Catalogue Roberti Fine Art, TEFAF Maastricht 2026 (1) compressed - Flipbook - Page 50
Colour is handled with equal restraint and balance. The Virgin’s ultramarine mantle over a warm
red gown establishes a chromatic anchor against which Gabriel’s garments of soft rose, pale gold
and cool blue, are subtly harmonised, just as in the artist’s octagonal alabaster in the Louvre which
depicts The Risen Christ appearing to His Mother¹ (fig.1.). The modelling of the flesh is smooth and
controlled, the contours clean and assured, and the gestures measured, devoid of Baroque excess.
The delicate flowers in a precious vase recall those found in a Conversion of the Magdalene on black
marble in a private collection.²
Fig. 1. Jacques Stella, The Risen Christ appearing to His Mother.
oil on alabaster, 31 x 40 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris. © 2026
GrandPalaisRmn (musée du Louvre) / Stéphane Maréchalle
Stella exploits the natural veining of the onyx support to contribute to the spiritual atmosphere.
The softly marbled surface enhances the immaterial quality of the apparition, creating a space
suspended between the terrestrial and the divine. The dove of the Holy Spirit, faintly indicated at
the upper left, emerges almost imperceptibly from this luminous field. The setting is deliberately
understated: a green-draped table bearing a basket and vase of flowers alludes to the Virgin’s
purity and domestic virtue, while a curtain drawn at the upper right frames the scene and balances
the angel’s approach.
¹Inv. 7967; alabaster, 31 x 40 cm. See Jacques Stella (1596-1657), exhibition catalogue, Metz 2006, pp. 146-47,
cat. no. 80, reproduced.
²25.8 x 37.1 cm; Ibid., p. 99, cat. no. 44, reproduced.
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