BRUXELLES

Lot 38
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Estimation :
50000 - 60000 EUR
BRUXELLES
Very important and exceptional Tapestry of Brussels (Flanders). Late 17th - early 18th century L'extrême Onction from a cardboard box by Nicolas POUSSIN (1594-1665) Silk and wool. Extremely rare state of preservation. Remarkable freshness of colour. Beautiful polychromy. Gilded wood framed border, reminiscent of picture frame mouldings. Ht. 335cm - Width 325cm History: Protected by Cardinal Barberini, Nicolas Poussin, on his advice, painted in 1630 the Plague of the Philistines (Louvre Museum) later bought by the Duke of Richelieu, the Destruction of Jerusalem, the Idol of Dagon, the Death of Germanicus and the Martyrdom of Saint Erasmus, now in the Vatican, and, always anxious to do better, he studied the writings of Leonardo da Vinci. He still painted the Adoration of the Golden Calf and the Passage of the Red Sea, for the Marquis Amédée del Pozzo, and, for his friend Stella, the Striking of the Rock, a subject he would repeat several times, then a first suite of the Seven Sacraments for the Commander Cassiano del Pozzo, four Bacchanales for Richelieu, and a Triumph of Bacchus with a Triumph of Neptune, in which he imitated the ancient bas-reliefs. POUSSIN will make 8 cartoons to be executed in tapestry for the king's apartments, and he is in charge of the decoration of the great gallery of the Louvre, for which he conceives the project of covering the vault with casts of the bas-reliefs of the Trajan column: Errard is sent to Rome to bring back casts and drawings. But jealous, worried, and faced with the combined intrigues of Simon Vouet, Fenquières and the architect Mercier, Poussin left France and, returning to Rome in 1642, where he was triumphantly received, he worked there for twenty-three years without turning away from his work, always attached to his country and sought after by it, painting for M. de Chantelou the second suite
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