Louis CRETEY (Lyon, circa 1630 - after 1702) The Rapture of Saint Mary Magdalene by Angels Oil on canvas The rapture of Saint Mary Magdalene by the angels, oil on canvas, by L. Cretey 13.77 x 11.81 in. 35 x 30 cm Louis Cretey, who was born in Lyon around 1635 and trained with his father, was "a painter who is rather difficult to define "1, as he did not follow any academic training. His paintings are characterised by great freedom of execution and an entirely unique style, far removed from that of his French contemporaries. His career took him from Lyon to Parma and Rome. In the absence of precise information about the artist, his works were long attributed to Italian painters such as Giovanni Battista Pittoni, Antonio Balestra, Giuseppe Bazziani and the Austrian Paul Troger. An article published in the Revue de l'Art in 1988 focused on his rediscovery², followed twenty years later by a major retrospective at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon3. These major studies now make it possible to fully appreciate Cretey's work. Religious iconography dominates his work, and the painting we are presenting here is further evidence of this. It depicts the rapture of Mary Magdalene as she rises to heaven, supported by two angels. It is probably a study for a painting known from ancient sources, formerly in the collections of the Boscoli family in Parma, of which we know a description in the inventory of Giovanni Simone Boscoli (1612-1701): "(...) l'altro une Maddalena e due Angioli in alto nella gloria, cornice bianca, stimato doppie 6. "4. The final painting included a counterpart depicting Saint John the Baptist5. The painter's activity in Parma was linked to the patronage of the Boscoli family, whose inventory mentions several paintings by Cretey. Our painting is reminiscent of the Italian sources he drew on during his stay in ultramontane Italy, such as the works of Pier Francesco Mola and Giovan Battista Gaulli. We find the formal characteristics of the paintings by our Lyon-based painter, whose construction is punctuated by a firmly set diagonal that reinforces the upward effect already achieved by the slightly low-angle perspective. 1. J. Pernetti, Recherches pour servir à l'histoire de Lyon, Lyon, 1757, t. II, p. 132. 2. Gilles Chomer, Lucie Galactéros-de Boissier, Pierre Rosenberg, "Pierre-Louis Cretey: le plus grand peintre lyonnais de son siècle? "in La Revue de l'Art, 1988, n° 82, p. 19-38. 3. Louis Cretey. Un visionnaire entre Lyon et Rome, exhibition catalogue, Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts, 2010-2011. 4. We refer to the Lyon catalogue: Louis Cretey. Un visionnaire entre Lyon et Rome, cat. exp., Lyon, musée des Beaux-Arts, 2010-2011, p. 253, n° P.M. 25. 5. Ibid, p. 252, no. P.M. 20. Louis CRETEY (Lyon, circa 1630 - after 1702) 35 x 30 cm