BARNABÉ GALLERY

François MAROT (Paris, 1666 – id., 1719)

Circa 1717-1718

Allegory of Sight

Oil on canvas, 84 cm x 126 cm

Signed at the bottom left: "Marot. fecit"

THE ARTIST

The recent rediscovery of the academic painter François Marot (1666-1719) has provided an opportunity to clarify the confusion with Charles de La Fosse (1636-1716), his master, with whom he has often been confused (see Fr. Marandet, “In the wake of Charles de La Fosse: François Marot (1666-1719), The Art History Notebooks, 2010, pp. 40-47; and, by the same author, “François Marot: fourteen rediscovered works, The Art History Notebooks, 2015, pp. 68-74).

Let us recall the facts we have about this artist. After an apprenticeship with Charles de La Fosse (1636-1716), François Marot was admitted as a history painter to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1702 (Allegory of the Peace of Ryswick ; Tours, Museum of Fine Arts). He was subsequently mobilized for the King's Buildings. In 1711, he participated in the tapestry of the History of the King (The Institution of the Military Order of Saint Louis(known from a sketch preserved at the Palace of Versailles). Three years later, in 1714, he received a commission for a painting intended for the Marble Trianon (Latona and the Lycian peasants ; in situHowever, these rare royal commissions present a dichotomy with the leading role that Marot played in decorative arts, both in France and abroad. As we have demonstrated, he was indeed paid around 1704 to deliver paintings to the entourage of Duke Maximilian Emmanuel, Duke of Bavaria, through the intermediary of the brothers Paul and André Vérani de Varenne, two extremely wealthy jewelers (Marandet 2015, op. cit., p. 71).

THE WORK

It is within this context of aristocratic commissions that we must connect the previously unseen painting we are presenting. This painting depicts a Allegory of Sight as it was codified by Ripa.

Given its horizontal format and subject matter, our painting must have belonged to some series illustrating the five senses in allegorical form. The best evidence of this is the reappearance, a few years ago, in the art market of a Allegory of Hearing (sale Milan, Semenzato, October 19, 1999, no. 65; Fig. 1Beyond their similar dimensions (76 cm x 138 cm), this painting bears the signature "Marot" in the lower left corner, just as ours does. Regardless of these observations, our painting displays a style typical of François Marot. The deliberately sketched effects, especially where the fabrics appear crumpled, are reminiscent of the influence of La Fosse, and, through him, that of the Rubensian model. Since the famous "quarrel" sparked by the Duke of Richelieu's Rubens paintings, we know how much Rubens's art was reorienting the vision of French artists at the end of Louis XIV's reign.

FIG. 1

Two drawings by François Marot confirm the classification of our painting and allow us to trace its genesis. The first is located in a private collection in Great Britain (Fig. 2The model from which François Marot conceived his personification of sight is clearly recognizable. We discover that it was initially studied nude before being partially draped at a later stage. The curve of the putto the image next to it also reveals a reversal of pose: by means of this subtle modification, he was thus getting closer to the View while looking at the viewer.

FIG. 2

The second drawing offered by the Paul Prouté Gallery in Paris (Fig. 3) It shows a similar nude, which was undoubtedly a preparatory study for an allegory from the same series. Two recurring motifs of limbs are particularly noteworthy in relation to our painting. The right hand, in the upper section, foreshadows that of the personification of sight. More strikingly, the left forearm foreshadows that of the same figure holding a mirror.

One final observation is necessary regarding our painting. The chronology of François Marot's production covers approximately thirty years (from 1690, roughly(to 1719) but the milestones allowing us to follow its evolution are extremely rare, due to a lack of dated works. Now, if this is not the case for our painting, the very nature of the framing of The Allegory of Hearing This inevitably suggests a late date. Indeed, we know that the first scalloped borders only appeared during the Regency period. Given François Marot's death date (1719), our painting could only have been painted by him at the very end of his life, probably around 1717-1718.



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