Exhibition – Seicento In Carta. 17th-century Italy, in the Musée Condé’s graphic collections

A complete collection on show for the first time

The year 2026 will open with an Italian season at the Château de Chantilly: before exhibiting in June the collections of Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples. In March the collections of graphic arts from the 17th century, known in Italy as the Seicento, will be exhibited for the first time, and in their entirety.

Some thirty sheets, 25 drawings and 5 engravings, showcase the great masters, forming a nucleus that resonates with the large-format works presented in the Galerie de Peinture, from the Baroque of Guercino to the Dominichino.

A varied collection

The collection usually features just one work by each artist, patiently selected for its importance and originality. It ranges from late Mannerism to Classicism, mainly Bolognese and Roman, but also includes several rare works from the Neapolitan and Spanish schools.

Rediscoveries

A number of drawings acquired as belonging to the French or Flemish schools turned out to be the work of Italians influenced by foreigners visiting the peninsula in the 17th century. Van Dyck takes his place alongside Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, Poussin with Giacinto Gimignani, or again Le Lorrain with Filippo Napoletano.

In addition, the exhibition includes works by artists whose stay in Italy was only one period in their brilliant career, but which made a lasting contribution to the development of the style in the location they were temporarily working in, such as the Burgundian Jacques Courtois and the Florentine Stefano della Bella.

Among the thousands of sheets belonging to the Duke of Aumale: rare and precious works

The collection of Italian drawings from the 17th century will be displayed alongside contemporary engravings by Carracci, Guido Reni and Jusepe de Ribera.

Within a collection assembled during the second half of the 19th century, when the trend was towards rediscovering and studying the masters of the Renaissance, coupled with a desire in Chantilly to illustrate the historical glories of the Ancien Régime through art, Italian Baroque obviously occupied a minority position in the collections.

The collection of 17th-century Italian engravings and drawings consists of rare items from a collection of several thousand sheets. However, each work stands out for its great quality, rarity and often its prestigious provenance.

Reconstituted collections

Nearly half of the works on display will be on loan from various institutions or private collections in order to reconstitute several collections and illustrate recent rediscoveries, such as the decorative cycles of the Florentine Bernardino Poccetti and the early works of the Roman Giovanni Baglione, Caravaggio’s great rival.

The collector’s eye, from yesterday to today

Several historical collectors spotlighted by recent studies are generously represented in the Musée Condé’s collection, foremost among them Pierre-Jean Mariette, followed by Dominique-Vivant Denon. We also encounter the English painter Peter Lely, the Marquis de Lagoy, and Jean Gigoux, at whose sale the Duc d’Aumale acquired several masterpieces.

Today’s collectors will also be honoured, with a number of exceptional loans revealing previously unseen drawings from private collections, completing the journey through the various artistic centres of 17th-century Italy, such as Bologna or Rome, which will take place in the five rooms of the Cabinet d’Arts Graphiques that now bears the name of Prince Amyn Aga Khan.