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Pierre Subleyras
The Meal at the House of Simon
1737
© Musée du Louvre/A. Dequier - M. Bard
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Pierre Subleyras
The Meal at the House of Simon
1737
Oil on canvas
H: 2.15 m; L: 6.79 m
Spoils during the campaign in Italy, 1799
INV. 8000
Paintings
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| Vincent Pomarède |
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The Meal at the House of Simon |
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This large painting was commissioned by the Lateran canons for their monastery in Asti. Thanks to this work, Pierre Subleyras was acknowledged in Rome to be an artist of remarkable talent. The artist has drawn on Veronese and Poussin - the latter particularly in the clarity of the composition - but has also succeeded in bringing his own voice to a work that is both grandiose and intimate.
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The influence of Veronese
This rather oddly proportioned painting was commissioned by the Lateran canons for the refectory in their monastery in Asti, near Turin, in Italy. The work clearly shows the influence of Veronese's large religious compositions, with their intense colors and the deliberate realism of a scene taken from daily life.
Mary Magdalene and Christ
The scene is of the meal Christ shared at Simon's house, where the penitent Mary Magdalene paid homage to Christ by washing his feet. The other guests were indignant to see Christ accepting the homage of a prostitute, but Christ welcomed her sincere repentance and called on all those present to pardon past faults. The artist has chosen to depict the moment when Mary Magdalene is washing the feet of Christ, shown on the left of the painting.
A career in Italy
Pierre Subleyras was a native of the south of France. He studied in Toulouse and was later awarded a scholarship by the city to study in Paris from 1726 to 1728. Like Poussin, Pierre Subleyras left Paris in 1728, never to return. He traveled to Italy, where he remained for the rest of his career. He received numerous private commissions and worked on a number of the religious paintings which ornamented many monuments in Rome. He became one of the most famous foreign artists in Italy, while still maintaining solid links with his native France.
Pierre Subleyras was a history painter first and foremost. He occasionally produced amusing or mildly scurrilous genre paintings, but nonetheless remained a serious painter whose work prefigures neo-classicism on occasion. He was also a remarkable colorist in the Italian tradition.
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Paintings : 
