NICOLAS RÉGNIER (Maubeuge 1588 – Venice 1667)
CIRCE (late 1650s – early 1660s)
oil on canvas
44 x 53 ½ inches (112 x 135 cm.)
PROVENANCE
The Earls of Crawford and Balcarres, Haigh Hall, Wigan, Lancashire, and by descent to
David Alexander Robert Lindsay, 28th Earl of Crawford and 11th Earl of Balcarres
David Alexander Robert Lindsay sale, Christie’s, London, October 11, 1946, lot 56 (as by Domenichino)
Lord Overstone, Wickham Park, Bromley
Baron di Pauli von Treuheim
Baron di Pauli von Treuheim sale, Hampel, Munich, June 24, 2005, lot 363
Old and Modern Masters, Ltd., London from whom acquired by
Luigi Koelliker, London
Luigi Koelliker sale, Sotheby’s, New York, January 29, 2009, lot 37
Robilant & Voena, London, Milan, Paris & New York, from whom sold to
Private Collection, Florida, circa 2014 until the present time
EXHIBITED
London, Italian Cultural Institute, Diacromie. – Dialogie e Derive; Collezione Koelliker, October 19 – November 29, 2006
London, Robilant & Voena, Dutch and Flemish Caravaggesque Paintings from the Koelliker Collection, November 28 – December 19, 2007
LITERATURE
R. Pancheri, “Una Nuova Allegoria Profana di Nicolas Régnier” in Arte Veneta, volume 59, 2002, pp. 255 – 257, illustrated 1, 2
M. Pulini, Diacromie. Dialogie e Derive. Collezione Koelliker, London, 2006, unpaginated, illustrated
Annick Lemoine, “Allégorie de la Force” in Nicolas Rėgnier, Arthena, Paris, 2007, pp. 153-154, 312-313, no. 153, illustrated (in the Koelliker Collection)
Annick Lemoine, “Circe or Allegory of Fortitude” in French, Dutch and Flemish Caravaggesque Paintings from the Koelliker Collection, London, 2007, pp. 54-55, no. 15, illustrated
Nicolas Régnier was born in 1588 in Maubeuge now situated on the border between France and Flanders. He first studied with Abraham Janssens in Antwerp from around 1610 – 1615. From 1616 – 1617 he was in Parma working as a staffage painter at the Farnèse court. From circa 1617 – 1626 Régnier was in Rome, and was one of the founders of the Bentvueghels, which was a society of mainly Dutch and Flemish painters living in Rome. His work became strongly influenced by Bartolomeo Manfredi, a leading member of the Caravaggisti, and he maintained close ties with Valentin de Boulogne, Nicolas Tournier and Simon Vouet. In October 1623 Régnier married Cecilia Bezzi, and by 1626 had resettled in Venice where he remained for the rest of his life.[1]
In Venice Régnier continued painting but also became an art dealer as well as a collector particularly of Dutch and Flemish paintings. His daughters Angelica and Anna were renowned for their beauty and regularly posed for their father, as may be the case in our painting. They along with their sisters Clorinda and Lucretia, were all painters who studied with their father. Lucretia married the painter Daniel van den Dyck, and Clorinda the artist Pietro della Vecchia. Régnier’s painting style evolved after his move to Venice.[2] As splendidly exemplified in Circe, “his paintings gained clarity: they became more elegant, shimmering and sensual”.[3] It is little wonder that his work can now be found in museums across the globe.
Annick Lemoine, author of the catalogue raisonné on Régnier, wrote in regard to this painting it “can be placed in a crucial phase in the painter’s career, between the late sixth and early seventh decade of the century: the last phase in Régnier’s stylistic development and that of his greatest official success.”[4] In the choice of Circe, Rėgnier’s full artistic powers are unleashed.
Circe was a goddess of Greek mythology whose name became synonymous with a witch, enchantress, sorcerer and seductress along with many others in the same vein. The best-known story of her exploits is relayed by Homer in Books X and XII of the Odyssey. Odysseus and his men reach Aeaea, the island Circe ruled, and a scouting party came across her palace which was surrounded by gardens with amazingly friendly lions, tigers and wolves. They are invited in by the goddess, given drug infused wine, and struck by her magic wand which turned them into swine. Odysseus who had remained on the ship sets out to rescue his crew and successfully convinced Circe to return his men to human form. They all remain on the island for one year, and Odysseus fathers three sons with Circe.[5]
In Régnier’s painting Circe is presented on the steps of her palace invitingly raising her golden chalice of poisoned wine. On her right side she if flanked by a docile lion and boar. Her magic wand rests on the stone pedestal to her left, behind which an open navigator’s handbook is discernible. (In the end Circe did help Odysseus and his crew with practical information in order to resume their journey.) She is richly clad in red with a blue sash, the color of royals. Her gaze is transfixed upon the viewer, the statuesque pose bathed in light and shadow. We are awed by her magnificence, and like Odysseus’ men taken in by her power.
Annick Lemoine has further suggested that this painting might express “a multiplicity of meanings”. She relates it to a series of 24 engravings published in Venice in 1660 by Marco Boschini in his Carta del navegar pittoresco. Figures in the engravings represent the virtues of Fortitude, Generosity, Wisdom and the goddess Flora. The first engraving in this group is a work by Régnier of an Allegory of Generosity. Stylistically comparable to this painting, Lemoine suggests ours as “The Allegory of Fortitude (which) may therefore be read simultaneously as an allegory of strength of mind, symbol of fortitude, and also an emblem of Venice” pointing to such as the lion as a symbol for St. Mark, the patron saint of Venice.[6]
[1] Biographical information taken from Benedict Nicolson, “Nicolas Rėgnier” in Caravaggism in Europe, volume I, Umberto Allemandi & C., Milan, 1989, p. 159; J. de Maere & M. Wabbes, “Nicolas Régnier” in Illustrated Dictionary of 17th Century Flemish Painters, volume 2, La Renaissance du Livre, Paris, 1994, p. 232; and “Nicolas Régnier” on rkd.nl (RKD Explore) website.
[2] Benedict Nicolson, op.cit., p. 159; J. de Maere, op.cit., p. 332; and Annick Lemoine, French, Dutch and Flemish Caravaggesque Paintings form the Koelliker Collection, op.cit., p. 55; “Clorinda Régnier” on rkd.nl (RKD Explore) website.
[3] J. de Maere, op.cit., p. 332.
[4] Annick Lemoine, Koelliker Collection, op.cit., pp. 54-55.
[5] Pepa Castello Pascual, “Circe Diva: The Reception of Circe in the Baroque Opera (seventeenth century)” in Ancient Magic and the Supernatural in the Modern Visual and Performing Arts, Bloomsbury Academic, New York, 2016, pp. 80-82.
[6] Annick Lemoine Koelliker Collection, op.cit., pp. 54-55.