Discovered recently is a small and charming Saint Mary Magdalen by Michele Desubleo (Michel DeSubleay) (Maubeuge 1602-1697 Parma), an oil sketch on canvas, size 44 by 32.7 cm., see above for references to the catalogue raisonné on this painter by Dr. Alberto Cottino (Edizione Soncino 2001). It is fairly rare to find small portraits of this kind in Desubleo's oeuvre and it is debatable if it is a study for a larger composition or meant as an image by itself, because there seems to be no particular likeness to a model involved. However the very close resemblances to the remarkable Madonna della Rosa in Modena, color plate XXIV and also illustrated in color on the cover of Cottino's catalogue are undeniable. The physiognomy of this portrait is very much Desubleo's with the classical features and the introspective gaze. This remarkable painter who became Guido Reni's assistant in Bologna and later the head of his studio never relinquished traces of his French/Flemish past, but unlike his half-brother Nicolas Regnier had a much lesser influence on French art of the time. There is a lusciousness and melancholic idiosyncracy in DeSubleo's art which remain truly fascinating. Dr.Alberto Cottino advises us that he plans to publish this new discovery in a forthcoming essay on DeSubleo in the international Art Magazine Valori Tattili, Quesiti caravaggeschi.

The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine of Alexandria is by the remarkable high baroque French painter Jacques de Lestin or Létin (Troyes 1614-1673 Troyes), as advised by Dr. Sylvain Kerspern and supported by Dr. Patrice Marandel of the Los Angeles County Museum. This very touching and superb oil on copper datable to possibly the 1620.s in Rome, size 24.8 by 20.3 cm, probably served as a small personal devotional painting for a royal or aristocratic client. It takes its composition partly from Carravaggio.s .Martyrdom of Saint Matthew. in the Roman church of San Luigi dei Francesi (Saint Louis of the French), which almost naturally also inspired Claude Vignon for his renowned painting of the same subject matter now in Arras, dated 1617. De Lestin is recorded as having arrived in Rome in 1622, living with his painter colleague Charles Mellin (who equally used the image of the descending angel from Carravaggio) and the sculptor Jacques Sarrazin. De Lestin is described as coming for the first time during Easter 1624 to Simon Vouet.s studio, who himself had already arrived in Rome in 1614. De Lestin studied the large works of the then ténèbriste Vouet and obviously was much influenced by his style. Back to France in 1626 de Lestin was asked to execute many works outside his birthplace of Troyes and he kept in contact with Vouet and his circle who himself returned in 1627 to Paris. This exquisite small work displays the particular physiognomy and typical musculature seen in de Lestin.s larger works. The nervous movement of the brush, heavy swirling drapery, the clasped hands and the flickering light coming from above left, casting deep soft shadows and the vibrant coloring denote the theatrical baroque efforts of the French artistic Counter Reformation, intending to show the spiritual strength of the Saints. The artist succeeds in depicting the cruelty of the moment with a moving but superb and very poetic pathos, much like what Vignon expressed in his Saint Matthew, while also having been influenced by the early Roman works of Vouet. Notwithstanding the size of this small amazing work, it shows the full power and talent of this quite unusual artist, cf. Jacques de Létin, exhibition catalogue Musee des Beaux-Arts de Troyes, 1976, with a preface by Jacques Thuillier.

