Attribué à Pieter Van Mol (1599-1650)

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8000 - 12000 EUR
Attribué à Pieter Van Mol (1599-1650)
Alleged greed. Oil on canvas. 93 x 73 cm. Expert: Eric Turquin. - - - In Antwerp, Pieter van Mol belongs to the generation that exported to foreign courts the canons of a temperate and chiaroscuro Flemish baroque, in the manner of Abraham Janssens, rather than a tempestuous Rubenianism (although he is suspected of having been part of Rubens' retinue during his stay in France in 1625 for the "cycle of Marie de Medici"). Settled in France as early as 1631, ordinary painter to King Louis XIII in 1637, ordinary painter to Queen Anne of Austria in 1642, and founding member of the Royal Academy in 1648, he received several commissions for Parisian churches, notably the frescoes in the church of Saint-Joseph des Carmes (6th arrondissement), an unsung jewel of Parisian religious art. This allegory of avarice can be compared to a Diogenes looking for a man, kept at the Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans (inv./cat.nr 1320), where we find the physiognomy of the old philosopher. This allegory reinterprets the iconographic canon of Cesare Ripa, who advocated representing this capital sin ("Avaritia") by a female figure, with a neglected appearance and in poor health, holding a full purse. Comparative illustrations: Fig.1. Pieter van Mol. Diogenes looking for a man, oil on canvas, Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans, inv./cat.nr 1320 Fig.2. Pieter van Mol. Chapel of St. Joseph des Carmes, Paris. Fig.3. Giuseppe Cesari, Avaritia, vignette for Iconologia by Cesare Ripa, 1625.
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