Mignard, the Marquise and Martinique: a West Indian setting for a masterpiece of 'Grand Epoque' portraiture

• Autores: Todd Longstaffe-Gowan
• Localización: Burlington magazine, ISSN 0007-6287, Vol. 152, Nº 1288, 2010, págs. 448-451
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The writer identifies the setting for Pierre Mignard's portrait of The Marquise de Seignelay and two of her sons (1641) as the West Indian island of Martinique. Since 1929, the National Gallery in London has adopted the mythological identification of the sitters: Madame de Seignelay, wife of Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Colbert, Marquis de Seignelay, as Thetis; her younger son as Cupid; and her elder son as Achilles. However, the picture's background, which includes a volcano, has never been satisfactorily explained. The volcano can now be identified as Mont Pelée on Martinique. Among other things, this suggests that Martinique was considered a potent symbol of the Colbert family's power, influence, wealth, and exoticism; the family had long-standing and important ties to the “Sugar Islands.” It is perhaps fitting that the Marquis should be invoked by reference to a volatile mountain on a small exotic island, as Thetis, in order to comfort her husband, Peleus, after the death of their son, Achilles, promised him immortality, and ordered him to retire to Leuce, the “island of the blessed” and the resting place of the souls of the ancient heroes.