Le Faune et sa Femelle (The Faun and his Female) by Nicolas Chaperon (Chateaudun 1612-1655 Lyon), oil on canvas, size 59 x 44.5 cm. As one of the pupils of Simon Vouet, Chaperon who was not only a painter but also an engraver who made prints from works by Vouet, Poussin and Dorigny, all with themes from Greek and Roman mythology. The subject matter was mainly taken from Roman writers such as Ovid and Catullus, who wrote about the childhood and life of the wine god Bacchus, called Dionysus by the Greeks. Bacchus was the son of Zeus by the priestess Semele and he was celebrated in ancient mythology for his orgies surrounded by satyrs, female revelers and fauns (a famous depiction of 'Bacchus and Ariadne' by Titian hangs in the National Gallery in London). The secular taste for such light hearted scenes, allowing the artist to freely use his imagination became early on fashionable in Italy and France. Chaperon produced paintings of Bacchanalia and a series of engravings from his own works in Paris before leaving for Rome in 1636. In this work the influence of Poussin is clearly visible in the cherub to the left and the influence of Vouet in the female figure, but both the seated faun with his huge shoulders and the satyr looking down from the tree are typical of Chaperon as is the small cherub leaning against the Faun and looking up at him. There is an engraving (in the same direction) after this painting by Chaperon in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, size 227 x 163 mm, signed in the plate Chaperon f., Mariette excudit, engraved by Chaperon and published by Pierre-Jean Mariette, a Parisian dealer in prints and illustrated in the exhibition catalogue Nicolas Chaperon, 1612-1654/55, Du graveur au peintre retrouvé, Nîmes musées des Beaux-Arts, 1999, authors: Sylvain Laveissière, Dominique Jacquot and Guillaume Kazerouni, pages 102-104, illus page 102, Catalogue number 21. This painting has extraordinary charm, and relates to the similarly appealing .Drunken Silenus. by Chaperon in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Dr. Dominique Jacquot one of the editors of the Nimes exhibition catalogue and author of the chapter on Chaperon's early years in Paris and his 'Bacchanalia' has approved of the attribution.

Le Faune et sa Femelle (The Faun and his Female), a preparatory drawing for the above painting by Nicolas Chaperon (Chateaudun 1612-1655 Lyon), pen and brown ink with brown wash, size 28.5 x 21.5 cm. Provenance Jules-Alexandre Duval Le Camus (1814-1878), Paris, whose collection stamp it bears lower left (Lugt, Marques de Collections de Dessins et d'Estampes,, no. 1441). This high quality drawing follows Chaperon's superb graphic style as well as his preferred medium of pen and brown ink and brown wash (cf. Sylvain Laveissière, Dominique Jacquot and Guillaume Kazerouni, Nicolas Chaperon 1612-1654/55 , catalogue for the exhibition at the musées de Nîmes, 1999, Cat. 35, p. 140 illus. passim). Dr. Jacquot mentions in his description of the engraving in the same direction made by Chaperon himself (cf. idem, Cat. 21, pp. 102/4, illus. collection of the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris), that despite the heavy influence of Poussin and Vouet, one finds here the typical features of Chaperon's modeling of figures. The faun seen from the rear with large shoulders, the child with his round face who looks up at him and in particular the satyr with horns on a bald and knobby head seen from above, which he describes as a sort of signature of the artist. As comparison Jacquot mentions paintings sold at Christie's London in 1997 and a design correctly attributed to Chaperon by Kazerouni, illustrated in the drawing catalogue by Richard Harprath, Barbara Brejon de Lavergnée et alia, Simon Vouet: 100 neuentdeckte Zeichnungen for an exhibition at the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munchen, 1991. The fact that the composition has been copied many times and that the engraving exists in many impressions shows that it was a much admired image during Chaperon's life time.There are copies after our drawing in the Louvre (copie apres Chaperon 41 x 30.6 cm., inv. 25205, Fonds des dessins, Grand format) and one in the Albertina in Vienna (Satyrfamilie 24.8 x 19.5 cm. inv. no.11591).

