Offered by Antichità Castelbarco
Jacques Blanchard (Paris, 1600 – Paris, 1638) and workshop
Thetis in Hephaestus' forge (Hephaestus gives Thetis the weapons he forged for Achilles)
Oil on canvas applied to panel 80 x 65 cm. In frame 90 x 76 cm.
Critical report by Arabella Cifani
This interesting painting depicts a famous mythological episode narrated by Homer in the Iliad (Book XVIII) and portrays Thetis, the most beautiful of the Nereids and mother of the hero Achilles, together with Hephaestus, god of fire and blacksmith of the gods, whom we see here with a hammer in his hand, intent on forging weapons for the woman's son, which will become emblematic of the hero's great power.
This is a recurring episode in art and literature: after the death of Patroclus, who wore Achilles' armour, his mother Thetis went to the forge of Hephaestus (also known as Vulcan), located in the heart of Mount Etna, to ask him for new divine armour and all the weapons necessary for her son's revenge against Hector, guilty of having killed her friend.
As indicated by Dr Arabella Cifani in her study of the painting, it is a work by the French painter Jacques Blanchard (Paris, 1600 – Paris, 1638), assisted in this specific case by his workshop.
Blanchard was one of the most important painters active in Paris in the first half of the 17th century and, as we can see from the painting in question, his works show remarkable technical skill and a predilection for depth and realism, making him a very influential artist in French painting.
His style was influenced by Rubens' Baroque style, without excluding a more classicist approach, particularly akin to Poussin's models, with compositions defined by grace, proportion and balance.
His stay in Italy, between Rome and Venice, was also decisive for his painting, where he found inspiration in the work of Venetian painters, particularly Titian, Veronese and Tintoretto.
Before returning permanently to France, he was in the service of the Duke of Savoy, Carlo Emanuele di Savoia, in Turin, for whom he painted numerous works with mythological subjects, including “The Loves of Venus and Adonis”, which were later transferred to Paris.
Despite producing very few religious devotional works, Blanchard is still celebrated as a painter of mythological and allegorical subjects, which made him famous and sought-after even during his lifetime, assisted in his work by a talented workshop.
Of the painting under consideration here, the original of which has been lost, there is a splendid engraving by Pierre Daret de Cazeneuve, datable between 1663 and 1678, printed in the workshop of Pierre II Mariette (1634-1716), a print dealer and great French publisher, active in Paris (https://www.boijmans. nl/en/collection/artworks/151540/thetis-at-the-forge-of-vulcan ).
The main feature of his works is his tendency to infuse his subjects with an aura of sensuality, reminiscent of the masterpieces of Titian and Veronese, where the pose of Thetis' body seems to echo ancient Greek statues, portrayed in a blue dress that leaves her breasts exposed. This earned him the nickname “the French Titian” among his contemporaries and placed him in a crucial position in the development of French art between the eroticism of the court art of Fontainebleau in the 16th century and that of Boucher in the 18th century.
Delevery information :
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