Realization: Déruet, Claude Claude de Ruet, Claude des Ruets (Nancy, 1588 - Nancy, October 20, 1660) (Painter)
The Four Elements, Fire
The Four Elements, Fire
Production: 1640 - 1641
Area: Painting
Technique(s): Canvas (oil painting)
Dimensions : H. 116 cm ; W. 259.5 cm
Inventory no.: PE.356
Photo credit(s) :
Lauginie, François
Cartel
The Fire is part of the Four Elements series installed in Anne of Austria's cabinet at the Château de Richelieu, where it topped canvases by Nicolas Prévost (1603/1604-1070) depicting strong women of Antiquity (private collection). The ensemble glorified the royal family, long without an heir until the birth of the dauphin, future Louis XIV (1638-1/15), and Richelieu (1585-1642).
The only signed painting in the cycle, The Fire features a carnival cavalcade accompanied by pyrotechnic effects. This theatrical set does not evoke a specific location, but one of the palaces is reminiscent of the one it also represents in Le Banquet des amazones (Nancy, Musée Lorrain). The décor, with its grand perspectives and backstage effects, allows the riders to unfurl a vast carrousel.
Costumes and harness are in the Roman style: chests, martingales and rumps in gold-embroidered fabrics, while frontals, bits and underthroats are loaded with pompons. In the right foreground, Louis XIII (1601-1643) steps forward, preceded by two pages. On the balcony of the palace on the right, Richelieu stands behind the king, illustrating the prelate's power. Finally, in the background and on the balcony of honor, the queen surrounded by her two children Louis and Philippe (1640-1701) admires the parade.
Claude Deruet was a painter and party organizer at the court of Nancy. The Quatre Eléments cycle shows the artist's commitment to the tradition of late Mannerism, with its rattine and precious effects, and its taste for parades and spectacular effects. Even more than the rest of the cycle, this painting bears witness to the artist's ambition to portray the main characters of the kingdom with fantasy and a taste for the marvelous.
Provenance
Château de Richelieu, collection of Cardinal de Richelieu (1585-1642).
Château de Richelieu, Queen's bedroom, until its destruction around 1820.
Louis Auguste Pilté-Grenet Collection (1764-1842).
Donated by Louis Auguste Pilté-Grenet to the Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans, 1824.
School
France
Location
Museum of Fine Arts
1st floor
Room: Le château de Richelieu La grande peinture religieurse (XVIIe-XVIIIe siècle)