SUBLEYRAS, PIERRE. – Painter and engraver, born at St-Gilles-du-Gard (Languedoc) on 25 Nov. 1699, died at Rome on 28 May 1749.
Having received his first instruction from his father Matteo, a painter, he studied at Toulouse with Antoine Rivalz. In 1727 he won the prize of the Académie Royale with The Brazen Serpent (Louvre), and the following year he went to Rome as a pensioner, remaining there for the rest of his life. Subleyras is one of the principal exponents of religious painting in the first half of the 18th century in France and Rome. His works reveal an eclectic inspiration, drawing on memories of the Venetians, Poussin, and above all the Roman school of the late 17th century. Among his works to be noted are: The Supper at the House of Simon (Louvre, 1739, signed), which Subleyras executed for a convent in Asti; the Mass of St Basil (Rome, S. Maria degli Angeli, formerly in St Peter’s in the Vatican, where it has been replaced by a musical copy), whose sketch, remarkable for its clear colours and soft drawing, is in the Louvre. The Miracle of St Benedict (Rome, S. Francesca Romana, 1744, signed) and The Martyrdom of St Peter (Louvre) illustrate the painter’s ‘tenebrous’ manner. Subleyras was also a vigorous portraitist (portrait of Pope Benedict XIV, 1741, in several versions, one in the Musée Condé at Chantilly, another in the Galleria Spada in Rome) and sometimes took pleasure in painting genre subjects drawn from the fables of La Fontaine in the taste of the 18th century.