MIGNARD, PIERRE, known as MIGNARD le ROMAIN. — Born in Troyes on 17 Nov. 1612, died in Paris on 30 May 1695. Brother of the painter Nicola M., at the age of 12 he entered the studio of Jean Boucher in Bourges; 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 he 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, made copies from the Farnese Gallery for the Bishop of Lyon, executed portraits of kings, princes, prelates, and above all pictures of the Madonna (the famous Mignardes). He felt the influence of the Bolognese, Correggio, and the Venetians, as attested by the copies mentioned in an inventory of 1603 and three volumes of his drawings. Returning to France, thanks to his skill as a portraitist, he was appointed court painter and rival of Le Brun, whom he succeeded only in 1690. But already in 1664 he had been named director of the Accademia di S. Luca, and in 1666, with Dufresnoy, after three years of work, he completed the vast decoration of the dome of the Val-de-Grâce, crowded with saints, angels, apostles, and prophets around the Trinity. Moreover, he had shown himself a joyous colourist in the decoration of the Hervart Palace, the Petite Galerie of Fontainebleau, and at St-Cloud. In 1687 he was ennobled, and made director of the court sculptors, of the Royal Academy and of the Gobelins, as well as of the King’s Galleries. But the best of M.’s art is to be sought, besides in his most sweet Madonnas, in his portraits in which, through the grace of the 18th century, he acutely expressed the worldly attitude of contemporary society.