Lot Essay
A study for the central figure of Anchises in La Descente d'Enée aux Enfers, one of seven pictures decorating the walls of the Galerie of the Palais-Royal, residence of the Regent, Duc d'Orléans, in Paris. Coypel, who painted the cycle between 1715 and 1717, had already executed the ceiling decoration in 1702. The main panel of the series depicts the moment when Aeneas, led by the Sibyl of Cumae, meets with his father, Anchises, in the Elysean Fields. Anchises, for whom the present drawing is a study, points out to his son all the Roman princes who will descend from him.
The picture was removed from the gallery in 1778, when part of the Palais Royal was pulled down. The picture, now in the Louvre in a poor state of conservation, is, however, better known through compositional drawings, also in the Louvre, in which the present figure appears, N. Garnier, Antoine Coypel, Paris, 1989, no. 511 and 512, fig. 1.
The pose of the figure with one arm raised is one used repeatedly by the artist. The closest is a design for a medal commemorating the Paix des Pyrénées at the Musée du Louvre. Similar frontal poses with the arms outstretched are found in a study for Minerva prenant soin de l'Education de Louis XV et le conduisant dans le chemin qui mène au temple de la mémoire, for which a study for the figure of Minerva, formerly in the Dhikeos collection, was sold at Christie's, Monaco, 20 June 1992, lot 226.
Coypel's style, which in the early years of his career tended to be quite distinct from Le Brun's, later assumed a solemnity which reveals the artist's training in the circle of the official art of King Louis XIV.
The picture was removed from the gallery in 1778, when part of the Palais Royal was pulled down. The picture, now in the Louvre in a poor state of conservation, is, however, better known through compositional drawings, also in the Louvre, in which the present figure appears, N. Garnier, Antoine Coypel, Paris, 1989, no. 511 and 512, fig. 1.
The pose of the figure with one arm raised is one used repeatedly by the artist. The closest is a design for a medal commemorating the Paix des Pyrénées at the Musée du Louvre. Similar frontal poses with the arms outstretched are found in a study for Minerva prenant soin de l'Education de Louis XV et le conduisant dans le chemin qui mène au temple de la mémoire, for which a study for the figure of Minerva, formerly in the Dhikeos collection, was sold at Christie's, Monaco, 20 June 1992, lot 226.
Coypel's style, which in the early years of his career tended to be quite distinct from Le Brun's, later assumed a solemnity which reveals the artist's training in the circle of the official art of King Louis XIV.