The Triumph of French Painting: Apotheosis of Poussin, Le Sueur and Le Brun
Charles Meynier (1768-1832) · 1822 (ceiling); coving commissioned 1828
Above you, on a tall vertical canvas, a winged Genius with a torch swoops down and drives away Time, an old man with a scythe who flees dazzled at the bottom of the picture. In the middle, three painters rise on the clouds: Poussin, Le Sueur and Le Brun, the founders of the French school in the reign of Louis the Fourteenth, and Le Brun holds a scroll inscribed Battles of Alexander. Beside them a winged figure, Clio, the muse of History, writes their names in a book. At the top, Apollo holds out a laurel crown, and at the upper right Raphael, Michelangelo and Leonardo watch from their own glory. Around the room, the painted coving carries attributes of the arts and medallion portraits of French painters from Vouet to Girodet and David.
The ministry of the King's Household commissioned the ceiling from Meynier in February 1820 for six thousand francs, to decorate the entrance hall of the royal museum; it was finished in 1822. The coving followed on a second commission of ten thousand francs in November 1828. Meynier's own explanation of the subject, preserved in the museum's records, reads like a manifesto for the French tradition.
Did You Know? Le Brun carries a scroll labelled Battles of Alexander, the title of his own most famous series of paintings.
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