Lot 37: Nicolas Régnier , Maubeuge, Flanders circa 1590 - 1667 Venice Circe oil on canvas

oil on canvas

measurements note 44 by 53 1/2 in.; 112 by 135 cm.

London, Italian Cultural Institute, Diacromie. Dialogie e Derive. Collezione Koelliker, 19 October-29 November 2006, n.p., reproduced in colour;
London, Robilant and Voena, Dutch and Flemish Caravaggesque Paintings from the Koelliker Collection, 28 November - 19 December 2007, pp. 54-55, no. 15, reproduced in colour.

R. Pancheri, "Una Nuova Allegoria Profana di Nicolas Régnier," in Arte Veneta, vol. 59, 2002, pp. 255-257, reproduced, 1,2;
M. Pulini, Diacromie. Dialogie e Derive. Collezione Koelliker, London 2006, n.p., reproduced in colour;
A. Lemoine, Nicolas Régnier (ca. 1588-1667), Paris 2007, pp. 153-154, 312-313, no. 153, reproduced in colour;
A. Lemoine, French, Dutch and Flemish Caravaggesque Paintings from the Koelliker Collection, London 2007, pp. 54-55, no. 15, reproduced in colour.

The Earls of Crawford and Balcarres, Haigh Hall, Wigan Lancashire;
By descent to David Alexander Robert Lindsay, 28th Earl of Crawford and 11th Earl of Balcarres;
His sale, London, Christie's, October 11, 1946, lot 56, as by Domenichino;
Lord Overstone, Wickham Park, Bromley;
Freiherren Pauli von Treuhaim;
Anonymous sale, Munich, Hampel, June 24, 2005, lot 263;
With Old and Modern Masters, London, from whom acquired by the present owner.

PROPERTY FROM THE LONDON RESIDENCE OF LUIGI KOELLIKER
Only recently rediscovered and restored to the oeuvre of Nicolas Régnier by Pancheri in 2002 (see Literature), this sumptuous painting belongs with a group of works, all depicting apparently the same model, which Lemoine catalogues as a series of allegories (of Fortitude, Generosity and Wisdom together with a depiction of Flora).υ1 Each of these works, although not all in the same format, are stylistically extremely similar and can all be dated to the mid to late 1650s. In any case, they were certainly executed prior to 1660 when, as the first of twenty-four plates, Marco Boschini reproduced an engraving of Régnier's Allegory of Generosity in his Carta del navegar pittoresco, a folio of fifteen pages illustrating his ideal picture gallery, composed exclusively of paintings by contemporary artists in Venice (see fig. 1). The best known of these allegories, and the one bearing the closest resemblance to the present work, is the Allegory of Fortitude in Ca' Rezzonico, Venice.υ2 Although of upright format, and therefore depicting the female figure full-length, her pose repeats that of the present work, holding a cup aloft with her right hand and resting her left elbow on a stone ledge. The drapery is however arranged differently as are the boar's head and lion.

The practice of employing the same basic design for a series of works is not uncommon in Régnier's oeuvre. The most extensive of such series is the group of eight depictions of the Penitent Magdalene, the two prototypes of which are considered those in the Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery and the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.υ3 With the series of allegories however, of which the present work is part, Régnier appears to have mostly adapted each work to a different subject. However, while the subjects of the allegories of Generosity and Flora are clear, those of both the Venice and the present works are not; although Lemoine catalogues both as allegories of Fortitude it is quite possible that both in fact depict the sorceress Circe, who turned visitors to her island into pigs by feeding them poisoned meat. Here the figure retains several of the attributes normally associated with Circe: the wand and navigator's handbook, which rest on a shelf behind her, the cup of poison which she holds aloft, and the pig or boar's head that sits at her feet. Lemoine also hypothesizes that Régnier intended this and/or the Venice work as an allegory of Venice triumphant.
1. See Lemoine, under Literature, Paris 2007, pp. 310-313, nos. 150-154.
2. Ibid., pp. 311-12, no. 151 reproduced.
3. Ibid., pp. 302ff, nos. 134-141.