Description

What I like

I like this painting for the legibility of its composition and the beauty of its palette which plays with rare colors, with Saint John the Baptist and the angel wearing the mantle of Christ in profile and its composition in two registers: the characters showing baptism proper, and God the Father in a cloud surrounded by angels. What is interesting is that the angels assisting Christ are certainly endowed with wings but are fully part of the action of baptism. I particularly like the group formed by Christ and the two angels, for the impressive harmony of colors, which are all included in the group of God the Father.

I like the fact that this painting is in very good condition, not at all worn: in particular, the work on the hair of the protagonists is delectable, the landscape is very readable with its atmospheric perspective. The anatomy is well studied, only the leftmost foot of the angel has a curious position.

I like that this painting, which was a devotional painting in the 17th century, is of such good quality that in the end you can look at it with rapture if you don’t believe. But the expressions are so well studied, in particular the interiority of the face of Christ, that there is a real spirituality and that it can be a support for meditation or prayer.

Technical description

French school of the second half of the 17th century

The Baptism of Christ

Oil on canvas.

Some tiny restorations, not affecting the characters.

Dimensions and weight

Height: 65 cm – Width: 53.5 cm – Depth: 1.5 cm

Weight: 1kg

Mix & Match

This painting is a work of art with a real spiritual depth and a real artistic quality: it is therefore a work of art in itself, which creates its own space and exudes an impressive harmony. Because of this, it can be integrated into many interiors. I’m not just talking about a very classic universe, with antique furniture and no less old paintings. Certainly it would be very possible. But above all, it has enough strength to rub shoulders with modern and contemporary furniture.

I don’t think it can be on the same wall as a painting of geometric abstraction, like Edgard Pillet’s Composition from 1950-1951, but on two walls in the same room, of course that would work perfectly: because the two paintings are endowed with a force and an energy of their own: they will not collide: one and the other will mutually enhance each other.

It can of course also be associated with Enrico Cervelli’s watercolor and gouache, “Africano N1, 1961”, which also offers a very refined palette and a solid composition. The yellows and ochres of Cervelli find an echo in the yellows of the clothes of the angel on the left and of the mantle of John the Baptist.

The work Vers la joie by Paul Shusaku Foujino would offer its composition of cut-out gouache papers whose sought-after blues, yellows and pinks would be in harmony with our Baptism of Christ.

For the furniture, I would lean towards creations from the 1960s: thus the pair of G10 armchairs by Pierre Guariche for Airborne or the lounge chair and its Rock Royal ottoman by Sven Dysthe can coexist with the Baptism of Christ: indeed, their lines are pure, these seats live by themselves.

In the same room, I would place as a wink the Pyramid lamp by Tonello and Montagna Grillo, which evokes a picnic candle!