Venus Asleep Surprised by Two Satyrs, a voluptuous image painted for a private client by Michel II Corneille also named Corneille l.Ancien or Corneille le Jeune (the Younger) (Paris 1642-1708 Paris), an attribution made with the kind provisional approval of Dr. Moana Weil-Curiel. Oil on canvas, size 47 by 35.5 cm. Much influenced by Nicolas Poussin, with a warm Rubensian coloring and thus proof of the victory in la querelle des coloris (the debate on color versus design at the end of the seventeenth century in France), one finds here italianisants elements derived directly from the Venetian sixteenth century such as the luscious Titianesque figure of the reclining Venus and the delicate landscape, but also with a Flemish influence in the particularly subtle still life on the table at the left foreground. The painting corresponds to what Gilles Chomer wrote in the catalogue of the Grenoble museum (2000) about a .Bacchanal. by Corneille II in its collection (number 24, page 90, illustrated in color, formerly attributed to Bon Boullogne, 1649-1717 and to Jean Raoux, 1677-1734): . The resonance between the red and white colors and the spirit of the landscape makes one think of Venetian painting in the XVI-th century and it evokes the art of Titian.. Antoine Schnapper commented on this same canvas in 1978 which also applies to our painting: .The colors, warmly Rubensian are very characteristic of this artist, at a rather late date (towards about 1700). The painting participates clearly in the debate on colors and its victory, while aiming at a very deliberate Venetian-Flemish manner with a subject matter reminding one of the first Bacchanalia of Poussin .. Corneille the Younger was a versatile artist and adapted easily to prevailing modes of expression. The cherubs floating in the air holding up swaths of heavy elaborate drapery resemble closely those in his other works, while the glowing skin of Venus reclining on a marvelously pleated couch reflects his interest in a so-called naturaliste manner (Weil-Curiel). Support for the attribution is found in the face of the bearded faun in the foreground which is seen in the sketches of frowning bearded men in Corneille le Jeune's drawing of Têtes d'Expression preserved in the graphics department at the Louvre museum (Inv. 25664, recto). Close comparisons can also be made with the drawing of Deux Naïades et un Amour assis in the Louvre (Inv. 25374, recto) and the modeling of the figure of Venus is found in the drawing of Diane et Caliste , also in the Louvre (Inv. 25471) as well as in the Renaud et Armide (Inv.25315 recto). The rhythm and compactness of the composition in our painting depicting a mythological subject matter in a darkened landscape (cf. the drawing of Tritons et Néreides in the Louvre, Inv. 25530, recto) are very typical of Corneille the Younger and a related composition exists in the drawing of A reclining Nymph with a Satyr caught by two Cherubs (Inv. 25378, recto). All the drawings quoted were presented to the Cabinet du roi in 1671. Our painting shows a nude Venus which approaches the Rembrandtesque influence in the French early eighteenth century as seen in painters like the above mentioned Jean Raoux (Sylvain Kerspern). The elegant table seems to predate the taste for such furniture during the Régence of Philippe d.Orleans in Louis XV.s infancy from 1715-1723 but already palpable during the last years of Louis XIV.s reign (Sylvain Kerspern). Our painting thus probably dates from the last years of Corneille II.s life towards 1708, when he had lost much of his Bolognese influence. Corneille traveled to Italy between 1658 and 1671 after which he was employed for grand decorations in Versailles (le plafond du salon des Nobles de la reine: Mercure entouré des Sciences et des Arts , with four corner arches), in the Trianon (Flore et Zéphyr, le Jugement de Midas) and in the chateaux de Meudon and Fontainebleau of which very little unfortunately remains. With a relatively large body of graphic work often in the style of his master Pierre Mignard, few paintings of Corneille have been identified as yet, in particular those with mythological motifs. Corneille was described by Pierre-Jean Mariette (1694-1774), an early art-historian as a sensitive and secluded painter striving towards esthetic perfection, but even Mariette noted that by then many of his paintings had disappeared. As Dr. Jean-Claude Boyer has observed, Corneille sought for suppleness and refinement in his art, which is amply visible in this beautiful example.

