Nicolas Colombel Sotteville-lès-Rouen 1644 - 1717 Paris

Believed by the present owner to have been given to her father in the 1920s, by its former South German owner, as a painting without attribution.

The subject is taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses (10: 560-707). The young maiden Atalanta was determined to remain celibate but her extraordinary beauty gained her many admirers. She decided to challenge her suitors in a race during which the loser would face death. She remained unbeaten and many perished in their attempts, until Hippomenes stepped up to the challenge. During the race he dropped three golden apples, said to have come from the Garden of the Hesperides and have been given to him by Venus, and Atalanta, unable to resist stopping to pick them up, eventually lost the race. Having arrived first at the goal Hippomenes won Atalanta's hand in marriage. Colombel has chosen to depict the moment in which Atalanta stoops to pick up the golden apple while Hippomenes overtakes her: the same moment chosen by Guido Reni in his famous painting in the Museo del Prado, Madrid, of which an autograph replica exists in the Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples.¹ Reni's paintings have been dated circa 1618-19 and although their early history is not known, it is more than likely that Colombel knew of their existence and appearance whilst in Italy, whether through copies or engravings.

Like many French artists Colombel went to Rome as a young man, probably before 1680, where he studied the works of Raphael and Nicolas Poussin (whose drawings and paintings he copied). In 1682 Colombel sent four paintings illustrating New Testament subjects from Rome to Paris: three of these were amongst seven paintings the artist exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1699, many years later.² In 1686 Colombel is named as a member of the Accademia di San Luca, thus documenting his presence in Rome at that time. It is not known how long he remained in Italy but he was back in Paris by 1693 for the following year he was named a member of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, becoming associate professor in 1701 and professor four years later.

A chronology for Colombel’s works is difficult to establish due to a lack of dated or documented works. In 1699 he exhibited seven paintings at the Salon, amongst which a painting of Bacchus and Ariadne and an “Atalante & Hippomène”; the latter quite probably identifiable with the present work.³ The fact that Bacchus and Ariadne is signed and dated 1699 provides an important key to understanding Colombel’s œuvre, but it differs significantly from the present work in style. It demonstrates the influence of Pierre Mignard, as do other paintings executed in the years immediately after his return to Paris,⁴ whilst Atalanta and Hippomenes is clearly inspired by the classicism of Nicolas Poussin. The painting that comes closest in style to Atalanta is Colombel’s Christ and the Woman of Samaria in the Residenzgalerie, Salzburg, and there are numerous similarities between the two works; the landscape, the measured gestures of the figures, the woman’s profile, and the overall classicism of the scene.⁵ The Salzburg picture has been dated to Colombel’s youthful period, perhaps even to before 1682, and a date for Atalanta and Hippomenes during the artist’s Roman sojourn seems likely.⁶

We are grateful to Karen Chastagnol for endorsing the attribution to Colombel. She plans to publish the painting in her forthcoming catalogue raisonné on the artist.

1 S. Pepper, Guido Reni. L'opera completa, Novara 1988, pp. 242-43, cat. no. 59, reproduced in colour plate IV.
2 The four paintings were engraved by Nicolas Dossier in 1711 and 1712; see A. Blunt, “Nicolas Colombel”, in Revue de l’Art, vol. 9, 1970, pp. 28-29, figs. 1-7. See P. Sanchez, Dictionnaire des artistes exposant dans les Salons des XVII et XVIIIeme Siècles à Paris et en Province 1673-1800, Dijon 2004, vol. I, p. 389, under 1699: "Dans le Trumeau XVI. sept Tableaux de M. Colombel…".
3 The Bacchus and Ariadne was listed by Blunt as in a private collection in Paris (op. cit., p. 33, reproduced fig. 17). Although no measurements are given for “Atalante & Hippomène”, its identification with the present canvas seems likely.
4 Compare his Mars et Rhéa Sylvia painted in 1694 as a morceau de réception for the Académie Royale, today in the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris; reproduced in Blunt, ibid., fig. 11.
5 Idem, pp. 31-32, reproduced fig. 14.
6 As was the case for the four paintings sent to Paris in 1682, it is quite possible that Colombel would have included the painting in a Salon many years later (see footnote 2 above).