Simon Vouet

Anonymous sale, Monaco, Sotheby's, 5 March 1984, lot 1049 (as Eustache Le Sueur);
Anonymous sale, Monaco, Sotheby's, 21 June 1986, lot 40 (as Eustache Le Sueur).

Probably G. Brière and M. Lamy, "Inventaires du logis de Simon Vouet dans la grande galerie du Louvre (1639 et 1640)," in Mémoires de la Fédération des societies historiques et archéologiques de Paris et de l'Ile-de-France, 1953, p. 144 (for the inventory of 1639);
A. Mérot, Eustache Le Sueur 1616-1655, Paris 1987, pp. 412-13, cat. no. R. 74, reproduced fig. 535 (rejecting the Eustache Le Sueur attribution);
B.B. Brejon de Lavergnée, in Vouet, exhibition catalogue, Paris 1990, p. 392, under cat. no. 86, reproduced (as after Vouet);
X. Salmon, "Un Dessin Inédit de Simon Vouet (1590-1649)," in Revue du Louvre, February 1993, p. 26, reproduced p. 27, fig. 3 (as after Vouet);
B.B. Brejon de Lavergnée, in Peupler les cieux, Les plafonds parisiens au XVIIe siècle, exhibition catalogue, Paris 2014, p. 134, under cat. no. 3 (as after Vouet).

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work shows a fairly clean surface but has an old lining. The lining should probably be re-examined, as the cracking to the paint layer is very raised and quite visually disturbing. However, the paint layer is in beautiful condition, having almost no retouches or damages. If the lining were reversed and the canvas re-lined to reduce the raised cracking, this work would be seen to be in extremely good condition.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

We are grateful to Dominique Jacquot who has seen this painting firsthand and accepts it as a work in full by Simon Vouet.  He will publish it in his catalogue raisonné on the works of Vouet, currently in preparation.

This oil sketch depicting the Assembly of the Gods is probably identifiable with the one listed in two inventories of Vouet’s lodgings at the Louvre in 1639 and 1640: “la macque [maquette, ébauche] d’un platfond peinct sur thoille ou est représenté l’Assemblée des dieux, sans bordure….”  (see Literature).  It relates closely to a black chalk drawing by Vouet in the collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs (fig. 1).  Both the oil sketch and the drawing have been linked to Vouet’s design for the ceiling of the Gallery of Ulysses at the hôtel de Bullion on rue Plâtrière, Paris.  The ceiling was part of a large decorative scheme for the hôtel, also involving the sculptor Jacques Sarazin, for which a contract was signed with Claude de Bullion (1569-1640), surintendant des Finances, in March of 1634. As part of the decorations, Vouet painted a series of 24 scenes depicting the adventures of Ulysses.  Today, neither the hôtel nor any of the finished paintings are extant,¹ however we have a near contemporary description of the ceiling from Antoine Nicolas Dezallier d’Argenville.   In his Voyage pittoresque de Paris (1765), he describes the ceiling:  “auxquels le soleil se plaint de ce que les compagnons d'Ulysse avoient mangé des boeufs qui lui étaient consacrés (in which the sun complains that the companions of Ulysses have eaten cattle that were consecrated to him").²  This episode, from Book 12 of the Odyssey, tells how the Sun (Helios), seeks help from Jupiter and the other gods in exacting revenge against Ulysses’s men for their affront.  In both the oil sketch and drawing, a kneeling figure can be seen imploring Jupiter for help.  While in the drawing this figure appears to have rays emanating from his head, in the oil sketch this figure wears a laurel wreath, an attribute of Apollo whose identity as the Sun-God made him interchangeable with Helios.  In the background of the oil sketch, Vouet has also included Apollo’s four white horses that pulled his golden chariot.

Two other preparatory drawings exist that relate to the present oil sketch: one for the female figure with blue drapery seen from reverse at the left side, and another for the female figure with upraised arm at the far right side.³ Another drawing  in the Bibliotèque Municipal, Bordeaux, depicting the figures of Jupiter and Juno, in which the position of Jupiter’s arms and legs differs, may also be a study for the hôtel de Bullion ceiling.⁴

 

 

1. The composition of eight scenes are known from tapestries after Vouet’s designs in the Château de Cheverny.
2  See N. Dezailler d’Argenville, Voyage pittoresque de Paris, 1765, p. 152.
3. Figure of a woman seen from behind, black chalk drawing, Musée du Louvre (Inv. RF 28.161); Female Torso, black chalk drawing, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Orléans (Inv. 22-117).
4.  See X. Salmon, op.cit., reproduced p. 25.