15 - Charles LE BRUN (Paris 1619–1690)

Charles LE BRUN (Paris 1619–1690) Ceiling design for the Salon du Dôme (now the Rotunda of Apollo) at the Louvre Palace, ca. 1659 Pen and brown ink over black chalk lines, with gray wash. Watermark of a church or tower. Some outlines incised. A “3” or “B” in pen and brown ink on one of the spandrels. On two joined sheets, formerly folded in four. Folds and wear restored. 80 x 65 cm Irregular oval shape drawn on a rectangular sheet. Provenance Formerly in the F. Périchot collection, 1873; Eric Coatalem Gallery; private collection, France Exhibitions N. Milanovic and A. Maral, *La Galerie des Glaces: Charles Le Brun, Master Builder*, Versailles, 2007, no. 63; P. Ramade, N. Schwed, P. Stépanoff, French Drawings from French Private Collections, Musée de Picardie, Amiens, Sans égal, 2026, p. 148, entry by G. Kazerouni, ill. p. 149. Bibliography *L'art pour tous*, July 31, 1873, no. 315, pl. 2805, p. 1253; J. Montagu, 1963, pp. 395–408 (listed as lost); L. Beauvais, Louvre Museum, Department of Graphic Arts, *General Inventory of Drawings, French School, Charles Le Brun 1619–1690*, Paris, 2000, vol. I, p. 44; N. Milanovic, “Astronomy and Astrology in Major 17th-Century French Decorative Art: From Vaux-le-Vicomte to Versailles,” *Revue de l’Art*, no. 140, 2003, p. 34; N. Milanovic, From the Louvre to Versailles: Interpreting Major Monarchical Decorations, Paris, 2005, pp. 79 and 206; T. Kirchner, The Epic Hero: History Painting and Artistic Policy in 17th-Century France, Paris, 2008, p. 193; B. Gady, The Rise of Charles Le Brun: Social Ties and Artistic Production, Paris, 2010, p. 207; B. Gady, Populating the Skies: Parisian Ceilings in the 17th Century, Louvre, 2014, ed. Le Passage, p. 224. Related Works Charles Le Brun, Design for the Grand Chamber of the King’s Council at the Louvre, vault, 1653 (Louvre, Inv. 27653 and 27651); engraving by François Verdier after the “Golden Age” panel (see Gady, op. cit. supra, fig. 126); François Bonnemer, two paintings based on the panels depicting the Silver Age and the Iron Age (Louvre, Inv. 2000-6 and 2000-7). At the urging of Chancellor Séguier, Charles Le Brun had secured a commission in 1653 for the ceiling of the King’s Council Chamber—a square-shaped room planned for the northern half of the west wing of the Cour Carrée. He drew up the plans, but construction was halted in 1654 and the funds were redirected to work on the King’s apartments. Le Brun was commissioned to paint the ceiling of the King’s small cabinet, where he depicted “Louis XIV steering the chariot of state” (Gady, op. cit. supra, figs. 121 and 122). For the same room, he painted an Allegory of Triumphant France above the fireplace (Gady, fig. 123). Thanks to his efforts, Le Brun was granted the title of the King’s official painter in 1656. Bolstered by the high regard in which he was held, he attempted, around 1658–59, to secure the commission for the decoration of the oval salon, which at the time served as the connecting point between the King’s Grand Cabinet to the east and the Gallery of the Kings (the future Gallery of Apollo). The Superintendent of Buildings, Antoine Ratabon, made the mistake of assigning Charles Errard to work alongside him on the design of the stucco and gilding decorations. This infuriated Charles Le Brun, who could conceive of his work only as a unified whole, and not as a patchwork created by academicians wielding their authority. Le Brun consequently neglected his portion, and the ceiling was executed by Errard. The ceiling was destroyed during the Restoration. The drawing presented here arranges, in an oval form, the compositions depicting the four ages of humanity, which had already been conceived in 1653. The central panel was intended to glorify Louis XIV and his mother, the Queen Regent Anne of Austria. As Bénédicte Gady notes, “Le Brun’s design was never executed, perhaps because its iconography accorded too prominent a role to the queen mother at a time when the king’s coming of age had legally brought the regency to an end” (B. Gady, *Peupler les cieux*, p. 224). In the 1659 design, the central panel—here merely sketched out and disproportionate to the figures on the arches—evokes the planned marriage of Louis XIV to the Infanta of Spain, Maria Theresa of Austria (Kazerouni, op. cit. supra, p. 148). The stucco designs of War, Justice, Strength, and Mercury frame the archways, with the Ages of the World representing the “various dispositions of peoples,” as Le Brun put it in everyday language. Peace and Abundance reward the Innocence, Humility, and Obedience of the Golden Age; Wealth and Fortitude compensate for the Impotence and Softness of the Silver Age; Severity sends Correction and Authority to the Bronze Age; Mars, Bellona, and Punishment devastate the Iron Age with their violence. Le Brun draws inspiration from Ovi