JEAN BAPTISTE BLIN DE FONTENAY
Caen, 1653 – Paris, 1715
Monumental still life with red carpet
oil on canvas, cm 167×218
An extraordinary triumph of colours, this monumental still life constitutes a compelling demonstration of the virtuosity of its maker in the tactile rendering of the objects depicted: gleaming metals, wrinkled citrons, flowers as light as silk, and a carpet whose wooly texture is masterfully suggested through deft brushwork. The pronounced classicism of the background – epitomized by the fluted column, the bas-relief partially illuminated by a blade of light – securely situates this impressive composition within the grand decorative tradition of French painting between the late 17th and the first half of the 18th centuries. The scholar Giancarlo Sestieri has identified the author of the painting as Jean Baptiste Blin de Fontanay, son-in-law and follower of Jean Baptiste Monnoyer (1636 – 1699), regarded as the leading exponent of this sumptuous decorative idiom.
Blin de Fontanay was admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts in 1687 by presenting the painting ‘Flowers in a gold vase alongside a bust of Louis XIV’ (Louvre, inv. 4464), a painting featuring an arrangement with columns, garlands and metal objects closely similar to this work. The painter enjoyed considerable success, receiving royal commissions, executing elaborate bouquets and sumptuous buffets by combining flowers and fruit with silverware, for Versailles, the Trianon and Marly.
As Sestieri observes, the most compelling comparisons for our painting may be drawn with authenticated works by Blin de Fontenay held at the Manufactory of Sèvres and at the Fine Arts Museums in Marseilles and Orleans.
