The excellent retrospective exhibition devoted by the Château d’Écouen to the painter Antoine Caron, in addition to its many qualities, boasts an extraordinary feat that should encourage any art lover to rush off to the Musée de la Renaissance: the exceptional reunion of all the Valois tapestries (ill. 1 to 3), three of which we had already been able to see at Fontainebleau during the exhibition "L’Art de la fête à la cour des Valois" (see article).
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- 1. Brussels workshops, 1581-1584 from a drawing by Antoine Caron (1521-1599)
The Fight at the Barrière
Wool, silk, gold and silver gilding - 386 x 328 cm
Florence, Museo degli Uffizi
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
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- 2. Brussels workshops, 1581-1584 from a drawing by Antoine Caron (1521-1599)
La Bague-Quintaine
Wool, silk, gold and silver gilt - 387 x 400 cm
Florence, Museo degli Uffizi
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
Exceptional is not an overused term here. Not only had the pieces never been returned to France since the 16th century, but above all they had never been presented in their entirety at the Uffizi, for lack of space and conservation reasons. Yet this is one of the masterpieces of this technique, commissioned by Catherine de Médicis (or someone in her entourage, it is still uncertain) at the beginning of the reign of Henri III, woven in Brussels workshops and bequeathed to her granddaughter Christine de Lorraine, wife of the Grand Duke of Tuscany.
These tapestries are included in the exhibition because they are reputed to have been made from drawings by Antoine Caron. As the catalogue states, however, many questions remain unanswered: "the identity of the figures depicted, the location of the festivities depicted, the hand of the painter or painters who painted the cartoons, and the conditions under which the tapestries were executed are still widely debated". And it has to be said that even Caron’s place in their conception is not really clear: the few preparatory drawings on display here are quite far removed from the final work (ill. 3 and 4). How they got from these projects to the tapestries remains a mystery.
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- 3. Brussels workshops, 1581-1584 from a drawing by Antoine Caron (1521-1599)
The Bayonne Tournament
Wool, silk, gold and silver gilt - 385 x 604.5 cm
Florence, Museo degli Uffizi
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
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- 4. Antoine Caron (1521-1599)
The Bayonne Tournament, c. 1573-74
Black chalk, pen, brown ink, brown wash - 33.3 x 48.2 cm
London, Courtauld Gallery
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
These are not the only enigmas concerning Antoine Caron who remains, despite a catalogue raisonné published in 2019 [1] and this exhibition, is still poorly known. It is thought that he trained in the workshop of glass painters known as the Le Prince family, in Beauvais, his home town, and it is certain that he then came to Fontainebleau, where he worked alongside Primaticcio on the site of the Galerie d’Ulysse, and with Niccolò dell’Abate, whose style made the greatest impression on him. The exhibition includes several works by the latter, drawings and painting (ill. 5 and 6), which bear witness to this. The Finding of Moses (ill. 6) shows in particular the extent to which Caron was influenced by this artist, particularly in the canon of his characters.
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- 5. Niccolò dell’Abate (1509 or 1512-1571?)
Decorative project for Constable Anne de Montmorency, after 1552
Black chalk, pen, brown ink, brown wash, white gouache highlights - 40.7 x 55.5 cm
Paris, Musée du Louvre
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
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- 6. Niccolò dell’Abate (1509 or 1512-1571?)
The Finding of Moses, c. 1560
Oil on canvas - 82.5 x 83 cm
Paris, Musée du Louvre
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
He was active in a large number of techniques, which he had time to practise many times, having had a very long career that developed under the reign of six kings, from François I to Henri IV. It has to be said that the last Valois succeeded one another at a steady pace.
He was therefore a painter and draughtsman, producing models for engravings, as well as cartoons for embroidered velvet, tapestries and stained glass, and he even designed sculptures, as shown by the Grande Cheminée de Fontainebleau created by Matthieu Jacquet from his drawings (ill. 7 and 8). This protean activity was multiplied, if not by the existence of a studio about which little is known, at least by the multitude of artists around him or who were influenced by his art. The way in which Caron left his mark on the second half of the 16th century through to the first decades of the 17th century is particularly well analysed in the catalogue. There are even illuminations based on his paintings and drawings based on his engravings...
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- 7. Mathieu Jacquet (c. 1545-c. 1611)
The Battle of Ivry and the Surrender of Mantes, 1597-1600
Marble - 46.6 x 66.7 x 5.3 cm
Paris, Musée du Louvre
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
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- 8. Antoine Caron (1521-1599)
The Battle of Ivry and the Surrender of Mantes
Beige wash, black chalk - 24 x 43.1 cm
Paris, Musée du Louvre
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
The rediscovery of Antoine Caron dates from the mid-nineteenth century and was first able to be made on the basis of his drawings, in particular those for the history of the "Royne Athemise" (ill. 9), which date from the 1560s and illustrate a prose manuscript with some fifty compositions each bearing a sonnet on their reverse, the whole dedicated to Catherine de Médicis. These were originally designs for tapestry cartoons - each drawing, of which there are many examples in the exhibition, is surrounded by a border - but it was only under Marie de Médicis and Henri IV that several hangings were woven. Caron was not the only draughtsman: Niccolò dell’Abate, Baptiste Pellerin and Henri Lerambert also contributed, while others have not been identified. Some of Caron’s sheets were later attributed thanks to the only signed and dated painting, The Massacres of the Triumvirate (ill. 10) and the engravings bearing his name. On the other hand, as Dominique Cordellier points out, the old inscriptions on the drawings must be treated with caution: many of them have proved to be erroneous, while other sheets preserved under other names may have been returned to him.
