A Faun and Two Putti Feeding a Lioness
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Overdoor painting of a young faun and two putti feeding grapes to a lioness in a rococo setting in grisaille and colour in an original rococo frame. The three figures appear to the right of centre. The faun sits astride the top of a fountain with water pouring out of an oval basket with a rocaille surround. One putto sits to the right. They exchange glances. The third putto sits to the left, above a reclining lion, putting grapes in his mouth. To the right are trees, architectural fragments and a vase. In the centre there is a melon and grapes. To the left a flower-shaped fountain with a tunnel beneath where the water from the main fountain empties.
The fruit are in colour. The sky and water is blue.
Sporting around a fantastical fountain, three infants tame a lioness by feeding her grapes. This overdoor painting, in its original frame, demonstrates some of the perspectival play that characterises Jacques de Lajoue's most masterful works. The striking basket fountain was used by Lajoue in his self portrait with his family as well as in other compositions.
This overdoor and its companion of three putti taming a swan (acc. no. 2833.2) may have originally been paired with two other works. Lajoue painted many overdoor paintings in series of fours showing different themes. There are two related paintings of putti with a sheep and an ostrich, although these seem to be of an earlier date and of a higher quality. There is also a slightly smaller painting by Lajoue in the Musée des beaux-arts, Dole (CH 495) which shows a group of putti carousing around a fountain of Bacchus whilst being approached by a bear.
The putti in this painting are depicted in shades of grey (grisaille) which makes the central motif appear as a fantastical stone fountain with elaborate sculptures. The faun at the top is a follower of Bacchus, the ancient god of wine. The infants use the power of the grape harvest to subdue the wild lioness. Lajoue may have had in mind the tradition of showing young children engaged in adult activity, often in a mythological setting, which was developed by Titian as well as French 17th-century painters. It has also been suggested that the painting is an allegory of wine, an appropriate theme for a dining room.
Jacques de Lajoue II was one of the foremost painters of the 1730s and 1740s, a period when the style known as 'rococo' dominated Parisian interior decoration. He made many overdoors for aristocratic town houses as well as producing ornamental designs for cartouches, trophies, vases, furniture and ornaments which were engraved in several collections. He also designed stage sets and firework displays. His work is characterised by his use of architectural and garden fantasies, theatrical illusionism and a self-conscious use of perspective. In this work, the curves of the framing fountain and plinth seem to play with the laws of diminishing perspective. The distance between the foreground, the shell surround to the fountain and the background is ambiguous. It has been noted that such play emphasises the power of the sophisticated viewer: Lajoue's worldly Parisian patrons (Katie Scott; The Rococo Interior; New Haven; 1995; p. 159).
A fountain with a stream of water issuing from a similar basket appears in Lajoue's 'La famille de l'artiste', (Louvre, Paris, INV. 5574) shown in the Salon of 1737. A similar fountain also appears in the 'The Tempest', Avignon, Musée Calvet and in architectural paintings and designs.
Phillippa Plock, 2011
Dimensions (mm) / weight (mg)
876 x 1448 (sight size)
Signature & date
signed, lower right on vase base: Ɉ. Lajouë
Provenance
- Acquired by Alice de Rothschild (b.1847, d.1922); inherited by her great-nephew James de Rothschild (b.1878, d.1957); inherited by his wife Dorothy de Rothschild (b.1895, d.1988); given to Waddesdon (National Trust) in 1971.
Collection
- Waddesdon (National Trust)
- Gift of Dorothy de Rothschild, 1971
Bibliography
- Ellis Waterhouse, Anthony Blunt; Paintings: The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor; Fribourg; Office du Livre, The National Trust; 1967; pp. 248-249, cat. no. 113, ill.
- Marianne Roland Michel; Lajoüe et l’art rocaille; Paris; Arthena; 1984; p. 193, no. P39, fig. 73; Putti avec une lionne
- Bruno Pons, Geoffrey de Bellaigue; Waddesdon Manor Architecture and Panelling: The James A. de Rothschild Bequest at Waddesdon Manor; England; Philip Wilson Publishers; 1996; pp. 636-7, fig. 603; dates the surrounding panels to c. 1735-45
Related files
- http://cartelen.louvre.fr/cartelen/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=10628&langue=fr [accessed 20 September 2011, Lajoue, 'La famille de l'artiste', INV. 5574]
- http://cartelen.louvre.fr/cartelen/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=10628&langue=fr [accessed 20 September 2011, Lajoue, 'La famille de l'artiste', INV. 5574]
Subjects
- Mythology/Creatures/Satyr or Faun
- Mythology/Creatures/Cherub, Putto or Putti
- Architecture/Architectural Features/Fountain
- Nature, Landscape & The Elements/Water
- Objects/Vessels & Containers/Urn
- Architecture/Architectural Features
- Nature, Landscape & The Elements/Fruits/Grapes
- Nature, Landscape & The Elements/Fruits/Melon
- Nature, Landscape & The Elements/Trees & Plants
- Animals/Insects & Lower Animals/Shell
- Animals/Mammals/Lion
- Everyday Life/Eating & Drinking
- Figures/Group
- Figures/Child
- Objects/Visual Arts/Sculpture
- Objects/Food & Drink/Alcohol