1964.74: Catherine de Medici Entertaining the Polish Ambassadors in the Tuileries Gardens

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1964.74

People

Antoine Caron, French (1520 - 1599)

Title

Catherine de Medici Entertaining the Polish Ambassadors in the Tuileries Gardens

Other Titles

Former Title: A Court Ball in a Park
Former Title: Festival Given by Catherine de' Medici at the Reception of the Polish Ambassadors in the Tuileries Gardens

Classification

Drawings

Work Type

drawing

Date

1573

Culture

French

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/296339

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Brown ink, brown wash, and white gouache over black chalk on cream antique laid paper, framing lines in brown ink, laid down on blue wove paper

Dimensions

34.2 x 49 cm (13 7/16 x 19 5/16 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• inscription: lower center, black ink, 16th-century hand: 3
• inscription: lower left, graphite: 61

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Possibly private collection, Scotland; W. Thomson, Jr., United Kingdom, sold; to Colnaghi, London (by 1955), sold; to Winslow Ames, Saunderstown, gift; to Fogg Art Museum, 1964.74

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Winslow Ames

Accession Year

1964

Object Number

1964.74

Division

European and American Art

Contact

am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Publication History

• Jean Ehrmann, "Caron et les tapisseries des Valois", La revue des arts (1956), March, pp. 9-14, pp. 10-12
• Jean Ehrmann, "Dessins d'Antoine Caron pour les tapisseries des Valois du Musée des Offices a Florence", Bulletin de la Société de l’Histoire de l’Art Français (1957), pp. 115-25
• Jean Ehrmann, "Drawings by Antoine Caron for the Valois Tapestries in the Uffizi, Florence", The Art Quarterly (Spring 1958), vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 47-65, pp. 51, 53
• Agnes Mongan, De Clouet a Matisse: Dessins français des collections américaines, exh. cat., Musée de l'Orangerie (Paris, 1958), n.p.
• Agnes Mongan, Van Clouet tot Matisse: tentoonstelling van franse tekeningen uit amerikaanse collecties, exh. cat., Museum Boymans (Rotterdam, 1958), p. 29
• Agnes Mongan, French Drawings from American Collections: Clouet to Matisse, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 1959), p. 27
• Leonard Slatkes and Carol Wishy, Great Master Drawings of Seven Centuries, exh. cat., ed. Julius S. Held, Columbia University (New York, 1959), cat. no. 30, p. 37
• Frances A. Yates, The Valois Tapestries, The Warburg Institute, University of London / E. J. Brill (London, 1959), pp. xvi, xvii, 3-5, 78, 70, 131-n.2
• Frances A. Yates, The Valois Tapestries, ed. Gertrud Bing, Routledge and Kegan Paul (London, 1959), pp. xvi, xviii, 3-5, 68, 70, 131-n.2
• Belle Krasne Ribicoff, Centennial Loan Exhibition: Drawings and Watercolors from Alumnae and Their Families, exh. cat., Vassar College Art Gallery (Poughkeepsie, 1961), cat. no. 13, n.p.
• Jean Jacquot, La vie théatrale au temps de la Renaissance, exh. cat., Institut Pédagogique National (Paris, 1963), cat. no. 140, p. 82
• "Acquisitions", Fogg Art Museum Acquisitions, ed. John Coolidge, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1964), pp. 116-33, p. 120
• Walter Seeley, Elaine P. Loeffler, and Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Winslow Ames, exh. cat. (Providence, 1965), cat. no. 16, n.p.
• Geneviève Monnier, Le XVIe siècle européen: Dessins du Louvre, exh. cat., ed. Maurice Sérullaz and Roseline Bacou, Musée du Louvre (Paris, 1965), p. 89
• Marian Davis and Sam Cantey III, The School of Fontainebleau: An Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings, Engravings, Etchings and Sculpture, 1530-1619, exh. cat., Fort Worth Art Center (Fort Worth, 1965), pp. 22-23, 35
• Stanisława Sawicka, "Festyn dla posłów polskich w ogrodach Tuileries w 1573 r: Rysunek Antoine Carona", Sarmatia artistica: księga pamiątkowa ku czci Profesora Władysława Tomkiewicza, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe (Warsaw, 1968), pp. 17-34, pp. 21-22
• "Bei der Redaktion eingegangene Neuerscheinungen", Kunstchronik, Kunstchronik (1969), vol. 22, no. 7, July, pp. 203-207, p. 206
