Nicolas de Plattemontagne

Probably one of the two redreductions each given to one of the two patrons of the May of 1666, Médéric de Vaulx or Nicolas de Bonnières;

Private Collection, Sweden.

Property of Sotheby’s employee.

This oil on canvas is a recent rediscovery and a notable addition to the corpus of Nicolas de Plattemontagne’s paintings. In good condition, the painting is one of the works associated with the artist’s May de Notre-Dame.

Nicolas de Plattemontagne received the commission for the May of 1666, presented to the Cathedral that year by the goldsmiths Médéric de Vaulx and Nicolas de Bonnières. The commission was no doubt facilitated by the close relationship the painter had, as his pupil and collaborator, with Philippe de Champaigne, since the following year it was the turn of his friend Jean-Baptiste de Champaigne to benefit from the commission, leaving no doubt as to Philippe’s influence over the goldsmiths’ decision.

In any event, Plattemontagne had a good year in 1666, since it was also then that he was admitted to the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture.

As had been the requirement since the first Mays, the painter honoured with the commission had first to produce a sketch for presentation to the Cathedral chapter and then paint two reductions, one each for the two goldsmiths responsible for the May (on these different versions, see most recently D. Bastet, Les Mays de Notre-Dame, Paris, 2021, no. 1666 P.1 to 1666 P.3).

There are two known versions of approximately the same size (80 x 61 cm), one of which is the present painting. Another reduced version, larger than this one, could have been exhibited by Plattemontagne at the 1699 Salon, and is listed in his post-mortem inventory (see F. Lanoë and G. Kazerouni in cat. exh. À l’école de Philippe de Champaigne, Evreux, 2007-08, p. 154, under no. 38). In our opinion, this last work could be identified with the painting now in the Kunstmuseum, Basel (H. 101 cm; L. 89 cm; inv. G. 2017.9; bought from the Galerie Claude Vittet, after being sold at Hôtel Drouot, 9 December 2016, lot 44, sold for 35,000 euros). Although the size is certainly smaller than is described in the inventory (circa 130 x 108 cm), the measurements taken at that time could have included the frame, as was frequently the case. Furthermore, the pentimenti in the Basel painting, as well as the major variation to the prisoner on the right, who is looking at the jailer rather than at the two saints, unlike all the other versions including the May itself, suggest that this was the modello presented to the Cathedral chapter. The chapter could have asked the artist to modify the pose of the figure on the right, which would have been reflected in the May and in the two reductions made for the goldsmiths.

Hence it appears more logical that the version still in private hands in Paris (see D. Bastet, op. cit., no. 1666 P.1) and the present work, both of very similar size and without variations, are the two copies given to the two goldsmiths, who were thus treated on an equal footing.

The subject is taken from the Acts of the Apostles (16: 27–33) and depicts the moment when Paul and Silas, who had been imprisoned, were miraculously freed and the jailer, on the verge of killing himself for leaving the prison gates open, kneels at the feet of the saint to receive his blessing and is converted.