33 - Jacques STELLA (Lyon 1596 – Paris 1657)

Jacques STELLA (Lyon 1596 – Paris 1657) Virgin and the Sleeping Child On its original canvas and stretcher 62 x 51.5 cm Provenance: Anonymous sale, Cologne (Lempertz), May 17, 2018, lot 1096, illustrated; At Michel Descours, Lyon, in 2018. Bibliography: S. Kerspern (June 2025), Jacques Stella – Paris Catalog, works datable to 1649–1651, [website], https://dhistoire-et-dart.com/Stella/Stella-cat-Paris-1649_51ca.html Scenes from the childhood of Christ, particularly the Virgin and Child and the Holy Family, are among the subjects particularly dear to Jacques Stella, in which he places special emphasis on depicting the Virgin’s maternal tenderness. Sylvain Kerspern emphasizes that the Child is depicted here as having been fed, which predisposes him to sleep. Recently rediscovered, this Virgin and Child has few equivalents in Stella’s oeuvre: the closest is the one in the Blois Museum, *The Virgin Feeding Porridge to the Infant Jesus* (see fig. 1 and J. Thuillier, *Jacques Stella*, Metz, 2006, p. 194, reproduced). An identical format and composition, along with light coming from the left (though from a candle in the Blois painting), make it clear that the two female faces with downcast gazes are virtually identical. Sylvain Laveissière suggests a date between 1640 and 1650. Sylvain Kerspern dates it to between 1648 and 1650. Jacques Stella was born in Lyon in 1596. He was the son of a painter of Flemish origin. Little is known about his training; he arrived in Florence around 1616–1619 and then settled in Rome in 1623. For a time, he was a member of the Academy of Saint Luke, presided over by Simon Vouet, and became friends with Nicolas Poussin. There, he became famous for his delicate paintings on semiprecious stones, which were particularly appreciated by the family of Pope Urban VIII Barberini. He left Rome in 1634 for Lyon, then settled permanently in Paris in 1635. Richelieu dissuaded him from going to Madrid and kept him in the service of Louis XIII. Appointed painter to the king and given a residence at the Louvre, he was awarded the Order of Saint Michael in 1644. He was among the leading Parisian painters of the Regency period: along with La Hyre, Champaigne, and Le Sueur, Stella was a major exponent of “Parisian Atticism,” a style drawing on models from Antiquity and the Renaissance and characterized by a pursuit of clarity.