The "Semaine du Dessin": a Christie’s sale

25/3/25 - Art market - Paris - A drawing can reveal an artist’s trial and error and the gradual birth of a work, it can also bear witness to a lost or damaged composition. This is the dual interest of a rare sheet by Primatice put up for sale by Christie’s on 26 March, inscribed as a historical monument in 2012 (ill. 1). It allows us to document the work of the Italian master who was commissioned in the 1540s to decorate the Porte Dorée, in other words the main entrance to the Château de Fontainebleau under Francis I. The six frescoes in the vestibule tell the story of how Hera asked Hypnos to put Zeus to sleep so that Poseidon could come to the aid of the Greeks. Hypnos refused, reminding her that the last time he had put Zeus to sleep, it had caused a storm that had thrown Hercules’ boat onto the island of Cos.

1. Francesco Primaticcio (1504-1570)
Anatomy Study for Hercules Landing on the Island of Cos and Being Wounded by Chace
Red chalk, heightened with white, traces of graphite - 24.6 x 38.8 cm
Sale Christie’s Paris, 26 March 2025
Photo: Christie’s

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The composition that this drawing is preparing evokes the moment when Hercules and his men landed on the island. The inhabitants, who took them for pirates, welcomed them with a hail of stones; the hero killed King Eurypylos and was himself wounded by Chacodon. Primatice paid close attention to the postures of the bodies and the anatomies, going so far as to study the skeleton of his figures. Several preparatory studies for these frescoes are kept in the Louvre and elsewhere, as well as engravings of the different compositions. Not only are these episodes from the Iliad not the best known, but the whole has suffered greatly from the vagaries of time and the interventions of restorers since the 17th century. A more recent restoration campaign has made it possible to study this decoration and restore a certain degree of legibility to it (see the news item of…