Panneau De Bois Allegorique Et Stuc Doré XIXe

Curved wood and gilded stucco paneled panel with a light blue background and a cartouche richly framed by carved ornaments.

- The cartouche features five compartments, a large central one and four smaller ones at the corners. The lower compartments feature two evangelists (Saint Mark on the left with the lion and Saint Luke on the right with his bull). The two upper compartments are left empty.

- The central field presents a captivating iconography to decipher. A seated male figure (God the Father) sits enthroned in the sky on a cloud, holding a small globe in his left hand, representing the world, the Earth, the universe. From this figure emanates a fan of luminous rays.
Just below, an angel with an upside-down head is falling, flames shooting from his hands. This fallen angel is likely to be Satan (Luke 10:18 "Jesus said to them, 'I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 Behold, I have given you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall by any means hurt you'").

- On the left stand two female figures. The first, richly dressed in a red cloak, wearing a papal tiara of the same color, holds under her right arm the model of an edifice (a church in the shape of a temple, like the one found as an attribute of allegorical figures in Europe to evoke the Roman Church, an example of a 17th-century engraving), holding in her right hand a triple pontifical cross and in her left hand a key. This figure represents the Roman Catholic Church.
To her left, another woman, with scales in her right hand, a bundle of rods and an axe in her left, looks towards her neighbor, embodying Justice.
This group of female figures sitting on a cloud seems to be crushing a male figure. This is an allegory of defeated heresy. As in Coysevox's bronze bas-relief "La Religion terrassant l'Hérésie", the naked, overpowered man holds the mask of duplicity and lies on a book, the Bible, and a snake.

- On the right, a third female figure behind an open book and a feather in her hand evokes the Scriptures, echoing the presence of the aforementioned evangelists.

- In front of her, an old man with a beard and grey hair, in a languid pose facing us, holding a scythe in his right hand and accompanied by an hourglass resting on the ground, symbolizes Saturn-Cronos, a symbolic representation of the passage of time that cuts short the lives of the living.

- Finally, in the lower center, a monarch-like figure, identifiable by the crown on a cushion and the scepter in his right hand. Positioned three-quarter view, looking towards the viewer, with his hand resting on his hip and protruding at the elbow, this is a frequently-represented sign of power. He is dressed for war, wearing a red coat rolled up over his left shoulder, showing the ermine lining. He wears the insignia of the Order of the Golden Fleece.

- The artist achieves a composition that takes up the whole of tradition (from the image of the Church's terracing of Heresy) and orders it around royal power. The monarch is truly summoned to illustrate one of the facets of the king's action, since the Order of the Golden Fleece, although secular, had as its mission to work for the Glory of God and the defense of Religion. The Order's mission was to safeguard the Catholic faith and protect the Church.

- Good condition, with some restoration of polychrome and stucco.

Ref: LIGNMAQ8QC