GERARD DE LAIRESSE (LIÈGE 1640-1711 AMSTERDAM)
GERARD DE LAIRESSE (LIÈGE 1640-1711 AMSTERDAM)
GERARD DE LAIRESSE (LIÈGE 1640-1711 AMSTERDAM)
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This lot is offered without reserve.
GERARD DE LAIRESSE (LIÈGE 1640-1711 AMSTERDAM)

The Marriage of Peleus and Thetis

Details
GERARD DE LAIRESSE (LIÈGE 1640-1711 AMSTERDAM)
The Marriage of Peleus and Thetis
signed with initials 'GL' (lower left)
oil on canvas
60 5/8 x 74 5/8 in. (154 x 189.5 cm.)
inscribed in red with the inventory number '1721' (lower right)
Provenance
(Possibly) Jacques Meijers (d. 1721), Rotterdam; (†) his sale, Willis, Rotterdam, 9 September 1722, lot 90, 425 guilders to,
Christiaen Rademaker, Amsterdam.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 14 January 1988, lot 76.
with Richard L. Feigen & Co., New York, by 1988.
[The Property of a Gentleman]; Christie's, London, 24 May 1991, lot 23, where acquired by the present owner.
Literature
(Possibly) A. Roy, Gérard de Lairesse, 1640-1711, Paris, 1992, p. 490, no. M.82, 'un festin des dieux dans un magnifique palais, 5 pieds x 6 pieds 4 pouces'.
Special notice
This lot is offered without reserve.

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Lot Essay


The Marriage of Peleus and Thetis was a favorite subject for early seventeenth-century Baroque artists, especially those from the North. Providing an opportunity to paint a multitude of intertwining bodies – many nude – in an endless variety of complex poses, the painters Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Hans Rottenhammer, Cornelis van Haarlem, Bartholomeus Spranger, Hendrick Goltzius, Cornelis van Poelenburch and Abraham Bloemaert all took up the challenge that the subject offered on canvases, panels and copper plates ranging in size from the miniscule to the vast; famously, Joachim Wtewael undertook it many times over.

The ancient tale is recounted in Homer’s Iliad. In legend, it was prophesied that the sea-nymph, Thetis, would bear a princely son who would grow to be more powerful than his father. Zeus, supreme ruler of the gods, fell in love with Thetis, but, warned of the divine augury, betrothed Thetis to Peleus, king of the Greek city of Phthia. Zeus hosted the couple’s wedding banquet, to which were invited all of the gods of Olympus, apart from Eris, goddess of Strife. Arriving nonetheless, the vengeful Eris disrupted the feast by throwing among the guests a Golden Apple inscribed, 'To the Fairest'. The three claimants to the apple were the goddesses Hera (Juno), Athena (Minerva) and Aphrodite (Venus), the last of whom promised the hand of Helen, beautiful wife of the Spartan king, to Paris, the Trojan prince tasked with deciding the outcome of the contest. Paris awarded to prize to Venus, sailed to Sparta and abducted Helen, carrying her back to Troy, and thus instigating the storied Trojan War. The powerful son of Peleus and Thetis whose destiny was foretold was Achilles, victor of the Trojan War and the most celebrated of Greek heroes.

Gerard de Lairesse’s magnificent depiction of the story is a masterpiece of the classical Baroque style, with almost thirty characters intricately choreographed as if in a theatrical production, staged beneath two billowing curtains of ultramarine silk. At a large dining table set within an open-air marble pavilion, are seated the gods and goddesses of Olympus, the betrothed couple to the right (Thetis is swathed in midnight blue drapery) and Zeus standing at the far left of the table. Unwilling to weigh into a conflict that can only bring strife, he prepares to instruct a kneeling Hermes (Mercury), messenger of the gods (identifiable by his winged helmet and caduceus at his feet) to deliver the Golden Apple of Discord to Paris, as Aphrodite and Hera surround him; Athena, recognizable in her plumed helmet and armor, stands upon the table at the far right, unsuccessfully beseeching Zeus to decide the contest. Other deities, winged cupids and allegorical personifications react expressively to the drama unfolding around them.

Opulently staged, elegantly drawn and finely colored, Lairesse’s scene teems with life and energy and is painted with the smooth, polished finish and cool, clear coloring inspired by his study of contemporary masters of the French Baroque, notably Nicolas Poussin, Pierre Mignard and Charles Le Brun.

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