• Sylvie Béguin, Il cinquecento francese, ed. Walter Vitzthum, Fratelli Fabbri Editori (Milan, 1970), p. 85
• William McAllister Johnson, L'École de Fonatinebleau, exh. cat., ed. Sylvie Béguin and Michel Laclotte, Editions des Musées Nationaux (Paris, 1972), p. 45
• Howard Mayer Brown and Joan Lascelle, Musical Iconography: A Manual for Catalouing Musical Subjects in Western Art Before 1800, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, 1972), pp. 87, 92-93
• Myron Laskin, Jr. and William McAllister Johnson, Fontainebleau: L'art en France, 1528-1610 / Fontainebleau: Art in France, 1528-1610, exh. cat., National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, 1973), vol. 1, cat. no. D, p. 182, vol. 2, cat. no. D, pp. 36-37, 137
• Sir Roy Strong, Splendor at Court: Renaissance Spectacle and the Theater of Power, Houghton Mifflin Company (Boston, 1973), pp. 124, 126-27, 151-52
• Mary Rasmussen, "Review", Journal of the American Musicological Society (1974), vol. 27, no. 2, Summer, pp. 353-60, p. 359
• Lee T. Pearcy Jr., "Correspondence: 16th-Century Theatrical Illustrations", Early Music (1978), vol. 6, no. 1, January, pp. 127, 129, p. 127
• Salomon de Caus, "The Mannerist Garden I", The Renaissance Garden in England, ed. Sir Roy Strong (1979), pp. 73-112, pp. 92-93
• Konrad Oberhuber, European Master Drawings of Six Centuries from the Collection of the Fogg Art Museum, exh. cat., National Museum of Western Art (Tokyo, 1979), cat. no. 33, n.p.
• Joyce Elizabeth Nalewajk, Festivities: Ceremonies and Celebrations in Western Europe, 1500-1790, exh. cat., ed. David Harvey Ball (Providence, 1979), cat. no. 52, pp. 90-92
• William Howard Adams, The French Garden, 1500 - 1800, George Braziller (New York, 1979), pp. 34-36
• Sir Roy Strong, The Renaissance Garden in England, Thames and Hudson, Ltd. (London, 1979), pp. 92-93
• Cara Dufour Denison, Helen B. Mules, and Jane V. Shoaf, European Drawings, 1375-1825, The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, 1981), pp. 53-54
• Sir Roy Strong, Artists of the Tudor Court: The Portrait Miniature Rediscovered, 1520-1620, exh. cat., ed. Sir Roy Strong and V.J. Murrell, Victoria and Albert Museum (London, 1983), p. 68
• Sir Roy Strong, Art and Power: Renaissance Festivals, 1450-1650, The Boydell Press (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1984), pp. 100-102
• Cara Dufour Denison, French Drawings, 1550-1825, exh. cat., The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, 1984), n.p.
• Ronald W. Vince, Renaissance Theatre: A Historiographical Handbook, Greenwood Press (Westport and London, 1984), p. 184
• John Dixon Hunt, Vauxhall and London's Garden Theatres, Chadwyck-Healey Inc. (Cambridge and Alexandria, 1985), cat. no. 8a, pp. 23-25
• Jean Ehrmann, Antoine Caron: Peintre des fêtes et des massacres, Flammarion (Paris, 1986), pp. 198-99, 212, 214
• Kenneth Woodbridge, Princely Gardens: The Origins and Development of the French Formal Style, Rizzoli (New York, 1986), p. 83
• Léon de Groër, "Les tapisseries des Valois du Musée des Offices à Florence", Art, objets d’art, collections: Etudes sur l’art du Moyen Age et de la Renaissance sur l’historie du gout et des collections: Hommage à Hubert Landais, Blanchard Editeur (Paris, 1987), pp. 125-134, p. 126
• Susan Au, Ballet & Modern Dance, Thames and Hudson, Ltd. (London, 1988), pp. 13-14
• Hugh Macandrew, Old Master Drawings from the National Gallery of Scotland, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art (Washington, 1990), p. 120
• Gillian Kennedy and Anne Thackray, French Drawings XVI-XIX Centuries, exh. cat., Courtauld Institute of Art (London, 1991), p. 24
• Cara Dufour Denison, French Master Drawings from The Pierpont Morgan Library, exh. cat., The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, 1993), p. 17
• Kate de Rothschild, Master Drawings, exh. cat., Galerie Didier Aaron (New York, 1993), under cat. no. 1, n.p.
• Janina W. Hoskins, Visual Arts in Poland: An Annotated Bibliography of Selected Holdings in the Library of Congress, Library of Congress (Washington, 1993), p. 15
• Stanislas Lubieniecki, History of the Polish Reformation and Nine Related Documents, Fortpress Press (Minneapolis, 1995), pp. 841, 937
