Studies for 'The Conversion of the Jailer before Saint Paul and Silas'

Nicolas de Plattemontagne

1666 · Red, black, and white chalks on buff paper · Drawings and Prints

Nicolas de Plattemontagne's stylistic affinities with his teacher, Philippe de Champaigne, have resulted in misattributions, as seen in the inscription on this sheet. Both artists excelled in painting portraits and religious subjects, and this drawing demonstrates Plattemontagne's interest in giving portraitlike specificity to the actor's in his biblical dramas. The studies relate to the figure of Silas, Saint Paul's companion, in the artist's 1666 altarpiece illustrating Acts 16:16–26 (Musée du Louvre, Paris), in which the jailer is converted to Christianity. A painter of portraits and religious subjects, Plattemontagne pursued a style closely modeled upon that of his teacher, Philippe de Champaigne, to whom the present sheet was once ascribed. These studies relate to the figure of Silas in "Saint Paul in Prison," an altarpiece painted by Plattemontagne for the cathedral of Nôtre Dame in 1666 and a winner of that year's "May" competition.

Artist

Nicolas de Plattemontagne

Date

1666

Medium

Red, black, and white chalks on buff paper

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Purchase, Charles and Jessie Price Gift, David L. Klein Jr. Memorial Foundation Inc. Gift, and Harry G. Sperling Fund, 1996