Lot 38: GÉRARD DE LAIRESSE

PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR LIÈGE 1640 - 1711 AMSTERDAM ALLEGORY OF WISDOM FOSTERING THE ARTS AND SCIENCES signed with monogram lower right on base of pedestal: GL (in ligature) oil on canvas 25 3/4 by 30 3/4 in.; 65.4 by 78.1 cm.

A. Roy, "Quelques nouvelles oeuvres attribuées à Gérard de Lairesse," in Les Cahiers d'Histoire de l'Art, 2004, no. 2, pp. 118, 129, cat. no. P. 63 bis, reproduced p. 128, fig. 18.

With Huis Kontrast, Antwerp; From whom purchased by the present owner in 1973.

Alain Roy (see Literature) dates this painting to circa 1670, during Lairesse’s early years in Amsterdam. This type of multi-figured allegorical subject proved to be particularly popular with the artist's Dutch patrons. The figure of Minerva, goddess of wisdom, is shown seated on a throne above the other figures. Female figures below appear to represent the arts (Painting and Music) and sciences (Astronomy and Mathematics). The two female figures conversing at far right may depict Rhetoric and Poetry, and the figure holding a basket overflowing with flowers and fruit probably personifies Abundance. Roy speculates that the subject represents an allegory of the prosperity of the arts and sciences under a wise and prudent ruler and could, therefore, also be an allusion to the benefits of good government.