North Italian School, 17th Century

Pelham Galleries, London;

From whom acquired by Aso O. Tavitian, 2003.

These adorable anecdotal representations of the life cycle were produced by an unknown seventeenth-century artist working in Northern Italy. Printed depictions of the Stages of Life, Seasons, Elements, Continents, and Senses, were especially popular at that time and artists frequently mined such graphic compendia for creative inspiration. The painter here based the designs on a set of engravings published circa 1639 by the French printmaker Philippe Huart and executed by Willem de Gheyn (Infancy, Adolescence, and Old Age) and Jean Baptiste Humbelot (Manhood) after early paintings by Charles Le Brun.¹

Abounding with charming details, the scenes convey life’s chapters with humor and poignancy. Infancy features a woman nursing a newborn and three insouciant toddlers: one, as if play-acting as a mother, holds a swaddled cat stuffed animal; another girl toys with a pinwheel; and a boy, hiding beneath the table at right, engages in a game of masked peek-a-boo with a small dog. Adolescence depicts three teenagers engaged in a musical performance, suggesting the stirrings of first love. Beside the trio, underscoring the conviviality and playfulness of this stage of life, lie an abandoned backgammon set and two balls and a racquet for jeu de paume (as tennis was known in the seventeenth century); behind them a young boy plays lawn bowling. Manhood emphasizes financial success and stability: packaged commodities are stacked beside the well-dressed couple, their two children, and a curled-up dog, symbolic of marital fidelity. And in Old Age, an elderly couple stokes a fire as two servants carry in firewood. A set of abandoned eyeglasses on the table at left gently reminds the viewer of the increased need for such accoutrements later in life and perhaps pokes fun at the spectacles’ frequent misplacement. 

Throughout the series the artist utilized the alabaster support to great trompe l’oeil effect: left unpainted the stone variously represents the sky, patterned floor tiles, variegated marble columns, and orderly garden paths. 

¹ Full sets are contained in the British Museum, London (inv. nos. 1878,0713.2638; 1878,0713.2639; 1878,0713.2640; 1878,0713.2641) and Kupferstich-Kabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden (inv. nos. A 127011; A 127012; A 127013; A 127014). Only two of Le Brun’s paintings are known: Infancy (offered Sotheby’s Paris, 15 June 2017, lot 56) and Adolescence (offered Artcurial Paris, 13 November 2019, lot 122).