Trophime Bigot - A Striking 17th-century Painting, “christ And Nicodemus,” 107x133 Cm –

"Christ and Nicodemus": A Caravaggesque scene of remarkableintensity. The light—which, for Caravaggio and his followers, spreadsat an angle, casting directional shadows that are both bright and muted—inworks of Bigot, is the candle that casts light from the center of the scene andalters the intensity, making the atmosphere more concentrated, aggressive, harsh, andcompact. Trophime Bigot (Arles 1579–Avignon 1650) was a French painterwho worked in Italy between 1620 and 1634, and this painting, which comes froma Roman collection, bears witness to the profound, reverent, and formal debt toCaravaggesque painting—which Bigot certainly had the opportunity to see in Rome—as he interprets and enhances the harshness of his personal vision ofnocturnal light diffused by a candle at the center of the scene. A painter whose works are held inapproximately 40 international museums, he is, in our opinion, not fullyrecognized or appreciated, despite being a Caravaggist who transformedand personalized the vision of the Caravaggist school with his own unique—albeit highly incisive—interpretive style.