Audran, Gérard (1640-1703; French), after Mignard, Pierre (1612-95; French)
Tableaux de la Voute de la Galerie du Petit Appartement du Roy a Versailles, peint par P.Mignard (1686-89)
3 engravings
Gift of George Collins Levey 1879
National Gallery of Victoria (p.183.42-1, 48-1 & 50-1) 

= Levey gift, cat.111-113

These prints document Mignard’s ceiling paintings for the Petite Galerie of Louis XIV’s private rooms at Versailles, begun in 1685; the rooms were destroyed during restructuring of the palace in the mid 18th century (along with the Ambassadors’ Staircase located immediately below: see Baudet after Le Brun Le Grand Escalier de Versailles {1879} NGV [PR].

Mignard, from Troyes, worked in Italy for over 20 years from 1630. After returning to the Paris of Louis XIV, he worked as a portraitist, and became a rival of Le Brun, to whose various posts he succeeded on the latter’s death in 1690. After the death of Le Brun’s protector Colbert in 1683, Mignard gained various royal commissions, including this ceiling.

The three engravings, in sequence, are:

  1. Tableaux de la Voute… (p.183.48-1). The inscription elaborates: “Apollon distribué des recompenses aux Sciences et aux Arts, et Minerve couronne Le Genie de la France” (the latter supposedly modelled on Louis XIV’s grandson, the Duke of Burgundy, then aged 3).
  2. La Prevoiance et le Secret avec leurs Symboles (p.183.50-1)
  3. La Vigilance avec ses symbols, et Mercure comme le plus vigilant des Dieux (p.183.42-1)

[comparative illustration: another impression of La Vigilance (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale)]

Refs.

Not listed in NGV 1894 or 1905 

All three prints are listed in the NGV’s online catalogue, under the titles listed, but without identification of Audran or Mignard, and without reproductions under titles listed above

For Audran, see linked artist entry; for Mignard, see Bénézit 9, pp.956-58 and AKL 89 (2016), pp.407-8. For the print reproduced here, see https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b53128500r.thumbnail.highres