Subleyras, Pierre

SUBLEYRAS, PIERRE. - Painter and engraver, b. at St-Gilles-du-Gard (Languedoc) on 25 Nov. 1699, d. in Rome on 28 May 1749.

Having received his first lessons from his father Matteo, a painter, he studied in Toulouse under Antonio Rivalz. In 1727 he won the prize of the Royal Academy with the Serpent of Bronze (Louvre), and the following year he went to Rome as a pensioner, remaining there for the rest of his life. S. is one of the principal exponents of religious painting in the first half of the 18th century in France and in Rome. His works reveal an eclectic inspiration, with reminiscences of the Venetians, of Poussin, and above all of the Roman school of the late 17th century. Worthy of mention: the Supper at Simon's House (Louvre, 1739, signed), which S. 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 is replaced by a mosaic copy), whose sketch, remarkable for its light colors and soft drawing, is in the Louvre. The "tenebrous" manner of the painter is documented by the Miracle of St. Benedict (Rome, S. Francesca Romana, 1744, signed) and the Martyrdom of St. Peter (Louvre). S. was also a vigorous portraitist (Portrait of Pope Benedict XIV, 1741, in several replicas, one in the Condé Museum at Chantilly, another in the Spada Gallery in Rome) and sometimes took pleasure in painting genre subjects drawn from the fables of La Fontaine in the 18th-century taste.

Amalia Meazetti