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拍品專文
Born in Montauban in 1780, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres began his studies at the Académie Royale de Peinture, Sculpture et Architecture in Toulouse before relocating to Paris to study under the great Neoclassical painter Jacques-Louis David. After winning the Prix de Rome in 1801, Ingres travelled to the Eternal City in 1806, where he found inspiration in studying the work of Raphael. This first-hand experience of the great Renaissance artist would remain an important influence for Ingres throughout his career. While in Rome, Ingres sent his work back to Paris at regular intervals to be judged, but his paintings were received harshly and thought to be insufficiently idealised for the classical taste of the artistic establishment of the time. His work was better-received in Rome, and he was given important commissions by the occupying French government, noble families, and the Catholic Church.
The present painting is what Ingres described as his première pensée for one of his most important early religious paintings, Christ Delivering the Keys to Saint Peter (Musée Ingres, Montauban, on loan from the Louvre; fig. 1). The subject of the painting, Christ’s charge to St. Peter to establish His church on earth, is taken from Matthew 16:18-19, ‘…thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church… I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.’ Commissioned from the artist in 1817 by the French ambassador to the Holy See, the altarpiece was to hang in a side chapel of Santa Trinità dei Monti (fig. 2). The church was at the time the convent of the French order of the Dames du Sacré Coeur, and was being restored at the personal expense of the French ambassador. Though the commission was for a frescoed altarpiece, the final painting, like the present sketch, was eventually executed in oil on canvas. The altarpiece was completed in 1820, and even before its completion, Ingres regarded it as one of his masterpieces, writing to a friend in 1819, 'This is my best work.'
After finishing the composition, the artist made several unsuccessful attempts to have Christ Delivering the Keys to Saint Peter sent to Paris so that it could be displayed in the Salon of 1827. Roman law, he was informed by the Comte de Pastoret who had intervened on his behalf in the matter, 'prohibited the removal of a picture exhibited in one of the chapels where Mass is celebrated'. Further attempts were made to get the sisters to relinquish the canvas, but the painting was not returned to the French authorities until 1841, shortly before Ingres' completion of his tenure as the Director of the Académie de France in Rome and his departure from Italy for Paris. An agreement was reached that the convent would hand over the painting in exchange for a full-scale replica to hang in its place, painted by Jean-Gilbert Murat. Ingres’s painting was sent to Paris, where the artist reworked the composition, and it was then hung in the Musée du Luxembourg in 1842. When Ingres completed his final changes to the composition after its arrival in France, he wrote with satisfaction to a friend the following year, 'I have just completely finished my Saint Peter and I can say this time to my contentment and that of my best judges'. In 1874, the painting was moved to the Louvre, and was finally relocated to the Musée Ingres in Montauban in 1959.
The extent to which Ingres reworked the composition in 1841-42 has never been fully determined, but the present painting shows the artist’s composition in one of its earliest stages, and it has been squared for transfer with numbered sections in the right and left margins of the canvas. Though Ingres said himself in a letter that the present painting is ‘only the première pensée …there is a total difference with the finished work in all respects,’ the artist had largely worked out the major points of the composition by the time he put brush to canvas. The strong diagonal orientation, which draws the eye up from the kneeling figure of Peter, through the keys, and through Christ’s proper right hand extended toward the heavens, was already in place at this point in artist’s process. In the final painting, this diagonal is further accentuated by the artist’s decision to depict St. Peter grasping the keys instead of Christ, an idea taken from his extensive study of the figure of St. Peter in Raphael’s cartoon of The Charge to Saint Peter (fig. 3), which, along with Poussin’s Sacrament of Ordination, was Ingres’ principal inspiration for his altarpiece. This decision by the artist also allows the gesture of Christ’s hands to function as a visual representation of the transfer of Papal authority from God in heaven, through Jesus, to Peter on earth.
Ingres also ultimately made changes to the colours of the robes and to the facial expression of the figure of Christ, casting his glance up toward heaven rather than out of the picture plane as in the present study. The artist also changed the orientation of the figures of the apostles around Christ in the final version of the painting. Rather than having the apostles surround Christ, as he was experimenting with in the present study, he grouped them all together on the right side of the painting. Ingres’ altarpiece represents a departure from both Poussin and Raphael’s compositions in that he also does not include all 12 apostles in either this study or the finished altarpiece. Though according to scriptural accounts he was not present at Peter’s charge, Ingres adds the figure of St. Paul immediately to the right of Christ, making a gesture of blessing toward St. Peter, to function as Peter’s symbolic counterpart. In addition to the two saints, Ingres included the following apostles, from left to right: an unidentifiable apostle; Judas, in the green robes, whose face is hidden behind Christ’s extended arm; St. John the Evangelist, with the long hair and the rose-coloured robe; Phillip; Matthew; and the faces of two other apostles behind the central figures who are unidentifiable. In the final composition, the artist also added architectural details and vegetation to the landscape surrounding the figures to give the setting more of a sense of the south-eastern Mediterranean than is found in the present study.
