Portrait of King Solomon, Michele Desubleo (Maubeuge, 1602 – Parma, 1676) attributable

Portrait of a gentleman as Solomon, the Wise King

Oil painting on canvas

The beautiful painting shows us an image of the famous King Solomon, a legendary biblical figure who over the centuries has become the personification of the good ruler, and proverbially recognized as one of the wisest politicians in history. The features of the person depicted are presumably those of the person who commissioned the work, who wanted to highlight his own image by impersonating a character of legendary fame.

The ruler, with an elegant oriental-style crown headdress, is dressed in sumptuous silk robes, precious brocade and pearls that surround his shoulders, wears regal jewels, and is portrayed in the act of writing with a quill pen .

To reinforce his image of wisdom, he holds an open book in his hands on which a Latin phrase taken from Ecclesiastes can be read, one of the short books of the Old Testament, dedicated to moral ethics and written by King Solomon himself. Detail of great semantic refinement, indicating that the client was not just an art collector but a man of culture.

The phrase 'Qui amat periculum, peribit in illo' (Ecclesiastes, III-27) – 'He who loves danger will perish in it' – alludes to anyone who voluntarily puts himself in danger by giving in to temptation and sin, will be destined and remain lost.

In the lower part of the composition there is a sheet that bears a second inscription, related to the first, namely 'Ocasiones fugit', a sort of exhortation that the wise ruler feels like giving to the observer of the work. In fact, anyone who desires a virtuous life, directed towards good, must not only abandon sin, but also the opportunity to sin, thus drawing on his own moral virtue.

Now entering into the merits of the stylistic characteristics of our precious canvas, their analysis leads us to place its origin in that magnificent classicist expressiveness of seventeenth-century Bolognese culture, with evident references to the master Guido Reni.

The compositional details, first of all the enamelling of the complexion of the face, rendered with incredible brilliance as well as the precious details of the robes or the emerald green damask drape, lead us to limit his work to the great Franco-Flemish painter Michele Desubleo (Maubeuge , 1602 – Parma, 1676). Counted among Reni's best students, he owes his great collecting success to his extraordinary ability to blend the best Bolognese tradition with his Nordic origins and Roman influences, elements which translate into a lexicon of balanced and rare elegance.

In detail, if the masterly use of colours, bright and enamelled, attests to the Nordic origin of his manner, and the shadows of the large draperies betray the contact above all with the works of Simon Vouet in Rome, where it is attested in 1624 next to the half-brother Nicolas Regnier, the contour lines of his figures, confident but always marked by the search for the rounded form, bring him closer to the style of the masterpieces of his master Guido Reni.

Accompanied by a legally compliant photographic certificate of authenticity.

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