Near Saint-Sauveur Cathedral, at No. 17 in Rue Gaston-de-Saporta, in Aix-en-Provence, one finds the 'Estienne de Saint-Jean Hotel' today housing the Musée du Vieux Aix.

This mansion presents many objects which evoke the traditions of Aix - they come from the collections of Marie d'Estienne of Saint-Jean and Marcel Provence. But there is more to see and be appreciated.

Marcel Provence

Marcel Provence (1892-1951) is a pseudonym for Marcel Joannon. He was a poet, a historian, and upholder of Provencal heritage, founder of the Paul Cezanne Society, and President of the Aix-en-Provence Society.

 

Marie d'Estienne of Saint-Jean

She was born in the Estienne family, of French nobility, native of Provence. The family has given many illustrious lawyers and knights, trustees, and consuls of the city of Aix, deputies of the nobility, knights of St Louis and of Malta, archbishops and bishops, a secret cameraman of the Pope, men of letters and a hero of the Resistance. It was in 1930 that Marie, who owned the Hotel d'Estienne de Saint-Jean, founded the museum which she bequeathed to the State in 1938. Besides Marcel Provence, Henri Dobler and the painter Hubert de Courcy participated in its creation.1 ~ 2 ~

 

The Museum

Among other objects, in the museum one finds rare furniture such as the Queen Ann lacquered cabinet, Provençal earthenware, and life scenes with miniature porcelain dolls.

 

Corpus Christi

A large folding screen depicting the procession of Corpus Christi is composed of ten panels with paintings on canvas; it is the oldest representation of the feast in Aix, which was very popular until the twentieth century. While one side is dedicated to the procession, the back depicts the Games and the Fair held on the feast.

The screen was painted at the request of an advisor to the Parliament of Provence, Joseph-François de Galice, in the first half of the eighteenth century.  The background shows the rural and urban landscape of Aix.

At the head of the procession, preceded by the small banners of Corpus Domini, a priest carries the cross of Saint-Sauveur and the banner with the arms of the city. They are followed by the brotherhood fraternities with their banners, too.

This procession was instituted, about the year 1462, by King René.

There are also wooden puppets portraying Corpus Christi in Aix. They represent the procession when, at the end of its journey, it enters the cathedral.

 

François de Coriolis and Antoine Fregier

In one of the museum rooms, one finds two large similar oval framed paintings, of the same size. One represents François-Charles-Xavier de Coriolis de Villeneuve d'Espinouse (9/2/1708-22/8/1786 Aix Corbières), one of the sons of the Provencal noble families.

The Coriolis family is of Italian origin; it was established in Aix-en-Provence in the fifteenth century.

He was Marquis d'Espinouse, Baron de Corbières, and in 1736 was appointed président à mortier ('mortar' after their velvet hat, trimmed with fur), in the Parliament of Provence, one of the most important legal posts of the French ancien régime. [The présidents were principal magistrates of the highest juridical institutions, the parlements, which were the appeal courts.]

It is an oil on canvas, pertaining to the Aix school of the seventeenth century.

It was the Maltese Knights' cross hanging down over François de Coriolis' torso which drew my interest in the subject. Although I could not trace that he was a knight of the Order, one of his relatives, Pierre de Coriolis, who could have lived during his life, was a Knight of the Order of the Knights Hospitallier of St John.2

The other is a painting of Antoine Fregier who, was Adviser Secretary to the King, Controller in the Chancery near the Court of Accounts, Aides and Finances of Provence, a post he resigned on 5 August 1695. He obtained 'Lettres d'Honeur' on 15 August 1695, registered at the Audiance de France.

 

A modello by 'il Baciccio'

In a room with walls covered by reddish designed panels of curtain material, low lit, by themselves, the Museum boasts of two large half hemispheres with paintings on the inside; they are the modello by seventeenth century Italian artist Giovanni Battista Gaulli - known also as 'The Baciccio' - originally planned for the cupola of the baptistery atrium, of the Basilica of St Peter in Rome. It is said that Gaulli worked for thirty years on the project. However it never materialized and it was another Italian artist - Francesco Travisani who eventually realized the painting in St Peter's.

It was Pope Clement X who in 1670 asked Gaulli to execute the painting. But Gaulli was engaged in other projects in 'Il Gesù' church in Rome. In the meantime, the pope died, and the new Pope Innocent XI was elected; but his sudden death in 1689 brought about another interruption. The project was continued twenty years later by Pope Clement XI, when Gaulli was seventy years old and he was spending more time with the mosaic layers than on the project. He fell sick and after a few days died. He was buried in the church of St Thomas in Parione, in Rome.

The project was definitely abandoned and the designs and modello were given to his family.

It was later on that Jean-Baptiste Boyer de Fonscolombe who acquired the two half 'coupolas' from the family house known as 'Casa Baciccia'.

Each of the half 'coupola' models measures 60 cm in height, 148 cm in length, and 59 cm in depth.

They are made up of strips of wood, joined together and painted white on the inner side. On this white background Gaulli painted his design in biege pink.

 

The painting

The painting is full of angels who mix intermingle the clouds and the figures that populate the space. The central figure is a triumphant risen Christ, resting his left hand against the cross which is held standing by angels. He points his right hand first finger at the wound in his chest, from where blood and water flow into large golden basins held by angels. Other angels pour the contents of other basins on the newly baptized. In a circular movement that continues on the other half of the model, more angels present to Christ groups of saints and martyrs waving palm fronds. ~ 7 ~

In this work, where Faith, Baptism, and Salvation are intimately bound, Gaulli offers a serene and luminous concept of 'the Blood of Christ' which we may consider as one of the last representations on the subject.

 

The Conversion of Saul

Another interesting painting in possession of this museum is a large framed depiction of the conversion of Saul to Christianity.

The painting is hanging high up on a wall of the room with the stairs which take you from the ground floor to the first floor of the museum. A very good photo of this tableaux was sent to me [with copyright held by the museum], by Dr Nicole Martin-Vignes, Curator of the Museum of Old Aix.

 

The theme of the painting

The scenario of the painting interprets the dramatic moment of intense religious ecstasy when Saul - soon to be the apostle Paul - on the way to Damascus, all of a sudden 'there shone around about him a light out of heaven: and he fell upon the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: but rise, and enter into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.' [Acts of the Apostles, IX: 3-6.]

In this painting, Christ is seen projecting himself through the heavens, overlooking Saul, his horse, and accompanying soldiers who had just been flung to the ground. Only Saul, bewildered by the voice and the radiant Christ, looks up.

This tableaux reminds the visitor of another dramatic painting portraying the same event: Conversion on the Way to Damascus, a masterpiece by Caravaggio, which was painted for the Cerasi Chapel of the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, in Rome. However, in this latter painting, the horse and a man holding its reins stand on their feet; only Saul was thrown to the ground, from his horse.

The painting in the museum - which has the inventory number: 2008.0.813 - is in oil on canvas and dates to the seventeenth century.

It is one of the precious paintings once in the collection of Marie d'Estienne, donated to the Museum. It measures 275 cm in height and 200 cm in width. Incidentally, it is attributed to Francesco Trevisani the Italian painter, active in the period called either early Rococo or late Baroque, who executed the painting on the cupola of the baptistery atrium in St Peter's, in Rome, which Il Baciccio failed to realise.

 

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