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- 9. Antoine Caron (1521-1599)
Lygdamis Learns Music, 1561-1570
Black chalk, pen, brown ink, brown wash - 40.7 x 55.5 cm
Paris, Musée du Louvre
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
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- 10. Antoine Caron (1521-1599)
The Massacres of the Triumvirate, 1566
(painting not in the exhibition)
Oil on canvas - 116 x 195 cm
Paris, Musée du Louvre
Photo: RMN-GP/T. Querrec - See the image in its page
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- 11. Antoine Caron (1521-1599)
Saint Denys the Areopagite Converting the Pagan Philosophers, early 1570s
Oil on panel - 92,7 x 72,1
Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum
Photo: The J. Paul Getty Museum - See the image in its page
The Massacres of the Triumvirate in the Louvre was also used as a basis for reconstructing his painted work. It is therefore a pity that it could not be loaned, which is nevertheless understandable as it is too fragile to be moved.
This is no consolation for the other paintings in the Louvre, which are displayed in caissons and are virtually invisible because of the reflections (they are the only ones of their kind...), but with other paintings that have come from afar or are unpublished. Thus we can see here the very fine panel acquired by the Getty in 1985, which was exhibited in Paris in 1972-1973, Saint Denys the Areopagite Converting the Pagan Philosophers (ill. 11). All the characteristics of the painter’s style, which had already been defined thanks to Massacres of the Triumvirate, can be discerned: small, fine and mannered figures, who almost seem to be starting a dance, placed on what looks like a theatre stage with an architectural décor that is largely invented but which is often based, as an essay in the catalogue shows, on existing engravings or monuments.
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- 12. Follower of Antoine Caron (1521-1599)
The Death of the Woman of Sestos, c. 1580
Oil on panel - 65.4 x 81.2 cm
Écouen, Musée national de la Renaissance
Photo: Sotheby’s - See the image in its page
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- 13. Antoine Caron (1521-1599)
The Death of the Woman of Sestos, c. 1570-80
Pen and brown ink, white gouache highlights - 24.5 x 29.5 cm
Private collection
Photo: Matteo Gianeselli - See the image in its page
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- 14. Antoine Caron (1521-1599),
previously attributed to
Henri Lerambert (1550?-1608)
The adulterous woman,
second half of the 16th century
Oil on panel - 122.2 x 88.2 cm
Nantes, Musée des Beaux-Arts
Photo: RMN-GP/Gérard Blot - See the image in its page
The retrospective also shows a very large number of examples of works by the entourage, by followers, or reproducing works by Antoine Caron, some of which are in fact of excellent quality. Note, for example, The Confrontation of Elijah and the Prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel and The Death of the Woman of Sestos (ill. 12), which recently entered the collections of the Château d’Écouen (see the news item of 31/12/20). The latter painting, derived from a drawing by Caron (ill. 13), is also known from a version preserved in Saumur, which is also on show in the exhibition, and - as we read in the catalogue - was partly reproduced by Frans Francken in a copper plate in a private collection, further proof of the extent of Caron’s influence, as far afield as Flanders in the 17th century.
The presentation here of the Nantes painting Christ and the Adulteress (ill. 14) as being by Antoine Caron - as Sylvie Béguin had already suggested in her time - when it was until recently considered to be by Henri Lerambert, under whose name it was reproduced in the news item quoted above, demonstrates if proof were needed all the uncertainties that still remain concerning it. It should be noted that by Lerambert, one of the most interesting artists of Caron’s suite, we shall see at Écouen a fine drawing from the BnF, La Résurrection du Christ (ill. 15), directly derived from the Beauvais masterpiece (ill. 16), a painting indisputably by Caron.
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- 15. Henri Lerambert (1550 ?-1608)
The Resurrection of Christ, c. 1584-1585
Black chalk, blue-green wash, highlights of white gouache, black ink - 41.9 x 55.1 cm
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France
Photo: Bibliothèque nationale de France - See the image in its page
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- 16. Antoine Caron (1521-1599)
The Resurrection of Christ, c. 1584
Oil on panel - 125 x 138 cm
Beauvais, Musée départemental de l’Oise
Photo: Musée départemental de l’Oise - See the image in its page
A must-see exhibition, then, accompanied by a very good catalogue packed with many fascinating essays and detailed notes, though it is regrettable that it reproduces some of the paintings in the exhibition in very small print, with only details appearing on the full page.
As we have already had occasion to write, studies on the French sixteenth century are booming and are currently mobilising a large number of art historians, and this exhibition is a further demonstration of this.
Curator: Matteo Gianeselli.
Under the direction of Matteo Gianeselli, Antoine Caron 1521-1599. Le théâtre de l’Histoire, RMN-GP, 2023, 232 p., €40. ISBN : 97892711879526..
Practical information:Musée national de la Renaissance - Château d’Écouen, 95 440 Écouen. Open every day except Tuesday from 9.30 am to 12.45 pm and from 2.00 pm to 5.15 pm. Full price: €7 - Reduced price: €5
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