Danaë (Blanchard)

Danaë is a 1631-1633 oil on canvas painting by French artist Jacques Blanchard, now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon in France. It shows Danaë receiving Jupiter in the form of a shower of gold, a union that results in the birth of Perseus.

Danaë at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon.

Blanchard is also thought to have painted another Danaë, this one part of the Suida-Manning Collection acquired in 1998 by the Blanton Art Museum in Austin, Texas. The attribution was made after a restoration of the painting c. 2012 uncovered a previously painted-over putto and an image of Jupiter, which not only identified the mythological subject, but bore stylistic markers of Blanchard's work. In 1992, art historian William R. Crelly had suggested that Virginia da Vezzo (the wife of Simon Vouet) painted the Blanton Danaë.[1] Even after the restoration, as recently as 2013, art historian Guillaume Kazerouni has disputed the Blanchard attribution and repeated the suggestion that the Blanton Danaë may be the work of Virginia da Vezzo.[2][3]

Danaë (1620-1630) by Jacques Blanchard (or Virginia da Vezzo?) at the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, after restoration.
The Blanton "Danaë" as it appeared before the restoration that uncovered the putto and the image of Jupiter.

References
  1. Crelly, William R. "Marcello Giovanetti: Sonnets et tableaux" in Simon Vouet: Actes du colloque international Galeries nationales du Grand Palais 5-6-7 février 1991, edited by Stéphane Loire, Paris: La Documentation Française, 1992, pp. 178-9.
  2. Rykner, Didier. "Judith and Holophernes by Virginia da Vezzo". thearttribune.com. Retrieved 2019-10-18.
  3. Rykner, Didier. "A Work by Jacques Blanchard Identified in Austin". thearttribune.com. Retrieved 2019-10-20.

Bibliography
  • Jacques Blanchard, catalogue exposition Rennes 6 mars au 8 juin 1998 Jacques Thuillier
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