.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
An early project for the upper section of the high altar of the Chapelle de la Trinit at Fontainebleau. On Toussaint Dubreuil's death in 1602, King Henri IV recalled Martin Frminet from Italy and commissioned him to decorate the chapel, a project which was not completed until 1633, fourteen years after the artist's death. The present sheet is connected to the earliest known project for the high altar, a large modello formerly in the Chennevires collection and now at the Louvre, recognised by Sylvie Bguin in 1963 as by Frminet, S. Bguin, 'Two projects by Martin Frminet for the Chapel of the Trinity at Fontainebleau', Master Drawings, I, 1963, pl. 18.
The decoration for the chapel lasted more than twenty-five years. Heroard, the Dauphin's doctor, recorded in his diary on 20 August 1608 the existence of a fresco of the Annunciation in the chapel, but it is generally believed that work on the high altar did not start before the King's assassination in 1610. Indeed during King Henri IV's lifetime Frminet worked mostly on the ceiling. The presence on the Louvre modello of the ciphers of both the young King Louis XIII and his mother the Regent Queen Marie de Medicis proves this and implies that the work was executed before 1615 when King Louis XIII married Anna of Austria.
Although the fresco of the Annunciation was eventually completed, it was almost immediately overshadowed by an altar completed in 1633 from a design by Frminet for which the modello is in Darmstadt, having previously been in the Mariette Collection, S. Bguin, op. cit., pl. 19.
The Louvre modello concentrates on the architectural structure of the altar, recording summarily both the fresco of the Annunciation and the altarpiece depicting the Resurrection. It does not offer any solution to the integration of the high altar within the ceiling and side walls of the chapel. The present drawing represents an attempt to tackle this problem. In the Louvre modello, the two pendentives on either side of the lunette are left blank and the fresco is simply framed by a beaded frieze. The present sheet suggests the addition of two reclining figures, one male, another female, with the joined coats-of-arms of France and Navarre in the middle, linking the ceiling to the tip of the arch with a string of garlands. Revealingly, both the coats-of-arms and the frieze have been drawn on separate sheets of paper. Although the solution offered for the pendentives was never executed, the idea of a coat-of-arms was developed into a large cartouche flanked by two flying angels, today one of the most striking features of the chapel.
The composition of the fresco does not seem to differ greatly from the one depicted in the Louvre modello. The figure of God the Father has been added above that of the Holy Ghost, placed directly underneath the Royal coat of arms. This obscures the dramatic trompe-l'oeil effect of the vault seen di sotto in su on the larger modello. Other small variations are noticeable such as the doubling of the number of urns in the foreground and a change of pose in the reclining figure to the left.
Latin inscriptions referring to the Annunciation appear in all of the projects. However the shaped cartouches in which they are inscribed are radically different, suggesting the existence of several alternative designs for the first project for the high altar.
Another drawing related to the vault of the chapel was sold in Christie's, New York, on 10 January 1990, lot 103.
Frminet, the son of a minor painter, trained with the artists working at Fontainebleau before leaving for Rome in 1588. He befriended the Cavaliere d'Arpino, and in 1596 visited Venice. In 1599 he was working for the Duke of Savoy in Turin. After his return to France, he was made Premier Peintre du Roi and in 1615 was made a Knight of the Order of Saint Michael.
The decoration for the chapel lasted more than twenty-five years. Heroard, the Dauphin's doctor, recorded in his diary on 20 August 1608 the existence of a fresco of the Annunciation in the chapel, but it is generally believed that work on the high altar did not start before the King's assassination in 1610. Indeed during King Henri IV's lifetime Frminet worked mostly on the ceiling. The presence on the Louvre modello of the ciphers of both the young King Louis XIII and his mother the Regent Queen Marie de Medicis proves this and implies that the work was executed before 1615 when King Louis XIII married Anna of Austria.
Although the fresco of the Annunciation was eventually completed, it was almost immediately overshadowed by an altar completed in 1633 from a design by Frminet for which the modello is in Darmstadt, having previously been in the Mariette Collection, S. Bguin, op. cit., pl. 19.
The Louvre modello concentrates on the architectural structure of the altar, recording summarily both the fresco of the Annunciation and the altarpiece depicting the Resurrection. It does not offer any solution to the integration of the high altar within the ceiling and side walls of the chapel. The present drawing represents an attempt to tackle this problem. In the Louvre modello, the two pendentives on either side of the lunette are left blank and the fresco is simply framed by a beaded frieze. The present sheet suggests the addition of two reclining figures, one male, another female, with the joined coats-of-arms of France and Navarre in the middle, linking the ceiling to the tip of the arch with a string of garlands. Revealingly, both the coats-of-arms and the frieze have been drawn on separate sheets of paper. Although the solution offered for the pendentives was never executed, the idea of a coat-of-arms was developed into a large cartouche flanked by two flying angels, today one of the most striking features of the chapel.
The composition of the fresco does not seem to differ greatly from the one depicted in the Louvre modello. The figure of God the Father has been added above that of the Holy Ghost, placed directly underneath the Royal coat of arms. This obscures the dramatic trompe-l'oeil effect of the vault seen di sotto in su on the larger modello. Other small variations are noticeable such as the doubling of the number of urns in the foreground and a change of pose in the reclining figure to the left.
Latin inscriptions referring to the Annunciation appear in all of the projects. However the shaped cartouches in which they are inscribed are radically different, suggesting the existence of several alternative designs for the first project for the high altar.
Another drawing related to the vault of the chapel was sold in Christie's, New York, on 10 January 1990, lot 103.
Frminet, the son of a minor painter, trained with the artists working at Fontainebleau before leaving for Rome in 1588. He befriended the Cavaliere d'Arpino, and in 1596 visited Venice. In 1599 he was working for the Duke of Savoy in Turin. After his return to France, he was made Premier Peintre du Roi and in 1615 was made a Knight of the Order of Saint Michael.