Various oil sketches and preparatory drawings of unknown date by Ingres survive for this complex, multi-figural composition. The present oil sketch can be securely dated to circa 1817-18. In 1962, Daniel Ternois demonstrated that our study appears propped up on a table at the rear of the studio in Jean Alaux’s painting of Ingres in his studio on the Via Gregoriana in Rome (fig. 4) which is dated 1818, providing a terminus ante quem for the work. Additionally, Ingres mentions the present painting in several letters dating from 1820-1821 sent to the painting’s first owner, his devoted childhood friend Jean-François Gilibert, to whom the artist gifted the study in 1821.
The present painting is what Ingres described as his première pensée for one of his most important early religious paintings, Christ Delivering the Keys to Saint Peter (Musée Ingres, Montauban, on loan from the Louvre; fig. 1). The subject of the painting, Christ’s charge to St. Peter to establish His church on earth, is taken from Matthew 16:18-19, ‘…thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church… I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.’ Commissioned from the artist in 1817 by the French ambassador to the Holy See, the altarpiece was to hang in a side chapel of Santa Trinità dei Monti (fig. 2). The church was at the time the convent of the French order of the Dames du Sacré Coeur, and was being restored at the personal expense of the French ambassador. Though the commission was for a frescoed altarpiece, the final painting, like the present sketch, was eventually executed in oil on canvas. The altarpiece was completed in 1820, and even before its completion, Ingres regarded it as one of his masterpieces, writing to a friend in 1819, 'This is my best work.'
After finishing the composition, the artist made several unsuccessful attempts to have Christ Delivering the Keys to Saint Peter sent to Paris so that it could be displayed in the Salon of 1827. Roman law, he was informed by the Comte de Pastoret who had intervened on his behalf in the matter, 'prohibited the removal of a picture exhibited in one of the chapels where Mass is celebrated'. Further attempts were made to get the sisters to relinquish the canvas, but the painting was not returned to the French authorities until 1841, shortly before Ingres' completion of his tenure as the Director of the Académie de France in Rome and his departure from Italy for Paris. An agreement was reached that the convent would hand over the painting in exchange for a full-scale replica to hang in its place, painted by Jean-Gilbert Murat. Ingres’s painting was sent to Paris, where the artist reworked the composition, and it was then hung in the Musée du Luxembourg in 1842. When Ingres completed his final changes to the composition after its arrival in France, he wrote with satisfaction to a friend the following year, 'I have just completely finished my Saint Peter and I can say this time to my contentment and that of my best judges'. In 1874, the painting was moved to the Louvre, and was finally relocated to the Musée Ingres in Montauban in 1959.
The extent to which Ingres reworked the composition in 1841-42 has never been fully determined, but the present painting shows the artist’s composition in one of its earliest stages, and it has been squared for transfer with numbered sections in the right and left margins of the canvas. Though Ingres said himself in a letter that the present painting is ‘only the première pensée …there is a total difference with the finished work in all respects,’ the artist had largely worked out the major points of the composition by the time he put brush to canvas. The strong diagonal orientation, which draws the eye up from the kneeling figure of Peter, through the keys, and through Christ’s proper right hand extended toward the heavens, was already in place at this point in artist’s process. In the final painting, this diagonal is further accentuated by the artist’s decision to depict St. Peter grasping the keys instead of Christ, an idea taken from his extensive study of the figure of St. Peter in Raphael’s cartoon of The Charge to Saint Peter (fig. 3), which, along with Poussin’s Sacrament of Ordination, was Ingres’ principal inspiration for his altarpiece. This decision by the artist also allows the gesture of Christ’s hands to function as a visual representation of the transfer of Papal authority from God in heaven, through Jesus, to Peter on earth.
Ingres also ultimately made changes to the colours of the robes and to the facial expression of the figure of Christ, casting his glance up toward heaven rather than out of the picture plane as in the present study. The artist also changed the orientation of the figures of the apostles around Christ in the final version of the painting. Rather than having the apostles surround Christ, as he was experimenting with in the present study, he grouped them all together on the right side of the painting. Ingres’ altarpiece represents a departure from both Poussin and Raphael’s compositions in that he also does not include all 12 apostles in either this study or the finished altarpiece. Though according to scriptural accounts he was not present at Peter’s charge, Ingres adds the figure of St. Paul immediately to the right of Christ, making a gesture of blessing toward St. Peter, to function as Peter’s symbolic counterpart. In addition to the two saints, Ingres included the following apostles, from left to right: an unidentifiable apostle; Judas, in the green robes, whose face is hidden behind Christ’s extended arm; St. John the Evangelist, with the long hair and the rose-coloured robe; Phillip; Matthew; and the faces of two other apostles behind the central figures who are unidentifiable. In the final composition, the artist also added architectural details and vegetation to the landscape surrounding the figures to give the setting more of a sense of the south-eastern Mediterranean than is found in the present study.
Various oil sketches and preparatory drawings of unknown date by Ingres survive for this complex, multi-figural composition. The present oil sketch can be securely dated to circa 1817-18. In 1962, Daniel Ternois demonstrated that our study appears propped up on a table at the rear of the studio in Jean Alaux’s painting of Ingres in his studio on the Via Gregoriana in Rome (fig. 4) which is dated 1818, providing a terminus ante quem for the work. Additionally, Ingres mentions the present painting in several letters dating from 1820-1821 sent to the painting’s first owner, his devoted childhood friend Jean-François Gilibert, to whom the artist gifted the study in 1821.