Paolo de MATTEIS (Pian del Cilento 1662 - Naples 1728) - Lot 31

Paolo de MATTEIS (Pian del Cilento 1662 - Naples 1728) Armide invoking the demons Parquet panel 220 x 173.5 cm Cracks and restorations Provenance : Probably Stefano Conti collection, Lucca, until 1768 (with its counterpart Herminie). Our painting is very probably the masterpiece of the Parisian period by Paolo de Matteis, a Neapolitan painter and internationally renowned figure of the late Baroque period. Paolo de Matteis, originally from Salerno, trained in Luca Giordano's studio in Naples. During his apprenticeship, he learned from the artists of his time: Luca Giordano, Francesco Solimena and their countless collaborators. De Matteis soon developed a personal style combining Baroque dynamism, colorful refinement and the new grace that heralded the lighter sensibilities of his time. He infused his compositions with dramatic intensity and theatrical elegance, while exploring light, movement and emotion. The artist left Naples for Paris in 1702 at the invitation of the Regent and a court courtier (see Bernardo De Dominici, Le Vite de' pittori, scultori ed architetti napoletani, Naples 1742). The painter's stay in Paris (1702 - 1705) was first studied by Arnaud Brejon Lavergnée (see A. Brejon de Lavergnée, "Plaidoyer pour un peintre de 'pratique' : le séjour de Paolo de Matteis en France (1702 - 1705)", in La Revue de l'art, 1990, no. 88). It represented a landmark moment in the artist's career: he was given prestigious commissions in contact with Italian and French artists, in an atmosphere of stylistic transition from the Baroque to a more elegant, pre-Rococo style. De Matteis' stay heralded a wider wave of Italian artists in Paris. Long before the arrival of Sebastiano Ricci, Rosalba Carriera or Pellegrini, still under the reign of Louis XIV, de Matteis initiated the rococo movement in Paris and laid the foundations for the generation of Lemoyne and Boucher. Among his most eminent patrons were Antoine Crozat, patron of Antoine Watteau, the Marquis de Clérembaut and the Duc d'Orléans. In addition to decorating Parisian palaces and galleries, De Matteis also created the vault for the royal Augustins convent (no longer in existence). In recognition of his refusal to accept payment for this work, he, his wife and their eight children were awarded the title of honorary members of the order (see A. Brejon de Lavergnée, idem, pp. 70-71). The only surviving work from his Paris period is Saint Léon devant Attila, commissioned by Léon Potier, Duc de Gesvres, and installed above the altar in the chapel of the Célestins convent, renamed in honor of the saint. During his stay in Paris, his art was enriched by the French academic tradition inherited from Le Brun, with a more refined palette and more elegant drawing. On his return to Naples in 1705, the artist retained the Parisian influence in his works, which were now tinged with a refined sensibility and a more organized staging, reflecting the elegance he had learned in the French capital. In our painting, we find this palette of vivid colors, an elegant, dynamic composition and a refined sense of movement in which the sacred and the mythological merge naturally. The male nudes in our painting, the demons in motion, with their warm tones, recall those of the Death of Adonis or the Abduction of Proserpine, frescoes painted by Giordano in the Palazzo Medici Riccardi (1682-1685), while the light colors, lemon yellow and shades of blue of the figure of the enchantress are the hallmark of his Parisian sojourn. The subject of our painting is the enchantress Armide, one of the characters in Tasse's Jerusalem Delivered (1580). Lully dedicated an opera (1686) to this "Saracen" sorceress, daughter of Hidraot, King of Damascus, sent to capture the greatest Crusader paladins and kill the Christian knight Renaud. She falls in love and locks the knight in a fabulous garden, where she bewitches him with her delights. In Lully's version of the opera, Renaud is freed and regains his memory by looking into a mirror; Armide then understands that he loved her only by magic. Grief-stricken and resentful, Armide then destroys the dream palace she had created for her love affair with the Chevalier, and flees on a flying chariot. In the last song of Le Tasse, after her defeat, just as she is about to commit suicide, Renaud saves her and finally confesses his love for her, on condition that she converts. The scene in our painting is taken from the last act of the libretto, set to music by Lully: L'espoir de la vangeance est le seul qui me reste. Flee, pleasures, flee, lose all your attractions. Demons, destroy this palace. Let's leave, and if we can