Augustin Louis BELLE (Paris 1757-1841) - Lot 116

Augustin Louis BELLE (Paris 1757-1841) Hersé, daughter of Cécrops, sees Mercure on his way to the palace. Canvas. 96.5 x 71 cm Signed and dated lower left Aug. BELLE 1822 Provenance: Sale Arredi e dipinti antichi provenienti dal Palazzo Bresciano della Famiglia Pederzani Bonicelli da una Residenza Emiliana e da committenze private, Prato (Farsetti), October 26, 2018, no. 458, reproduced. Exhibitions: Paris, Salon de 1822, no. 66; Lille, Salon de 1822, no. 43. Son of Clément Belle, painter and super-inspector at the Manufacture Royale des Gobelins, Augustin Belle was Belle was a pupil of his father and Joseph-Marie Vien. He left for Italy in 1784 and was admitted as an extern to the Académie de France in Rome, from where he returned in 1788 with Tobie rendering sight to his father (Musée de Chatillon-sur-Seine). He exhibited at the Salons from 1793 to 1835 with portraits and history paintings. Augustin Belle takes his subject from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Hermes, infatuated with Hersé, decides to go to the palace of Cécrops, but on the way he meets Aglaure, to whom he offers a sum of money in exchange for his cooperation. However, Athena asks Envy to make Aglaure jealous. Aglaure decides to renege on the agreement and prevent Hermes from entering, so he transforms her into a stone statue so that he can live out his romance.