Michele Desubleo (maubeuge 1602 - Parma 1676) Attr., Portrait Of Gentleman Like King Solom

Michele Desubleo (Maubeuge, 1602 - Parma, 1676) - attributable
Portrait of gentleman like Solomon, the wise king

Oil painting on canvas
120 x 141 cm., By gilded wooden frame cm. 134 x 162 cm.

All the details relating to this painting can be viewed at the following - link -

The beautiful painting shows us an image of the famous Solomon king, legendary biblical figure who became the personification of the good reigning over the centuries, and proverbially recognized as one of the wisest politicians in history. The features of the off are presumably those of the client of the work, who wanted to emphasize his image by impersonating a character with legendary fame.

The reigning, with an elegant coron head of Corona of Eastern Foggia, is dressed in a sumptuous silk clothes, precious brocade and pearls that surround her shoulders, wears gifts, and is portrayed in the act of writing with a goose pen

To strengthen his image of wisdom, he holds in his hands an open book on which a Latin phrase taken from the ecclesiasts is legible, one of the short books of the Old Testament, dedicated to moral ethics and drawn up by King Solomon himself. Detail of great semantic refinement, to indicate that the client was not only an art collector but a man of culture.

The phrase 'Qui Amat Periculum, Peribit in Illo' (Ecclesiaste, III -27) - 'Whoever loves the danger, in it will perish' - alludes to anyone, who voluntarily gets in danger by giving in to temptations and sin, will be destined and remain lost.

In the lower part of the composition there is a sheet that reports a second inscription, related to the first, or 'Ocasiones Fugit', a sort of exhortation that the reigned essay feels to give to the observer of the work. Anyone who wants a virtuous life, directed to good, must not only abandon sin, but also the opportunity to sin, thus drawing on his own moral virtue.

By now entering the merits of the stylistic characters of our precious canvas, their analysis leads us to place their origin in that magnificent classicist expressiveness of the Bolognese culture of the seventeenth century, with evident references to the master Guido Reni.

The compositional details, first of all the enamelling of the embankment of the face, rendered with incredible shine as well as the precious details of the clothes or the Damascato emerald green drape, lead us to circumscribed the work to the great Franco-Fiammingo painter Michele Desubleo (Maubeuge , 1602 - Parma, 1676). Counted among the best students of the kidneys, it owes its great collecting success to its extraordinary ability to mix the best Bolognese tradition with its Nordic origins and still with Roman influences, elements that translate into a lexicon of balanced and rare elegance.

In detail, if the masterful use of colors, bright and enamelled, attests to the Nordic origin of his way, and the shadows of the wide drapes betray the contact especially with the works of Simon Vouet in Rome, where he is attested in 1624 next to the Framellastro Nicolas Regnier, the contour sign of his figures, safe but always marked in search of the latita form approaches him to the style of the masterpieces of his master Guido Reni.

Accompanied by certificate of photographic authenticity in accordance with the law.

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