François Marius Granet (Aix en Provence, 1775-1849) Raphael... Lot 39

François Marius Granet (Aix en Provence, 1775-1849) Raphael and the Fornarina, 1823 Canvas. Signed lower right and dated 1823. On the back, early inscription "Raphael et la Fornarina" and the mark "Galerie de la Madeleine/Tostain". Height 64 Width 50 cm. (old restorations) Gilded carved wood frame, Italian work of the 19th century (Height 94 Width 79 cm). Provenance: château du Lochois. François Marius Granet, 1823. A painting depicting Raphael and the Fornarina. Signed and dated. In an Italian 19th C. carved giltwood frame. Raphael and the Fornarina is an often-repeated theme, particularly by 19th-century artists, as in Ingres' famous 1815 depiction in Cambridge's Fogg Art Museum. Yet many mysteries surround the truth about the relationship between the Renaissance painter and this Fornarina, "the baker". Jean Pierre Cuzin, in Raphaël Vie et oeuvre, writes "This baker has sometimes been identified, without much certainty, with a certain Margherita, daughter of a Roman baker named Francesco". What is certain is that Raphaël loved this woman, who was like a muse to him. Nevertheless, she is closer to the figure of the painter's mistress, making this theme akin to an allegory of passionate but forbidden love. There is a drawing of this subject by Granet, sold at Sotheby's on July 1, 1995, no. 286 (pen and brown wash, height 29 cm, width 18 cm).