Offered by Galerie PhC
Canvas of 100 cm by 80 cm
Old frame of 120 cm by 102 cm
This sumptuous painting offers us the episode of the confinement of Danae by her father Acrisios, king of Argos, at the top of a brazen tower after an oracle predicted to him that he would be killed by his future child. -son. Zeus, in love with the beauty, still managed to get to her by a subterfuge, he transformed into a rain of gold to enter the place. From this union a boy will be born, Perseus.
This magnificent painting, recently rediscovered, is attributed to Jean-François de Troy with the participation of his workshop, particularly for the angel (Love). We know of another work by the artist on the same subject (number ¨P45 of the catalog raisonné produced by Mr Christophe Leribault) which is exactly the same size but very different: “Danae, she is lying on a bed receiving the golden rain; an elderly woman sits near her. The scene takes place in an alcove lined with large garnet velvet curtains. On the right, a bronze incense burner; on the left, a gilded wooden table, with ram feet. Very good painting, with a warm and brilliant tone, firm execution. – Paris 1751, Pierre Crozat collection June sale number 97 » The painting parallels another painting: The Judgment of Paris.
Our painting is not a repeat but a composition in its own right, there is no alcove, no incense burner; there is an angel (Love), non-existent in the other version, ready to shoot an arrow. However, we find the same gilded wood table covered with a fabric on which a box and a mirror are placed. The artist from the workshop who painted Love and whose name is unknown to this day, is most certainly the one who created a painting today at the Arras Museum of Fine Arts: Danaé (MNR674) Louvre Collection, French School of the 18th century, since 1951 at the Arras Museum of Fine Arts (https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010054889)
Jean-François de Troy (1679) -1752).
Jean-François de Troy (or Jean-Baptiste-François de Troy, depending on the sources), born January 27, 1679 in Paris and died January 26, 1752 in Rome, is a French painter and designer of tapestry cartoons. During his lifetime, he was considered one of the most important history painters in France. He is also in demand for his decorative paintings, portraits and genre paintings. In this last register, he is considered the inventor of “fashion paintings” which attempt to give an authentic portrait of the customs, fashions and pastimes of his time. Jean-François de Troy is the son of the portrait painter François de Troy (1645-1730) who encouraged him to stay in Italy from 1699 to 1706. He was admitted to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture on July 28, 1708. and took the oath in the hands of his father, then director of the Academy. Between 1724 and 1737, he worked at the Palace of Versailles and the Palace of Fontainebleau. He creates models of tapestries for the Gobelins factory (History of Esther, History of Jason). He received first prize in the great Competition of 1727 organized by the Duke of Antin, Director of Buildings, jointly with François Lemoyne, for his painting Le Repos de Diane (Nancy Museum of Fine Arts). He married in 1732 with Marie-Anne le Trouyt-Deslandes, aged 23, daughter of François le Trouyt-Deslandes, who brought him a considerable dowry. Seven children were born from this marriage, unfortunately all predeceased him. To invest his funds, he bought a position as secretary to the King. In 1738, Jean-François de Troy was appointed director of the French Academy in Rome, where he arrived on August 3. He was named a knight of the order of Saint-Michel by King Louis XV. He was elected prince, that is to say director, of the Accademia di San Luca in 1743. He died in Rome on January 26, 1752.
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