, thus alluding to her amorous control over Louis XIV between approximately 1667 and 1680.
The use of portraying royal mistresses as divinities was also a way to legitimize their influence at court, elevating them to icons of fashion and eternal beauty.
The portrait, in particular, takes up a composition made by the workshop of Pierre Mignard and now at Versailles (Musée national des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon), which portrays Madame de Montespan as a Venus, flanked by her little son Cupid (https://collections.chateauversailles.fr/#/query/678e7719-364b-4c8e-a65a-20939d96d8ce).
The noblewoman is portrayed reclining, elegantly dressed in a silk dressing gown adorned with lace, adorned with pearls in her hair and around her neck, and stylistically reflects the figurative culture of the great French century, characterized by a classicism of Baroque taste, aimed at exalting the court of the Sun King.
Pierre Mignard is known to have portrayed Madame de Montespan on several occasions, often with allegorical themes.
There are works, attributed to his workshop, which show Montespan being crowned by Cupid, underlining her "power" and her influential beauty at court.
Therefore, numerous portraits were dedicated to her by the greatest painters of the time, reflecting her position as "absolute" favorite at the court of Louis XIV, celebrating her legendary beauty and her lavish taste, in which she was often portrayed as a classical divinity. Famous, for example, the portrait by Charles Beaubrun depicting her as Diana the Huntress, or the painting in Palazzo Pitti in Florence, of French origin, which always sees her as Diana the huntress, surrounded by erotes and dogs (https://catalogo.cultura.gov.it/detail/HistoricOrArtisticProperty/0900126047), and finally the portrait of Monstespan as Iris by Louis Elle, also in Versailles (https://pop.culture.gouv.fr/notice/joconde/000PE007085).
Returning with attention to our canvas, it is presumable that it may be a work from the workshop of Pierre Mignard himself, generally referable to the last quarter of the 17th century: specifically, in our opinion, the combination with Henri Gascard (1635–1701) would be plausible, a pupil and collaborator of Mignard, from whom he learned the elegant and idealized style typical of French classicism of the period.
A highly successful French portrait painter in the 17th century, he often worked "in the manner of" or as a follower of Mignard and many 17th-century works are now the subject of attribution debates between the two artists or their respective workshops.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
The painting is sold complete with a pleasant gilded frame and is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity and a descriptive iconographic sheet.
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