1 - Toulouse School, late 17th century / first quarter of the 18th century, Attributed to Antoine Rivalz (1667-1735) and his workshop

Toulouse School, late 17th century / first quarter of the 18th century, Attributed to Antoine Rivalz (1667-1735) and his workshop Portrait of a capitoul of Toulouse Oil on canvas Depicting a magistrate wearing the ceremonial dress of the capitouls of Toulouse, comprising a red and black robe with ermine trimmings and an épitoge over the shoulder In the upper left corner, a cartouche with the arms of the sitter: or, a chevron gules accompanied by three ducks sable; the shield surmounted by a helmet in profile, with a plume of feathers and mantling gules and or 122x97 cm The capitouls were the eight magistrates who ensured the municipal government of Toulouse, renewed annually and representing the different capitoulats into which the city was divided. Holding the office conferred important privileges, among them ennoblement, and it was occupied by members of the local nobility, magistrates, lawyers and prominent members of the bourgeoisie. The representation of the capitouls constituted a particularly important tradition in the institutional life of the city. The painter to the City Council was responsible for the official portraits of the magistrates and for their representation in the manuscript Annales of Toulouse, where they appeared accompanied by their respective names and arms. Alongside the collective compositions, numerous individual portraits were executed, today dispersed among public and private collections. The present work corresponds to the typology of these individual portraits. The costume, the presence of the family arms in the upper corner and the format of the canvas find direct parallels in known examples, namely in the Portrait of Pierre-Jacques de Villepigue, capitoul in 1717, attributed to Antoine Rivalz, with very similar dimensions. The stylistic characteristics and the costume allow the painting to be placed between the late 17th century and the first decades of the 18th century. During this period, the office of painter to the City Council of Toulouse was successively held by André Lèbre, between 1691 and 1693, Jean Michel, between 1694 and 1702, and Antoine Rivalz, between 1703 and 1735. Comparison with known portraits by André Lèbre appears to rule out his authorship. The present painting reveals greater affinities with works by Antoine Rivalz and his workshop, namely in the treatment of the physiognomy, the hair, the fabrics and the capitular dress, which is the reason for the present attribution. The scarcity of known individual portraits by Jean Michel does not, however, allow an execution during the period in which he held the office of painter to the City Council to be entirely excluded. The arms of the sitter remain unidentified. No exact correspondence has so far been located in the principal armorials consulted, among them Rietstap's Armorial Général, Brémond's Nobiliaire toulousain, La Roque's Armorial de la noblesse de Languedoc, the Armorial Toulousain and the Armorial des capitouls de Toulouse drawn from the d'Hozier register of 1696-1711. Identification is hindered by the loss of a substantial part of the manuscript Annales and of the iconographic documentation relating to the capitouls, destroyed during the French Revolution.