• Jane Turner, "Caron, Antoine", The Dictionary of Art, Macmillan Publishers Limited (New York, 1996), vol. 5, pp. 813-815, p. 814
• Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Barbara Brejon de Lavergnée, Jean-Francois Méjanès, Alain Mérot, Margaret Morgan Grasselli, Sophie Raux-Carpentier, William W. Robinson, Marianne Roland Michel, and Pierre Rosenberg, Mastery & Elegance: Two Centuries of French Drawings from the Collection of Jeffrey E. Horvitz, exh. cat., ed. Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, 1998), p. 72-n.23
• Sir Roy Strong, The Artist and the Garden, Yale University Press (U.S.) and Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art (New Haven and London, 2000), pp. 26-27
• Sheila ffolliott, "Antoine Caron (1521-1599)", Renaissance and Reformation: A Biographical Dictionary, ed. Jo Eldridge Carney, Greenwood Press (Westport, 2001), p. 70, p. 70
• Annette Dixon and Merry Wiesner-Hanks, Women Who Ruled: Queens, Goddesses, Amazons in Renaissance and Baroque Art, exh. cat., ed. Annette Dixon, Merrell Publishers Ltd. / University of Michigan Museum of Art (London and Ann Arbor, 2002), cat. no. 21, pp. 32, 56-57
• Alba Ceccarelli Pellegrino, "In pace e in Guerra ai tempi di Enrico III: Ambiguità dei 'Mignons'", Guerra e pace nel pensiero del Rinascimento / Quaderni della rassegna, ed. Luisa Secchi Tarugi, Franco Cesati Editore (Florence, 2005), vol. 41, pp. 265-89, p. 281
• Pascal-François Bertrand, "A New Method of Interpreting the Valois Tapestries through a History of Catherine de Médicis", Studies in Decorative Arts, Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts (New York, 2006-2007), vol. 14, no. 1, Fall-Winter, pp. 27-52, pp. 51-52, under note 39
• Cara Dufour Denison, From Leonardo to Pollock: Master Drawings from the Morgan Library, exh. cat., ed. Rhoda Eitel-Porter, The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, 2006), pp. 142, 221-n.1
• Laurent Odde, "Les coulisses du pouvoir: Châteaux, jardins et fêtes quelques aspects du médénat (transgressif) de Catherine de Médicis", Patronnes et mécènes en France à la Renaissance, ed. Kathleen Wilson-Chevalier and Eugénie Pascal, Publications de l'Université de Saint-Étienne (Saint-Étienne, 2007), pp. 481-510, pp. 505-506, repr. p. 506 as fig. 109
• Ewa Kociszewska, "Arras Medycejski Króla Henryka Walezego", Urbs celeberrima: księga pamiątkowa na 750-lecie lokacji Krakowa, ed. Andrzeja Grzybkowskiego, Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie (Kraków, 2008), pp. 376-89, pp. 384-85
• Margaret M. McGowan, Dance in the Renaissance: European Fashion, French Obsession, Yale University Press (U.S.) (New Haven and London, 2008), p. 114
• Gordon Campbell, ed., The Grove Encyclopedia of Northern Renaissance Art, Oxford University Press (UK) (Oxford, 2009), pp. 328-29
• Nicola Courtright, "The King's Sculptures in the Queen's Garden at Fontainebleau", Medieval Renaissance Baroque: A Cat’s Cradle for Marilyn Aronberg Lavin, ed. David A. Levine and Jack Freiberg, Italica Press (New York, 2010), pp. 129-48, p. 139, n. 51
• Michael Clarke, Poussin to Seurat: French Drawings from the National Gallery of Scotland, National Gallery of Scotland (Edinburgh, 2010), p. 30
• Ewa Kociszewska, "War and Seduction in Cybele's Garden: Contextualizing the 'Ballet des Polonais'", Renaissance Quarterly, Renaissance Society of America (New York, 2012), vol. 65, no. 3, Fall, pp. 809-63, pp. 815-816
• John Dixon Hunt, A World of Gardens, Reaktion Books (London, 2012), pp. 149-50
• Margaret M. McGowan, La Danse à la Renaissance: Sources livresques et albums d'images, Bibliothèque Nationale de France (Paris, 2012), pp. 14-15
• Ketty Gottardo, ed., Antoine Caron: Drawing for Catherine de' Medici, exh. cat., The Courtauld Gallery (London, 2017), cat. no. 5, pp. 27, 39-40, 50
• Elizabeth Cleland and Marjorie E. Wieseman, Renaissance Splendor: Catherine de' Medici's Valois Tapestries, exh. cat., Yale University Press (Cleveland, 2018), pp. 46, 49, 82,cat. no. 7, repr. p. 49 as fig. 47
• Alvin L. Clark, Jr. and Edouard Kopp, French Drawings from the Age of Claude, Poussin, Watteau, and Fragonard: Highlights from the Collection of the Harvard Art Museums, Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2022), cat. no. 2, repr.; detail repr. p. 27

