Lot 202: Rinaldo and Armida

Louis de Boullogne (Paris 1654-1733) Rinaldo and Armida signed and dated 'Louis De Boullogne pinxit 1704' (lower left, on the edge of the fountain) oil on canvas 36½ x 49½ in. (92.5 x 126 cm.)

92.5 x 126 cm.

Paris, Salon, 1704. New York, Stair Sainty Matthiesen; New Orleans, Museum of Art, Colombus Museum of Art, The First Painters of the King. French royal taste from Louis XIV to the Revolution, 10 December 1985-26 March 1986, no. 7.

Catalogue general des Ouvrages exposes au Salon du Louvre 1699-1789, Cabinet de l'Amateur, Paris, 1844, III, p. 104. Comte de Caix de Saint-Aymour, Les Boullogne, Paris, 1919, p. 269, no. 393. S. Loire, 'L. Boulogne', in Musée du Louvre, École Italienne, XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1996, p. 206, note 14.

(Possibly) Jean de Boullogne, the artist's son, and recorded in an inventory of the artist's estate, 7 March 1769, as 'un autre du meme [Louis de Boullogne] represéntant Renaud et Armide prisé trois cent cinquante livres'. Anonymous sale; Paris 18-20 April 1785, lot 108 (according to the 1985-86 exhibition catalogue). Anonymous sale; Les Andelys, 13 November 1983, lot E. with Matthiesen, New York, 1986. with Colnaghi, London, 1988. Anonymous sale [The Property of a Gentleman]; Christie's, London, 9 July 1999, lot 49.

The subject of Rinaldo and Armida is taken from Canto 16 of Gerusalemme liberata (1581), the epic poem by Torquato Tasso, relaying the story of Christian knights who set out to liberate Christ's tomb in Jerusalem. Armida, Queen of Damascus, 'Amazonian' enchantress and mistress of Argante, the Saracen king of Jerusalem, enters the Christian camp with the intention of killing the knight Rinaldo, son of Bertoldo and reputed founder of the House of Este. However, she falls in love with him and instead lures him back to her magical island, gaining his affections by adopting the guise of his lover, Almirena, as shown here. Goffredo and Eustazio, two knights who manage to seek out Armida's hidden fortress and free Rinaldo from Armida's clutches, are just visible in the background of this painting. Boullogne's Rinaldo and Armida, painted in 1704 and exhibited in the Salon of that year, was possibly inspired by Domenichino's picture of the same subject in the Louvre. This picture would have been known to Boullogne, as it had been acquired by King Louis XIV in 1785 and is recorded at the Château of Meudon around 1700, when Boullogne himself was involved in the decoration of the castle. It is not surprising to find Boullogne looking to Bolognese masters. As has often been noted, his mythological paintings owe a large debt to Albani, Reni and Domenichino. Boullogne's picture served as a modello for part of the Metamorphoses tapestry cycle executed at the Gobelins factory from 1704 onwards. Along with his compositions, works by his contemporaries Nicolas Bertin, Charles de la Fosse and Antoine Coypel were also used. Three artists are recorded as having translated Boullogne's Rinaldo and Armida to the cartoon for the tapestry: Yvart Fils for the figures, Charles Chastelain for the landscape, and Jean-Baptiste Belin de Fontenay for the flowers (M. Fenailles, État Général des Tapisseries de la Manufacture des Gobelins depuis son origine, jusqu' nos jours, Paris, 1904, pp. 123-4). It is likely that Boullogne intended the composition for the tapestry, as noted by Colin Bailey in the 1985 exhibition catalogue (op. cit.). Furthermore, Bailey suggests that the present picture remained in the artist's possession after having been exhibited in the Salon and used for the tapestry. It could then have passed into the collection of the artist's son Jean de Boullogne, whose Inventaire après décès mentions a Rinaldo and Armida but with no indication of dimensions. Another version of this composition, with small differences, was offered at Sotheby's, London, 17 April 1991, lot 54. A small-scale variant of that composition, illustrated in the 1985-86 exhibition catalogue at Stair Sainty Matthiesen, is in a private collection in America and a preparatory drawing for the reclining figure of Rinaldo is in the J.B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky.