Thursday, November 17, 2022

Later French Artists copying Earlier Italian Artists

Edme Bouchardon after Annibale Carracci
Head of Christ
(detail of an altarpiece)
ca. 1724-25
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Edme Bouchardon after Annibale Carracci
Atlante and Ignudo
(from Galleria Farnese frescoes, Rome)
ca. 1723-32
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Nicolas-Bernard Lépicié after Annibale Carracci
Ignudo
(from Galleria Farnese fresco, Rome)
before 1784
drawing
Musée du Louvre


Michel Corneille the Younger
after Annibale Carracci
Figure clinging to Hanged Man
ca. 1660
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Michel Corneille the Younger after Annibale Carracci
Woman in a Landscape
ca. 1660
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Edme Bouchardon after Raphael
Head of Triton
(from Villa Farnesina fresco, Rome)
ca. 1727-30
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Edme Bouchardon after Raphael
Head of Bacchus
(from Villa Farnesina fresco, Rome)
ca. 1727-30
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Edme Bouchardon after Raphael
Aeneas fleeing Troy
(from a fresco at the Vatican)
ca. 1724-26
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Pierre Mignard after Raphael
Figure of Satan
(from painting, St Michael vanquishing Satan)
before 1695
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Pierre Mignard after Raphael
Figure of St Michael Archangel
(from painting, St Michael vanquishing Satan)
before 1695
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Louis-Jean-Jacques Durameau after Flaminio Vacca
Marble Lion in the Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence
ca. 1760
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Louis-Jean-Jacques Durameau after Guido Reni
Aurora in her Chariot
(after engraving after ceiling fresco in Rome)
ca. 1765-69
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Charles-Joseph Natoire
after Giovanni Antonio Mari
Marble Angel supporting Picture Frame
(from Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome)
ca. 1723-28
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Charles-Joseph Natoire
after Giovanni Antonio Mari
Marble Angel supporting Picture Frame
(from Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome)
ca. 1723-28
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Charles-Joseph Natoire after Pelegrino Tibaldi
Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne
before 1777
drawing
(copy commissioned by Pierre-Jean Mariette)
Musée du Louvre

The still-famous Parisian collector Pierre-Jean Mariette (1694-1774) directly commissioned Charles-Joseph Natoire (1700-1777) to draw the copy of Pelegrino Tibaldi's Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne reproduced here – in the blue "Mariette mount" – uniform with those applied to the majority of the 9,000 drawings in Mariette's collection.  The formality of the mount was a deliberate device in this collector's successful campaign to elevate the status of the old master drawings (mainly Italian) he had gone to such trouble to understand and such expense to acquire.  Contemporary gossip suggested that Mariette intended his collection for the French state, and that in fact Louis XVI had, after Mariette's death, followed through and offered a certain sum to the heirs for this purpose.  The King's offer was, however, refused.  Instead, the heirs concluded they could make a better profit by dispersing Mariette's life project piece by piece in a series of public auctions.  During the subsequent 250 years, many of these drawings (in their distinctive blue mounts) have by various routes made their way into the vaults of the Louvre, but none by the path that Mariette intended.