Bouquet of flowers on an entablature - Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer (1636-1699)

The composition offering a stone entablature, soberly molded and a little worn, on which is placed a vase with the antique decorated with flowers of florist is characteristic of the painter. By choosing double and extra double varieties discreetly mixed with perennial varieties, less spectacular, Monnoyer aims to prevent the eye from being lost in the proliferation of details that would ruin the unity of the 'whole', proper to the politics of the Great Century. All these flowers appear crumpled, even tormented, as if they were subjected to the affront of a light breeze. They give way under the weight of their corollas and fall back, for some, as if exhausted on the edge. This is a typical feature of Monnoyer's art. Similarly, the palette he uses is restricted here and if it is dominated by pinks and carmine red, the tone of the whole is silver is cold. The exceptional state of the pictorial surface is to be noticed. it allows to appreciate the beauty of the details - the diversity of the textures as well as the great satin of the poppy bud on the left, the hatched and wet frame of light of the acanthus leaf emerges from the vase, the impalpable lightness of the pale roses in the center.
the painting is typical of the artist's early maturity and was painted in the first quarter of the 1670s.

a certificate of Mrs Claudia SALVI will be given to the buyer.