Gaspard de Daillon du Lude (ca. 1602–1676)

Jacques Saillant was born in Avignon. He joined an Augustinian order and was in Rome and Florence between 1620 and 1633, with the name of Saliano. Between May 3, 1633, and May 4, 1638, he wrote six letters from Avignon to the Roman patron of the arts Cassiano del Pozzo (1588–1657), from whom he had received several commissions while living in Rome (Giovanni Bottari and Stefano Ticozzi, Raccolta di Lettere . . . , vol. 1 [1822], pp. 361–71). Saillant died in Avignon in or after 1638. This work and the other in the Museum's collection (59.72.2) provide the main evidence of his activity as a miniature painter.

Martin Rhainds identified the sitter as Gaspard de Daillon du Lude based on the inscription beneath Nicolas Pitau (1632–1671)’s engraving after Justus van Egmont (1601–1674)’s closely related portrait (see fig. 1 above). Though Egmont’s original is untraced, what is probably a copy was sold in Albi at the Hôtel des Ventes du Tarn, October 24, 2015. Daillon was appointed bishop of Albi from 1634 and received the Order of the Saint-Esprit in 1661, both years after the date inscribe on the miniature, 1628. This suggests that the inscription might be erroneous or that the blue ribbon and badge of Saint Esprit were added later. The portrait is set in a feigned gilt octagonal frame that has elaborate partially gilt strapwork decoration and swags of colored fruit and flowers.

[updated 2021; adapted from Reynolds and Baetjer 1996]

The painted surface is in excellent state. The side of the copper sheeting over which the vellum is stretched is fire-gilded. The narrow molding which had previously framed the miniature was removed because the rabbet covered the signature and date. A ragboard bezel and backing and a new convex cover glass were supplied.

[2015; adapted from Reynolds and Baetjer 1996]

Inscription: Signed, dated, and inscribed: (top edge, in brown) Aetatis Sua. 25o. / Anno Dni 1628.; (bottom edge, in brown) Roma / E. I. Salianus. f. 16[28?]

[Colnaghi, London]; Aimé Martinet, Geneva (by 1956–59; sold to The Met)

Geneva. Musée d'Art et d'Histoire. "Chefs-d'œuvre de la miniature et de la gouache," June 23–August 15, 1956, no. 387 (lent anonymously).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "European Miniatures in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 5, 1996–January 5, 1997, no. 11.

Leo R. Schidlof. The Miniature in Europe in the 16th, 17th, 18, and 19th Centuries. Graz, Austria, 1964, vol. 2, pp. 710, 1036; vol. 4, pl. 507, fig. 1039, mentions it with MMA 59.72.2 as "representing church dignitaries".

Graham Reynolds with the assistance of Katharine Baetjer. European Miniatures in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1996, pp. 12, 74, no. 11, colorpl. 11 and ill. p. 74.