Frederic
Mitterrand, minister of Culture and Communication, announced the
acquisition by the state for the Louvre Museum, Denial of
St. Peter by Louis or Antoine Le Nain (Reniement de Saint-Pierre). Full of emotion and
rare example of a painting in the spirit of Caravaggio, this masterpiece has an
illustrious provenance and is finally a long awaited piece those
intrigued by the case of the brothers Le Nain. Immediately, the painting is impressive: it's time for a shocking revelation to
the apostle Peter. Totally scared,
he tried to escape the prying eyes of the servant and soldiers who
recognize him as one of the companions of Christ. Shortly
before his arrest, Jesus had warned the oldest of his disciples that he
would deny him three times before dawn: and despite his protestations
of loyalty, Peter told three times he did not know. At cock-crow,
he discovers his cowardice and crying. From the
bottom of the composition, fascinating, a human face seems to take the
viewer to witness. Found in a
sale at Nancy March 19, 2000, entitled "School Lorraine seventeenth
century, the painting is mentioned for the first time March 4, 1656
when the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in search of a local,
sends a delegation to his patron, Cardinal Mazarin, for the granting of
housing galleries of the Louvre. Knowing avid
collector, she has two paintings, a "painting of fruit made by Mr. Le
Moyne and St. Peter of late Mr Le Nain. This is
important because two of the three brothers Le Nain, Antoine and Louis,
had died suddenly in May 1648: the "Saint Peter of late Mr Le Nain," if
we stick to the letter, would necessarily the work of
one of them, and the third and youngest brother, Matthew, who died in
1677, would be exonerated. But the
question is perhaps more complex. The AXA
Group's contribution to the safeguarding of cultural heritage is
French, the last seven years, to 40.5 million. AXA has
enriched the public collections of masterpieces such as two drawings of
Rosso Fiorentino and Vestal Houdon (Louvre), a magnificent statue of
the Dogon country (Musée du Quai Branly), Portrait of the
Duke of Orleans d "Ingres at
the Louvre, The Flight into Egypt by Nicolas Poussin (Musée
des Beaux-Arts de Lyon) and the Pavement of Castle Polisy (National Museum
of the Renaissance castle Ecouen). This
acquisition was made possible thanks to the tax provisions of the Act
of 1 August 2003 concerning patronage, associations and foundations. These
provisions, which supplement those of the Law of January 4, 2002
relating to the museums of France, in effect creating favorable
conditions for entry into public collections, thanks to corporate
sponsorship, works recognized national treasure by the Committee Consultative
national treasures. Frederic
Mitterrand would like to thank AXA for its exemplary action of
sponsorship for the national heritage and influence of art.
