STELLA, Jacques - b. 1596 Lyon, d. 1657 Paris - WGA

STELLA, Jacques

(b. 1596 Lyon, d. 1657 Paris)

French painter. Stella is an example of a painter who enjoyed great esteem in his lifetime, both as an artist and a patron (of Nicolas Poussin), but whose work is no longer appreciated. Most of the early part of his career was spent in Italy, both in Florence and Rome, and he must have been strongly influenced by the small Madonnas of Raphael. He became a friend of Poussin in Rome and acquired numerous pictures by him, including the Venus and Aeneas now at Rouen. Poussin influenced Stella’s sweetly decorative style (which is similar in scale and charm to that of Lubin Baugin) to the point where his pictures became cold and hard and lacking in sentimentality. Unusually for a Frenchman, Stella sometimes painted on a precious ground such as lapis-lazuli or marble, allowing the pattern of the stone to form part of the composition.

Judith with the Head of Holofernes

Stella probably painted this picture during his stay in Rome when he painted many small works on slate. He began his career as an engraver in Florence in 1619, but in 1623 he moved to Rome, where he became one of Poussin’s few intimate friends. He went through a series of stages in which he practiced different styles. His early engravings are in the manner of Callot; but his later work was dominated by Poussin.

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Minerva and the Muses

Stella’s art, although sometimes influenced by Poussin in terms of its composition, was often very much more light-hearted. Although he sometimes used Poussinesque figures in his larger compositions, Stella never interested himself in the moral and intellectual side of Poussin’s art.

The mythological story depicted in this painting is the following.

Minerva (Greek Pallas Athena) was one of the major deities of ancient Greece and Rome, and, like Apollo, a benevolent and civilizing influence. In Greek mythology she was the daughter of Jupiter (Zeus), and sprang fully armed from his head. The familiar figure in armour with spear, shield and helmet, the patroness of institutions of learning and the arts, seen in civic heraldry, sculpture and painting, is only one of her many aspects. In an early form she was a war goddess, hence her weapons. She was the patroness of Athens, and the Parthenon was her temple.

Ovid describes (Met. 5:250-268) how Minerva visited the Muses on Mt Helicon, their home, to listen to their song and story and to see the sacred spring, the Hippocrene, which flowed from a rock after it had been struck by the hoof of the winged horse, Pegasus. The scene is a wooded mountain-side where the company of Muses are playing their instruments or perusing books. Pegasus is seen in the background. The association of Minerva and the Muses was in line with the tradition that made her patroness of the arts.

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The Liberality of Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu

Promoted by Richelieu and invited to the most exclusive salons of Paris, Stella enjoyed painting dense scenes such as The Liberality of Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu (in which Louis XIII is portrayed as Titus) for a fireplace in Richelieu’s château.

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