The Triumph of Neptune, a notable large work by Pierre Brebiette (Mantes 1598?-1642 Paris), oil on canvas, size 111.7 x 148.6 cm., attributed with the full support from Dr. Paola Bassani Pacht author and Dr. Sylvain Kerspern, co-author of the exhibition catalogue: Pierre Brebiette, Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orleans, 2002. As Jacques Thuillier wrote in his preface to the catalogue " On peut voir en Brebiette un petit maître charmant qui poursuit en plein XVIIe siècle le vieux rêve païen de Fontainebleau et retrouve pour chanter Bacchus, les dryades et les satyres, les accents point si lointains ni oubliés de la Pléïade. Mais un autre image s'impose : celle d'un artiste indépendant, dont les expériences romaines eurent un role déterminant pour le développement du courant néo-venétien des années vingt " (One could see in Brebiette a charming small master who pursues in the full seventeenth century the old pagan dream of Fontainebleau and recovers for enchantment Bacchus, the dryads and satyrs, returning to the quite far removed but not forgotten sounds of the 'Pléïade'- i.e. the Pléïade is the name given to a group of 16th-century French Renaissance poets, inspired by Alexandrian poets and tragedians of the 3rd century B.C. -. But another image imposes itself: that of an independent artist, to whom the Roman experiences were a determining role for the development of the neo-Venetian trend in the years twenty - i.e. 1620's -). Brebiette's works have great charm, but there are traces of melancholy as if celebrating a vanishing mythological world. His depictions of Proserpina abducted to the Underworld (there is an example in the Louvre and a small variation on copper - see below) denote a regret as if with her all of antiquity disappears into the dark. This large Neptune en colère (wrathful), seems almost a warning not to forget or neglect the ancient gods. The ship with torn sails struggles to reach safe haven, while a Triton heralds Neptune's triumph. Brebiette is an idiosyncratic painter as can be seen in his self portrait engraved after the death of his wife Loyse de Neufgermain in 1637, which bears the inscription animum pictura pascit inani (Painting nourishes the heart of him who is overwhelmed), but also with a poetic and romantic nature almost modern in sensibility. His love for a vanishing ancient world was nourished in Rome by the Cavaliere Dal Pozzo, the sophisticated patron of Poussin whose deep interests in Roman archeology were well known. Having become peintre du roi (court painter to Louis XIII) Brebiette enjoyed success in Paris with his tales from ancient mythology. Both Dr. Bassani Pacht and Dr. Kerspern date our Triumph of Neptune to about 1640 towards the end of Brebiette's working life, a dating supported by the structure of the struggling ship and by an engraving by Brebiette dated 1640 of Le Temps sur son Char...etc. (in the catalogue number 103, page 102, illustrated) which shows a figure of Time whose physiognomy resembles closely that of the Neptune in our painting seated on a chariot and with fluttering robes comparable to the torn sails on our ship. The image is taken before at present being cleaned and restored in France.

The Rape of Proserpine, a highly dramatic small oil on copper, size 12 x 8 inches by the idiosyncratic painter Pierre Brebiette (Mantes circa 1598 . 1642 Paris) The composition repeats that of the larger paintings of the same subject matter in the Louvre museum and in the signed one in the Châlons-en-Champagne museum as well as in a signed drawing in the Kupferstich Kabinett in Dresden (cf. exhibition catalogue Pierre Brebiette (1598?-1642), Musée des Beaux-Arts d.Orleans, 2002 by Paola Bassani Pacht and Sylvain Kerspern, color image on front cover, pages 14 and 25, catalogue number 15, page 53, catalogue numbers 72 and 73, page 88). The myth of Proserpine told in Ovid.s Metamorphoses V is placed at lake Pergus near Enna at the center of Sicily where Pluto, god of the Underworld abducts the daughter of Ceres and Jupiter with whom he has fallen in love. We see here a female companion of Proserpine trying to prevent this misdeed. The swirling grey clouds enclose the chariot as if in a vortex and the black horses already disappear into the darkness of the Underworld while the orange red flames of an infernal volcano are reflected behind Proserpine.s in despair outstretched hand. The whole mythological presentation conforms to the ideas and taste of the circle around Cavaliere dal Pozzo famed as the patron of Nicolas Poussin in Rome at the time. As the authors of the exhibition catalogue express it, that milieu appreciated a subtle and sophisticated poetry, an artificial elegance, humor and a sense of narrative. The elaborate chariot displays a fanciful interest in archeology. The whole mise-en-scène would attract a sophisticated public and this small copper was in all probability executed by the artist for a private collector as a complimentary replica of the larger pictures. Paola Bassani Pacht places the Louvre and Châlons works circa 1630 and the same date can be applied here. Both authors of the exhibition catalogue have seen and approved of this work.