C27/42-original Drawing-on Velin-feather-ink-wash-henry Bellange-century Of Nostradamus-1632

Attributed to Henry Bellange (baptized in 1613 in Nancy) Six illustrations from a century of Nostradamus Pen and black ink, ink wash, letters and gold fillet on vellum 22.7 x 17.3 cm Perfect condition 1632 Inscriptions in bottom of the drawings: Cent 9. qu. 18. 1632 The lyx of Auviens 1 will carry in Nancy As far as Flanders 2 Elector of the Empire. 3. New 4 sealed at the great Montmorency, Out of place prove, delivered to Clairepeine 5. Romans 6 do not come because Mountains in peace, Field shows felle 7. of no one 8. people deceive. Referring to the figures, notes on the side offer an interpretation of these predictions: 1. Gaston of France. 2. Brussels. 3. Treves. 4. Castelnaudarry. 5. Name of the executioner of Beziers. 6. Ba lifts. from St. Romain en Sav. for Mr. en Lang.oc Mr. Arfoit (?), the Rom. Will come, but on the advice of a letter we wrote to the D. de Sav. who held them back, which saved the Province. 7. Marriage of Mr. 8. Spies and ciphers. ***************************** Henry Bellange was the son of the Lorraine court painter Jacques Bellange. Entering the workshop of Claude Deruet in 1626, he first placed himself in the service of the Duke of Lorraine Charles IV, then stayed in Italy between 1633 and 1642. From this date, he settled in Paris. The attribution of our parchment to this artist is based on the use of grisaille ink washes on a vellum support bordered with a gold fillet, as well as on the calligraphy in gold letters – criteria that the we find on a series of aristocratic portraits attributed to Henry Bellange and kept at the Château de Pau museum, as well as on a signed sheet held by the Harward Art Museum. The level of execution is compatible with the known drawings of Henry, who was not a designer of the level of his father. But the interest of this rare document rests essentially on its esoteric aspect, testimony to astrological practices in the high aristocracy of the time of Louis XIII. The interpretation of the couplets seems to propose as the key the Lorraine outfit of Gaston d'Orléans, brother of Louis XIII. In 1631, Gaston secretly married Princess Marguerite de Lorraine in Nancy. He then fled to Brussels and tried to engineer the uprising against Richelieu by provincial governors, including the Duke of Montmorency. But as is often the case in this type of gnosis, the comments turn out to be as obscure as the prediction itself... Our document could have been drawn up a posteriori in Marguerite's entourage at the Palais d'Orléans, where the people of Lorraine were numerous, and where the climate of intrigue authorized similar speculations.