Quesnel, P. Miniature portrait of Pasquier Quesnel (1634-1719)

Gouache on ivory or bone, 10 x 7.5 cm, in orig. (?) dec. gilt frame w. wooden back panel, verso w. annotation in pen: "Pasquier Quesnel Prêtre à l'Oratoire né le 14 Juillet 1634. Peint à Amsterdam par Ger. (?) la Fontaine 1719".

Central stain, minimal other defects, the frame chipped. A very delicate portrait of the important French theologian, one the leading figures of Jansenism and writer of Réflexions morales sur le Nouveau Testament (1699), for which Quesnel was vehemently persecuted by the Catholic church. In 1713 the papal bull Unigenitus condemned 101 propositions from the work.