MIGNARD, PIERRE, known as MIGNARD le ROMAIN. — Born in Troyes on 17 November 1612, died in Paris on 30 May 1695. Brother of the painter Nicola M., he entered Jean Boucher’s studio in Bourges at the age of 14; later he was a pupil of François Gentil in Troyes: at 15 he frescoed the chapel of the Château de Courbet-en-Brie for Marshal de Vitry, and with his support was able to move to Paris as a pupil of the celebrated Vouet, and from there to Rome, where he remained for 20 years in contact with the highest society.
With Dufresnoy, in 1654, he undertook a long journey to Venice, Bologna, Parma, and Modena; he made copies from the Farnese Gallery for the bishop of Lyon, executed portraits of kings, princes, and prelates, and above all paintings of Madonnas (the celebrated Mignardes). He felt the influence of the Bolognese, Correggio, and the Venetians, as attested by the copies cited in an inventory of 1603 and by 3 volumes of his drawings. Having returned to France, thanks to his skill as a portraitist, he was appointed court painter and became Le Brun’s rival, succeeding him only in 1690. But as early as 1664 he had been appointed director of the Academy of S. Luca, and in 1666, with Dufresnoy, after three years of work, he had completed the vast decoration of the dome of Val-de-Grâce, crowded with saints, angels, apostles, and prophets around the Trinity. In addition, he had shown himself to be a festive colorist in the decoration of the Palais Hervart, the Petite Galerie at Fontainebleau, and St-Cloud. In 1687 he was ennobled and made director of the court sculptors, the Royal Academy, and the Gobelins, as well as of the King’s Galleries. But the best of M.’s art is to be sought, besides the supremely gentle Madonnas, in the portraits in which, anticipating the grace of the eighteenth century, he keenly expressed the worldly bearing of contemporary society.