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拍品專文
These two pastels depict Democritus (c. 460-370 B.C.) and Heraclitus (c. 540-475 B.C.), traditionally known as 'the laughing and crying philosophers'. Democritus, a Greek born at Abdera in Thrace, was said to have laughed continually at the folly and vanity of mankind. Both Seneca and Juvenal contrasted his philosophic system with that of the earlier Heraclitus of Ephesus, a melancholic who wept at Man's follies and frailty. From the Renaissance onward, their texts were used to support the view that a cheerful attitude was proper to a philosopher, and the pair are widely represented in baroque art, either together in one picture or -- as here -- in companion pieces.
The pastels are closely related to a recently rediscovered pair of paintings sold at Christie's, New York, 27 January 2000, lot 47 ($464,500; see also T. Lefrançois, Charles Coypel, Peintre du Roi (1694-1752), Paris, 1994, nos. P242-243). The pastels were probably executed around 1746, the year in which the pictures were exhibited at the Salon -- evidently to some acclaim given the number of references to them by the critics. The paintings soon entered the collection of Claude-Adrien Helvétius, who had just acquired the Château de Voré from the heirs of Louis Fagon. Helvétius' father was a physician and once saved the life of Coypel's father, Antoine, who was also his close friend. The subject matter must have held particular significance for Helvétius, himself one of the most important philosophers of the century.
Another pair of drawings, in black and white chalks, and related to the paintings is known. One, The Cheerful Democritus, is in a private collection, New York; the other, The Sorrowful Heraclitus, is in a Belgian private collection.
We are grateful to Dr. Thierry Lefrançois, who has seen the pastels, for confirming their attribution (private communication, 7 August 2000).
The pastels are closely related to a recently rediscovered pair of paintings sold at Christie's, New York, 27 January 2000, lot 47 ($464,500; see also T. Lefrançois, Charles Coypel, Peintre du Roi (1694-1752), Paris, 1994, nos. P242-243). The pastels were probably executed around 1746, the year in which the pictures were exhibited at the Salon -- evidently to some acclaim given the number of references to them by the critics. The paintings soon entered the collection of Claude-Adrien Helvétius, who had just acquired the Château de Voré from the heirs of Louis Fagon. Helvétius' father was a physician and once saved the life of Coypel's father, Antoine, who was also his close friend. The subject matter must have held particular significance for Helvétius, himself one of the most important philosophers of the century.
Another pair of drawings, in black and white chalks, and related to the paintings is known. One, The Cheerful Democritus, is in a private collection, New York; the other, The Sorrowful Heraclitus, is in a Belgian private collection.
We are grateful to Dr. Thierry Lefrançois, who has seen the pastels, for confirming their attribution (private communication, 7 August 2000).