DIDIER AARON Paintings × Drawings × Sculpture

DIDIER AARON Paintings × Drawings × Sculpture JACQUES STELLA (Lyon 1596 – 1657 Paris) The Virgin and Child with Saints Francis and John the Baptist Oil on marble 38.2 x 42.6 cm. PROVENANCE: Sale Joseph Artaud, Paris, 15 November 1791, lot 90; Sotheby's, New York, 28 January 1999, lot 403; Private collection, East Coast, USA. Son of François Stellaert (1563-1605), a painter of Flemish origin working in Rome from 1576 who then settled in Lyon, Jacques Stella was born in 1596. Around 1619, he left for Florence where he worked for Cosimo II de’ Medici and probably met Nicolas Poussin and Jacques Callot. He left Florence for Rome between 1622 and 1623, where he formed a close friendship with Poussin. Stella became famous among Italian collectors with his small paintings on precious supports such as marble, agate, lapis and slate, as well as with his engravings and drawings. He worked on a series of 45 drawings illustrating the life of Saint Philippe Neri for the Jesuits. In 1634, he received a commission from the king of Spain, and left Rome with the retinue of Maréchal de Créqui, French ambassador in Rome. He passed through Venice, stayed in Lyon in 1635 and then went to Paris. Persuaded to stay by Richelieu, who took him into his service, he settled in the capital; there he benefited from lodging at the Louvre and a considerable grant. Later he was decorated with the order of Saint-Michel, which was a rare and great honour for an artist. At this period, Stella received many important commissions from Cardinal Richelieu for his château, Indre-et-Loire (Liberality of Titus, Cambridge, Fogg Art Museum). He also received commissions for Châteaux de Madrid, Paris, and Château de brissac, Maine-et- Loire, and for the Académie Royale. For the chapel of the Château de Saint-Germain, he painted two panels St Anne leading the Virgin to the Temple (Rouen, MbA) and St Louis distributing alms (Cathedral of bazas). A commission from the Jesuit novitiate placed him in a position of rivalry with two of his great contemporaries, Poussin and Vouet. His Christ among the Doctors (1640-42; Eglise des Andelys) is in no way inferior to paintings of his great competitors. In spite of bad health, Stella continued to paint and maintained a regular correspondence with Poussin, of whom he possessed several works. Among Stella’s principal works are Marriage of the Virgin executed for Notre-Dame de Paris (Toulous, Musée des Augustins), Clelia crossing the Tiber (Paris, Musée du Louvre) and Jesus among the Elders in the Temple for the church in Provins (in situ). Still not thoroughly studied, Stella is one the greatest seventeenth-century French painters. His style is restrained and powerful. He preferred simple sculptural figures attesting to his knowledge of Antiquity. The smooth porcelain-like finish of his later works, as well as the colours cast in cold and abstract light, make Stella a precursor of neoclassicism. Fig. 1: Jacques Stella Assumption of the Virgin Surrounded by Angels, 1624 Oil on agate, 91 x 98 cm Collegiate Church of Pastrana, Spain Paintings on stone were one of Stella’s specialities. This technique was particularly popular in Florence, where the artist had stayed between 1617 and 1621. However, it is not known whether he had produced any of these paintings during this period. The earliest known work, an Assumption painted on agate, is dated 1624, when the artist was in Rome and is now at the Collegiate Church in Pastrana, Spain (fig. 1). Thanks to the inventory established by his niece Claudine bouzonnet Stella (dated 1693) we know that fifteen or so of these works on ‘paragone’ or lapis-lazuli passed through the hands of Urban VIII, showing that he considered them important enough for diplomatic gifts (as was the case for the Assumption given to the Spanish Ambassador). Six paintings on stone are known to have been in the collections of Maréshal de Créquy (although none of them have been identified today). Very few of these works on stone were signed, and most of them, unfortunately, are now lost. While he painted on agate, alabaster, onyx and lapis-lazuli, Stella also executed several oils on slate. One of them, a small painting representing Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist, is at Ham House in Richmond, London (fig. 2). Fig. 2 (left): Jacques Stella, Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist Oil on slate, 42.5 x 33.3 cm. Ham House, Richmond (National Trust) Fig. 3 (below): Jacques Stella The Baptism of Christ, circa 1630 Oil on onyx, 40.7 x 32.3 cm Private collection As often when he painted on stone, Stella took advantage of the markings of the material itself. For example, in The Baptism of Christ (fig. 3) he used the veins of the onyx to suggest the clouds on which God the Father is seated, the halo surrounding Christ and the ripples of the River Jordan in which Christ is standing. In this painting of The Virgin and Child with Saints Francis and John the Baptist, Stella leaves the background untouched in plain contrast to his figures. We can compare this work with numerous paintings by Stella of the Holy Family from the second half of the 1630s and the beginning of the 1640s, of which the Holy Family with Saint John and a Lamb (fig. 4) is a perfect example. Sylvain Kerspern suggests a dating between 1634 and 1637, as he detects transitionary elements between Stella’s Roman manner - still brimming with baroque agitation - and the more Classical one that he adopted upon his return to France. Fig. 4: Jacques Stella Holy Family with Saint John and a Lamb c.1635-1642, oil on slate Musée d’art Thomas- Henry, Cherbourg-Octeville DIDIER AARON 152 boulevard Haussmann, 75008 Paris, France, T: +33 1 47 42 47 34 32 East 67th Street, New York, NY 10065, USA, T: +1 212 988 5248 53 Davies Street, London W1K 5JH, UK, T: +44 20 7534 9100 www.didieraaron.com .

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