Buffet under a Trellis (Primary Title)
Jean-Baptiste Blin de Fontenay, the elder, French, 1653 - 1715 (Artist)
Jean-Baptiste Blin de Fontenay was the most important still-life painter in France at the end of the 17th century. A specialist in flower and fruit painting, Blin spent much of his career at the court of Louis XIV, fulfilling commissions for the décor of Versailles and the adjacent Grand Trianon.
In this monumental painting, Blin depicts a large buffet—an elaborate serving counter appropriate to the grand style of entertainment at Louis’s court. This painting provides a valuable image of ornate silver pieces typical of the period because much of Louis XIV’s actual silver was melted down upon royal decree to pay for the king’s wars. The crest of the Titon family appears on the round gilded dish at the center of the composition. Evrard Titon du Tillet’s patronage of the arts and his association with the royal court suggest that he—or possibly his father, Maximilien Titon (d. 1711), who also collected art—may have commissioned the painting.
The array of flowers and fruits refers to the bounty of nature and the delight of the sense. Blin depicts oranges, apples, melons, pomegranates, figs, peaches, and grapes along with chrysanthemums, narcissi, violets, hyacinths, jasmine, and roses. Presiding over the scene is a herm of the sylvan god Pan.
Patrick Mauriès, Le Trompe-l’oeil (Paris: Editions Gallimard, 1996) pp. 205-207, pl. 172, credit p. 316.
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