Ceres and Cybele: Study for the Ceiling of the Galerie Lambert, Paris

Before he was commissioned to decorate the ceilings at Vaux-le-Vicomte and Versailles, Le Brun worked with the architect Louis le Vau (ca. 1612-1670) on the gallery of Hôtel Lambert, the residence of the wealthy Lambert brothers (1649-62). These two goddesses, seated on a cloud and seen from below, appear on the gallery ceiling as Ceres and Cybele, who are preparing the wedding banquet for Hercules and Megara. Le Brun later reused the figures in his decorative scheme at Vaux-le-Vicomte (1658-61), where they are creatively transformed into an allegory of Peace Restoring Abundance in a panel of the dining room ceiling. -- Exhibition Label, From "Poussin, Claude, and French Drawing in the Classical Age"