Excellent and large oil painting on canvas depicting the portrait of a Knight in armor belonging to the Royal Order of Saint Louis, France early 1700s, extraordinarily realistic of an amazing quality, painting attributed to François Jouvenet 1664-1749 called Jouvenet the Younger.
The work is framed by a beautiful carved and gilded oak wood frame called "à la Berain, original chassis with fixed couplings.
On a night of battle under a dark and foggy sky, the artillery returns to roar its last cannon shots, the lord is its commander, the architect of the next victory, a valiant noble, a knight of the Royal Order of San Luigi.
The pose of our lord is royal, canonical to all officers of rank, portrayed standing at three quarters and with his gaze fully towards the viewer, illuminated by the glare of war, and posed.
A powdered and combed face of a large léonine wig, in the fashion of the kingdom, lets long reddish curls fall on a shimmering armor, while a fluffy red velvet cloak surrounds it and highlights its figure in the dark of the night, a knotted white jabot at the neck in the French manner of the time, it marks the noble belonging, accompanied by a showy medal of the Royal and Military Order of St. Louis, pinned on the cuirass and ending with a fluttering purple red velvet bow. The hand rests on the fire mouth, witness of his victories and his glory.
The painting shows all the characteristics of the beautiful French portraiture of the early eighteenth century, the drawing is formidable, the character lives in a context and talks to us about him, this portrait tells us about a life, a belonging, as indeed all the painting of François Jouvenet, a talented French portrait painter born in Rouen on 19 December 1664 and died in Paris in 1749.
Called Jouvenet the Younger, son of an illustrious family of French painters, in 1701 he was enrolled in the Academy of long list of masterpieces scattered in all the most important French museums, including the portrait of Mr Laborde, Advocate General of the Paris Parliament, and that of Mr Maubert Marshal of the Queen's quarters.
His son Dagobert Jouvenet also embarked on a career as a portraitist, with particular success.
The Royal and Military Order of St. Louis (French: Ordre Royal et Militaire de Saint-Louis) was a French military knightly order founded on April 5, 1693 by Louis XIV and named after St. Louis (Louis IX). It was reserved as a reward for worthy officers, and is usually known to have been the first decoration to be allowed even for non-nobles. It is considered the ancestor of the legion of honor, with the same functions. The King of France was the Grand Master of the Order and the Dauphin was automatically a member from birth.
The Order was made up of three classes:
- Knight of the Grand Cross
- Commander
- Knight
The entire order included a maximum of 8 Grand Crosses, 28 Commanders and a variable number of Knights and, in addition to the Grand Master, it also admitted the offices of Treasurer, Recorder and Gentleman Usher. The medal of the order consisted of a portrait of St. Louis surrounded by the Latin motto "LUDOVICUS MAGNUS ISTITUIT 1693" Louis the Great instituted it in 1693.
The knights wore this decoration on the chest in the form of a medal, the commanders wore a red sash from the right shoulder to the left side of the body, ending in a medal hanging on the side, while the large crosses carried the sash and a plaque on the left side of the chest.
The general assembly of the Order was held annually on 25 August, the feast of St. Louis, in the royal palace. As we have said, nobility was not a prerogative required for the order; however, it was mandatory to be a Catholic Christian and have served at least ten years of service as an officer in the army or navy. Members of the Order received a pension.
The noble inheritance was also guaranteed to children and grandchildren.
- A supplied certificate of origin and authenticity, valid under European law on artistic and valuable goods, will be issued to the buyer.
This legally valid document provides an additional guarantee to our portrait.
- The documentation also includes the certificate of free circulation, issued by the Fine Arts of the city of Florence.
- There will also be an expert opinion on the state of the work, Wood's lamp vision and spectrography in compact disc format.
Sergio Schina
Antiques dealer / Paintings French Collector
Villa Stampanoni Manfredini Fiaschi
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