CARLO MARATTA (1625-1713)

Portrait of Andre Le Notre (1679-80)

Oil on canvas (112 x 85 cm)

Chateau de Versailles

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Carlo Maratta was one of the great Italian masters of the Late Baroque who excelled particularly in the genre of portraiture. From a very early age, Maratta showed extraordinary aptitudes for drawing, and at the age of 12, he entered the workshop of Andrea Sacchi where he would remain for 22 years. Sacchi, a disciple of Francesco Albani, encouraged Maratta to study the work of Rafael, Corregio and Annibale Carracci. To the influence of these masters, Maratta added the rich sense of colour of the Venetian school.

After a brief sojourn in his native town, Maratta returned to Rome in 1650; once there he was introduced to Pope Alexander VII who commissioned numerous paintings for several Roman churches and the cathedral of Siena. Thanks to the friendship of Giovanni Pietro Bellori, the famous art critic and theoretician, Maratta received in 1652 his first genuinely great commission, the frescoes for the church of Sant’ Isidoro a Capo le Case in Rome.

In 1662 Maratta became a member of the prestigious Accademia di San Luca; his reputation among the Roman nobility and the Holy See was very high, and it led to numerous commissions, including his famous Portrait of Clemente IX (1669, Ermitage, Saint Petersburg). After the deaths of Bernini and Pietro de Cortona, Maratta became the head of the Roman school. One of his most important works of that period is Constantine destroying the Idols for the baptistry of Letran. In 1704 he was made a Knight of the Order of Christ by Pope Clement XI and, in the same year, Painter to His Majesty Louis XIV.

Maratta died on 15th December 1713. He left a great collection of paintings (270 according to the inventory) which was sold in 1722 by his daughter; nearly half of them (124) were bought by Philip V of Spain and Isabel Farnesio. His style was characterized by a realistic vein, a product of his study of Annibale Carracci, dignified by a sober elegance according to the tenets of French classicism.

The name of Andre Le Notre (1613-1700) is indissolubly linked to the formal French garden. He received his early training from his father, the First Gardener to the King and Master of the Tuileries. A spell in Vouet’s studio, where he met Lebrun, was rounded off by studies of architecture. This triple training as a gardener, painter and architect accounted for the originality of his art. This was characterized by the extremely ordered and symmetrical layout of the gardens and the balanced play between the shades of the groves and the light of the avenues.

In 1637 he took up the post his father had held before becoming the Designer of the Plants and Gardens of all His Majesty’s Gardens in 1643 and, finally, in 1658, Controller General of the King’s Buildings and Gardens. His considerable merits, together with the friendship shown to him by Louis XIV, earned him a title of nobility in 1675 and the Order of Saint Lazarus and Mount Carmel. In 1693, when he received the sash of the Order of St Michael he gave the King the finest canvases in his collection (now at the Louvre). These were from the hands of prestigious artists such as Poussin, Claude Lorrain, Domenichino, Albani, Castiglione and Lanfranco.

In 1679, Le Notre travelled to Italy. Our painting dates from that time. As was his custom, Maratta sought to give a scrupulous rendering to the features of his sitter as well as the exquisite lace of his cravat and cuffs. Even so, the refined handling reminiscent of the great van Dyck tempers the realism and provides the portrait with an air of elegance and dignity very becoming to the sitter. The model stands against a background that serves as decor with the classical pilar that echoes the Roman grandeur and the landscape is a discreet allusion to his occupation as a gardener.