Attributed to Xavier Sigalon (Uzès, 1787... - Lot 41 - Briscadieu

Lot 41
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Estimation :
300 - 500 EUR
Attributed to Xavier Sigalon (Uzès, 1787... - Lot 41 - Briscadieu
Attributed to Xavier Sigalon (Uzès, 1787 - Rome, 1837) Sketch for The Vision of Saint Jerome Oil on canvas 79 x 59 cm (Accidents and restorations) Without frame Eusebius Hieronymus Sophronius Stridonensis (347-420), known as Saint Jerome, is one of the four Fathers of the Western Latin Church. Converted to Christianity, he went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and withdrew to the Syrian desert to lead the life of a hermit "in the company of scorpions and wild beasts". There he was subject to visions, believing he heard trumpets announcing the Last Judgment. In one of his dreams, as he remained attached to classical literature, angels whipped him to punish him for preferring Cicero to the Bible. Subsequently, St. Jerome established a monastery in Bethlehem where he spent the rest of his life translating the Bible into Latin, thus founding the vulgate. The vision of Saint Jerome was treated in a painting commissioned by the King's Household in 1837, of which our painting is probably one of the sketches. Its author, Xavier Sigalon, was one of the cursed painters of Romanticism, despite insufficient success to lift him out of poverty and a gold medal obtained at the 1834 Salon. His furious and colossal composition: "Athalie makes massacre all the descendants of the king of Judah" (Museum of Nantes), was widely misunderstood. Xavier Sigalon died of cholera in Rome at the time when the friendship of Adolphe Thiers finally allowed him to obtain commissions.
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