The School of Cuzco, the former capital of the Inca Empire, develops under the impulsion of Spanish artists, who created a school for the Quechuas and the mestizos (descending both from Spanish and Amerindians), teaching drawing and oil painting. The paintings are essentially of didactic vocation, the goal being to convert the Incas to Catholicism. In 1688, the Spanish and mestizos members of the Cuzco school departed from the indian artists, which brought many Quechua painters to develop their own style, based on recent European works. This style can be defined as at the crossroads of baroque influence introduced y the Spanish and Indian and half-breed traditions and is characterized by the massive, if not abusive, use of bright colors and gold heightening (as is here the case), and the arquebusier angels are a favorite motive of these artists. It is under the influence of European prints introduced in the Andes that the weapons of the celestial armies changed: the usual shields, spears, swords, were replaced by arquebuses, fire weapon from Renaissance Europe. It is possible that our artist took for inspiration a print after Guido Reni’s Saint Michel from the church Santa Maria della Concessione in Rome. The parish church of Calamarca, La Paz (Bolivia) owns a series of ten arquebusiers angels, dating from the late seventeenth century, where we find a figure very similar to ours, with different clothes, figuring Uriel Dei, the fourth of the seven major archangels known in the Western world. He is rarely represented alone, but we know a painting attributed to Zurbaran’s workshop in Lima. He also appears as a military with armor in the Urquia series (north of Argentina). Our painting, with its bright colors, its opulent gilding, or the multicolored feathers crown demonstrates clearly this blend of cultures typical of Andine painting.
Son of the famous Jean-Honoré, Alexandre –Evariste Fragonard enters at the age of twelve in David’s workshop ( 19 September 1792 exactly)as an apprentice, and will make his official débuts at the 1793 Salon, where he exhibits on a regular basis until 1842.During all his career, he shows a prolific activity as History painter (from Antiquity to modern times), costumes for the Opera, projects for Sèvres (from 1804 to 1839), drawings for the Voyages pittoresques et romantiques dans l’ancienne France, projects for tapestries and wallpapers, great decorations (for Lucien Bonaparte, the palais Bourbon, the Louvre). In his history paintings, he shows a decisive interest for Renaissance scenes, especially French subjects and the Valois Court. We have been unable to identify the subject of our painting, that costumes date at the end of the sixteenth century, the ermine coat of the male figure designs a royal birth though the setting of the scene has nothing of a palace. Should we search among hors mariage adventures, such as Charles IX and Marie Touchet ?
Auguste Dumont, whose dates are unknown, studied with his father and Hippolyte Léty. He exhibits at the Salon des Artistes français from 1928, until1930, in the painting section : in 1928, he presents « moulin en Flandre » (« windmill in Flanders »), in 1929, « le cheminot » (« railway man ») and « neige et soleil » (« snow and sun »), and in 1930, « Béguinage à Bruges » (“Beguine convent in Bruges”) et « Château de Formanoir, Templeuve » (“Formanoir Castle, Templeuve”), titles evoking contemporary Belgian painting, such as the Laethem Saint Martin group. We know that in 1929 he lived in Tourcoing. In our painting,we can recognize on the walls « supper at Emmaüs » by Rembrandt (Paris, Jacquemart-André museum), « Sainte Geneviève watching on Paris » by Puvis de Chavannes (Panthéon), and on the turntable a sculpture by Louis-Ernest Barrias « Mozart playing violin ».
Of Swiss birth, Feyerabend settled, for unknown reasons, near caen at the end of the eighteenth century, where the locals, unable to tell his name nicknamed him « Lelong » (“tall one”). A self-portrait of the artist at his easel effectively shows he was tall and thin, but more interesting for us, that he painted still-lives similar to those assigned to « Lelong ». This identification, due to a collector , Guillaume Dubois de la Cotardière, was published in 1920 by A. de Fleury (Journal des Arts, 29 mai 1920). Of the artist we know mainly small still-lives, but also some marines, inspired by, or copied from, Lacroix de Marseille.
The pietra paesina is a stone and clay marly limestone formation. The best examples are in the Florence area, but there are some in Liguria and Lazio as well. It is used as a support for painting since the mid-sixteenth century, using the different layers as a backdrop. Here, the artist presents the scene against a background of sharp mountains, with a tree on the right side, planted at mid height. The style of this painting refers to the first half of the 17th century, an artist influenced by the style of Filippo Napoletano (1589-1629), who produced many small paintings on paesina for the Grand Ducal Court. The inscription at the back of the frame, which refers to a "Fiamengo Hieronimus", could not be identified.
Alessandro Allori studied in Bronzino’s(1503-1572) workshop, then the major artist in Florence, working for the Medici and local aristocracy, and we know that as soon as 1549 he works on the cartoons for the Story of Joseph tapestries, and his first independant work is documented 1552 (for a Medici, lost). In 1554 he goes to Rome, for a few years, he seems to be back in Florence in 1560, date of a descent from the Cross for Santa Croce, and in 1562, Bronzino comes to live with Alessandro, his brother, and their mother, now widow. He covers many duties for the Accademia del Disegno until he is elected « console » in 1573, a job he will dismiss the following year, the commissions being very abundant. In his vast production (some two hundred pictures are listed by Simona Lecchini Giovannoni in her catalogue raisonné published in 1991), some fourty portraits are known, though Raffaello Borghini wrote: « Infiniti sono i ritratti dipinti da Alessandro Allori per Principi, Signori e Gentilhuomini » (Raffaello Borghini, II Riposo, Florence, 1584). The sitter of our portrait, certainly a widow, has not yet been identified. Allori used copper as support for religious or profane works, but this is the only portrait known on copper.
The fraise is on use from the second half of the sixteenth century to early seventeenth. In France its is forbidden from the reign of Louis XIII. We think our portrait is French, early XVIIth century without more precision.
