Saint Denis preaching the faith in France - Joseph Marie Vien
Notice précédente Notice n°11 sur 104 Notice suivante
Description
Booklet from the 1767 Salon:
"By M. Vien, Professor.
15. S. Denis preaching the Faith in France.
Belted painting, 21 feet 3 inches high, by 12 feet 4 inches wide. It is intended to decorate one of the side Chapels of the Church of S. Roch."
The compositional model Vien draws on is not linked to the iconographic tradition of representations of Saint Denis (essentially his decapitation, sometimes the destruction of idols), but is rather inspired by Saint Paul's preaching on the Areopagus (see Marcantonio Raimondi's engraving after Raphael), which Saint Denis is supposed to have attended (since the 8th century, Denis the Areopagite and Denis of Paris have been confused).
3. The preparatory sketch for this painting is in the Musée Fabre in Montpellier.
Deshays had begun work on this subject for the church of Saint-Roch, before his death in 1765. His sketch is preserved in Nîmes.
Technical Data
Notice #000762
