拍品專文
The present picture would appear to be the only known version of a painting executed for Queen Marie Leczinska in 1736. A picture of the same subject hung in her appartement at Versailles. The Inventaire des Tableaux qui se sont faits pour le service du Roy depuis celui du mois d'avril 1732, records a 'Sainte assise, joignant les mains dans une cellule' (Archives Nationales, O series, 1965). The dimensions of the latter were recorded in the Registre des Bâtiments du Roy as 3'5" x 1'10". As M. Lefranois notes, however, there are frequent inconsistencies in the royal inventories as paintings were often measured together with their frames. So it is not impossible that despite its differing dimensions, the present picture may be identified with that painted for Marie Leczinska.
The legend of Saint Thaïs appears to have no historical basis and is rarely depicted. The saint, who had been promiscuous, as well as wealthy and beautiful, was converted to the path of righteousness by Saint Paphnutius. She burned her clothes and jewellery and, once taken to a nunnery, began a course of prayer in solitary confinement. As shown in the present picture, Saint Thaïs sat facing East repeating the simple prayer, 'Oh my Creator, have pity on me'. At the end of three years she rejoined the daily life of the nunnery but died two weeks later.
As well as providing an appropriately female object of devotion, the subject of the present picture may have held a deeper personal significance for the Queen. She, too, lived largely ignored by the fashionable entourage surrounding her husband and his successive mistresses. The story of Saint Thaïs's self-imposed confinement and ultimate spiritual reward may have provided comfort to the Queen in her own solitary exile from the court, at the same time as covertly criticising the unreformed promiscuosness of her more fashionable rivals.
We are grateful to M. Thierry Lefranois for confirming the attribution to Charles Coypel from a transparency; he intends to include the painting in a forthcoming publication.
The legend of Saint Thaïs appears to have no historical basis and is rarely depicted. The saint, who had been promiscuous, as well as wealthy and beautiful, was converted to the path of righteousness by Saint Paphnutius. She burned her clothes and jewellery and, once taken to a nunnery, began a course of prayer in solitary confinement. As shown in the present picture, Saint Thaïs sat facing East repeating the simple prayer, 'Oh my Creator, have pity on me'. At the end of three years she rejoined the daily life of the nunnery but died two weeks later.
As well as providing an appropriately female object of devotion, the subject of the present picture may have held a deeper personal significance for the Queen. She, too, lived largely ignored by the fashionable entourage surrounding her husband and his successive mistresses. The story of Saint Thaïs's self-imposed confinement and ultimate spiritual reward may have provided comfort to the Queen in her own solitary exile from the court, at the same time as covertly criticising the unreformed promiscuosness of her more fashionable rivals.
We are grateful to M. Thierry Lefranois for confirming the attribution to Charles Coypel from a transparency; he intends to include the painting in a forthcoming publication.