拍品專文
The present drawing is a preparatory study for the figure of the young boy seated at the feet of Music in the Allegory of Music, one of several pictures which decorated the ceiling of the Cabinet des Beaux Arts in Charles Perrault's house in the Rue Neuve des Bons Enfants, Paris. The picture was removed from the ceiling in 1683 and the house demolished in 1685 to create La Place des Victoires. The decoration is, however, known through a series of prints Le Cabinet des Beaux Arts ou recueil d'estampes gravées d'aprés les tableaux d'un plafond où les Beaux-Arts sont representés avec l'explication de ces mêmes tableaux, Paris, 1690 (fig. 1), N. Garnier, Antoine Coypel, Paris 1989, fig. 40.
The central section of the ceiling represented the divinities protecting the Arts: Athena, Apollo, Hermes. On the right of the present composition was the allegory of Music once identified as the portraits of Madame de Montespan with her children or madame de Maintenon with her pupils. However, Pierre-Jean Mariette described the print as 'La Musique accompagnée de plusieurs enfants, représentée par la femme et les enfants de Charles Perrault, de l'Académie Française.' The present child would then be a portrait of one of Charles Perrault's children, seated at the feet of his mother.
Both the Perrault and the Coypel were protected by Colbert, which may explain the friendship which allowed a young artist such as Antoine Coypel to take part in the project. The signature on the print 'Coypel fils' shows that Antoine had not yet established his own reputation.
The central section of the ceiling represented the divinities protecting the Arts: Athena, Apollo, Hermes. On the right of the present composition was the allegory of Music once identified as the portraits of Madame de Montespan with her children or madame de Maintenon with her pupils. However, Pierre-Jean Mariette described the print as 'La Musique accompagnée de plusieurs enfants, représentée par la femme et les enfants de Charles Perrault, de l'Académie Française.' The present child would then be a portrait of one of Charles Perrault's children, seated at the feet of his mother.
Both the Perrault and the Coypel were protected by Colbert, which may explain the friendship which allowed a young artist such as Antoine Coypel to take part in the project. The signature on the print 'Coypel fils' shows that Antoine had not yet established his own reputation.