Exhibition History

• Great Master Drawings of Seven Centuries, Knoedler & Co. Inc., 10/13/1959 - 11/07/1959
• Centennial Loan Exhibition: Drawings and Watercolors from Alumnae and Their Families, Vassar College, 05/19/1961 - 06/11/1961; Wildenstein & Company, New York, 06/14/1961 - 09/09/1961
• La vie théatrale au temps de la Renaissance, Institut Pédagogique National, 03/01/1963 - 04/30/1963
• Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Winslow Ames, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, 01/01/1965 - 12/31/1965
• The School of Fontainebleau: An Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings, Engravings, Etchings and Sculpture, 1530-1619, Fort Worth Art Center, Fort Worth, 09/15/1965 - 12/05/1965
• L'Ècole de Fontainebleau, National Gallery of Canada, 03/01/1973 - 04/15/1973
• Festivities: Ceremonies and Celebrations in Western Europe, 1500-1790, David Winton Bell Gallery, 03/02/1979 - 03/25/1979
• European Master Drawing of Six Centuries from the Collection of the Fogg Art Museum, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 11/03/1979 - 12/16/1979
• Women Who Ruled: Queens, Goddesses, Amazons in Renaissance and Baroque Art, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, 02/17/2002 - 05/05/2002; Davis Museum at Wellesley College, Wellesley, 09/14/2002 - 12/08/2002
• Antoine Caron: Drawing for Catherine de' Medici, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 01/18/2018 - 04/15/2018
• Renaissance Splendor: Catherine de’ Medici’s Valois Tapestries, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, 11/18/2018 - 01/21/2019

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