Jacques-antoine Vallin (1760 - 1831) Attributed, Le Tortice De Marsyas, Oil On Canvas

Jacques-Antoine VALLIN (1760 - 1831), attributed Le torture de Marsyas Oil on canvas Size: 54 x 65 cm Size with frame: 78 x 67 cm The artist Jacques-Antoine Vallin entered the school of the Royal Academy of painting in 1779 under the protection of the history painter Gabriel Doyen, he was also a pupil of Antoine-François Callet and Antoine Renou (1731-1806). We can see Vallin as a painter extending the 18th century pastorals from Boucher to Caresme. However, the artist influenced by the school of David will add a Neoclassical dimension to traditional pastoral care. Our work such as David's Oath of the Horatii is frozen in a focal point, that is to say that the scene is represented at its peak, seeming to unfold before our eyes because we can imagine the following moments. All the muses are stopped in their movements lend themselves to Marsyas suplliciées. A Lesson that David will give to many artists of the turn of the century. The Torture of Marsyas Famous mythological work which tells the story of Silenus who became very skilled at the flute which he had picked up after Athena had thrown it, he had had the impudence to challenge Apollo in a musical competition. The muses having declared the victorious god, this one punishes Marsyas of his pride by condemning him to be flayed alive by a Scythian slave. The artist has taken over a story drawn from Ovid's metamorphoses which were very successful in the 16th and 17th centuries among painters. If at this time the artists made the choice to focus on the torture, dramatic and spectacular moment, the painter here made a completely different choice. Vallin decides to deal with the subject while remaining faithful to his register and decides to illustrate the moment before the torture by using the muses which is one of the artist's favorite subjects. The scene remains violent, the muses are armed with their bows, one brandishes a palm which will be used to whip Marsyas chained to the tree. But this apparent violence is counterbalanced by beautiful naked muses (for some) with skin of a porcelain whiteness. The subject represented is the archetype of Vallin's art, he who spends part of his career representing mythological scenes against a backdrop of tree-lined landscapes, alternately mixing bathers, Bacchantes and nymphs.